Greenleaf1

Quick thought: Is this the first Stearns-era trade that sends away more players than it takes in? We get younger, cheaper, more flexible, and I'd rather wish on Bandy for a year or so than know exactly what I'm getting in Maldonado. There's Twitter talk that this means we'll probably sign a free agent veteran catcher too, but does anyone else besides me hope that they give Pina a chance at extended playing time? I say let the two best out of the 3 start the year in Milwaukee. Maybe pick up another veteran on a minor league deal for some insurance, but I would hate it if we just let Pina go without giving him a true chance.

Two players got taken from the Red Sox in the Rule 5 draft. Also, if the PTBNL was tied to the Rule 5 draft, I would've expected to hear who it was by now. That's how it happened with Manny Pina. That said, the comment on the $100 does sound like it will definitely be an actual player we'll be getting and not cash.

One other important point I'd like to make that people haven't addressed that much here: The faster we trade closers in this seller's market, the faster we can develop a new guy in that role in order to trade for more prospects. If we waited to trade K-Rod, we wouldn't have gotten as much for Jeffress, and same thing for Jeffress/Thornburg. Smith benefited from having more responsibility after trading K-Rod too. They may not work out, but guys like Knebel/Torres/Barnes are going to have the chance to see their stock majorly rise with setup/closer experience this year, potentially creating more trade chips for us at the deadline or next offseason, or just allow our young controllable guys to get valuable experience for the future. The value lost by keeping the same good (or even great) closer and not trading them now is something not really considered in this trade as much as it should be.

Is it possible this rebuild got started off with the best deal we're likely to see and we're spoiled by it? I remember seeing the absolute haul we got back for Carlos Gomez and Mike Fiers. Gomez seemed to already be majorly regressing, which he obviously continued to do even worse in Houston, and while Fiers has been a good contributor, he's still very replaceable. The fact that for those two guys we got two potential star outfielders, a guy with ace potential who is now our top pitching prospect, plus another throw-in was just such an amazing deal that I wonder if we'll just always be disappointed with every other trade after that during this rebuild. I honestly would say that the only deals I've been kinda shaky on during this rebuild were the K-Rod trade and the Adam Lind trade, and both of those have already delivered more promise than I was ever expecting (I'm a big Manny Pina fan and Freddy Peralta has developed into a prospect worth watching). Some trades work out, some don't, and even if Thornburg has a stellar 2017 with Boston, that doesn't mean this was a bad trade, you just can't judge things like that so soon. To me, this trade is a sign that Stearns and co. are doing their homework on prospects rather than just looking at the top of teams' prospect lists and saying "give me #2 and #8". Dubon and Pennington are both underrated prospects in my opinion, and the fact that we got both of them plus a guy with some potential who can fill a positional need for years to come is a pretty good haul. I honestly don't think you'll find many people around who were bigger fans of Thornburg than I've been since 2013. Looking past the numbers, when healthy, Thornburg has always appeared to me to be a dominant reliever capable of being a lights-out closer, and this year was just his first real chance to stay healthy and get the opportunity to prove that. I think if he can stay healthy he's going to have a long, dominant career as a closer, but the risk of holding on to him too long during non-competitive years and not getting anything in return is too great in my opinion not to take a good deal like this.

Based on our community top 25 from earlier in the offseason, I'd put Dubon at #12 or #13 (hard to say with Lopez now that he's doing so well) and Pennington at around #23-ish. My guess is it'll be similar rankings when MLB.com updates their list.

Do we think PTBNL is based on Thornburg's performance next year? I forget how long they have now to finish off a trade like this. Could it be based on Thornburg's arbitration deal? Either way, wouldn't expect anyone like Ryan Cordell anyways. I feel like most times they say PTBNL or cash, it ends up being cash.

