brewers888

I really hope that this team and most notably the owner has learned his lesson in regards to signing free agent pitchers to long term deals. Signing Arrieta, Lynn, or Cobb would be incredibly stupid. We have plenty of good young pitching in Milwaukee or close to the majors. Between Hader, Woodruff, Burnes, Freddy Peralta, Ortiz and others we can pretty much have a young cheap rotation set by 2019. Keep letting Stearns do his job and stay away from free agency for starting pitchers. Keep building like we have and when the time is right go and make a move for a last piece like the Astros did with Verlander. Arrieta is fading away and its exactly why the scrubs have no interest in bringing him back. Stearns has done a great job getting us to this point so let him keep building this organization towards championship contention.

Arcia is probably the one guy in the organization that we cannot afford to trade and Dubon is certainly not capable of replacing him. Orlando Arcia is already a gold glove caliber defender and the bat is already pretty decent. I wouldn't trade Arcia straight up for Archer. I don't understand the desperation to trade for a pitcher. We have some great young arms in the minors like Burnes, Ortiz, and Peralta to go along with Hader and Woodruff. For the first time maybe ever the Brewers have the potential to put together a mostly home grown staff full of guys with big upside. Brinson can be moved in the right deal but Arcia should be kept and hopefully extended beyond the next 5 years.

I agree with the thought that we would be really dumb to empty our system at this point in time. The goal should be to win a championship and not just slip into the playoffs. Absolute best case scenario for this team is squeaking into the playoffs where we would most likely have to beat both LA and Washington to make it to the world series. Does anyone really think that we are good enough to beat one much less both of these teams. Good thing we faded before making a stupid trade giving away the prospects we have spent the last few years building up. Stearns wants to build a sustainable winner and he knows that trading Brinson and a few other good prospects for Sonny Gray or someone of that ilk is the fastest way back to irrelevancy.

Gray is the top pitcher on the market and he is not a rental. If the Brewers want him it will require a package greater than what the Brewers received for Lucroy last year. Something like: 1. Brinson 2. Phillips 3. Ortiz 4. Diplan or Peralta 5. Dubon or Erceg Of course the Brewers could trade Gray in the offseason and recoup 2 or 3 pieces. That is, if Gray pitches well and remains healthy. That is a package worthy of a bonafide stud like Sale and not an injury prone number three like Gray. I am quite thankful that Stearns is way too smart to make a deal like this.

I wouldn't get my hopes up in regards to the Brewers picking a high school pitcher high in the draft. Stearns with his statistical ways seems to prefer college guys at the top of the draft. It also has to be a concern that Montgomery is no longer the scouting director and was replaced in this job by a guy with a computer background instead of an extensive scouting background like Ray Montgomery has. I know that Montgomery was given a promotion but is he involved in the draft at all or is that all in the past. I think he is our best executive and really hope he still has a big say in who we draft. It is still my belief that we should have gone with Groome in the last draft and really want to see some high upside high school pitchers selected in this draft but I just don't see it happening. Hopefully Stearns doesn't insist on another college outfielder with less upside like we just selected in the last draft.

