JohnBriggs12

Anyone who thinks Martin Maldonado is anything but a rather 2nd rate backup who's only real redeeming quality is a strong arm hasn't been watching. Steve Stone said something interesting last night about Maldonado. He has not recorded a hit on anything other than a fastball this entire season. Yeah he got a walk off hit the other day, but his OPS is down to .504. His defense other than his throwing too has been sub par. He's not blocking pitches well, and has a couple of careless passed balls then last night he had a key catcher's interference. With Centeno hitless, might be time to take a look at career minor leaguer Nevin Ashley who's been swinging it well at CS.

I found this article nauseating, like vultures surrounding a carcass. I know MLBtraderumors needs content but it's silly to speculate in the middle of May. Again, it's too early to write off this season but more importantly is the outlook for 2016 equally as bleak with a returning core of Lucroy, Lind, Segura, Davis, Gomez, Braun, Peralta, Garza, Nelson, and K-Rod and $40 million lopped off the salary by departures of Ramirez, Lohse, Broxton, and Parra? Seems to be they are poised to go into 2016 with a significantly better roster than the one that broke camp this year. Who knows how long it will be before this franchise has any hope if they do a complete rebuild especially if they are just settling for 2nd tier prospects in return? As it is, they have the makings of a team that could contend in 2016 with a couple key additions to the pitching staff (an upgrade over Lohse, better bullpen depth, maybe a solid 3B) I know a lot of posters have this fantasy of building this minor league system into one that's overflowing with talent. Nice thought but many of those guys wash out before making any impact and the major league club still has to play games every year and they'll lose fans in a market that needs every one. That's not to say they shouldn't always explore deals. Not sure if any of the guys with deal expiring can be moved, but even if the team comes to life and gets to edges of the race by July, if anyone calls on Lohse, A-Ram, Broxton, or Parra, they should listen. If an offer comes for Gomez that can't be refused, by all means, but remember, if he's kept for the duration of the deal, at worst he'll bring back a pick. Segura is the other guy from the core who could be dealt for some return because there are nearly ready SS behind him. But why entertain dealing Lind for instance? First base has been an issue since Fielder left. Lind is still relatively cheap for next year, and he's a guy who might be open to a reasonably affordable extension.

Any word on Hellweg's rehab progress? Is he in extended ST and is he doing any throwing?

Anyone care to look and notice that through 32 games last year, the Pirates were 12-20 and further back (by a half game) in the wild card race than the Brewers are now and just like the Brewers today, ahead of just one other team in the NL.

When all is said and done it will be Carlos Gomez. Just too much "name" competition for Lind. If CG stays in lineup, his numbers we'll reflect those of an All Star.

Haha I had a good chuckle at this. But in all seriousness, Herrera should play over Scooter. He's been flat out awful. Counsell has been showing just the right amount of patience and not falling for small sample struggles of his players. Just this past Friday, Herrera was hitting .186/.255/.302 and as recently as last Thursday, Davis was hitting .209/.309/308. Gennett's Line Drive Percentage is a whopping 37%, well over the league average of 24%, and better than his 30% over the past couple years when he was a .300 hitter. Someone with a LD% over 30% cannot continue to have a low BABIP of .243 over time. In other words, Gennett has been hitting in fairly extreme bad luck. Since coming back from his injury he's made very good contact (3 K's in 24 PA compared to 12 in his first 33 PA appearences pre DL stint) The last thing Counsell should do is show lack of confidence in him when he's actually swinging the bat well but not getting results.

They are 9-8 after starting 2-13. The first 15 games were a hangover from last year. Anyone thinking the season is over needs to look at the 2012 Oakland A's. There's plenty of time to get to around .500 by the All Star break and nobody is going to start selling players if .500 by All Star break is still within reach.

That's funny. What's changed? Oh yeah, the manager. Anyone else think Counsell might have had Braun in his office this week and told him to take the walks?

I suppose Kintzler was the best option by default. I'd be searching the waiver wire. Blake Parker anyone? Never want to see Wooten in a Brewer uniform again.

