danzig6767

Perez frustrates me to no end. That dude could be a really good hitter if he had just any shred of plate discipline, but instead he hacks at anything a pitcher throws at him, including if he manages to get ahead in the count. With his defensive versatility and talent as a hitter, Perez could be a really rich guy if he simply made pitchers throw him more strikes, but he refuses to do so.

It's not just that his secondary pitches are rarely strikes, it's also that he rarely even tries throwing anything except fastballs. Yesterday Hader had two strikes on nearly every batter he faced, but rarely felt confident enough to trust that he could throw a quality enough slider to get a K. Of his 41 pitches, 37 were fastballs. So Twins hitters kept fouling off two strike fastballs, eventually getting hits, walks, and/or jacking up his pitch count in that long 5th inning. Had he thrown a good slider to any of those guys in 2-2 or 3-2 counts, easy strikeout. He's flashed some really nice outings so far, but he's not even a two pitch pitcher at this point, more a 1 1/2 pitch pitcher. On the rare occasions he does throw a quality slider, batters usually look ugly flailing at it. His change up is non-existent. It's pretty amazing that he's been as productive as he's been throwing almost entirely fastballs.

I don't think it's a necessity for Hader to have a reliable change up to stick as a quality starter, but he would have to develop much better command of his slider. Ben Sheets for example was pretty much just a two pitch starter, fastball and curve. With Ben though, he had impeccable command of both pitches in his prime.

I'd love for Hader to cut it as a starter and i get why people look the throwing mechanics, body type, and velocity of Hader and like to compare him with Chris Sale. That said, the odds of him becoming anywhere near as good as Sale are pretty slim. Sale was a first round pick who quickly reached the majors and never struggled much with command issues. He's a top 2 or 3 pitcher in the game. Hader is only 23 though and while i think the odds are pretty slim that he would become a dominant ace starter, he should be given more chances as a starter before just assigning him to the bullpen.

If Hader does end up being deemed a bullpen arm, i hope he gets used in a Miller like fashion and not locked into just some rigid 7th or 8th inning role.

Yeah, he's painful on TV, must get nervous or something. Augustine sounds like he was either grabbed off the set of Fargo or a bar stool in Cudahy.

Small sample for Brinson but they've both kinda stunk in MLB this year. In this case I guess I'd go with Broxton and keep Brinson in AAA to not burn service time and keep him actually playing. Plus, i gotta believe that Stearns will trade Broxton for whatever he can get for him in the offseason, so if he can play better these last few months, it would help on the return, even if it's nothing special.

I wouldn't be so sure about that with Phillips. If i'm Stearns in the offseason, unless i get a good offer involving Phillips, i'm keeping him as my 4th outfielder next year. 1. Braun's health is so fragile, going forward the team needs a competent 4th outfielder. At any point he could suffer one of his multiple weeks to months long strains or pulls and i don't want some veteran scrub like Nieuwenhuis getting that playing time because we gave away Phillips to cheaply. 2. As much as i have high hopes for Brinson as the long term solution in CF, no prospect is ever a lock to succeed. Phillips is a buffer in case Brinson doesn't pan out as we all hope. Baseball is a long grinding 162 game season, so what can look like excess depth at a position going into a given year can quickly turn if a player or two gets hurt beyond something minor and that can open the door for a young player to prove himself.

It would be great in the big picture if it were a team like us doing it. Chicago can make up for their lack of prospects by signing free agents, overspending on the draft and overspending on international free agents. Chicago doesn't need to rely on their farm system as much as we do so I don't think them trading away their top prospects is as big a deal as some make it out to be. The guys they traded to get Quintana are 3-4 years away from the majors, if they even make it. A lot can happen in 3-4 years. Meanwhile the Cubs are improving their major league team for the next few years, which is ultimately the goal. Yea they have Quintana for three more years and can use free agency to add team depth.

Why Nieuwenhuis over, say, Wren? Stearns says on TV that Kirk is "someone [Counsell] trusts and knows."

Did the market die? Thought ramos was multi year and one of the best available. It's been the trend all month where relievers just aren't fetching as much as prior years.

How about going after neither instead

Yea, count me in the being very skeptical camp that this is actually true from the Brewers side of things.

I find his batting average numbers over the last four years to be kinda fascinating. What are the odds of a player with regular at bats to carry a batting average that extremely close over four straight seasons? Hell, just random good or bad luck from year to year will often impact a batting average, besides the fact that players for whatever reason tend to be better or worse to varying degrees from year to year. There is at least a decent chance that come the end of the season, Davis will finish with the exact same batting average for three straight years. Has that happened before with an everyday player?

The relief pitcher market so far at least hasn't been as bountiful as in the past. Maybe teams are finally realizing that giving up a lot for guys who pitch 50-60 innings isn't worth it.

Not a fan of trading for a rental, regardless if Cordell is blocked.

