HiAndTight

Who are all the people "proclaiming him major league ready," but more than that, if you're dominant in AA, how far away are you from being major league ready? So not only do I not see people jumping him over Rogers, Peralta, Thornburg, Fiers, Estrada, Nelson and others, but I also don't see why it'd be so outlandish to talk about him in terms of our future rotation if he continues to dominate? Players at every level have fundamental changes in the way they throw a particular pitch. A cutter, splitter, whatever, that pitch that makes the rest of their stuff look a couple ticks better. And if the most talent in the minor leagues is generally considered to be in AA and you dominate AA, I don't see how you can just dismiss talk of him being a potential rotation arm in the next year or so.

I agree with you, and the following post. There are pitchers with the ceilings of aces in every single organization. Hell, there are probably 8-9 in most systems. But with the incredible risk with pitchers, and the fact that pure talent seldom turns into actual big league ability makes it pretty rare for organzations other than SF, TB and maybe a couple other teams from actually getting those guys through all the levels in the minors. And I absolutely agree. College coaches have a job to do. They're not there to refine a guy for the big leagues. It's obviously a bonus, but I doubt Texas was forcing Jungman to throw his curveball in counts he wouldn't otherwise so that he'd be a better pro player. These guys came into the system and jumped right to HiA. So it's entirely reasonable to expect some hiccup's along the way, and I think it's pretty ridiculous to just assume if you're a 1st round pick you should dominate with a "fastball and a so/so secondary pitch." Hell, maybe Bradley and Jungman could, but what good would it do them at AA. Again, not to kick the horse that's just been put down on the track, but the expectations for Brewers pitchers are not realistic IMO..... We've turned a huge corner in our development of pitchers. We could have a rotation of Gallardo, Fiers, Thornburg, Nelson and Peralta in the next 18 months and it could be a very good rotation.

Honestly? You're objective to a "fault?" You form an opinion and then spend the next couple of years arguing against the facts of your knee jerk reaction...like when you blew up over the drafting of Nelson because someone compared him to Suppan. And I don't think a single person with a pulse who reads your posts thinks you're in danger of being too "effuse," in your praise of a pitching prospect, the Brewers, Doug Melvin or anything related to the organization. You're in my effort to be "objective," the most overly negative and just plainly pointlessly negative poster on this board. You Formed an opinion of Jungman after watching him in the college world series and now are dismissing an article written about him that says he's not worried about production and numbers, simply improving this ONE pitch in a particular outing or stretch of outings, throwing his breaking ball in an attempt to develop it in counts he otherwise wouldnt. And you're so oblivious to your bias that you even need to give yourself a pat on the back by commending him for doing what you thought he should do from your scouting of his 10 innings pitched amont the probably 1000 he's pitched in his life. Sorry, but if you want to be as overly the top negative almost regardless of circumstances and bash the Brewers front office for not in your words having a "top farm system and competing year in and year out," then I think you open yourself up to yourself to being called out on what is such a clearly absurd comment IMO. And by the way, people telling everyone else how much of a realist thy are, or how "objective," they are is a HUGE pet peeve of mine. What, do you think you have the market corned on rational and realistic thinking and everyone else is unrealistic? Do ya think just maybe everyone thinks they're a "realist?" Or do you think that most people post things they know to be unrealistic? Or are you just the authority on what's realistic? This isn't limited to you, but the "I'm a realist," comment has always annoyed me a bit.

Why? It is not like Hanley would just be a rental you would be getting Hanley for the next two years and he could easily be put back at the SS position. For a total of about $33m dollars for 2013 and 2014 that is not a bad deal. The Brewers would have to think about extending Hanley after his current contract is done and if they could lock Hanley down for about $17-19m a year that would be a nice punch in the lineup with Braun and Hanley for the next 5-8 years. So, are you willing to gut the farm system again, AND pay him that kind of dough? I would have to pass. And you're already privy to the asking price of the Marlins and that they wouldn't pay a part, if not a significant part of that salary given his last season and a half, or ask for very little in return? This "gut," the farm system nonsense. There are no sure bets to gut. There are maybe's, no top 5 prospects. So I don't know what you think they'd demand in return at this point or what "gutting," would consist of, but it's definitely overused.

