OnTheBlack

Who? Besides Woodruff. The Brewers have a bottom 10 farm system right now, they don't have a true game changer outside of Hiura, and he's about to graduate off the list anyway. Turang. Also, despite Brew Crew 92's absurd level of optimism, you still have Burnes, Peralta, Rassmussen and several others with upside. But Turang is the next elite prospect from this system.

Why not REALLY sweeten the pot and go all in with Cam Roegner? It doesn't even make sense to call if that's all you're going to offer. You would probably lose credibility as a GM if that was your starting point. It'd be one thing if Arcia and Peralta were off to big starts, but they're not and Diplan and Lemons are nothing. They're throw-in's. Diplan is hardly that. Lemons is a guy you keep around because JUUUST maybe one day. That's a lot closer to what you'd offer for Jason Vargas than it is for what you'd offer for Syndergaard. And frankly, I don't even want Syndergaard unless you could get him for such a laughably cheap package. I kinda feel like he derailed his career when he forced the Mets to let him start when they knew he was injured and then ended up missing a big chunk of the season a couple years ago.

Well, I hate the "If this team had to give up these propsects for this pitcher, then we'd have to give up these prospect for this pitcher," type logic. It makes sense, but sometimes you overpay. The Cubs did that with Quintana and they did that much-much worse in another trade that's been cited in the Chapman trade. I understand doing it for Chapman, not for Quintana. That said, I'm not trading Turang, Rassmussen, Keston or Burnes. 3 of them because of their pure ability, Rassmussen because I just don't think teams are going to value him that highly after such a short stint. More likely they're going to try to get him thrown in there with a couple other more highly touted prospects. Turang is going to end up being a really highly ranked prospect IMO and he's going to be a prototypical leadoff hitter for a while-while sticking at SS. He's everything you'd want except for I don't think he has that real big arm at SS. I've seen and agree with Trea Turner comps.

Baseball Reference has him at 0.1 WAR for 2018, FWIW. And again, it goes back to how you define productive. He’s 24 and hasn’t been below replacement level in his full seasons in MLB. I think expecting Dubon to be more “productive” than that should be viewed with some skepticism. I question defensive WAR for MIF'ers more and more with all the shifting that goes on. I believe you can see that Arcia is an elite defender. I hope Dubon can be this vastly superior player that Maniac would like us to believe, but there's not a whole lot to believe that's the case at this point beyond hope. HOPING that he's going to come up and have one of those really nice stretches before the league catches up to him and provide a boost. I mean...if the Brewers thought he was that good, wouldn't have have gotten the call instead of the career journeyman? I think it's pretty fair to be skeptical that he's going to be an upgrade over Arcia myself...but more I just think it's a big comical the excuses made for one player and the reasons for dismissing another.

