Rebuilding The Brewers (est. 2015)

[krisbryantseyes]

After a few years of playing OOTP and lurking the forums here, I decided to sign up for an account and start a dynasty as the Milwaukee Brewers. I had my choices narrowed down to the Brewers, Marlins, and Rockies, but ultimately decided that the Brewers would be more entertaining and difficult.

My role will be Manager & GM, and I will be playing out every game, which is something I've never done before. To save money, I usually fire my Scouting Director and cut the scouting budget to the baseline, but I'll be keeping my Director around to maintain realism. Trading is on Average/Neutral, and player evaluation is at 50/30/15/5. The player ratings scale is at 1 to 20, but I may try changing it to 20 to 80 in the future.

I welcome any advice that anyone may have, and I look forward to posting on the boards and taking the Brewers to a World Series!

[krisbryantseyes]

Owner Goals from Mark Attanasio:
1. Play .500-Ball
2. Extend Carlos Gomez by 2017
3. Build up the team to make the playoffs by 2020.

Keeping the team at .500 might be difficult in a loaded NL Central. Gomez won't listen to extension offers until his walk year. I will quit the game if I don't make the playoffs by 2020.

[krisbryantseyes]

Surprisingly projected to finish 85-77 and be right in the thick of the Wild Card race. Ryan Braun is projected to have a strong bounce back year at 31, with a .286/.353/.482 line with 27 home runs in 608 at bats.

[krisbryantseyes]

STARTING ROTATION:
Mike Fiers
Matt Garza
Kyle Lohse
Wily Peralta
Tyler Thornburg

BULLPEN:
CL - Jeremy Jeffress
SU - Francisco Rodriguez, Neal Cotts (L)
MR - Jonathan Broxton, Will Smith (L), Jimmy Nelson, Brandon Kintzler

Only two lefties on my entire pitching staff, yikes. Definitely going to have to work on that.

STARTING LINEUP:
C - Jonathan Lucroy
1B - Adam Lind
2B - Scooter Gennett
3B - Aramis Ramirez
SS - Jean Segura
LF - Khris Davis (vs. RHP) / Gerardo Parra (vs. LHP)
CF - Carlos Gomez
RF - Ryan Braun

BENCH:
Hector Gomez, Logan Schafer, Martin Maldonaldo

[krisbryantseyes]

Blew up my coaching staff. Hired Bill Smith as Assistant GM, Von Joshua as Bench Coach, Glenn Adams as Hitting Coach, Matthew Blackford as Pitching Coach, and Norio Yamaguchi as Scouting Director.

[krisbryantseyes]

GAME 1 OF 162:

Brewers top the Rockies 3-2

Feel behind in the 4th after a 2-out 2 RBI double from Blackmon off of Fiers. Lucroy sealed the win after hitting his first home run of the year in the 7th off of Lyles. He also went 3-3 with a double and single to add. K-Rod and Jeffress each surrendered a walk in their respective innings, but the defense came through on two double plays to save them.

W - Fiers (1-0)
L - Lyles (0-1)
H - Francisco Rodriguez (1)
SV - Jeffress (1)

SEASON RECORD: (1-0)

[krisbryantseyes]

GAME 2 OF 162:

Brewers pitchers gave up 10 hits, but somehow managed to not give up any runs, with Milwaukee winning 5-0. Scooter Gennett had a strong day at the plate, going 4-5 with a double. Jonathan Lucroy hit his second home run of the year in the fifth inning off of Kyle Kendrick.

W - Garza (1-0)
L - Kendrick (0-1)

SEASON RECORD: (2-0)

[krisbryantseyes]

GAME 3 OF 168:

Oh, Kyle Lohse. What am I going to do about you this season? Lohse gave up five earned runs and 11 hits over 4.2 innings on the mound, as well as two home runs. Luckily, the Brewers hopped on Tyler Matzek for six runs in the first two innings to make up for Lohse's struggles on the mound. Gerardo Parra and Logan Schafer both hit their first home runs of the year while pinch-hitting. Ryan Braun hit his first of the year as well.

