Fear The Chorizo

Cespedes' offensive #'s actually aren't that impressive, but he's definitely a good MLB corner OF. Guessing there were some juicy deals with prospects from other teams, and Oakland had to give up a quality OF bat in order for the Red Sox to send Lester to Oakland. This trade doesn't happen if Hammel hasn't stunk since being dealt from the Cubs and pitching for a contending team. Oakland definitely going for it on the strength of their pitching again.

this is a headscratcher for Oakland, other than the fact that Cespedes' offensive #'s aren't that exceptional. Seems like an awful lot to give up for a 2-month rental and Johnny Gomes. They'll get an extra pick back for Lester when he leaves via free agency, but man, one has to wonder whether the A's are already regretting the trade they made earlier this month for 2 Cub starters, where Hammel has really struggled since switching leagues and pitching for a contender.

Deals are hard to do. That is probably the single biggest reason reason you never see GMs do something like this, it is entirely contingent on a second deal happening. unless you're a fantasy GM playing a video game and you can turn off the 'trade rejected' feature whenever you want. If Henderson and Thornburg are able to get back healthy this season, the Brewers can strengthen their biggest bullpen weakness without making a trade...although Uehara would be a great pickup if he's available. The other glaring weakness is a LH-hitter with some pop that can play OF or a corner IF position. I'd love to go out and bring in a 2-month rental of Lester if it doesn't cost too much, but I think he's going to cost some team in a big way. I think Price is off the trading block unless Tampa gets blown away by an offer. They can revisit trading him this offseason.

so with Price and Lester still available, what contending team's GM is stupid enough to trade for Gallardo instead so the Brewers could hypothetically go and get Price/Lester? secondly, name me the last 1st place team at the deadline to trade away their opening day starter. My guess is that list of teams is pretty short, as in zero. "Melvin and company" shouldn't refer to Melvin and the Brewers...Melvin along with the rest of every baseball GM ever created don't make moves like this.

If Wacha or Garcia don't get injured, this sort of trade never happens. I don't really see it as a move that would suddenly vault the Cardinals over the Brewers. still time for a trade like that to potentially happen, but still time for the Brewers to also make a move or two that would benefit their team, also.

the Greinke and Marcum trades happened in the offseason, though. The Sabathia deal most mirrors this possible trade, as a small-mid market team hoping to contend fell on its face early in the season and was left holding an ace that was nearing free agency. The differences are that Tampa won't lose his rights to free agency immediately after the season if they don't trade him now, and Milwaukee's farm system isn't the best of the teams kicking the tires on a trade like it was in 2008. Tampa could get great return for Price whenever they'd be willing to deal him, and I think they'd probably get more if they wait until this winter and open up the bidding to all teams, not just those in contention with 2 months of season left. Shoot, even a team like the Cubs would be a very valid suitor for Price this offseason, and they'd have more to offer than anyone mentioned in current trade talks and could give Price whatever he'd want for a contract extension.

I think specific players being rumored so willfully off the Brewers has more to do with setting the bar that STL or Seattle needs to clear in order for the Rays to trade Price at all. It's kind of the generic "best MLB-ready pitching prospect, best young minor league power bat with some polish, and solid MLB arm that could easily start or excel in the bullpen". The Rays hold all the cards right now, so they can and will demand a king's ransom for Price during the season. If they don't get what they want, they'll try to contend this season and then shop him this winter when all the big market teams that could offer Price a monster contract extension can get involved. A trade coupled with a contract extension in place would minimize the sting of dealing away young pitching/talent if they know they have a #1 starter locked up for 5-7 years anchoring their rotation.

The baseball HOF already has a long list of players and managers inshrined who were cheaters, criminals, racists, substance abusers, and downright awful human beings. Letting PED users in should be a walk in the park for them. The "integrity, sportsmanship, character" section of the rule doesn't apply to over 1/2 of HOF's current members. The reason the dregs are in the HOF is because the voters themselves are pretty much dregs in their own right. There's already been the dead ball era, the raised pitchers mound era, the 1st half of MLB's existence occurred without integration, and countless other periods over the last century and a quarter that have altered criteria for people getting inducted into the HOF...why can't there be references to the steroid era within the hall? After all, it's nothing more than a history museum. Right now MLB's conducting themselves as if they were Germany a few decades after WWII ended...reminds me of an episode of Family guy when Brian and Stewie end up on a German tour bus. When they ask what happened between the mid 1930's and 1945, the tour guide promptly interjects, "Everyone was on vacation!"

