LouisEly

I'd never heard of this dude prior to this season. Looked at his B-R.com page and saw that he was drafted twice out of college, the second time being in the 9th round, so I thought he was a senior sign/budget pick. Nope. Signed for a well-over-slot $350K. How player get drafted twice out of college, the second time in the 9th round, and sign for well over slot?

Maybe the inconsistency is because some pitchers are really good and usually don't give up many runs, some pitchers are average and usually give up an average number of runs, and some pitchers are bad and usually give up a lot of runs.

The Brewers are starting to rack up the number of times they have sent some guys down, and they can only send a guy down five times in a season now before having to expose him to waivers. I wouldn't be surprised to see more waiver claims taking up that 13th pitcher spot followed by DFAs in order to cover innings without having to expose players (they like) to waivers.

I'm guessing Megill will be back in the closers role now.

The season doesn't really start for the Brewers until the trade deadline. I said in spring training that they just need to be in contention in late July and then address weaknesses via trade, that being at least one starting pitcher and one RHH OF seeing that Chourio - while showing a ton of potential - just isn't ready this year. I think every contender has enough smart people in the organization to know that Luzardo isn't the same pitcher away from Miami as he is in Miami, and I don't think that he is going to go for as much as most people think. Last season Luzardo had a .649 OPS-A at home and .798 OPS-A on the road. This season it's an even more pronounced .634 OPS-A at home and .866 OPS-A on the road. For reference, Colin Rea's overall OPS-A has been almost exactly .730 over the last two seasons. Austin Gomber's OPS-A outside of Coors Field this year is .701 and last year was .782 and .760 in 2022. I don't see any reason to give up a huge package for Luzardo. I'd kick the tires on Luzardo, but if the asking price is two of Misio/Black/Quero, then I look to Colorado and see if a Lara/Blalock package (maybe throw in a Barrios) can get Gomber. Not a big strikeout guy and thus he gets hurt by Coors Field's big OF, but put the Brewers defense in a smaller park behind him and he can be effective. OF is a little trickier. Not much there on the bottom teams in the league. I've made my opinions on Robert known and how concerned I am about his 30 BB/172 K ratio last season (which is even worse this season - 19K to 1 BB in 45 PAs). I'm not giving up a big haul for him, especially with the OF depth in the Brewers system. Best options might be if ARI is waving the white flag to poach Randall Grichuk from them or to see how much the Mets would pay the Brewers to take Starling Marte ($20M salary in 2025 would need to be offset by cash). Honestly, the more I look around at teams with losing records, the more I think that the best option for a RHH OF without giving up a major prospect haul might be a guy they already have - Brewer Hicklen.

And Fedde doesn't get to pitch against the White Sox, the worst offensive team in the league.

I think the market is going to be wrong. The Fed has a dual mandate, and with the unemployment rate going up despite the labor participation rate shrinking, that will get the attention of the Fed. I really hope the Fed is looking under the hood. 272K jobs gained... but 408K jobs lost. Even worse - full-time job holders dropped by 625K and part-time job holders increased by 286K. If including discouraged workers and those holding part-time jobs just to make ends meet the unemployment rate is 7.4%. “On the surface, [the report] was hot, but you’ve also got a bigger drop in household employment,” said Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab. “For what it’s worth, that tends to be a more accurate signal when you’re at an inflection point in the economy. You can find weakness in the underlying numbers.” https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/07/jobs-report-may-2024-us-job-gains-totaled-272000-in-may.html?__source=androidappshare

1) It's not about hoarding prospects. It's about who we get in return for those prospects. B) I would not describe someone who's had one good season with a 30:172 BB to K ratio as a "proven stud".

This. Yes, he had a good 2023, but at 30 BB to 172 K, that doesn't bode well for sustaining that production. Guys with that kind of ratio tend to be flash-in-the-pan, a couple of good seasons but then the book gets out on him and they drop off. And if 145 games is the most that he's played in the last three seasons, with two of the three less than 100 total games between majors or minors, I'm not giving up any top prospects for him.

