igor67

I would be stunned if they pulled that off, though I'm not sure the money on Parra is an issue since he isn't signed for next year and is making just over half of what Gomez does this year.

There are too many things happening to worry about having too many good prospects at a position right now. We got a premium prospect without dealing a #1 starter or perennial All-star that's really hard to do even though teams have seemed a bit more free wheeling this time around. BPA is pretty much always the way to go when it comes to prospects, and I think we did that. We even dealt Fiers a year too early instead of a year too late, which is the first time I can remember the Brewers doing that.

It's worth mentioning that historically Melvin's deals don't feature a lot of early leaks, no news may just mean he is working with teams that have tighter lips after yesterday.

Given that the Parra trade sounded like it died rMelvin should move on for a little while.

They wanted a competitive balance pick from us too? What a thread. Just a reminder that we don't need to deal Gomez by the deadline. Parra is the guy who really needs to be dealt, Cotts to a lesser extent, but given finite time resources and potential return I would spend a ton of effort at this point until Parra is dealt.

The rotation sure looks a lot nicer with 4 guys starting with ERA's under 4. Peralta with a very nice start so far tonight.

Roache with 2 doubles tonight and almost up to a .900 OPS with Biloxi.

While there aren't many bats on the market I think Zobrist moving helps grease the wheels on Parra because Zobrist seemed like #1 on everyone's list for a bat regardless of position, so now they have to move on. Zobrist has been such a hot name on the trade market for years now that I'm pretty sure the Parra haul won't be nearly that good.

Picking up Tulo tells me that the Jays were not just trying to improve this year, but also extend their offensive core's years together. And I don't see them dealing Hoffman in that case for Gomez.

Cooper threatening an .800 OPS in Brevard with his homer barrage. He'll be interesting to watch in AA next year to see if he can really get himself on the map as a prospect.

That would be a 1000 run offense a decade ago. They could still use more relief help, but it was a neat way to sneak a little bit of help in their.

It certainly could get tight at Wisconsin next year, but there is a lot of time between now and then (especially with instructionals and spring). For those players to sort out who might be ready for the jump.

Broxton strikes me as a guy who gets dealt in August after the other names have been dealt. After the early season hiccups he has been pretty good again. A contender with an injury is likely to find him a useful player at a very low cost at that point.

It's not outside the realm of possibility, A big key in my mind is trying to give some of these youngish guys on the bubble a chance to develop and see what they can do. If a Perez or Dominguez can match Aramis' offense, but with better defense that could make a difference if Arcia hits like he has with that defense. Their are a number of other young arms to take a longer look at as well. It's a good reason not to just dump everything right away. You can hold out for good value on guys who would be around next year, and deal only if the value is very good while you wait and see how guys play in the second half, and if you don't see much then you still have plenty of a window to get solid value for those other guys.

Considering the relative value we were giving up I would rate this as an excellent deal. First the guaranteed return of just over 1/5 (compared to a little over 1/3 of the season remaining) of his remaining contract in savings is more than I would have guessed we'd pull off while still getting a prospect worth caring about much. I don't worry about trying to saving Attanasio's money too much in these sorts of deals, but I will acknowledge the value particularly if it can ensure the team breaks even on the season and doesn't have to go super cheap on other things again. Second and more importantly it is a talent with some serious potential. I have little interest in older flamethrower's who haven't learned control (Hellweg etc.). Between his relative inexperience pitching, already being in AA and the fact that he currently isn't wild I have more confidence he can develop into at least a useful player and possibly even an elite reliever. Consider that the Pirates had the 7th ranked farm system coming into the year by minorleagueball.com and he was their 21st best prospect. I will crudely assert that this is roughly comparable to a similar ranking on our most recent community list. Which would be guys like Demi, Knebel, and Taylor Williams. Yes that is excellent value. Between more buyers, a better player, and a lower salary similar prospect return for Parra could easily be a player comparable to the outside of our current top 10. Which if that is all Melvin got done would still be a pretty good deadline, keeping in mind that Cotts is the only other player who might bring some real prospect value that would need to be dealt right now. That doesn't mean I'm not hoping for more, but there is not sense in getting weak value for guys who don't need to be dealt right now.

Now that Roache has warmed up a bit, unsurprisingly he is hitting for more power outside of Brevard, but his walk rate is also up a tick and his K rate is down quite a bit at his current AA rate he'd only K 70 times in the same number of ABs he had at A+ this year. It's still high, but I think it bodes well for him having a better chance of hitting for a high enough average to be useful.

I'm just happy someone got things going, it should start to get things moving.

File in the under the radar category, but Nathan Orf looks like he could be a much more interesting bench option than Sardinas or Gomez for next year .271/.370/.376 as a righty and a lot of flexibility on the IF, so he can be more than just a platoon mate for Gennett. Sardinas is still only 22 and Rivera 23, so to me it makes some sense to let them try and get more ABs in AAA to develop their bats. Glad to see Gatewood continue to show the power in games should start to lead to an increased walk total as guys try to work around him. I will be very curious to see were Demi and Lara rank nationally by the end of the season.

It's certainly important to highlight the impact of recently added talent to turning things around. Even with a few graduations by the end of the season it's not too hard to imagine the top 25 being even more crowded after the deadline (at least we can hope). Just as importantly though has been the fact that very few guys have had poor seasons. Some have had breakout seasons like Arcia and Lopez, but even guys who had struggled out of the gate managed to get back on track. Even Taylor whose AA season has been so-so is not completely falling apart and is plenty young enough to absorb the hiccup without a huge blow to his prospect potential. Bottom line not losing guys along the way has been almost as important as the incoming talent in turning things around.

It's not that I think draft changes are mutually exclusive to changes in the minors, but a simple matter of prioritizing what change I'd value the most. Those types of large scale changes almost never happen all at once, so it makes sense to prioritize.

Hellweg with 4 BBs and 2 HBP tonight in 2 IP, when are we done with him?

Given all of the considerations after his turn around even with a solid performance to end the season I'm pretty sure Wang will move up.

That maybe true, but to me it does seem like with slotting things have generally improved. It seems like most juniors sign, because the reality is that they have little leverage given what college seniors are signing for these days, so about the only play left is at the high school level. I'm OK with where the draft system is at and I'd much rather see effort spent on paying minor leaguers a fair wage.

I would tend to agree that I'm not in favor. It does however highlight that if the Brewers did keep playing like they have been for the last couple of months (not just the recent hot streak) should think differently about the last 2 seasons. Namely the possibility, that except for just over 2 months of nearly historically awful baseball at the end of last season and the beginning of this season the Brewers could have had 2 more playoff years. We will likely never know how strong they could have finished this season with the team as is, but the possibility is out there that the really bad baseball was more of a fluke than the pretty good baseball. If nothing else the really bad baseball could have been distributed less equally among the 2 seasons and giving us another playoff year.

I think it is reasonably clear that that extra high pick is perhaps even more valuable then people had imagined given the way in which teams are using the bonus pool system. It certainly looks that the only way for teams to be able to take some of these huge overslot guys (Cameron for example) is to have that extra pick to be able to go well under slot. There's just not enough money in the middle rounds to save enough on seniors.