W - Jimmy Nelson (1-0)
L - Tyler Matzek (0-1)
H - Francisco Rodriguez (2)

SEASON RECORD: (3-0)

[krisbryantseyes]

Signed CF Andrew Toles to a minor league contract. Assigned to Low-A Wisconsin.
Signed 3B Juan Francisco to a minor league contract. Assigned to Triple-A Colorado Springs.

[krisbryantseyes]

GAME 4 OF 162:

Brewers lose their first game of the year after Francisco Rodriguez and Jeremy Jeffress each blow the save by giving up one an two runs in their innings respectively. Wily Peralta threw seven strong innings. Adam Lind hit his first home run of the year and Carlos Gomez hit his second.

W - Antonio Bastardo (1-0)
L - Jeremy Jeffress (0-1)
BS - Francisco Rodriguez (1), Jeffress (1)

SEASON RECORD (3-1)

[krisbryantseyes]

First big trade of the year. The Marlins send SS Adeiny Hechavarria to the Sand Diego Padres, getting RHP Andrew Cashner and minor league 3B Brian Schales.

[krisbryantseyes]

GAME 5 OF 162:

Tyler Thornburg struck out 10 in his first start of the year. Brewers broke the 2-2 tie in the bottom of the eighth with home runs from Khris Davis, Ryan Braun, and Aramis Ramirez.

W - Neal Cotts (1-0)
L - Tony Watson (0-1)
BS - Jonathan Broxton (1)

SEASON RECORD (4-1)

[krisbryantseyes]

GAME 6 OF 162:

Two doubles from Adam Lind sealed a 3-0 victory for the Brewers. Mike Fiers gave up six hits over four innings. Jeremy Jeffress bounced back after a rough last outing and shut down the Pirates in the bottom of the ninth in 12 pitches.

W - Mike Fiers (2-0)
L - Jeff Locke (0-1)
H - Brandon Kintzler (1)
SV - Jeremy Jeffress (2)

SEASON RECORD: (5-1)

[krisbryantseyes]

Decided to change my updates to monthly ones instead of spamming the thread with daily ones.


May 1st, 2015
15-7 (.682) - 1st in the NL Central

Wow. I certainly wasn't expecting this strong of a start to the season. Of course, it's only April and there's still a lot of baseball left to play. But as of right now, the Brewers rank in top five in every team category except for Stolen Bases (15th) and Bullpen ERA (14th). My starting rotation had be worried to begin the year, but apart from Kyle Lohse they've been nothing but lights out. Lohse's ERA compared to FIP is 5.09 and 3.18, so it appears that he's just been a bit unlucky so far this year. With the bullpen struggling a bit, I'll be relying on the rotation a lot more to go deeper into games.

On the offensive side of the ball, Scooter Gennett is off to hot start, batting .392/.423/.622 with an OPS+ of 195. That's only through 78 plate appearances with a .413 BABIP, so don't expect that kind of production going forward. Jean Segura has struggled to start the year, and his time in Milwaukee could be coming to a close with five start prospect Luis Sardinas and the recently signed Cuban free agent Jose Miguel Fernandez waiting in Triple-A.

Brewers News

After some back-and-forth, I decided to sign Cuban free agent Jose Miguel Fernandez to a $1.5M signing bonus that will auto-renew the next two years before he goes through four years of arbitration. Being 27 years old, I don't expect him to be a major part of the team when his contract is expiring, but he's a a solid defender with an incredibly patient approach at the plate. We sent him to Triple-A to get his feet wet and has been excelling so far, but with Scooter Gennett starting off April on an unreal hot streak, it might be a few weeks before Fernandez sees time at second base on the major league team.

Big News Around The League

An incredibly busy April.

- The Braves trade LF Chris Young Jr. and minor league CF Connor Lien to the Athletics in return for CF Craig Gentry.
- Blue Jays P Mark Buehrle notches his 200th career victory against the Rays.
- Another Cuban free agent, Yolian Cerse, signed with the Mets on a $2.28M signing bonus.
- The Rockies signed CL Rafael Soriano to a 1-year/$2.5M deal.
- The White Sox send C Geovany Soto to the Diamondbacks in return for RP Addison Reed, minor league CF Oscar Moreno and $3M in cash.
- The Rays send CF Desmond Jennings to the Yankees in return for Brett Gardner and $3M in cash.
- The Orioles send SS Everth Cabrera and minor league CF Carlos Jean to the Reds in return for 2B Brandon Phillips.
- The Yankees are busy again, sending minor league SS Gregorio Petit and minor league RF Jonathan Amundary to the Tigers in return for 1B Victor Martinez.
- The Angels send 2B Johnny Giavotella and minor league P Trevor Gott to the Padres in return for P James Shields.

