ebmackenzie

https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/team_compare.cgi?lg=MLB&year=2018 This graph thinks we can improve our BP a lot! When Dan Jennings has 71 relief appearances...it is time to bring in a former closer to remedy some of that.

Your vision of Lutz may or may not be there next year... is your vision of Lutz one without two ACL tears...one that can hit the curve ball...one that wants slot money...one that isn't Billy Beane as a prospect... It is a lottery ticket...which Lutz are we talking about? Nothing is guaranteed at that point. Nothing is to say that the pick cannot come back. But a known known on a winning team is more important than whatever #40 may or may not be.

What about a starter that carried a 1.083 WHIP with an .573 OPS vs LH hitters over 235 ABs? Does he have to be a lefty or just get lefties out?

Guerra's use of the curveball down the stretch and Anibal Sanchez' revitalization with his cutter are the two that come to mind. One we already have on the roster and the other could be signed for less than Chacin was.

Much like Joe Namath, he will go to LA later and hang around after he should have retired. With him getting all these ABs now, it will be too hard for him to just turn it off and call it quits when this contract ends.

Oh I disagree. We would have a very poor offense with this lineup, especially with Arcia at SS. When Arcia's right as he was down the stretch and in the playoffs and the last 4 months of 2017, he's an offensive asset, not a liability. Hard to predict what your going to get but I'll take my chances with his talent that he's going to pick up where he left off. Reports were that Arcia showed up ill-prepared and out of shape... so what is he doing now so that MIL doesn't have to suffer through more of those types of ABs? How close is Dubon to giving him some days off if he is slacking?

http://forum.brewerfan.net/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=37725&p=1173137#p1173137 I said that on Oct 13th but some people here implied that Yankee pressure would not be so good for Thames so I shifted him to the west coast.

Anibal Sanchez and his cutter is this year's Chacin. I like Boyd as well, but his numbers made him the Det #1 pitcher and DET has access to those stats too. 1+1 of ASanchez would be cheaper than MBoyd and a kicker. He would feed well into the convo about a low risk starter over on the bottom of page 4.

If you still don't agree then that is cool...just my thinking on this/my feeling of the way the NYY want to gain ground on BOS. I am not going to defend my thinking to the bitter end, but in my opinion, I think that the NYY value other things more and I the way I see it from the NYY point of view is that they get to fill the Bird/Voit situation with a ring-wearing LH 1B that has success in the AL (buy low situation except for the salary) for the price of a player that they are looking to move anyway. Could they trade for a 1B with a better CV than Hosmer...maybe not. Dip into free agency? Here is the list: Matt Adams (30) Jim Adduci (34) Justin Bour (31) Matt Davidson (28) Derek Dietrich (29) Lucas Duda (32) Wilmer Flores (27) Marwin Gonzalez (30) Brad Miller (29) Logan Morrison (31) Hanley Ramirez (35) Mark Reynolds (35) Danny Valencia (34)

This may not net the starting 5 pitchers that we'd all like to have come mid-December but it is a start as it eases payroll and brings back a superb, young LH RP arm along with Sonny Gray. From MIL to SDP MIL sends Chase Anderson, Eric Thames, Adam Houser, and Miguel Sanchez TO SDP SDP send Eric Hosmer to NYY SDP send Matt Strahm to MIL NYY send Sonny Gray to MIL minor lottery ticket A ballers/comp picks may be added to finalize the details. TO MIL: My love for Strahm is warranted. Sonny Gray was sold to Stearns by DJ and is still a good idea in his mind even if the old pitching coach is in CIN. There is some salary relief as well, but Strahm and SGray are huge gets here. TO NYY: Hosmer was much better in KC and would excel in NY with that park. He adds veteran LH hitting balance at the plate and veteran leadership in the field plus NYY can absorb his contract and get rid of their whipping boy in Gray. TO SDP: The Padres get to rid themselves of that outrageous Hosmer contract, Thames is affordable and allows them to groom Naylor another year. Thames may be in need of a laid back new setting with more regular ABs. Strahm leaving may sting but they have 5 LH RP and get a starter, ChaseA was not in the Brewer postseason thoughts and gave up a lot of homers. Petco alone will help give him value. Houser has some talent if not options. Additionally, we throw in a 24 yr old RHP RP that had a 2.85 era/ 1.122 WHIP / 13.6 SOper9 at AA Biloxi last year, but a lil bit of a rough AzFL.

The case for adding a #1 from MLBTR.com Jason 5:49 What do expect Brewers to address this offseasean considering how close they were to the World Series Jason Martinez 5:51 I think they'll non-tender Schoop and look to add a 2B (bring back Scooter!). Their bullpen is one of the best, especially if they keep one of Woodruff or Burnes there with Knebel-Jeffress-Hader. They have a ton of SP depth and it was enough to get them to Game 7 of the NLCS. Jimmy Nelson could return, but can't rely on any pitcher returning from shoulder injury. So, at the least, I think they'll look to add a No. 1 starter.

Matt Harvey and Sonny Gray are the ones Stearns will be looking at...but for my money... It is the one year of Mad Bum that I would be all in on.

A) trade/drop Schoop, Soria, Thames, ChaseA, and the Moustakas option AND make no further offseason offensive ventures therefore shedding cash so... the Brewers could pick up Mad Bum and Sonny Gray but rely on existing offensive options (Dubon, Huira, Nottingham, Stokes, DSantana, et al) and keeping the pen and staff fully stocked. OR B) roll with JNelson, Guerra, ZDavies, ChaseA, (later) Suter, Chacin, and put FPeralta at AAA and keep Burnes/Woodruff in the pen with Albers, X, and/or Jennings... but keep Thames, Moustakas and/or Schoop as well as bring in a free agent catcher valued somewhere between Hundley and Grandal. There is no C) and again---don't worry about HOW it would happen...do you roll with A or B in 2019? What say you interwebs?

