Eye Black

I agree, I keep coming back to Seager as a good fit. Throughout his career he has been competent against both RHP and LHP, so he is someone that should be able to start nearly everyday (assuming good health). It seems like their current roster construction has put an emphasis on raising the offensive floor, and Seager seems to fit right into that mold, with still having a decent enough upside to provide above average offensive numbers. He looks like a good match when inserted into their current potential lineups. It does seem like the contract (and team option changing to a player option) will ultimately be the biggest hang-up to overcome.

The Mets were his childhood team and I thought there was a chance they might pry him away previously, but when they were instead interviewing Doug Melvin and an active agent I felt much better about the fact he wasn’t going to be a match for them in the foreseeable future. I think (hope) Stearns wouldn’t be seriously interested in a VP job with the Mets until they have a much more stable ownership situation (something that doesn’t appear to be a given with the new primary owner).

This looks pretty accurate, but I am holding out hope a significant mystery acquisition will appear from the shadows sometime over the next month and the primary lineups will look closer to this... vs. RHP 1. Cain (CF) 2. Yelich (RF/LF) 3. Hiura (2B) 4. Mystery Player (3B) 5. Braun/Garcia (LF/RF) 6. Narváez © 7. Smoak (1B) 8. Urías / Arcia (SS) vs. LHP 1. Cain (CF) 2. Yelich (LF) 3. Braun (1B) 4. Hiura (2B) 5. Mystery Player (3B) 6. Garcia (RF) 7. Piña © 8. Urías / Arcia (SS)

I never thought I’d be the one standing up for Incarcerated Bob, but I think his shtick is being portrayed incorrectly. He isn’t your run-of-the-(rumor)-mill phony news breaking Twitter account. He does seemingly have some actual connections throughout various corners of the professional sports industry, but he also gets some of his tips through his DMs because of his social media notoriety. I assume he vets them to some extent because it does seem as though he’s proven correct more often than he’s wrong. All of this being said, if you’re skeptical of his Hader report and refuse to believe it as more than hogwash, that’s totally understandable and I get it. The problem with that kind of hindsight report (i.e. “this almost happened”) is that it’s nearly impossible to disprove because the pretense is already setup that it’s not going to happen.

There were significant extenuating circumstances that impacted both trades made in this specific case (so definitely not an apples-to-apples comparison), but there is one example of the Yankees getting back significantly more than they paid for a high-end reliever... December 28, 2015: Aroldis Chapman traded by the Cincinnati Reds to the New York Yankees for Eric Jagielo, Caleb Cotham, Rookie Davis and Tony Renda. July 25, 2016: Aroldis Chapman traded by the New York Yankees to the Chicago Cubs for Rashad Crawford, Billy McKinney, Gleyber Torres and Adam Warren. Still, worrying about what might happen down the road is the last thing that should be on the minds of the Brewers’ front office. They will focus on their own evaluation of the players/prospects being offered right now and balance that with their long term projections for Josh Hader. If they get a deal where they feel confident the long-term impact greatly outweighs the projected value of Hader over the next few seasons than they will likely pull the trigger. As much as the passionate fan in me wants the Brewers to go “all-in” during the Yelich window, it also makes me a bit of a hypocrite since I was an antagonist of Doug Melvin’s “window theory”. The discipline the current front office has shown is actually pretty incredible even if it can be frustrating at times. I have a feeling David Stearns is telling the truth when he references building a perennial winner versus attempting to swing for the fences within a specific cycle of time. That may mean the Brewers won’t always have flashy off-seasons and in some cases they may take a significant asset and try to multiply the projected value into the future via trade, but it also means the Brewers won’t likely ever be in a position where they can’t make moves because of an overwhelming amount of dead money on the books, or refuse to make moves just because they overvalue the present.

This is a fantastic example of how it’s possible to disagree with someone else’s trade proposal, but use the premise to construct other ideas and move the conversation forward. The White Sox are interesting because they seem motivated to improve the major league team in a hurry, but I would agree that the return wouldn’t be ideal for Milwaukee. Nick Madrigal and Zack Collins are two players I’m lower on than their prospect pedigree, and as noted if Hiura remains in the Brewers future plans than Madrigal would be limited in near-term opportunities. Regarding Michael Kopech, he is a fascinating player in that his range of potential outcomes seems vast, even as he approaches 24 years old. He could develop into Noah Syndergaard or he could seemingly never throw meaningful innings as a big league starter. He would be a risky upside play, but if it paid off he could be a future front of the rotation arm. Ultimately I think for the a Hader trade to make sense the Brewers need at least one piece that will have an immediate impact at the MLB level since they are seemingly still trying to compete for the division and league championship next year.

