Boomer5

Of course he is. And 2018 too. He has zero intent on improving the MLB roster in the next two plus years and the entire offseason shows that. The goal is to sell off assets for players that won't arrive until 3 years down the road. As they develop, the farm is stocked with the real prizes in the draft and international. He is tanking the MLB roster to follow the Astros very successful plan.

Operation Astros is well underway. Next will be Luc with Braun not far behind. Good trade for Milwaukee much better trade for Oakland due to the DH. So Santana goes to LF?

Would his wife be part of the deal? Google her.

No OF the Brewers acquired this offseason have any real trade value in the spring. One of them would have to light it up in the first half then we could in theory flip them at the deadline.

We will see, but I agree with this. Fangraphs has Smith projected to be the 8th most valuable reliever in baseball and has 4 more seasons of team control. He is instantly the best reliever in the Twins pen. With the premium being placed on high leverage relievers, I will be disappointed if we don't land at least (1) ~top 50 prospect. Agreed. He is an elite commodity. I wouldnt trade him until the return became overwhelming. He is not Kimbrel but 3/4th of that is the kind of ball park package Id want back.

I picked before the season because Catchers tend to have more value with a full season of working with a pitching staff. I also think Luc's comments over the last half year pretty much suggest the trade will come sooner rather than later. Id also think the Brewers wouldnt want to develop their young staff with Luc to start than the back ups afterwards. Id think they would want some roster consistency at C even if it is a platoon.

Absolutely. They do seem to get it when it comes to investing in player development and not over thinking the right draft picks and trades. They dont panic when it comes to losing an icon if the price is a horrible contract. Off the field I love what they do. On the field, their behavior is less than smart and I will keep it at that.

It's true about the Cardinals or other farm systems being able to succeed regardless of where they pick. It's easy to say just make better picks, which I think the Brewers are doing the last few years, but it's a slow build helped greatly by the Astros heist. However, the quickest way to improve the farm system to best in the game status is with trading off assists for real prospects and of course the first pick and more importantly the pool money. That's the reason Stearns is doing what he is doing.

There is a big difference in a star catcher in his prime and a back-up infielder that is happy to have a job (for now). I hate to say it, but we should be so lucky as have Ned 2.0 here these days.

Thats a really good article, great find.

As an analytics guy, I wonder what kind of model Stearns uses? Btw I don't see our pitching staff as bad as Steamer does. I think our issue will be offense for everyone except Davis and Braun once Luc is traded, and especially defense.

The goal is to develop young players, not to lose games. Losing a lot of games is just a by-product. As others have said, it doesn't do wonders for developing young pitchers with bad (possibly horrendous) defense behind them. Stearns is as aware of these players defensive metrics as we are and yet he is still building the team around them. People get upset at the word "tanking" in how that implies the team is trying to lose. Well you don't need to tell a Chris Carter to strike out and play a bad 1B and you dont need to tell a Hill to be a bad baseball player. They will do that just fine on their own. If you put them out there, you know you are going to get a losing team.

Agreed. Where Stearns will show his mettle will be in the the draft and international. Stearns actually inherited something far more valuable, an owner willing to let him "Operation Astros" our team. I dont think Melvin had that. IF the goal was to improve the 2016 Brewers, he has done a remarkably bad job. Since it wasnt, his skills wont be known for years.

Santana, Houser, Phillips, and Davies are just as likely to be flops as anyone else. Not sure I get that? Those are advanced prospects with tools that are now more easily and accurately projectable. On a purely statistical basis, it is far more likely that Davies has already pitched more MLB innings that any of the 3 teens in the Seattle trade.

I agree completely. The value Stearns will add will be in the form of the 2016-2109 drafts and international talent. No one he picked up other than Diaz matters other than organizational depth. His age and how much we paid for him ($6.5M) should tell you all you need to know about his timetable. We are following the Astros model that he was a part of. I dont think it's that hard to connect the dots here.

Correct. I'd say many people's idea of tanking would be something closer to fielding an noncompetitive team. The 2016 Brewers will be competitive, albeit not competitive enough to be in playoff contention. It's not like they're sending a team of Andy Wilkinsses out there. I should have typed my comment in blue. Sorry about that. The Brewers are absolutely fielding a non competitive team in 2016 which should be apparent already, but will become more so when the Luc and Davis trades happen.