Maybe it's a good thing that they don't have a true #1. That way other teams don't know who to double or shade coverage towards.

Agree on the first sentence, but I see no reason to move Ortiz from 3B given how much more difficult it is to find a 3B compared to finding a 2B. His throws have been a little erratic, but I attribute that to playing very few innings at 3B during his career prior to this season (2100 innings at SS in the minors, 390 at 2B, 127 at 3B). Wilken can be the 1B of the future, find a 2B who has a good bat but doesn't have the arm to stick at SS or 3B.

Coming into the series with PHI there were two teams in the NL who had yet to be swept in a series this season - MIL and PHI.. Now it's only PHI. Every team goes through a rough stretch where they lose 3-4 in a row at some point in the season. PHI has only had one starting pitcher miss time this season. They've only had to use six starters. Helps when your SP rotation is healthy. There have been many comments about the Brewers "signing injury-prone pitchers", and in the PHI series I saw comments about how the Brewers could have had Zack Wheeler. Wasn't Wheeler injury-prone? Didn't he miss two full seasons with injury? Didn't the Phillies give a big contract to an injury-prone pitcher? Didn't he miss another year and a half, plus another half-season in 2017, after that trade to MKE was nixed? The Phillies signed Spencer Turnbull as rotation depth this offseason. Wasn't he injury-prone? Didn't he miss most of 2021, all of 2022, and most of 2023? The Phillies signed injury-prone starters too. No, the Brewers are not the best team in the NL right now. Yes, they are going through a tough stretch. No, they don't have to have everything solved right now. They have prospect cache to make trades in July, then just get in the playoffs and see if they can get hot (or if other team's starters get injured). And if they don't get to the World Series, I don't care - I just enjoy watching baseball.

Must have had dinner reservations at Del Frisco

You don't absorb every calorie that you eat

Not pretty, but not bad. 2 runs in 5 IP - can't expect a lot better than that against this offense.

Then just ask the Mets to kick in some cash to buy the option down, contingent on him getting injured and needing surgery before the end of this season, or a PTBNL contingent on him getting injured. Not anything to be concerned about.

He hasn't missed a start this season and I don't see anything about him having any elbow issues. Where did you read that?

Gomber I think would be a sneaky good acquisition. His overall numbers haven't looked good the last few years, but he's been much better away from Coors Field. The last two years his OPS-A has been much lower on the road, 3.68 road ERA last season, Not a big strikeout pitcher, but he can benefit from having the Brewers defense behind him.

That's nothing to be concerned about. Just lessens the prospects they have to give up in return, can ask the Mets to kick in some cash to offset the option, and if Manaea continues to pitch well he will likely decline the option to try to get a multi-year deal.

Can Keston Hiura pitch?

I'd do that deal, too. The Brewers also have two Competitive Balance picks to dangle, one #34 overall, if the Marlins want more flexibility to draft their own players instead (and the deal can get done before July 14th). Perhaps #34 could be used in place of Black ($2.7M slot value), #67 in place of Bitonti/another piece ($1.2M slot value).

Between Mitchell and Black, there are multiple LH options internally that won't cost a prospect. One of them should work out. Collins is also an option for the infield, and his .389 OBP and almost equal BB:K ratio should translate fine to the majors. The need seems to be more for RH, specifically for Chourio in the OF. Okay at this point for Chourio to stay with the big league club until late July, but then go down for a month to work on things and then come back up in September. But a .257 OBP doesn't cut it in the majors; he can and should go down for a month or two.

Got to listen to him on my way home from the Fox Valley today. Heard a new story about Tom Murphy and his identical twin brother, as Ueck went on a tangent about almost calling Pat Murphy Tom Murphy. Truly was a pleasure.

They're 41-18, so they've caused a lot of those losses

And if Bellinger doesn't perfectly time his jump, the Brewers sweep. Just stay out in front and then pick up that starter in July.