League Injuries
- Marlins P Mat Latos out for four months with a torn back muscle.
- Padres CF Wil Myers out for five weeks with a fractured hand.
- Braves 2B Jace Petersen out for six to seven weeks with a fractured thumb.
- Cardinals 3B Matt Carpenter out for six to seven months with a torn ACL.
- Twins LF Oswaldo Arcia out for four to five months with a torn labrum.

Going Forward

- I'm going to see how things shake out with Kyle Lohse before making a move to upgrade out rotation. I'm not entirely optimistic, but I also don't want to make a move too soon with his FIP hanging so low below his ERA.

- My scouting director isn't too fond of who OSA sees as our organization's top prospects, so a few of them could be on the move in the coming months if the club continues to compete for a playoff spot. Expect us to push hard for established pitching and first base help.

[krisbryantseyes]

June 1st, 2015
30-21 (.588) - 2nd in the NL Central, 5 GB

As to be expected after unusually hot April starts, we lost a bit of steam in May. After a 15-14 record this month, we currently sit five games behind the Cardinals in the NL Central. We open the month of June with a three game series in St. Louis, so right off the bat there’s an opportunity to regain some ground in the division.

Matt Garza. Matt. Garza. I’m really interested in finding out his training regimen he adopted over the offseason, since he is far and away the best starting pitcher in baseball right now. Through 78 innings, Garza has an ERA of .92(!!!). His HR/9 rate is an astronomically small 0.1, and his walk and strikeout rates are both above career average. On top of that, he’s already managed to accumulate a 3 WAR season and is on track to finish at 9.5 WAR. Easily the biggest surprise on my team, if not the league this year.

My first trades of the year happened this month! Here’s what happened:

Brewers receive: RP Antonio Bastardo
Padres receive: CL Corey Knebel, CF Kyle Wren, SP Jed Bradley, and RF Anderson Jesus

At the time of this trade, our bullpen was the worst in the National League. To save ourselves from being a Dave Dombrowski Tigers team, changes had to be made. Four days after the Padres acquired Antonio Bastardo from the Pirates, A.J. Preller turns around and sells him to us. In return, the Padres get a 4/5 potential reliever in Corey Knebel, who's been struggling as of late in Triple-A. He's only 23 years old, so the Padres will be patient with him and see if he develops to his full potential. The rest of the package includes purely organizational guys in the eyes of my scout, so I didn't necessarily have to give up a lot to get Bastardo for the rest of the year. He'll work in the closing role.

Brewers receive: RP Tyler Clippard
Athletics receive: RP Jeremy Jeffress, RP Rob Wooten, and RP Wuilder Rodriguez

Yep, another future free agent reliever. I might have overreacted a bit to Jeffress's struggles this year, but his troubles on the mound in 2014 gave me some extra confidence when dealing him. Wooten wasn't anything special at Triple-A and Rodriguez is about to start his first season outside of our International Complex. Clippard will slot into the Setup role alongside K-Rod.

Brewers receive: 1B Eric Hosmer, SP Brandon Finnegan, CF Elier Hernandez, 3B Cheslor Cuthbert
Royals receive: SS Jean Segura, SP Tyler Wagner, LF Shane Peterson, C Martin Maldonado

My first big trade as GM. Really surprised with how good of a haul I got considering how low my scout thinks of the prospects attached to Segura. Apparently their scouts thought otherwise! Adam Lind has been productive so far at first base this season, but I'm not expecting that to last very long. Lind has an $8M team option for next year, which will of course be declined with the pickup of Hosmer. I usually make a point to only acquire established pitching and not prospects, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get Finnegan without much difficulty. He’ll go to Double-A for right now and I don’t expect it to be long before he’s in the major league rotation. Hernandez has potential for above average Contact, Gap Power, and Home Run Power, but his low ability in plate discipline and avoiding strikeouts could hold him back a bit. He’ll go to Single-A for now but I would expect a call-up to Double-A in the near future. Cuthbert doesn’t project to be anything special offensively, but his defensive ability at third base will make up for that. He’ll go to Triple-A for now until September 1st.

