wildcat2237

Wow, thanks again! Regarding the last paragraph, if Stearns knows who he prefers but is going to let the Rangers assume the injury risk through the end of the season do you think that suggests he has a pitcher in mind as his top selection? Not exactly. What I know if that the list of 4 that went to Stearns last night was (in order of priority) 1. Yohander Mendez 2. Ronald Guzman 3. Pedro Payano 4. Ariel Jurado

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So 3 of our top 6 are the new guys. Very good work. Though I have no idea how Corey Ray is our third best. You know your system is okay when Woodruff and Tyrone Taylor are your #25 and #26 prospects.

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Welcome to Trade Deadline 2016. The tech boom for relief pitchers.

That would make me throw-up to be honest. I'd hate to see Luc go for no pitching at all. I am not a Gallo guy though, so there may be others who think that would be great! Plus One. Gallo may be Russell Branyan/Chris Carter part 2.

Please bring back Shaw or Beede! How about Bickford. You know, the Giants 2015 first round pick.

Told you guys the Brewers were scouting the Giants.

It seems the market for Lucroy is rather small and the prospects the Indians were going to give up is probably the best you could do. Adding in one of Kaminsky/Hillman/Mathias/Kreiger/Plutko and Brewers adding in Thornburg evens out Lucroy essentially being a rental. How does this address the reason Lucroy vetoed? I think he is assuming we agree to decline the 2017 team option to appease Lucroy so he will approve a trade. That would make Lucory a 3 month rental, so we would have to add Thornburg because the Indians will be getting one year less of Lucroy.

Heres more on the Payano injury. http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20160707&content_id=188614220&fext=.jsp&vkey=recap&sid=t448

He's interesting. One of the better looking prospects in the bottom half of the Ranger's top 30 list. Does your friend have any information about Payano being on the disabled list? Trying to find injury information on minor league players is a real pain in the behind. Nope. He saw Payano pitch in extended spring in Arizona back in April.

I'm getting a real good kick out of all the Gallo talk. Gallo is not a Stearns guy. He is major league ready and would take a lot of the value out of Lucroy/Jeffress. I talked to my Brewers scout friend again this afternoon. He scouted the Rangers system for a good two weeks. This morning his superior called and asked for more info on Yohander Mendez, Pedro Payano, Andy Ibanez, Josh Morgan, Ariel Jurado, Leody Taveras, and Ronald Guzman. If I were a betting man, I would guess a Lucroy and Jeffress package to the Rangers will bring back 4-7 guys and will include some of the above. My friend really like Pedro Payano and thinks he is the diamond in the rough. Nasty stuff.

Sheffield would make sense. Another young player in A ball. The issue, he is 5 foot 10.

Carsen Fullmer has filthy MLB closer type stuff when on. When not on and walking people. Thats a whole different story.

Thanks splitter. I'm starting to connect the dots as to how Stearns thinks. It sounds like the rebuild is going to take longer than a lot of us would like. However, Stearns is going about it the right way by building a strong farm system, top to bottom.

I second this! The last player is reported to be a pitcher, just not named yet. I simply can't imagine the Brewers' bullpen remaining intact through this process, and if there's a match for Guerra, that's a real possibility too. Milwaukee has heavily scouted the Rangers, Dodgers, Giants, and Mets, at least - all of whom are looking for pitching of one sort or another - and Cleveland still needs bullpen help too. #1. Based on what my friend who is a Brewers scout has told me over the last two days, I will be shocked if the Brewers don't do some kind of deal with the Rangers, Dodgers, or Giants. #2. I also have to wonder if maybe we could have gotten a heavier return from Cleveland if we had included Jeffress or Smith but chose not too because those guys will net a heavy return on their own. #3. My scout friend stressed to me again tonight that Stearns loves young players. That is what we did in the Cleveland deal. 3-4 young players. Player who has advanced highest has been in AA for 2 weeks. I have to think if we do a Jeffress or Smith deal we will get 2-3 young guiys back in return. As I have mentioned previously Stearns firmly beleives you get more value by going lower in systems.

Just saw this... 11:08pm: Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports tweets that top catching prospect Francisco Mejia would head to the Brewers in the deal. Yahoo’s Jeff Passan tweets that one of left-hander Justus Sheffield or right-hander Triston McKenzie could be in the deal as well, and Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer also mentions Sheffield as a possibility (Twitter link). Rosenthal tweets that shortstop Yu-Cheng Chang and outfielder Greg Allen are going to the Brewers as well, if he approves the trade. Maybe Sheffield or McKenzie are in the deal....

Looks like it could be a big return. I think this is good because it shows Smith and Jeffress are worth something.

Very disappointing. That said. We are two days from the deadline. Lots of back and forth an happen in that time. I also very much get the feeling we are only seeing part of this. I bet the Mets rumors are getting out because they a re a big market team. Who knows what other teams may also be offering.

MLBTraderumors.com reporting that the Rangers and Brewers may do a blockbuster: 10:54pm: The Rangers could view a strike for Lucroy as a way to improve their pitching, given his highly-regarded work behind the plate, per Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. With Texas finding high asking prices on the pitching market, the report suggests, the club could make a move for a group of Milwaukee pieces that might include Lucroy, a quality reliever, and possibly even a starter. I like the Rangers system so this is music to my ears. I also have first hand knowledge that the Brewers have scouted the snot out of the Rangers system.