By all means, please offer up your own suggestions. And no, the Dodgers aren’t trading one of the top three prospects in baseball for a reliever, so...

Bringing this over from the 3B candidates thread. Assuming the Twins would offer one of these packages for Josh Hader (admittedly a big assumption), do you find either of the below packages enticing? For the purposes of this exercise lets assume the Brewers believe Arraez could be their primary 3B as well as fill-in in at other positions as needed. Luis Arraez and Alex Kirilloff OR Luis Arraez, and TWO of the following: Brusdar Graterol, Jordan Balazovic, Trevor Larnach

I certainly wasn’t suggesting they would consider “giving him away” by any means. At one time the Twins were reportedly interested in Hader. If that is still the case the Twins could put together an enticing proposal that included Arraez and 1-2 players from their pool of nearly major league ready prospects. Just a thought, as with all trade speculation of course it is very unlikely to actually happen. Edit: Posted the concept in the Hader trade ideas thread.

Not sure how much new information is here, but this was just tweeted by Jon Heyman...

If the Twins did sign Donaldson and the Brewers thought the left handed hitting Luis Arraez could serve as the primary third baseman he might be a nice target, although it would likely cost the Brewers some quality major league talent to acquire him. His strikeout rate was just 7.9% and his OBP was .379 last season.

I was surprised to see how dreadful Moran was defensively at 3B last year. He had the second worst UZR (-8.8) at that position ahead of only Vladimir Guerrero Jr. He rated worse defensively than Miguel Sano, Justin Turner, and Hunter Dozier.

I was surprised to see how dreadful Moran was defensively at 3B last year. He had the second worst UZR (-8.8) at that position ahead of only Vladimir Guerrero Jr. He rated worse defensively than Miguel Sano, Justin Turner, and Hunter Dozier.

Article from Beyond the Boxscore, The Brewers have been busy, but they haven’t gotten better The second half of the article takes a look at the position player changes. Granted some of Grandal’s projected WAR is due to his pitch framing value, but that was a big loss nonetheless. I don’t think they are done yet with position player upgrades. I think there will be at least one trade to add a position player that projects for greater than 2 WAR.

Article from Beyond the Boxscore, The Brewers have been busy, but they haven’t gotten better The second half of the article takes a look at the position player changes. Granted some of Grandal’s projected WAR is due to his pitch framing value, but that was a big loss nonetheless. I don’t think they are done yet with position player upgrades. I think there will be at least one trade to add a position player that projects for greater than 2 WAR.

They still have Christian Yelich, so that’s reason enough for remaining optimistic. —————————— According to Adam McCalvy... It seems they have accomplished the incremental upgrades in some areas, but also may have less impact hitters. Strictly using 2019 Baseball Prospectus’ DRC+ stat, below are the core/returning players, outgoing players, and incoming players. There were a total of 610 position players listed in the 2019 DRC+ rankings. Core / Returning Yelich — 167 DRC+ (Rank: 2nd overall behind only Mike Trout) Hiura — 115 DRC+ (Tied for 84th) Braun — 111 DRC+ (Tied for 104th) Piña — 90 DRC+ Cain — 87 DRC+ Gamel — 82 DRC+ Arcia — 74 DRC+ Outgoing Grandal — 124 DRC+ (Rank: Tied for 46th) Moustakas — 118 DRC+ (Tied for 71st) Thames — 112 DRC+ (Tied for 98th) Aguilar — 97 DRC+ Grisham — 90 DRC+ Shaw — 71 DRC+ Perez — 69 DRC+ Saladino — 60 DRC+ Incoming Narvaez — 123 DRC+ (Rank: Tied for 49th) Smoak — 111 DRC+ (Tied for 104th) Sogard — 110 DRC+ (Tied for 110th) Garcia — 103 DRC+ (Tied for 153rd) Healy — 95 DRC+ Urias — 83 DRC+ I would really like to see them find a way to add one more hitter than can be expected to finish in the top 100 most valuable hitters in terms of deserved runs created. Popularly speculated 3B target Kyle Seager finished with a 113 DRC+ last season which was tied for 92nd overall among all hitters.

