Here’s some of the news coming out of the “Brewers On Deck” winter fanfest event held today in Milwaukee…
- Rebuilding is “a little bit of a new experience” for Mark Attanasio, and while the Brewers principal owner tells Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he wants his team to return to contention as soon as possible, he also wants to give his front office a fair amount of time to properly rebuild the roster. “I’ve told them [GM David Stearns and assistant GM Matt Arnold] to look at what we need to do to get back to the playoffs,” Attanasio said. “If that takes a few years, it takes a few years. You don’t have to make a trade every few months.” Here’s some more from around the NL Central…
- Attanasio expects Jonathan Lucroy to still be a Brewer when Spring Training camp opens. “Jonathan is like me; he wants to win,” Attanasio said. “He works hard. He’s one of our hardest-working guys. So, we have the same mind set on this….As an owner, I’m delighted he’ll be playing for us this year. I’m very supportive of Jonathan. He’s been an awesome part of this team.” Lucroy was quite candid in a recent interview with Haudricourt about how a trade could benefit both he and the Brewers, while the catcher stopped short of actually asking for a trade.
- Matt Garza plans to “pitch selfishly” in 2016, the righty told reporters (including MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy), meaning that he will “stop trying to be someone [else], stop trying to please people and just go out there and be me. I’ve been trying to please people to stay places, and it’s just the point in my career where I’m over it.” Garza said he’s revamped his offseason training procedures to rebound after a tough 2015 season that saw him leave the team after he was removed from the rotation in September. That departure coincided with a tough situation in Garza’s personal life, as his wife was bedridden while pregnant with twins (thankfully, the delivery went smoothly in October). With the difficulties of 2015 behind him, Garza also said that he wants to remain in Milwaukee. “I want to see [the rebuilding] through. I want to be here when all the fruits come bearing. I’m going to do what I’ve got to do to stay here,” Garza said.
- Ryan Braun is excited by all of the young talent entering the Brewers’ system, he tells Tom Haudricourt and other reporters. “I think we have probably more potential, young impact players than we’ve had in a long time, probably since I’ve been part of the organization….I think we’re building toward something that we’ll be able to have sustained success and have some impact players,” Braun said. “We’re completely dependent upon our system being able to produce impact players. I think that’s something we haven’t done very well the last five or six years.” It’s for this reason that Braun takes a realistic view of the Brewers’ trades of veteran players and the decision to rebuild, noting “It is not like we’re breaking up a team that had a tremendous amount of success.”
- For more on the Brewers, check out the most recent edition of the MLBTR Podcast, which features an interview with Milwaukee general manager David Stearns about the team’s offseason moves, future plans and more.
I’ve been a Brewer for fan since 70 a season tix holder for 32 yrs now retired in Phx my view thinks trading for these kids is fine maybe they learned from the Grienke trade what they really did to this team . Trading Sugura was ok if this young SS will fill the void if not tony larurrsa got a real good one hopefully they are not going a 100 MPH in 10 ft of snow . Go Brewers
The Brewers will always be seligs lie and disgrace , never should have moved from AL central
Will you please expand on this?
Garza’s lack of self knowledge is extraordinary. He may be one of the most overrated pitchers of our era. JAWS currently has him rated 712th. He ought to be focusing of delivering results to his team.
talk about overrated, what’s braun done since he got his money
Since you are clearly biased and cant let yourself see talent because of previous wrong doings, I will enlighten you. Braun hit .285/.356/.498 in 2015 with 27 doubles 3 triples 25 homers and 24 stolen bases. That was good for a 3.8 WAR. If we value a win at 6 million like the article fangraphs article says below, then we can assume Brauns seasons was worth 22.8 million. Brauns BRef page has his contract at 13 million. So Braun essentially added 9.8 million surplus value to the Brewers this past year. Plus this article is a few year old at this point so he’s probably added even more surplus value. But yeah I agree with you I really wish Braun had done something since he got paid… Better just get rid of him and put Yuni B in right.
fangraphs.com/blogs/the-cost-of-a-win-in-the-2014-…
“talk about overrated, what’s braun done since he got his money”
Talk about uninformed. Let’s just focus on what he’s done since he signed his contract extension in April of 2011.
Since then, he’s:
Won the 2011 NL MVP.
Been the NL MVP runner up in 2012 (would have won it on a better team).
Won two Silver Sluggers
Been named to three All Star teams
Put up the following average per 162 games played:
102 runs scored, 185 hits, 37 doubles, 6 triples, 33 home runs, 108 RBI, 26 stolen bases, a .301 batting average and a slash line of .369/.535/.904 and a 143 OPS +.
By the way, before he got hurt and ultimately suspended in 2013, Braun had 223 doubles, 29 triples and 202 home runs. through his first six seasons. That’s 454 extra base hits. In the history of Major League Baseball, only four hitters have had more extra base hits in their first six seasons: Albert Pujols (522), Chuck Klein (487), Joe DiMaggio (481), and Ted Williams (478).
