Jan 27, 2018 4 min read

The Milwaukee Brewers are all in.

Bob Nutting is cheap and the Pirates are a joke.

That seems to be the most common response to the news that the Brewers, who surprised a lot of people, including themselves, when they won 86 games last season, signed free agent outfielder Lorenzo Cain to a five-year, $80 million contract last week and traded four prospects to the Miami Marlins in exchange for outfielder Christian Yelich.

The Pirates, of course, traded Gerrit Cole and Andrew McCutchen and stand a good chance of losing 90 games this season.

It’s all about windows. The Kansas City Royals stumbled into an open one in 2014 when they lost the World Series in seven games to the San Francisco Giants. In 2015 they went all in, got to the World Series again and won it.

Those are the Royals’ only two trips to the postseason in the last 35 years.

Cain played for the Royals last year and slipped through the window before it closed and signed with the Brewers. He thinks the Brewers might be where the Royals were in 2014.

While the Royals and Pirates were enjoying an open window in 2015 (the Pirates won 98 games), the Brewers were losing 94 games.

So, what the Brewers are doing is just more MLB stupidity. They took advantage of two small-market teams who, because of MLB’s stupid economics, had to unload their high-priced stars.

The Pirates’ salary dumping of Cole and McCutchen made it easier for the Brewers to throw money around because the National League Central Division became a lot weaker.

The Brewers won the division in 2011 with 96 wins and drew 3,071,000 fans. They’re down a half-million tickets sold since then. They have an entire state to mine for ticket sales and the roof on Miller Park means people who live far away can buy tickets in advance, knowing they’ll see a game every time they make a trip – no rainouts.

The Pirates will never sniff three million in ticket sales and might not draw 1.5 million this season.

The Brewers’ window will close soon and there’s a good chance the money and prospects spent on Cain and Yelich will get them nothing better than third place behind the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals.

The Pirates, Marlins, Royals and Brewers have made it to the postseason a combined nine times in the last 123 seasons.

Lots of windows have opened and closed for all of them, and right now the Brewers’ might be open.

Nothing has changed for you if you’re a Pirates fan.

If you think Nutting is hoarding the money you’ve been giving him for tickets and the Brewers’ actions prove he should have the money to shop for big-time free agents and keep his own stars, then stop buying tickets.

• The University of North Carolina had basketball players who took phony courses and could barely read. Louisville used strippers and prostitutes to sign recruits and now Michigan State is being investigated for mishandling/ignoring multiple charges of sexual assaults by its athletes. Those are three pretty prestigious basketball programs. Who’s next? According to The Athletic, NCAA president Mark Emmert was told in 20110 about 37 accusations of sexual assault by athletes at Michigan State with none facing any disciplinary action.

The NCAA sent a letter of inquiry last Tuesday to Michigan State. Let’s see where that goes. On Wednesday, Michigan State president Lou Anna Simon resigned and athletic director Mark Hollis announced his retirement Friday.

This all happened at just about the same time that Larry Nasser, a doctor who worked for the Michigan State athletic department, was sentenced to 175 years in prison for sexually abusing and assaulting female athletes – mostly gymnasts – for decades.

ESPN’s Outside the Lines reported since Mark Dantonio became Michigan State’s football coach in 2007, at least 16 players have been accused of sexual assault or violence against women. OTL also reported on never-before publicized incidents of sexual assault or violence against women by members of coach Tom Izzo’s basketball team, including a graduate-assistant coach who was allowed to continue coaching after being criminally charged with punching a woman in the face at a bar.

Other than that, it’s been a pretty good week for ol’ Sparty and the NCAA.

I’m having a tough time trying to decide which is more of a cesspool, big time college football or basketball.

I’m also wondering what it would take for the NCAA to impose the death penalty if Michigan State doesn’t deserve it.

The taxpayers of Michigan should be happy to know Simon’s contract gives her the option of joining the faculty and she can start with a one-year research sabbatical.

At $750,000 a year.