OnTheBlack

I agree...and would like to add that this makes the Yelich trade look just that much better. I think Brinson is gonna be a star, but I always thought it'd take him maybe 1000 PA's before he reached his upside. Well, instead you get a guy you don't have to hope is a star and you get him for 5 years? A steal by Stearns. And I like all three guys you've mentioned, but I think for the first time in a while we've got a legit lock in our system to be a star(or as close as you can get to one in Hiura). I can't see us getting any of those three without giving him up.

I actually think it does show signs of getting better. We have talented arms across every level and have had a rookie make some spectacular starts for us this year(the2nd best pitching prospect on that Colorado Springs team BTW). None of this is to mention the relievers that have come from our system that now to give us one of the best bullpen's in baseball.

Yes, a guy who'd start on many teams in Center Field, the pitcher who last year many were touting as a future TOR arm and Supak, yet another guy who has a good arm and may or may not be worth anything, but the exact type of player you need to try to fill your system with in the hopes that you can find enough of those good arms to develop enough home grown pitching to sustain success. That's my problem with the list of players we'd have in 2 years. Very few ever reach their ceiling. So give me all the Corbin Burnes(even going back to 2016), Supak, Woodruff, Brown, Peralta types because most of them won't pan out. So I'd rather pin my hopes on 12 guys with upside than 2 or 3(obviously). Now if you're talking about Degrom or Thor, that's different, but not Merrifield.

Minor league system rankings ultimately don’t mean anything. Not all that long ago we had the top ranked system. What it got us was one WC and one division title and NLCS appearance. And both only happened because trades prospects for established pitchers. I get that as a small market team we have to build from within. But we can’t overvalue our prospects to the point where we refuse to move any of them. We can’t be afraid to take risks. If we do what will happen is that many of these prospects we are putting so much faith in will flame out and get is nothing. No championship. No trade return. Nothing. We currently have a team that is not only competing but also has almost all of the key pieces under control for years. What we don’t have though is that shutdown pitcher who can consistently stop losing streaks and can shoulder the load in the playoffs. And then what happened after we made those deals for those players? As soon as those players left, the Brewers became a middling team with no real chance to win moving forward. And trading away young piitching and middle of the order bats who play up the middle is a huge risk as well.

In a couple years most of the guys who have yet to play in the Majors(Nick Ramirez) are going to be people who only get mentioned in threads in which people say, "but hey, I was high on______fill in the blank. So many of these guys are gonna flame out it's totally pointless to try and project your depth chart two years out using this many totally unproven young prospects. I remember when Zack Braddock, Wily Peralta, Angel Salome and others were the next wave of superstars...yet I don't remember people talking about Freddie Peralta and Corbin Burnes being guys who could or are going to contribute to a team that's on pace to win 95 games this yeaer in 2016. You just can't project this much. Go back and look at baseball america when they project a team's starting lineup years down the road. Most of the starters have flamed out. I don't want to trade this many of our elite young talents. Not to mention, we've been waiting and waiting for the Brewers to get a bunch of talented arms in the system and see which ones could develop into impactful big leaguers. And you're tossing most of those guys away.

Oooh this is interesting. I have zero expectation of Jimmy Nelson coming back as an impactful starter this year - coming off a shoulder injury, late season start to his year, certain limited pitch counts once he actually returns. But if you bring him back as Josh Hader 2.0, now you’ve got that kind of weapon twice as often in your bullpen. Would be much more impactful IMO than trying to get him a handful of starts come September with 80-pitch limits. This seems like the worst possible way to use him this year. Have him out there, make him go through a routine he's never gone through before as he tries to regain the strength in his shoulder, and then have him be a reliever who throws more often and may get up and warm up a few times as well and end up not being used. I'd rather they just end his season than play games like that with him.

I heard Nelson talking and they asked him that question....and he gave a bit of a convoluted answer. He said he was behind schedule given where he was during spring training, but because he was so far AHEAD of schedule there, that it was hard to say. This is also not a normal shoulder injury for a pitcher. But I absolutely agree with those who have said the Brewers are absolutely not bringing Nelson back this year unless he is 100 pct. I also want to reach through my screen and slap the guys who go on twitter and say, "who cares, he's a career 33-44 pitcher," or whatever it is exactly. Even casual fans now know how antiquated that is.