They still have Christian Yelich, so that’s reason enough for remaining optimistic. —————————— According to Adam McCalvy... It seems they have accomplished the incremental upgrades in some areas, but also may have less impact hitters. Strictly using 2019 Baseball Prospectus’ DRC+ stat, below are the core/returning players, outgoing players, and incoming players. There were a total of 610 position players listed in the 2019 DRC+ rankings. Core / Returning Yelich — 167 DRC+ (Rank: 2nd overall behind only Mike Trout) Hiura — 115 DRC+ (Tied for 84th) Braun — 111 DRC+ (Tied for 104th) Piña — 90 DRC+ Cain — 87 DRC+ Gamel — 82 DRC+ Arcia — 74 DRC+ Outgoing Grandal — 124 DRC+ (Rank: Tied for 46th) Moustakas — 118 DRC+ (Tied for 71st) Thames — 112 DRC+ (Tied for 98th) Aguilar — 97 DRC+ Grisham — 90 DRC+ Shaw — 71 DRC+ Perez — 69 DRC+ Saladino — 60 DRC+ Incoming Narvaez — 123 DRC+ (Rank: Tied for 49th) Smoak — 111 DRC+ (Tied for 104th) Sogard — 110 DRC+ (Tied for 110th) Garcia — 103 DRC+ (Tied for 153rd) Healy — 95 DRC+ Urias — 83 DRC+ I would really like to see them find a way to add one more hitter than can be expected to finish in the top 100 most valuable hitters in terms of deserved runs created. Popularly speculated 3B target Kyle Seager finished with a 113 DRC+ last season which was tied for 92nd overall among all hitters.

Not completely related, but since he was mentioned in this thread... Tyler Glasnow was in studio with MLB Network this afternoon and (politely) said some candid things about the difference between Pittsburgh and going to the Rays. He said they changed his pitching approach because they were able to use advanced data to tell him, “this what your stuff does, and this is why you are good. Let’s do more of this.” He said it helped him shift his mentality from previous (in Pittsburgh) where he was taught to go downhill, keep the ball down, and touch corners. He said the Rays were able to show him that he would be better off erring on the side of being aggressive versus trying to touch corners. He said once that resonated he was able to just focus on working up and down through the middle of the plate which created an attack first mentality. He finished by saying the Rays staff and coaches were really able to show him how good his stuff actually was.

Not completely related, but since he was mentioned in this thread... Tyler Glasnow was in studio with MLB Network this afternoon and (politely) said some candid things about the difference between Pittsburgh and going to the Rays. He said they changed his pitching approach because they were able to use advanced data to tell him, “this what your stuff does, and this is why you are good. Let’s do more of this.” He said it helped him shift his mentality from previous (in Pittsburgh) where he was taught to go downhill, keep the ball down, and touch corners. He said the Rays were able to show him that he would be better off erring on the side of being aggressive versus trying to touch corners. He said once that resonated he was able to just focus on working up and down through the middle of the plate which created an attack first mentality. He finished by saying the Rays staff and coaches were really able to show him how good his stuff actually was.

From Bernie Pleskoff of Forbes... Brewers Best New Addition Might Be Luis Urias

From Bernie Pleskoff of Forbes... Brewers Best New Addition Might Be Luis Urias

While admittedly highly unlikely, I think the “best way” for the Brewers to pull off an Arenado deal would be a three team deal that included Josh Hader going to a contender; prospects (likely close to the majors ones) going to the Rockies; and significant cash coming back to the Brewers (along with obviously Arenado).

While admittedly highly unlikely, I think the “best way” for the Brewers to pull off an Arenado deal would be a three team deal that included Josh Hader going to a contender; prospects (likely close to the majors ones) going to the Rockies; and significant cash coming back to the Brewers (along with obviously Arenado).

When the Brewers traded Greinke, ultimately for a deal headlined by Jean Segura, I was hopeful that they would work out a deal with either the Tigers headlined by prospect Nicholas Castellanos or the Braves for prospect Julio Teheran. I guess in the end the Brewers did just fine as compared to those alternatives.

The tea leaves continue to suggest that Arenado is indeed on the trade block. At this point the odds are very high he is going to opt out of his contract after the 2021 season. In my opinion, there is a high likelihood Arenado will be worth every penny of the $70 million he is owed over the next two seasons. In a vacuum I think a team would be much better off paying crazy amounts of money for a 28 year old Arenado (will turn 29 just before the season) versus a now 34 year old Josh Donaldson (don’t get me wrong, that would be awesome as well). I know this is just torture because we quickly allow reality to set in, but this lineup would potentially be one the best from top to bottom in the National League... Cain Yelich Arenado Hiura Smoak / Braun García / Braun Narváez / Piña Urias / Sogard