Other Brewers News

- As soon as a mention finding a way to deal with Kyle Lohse's struggles, he unfortunately tore his UCL and will be out for the rest of the season. This is also incredibly unlucky considering that he is set to make $11M this season.
- In a corresponding move, 32-year-old SP Jeff Niemann was signed to a minor league deal and then placed on the active roster. Niemann hasn’t pitched in the league since 2012 with the Rays, but with above average S/M/C and barely over 500 innings in his arm, he was worth giving a shot. To my surprise, this has paid off wonderfully. Niemann is having the best year of his career with an ERA of 3.25 and on pace for a 1.3 WAR season. His strikeout K/9 of 5.8 is well below his career average, but that’s more than acceptable when his BB/9 is the lowest of his career. A FIP of 3.94 shows that there’s a little regression to come, and this is all through 36 innings, so we’ll see if he can keep this production up.
- C Mike Nickeas and RP Joel Hanrahan were signed to minor league deals. Nucleas was assigned to Triple-A and Hanrahan will go to the DL.
- RP Jesus E. Sanchez was signed to a major league deal with a signing bonus of $761,250 and will be sent to Triple-A Colorado Springs for the time being.
- RP Sean Burnett was signed to a one year deal worth $1,116,500 with a second year option for the same amount with a $0 buyout. A low risk move to get some veteran help in the bullpen.
- SP Wily Peralta was suspended for three days after a benches-clearing brawl against the Dodgers.
- LF Gerardo Parra has sent me a personal message asking about a possible extension. His struggles at the plate have been tolerable due to his fantastic defense from both corner outfield spots. Depending on his asking price, I won't rule out bringing him back for around $8M a year for one or two years.
- 2B Jose Miguel Fernandez was called up from Triple-A Colorado Springs. 3B Luis Jimenez was waived and designated for assignment.
- C Jonathan Lucroy and 3B Aramis Ramirez were both placed on the 15-Day DL for wrist tendinitis and a hamstring sprain respectively. Juan Centeno and Luis Jimenez were called up from Triple-A.
- RP Brandon Kintzler was placed on the 15-Day DL for back stiffness. RP Michael Blazek was placed on the 40-man roster and called up from Triple-A Colorado Springs. Blazek was sent back down after Kintzler was activated from the DL.
- RP Jim Johnson was activated from the 60-Day DL and sent to Colorado Springs on a rehab assignment.
- RP Jimmy Nelson was sent down to Triple-A.
- RP Neal Cotts was DFA'd and placed on waivers.
- The traded with Kansas City moved our farm system from the 24th to 10th best in the league.
- Released this month: C Robinson Diaz and RP Chris Leroux.

Big News Around The League
-The Dodgers trade 2B Howie Kendrick to the Rays in exchange for RF Brandon Guyer and minor league 3B Victor Contreras.
-Adrian Beltre and Miguel Cabrera each hit their 400th career home run.
-The Rockies trade RF Drew Stubbs to the Braves in return for RP Jim Johnson and C William Contreras.

League Injuries
-Blue Jays RF Jose Bautista is out for eight weeks with a sprained ankle.
-Astros P Scott Feldman is out for seven months with a partially torn UCL.
-Mariners P Hisashi Iwakuma is out for five months with shoulder inflammation.
-Dodgers 1B Adrian Gonzalez is out three to four weeks with a separated shoulder
-Marlins SS Dee Gordon is out for seven weeks with a fractured finger.
-Padres P Joaquin Benoit is out for two months with a hamstring sprain.

Going Forward
- As I mentioned earlier, Adam Lind's production at 1B will be closely monitored with the recent acquisition of 1B Eric Hosmer.
- With 2B Jose Miguel Fernandez off to a slow start to his major league career, a send down to Triple-A could be in the cards for him. SS Luis Sardinas is tearing it up in Colorado Springs to the tune of and is knocking on the door for everyday playing time in Milwaukee.
- As you can tell, relievers will continue to be on a short leash going forward. We can't afford to have the Cardinals expand their division lead due to late inning meltdowns.