I agree...signing Greinke gives us a chance long term. I think now that we're likely to lose him there's this natural inclination to diminish him as a pitcher. He doesn't play in San Fran in that park and I think he's a helluva lot closer to Cain than people are giving him credit for on here. Second, I DO believe that Fiers can be a 3.40-ish pitcher. I've seen enough of him that he simply looks like he has that deceptive delivery and I think his control is good enough that he's going to be a pretty good solid starter. You've got cheap years coming in TT, Peralta, Nelson, Rogers.... It's either that or be caught in baseball purgatory as you know they won't just completely tear it down and go 3-4 years rebuilding. They'll keep trying to win. And they might add a guy like Edwin Jackson, a couple BP arms, maybe they'll be decent, but no real threat unless they get lucky and they develop their own ace and another 2/3 type starter...which is pretty unlikely. Though we certainly have guys who have the stuff to do it.

I'd highly doubt it's a league rule. This is professional baseball. Probably just at the lower levels to keep them healthy. It's obviously not throughout the organization as you see guys go head first in the big leagues. Well, at least Gomez, Morgan....Braun's usually a feet first guy.

Drafted in the same draft as Homer Bailey. Took him a while to come around without the injuries. Perhaps next year we'll be able to add Rogers to our rotation. Could look pretty nice even without Greinke. Not contender nice, but Fiers, Thornburg, Rogers, Peralta and obviously Yo. Nelson next in line. Though as we know it so seldom works out like that outside of Tampa Bay.

Don't get me wrong, I'll root for a Ryan Braun with a Gary Sheffield attitude...if he's doing it for our team(not that's the case with Braun at all) but it's a helluva lot nicer knowing the kid you're rooting for is a kid that came out of the DR when he was 17 and a great kid to boot.

Lawrie is seriously the most overrated player in the game. He had a Braun-esque debut last season, but unlike Braun, he hasn't been able to sustain it. He has a .731 OPS at 3B this season (.316 wOBA) which makes him one of the worst offensive 3B in the majors. The only reason he has a similar WAR to A-Ram is because the defensive metrics somehow think that Lawrie is the best defensive 3B around (and in recent memory); there is simply no way that is sustainable going forward (if even true at all) given the unanimous scouting reports on him coming up. Escobar has a .373 BABIP so his offense this season is probably unsustainable, but his WAR has been dragged down by flukey defensive metrics that say he has been horrible at SS, which I don't think is the case with Escobar or will be going foward. I have to admit, Escobar is looking like what everybody thought he might be this season. Odorizzi has a 1.534 WHIP at AAA this season. Still good but not sure I'd call him "one of the top prospects in the game on the mound right now." In sum, I wish we had all these players still in the system, especially Escobar, but none of them are difference-makers. We absolutely would not have a better team this year with them than with Greinke/Marcum. Not even close. It's going forward where the would have helped. 1-So...at 22 years old, we ignore the extreme defensive gains he's made from the position that he always should have been playing because of past scouting reports(though I don't know how they've gone on for years when he moved to 3rd last year). But anyway, we USE those defensive scouting reports, but we IGNORE his offensive scouting reports because at 22, again, in the toughest pitching division in the majors he's not killing the ball this year? That seems like a convenient way to justify dismissing him. And no, he hasn't had a Braun like second year. Of course AGAIN, that rookie year was while Braun was still in COLLEGE. So I don't really get the point there. I think everyone outside of the obsessive need on this board to say, "nah, nothing special about Lawrie, nothing to see here," realizes he's going to be one of the games great young players. A player who is a legit 5 tool player. But we're harping on him being one of the "worst," 3rd basemen in the game because he's "only," got a .798 OPS in about 130 major league games at 21 and 22?!? So the takeaway here is that he's not Trout of Harper. Of course Harper has a .781 OPS and is a guy who's suppose to be an 80 in terms of power. And he has only 8 HR's. How overrated is he? 2-Escobar can fly, so his BABIP will probably always be high. And he makes a lot of contact. Given the state of SS's, after Profar, Andrus, I don't know how many I'd rather have on my team right now over Escobar. 3-Well, you can nitpik Odorizzi's stats, but he's also got a 3.32 ERA in AA with a 2.20 FIP with 11.7 K's per 9 with a .97 WHIP. Matches up pretty well with Thornburg. And a 3.22 ERA and a 3.85 FIP in AAA..... Again, pretty sure he'd have been ahead of Peralta, TT or Fiers. And I'm not saying we shouldn't have traded the last two for Greinke. I think Greinke still has a Cy Young in him at least and I think he's going to be a pitcher who either can pitch a long time without injury, or will be able to come back from it given his athletic ability and his delivery. But I don't see how any plausible argument could be made that we wouldn't be in a better position right NOW had we not made those trades. Hell, we'd have those players and if we still wanted Greinke, we'd be in an even better position to sign him this off-season.

