Fear The Chorizo

The moss deal seems more like a panic move by the cards following holiday going down...I would much rather have Lind at 1st or Parra in lf than moss at either position. Melvin needs to move some pieces today, unfortunately the market is now being flooded from teams once thought to be contenders who are open to selling better talent than the brewers have available.

This is setting up to be one heck of a bad trade deadline for the brewers. For a team that basically was the first organization out of the playoff hunt with tradeable assets this season, to see only the ramirez trade thus far with all the other activity going on around them is very disheartening. Still time to change the outlook, but I think the list of potential suitors for what the brewers have to offer is shrinking rapidly.

Someone leaked this before the.brewers got medicals to review of wheeler. It's the only reason Flores was still playing in tonight's game for several innings after the rumored trade was out there in the twitterverse. the deal hinged on the brewers being ok with wheelers elbow post surgery. Melvin didn't tip his hand, someone in an organization jumped the gun. I would rather this deal end up falling through and look weird than have the brewers trade for seriously damaged goods

Mets will now offer Flores and bonilla's remain contract.

Maybe arcia should actually prove he can hit aaa pitching consistently before we all get over our skis about when his service clock starts...he is only 20 in aaa right now. Give him another year in the minors regardless of who is at ss in the bigs.

Flores' profile reminds me of gomez while he was with the mets...different style of players for sure, but both were rushed a bit to MLB. Hoping Flores can benefit from a change of scenery, and wheeler regains his form as a pitcher with top of the rotation talent.

he's 20. Even for a prospect with as much pub as he's gotten recently, Super 2 isn't the sole reason he's still in the minors. at the start of next season he'll still be younger than Kris Bryant was when he was drafted, and he wasn't the 2nd coming as a 17 yr old the way Bryce Harper was. There's no way the Brewers are going to rush him, and they have absolutely no need to. I actually wouldn't be shocked if he spent the first full half + of next year in AA/AAA before seeing Milwaukee after the trade deadline or September callups.

The brewer have some legit MLB pieces that deadline buyer teams should covet...if the offers aren't prospects that immediately improve the talent level in the organization, the Brewers have the luxury to not make a trade and wait for better offers to come along. I envision trades happening last minute with the brewers, once Melvin gets as many offers as possible for a few bats and arms. I don't know if guys like Gomez or Lucroy will be moved, simply because they could likely get better value for them in the offsets on when every team is looking to improve their rosters.

based on their innings loads, odds are pretty good that both Hamels and Price will start trending downhill. The upside with Hamels for the Cubs is his current deal only has 3-4 more seasons left on it - so while it's at a very high pricetag, there aren't guranteed years of bad baked into it like many longterm extensions for starting pitching. The next contract David Price signs will probably need to have a few years of big salary for a pitcher likely on the decline well into his mid-30's. what has really screwed the Cubs' deadline plans up this year is Baez's thumb injury and Castro being downright bad. The Cubs were dying to include Castro in a deal for MLB impact pitching in order to move Russell over to short where he belongs and call up Baez to play 2nd. With Bryant at 3rd then Schwarber would fit at a corner OF spot. The Cubs probably have to delay that gameplan until this offseason now, and will likely not get near the level of talent in return for Castro as they would have hoped. If I'm the Phillies talking to the Cubs, I hold out until Baez or Schwarber are included in the deal. I don't care how loaded or deep a farm system is, when you're looking to trade a LH starting pitcher under a fair market contract for a quality pitcher in his prime, you ask for the best of what a team has in terms of prospects - if they say no, you move on to another organization.

how long Lohse stays on the Brewers depends on how soon the Brewers may need his spot on the 40 man for any players acquired via trade. Lohse will be DFA'd as soon as trades start happening. He has zero trade value and DFA'ing him would give a veteran the opportunity to sign somewhere with a contending team that may want him down the stretch as a longman to preserve their bullpen. Lohse is a sunk cost, and his days are numbered as a Brewer...it's too bad they couldn't have gotten some sort of return for him, since his signing cost the team a 1st round draft pick a few years ago.

Braun cheated his game, along with a TON of other players during the steroid era and afterwards. Every player who was caught initially lied about their PED use, only to eventually have to admit they were PED users and liars. Braun's was higher profile because he had just won MVP and decided to throw that absurdly shortsighted press conference after his suspension was initially thrown out. Rose cheated his game by doing breaking one of the cardinal rules governing baseball - don't bet on baseball. For that reason he should never, ever be inducted into the baseball HOF. His records and career is documented in baseball annals and the HOF already, I see no need to put a bust of him in Cooperstown to go along with it. Favre didn't cheat the game, he cheated on his wife and made a fool of himself. He was addicted to pain killers during the early part of his career, which in itself could be considered a PED - although the NFL is notorious for pushing painkillers on players to keep them on the field no matter what the longterm health costs are. The only thing I didn't like with Favre was his second retirement after one year with the Jets - he still had time left on his old contract, and by him retiring he suddenly became eligible to sign with any team rather than having the Jets control where he'd be headed. He gamed the system in much the same way the Packers gamed it to try and keep him away from competing against them. Of things done as crimes to sport goes, I'd say Favre by far was the least criminal, Braun's actions would be considered a felony, and Rose's actions are well deserving to land him on the sportsworld's death row.