Oh, and by the way, last year, after starting the season dealing with his thumb injury again (and getting two injections to help calm the nerve issue that was robbing him of his power), here’s what Ryan Braun did over his last 107 games played:
.296 AVG, 389 at bats, 67 runs scored, 25 doubles, 3 triples, 19 home runs, 66 RBI, 21 of 25 base stealing attempts, Over the course of a full season, that would have been 102 runs scored, 38 doubles, 29 home runs, 100 RBI and 32 stolen bases.
From June 21st until the end of the season, when Ryan Braun was put on the inactive list to rest his back (76 games), Braun hit .320 with a .393 OBP and a .528 SLG.
If you think Ryan Braun “hasn’t done anything” since getting his money, you’re clueless.
A poor 2015 season hardly qualifies Matt Garza as “one of the most overrated pitchers of our era”. What was Garza’s JAWS rating following a respectable 2014 campaign?
Fact is, Garza has only had 2 seasons in 10 with an ERA that exceeded 3.95, his rookie 2006 season with the Twins and last year with the Brewers.
As a die-hard White Sox fan I watched Garza break in with the Twins and pitch productively in Tampa Bay for 3 seasons as part of an excellent starting rotation for manager Joe Maddon.
As a die-hard Cubs fan I witnessed Garza first-hand for 2-1/2 seasons, pitching effectively enough to accumulate a 21-18 record with sub 4.00 ERA’s, all with last place team’s.
I heard a fairly recent rumor, or at least a suggestion from a baseball writer, that had Garza potentially being traded to the White Sox as part of a bad contract swap with John Danks and Adam LaRoche going to Milwaukee. The gist of the report was that the Brewers might be open to moving Garza’s longer term contract in exchange for the two shorter one’s that Danks and LaRoche possess. The thinking was that the Brewers had an opening for a left-handed hitting first baseman and that Danks would replace Garza in their rotation for 2016. The Brewers would rid themselves of Garza’s longer deal while losing the LaRoche and Danks contracts following the upcoming season, perhaps sooner since both might be “flip” candidates at the summer trade deadline.
The advantage to the White Sox would be the addition of a potential top of the rotation right-handed starter who might slot in at #2 in a southpaw heavy rotation, similar to what Jeff Samardzija was supposed to do last season. Garza has some health concerns and was awful last year, like “Shark”, but has mostly been an effective pitcher in his 10 year career, including as recently as 2014.
Fact is, Garza will still be just 32 for the entire 2016 season. He is owed $12,5M over each of the next two seasons, with a $13M vesting option in 2018. The team also holds a $5M option if the vesting terms are not met, with no other buyout attached. Garza’s guaranteed money ($25M) lines up fairly close with the dollars still left on the Danks” ($14.25M) and LaRoche ($13M) with the added risk of Garza’s $13M vesting option in 2018 that won’t apply in the event of poor health.
I stopped reading after you said you were both a die-hard Cubs and die-hard White Sox fan. You have 0 credibility after admitting that.
Lmao, no kidding! I didn’t know they made those kind of fans.
Garza handled the situation about as badly as you could last year, alienating fans, insulting his teammates and insubordinating his Manager. disgraceful. He had a lot of people to blame, pointed fingers at what he perceived was unjust treatment and quit the team.
But what i hear him saying now is he’s taking accountability back and going to do what he thinks will make him successful again. so long as that doesn’t translate into ignoring his coaches, it’s a step in the right direction.
It’s kind of baffling how a team that, In a 3-4 year period, graduated JJ Hardy, Rickey Weeks, Corey Hart, Prince Fielder, Yovanni Gallardo, and Ryan Braun, and still had one of the top farm systems in baseball fell on their face as bad as they did.
The trouble was that they soon forgot that they were a small market team. After years of futility, they had something going; and suddenly, they began behaving like the small town bumpkin who wins the lottery and can’t spend it all soon enough.
At this point, they need to trade Lucroy. But more importantly, they should be seeing what they can get for Braun. His contract is looking very ugly the rest of the way, ($96mm guaranteed over the next 5 years with 15mm or 4mm buyout for the 6th.) But there are worse out there, and surely an AL team would be willing to give them either the prospects and/or cash to make it worth their while.
It’s not really baffling. They always had the minor league talent in the field, but were missing it on the mound. In order to be true contenders, they had to make some moves. CC, Greinke, Marcum (shudder). If they hadn’t made those moves they would have handed the ball to Dave Bush as their #1. They had to swing for the fences with the trades, and I think they’d do it again.
Sure, it’d be nice to have Brantley, Cain, Lawrie, Escobar, and Odorizzi in Milwaukee….but not nice enough that I’d go back in time and trade in the playoff appearances.
Lucroy would look good in a Cardinal uniform !!!