Fastball 93-94 with a pretty good split when he throws it for a strike. I would assume he has another pitch too. Hitters look like they just have no clue what's coming. Not sure if it's because of his lack of track record, or deception in his delivery, or what. In my opinion the best article that has been written on Guerra is here: http://host.madison.com/wsj/sports/baseball/professional/brewers-junior-guerra-finds-success-at-end-of-long-winding/article_17169e09-577a-584c-8650-421c3799dcfb.html It basically says Guerra is similar to RA Dickey in that he mastered a tough pitch late in his career. The danger is that the splitter is tough on a pitchers arm. I've talked to a couple scouts who are in agreement with the author. Here is the article in full. MILWAUKEE — Were it not the first official transaction of David Stearns’ tenure as Milwaukee Brewers general manager, hardly anyone would have noticed when they claimed right-hander Junior Guerra off waivers from the White Sox on Oct. 7 of last year. But fast forward nearly nine months and Guerra has become one of the most fascinating stories on the roster as the Brewers hit the midway point of their first season in the Stearns-orchestrated rebuilding process. The 31-year-old Venezuelan native had appeared in just three big league games before the Brewers summoned him from Colorado Springs to replace struggling right-hander Taylor Jungmann on May 1. He was hardly a dominant force in Class AAA, posting a 0-2 record and 4.63 ERA. But since joining Milwaukee he’s been lights-out, going 6-1 with a 2.93 ERA in 12 starts. And he’s been getting better every time out. Guerra hasn’t allowed a run in his past two starts, covering 15 1/3 innings of work. In those contests, he’s allowed four hits, four walks and struck out 14 against the Dodgers and Nationals, two of the better teams in the National League. “It feels like he’s even getting better,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said after Monday’s game against the Nationals. “In the biggest spots he seems to step up even a little more.” On the surface, Guerra’s run is impressive enough. But it becomes even more noteworthy when you consider the route he took to get to this point. Signed as an international free agent by the Braves in 2001, as an outfielder and catcher, Guerra spent five years in the Braves system before being converted to a pitcher only to be released the next spring. Guerra spent a year out of baseball but signed with the Mets organization in 2007. A year later, he was suspended 50 games for violating Minor League Baseball’s drug policy and was later released. This is when things really get interesting. After sitting out of baseball a year, Guerra got back into the game by pitching for an unaffiliated, independent league team in Wichita, Kansas, in 2011. From there, he played for Yucatan in the Mexican League, back to Wichita and then a stint in Italy. It was during that journey through baseball’s wilderness that Guerra developed his secret weapon: the split-finger fastball. He learned the pitch from Giants reliever Jean Machi while both played in the Venezuelan Winter League. Guerra said it took about five years to master the pitch. “I was just a fastball/slider guy, and it was around 2009 that I started throwing a splitter and playing with it,” Guerra said. It wasn’t good back then. “It wasn’t until 2011 that I started feeling comfortable with it, and I thank God I’ve had the chance to locate with it and use it. It helps a lot with my fastball and slider.” Because of the stress it can put on a pitcher’s arm, the split-finger has fallen out of favor as the game tries to protect its top pitching prospects, but for an older player with little to lose, it’s been more than viable. “Not many (throw the true splitter) and he has a really true split-finger,” catcher Jonathan Lucroy. “It is almost a borderline knuckle, the way it moves sometimes. It is hard to catch because you don’t know what is going to happen.” It’s a hard pitch for hitters to handle, too, as evidenced by Guerra’s 1.017 WHIP and his 7.1 strikeouts per nine innings. “I’ve always said the advantage goes to the pitcher when you haven’t seen him before,” Nationals manager Dusty Baker said after Guerra threw 7 1/3 shutout innings in Milwaukee’s 1-0 win at Washington. “He kind of had us fishing for that split-finger.” Guerra will get one more start before the All-Star break, taking the mound Sunday against the Cardinals in the first-half finale. Guerra is hoping to keep adding more chapters to his unusual story. “You just have to thank God that he gave you this opportunity of having a good first year. You just have to keep working hard because nothing is guaranteed,” he said.

+1. Talk about continuing to up the trade value. With the premium placed on pitching this summer, I am shocked we have not heard anything about Guerra.

I have reason to believe the "mystery team" is the Dodgers. But we will see.

In light of the complete absence of rumors lately I gave my friend who is a Brewers scout a call. He is nowhere near a front office exec and does not have precise info. However, here is what he told me for what its worth. 1. Stearns is really focusing on the lower levels of teams systems. Apparently the new regime believes you get the most value by going lower into someones system. Look no further than the Adam Lind and Khris Davis trades. 2. He did not suggest Stearns is going to trade any of the top guys for 6 or 7 lottery tickets, it is more that Stearns would rather take 2 advanced guys and 3 lottery tickets as opposed to just 3 advanced guys. 3. He knows very little about what is going on in the eastern part of the country, however, he said that the Brewers have shifted most of their western scouting resources from the Rangers system over to the Dodgers and Giants systems. When I talked to him he was en route to Rancho Cucamonga with instructions to watch Yusniel Diaz, Johan Mieses, and Grant Holmes start this week. Take it for what its worth. ----- Continued from: viewtopic.php?p=994857#p994857 Original Lead: viewtopic.php?f=66&t=33647

I agree with you that the Brewers will want pitching for Lucroy and I agree with you that the Brewers will be looking at highly talented young players for Lucroy. However, I wouldn't do the above deal because I don't like Bobby Bradley. If I'm doing a deal with the Indians, Mejia is the guy I want.