HighHeat19

It's extensive is ALL I know. Who's the centerpiece or players? Don't know. Team? American League is all I know. Actual team? No clue.

If you follow the baseball offseason. You will see that Sunday night trades are usually high end trades. Everyone is in and working and no one likes to be working Sunday nights. There's alot of people that are on the clock gathering information, medical records, scouts are called, etc. You don't rattle your FO on Sunday nights to trade the Kyle Wren's of the world.

No, more like tomorrow.

Elaboration gets people in trouble. Just sit tight.

Are you guessing or care to share your thoughts? If I said "My source" would that be guessing?

My source.

This is going to be a big trade.

https://www.fishstripes.com/2018/1/17/16900696/do-you-want-christian-yelich-trade-rumors-miami-marlins Marlins fans don't want him. I wouldn't blink twice about sending Brinson straight up for Yelich. Make this trade easy for the Marlins. You know they don't really want Starlin Castro either and he would take care of 2nd base too. I would like to see a trade of Brewers getting Yelich, Realmuto, Castro and Barraclough. Marlins get Brinson, Santana, Ortiz and Grisham. This trade is definitely fair enough for Miami.

Excellent write up BrewCrew80 and I agree 100%. I think and hope this is the year that MLB teams says no to Scott Boras. I hope Boras and his clients get a reality check here. Some writers are saying there's collusion amongst teams. No, instead GM's are seeing that these high priced Boras clients are not worth their $.

There's seems to be a new strategy put in place by some teams in regards to pitching and especially the Astro's and now David Stearns who is a cut from the Astro's cloth. And my opinion is that this strategy is to roll with your cost effective pitching staff and then get by with your in season cheap FA's as well as minor league spot starts. If your team looks to be a contender you make a move mid-season that will revolve around a seasoned starter that only has a few years remaining or can be had for lesser assets because they are usually pitchers who signed albatross contracts that the holding (out of contention) team wants to rid themselves of. See Justin Verlander. I would rather see the Brewers go this route as well and if they are in contention. I could easily see a trade for a Zack Greinke or Johnny Cueto, etc. if their pitching slightly above average. And since these guys are not all world prospects their price in prospects can be relevant to the amount of salary to be eaten by their former team. (Some may argue Sonny Gray here, but Sonny's contract and age were not much of a negative. The A's FO would of prolly been fine if they weren't able to trade him) BTW, Verlander was sent for Houston's #3, #9 & #11 prospects who were rated lower than the Brewers at that time. At this time, this slots to be Ortiz, Dubon, and Peralta. Verlander was 10-8 with an ERA of 3.82 and 176 K's to 176 innings pitched. Detroit also ate $10 mil of his $28 mil salary for at least 2017. Verlander than gave the Astros 5 straight wins, an ERA of 1.06 and 40 K's in 34 innings pitched. As well as a World Series title. Greinke's numbers at the all star break were pretty close to Verlander's at the all star break last year. Due to Greinkes higher salary and longer years. It may even cost less than what the Astros gave up to acquire Verlander. Also, the Brewers #3, 9, and 11 rated prospects were rated higher than the Astro's. This also has to assume that the Diamondbacks are out of it. Now it doesn't have to be Greinke, but any veteran who falls into that Verlander stat/salary profile. Plus you are getting a pitcher who you know where they are physiologically since a July trade will put them within a week of their last start. Right now, who really knows where Arrieta's arm is at.

I get what you're saying here, but that's not how things work in many cases. First, Archer's salary is tied to a salary structure that by its nature will deflate his pay. Arrieta is a free agent - and is more guided by true market forces than a pre-determined payroll structure. And it should be noted that Archer costs a lot to acquire - not necessarily in money - but it other assets. Arrieta's acquisition cost is money (and a forfeited draft pick). Second, premium performance often commands premium pricing. You only have 25 guys on a roster. A club wants to have the best possible team. A team of 25 average players gets you average results. So players who are better than average often command much more money due to their scarcity. A 4 WAR player is much, much rarer than a 2 WAR player. There might be an available pool of ten 2.0 WAR players - but only two 4.0 players. The 4.0 WAR guys don't just get twice the 2.0 guys - they can command 3 or 4 or 5 times that value due to their scarcity. Those guys move the needle for a team from average to above average - and thus cost more. Now, is Arrieta a 'premium' pitcher? That's a good question. There's support for both sides. I'm honestly not sure. But the Brewers appear to be looking at adding a premium level pitcher - and those higher level guys simply cost a lot more on the open market. My argument is that Arrieta is NOT a premium pitcher. I'm not against the Brewers getting him, but not for the price.

If I'm paying a pitcher 25 mil I want 25 mil worth of production. Hell, Arrieta didn't even offer up 25 mil worth of production last year. While track record maybe a history of success, there's no way you pay a guy for what he's done, but instead what he's going to do. (On top of his age he also has a WS ring and will have guaranteed $, so what will his drive be?) And if Chris Archer gives you 10 wins a year at his 4.2 mill salary, that should imply Arrieta should give you 50+ wins a year for his 25 mil a year. I am no stat junky, but anyone who is into business, finance or owning a daycare can see that signing Arrieta to that kind of money doesn't make sense.

They send us Castro and Braxton Garrett for Kodi Medieros and we eat ALL the salary.

