Boomer5

He is owed $63M plus a $5M buyout for the next 3 years. Ouch. That would mean we would clean up on prospects to take on that mess.

We should be getting back a big time prospect if that's the case.

I'm not sure there's anyone classified as big I'd want from the MLB roster. They are saying discussing OFers but that could just be from our side?

So we should be allowed to seize a player from his home country and force him to play thousands of miles away? Wang and TJ wanted to improve their lives and the Brewers were obviously fine with that. Nothing to see here at all.

Maybe a year away? He made one defensive play in A-ball and you have him possibly being the team's starting 2nd baseman at some point this season? 5 players from the first 9 picks in the 2015 draft played in 2017 with 3 of them being very significant. That is what is supposed to happen when you draft a college player in the top 10. https://www.baseball-reference.com/draft/?year_ID=2015&draft_round=1&draft_type=junreg&query_type=year_round&from_type_jc=0&from_type_hs=0&from_type_4y=0&from_type_unk=0

Decent and cheap is the key. The Giants are in penny pinching mode, very little space under the luxury tax. If the Giants made a trade with us for Broxton, I wouldn't be surprised if they asked us to eat most of salary this year even though it's only a league min. I don't think anyone is trying to say he's going to get us a top 5 prospect from them or anything, even from that farm. I think we can get some upside though, some younger players that may or may not develop. Any trade involving Broxton is going to be very minor. He just doesn't have enough value outside of his salary. However, there is an opportunity to take back a bad contract in exchange for Broxton if they throw in a real prospect. That goes for any team up against the tax.

Did you even bother to look at how they got to their 0.1 WAR projection, or just stick with the classic "find one stat that supports my opinion and ignore all evidence to the contrary" line of thinking? Fangraphs projects him to hit .213 avg, .312 BABIP, and .376 slugging. All 3 of those are significantly lower than anything he's done in his career to this point. It's almost like fangraphs literally drew numbers out of a hat, as there is no basis for him putting up numbers like that. And as far as his defense, he was a plus defender according to metrics in 2016 and a negative value in 2017. This goes to show how useless defensive WAR metrics are as his defense didn't significantly change from 2016 to 2017. He's an above average defender in CF with that speed, athletic ability, and arm. I think a line of 220/300/400 with 20 SB and above average defense is the minimum production you get from Broxton next year...which is worth more than 1 WAR for those that love that stat. If his BABIP gets closer to his career norm into the 350 range, he's probably an 800+ ops guy and a solid regular on any team. I personally would be inclined to keep Broxton if it weren't for Phillips/Brinson, those guys are the only reason he's expendable. And just to add a note, McCutchen has been told he'll play a corner spot in SF. So they still needs a CF. The numbers are the numbers. He isn't an elite defense player and he is super streaky. So you could cherry pick any month and he'd look like Mike Cameron or Thad Bosely. The reality is he an average CF, maybe, and he doesn't make enough contact to be valuable to a team that is all in for a title. However he is a cheap so the luxury tax could give us some traction on the trade market.

Sogard 92 64 68 Minors 103 Hernan 76 91 81 Villar 117 72 That's why Scooters 127 107 84 91 124 We have no reason to trade a prospect(s) and spend $10M on another second basemen who isn't elite. This is insane because we aren't a 2B away from anything. Oh and we just spend a first round pick on a college 2B who is maybe a year away if that.

Just use the money to sign a starting pitcher if they have a hole in their pocket and have huge desire to waste a lot of money. Fangraphs has our 2018 roster at 25.4 WAR while the Cubs are 47.8 Any other plan makes no sense because teams aren't trading for Shaw the guy we view as an elite 3B, they are trading for a guy they will view as a decent player who just had a career year. This smells like Boras using us to drive up his clients price.

Broxton is projected to be a 0.1 WAR player in 2018 according to Fangraphs. He is tradable due to salary and semi youth, but his return is replacement level or lottery ticket stuff.

The ghost of Scotter says hello once again. Trading assets to fill the 2B role is insane. We have plenty of 2B options including resigning Walker. Just go with Villar and Sogard for another year until Dubon then Hiura are ready.

There's still a place for vets in any rebuilding mix and I'd much prefer an Arrieta over what we got out of Matt Garza (although the recent revelation of Garza's collision-induced shoulder injury puts his 2nd half struggles in a totally different light). There was really only Braun and Jeffress (and I suppose Vogt) going into this off-season in terms of established vets -- not a bad thing, but rarely does any rebuild gain ALL its steam before you begin adding vets. Now we've added Chacin, Logan, and Gallardo, and only two of those are sure bets to make the club if healthy. Point being, adding an Arrieta or someone comparable, whether as a FA or via trade, doesn't blow the rebuild out of the water. My hunch is that if we add an Arrieta or Lynn or Cobb, it's because the financial cost to signing them represented a better deal for the organization than the cost of prospects to go after an Archer type. I'm not saying Arrieta is my ideal move (I don't know what my ideal move is because I can't know the potential costs of every option), but I do trust Stearns if he feels Arrieta is the best needed strategic option the Brewers have for improving the rotation for not just this year but beyond. It's a win now move and not a very good one unless people feel we are an Arrieta away from being a playoff team.

He is a good but not great pitcher and it's not my money so if the Brewers over pay that's not really going to affect me. My issues is signing a 32 year old pitcher represents a dramatic departure from what we were told was a rebuilding program. You don't rebuild around high priced 32 year old free agents.

Signing an over 30 year old regression candidate to a big money contract when much of your team is a regression candidate themselves is about the most unalytics thing you can do. This is the opposite of collecting young controllable talent.

Didn't we have excess 2B a year ago?

I like the comparison. When Ray was drafted, I envisioned a Kenny Lofton type player. Let's hope he can become either of those guys. I'm not a Ray fan but if they sign Cain to anything more than a two year deal it will tell you what the Brewers think of Ray.

This may be why a deal doesn't come together...or why a deal may just be a straight up Santana for Salazar, which I would not like. Agreed. This is either a trade where we take a little less than Santana is worth or it tuns into a blockbuster.

Aguilar is barely a throw in and with apologies to the Nottingham fans here, his is just a guy who is a barely adequate catcher who hit 209 at AA. Mejia would require a top 50 guy added to a Santana package.

This is part of why I suggested targeting Salazar + Mejia and sending Santana+. We are incredibly deep in those mid-tier prospects...not blue chippers but significantly more valuable than the "meh" group. Santana + Gatewood + Henry for Salazar + Mejia? Something like that, maybe it takes more I have a tough time gauging Mejia's value. Probably a Santana plus volume type trade to get one of their starters plus a top 30 catcher like you mentioned. It really depends on what they really think of Mejia being an elite catcher and what they truly think of our guys not named Brinson.

Cain is who Ray is supposed to be.

Very true. So far the moves we have made suggest DS doesn't think much of our team's ability to challenge the Cubs in 2018. However there are still quite a few very starters out there so that could change. I'd think if we sign Lynn or Cobb we will also immediately add Walker.

You're right. Cleveland could definitely use Santana as their other OFers are either injury prone or meh. Santana is an upgrade. The problem is their prospects are either too good at the top end or just so so after that. I'm not sure how to put a deal together that makes sense for either side.

If they traded Nottingham now it would be at his lowest possible value as a pro. He is just a throw in at this point until he starts hitting above A ball. This is more of a churn move with a likely release of one of our low value catchers.

The last thing the Brewers should be bringing in is a 32 year old OF.

Page 2 shows why Hader is correctly in the pen. In 2018, elite relievers >>> 3-5 starters