There is always good 2B options available. They got Walker for peanuts last year, and he was just fine. Villar has been fine this year, and he's only 27. I'm not saying that Hiura won't be tough to get, but if I can get a controllable TOR starter or someone like Realmuto, bye-bye Keston. There aren't always good 2nd base options available and we're not talking about good. We're talking about a middle of the order hitter who plays 2nd base. That's not just "fine" like Villar has been, that's the type of talent that changes the direction of an organization. I'm not trading him for Realmuto. I like Pina and think he'll hit more and love his defense too much to include him in that trade. Like I said though, if we could get Thor or Degrom(provided the prior proves healthy)....we'd have to think about it.

I agree 9 times out of 10.....and I share everyone's opinion of him. He looks like he could be a guy who hits .300, walks, hits some power. That's incredible at 2nd base. But if the Brewers could get Degrom and then sign him? I know he was looking at an extension a few years ago with the Mets and they passed, but he won't be a FA until he's 30. He came up at 26, so he's in an Arrietta type situation. If they could add two years at a relatively team friendly price? And to be fair, Brinson didn't really have an organizational logjam in front of him either. He had Broxton. They created one when they made the moves they did. They traded the type of player you're talking about for a guy who was already proven and under team control for 5 more years. Now Brinson was both a more boom or bust type guy as well as a guy that most people knew(or at least thought) would struggle early in his career and take some time to adjust to the big leagues and I don't think the same is true with Hiura....still, this team is awfully good and really close. One of the Mets aces and Jimmy Nelson coming back could really give this team a lot more horsepower to match up. Not saying I'd trade him....glad I don't have to make that decision...just playing devils advocate.

Here's the thing, though: Last offseason "freaked players out" because 4 or 5 of the big dogs tried to sit under the luxury tax threshold specifically because they were waiting it out until this coming offseason. Those teams will all be back in play and bidding against one another. And to add to that, the players that were freaked out were non-elite, late 20s/early 30s players. Machado is not that. Someone will think he's elite enough. And he's only going to be 26. Exactly. Last year guys like JD Martinez, Yu, Arrietta all got less than they expected. But the Machado and Harper's of the world are transcendent players who are always going to get paid. They're not going to have to wait it out and drop their price. My guess is that Machado gets 10 years close to 400 million with an opt out after years 3 and 4..... A strong argument could be made that he's the best player in MLB(Sans Trout because that's not even fair to compare anyone to him). And he'll be a FA at 26...and he's a GG'er at 3rd who has just moved back to the most valuable position on the field? Yeah, I think 40 a year over 10 would get him to sign now...short of that, he'll play the last season and let the bidding commence.

I think I'd rather go with Arcia, hope he works out of his funk and starts hitting more than go with Castro and his defense at SS. I wouldn't be against adding Castro to the deal, particularly if it means fewer prospects, but then I'd like to see him primarily at 2nd. But adding Castro wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. I like him as a player more than Perez for example. Not for the 18 or so million we'd be paying him over the next two years, but if that means we keep Burnes and trade a much lesser prospect, I'm all for it.

I think the difference right now is that Aguilar is perceived much differently than he was before the season. Many considered him totally expendable. Even the ones that preferred to keep him were resigned to the idea that it would be as a bench bat. Now only is he not considered expendable but many want to see him in the lineup every day. Given his and Thames relative lack of versatility, there may not be an easy answer. I'm not saying it won't work itself out too, just that I have no idea how at this point. Counsell has pushed all the right buttons....I have confidence that Aggie will continue to be the everyday 1st basemen with only the occasional day off vs the really tough lefties. I was high on Aguilar before the season(I can't say in retrospect how high, but I liked him). But watching him continue to be a productive big league hitter and more importantly the way he's doing it...taking pitches, going the other way, shortening up and still going deep with 2 strikes. I think we really got lucky picking him up. As for Thames, I'm just fine with spending more time on the bench and coming in to pinch hit. His contract is completely acceptable if he only starts twice a week and then gives us a left handed power bat off the bench.

I think it's a lot more plausible than many on here are suggesting. It's similar to what the Cubs did...focus more on position players and then try to acquire starting pitching by using some of those guys as chips. MLB's draft is extraordinarily unpredictable, but position players do provide a little bit more certainty than pitchers do. I was hoping for a young arm like Hawkings myself. It's impossible to know if there is a strategy in place along those lines unless Stearns says so, but I don't think it's unrealistic.

