Never Outhustled

Both Franklin and Dejesus had around 200 ABs last year. Franklin had a 771 OPS, Dejesus a 623. Franklin is more versatile. Easy decision to leave Frankin up. He'll likely go on a hot streak at some point. Wren isn't even a good AAA player, he is right where he belongs.

Expecting more is knowing the reality of the situation, based on what happend just last year.

Roache was traded, not released. Can't judge the deal until we see the return. They also seem to think highly of Choice, as he starting and batting 3rd.

Yah, I think it is pretty unusual for an MLB trade to have a performance component to it. I doubt any of the players on the agreed-upon list will be yanked because Tyler got hurt. Officially, no. But I could see Stearns just taking the $100 in a show of goodwill. Sox would be more willing to deal in the future, and remember this if a deal is close, Stearns gets what he wants. Other GMs would take notice too. I don't think for a minute he would be seen as a sucker, just looking long term instead of short term gain of another low level meh prospect. Josh Pennington hasn't pitched yet, so under your line of thinking they should owe us more right? Doug Melvin isn't in charge anymore, we're not trying to make deals that are good for both teams anymore. We'll try to win every deal. If we're successful in that, there'll always be plenty of GMS to trade with, because GMs routinely get replaced.

I highly doubt the deal had any contingencies for Thornburg's health. He wasn't injured at the time of the deal. No way we let our spoils be determined by their ability to keep their pitcher healthy. Tyler attributes his injury to their goofy spring training throwing program.

The good news is, the last 2 drafts look outstanding in round 2-5 (or should I describe it as rounds comp through 5?). Potentially the best round 2-5 in Brewers history.

Even before Thornburg got hurt it was PTBNL or $100. That alone should tell you about the quality of the player coming back. The reason the amount was set at $100 was because they were so sure the Brewes would choose a player, because the players list is quality. The Thornburg deal will likely go down as highway robbery.

People that follow baseball saw Andrew Cashner, who's remarkably similar to Garza, get traded last year at the deadline for a significant return.

This is where the front office will show their true colors on the rebuild. If Garza is that good into July, there is a pretty chance we are competing for the wild card. It will be interesting to see if they sell off that many pieces come July if they have a chance at snagging one of those two last spots. Garza, like so many other pitchers, has improved since getting out of the shadow of former pitching coach Rick Kranitz. Garza had been solid his whole career except for his time with Kranitz. I'd think teams will recognize this. Johnson will keep Garza pitching well, and the Brewers have zero need for a salary dump. He'll only be dealt for value.

He throws 98 and strikes people out. He'll have plenty of value, assuming he starts limiting home runs, which is easy to expect considering his peripheral numbers.

Hader has done nothing but struggle at AAA. He needs to continue to refine his control. Honestly, he's not very close to the majors. Also, all 3 need to continue to build on their inning totals, not limit them. I do think we could see Lopez and Woodruff in a month, but only as starters. We could dramatically improve our pen by staying patient with the guys we have. They all pitched better as last year wore on, and will likely do so again. The only reliever that worries me is Torres, he's older and his curveball looks like mush. However, he doesn't need to pitch high leverage innings, so he's fairly inconsequential right now.

Milone has a career 4.14 ERA as a starter. He's had success before, and was worthy of a look. It didn't work out, and we've moved on. It's nice to have worthwhile relievers available at AAA like Scahill.

Call up Hader now? He's not even a good AAA pitcher yet. It's frustrating, but we're 3 weeks away from change. Only Woodruff and Lopez have put themselves in position for call ups, hopefully they continue to dominate the minors. Peralta can stick in the majors as a reliever. The bullpen will settle down, accept for maybe Torres. Cravey and Scahill remain options.

At what point does a small sample turn into flip-flopping Harrison and Clark? Flipping Harrison with Ray would be better.

Robert Is expected to be cleared for this signing period.

