moonslav59

No doubt, but I doubt that case, which would have merit, would convince JH to make a change to the plan he put in motion, to begin with, namely to cut spending and rebuild the farm.

They watched every player play every game? Nope. They waited for the Sunday paper, looked at the HR and BA leaders and trusted only that. How about before TV? How did that work out? (They once voted a GG to a player who did not even play the position, that year. LOL!)

I'm not convinced we will have to stay under the tax line in 2021, but it will be year 2 taxes, and it would probably then mean we get under for 2024. (All the more reason to have sold off some contracts, this deadline, and be year 1 on taxes, next season, but Bloom had to keep the cry babies happy enough not to revolt, but I digress.)

We can also extend Devers now, or over the winter, and it doesn't kick in until 2024. Or, if we go over in 2023, we could make 2023 be part of the extension, probably lower the AAV, and that would help out going beyond 2023.

I don't think that's how it works. Bloom to JH: "Can you spare a dime?" JH: "Sure kid. Why didn't you ask me earlier?" When you say things like we "needed a 1Bman," I'm assuming you think the GM didn't fulfill the need you saw, and then later implied they knew was there, but did nothing. If I assumed wrongly, I'm sorry. I certainly think mistakes were made, and I also think the budget has been very rigid. It involved massive cutting before 2020, just enough to cover lost contracts and basic needs in 2021, and then finally opened up a bit in March of 2022. I don't think the GM had or has the ability to squeeze more from the owner.

It doesn't have to be an either or choice. One can fully enjoy watching baseball live or on TV and also enjoy exploring data. Really. It's true!

The recognized the need in 2021, before casas was ready. Sure, they knew 1B could be a trouble spot. We all did, but the plan to start with a career .804 1Bman and have your top ML ready prospects as his back-up was not some sort of gross dereliction of duty by Bloom. As it turned out, the plan imploded, as did RF's, CF's and then 2B- not to mention the returning vets letting down the team.

Schwarber? OK, we sign Schwarber and don't sign Wacha, Hill, Strahm and still spend more. Or, we don't sign Story and go with Arroyo and Downs...oh wait... I think expecting to give your top Prospect, Casas, a top 50 MLB prospect a shot before hitting the deadline was a decent plan in March. You keep blaming Bloom for not spending what he wasn't given to spend. It's easy to say we should have done _____, but not realize it would have meant not doing _____.

Even if all 3 sign for $18M each and Bogey gets $27, that's almost the $84M we have to stay under the tax line. No pitching cost added. No depth cost added. Take out Contreras, and it's realistic, IMO. Maybe add Kike instead of Haniger and get Narvaez, instead of Contreras.

You don't get a good closer without hitting the bank hard. The 1B need was not apparent until June.

Again, with a limited spending budget, how can a GM sign the big named players you want, granted Story's signing has not worked well, so far, while also adding solid supporting players at cut-rate prices? I'd say Bloom did a pretty good job adding Schreiber and refsnyder for nothing but min salary costs. He added Wacha, Hill and Strahm as supporting players. Yes, he added Diekman, too, but hye was able to dump him for a decent back-up catcher/support. He later added Hosmer and Pham as support. He started with Arroyo as IF support and Casas as the expected 1B support, if needed. It's actually been the vets that have let this team down, namely Bogey, JD, Dugo, Nate and Barnes. The supporting cast has kept our hopes barely alive. Vets: Only Devers and Vaz improved on O from 2021. Only Houck stayed even from 2021. All other vets declined from last year. If we can strain to name the heroes for 2022, besides Devers, who has struggled in August, they would all be from the supporting cast: Refsnyder Schreiber Arroyo (in just a few games, he's given more than several regulars have all year) Pham McGuire Wacha (in March, many felt he'd be moved to the pen when Sale or Paxton returned) Hill Crawford (has been huge!) Strahm Wink & Danish to a small extent

I can't see any way signing those 4 for less than $90M combined is possible. Maybe... $27 x 6 Bogey $24 x 3 Contreras $24 x 5 Nimmo $20 x 3 Haniger These 4, alone, put us over the first tax line, even if they combine for $85M. I like winning, too, and better pitching is needed to win. I agree, trading for a SP'er is much more likely to work out well.

It might not be the lesson you wanted them to learn. fWAR Wacha 1.3 + 0.8 Hill= 2.1, which is equal to Bassit and more than.... 1.9 Montas & S Gray 1.8 Jon Gray 1.7 Syndergaard 1.6 Morton 1.5 R Ray & K Gibson 1.2 Greinke 1.0 Manaea 0.5 S Matz 0.2 Berrios 0.0 DeSclafani (bWAR: 2.8 Wacha + 0.1 RHill= 2.9, so far.)

