Eye Black

Here are my predictions... Trevor Bauer, RHP, Cleveland Indians - Not Traded Noah Syndergaard, RHP, New York Mets - Padres Madison Bumgarner, LHP, San Francisco Giants - Braves Robbie Ray, LHP, Arizona Diamondbacks - Yankees Zack Greinke, RHP, Arizona Diamondbacks - Not Traded Caleb Smith, LHP, Miami Marlins - Not Traded Matthew Boyd, LHP, Detroit Tigers - Not Traded Mike Minor, LHP, Texas Rangers - Twins Zack Wheeler, RHP, New York Mets - Astros Tanner Roark, RHP, Cincinnati Reds - Phillies I'll predict the Brewers make a late run at acquiring Alex Wood after their top targets don't workout. I do think they'll add a significant bullpen addition of some sort, however.

Lets hear some predictions on where the following starting pitchers end up (if anywhere) over the next day.... Trevor Bauer, RHP, Cleveland Indians - ? Noah Syndergaard, RHP, New York Mets - ? Madison Bumgarner, LHP, San Francisco Giants - ? Robbie Ray, LHP, Arizona Diamondbacks - ? Zack Greinke, RHP, Arizona Diamondbacks - ? Caleb Smith, LHP, Miami Marlins - ? Matthew Boyd, LHP, Detroit Tigers - ? Mike Minor, LHP, Texas Rangers - ? Zack Wheeler, RHP, New York Mets - ? Tanner Roark, RHP, Cincinnati Reds - ?

Chris Bassitt: Batter (Brewers) vs Pitching Stats

In other words, assuming that list is accurate, here are the teams NOT included on Greinke’s no trade list: * Atlanta Braves * Miami Marlins * New York Mets * Washington Nationals * Chicago Cubs * Milwaukee Brewers * Pittsburgh Pirates * Tampa Bay Rays * Chicago White Sox * Cleveland Indians * Kansas City Royals * Houston Astros * Seattle Mariners * Texas Rangers

Ray+ may be a stretch, but earlier reports indicated the Diamondbacks wanted something similar to what they got for Goldschmidt. I take that, at least in part, to mean they want young players either in MLB, or on the verge of being major league ready. If you combined one of the Brewers younger pitchers (i.e. Burnes or Peralta), with one of their top close to the majors position prospects (i.e. Dubon or Grisham) that likely gets you pretty close to a deal for 1.5 seasons of Robbie Ray. It actually is probably a bit of an overpay if you take into account that the Blue Jays just got a FV 45+ and FV 45 pitcher in return for Marcus Stroman under the same amount of control. Of those possible combinations, Burnes and Dubon would be my preference in exchange for Ray. The one thing that would give me a slight bit of pause on Robbie Ray is the average velocity on his fastball has been in a pretty steady decline for the past two years (Link). Still, he has remained fairly consistent in terms of results over that span.

If I’m looking at this correctly, it appears the Brewers will be on the hook for approximately $700,000 of Lyles remaining contract this season. Has anyone come across different information on the financials, or does that seem accurate?

The Mets owners would run the GM out of town on a rail if he made your trade. Syndergaard and Wheeler for Urias and Peralta?? The Brewers would get Yates and Wheeler for a reliever (Peralta) and an OF who is not in the top 125 top prospects. As noted earlier it would probably take additional pieces, but I don’t think the general construct of it from a value standpoint is as crazy lopsided as you are making it out to be. If anything the Padres are likely getting the short end of the deal as presented. The Padres probably do need to receive another player from the Brewers to make the deal work. Urias and Syndergaard have value that is in the ballpark of being equal to one another. I would personally give the edge to Syndergaard, but prospects seemingly have an all-time high valuation right now, so Urias may very well be considered the more valuable of the two. If we’re going to take Rosenthal’s report at face value that the Padres have expressed interest in Grisham, that’s certainly notable. I don’t think teams are working off top 100 lists, and their player/prospect evaluation tools are likely light years ahead of anything that is publicly available. They are looking for players they believe can provide impact to their organization. There may very well be organizations that value Grisham higher than any other prospect eligible player currently in the Brewers farm system. And for the “that’s not saying much” crowd, I don’t think the top of the system is nearly as god awful as it’s being portrayed. As far as the “reliever”, I think 5.5 years of Freddy Peralta, whether it be as a reliever or eventual starter, is certainly more valuable than two months of Zack Wheeler coming off of an injury referred to as “shoulder impingement”. I think people are going to be a little surprised (and Mets fans likely disappointed) at what Wheeler ultimately nets in return.

Sorry, I should have been more specific. I did Feliciano to Padres as well as the Mets giving up LHP David Peterson.

Your suggesting the Crew deals away 2 players (Grisham and Freddy Peralta) but gets 2 back in Yates and Wheeler.. Does that even get close on Baseball Trade Values trade evaluator?? You have to add in another decent prospect going from the Brewers to the Padres on the site (i.e. Mario Feliciano), but I also think they have Grisham undervalued a bit from what the industry might actually value him at currently. With the report today that the Padres are interested in Grisham specifically, I don't think it's a huge stretch that the Brewers could get a better value in return than what the BTV site suggests.

What about this one?... Brewers receive: RP Kirby Yates (from SD); SP Zack Wheeler (from NYM) Padres receive: SP Noah Syndergaard (from NYM); CF Trent Grisham (from MKE) Mets receive: 2B Luis Urias (from San Diego); SP/RP Freddy Peralta (from MKE)

From Andy Martino... Source: A Jason Vargas trade is close.

