Playing Catch

I wonder if the logic is that another team's prospect is more of a known quantity (quality?) than a comp pick.

I'm surprised people wouldn't like Festa and Prielipp. I think that would be a sound baseline for a Burnes trade. I agree though, that unless they will be getting back 2024 pitching, there's no point of taking back Polanco. Although one could just turn around and trade Polanco for something else, I suppose.

It's been a couple of hours, and this thread is already outstanding. I was initially pretty disappointed, and of course, after some background on Crow, I feel better about the return... While not a contributor this season, he profiles as a pretty sure bet (presuming health -- a big presumption), as a big league starter, as he was demonstrating both high-floor, and high-ceiling stuff before the injury (which certainly needs to be considered). If he's already throwing 3 MLB-quality pitches for strikes, his floor is probably close to an Adrian Houser, or like league-average backend starter, and with some ceiling too, considering these "double-plus" scouting reports on his pitchers. A pretty similar scouting report as Gasser, albeit from the right side, and with TJ. We all know the value of "controllable" starting pitching, based on our collective belief in Peralta's value. This looks like the Brewers are taking a risk that Crow turns into a legit MLB starter... those don't come cheap unless you trade for them BEFORE they are legit MLB starters. I find it hilarious that the posters that think the FO is terrible and simply looking out for "Montgomery Burns" Attansio's interests, also believe that rostering their beloved mid-rotation starter and 4th OFer represent is the path toward what? Free spenders? World Series contenders? Does their collective loss "move the needle" in the opposite direction? I ALSO think it's funny when those of us that defend the organization most of the time are unconcerned about the loss of consistent, league-average production with nothing to show for it on the big league team. In a vacuum, this move ABSOLUTELY makes the Brewers a lesser team in '24, and it certainly smacks of cutting salary corners. Good thing this move didn't happen in a vacuum. IMHO, this has more to do with 40-man space than dollars. Or, rather, it has to do with dollars-per-40-man spot, future value versus present value, and looking for the best possible return for these guys. I think it signals that Taylor wasn't going to play, and that they had their heart set on trading Houser. I'm worried about losing Houser. I thought TTaylor had more value. I'm nervous about prospects recovering from TJ (especially soft-tossers). I'm thrilled that Crow's scouting report has some exciting aspects.

If he compares to Jeferson Quero at that age, wouldn't that suggest he's only getting $10,000-$50,000? IIRC, Quero was highly regarded soon after signing, but not necessarily before.

Kind of off-topic, but are we past the point of needing to worry about other teams raiding our scouting department?

Is anyone else tired of the Dodgers? I feel like the rest of the league should just boycott dealing with them. Let their top prospects rot, pick them off one-by-one in the rule 5 draft. I'm at the point where if it's the Dodgers or no one, I'm keeping Burnes out of spite.

My first thought was also skepticism of the source. But since I'm here... Boston has been laying in the weeds a couple of seasons now. They are EXACTLY the type of team that needs to get involved to create a feeding frenzy. And while I can't speak to the current regime's status/reputation, the club has a history of doing big things.

Yeah. I was eyeballing Hoskins back in August, and it just seems, that with each passing day, more and more teams are interested in him. I suspect he's gunna get a much bigger deal than his on-field worth.

Do any of them look to be top-half of MLB defenders at short? If not, I worry none of them will have the stick necessary to make up for it, save for perhaps EBJ, and opinions on him are so disparate.

I think this deal draws posters' ire because it represents the issue of competitive balance in baseball. For many years, this has existed, but there IS a theoretical limit as to how much more disparity baseball fans will accept before we stop wasting our time. I'm not sure we've hit that limit yet, as the Brewers have continued to remain competitive in spite of the wealth disparity. Yesterday on MLBTV someone was musing on where Yamamoto would sign, asking, "Does he want to join a "super-team,"?" in reference to the Dodgers. I don't believe it will be good for the league in the long term to have "super-teams".

It's probably too early in his development for this, but I'd like to see him and Ashby piggyback. Planned, shorter stints for both of them could be really effective from a team-standpoint, and from the player standpoint.

I love this Heyman tweet... A "decent" chance. So what? 20% chance? Is that "decent,"? 50/50? Does "decent" mean "good" chance, like 75%? I think I saw this linked in some other message board, but I just love it, considering how often we posters fight about a possible outcome because one of us used the phrase, "real possibility." As in, "The Cardinals have a real possibility of fighting back into contention." Harvard Business Review Article

Well... let's do it ourselves... Let's start a league-wide fan boycott of the Dodgers. I'm unsure of how to do this sort of thing, but I feel really confident that fanbases from the other 28 teams would be willing to sign a petition, or a boycott, in order to enforce (in spirit!) a boycott of the Los Angeles Dodgers. They are operating outside of the bounds of the spirit of fair competition (according to the CBA). Heck, even of there was a meme of fans across MLB wearing paperbag-heads due to their embarrassment of going to a game featuring the "Dodge-the-Luxury-Tax"ers. Perhaps that could create some traction. FOR US! the FANS!

