Fear The Chorizo

Why would anyone want to poach people from the Brewers' front office? Most everything I'm seeing here on this board indicates they suck at their jobs...

This isn't just a 2 month + postseason rental either - he's under contracto for 2024, too...and Verlander at 40 is still a guy any team would give the ball to for a playoff start.

Gilbert is also almost 23 and currently OPS-ing about 160 points less than Quero in AA, who won't turn 21 until after the season ends. Once those top 100 rankings get over prospect # 50, there's a tendency to try and squeeze at least one prospect from every MLB organization into the list to generate clicks...I'm not saying Gilbert is a pumpkin, but 30 out of 30 MLB GM's would take Quero over Gilbert if given the opportunity right now. If the Orioles had any interest in trading for Verlander and he was open to waiving his NTC to go there, the Stros had to dig as deep as they possibly could to land him.

For perspective, I believe Houston's system is generally regarded as burning pile of trash (Gilbert is rated roughly #75 in the MLB top 100 list, their only top 100 prospect) - they probably had to dig deep to best offers from other teams Verlander may have also been ok with waiving his NTC to be traded to.

i think you're referring to your post embedded within this thread (although it's oftentimes difficult to tell)...it states something along the lines of if after sending Hader away via trade last deadline the Brewers' remade bullpen blows some save opportunities and they miss the playoffs, they'll be chumps. well, the Brewers did blow some save opportunities during the months of August and September without Hader. The Padres also blew quite a few save opportunities during August and September with Hader and actually spent a good chunk of that stretch run with Hader out of their closer role because of it. In addition, the Brewers blew multiple save opportunities in June/July 2022 with Hader, oftentimes BECAUSE of Hader. The Padres didn't make the playoffs last season because of Hader, either. You can go on believing the Brewers missed the playoffs last season because they traded Hader, I don't care - I'm even sure that makes you feel "100% right"....but that doesn't mean everyone else that disagrees with how you're trying to frame arguments while neglecting to include/acknowledge all kinds of contradictory context (in this instance, starting pitching injuries decimating the 2022 Brewer rotation, Burnes pitching like a mid-rotation starter with the increased workload, and a not-good-enough offense had much more to do with the team playing 0.500 baseball most of the season) is wrong.

Trading away your closer that is getting pricey and in return obtaining a different MLB rental who can close plus prospects who will either contribute to the Brewers in the future or become trade chips to obtain other MLB help is the definition of retooling. And the "more than a few" people who attribute last year's "collapse" (which actually started months earlier in the season before Hader was dealt) include you and a few other posters who like being contradictory around self-created strawmen points of view.

Well in May the Brewers were looking up at Santana and the Pirates in the standings, so that trade wasn't happening...and the Mets weren't far enough into the season to realize spending a gazillion dollars over the offseason isn't enough to be a playoff contender this year. This is the Brewers' MO - try to set up their decent roster headed into the season with enough cheap veteran players that still have some roster flexibility to try and plug holes when anticipated regulars get hurt (Mitchell, Urias, Tellez, Anderson), see where they are in the standings when the calendar gets to July and then try to improve roster weaknesses at the trade deadline without mortgaging their ability to repeat the process next offseason. There are parts to that approach I don't like, but I also appreciate the Brewers being consistently in the mix for a playoff spot - given the financial disparity MLB operates with, this is what they have to do.

Looking at the rest of the division, the Cards are in sell mode, the Pirates are sort of selling but definitely not contending, the Reds have up to this point stood pat hoping they're good enough to muddle into a division title, and the Cubs appear to be soft buyers. The Brewers have added a couple bats to plug glaring holes in their lineup and I expect them to make a couple other moves before the deadline, so they're also in a soft/tepid buy mode. I just don't see their primary competition for the division making any crazy moves at the deadline, and the help the Brewers may be getting soon adding Woodruff to the rotation is a bigger add than what any other "blockbuster" trade by the Reds or Cubs will do. All in all, it seems like too many posters have spent too much time in the sun around here lately with some of their trade deadline takes and unrealistic "SELL EVERYONE NOW", "BUY EVERYONE NOW" posts.

Oh I know...which is why I included the list of great veteran players who signed contract extensions with teams that traded for them at the deadline instead of becoming a free agent after the season to show how realistic that possibility is.

Technically, "home" for Hader in terms of the organizations would be the Orioles since they drafted and signed him. They or the Astros make alot more sense as trade partners than the Brewers do at the moment. Or, the Braves.

Extensions for who? Peguero or Small? Send me the list of premium veteran players traded at the deadline the season prior to reaching free agency who then signed a contract extension instead of becoming a free agent in the offseason. Nevermind, I actually have that list presented below:

