MadThinker88

Agreed. He went the conservative route to return last time. I would guess he goes the surgery route asap this time around...

I like the way your thinking. Its worth kicking the tires and getting an idea of the cost..

Don't forget the home field angle with Trea Turner & the position flexibility he would bring if voted in...

I think this is real close, a situation where player #2 determines if it's an overpay by Milwaukee or not. IMO, Woodruff and Stokes plus a fringe prospect is what <3 months of Machado should go for. Ortiz seems like too much...Diplan seems pretty reasonable for both sides IMO. Then it comes down to if the Dodgers want to trump the Brewer's offer. They are much deeper in the "top 10 organizational prospect" tier and could easily outbid a non-Hiura/Burnes/Peralta package. I have no faith in Ortiz (being & remaining healthy) at this point. If the O's prefer him to Diplan, agree and quickly load Ortiz into a bubble wrap suit heading to Baltimore. Considering how the Orioles handle physicals, Ortiz is 50-50 to pass it.

Very uphill battle on fan for for Jesus. Muncy & Trea will get much love & vote support.

Update time. Thru the end of games on 7/7/18. Rank …… Franchise …… …….W …… ..L …… …..Pct 1 …… Houston Astros …...… 203 …… 143 …… 0.5867 2 …… Tampa Bay Rays …… 196 …… 146 …… 0.5731 3 …… St. Louis Cardinals …… 186 …… 154 …… 0.5471 4 …… Toronto Blue Jays …… 182 …… 155 …… 0.5401 5 …… Pittsburgh Pirates …… 178 …… 154 …… 0.5361 6 …… Philadelphia Phillies …… 183 …… 159 …… 0.5351 7 ….. San Diego Padres …… 185 …… 163 …… 0.5316 8 ….. New York Yankees …… 181 …… 160 …… 0.5308 9 …… Chicago White Sox …… 180 …… 161 …… 0.5279 10 …… Detroit Tigers …...… 181 …… 163 …… 0.5262 26 ….. New York Mets …...… 158 …… 182 …… 0.4647 27 ….. Washington Nationals …… 155 …… 187 …… 0.4532 28 ….. Atlanta Braves …...… 154 …… 186 …… 0.4529 29 ….. Texas Rangers …...… 156 …… 189 …… 0.4522 30 ….. Boston Red Sox …...… 149 …… 193 …… 0.4357 Others in NL Central 11 ….. Milwaukee Brewers …… 178 …… 165 …… 0.5190 19 ….. Cincinnati Reds …...… 161 …… 173 …… 0.4820 25 ….. Chicago Cubs …...… 161 …… 185 …… 0.4653 Other notes: Top 12 places have records of .500 or better #5 Pittsburgh has fewest games played (332) #7 San Diego has the most games played (348)

I don’t believe so, I think once you make your MLB debut you are no longer under consideration. Could be wrong, but I do watch the event every year and can’t remember a case where a player had appeared in an MLB game. There is some speculation that Kyle Tucker wasn’t placed in the Futures Game this year because he is about to make his MLB debut with the Astros (again, speculation). Don't believe MLB debut make a difference. Franscico Mejia has made/ is playing in the game again (I believe for the 3rd year in a row). He was in the majors during Sept 2017..

someone was able to post the twitter post in the game thread. Sure seems legit....

At least the Brewers have the advantage of hosting the Tigers on the final weekend of the season...

Another Tribe fan posted this message on a different Tribe board. While his message directed to other fans, I think it also hold some relevance for Brewer fans. Basically it goes back to the adage of "people that do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it". Just something to make everyone take a moment and think... From Cats44 Saturday (July 7) will mark the ten year anniversary of the Sabathia trade. Milwaukee made it because they were going for a WS title. We were looking for future production. Boiled down to its essence, Milwaukee got half a season of CC, and we got ten years of Michael (Brantley). Out of it, the Brewers got exactly one playoff victory. I don't want to be on the Brewers side of that kind of trade. World Series or bust is an insane way to run a small market franchise. Baseball will go on in Cleveland beyond 2018. Blocked prospects, or not, they are the life blood of this franchises future. Falling on our sword for one shot is not the way to do business.

If that was all it took, do it! Immediately!

Yet you don't want to trade Hiura. So who are you going to get out there that has a higher upside than Fulmer without trading Hiura? J.A. Happ But there are other contenders in on Happ with deeper farm systems. To counter act some of that quantity & quality, the Crew would need to include its higher quality..

