moonslav59

I've been partial to Jh Garcia, but I could see one of these guys moving into or near the top 100: Early or Tolle Clarke or Y Rod Long shot: Romero

We will finish over .500. Book it.

I think we all had hopes Casas was going to come back around and hit over .800. I can't see expecting any current 1Bman in our system having hopes that high.

I like the Chapman-Slaten-Whitlock trio, but it sure would have looked nice with Tanner Scott listed first in a group of 4 names.

The PTBNL in the Priester for Y Rod trade was announce, per Steve Adams: The Red Sox announced Monday that they’ve acquired right-hander John Holobetz from the Brewers as the player to be named later in last month’s trade that sent righty Quinn Priester from Boston to Milwaukee. Holobetz, 22, was the Brewers’ fifth-round pick in the draft just last summer. The Old Dominion product didn’t pitch in 2024 following the draft but is out to a terrific start in 2025. He’s pitched 24 innings across five appearances in A-ball, logging a flat 3.00 ERA on 16 hits and five walks with 31 strikeouts. Holobetz has fanned 31.3% of his opponents and issued walks at just a 5.1% clip. It’s a nice start to his pro career, but as a former college pitcher starting out in A-ball, Holobetz hasn’t yet been challenged by older and more advanced competition. How he fares in eventual moves up the ladder will be telling. The 6’3″ righty wasn’t ranked among Milwaukee’s best prospects heading into the season. He worked primarily as a reliever in college, but the Brewers have given him longer stints so far in pro ball.

If Anthony bats .650, we lose nothing on O, but could lose on D. We don't need to bench Refsnyder v LHPs, when we call-up Roman, so that O may not be lost, unless Cora plays Raf over Ref. Mayer's role would be more complex. I doubt we call him up to replace Story, Bregman or Campbell, so who is he he replacing in the line-up? If it's the 1B combo of Romy, Wong and ____, then I see a chance for improved offense, except maybe vs LHPs, where Romy seems to have become the next Refsnyder.

I'm fully in favor of calling up both Mayer and Anthony. Anthony should be up, yesterday. I'm not pissed and Brez-Cora for it not happening the second I want it to, but I full believe the chances one or both give us a big boost are too high to wait much longer. I do see a loss on D by benching or platooning him, so Anthony can play FT, but Anthony is not a bad LF'er, and I think Duran is a plus in CF, even if not in Rafaela's class of greatness on D. The possible significant boos on offense is just too great to wait. The Mayer call-up is more complex and problematic, unless a current infielder moves to 1B or Devers plays 1B, and the DH slot could be used to rotate all infielders plus Refsnyder at DH, thereby allowing Mayer, Story, Bregman and Campbell a FT or near FT slot. These two seem ML ready, to me, so they are due their chance- now or later, so why not now? If the idea is to move a current infielder to 1B, we can wait to call up Mayer, until that player is ready to play 1B. Call up Anthony, today.

There is no easy in house solution, except to trial and error it, until we hopefully find a guy who is about to have a good year. I hope we don't cycle through 6-7 bad arms to find a good one. It might be too late, by then. Our best bet, IMO, is to convert SP'ers to the pen, as some come off the IL and put the squeeze on the 5 man rotation. We keep moving them to AAA to keep their arms stretched out as starters, but maybe we need to just pick 1 or 2 and just make them pen arms for the rest of 2025. One difficult aspect is that Criswell seems to only do well as a starter, although the sample sizes may be too small to be a predictor of the future. He is not our 5th best SP'er, even with 2-3 guys on the IL. I also like Fitts as a SP'er- not a long man. I'm not sure Dobbins would thrive in the pen. Would Gio get pissed, if we "demoted" him to the pen. (He hasn't looked that bad in his starts, so far.) I think we need to see Crawford as a pen arm, if he ever returns. The must starters are Crochet, Buehler and Bello, IMO. Houck gets a longer leash as a starter. That's 4. Gio looks like the 5, unless we go with Fitts, when healthy. That leaves these guys as possible pen additions, at some point: Crawford Fitts or Gio Dobbins Sandoval (AUG or SEP?) Drohan (not on 40) Stock? AAA pen arms: Guerrero, Wink & Kelly Burdi, I Campbell, Mata & Cellucci (not on 40) Sandlin, Early, Y Cruz, Mullins, J Adames, W MIlls, A Adams (long shots)

He's also allowed 1 run, twice. That 1+ runs in 6 of 14 games.

Maybe, slightly. This need not be permanent. It's a one year fix to the Casas injury and lack of 1B depth issue, at hand, now. The significant advantage, IMO, is that it also addresses the blocked prospect conundrum. I think there is a really good chance that either Anthony or Mayer can give this team an enormous shot in the arm- maybe both. Calling up Anthony can be done without moving Devers to 1B, but the DH slot does make batting Refsnyder vs LHPs easier with Rafaela platooning with Abreu- not Ref. The Mayer blockage is more problematic, and this could solve it by playing a current infielder at 1B, a lot.

I see this as a one season option, and I agree on your premise.

