Fear The Chorizo

But, part of the business of a baseball team is attracting players And 99.9999% of attracting players when they actually have the choice of what team to sign with in free agency is who has the most $ to give them. The odds of Milwaukee suddenly becoming a "destination team" for veteran free agents are pretty much zero when they are the smallest market in all of baseball. With the current economic structure across the league, that's probably a good thing to force the Brewers to emphasize building from within. Nobody is going to look at organizational transaction histories around the all star break that were prompted by a team trading away a bat and needing to find a way to call up a replacement bench bat without subjecting anyone to waivers.

After last year's trade debacle, the Mets are probably at the bottom of their list when it comes to trade partners - particularly when their best trade chip can't pitch anymore with a bum elbow. I think the focus of Braun/Lucroy trade rumors should shift to teams in the AL/NL west (Rangers, Dodgers, Giants, Astros, Mariners?).

Well, a suspension that has Ventura's next start scheduled for mid September instead of mid June would be an interesting way to try and to send a message, IMO.

Last night, two of MLB's young stars with a reputation of being hotheaded had quite the dust-up. After seemingly throwing plenty inside during Machado's first at bat, Yordano Ventura drilled Manny Machado in the back with a 99mph fastball the first pitch of his second at bat. Machado charged the mound and got a good swing at Ventura in before the customary pile of 50 multimillionaires and their past-their-physical-prime coaches occurred at Camden Yards. Several questions/points to make following this: 1 - Is it me or did KC's catcher Perez almost seem to want Machado to reach Ventura before trying to break this up? Machado was practically limping towards the mound and it didn't seem like Perez was in any rush to catch up to him. 2 - Both of these players have a history of instigating these incidents - so it's no surprise things got out of hand. Fair or not, I actually hope MLB makes an example out of both of these players with suspensions that actually have some teeth. I think in this particular instance Ventura was mostly to blame, so I'd limit Machado's penalty to 10 games and base it off a combination of last night + his previous history of being in the middle of these incidents. For Ventura, I'd love to see a suspension that moves his next scheduled start back about 81 games, or 1/2 a season. 3 - How does MLB clean this up? For all the emphasis on improving player safety with the slide/collision rules, how in the world is the practice of intentionally throwing at somebody with a ball that could literally kill or permanently maim them still part of the game? I get that pitchers need to be able to pitch inside - however there's no reason IMO to deliberately throw a pitch inside with the intent of hitting someone. A few things that I think should be done by MLB to try and reduce/eliminate this garbage: 1 - prohibit bullpens from clearing during these altercations - there's absolutely no point to allowing a dozen pitchers and random bullpen catchers onto the field to run 350' to an on-field altercation. Have a rule similar to the NBA where if an on-field fight starts, bullpens can't empty unless they want to be suspended for a few games. Initially I wouldn't include the dugouts in this rule in case an offensive player truly needs help defending himself. 2 - Harsher fines/suspensions need to happen in order to make players/coaches think twice about intentionally hitting batters or starting fights. If it's obvious a pitcher hit someone intentionally, or a player started something that led to an on-field brawl, that pitcher/player and their coach both get 10 game unpaid suspensions that would start the next game the team plays - they'd have the ability to appeal to a MLB arbitrator to make the case of no intent, but it would either be 10 games or zero depending on the appeal. if you have players instigating multiple times, I think there should be a policy similar to PED penalties where suspensions/fines escalate after each incident.

Byrd worked with Victor Conte since 2008...PEDs basically made his career. He can talk about taking only legal stuff all he wants, it's just not true.

sorry, but to me Braun should have more trade value than LuCroy at this point, even without picking up some of his salary in a trade package - his bat will be a plus at a corner OF spot, 1B, or DH for several more years at less than market value. Lucroy's contract is cheaper now, but he'll be looking for a similar contract in $/year that Braun currently has. Right now Luc's bat is a plus for a catcher, but as he ages his offense becomes less valued if he has to switch positions to 1B or DH. Braun actually has more cost certainty and less risk in terms of a significant production dropoff than Luc, IMO.

The jury's out on Stearns. He's hit on some (Villar, Carter, Guerra) but jury's out on most of his moves and will be for some time. that's kind of the point for a GM who hasn't been with the team for a year, or even for a singe draft yet, isn't it? People forget that he wasn't with the Brewers until late September last year....

it's not the strike zone that's led to longer games, and I'd argue making the strike zone smaller will simply make hitters take even more pitches. The general approach of organizations to work the count, get into bullpens, and minimize how many outs you give an opponent via sac bunt are why games are longer. 25 years ago, if a guy led an inning off with a single or walk, unless the #3 or 4 hitter was up there was a good chance the next batter would lay down a bunt to move the runner over to scoring position. teams commonly go through 3-4 pitching changes per game that's extra dead time for a pitcher to come out of the bullpen and make warmup tosses (extra commercial break for the $pon$or$, too.) simply put the game has changed from previous generations, and the increase in specialization and premium put on both striking guys out or drawing walks/working counts makes games take longer. these minor strike zone and pace of play rule changes aren't going to make a difference.

