Brewers Acquire Carlos Santana from Pirates

[Jim French Stepstool]

5 minutes ago, JefferyLeonard said:

Because people said they need another BP arm, which would mean acquiring one at the deadline. My point was they haven't had good luck with adding arms at the deadline. In the offseason, yes. But not at the deadline. Their BP is fine, just add more bats.

Fair enough. We agree regarding the current pen. 

But all the RPs mentioned earlier would be considered by many to be "deadline deals" due to the time in which they were acquired, just not necessarily on the final day (excepting Lyles who I think was picked up afterward in a waiver deal).

[HarveysWBs]

1 hour ago, markedman5 said:

https://twitter.com/todd_rosiak/status/1684692718834917376?s=61&t=6XPB8f4sAKmJIzxgMcsCjw

If he knows Adames, let’s get Adames on the plane to go pick him up, let’s make them locker mates, bus buddies, roommates—heck, have ‘em share a toothbrush—anything to get a little veteran savvy rubbing off on Adames as soon as humanly possible.  That poor guy needs a reset at the dish.

[brewcrewdue80]

Nice get early before deadline day. Santana is a well versed vet that battles pitchers. He's definitely been a guy wished had signed in FA like a Nelson Cruz. Switch hitting puts an end to 1b platooning.  

The lineup will be tougher to go through with Santana in it.  1 more bat DH/infield and we're good. Is there a catcher/DH type out there? Split time with Contreras mixing both.

[Oxy]

39 minutes ago, brewcrewdue80 said:

Nice get early before deadline day. Santana is a well versed vet that battles pitchers. He's definitely been a guy wished had signed in FA like a Nelson Cruz. Switch hitting puts an end to 1b platooning.  

The lineup will be tougher to go through with Santana in it.  1 more bat DH/infield and we're good. Is there a catcher/DH type out there? Split time with Contreras mixing both.

Yasmani Grandal?

[wallus]

DH Tyler Black?

[Pugger]

3 hours ago, nate82 said:

If the Cardinals decide to trade Arenado it will be for pitching and unfortunately the Brewers just don't have the prospects to outbid anyone other than a few teams who wouldn't be trading for Arenado.  The Dodgers would easily be able to match and beat any offer the Brewers put out there for Arenado even if the Brewers included Chourio in the deal. 

I have my doubts that the Cards will trade Arenado.  He is the kind of talent you build franchises around.

[rickh150]

Black at 1B tonight.

Hiura at DH!

interesting…

[Team Canada]

3 hours ago, HarveysWBs said:

If he knows Adames, let’s get Adames on the plane to go pick him up, let’s make them locker mates, bus buddies, roommates—heck, have ‘em share a toothbrush—anything to get a little veteran savvy rubbing off on Adames as soon as humanly possible.  That poor guy needs a reset at the dish.

Adames in July: .229/.301/.494. Still a pretty bad OBP, but it's not terrible. By far his best month.

[BrewCrew8675309]

13 hours ago, JefferyLeonard said:

Laughably inaccurate? Let's see, where do I start? In recent years there has been John Curtiss(bust), Matt Bush(bust), Daniel Norris(bust), Taylor Rogers(bust). The only one they have acquired(AT THE DEADLINE..key phrase) in recent memory that was any good was Drew Pomeranz. 

And you forgot Rosenthal for TPeters last year.

I too am tired of throwing away the Reese Olsens of the world when we have AAshby, JWilson, and others at home. 

[wibadgers23]

2 hours ago, BrewCrew8675309 said:

And you forgot Rosenthal for TPeters last year.

I too am tired of throwing away the Reese Olsens of the world when we have AAshby, JWilson, and others at home. 

Agreed. The bullpen is fine, particularly with reinforcements coming. No more trading for worthless relievers at the deadline please.

[jerichoholicninja]

16 hours ago, Axman59 said:

The people crapping on this trade need to forget about fantasy baseball and join the real world. This was a solid move. Not earth-shaking but it made the Brewers a better team on both offense and defense for a very reasonable cost.

I didn't see a single post "crapping" on this trade. Plenty of people underwhelmed but nothing negative. In fact, this is probably the least negative thread about a Brewers transaction I've ever seen.

[Playing Catch]

16 hours ago, BallFour said:

As always @sveumrules brings the facts. The Brewers are a combined -2.6 fWAR at DH and 1B. If you find 2 Carlos Santana's that is between a 4 and 5 win difference over a season. People are way too caught up in raising the ceiling of this team when they should be concerned with upgrading the floor of the team which this move does.

I've said this before, but I believe this is the "Brewers Way". Or, as Joe Maddon said, "Try not to suck."

I think this is exactly why they load up with AAAA-style depth. They hope/expect that at least a couple of guys won't out and out suck. This is playing out with Perkins and Monasterio. It didn't work out with Winker and Voit.

I think this also explains their insistence on having as few defensive holes as possible. Arnold admitted that the Brewers were a team designed to win with run prevention rather than relying on run production. Everyone knows that you can't win if you can't score, but teams only need to score one more run than their opponent to win the game.

The Brewers are 19-11 in their last 30 games. Their offense has been exactly league average during that stretch with a wRC+ of 100. Raising the floor (without sacrificing run-prevention) moves the needle.

[igor67]

There have obviously been some attempts before this to make some incremental improvements, but that stretch included a lot of 1 run losses, and our 1st basemen have hit so bad over the last month it certainly seems like there would have been a good chance that the boost from average 1st base production would have found another win in there somewhere, and that would be pretty significant in the standings at the moment.