Attanasio: Money Saved This Year Will Go Back Into Team

[MickeyDavis]

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/374551621.html

Brewers principal owner Mark Attanasio was asked Monday what will happen with the money saved in payroll this year after stripping the roster of veterans.

The Brewers’ actual payroll is about $56.5 million but will be listed around $63 million for accounting purposes because of deferred money, bonuses, etc., down from more than $100 million last season.

“Not ducking the question, I haven’t done the math because the ownership group here for many, many years has not set a budget,” said Attanasio. “We really just expand or contract to what we’re trying to do.

“But since it’s a zero sum game, at the time we are ready to compete again or compete very seriously again – Craig Counsell hates when I say things like that. He says, ‘We’re going to compete right now,’ which he told me New Year’s Eve, by the way – any dollars that we save now can be used then.”

General manager David Stearns added this on that topic: “The payroll is a product of the strategy we’re implementing from a baseball operations department. We want to field a young team that is allowed to grow together, so the payroll is a byproduct of having a young team that will grow together.

“As that team matures through their careers and gains major-league service, the payroll is naturally going to grow as we keep those players here and we retain our own young talent.”

Asked about a Forbes report that the Brewers’ operating revenue has increased, Attanasio said, “Baseball accounting is somewhat arcane, so I don’t know that even if they had access to numbers they would present it correctly, though maybe they did. One of the reasons to put the ownership together that I did was to have the resources to withstand any kind of stress test. So, I don’t pay a terrible amount of attention to the operating numbers. I kind of look at our debt numbers.”

Asked what his ownership group thought of starting over with a rebuilding plan, Attanasio smiled and said, “We have what I call a benign dictatorship because I have the only vote. David at a number of points during the offseason has interacted with our ownership group, including most recently at Maryvale. Along with our sponsor weekend, we have investors and they have sessions with David and Craig.

“Everybody is very enthusiastic in our group about the direction we are taking. We decided to pivot last year and started with hiring Craig. I felt we needed to follow all the way through on that. As you study in business, if you just take halfway measures you get comparable results.”

[coolhandluke121]

We already know he's willing to spend. So was Kohl. That's not the problem. It's a question of how he spends it. Also, I see that he says their plan is to develop their own players and then pay to retain them. A problem in the past is that they kept most of them too long. I hope they will be open to "selling high" on some of their homegrown talent in order to maintain the pipeline of productive young players. In the past, it just seemed like they kept every productive veteran until he couldn't contribute anymore, without any consideration for what kind of improvements they could have made by trading a few of them. Then they were eventually paying them $10m per to be worse than a replacement level player. There was little consideration given to platoons or defensive upgrades because they were committed to certain players at nearly every position. Being open-minded about trading some of their players could have brought better balance and depth to the lineup.

Lastly, lol @ Craig being adamant about competing. Wants to win. Starts Peralta against the Giants. Gives him an important pa to bunt and then pulls him anyway.

[M-C-G]

You know, this team isn't nearly as bad to watch as I had anticipated. I know it is early and we will be trading away some guys, but I like what I have seen so far. I expected a bunch of Mark Budzinskis and Joe Winkleasses out there.

[ReasonablySober]

You know, this team isn't nearly as bad to watch as I had anticipated. I know it is early and we will be trading away some guys, but I like what I have seen so far. I expected a bunch of Mark Budzinskis and Joe Winkleasses out there.

I'm enjoying it. I love the approach we're seeing at the plate. Carter has been what I'd hoped for, Scooter looks dead-set on keeping the 2nd base job, Villar's 2nd in the NL in OBP at short, Braun's playing great, and Santana looks like a keeper in right.**

Obviously most of the pitching has been a dumpster fire.**

**Yea, I know it's early.

[Thunder Muscle]

Yeah, offense has been better than anticipated but pitching much worse. Hoping the latter comes around, at least with the younger guys.