Question of the week: Grade the trade deadline

[Brock Beauchamp]

Now that the dust has settled, what grade do you give?

[RWeeksFan23]

hard to give a grade until I know the answer to two questions:

- do we win the world series this season?

- will we re-sign May (and/or Romero) in the off-season?

[Turning2]

Going on zero research, just from seeing the new guys pitch against the Brewers a little, I'll give them a B on the pitching side. The pitching adds should help them be more competitive in more games and specific situations. But the offense needed help, and they did nothing all season to upgrade it. I grade that as an F. So, I guess I'd give it a C - overall. 

Listening to an Arnold quote a couple days ago on the 1250 Best Brewers Coverage pod, he said "prices are high this time of year".   Exactly! That's why they shouldn't wait until the deadline. They identified a need for pitching early last year and traded for Priester and Civale. They should have done the same thing this year for controllable OPS  upgrades at 3B and RF at least 6 weeks ago if not sooner. (Even though he has grown on me, I would have left Lara in Nash or traded him.) The meat of the order might wake up down the stretch, or it might continue to flounder from a consistency perspective. I would feel better with a pair of guys likely to end the season with 15+HRs and .245 average then what we have in Ortiz/Ham/Frelick/Lara. 

[liveforoctober]

9 minutes ago, Turning2 said:

Going on zero research, just from seeing the new guys pitch against the Brewers a little, I'll give them a B on the pitching side. The pitching adds should help them be more competitive in more games and specific situations. But the offense needed help, and they did nothing all season to upgrade it. I grade that as an F. So, I guess I'd give it a C - overall. 

Listening to an Arnold quote a couple days ago on the 1250 Best Brewers Coverage pod, he said "prices are high this time of year".   Exactly! That's why they shouldn't wait until the deadline. They identified a need for pitching early last year and traded for Priester and Civale. They should have done the same thing this year for controllable OPS  upgrades at 3B and RF at least 6 weeks ago if not sooner. (Even though he has grown on me, I would have left Lara in Nash or traded him.) The meat of the order might wake up down the stretch, or it might continue to flounder from a consistency perspective. I would feel better with a pair of guys likely to end the season with 15+HRs and .245 average then what we have in Ortiz/Ham/Frelick/Lara. 

I guess I would ask why moving from Ortiz/Hamilton/Rengifo to Pratt/Ortiz/Hamilton and moving from Bauers/Frelick/Perkins to Bauers/Lara/Frelick* isn't considered an in-season upgrade? I was open to a surprise bat at the deadline ... just had no idea who that could have been.

I think Civale was a trade deadline holdover from '24.
 

[Turning2]

46 minutes ago, liveforoctober said:

I guess I would ask why moving from Ortiz/Hamilton/Rengifo to Pratt/Ortiz/Hamilton and moving from Bauers/Frelick/Perkins to Bauers/Lara/Frelick* isn't considered an in-season upgrade? I was open to a surprise bat at the deadline ... just had no idea who that could have been.

I think Civale was a trade deadline holdover from '24.
 

Civale .. .yeah, pretty sure you're right on that. Main point was adding Priester early. 

3B was Rengifo / Hamilton. They moved to Ortiz / Hamilton. That's not even a modest offensive upgrade in my view. That's largely a wash. 

SS was Ortiz / Hamilton and they moved to Pratt / Hamilton with an odd Ortiz day back at SS. That's mostly moving the deck chairs. In aggregate, Pratt has given them a nice hit for average uptick in a small sample size, but little power, while maintaining a high degree of defensive proficiency at SS. 

They still have 3 guys on the left side who won't provide modest power this season. I consider modest power as 15+. 

Virtually the same commentary about RF. Bauers as a moving chess piece between 1B / OF provides the only power to RF. Lara and Frelick are largely redundant skill sets. You can survive having 2 of that type of player if the other two OF spots are producing decent power numbers. Ours are not. Chourio will probably be an annual 20-25 HR guy, but Mitchell is probably an 8-10 HR guy on a career year. An outlier year like Jake is having isn't out of the question though for Garrett. Again, in aggregate, this outfield is woefully underpowered for a contending team in my opinion. 

[liveforoctober]

23 minutes ago, Turning2 said:

Civale .. .yeah, pretty sure you're right on that. Main point was adding Priester early. 

3B was Rengifo / Hamilton. They moved to Ortiz / Hamilton. That's not even a modest offensive upgrade in my view. That's largely a wash. 

SS was Ortiz / Hamilton and they moved to Pratt / Hamilton with an odd Ortiz day back at SS. That's mostly moving the deck chairs. In aggregate, Pratt has given them a nice hit for average uptick in a small sample size, but little power, while maintaining a high degree of defensive proficiency at SS. 

They still have 3 guys on the left side who won't provide modest power this season. I consider modest power as 15+. 

Virtually the same commentary about RF. Bauers as a moving chess piece between 1B / OF provides the only power to RF. Lara and Frelick are largely redundant skill sets. You can survive having 2 of that type of player if the other two OF spots are producing decent power numbers. Ours are not. Chourio will probably be an annual 20-25 HR guy, but Mitchell is probably an 8-10 HR guy on a career year. An outlier year like Jake is having isn't out of the question though for Garrett. Again, in aggregate, this outfield is woefully underpowered for a contending team in my opinion. 

All valid, good points. From a slugging aspect we didn't budge too much.