wildcat2237

If this quote is correct this is bad news. A half ass rebuild is not going to get the job done. The Brewers cannot afford to let Lucroy and Gomez walk like they did Fielder and Hart. This franchise is going to HAVE to take a 2 or 3 year step back, unless attanasio has 100 milion or so laying around to sign all of the elite pitchers on the market this winter.

Excelent buy low candidate. I find it hard to believe he's done at 30.

Bout time Schafer is shipped out. What a waste of space.

I posted this in the "Open for Business" thread on the MLB forum, but here is today's MLBTradeRumor snippet. Yesterday it sounded like rival GMs were lining up at Melvin's door. Today it sounds like we're in for a bunch of salary dumps.

Today's MLBTradeRumors snippet. The snippit yesterday made if sound like rival GM's think the Brewers have some talent and are lining up to start the bidding. Today's post makes it sound like were going to see a bunch of salary dump trades. I'm sure attendance this summer is going to be terrible so I would imagine that the Brewers NEED to move some pieces to stay profitable. The question is whether these trades will be pure salary dumps or if the team can get some mid level prospects for the likes of Lohse, Krod etc. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brewers Open To Trade Proposals By Charlie Wilmoth [May 2, 2015 at 1:22pm CDT] The Brewers have let other teams know they’re willing to listen to trade proposals, ESPN’s Buster Olney tweets. Olney’s note is consistent with recent reporting from CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman of the New York Post, who have both written that other teams expect the Brewers will become sellers after their awful start. Of course, 5-18 teams typically don’t have many high-performing players, and many of the players the Brewers will have to offer will be of the buy-low variety. Olney doesn’t say who the Brewers might shop, but Kyle Lohse and Gerardo Parra are both free agents after the season. They are, however, both off to poor starts (although Lohse’s peripherals are still reasonably good, which means other teams might view him somewhat favorably, particularly as a rental). Aramis Ramirez, a free-agent-to-be who plans to retire in the offseason, hasn’t played well, either. Reliever Jonathan Broxton‘s contract and performance make him more of a liability than an asset. At least, however, that contract is short-term — Ryan Braun‘s lengthy and expensive deal should make him difficult to trade. Matt Garza, who is signed through 2017 with a vesting option for 2018, might be a reasonably attractive trade candidate, although his performance in five starts this season hasn’t been stellar. On the other side of the ledger, Neal Cotts is a decent lefty relief option who’s a free agent after the season. Closer Francisco Rodriguez, who is signed through 2016 with a 2017 option, has pitched well so far. Adam Lind, who is off to a terrific start and is signed to a deal with a reasonably priced 2016 option, might be a nice trade piece as well. Carlos Gomez recently returned from the disabled list and would surely fetch a very nice return, although it’s unclear whether the Brewers would want to trade a superstar. Jonathan Lucroy would fit into the same category if he were healthy.

I dont know why Jimenez was such a lock to make the team out of spring. Frankly, he was mediocre in AAA last year and did nothing too special in spring training. Rogers and Hererra can handle 3b when Ramirez is out. Hopefully we can make a trade and get Seager or Cecchini for the future.

Brewers Designate Luis Jimenez For Assignment By Charlie Wilmoth [May 2, 2015 at 10:11am CDT] The Brewers have announced that they’ve designated infielder Luis Jimenez for assignment. They also activated center fielder Carlos Gomez (hamstring) from the 15-day disabled list. The Brewers claimed the 27-year-old Jimenez from the Angels in October. He made the team out of Spring Training but played infrequently, making only two starts and hitting just 1-for-15. Jimenez played second and third base for Milwaukee, although he’s mostly been a third baseman in recent years. He hit .286/.321/.505 in 501 plate appearances for Triple-A Salt Lake in 2014, generally in line with his minor-league track record of hitting for good average and power but drawing few walks.

If I were to trade Lucory I would want a top 50 prospect back in return. So in other words, I would not do a deal with the Dodgers and not get back Seager or Urias. Gotta give some to get some. Lucroy is the cream of the crop at the catcher position, is signed for a few more years, and is cheap.

Talk about restocking the farm system. Wow. Hopefully Attanasio is pissed off enough to trade majority of the team. I cant imagine the haul we could get for the above listed players.

Billie Beane has made a living trading players at their peak value. You're probably right that he will have more value in 2 years. However, it is also possible that he could get hurt and his value could plummet. I would trade him for 2 reasons: #1. If you are in full rebuilding mode why waste Peralta? #2. Why wait to get prospects?

