bill hAll Star

The Angels also acquired Skaggs and Hector Santiago FWIW. Skaggs was a #2/#3 rotation guy prospect and Santiago was a #5 prospect type guy and a much smaller acquisition, but he's one of those guys that is a #5 pitcher and could turn into a #2/#3 if he got his stuff under control. Right now has a 2.41 ERA but probably isn't going to stick at that, as he has nearly a 4.00 FIP.

I kinda see it as in-between what you guys do. They knowingly traded for him on a 1 year, $12.5 million deal for 2015 and then extended that by 4/$82. So, in theory, they acquired him and turned the contract into just short of 5/$95.

That's the risk any team takes on when they sign a pitcher, though. At his age, let's say he finished off the season (or hit the trade deadline) as a ~4 FIP guy as he mostly has been in his career. If, in theory, if he was a free agent pitcher this offseason, you don't think a team would sign him 2/$25 with a $13 mil option that is likely to vest? Most guys around 31 years old and a 4ish FIP sign four year deals. (OK, I got lazy on the last one as he went for 3 years). It would have to be a team like the Dodgers that just completely doesn't care about the money or a team that wants to improve this year and have a nice piece on a fair contract going forward. Astros? Mariners? Red Sox? Maybe the Yankees? Giants (probably not but it's possible with Hudson and co. on their way out)? Angels? O's if their patience wears thin with Norris/Tillman. Blue Jays if their patience wears thin with their younger guys. Mets or Marlins have a good enough influx of minors guys but maybe want to have him replace Colon or Haren respectively to slot as the #5 veteran that holds a spot while their younger studs rotate who is having Tommy John. Cubs? (OK, bridges probably burned there). Tigers have completely depleted their farm system of arms (so not sure who they'd give back) but they are relying on some C or D level MLB prospects to fill the back of their rotation like Shane Greene and Lobstein. Maybe if Cleveland gets back in it they may listen. D-Backs may listen if they're hanging around.

Kubitza put up a .295 average and .405 OBP line last year at AA Mississippi. This year he is putting up a .321 average and .384 OBP at AAA Salt Lake. Because of the lack of power I dont think he is going to be a world beater at 3B. That said, I like the high OBP numbers and left handed bat at 3b. Could be an option with Ramirez retiring. Right, he basically has Brock Holt-esque numbers at those ages in the minors, just with a slight bump in power (but he's in the PCL) so I figured he'd be a low/mid .700s guy but he'd bat lefty and play 3B. Definitely would be nice to have in the organization.

Adding in PCL inflation (and not knowing much about other things) it seems like a good comparison for Kubitza is Brock Holt? I don't know if Kubitza plays other positions but basically a guy that will be 10 HR, .360 OBP, lefty. Maybe a little more power than Holt but a bit less on the position flexibility? Depending on his defense, that seems like a pretty fair return. Not a stud prospect but probably a cheap, good 3B or at least platoon corner guy.

Did you mean to put that space in there or not?

I agree with the last few posts. So much scouting and a competitive game making pitchers throw mid/high 90s much more often, disguise pitches, throw more sliders, etc. I think it is less about "throwing the ball with Billy down the street every day to strengthen your arm" and more about the evolution of the game to be much harder for a pitcher to succeed. Guys have needed to throw harder and throw more pitches to succeed.

His career OPS vs. LHP is .590. I'm OK with him facing AAAA lefties here and there but I think if the idea was to win games, somebody else can beat that out. I am going to assume this 21 plate appearance .700 performance is a bit of a mirage and he begins to push to the low .600s. That said, they aren't planning to contend this year most likely after a few more weeks. I'd still platoon him to keep his numbers inflated for a trade (and yeah, I know other MLB GMs can see his splits, but I'd still rather market him as a leader in X categories to other GMs).

Why are you assuming this was the point I was making? You throw money in because a small market team wants to compete this year and is willing to give up a few prospects (yes, a bit uncharacteristic for them) because they don't want to pay X amount of money. If somebody was upping the offer if I had to pay 50% of Lohse's remaining money, and I knew I was going into nuclear rebuild mode the next few years and paying nobody anyways...I'd probably pay that money to get the better prospects knowing that I'm probably only going to hold a $60-$70 million (or less if more big fish are dumped) payroll next year. I have no intention of "clearing the contracts" of any of these players and every intention of bringing back prospects for 2018 and beyond.

