Playing Catch

Now, more than ever, if someone retrospectively looks at top 100 picks in former drafts, they need to consider the entire draft, not just individual selections. Case in point: if in a year or two, some poster decides that our front office never should have drafted Eric Brown Jr., or a number of others because they flame out and picks for other teams succeed, said poster should remember that Misiorowski had the biggest bonus of the draft. The same very well could be said about this draft. I don't want to come back here in a few years and have to defend the Wilken pick because he ends up not making it to MLB, when Chase Davis is raking in the Cards system, if at the same time, Bitoni and Pratt are having success. Individual picks cannot be criticized in a vacuum.

My suspicion is that if they decide to trade him, the Angels will get at least 2 prospects the caliber of Chourio, Misirowski, and Quero, kind of like the Scherzer/Turner trade. If I'm the Angels' GM, I just don't think you can trade him for guys that *might* pan out. They gotta get sure things.

I hadn't considered Luis Urias as a trade candidate, but he would certainly look valuable to the right team. Hiura, too, of course. Toro, Perkins. Those players have all proven to be MLBers, just probably on non-playoff teams.

Also, if you plan to look at his defensive record, you may want to sit down first.

I've decided that I hope they save a little money to take advantage of the deep draft. Getting 4 or 5 guys would be fun. Misiorowski was paid more than Brown Jr. last season. Let's do that again!

About a month ago, I was hoping for a college pitcher like Waldrep, but my brother talked me out of it (the thought being that college pitchers that end up being good can be found all over the first few rounds). Since then, I can't seem to find any player that I really WANT. I guess Davis is probably the guy. Miller would be really exciting, but his lack of games played has me concerned, only because scouts haven't had as much time to evaluate him. I think the only player that I would prefer NOT to draft would be Troy.

But if they drafted Miller, where would Luke Adams play? It would be fun if they drafted Miller.

Yeah, going through this exercise every few days of trying to scrounge up some modest production in the lineup is a chore. It makes you appreciate that they are at least thinking outside the box by getting guys like Perkins, Tapia, and Jones.

Wow. That is a sweet, but scary tweet. What a successful organization. I hate them so much.

I don't mind at all when they draft shortstops, as in, typically, long, lean, athletic, big armed shortstops. But I don't understand the value of drafting 2B-only guys (Robert Moore, Dylan O'Rae), as those players are just as limited defensively as a big, burly first baseman.

After some consideration, I don't want to trade Chourio for Alonso. With this said, there is a school of thought that says you want to trade a player when they are at their peak value. While I'm not predicting this, it's possible this is perfect time to trade Chourio.

Some former Phillies executive stated on MLB network yesterday that the Mets should trade Alonso, who has yet to sign an extension, but has team control through 2024. Anyone on board with selling Chourio+ to get Alonso? I probably would be. (But I'm sure this would just be Stearns plotting in his dark corner of the Front Office to get his future employer the transcendent teenager!).

Wow. That's a lot of bile-soaked red meat for Blighty, 888 and others to feast on! "reflexively and blindly support every move" "simplistic data like WAR" "simple single" "fans outsmarting the GM" "obviously a stupid pick" "The comedy is the genius fan brigade who will defend Rowdy to death because [counting stats] don't matter" "horrific hit tool" "move Yelich to first" "stubbornly and incorrectly eschew corner IFers in the draft and foreign market has really caught up with them" As one of those who are probably in the camp of obsequious Arnold defenders, I may as well comment. I think I'll start with this. Baseball is hard. Hitting a baseball is hard. Finding players that hit baseballs better than others is hard. I support most of the moves that this front office has made because most of their moves have worked out. Not all of them, but most of them. Coming into the season, any GM in baseball would think it was reasonable to expect a 28-year old Rowdy to replicate his above average offensive production from 2022, including finishing 2nd on the team with 89 RBIs (including a team-leading 35 home runs). They would also believe it reasonable to want to keep that player, as Tellez is on an inexpensive contract and already on the roster. This does not equate with defending Rowdy to death, nor does it suggest that Rowdy's first half stats have been good enough. They haven't been. He's been really bad, and has had a big role in the Brewers' really bad offense. Arnold should look to improve his 1st base options if they want to stay in the hunt. Ray Montgomery SHOULD have been fired for picking Ray instead of waiting all the way until the 4th round to pick... Corbin Burnes. While I am intrigued by the possibility that Yelich could one day play a serviceable 1st base, this possibility is not necessarily a slam dunk option. For all we know, Yelich is a butcher in the infield. And why would the Brewers want to make room for Chourio since it is so obvious that the foreign market has really caught up with them? Any finally, Arnold has only been responsible for roster construction for 8.5 months. We have no idea what opinions he had on the decisions of Stearns. For all we know he hated every good move Stearns made, or perhaps, he was the mastermind behind every good move. For all we know, Stearns wanted Esteury Ruiz to be the Brewers starting CFer so bad that he traded Hader for him despite Arnold's misgivings, so Arnold quickly moved on Ruiz to get William Contreras. We just don't know.

