Eye Black

At least we’ll always have this...

For anyone fascinated by player trade values or creating hypothetical trade offers there is now the perfect website: BaseballTradeValues.com Let me start by saying... THIS. IS. AWESOME. It values all of the players in the majors as well as top and mid-tier prospects. You can create whatever simulated trades you would like and see where they fall in terms of fair value. The founder of the site, John Bitzer, appeared on the Effectively Wild Podcast yesterday. The site has an infinite combination of trades you can propose. If you create an account you can post your trade proposals to their site. I don’t think it’s perfect in terms of the values given to prospects, but it is much closer to accurate than anything I have come across before. It just recently launched, and I have a feeling it will continue to get more and more accurate with time. Here is a screenshot of proposals from the site (Note: The below proposals aren’t all great, but you get the idea)... If you listen to the podcast linked above (highly recommended) John explains that it limits you from trading for a superstar without offering at least one player that is around 40%+ of the percentage of that star back in trade (so you can just piece together a dozen guys without much value to make a trade happen). It also has some players with negative trade value (i.e. Braun), and you can exchange money in deals to help cover salaries and make them more realistic. Another thing that was interesting from the podcast is he explained how the Santana/Gamel trade forced him to tweak his model. He mentioned that it initially looked like a one-sided trade for the Mariners, but that after the trade Stearns admitted Santana being out of options hurt his value. John went back and adjusted his model by devaluing all players that couldn’t be optioned to reflect the difference. I have been down a rabbit hole using the site since I learned about it yesterday, hope you enjoy it as well! If you create an interesting proposal via the site feel free to share it in this thread. General feedback on the site is welcome also. Again, I don’t think the values are perfect, but most seem in the right ballpark and I am sure the site will continue to improve over time as it is adjusted with future player valuation and surplus value indicators such as real trades and free agent signings.

Jhoulys Chacín: Batter (Pirates) vs Pitching Stats Chris Archer: Batter (Brewers) vs Pitching Stats

I agree with that going back the past few years, but in practice his diverse positional usage had decreased considerably each of the past three seasons. Below are the games started and entered into at each position by year. This year he had started only 33 games through half a season, and 26 of those starts were at 2B. When he came off the bench he was at either 2B or SS in 18 games as compared to playing other positions off the bench just 10 times total (not counting the two pitching appearances). He was being used primarily as a middle infielder which is a seemingly much easier role for someone like Saladino to fill. Hernan Perez positional breakdown (Start/Substitution): 2017 LF - 34 started / 19 substituted RF - 17 / 13 3B - 16 / 15 2B - 16 / 1 CF - 10 / 8 SS - 5 / 2 1B - 0 / 2 P - 0 / 1 2018 2B - 25 started / 26 substituted SS - 15 / 5 3B - 11 / 11 RF - 7 / 20 LF - 7 / 10 CF - 1 / 2 1B - 0 / 6 2019 (Through 81 Games) 2B - 26 started / 12 substituted SS - 3 / 6 3B - 2 / 2 RF - 2 / 2 1B - 0 / 3 LF - 0 / 3 P - 0 / 2

From the Houston Chronicle, Astros righty Cy Sneed excited about getting first major call-up.

I was thinking along those same lines. Did they need a 40-man roster spot for either an impending trade/transaction, or are they possibly promoting Trent Grisham to the 40-man roster?

I am glad they are optioning Shaw and bringing back Hiura. Still, I can’t help but remain a little annoyed that they kept Travis on the roster while facing a bunch of left-handed starters when he wasn’t going to get many at bats anyway. Now they are going to face one left-handed starter over the next week. It’s still obviously the right move... better late than never, as they say.

I did not see this move coming at all. Perez has been pretty bad this season, so from that standpoint I certainly get it. I think Hernan has been a clubhouse favorite, and his son was seemingly a welcomed presence around the team. I assume someone will claim him (although maybe not since his salary is $2.5 million this year), and I wish him all the best if he does indeed move on to another organization.

Kimbrel got the save for the Cubs today. His fastball was mostly 97-mph, so higher than previously reported. He got in a little trouble (double and a walk), but for it being his first MLB game action this year he looked pretty solid.

In a completely unrelated note, FanGraphs player pages now list options remaining. Here is a randomly selected example (via Meg Rowley)...