[krisbryantseyes]

2015 MLB Draft

Given the craziness that was this draft, I decided to turn it into a separate post. This draft was incredibly deep, and I feel very strongly about our minor league system going forward. Picking 16th overall, I knew it wasn't likely that players like SS Brendan Rodgers, SS Alex Bregman, and CF Trenton Clark would fall down to us.

1st round, 16th overall - SS Dansby Swanson, College
I was surprised to see that Swanson was still available when we made our first pick. He had an asking price of $3M, almost double the recommended slot amount of $1.7M but our scouts raved nonstop about him and made me more comfortable offering that much money to him. Our scouts see him as an above-average shortstop, but might have a brighter future at second base. He won’t hit for a lot of power, but will hit for a high average and draw a fair share of walks.
Swanson accepted our $3M offer and was sent to Single-A Wisconsin, where his is hitting .247/.299/.444 with a 118 OPS+ through 12 games.

2nd round, 46th overall - LF Kyle Dean, HS
Dean projects to have monster home run power, but strikeouts could be an issue in his future. He plays above average defense from the corner outfield spots and has an absolute cannon for an arm. He isn’t very speedy, but is smart on the base paths and could end up stealing a few bases. There were some big questions about his signability since he fell a lot further than his camp was anticipating. We offered more than he was asking, but ended up breaking off negotiations with us and will continue on to college. We’ll get an extra second round pick in next year’s draft, but this certainly puts a damper on my first draft class as GM.

3rd round, 76th overall - C Garrett Wolforth, HS
The top catching prospect in the draft according to our scouts. Wolforth is a defensive wizard and could end up having multiple 20+ home run seasons. He has some contact issues, so he may not ever hit about .260 in this career. Coaches rave about his makeup, and we picked him thinking he could be the future leader of the Brewers. But like Dean, he also chose to go on to college as opposed to taking a higher signing bonus than he demanded. Another major blow to this year’s draft class.

4th round, 106th overall - 1B Bryant Harris, HS
Another draftee with incredible home run potential, and also has incredible plate discipline to match. Harris played 1B in high school, but he has too good of an arm to just sit idly as first place. He has above-average speed, but his cannon of an arm will land him in a corner outfield spot. Luckily, Harris accepted our offer and was assigned to Rookie League Helena. Through 13 games, he is hitting .365/.431/.750 and is already worth 1 WAR and is projected to finish at 5.6 WAR in 71 games. A strong start from him has definitely brought up my scouts’ spirits after Dean and Wolforth refused to sign with us.

5th round, 136th overall - SS Trey Dawson, HS
Despite being a 5th round pick, our scouts think that Dawson has all of the tools to land in the Hall of Fame. His throwing arm might not play up enough to play shortstop in the big leagues, and could end up moving over to second base in the future. He’s great at working the count and has the chance to have average to plus power once he develops a bit more. Dawson accepting our signing bonus offer and was sent to Rookie League Helena. Through 13 games, he’s hitting .268/.318/.359. Not great so far, but at only 18 years old, he has plenty of time to develop into his full potential

Other Draft News
6th round draft pick 2B Bryce Fehmel has injured himself and will miss the next four months with a hip strain. As of right now, only three of our first six picks are playing baseball in our system right now. Not good at all. On the positive side, we’ll have seven picks in the first five rounds, and potentially an eighth if 3B Aramis Ramirez declines the qualifying offer this winter. Also, we didn’t draft a pitcher until the 28th round! This draft class was very sparse in terms of pitching prospects, and the ones we were interested in were gone before the second round was over. I’m not huge on drafting pitchers in general, and prefer to acquire established pitchers via trades or free agency unless a prospect really blows me away. So for now, my scouts will take a well deserved vacation before getting back to work and getting our draft board together for our plethora of picks we’ll have in 2016. Check back soon for an update on how or minor league system has fared so far this season.