Bump. I'm really interested in this. People here are bashing him and I would love to hear someone who has actually seen him play. One does not need to watch Nottingham to know he had a horrid year behind the dish. 21 passed balls, 15 errors, and a CS% of just 29% is really bad. That is WAY too much and needs to start improving on. The real question is did he do anything well? Blocking skills obviously don't show up on the stats sheet nor does his game calling(the former I have heard is shaky at best). If those things were half decent at least he would have something going for him. The few times I saw mentions on his defense this year it was pretty similar to what was said before the season. Still very questionable and not much improvement on last year which is not a great sign. Still has athletic ability and youth on his side to keep hope alive. My biggest concern is the fact how much he needs to improve. A full MLB season and he would be at 25ish passed balls. Honestly there is no excuse for that to be over 10 for an MLB catcher and even that seems steep. The errors took a huge spike this year for whatever reason. Once again that number should be 5-10 not 15. Then you have his CS% which was 29% which is livable, however a catchers CS% usually goes down as he climbs the ladder so that number would be lower than 29% if he had MLB guys running on him daily. He needs a ton of improvement plus his bat really needs to shine since his defense is going to be average at best. Honestly it gets to be a Clint Coulter situation where you contemplate just moving him so he can just focus on offense. If he doesn't make any strides next year I think that is what should be done. When the Great Khris Davis was the same age as Nottingham is right now, Davis played for the Rookie Level Arizona Brewers, and he wasn't all that special. Any concerns over Nottingham's bat are rather premature. Nottingham is over 6 months younger than our most recent 1st round draft pick Corey Ray. Ray turns 22 this week.

This isn't the only time the Brewers pitching has been good this year. They were 2nd in the Majors for July. What we're seeing is the Derek Johnson effect. The longer he works with these pitchers the better they get. He's a special talent, a tremendous hire. The teams ranking, by month, has been 30th, 14th, 10th, 2nd, then they slipped to 21st in August after 2 key relievers were dealt and injuries hit, but have rebounded to 4th in September. For an organization with such a wretched history of pitching, this new direction is both exciting and relieving.

Domingo Santana was better in AA at age 20 than Cordell was 24. Santana is actually younger than Cordell. Fairly certain you typed that wrong without looking up birthdates but Brinson literally just came from that AA team and was hitting pedestrian there as well. I also said profiles so not sure why youre trying to compare production. Two completely different things. Nope, I looked up the birthdates, and like I said, Santana is younger than Cordell. I'm not sure how Brinson got into the conversation, but he was playing hurt this year. He crushed AA last year.

Domingo Santana was better in AA at age 20 than Cordell was 24. Santana is actually younger than Cordell.

He should be having more than just a solid season when he is 24 years old at AA. He dominated some lower levels as a college draftee. Color me not too impressed. Not saying he isn't a prospect, but sure isn't something special at this point. I have seen some make it seem like his power won't play at a corner OF position, but he has an OPS over .800 and 20+ homerun power. His slugging % is actually quite high. He has a Marcell Ozuna type line and that isn't too bad. It should also be noted that Cordell's stats are inflated Texas League style.

Cordell was a failed experiment at 3B. That's not an option going forward. Whoever the reporter was who said this PTBNL was comparable top the other prospects in the deal was dead wrong. Cordell isn't nearly as proven or advanced as Ramon Flores, and he's only 9 days younger. I don't mind getting more OFs, because so many of our OF prospects washed out this year.

He got on base plenty before this year. So you consider the 263 OBA he had in AA last year to be plenty? He seems to struggle with advanced pitching. Maybe Stearns thinks the organization's focus on plate discipline can help Cordell, but that seems doubtful for a player already 24 who hasn't even seen AAA yet.

How disappointing. Cordell is 24 and doesn't get on base. Not much of a prospect at all. The rest of the list must have been pretty disappointing.

The Brewers use the AFL to evaluate which relievers should be added to the 40 man roster. Jacob Barnes pitched well in the AFL last year, and was added to the 40. That's turned out to be a wise move.

I think is important to remember that when Khris Davis was the same age as Josh Nottingham is now, Khris was playing for the Rookie Level Arizona Brewers. He put up a 869 OPS. What would Nottingham put up there now? 1.600? It's likely Nottingham will likely be worth far, far more per dollar spent in his first 6 years than what KD does in these couple years with Oakland, even if Nottingham ends up a LF like Davis.