I'm not sure if this is War in piece of something someone who is really interested in Math from the U of M wrote out in a shack in Montana! It is? The age a player is relative to what level he's at is "irrelevant?" Huh. You may be the only person that believes that. I think the age you're at each level is rather telling. But maybe I'm weird like that. I guess I'm just weird and I take what someone says at face value. For instance, if you say Player A was 20 when they went through AA and player B was 24, that's pretty straight forward. I don't find that irrelevant and then go and look at what BBreference says the average age of all the other players in the league were. But...the most important thing, you're just making up hypotheticals. They weren't both the same age the first time in AA and the average age when Arcia was in AA to when Dubon was in AA didn't just magically jump by two years. You DO realize how that works.....right? Arcia is a glove first player, always has been. His bat profile was always he "might" be an average hitter with some pop but he he's a plus SS having a plus arm whereas Dubon's bat profile has always been above avg to plus (hitting for a high BA) playing average+ defense at SS with a solid arm (he'd be better at 2b though given how his range/arm plays). Get the difference? That being Arcia was most likely going to be a below-average hitter (spoiler: he is) but could be average if reaches his potential while Dubon profiles to hit for a high BA being an above avg/plus bat. Profile (approach is part of that) and production at age relative to level are things that matter. WRONG----MLB Pipeline's scouting report on Arcia. https://www.mlb.com/news/scouting-report-on-brewers-orlando-arcia/c-153628114 This was 4 years ago when he was finishing up his AA year just before he was called up to the big leagues. Oh, and again, he's YOUNGER than Dubon. Strengths At one point, scouts may have viewed Arcia as a defense-first shortstop. His good hitting experience in the 2014 Venezuelan Winter League provided the first clues of his evident offensive maturation. At Double-A Biloxi this past year, Arcia hit .307, the best average of his career. He notched 37 doubles and eight home runs. Both were career bests. Arcia should be viewed as a complete player capable of providing offense as well as stellar defense at shortstop. His on-base percentage and his ability to consistently "make things happen" have positioned Arcia as a promising top prospect. Arcia completes his multiple-tool offerings with good speed. He is capable of stealing 20 or more bases annually. In addition, he is able to score runs by taking an extra base when appropriate. See, this brings us back to the fact that Dubon's prospect ranking keeps going up(though never actually hitting 100) over the FOUR SEASONS since Arcia became a major league player. Thanks for the info on how not everyone develops at the same age. Truly innovating stuff. Also; So what? Not only has it been a few years since Dubon was in Boston's farm system, 2016 to be exact, but who cares about the players playing around you? Are we evaluating team record or individual performance? Baseball is essentially an individual sport. It's a series of individual matchup's. What other prospects happened to play in Boston have zero to do with anything. Here's what we DON'T have to guess about. Arcia went through the minors and reached the majors four years earlier than Dubon and put up similar offensive numbers. On top of that, he was a elite defensive SS. You seem really intent on guessing how much younger he would have likely been compared to the average player along the way, but it's really irrelevant as Dubon and Arcia are the same age(well, actually, Dubon is older). Nope. Ever think just maybe you're overrating Dubon given he's had an extra 4 years in the minors to improve his offensive line while Arcia's played SS for a team that was 1 win away from a WS(and excelled in that post-season)? Ok, so when he was 19 and performing extremely well in A ball he became a top 100 prospect at 19 and then after he had a big year at AA he moved up into the top 10 at 20 years old. But this is all about Dubon and Arcia, right? So somehow Arcia gets knocked for being ranked in the top 10 among prospects when he was 20....this means what exactly? Arcia .307/.347/.453 in AA. Yeah, I get your point. A GG'er who puts up a line as good as any Dubon has MUST have been overrated? Ever think you're just trying WAAAY to hard to make facts that don't fit some strange narrative? So a no-doubt defensive stud puts up back to back really good offensive years and he's overrated? Lets use MLB Pipeline, hmm? 19 years old Arcia Scouting grades: Hit: 50 | Power: 35 | Run: 55 | Arm: 60 | Field: 60 | Overall: 60 24 year old Dubon Hit: 55 | Power: 35 | Run: 55 | Arm: 55 | Field: 50 | Overall: 50 Well Gee, tell me more about what the scouts were saying? Don't...you know, actually use facts, just tell me what "the scouts" as though they're a single entity had to say about each player? And then what did that 19 year old do? He went and raked in AA and in the Fall League. 