Montreal and the White Sox were on a collision course for the World Series in 1994 when the strike hit. Those two teams were absolutely loaded, with star players in their primes throughout both rosters. Frank Thomas had 38 HR and a 0.353 average, 106 runs, 101 RBI, and an absurd 1.217 OPS...the strike started on my birthday (Aug 12th...a really crappy way to celebrate a birthday as a kid who loved watching and playing baseball) - think of where his counting stats would've been had he been able to play out the last 45 or so games.

Top 100 MLB prospect? Absolutely no way you'll get that for ARam. What spot on the top 100 prospect list was Orlando Arcia at this time last year? The answer would be nowhere even close to the top 100. Now he's getting all sorts of pub as being one of the very best minor league players this season. Alot can happen in one year for a young prospect. Ramirez could easily net a top 100 prospect - just not one that's on the list currently. I'm hoping the Brewers do whatever they can to trade for prospects that may still be 2-3 years away form being MLB-ready, provided they have a chance to be special if they put it all together.

I think the other reason people see fewer low level prospects switching teams via trade is that organizations want to give those players time to develop in their own systems to evaluate whether they're going to be quality big leaguers or wash out. I think teams value their prospects to the point of not wanting to part with them if there's uncertainty to their potential - they're rather keep them in A or AA another season to see if it clicks and they become a top tier prospect. A team would much rather deal a developed, pre-arbitration prospect who's major league ready and who profiles as a MLB regular for veteran help at the deadline than trading a talented but undeveloped player in their low minor leagues who could potentially become a perennial all star or flame out before ever reaching the bigs. Teams want as much certainty as possible when evaluating whether a trade is good or bad for the organization. I think that's why you don't see many of the "bench bat/backup IF" veteran trades for a low minors kid with a big arm that might develop anymore. Organizations value the boom potential of their young prospects more than the benefit a veteran bench bat can give the MLB club for a playoff push. They'd much rather wait until after that same player clears waivers in August and simply take on that vet's salary and give up a low level prospect who doesn't have the high ceiling. Most trades for even the best MLB-ready prospects are from organization who have positions for them blocked at the MLB level - this is something the Cubs will be dealing with over the next few seasons when trying to use their deep system to acquire more pitching via trade.

Medeiros I don't think so, any scout who's watched him pitch is going to say the same thing I have, he's a project at this time; there's a chance he makes it because of his rate stats but as I've said a couple of times Williams and Ventura control the strike zone much better than Kodi does. He's filthy, but he doesn't have first tier velocity, he's been working 88-93 all season, so people are going to see different ceilings when they watch him, and depending on what day and how many times they've seen him pitch will matter. I could see him being in the back 25 if enough people like him but generally speaking control projects with first tier velocity and plus stuff all the way around are the guys that get rated higher than they probably should be based on ceiling early in their career. He's atypical enough he's very hard to judge it many respects. I honestly believe that Williams is the more advanced pitcher even though he doesn't have Kodi's secondary stuff. I wouldn't be surprised if he makes the top 100 because he gets results, but he works mostly up and out of the strike zone, and I just don't think he's going to have to have the same level of success if he moves up with the same control. That's the part of his game that needs to take significant steps forward as he advances. I really don't care that he's a project and inconsistent - he's 19. A 19 yr old with a unique arm slot will struggle with consistency (velocity, command, etc) until he gets some time to develop. The fact that Modeiros can be dominating at this stage in his career is fantastic, and IMO it warrants rating him highly. 1st tier velocity can come over time to a still developing kid, particularly one with an inconsistent delivery right now. I agree that Modeiros has a very wide range of ceilings - if he struggles with command and consitency, or injuries, he probably profiles as a MLB reliever. If he figures it all out and stays healthy, he profiles as a top of the rotation starter with perennial Cy Young potential. Odds are good that his career will fall somewhere in between, but it's at least nice having a prospect with that type of upper tier ceiling potential. I remember Keith Law panning his draft position last year, and I remember my first thought was that the Brewers got a kid with Chris Sale potential out of high school, whereas Sale was drafted out of college in a similar 1st round spot.

Jungmann either stays in the rotation upon Peralta's return, or he transitions into a long relief role until Lohse/Garza can be dealt to save his arm a few innings. No starting pitcher who's doing well deserves to be sent back to Colorado Springs. If anything, Jungmann has at least showed that he belongs in the conversation of being a MLB-caliber starting pitcher, and that has to be a positive. Would've been great to have gotten an arm with a higher ceiling from that draft in Jungmann's spot, but then again we'd probably have been waiting for that arm to recover from Tommy John and hope he's the same.

old time pitchers also saw their careers end as soon as they got injured, because contract values were a pittance compared to what teams invest in even prospects with today's game. I don't think I'd want to go back to a pitching management model that required MLB pitchers to have offseason jobs in order to eek out a living. Today's game with ballparks having shorter fences favors pitchers who strike guys out - velocity and sharp breaking stuff are king with strikeouts. During the era when pitchers threw more and didn't throw as hard, they were often pitching in ballparks that had at least one area of the field where it was damn near impossible to hit a home run - if you had good outfielders, they could turn alot of those high-arching 420' bombs into outs. Plus, hitters in that era on average couldn't hit the ball as far, either.

