BrewersAA

The guy has been pretty impressive so far this spring. He's vying for the pen on this team but was previously a career starter and one time top 100 prospect. From the reports that I read I gathered that what derailed his assention was an injury then a major drop in velocity from the low 90s into the mid 80s. So.... my question is, has anybody heard anything on what hes throwing so far this spring? if hes gained some velocity back i wonder if hes a potential player for the rotation if someone goes down or if Garza goes back to career averages and becomes tradable. If anyone has info that would be much appreciated!

not sure if you all saw the title or original post. But I suggested trading Anderson.... not Garza....

The Dodgers were counting on Brett Andersen and today it was announced that he's going down for 3-5 months with back surgery. They have prospects that could step in, but the Dodgers are always a high pressure to win situation that they might try to go get someone. Anyway, this makes me wonder is Anderson might become a target?

love it, who do you give up?

They released him to make room for neftali feliz. As far as your reaction to replacing lucroy... Keep in mind this team isn't going anywhere soon. Our roster should be made up of guys with potential in hopes that they can put it together long enough to generate trade value. This guy is a former #4 overall pick with a good bat at a premium position. He doesn't throw out runners very well but he plays average defense and has average to above pitch framing. With the defensive success Brewers catchers tend to have, and the improvement lucroy has made in throwing runners out, I would think our coaching can maybe help a touch in his weak areas. Then you just hope the bat plays and maybe you've found something valuable that can be flipped.

The Pirates released Tony Sanchez today. He was the 4th overall pick in 2009. He's a catcher with a potentially good bat and average defense. Still only 27 years old, think he would be a great pickup for the crew to take the spot vacated when lucroy is traded.

I have simply never understood why streaming is affected by the TV restrictions. I live in Oklahoma city therefore I blacked out when the Brewers play the cardinals, Astros, Rangers, Royals, and Rockies. I don't have cable, I stream, 2 different things, so the logic of the blackout funneling me to the "local" stations doesn't apply. But even more frustratingly, living in a market that's pro team sized, without a pro team, leads to every team and their brothers 'claiming' it. Here's the problem, even with local cable, the game is rarely broadcast because there is generally and actual local event on the fox sports broadcast. It's often made me wonder why I buy the package every year. I will be routing against MLB in this one myself.

I love this signing, I was hoping for Pedro, but he couldn't have been had for 2.5 mil, which is pennies for the amount of dingers this guy can hit. Now we all just need to pray for him to be at .250 with 20 dingers by the deadline and this deal might get even better!

The Cuban pitcher has been declared a FA by MLB. It's been about a week or so now, and I haven't seen anything linking him the the Brewers, but I feel like this is exactly the type a signing the rebuilding Brewers should strongly consider. What are you all's thoughts?

Your assumption is wrong. Smiths best two pitches prior to coming to the Brewers were his power fastball and plus changup, he also had a curve to go with it, he just started to develop the slider before he came over. He has 4 pitches, 3 of which are plus or better. The only reason you only see the slider out of the pen is because it's become his best, and in short stints you use your best pitches. Here's an article on him on fangraphs from around the time of the trade, good read to put with what we have seen out of smith. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/brewers-land-will-smith-and-his-possible-breakthrough/

I agree with you. It seems like most people have forgot that 1 thornburg was really really good as a starter and 2 that his desire is to start. I'm not sure what to make of blazek, but he may be best suited for the pen, too small of a sample to say either way for me. Then there's will smith,I've been on this train for a while, he has front of the rotation stuff, nasty 3 pitch mix, the demeanor of an ace, and the build of a work horse, oh and he's left handed. Last time he was a starter he had JUST added a slider and it wasn't a great pitch, today it's plus plus, probably the second best left handed slider in baseball, I understand his wonderful success in the pen makes you not want to move him, but this team is rebuilding, why not try? The way I see it, his value is as high as it will ever be as a reliever, but if he even just an average starter he nearly doubles his value, if he's good as a starter it's a total coup, if he completely fails move him back to the pen and he still has the same value he does today. I just don't see a negative to trying, only wins or break even. I know people get concerned about injuries, but they happen in the pen just as often as the rotation and with a guy as high-usage as smith the risk is a wash.

The thing is, you can add guys to the lower minors who also have value, thats whats dissappointing. when i initially heard that they were adding 3 teenagers that hadnt played full season ball the first thing i thought, based on the other players rumored to be offered to lind, of similar value were Luis Gohara, nick neidert, and and nick wells. which made sense based on how it was reported that seattle "really sweetened the deal". then i thought "cant possible be Gohara, plus those 2" so i way lowered my expectations to dylan thompson in place of gohara. all four of those players are teenage pitchers that havent pitched full season a ball all four have more value than the other 3 put together. its just crazy! Have you scouted any of these players, or are you just going off the slightly higher $-signing expectations of Gohara/Thompson and the absolute unknown of Baseball America's rankings of rookie league 18 year olds with minimal scouting reports? I have never personally scouted them, no, and i doubt you have either. All i have to go off of is all of the scouting data available, which is robust. over 1000 players more highly regarded. most of which are teenagers. there seems to be this impression that teenagers and lower level minors guys arent scouted or ranked, its crazy. its big business and these are not considered 'good' or 'prospects' in comparison to the other 16-20 year old kids around the world base on the analysis of the experts who have been doing this for ever. my opinion is on the side of the evidence and analytics and the opposite is on plain opinion against that evidence and you are implying that my opinion is the one thats off because i havent personally scouted them, but the other is more accurate from people who also havent personally scouted them?