He lost the weight and is hitting fairly well but given his age (mid 20s) and history, I'd like to go younger with less bust potential.

The Rays were in a reloading year. A lot of the projections/Vegas odds had them right up there in the mid/high 80s for wins, I believe. The Brewers may have to send a little bit of money.

Hello Rays, I am aware that you normally don't covet older or more highly paid pitchers, but you have just lost Smyly and Cobb for the season and Moore is no sure bet upon his return. We have Lohse and/or Garza to offer you. We'll also sweeten the pot with a lefty platoon bat for you with Lind for more of a return as you do not have much for a LH DH type.

I feel like Garza is being a bit undervalued in some of these articles. Yeah, he's not a front-line starter, but if he was hypothetically a free agent after 2015, he'd probably still find a 3 year/35 million dollar deal or maybe even get a 4th year. It seems as though his option may vest, so he's got 3 left after this. Garza will be a bit different type of a trade. He'll be going to somebody like the Astros or Mariners who think they are on the rise this year but still think they have a 2-3 (or more) year window after this. He's not a "get you over the top" guy, and he's not somebody that the Dodgers and Yankees may drool over as much because they know they could just sign somebody like him next year, though those teams aren't out of the question either. Brewers could offer to pay this year's salary and maybe a small fraction of next year's. That way, the other team is getting him for below market cost. In return they could send 1-2 guys that are higher up in the minors or older for their class that are likely just good depth guys but have lower ceilings. I feel like teams are less willing to part with stud prospects or even high-ceiling, yet low-level prospects for a guy like Garza. Maybe the Brewers strike gold and get a very good all-around player like Kiermaier (note: not Kiermaier, but a trade for somebody with his pedigree and 2 years behind in progression) or a Kole Calhoun. By that, I mean prospects that are not bursting at the seams with high-level upside but provide a very nice WAR either with great defense and solid hitting like Kiermaier or being a very good hitter like Calhoun. Of course, in this box of goodies there could be a Logan Schafer as well.

I'm never saying never, because when he's right, Gomez is the best of the bunch, but they already have: CF: Pederson RF: Puig LF: Ethier (coming back around)/Van Slyke platoon With Carl Crawford as an expensive, yet capable rotation guy and are trying to find ABs for Alex Guerrero out there. The Dodgers are tough to trade with because it feels like they have minimal needs other than more pitching. 3B/SS could be improved but they have highly paid veterans there already and have their "next up" waiting in the wings for next year either in AA/AAA or Guerrero up in the majors right now.

At this point of course there is no reason to keep Lind, I agree. It was a great acquisition, though, and now he'll net more than "Marco Estrada."

I think you guys (and the front office) need to shake off this idea of plugging a single player into a position for X amount of years, though. In Lind's case, given his contract and age, yeah, there may be no reason to keep him...but if the Brewers were competing, his age/salary wouldn't bother me at all. Yeah, that's I'd want to do with many positions on the field, but platoons are just fine in 2015. It's not a huge problem to have. Winning teams use them all the time now. If the Brewers had built a solid roster/pitching staff, this would be an excellent "cherry on top" move. Would it be better to have a 25 year old 1B with nearly even splits? Sure. I just think that it would be great if Doug made more shrewd moves like this. This is how Oakland has been killing it the past few years. The Rays use plenty of platoons. Also, while Lind did have the injury/defense issues, I would not describe his hitting as erratic as of late. He seems to have figured things out from a patience standpoint about 3 years ago and since then he has been an incredible hitter against RHP. I would love to do what the Rays and Athletics have done (in slightly different ways) the past few years. 8-10 MLB-caliber, cheap starting pitchers in the majors/AAA (3-4 of them being really good at that point in their careers). A stable of replacement-level hitters sitting in the minors. A Kiermaier or a Vogt (hitting way above replacement-value this year now) will do the trick. Lefties you can bring up in case of injury and eventually use as replacements when you can't find a fill for a position. Top it off with getting undervalued guys like Lind to fill out your roster and there you go.