Update time. For the games completed thru 6/30/18 Rank …… Franchise …… …….W …… ..L …… …..Pct 1 …… Houston Astros …...… 186 …… 132 …… 0.5849 2 …… Tampa Bay Rays …… 177 …… 136 …… 0.5655 3 …… St. Louis Cardinals …… 173 …… 139 …… 0.5545 4 …… Toronto Blue Jays …… 170 …… 140 …… 0.5484 5 …… Pittsburgh Pirates …… 165 …… 139 …… 0.5428 6 …… Chicago White Sox …… 167 …… 148 …… 0.5302 7 ….. Philadelphia Phillies …… 167 …… 148 …… 0.5302 8 ….. Detroit Tigers …...… 167 …… 150 …… 0.5268 9 …… New York Yankees …… 165 …… 149 …… 0.5255 10 …… San Diego Padres …… 165 …… 155 …… 0.5156 26 ….. Chicago Cubs …… 146 …… 171 …… 0.4606 27 ….. Washington Nationals …… 143 …… 171 …… 0.4554 28 ….. Atlanta Braves …… 141 …… 171 …… 0.4519 29 ….. Texas Rangers …… 140 …… 177 …… 0.4416 30 ….. Boston Red Sox …… 134 …… 181 …… 0.4254 Others in NL Central 11 ….. Milwaukee Brewers …… 163 …… 154 …… 0.5142 24 ….. Cincinnati Reds …...… 144 …… 161 …… 0.4721 Other notes: Top 14 places have records of .500 or better #5 Pittsburgh has fewest games played (304) #10 San Diego & #13 Seattle tied with the most games played (320)

Joe- you have your way of figuring things & often I enjoy you sharing your methodology. I was just sharing the info & the source for it. You might think its a high calculation, but they have a methodology to figure out/ calculate some estimates moving out year after year. With the Tigers having 12 guys in arbitration & 5 of those in the final year of arbitration, coming up to $53.9 MM is completely understandable IMHO. They are also figuring 11 pre-arb guys getting $8.32 MM. 2 existing contract guys + 12 guys in arbitration means 11 pre-arb guys to fill out the 25 man roster. Can they be incorrect? Absolutely. Can they be correct? Absolutely. Its a reference point that people can use.

Every time I see a post/ comment like this, my mind flashes back to the scene in "America's Sweethearts" when Hank Azaria is standing on the ground, looking up and saying "Jump sissyboy, jump!"

I wish more sites shared this idea... Great way to hamstring trolls.

I get those are Merrifield's 2018 numbers but here are his career numbers vs LHP - .332/ .377/ .528/ .905 vs RHP - .270/ .318/ .394/ .712 The splits are not as bad as it looks this season..

Those high payroll figures were due to Mike Ilitch wanting a baseball title before he died. Since his passing the Tigers have been reigning in the payroll instead of continuing to operate at a loss. https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/DET/detroit-tigers-salaries-and-contracts.shtml According to the contracts link above, the Tigers have $69MM already committed before and arbitration or pre-arbitration deals. $55MM is tied up between Miggy & Jordan Zimmermann. The other $14MM is money sent to other teams for Verlander & Prince Fielder. They are estimated to be around $131.2MM after the arbitration & pre-arb deals get done. If the Tigers can get their asking price for Fullmer I am sure they would deal him. But if not, they should hold onto him. That said, I doubt the Tigers make a Free Agent push this off-season. I'm not saying the Tigers are looking to tank in 2019 but they do need some more time to gather resources & talent. Fullmer is under control thru 2022 barring a contract giving a club more control time. The Tigers are not in a spot where they need to panic or push the accelerate button for contending.

Oh boy, It Free Willy the Penguin.... Save the women and children first!!!

Question: why do you think Toronto is not a data driven organization like the Brewers?? Consider when Toronto brought in Shapiro & Ross Adkins after the 2015 season, those guys came from Cleveland where they laid the groundwork for data driven approach with an organization. If Toronto wasn't data driven in 2015, they are now since those 2 guys are there & in positions of authority...

Especially to a team inside their division....

FYI - St. Louis returns home to face the Indians in a 3 game set. Cleveland's scheduled starting pitchers are: Gm1 - Clevinger Gm2 - Kluber Gm3 - Bieber

so he might not be fully healthy as he used sit in the mid-90s with his fastball...

I will disagree with you over the issue of innings so far. Whatever his future role, the lack of innings is a concern because it has been due to injuries. It is has interrupted/ taken away from key development time so he could either be a mid-rotation starter or in the pen. Now were the injuries a result of his conditioning? Maybe. I will not suggest its was 100% the cause of the various aliments Ortiz has suffered, but I will say I suspect his conditioning played a role in it. And that plays into another concern I have. Here is a player getting top prospect billing and lofty rankings and he could not find the internal motivation to make sure he did all he could to stay healthy and advance to bigger and better things (i.e. call up to the bigs). There are few things the players themselves can control but 2 items they can control are effort and willingness to learn/ change. When a developing player has issues with either of those, I look for ways to get that player away from the group of players that are putting in full effort and willing to learn change. As they say, one bad apple can ruin the bunch. Same idea holds with clubhouses and teams. Now Ortiz no longer has that top prospect ranking as none of BA/ BP/ MLB Pipeline had him among the top 100 prospects at the start of the year (so his value has dropped since coming from Texas). At this point he is healthy and I think it perfect reasonable to question how long that will last since he already missed a month this season (4/23 thru 5/23/18). I believe he holds more value as a trade asset then for future use by the Crew. Better to capitalize on his value now before it drops even more.

Machado (even as a rental) will cost a ton. As for your untouchables, I can understand the first 3 names but I need you to explain why Luis Ortiz. Ortiz has yet to pitch 100 innings in ANY season so far and if I read his record correctly Ortiz will need to be added to the 40 man this off-season or be exposed to the Rule 5 draft in Dec 2018. If he remains healthy, now maybe the time to move him while you can get some value in return.