Then I think the team you should be rooting for resides on the South Side of Chicago, not in Milwaukee.

I'm really not seeing this. It's happened obviously, but I think it's worked the other way at least as often if not moreso and I can't really think of too many players we had and then traded thinking they weren't as valuable as they ended up being. I can however think of two significant trades we made where we got back several nice pieces, young, controllable talent for players who ended up going from all-star caliber players to replacement level players for the teams that acquired them(Luc and Gomez).

First of all, yes, we should start another thread. Second, if he was "just" asking the question, then don't qualify it by using what Ryan Braun, Jeffress or K-Rod did. Don't justify it by saying not all 15 year old's are as mature as others(or however it was worded) and don't advocate. Ask the question like you did. If there is some debate as to his innocence(and I know that Keith Law and one other GM doesn't believe there is for whatever that is worth). But what it would come down to for me is a invasive investigation by the team, I would demand a polygraph, psych reports and more, FAR more than you'd ever ask a normal player for and if he agreed and passed, I might take a chance on him and deal with the backlash. If there was any doubt however, or if you think he did it, no way. If you believe he did it, then he's almost certainly going to do it again as that's just the way his brain his wired.

People also love to jump to conclusions. We don’t know what happened. We know the accusation and that he pled guilty. Is what he did worse than Yo? Driving at 3-times the legal limit is pretty severe and I was appalled that MLB didn’t suspend him. KRod abusing his girlfriend and his father-in-law is pretty bad. We acquired him what, 3-times? I didn’t do stupid stuff as a teen, but as a teacher I see kids all the tine doing stupid stuff. My point is that he’s served his punishment in the eyes of the law. I’m not sure I want the brewers to have him, but I don’t feel baseball should blackball him. Edit- not to imply I see kids doing stupid stuff...obvious stories from around school are what I mean. I full agree with what you said. I've not taken a position on drafting him because....again, I do find it logical that he could have pled guilty thinking that in 5 years, this would be totally over with and nobody would ever know as opposed to a very public trial where he's treated as an adult. That said, the accusation was that he did this for two years. I've also worked in schools and the "kids do stupid stuff" argument isn't flying with me with regard to these accusations. I did stupid stuff. This is beyond stupid and it's sick stuff. Anyway, I had one student...a REALLY great kid, valedictorian, full scholarship to Brown...he was turned 18, about 3 weeks later his 17 year old girlfriend sent him a picture..she was just weeks from her own birthday. She showed 3 students, kids talked, the parents found out. Bam, he has to register as a sex offender, scholarship revoked and he had to plead guilty to distributing child porn because he sent it to one of his friends. So things can be very different when you dig into them. But for the sake of this discussion, lets not forget, the comment that created the backlash was not disputing or in any way questioning the accusations. It was taking them at face value and then still advocating for the young man to be drafted. So I get your post. You don't know what happened, the legal system can be tricky and make people plead guilty when actually innocent, but he actually talked about how he may not have known what he was doing(or something to that affect) and massaged the accusations in other ways. That was part of what I found troubling.

Doesn't seem like a productive discussion to start arguing about an arbitrary hierarchy of crimes, including adult millionaire K-Rod physical assaulting the mother of his child and getting away with it without even facing public backlash. It's interesting (and good) how quickly MLB has changed with players like Osuna and Sano getting suspend this year, because MLB certainly did not care whatsoever even just a couple years ago. Yeah, I never really knew the whole story there to be honest....just that there was some altercation. The problem is "domestic violence," in and of itself is vague. When you see Ray Rice in the video....you know what you saw is awful. But there can also be a family argument and some relatively mundane actions that take place like grabbing women by the arm and leaving finger print marks. That's a place where you can use a sliding scale. Did you punch/strike the women, chock her or did you obstruct her while arguing...etc...etc.... Professional sports has done a better job of penalizing violent assaults in recent years....but there's still the stigma out there that athletes get in trouble for these actions more than average people, which is not the case. Just the opposite in fact. Anyway, we're starting to get WAAAY off track.

