Playing Catch

Third Basemen ranked by ISO (a statistic that only rewards XBH). Pick one.

I won't use any stats to back my opinion... My opinion is, is that despite what my eyes tell me when I look at the standings (is that a stat?), the Brewers offense could use some more thump. Particularly if they are trying to outhomer the '27 Yankees... err, '26 Dodgers. So I guess I we agree? But as others have mentioned, in order to improve the power, you only offer solutions by subtraction (getting rid of the losers populating roster spots on the 2nd best team in the world). As others have repeatedly mentioned in threads such as this, you can't just pull more power out of the ether. AND you can't just get power without sacrificing something else, unless you plan to acquire... whom? It seems like you really just want the statnerds to acknowledge that they feel something when Ortiz strikes out or Hamilton smashes one all the way to the warning track. Yah, man... we do. We do have feelings and shout at the TV, and complain over breakfast the next morning to our spouses about last night's latest in-game decision disaster. Then, we run to the internet and gather up every piece of data we can find to try and improve the Brewers and come back here to tell everyone that guess what? Baseball is hard. It's hard to beat the best team in perhaps our lifetimes. It's hard to acquire more power in this league in 2026. It's hard to win back-to-back "Org of the Year" awards, it's hard living with the memories of what-could-have-been. Yeah, maybe you are right. Maybe it's time to hang up the season. But even in those darkest moments of despair, you know what statnerds look to? Their faith that baseball is a funny game. And that it ain't over till it's over. That as long as the prediction markets say the Dodgers chance of victory is ONLY 99%, that there's still a chance.

I think this narrative has taken a life of its own. He's pitched in 50 of the Brewers 108 games. That's a lot, I'll grant you. But he had three back-to-back appearances in March/April, one back-to-back in May, three again in June, and 1 so far in July. The last back-to-back was a 9-pitch outing followed by a 25-pitch outing. I agree that they need to monitor his workload just like any other pitcher, and that he's thrown a lot. But good pitchers get more innings. I just don't see how their use of Ashby is some kind of outlier. You can point to his performances as evidence of your assertion, but relievers are a fickle bunch, and to date, he's avoided an IL stint this season. I just don't see enough there to be convinced that they are treating him like "scientific experiment".

I think some "experts" are of the belief that the Dodgers have already put a huge prospect-offer on the table therefore necessitating an even better return from another team if they are to acquire Skubal. So, in other words, IF the Brewers were to get Skubal, they would need to offer more than De Paula+Sirota++++ At least, I think that's the theory some people are going with.

If Detroit were to package Skubal and Mize (and Kenley Jansen, why not?)... At that point, blockbusters involving Made are probably closer to reality.

I think that for decades now, front offices and organizations have isolated and controlled their decision-making to such a degree that any legitimately gained information the media throws out there, is nearly as dubious as information that was simply pulled from the internet's ether. The drive for content and the clicks they generate will absolutely provide enough motive for someone to include the name "Skubal" and "Jesus Made" in the same headline, regardless of how speculative the information.

Jim Bowden thinks the Crew will get Skubal?? Well then!

It's not about what any of us would do, but rather that reasonable people may disagree about the present tools (or their OWN evaluation of what being a "prospect" means in the first place) enough that they may disagree about the value of different players stats. If the Brewers paid out pre-debut contracts waiting for stats to confirm their baises, they wouldn't have given the extension to Pratt.

Henderson's performances have certainly narrowed that gap between what one could expect in a playoff start from the two players. Then you add the years...

Yeli's wRC+ of 96 puts him in the same neighborhood as the following hitters in descending order of wRC+... Bregman (99 wRC+), Chisholm, Guerrero Jr., Naylor, Stott, Dansby, Dubon, Chapman, Kwan, Adames, Henderson, Adell, Simpson, Varsho, Durbin, Altuve (90 wRC+). Obviously, several of those names derive most of their value as defenders, and Yelich being a DH certainly impacts his individual WAR. But for the team, his being sub-standard as a hitter isn't any more impactful than those other teams' experiences with even younger, middle-of-the-order bats. I'm not disputing Yelich should take more time off due to his performance, or that his contract is underwater, but the degree to which he's been struggling is being vastly overstated, particularly when we witness him hitting an opposite field bomb just the other day.

Contraction of minors will coincide with expansion draft, I would expect, so there could be a lot of changes. I would be surprised if the Brewers end up with a lousy AAA situation as the organization has so actively developed and invested in their current satellites.

Just pretend "prospect pedigree" and "tools" are synonyms (particularly when referencing the motives behind acquiring Priester/Harrison), and I think you are agreeing with gregmag.

Earlier this season I wondered about Ortiz being more valuable as a trade piece than we may think. I haven't considered it recently, though, but I still think it's an interesting idea. For a team that needs multiple pieces like the Nats, they could do worse than Ortiz at SS for the next couple of seasons. It certainly would stabilize their horrid defense. Ortiz could serve as the "big-league ready" piece, and one of the younger prospects in the system could provide the juice to the deal.

Nothing to add to CheezWiz's dynamite opening post. I'm sure we agree that (A) They've looked awesome, and (B) They've just started enjoying the first sips of their cup-o-coffee. Experience has trained me to believe that good defensive prospects will struggle for a year or two (e.g. Turang), or forever (Orlando Arcia), but it's easy to dismiss that Baseball America, and other "experts" in prospecting, launched Lara well into their top 100s this season after what scouts saw down in Nashville. He is a lottery ticket kind of prospect, and they started reading the numbers when the season started. We'll see if they hit on his Power-ball. And kinda the same thing with Pratt, in a way. He started smacking some opposite field liners in Nashville, that I think set up his current hitting profile. And he's already went over 400' pull-side. The Brewers just may have what they hoped they drafted/acquired in Pratt and Lara (Gunnar Henderson/Tim Raines?)*. And as stated originally --- it's very very early. *edit to add: I don't mean to compare the kid to a HOFer, I just thought the profile looked similar

I'm not worried about it yet. After the deadline, and all of the most recent injuries/promotions shake out, the Brewers FO and Murph will nail down how they want their rotations to look for the stretch/playoffs, and begin meting out their preferred mix. If that mix doesn't include a lot of Lara, then I suspect they'll send him back to Nashville. While getting ABs is paramount, we don't have to freak out each time Lara is watching the game next to one of the 3 dozen coaches/vets in the dugout to talk ball for 3 straight hours. He's soaking it all in, and getting paid for it. The Brewers have every incentive to develop him properly, and part of that development for someone so young is to see the game from the top-down sometimes, and to watch how the other players do it. But based on the eye-test, I think he's my starter in RF right now, playing with Mitchell/Chourio in CF/LF, and he's one tweaked Mitchell hamstring away from taking over CF for the next ten years. His mastery of the zone is palpable, and it puts real pressure on pitchers to hit their spot. I think it's almost as good as Bauers that way, but pitchers are risking Lara slashing/dashing instead of risking a Bauers blast. I think it puts just as much pressure on the pitcher as Frelick flailing and fouling his way to an effective AB as well. So if he can battle against the best as well as those two, I think the only question is if you are willing to live with BauerPower on the bench or live with his glove in the field.