19 year old Dubon was playing a third of a season in LowA ball. Had I "kept" saying that? Ok, came up four SEASONS ago and became the starting SS for the Brewers and has continued to hold that job in the four SEASONS since. How many seasons has Dubon? Not intentionally doing anything, I'm dealing in facts. You're the one who's guessing that Dubon would have been called up and that he then automatically WOULD have held the job. Yet a year later and when he does finally get the call, the Manager has already said he's going to be going back down. So...ya sure he was going to be the Starting SS last year?? And if so, mind if I borrow that crystal ball. I'd LOVE to check the lottery numbers for this week. I see one dealing in fact, one in supposition and obfuscation. I'm just telling you what happened. You're trying to create excuses and reasons for why that happened. So I can stop stating facts because you can imagine a different scenario playing out! Well! Fantastic! I think you're looking for fantasy baseball where players don't get injured and you can pretend things are different than they are. What REALLY happened was Dubon was never called up, he did get hurt, but he STILL wasn't called up after a full half of a YEAR getting "acclimated" to AAA...and yet they've already said he's still going back down. Wow...you really seem to place a high value on my powers of persuasion. Again, I'm just simply stating FACTS. You're the one engaging in "what if's," and what WOULD have happened if these things hadn't happened. I'm just simply telling you what did. And you don't like it because it doesn't fit your narrative. Oh, and it's 4 seasons. Arcia's spent parts of 4 SEASONS in the big leagues while Dubon has one AB. The years vs seasons things seems really bothersome to you because it doesn't support your case, right? And again, Dubon is older. So then if Dubon is so much better offensively than Arcia, wouldn't you think their career minor league stats would represent that? I mean, YOU SAID, Arcia was only called up because of his glove. This of course setting aside that in 2015 Arcia's "hit tool" was a 50 and Dubon's "hit tool" 4 years later is a 55. Yet....301/.348/.424 .772 OPS vs .284/.342 /.407 .749 OPS One of these two was in the big leagues at age 21 and is a FAR superior defensive player. The other is older, inferior defensively and has played almost exclusively in the minors through age 24. Kinda tells a story, doesn't it? I really don't know what point you're making here OTHER than when Arcia was sent down for a short stretch, he hit as well as the VASTLY superior offensive weapon that is Dubon. And yet using your logic(if you really want to call it that) you use his major league production and that's somehow a plus for Dubon? Hmm...sound logic. The short little stint over the last 4 seasons they were at the same level, Arcia showed he was every bit as good as Dubon, even if it was a small sample size, but he gets knocked for being respected enough to get called up and Dubon somehow gets credit for NOT making it to the majors yet? Sure it is. Arcia struck out 73 times in 552 PA's at age 20 in AA Dubon struck out 76 times in 545 PA's at age 22 split between AA and AAA. Tell me how much better Dubon's K rate was!!! Yeah, it raised so much that despite being TWO YEARS younger than Dubon, he had a lower K rate than Dubon had. Who are you arguing for again? And now you're saying Arcia will walk more, but it's only because of Dubon's magical bat to ball skills and as we all know, it's so tough to walk when you just always hit he ball. The only problem of course is that Arcia actually struck out less when he was 20 in AA than Dubon when he was 22 in AA/AAA. So again, Dubon higher K rate but he'll walk less, but it's alright because his bat to ball skills are SO great. This is where I ask the question, how many games have you actually watched Dubon play in person? Never get an answer to these questions. No, what's "straight absurdity" is how you try to deflect everything. The minor league statistics are roughly equal. This despite the fact that Arcia was in the big leagues and has 1450 PA's in the majors while the OLDER Dubon has 1. STUNNED!! Stunned I tell ya that this went right over your head. Now...see the point HERE was the OLDER player was the one who had yet to reach the big leagues until he finally got AN AB(and they've already announced he'd be going back down) while the YOUNGER of the two is the guy who's spent part of the last 4 seasons in the big leagues.