You have no idea where you're(the Nats) are going to be in the next 3-4 years with Strausburg. He could get hurt, Gio could get hurt, Harper could end up not being the 65 HR a year freak people assume he will be. Right now they've got a rotation with 5 power arms and are clearly the best team in the NL IMO with the Phillies dealing with all their injuries. The Phillies are like the Celtics IMO. If there were more playoff spots and they got in, they might be the most dangerous team, but it isn't the NBA and they're obviously too many games out to make it likely they catch the Nats. So I'd take the Nolan Ryan approach that seems to be working out well for his pitchers. They pitch and they're honest with their coaches about how they feel. If he feels good at 160, pitch him. Try to limit it obviously. Skip him a couple times, etc..etc... But take into consideration the fact that this might end up being the best chance you have to win a WS. That next year Jackson is probably gone, Gio could get hurt, or Zimmerman, or Strausburg again, or Ryan Zimmerman or anyone and the Phillies could easily be back with Halladay, Lee, Hamels, Worley and Blanton healthy along with Howard, Utley and the rest of their lineup. It's not like we're talking about the Pirates and just trying to get into the playoffs when they've got their best yet to come with all their great arms. We're talking about a team who has their top prospects up and has a farm system that's not very good right now. Why wait?

Yeah, I'll sure miss the prospects the Brewers have given up this year. It's gonna be hard to build a rotation after all the prospects they've traded away..what..with being a "buyer," this trade deadline.

Do you have anything to back this up? Especially at this point? As in most of baseball has more money to spend than the Brewers? It just doesn't seem to matter what ideas some fans have about the Brewers finances. How they can't spend more than 85 million and they go into the season at 96, how they maxed out last year and now they're spending 106. I don't think "most," of baseball has more "dough," to spend than the Brewers. Especially when you consider even the Yankees are having to make player personal decisions based on the luxury tax, ie, they report that they'd let Swisher walk to stay under the tax. The Phillies won't have more money as they're already spending a ton. Most taken to the literal sense would be 16, but by your wording it seems as though your suggesting we're among the bottom. And the Brewers have proven that just isn't true. They're willing to add to a 106 million dollar payroll, they have more money coming in next year, AND they they have a ton of money coming off the payroll. Again, you're ignoring the teams that have spent themselves out of a 120 million dollar contract. The Angels, Yankees, Phillies, White Sox, Braves...then just the teams that simply can't afford it.

Hindsight is 20/20. We may have had a better team starting this year and continuing for several years if we had gone the other route. When the trades were made the playoffs were not a sure ting. How would have this years team been that much better? What starting pitcher were we going to overpay for? ARam has been better than Lawrie. Escobar would have been an upgrade to what we currently have at SS but Gonzalez was doing some really nice things before he went down. Odorizzi would not help this year. I guess I would just have to hear what SP we would have gotten. AND CONTINUING FOR THE NEXT SEVERAL YEARS. And Aram's been almost dead even with Lawrie. So that's been a wash. Escobar at SS and hitting .313/.353 Lawrie, who again I'd like to remind the crowd is Canadian and didn't grow up in SoCal and then play college in Miami is performing very well at 3rd base at the same age Braun was in A+ and AA ball. Odorizzi is one of the top prospects in the game on the mound right now. And we have 36 million saved for what amounts to equal production from Aram, 4.5 million saved from Gonzalez, Greinke at 27 million, Marcum's cost about 14 I believe. So that's 80 million dollars we WOULDN'T have spent, and one incredible young left side of the IF for the next 5-6+ years, and Odorizzi, Thornburg, Peralta, Fiers, Nelson and several other pitchers on their way up. I continue to think the Marcum trade was absolutely terrible, but I'm also alright with what they gave up for Greinke. Of course added into what we do have is 4 likely draft picks. But the Marcum trade is particularly baffling. A soft tosser and a perpetual injury risk for Lawrie is, was and always will be a terrible trade. So him saying we could have been a better team starting this year? Perhaps not. Moving forward? That's just painfully obvious. Even if we do re-sign Greinke..which I'm absolutely in favor of. By the way, did anyone see the comment by Tommy Boy about how the Brewers would front load a contract for Greinke, otherwise it'd be difficult to keep their payroll around 100 million in 2016-2017 and on? Does he really believe that sitting at 106 our payroll is just set here for the next decade? By the way, how exactly do you come to the conclusion that Odorizzi "couldn't have helped the Brewers this year," when Fiers, Peralta, and Thornburg would likely have been behind him as options to be called up? As for who this pitcher is that could have helped us this year? Edwin Jackson. Signed for a whole 1 year at 10 million. And only signed with the Nats because he hung around on the market for so long. 3.6,3.8,3.8 WAR the last 3 seasons. I'm guessing he'd have helped...with 70 million to spare and a vastly improved left side of the IF(because of Escobar and his defense and his .313/.353 line.) He and Aoki would have made a very nice 1-2 in the lineup, Braun, Hart, Lawrie, Weeks, Lucroy/Maldy, CF.

