JohnBriggs12

Defensive metrics are still in their infancy so he probably wasn't as good as they said he was earlier and now he's not as bad.. As to salaries, weren't some of you complaining about taking on Aaron Hill too saying he was useless and done? For goodness sake it's been 14 1/2 months since Parra was turned into the Brewers current #2 starter. Is Parra overpaid? Sure and significantly, but unlike Garza, he wouldn't be taking a job from a young promising player unless you include Wren in that group and even at his worst, he's a better player overall than Nieuwenhuis who they could simply non-tender and save $1.5 million or so. If Parra could put together 3-4 solid months either in 2017 or 2018, he'd re-establish trade value.

Gerardo Parra? He is a disaster with the bat and his defense is a joke. His offense has never been good and his defense has gotten so bad there is no upside whatsoever. Best case scenario he puts up 1 WAR...best case. With -4WAR in his last 600 PAs I think I will find a different way to waste money. We honestly probably have dozens of guys who could put up stats like Parra laying around. Parra's career has been a roller coaster, up one year, down the next. He's still just 29 so you'd be gambling that he'll rebound yet again, but your not giving up anything of value and you'd also be getting a young lefty hitting catcher.

None of the scheduled arby guys (see thread with MLBTR projections) will break the bank, though Carter will get a nice raise and deservedly so.

Carter $8.1 million Peralta $4.4 Anderson $3.1 Gennett $3.0 Thornburg $2.2 Torres $2.0 Maldonado $1.6 Nieuwenhuis $1.6 Have to think they'd consider non-tendering Nieuwenhuis and look for an upgraded lefty bat and perhaps look to deal Maldonado and go with Susac/Pina for less. Thornburg's number seems a bit light to me. If all are brought back, it's roughly $14 million in arby raises.

Angels have the worst system in baseball and not much at the major league level that would interest the Brewers. Sure they are one of the few teams with a real need at 2B and are RH dominant but so are the Brewers. They had to deal a competent major league starter in Santiago along with a B or C level bullpen arm to get Nolasco and former top prospect Alex Meyer from the Twins. They just didn't have the prospects to give Minnesota.

Did I miss something? Who's the alternative to Carter? Counsell just said he sees Perez as super utility guy. Do we really know 2B is Villar's best position? He's played a handful of games there. That's it. He was awful at 3B but got better toward the end. Besides, Scooter is the only other reliable LH bat in the lineup. Unless there's a deal in the works where Brewers get a big lefty stick to play 1B, I don't see either scenario. Carter's not going to stress the payroll as low as it is. Gennett won't bring much value in a deal. Average 2b aren't in great demand.

Joyce will be a FA, and is coming off a nice bounce back season. Brewers could use an offensive upgrade from Nieuwenhuis as a LH bat to spell Braun and do some platooning with Santana in RF and be a premier LH pinch hit option and DH in AL parks. With Perez showing he can handle CF in a pinch and CFs galore in high minors making Nieuwenhuis' defense less critical, Joyce might make a nice addition.

Orioles are in worse shape starting pitching-wise than Brewers so maybe it's a good thing Peterson's not around. Maybe Brewers need to spend some money and get Don Cooper from White Sox, now that they have new manger. He's helped Sale become one of the top pitchers in the game, and from all I've read, Hader's stuff and delivery are very similar.

Rangers over Cubs. Giants have shot to knock off Cubs if they can get to Bumgarner with the series even. Cubs might be a little stale sitting around and the city is so over the top confident which will put tremendous pressure on them if the Giants can steal one of the first two in Chicago.

More disturbing that they are trying to take fans focus away from the lesser product on the field. Sort of like their ad that they ran this year about the experience of a game that "won't make the lead on Sports Center". Imagine a franchise telling their fans that the outcome of games isn't important but why don't you come and spend your money anyway?

I would suspect we'll see the following names off the 40 man in the next few weeks: Wilkins, Cecchini, Goforth, Elmore, Pinto, Rowen, Boyer, Blazek and maybe one or two more. I'm guessing they try and get Blazek to return on a minor league deal.

Brewer left handed hitters had the lowest BA (.237), SP (.370) and OPS (.691) and fewest HR (44) of any NL team. Against RHP their OPS of .716 ranked in a tie for 11th in the NL. They also struck out an amazing 1,137 times vs. RHP Conversely, Brewer RH hitters had the most HR in the NL (150) and ranked 5th in the NL with an OPS of .746. Against LHP the Brewers overall ranked 4th with an OPS of .764. I realize there's sentiment that at this stage of a rebuild that focusing on better lineup balance is a low priority and there's some validity in that. But clearly, better production against RHP while maintaining that level of success vs. LHP would result in noticeable improvement overall. Hopefully some of that will come from improvement from the likes of Broxton and Santana who struggled vs. RHP. But they could use an upgrade over the likes of Nieuwenhuis and Flores who didn't fill the role of balancing the lineup. Unfortunately they might have to look outside the organization for help as the top LH bat prospects are a few years away.

Thought I'd bump this up with Thames now officially a FA. Brewers have obvious need for LH bat as a 4th OF to spell (or replace) Braun occasionally and do some soft platooning with Santana who struggles against RHP.. He's pretty much limited to corner OF but with Perez showing he can play CF adequately, I think they'd be covered there to back up Broxton. His numbers in Korea were off a bit this year, so his price may fall into a reasonable level.

Try this one:. Garza and Maldonado to the Rockies for Parra and lefty hitting catcher Tony Wolters Parra is a bounce back candidate much like Hill was last year. Wolters would make nice young soft platoon with Susac. Adding 2 lefty bats would ease the loss of Gennett should that be the plan.

