JohnBriggs12

Ehlers?? No. I think a fair return would be a Drew VerHagen, or perhaps an Alex Burgos (Brewers could could accumulate all those named Burgos). Axford is worth a second tier pitching prospect who's 2-3 years away, and those names fit. I'd really like another guy currently at Lakeland, Kyle Ryan. But it's hard to see Detroit surrendering a 21 year old lefty who's having success in High A ball.

There's no question Aoki would be missed in the leadoff spot. He's one of the best in the game right now. Segura isn't your "classic" leadoff guy, but he does fit the mold of Paul Molitor and there's no reason he couldn't have success there. Then put Schafer in the 2nd spot. I think he'd make good use of that spot in front of Braun.

The thing is, what does "down the road" mean for this team? Is it next year or 2016? It's lineup core, Braun, Gomez, Segura and Lucroy are either in the midst of their primes or just emerging. Aoki and Ramirez, though in their 30's are decent bets to be productive in 2014. Surely you can surround those four to six with better quality than they have at times this year. The two guys who were supposed to be the mainstays of the starting rotation, Gallardo and Lohse, failed to keep them afloat in April and May. But both are signed through 2015 and have picked it up in recent weeks. Do you bet that either or both can start off a season in better form next year? If you think they can you have to be inclined to keep them. There's certainly enough talent around them to stay in the race. Who's in the rest of the rotation next year is anyone's guess. There's certainly not a lack of quality arms. What there has been here the last couple seasons though is a lack of urgency. I didn't agree with the Lohse signing, but if you wanted him shouldn't you have gotten him in February? Corey Hart goes down well before the season, and Gamel follows him the first week of spring and your best alternative is to move a 36 year old shortstop coming off a serious knee injury to an offensive position like first base? Seriously? For two years in a row, the 2B you once took 2nd overall in the draft, doesn't reach the Mendoza line until June when the team is already effectively out of it. But no moves are made to bench/trade/cut him until it's too late. So you trade Gallardo and Lohse, and what are you getting back? In the meantime you have to fill 2 more rotation spots. Yes you do free up cash, but you are still not in position for the $100 million plus pricetags for premium free agents. Essentially, you just end up filling in with the next Lohse or Randy Wolf. There are guys that can and should be moved that can provide something for down the road without significantly affecting the near term. They are bullpen arms. Ramirez has a hefty price tag for next year, and won't bring much beyond salary relief for 2014. Maybe somebody will overpay like they did for Greinke, and include a genuine prospect, but that's to be seen. Aoki is a guy I see that has value now, and that could be replaced reasonably well internally. He's also not a guy you would look ahead 3-4 years and figure he's going to be here. So that's the guy I'd shop.

Halton has been the Rodney Dangerfield in the Brewer system for a while. The guy has hit at every level (essentially bypassing low A). While everyone talks about Hunter Morris, Halton is generally ignored. Part of that is despite his size, his power numbers have been fairly modest, and even though his numbers have been solid every year, they haven't been eye popping either. He held his own this spring and lasted with the big club right until the end, but the talk was more about Davis. Now he's riding an incredibly torrid stretch and putting up better numbers than Morris or Davis. He's also playing corner OF and assuming he's okay there (he's made one OF error), that would seem to enhance his major league chances. I know Yuni can play middle infield and gives them some insurance there, but how long can you go with a .215 hitter at 1b even in a platoon? Halton could also play LF in Braun's absence. I'm on the Halton bandwagon for sure. At the very least, he's deserving of a September call up assuming his 2nd half numbers match his first half. They'll need to add him to the 40 man, but by then there should be room.

Playing virtually any sport carries risks. So does crossing the street. It always has, but today anytime something happens on a field in today's culture, it's on video so it seems like there's more danger than ever. I'm all for taking sensible precautions, but not changing the way games are played or putting helmets on pitchers which seems like an overreaction. What, we'd prefer having our kids safe at home playing video games? No thanks. Everything today kids play is organized with better and better equipment. We used to play neighborhood tackle football without helmets or any padding into our teens. Except for the occasional bloody nose, we survived. Today kids grow up with so much equipment on, they think they are invulnerable, and don't really learn how to protect themselves.

Listening to Nashville's highlights really makes we wonder why this guy is doing AAA games while Joe Block has a major league job.

Sean Halton now has 19 hits in his last 32 ABs (.594) including 3 HR and 4 doubles, over his last 10 games. He's also drawn 7 walks in those 10 games for an OBP of .667. His June OPS is 1.322.