The Braves do seem to have a pretty solid pipeline of finding high school talent based in their backyard - particularly Georgia and MS. Credit them for having a great handle of local scouting identifying talent in what is a very deep pool regionally. The Brewers, based on geography, don't exactly have an endless pool of baseball talent to mine every time the draft rolls around. Acuna and Albies came from a large crop of international signings, which the Braves have always been big players in and have an extensive scouting network as well...frankly that's an area where they went beyond bending the rules in terms of signing bonuses around the same time those great players were brought into the fold. As is the case with international signings, they've had more than their share of big misses, too. A majority of the rest of their current roster that is scoring a ton of runs was acquired via trade or free agency and did not come up through their system. Aside from Corbin Carroll, a 1st round draft pick who really didn't need any extensive minor league seasoning and tracked through the minors similarly to Trout once he began his professional career, who else have the Dbacks developed of note offensively in recent years? I mean, they drafted Dansby Swanson 1st overall like 8-9 drafts ago - but does it really count being awful enough at the MLB level to be able to pick at the top of the draft - particularly when they traded him to the Braves for Shelby Miller? It wouldn't surprise me to see the Brewers identified among the top 10 organizations in terms of farm systems over the winter, with the strength of it coming from what are perceived as recent international signing home runs knocking on the MLB door at very young ages (Chourio, Quero) and some recent draftees who absolutely are raking in higher minor league levels (Black). That comes as their 2021 1st rounder is now in the majors, their 2020 1st rounder is a major league regular if he could avoid injury and his ABs have largely been replaced by their 2020 4th rounder, and their 2018 1st rounder is this team's starting 2B. And the Brewers haven't picked in the top half of the 1st round since 2017. Am I saying Frelick/Wiemer/Mitchell/Turang are going to be perennial all stars? Nope - but it's also way too soon to exclude them from being decent to good MLB hitters. This sort of stuff winds up being far more cyclical than fans, and frankly baseball front offices because the randomness of it all takes away from the perception of how smart they are, care to admit. To have a period where your organization churns out a bunch of solid young players (hitters or pitchers), you either have to have endless financial/scouting resources (Dodgers/Yankees), suck at the MLB level for a looong time and get pick of the litter draft choices every year (Orioles/Reds now, Padres a few years ago and Astros/Cubs/Royals before that), or hit the occasional home run in the draft along with making a few shrewd trades that bring in young talent (Braves, Cardinals most of the time).

I would argue most organizations suck at developing quality major league hitters if they don't do a good job of bringing in talent via drafting, international signings, or trading for/signing expensive established mlb veteran bats in free agency. It's not like other teams are running Tom Emanski hitting drills and the Brewers just roll out the bats and say "good luck". Out of curiosity, which organizations set the standard for developing a conveyor belt of quality MLB hitters, in your opinion?

Melvin couldn't draft and develop pitching...now stearns/Arnold couldn't draft and develop hitting.... Pay no attention to what's currently behind the curtain down in AA, btw...NOTHING TO SEE THERE!!!

Or Hader

That would've been two calendar years ago, so a bit late to the party at this point. If he is traded before he becomes a FA, they'd get more return for trading him this offseason than at this year's deadline with so few teams in total go for it mode, anyway.

Sometimes it's not worth engaging other posters...particularly those who joined on last year's trade deadline to bash the Brewers 2022 moves, probably waited 11.5 months to post anything else, and now post nothing but bashing the Brewers 2023 deadline moves.

Trout, if the Angels picked up a vast majority of his remaining contract. Or Acuna. For me that's pretty much it. Guys with Chourio's body of work should get every opportunity to prove they aren't a HOF-caliber talent and are rightfully deemed untradeable minor league assets for any realistic scenarios.

I would absolutely love for a reporter/someone to tell Rodgers during an interview in front of a camera that "by your standards, you sucked during the 2019 season and with what you had remaining on your contract it made perfect sense for the Packers to start planning for their future at quarterback during the 2020 draft. Then, the team benefitted from any perceived slight by drafting Love by watching you win back to back MVP awards during 2020-2021 seasons and moved heaven and earth to restructure numerous veteran contracts to extend their window of contention while your contract remained an organizational albatross." Just to see him try to deflect those facts in real time. That restructure with the Jets was a formality more than anything and probably didn't need to take months of time to happen...and I think it actually handcuffs what the Jets can do in the near term because it forces them to carry larger cap hits further down the road. With their schedule from Week 1 through Thanksgiving, I kind of expect things to go sideways quickly in Jet land this season, and likely cost some front office/coaching jobs in the process.

Agreed - his contract #s are very reasonable for the production he could provide over full, healthy seasons. Limiting him to a DH-only role should help avoid many of the injuries that have cost Eloy a ton of time the past few seasons, too. He's still just 26.

I'm warming to the idea of adding Jimenez as this team's DH, if the cost isn't too steep. RH bat with plenty of pop that can carry a 0.275+ avg is exactly what the middle of this lineup needs. If he's healthy, Jimenez's contract carries plenty of value...and if he underperforms/is injured those club options for 2025 and 2026 are very handy. If the Brewers can put together a package of a couple projectable lower level prospects who are likely to be blocked when they'd be ready for MLB, plus a MLB-ready arm, sign me up!

I think Kim is a better fit for the Cubs, and they should trade Crow-Armstrong, Horton, Ben Brown, Alcantara, Wicks, and then a few low level lotto tickets to bring him to the North Side. At least the title of this article is fitting...nobody really is talking about this "blockbuster" because there's nothing to it besides an opinion of a fan for a different team than the Brewers. Calling Chourio and Frelick comparable in terms of present trade value...yikes

We haven't figured out how to mass produce hydrogen with green energy. To be fair, we haven't figured out how to mass produce green energy, either. Not just economically (it's still all heavily dependent on tax incentives), but also environmentally. There are some readily scalable options to mass produce hydrogen that can be used as a fuel source utilizing nuclear power.

Intriguing...but I wouldn't want to part with Chourio or Quero in the deal - would need to include 1-2 of the young MLB-ready OFs (Frelick, Mitchell, Wiemer) plus a high end arm (Uribe? Misiorowski?) and a low level lotto ticket, with the thought being after Soto leaves any OF void would get readily filled by Chourio. If the price is steeper than that, and it probably would be, I would pass.

Nothing like watching a guy hug a former teammate after accidentally hitting him in the helmet with a backswing (Happ and Contreras go quite a ways back with the Cubs), then still think it's appropriate to intentionally drill him a couple pitches later as a way to "send a message". Somehow that's playing the game the right way? Just dumb Pisses me off the most because it's probably the Cubs who will permanently stick a fork in the Cards' season this weekend, and in doing so they'll remain right in the mix for playoff contention. Even when the Cards suck, they do so in the most annoying ways...