Madhawk23

Thanks for the update here! I had forgotten that Flores is out for the injury, so glad you cleared that up. A bit surprised that Fenelon is stateside, but that's encouraging that they must still think very highly of him to promote him with Antunez.

Joey Ortiz with zero XBH's in over 70 PA's so far this year is simply astounding. 11 singles....that's it.

I hear you, but we also know that the Brewers are never going to rush anyone back from an injury....especially someone as valuable as Chourio. I think they're going to want to make 100% sure that he's fully healed from this hand injury and that he can hit the ground running (without any fear of reinjury) when he does return. I hope you're right and he's back earlier than next week, but that would surprise me if he's back this weekend already.

Yeah, really excited to see if any of those 10-20 rd '25 HS draftees pop right out of the gates in the ACL this year....like we saw last year with Dorchies, Dub-wicz and Renz. And yes - can either Hughes or Mills (or both) follow the path of those four guys you listed? Of course, Antunez is the guy that comes in with the most hype. Admittedly, I had already kind of written him off a bit after he struggled so much in the DSL last summer, but with the reports we started to hear about him in ST - my intrigue is definitely back there with him.

Yeah, let's hope that we get some news tomorrow morning that Chourio is off to Appleton to get some rehab work in. Would love to see him get 2-3 games with the TRats this week and then maybe you send him to AAA over the weekend. Ideally you get him back maybe for the series in STL early next week? Is that being too aggressive?

If the MILB calendar is accurate, it looks like ACL games start this Saturday morning. With the boring Monday off-day for the org, I figured we could at least take a look at some of the names to get excited about this summer in AZ. I'll let other more knowledgeable folks chime in here, but some names that I'm excited to hopefully see this summer: Brailyn Antunez - the hype surrounding him in ST this year has reinvigorated my excitement for this kid Frank Cairone - this one goes without saying, but pretty cool that he's already back in AZ and I've got to figure he'll get some innings in the ACL at some point JD Thompson - maybe get a rehab outing or two before going up to full-season ball somewhere? Josh Flores - could he follow in the footsteps of Josh A-ski and Letson? Sean Episcope Hayden Vucinovich CJ Hughes Luke Roupe Rylan Mills Chase Bentley Ma'Kale Holden Joey Broughton - '24 draftee that was injured all of last year Who am I missing? Does Fenelon get the bump up stateside this year or is he back down for year 2 in the DSL? Were there other guys from last year's DSL season that we should be on the lookout for?

Awesome....thanks for the update!

Sorry if already discussed here, but do we have any idea of a timeline for Joey Broughton? He was a guy I was really intrigued with coming out of that '24 draft class (with Dorchies, Renz, Dubanewicz, etc.).

Yeah, this start to the year for O'Rae has been insane. I've got to admit that I had kind of written him off completely from any sort of prospect status coming into this season. Not sure if it's his diminutive size or the injury issues as of late, but I figured he was just going to be one of those higher round picks that never really materialized into much. Now.....I'm definitely having second thoughts with him, which is pretty exciting! Do we know how his defense plays at 2B? Is he an above-average defender there? Obviously, because of his size - he's going to be very limited in terms of where he can probably play defensively, so am hoping that he projects well at second.

Have we had any velo readings yet with M Rodriguez in his first couple of starts? I figured he might get exposed once he got to AA, so I'm very encouraged by his great start there. Curious though if he's picked up a notch or two on his average velo so far this year?

I'm sure this has been discussed somewhere on this board in recent weeks, but can someone remind me what the deal is with JD Thompson and why he hasn't pitched in a game yet this spring? Clearly must be dealing with some type of an injury, but do we know what that is? **Nevermind** Just saw the earlier post that he's dealing with a hamstring injury and should be back later this month. Clearly I need to do a better job of reading through this thread before posting!

I'm sure he's been discussed somewhere else on this site (so I apologize), but can someone tell me a bit more about Andrew Healy? Looks like we drafted him in the 9th rd last year? Is this someone that might have some potential still?

Don't disagree with you here, and while I know this will probably never happen (since we're going to want 1-2 MLB ready type prospects if we traded Megill right now), I'd absolutely be OK trading Megill for a few lower-level prospects with some upside/potential that are a few years away from sniffing the big leagues. Wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to add more prospects to that next "wave" of guys currently in the ACL or Low A ball. Generally speaking, I don't trust relievers that much year-to-year so I think its best to trade them when their value is high. As I said earlier though, I do wonder if his September flexor strained would scare most teams off from making a trade for him right now anyway? We might actually better holding him right now and perhaps trading him at the deadline this summer (although that obviously gets very tricky if we're a buyer and not a seller at the deadline).

Any chance we could strike up the trade machine again with Stearns and the Mets and get Baty? What would we have to add with Megill to even get them interested?