[krisbryantseyes]

July 1st, 2015
43-37 (.537), 2nd in the NL Central, 10 ½ GB

June was a rough month for us. After getting swept by the Cardinals to open the month, we finished with a record of 13-15, which dropped us down to the second Wild Card spot below the 43-35 Mets. Scooter Gennett is continuing to impress this year, hitting .322/.350/.426 with an OPS+ of 120. Matt Garza's impossible year is still rolling. He gave up only two earned runs in 46 innings in June, fueled by a insane BABIP of .202 while putting up a 1.6 WAR in that time. I’m not sure how long he’ll be able to keep this up, but so far the five year, $63M extension that was signed prior to my tenure as GM doesn’t look like an automatic bust after all. There’s still plenty of baseball left.

Made two more trades this month, both with the Reds.

Brewers receive: RP Tony Cingrani
Reds receive: RP Neal Cotts, RP Brandon Kintzler, SP Wei-Chung Wang, SP Jimmy Nelson, SP Kodi Medeiros

We gave up a lot here, but not much in terms of quality. This was mostly a salary shedding move for us, with Cotts, Kintzler, and Nelson all making at or above league minimum this year and playing a large part in making the Brewers the worst bullpen staff in the National League. We needed to extra budget space for the next trade we made with them. Wang is rated as a Top 200 prospect but the OSA, but our scouts see him as an organizational guy at best, and has struggled incredibly since joining the organization. At 23 years old and still hanging around Single-A, it was easy to give him up and the Reds requested him.

Brewers receive: SP Johnny Cueto
Reds receive: SP Wily Peralta, 2B Jose Miguel Fernandez

We’re all in, ladies and gentlemen. With the Cardinals continuing to roll away with the NL Central lead, it’s even more important to bolster our roster in order to secure one of the two Wild Card Spots. Peralta has struggled a lot this year, but is only 26 and controllable for a few more years. Fernandez tore up the competition in Triple-A but was largely unimpressive during his tenure on the main roster. Small sample size, I know. With Hector Gomez breaking out this season and top prospect Luis Sardinas being called up, unfortunately Fernandez doesn’t appear to factor much into our long term plans. It hurts to give up two controllable pieces for a half-season rental, so we’ll work hard to hammer out an extension with Cueto.

Other Brewers News
- Claimed RP Michael Mariot off of waivers from the Royals and was assigned to Triple-A Colorado Springs. I’ll take as much reliever depth as I can right now.
- Signed LF Ledernin Tejada to a minor league deal and was assigned to our DSL team. He has plus home run power and not much else. Could develop into a fourth outfielder one day.
- 1B Eric Hosmer is unhappy with the lack of playing time he’s been receiving since being traded to us last month. His frustrations are understandable, and we weren’t anticipating him working in a bench role for us. With Adam Lind tearing it up right now, there’s not much to be done for the time being. If Hosmer starts to become a distraction in the clubhouse in the next month, we’ll unfortunately look into trading him.
- Carlos Gomez left the game on 6/30 with an unknown injury. It would be a huge loss to lose him for an extended period of time, so all of us in the front office are hoping for the best.

Notable League News
The Cardinals sent SS Johnny Peralta and $3M to the Mets in exchange for SP Jon Niese.
- The Red Sox sent RP Koji Uehara and $3M to the Rangers in return for LF Nick Williams, CF Carlos Arroyo, and SS Luis D. Marte.
- Padres SP Andrew Cashner is out for the year with a torn UCL.
- Nationals SP Jordan Zimmerman signed a four year extension worth $68M.
- The Pirates will lose SP Gerrit Cole for four months with a partially torn labrum.
- The A’s will lose 2B Ben Zobrist for four months with a broken hand.
- The Padres sent LF Justin Upton back to the Braves in return for 3B Danyer Salazar, SS Ozhaino Albies, 2B Jeyson Cabrera, RF Kelvin Estevez, and C Jose Briceno. Padres GM A.J. Preller was quoted as saying, “Just kidding. You can have him back.”
- The Padres made another deal, sending SP Ian Kennedy to the Orioles in return for RF Mike Yastrzemski, CF Daniel Franco, and 3B Luis Al. Hernandez.


Going Forward
- The salary we took on in the Cueto trade ate up the rest of our available money for the rest of the year, so I don’t think we’ll be very active in the trading market in July unless it involves some of our impending free agents. I’d like to shed the remaining salaries of RP Jonathan Broxton and LF Gerardo Parra if at all possible.
- The International Amateur season is about to begin. We have less than a million dollars available for free agents at the time being, so a giant spending spree will be put on hold until next year.