If you're the kind of person that wants the Brewers to "win" all their trades, then this trade might not be for you. Shaw/Dubon were both expendable for the Sox, and Pennington is essentially a lottery ticket that they got essentially for free ($90K signing bonus and 29th round pick, I think), so the Red Sox are dealing from depth to get one of the best setup guys in all of baseball behind Kimbrel. I like this trade for us though, and I think this combination of guys was too hard for Stearns to turn down and risk sending Thornburg out there for a 2nd season on a losing team and expecting him to continue to be THAT dominant in order to net a bigger haul at the trade deadline. Dubon excites me the most and I'd consider him the centerpiece of this trade. The fact that he can play 2B/SS/CF makes him all the more attractive, even if all 3 of those positions are currently occupied by long-term controllable players. Our upper-minors infield depth is somewhat lacking, so he's great depth to have and could either help us as a utility guy and see where it goes from there or allow us to trade him or Villar when we need another big piece. Huge breakout year too, and his SLG at AA and in the AFL are much higher than his career-numbers, which we can only hope means he's discovered an as yet unseen power tool. Pennington is a lottery ticket but a pretty damn good one. Seems like Taylor Williams would be a good comp, except younger and doesn't need to eat a spot on our 40-man. Control seems to be a huge issue, but if he converts to reliever maybe that 94-98 mph fastball becomes more like 99-100? Don't need as much control when you're throwing that hard. I like Shaw for his controllability and his lefty power should play well at Miller Park (just ask Kirk Nieuwenhuis and Scooter Gennett how nice it is to have that short porch in right field), but not expecting the world out of him. Solid defense is a huge plus though, and seems like it wouldn't be asking too much to expect a 20 homer season from him. Platoon him at 3B with Perez (which means we better hope Thames can hold his own against lefties). I like this trade a lot. I don't love it, but I'm happy with the return.

I think, given the fact that we are not looking to compete in 2017, that Scooter could still platoon and play most days against righties at 2B, with Villar playing at 2B against lefties and 3B against righties (Perez playing at 3B against lefties). This, of course, assumes that all 3 of those players are still on the team on opening day and we don't sign or trade for anyone else.

Obviously they didn't care much about Walker. They wanted to claim him and see if they could then pass him through waivers, which they couldn't. Same thing with Geltz, they wanted to claim him and pass him through waivers, and this time it worked. We need some flexibility right now on the 40-man for a couple reasons: 1. We probably want some room for the Rule 5 draft. 2. Any trades we make in the offseason may involve having to add other players to the 40-man roster. 3. We still could potentially sign FA's that need to be put on the 40-man. I'm aware we can make corresponding moves for 2/3 when the trades/signings happen, so more likely than not this was a move to free up a spot for a Rule 5 draftee. I wouldn't be surprised if they did the same thing to the other reliever we claimed too.

Lots of guys in the organization could fill this hole cheaply. My guess is Cooper, Pinto, Perez, Maldonado/Pina/Susac (if they're all still with the team), and others get time there during spring training. Maybe pick up a few other guys to minor league deals and let them fight it out for who can plug the hole for a non-competing year. I like the idea of giving Santana some reps there too, but not sure I'm ready to say I want him starting there in 2017. He was finally starting to figure it out for real at the end of this year, I'd like him to focus on the plate in 2017 and get comfortable there without having to learn a completely new position.

So far all he's done is do the bad thing, I don't see how we can cut him a break until he actually demonstrates that he's learned from the mistake. Also stupid on a whole 'nother level because he's getting into drunken fights with a broken wrist. Reminds me of when Lucroy punched a wall dropped a suitcase on his hand, or when Scooter punched a wall cut himself in the shower.

What is it with people wanting to let Blazek go? There's no way he'd clear waivers, he's been dominant when healthy.

Brewers re-signed Stephen Kohlscheen to a minor league deal with an invitation to Spring Training. Glad we're holding onto him after his pretty great year at AA last year. Yes, he was 27 at AA, but I still would like to see him get a shot at AAA this year and provide some bullpen depth.

Just turned on the stream quickly to see Diaz's first AB. Ripped one into the gap in right center for a double. Bat speed looked incredible.