No doubt about it. He was pretty consistently mocked on here. I'm also remember how Lincecum was a health risk and a terrible pick. Funny thing, he keeps doing a pretty good job with that team.

Purple Drank?

No clue on the skit, but I think you're vastly underrating the catching position. He's a guy who's an elite defensive catcher, and who I think I can hit .250//315/.420. That's a very solid starter at the hardest position to find a player at. I don't think most teams have a player like him. They MAY have players with his skills, but guess what, Jed Bradley has Andy Pettite's skills. I don't see him becoming Pettite(though I'm open to it as you just never know). Performing as he has at the big league level isn't luck or a fluke. You don't throw and block like that because you got lucky. And he hits the ball hard and has a pretty good eye. He's over performing, but he's as good as Blanco has been in his career and I think he will continue to be. That's a 7-8 year starter at the toughest position to find(arguably, SS is tough as well).

I've been driving the Maldy bandwagon since I 2010 just based on his skills, but give me Cobb, Archer, or Nieman, and it'd be incredibly stupid IMO not to trade him. Just like it'd be stupid not to trade Gallardo for Verlander or Braun for Mike Trout(if he was signed long term). Good and valuable doesn't mean don't trade. You really don't get much value if you go that route. I'm at a just stand still mode right now. No trades, leave the team the way it is unless you can get a Scutaro for a Gindl or something like that. Seriously people....look at August and how many times we play the teams ahead of us and who we have coming back, and how this team has been playing as of late. Ax doesn't blow two saves and we're REALLY looking good right now. I still like this team. Hate the 1st half performance, but I'm so did fans of a lot of other teams who made their move in the 2nd half.

Look, this is most likely going to be the last time in the next 4-5 years if we don't re-sign Greinke that we're going to be competitive. We're constantly improving our farm system and have been doing so since the ridiculous Lawrie trade and the Greinke trade. I don't know why people would actively root against their team from going on a run and getting back into it only hope to get returns that simply do not seem and are not realistic from every report. You want Olt PLUS Loux for Greinke when they said just Olt is off the table? It's amazing this thread started with me suggesting we trade Greinke and possibly give up another piece to get Greinke and people were telling me how much I'm undervaluing Greinke. Now at least we over the Profar isn't really that good or he's "just a prospect," talk which seems to come up whenever a prospect is hyped, but not when the consensus is to trade away the last realistic shot we have of being a contender for probably 4-5 years. And obviously trading away Greinke means zero chance of re-signing him(or close to it) while holding on to him certainly keeps us in the game. Again, I just ask people to take a little closer look to the TALENT on this team, not the early performance, the shape of the teams ahead of us, and the two big pieces we'll be getting back which could give us a rotation of Greinke/Yo/Fiers/Marcum/Wolf, Lucroy coming back and Maldy backing him up very well, Weeks finally breaking out of his slump, Hart playing well, Braun having a better year than last year, Aram heating up... In a weak league and a team still in striking distance in what very well may be their last real shot, I'm not going to root for them to lose. Just look at Augusts schedule and our recent August success. And again, those belaboring the # of teams ahead of us...it's almost comical with nearly 3 months to go. Heck, I may even feel differently if the trade suggestions were somewhat realistic, but they're not either.