We could have traded for DJ Peterson, the rumored player, recently ranked in the top 100 prospects and a 1st round pick as "buy low." Remember when we traded for the Orioles' #5 prospect and now he's probably never going to make it past AA? DJ Peterson, as a buy low candidate, had an OPS of around .600 last year. What if he doesn't recover his value that much? Now he's completely unranked and a finished product at age 24 or 25. The chances of an upper-level, ranked minors player staying ranked/hitting the majors is higher, of course. How much higher I think is being overrated. At least the caliber of prospect being offered for Lind, that is. First it didnt have to be an upper minors guy, lower minors guys are ranked too! nicky delmonico is entirely different, he was NEVER regarded like DJ peterson. He also hit 12 homeruns in high A. DJ Peterson hit 31(!!!), very few players have that type of ability. Delmonico then started doing meth.... lets assume no player has the meth addiction variable come into play. hes clean, playing for the whitesox, played in the AFL (and won an award) and is a prospect again.

The thing is, you can add guys to the lower minors who also have value, thats whats dissappointing. when i initially heard that they were adding 3 teenagers that hadnt played full season ball the first thing i thought, based on the other players rumored to be offered to lind, of similar value were Luis Gohara, nick neidert, and and nick wells. which made sense based on how it was reported that seattle "really sweetened the deal". then i thought "cant possible be Gohara, plus those 2" so i way lowered my expectations to dylan thompson in place of gohara. all four of those players are teenage pitchers that havent pitched full season a ball all four have more value than the other 3 put together. its just crazy!

the reason i dont like the trade isnt that i dont hope these guys turn into aces. its not that i think DS doesnt know something other dont (i think he probably does, I hope he does). its that they turns an asset into virtually 0 value. as baseballs smallest market, we cannot afford to do that, in my opinion. it has nothing to do with proximity to majors either, i keep seeing that, there are guys with value up and down farms. I can remember back to doug melvin complaining about the political and monetized process of getting your prospects ranked and his frustration in other teams not valuing the brewers prospects evenly against others because they refused to pay and play the game of prospect promotion. It hurts the ability to trade into what you need when you do not have valued, which all teams eventually need to do. Cheers to these guys becoming Aces hopefully!

One year of an 32 year old, injury prone, platoon 1B whose defense is likely pushing him to DH for the Mariners is not worth more than this, it just isn't. Lind has some value against RHP but not a ton of it given all of his limitations. We were not going to get any sure thing prospect for him. Last year was nice and all but his previous 3 seasons combined were for negative WAR as in he has been below replacement level over that time. His poor defense and baserunning just eats away at whatever value the hitting gives him. Yet the Brewers got more for a half year of broken down Aramis Ramirez. I don't think anyone is really angry about the deal. Certainly it fits in the right direction. But I think it's silly to think that a reasonably priced player coming off a productive season with no long term risk has practically no value. This off season is littered with trades that show otherwise. I think it's mostly a matter of preference for these types. I think lottery tickets are mostly a bad investment whether you have one or three. You can always flip major league talent if the timing isn't right. But, really we won't know if these guys are actual prospects for another few years. I hope they are, but I think the odds are long. Either way I doubt this deal has any appreciable effect. So much i like about this comment!! I bolded what i 100% agree with ;-) . there is nothing wrong with acquiring guys close to the majors right now, we need a team there too, and if they hit, and the timings wrong, you just flip them again, its how the good small markets have always done it. I italicized what i am seeing people say that i highly disagree. I feel like lottery ticket is reserved for guys like medieros, orimoyle, clark, harrison, and gatewood guys with tangible tools that add value to a system because other teams value those tools as well, yes chances are none of them ever make the majors, but if they do the payoff could be big. the second thing i italicized is killing me reading this thread!!! since when do we think that players arent scouted and evaluated until they are in their 20s? i am not saying that there is no such thing as a late bloomer, but guys with tools and talent are identified VERY early, and yes, even internationally. these guys all have proball under their belts and they are all not even ranked in the top 1000 players in the minor leagues (most of which are also teenagers) with all of the collective scouting data out there.

love this! take the cash from the cotts trade and flip it to a guy that fills a need and he show potential

I have been as passionate as any over this because i think its a truly awful trade. I guess, for me, the argument thats driving me up a wall is that these guys somehow have a high ceiling. age and ceiling are NOT synonyms, especially when it comes to the baseball world. Peterson, for instance (and im not implying that he was actually available in this trade though it was reported by several media members), has a far higher ceiling than any of these three. There are very few players capable of hitting 30+ homers in a minor league season, and hes one of them. So he had a down season last year, that literally make him the definition of high risk high reward. there is nothing about these guys that implies any type of high reward so i am just not sure where that is coming from. Keith Law, whom i despise yet respect, said that sterns was good to get 3 players for lind, but that he sacrificed quality for quantity and that it appears he was just looking for organizational depth with a few reliever types. I apologize to you thurston, because this post isnt about you specifically, but the many that keep using words like "ceiling" "prospect" "upside" with these guys. if they had those things the scouting world would know it as best exampled by the top 100 being 20% teenagers.