Topic question: Among the starting pitchers potentially available leading up to the 2019 trade deadline who do you think the Brewers should target? Feel free to add what you think it will take to acquire your target(s). If you don’t think they should target any starting pitcher upgrade go ahead and state your case. Adam McCalvy provided this insight in his Brewers’ inbox article this week... The July 31st trade deadline is exactly 5 weeks away (from yesterday). Below are some of the pitchers that have been speculated as possibly being available this deadline, although several of these teams are obviously still in the playoff picture at this point. The list is ordered by years of control remaining (from least to most control). If you think I missed any starting pitchers that are being rumored as possibly available please mention it in the thread and I will update the list accordingly. Madison Bumgarner, LHP, San Francisco Giants (0.5 years of control) Zack Wheeler, RHP, New York Mets (0.5 years of control) Tanner Roark, RHP, Cincinnati Reds (0.5 years of control) Alex Wood, LHP, Cincinnati Reds (0.5 years of control) - Currently still on IL Homer Bailey, RHP, Kansas City Royals (0.5 years of control) Andrew Cashner, RHP, Baltimore Orioles (0.5 years of control) Marcus Stroman, RHP, Toronto Blue Jays (1.5 years of control) Trevor Bauer, RHP, Cleveland Indians (1.5 years of control) Robbie Ray, LHP, Arizona Diamondbacks (1.5 years of control) Mike Minor, LHP, Texas Rangers (1.5 years of control) Mike Leake, RHP, Seattle Mariners (1.5 years of control) Aaron Sanchez, RHP, Toronto Blue Jays (1.5 years of control) Zack Greinke, RHP, Arizona Diamondbacks (2.5 years of control) Noah Syndergaard, RHP, New York Mets (2.5 years of control) Max Scherzer, RHP, Washington Nationals (2.5 years of control) Danny Duffy, LHP, Kansas City Royals (2.5 years of control) Matthew Boyd, LHP, Detroit Tigers (3.5 years of control) Caleb Smith, LHP, Miami Marlins (4.5 years of control)

Over Chase Anderson’s last six starts he has gone 28.0 IP, allowed 20 earned runs including 6 home runs, and batters have an .882 OPS against him. Hopefully today is his chance to turn the tide a bit and get back on track. Mike Leake has had success against the Brewers top hitters throughout his career including Grandal (3-for-22), Braun (6-for-28), and Yelich (1-for-13). Overall he has held all current Brewers hitters to a .608 OPS (over 98 ABs). So hopefully that means nothing more than the Brewers hitters are due to break out against him.

[pre]Mariners Lineup Brewers Lineup 1. Mallex Smith (L) CF 1. Yasmani Grandal (S) C 2. J.P. Crawford (L) SS 2. Christian Yelich (L) RF 3. Domingo Santana ® RF 3. Mike Moustakas (L) 2B 4. Daniel Vogelbach (L) 1B 4. Ryan Braun ® LF 5. Tim Beckham ® 3B 5. Eric Thames (L) 1B 6. Tom Murphy ® C 6. Lorenzo Cain ® CF 7. Dee Gordon (L) 2B 7. Travis Shaw (L) 3B 8. Dylan Moore ® LF 8. Chase Anderson ® P 9. Mike Leake ® P 9. Orlando Arcia ® SS[/pre] Chase Anderson: Batter (Mariners) vs Pitching Stats Mike Leake: Batter (Brewers) vs Pitching Stats

Not exactly sending Murder’s Row up to the plate here in the 9th.

A bit of a rough stretch for Jeffress, he has given up 8 hits and 6 earned runs over his last four appearances dating back to the San Diego series last week.

Please excuse me while I beat a dead horse for a moment... This is exactly the type of night where having Hiura’s right-handed power bat in the lineup, even somewhere in the #5-#7 spots, would be very helpful. LHP Wade LeBlanc went 5 innings, and now they are going to face the Mariners closer, LHP Roenis Elías for 2 innings. The bottom half of the Brewers order isn’t intimidating whatsoever and they only have lefty hitters on the bench.

So who had Matt Albers in the pool to end the Brewers 18 consecutive innings of allowing base runners streak? Albers now with 5 straight scoreless appearances in a row (his last 5.1 innings pitched).

According to MLB.com, Ben Gamel rounded the bases in 14.93 seconds, the fastest inside-the-park home run in MLB this year (out of ten total).

I must have missed this ... what did Counsell say about Hiura? Here is the VIDEO LINK via Adam McCalvy.

What?!?!?!.... WOW, Gamel!!! They can have their triples, we have an INSIDE-THE-PARK HOME RUN!!!!

I always forget that Arcia is sort of slow running down the line.

For as frustrating as this game has been again tonight it is surprisingly still close. They are just a grand slam away from taking the lead... I’ll take it!

Among tonight’s #5 through #9 hitters Orlando Arcia probably has the best “hit for power” tool.

The Brewers pitching staff’s hasn’t had a three up, three down inning since the 7th inning of Sunday’s game. I wonder what the major league record is for consecutive innings allowing a base runner? The Brewers are now at 15 consecutive innings allowing a walk or hit (or both).

Especially since the MLB average is about one triple per day (across all MLB games). Seems like the Brewers have given up far more than their share. I've noticed that as well. Vogt had 2 against the crew even! So I undersold it a little bit, but triples are currently on pace for an all-time low total this season. There are 0.15 triples per MLB game, so just slightly better than one triple in every seven games played. The Brewers have allowed the third most triples in MLB this season at 18. That is tied with Arizona and behind only Colorado and Detroit who have each allowed 20.