No Trades: Brewers Should Play The Options They Have in Nashville

Toro and Hiura, sending down Jones and DFA Winker.

Just now, endaround said:

A  healthy Urias replacing Turang would be a huge upgrade.

I think Turang is maybe starting to get better... he's got such a smooth swing, and there have been signs of good contact coming through, with a few ripped foul balls etc, as well as some unfortunate liners straight at people. The key difference is his patience at the plate though, with 11 walks to 11 strikeouts since coming back up to the majors. 

The only way he'll really get a grip though is by facing major league pitchers, and he's showing signs. It's something to be revisited in a month or two, and he shouldn't start against any lefty whatsoever, but I think it's coming just a little

48 minutes ago, wiguy94 said:

Brewers don’t need game changing to have a dramatic impact on the team. Brewers 1B have a 66 wRC+ which is worst in the MLB. Brewers DH have a 69 wRC+ which is also worst in the MLB. Brewers are also 22nd in HR.

Upgrading to a league average bat with some pop at those 2 positions would be a dramatic improvement and could easily be a game changer for an offense as bad as ours.

Absolutely

I do think there's the potential as well, say if Rowdy comes back with 6-7 weeks left, if he can produce like he did at the start of the season, where he hit 12 homers in a month and a half. It depends whether this forearm injury was a false flag or a real thing he's been struggling with, but I can't imagine he's ever gone two months without a home run without a justifiable reason before

11 minutes ago, ClosetBrewerFan said:

I'd add Urias to this list.  He has a 860 OPS in July, starting to show some pop as well.  I'd consider giving Jahmai Jones a trial as a DH.  The Brewers have not given him much of a shot when he has been up with the club.  I think he is unlikely to break out but worth a try. 

Toro has been really crushing the ball in the last month.  He's deserves a callup to play 1B.  We need Own Miller's bat out of the lineup.  He is dangerously close to finishing July with an OPS under .500 for the month.

There is plenty of room for these players.  Perkins has done nothing with the bat this month and should be optioned.  Owen Miller has an Option as well.  Winker can be released.  Not sure what to do with Ty Taylor.  Out of options; It would be a shame to see his Brewers career end via a DFA.  I cannot imagine he would be tendered this offseason though as he is now arby eligible.  We just dont need a glove first bOF right now with Weimer, Frelick, and Yelli

Taylor bats right-handed and could be used to rest Yelich, Mitchell, and Frelick in 2024. He's also been productive vs. lefties in the past.

Frelick-Mitchell-Wiemer as starters with Taylor 4th OF and Yelich as DH/5th OF is an excellent setup to have for that year, and doesn't break the budget. Gives Chourio the full 2024 season and most of 2025 at Nashville to develop.

6 minutes ago, clancyphile said:

Taylor bats right-handed and could be used to rest Yelich, Mitchell, and Frelick in 2024. He's also been productive vs. lefties in the past.

Frelick-Mitchell-Wiemer as starters with Taylor 4th OF and Yelich as DH/5th OF is an excellent setup to have for that year, and doesn't break the budget. Gives Chourio the full 2024 season and most of 2025 at Nashville to develop.

It's unlikely at this point that Chourio won't be playing sometime next year, he's clearly making big strides and even going slowly probably means July/August next year barring injury. I can't see Taylor being retained just to keep Chourio as a prospect for the sake of it

I'm all for in-house solutions by riding the hot hand during the first 3.5 months of the season - e.g. promoting Hiura, Singleton, Toro during their hot streak, rather than waiting until after Singleton has connected on 7 homers in 17 games and acting surprised that he wasn't able to produce by the time they grudgingly got around to promoting him to MLB.

But to me, that period has passed. Now's the time to get serious and pony up for an impact bat, learning from the failures of 2014 (Morneau - why not Morneau?), 2020 (anyone, God help us) and 2022 (Merrifield at least, I beg you).

Even if a Hiura, Voit, Singleton, Almonte, Toro, Mathias, Alvarez, etc. is actually given the chance to play in MLB during a hot streak, they're all AAAA guys who can't be expected to perform at even replacement level when it really counts in late September and October, in my opinion.

Pay up Mr. Attanasio. Let's go!!!

10 minutes ago, shanedog19 said:

Shouldn't Chourio be added to this list? I think we can all agree he'll be playing the big leagues sometime next year, so why not this year? Robin Yount played as an 18 year old, why can't Chourio as a 19 year old? I think it's at least worth the discussion. If he gets called up, you move Yelich to a full time DH role, and that problem is solved. We saw the fever pitch excitement for Frelick's first game, can you imagine what Chourio's first game would be like?

You want your 6/7 years of chourio I think to be when he's ready, and he's shown enough of a weakness with swinging outside the zone on pitches and making weak contact with the tacky balls (Which are similar to MLB levels of pitching movement) that he's not ready yet to contribute, but he's definitely definitely getting there

1 hour ago, Jake McKibbin said:

It's unlikely at this point that Chourio won't be playing sometime next year, he's clearly making big strides and even going slowly probably means July/August next year barring injury. I can't see Taylor being retained just to keep Chourio as a prospect for the sake of it

Chourio is still showing some holes in his swing. With Frelick-Mitchell-Wiemer as starters, Taylor and Perkins competing as 4th OF for the Crew, and Yelich as a corner OF/DH/1B option, why not have him improve his pitch selection/OBP skills in Nashville in 2024 and 2025?

We saw what happened with Jimmy Nelson in 2019 when the Crew put him in MLB when he should have been optioned to AAA to start the year after his lengthy absence due to that shoulder injury. It was a mistake then, the Crew burned up service time that they didn't need to.

The smart move is to have Chourio resolve those issues in Nashville. The Brewers don't need to add him to the 40-man until 2025, they have three cheap rookies and multiple solid backups, and Chourio will have three option years when he is added. 

3 minutes ago, Brewcrew82 said:

I'll tell you what, over the past month, Chourio hasn't been showing any holes in his swing...

Unless his development stunts significantly over the next year, there's no way he's spending two whole years in Nashville. He might very well end up in Nashville by the end of the year. 

Here are the numbers that have me wanting to slow down a little: 86 BB to 251 K in 1,025 at-bats over his pro career.

The walk rate is still low, and he's striking out almost three times for every walk. I'd like to see the walk rate get closer to 10% and to see the pitch selection improve and cut the strikeouts down some.

2 hours ago, wiguy94 said:

Have you just not been paying attention? He’s dramatically improved everything you say he needs to improve. His K-rate over his last 200 PA is 16%

 

Yeah even before this current hot patch he was striking out far less, but just making poor quality contact. The next stage seems to be knowing which pitches to take and which ones he's doing damage on to increase the regularity of AB's ending in quality contact. EDlC did this in a month, I don't think it'll take too long to refine his approach and his contact ability is way past Elly's. He's actually increased his floor massively with this, given that oppo power, can you imagine only striking out 15-16% of the time? Good lord

2 hours ago, Brewcrew82 said:

9% K rate in July......403/.431/.694

And you're not talking about slowing down a little. You're talking about grinding to a halt. 

 

The whiff rate of 18% is very very promising... We might also not see any walks if he keeps hitting as well as he has, it seems anything in zone is getting crushed, no chance for a deep count