MLB Bullets has something brewin’

At least one team located on Lake Michigan is doing something.

• I’ll get to the Hall of Fame in a minute, but the Brewers broke the winter logjam by remaking their outfield in a few hours yesterday. They traded for Marlins outfielder Christian Yelich and signed free agent outfielder Lorenzo Cain on a five-year, $80 million deal. It’s a homecoming for Cain, who was drafted and made his major league debut for the Brewers.
• Tommy Stokke writes that the Brewers waited to make their move this winter and it paid off.
• Michael Baumann thinks these two deals make the Brewers contenders. Fangraphs computer projections would argue otherwise, although even Fangraphs writers think those projections are awfully pessimistic.
• I’ll just link to that same second Fangraphs piece again as that’s where Jeff Sullivan breaks down the Yelich deal, which he likes for both sides.
• Keith Law thinks that the Marlins got a very good package back in return for Yelich (ESPN Insider only) with four potential major league starters.
• Christopher Crawford gives his take on the prospects going to Miami, and agrees it was as good a haul as they were going to get, headlined by outfielder Lewis Brinson.
• Travis Sawchik thinks the Brewers made a great move getting Cain, even if they paid full retail for the center fielder. He also thinks they team still has more moves to come this winter.
• The Marlins have at least one more unhappy veteran on the team in catcher J.T. Realmuto, and the Nationals are reportedly making a push to trade for Realmuto.
• On to the Hall of Fame voting. We’ve already posted an article on the four players who were elected, but Joe Posnanski breaks down the voting and who were the winners and losers this year. I’m trying not to care about the Hall of Fame, but I do wonder how many voters who won’t vote for Edgar Martinez because he was a DH or Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens because of PED use will turn around and vote for David Ortiz? I bet a lot.
• In case you want a different opinion, Jay Jaffe also examines the Hall of Fame voting.
• Jerry Crasnick has ten things you should know about Chipper Jones.
• Even with the election of Jones, Tyler Kepner notes how underrepresented the third base position is in Cooperstown. I guess we’re not considering Jim Thome a third baseman then?
• The New York Daily News had the best reaction to the Met-killing third baseman’s election with the headline “Go to Hall, Larry!” Jones thought the headline was hilarious.
• Daily News writer Peter Botte writes that even Mets fans can appreciate Chipper’s greatness.
• Clearing up a controversy, inductee Vladimir Guerrero announced that he will be the first player in Cooperstown wearing an Angels cap on his plaque. I wonder if the Angels will retire his #27 now? No? Why not?
• David Schoenfield writes about Guerrero and why he was so popular with fans of teams he didn’t play for.
• Tim Brown recaps Guerrero’s life from unimaginable poverty to baseball superstardom. Through it all, Guerrero made baseball a joy to watch.
• Joe Posnanski believes that the positivity of Jim Thome helped make him a Hall of Famer.
• Tom Krasovic notes that Trevor Hoffman was as valuable to his team off the field as he was on.
• Craig Calcaterra looks ahead to next year’s Cooperstown ballot.
• Calcaterra also looks at why the MLB Players’ Association is not complaining about collusion this winter. This was written before Cain signed, but that signing would also hurt the argument that teams are colluding against free agents.
• However, Jeff Passan reports that the MLBPA believes the impasse will continue for a while and is thinking about setting up a separate Spring Training for unsigned players.
• Superagent Scott Boras said the current problem with the market is that too many teams aren’t trying to compete, or are “tanking” to use the current parlance. I agree with Boras, but how to solve that is the problem. I’m pretty sure MLB owners won’t go for a system of promotion and relegation.
• Mike Petriello has some teams where current free agents should sign but probably won’t.
• Mark Simon looks at the Mets winter and writes that the team hasn’t done enough to compete in 2018.
• But they did sign Jose Reyes to a one-year deal yesterday.
• The Padres Facebook account announced that they had signed free agent Eric Hosmer but they immediately said their account was hacked.
• Jon Heyman reports that “experts” said that Rockies outfielder Charlie Blackmon made a bad deal when he agreed to a new contract before going to arbitration. But Craig Calcaterra is more interested in Heyman’s sources and is sure the story is an example of agents anonymously talking trash about each other.
• The CEO of the Seattle Mariners says that an MLB team in Portland “would be a challenge.” Of course, he’s not exactly an impartial observer.
• Someone vandalized the “Field of Dreams” in Dyersville, Iowa and they are raising funds to fix it, with an estimated cost of $15,000 of damage.
• The Tigers are making a minor change to their home uniforms. It’s not going over well with many of their fans.
• The Trenton Thunder, the Yankees Double-A farm club, will join the trend of re-naming themselves after food as they will play as the Trenton Pork Roll on Fridays.
• Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig shaved his head to support kids with cancer. #Puigyourfriend.
• And finally, how many of these historic baseball events can you identify just from the radio call? I got ten of eleven.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.