A piece from the MLB roster being involved would make the Ruben Amaro Jr. report from 10 days ago make a little more sense.

Padres and Mets have been linked as being in trade discussions. Mets and Brewers have been linked as being in trade discussions. Brewers and Padres have now been linked as being in trade discussions. An off the wall idea, but maybe these teams are working on a three way trade of some sort?

The acquisition is underwhelming in my opinion, but if the front office believes he makes the team better and it is one of their best options based on current alternatives, then they certainly shouldn't let a past roster move dictate current decision making. The Brewers reportedly nearly acquired Mike Minor in the off-season. The cost to get him now will almost assuredly be higher, but does that mean they shouldn't do it if they believe he is the best option/value now? I think a good front office isn't going to allow past decisions to have a significant influence on current ones.

Brewers could be targeting one of those young starters if Grisham is headed that way...SD has more pitching coming down on the farm, so they'd likely be willing to listen on some of those youngsters if they thought they had better arms not too far off (or they were going to go get Thor) It has surprised me how bad Logan Allen was after how good he looked against the Brewers. They have since sent him back to Triple-A. It would be great for the Brewers to get back to their [sarcasm]Canadian roots[/sarcasm] by making a play for a young starter like Cal Quantrill, but I would be surprised if San Diego was willing to trade him. Yates makes sense. He is a player I've been a little wary of continuing his success, but he hasn't shown any signs of regression to this point.

A passage from Murray's article at The Athletic... The article contains quotes from Yelich saying last year was a great example of what mid-season acquisitions can do for the team. It also mentions the Brewers are willing to acquire a starter and reliever in the same deal.

More than half the teams in MLB are off today. There has to be an increase in player movement by tonight, right? Just seems like things should start to shake out at some point soon. That mid-afternoon (3pm central) deadline comes up really quick on Wednesday. I would think teams will start to at least get frameworks of potential deals in place today.

The Rays make sense from the standpoint they could really use Grandal, they were rumored to be considering signing him in the off-season, they have a lot of quality arms in the system including in the upper minors, and they are the team facing the biggest roster crunch this upcoming off-season from a Rule 5 draft standpoint. I wouldn’t even be shocked if the Rays dealt a pitcher from their current active roster in order to get a Grandal deal done.

For whatever reason they seem pretty intent on moving Syndergaard. He is scheduled to start for the Mets on Tuesday, and I’ll actually be somewhat surprised if he makes that start.

I think the caliber of prospects dealt so far is actually right in the wheelhouse of what the Brewers have to offer. No one has traded anything that can be considered a top-flight prospect yet. This may be true but teams probably have more of them in which to deal. Brewers cupboard is so bare it's tough to give up what little they do have. Hopefully they can find a partner who can make something happen. The Mets just acquired Marcus Stroman with a farm system that is arguably below the Brewers. If they are ahead of the Brewers at this point it has a lot to do with their 2019 draftees (headlined by Brett Baty) who won’t be eligible to be traded until this off-season. Sure the Blue Jays wanted pitching and probably specifically liked those pitchers, but the industry consensus seems to be those players are on par with the small handful of guys at the top of the Brewers system. For instance, I wouldn’t trade Brice Turang straight up for either Kay or Woods-Richardson. If anything the Stroman trade gives a glimmer of hope the Brewers might actually be able to acquire a top pitcher or bullpen piece if they are willing to deal from among their better assets.

Keston Hiura’s MLB hitting spray chart thus far (link):

This Noah Syndergaard Tweet made me chuckle. His Twitter currently profile says, “Pitcher for the New York Mets, for now.” I get the sense he’s looking forward to getting out of the Mess.... errr, Mets.

Went to the game today as part of our partial season seat holder package (20-gm). It is really disheartening how many season ticket holders continue to sell great seats to Cubs fans. I will never, ever sell my tickets for the Cubs games at MP. I’m going to be at Friday’s game, hopefully plenty of Brewers fans will return the favor by invading Wrigley this weekend.

Roark for Ernesto who is hitting a whopping .236 in rookie ball and Williams who is the poster boy for AAAA players? A starter for two bums? Burnes, Lutz, and Fry would be part of a pkg for Ray, not anywhere close to a complete pkg. Burnes has regressed horrendously, Lutz is hitting .241 with 119 Ks in 362 ABs, and Fry is just now getting to Appleton. The D'backs GM would be fired on the spot if he made that deal. Gray hit .182 in Rk ball last year and is even worse this year. Brown has been so horrible at AAA (5.98 ERA - 111 hits and 58 ERs in only 86 IPs) he has next to no value other than a throw-in. While the Brewers would love to make any of your deals, the other teams would laugh hysterically. Luckily teams base their player evaluations off more than a cursory glance at Baseball Reference. Referring to Williams and Ernesto as “bums” is much sillier than anything about those potential offers. Burnes and Lutz both still have plenty of trade value. The Shane Greene offer would likely require a better headliner piece (i.e. Mauricio Dubon), but saying Zack Brown has no value is hyperbole.

Archer was actually 3.5 years, assuming PIT picks up the 9/11 million options for 2020/21. Good catch, and they’ll pick them up since they don’t really have a choice from a PR standpoint no matter how bad he pitches.