I haven't seen anyone advocate for the Brewers to give the Dodgers any money. The Dodgers simply are not going to add a player like Braun to their existing payroll, because they are already tens of millions of dollars over the luxury tax threshold. If they took on Braun, at 20 million for next year, they'd be taxed an additional ten million ..... suddenly, Braun would cost them 30 million dollars next season. The Dodgers are not going to do that. My point is, not to give LA a single penny, but to exchange Braun for a combination of good prospects and bad contracts - forget mediocre prospects - that defeats the purpose. Ryan Braun is guaranteed 80 million dollars from this point forward - that number goes to 95 million if his option is picked up, rather than bought out at the end of the deal. That 80 million dollars, since it is guaranteed, is now spent - regardless. The Dodgers are sitting there with Cody Bellinger and Jose De Leon at the top of their farm system - two players who are currently rated right on par with guys like Corey Ray and Josh Hader. In other words, the Brewers' farm system has one player in it who is currently considered a clear upgrade over either of them, in Lewis Brinson. For this deal to be worth it, I think the Brewers have to get one of those two prospects at the front of the deal, and I think the second kid should be on, or near, any "Top 100" list you can find. If the Brewers can do that, if they can get De Leon, and one more good young player, while actually shedding about half of what Braun is owed, I absolutely think they should do it. Taking on a useless player like Kazmir or McCarthy and their awful contracts is the same as giving the Dodgers money. As for the prospect return for Braun I just don't see De Leon who projects as a 3rd starter best case scenario as a good enough return. I want Bellinger and Alvarez if we are going to trade them Braun and take on a bloated contract to help the Dodgers pay less of a luxury tax. I understand that many fans have soured on Braun and are willing to take back bad contracts to facilitate a trade but I just don't see why we should trade a player like Braun who is still elite offensively for what I would consider less than top prospects. If the best we can do is De Leon and a lesser prospect or two plus helping the Dodgers financially by taking McCarthy or Kazmir I would just stand pat and enjoy Braun in a Brewers uniform. I was all for the rebuild and think we are headed in the right direction but I also enjoy watching a talent like Braun play for the Brewers and don't want to accept anything less than a great return if we are going to trade him.

The idea that the Brewers should essentially pay the Dodgers who have the highest payroll in baseball in order to take Braun who is one of the 3 best hitters in the history of the franchise and who is coming off a very good year is completely preposterous to me. If the Dodgers want Braun they better be giving the Brewers elite and not second tier prospects. I have a big problem with a small market franchise like the Brewers giving money to the Dodgers all to take our best player who is a franchise icon. The Dodgers can either give us their top prospects, guys who will fit into our top 5 prospects lists or the Brewers should just keep Braun and let him retire as a Brewer. The Brewers have their deepest farm system in at least 20 years so we aren't desperate to add mediocre talent but we don't have any marquee major league players like Braun. I realize my opinion is different than most but I want to see Ryan Braun retire a Brewer.

I think you can pretty much eliminate the high school players with the new scouting director running things. From what I can tell Stearns believes in using advanced stats exclusively when determining who to pick and as such gave the scouting director job to a computer guy who isn't known for his scouting acumen. Montgomery was a big time scout who picked a lot of high school guys when he was in Arizona. Stearns has a moneyball philosophy and its why we picked almost exclusively college guys in the first few rounds of last years draft and I expect that trend to continue with the new scouting director. I know that Montgomery got promoted but I really think we needed his scouting acumen more as our scouting director. I could be wrong but I believe that under Stearns we will pick almost all college players in the first ten rounds; figure the ratio to be 70/30 or even 80/20 for college talent with the majority of the players to be extremely polished with lower ceilings as well as lower floors.

I have very strong feelings on this whole Braun situation so here goes. I just don't get why the majority of fans are not only willing but actually excited at the thought of trading Ryan Braun who is one of the three best hitters in team history in what would pretty much amount to a salary dump. It makes no sense to me to trade a franchise icon for the likes of a malcontent in Puig, a salary dump who is worthless in McCarthy and what will probably be one or two mediocre at best prospects. If some team offers the Brewers elite young talent in return I can understand a Braun trade although I am still against it. With this team having pretty much no players other than Braun and Garza making big money I just don't see why this type of trade would make any sense. The thought of taking on a contract like McCarthy from the Dodgers of all teams to make it more palatable for them to fit Braun into their unlimited budget upsets me and should really bother more fans. It really comes down to this for me; in order to trade Braun the Brewers need to get elite and I stress elite prospects in return or there should be no deal. We already have tons of depth so acquiring some teams 5-15 rated prospects just doesn't do enough for this franchise. If we aren't going to get top young talent we should just let Braun retire in a Brewers uniform like Robin Yount did before him.