I believe the $12m already account for the plus or minus 25% of half of Brogdon's salary, so it's a hard cap on the TPE. In other words, I believe ~$9.5m is half of Brogdon's salary and $12m is ~125% of that. In general you can't just trade cash in the NBA, except when buying picks. There may be a few other rare exceptions I'm forgetting, but it's not like baseball. You definitely can't include any other players. But I'm almost certain you can acquire more than one player from another team. For example, you can take a player making $7m and a player making $4m from a team. You have to resolve it all at once though. Yes, it's essentially a dump. And that Pacers pick is not likely to be good, so the return on the Brogdon deal isn't great. And they have to keep a cap hold on Brogdon to keep the TPE, so it's not as much flexibility as you might think. They barely fit their other offers under the cap, and reportedly there's a chance they might not get the TPE at all. I think we're waiting to see if Hill waived his $1m buyout as part of his new contract, and that determines whether they have enough cap space to keep Brogdon's cap hold and get the TPE. Bottom line, as much as I'm not a big Brogdon fan, I think they cheaped out overall. I think they could have kept Brogdon's qualifying offer and matched an offer after the fact. I think it's pretty suspicious that they're still very likely to be under the tax threshold for the next 2 years. I don't believe it was necessary at all. It's neither here nor there anymore, but I also would have rather had Brogdon and Mirotic than Khris. I would take Khris over Brogdon obviously, but not over Brogdon and Mirotic. But they did reasonably well this off season. I'm really relieved they got Hill for the equivalent of the MLE. Well, we'll have a better idea in the next year or two if the Bucks made a strictly financial decision or if they simply didn't think Brogdon was a good bet. I think it was a pretty bad decision myself. I wouldn't give up Middleton for Brogdon and I'm not factoring in Mirotic because he's the one guy we actually have a comparable replacement for. I'm also not sure how good Mirotic actually is. He has made 4 trips to the playoffs, he's shot really poorly in 3 of the 4. Last year(as in 2017-2018) he was great. This year, bad. DJ Wilson is a comparable shooter, younger, and he's certainly more of a fit defending the stretch 4's and even 5's. I do think the Bucks did a good job in getting anything in return for Brogdon since they weren't going to match and those 1st and 2 2n'd could help out later in a trade. Horst has been able to find complimentary pieces though and he recovered nicely replacing Brogdon with Matthews, 3 picks and a TPE that could at least help them pick up another player who they could then include at some point for a better player. If this team adds one veteran ball handler, and it doesn't have to be a great one, even getting Darren Collison to change his mind would make me happy right now, then I'm pretty happy with where they're at. The way Giannis just keeps improving, I don't think he's close to a finished product yet.