I interpreted that rival executive's comment as saying Lucroy is incredibly good (and cheap) so we won't want to trade him, and that Nelson has a lot of upside so we won't want to trade him. The negative implication is that Peralta is not all that untouchable, though as a positive it's a compliment for Nelson I guess. I think I see it more along the lines of Peralta being an established major league starter who could help someone right away. Nelson, however, has tons of potential but has been very up and down at the MLB level. Just like Peralta was his first 1.5 years at the MLB level. I'd like to see Peralta net 5 or 6 good prospects, or one guy like Gallo from the Rangers.

I thought it was interesting in the above blurb that only Nelson and Lucroy are off the table. That means the Brewers will listen on Peralta. I wonder what kind of haul he could net? I also dont understand why you would trade Peralta but not Lucroy? I guess maybe because starting pitching could net a haul and a half. Hopefully the crew does a full on Marlins type firesale. If so, the minor league system could be VERY VERY fun to watch over the next 2-3 years....

Jon Heyman made this tweet yesterday: "there's belief brewers could sell soon if things don't turn. lohse/garza could be in play. one gm: 'they have good players'" Would love to see the Brewers pull the trigger early in the season and get max value. If they are going to trade Lohse/Garza, I also hope they deal the expensive Aramis Ramirez and play Hererra at 3b. This could explain why they sent Thronburg down to AAA to get stretched out. I imagine Blazek and Thornburg would be the first two into the rotation if Garza/Lohse traded. The question is, what kind of return can the Brewers expect? Part of me says the return would be poor since Garza and Lohse are old and expensive, but then again, look what the Brewers paid for the terrible Gerardo Parra last year.

Just checked his numbers. 48 AB's, .458 BA, .518 OBP, 1.164 OPS. If he keeps anything close to that up, he will be a top 10 prospect. Only thing lacking is the power. Still, he has 4 doubles, a triple, and an HR. Things are looking up on the Arcia front. Made my day.

I hope they do. But the key is that they need to get good returns in order to re-stock the system. Saving money by trading Lohse, Broxton, or K-rod is great, but ultimately this franchise needs talent, not money. Looking back the system has been poor since the Greinke trade in December of 2010. The departure of Cain, Escobar, Jeffress, and Odorizzi really did a number on the franchise, and then was combined with the failure to trade Braun, Fielder, or Hart in any of their primes. I cant even imagine what this franchise would look like today if the Brewers would have traded Prince in the winter of 2010, and held off on the Grienke trade.

Teams apparently are calling about Gomez and Segura. Brad Johnson of MLBTraderumors wrote the following today: Latest From Rosenthal: Papelbon, Braun, Young, Redmond By Brad Johnson [April 25, 2015 at 5:49pm CDT] The Brewers may shift to a rebuilding stance, and teams are in constant contact about Carlos Gomez and Jean Segura. Another star, Ryan Braun, will be difficult to trade. He’s slumped to start the season. He’s owed $105MM through 2020, and his no trade clause includes every team by the Angels, Dodgers, Nationals, Rays, and Marlins. No shocker that Braun is untradeable. Hopefully Segura keeps hitting and Melvin can rip someone off at the deadline. At the start of this year it looked like Gomez, Peralta, and Lucroy were the only trade chips. Segura may be changing that very quickly. With Sardinas and Arcia close it would be awesome to use Segura to restock the system with some of the talent that excited in the Greinke trade.

I'm finding this enjoyable. This team was not going to make the playoffs and everybody knew it except Mark A. Every loss means they are a little closer to the #1 pick next year. This franchise needs legit young players, badly.

At this point I would think Roenicke's job has to be in jeopardy...

Kirk Gibson. He and Ryan Braun could sing kumbaya. In the meantime we could unleash a salvo of beanballs at neck tattoo and the rest of the cardinals. Might be the only thing to make the rest of this season enjoyable.

Sadly this is right on. I think if DM took the plunge and marketed it right he could get 10-12 real nice pieces with those three guys. Probably at least 4 top 100 prospects. The minor league system would immediately be VERY interesting when you take guys like Arcia, Lara, Gatewood, and Coulter into consideration.

two words... Fire. Sale.

