Jopal78

That's actually not accurate. The only prospect of note the Cubs traded before winning the World Series was Gleyber Torres. Where the Cubs traded away their minor league depth was defending their World Series title and defending their division title last year. Since winning the world series they made the following trades: Dan Vogelbach and Paul Blackburn for Mike Montgomery Jorge Soler for Wade Davis. Dylan Cease and Eloy Jimenez for Jose Quintana Jeimar Candelario for Justin Wilson The players they picked up last year: Cole Hamels, Daniel Murphy and Brandon Kintzler they basically absorbed the salary commitments to those players and gave up fringe prospects from the low minor leagues. The Cubs are in the spot they are in because Epstein hasn't been able to replicate his draft success from Boston. He did pick Kris Bryant third overall (but I imagine 29 other baseball execs would have too). His other first round picks include one player who is solid: Kyle Schwarber, a platoon CFer in Albert Almora and several busts and of course some prospects where its too early to tell. None of Epstein's 2nd round picks have made an impact with the Cubs, and the only other Epstein Cubs draft pick to see significant time is 18th rounder David Bote. How this applies to the Brewers is they've already traded away more prospects than the Cubs (although some of those Cubs prospects were of higher quality) to acquire Swarzak, Yelich, Soria, Moustakas and Schoop. They traded Ryan Cordell, Lewis Brinson, Jordan Yamamoto, Isan Diaz, Monte Harrison, Kodi Medeiros, Jorge Lopez, Brett Phillips, Luis Ortiz and Jean Carmona. So the next wave of Milwaukee prospects is already gone. Further, as Epstein has proven its much harder to find blue chip prospects when drafting near the bottom of the round. I don't think the Brewers system is stocked with many blue chippers to begin with, and the window to compete is not going to get any more open. Therefore the GM has to balance where he feels the team is and where they can go, and if the deal makes sense I wouldn't hesitate pulling the trigger wondering about an inevitable rebuild that will likely occur after Stearns is already gone or on the way out.

The Mets GM (Van Wagenen) has proven to be a doofus; so I wouldn't rule anything out. In fact the whole Cano/Diaz for Jay Bruce and Swarzak Plus hasn't worked out for the Mets. Cano has sucked, Diaz has gotten pounded. The Mariners already traded off Jay Bruce and Anthony Swarzak, so they basically dumped a bunch of salary on the Mets for a couple of good looking prospects albeit ones who are a few years off.

The Brewers are probably not a World Series Contender, but they are a playoff contender. One thing I do know is they aren't going to put their remaining chance this season in the hands of some rookies coming up to the majors from AA. You could argue that they find themselves in the position they are currently in because they thought young pitchers Freddy Peralta and Corbin Burnes could make the jump to stable rotation pitchers. I'd expect the GM to look to upgrade shortstop. There might not be an offensive bat out there to be had, so perhaps a strong defender like Miami's Miguel Rojas to shore up the infield defense. Their biggest hole is the starting rotation. However, given their odds of being more than a Wild Card team, I don't see the Brewers spending the prospect capital they likely would need to in order to land Marcus Stroman. Nor are they likely to fork over key prospects for the in demand rentals like Bumgarner or Wheeler. They're probably going to have to sink or swim with Woodruff, Davies, Gio Gonzalez, Chase Anderson and Jhoulys Chacin. Barring a collapse in the first part of July, I do think Stearns will add at least two arms to the bullpen. I don't think they will be the Ken Giles and Will Smith types. Rather, I could see the successful but less heralded arms like Daniel Hudson, Shane Greene, Tony Watson, Sergio Romo, etc. Having a bullpen that is capable of keeping them close on a nightly basis, helps the team that relies primarily on homeruns for offense to make comebacks.

Pro baseball players have been swinging a bat and pitching a ball most days for their entire life. After having ascended the mountain to the major leagues on their own merit; I’m skeptical how many players even tune in to what a coach is preaching. Maybe philosophically speaking, but with tens of millions of dollars at stake for the players I’m sure they go with their gut first and maybe in a slump hear what the coach has to suggest Therefore, it’s the talent in the roster that makes the coaches look good. DJ isn’t going to magically transform Wilkerson into a front line starter; that’s all nonsense

The 2019 team is just a flawed roster. The rotation is in shambles and they’ve used at least 9 different starters to get to the half way point without finding 5 that can keep them in games let alone put them in a position to win. Two: the bullpen went from an elite strength to a weakness. Outside Hader nobody can throw clean innings out of the pen and someone seems to get blown up nightly. Moreover the last arm or two in the pen haven’t been MLB caliber pitchers all year. Third while the overall runs scored are okay The offense has trouble scoring consistently unless they homer. Too many 7-5 wins followed up with 2-1 losses