Many- practically all. I'm not arguing against targeted big spending. We don't win without Manny and maybe Lackey & JD. Despite the feeling of JH turning miser, he did spend more than half of MLB after 2018, and what did it get him? We paid Devers almost 50% more than the previous record contract for the Sox (not a FA, I know.) We did spend rather largely on Story and Yoshida, and neither helped. I went over the top 50 FA signings o fall time, a while back and found more than half we not a plus for the team or fell way short of expectations. It's a very hit or miss endeavor, but to me, it is necessary. As much as the Price signing did not work out as we hoped, we need an ace, and could not afford trading for one. I was all for it. To be honest, I think we spent enough, this past winter. I wish we had added Scott, or even signed him over Buehler, but look at all our rotation injuries. It looks like a second major addition to the rotation was needed, even if Buehler does not work out. I'm a tweener on this issue. As much as I want JH to spend more, and more and more, I can understand it's the American way to maximize profits. I also think there is a pride aspect to spending large, often. An owner/GM look better when they a team wins when not being a top 3-5 spender (just my opinion, there.) I think we'd look like a sure playoff team had we signed Scott, and he's not really a top MLB FA signings- like Soto, Fried or Bregman were. I see our team as being loaded with young and inexpensive talent, and we were rip for targeted big spending on our high need areas. To me, the closer and top set up roles were high on the priority list. We missed the boat, but I'm not complaining about how "little" we spent, this particular winter.

9 of 16 AL teams are within 5 games of .500. 7 teams are within 3 games of .500. The A's are tied with the Yanks, and could be up on them, if the pull out a win vs SEA (tied 5-5 in 8th.) Most baseball fans knew DET and SEA would be pretty good, this year, but probably not #1-2. CLE and KCR at #3 & 4 were maybe not ranked so highly. The Yanks, Sox, A's, Astros and Rangers are all within a couple games of each other, as they struggle to me ranked high enough to make the playoffs. The NL is way more "Haves & Have NOTs." 5 teams are 8+ games over .500 and 3 are 8+ games below .500. That's more than half the NL teames.

D Williams got racked, again, as the Yanks lost to SDP.

Chapman has surprised me. I'm not sure he can last the full season. I think Whitlock and Slaten will bounce back, but the rest of the pen is like 10 to 15 coin flips. Deep but week to mediocre.

He has started. 1.241 last 9 games (44 PAs) .959 last 17 games (80 PAs) .914 last 31 games (142 PAs) How much you think he weighs? OK, his BA is .291 over 31 games, and he must weigh 300 pounds.

Maybe the importance of keeping Devers healthy and playing 155+ games is Cora's top priority in the "Who plays 1B" dilema. I can understand the reasoning, and playing 1B is not as easy as some may think it is, and the injury risk is elevated over being a FT DH. That being said, I agree with Kimi. It makes the most sense for Devers to play 1B, feel like he is again part of the whole game, and open up the DH slot for a rotation, of sorts or to give Yoshida one last long look. (I'd prefer calling up the kids and using the DH slot as a way to make room for them in the field, enough to warrant their call-ups. Letting, Bregman, Story, Abreu, Duran, Campbell, Mayer, Anthony and Refsnyder share the DH slot could keep others fresh and less likely to get hurt, instead of Devers. (No Yoshida involved, in this case.)

Maybe. Many of the most expensive FAs end up sucking or doing worse than cheaper ones. We didn't miss out on Price. Yip-Eee!

I was really high on Scott. I wonder if it would have been at the expense of Buehler.

It is. I did mention the possible influx of SP'ers moved to the pen, as a few come off the IL, but that is hard to plan for nobody else going on the IL, as some come off it. Criswell seems to suck at relief, and I don't see him bumping Gio or some others to the pen. Maybe, we end up trying Dobbins as a longman pen arm. I'm not sure Drohan will ever figure into the equation. More likely, if and when Buehler, Fitts and or Crawford return, we'll see who might join the pen. Buehler is a cinch to go to the rotation and Dobbins back to AAA or the pen. I'm not sure Fitts or Crawford bump Gio to the pen, but adding them to the pen might work. Maybe Houck ends up in the pen, again (doubtful.) I mentioned one problem with having a lot of depth that is heavy on quantity vs quality is that by the time we "trial and error" it to the point where MAYBE we find 8 good pen arms, the errors along the way lost us too many games to make the playoffs. Brez and Cora need to select well, and make changes at the "right time" with the "right" pieces. That's not easy, and our past history has not always been something to bolster confidence in fans.

Only Devers, Bregman and Story are expensive, although some arbs will start getting costly, soon. Bregman may bolt, and Story has 2 more years, after this one. This should (more) allow spending on pitching.

The Casas replacement choice is forced, and it could be reversed or altered, next year, especially if Bregman bolts. I agree on Narvaez, and we have no other immediate in system options, except Grandal as his back-up and 1B with or over Wong (C & 1B) and Romy (1B.) Lets the kids roll. Maybe all will not do well, and we can't expect K Campbell x 3.

You have to admit, this past offseason was closer to "full throttle" than past seasons, and by a lot.

I'm more optimistic than many, here, about this roster. I'm hoping the pen gets better when we start moving SP'ers into it, as others return to the rotation (Buehler, Fitts, Crawford and possibly Sandoval late in the season.) RP'ers are the most often players traded at the deadline and even before. We HAVE TO DO BETTER THAN Luis Garcia and Lucas Sims. Maybe Hendriks finds the groove, but counting on it seems like homerism. Our best and most realistic chances are that Slaten and Whitlock get over this blip, and Chapman has one big season left in him. Guys like Bernardino, Weissert, Guerrero, Wilson, Kelly, Newcomb and even maybe Mata, I Campbell or someone else in AAA can step up and have one of those "up seasons" mediocre RP'ers often have every 2-3 years. We may need 2-3 to have "that season." I think our offense will be fine. I think our D is better than they have looked, recently. Our rotation has many question marks, but we have some solid arms who just need health on their side. Since we have 7-9 SP'ers, I'm staying optimistic we can keep 5 going at any given time. Yes, it is the pen. That is the area I stressed all winter long, well, after we addressed the rotation with Crochet and Buehler. I'm still thinking 86-90 wins, but that is based on speculation not on what we have seen, so far. I'm not one to believe a player or team stays constant all year long and repeats the first 20% of the season over the next 80%. (This also leaves the door open for us to be even worse.)