Roderick

That same article also has a bit on Johnny Hellweg too.

I think this is inaccurate. Davis, Smith and even Segura could net us a decent return. We just need to find the right fit for each player. I don't think Davis would bring alot right now. If he has a .825 OPS next year and we trade him at the deadline, he should bring a good haul. But right now if I was the other team, I don't trust the production quite yet. Show me he can do it from April to mid-July next season, and I will be convinced. I don't think Segura has much value now that he is in his arby years. He had value as a $600K guy with possible upside, now he is a $2M guy that we pretty much know what he is going to give you (or not give you) on offense. I guess if we traded him today, I would think we would get back someone that would fall into our current BF minor league rankings somewhere in the 20 range. Maybe we will find out shortly if the rumors are right. If Stearns gets more than that, I will be impressed. I don't really think Smith will be traded (even at the deadline), as the only lefty, especially since KRod was just moved - so I didn't include him.

There are lots of reasons to trade him as a fair trade. Lucroy could get injured and decrease his trade value, he could just not play as well as his trade value is now, and while we have him, we still are not competing in 2016, so we are paying $3.5M more for Lucroy over a min. wage guy to backup Maldy - and Lucroy's name isn't going to make up that in ticket sales, etc. First of all, a fair trade by definition would take into account that he has an ultra-cheap contract and he has good production when not hurt, which you don't get from alot of catchers. So a team is obviously going to pay up some good prospects to acquire him, that doesn't mean we took advantage of the other team (getting $1.50 on the dollar), it is just that they are in a position of winning now and we aren't. I think he has played well enough now that teams probably can agree on his production, but I can see where teams may hedge that he will miss time with injuries, whereas I hope and assume the Brewers are trading him looking for a return that assumes Lucroy would be healthy the remaining years of his contract. I would be willing to trade now for a fair trade. But if it isn't "fair" to the Brewers, I would be more than willing to roll the dice and keep betting that Lucroy plays well and increases his value and then move him. I think a smaller advantage to trading now is, you would have the prospects in the system now, which should allow for better evaluation and also give Stearns a better idea of what areas he needs to target, as once Lind and Lucroy are traded we really aren't going to be moving anyone for a great return (unless Peralta has a great season).

I'm starting to get a case of the shakes, Stearns hasn't made a trade for a few days now......

I would normally say, sure keep our young pitching in AAA and don't let the arby clock start ticking. However, AAA is in Colorado and I don't want those arms to have to deal with that any more than they have to. So, since we have enough guys that could potentially be starting in 2016 in the bigs, I don't know that I would go out to pick up any more, unless the scouting dept really is pushing them. So I guess I only see picking up an arm if Garza is traded, and if he isn't, then he is the guy you are hoping is decent enough to flip for a prospect.

I doubt the Yankees would give up much in prospects to save $16M. They have unlimited pockets, and they can spend as much as they want and still run in the black. The only reason I can think for a team like the Yankees, Dodgers, etc to care about trimming payroll is for public relations purposes. I think a team with limited finances would be more ready to give away prospect(s) to unload a bad contract. I assume the Diamondbacks were maybe in that position when they traded with the Braves?....

He would have to start 58 games in 2016 and 2017 to have his contract vest. I don't really think that is going to happen, assuming the Brewers are smart and he is #5 at the start of the season and after the all star break. So hopefully we don't even have to worry about the other criteria about being on the DL at the end of the 2017 season.

I always thought he could be a starter after his stint as a young guy in KC, but the rotation has never needed him so he has always been bullpen. Barring a trade of Garza and Jungmann/Davies not panning out, I don't see the rotation needing him again next year - so bullpen it is again. So, yes, he may have trade value to someone that has a spot in the rotation that he can compete for, and that team knows he can always default back to the pen if it doesn't work out. Plus, you figure that would help the Brewers retain their minor league bullpen guys that they may lose through rule 5. But you know they will want a lefty down there, so it doesn't pay to trade for him if you have to go out and acquire a different guy.

We know we have no prospect at 3B. I have expectations that our pitching staff will be young, cheap and decent for 2017 and beyond even if one of the prospects is traded away. I wouldn't trade an arm for a SS or OF, but I would have no problem taking an arm to fill a glaring hole like 3B. The same logic you use could be applied if for some reason we are short of pitching and are ready to contend. We can overspend on a free agent pitcher.

4-5 years??? Sheesh, I sure wouldn't start worrying about reserving room for a player that hasn't even been in low A ball yet. It would seem to me that Colorado would always want to take on minor league pitching in trades as they aren't going to sign any premium free agents. Especially guys that don't rely on breaking balls so much, so I would think the pitcher that we just acquired from the Astros with the big fastball (Hader/Houser can't keep straight?) would be someone of interest to them. McMahon for Hader/Houser and one of our extra OFs like Harrison or T.Taylor? Too much, too little? Sure would be nice to fill that 3B hole.

Well I didn't really want to root for the Mets either after jerking us around on the Gomez trade (even if it worked out for the better), but lesser of two evils.

I think the best move would be to keep Garza for at least a couple of months. If he is poor, then he gets moved to the pen and if that doesn't work then out the door. If he does well, then I would look to move him for whatever asap. Get him out before he comes up with some injury. All this has the additional benefit of keeping the service clock from starting for some minor league pitcher. The new GM would have some leeway with Melvin's mistake, but just think if he cuts him now and Garza produces for his new team, while we are paying the bill.

