Eye Black

Pirates also sending the Padres $1.4 million to cover some of Frazier’s salary.

RHP Michell Milliano is the third Padres player in the deal.

According to Ken Rosenthal, Tucupita Marcano and Jack Suwinski are among players headed from Padres to Pirates.

Three players are reportedly going back to the Pirates according to Robert Murray. Well at least now Frazier won’t terrorize the Brewers next week, but I guess the playoffs could be a different story.

Per Jeff Passan: The San Diego Padres are acquiring second baseman/outfielder Adam Frazier from the Pittsburgh Pirates, sources tell ESPN. Frazier, 29, leads baseball in hits this year and is not a free agent until after the 2022 season. One of the best bats on the trade market.

Brewers are stacking LHHs with 5 lefty hitters in the top 6 of tonight’s lineup. Lynn does have fairly big platoon splits for both his career (.754 OPS vs. .635 OPS) and this season (.617 OPS vs .498 OPS)

Tonight’s ESPN broadcast team is Matt Vasgersian providing commentary with analyst Eduardo Perez and reporter Buster Olney. A-Rod is back in the booth next Sunday night.

From Jon Morosi: The Brewers are looking for relief pitching at the deadline, GM Matt Arnold confirmed to us on MLB Network Radio. The club also expects to activate Devin Williams and Justin Topa in the near term, and Arnold indicated LHP Ethan Small is a call-up candidate.

Per Ken Rosenthal: Byron Buxton has rejected a contract extension from the Twins, sources tell me and @DanHayesMLB. Story coming. Presumably that increases the likelihood Buxton could be traded this week.

Brandon Woodruff: Batter (White Sox) vs Pitching Stats Lance Lynn: Batter (Brewers) vs Pitching Stats Statcast Game Preview for White Sox-Brewers Statcast Game Feed for White Sox-Brewers

From Jon Morosi: José Ramírez could be available at the MLB trade deadline, with Cleveland losing tonight for the 5th time in 6 games and falling to .500. Ramírez's contract includes affordable team options for 2022 and 2023, so the club could wait until the offseason to move him. The Mariners are one team to watch on José Ramírez. Seattle has a rich farm system and flexibility at 2B/3B in the near and medium term. Jerry Dipoto always is ready to deal. And if he makes a significant move, it needs to be for a controllable player.

Starting a thread dedicated to posting and discussing credible trade deadline rumors over the next six days. Reminder, the trade deadline is Friday, July 30th at 3:00pm Central Time.

Good post MadThinker, appreciate you sharing this. As I mentioned earlier, if Cleveland fans like it then it’s fine with me. And actually, I think it has already grown on me since it was initially announced.

Holten previously said he was offered a number in the high six figures from other teams and turned it down. Said he had a number he gave teams, and nobody met his number so he’s planning on going to Vanderbilt. That being said, the Brewers might actually be able to piece together more than $1 million to offer him.

Great to see Rowdy showing off his power tonight. Agree with those that pointed out he puts together a lot of competitive at bats. Aside from Roc Riggio announcing tonight he’s going to Oklahoma State, this has been a pretty charmed evening for the Brewers.

Losing out on Roc Riggio is a pretty big blow to how this draft class was shaping up. That one stings.

It’s sad that this is so obvious and I’m still nervous about the replay review getting it right.

What a nice job by Willy to keep the tag on Abreu. Huge play.

Being taken in the first round of the draft is typically an indication scouts and teams think you’re good at baseball. Also, while he may have been drafted 21st overall, he signed for the 15th largest bonus amount in 2018 ($3.411 million). Among all drafted high school players (those whom he had similar leverage as) only six signed for higher draft bonuses that year. Turang’s likelihood of being a major leaguer seems pretty high since he already has the defensive skills to play the middle infield at the highest level, and is a plus runner. He doesn’t need to become an elite offensive player to be an every day major leaguer. Regarding more recent scouting reports on his hitting, he was reportedly one of the most consistent hitters at the Brewers alternate site last summer, and led their internal “barrel board” according to Baseball America. He has added strength as well as changed both his approach and swing over the past year. He’s always shown good plate discipline, and he now reportedly has a shorter swing and is showing more power to his pull-side. Biloxi can be a difficult place for young hitters to perform, and Turang currently has a 102 wRC+. He is also carrying by far the lowest strikeout rate (15.8%) of any qualified hitter in Double-A that’s 21 years old or younger (next closest is Toronto’s Jordan Groshans at 20.3%). His walk rate has plummeted quite a bit this season (which may be part of his approach change), but for his career it has typically been very good. Turang remains one of the better hopes the Brewers have had in recent years to develop a solid every day position player. If they decide to trade him to win now, that’s fine, but I don’t think suggesting “Turang won’t bring Milwaukee much back in trade” is true. And if it were true then they certainly shouldn’t trade him at this point.

Corbin Burnes: Batter (White Sox) vs Pitching Stats Carlos Rodón: Batter (Brewers) vs Pitching Stats Statcast Game Preview for White Sox-Brewers Statcast Game Feed for White Sox-Brewers

I wouldn’t mind the Brewers trading for a starting pitcher, but giving up Luis Urias for 1.5 years of Kyle Gibson is likely a zero sum game at best, with a high likelihood to be disastrous. Gibson has benefited from throwing 56 innings this season at pitcher friendly Globe Life Field. I wouldn’t have any faith in his season stat line continuing post trade. I would expect Gibson to regress towards his career norms, and that’s just too steep of a price to pay for someone that wouldn’t slot into the first three of your playoff rotation. Trying to prove any point using “career” Double-A stats for someone playing at the level for the first time who is more than 3.5 years young for the league seems disingenuous. Turang still has a lot of development to go, but he has the pedigree and potential to become a good major league player. Trent Grisham played in Double-A at Biloxi for the first time as a 21 year old (same age as Turang) and had a .693 OPS over 405 plate appearances. Grisham’s slugging percentage was also 60 points lower than Turang’s is currently. Maybe I missed it, but I didn’t see anyone try to compare him those players mentioned (Swanson, Turner)? Turang is far from any sort of sure thing [obviously], but he still has more trade value than any Brewers prospect outside of Garrett Mitchell. Turang isn’t close to being a finished product at this point, and the ceiling he has if he reaches his 75th percentile outcome or better is plenty high enough that he’ll maintain trade appeal for rebuilding teams. If a team is looking for certainty over ceiling, then sure Turang probably isn’t as appealing, but I think there are plenty of teams that would place a high value on his future potential.

I’ve always considered it batting around if every spot in the order comes up in an inning. But, apparently that isn’t a unanimous, or even majority, opinion. For example, tonight an announcer might say “Wong is leading off here again in the 8th as the Brewers batted around in the 7th.” I consider it batting around as well, but I only recently found out that is indeed in the minority opinion.

When Taylor really squares up a ball it’s fun to watch the result. He’s turned into a really useful player on a good team.