brewfandave
-
Posts
78 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Joomla Posts 1
Chicago Cubs Videos
Chicago Cubs Free Agent & Trade Rumors, Notes, & Tidbits
2026 Chicago Cubs Top Prospects Ranking
News
2023 Chicago Cubs Draft Picks
Guides & Resources
2024 Chicago Cubs Draft Picks
The Chicago Cubs Players Project
2025 Chicago Cubs Draft Pick Tracker
2026 Chicago Cubs Draft Tracker: Picks & Bonuses
Blogs
Events
Forums
Store
Gallery
Everything posted by brewfandave
-
Gomez is a defensive upgrade from Cain, and who knows how good Cain really is at the plate? Gomez will probably do some soft platooning with Dickerson, who at least has some on-base skills. Betancourt is the real mitigating factor to the value of the trade. Almost any shortstop would be better there. Heck, a full season of Craig Counsell at short would probably provide more value. Despite that, this is a rotation that will miss a lot of bats, minimizing the crappiness of the Brewers' defense. We're not talking about Dave Bush, Doug Davis, and Jeff Suppan here. Wow, it feels really good thinking that those were the Brewers' 3-4-5 pitchers starting out last year.
-
They absolutely will put butts in the seats, but there's a lot more to market (and budget) than attendance. Milwaukee's media market is actually smaller than that of their AAA affiliate. Seriously, Nashville is a bigger market than Milwaukee. Anyway, pushing three million attendees lets them top out at about $90 million in player spending. That's a far cry from the $130-150 million the Cubs or Astros can throw around, or even the $100 million plus the Cardinals can spend. Paying the market rate for Prince Fielder or Albert Pujols is flat-out impossible for the Brewers. How much is the Cubs' WGN contract? Their Comcast Sports contract? Take one of those, and cut it in half. That's maybe what the Brewers get from TV.
-
The Brewers' optimal plan really is to go for cycles: five years of stocking and losing, three years of developing (and probably more losing) with a two-three year window of being able to contend. Ben Sheets' paper-thin tendons blew the early part of the contending cycle, but Melvin just extended the contending cycle while greatly prolonging the subsequent restocking cycle. As a Brewer fan, I am willing to deal with an extended period of development for the chance to go for it all. As was previously mentioned, Milwaukee is a small market, and getting to the playoffs is a victory in itself. With that rotation, and that offense, that's probably enough to earn a seat at the craps table called the playoffs. The Brewers just can't compete with two huge markets (Chicago and Houston), and one bigger mid-market (St. Louis) regularly, so sometimes you have to go all in. Greinke-Yo-Marcum-Wolf-whoever is a pretty darn good rotation, and they've given up no offense from last season. They're going to get a lot of first and second round draft picks in the next two-three years (Fielder, Marcum, Greinke, possibly Weeks). Then the cycle starts again.
-
Harden: minor tear in shoulder joint
brewfandave replied to Schwarber Fan's topic in Chicago Cubs Talk
Ever had major surgery? We're not talking about Lasik, here. Anyway, sucks to hear. It's always sad to hear about injury, especially to someone as talented as Harden. By the way, I'm guessing that the Brewers are 3-8 wins worse than last year (optimistic gets a nearly-full season from Gallardo, an improvement from Manny Parra, and continued improvement/return to form from the not-yet-in-their-prime hitters like Braun, Fielder, Hardy, and Hart). I'd put the Cubs in the high 80s-low 90s in wins right now, depending on injury and how their aging stars hold up their form. It should be a pretty exciting year, what with the possibility of the Reds coming on, and those blasted Cardinals inevitably getting All-Star caliber performances out of a bunch of guys who would get cut from a beer league softball team. -
The best part is the exchange where the caller, after hearing Ricciardi blast Dunn for striking out, says, "but he hits a ton of home runs!"