It sounds insane based on how abysmal the Brewers' April was, but they are another 10 game 7-3 streak from being in the midst of the NL blob vying for a wildcard berth. Aside from the division leaders (Mets, Cards, and Dodgers), the rest of the NL is pretty much playing 0.500 ball. It's still not even mid-May, realistically the Brewers have another month to figure out what the best gameplan will be - if firesale is the decision, they'd still have 1.5 months to make trades prior to the July 31 deadline. If this team has a solid May and early June and isn't blown away by trade offers for the veterans apparently available, I wouldn't be shocked if Melvin and co. hold onto their trade pieces until after the AS break - which will allow the rest of the NL to sort itself out and true playoff contenders to emerge. Right now aside from 3-4 teams, the rest of the NL has no clue who's going to be buying/selling.

It always looks potent until the inevitable June injury to Tulo.

This would be news had he gotten an extension beyond the option year...all this does is give Brewers some time to see how the team starts 2015 with some continuity at manager. If they scuffle, RR will be toast.

There were rumblings among Cub beat writers and internal sources within the organization as early as before the all star break last year that Boras, Bryant, and their team were miffed he wasn't already in the majors when he clearly deserved to be - and the slight not to bring him up midseason last year more or less sealed what will be a lot of conflict with team controlled contracts and arbitration until Bryan reaches free agency. That's simply how Boras does business with his most prized clients. Players like Mike Trout and Bryce Harper were in the big leagues well before their 22nd birthday - Bryant profiles as that type of talent, and should be on the opening day roster for the Cubs from a baseball sense. He's not 20, he's already 24. $ trumps baseball sense with the current CBA, which is why Bryant likely will be in Des Moines for a few weeks of April.

I understand the Cubs keeping Bryant down in the minors for another year of team control, because of who his agent is. I doubt at this point they will be able to get Bryant to agree to a pre arby deal that buys out any free agent years, so why not keep him in the organization as long as possible. Boras clients give no hometown discounts. From a pure baseball standpoint it makes zero sense, he is the best player in that organization and has been snice early last year.

I think the article really doesn't tell us anything. For the 60-70% "flameout" rate of top 100 prospects, I'm sure the flameout rate for prospects #101-300 is quite a bit higher. What the articles states is that it's incredibly difficult to be a great baseball player - incredibly difficult for most young prospects to fulfill their potential and equally as difficult for MLB players to sustain long-term success.

I'm the first to say that one of the beauties of baseball is there isn't a game clock. Certain games are going to run longer than others with pitching changes, high scoring games, poorly pitched games with lots of walks...But, there are so many things that take extra seconds here and there that add up over the course of breaks between 300 or so pitches, 17 or so half innings, half a dozen or so pitching changes, etc. Here's a few things I think they could do to the gameday experience to make the players drive when play resumes more than they currently do. 1 - restrict the batter walk-up music to the first time through the order. restrict how often music and crowd prompts can be played between pitches each inning. When the sound system is blaring it's not like the ball can be in play. 2 - MLB should look for corporate sponsors to provide 30-45 second advertising between half innings for the 6th, 8th, and 9th innings. Leave prolonged commercial breaks for innings 1-5 and the 7th (gives time for the stretch), but keep the game feed on during the other 1/2 innings to keep late innings moving along. half the time the games in the hands of the bullpens by then so there are already pitching changes going on - what's the point of two commercial breaks for two pitching changes followed by another one 1 pitch later after a reliver gets out of an inning? 3 - Adopt rules along the lines of tennis, where they switch out game balls at the start of predetermined sets or games. Baseball can increase or decrease that frequency based on gameday conditions (rain/cold/etc), but do away with the process of switching baseballs every time a ball hits the dirt. 4 - start games at 7:05 - I agree with the minute creep making games seem longer than they already are because start times keep getting pushed for advertising revenue streams.

The other thing this current playoff system does is put a premium on winning your division, which makes that 162 game marathon season all the more important - as Ennder said the schedule is unbalanced to teams playing most of their games within their own division. adding the second wildcard has shaped the baseball playoffs more in the mold of the NFL playoffs. You have your play-in wild card round, while the other division winners basically have a bye (not a free round of the playoffs, but a few days to get their pitching staff in order for an upcoming 5 game series). Then the wild card round winners normally have to find a way to try and win one of the first 2 games without their pitching staff lined up how they'd want. Aside from hockey, baseball playoffs have the most random outcomes in terms of who wins titles because you can win/lose baseball games so many more different ways than the other major sports. What's brilliant about baseball is it has the randomness of outcomes, even while playing playoff series. Last year's MLB playoffs proved just that.