We're talking about getting over the hump though and winning a title. He was clowned by Rozier a couple years ago. This past year he disappeared the whole series. I can only imagine how much worse that Boston series would have been had Smart been healthy. The size of the contracts aren't a big deal. We'd be sending back about the same. Westbrook, I don't think he makes us better unless he arrives with a completely different mentality. He's basically just a 6'4 Giannis. That's nice an all, but it hasn't translated to winning before except when he had Harden(5 times in the top 2 in MVP voting), KD(MVP, finals MVP) and Serge Ibaka, the ideal 4 on a team like that, a DPOY type player and one who can spread the floor. And they still couldn't get it done. Paul-Totally different story. He's perfect for this team. Great 3 point shooter, still a good defender. His contract runs out in 2 years IIRC. I'd definitely take Paul. And he'd make us a far better half court offensive team. I don't think either are the least bit realistic, but Paul would make us better despite his age and his contract. Westbrook might, but I really doubt it. We would probably lead the league in FT's and points in the paint.

I can't believe this is going as deep as it is. Obviously whenever you're talking about a primary defender-defending the leagues MVP and most unstoppable player in the paint, you're going to have to assume that the bigs are going to come over and help. The bigs, Gasol and Serge and Kawhi came over and helped when Siakam was defending Giannis. Giannis did just fine. Actually better than fine. Now when Kawhi was defending Giannis, Giannis did not do just fine. I don't care about media narratives, in fact I particularly dreaded listening to them after many of the games in the ECF's as I knew they'd highlight how effective Kawhi was defending Giannis. He was able to stop him without help on several possessions and on others, it just seemed like he got in Giannis' head. Giannis was rushing shots or pressing. Giannis is 24 years old. He just got shut down, slowed down, whatever you want to say by the best on ball defender think I've ever seen. So that's now what he's preparing for this off-season. So I'd imagine he's going to focus on his weaknesses that much harder this off-season. Also, Kawhi couldn't have been as effective without Nick Nurse implementing a really smart defensive strategy vs the Bucks and several Bucks players just disappearing. Brogdon was great in that series. Hill was great in that series for the most part. Not a lot of other guys knocking down 3's in the second half of those last 4 games. Also, their defense was very reliable. They didn't just all crash down on Giannis. They played the passing lanes. A lot went into slowing down Giannis, but easily the biggest of those factors was switching Kawhi to Giannis for big chunks games 3-6. The Bucks were a completely different offense when Kawahi was on Giannis vs Siakam(who's also nearing that All-NBA defensive player status). Bottom line. Kawhi=Playing the best he's likely ever going to play. Giannis=Playing amazing, but still so many area's that he could improve, area's that should come naturally to him. He's already got a nice stroke. He's already shown nice touch around the basket. He just needs to get better at it and then nobody's gonna be able to stop him.

Sadly, it is all about this.... does Gianni's like Westbrook? If it helps keep 34 around long term, probably do it... even though I don't like Westbrook much. I'm all for doing what it takes to keep Giannis happy, but I don't think playing with Westbrook would make him happy. Now if Westbrook decided to...give a little in order to play with someone like Giannis, it could work. But Westbrook would have to be a very different player than he's been. Particularly since KD left. He is a really good ball handler and a really good scorer, but he also relies on athleticism to be effective. If you call what he does effective. At least moreso than most players. Durant for example will be able to be a very good scorer even if he loses some athletic ability. Westbrook won't. You only go so far to cater to Giannis and I really doubt that Giannis would require the Bucks to get Westbrook in order to stick around. And by the end of Westbrooks contract, I think he'd be an even bigger burden than he already appears to be. I'd rather take John Wall's deal than Westbrook right now(I'm actually not sure if I'm serious or not here). The only upside in this deal is that Westbrook would be better than Bled in the playoffs as it'd be hard to be worse and Westbrook isn't exactly going to cost much in terms of assets.

I think you are seriously underestimating the 76ers. Embiid, Simmons, Horford, Richardson and Harris is a very good starting 5. They just need depth. I could be missing some guys they have Agreed, Sixers are the biggest threat on paper. Boston I don't know what to make of them. I didn't the last two years either. They're worse on paper at PG, but again, Kemba is a way better team player. They also lost Horford though. So they lost an elite PG in Kyrie that I think people are now underrating because of a tough series vs the Bucks. And then they lost the "most important" player on their team in Horford and now Marcus Morris, another underrated player. The Sixers are set up to really stop Giannis. They'll need other players to hit shots in order to get past them. That shouldn't be too hard. But the rebounding edge that the Bucks normally have should be gone. This is all assuming a healthy Embid and I wouldn't be so quick to assume such a thing.

This is the absolute, unquestionable bottom line. It's why I always find it annoying when they talk about how Pro-Athletes don't "deserve" what they make. No, player to play, maybe not, but as a whole, they obviously do. Don't get me wrong, I think it's sad that women, the Women's soccer team doesn't make more money. They seem like they deserve to get paid more, but if they don't generate as much revenue...well, that's kinda the bottom line. I would think a few sports would be closer. Soccer being one of them. Tennis another.

San Antonio Pre-Game Media Notes *** Box: New Orleans 3, San Antonio 2 Missions Settle for Split in New Orleans Multiple Missions Players Leave Injured *** VIDEO Tweet: The Trent Grisham / Tyrone Taylor collision *** Dubon’s singular journey leads from Honduras to majors Jake Seiner, Associated Press This put a new spin on the Dubon story, with a focus on his monetary challenges *** RHP Nate Griep's AAA debut was eventful, but successful - stranded a runner, scoreless ball aided by bullpen buddy RHP Jon Olczak, three walks Damn. Didn't really think that Shaw or Grisham would be taken out of the game to get called up prior to the ASB, but I also didn't think both would be out of the game after just 1 AB due to injury. Pretty solid collision there. Still, really nice news on Turang. He's easily my favorite farm hand now with Keston up(I hardly think I'm alone here as he's the only one ranked in the top 100). But it's just so nice to see a 1st round prep pick start out and really perform well the entire time.