[krisbryantseyes]

August 1st, 2015
56-48 (.538), 2nd in the NL Central, 17 ½ GB

July was an okay month for us. We finished the month with a 13-12 record, and were hammered down by injuries to three of our key players. C Jonathan Lucroy, CF Carlos Gomez, and SS Hector Gomez all went down for multiple weeks with injuries, and our pitching staff didn’t get the run support it needed during that time. RHP Matt Garza cooled down a bit this month, putting up an ERA of 3.03 over 41 innings. His peripherals weren’t too alarming, but a FIP of 4.30 for the month may be a warning sign of things to come.

Only made one deadline deal, but it was a big one.

Brewers receive: 1B Chris Davis, 3B Jomar Reyes, RHP Hunter Harvey
Orioles receive: 3B Aramis Ramirez, 1B Adam Lind, CF Eddy Martinez

I like this deal a lot since it makes our team better in the short and long term. Ramirez was struggling through a $14M contract year, and while Lind was having a great year at the plate, we didn’t acquire Eric Hosmer to sit on the bench. Martinez will be missed, but Reyes is a 5/5 potential prospect and Harvey is an advanced arm with #2 starter potential that could be pitching in Miller Park before the end of next year.

The deal also gave us a bit of payroll flexibility with about $4M in salary opening up after the completion of the trade. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get any other moves completed. We didn’t quite have enough available room to add LF Justin Upton or LHP David Price, and a deal for 2B Howie Kendrick couldn’t get completed in time.

Other Brewers News
- We officially received our compensation picks for failing to sign LF Kyle Dean and C Garrett Wolforth in the draft. The picks received are the sixteenth pick in the second round and the sixteenth pick in the third round.
- CF Carlos Gomez suffered a fractured foot injury on 7/2 and was out for three weeks.
- Signed 1B Jorge Cortes to a minor league contracted. He was assigned to our DSL team.
- Our only International signing was SS Evan de Weever. de Weever projects to have monster power but has poor contact skills. He’s an average defended and might have more of a future at third base than shortstop. He’s only 16, so he’ll go to our International Complex for a few years until he’s ready to play affiliated ball.
- 2B Scooter Gennett signed an incredibly team friendly extension that’s worth $30M over six years, with the last two years being $7M team options with a $0 buyout. He’s on the verge of a 6 WAR season, and this deal will avoid the potentially expensive arbitration he’ll be going through in the coming years. Really happy with how quick and easy this deal was.
- LF Khris Davis and RHP Mike Fiers signed one-year extensions worth $836k to avoid arbitration. Davis was set to make over $4M through arbitration this year, so this opens up some more funds for free agency this winter.
- RHP Tyler Thornburg also signed a one-year extension worth $813k.
- Signed CF Eddy Martinez to a minor league deal. He was assigned to our DSL team before being promoted to Single-A Wisconsin.
- 3B Ronniel Demorizi and RHP Jefferson Vergara were signed to minor league contracts. Bother were assigned to our DSL team.
- C Jose Lizarraga was signed to a minor league contract and assigned to Single-A Wisconsin.
- Claimed RHP Brian Wilson off waivers and assigned him to Triple-A Colorado Springs.
- RHP Matt Garza, 2B Scooter Gennett, and C Jonathan Lucroy were named to the National League All-Star team! Very proud of our players for their accomplishments on the field this season.
- SS Hector Gomez was injured on 7/30 with a strained PCL. This is quite the blow as Gomez was in the midst of a breakout season, hitting .311/.332/.538 in 123 PAs.
- C Jonathan Lucroy was also injured while moving furniture and will be out for two weeks.