Like many of the proposals to trade from depth, it always depends on what they'd be receiving in return. I just looked at MLB Pipeline Top 100 from 2022. Frelick was listed at 70th. I see two corner infielders that are ranked below Frelick: Jose Miranda, and Miguel Vargas. In a hypothetical trade where they traded Frelick straight up for one of these guys, how would I feel? I think I'd feel pretty good about it, actually. Which surprises me as I really really like Frelick.

I came to the site, saw the picture, glanced at the headline and my heart sunk. I thought the headline was, "Brewers trade for Eloy Jimenez." I guess that's how I feel about it. Also MT's suggested return made me blanch. I just have zero faith in Eloy.

This. In addition, by now I'm guessing the other coaches understand pretty well Greene's methods and preferences. Probably ingrained into the organization by this point.

Maybe they should change their name to the Wisconsin Bucks?

There are a lot of excellent, top-notch agent services out there these days. The players get to choose their agent. Sure, if they want to be sure to hit free agency and earn top dollar, Boras has a reputation. But that says more about the player than Boras, IMO, since there are plenty of examples where he broke from that trend. I guess what I'm saying is that instead of us demonizing Boras, perhaps we should be questioning the player's motives?

I think all of the Boras comments in this, and other threads, that refer to his universal refusal to sign extensions, or hold out for top top dollar are overblown. He's one of the best at what he does, that often means getting top dollar, but his record doesn't suggest that procuring his services prevents other outcomes... He does a good job representing his client's interests.

I may be mistaken, but it seems like we saw a lot of Storr and Blackwell on the floor together tonight. It raises the floor (and ceiling) of this team if they can play TWO 2-way wings (3 way? they both rebound, and Blackwell can handle) at the same time, along with Chucky, Wahl, and Crowl.

I was born and raised in Wisconsin's NW, within the orbit of the Twin Cities. I was just as big a Bucks fan as I was a Brewers, Packers, and Badgers fan, reading the boxscores in the Milwaukee paper at school every day. But in the 90's, when as a middle-schooler/high schooler I actively began seeking and consuming sports media, I wasn't able to satisfy my cravings. I was able to get radio broadcasts of Brewers, Packers and Badgers, and it was easier to find games on TV for those teams as well. But my Bucks fandom faded significantly, as I wasn't able to "connect" with them they way I could with the other teams. I'm sure that would be different these days. It actually impacted not only the Bucks, but the NBA as a whole. Jordan and the other Dream Teamers captured my imagination. But those late 90's and early aughts era, as much as I wanted to watch Glen Robinson and Ray Allen, I still wasn't able to follow them as much, and when Iverson's NBA supplanted Jordan's, I really lost interest in the NBA. (I've since learned to love Allen Iverson). I became a basketball snob, preferring the imperfection and team-centric style of basketball offered by Bo Ryan's teams to the athletic dynamism offered by the NBA.

If anything, this exercise merely highlights how meager the current lineup is. Uff da.

I would push against anyone stating that an in-season tournament would be meaningless. Every single game is an exhibition. Spring Training is an exhibition, Series against the Cubs in August is an exhibition, World Series game 7 is an exhibition. It is culture, history and fans that determine the relative "value" of any of these exhibitions. There is no rational reason that an in-season tournament cannot be held in esteem. Now I'm sure it would never hold as much esteem as a World Championship, but it would be foolish not to think that teams wouldn't add an in-season tournament trophy or pennant on the OF wall next to "Wild Card Participant".

I don't know that I care to argue about it, but I only see 3 guys that are clearly better hitters than Chourio: Yelich, Contreras, and Adames. After those three, if I was asked to predict final season batting lines, I'm not sure that I wouldn't predict Chourio to have a better line than any other hitter on the roster. Currently, Steamer has him at 7, and interestingly puts Black at 3. Being that projections for prospects are always "depressed," I would order them as follows... Contreras Yelich Adames Frelick Chourio I think that while it's wise to be patient with prospects, and also recognize they could bust, I'm not sure that's what a Vegas oddsmaker would predict.

I loved the concept in the NBA immediately when I heard about it, and it seems to have a lot of fan interest. I would need to see how it was set up in MLB to be a proponent. The schedules of the two sports are just so different. With this said, I've long felt that 162 games is too many.