Now that the Freddy trade has been consummated, my attention naturally goes to Megill. Yes, he has two years of team control (and fairly cheap control for his production as a late-inning reliever), but with our pitching depth and the emergence of Abner last year, I wouldn't necessarily hate it if we tried to sell Megill when his value might be at its highest? I am a bit worried about that flexor strain he came down with late in the season though and I'm sure other GM's would have some concern with that as well - which might drop his value just a bit?? Thoughts on a potential Megill trade before the start of the season? And if so - are there any natural trade partners that need some late inning relief help yet this offseason?

I threw this out in a separate thread, but I'd absolutely try to engage the Red Sox for someone like Wilyer Abreu. As already noted, they have a surplus of OF's right now and Abreu would certainly appear to be a good match for us. Gold glove caliber OF with pop and is cost-controlled for a number of years. The package I threw out was Megill, Pratt and Letson for Wilyer. But, the more I think about this - the more that I'm now realizing that this is probably too light of a package. So, it might take something like Megill, Pena and Letson? I guess it would depend on how "high" the Sox FO is with Pratt, as there are obviously some huge concerns there if he's ever going to be able to hit enough?

Yeah, I can't imagine that we're going to be in the running for either Littel or Bassit. Feels like it's either going to be bringing Quintana back on a similar deal that we gave him last year or we take a flyer on Montgomery (since we had several months to build a relationship with him last summer). That would also help fill the lefty void we currently have in our rotation. Personally I'd rather we take a shot on Montgomery over Q. Just feels like there's more potential upside with him if he can get back to his pre-'24 performance now that's he's beyond his second TJ. I know there's risk there, but we could also take our time with him and hope for maybe a June/July return - as we should be more than covered with all of our SP depth.

Since we traded for Montgomery at the deadline last summer (knowing he wouldn't throw a pitch last year), it's felt inevitable that we'd sign him to a 1-year incentive laden deal for '26. A bit surprised that this hasn't happened yet, but I'd definitely be interested in taking a flyer on him and hoping that he's healthy and can give us some quality starts.

I fully realize that I'm jumping the gun here as we aren't going to trade William before the start of this season, but I think we all know that the day is coming sooner rather than later. If we're competitive this summer (which I still believe we will be), then we'll be looking to trade him next winter (or whenever the lockout concludes). If for some reason we aren't competitive this summer, then we might already start to talk trades with teams at the deadline this July? In looking at everyone's crystal balls here, are there some teams that we think might be good trade partners for William over the next 12 months? After doing some very quick research, here are some teams that currently could use an upgrade behind the plate (could obviously change over next 12 months though): Angels Rangers Padres Marlins Are there some notable omissions here with this list? I'm sure I might be missing a team or two, and things can obviously change drastically over the next 12 months - but I was hoping the list would be more extensive than it is. There were some other teams where I'm sure that William would be an upgrade over their current catcher, but it would be more of a marginal improvement. You've also got some teams that probably aren't going to be super competitive over the next couple of years, so I didn't include them either. Even including the Marlins is a bit questionable as I'm not sure if they're going to be looking at a winning "window" yet over these next couple of years? Needless to say....we need William to have a huge year for us this year. First and foremost, that'll help us have a more successful team on the field, but it should also help inflate his trade value even more than it is right now.

I know there's been a lot of talk about Duran this winter from the Red Sox (and he seems to be a polarizing player in many people's eyes), but is there any chance we could instead engage with the Red Sox on Wilyer instead? Sounds like he's a good defensive RF (which we would love) and he's got some pop in that bat (which we so desperately need). What would it take to get a deal done for him? Megill, Pratt and Letson? Would the Red Sox consider dealing him instead of Duran? We have the deepest farm system in baseball right now, so we wouldn't have to sacrifice our future if we traded away a couple of our prospects (at positions with a lot of depth) to get a power OF bat that could help us in the immediate and in the future (Wilyer is controllable for several years). Thoughts? Is this a complete pipe dream?

No, I get it completely! Was just giving you a hard time! 😉

I hope that's the point we're at here. Now that we're getting into late January, I think it's about that time. I just hope that Arnold doesn't fold here and take less than what we require for Freddy to get a deal done. If the worst case scenario is we get Freddy for his final season in a Brewers uniform and a Comp pick when he leaves next winter, then I'm definitely on board with that - instead of settling for a lesser package of prospects. Get as much as you can Arnold, or don't trade him.

If you're dealing with the Yankees, I think either Elmer Rodriguez or Carlos Lagrange has to be coming back as the headliner in the deal. Beyond that, I guess I'm not sure what I'd be asking for if you're Arnold? Do you want to try to get another MLB ready pitcher like Will Warren or Ryan Weathers? Do you see if they'll include Dominguez in the package (not sure how much I'm in love with him either?)? Do you try to get them to include their young SS prospect Kilby that appears to have a lot of helium right now?

If Stearns isn't willing to include Tong and also isn't willing to do a Williams/Sproat package - then I'm going back to him and asking for Baty & Sproat for Freddy. If that's still a hard "NO" from DS, then yeah - I'm moving on from the Mets and exploring trade packages with other teams.