Players that are selected as All-Stars but can’t play in the game due to injury are still All-Stars. Players that are selected as injury replacements are All-Stars as well. Pretty simple. I don't think these facts are what he's questioning. I think he's pretty much saying that you don't really get credit for another all-star because one of yours sits out and is then replaced by another one of yours. I don't really care to be honest, but I get his point. We had 4 players picked/elected to the ASG and one come in as an injury replacement. Now we just need Burnes to figure things out and put it all together like Woodruff has. That could easily be our #1 and #2 pitcher the next 4-5 years. They're both capable of being really good #2 starters.

By the way, I know this is late, but I thought the little "tea sipping" celebration in the semi's by Alex Morgan was hilarious and I think it's even funnier that people were upset by it. But I think it's kinda weak she said it had something to do with Game of Thrones. Just own it. It was a light hearted jab. It's not like it's something really offensive. It's England. They drink tea. Drinking tea is a pretty boring and mundane activity. There are a lot more offensive things that could be gone when playing teams from around the world.

It was much better than the egg laid by the USMNT against Mexico. You know, after looking at how the USWNT has done compared to the USMNT, I just can't support equal pay. With four World Cup championships, and four Olympic Gold Medals, the USWNT has posted such performance that they deserve higher pay than the USMNT. Well, as long as more people watch the Women play and buy their jersey's for their daughters, they'll get a much stronger argument for equal pay. Of course...I don't know how much money either team generate, only that the little I've read cites the women's lawyer as saying that revenue shouldn't matter, they should do the right thing. Which..incidentally is what they do in figure skating. For men. Women generate more money but they share because it's the right thing to do. I don't know, either way, it was a lot of fun to watch and I have to admit, I'm a bigger fan of a soccer now than I was before and particularly a bigger fan of a few of the women.

I don't think Arcia's been a problem at all this year. If he wasn't so highly regarded, he'd probably be the one tearing up AAA and we'd all be that much more excited about him, but because he struggled when he was a very young player, and hasn't been the most consistent, and now this year mostly IMO because up until this point, we've lost a ton of production from CF, Shaw and Aguilar, more focus is being put on Arcia. Arcia's 24, he's an elite defensive SS IMO, something that's getting harder to see using the metrics as shifting becomes more prevalent and he's being asked to play all over the place. He's certainly got issues with plate discipline, but any just about any other 24 year old playing a position like SS or Catcher would be given more slack than him. I hope Dubon comes up and is as good as some believe he will be. In a perfect world, you'd be able to use Arcia, Dubon, or a combination of the two until Turang develops and reaches the big leagues. That's 3 years away however in a optimistic outlook. A lot could happen between now and then. But I defensively think people are a little too hard on Arcia. Maybe it's because we're in another golden age of SS's with sooo many productive ones all around baseball.

