TooLiveBrew

Kudos to you, too, for giving credit where it's due Too often these types of debates seem to result in entrenched, unchangeable opinions. I'm glad Villar has cut down on the baserunning mistakes. He's such a fun player to watch (perfect leadoff guy!), and it seems like the Brewers haven't had a good switch-hitter in a really long time. Trying to stay balanced is key. When I see a situation so terribly off balance (Villar daily/weekly doing easily correctable stuff on the bases), i have a tough time not commenting/venting. I care for the team and want to see good, smart ball, like most here. As Good of a switch-hitting Brewer season? Do we have to go all the way back to Teddy Simmons? I mean... we don't exactly have a plethora of choices! Kind of crazy to think about. I've loved watching Villar all season, basepath gaffes & all. I love him as a hitter. He's exactly the type of player the club has been lacking for years. Imagine him instead of Yuni B on that 2011 team --

One thing I've been thinking about recently is that a lot of the more (for lack of a better phrase) advanced statistics are... basically documenting the things that scouting has been highlighting for years. How hard a batter hits a ball, how often he hits it hard -- how effective a specific pitch is from a pitcher, how effective it is in certain counts/scenarios, how effective it is against different types of hitters, etc. The takeaway for me at this point is that, no matter how advanced any statistics are or become, the real 'secret sauce' of player analysis is in their physical actions. I would guess that, if it isn't here already, some form of digital analytics based on video of players' physical deliveries/swings/etc. will be the new way forward. As far as we fans are aware now, the best organizations are using statistics to support scouting -- anyone focusing on just one or the other is surely losing the future. I think virtual reality/augmented reality will become huge in sports, and baseball especially is ripe for adoption. Instead of just watching video, now teams can create models for opposing pitchers/hitters based on real-life tendencies & data. And players can train against these very real digital models of their opponents. Imagine being a player, & instead of walking into your normal batting cage, you strap on a VR/AR headset. Now you're facing the upcoming opposing starting pitcher for tomorrow's game, and working against his real pitches, delivery, & tendencies. And you can create any scenario imaginable. MLB clubs have been monitoring pitches in a 3D sense (PitchFX) for years now... I'd bet the leading clubs are either looking into how to adopt VR/AR, or they've already adopted it.

I was definitely one who assumed Segura would come crashing back to his lows/norms after a hot start this season, but nice to see Jean have a really good year in Arizona. As of today, his slash line is .313/.360/.464/.824. He cooled off in May, but aside from that (& a bad start so far to September), he's been good all year, & significantly better in the second half of the season. FanGraphs as of right now has him at 3.2 WAR for 2016. To umphrey's point, it really makes me wonder how much some more distance (time-wise) from his child's death & a change in scenery has factored in. Just glad he's playing well.

Who was it this year? Or last year? Smith was the only lefty for quite a while. Capuano this year.

Kudos to you, too, for giving credit where it's due Too often these types of debates seem to result in entrenched, unchangeable opinions. I'm glad Villar has cut down on the baserunning mistakes. He's such a fun player to watch (perfect leadoff guy!), and it seems like the Brewers haven't had a good switch-hitter in a really long time.

Not meaning this in a condescending way at all, but one of the reasons he's projected to be a solid big-league bat & not just a no-hit all-field SS is that his BB & K rates were good the whole way through MiLB. They declined in AA & AAA, but that's to be expected when you're quite young at both levels. He's a very talented batter. No offense taken. His walk rate was 5% in AA and 6% in AAA. Hes at 10% so far in MLB, so I'll stand by my impressive/ surprising comment. He really has been more of a free swinger the last couple years. Yeah. My guess is that was a product of being pushed to the advanced levels, as opposed to the decline in the rates being predictive or descriptive of a change in his makeup as a batter. Not saying I saw his improved BB rate in the bigs coming, though.

I'll add him. Figured I might miss someone.