Current Brewer offensive OPS rankings by position, all of MLB rankings C - 1st 1b - 25th 2b - 4th 3b - 13th SS - 27th LF - 15th CF - 4th RF - 3rd The Brewers are getting fantastic production from 4 of their positions, average production from 2 of them, and poor production from 2 of them. I can live with Segura scuffling to hit at SS, but I would like a utility IF that can play SS and also hit left-handed with some pop on this roster. 1B remains the position crying for an offensive upgrade, even a marginal upgrade would help this team a ton. Someone like Garrett Jones of the Marlins, or another LH with some pop and OBP skills who won't kill you defensively. Morneau would be more than ideal had he not just gone on the DL.

If Buster had just inserted "MLB hitters" in place for every time he wrote "Ryan Braun" in that article, I'd have less of a problem with it. Offense, slugging, and HR are down league-wide, in part due to better pitching, in part due to fewer players on PEDs/amphetimines, in part due to unseasonably cold weather in alot of MLB parks so far this year. Singling out Braun at this stage of the season when he's among the league leaders in alot of power categories aside from HR is pretty silly. One hot month from Braun will put him right in line with his career averages for HR, even while playing in fewer games due to his nagging injuries.

seeing that Tulowitzki cannot stay healthy over the course of a season (he hasn't played over 150 games since 2009), i don't see it as a nightmare scenario if the Cardinals give up 1/2 their farm system to acquire a great but likely diminishing player who will be getting paid a ton for a long time. he's 29, so staying at SS and suddenly avoiding breaking down from injuries isn't very likely.

STL's market size is below average only by how markets are drawn up on a map. before MLB expanded to the west, that is further west of the Mississippi, the Cardinals were essentially the default home team for most all of the plain states, even reaching beyond the Rocky Mountains. They were the westernmost team for decades in the early-mid 1900's. it's because of this that their scouting/development infrastructure was able to get established throughout the country. The Cardinals were the Yankees of the National League because they had the widest reach of all baseball organizations. Hell, much of WI was Cardinals territory before the Braves came to Milwaukee.

sheets starting those getaway day games with the shadows at Miller Park was just about guaranteed a dozen K's with his curveball.

The Cubs will trade to whoever gives them the most for the MLB players they're trying to unload right now...whether it's within the division or not means nothing to them.

If he proves to be healthy, Bonafacio of the Cubs would be a good utility IF/OF bench option...heard there were scouts from 11 teams watching the Cubs/Padres game - two teams bound to be sellers through the deadline so I'm sure they all weren't there to see Bonafacio only, but I'm sure that he'll be traded.

Another Cub to keep an eye one would be Bonafacio...just off the DL and basically showcasing that he's healthy again before the Cubs trade him, I believe he's a switch hitter who can play practically anywhere on the field. Streaky hitter for sure, but IMO he'd be a good piece to add to the Brewers bench and still get close to full-time player ABs with how many positions he can back up. Might be too many teams interested in him and someone will end up overpaying for his services the rest of this year in a trade.

when hitting to the opposite field, most hitters don't want to "roll over" the bath with their hands - instead you'd want to hit with a strong top hand, and drive the ball to right field with your legs and leverage more than handspeed whipping through the ball. If Braun's thumb is bothering him, and it almost assuredly is, the first thing that would go away would be his ability to whip the hands through the zone when pulling a ball - that added batspeed on inside pitches is what helps generate backspin on baseball...so instead of line drives in the gap or right at outfielders, that little extra whipping action caused by firing the hands through backspins the ball and turns it into a 400' pitching wedge that ends up in the left field seats. Whipping the hands starts in the wrists, but the right thumb is the lever behind the bat as it's contacting the ball. If the lever isn't solid or it's painful when putting that kind of torque on it, it's very tough to elevate the baseball when pulling it.

top hand and a quick oblique turn are both needed to drive a pitch to left field with authority. Braun has a bad thumb on his top hand and a balky oblique...I'm actually surprised pitchers aren't just pouring inside fastballs at Braun until he proves he can pull the ball with authority.

well, now that Buster wrote about how Braun can't hit homeruns, mightaswell cue up the next monthlong tear that Braun will rattle off about a dozen of them...then Buster can write about how he must be back on PED's.

how would Coulter's skillset translate to playing 3B?

1 - the bullpen gets healthy (Henderson and Thornburg) and Doug is able to add another reliever via callup (Jeffress) or deadline trade to improve on what they already have 2 - Braun, ARam, Cargo, and LuCroy stay off the disabled list 3 - they get better offensive production out of 1B than what they got in the 1st half - doesn't necessarily mean they have to bring in new players, but the combo of Overbay and Reynolds have to be better than what their 1st half #'s were. 'O' has shown some signs of life recently, so hopefully that continues. 4 - The Cardinals don't make a big splash at the trade deadline - they have a ton of injuries, many significant, but they still have a talented roster and enough minor league pieces to grab a frontline starter or big bat at the deadline to put them over the top.