This is false. Arcia was not 2yrs younger per level than Dubon. Dubon's first exposure to A+ he played half a season at 2.7yrs young while Arcia was 3.7yrs young. His first exposure to AA he played half a season and was 3.4yrs young while Arcia was 4.1yrs young. His first exposure to AAA he played half a season and was 4.4yrs young while Arcia was 5.5yrs young. Also, Dubon's bat profile is much better than Arcia's. Arcia was, and still is, a glove first player. Dubon is the opposite. He's a high contact, low K, high BA hitter with a great understanding of the zone while offering much better base stealing/running. He'll hit more doubles/triples just not HR. Dubon will most likely be a solid SS while having a solid arm (plenty good to play SS but not great). The way Arcia is playing defense this year I'd bank on Dubon not being worse. Dubon has the potential to be a plus bat he just won't have the over the wall power. You realize that Arcia was born in August of '94 while Dubon was born in July of '94. So Dubon is older. You also realize that the -3.7 or whatever is just relative to the other players at a given level? So you have to actually look at the players age HE was at each level, not just the average ages of the other players during the time he spent at that level. Arcia at 18 played in low A. Spent the whole year there. 19 he moved up to HiA. 20 AA 21 AAA/55 games at the big league level. Dubon-18 he played at Rookie level. 19-1/3rd of a year at low A. 20-spent half the year in LowA and HiA. 21-Again, half the year at HiA and AA. 22-Half the year in AA then moved up to AAA. 23-AAA 24-AAA-Now called up due to injury. Arcia minor league line-.284/.342/.407 OPS of .749 Dubon-301/.348/.424 OPS of .772 So it's not really false, Arcia is 4 years futher along than the OLDER Dubon and their lines in the minors are similar. Plus, Arcia's a superior defensive player. Probably by a wide margin, but we'll have to see as it's pretty tough to accurately compare minor league defensive stats to big league defensive stats, But I'm just curious, what do you think Arcia would have done if he'd have been able to spend an additional 4 years in the minor leagues? You think just maybe his offensive production would be better if he was facing minor league pitching instead of big league pitching? Just something to keep in mind before we write off a 24 year old SS who's already proven he's a very-very good defensive shortstop despite being an up and down offensive player. So, one player has spent the last 4 seasons playing in the big leagues and the other has spent the last 4 years playing in the minor leagues. And you think it's equal to compare those players based on their minor league stats? Isn't "high contact," and "low K," redundant? And again, given that Arcia was playing in the majors for the last 4 years while Dubon was improving his offensive line in the minors, I think it's pretty fair we throw this out.

Grisham and Shaw both pulled after just 1 AB. Shaw pinch run for. Possible one or both get brought up while someone goes on the 10 day? Grisham would seem more likely, but could be both. Shaw certainly hasn't "earned" his way back, good to see him finally have a nice line yesterday though and Aggie one today.

He has thrown 34 professional innings & is still only 20 years old. The kid can't even get (legally) wasted yet, seems a little early to write it off as a wasted pick. Even if he never ends up doing anything, I can't stand the "waste of a pick" mentality. I understand it, but what's the difference between him and Antoine Kelly? Similar profiles. Sometimes those prep arms develop, sometimes they don't. The draft alone is erratic enough, now talk about power prep arms with control issues and...c'mon, the odds get much lower there. Though they also often yield the highest rewards.

I've got two. One I really liked, the other I didn't. JJ Hardy for Carlos Gomez. Gomez was one of my favorite players to watch. I know he wasn't well liked around the league and I don't care. It has become a bit cliche, but he had fun playing the game. Reminds me of Arcia in that way. Would go on to put up 19.9 WAR for the Brewers in ~600 games. Then he was the centerpiece in a substantial trade that included Santana and Phillips as the headliners, a stud pitcher Josh Hader and then Adrian Houser. So great return on JJ as well. NOT a fan of Gerardo Parra for Mitch Haniger and Anthony Banda. Banda was a throw in for me at that point and was indifferent. He's turned into a very good prospect, though one who's down with TJ surgery this year. Parra was pretty much a bust for us the year we traded him as we fell off big time in the 2nd half and went from 1st to 82-80. In fairness, he did have a very good offensive season the next year as a 4th OF'er and we were able to swing him for Zach Davies. I was just a fan of Mitch Haniger. Like everyone else, I've been a fan of far more guys who ended up doing nothing, but Haniger has developed into a really good offensive player as well as a very good defender in RF. It's pointless to speculate as to how things would have worked out(ie, do the Brewers trade for Yelich if they've got Haniger, Cain, Santana and Braun in the OF? Parra ended up bringing Zach Davies back from Baltimore and Davies has been a solid pitcher for us by in large.