On June 10, 2012, the Oakland A's were 26-35 and 9 games behind in the AL West. They finished that year 94-68 and won the division by a game. They made up 10 games in the standings over 101 games. The Brewers have 134 games left to make up 11.5 games. The 2012 A's featured a far from stellar lineup that included Kurt Suzuki and Derek Norris behind the plate, Chris Carter and Brandon Moss at 1B, Jemile Weeks at 2B, Cliff Pennington at SS, Brandon Inge and rookie Josh Donaldson at 3B, Yoenis Cespedes in LF, Coco Crisp in CF and Josh Reddick in RF and Jonny Gomes as the DH. Their rotation consisted of immortals like Tommy Milone, Jarrod Parker, 39 year old Bartolo Colon, Brandon McCarthy, Travis Blackley and A.J. Griffin. Show of hands if you don't think the Brewers have a better roster than that? Way too early to give up on the season. Oh yeah, didn't Craig Counsell just say the same Bob Melvin that managed that Oakland team had the biggest influence on him?

His strikeout rate to walk ratio and OBP is that of a complete offensive player. He makes a lot better contact than most of the premier power prospects in baseball. He already has 4 outfield assists so he has the arm to stay in RF. His ceiling is higher than Burnitz' was at a similar stage. I think he's takes over for Braun in RF a couple months into 2017 season with Braun moving to 1B and will make the biggest offensive impact of any Brewer rookie since Braun 10 years earlier.

What led KC to the World Series besides stinking for years and drafting high was the greatest performance by a trio out of the bullpen in major league history though there is certainly merit to the argument that the Grienke trade positioned them to the point where they became legit contenders. I believe the Brewers have enough trade-able pieces both this year and next to bolster their chances in 2018 and beyond without sacrificing all hope in 2016-2017 which is why Lucroy is likely going nowhere.

Roenicke at his core is a laid back touchy feely Southern Californian. Just his comment on Jackie Robinson day about being sensitive about sitting Davis that day. Really Ron, that's your focus? This team badly needed a more workmanlike identity. I think Counsell can give it one.

I think all you guys are wrong for interpreting a few pundits comments as they are going to deal off players in the next few weeks. The facts are they are 26 games into a 162 game season and they stumbled badly out of the gate. You can't base an entire season on the first 20 games. Like it or not part of that was the hangover from the final 5 weeks of 2014. Something was definitely amiss in the leadership and that should have been addressed in October. But it wasn't. This team was just playing awful baseball. No team with the veteran presence of the Brewers is going to throw in the towel the first week of May no matter how bad they've looked to this point. There's just too many games left and too many things can happen. All Melvin has acknowledged is that he's open to moving players in an attempt to improve the long term outlook should it come to that when teams start looking for help usually just before the All Star break. It's kind of understood isn't it? I know some of you will be terribly disappointed but if this team crawls it's way back to .500 by the 4th of July, they will be in that large group of teams within touch of wild card and not only that, they will be a team with some momentum too. It's hard for any owner to forego a shot at a playoff berth, much less with a team that's battled back from a horrendous start. Odds are that they will play better than they have the next couple months but still may be a bit far out of it. That's probably what is most likely. In that case they'll definitely shop the veterans on their final years: Lohse, Ramirez, Broxton, Parra and they could shop a Garza or a K-Rod too if the demand is strong. They also would strongly consider dealing Segura because of the depth behind him. But I don't see them surrendering 2016 under any circumstances, which is why I don't see them trading Lucroy, Gomez or Lind. They don't have a replacements ready for those guys and they'll go into the winter with money to spend. As for starters who'll fill in if Lohse and Garza are dealt. I wouldn't rule out a Brooks Hall or Tyler Wagner jumping 2 levels. Both seem on pace to be promoted to AAA by midseason, and if they shine in a handful of starts in AAA too, they pass up Jungmann.

Count me as a non-believer in Houston. They aren't going to continue this level of play. I really like Preston Tucker (already 10 HR in AAA) though, but I'm sure if they need a bat they'll bring him up.

