Milwaukee’s hot stove season has been popping already, but most of that action has come on the trade market. The Brewers have signed just one free agent thus far, Eric Thames, at a bargain-bin tab of $16.5 million. That may not be the case for long, as the club is rumored to be on the […]
Category: Articles
BPMilwaukee Podcast 7
Enjoy the latest BPMilwaukee podcast from Vineet Barot, featuring Ryan Connor. The podcast is two parts, here and here. The podcast is also available via iTunes.
Winter Meeting Acquisitions
Baseball’s annual Winter Meetings came and went this past week and the Milwaukee Brewers were among the teams that made some noise at the event. Slingin’ David Stearns paired up with Red Sox GM Dave Dombrowski to pull of a significant trade that saw lights-out reliever Tyler Thornburg get shipped up to Boston with three players […]
Assessing Roster Moves II: Trending Sideways
It was difficult to discern a roster building plan during the Brewers’ two week stretch of Rule 5 roster protection and waiver-and-designate, but that sense has disappeared completely this week. First, GM David Stearns effectively closed his waiver spree by signing Korean Baseball Organization superstar Eric Thames, adding a well-priced value play to the MLB […]
The MLB CBA Outlook
Last week, MLB and the MLBPA resolved their dispute and finalized a new CBA. A lot of analysis has already been done on its overall effects, so I will not rehash that here. Instead, I recommend you go read Craig Goldstein’s piece at BP’s home site. The main takeaway, at least from my perspective, is […]
Rule 5 Brewers
The most exciting time of the offseason – Major League Baseball’s annual Winter Meetings – will take place next week just outside of the nation’s capitol in National Harbor, Maryland. Amidst all the trade rumors and free agent signings, one of the notable events that happens every year at the Winter Meetings is the Rule 5 […]
Making Sense of the First Base Shuffle
I have spent nearly all of David Stearns’ tenure as Brewers’ GM praising basically everything he has done. Even the moves that have not worked out have been logical and defensible, such as the signings last offseason of Will Middlebrooks and Garin Cecchini. But I am having a hard time understanding what exactly the thought […]
Assessing Roster Moves I: To Protect and Tender
Marginal theory is central to economic valuation because it provides tools for analyzing the cost and benefit of one additional unit added (or subtracted) from a current situation. In one economic game, the competitive market, marginal theory can be used to help find an equilibrium between supply and demand; in another economic game, such as […]
Don’t Let the Door Hit Free Agent Compensation on the Way Out
FanRag Sports baseball reporter and unofficial Arby’s pitch man Jon Heyman reported this weekend that Major League Baseball has put elimination of free agent compensation on the table as part of the ongoing collective bargaining agreement negotiations, potentially in exchange for an international draft. This is good news from a labor perspective — truly free […]
Gambling on Adam Walker
A week ago, the Milwaukee Brewers claimed prospect Adam Brett Walker off waivers from the Minnesota Twins. Walker was born in Milwaukee and graduated from Milwaukee Lutheran High School, so that automatically makes for an interesting plot line as only nine players born in the state have ever suited up for the Milwaukee Nine. While it […]