2015-16 Off Season Thread -Stearns: "We aren't tanking" PG 17

[MickeyDavis]

All coaches fired except Sedar and Coles

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/330721101.html

[coolhandluke121]

Can we have a "guess the opening day roster" contest or something? Most correct roster spots wins.

I don't think they'll tear it down yet and my predictions will reflect that.

[Thunder Muscle]

It is going to be an interesting offseason on what we do with the older guys like Braun, Lucroy, Garza, Lind, and K-Rod...if anything. My gut is Lucroy will get moved at his age and that we're likely a couple years away from doing anything. Segura will be interesting too.

[MickeyDavis]

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/331213651.html

Presser with Stearns (mostly) and Counsell

[coolhandluke121]

As we prepare for the offseason you’ll hear me talk about what our overall organizational goals are, and that’s to acquire, develop and retain the best young talent in baseball. That’s going to be something you’ll hear me say throughout my tenure here and hopefully down the road we’ll get to the point where I’m sitting here after a postseason appearance and you’ll still hear me say, ‘As an organization, our focus needs to be to acquire, develop and retain the best young talent in baseball.’

[coolhandluke121]

"intelligent low-level free-agent signings, some supplemental trades"

"draft intelligently... And then if we make wise and efficient other talent acquisitions"

"I think our fanbase recognizes that there’s patience needed."

In other words, stop building around guys with 8-figure salaries at the end of or past their primes and stop signing guys like Lohse and Garza. What some of us have been saying for years. What a great start to my day.

[trwi7]

I think you'll also see Stearns try to get these young guys to sign deals early, like the Braun 8/45 deal but instead of keeping them beyond that and extending them (like we did Braun for another 5/105 through his mid 30s), you'll see them be traded before free agency to keep the young talent flowing.

[coolhandluke121]

That's probably the biggest issue of all. They could have filled a lot of roster holes just by being willing to trade a few 8-figure guys who were still very productive but likely to go on the decline soon. Instead they have regularly ended up paying guys the highest salary of their careers in some of their worst seasons. That has happened so often that it reached "you can't make this stuff up" territory. There has been almost no correlation between how much they've had to pay a player and how much production they've gotten out of him in that season. You would think, after it blew up in their face the first 7 or 8 times, they would have reconsidered their strategy of keeping guys until they're 30+ or signing them at that age, but they showed remarkable resilience in that regard.

[El Duderino]

I think you'll also see Stearns try to get these young guys to sign deals early, like the Braun 8/45 deal but instead of keeping them beyond that and extending them (like we did Braun for another 5/105 through his mid 30s), you'll see them be traded before free agency to keep the young talent flowing.

As the team goes in this rebuilding phase, my guess is Attanasio will give Stearns quite a bit of leeway to make moves of his choosing, even if that contributes to a longer stretch of losing. If though the team gets good again, we'll see if Attanasio will allow what you say because for now at least, i'm far from convinced of it.

During the interview process i'd assume that this subject was talked about in regards to just how much authority Stearns will have if/when the two may share differing views on specif moves, direction for the team in a given season, on a manager, if Attanasio wants to continue to working the phones of agents trying to get deals for their free agents, etc. I'd love to have heard how that conversation went.

I rarely ever listen to local sports talk radio anymore because pretty much all of the hosts suck. After Stearns was hired though, i listened to a few interviews and hoped one of those hosts would have at least brought it up. Instead, big chunks of the interviews were wasted on his age and other nonsense which doesn't matter. It's amazing how terrible overall sports talk radio is in this city. How do the owners or station managers listen to this crap both on WSSP and 540 and think the hosts are high quality?

[MickeyDavis]

Stearns is saying the right things. We'll see if Attanasio can go along with doing a rebuild the right way. No more Garza's and Lohse's

[coolhandluke121]

What they do with Lucroy might be the best indicator of whether they're committed to getting it together. I don't see any reason to hang on to him. No reason to hang out to K-Rod and all those talented relievers under team control, either. Most of them aren't exactly young. But moving Luc is the most consequential move that needs to happen. I'd hate to see them extend his contract.

[Turk Nowitzki]

Ed Sedar is such a boss. He's on his fifth different manager as a member of coaching staff. That has to be some sort of record.

[coolhandluke121]

Yeah, Eddie The Human Windmill is gonna be waving them home with nobody out until his arm falls off. Then they'll replace him with one of those plastic lawn ornament windmills that start spinning every time a bumble bee farts. Good old Eddie.

[El Duderino]

What they do with Lucroy might be the best indicator of whether they're committed to getting it together. I don't see any reason to hang on to him. No reason to hang out to K-Rod and all those talented relievers under team control, either. Most of them aren't exactly young. But moving Luc is the most consequential move that needs to happen. I'd hate to see them extend his contract.

I see no reason why Lucroy's contract would be extended given he has two years left on it at a cheap rate.

That said, at the very least he should be shopped and if a fair enough offer is given, pull the trigger. In fact, it's his current contract which should make him even more valuable than his skills as a player. He'll only make four million next year and five in 2017. That's nearly pocket change in today's high revenue baseball and he's one of the better players at a position which can be pretty tough to find a quality two way catcher.

[coolhandluke121]

What they do with Lucroy might be the best indicator of whether they're committed to getting it together. I don't see any reason to hang on to him. No reason to hang out to K-Rod and all those talented relievers under team control, either. Most of them aren't exactly young. But moving Luc is the most consequential move that needs to happen. I'd hate to see them extend his contract.

I see no reason why Lucroy's contract would be extended given he has two years left on it at a cheap rate.

Not that it will be extended in 2016, but if they keep him this offseason that makes me wonder if they're thinking about it long-term. The notion of them even considering him as a possible part of the future concerns me because it would eventually mean paying him a lot after he turns 30, which scares me. That's why I think of him as a sort of barometer for whether this is all talk or whether they're committed to a youth movement. I see no reason to keep him unless nobody makes a fair offer.

[El Duderino]

I think Stearns understands clearly enough where the Brewers likely stand currently in a division with the Cubs, Cardinals, and Pirates all having teams which are not only better than the Brewers right now, but should also be better the next few years.

So i'm pretty confident that if he gets an offer for Lucroy which is good enough value for what Lucroy should bring, he'd pull the trigger so long as Attanasio allowed the trade to happen.

Plus, i'm far from certain that Lucroy would want to sign an extension anyways. I heard an interview on the radio i think in July where Lucroy talked about how much he despised losing and when the host asked if Luc would be upset if he was traded, he was very up front and said that if he could go to a contender, he'd welcome it because he didn't really want to be apart of a rebuilding situation if that's the direction the Brewers felt they needed to do.

[ReasonablySober]

Reid Nichols won't be retained and Gord Ash is no longer the assistant GM.

[wichmae]

Not shocked at all about Nichols and Ash.

[El Duderino]

The only guy i'd want to see retained is Montgomery.

[bizarro]

The only guy i'd want to see retained is Montgomery.

Looks like he's been given the green light to stay in his current position. Hope he retains it.