Olney tweets about the Brewers are about as accurate as the Farmers Almanac is at predicting weather. I don't think they are about to pull the plug on Harrison after one bad month just after giving him a multi year deal and Alvarez isn't going anywhere. Now it could turn out that Harrison is a Pirate version of Bill Hall but they are going to give him more than this year before they come to that realization. Besides other than pounding on the Brewers, Pirates have not looked exactly like contenders either and may well be sellers come July.

This makes more sense. This is one aspect the advanced metrics crowd rarely gets; the personalities and chemistry of a bunch of alpha males in a locker room, let alone factoring in losing. Just the fact that a team that was in first place for 5 months became so utterly helpless down the stretch is a sign that all was not right behind the scenes. This year it just carried over, with the newcomer Lind not surprisingly the least affected. That being said, I don't think this is an easy group to manage and Counsell is going to be tested. There are guys on this team who weren't particularly popular in the clubhouses of other organizations and some of those guys are among the highest paid Brewers. That's not even counting what feelings Braun engenders especially when he's not carrying his load.

Did you hear Counsell? He said the changes he has in store will be for the most part behind the scenes. Roenicke was fired because he wasn't getting the best out of his players. It's incredibly telling when the guy performing the best relative to expectations is Lind who hasn't been around a Roenicke clubhouse prior to this year. I completely agree with the comments he made about lineups and pitching changes being overrated. It's something for us fans to talk about, but it wasn't the lineup or pitching decisions that got Roenicke fired. It was his inability to get players performing to their abilities. That's all preparation, motivation and tone setting behind the scenes.

Lot tougher changing GM's in midseason. Melvin could still be stepping down after this year. He's turning 63. As for Counsell suddenly turning them into pennant contenders, if he gets them playing to their ability levels, anything can happen with 137 games left. Not going to be easy, but they aren't buried in terms of wild card just yet. They were appearing to show some signs of emerging from the major hangover effect of last season's collapse. Finally holding the manager responsible can't hurt.

Managing isn't rocket science. I'm more concerned with leadership skills and getting players to perform at their best. Counsell doesn't have the stench of the last 100 games hanging over him. I believe he's ready for the job. This team needed a generational change.

The hangover from last year's collapse has a lot to do with the awful start this year. This should have happened in October. Roenicke is a nice man, and knows baseball, but he lacks leadership skills and when things went south under his tenure, he couldn't get his team to fight it's way out of it. Yesterday was a good example of lack of leadership. He should never have left it up to Segura about staying in the game. You don't leave that to the player who was just hit in the head. It appears Gomez stepped up and convinced Segura to come out. Like the Counsell selection. He's in the mold of Matheny.

Rogers made a couple bad throws in his one start at 3B, but sooner or later Roenicke needs to give the guy another chance. He can hit. Might not hurt to give him some starts in LF too.

Definitely a very bad deal. Could have been justified if Parra met a glaring need, but he didn't. He added some depth to the OF that was missing, but as a PH, he was kind of eh and he wasn't going to provide the offense missing because of Braun's thumb issue. You should not have surrendered a promising young arm like Banda to get that kind of help.

Am I the only one that notices in all the hoopla about Kris Bryant that nobody ever brings up Braun and his incredible 2007 debut season with the bat as a comparison? It's like Bryant is completely unique and/or nobody wants to be connected with anything Braun has ever done because of his PEDs.

I think Segura's enough as the main piece to get Matz. You can always add a lower level arm to the deal if need be or throw in Bradley. I don't see the Brewers dealing Segura for Marcos Molina. Brewers have always looked to get near major league ready players in return. Molina might be a nice prospect and have a fairly high ceiling but he's a long way from the majors and those guys have a significant flame out rate. They cannot afford to deal Segura and get nothing back. They got Segura that way. Matz' injury history shouldn't be too much of a concern. He threw 140 innings in 2014. Matz for Segura makes a ton of sense. Brewers could us a lefty in their rotation and he's about major league ready now but blocked in NY.