The signing was obviously more about 2023 and beyond, with hopes of a late 2022 season assist, so let's see how it works out. I have no issue with being highly suspect about this type of "dive." I am, too.

No. I hated the trade from day one and still do. I am awaiting the results of the prospects for the final grade, but the trade will likely be a complete failure. My point is using the term "eye test," when you likely are just looking box scores and HR and RBI totals off the internet and not actually watching enough Brewer games to be able to say "eye test" with any kind of straight face. I know it's just a term used, and I'll probably be accused of nit-picking, but to me, the term eye test means personal observations, either live or on TV, and a big enough attentive sample size to count.

I see both sides of the coin having solid merit. GMs are damned if they do and bashed if they dont.

Tell that to Mookie who took 12 years with deferred money and a tax number under $30M a year.

The problem is more about the winter spending budget given the GM. Had Bloom not signed Story, he'd have been able to spend more on the supporting cast. Had he signed 2 Stories, we'd have had no money to spend on anything else: no Wacha, no Hill, No Strahm. Ideally, you put yourself in a situation where you fill in those support roles at the deadline, assuming the ones there before the deadline didn't suck so much, you are out of it by July. Honestly, I'm fine with people saying Bloom was wrong about Dalbec, JBJ, Duran and Diekman. I can't argue he was right on any of them, and I disliked the JBJ and Diekman deals from the start, but I do not think he can really be blamed for starting the season with a young 1Bman who had a career OPS over .800 with our best prospect, who was deemed ML ready, as his depth. Casas got hurt, and Cordero was horrible at 1B. Call it making excuses, but I give Bloom a pass on the effort and an F on the hindsight report card. The Kike and Arroyo injuries really hurt the whole OF plan and the 2B depth after Story went down. All happening at the same time is unfortunate, and again, maybe called excuse-making, but it's hard for a GM on a restricted budget to plan for your top 3 secondbasemen to all be hurt at the same time, as well as 4 of your 5 SP'ers- not even counting Paxton's non return in July/August, as thought..

I'm not sure our farm will ever reach the level of the Braves and Rays, but trying to get close is not a bad idea. It needs to be given some time, too. Impatience is not a virtue. The Astros, who are another team that added a Rays guy as their GM seem to be winning while keeping a steady flow of top young talent filling in where a free agent leaves. My guess is, some Astros fan lamented trading Josh Fields for some "unproven prospects" like Yordan Alvarez back at the 2016 deadline. It took over 2 years for that fan to regret the lamenting. They signed Framber Valdez and Urquidy as Amateir Free Agents. They replaced Springer with Tucker- a high draft pick they got for tanking. They replaced Correa with Pena, who seems to be holding his own. Sure, the fans whined a bit, down here, but winning sure shuts them up, quickly.

I'm not sure you can without one, either. I was for extending Betts to 12 or even 14 years (at a lower AAV). I'm Mr. "Devers Forevers!" I do think a team can probably win with 3-4 Story type contracts and no huge ones.

You are actually counting Sale and Paxton as 2 of the 4? I think counting them, combined, as one starter might be pushing our luck. Plus, you acted like you didn't really want to QO Nate or Wacha. (If we did, the budget won't allow your other ideas to all come true.) I'm assuming Pivetta and Whitlock are the other two. I'm okay with using Bello/Crawford/Seabold/Winckowski as our 6th>> starter, and maybe even our 5th and 6th starters, if we upgrade the top of the rotation. Bringing back an an aging Nate, who might be lucky to average 20 starts/year over this last 4 year contract is asking for big trouble. Okay, we trade for a solid #1 or #2, and things change enough for me to be fine, but we also need to bring back Nate or Wacha or someone like them. We can't use Houck and Whitlock as starters. Even one, we'd have to add to the pen in a major way. Our staff needs more attention than the line-up.

I'm not sure Bloom will have a big enough winter spending budget to sign all those guys, and no pitching, unless I "have faith in Paxton?" That's scary.

There is more left to see from Wacha and nate, but I'm leaning towards re-signing Wacha over Nate, right now. Our rotation was a problem, this year. How can you be okay losing Wacha, our best starter and Hill and just bring back the aging Nate with no other starters added? I'd go Swanson over Wong, but Wong would be fine. Nimmo or Laureano would be great with Kike.

All that really matters is if you can probably win without one.

I don't get a sense that they are playing hard or focused, but I don't get a sense they are not playing hard. When you win, you see the energy via enthusiasm and celebrations and it looks like they are trying hard, but sometimes many just don't look like they are trying when they lose. Maybe they are.