Geez, what a blow............................that blows! My feeling on this exactly. I was high on this being one of the AAA rubber arms that comes up and goes down due to all the options. He was ready to come in and be an interchangeable LHP with X and now Dan Jennings returning has merit. Yuck. Baseball-reference.com had the MKE bullpen as a -1.8 WAA due in part to Jennings' 72!! appearances.

Eric Thames to NYY for Sonny Gray and a lottery ticket Aguilar has first for the foreseeable future and Thames is not that much of an OF. In NY, Thames will be at 1st and I assume that Machado steps in at short for the injured DiDi These acquisitions would allow them to not play Voit/Walker/Bird at first and give that NYY lineup a 1927 feel. Seriously, go through that lineup card with Thames and Machado...wow. Sonny Gray has been talked about on this forum for years. We know everything that he could be. This eliminates the on-going fascination with Matt Harvey or the need for Chase Anderson. Chase gets a lot of heat for a starter with a 1.1+ WHIP. The one place he really did well was SD. Chase Anderson (and possibly others like Olczak) for John Naylor and Matt Strahm SD currently has 5 lefty relievers with major league experience so they can part with Strahm as they search for talented starting pitching. This trade lets SD keep their very deep stable of young talent and they do not have to lose a top 100 prospect or current starter. Strahm was excellent last year, is controllable, is wayyy tougher on RHB than most LHP (.473 OPS vs RHB), has comparable home/away splits, and allows us to let Dan Jennings go free. Naylor is a younger, thicker version of Eric Thames and allows us to call him up when we need a DH or a part-time 1B or OF. If you think that this is not enough for Chase then consider it a salary dump of a player who didn't make the NLDS roster, gave up 30 dingers, and cost 6+million to do so. If Burnes and Woody are rotation bound then we will need to add relief pitching as well as adding the QTCs of the world to the 40 man roster. MKE gets younger and less expensive. Yes, this doesn't ease the 40 man roster decision, but that can be handled on another day. In: Strahm, Naylor, and Gray and maybe a lottery ticket Out: Thames and ChaseA and P(s)TBNL and Dan Jennings

I could easily see this if Burnes and Woodruff are rotation bound/JNelson has a setback...restock the 'pen and move young, controllable talent to get more innings.

In Baltimore do they conduct interviews in the middle of a recycling facility? Man, yes...I was thinking, "If we could have a lil more banging over here that would be great!"

How would we know if the other deal breaks down? If part 2 doesn't go through then we would never know and think that Shaw to 2B was the plan. It could be that part 2 of the spring OF acquisition fell through and DSantana got stuck in AAA because we stocked up on outfielders and nothing else happened.

197 posts have gone by and I am wondering... Will Shaw get as many innings at 2B as Villar got in the OF? I watched Ryno play 2B on WGN well past when he should have retired and the grass in front of him at Wrigley was at least 5" high...expect that at Miller Park if Shaw plays an inning. IIRC, the 3B market is absolutely awash with quality players coming out next yr in FA, even if Moose is thrown back there will be another decent 3B to fill his place. This move is a precursor to a pitching acquisition that has already been put in motion (DS: "So if Shaw were available then you would be happy to pair him with _____, _____ and one of ____, _____, or ____ for Pitcher X?")

It is not sexy with the way that no one really likes a deal or rumor maybe this might be the way to go--- Plus, having CRay, Huira, and Arcia and a rotation next year of JNelson, ChaseA, Hader/Peralta, Burnes, and Chacin would be more in line with the long term plan that DS has in mind. That being said, I think a selling of DSantana and several 40 man roster bound kids is in order. I would rather move those pieces than force a move for 5+ERA Sonny Gray, a NYM/BALT/KC package, or disposable Twins. I would rather bring in a controllable setup type big arm and move Hader to the rotation next year. 2019 starters: JNelson Chase Hader (instead of longing for a controllable, young, power starter in mid-late July, why not use the one we have) Burnes Chacin Woodruff Peralta ZackBrown Ortiz 'Pen: Knebel JJ JBarnes Albers one more year DJnnngs one more year QTC control lefty to move Hader up Taylor Will Guerra (I am a fan of this guy and his 2.0 July 24th,'18 WAR as a starter on a very competitive team, but I don't know how he fits in this scenario) Suter (upon return he is here, Kratz and HPerez have better pitching WARs now...unacceptable in a wildcard race...let's excel and not just get by) AWilk JLo thoughts??

I agree...a lot of meat on the bone with just those 5 being protected. Easier to send two and receive an single A arm who won't have to be 40'd for a couple of years or add value by sending away our own lottery tickets.

At some point the 40 man roster is going to play a role. Who DS sees as sustaining the run and who he sees as movable as either depth or smaller parts of a bigger trade for more talent. We need to start talking about the 40 if you are going to speculate on aggression and trades.

A baseball draft really means nothing for years and even then...nothing. But am I crazy or is there a lot to pull for here with the upside of these guys. Almost everyone has an interesting story or profile. Maybe it is the outrageous amounts of youth, but this seems to be a fun draft to follow.

This is an excellent point. I would add that he is death to RHB.