That's where I differ. Every major league season is precious. Purposely not putting your team into position to improve (when the path is so obvious and not detrimental to long range goals) hurts in the long run. The young players on this team need to learn how to play in pressure situations. I'd go out and get a LH hitting OF to spell Braun and be in soft platoon with Santana who hit just .231/.318/.408 vs. RHP as opposed to .312/.404/.532 vs. LHP. It's a glaring need that won't go away in 2018 either unless it's addressed. Nieuwenhuis just isn't quite up to that role. Neither was Flores, but the fact that both were tried showed they recognize that they needed a balance regardless of where they are in rebuild process.

They're way too right handed offensively as they posted a very poor team .716 OPS vs. RHP. No reason Villar can't shift between 3B and 2B. Unless they find a big time LH bat to replace Braun, assuming he's traded or deal another RH bat for a LH one, they need Scooter to help balance out the lineup. Bump in pay will be insignificant considering low payroll. Gennett will likely get no more than $2.5 million in arby, tops.

"Scooter finished strong and will hopefully be providing value to some other team next year" He's one of just 2 LH bats in the regular lineup. The other is Villar. Nieuwenhuis by default saw extensive playing time but his numbers aren't worthy of regular duty. I don't think he's a sure thing to be playing elsewhere in 2017. Besides his value in the trade market is likely to be rather tepid. Brewer team OPS vs. RHP was just .716 contrasted with .764 vs. LHP. They have tremendous room for improvement vs. RHP. They should be adding LH bats not subtracting them.

Most impressive stat of all might be the 10 sac flies by Carter considering his high strikeout rate.

I've hated the Cubs since the Braves days. In fact I believe to this day it was Cubs ownership behind the scenes that orchestrated the Braves departure to Atlanta in large part to recapture the Milwaukee market they lost when Braves arrived. In the case of the Cardinals, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" only applies when they are playing the Cubs.

Garza's trade value is about what Aaron Hill's was last year. Somebody could take him but not as the main piece in a deal. In other words his trade value has gone from negative to neutral, but nobody's going to give up any value in a one for one deal. So who do you package him with? Gennett? Maldonado? Nelson? A prospect in a position of some strength or one coming off a good year like Wren? I'm in agreement with reillymcshane that the main benefit for unloading him is to make room for potentially better options though having extra salary flexibility to bolster the pen or a position of need (adding a LH bat to the mix) might come in handy.

Jean Segura would bounce back and hit .328/.367/.498 in 2016. They would trade a minor league pitcher for a guy who can play 3B or 2B and would hit .285/.369/.458 with 19 HR and would lead the NL in SB in 2016 and be controllable for many more years. Khris Davis would hit 41 HR and have 100 RBI in 2016. Ryan Braun would bounce back and post an OPS over .900 Jonathon Lucroy would make another All Star team and post an .851 OPS in 2016 They'd get a relatively young and controllable CF in a minor deal who over the 2nd half of 2016 would post an OPS of .937 and steal 16 bases. They'd deal Gerardo Parra for a young pitcher who in his first 34 major league starts would be 14-9 with an ERA under 4 They'd sign a cheap, controllable through 2018 1B who'd hit 39 HR and drive in 92 runs in 2016 They'd pluck off the scrap heap a controllable starting major league minimum pitcher who'd make 20 starts and post a sub 3.00 ERA as a rookie Jeremy Jeffress and Tyler Thornbug would both prove to be top of the line late inning relievers Hernan Perez would prove to be a valuable super utility player, hit double digit HR and steal over 30 bases playing all over That 85-86 wins would secure an NL wild card berth in 2016. If we'd known all that, would the narrative coming from ownership that they had no chance the next couple years so lets dismantle the roster and start over make sense? Hindsight is indeed 20-20 but when you make a radical change (and lets hope things do work out eventually) and deal quality players for prospects, you can still be subject to 2nd guessing. Point is also that there are deals to be made that improve the product on the field that don't involve dismantling the core of the team. Imagine the return if they pedaled Segura and Davis this offseason?

Almost every hitter has bad months. Segura was never "downright terrible". He showed up and played hard. In September 2014 when the almost the entire team collapsed, Segura hit .319/.364/.389. He's a talented player and always was. Sometimes the results weren't there, but it was never from a lack of effort. Jury is still out on that deal. If Diaz turns out to live up to expectations, then it was a good deal. Anderson's been okay.

Well the owner's comments last week when talking to Bill and Brian totally discouraged me. I thought I heard him use the terms "no-chance, and 2017" in the same sentence. So I expect no effort to improve the team's chances for 2017, and in fact I expect the roster to have less talent on it next April than it does now sadly. Forgive me but as someone who competed in athletics in high school against long odds, I just can't fathom that type of attitude. It's one thing to focus on future success but you can do that and put the best possible product on the field in the present too.

Sadly sometimes the combination of immaturity and wealth ends tragically. Hope all the young men with successful careers in athletics making big salaries take heed. Taking a boat out into the ocean to blow off steam in the middle of the night after an argument with your pregnant girlfriend might seem like a good idea to a 24 year old guy but not to most mature adults. Too bad his friends were just as immature. Wasn't he scheduled to pitch later that day?

I usually make it to between 3 and 5 games a year. This year I made one in July and that was it. Bought the tickets on stubhub at a discount for a weekend game. I'm betting the day of game walk up sales were close to non-existent. When the GM defends trading a 40 HR, 100 RBI bat for one questionable prospect and one non-prospect by saying "If we were trying to win this year, we wouldn't have traded Davis", why should I pay to see them? The management is trying to lose as many as possible and they are still trying to lose by shutting down their two best pitchers in the final weeks. Still they are less than a dozen games out of the wild card, a testament to Counsell and the players they did put on the field. So kudos to them.