The PCL is a hitter’s league. A .487 slugging in that league isn’t great, and is below most of the Mission regulars. His OBP is also near the bottom of the regulars at San Antonio. And that’s AAA, where he’s not going to be facing the best pitching he’s ever seen in nearly every at bat. So to think a middling AAA bat is going to come up and not likely struggle is the poor take

At this point, three games over .500 and sinking like a rock despite playing the soft part of their schedule; I’d anticipate the Brewers stand pat. With a organization thin on blue chip prospects it’s not worth trading for them to stay in the race for the 2nd wild card position. Roll the bones and see what happens is a more solid strategy

Dubon is going to be an all glove no bat player in the major leagues. Not exactly what the team needs at this moment

It’s all the same thing, Wilkerson, Houser, Peralta etc. The reason Houser is in the pen in the first place is he cannot command all of his pitches. It’s no secret; and they’re all just sitting on the two seamer because he can’t get the others over for strikes.

This team is going to fold like a cheap suit. The rotation is exactly like the rotations in the early 2000s. Woodruff is a bonafide above average starting pitcher and there’s a couple back of the rotation arms then a few spots filled by stiffs

Of course they’ll pick it up. You can’t buy his production for 7.5 million dollars on a one year contract. If not to keep him on their roster to trade him to someone who wants him.

How many games has this team managed to win when they don’t homer? It has to be somewhere around 5

Hiura striking out 40% of the time hasn’t been any different than Shaw

I agree that the Perez DFA likely is an indirect action related to Orlando Arcia. I think the Brewers are trying everything they can do to get Arcia to fulfill his potential. They optioned him last year after being given a long leash in trying to correct his offensive game. This year his defense is off so they bring in another shortstop, at the expense of Hernan Perez, to push Arcia to perform better and take the job away from Saladino. Now that being said, I expect Perez to remain with the organization. I'm sure he and his representatives know that guys like Donnie Hart, Tyrone Taylor, Wilkerson probably have tenuous holds on 40 man roster spots, and even on the 25 man an injury to Braun, Cain, etc and Hernan could find himself back in Milwaukee. At this point, it doesn't appear anyone is willing to give Perez a 25 man roster spot, so if he leaves he'd be going to a new organization where he's a non 40 man roster veteran trying to get noticed. In this context he most likely would also be looking for a minor league deal once the season was over. Further like Sogard last year, players with young families might be less inclined to uproot their situation without a clear immediate path back to the majors. Sometimes the devil you know is better than the devil you don't.

The Angels just announced he has died.

Hader is the most dominant left handed reliever in baseball. His ability to go multiple innings makes him one of the most (if not the most) dominant reliever in all baseball. The bullpen on your proposed roster sucks, and all those moves have an overall feel of just churning the personnel in the organization without concretely improving the overall talent in the organization.

Zack Greinke is an interesting idea. Say what you want about his age, but he's quietly approached a borderline Hall of Fame career. More importantly, as his velocity on his fastball has diminished to the low 90s, he has reinvented himself as a 'pitcher' so there should be less concern of diminished performance as he continues to age. In fact, Greinke actually walks fewer batters per/9 and gives up fewer hits/9 than he did when pitching for Milwaukee 7-8 years ago. He's also the picture of durability as a pitcher. There have been only two years where he has made less than 32 starts or thrown fewer than 200 innings since he left Milwaukee. While Greinke does not have trade protection involving Milwaukee; cutting against any trade is the fact Greinke is the only significant long-term contract on the books for the Diamondbacks. However, the money isn't as difficult as it seams. First, there is an assignment bonus of 2 million dollars if he is traded. Greinke is still owed half his 31.5 million salary this year, and 32 million in 2020 and 2021. 10.5 million is deferred from 2019 and 11 million in both 2020 and 2021. The deferred payments begin in 2022 through 2026. There was also a signing bonus of 18 million dollars that is paid in annual installments of 3 million each year 2016-2021 If the Diamondbacks payed the deferred salary after a trade it would mean Greinke's remaining salary this year is 12.5 million (10.5 +2 assignment bonus), 24 million in 2020 and 2021 (32 base +3 bonus - 11 deferred). There is no question the Brewers could afford Greinke this year and on an ongoing basis since their spending over 24 million dollars on Moose and Grandal this year and neither will likely return next year. The more pressing questions are: will the D'Backs be sellers (They have under performed their Pythagorean), and if they're kicking in 32.5 million dollars what sort of prospect package will they demand in return.