I'm having an impossibly hard time coming up with the last Ace-caliber starting pitcher that was traded when he was a prospect, when everyone knew he was going to be a perennial Cy Young candidate. Max Scherzer is the closest I can come up with, but he was traded well after he started accruing service time and losing cost certainty. Teams simply don't include top of the rotation starter-caliber prospects in trades anymore. They'll part ways with upper tier position player prospects to get impact MLB pitching, sure, but the brightest pitching prospects rarely get moved. The only options for the Brewers to bring ace-caliber pitching to Milwaukee are to draft and develop it, or to trade prospects to acquire veteran MLB aces. Free agency for the top 10 arms in the world is a pipe dream and fool's plan for a small market team, and making a trade to acquire one of those type of arms before they make their MLB debut appears even less likely in today's game. I'm talking about trading for pieces of the puzzle with longevity that they can build around. isn't that Will Smith? what Gomez was when they made that deal before Hardy was going to start getting expensive? And the timing of this thread is silly. The Brewers could get the same value in return by trading MLB veterans like Yo, Braun, Gomez, Garza, Lohse, and just about anyone else they have under contract or team control going into 2015 during this coming offseason compared to trading them when the MLB team's in 1st place and they don't have piles of prospects beating down the door to take their place and not miss a beat. as for the Brewers/Packers comparison - if the NFL didn't move toward their current salary cap structure and revenue sharing systems, the Packers would be lucky to have had the success the Brewers have enjoyed in recent years. Before the salary cap was implemented and the dawn of NFL free agency, the Packers were in the midst of their own decades-long stretch of futility. Having who will likely be regarded as 2 of the top 10 all time QBs playing for the Packers over the past two decades has a ton to do with their sustained sucess, too. That argument comparing the NFL/MLB teams is a strawman, IMO. Milwaukee's always been a great baseball town back to the days when the Braves were competing for titles. The economics of baseball put the Brewers and other small market teams at a disadvantage...not insurmountable, but difficult to overcome in order to build an organization intent on competing for titles every year.

True. But it also produced Fielder, Braun, Hart, Hardy, Yo, and probably someone else I'm forgetting. I guess I would take 6 years of that level of talent for Gomez and Zach Duke. the problem with your argument and logic is every one of the players you mention above that the farm system produced was drafted and developed. In today's game, the very best prospects are rarely traded when they are essentially major league ready. you might go after low minors talent that's a few years away and hope they blossom into stars, but many of the best Brewer prospects in their system are all at those levels making names for themselves. The recent A's/Cubs trade was a somewhat rare occasion because a top 10 prospect landed 1.5 years of a #2 starting pitcher and a 1/2 season of an arm pitching great that could likely lead to a compensatory pick in next year's draft when he signs elsewhere as a FA. Of the former Brewer prospects you listed, Hart and maybe Hardy would've been available to trade before they broke into the bigs. The rest were untradeable assets that teams build around when they were climbing through the Brewer system. Zach Duke isn't bringing talent of that level back in a trade. Gomez would, but how many times do players having MVP-caliber seasons for a team in 1st place get traded at the deadline? My guess would be zero. Yes, the Brewers decided to play their worst baseball leading up to the All Star game...but they are still in 1st place, and have a much better injury situation than their most likely competitors (Cards and Reds), who have key position players and pitchers out significant time. Of all the doom and gloom about how the poor Brewers' farm system is going to cost them over the next few years once the Cardinal and Pirates dynasties take shape and rule the NL for the next 25 years, why in the world would you want to trade quality MLB players away from this Brewers team when they have a legit shot to win a division right now??? Especially because not trading these players by this year's deadline isn't going to limit Melvin from trying to trade some of them over this offseason, when their value may be even higher because he wouldn't be limited to trading these guys only to contending teams.

very ironic that his 2nd BP session, likely trying to hit to the opposite field, Baez hit 4-5 weak popups that didn't get out of the screen until his last swing, when he obviously went back to hitting to the pull side of the field. All the hand motion and loading with the big stride make his swing way too difficult to keep good timing with, probably why he's had an uneven AAA season so far. The bat speed is unquestionable, but both plate coverage and the ability to hit offspeed located outside his danger zone are still big-time works in progress. if the pitch is coming in outer 3rd or on the corner it looks like his swing doesn't allow him to stay through the ball long enough to drive it to right field. At some point all that noise he makes with his hands will need to get quieted down for him to hit in MLB consistently. otherwise alot of his ABs will consist of fastballs in off the plate that he hits 5 miles but foul, then offspeed darting off the outside corner that he screws himself into the ground trying to pull.

More or less what I was expecting at some point before August - they simply have too many proven bullpen arms that can help during the season's 2nd half, and they put up with Wang eating up a roster spot for the requisite amount of service time...get him on the 15-day DL, then maximize the time he get's to do a rehab assignment before calling him back up in mid/late August, right before rosters expand. Glad to see Nelson get his opportunity to lock down a rotation spot...too bad he also isn't a great hitter, because this team needs the bats to show up ASAP!