This isn't like football where you can target positions of need. You should almost always be targeting the best player available. Since you said Texas has the best farm system, thats who you probably want to deal with first. And some prospects take longer than others to reach the bigs, other trades can happen, there's FA signings, etc. so you don't really know what the makeup of the team will be. If Melvin traded ARam, we would likely need a 3B (unless you go with Green) so Olt would fit nicely there (I think Texas is nuts if they think they won't have to give up Olt in a deal for Greinke/Hamels). How is this not like football where you can target a position of need? I think you're getting the draft and trading confused here. When you draft a player out of HS, he won't be on your big league roster for 5-6 years most likely. When you trade for guys in AA and AAA, it's pretty easy to project when they'll be on your roster and what position they'll be playing(again, something that you don't always know in high school). So targeting the Rangers because they have a better farm system, primarily because of two players who are untouchable over the Angels who have two players who one would assume ARE tradable and close to the big leagues makes all the sense in the world. In fact, most trades of top prospects, players are certain positions ARE in fact targeted. The Royals targeted a SS, SP and a CF. They wanted those positions. You act as if an accomplished AA player is just some crap shot and that there are years inbetween actually trading for him and him factoring into the clubs long term plans and that just isn't the case. In fact, that reads like a cut and paste from what someone said about the draft. The Brewers, IF they trade Greinke, absolutely should be targeting SS's and pitching. One last thing, I think it's crazy to question the methods of the Rangers front office when they've proven over the past few years...they kinda know what they're doing. Though....I guess I will defer to the Biz who clearly has a better handle on it.

No almost about it for me. I told myself before this stretch that unless they went 8-1 or 9-0, I absolutely want them selling. I'm rooting against them to protect the FO from themselves. Ditto. I understand how it would look to the "casual fan" if they traded away Greinke after sweeping or taking 2 of 3 so I hope they lose. If most fans understood how important it is to be constantly cycling talent into the organization, I don't think there would be a problem with selling even if they win a little. Unfortunately, most people are only fixated on the present and I bet the jsonline posters would be going crazy if they traded Greinke after winning 2 of 3, even though this team would likely lose the 1st round/play-in game if they even managed to squeak in. Really? So now, not only is it a miracle if they where to get into the playoffs(which suggests to me someone hasn't looked at Augusts schedule) even if they win 2-3 vs the Reds, but you're already announcing they would lose their play in game in the wild card. Amazing. If only I could borrow that crystal ball. And please, stop citing the "average fans," ignorance if they don't agree with you. I sure as hell hope they win another 2 of 3 vs the Reds or sweep all three as they're in a position right now where it's not the least bit difficult to see them getting in. The Pirates are pretty clearly playing over their heads, the Reds just lost Votto for at least a month(two series in which we play them), the Cards are close to us, banged up and old, and our August schedule consists of just bad teams or teams we're chasing. So sorry if this "average," fan doesn't want to take what Melvin has described as a tepid market for Greinke when this team, should they get in, has just as good a chance as any other from a watered down NL without a dominant team to get to the WS. And if, while it is still a very big IF, if they get to the post-season, they have a team that might even be better built to win in it. Especially if they were to pick up a Scutaro type player at short.

I'll take, "not hitting that great," over what we currently have at SS. I just won't do it for Rogers. This is a Caleb Gindl, Kyle Heckathorn type trade. And they eat half of their remaining salary. Scutaro can still defend at SS and .275/.329 at SS would be...amazing. Maybe we could finally slide someone else into the 2 hole and drop our CF'ers to 8th where they fit much better into the lineup.

You want to give up Rogers when he's finally throwing the ball well and throwing it in the mid 90's for two players that at this point have almost negative value to the Rockies? And I don't care who we have at AA or higher. Burgos is still a long shot to be a viable starting pitching option given his lack of stuff....unless you've actually watched him and can verify that he has the same type of stuff that Fiers has which doesn't show up in a scouting report per say, but if evident in watching him pitch. Peralta has been just awful and just great in stretches, and you could list 20 more names. It doesn't mean you make a bad deal. Would I take both? Of course. Eric Farris will almost certainly never play a key role on any .500 team, but to take back contracts I'm sure the Rockies aren't thrilled to have collectively, they shouldn't get more than Farris and Heckathorn. But it just makes no sense to me why we'd wait for Mark Rogers to have back to back 7 inning outings, wait for him to get his velocity back and then try to trade him when it's a long shot we make the playoffs this year anyway. To be clear, I'd very much like Scutaro and Belisle, but not for a guy who, even as a long shot, has A shot at being a contributor to the Brewers in the near future and who could end up as a 8th or 9th inning guy. Or a starter.