I agree 100%. These are just guys who are on the roster so the Brewers can field a team without starting the clock on the prospects that will be here when the next Brewer team is competitive.

We traded our closer and our middle of the order 1B for nothing that can help in 2016 or 2017 but we arent tanking in 2016? And you folks think hiring a guy from the Astros is completely unrelated to how they got where they are?

Wouldnt a Luc/Anderson trade be a similar package to the Gomez/Fiers trade in terms of WAR and years control? Id expect at least an Astros haul if we put a package like that.

On the young kids, all the teenagers, you are absolutely right. How can anyone know what they'll be in five years at this point? On the, "cast-offs", I'm not sure I agree. I guess it depends on who you mean, and what you're expectations are. I love the approach of grabbing a bunch of high-upside kids, because teams will part with more talent, if it's less proven. Yes, there's risk in that for the Brewers, but the chance to really hit it big on a kid is much greater if you take the high skill set teen over the completely ordinary AA player. I'd roll those dice. On the MLB guys, Aaron Hill was clearly a salary dump by AZ, and for most of the others, I think one good season from any of them would be a win, they're just here to fill the roster while the team is at the bottom. I think Rymer Liriano has a chance to, "make it", I think SD screwed that one up. We have discussed that plenty, but so far Stearn's trades prior to Hill freed up cash but didn't really move the needle on the talent front. The essential purchase of Diaz for $6.5M was a better use of our assets, IMHO. The cast off were cast offs for a reason. In this salary era, no one gives - and doesn't even try and trade for much- up 4-6 years of control on a potentially elite player who is one year removed from prospect status unless they have a reason. Could they be wrong? Sure, but the reality is these players are probably a whole lot closer to their former team's opinion than the zenith that many fans will see when they see a "name" prospect hit the roster. Maybe one or two will be productive, who knows. It still looks more like filling up a very bad MLB roster with lottery tickets that the casual fan has heard of than acquiring guys who will fill a key role based on a whole lot of metrics. Im going to be a lot more interested in the 2016-2019 drafts which I think is the ONLY goal of Stearns moves so far.

No one projects as an Ace, though I hold out hope for Nelson. He was as close to an ace as Ive seen coming through the Brewers minors since Sheets. As for the studs, welcome to the current MLB roster. Thats where Correa's and Bryant's will come from, or at least they will once this current roster puts us in position to draft them. For the current crop, Arcia has All Star written all over him and Phillips is certainly highly regarded though Id like to see his power numbers this year. The other guys are too low in the minors to be projectable for a year or two.

To me, the barometer was the Brewers having 5 top 100's. That hasnt happened for a long time, and two of them were picked up in the outstanding Astros trade. To me the jury is very much out on the Stearns era of former prospect cast offs and 19 year olds, but assuming we are drafting well the next 3 drafts the rebuilding plan will surely work.

We will have to agree to disagree, but that is a seriously bad infield likely the worst in the game. The OF you put together I like, but Stearns does not. It features Davis who is likely to be traded, Santana who wont be in CF. We have discussed Braun to death, but I would not be surprised to see him moved. Luc surely will be traded. The Brewers were carried by Davis' incomprehensible 20 HRs in Aug and Sep and were still under 500 during that time frame. No, this team will not be contending for anything positive.

I agree. I see no reason why the Brewers would trade for an Anderson unless its to flip him down the road. The 2016 Brewers have no need for a Chase Anderson unless they know something projectable about him the rest of the league doesn't.

I do, if the Brewers paid a big chunk of Hill's contract. Yes, Diaz is very highly regarded but he hasn't even completed a season above rookie ball. If he had those kind of numbers in A+ or even A ball, that would be one thing. But it's not like he's Cano already just because a few scouts think so. Don't get me wrong, I love picking up a high ceiling player like this for Segura. I just think we could have done so without giving up Wagner. But that tells me they weren't too high on him, we'll see. Not real thrilled Hill will be taking playing time and ABs away from the younger guys either. A team like the Brewers wouldnt have traded Wagner unless they felt he didnt have upside. If they liked him, why trade for a mediocre 28 year old 4th starter, when in theory Wagner/Davies could have done it once Garza was traded or DFA'd? Hill was just a contract so the Brewers could purchase Diaz.