Unfortunately, Mr. Davis is off to an absolutely dreadful start to his tenure as the A's right-handed thunder in the lineup - After 46 AB's, Davis has yet to homer, doubled once, K'd 20 times and walked twice. That equates to a disheartening 0.174Avg/0.196SLG/0.420OPS slash line. It's still earlier than early, but a very rocky start.

To me the 2b slide rule should be a nonissue, just like the home plate collision rule last year should have been a nonissue. Take out slides and home plate collisions arent part of the amateur game ranks for good reason, and it shouldn't be in the pro game, either. I think the last part of the 2nd base slide rule that needs to be reviewed is eliminating the proximity allowance that umps give the benefit of the doubt to middle infielders being on the bag when they catch the ball before turning the dp. If they want players to slide into the bag, the defender needs to at least be touching it when he catches the ball. The reason takeout slides have gotten so out of hand is how much leeway middle infielders have gotten when turning the dp.

Seems like Schwarber's knee is more of a problem than his ankle - 1st glance at the collision it did look a lot worst than the knee 'tweak' that was first reported. The Cubs have plenty of OF depth, but if Schwarber's out an extended period of time it takes a jolt out of their offense and they'll need to count on talented but unseasoned guys prone to getting eaten up by big league pitching like Soler and Baez getting more ABs. If the injury is serious I think it potentially turns Schwarber into a 1B/DH (which he should've always been) - if the DH doesn't come to the NL he could very well be trade bait next season.

overlays don't tell the whole picture - particularly with most Miller Park games being played in climate controlled conditions indoors, weather patterns, etc. Outfield dimensions are pretty pointless to compare, actually. do the overlays include foul balls Davis hit in Miller Park that would've been outs in Oakland? there's a reason players hit few HR's in Oakland compared to a majority of other MLB parks, and it's not because their fences are 50' further away from home plate. I 100% agree that the Brewers did very well for their organization with the Davis trade - I think Milwaukee got great value in return for a player with no defensive value whose lone offensive strength will be hampered by where he's now getting most of his ABs.

During Davis' 2015 season in which he mashed all these homeruns that people are comparing him to Fielder and Braun's career (laughable considering the HR rate comparison for Davis covers 2-3 years compared to about a decade each for Fielder/Braun), Davis OPS'd 0.979 at home, which is elite. Miller Park is definitely a hitter's haven, but even with saying that Davis excelled offensively with home cookin'. On the other hand, Davis' 2015 road OPS was 0.646...basically equating to Jean Segura-type offensive production, which is terrible for a corner OF. Davis' career OPS splits - Home (at Miller Park) - 0.877...Away - 0.736. Davis' HR rate is going to take a big dive once he's substituting half his games played in Miller Park with Oakland. In 2015, Miller Park's HR Park factor ranked #1 in all of baseball (only Baltimore's stadium was even close), while Oakland's Park ranked 27th. Some of those #'s don't weigh quality of pitching as well as they should, but Miller Park is routinely a top 5 park to hit HR's, while Oakland's routinely sits in the bottom third of those rankings.

If Schwarber were even a poor defensive catcher, he'd be the everyday backstop for the Cubs - think Piazza in his heyday with the Mets. Problem is he's worse than atrocious behind the plate - he's a prototypical DH, though. Johnny Bench was among the greatest defensive catchers ever...20 games of Schwarber putting on gear and chasing past balls while mashing would be compared more accurately to what 20 games of David Ortiz offensive output would be if the Red Sox let him catch. If the NL adopting the DH isn't imminent, the Cubs will have to trade him or Soler unless they'd rather move Rizzo towards the end of his current contract - Schwarber has no defensive position unless you stick him at 1B and live with him there. You can at least attempt to hide him in left or right on occasion to keep his bat in the lineup.

They have a piece in Baez who's without a position I would argue they have multiple pieces without a position - Their depth is crazy right now, but it likely means that Maddon won't be able to keep everyone happy with enough everyday PT unless injuries hit them hard. As much as I'd hate to see Luc with the Cubs, catcher is the one position the Cubs could use a substantial upgrade - and they have the pieces (young MLB-ready high ceiling talent, prospects in lower levels with impact talent) to make a deal happen. That said, I can't make Baez the centerpiece of any deal involving Lucroy - there's just too much risk of him being unable to realize his enormous potential at the plate. Cubs would hang up immediately, but I'd ask for Schwarber - he's without an everyday position too. He's either a DH or a 1B at the MLB level. Cubs won't move Rizzo, so they're stuck trying to hide Schwarber in a corner OF spot and hope nobody hits him the ball.