I am very excited to see what a new pitching coaching and staff does with what we have here in Milwaukee. I think we see that all too often that pitchers have greater success away from Milwaukee. Both Yo and Estrada went to American League teams and out performed their career numbers. That, to me, says a lot about our coaches. I don't know if this is the case, I don't follow the AL, but I assume Gallardo also came into the season in the best shape of his life being a contract year.

I know you are just throwing out an example, but even in a season of getting the ducks in a row (don't want to call it a lost season), playing Segura at 3B for more than an emergency start or two would make me ill.

If Segura starts all of 2016, his arby number will be too big in my opinion to offer him arby for 2017. So, I assume we would trade him at the 2016 deadline just to get something for him. I don't really know what comps there are, but I would assume he would be at least in the $4M+ neighborhood for arby in 2017, right? If so, I don't see any reason to offer him that when you can get close enough production from a pre-arby Sardinas or Rivera.

With the up and down nature of bullpen guys, I don't care how old he is. Just give me a couple of capable pre-arby years. I would assume the plan is to stash him in AAA as the Brewers would seemingly have the last spot for a competition of Strong (and whoever I forgot) and probably Pena/Cravy/Wagner (assuming Jungmann and Davies are in the rotation and Thornburg is in the pen and Garza isn't offloaded).

Now that Segura is hitting arby pay levels, I don't think he has any trade value. I could see if a team's starting shortstop got hurt in spring training, that they would give up something to get Segura, but I can't see a top 100 prospect. At this point, I am willing to see if he can have a hot start and maybe increase his value at the trading deadline, but if someone gave me anything close to a decent prospect now, I would trade him in a heart beat. Play Sardinas/Rivera for a year until Arcia comes up. Out of the shortstops in the majors that had enough at bats, Segura came in next to last for OPS.

Well if we are going to compete you do have to play 162 games. He only increased his innings by 25 from last year. He is in his physical prime, I would be very disappointed if the pitching results are non-injury, physically related (gassed). He has a 9.53 ERA for the last five starts. He did much better overall then I would have guessed from the results he posted in the minors, so I am not complaining. But you have to wonder if the hitters have figured him out a bit and he is coming back to where we assumed he would be. I don't see how you can do more than pencil him in for competing for a spot in spring training next year (especially if we haven't unloaded Garza and spots are at a premium).

And right after that, they can trade Logan Schafer to the Dodgers for either Greinke or Kershaw. Well the Dodgers are looking to get under the luxury tax which trading Crawford's or Ethier's contract helps. Plus Crawford hasn't played a full season in forever the same with Ethier. I would expect Garza to bounce back to his career norms next year more so than Crawford will. If anything this trade would be in the Dodgers favor as they are getting rid of a very bad contract and they are gaining money in terms of not having to pay the luxury tax with this trade so a plus plus for the Dodgers. The Brewers are taking on about $13m in salary here which is definitely worth the two added prospects from the Dodgers. On your tangent, there is probably a team or two that are in a situation where they would want to clear salary and are willing to trade prospect(s) to do it. Didn't the Diamondbacks do that this spring with the Braves? The Brewers should try and find a partner, especially if the Brewers trade Lind. They could afford to pay someone for a year or two while we figure out the young pitching. It would really work out if someone has an overpaid 3B they don't want anymore. Just don't bring in a bad clubhouse guy.

Rogers has basically the same amount of at bats vs lefty and righty in the majors this year (small sample size). His OPS is actually .906 vs righties and .754 vs lefties. My preference is the Braun to 1B move, but I don't know if he would want to move (or if the Brewers would even ask). So assuming that, I would vote for the trade Lind and use Rogers at 1B scenario.

It will be if he has a back flareup or two, and if that happens in mid-July then you can't trade him at all. So unless we don't get close to equivalent talent back, I would trade Lind during this offseason. If he had no injury history like Parra, then I would say wait. Save $7M to spend for the day when the Brewers are contending and see what Rogers can do.

I'm not against signing/trading for a player with the intention of flipping him next year, but I doubt that the Red Sox are really going to eat enough of his contract that the Brewers would want to take that type of risk of him sucking/getting hurt and not being able to flip him and eating whatever is left themselves on his contract. I would think picking up a starting pitcher with the intention of starting him through July and then flipping him like the Cubs did with Maholm and Hammels would be more like what I would shoot for, which would also give Lopez/Wagner a half a year in the minors before being called up in August.

So Lopez is a grade B prospect. Do we know approximately how many prospects SB Nation has in the minors who would have a higher rating to put it in perspective?

Not that I am punting next season already, but I would rather spend minimal bucks on a AAAA flyer than spend 8 figures on an older guy that wouldn't be part of my long term plans. My thought is that all the young pitchers get their audition next year, and if enough of them are ready, we are competing in 2017, and then we would spend money to fill 3B or whatever hole is in the roster.

You don't trade a 30 HR guy in his prime for "a Wil Smith" type. I think we could have made Smith a #3/#4 type starting pitcher by now if we didn't keep needing him back in the pen. I know he wasn't great in the half season starting for the Royals but he was only 22. So yes, I would trade Davis for a #3/#4 type starting pitcher (or high leverage reliever) that we had five years of control over. I know we have a batch of potential starting pitchers down in AA, but I don't think we can ink Jungmann and Davies into starting spots for next year (or the next five years), nonetheless assume Garza is anything with great confidence, so another guy to compete in 2016 would be good. That and the consideration that this lets Santana play a corner OF position, plus I think it is easier to flip a pitcher for other talent, I say go ahead.