Because he got into trouble for not registering as a sexual offender when he moved.....I believe. So that, coupled with the fact that he's a potential professional baseball player and he spoke publicly on the topic is why it's public information. I also don't believe he was charged initially as a juvenile. I believe it became a juvenile offense as part of the plea bargain. But I could be wrong.

Touche....he didn't infer there was a line, he literally said that part. The rest, implied or inferred is semantics. Ryan Braun, Jeremy Jefrress and even what K-Rod did should absolutely never be brought up to argue in the affirmative for someone whom you believe committed the crimes this young man was accused of and pleaded guilty. If you want to argue for drafting him, again, I don't think it's a leap at all that the family decided to plead guilty because he would be allowed to enter a diversionary program and that it would be sealed 5 years after it happened. But at that point, I'm gonna want the kid to take a polygraph and do a whole lot of investigating before I'd draft him...which I'm guessing many teams did.

I'm sorry you're having trouble understanding what the word inference means. But when you say that you don't know where to draw the line, then you say look at what player A, B and C did, then go on to justify what player D did, you're absolutely comparing them and making an inference. It's really not difficult to understand. If Ryan Braun had nothing to do with your Heimlich, then why mention him in your post? Because you're using his actions to JUSTIFY your argument. And you so clearly did give an opinion. You said "why not draft Heimlich," then everything else you said was an argument as to why we SHOULD draft him. Hence...your opinion. If you're embarrassed by it, just say you worded it incorrectly, but it's right there. You can't argue you didn't say what you said.

Not to quibble, but that's when he is accused of stopping. She was 4 when he started. And by the way, 13-15 sounds young, especially to me now(35). But I think back to that age and the things I was doing and......this isn't some clueless, "I'll show me yours if you show me mine" encounter by a couple of 4 year olds. You damn well know what you're doing at that age. Again, I don't even KNOW that he did it. But to believe he did it and then compare his crime with even K-Rod's is pretty disgusting to me. They are NOT on the same spectrum. Frankly, I don't think shooting someone in the head in a fight at the bar is on the same level as what this kid did. I can find a justification for just about any action(heat of the moment, he was scared for his life). But 24 MONTHS of molestation....nope, not on the same "line" as Ryan Braun using PED's.

Did I say that? Anywhere? Nope, so back off. Didn’t even infer that. Yeah, you absolutely did infer that. You inferred there was a line, then used Braun's past transgressions as one point in that line and then tried to in some ways justify what the young man was accused of when you advocated drafting him. I don't have a strong opinion on drafting him because it IS very possible and believable that he would be pressured to admit to something to be able to enter a diversionary program rather than to proceed to trial and be potentially tried as an adult. And you add to the fact that it would be sealed from his record after 5 years and it makes more sense. But if I believed he did that as you obviously do given what you wrote in your post, I can't fathom how you could argue FOR wanting that guy to play for your favorite team. I watch sports to root for my team to win, and I can accept giving a guy a second chance for a lot of things. But I can't knowingly root for a guy who molested a 4 year old girl.

Wow.....just amazing justification trying to equate Jeremy Jeffress struggles with pot and Ryan Braun's PED's to a 15 year old kid molesting a 6 year old. 15 isn't some clueless young kid who doesn't know what he's doing. That's a total cop out. Nor is a 13 year old for that matter. And it started when his niece was 4 if it is true(again, he's saying it's not). But you just made a unbelievable leap from Jeffress and Braun to an accused pedophile. And if he did what he's accused of, it's not like the urges that made him do that are going away. It's not ever natural and you don't get confused at age 13 if it's ok to molest your little 4 year old niece in the way he was accused of doing so to gain sexual gratification. This post was beyond irresponsible. To ask the question rhetorically where we should draw a line and at what point do we allow a kid to move past his transgressions in one thing, but to even try to hold up two ridiculously minor offenses(when compared to what he was accused of) is more telling of your moral barometer to me than the Brewers.

https://deadspin.com/mlb-prospect-luke-heimlich-denies-molesting-his-niece-1825831942 I'm sure most have seen this, if it hasn't yet been posted, but it's just confusing to me. The Judge actually says after the end of the diversionary program that he deserves a big round of applause and he got one from the courtroom. There's just too many questions about this kids actions when he was 15 IMO to ban him effectively from every playing professional baseball as many would do(including Keith Law who said as much today).