Yeah, they're on a nice little run here, and if I were a Reds fan, I'd have boundless optimism and excitement. But moving prospect-pieces for pitching is a difficult dance to master. A lot can go wrong. In addition, it's still pretty early with their young guys. There are plenty of hot-shot rookies (ahem, Hiura), that come up and mash for a few months before the league figures them out.

Would having a unique contract that allowed him more days off during the season be feasible? Do we think that would be detrimental to the team as a whole? Probably. An organization can't not have the leadership on site as much as possible.

A lot of folks here have stated that they'd be okay with Yelich at his annual salary if he returned to his Miami numbers. He has basically done that. Thanks in large part to his league average defense, he's been just an all-around very good starting left fielder. Keep it up, Yeli!

Valerio looks to be up to about 5'7" judging by that video. Say what one will, there will never be a 5'5" MLB player.

Holy smokes. Looking at the A-ball leaderboards is very, very interesting with regard to Adams' standing as a prospect. I'm thinking he'd be getting a lot of national notice with even an average BABIP. If the scouting reports on his arm, legs, and hands are accurate, he'd be a prototypical 3B prospect.

Okay, are we just gunna sit here and not point out that this might be the early-season leader for the 1st annual, "Article Title of the Year Award"?

So what would the Brewers give up for Bieber?

In the hypothetical that some team makes an offer the Brewers can't refuse, I suppose it's possible the Brewers would trade him, but I tend to think that many of us are putting too much weight on the Hader decision last season, as if it was the new model for doing business. I tend to agree with the poster that stated that trading a SP is much much different than trading a closer from a stacked bullpen. We also seem to forget that Hader was struggling mightily before the trade, and that the Brewers got a good closer (also struggling) back in the deal. If you squint, there is enough evidence there that the Brewers legitimately believed trading Hader at that time and getting Rogers back made the Brewers better last season. I doubt many of us here would have agreed with that, but it is possible, and it certainly didn't work, if that was the goal. A similar deadline deal involving Burnes would not just net prospects, but also get back a legit MLB starter.

Is he still just 5'5"?

Oh, certainly DH isn't the only issue, but it is the only position that derives 100% of value from offensive production.

I'd be really curious what the projections would be if hypothetically, the Brewers would have, and would have had, 100 wRC+ level production batting in the heart of the order at DH rather than the putrid performance of Voinker. I have to believe that alone (which would not be cost prohibitive to procure) would make this offense look waaaayy better.

Simply anecdotally, (and perhaps solely due to my own positive bias for this organization/front office), but it seems to me that the organization does a lot of these "little things," that allow the Brewers to be competitive with free agents, especially AAAA-type guys that accept they may spend much of the year in AAA (e.g. Jon Singleton). It also helps that their AAA is in Nashville. If accurate, this doesn't necessarily add very much value to winning games, except for the belief that this front office values depth wherever they can find it. I think this FO trys to avoid negative WAR more than looking for big-time positive WAR.