Sure you could have. You could have Lawrie playing 3rd base right now producing at the exact same level (2.4 WAR vs 2.4 WAR) except one is making 450K and will be for the next two years, and the other will be making 36 million during that time. Which, incidentally, could easily be the difference in us re-signing Greinke long term, and could have allowed us to sign Edwin Jackson this year, OR Rafeal Furcal. And since we have Tyler Thornburg starter for us, or up at least Jake Odorizzi seems to be a better option at this point, as he's performed better at AA and AAA than TT which would also open up TT to be pitching strictly in relief for us this year. So I don't agree that the players we traded wouldn't help us. Odorizzi however means no Greinke, and I was pretty disgusted with the Lawrie and Marcum trade right off the bat. So throw out Odorrizzi as we'd lose Greinke, but we'd definitely be a HELLUVA lot better off with Lawrie and 36 million dollars to spend this off-season. Throw Furcal into the equation and tell me what this team looks like. Last years team with Lawrie stepping in for McGehee also gets a nice boost. But we didn't go that way, so it's irrelevant. There are almost two best case scenario's for us right now. Either we seize the opportunity in front of us and beat the teams ahead of us in the standings in the next month, which we'll have ample chance to do, and beat up on the cupcake August schedule which has traditionally been our strongest month....OR we just bottom out, get swept by the Reds, face the Phillies with Halladay, Lee and Worley and lose 2 of 3 there, find ourselves 10 games out and it's time to sell. Again, lots of teams have struggled in the 1st half, but if you have the talent, which this team certainly does, it's hardly a stretch to see this team going on a run with the schedule that lies ahead of them and getting back into the race. A lot of talented teams also have just bad years and their players DON'T end up coming around. Luckily for us, we've got a big series tonight, and a couple more weeks before we have to decide.

So it was basically the equivalent of screening Rivera on the play by the opposing runner? Those are incredibly difficult plays to make(if I'm understanding this right). You have a guy a couple feet in front of you as you try and field a little white ball smashed at you while playing SS?

They've already made it to the World Series two years in a row without Greinke. Why would any team trade at the very worst the second best prospect in baseball for possibly half a year of one pitcher that they wouldn't get compensation for when they're already one of the best teams in the league? Why would they? Because they lack a legit #1. Darvish could be, but you don't know how a Japanese pitcher will hold up down the stretch, and they have #2 and #3 types behind him. Which was my thinking when I suggested that we give them Greinke PLUS another piece or two. At the time it was Axford who's struggled since obviously. But hell, I'd go Hart and Greinke. I think Hart would be a substantial upgrade at 1st base over who they're playing there now. But I wouldn't even consider trading Profar either. I've asked this question several times and the best I've gotten is Castro, but name one single SS in the big leagues who projects to be as good as Profar does. Defensively, offensively...he's a legit 5 tool player. To say he's what Mike Trout was last year except at Shortstop isn't an exaggeration in my opinion in the least. Would YOU trade that for 2 months of Cole Hamels to look at this from a different angle? Especially if you were the prohibitive favorites to win it all right now? The focus, IF we decide to trade him should be on a Jacob Turner, Nick Castenellos type trade from the Tiger Of course if Axford was the Axford of last year, we wouldn't be having this conversation as we'd be 6-0 thus far out of the break and 5 games out, and well in the race. Not that we can't or aren't as it stands if we can take another 2 of 3 vs the Reds sans Votto. Right now, the Pirates are a up and coming team, but they remind me of the Brewers teams who got out to big leads, but weren't quite ready. The Cards have Carpenter out for the year, Miller isn't exactly lighting it up in AAA as a whole or he'd be up by now, Garcia is out, Berkman has been injured and you're banking on an awful lot that Beltran will make it the rest of the way. And the Reds just lost by far they're best player for at least a month. So the Brewers get the Reds for 3, the Phillies for 3, a struggling Phillies team, the Nats for 4 and we miss Strausburg, and then finish the month with Houston before an incredibly easy August schedule outside of two MORE matchup's with the Reds who will still be without Votto and the Cards. Looking at the schedule, if ever there was a team that had a run set up perfectly for them through the end of August. That should tell you if we'll be trading Greinke, and if we keep playing like we have been, but with a better 8/9 inning combo...I don't see why we wouldn't be in the thick of things in the next 4-5 weeks and possibly looking to add a SS. Oh, and we're looking at getting Marcum and Lucroy back. A #3 pitcher, and a catcher hitting .345.