After having put up 4 consecutive seasons of at least an .844 OPS and hitting 104 homers in the process; in 2003 , Paul Konerko hit .234/.304/.399. The '03 White Sox, like this years Brewers, were in and out of first place all season long ultimately falling out for good the last two weeks of September and finishing in 2nd place. Konerko went 4 for 41 in June of 2003 with a slash line of .098/.174/.098. His first half numbers in 2003 were .197/.267/.300 Despite an extremely poor half season and an entire year of being over .140 points below his typical OPS, the White Sox did not DFA Konerko even though they were in a tight race for the playoffs. Konerko then went on to play ten more years for the White Sox and hit 310 homeruns during those ten years. I agree that Hiura has nothing to prove in the minor leagues, but be careful what you wish for in advocating for the team to jettison quality players like Shaw for having a down season. Such moves would have a chance of coming back to haunt the team, and isn't a move that consistently successful teams make.

I'd consider it fortunate that Shaw had an option remaining, because that is the only reason he is no longer with the big league club. They would never flat out drop a player who has averaged 30 homeruns a year for them and played solid defense at third. Aguilar is a different situation because he is out of options. If they DFA Jesus Aguilar another team will claim him. As recently as August of 2018 he put up a .270/.370/.506 line, so he's not that far removed from his Salad Days that the team is going to give him away. Perez is also different than the above two, because versatile fielders with below average bats are a readily available commodity in the major leagues. In fact, there is no real difference between Perez, Saladino, and Spangenberg. The bad news is the Cubs have their own all glove no bat utility player...Daniel Descalso. Its not beyond the realm of possibility that the Cubs claim Perez and drop Descalso because believe it or not, Hernan has swung the bat better than Descalso to this point.

I just noted Cy Sneed was just called up and joined the Houston rotation. He went 6 innings in his debut, allowing four runs, on seven hits with 4 strikeouts. While the cost to acquire Villar seemed like nothing at the time. It’s too bad if Sneed establishes himself as a big league starter and the Brewers don’t have anything to show for the trade just a few years after.

The more I think about it, with the team playing at an 86 win pace even with how lousy the last two weeks have been; I imagine they’ll stand pat at the deadline at the very least; or make a couple of second tier moves to add a reliever or two, bench bat, etc.

Unless Dubon profiles as a utility player; he doesn’t have a role on this team as Arcia and Hiura are likely everyday players going forward. I expect Dubon to be shipped out in another month for a relief arm

Last year, Lance Lynn had a 5.10era 1.63whip and pitched 100 innings across 20 starts for the Twins, YET the New York Yankees traded a solid A-ball prospect and MLB player Tyler Austin in exchange for Lynn. Swingman Matt Andriese with a career 4.32era and 1.32whip was traded at the deadline last year from Tampa to Arizona. Back in 2015 the Brewers shipped off Gerardo Parra as a rental and got Zach Davies. While Davies isn't anything special he's started 95 games for the Brewers and has won nearly half of them and almost twice as many as he has lost. So the point is if the Brewers are going to be sellers at the end of July, I'm positive they can and would move: Moustakas, Grandal, Gio Gonzalez, Chacin and Albers. Although to get more than a warm body in return for Moustakas and Grandal the Brewers would likely have to include sizable amounts of cash. Grandal is one of the highest paid catchers and has a 2.5 million dollar buyout on his option. Moustakas has a three million dollar buy out. Even if paying significant cash, these are still rental players and teams just don't trade the quality of prospects they did for rentals in the past. Outside of the Cubs, Yankees every contender would have some degree of interest in Grandal. The best asset the Brewers have to trade is probably Matt Albers. Teams cannot have enough relief pitching. Albers is having a nice year (3.90era 1.08whip 9.5k per 9 inn), and has an expiring contract paying him a relatively small amount. Every contender would be interested in Albers as well. Both Chase Anderson and Chacin have established track records of back of the rotation starters. While neither would bring back much talent in return there here is certainly value there for contending teams looking for arms to soak up innings. Anderson would even come with two additional years of team control at affordable prices. Then there are a couple players on the roster that the Brewers "could" trade but probably wouldn't. Jeremy Jeffress would be in high demand if available but he only seems to pitch well in Milwaukee and with a team option for 2020, I would guess the team would have to be blown away to swap him off. Eric Thames is another player who would have some value to contending clubs. No performance issues coming off the bench, left handed, hits for power, nice OBP, team friendly contract with an option. However it is that option that would make it hard to ship Thames off. If Aguilar never gets it going and the front office believes he truly was a flash in the pan, I doubt they'd trade Thames away and have to be looking to a hole at first base in 2020.

There’s nothing wrong with Santana, he’s a solid young player. This GM likes versatile outfielders who can play all three spots, runs well and tends to make contact. Santana doesn’t fit that mold so they traded him off for Gamel who may not have the power Santana has but plays all three spots, runs well and makes contact. Plus they got a pitcher who is a long ways away but has a legit shot of seeing a 25 man roster. Fair trade for both teams

And Wilkerson throws 24 pitches and counting. His lack of velocity with poor command means he’s never going to cut it in the majors