Free Sean Halton

At the risk of repeating myself, Sean Halton is en fuego!

Gindl has a lot more value as an extra outfielder than does Davis certainly and I certainly think he'll be in prime position to take the 4th OF spot if Aoki ever gets dealt. I don't see him getting many opportunities in this spot though. He's more insurance than anything else.

Sean Halton is en fuego. Too bad for him, he's not on the 40 man, yet. Don't look over your shoulder Yuni.

No, ideally it would have been Sean Halton who over his last 10 games is hitting .500/.590/.594 and can play either corner OF spot as well as 1B. But there's no room on the 40 man right now. Gindl's been hot as well (.364/.391/.568 over his last 10). Davis on the other hand is hitting just .218 since being sent down, and is just 2 for his last 29. He's also just 10 for 51 vs. lefties, which is worse than the lefty swinging Gindl and RH Halton vs. lefties.

Jury is still out on Francisco too. This is his time to show what he has or they'll need to look elsewhere.

Gindl is the much more logical choice to take Schafer's role as 4th OF. His numbers .274/.341/.456 have been on the rise.

That and the fact that guys like Rosenthal don't really dig all that deep. They look at contracts/team control parameters and not really who makes the most sense to deal. They also talk to GM's looking for players who are looking at the same lists Aoki's name won't pop up on either point. That doesn't mean at some point his name won't get floated out there.

Sean Halton is hitting .464/.571/.571 over his 9 game hitting streak.

Imagine what his price tag would be had he not signed the extension? I was thrilled when the Brewers locked him up because I thought it was a bargain, but even I am amazed. Boras has to be kicking himself too.

Having a great ranking of minor league talent doesn't always equate to success down the road. If it did, the Royals would be running away with the AL Central. The Brewers have a core of talent in their 20's at the major league level now, Gomez, Segura, Lucroy, that a lot of teams would like to have. Braun is still just 29 too. Draft isn't the only method of obtaining talent either. Aoki is a prime example. The Brewers didn't have a top of the line farm system when they dealt for Greinke either, but they still managed a package good enough to land him in a deal. A team like the Brewers is always going to be on the edge as far as pitching goes. Some years will be fine and the team will contend. What happens over the next 3-4 years depends on whether 2 or 3 of the arms now at AA and AAA (Nelson, Jungmann, Thornburg, Hellweg, Pena) or already in the majors (Peralta), become solid major league starters or bring one or two back in deals.

Apparently, he gets enough movement on his pitches to keep the ball off the sweet spot. That's really the objective.

Fielding percentage is such a poor metric to use to grade a teams defense. It is nearly useless and doesn't really tell anything about how good or bad the teams defense is. While the Brewers are not all that great defensively their fielding percentage is rather deceptive this would be true if they were at the top of the league also in fielding percentage. If a team is at the bottom in fielding percentage and/or leads the league in errors it's generally always a bad fielding team. If you have an example one that wasn't please share it with us.

From the "timing is everything" department, Ishikawa's opt out date is Saturday, the 15th. He's been raking in AAA to the tune of .318/.414/.532 with 7 HR and 16 2B in 203 PA. Given the Brewers standing in the race, it's doubtful they'd bring him back, but with 1B still up for grabs next year, he's still worth keeping tabs on.

Weeks had an amazing upside but he never fully reached it. Now it's more like .250/.325/.450 which is hardly amazing and his downside is well, very bad. I don't look at Gennett as a "core type", but as a starter for a few seasons that can put up average type production? Sure.

Rickie Weeks has been lost at the plate all year & he's still playing pretty much every day. I think the Brewers' reluctance to call up Morris is twofold: 1) He's not on the 40-man, & 2) They view him as the first baseman post-2013 & don't want to burn service time. I don't think they are convinced he's the 1b post-2013. After his hot May, he's hitting .158 in June. His one plus tool is his power, but they are undoubtedly looking for more consistency before they go all in with him.

Told you so alert! I got hammered this winter particularly by MNBrew for advocating the Brewers sign Francisco Liriano. So far through 6 starts, he's 4-2 with a 1.75 ERA, and he's making $10 million less than Lohse. If his 2014 contract vests, he'll make $3 million less than Lohse next year. Oh and the Brewers would have retained their number 1 pick. Hindsight is 20-20 of course, but even if he had failed he could just have been cut loose.

Jungmann's been really good too of late. The Brewers seem to have the makings of a young starting staff over the next couple seasons and that's before any deals. The real question will be whether they keep them all or trade them to get established guys.