From a fan called Donaldrump from the Rays forum: "The Brewers reported interest in Lorenzo Cain (being noted everywhere), strikes most as odd; if there's anything the Brewers have, it's good hitting/fielding OFs, all of whom are CF capable. Lewis Brinson is a top 20 (throughout all of MLB) prospect; Monte Harrison is in the top 50; Brett Phillips in the top 100. All hit from the right side, except Phillips, and are sound defensively. And the Brew Crew already have Domingo Santana, who excelled in his first year. And an intriguing 207 first draft pick in Lutz ; again, RH power. The Rays are completely barren for RH power (not to mention defensive OFs who rate as plus defenders) in their organization. Milwaukee lusts for Archer, and paying a Cain/Archer combo would actually be cheaper than signing Cobb or Lynn. They improve in two spots, and don't have to gamble on the Lynn/Cobb health issues. Makes a lot of sense...might even to get the Brewers to eat Span (or a portion thereof). Stay tuned...this really smells as something that's happening." Jan-4 12:59 PM by donaldrump

Bingo!

The only way I see Cain as option is that the Brewers would have a trade or multiple trades already in place with their current OF's. Such as Brinson part of a package for a TOR, Broxton to the Giants, Santana to the Red Sox etc. I do not see Santana being a part of this organization forthcoming. He was traded from Stearn's then Astros for a reason and he seems to be not wanted by Stearn's Brewers either. Stearn's values versatility and defense. Not quite Santana's strong points. Although it happens to be Cain's strong points. Hence, the reason the Brewer's interest. I also believe the Brewer's interest in Cain is real.

Whoever man's center will be the leadoff hitter.

I would take Mejia OR McKenzie with a low level prospect for Domingo Santana. OF's are a dime a dozen. OF's that can't run or play defense are a nickel a dozen.

If anyone thinks Stearns is trading for a big time #1 pitcher your off your rocker. Stearns is all about value. Hader is going nowhere. I can easily see Hader turn into DeGrom 2.0. Just sit back and watch the el cheapo pitching staff do it's thing.

From MLB trade rumors- "Mlbtr's Steve Adams listed both the White Sox and Diamondbacks as “out of the picture” candidates, so their chances of working out a deal could be even more remote given Angelos’ wariness of any “creative” follow-up trades a Machado suitor could make." "The Cardinals didn’t make “a formal offer” due to that lack of negotiating period, and the White Sox (previously thought to have made the strongest of all the offers) apparently didn’t include any of their top prospects in their proposal, Nightengale reports. Two executives said that Chicago made its offer with the belief that the Sox would only have Machado for the 2018 season." Looks like it wouldn't take much to get Machado as teams are pulling back and rightfully so if you can only possibly have a guy for a year. Baltimore wants pitching and has a huge hole in RF. I see no reason why Domingo Santana, Luis Ortiz and a Bickford wouldn't be more than adequate. Let Machado play SS for the rest of his career. That's what he wants, and then sign him to a 7 year deal. If Stearns is a disciple of the Astro's way then it wouldn't surprise me that he want's his own version of Correa.

Santana for Machado. With Machado on board it may even make it easier to sign Darvish.

Wow, Stearns puts together a team last year of no names/retreads and the Brewers play out of their mind. Now everyone wants to go back to the Doug Melvin stage and overpay for pitching and 1 year wonders. Stearns has done nothing but make great moves from a strategic standpoint. He also said that when he got here he was going to build a franchise to win on a consistent basis and that the talent will be from within the organization's farm system. So I don't know what all the fuss is. He is doing exactly what he said he was going to do. He also shows positive patience and does not make impulsive purchases. And quite frankly, winter meetings have always been a time to get the ball rolling, with the main transactions taking place shortly thereafter. Seems to me that the Brewers have been checking the prices on everyone and seeing what their dollar can buy them. Stearns so far has shown that he is not wasteful with money and takes due diligence in what has value and what does not. I believe this also has a lot to do with the application of sabermetrics/analytics that the Brewers and incorporate into their decision making processes. Unlike Melvin, who just threw outrageous amounts of $ at crap pitching just because that was a perceived need. Just let Stearns do what Stearns does, o ye of little faith. There's a reason why we're here on brewerfan.net and Stearns isn't.

I know it hasn't been talked about much but I think Stearns needs to focus on increasing the pitching depth and talent on the farm. We really need to grow our own pitchers, especially as a small market team. I would love to see a Eric Thames for Jay Groome trade become a reality. We just don't have that needed stud yet.

My gut feeling is that somebody wants Thames. And Stearns is looking at his options as a fallback if he does indeed have something cooking with Thames. Red Sox - Jay Groome?

There is no doubt that the Rays are in big time rebuild especially with Stanton now in their division. Archer will be made available. The Brewers really need to act on it, even if it's to block the Cubs. Brinson, Ray, Ortiz, Diaz and Bickford would be my final offer. We would still have a mix of Lutz, Grisham(Clark) and Monte Harrison ready to take over for Braun in a few years. If they would also want Broxton, Hernan Perez or Villar added to the list, then so be it. When you have a player that can toss 249 K's in 201 innings pitched in the American League East you have somebody very special. Now you add that team friendly contract for 4 more years. You gotta push the envelope on a guy like this.