I agree that we very well could be seeing the end of Kinsler's effectiveness as a hitter. He's 35 and father time can hit athletes abruptly, not just gradually and at his current rate, he's overpaid. As for Villar, i agree that this is maybe just a bad year for him where his confidence went into the dumpster and he could rebound next year. Turning down that extension and struggling could also have gotten in his head. That said, he's always going to be a low IQ player on the bases and unreliable defensively. It's in his DNA, so he has to hit well to offset his other negatives. Rebounding next year to only say a .750ish OPS won't leave him that valuable when he's running into numerous head scratching outs and being erratic defensively.

That's a tough bar to use these days, pretty rare for anyone to stay with the same team their entire career. I think you can be a core part of the next successful run without having to retire as a Brewer. Nelson, Shaw, Santana are no different than any other player on the roster. If you can get good value in a trade, you do it. If not, they will all be relatively cheap for a while so not a lot to lose by hanging on to them. Yea, that's the great thing about those three. Santana i think is a legit really good hitter. He has a great eye at the plate. Walks at a good rate and gets himself in good hitter counts. That's huge. Besides that, he hits to all fields and thus can't be shifted heavily. Shaw has such a pretty swing and kinda reminds me of former Brewer Dave Nilsson at the plate, but with more power. He's likely not a .900 plus OPS hitter every year, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if he was in the .825-.925 OPS range in the next 3-4 years and his defense is much better than i expected. That would be a valuable player for any team, especially given he'll be really cheap for years. As for Nelson, it's not as if he has Zack Davies stuff and is just fluking his way to a good year. He throws hard and has good offspeed pitches, command and mainly walks have been his downfall. If there is something to the fangraphs articles about tweaks to his mechanics bearing fruit, Jimmy wouldn't exactly be the first pitcher with good stuff, but command issues to finally hit his stride 3-4 years into his big league career. Robbie Ray with Arizona for example as a comparison.

This should be simple. Play Perez at secondbase anytime a lefty starter is on the mound.

It's not just the poor results in his first two games for me, it's also his unimpressive looking stuff.

Yes because shutting down a completely dysfunctional Orioles offense means you are a super star. Quintana gave up the same number of runs against them that Garza did to use one example. It's ok to say that Quintana pitched a fabulous game. That same Orioles offense scored eight runs on the Cubs pitching the night before. Time will tell on how he does going forward.

I agree. Samardzjia at least has good secondary numbers, he's just given up a lot of home rums, 18 in 118 innings. I wouldn't give up to much in prospects for him either since he's owed 60 million and is 32, but i'd trade for him before Verlander without a second thought.

I'm just glad they signed Sandova because if they hadn't, Shaw may not be a Brewer.

He could have done all that and still had a bunch of young players filtering into the team at the same time though. I looked at this Cubs team as one that was going to be a dominant team for the next 10 years or so mid season last year. Now I see it as one that is just going to have the typical 5 year window and a GM hoping he can stretch it with good moves. The franchise outlook has changed dramatically in the past calendar year. It won a World Series and I fully expect them to be in the hunt for at least one more over the next 4 years so it was a good move. But this certainly has helped the Brewers future as well. I don't really see how that is debatable given everything they have traded away with a focus on this 5 year window of Rizzo/Bryant. I guarantee you that if their rotation had held up this year and they were in first place that this trade would not have happened. This is Theo trying to bandaid something that went wrong way before he expected it to. It doesn't mean it is a bad move but it is something good for the Brewers long term. Keep in mind Theo got Arrieta in a trade for nothing and while Hendricks also came in a Dempster trade, he was only an 8th round pick. Obviously the incredible Arrieta turnaround isn't something which happens often, but there are ways to add highly productive talent without a top 5 picks or in trades like the Quintana one. A smart GM just has to try and target who they see as undervalued talent and then hope with some luck mixed in, strike silver or gold. Stearns has done it with multiple guys like Thames, Aguliar, Shaw, Broxton, etc. Granted, the Cubs are in a different place in the competitive landscape, but i don't think that Theo will just give up on trying to find undervalued talent and the draft can land multiple guys outside the first round who become better than expected. Look at our farm system. Same for the international market.

That is fair but it still doesn't change the fact that the Cubs making the moves they have over the past full season of baseball are good for the Brewers future. Yeah they won the world series so it was all worth it for them, if they win it again this year it was again all worth it for them. That doesn't change the fact that they have crippled themselves 4 years from now at this point which is going to help the next really good Brewers team compete during their next competitive window. Both of these things can be true at the same time. I wouldn't be so certain in saying the Cubs have crippled themselves four years from now. That is a long time and Theo is an upper tier GM. A wide variety of things can happen over those four years in how they draft, international signings, trades, free agency, etc. No question these trades will make it harder for Theo to have the Cubs still be really good 3-4-5 years from now, but he's not like some dumb GM's of past big market teams who signed a bunch of bad free agent contracts and left the organization in shambles. I'm not saying that he's infallible, but he is a bright guy so i wouldn't just go assuming that disaster is coming for the Cubs in the time frame you listed.