Notable League News
- The Astros traded RHP Collin McHugh and $507,500 to the Royals in return for RF Jorge Bonifacio and LF Andres Martin.
- The Tigers traded RHP Justin Verlander to the Pirates in return for SS Jordy Mercer and 3B Eric Wood.
- Rangers 1B Prince Fielder hit his 300th career home run.
- The Astros traded LF Evan Gattis to the Yankees in return for RHP Nathan Eovaldi, RF
Juan De Leon, and $2,779,750 in cash.
- The Twins traded 2B Brian Dozier to the Orioles in return for RHP Brandon Kline and RHP Lazaro Leyva.
- The Reds traded RHP Mike Leake to the Orioles in return for RHP David Hess, LHP Travis Seabrooke, and RHP Jason Garcia.
- The Red Sox traded 3B Pablo Sandoval to the Giants in return for RHP Jake Peavy. Okay.
- Angels RHP Huston Street recorded his 300th save against the Twins.
- The Blue Jays traded RF Jose Bautista to the Rangers in return for SS Isaiah Kiner-Falefa, SS Rougned Odor Jr., C Marcus Greene, and RHP Israel Cruz.
- The Blue Jays traded 1B Edwin Encarnacion and $3M in cash to the Astros in return for 3B J.D. Davis, C Gabriel Bracamonte, and 1B Jared Cruz
- The Reds traded RF Jay Bruce and $3M in cash to the Rays in return for 2B Riley Unrue.
- The Rangers traded RF Shin-Soo Choo to the Padres in return for RHP Josh Johnson.

Going Forward
- As I said in the beginning of the post, injuries are going to be the deal breaker between getting a Wild Card spot and watching the playoffs from home. After all of the big moves we’ve made the last two months, it’d be a shame to see the season go downhill because our guys aren’t healthy.

[krisbryantseyes]

November 1st, 2015
82-80 (.507), 3rd in the NL Central - 22GB

Our run for the playoffs has unfortunately come to an end. We battled hard, but as I foreshadowed in my previous post, injuries got the best of us. CF Carlos Gomez couldn't stay healthy after the All-Star break, and C Jonathan Lucroy ended up on the DL a couple of times as well. To make matters worse, 2B Scooter Gennett went down bicep tendinitis before the last series of the season. We went 2-8 or last ten games on the season, and finished on a three game losing streak. I have a few choice words and phrases for how we finished the season, but I think "disappointing" is the most appropriate response.

Here are the final standings for the 2015 MLB season:



And here's how the Wild Card shook out:



Wild Card Games:
Tigers 2, Royals 1
Mets 3, Phillies 2

Division Series:
Tigers 3, Indians 1
Yankees 3, Athletics 1
Cardinals 3, Mets 1
Nationals 3, Dodgers 1

Championship Series:
Tigers 4, Yankees 1
Nationals 4, Cardinals 0

World Series:
Tigers 4, Nationals 3


Now that the offseason is in full swing, I'll be going through my team's performance this year, and update on our farm system, departing free agents, and much more in the coming posts.

[krisbryantseyes]

November 2nd, 2015

Brewers News:
- Voided RHP Jonathan Broxton's $9M option for 2016.
- Executed LHP Sean Burnett's $1.1M option for 2016.
- Hitting Coach Glenn Adams has decided to retire.

Owner Mark Attanasio has reviewed the goals he game me before the season. Here are his comments:


We just barely came in over .500, but that was still enough to keep him happy. However, I'm a bit confused about his comments about the Carlos Gomez extension, considering how when he checked in mid-season to review the goals, he understood that Gomez wouldn't be immediately interested in discussing an extension. His expectation of making the playoffs before 2020 is more than feasible, and I fully expect us to be able to make it back next year if we can stay healthy down the stretch.

And here are the new goals for next season:


Like I said, if we can stay healthy, a winning record should be incredibly reachable. Khris Davis is ranked as the 29th best left fielder in the league, so upgrading that position should be not problem at all. To keep attendance up, I'll consider lowering the ticket prices to get more fans into the ballpark. Now that Gomez is in the last year of his contract, he'll be open to discussing an extension. We hope to get one worked out before the season starts in order to avoid the distraction during the season. The final balance part will be tricky, since we finished with a balance of just over $3M. Playoffs by 2020? We expect to be in the playoffs in 2016.

Our budget has also increased from $160M to $162M for the coming season. It's not much, but that could be the difference between signing a free agent and seeing him walk.

League News:
- The Braves have sold their franchise to Roderyk Ciuierdo, a business tycoon with a reputation for being demanding but financially charitable.
- Dan Duquette (Orioles), Jeff Luhnow (Astros), and John Hart (Braves) have been fired as the GMs for their respective teams.
- Buck Showalter (Orioles) and Bryan Price (Reds) have been fired as the managers for their respective teams.