SoupTown, Two comments on your post. #1. I think a 2017 ETA to compete is too soon. At this point, the majority of our talent is in the lower minors. I would anticipate that 2018 would be the soonest this franchise could compete. #2. I would hate to see Lucroy go, especially with his team friendly deal. But him and Peralta have a lot of value and are the guys that would need to be traded in order to bring back the Nelson Cruz's and Carlos Gomez's of the future. Broxton, Parra, and Lohse might net something, but the likely best case scenario for a Lohse trade brings back a guy like Mitch Hanigan. Good prospect, but not likely to turn into anything more than a future Khris Davis or Logan Schafer. Sadly, you have to give a lot to get a lot. The Brewers are going to have to gut their MLB team in order to acquire the 10-15 minor league players who could revive the franchise in the next few years.

Saw him in spring training. Looked very good. Smooth swing, good plate approach.

Agree with every word. Its almost impossible to get excited about this bunch as it seems that everybody except Mark Attanasio thinks they are no good. What makes it even more sad, is that the owner, an attorney and investment guy, is running the show and making baseball decisions. I fear that the longer the franchise waits to rebuild the longer and more arduous it will be. The rebuild needed to happen one of the last two off-seasons, and with every day they wait it will just get more and more difficult. I am sincerely hoping for a mid-season, pre-deadline firesale. This team has enough talent left on the big league roster with Gomez, Lucroy, and Peralta that they could definitely re-stock the system. Will it suck to see those guys go? Yup. But at this point its necessary. This team needs 10-12 good prospects to add to the system. The clock is ticking.

MLBTradeRumors with more Padres speculation today, this time looking at Luis Sardinas and some other candidates such as Javier Baez. Preller is familiar with Sardinas from his time with the Rangers. The more I think about this the more I think the Brewers would need the Padres to overpay to get a deal done at this stage in the season. What do people think of Renfroe? Is he a sure fire Big Leaguer? Is he a top 100 prospect? This website had Renfroe ranked #1 in the Padres system before all the big offseason trades and has him ahead of Trea Turner and Matt Wisler: http://prospect361.com/nl-team-prospects/san-diego-padres/ Shortstop Alternatives For The Padres By Steve Adams [April 10, 2015 at 3:49pm CDT] The Padres are said to be “scouring” the trade market for shortstop upgrades over internal options Clint Barmes and Alexi Amarista, and while significant trades at this stage of the season are indeed rare, the Sunday’s blockbuster acquisition of Craig Kimbrel and Melvin Upton from the Braves shows that GM A.J. Preller isn’t averse to making trades at any stage of the season. Both Dave Cameron of Fangraphs and Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports beat me to writing something on the subject, and each piece is well worth the read. However, there are a vast expanse of shortstop options available for the Padres to explore, and Rosenthal reports that the team seems likelier to add a low-cost upgrade than to make an extravagant splash for the likes of Elvis Andrus or Starlin Castro. (The Padres have concerns about Castro’s glove at shortstop, in fact, Rosenthal adds, and have not recently been in touch regarding Chicago’s middle infielders.) Cameron discusses a wide range of shortstop possibilities for the Friars, concluding that an acquisition of Jean Segura might be the most logical upgrade for San Diego. While I agree that Segura makes some sense for the Padres, there are some additional low-cost names (from a financial standpoint, that is) that could be replaced within their respective organizations. Before delving into some speculative candidates, let’s first take a quick glance at the current options in San Diego. Barmes batted a decisively sub-par .245/.328/.294 last season, with six of his nine walks coming while batting eighth, in front of the pitcher. While he’s well-known as a plus defender, Barmes projects to be roughly a replacement level player when looking at the ZiPS and Steamer projection systems. Likewise, Amarista is a light-hitting infielder, who projects to be scarcely more than a replacement-level option. He’s younger than Barmes but is also just a .233/.278/.335 hitter in more than 1200 plate appearances. It’d be a surprise to see him contribute anything close to league-average production at the dish. The Padres have a pair of serviceable gloves at shortstop, but neither comes with much in the way of offensive upside, and as such, their search for a shortstop upgrade isn’t unexpected. All that said, let’s look at some options around the league that could serve as alternatives to Amarista and Barmes… Luis Sardinas, Brewers: Preller of all people should be familiar with Sardinas, who was signed by the Rangers and developed into a promising prospect while Preller was still in the Texas front office. The jury is out on how much Sardinas will actually hit — he’s batted .290/.310/.374 in limited Triple-A action and didn’t fare much better in the Majors last year — but he’s regarded as a plus defender and has more upside at the plate than either incumbent option in San Diego. Sardinas is blocked in the Majors by Segura, who, as Cameron noted, could be a fit in San Diego himself, if the Brewers believe that Sardinas can adequately step into the everyday role at shortstop.