Or the brewers could have just kept lind and just signed 3 small LA kids this summer... maybe thats what makes me so angry. if thats what you wanted, just go sign them yourself next year. I dont know how they have the "lottery ticket" attached to them, none of them have tremendous upside right now, they are soft tossing small righties. you can literally just go sign three of your own this year and still have lind or trade him for something of value.

My disdain for this trade has nothing to do with winning. Milwaukee is the smallest market in all of baseball. Trading vets for years of controllable assets is the name of the game; and melvin was not great at it. the problem i have is when you trade that vet, or guy thats paid (vet is relative), the years of control you trade for must have equal VALUE. because there will come a point when you need to trade out of depth to add the piece you need, something that oakland (and wherever Epstein is) is always so good at. so you cant take value and turn it into nothing, this isnt houston, you cant afford it. if you had to trade these guys what would you get? and the answer is nothing. thats why the Gallardo trade was one of melvins best. the top player coming back was sardinas, who played the same position as our incumbent best prospect, but he had value, so you could trade him for a different piece. neither of these three offer that. Really? Gallardo for a guy with a ceiling of utility player now? You're calling that Melvin's best? I know nothing about these 3 prospects and fully know there is about a 10% chance at best of MLB success and I'd take this package of players over Luis Sardinas. Knebel and Diplan also came back in that deal, not just sardinas. all 3 of them has about as much value individually and all these of the lind guys put together... yes it was an excellent trade.

Agreed. Wily Peralta was 19 at the end of the 2008 season. BF.net had him ranked 30th http://www.brewerfan.net/ViewPower50.do?power50Id=89 So to me, it's hard to say this is a horrible trade. We traded K-rod for the Orioles 5th best prospect and he flopped quickly. So for me, I am fine with the trade. Stearns has my trust He played in the AFL for the whitesox, won an award, and they really like him as a prospect.

i dont know that you can say he flopped in the few ABs he had, but he STILL had value, and because another play for our system. thats the point, he was still an asset, on top of knebel and Diplan. none of these three can be flipped for anything because they dont have value.

what do fans think would be a decent return for 1 year of K-Rod and Lind? GM's knew the brewers wanted to unload these 2 and didn't have to overpay for them. I am sure if there were better offers, Stearns would have taken it. If the brewers decide to trade lucroy or segura, we will get a better idea of Stearns. i thought the KRod trade was excellent because Detroit also took his whole salary, that trade was a homerun IMO... This one is like watching rickie weeks try to hit the slider away. Home run trade: When a team takes a mid-30s decent, mostly healthy, .5-1 WAR reliever due $7.5 million and could then be bought out for $2 million (or kept for $6) in 2017. For clarity, K-Rod was guaranteed $9.5 million. Rickie Weeks strikeout trade: When a team takes a mid-30s, decent, injury prone 1-1.5 WAR DH due $8 million for 3 lottery ticket prospects. ---------------------------- Fangraphs has an interesting analytic KATOH that is not perfect but it predicts a players WAR through their age 28 season and Javier Betancourt is the 57th best prospect in baseball at 5.4 WAR (Orlando Arcia is #5 at 14.5 WAR). so yes, turning 1.5 war @10 million (with declining stuff) into 5.4 (or less or more) at league minimum is a HOMERUN of a trade for a rebuilding club. Lind is younger and cheaper by 2 million and worth 3 WAR at a position that lacks depth in the market.... when the return is 3 guys that have no value, yes, that is a strikeout. They may develop some value, hopefully, but thats a HUGE RISK for a team in baseballs smallest market that cannot just buy value like other teams. Every win is value for this organization.

My disdain for this trade has nothing to do with winning. Milwaukee is the smallest market in all of baseball. Trading vets for years of controllable assets is the name of the game; and melvin was not great at it. the problem i have is when you trade that vet, or guy thats paid (vet is relative), the years of control you trade for must have equal VALUE. because there will come a point when you need to trade out of depth to add the piece you need, something that oakland (and wherever Epstein is) is always so good at. so you cant take value and turn it into nothing, this isnt houston, you cant afford it. if you had to trade these guys what would you get? and the answer is nothing. thats why the Gallardo trade was one of melvins best. the top player coming back was sardinas, who played the same position as our incumbent best prospect, but he had value, so you could trade him for a different piece. neither of these three offer that.

what do fans think would be a decent return for 1 year of K-Rod and Lind? GM's knew the brewers wanted to unload these 2 and didn't have to overpay for them. I am sure if there were better offers, Stearns would have taken it. If the brewers decide to trade lucroy or segura, we will get a better idea of Stearns. i thought the KRod trade was excellent because Detroit also took his whole salary, that trade was a homerun IMO... This one is like watching rickie weeks try to hit the slider away.