The reason it's an issue this year is because I believe it's a CBA year, correct? Small market teams get the brunt of complaints from both the Player's Union side ("this organization won't pay bloated veteran FA contracts!") and big market owners ("that organization takes revenue from my payroll luxury tax and other limited shared MLB revenues and pockets it instead of spending it in FA!"). Also, it's a dead period in the sportsnews world - NFL's over, spring training hasn't started to write about actual baseball being played, NCAA bball tourney still over 1 month away, NBA and NHL regular seasons in the dead period before people start anticipating the playoffs....

The simple way to prevent tanking in MLB, to the dismay of all the big market owners with huge TV contracts funding their payrolls and profits, is to share league revenue the same way the NFL does. Until the economics of how to run an organization are standardized, it is impossible to fault teams taking varying approaches to attempt to build a MLB roster worthy of contending. Baseball has far more avenues to acquire talent than the NBA and NFL, each with its own set of rules few people actually understand. Creating a standardized international draft should also be a MLB priority.

I'd say it's 50/50 whether Luc's traded before opening day. If he's on the opening day roster, I'd say it's 50/50 again that he's traded by the deadline. I actually wouldn't be surprised if he starts the season in Milwaukee but is dealt much earlier than the trade deadline. If he's still with the Brewers at the end of 2016, he will be dealt before 2017 starts, unless the only reason he's still a Brewer is due to injury.

What's more impressive - that the Brewers top this list at all, or the sheer gap between them and the #2 system (Astros). All weighting, flaws and skewing aside that makes all of these minor league system rankings projections differ - the fact that the Brewers went from a bottom of the barrel minor league system to one that's universally considered one of the ten best in basically a calendar year is quite impressive.

Davis goes from playing half his games in a hr hitting haven to oakland. He won't hit 20 hr this season. Premier power hitter he is not. He had a great half season last year once Parra was dealt and all the games were meaningless. The brewers traded him at peak value, which is exactly what you do for a guy his caliber of talent.

Please look at draft history.... Really for their top picks they received for being god awful, Correa is the only one who really impacts system. You can't say they sucked so they got Springer at 11 or they sucked and got AJ Reed & McCullers in 1st rd Comp or second round. Being terrible only gets you a top pick, past that top 5-10 1st rd pick the rest is bases soley on scouting. Drafting & bringing in guys such as Domingo/Hader in trades. Those were young A ball guys they took flyers on. Unless you are trying to say by sucking for 5-6 years they were able to make trades and develop players is only way I can make sense of your point. Edit: can't spell on my phone With the current draft rules, it's not having the top spot overall thats the biggest advantage, it's about having the draft pool amount that comes with the top overall spot that can be used in the comp pick or other earlier rounds to go after the talent that's more difficult to sign. That's the reason the Astros didn't sweat failing to sign one of their top overall picks when he wouldn't agree to an under slot bonus offer.

these are the types of packages that would make sense if the Brewers are trading Lucroy at the deadline...next season. Definitely not worth 2 full seasons of Lucroy at his incredibly reasonable pricetag, and with the idea that the contending team trading for Lucroy would have more than enough opportunity to extend his contract through the rest of his prime years.

To make it less beneficial to tank with the current draft system, I think MLB needs to adopt a modified lottery system with the top 5-8 draft positions. There is currently such a draft advantage with pool money for the top overall pick that teams needing to rebuild are incentivized to tank, especially jn smaller markets where free agency isn't a good way to build a MLB roster. Take the teams with the 8 worst records, give them 8 to 1 ping pong balls, and pick the draft order for those spots. I think it's the current draft system that leads to tanking much more than teams slashing payroll to profit from revenue sharing. The team schedules are so dissimilar it's difficult to say whether a team with the worst MLB record is indeed the worst team in any given year anyway.

Stearns is absolutely correct to ask for the moon in a Lucroy trade. Contrary to these articles, the asking price isn't too high, it's the offers that are too low. If contending teams that want a catcher upgrade don't want to pony up, they can pound sand, IMO. The brewers do not have to unload him before spring training starts, while the teams that want Luc would probably want to bring him in asap. Milwaukee holds the cards and shouldn't budge. some team will offer the moon eventually.

Khris davis, a glorified dh who hits hrs when he occasionally makes contact, is getting about 25 million a year for a majority of the next decade... Based on his age when getting to free agency, yes, Bryce harper will get alot closer to 50 million per season than small market team fans would want to see. Him setting the market just drives up the price for everyone else.