http://i.imgur.com/vEkdfs5.jpg Sept. 21, 2015: David Stearns is announced as the new Brewers GM (Photo: Scott Paulus/Milwaukee Brewers) http://i.imgur.com/KkmtG9e.jpg Reading through some other threads today really got me looking back at a lot of the moves Stearns has made in his first season as GM. With the regular season nearing its end, I thought it'd be good discussion to look back at his first season. For this post, I'll focus only on transactions directly related to the big-league club from the date David took the reins as GM (9/21/2015). But discuss other things, too (like demoting Peralta, promoting Arcia, etc.) -- as long as it's directly tied to the MLB roster. I'm thrilled so far with Stearns's approach to team construction, as well as his front office staff's ability to evaluate talent. Read through the lists below, & weigh in with your take! For reference, here is the Brewers.com transaction log beginning at September 2015: http://m.brewers.mlb.com/roster/transactions/2015/09 Trades 11/18/15: Traded RHP Francisco Rodríguez to Detroit Tigers for IF Javier Betancourt; C Manny Piña sent to Brewers on 12/10/15 to complete trade 11/19/15: Traded RHP Cy Sneed to Houston Astros for IF Jonathan Villar 11/20/15: Traded IF Luis Sardiñas to Seattle Mariners for OF Ramón Flores 12/09/15: Traded IF Adam Lind to Seattle Mariners for RHP Carlos Herrera, RHP Daniel Missaki, & RHP Freddy Peralta 12/17/15: Traded IF Jason Rogers to Pittsburgh Pirates for OF Keon Broxton & RHP Trey Supak 01/30/16: Traded IF Jean Segura and RHP Tyler Wagner to Arizona Diamondbacks for RHP Chase Anderson, IF Aaron Hill, IF Isan Diaz, & cash 02/12/16: Traded OF Khris Davis to Oakland Athletics for RHP Bubba Derby & C Jacob Nottingham 04/04/16: Traded cash to Texas Rangers for LHP Sam Freeman 05/13/16: Traded cash to Tampa Bay Rays for RHP Jhan Mariñez 07/07/16: Traded IF Aaron Hill & cash to Boston Red Sox for IF Wendell Rijo and RHP Aaron Wilkerson 08/01/16: Traded LHP Will Smith to San Francisco Giants for C Andrew Susac and RHP Phil Bickford 08/01/16: Traded C Jonathan Lucroy and RHP Jeremy Jeffress to Texas Rangers for OF Lewis Brinson, RHP Luis Ortiz and PTBNL; OF Ryan Cordell sent to Brewers on 09/05/16 to complete trade Free Agency 11/02/15: RHP Kyle Lohse elected for free agency 12/02/15: IF Elián Herrera elected for free agency 12/11/15: Signed OF Alex Presley to a minor league contract with invite to spring training 12/11/15: Signed IF Jake Elmore to a minor league contract with invite to spring training 12/15/15: Signed IF Will Middlebrooks to a minor league contract with invite to spring training 01/06/16: Signed IF Chris Carter 01/25/16: Signed LHP Chris Capuano to a minor league contract with invite to spring training 02/12/16: Signed RHP Blaine Boyer to a minor league contract with invite to spring training 04/02/16: Signed RHP Carlos Torres Waiver Claims 10/17/15: Claimed RHP Junior Guerra off waivers from Chicago White Sox 12/10/15: Claimed IF Colin Walsh off waivers from Oakland Athletics --- [EDIT: actually a Rule 5 draft pick] 12/10/15: Claimed RHP Zack Jones off waivers from Minnesota Twins --- [EDIT: actually a Rule 5 draft pick] 12/23/15: Claimed OF Kirk Nieuwenhuis off waivers from New York Mets 05/31/16: Claimed RHP Neil Ramirez off waivers from Chicago Cubs 08/04/16: Claimed RHP Ben Rowen off waivers from Toronto Blue Jays

Even if Broxton only winds up doing a poor-man's version of Carlos Gómez's later development, he will be quite valuable. And the trade with the Pirates is already a win with Rogers being so limited defensively & really not a good enough hitter for 1B. Not to mention that Supak had a solid year as a 20-yo with the T-Rats... and might have a higher ceiling than Broxton. I knew I was probably going to like Stearns's approach, but I have to say I am absolutely in love with his regime's ability to identify talent, & the strong focus on acquiring talent above anything else.

Not meaning this in a condescending way at all, but one of the reasons he's projected to be a solid big-league bat & not just a no-hit all-field SS is that his BB & K rates were good the whole way through MiLB. They declined in AA & AAA, but that's to be expected when you're quite young at both levels. He's a very talented batter.

I really like this idea. And I think Gomez might be interested.

Do you really think if we don't have an abundance of SS, CF or pitching prospects that we couldn't trade one of them for a 1B prospect when we actually need one? In most situations teams hold onto 3B and 1B prospects. Based on what? And even if you can't trade for a first baseman, it's basically the easiest position to fill via FA or big-league trade.

I know he didn't get the out, but the play Arcia made last night going up the middle, whirling, & throwing to first was incredible. I went back & re-watched that about a half dozen times. Unreal athletic ability & arm strength+accuracy!

Plus Scooter is in the middle of a hot streak, so it's not really fair to bench him right now. I agree with Monty that Villar's longterm value shouldn't be affected much if at all purely by moving him to 3B. And also agree with Brew4U that Villar is probably the 2B heading forward, if he remains & isn't dealt. And glad to see you post again, rluz!

Agreed on both points. Really exciting additions, and I'm really rejuvenated by Stearns's approach to organization building.

This thread is a thread I like.

I added the corresponding article in the Bickford/Susac thread... here is Minor League Ball's reaction to this trade.

I didn't see this linked yet, so apologies if I glossed over it. Minor League Ball's take on this trade Excerpts:

This, combined with Keith Law not liking Bickford, makes me even happier about this trade!

This trade is terrible! http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/multimedia/archive/00346/14769354__346274c.jpg And to make it even fuller-circle, Craig Counsell (then a FO employee) provided the only scouting the org. did on Aoki... video scouting, because they didn't send anyone to see Nori play in person. Great return in this deal. Love it.

I DEMAND OUTRAGE! OUTRAGE, I SAY!

Thanks for the reply. Definitely has a bright future if he can gel everything into a polished package. Were you open to the idea of sending either Zimmer or Frazier as the key piece for Lucroy? And how do you think Mejia compares to them in terms of overall value (namely including his position)?

Sorry you guys weren't able to add him. Truly is an elite player. Do you have any insights on Mejia? I'm very intrigued by him.

In that scenario, I hold into the offseason. There are other catchers available in FA, but imo not one of them is the sure-thing All-Star that you get in Lucroy. I think the market will play out that numerous teams will be in on Luc, & then wait to move on to the FA candidates once Lucroy is off the market.

Interesting thought. I would be open to that if I'm Stearns, as long as the offer makes sense.