Does Erceg have the upside of someone like Tulowitzki? Is it way too early to make that comparison? I love his defense, I love his hitting and power, and after reading that long article about his past and putting that behind him and working VERY hard to get to where he's at now, I love the makeup of this kid. I hope he absolutely kills it in Carolina next year.

I think there are scenarios where it makes sense to sign a big expensive pitcher in free agency and scenarios where it makes sense to trade for one or just go with our own young guys, but it really depends on a lot of factors. How are our young guys performing? What other deals have we made to lead up to that point? Who's available on the market and for what price? Who's available to trade and what pieces do we have that could be expendable? I think we'll have a much better handle on this after next season.

I wasn't saying they should get a TOR starter this offseason, more like after 2017 or 2018, whenever we think we're ready to compete and there are enough starters on the market that we'd be able to afford one without competing with everyone else to sign them (like we would be this offseason).

One of the most impressive parts of the rebuild so far was how easily they were able to shed payroll without sacrificing their bargaining position in trades. We had a nice combination of players that were too expensive for us to keep long term but still performed well enough to net solid returns in trades. Most teams when shedding payroll have to have that as their #1 concern, whereas with us it happened almost by accident. The good news is that this puts us in a great position to spend in the future on extensions of current players and really explore the free agent market over the next few years in ways we haven't been able to do before. If we could trade Braun/Garza this offseason, we might actually save enough money to go after a TOR pitcher in free agency and actually afford it.

Orioles claimed Bradley off waivers from the Braves. Kind of settles the debate a little about whether or not he actually figured it out in Atlanta. If a rebuilding team doesn't even want to hold onto him....

1. Lewis Brinson 2. Josh Hader 3. Corey Ray 4. Luis Ortiz 5. Phil Bickford 6. Isan Diaz 7. Trent Clark 8. Brett Phillips 9. Brandon Woodruff 10. Lucas Erceg 11. Marcos Diplan 12. Gilbert Lara 13. Cody Ponce 14. Jacob Nottingham 15. Jorge Lopez 16. Kodi Medeiros 17. Ryan Cordell 18. Devin Williams 19. Monte Harrison 20. Corbin Burnes 21. Freddy Peralta 22. Miguel Diaz 23. Trey Supak 24. Nathan Kirby 25. Jacob Barnes

I think the Dodgers losing would probably be better for us in trade negotiations during the offseason (although who knows maybe it doesn't matter at all) so I'm not rooting for them. Mostly rooting for the Cubs and Rangers. Cubs deserve it with an amazing rebuild and Rangers have lots of ex-crew to root for.

Michael Kirkman, Sam Freeman, and Will Middlebrooks have all elected free agency.

Out of Guerra, Peralta, Anderson, Garza, Davies, Nelson, Jungmann, Suter, I would say the locks for that rotation next year barring any moves would be: 1. Guerra 2. Davies 3. Peralta 4. Anderson 5. Garza With Nelson starting the year at AAA, Suter in the bullpen, and Jungmann either in the bullpen or starting the year at AAA. We've also got Hader at AAA, Woodruff/Ortiz likely starting at AA and getting mid-season promotions to AAA, maybe ready to come up late in the year or in 2018, so we've got a lot of competition for the rotation and only more guys coming up the pipeline behind them. Nelson starting the year at AAA is not good for anyone, so I think we trade one of the 5 I listed above and let him get a chance to work out his stuff in the big leagues (then if he can't do that, send him down in May/June and give Hader or Jungmann a shot depending on how they're doing).

I'm sure the Cubs would disagree with you on this one.

I've thought in the past with Roenicke that he would wait too long to pull pitchers, so I don't have a problem with short starts when pitchers aren't on their A-game, especially when we had the best bullpen ERA in the NL after the All-Star Break. Work to your strengths, build confidence in your pitchers: a 5 inning good start will do more for Anderson than sending him back out in the 6th when he's struggling a little bit and have him give up a few runs before pulling him.