I take a different approach to this (by the way, on the whole, most offenses in the NL would kill to have hitters like Lucroy, Gomez, Braun (maybe)). We are a small market team. I agree that I want to draft and develop the heck out of this thing, but this Lind move was one of the shrewd ones that is one a small market team should be making. Lind is an Oakland-esque hitter that was undervalued (I don't know why Toronto made the trade when they knew his platoon value) and it is something that should be used to build the team. Best hitter this year? I guess you have a point there that they should draft and develop a superstar or some very good players (they have Luc and Gomez plus assumed they'd have an elite Braun) and Lind should be a complementary piece, but Melvin pulling off a heist like he did gave me confidence that he actually knew how to run this thing.

I think the Dodgers' motivation for getting Luc will be diminished even further when Grandal has an .850 OPS (even better against RHP) after this weekend in Coors. Their platoon is going to work pretty darn well. EDIT: That was before he smacked his 2nd HR of the day. Preller should have looked at the splits when downgrading from Grandal to Norris.

Rogers and Clark cannot do the job that Lind does (at least offensively). Lind is one of the best hitters in baseball against right-handed pitching. Rogers/Clark might be a decent platoon while rebuilding. Rogers will not hit anywhere near Lind's level if exposed to hitting righties consistently.

The Brewers don't really need him right now but unless he officially fell off the cliff last year, pick him up and only let him face RHP. A .775 OPS from a catcher (career split vs. RHP) is pretty nice to have.

Correct, there is a reason: He chose to take a year off before possibly pursuing other openings. Well, there you go. If that's true he was not available anyways (it hasn't been a year). Even if that's not the case, Gardenhire's last 4 years in Minnesota were horrible and he was 6-21 in the post season in his career. I realize it's a smaller sample size but Roenicke was 5-6 in the post season and had almost the exact same winning percentage as Gardenhire (.508 vs .507) during his career. Ned Yost has an extremely positive playoff winning percentage (his roster is perfectly constructed for the playoffs, to be honest) but I'm not concerned about playoff winning percentages of managers. I'm just worried about getting there. I guess some managers can horrendously botch a situation, but for the most part, I'll take one that gets me there by being smart in the regular season and see what happens, because I don't think managers have a huge handle on winning in the playoffs with it being such a small sample.

Or your players are the ones who get a broken hand/finger and end up missing 1-2 months (or a bruised knee/hand and miss 3-4 games) because the other team pitches inside and you don't. Like someone else said, you don't go for the head, you go for their rear end/upper thighs/lower torso. Did this broken finger happen because RRR or whatever manager didn't throw at them? Is that really the cause-effect there? Yost threw back at LaRussa sometimes and fights broke out (perhaps an injury could happen here?) and LaRussa and later Matheny were still throwing at the Brewers years later. Throwing back at the other team does nothing. They'll throw back at you 3 weeks later.

If so (especially with this roster) I'll want him fired within 5 days.

At its inception, a baseball game was won when one side scored 21 aces. The game has changed a lot, and the beanball craze is one thing that needs to go as well. Well it's not going away any time soon and as long as you have teams like the Cardinals that continue to throw at guys your risking your own players getting hurt by not playing along. If Ken Macha's strongly worded letter to the commissioner didn't stop it, nothing will. Or you can just not play along and let the other team put your players on base and let them eventually get suspended as the game continues to evolve.

LIKE! I wish I could add to this, but it is too perfect to mess with. You give guys months to turn it around in baseball because if you judge on small samples, career (hitting) scrubs like Jose Iglesias would have won the MVP over the first 3 weeks and a AAAA like Shane Greene (I'm picking on the Tigers for some reason) would have won the Cy Young. Not everyone is consistent or hot all season. Good players eventually turn out good seasons and it is not due to some manager putting pressure on them, it is due to the law of averages and statistics. Of course, a guy really could be losing confidence, slacking, or be swinging with the wrong form...which is where a manager can help...but it is better that a manager allow a guy like Khris Davis, who will likely still put up a 20 HR .780 OPS season to get it right rather than pressure him with the minor leagues unless the league has found a major flaw and Khris cannot combat it. We just saw it with Ryan Braun. He's not going to be hot all year and he's probably not the .900+ OPS guy he was all year, but give him time to turn it around and, hey, he's a good hitter! That's how things work. Nobody is going to have a consistently great year for all 162 games by having a try-hard manager telling them that they'll get sent down if they go through a cold streak like 100% of other baseball players do when the ball bounces to the fielders too often.