I'm guessing he wouldn't even register. I highly doubt the Brewers have spent any time "regretting" trading a guy who likely would have ended up walking anyway. What we REALLY would have regretted was not having Aguilar the last two years so we could hang on to Cooper longer. This would be about the last trade I'd imagine they'd "really regret." The Yankees then turned around and trade him and a better prospect essentially for international bonus money. Cooper was basically organizational depth who they weren't going to have room for.

I wouldn’t consider the Jerry Hairston trade to be small. IMO he played a significant role in 2011. I was very disappointed when the Brewers didn’t sign him for 2012. They could have used his versatility in the stretch during the disappointing 2012 season. Hariston had put up .6 WAR and they traded Erik Komatsu for him. That's pretty much the definition of a small trade. You can make a small trade and get a player who fits in well at the same time. The two are not mutually exclusive.

Well, I don't know if he can moving forward, I just know what he did last year. I'm not arguing that they threw multiple defenders at Giannis or that Kawhi locked down Giannis the entire series. He didn't, he wasn't on Giannis most possessions. During the regular season though Giannis was 3 for 30 when Kawhi was the primary defender and while I don't know what it was in the post-season, it was pretty bad. He's the one guy capable of staying in front of Giannis and not allowing Giannis to use his length when he gets into the restricted area given his own ridiculous wing span(which is the same as Giannis'). Go back and watch some of those games though. Part of it was Giannis getting frustrated and trying to do too much, but Kawhi really was shutting him down pretty much by himself when he was on him. It forced Giannis out of his comfort zone and into taking 10-12 foot fadeaway's or he got those freakishly large hands on the ball and ripped or deflected it. But Giannis is 24. As great as he is, he's still raw. He'll develop secondary moves, he'll develop more of a post game. He's easily the most talented player we've had since Kare I'm not talking about "the wall," or the help defense, Ibaka and Gasol certainly played a huge factor in slowing Giannis down. I'm talking about when Kawhi just shut Giannis down https://www.msn.com/en-ca/sports/nba/bruce-arthur-kawhi-vs-giannis-is-the-series-for-raptors-and-bucks/ar-AABEcK6 That's just one article, but others can find more relevant data when it comes to Kawhi being the primary defender. When Kawhi was the primary defender, Giannis, he changed the way he played and as a result the Bucks offense took a nose dive. Stopped or contained, use whatever words you'd like, but really locked Now if Bledsoe would have played even decent, or the Bucks would have been able to hit shots, Giannis might not have felt the need to force things against the Raptors. But he did and especially when Kawhi was on him, it wasn't pretty. This isn't some dig on Giannis. He was the superstar on a team up 2-0 desperately trying to force the action and he didn't have the tools to get it done. He personally didn't have the secondary moves and Bledsoe, the guy who was supposed to be the 3rd star on this team completely disappeared, and so did pretty much everyone else for stretches other than Hill and Brogdon. There wasn't a 3rd guy you could count on to consistently help out Giannis.

Huh? The Clippers are in the West. Los Angeles Clippers. I mis-spoke. That wasn't obvious?

Giannis could have set up close to the basket, but that's also not really a part of his game that's developed yet. As great as he is, he doesn't have a lot of moves around the basket. He hasn't really needed them and he's been a guy who's gotten going primarily with the ball in his hands. Just like a jumper, I'm sure he'll improve his low post game to match his talent and in potential Clippers series, beyond Zubic, they don't have the help. As for the "no excuse," I don't get it either. I'd throw Dirk and a couple others in there as sole superstars leading their teams, but there aren't many. Just looking at it waaay too early, that Sixers series is one that Giannis is going to need guys to step up in. Simmons, Horford and Embid are pretty much set up to shut down Giannis.