Jopal78

The Brewers front office likes players who are versatile. At this point, Encarnacion plays only first base, and his best position is probably designated hitter for an AL team. Moreover, his contract pays him 21 million dollars this year with a 5 million dollar buy out. Given the pay he's owed, I'm not sure the Brewers are going to be interested, unless Seattle includes significant cash in the deal (the 5 million dollar option for sure and a portion of what he would still be owed in salary as well), which of course the Mariners would only do if they were getting quality prospects back. They're not going to take garbage in return AND kick in ten million dollars, therefore it's really not a good match to begin with.

That's kind of the point though. Nobody is going to trade for Corey Ray, he's hurt all the time, and hasn't exactly lit the world on fire with his play when he is healthy. With respect to Burnes, what other chips do they have that another team would actually covet?

Last year, the Cubs acquired Cole Hamels from Texas for Eddie Butler (since released), and two lower level minor league players. The return wasn't much for Texas however, the Cubs took on 14 million dollars in salary last year, plus another 20 million this year after picking up the club option. In 2017, the Dodgers acquired rental starter Yu Darvish. The Dodgers sent Willie Calhoun (#60 prospect in MLB) plus two other minor league players. Also in 2017, the Astros acquired Justin Verlander from Detroit for Franklin Perez (#41 prospect in MLB) and two other minor league players. In 2015 when David Price was traded from Detroit to Toronto as a rental starter. Toronto sent their #1 prospect Daniel Norris, their #16 prospect Jairo Labourt and Matthew Boyd to Detroit. Any sort of front line starter is going to cost either the Clubs top prospect or a legitimate top 100 prospect in MLB, plus other pieces. No doubt, giving away Burnes would hurt, then again he is the most marketable asset after Keston Hiura. The rest of the Milwaukee prospects are either years away or have question marks due to injuries/inconsistent play and likely won't make up the best offer on the table for Bumgarner. The reason I would do it is simple: winning in baseball is really hard. Who would have thought that the Weeks, Fielder, Braun, Hart, Hardy era would yield just two playoff appearances and one playoff series win? In fact those clubs from 2007-2011 went 426-384 for a winning pct of .525. At the break in 2014 the Brewers had 53 wins and a winning percentage of .552. With 66 games remaining following the break, had they played 3 games better than .500 baseball the rest of the way, they would have hosted the wild card game. Had they played four games better than .500 they would have tied for the division. Their reinforcements at the deadline that year for those who may not recall were Jonathon Broxton and Gerardo Parra. That team of course collapsed with the pitching staff allowing 5 or more runs in 18 of those 66 games after the break and the Brewers lost all 18 of those games. As everyone knows, the team assumed they were a contender in 2015, flopped badly with the manager and GM losing their jobs in the process. Accordingly, in a division where there isn't a clear cut favorite, and in a league where a couple games will decide who is in the post season and who isn't you have to make hard decisions. The right decision in this case would be to gamble that Bumgarner makes the team's chances at the playoffs that much better, and live with the chance that Burnes will learn how to pitch effectively with his stuff.

Admittedly, it would be selling low on Burnes but he's not going to pitch in the rotation for Milwaukee this year barring a collapse by the team. The homerun ball makes it difficult to put him in as a late inning reliever in close games. The Giants are in desperate need of a rebuild and play in a pitcher's park, more probably true than not they would have keen interest in a young arm with upside like Burnes. For the Brewers, you get a legitimate top of the rotation arm. You strengthen the entire pitching staff by slotting everyone back one step. Woodruff becomes a #2, Davies a #3 etc. Odd man out is the new swing man in the pen. Bumgarner is one of this generations best playoff pitchers and could be an absolute killer in the post season.

Honestly, the Cardinals are going nowhere unless their starting pitching evens out. Wacha and his 1.7 whip was moved to the pen. Dakota Hudson is at 1.63 with a strike out to walk ratio of 1.5:1 (that is almost Jamey Wright territory). Wainwright also had a decent April and followed it up with a poor May. Their offense and bullpen are good. If Andrew Miller could refind his 2016 form their pen would arguably be the most dominant in the league. The Cubs lack shut down arms in their bullpen. Chatwood and Brach are average. Strop and Montgomery have been injured. Edwards was demoted earlier in the year. Cishek is the best they've got at the moment and they've run him out their in nearly half the games. Hamels, Lester, Darvish and Quintana are capable of shutting any team down on any given night, and their inconsistencies to date have largely been offset by an elite hitting lineup. Even with Zobrist having left the team due to his divorce, their offense hasn't missed a beat. I like the Brewers starting pitching better than the Cardinals, the Brewers pen better than the Cubs, the Cubs have a better offense than Milwaukee but the Brewers have a slight edge over St. Louis's hitters. I'd be wary of the Cardinals signing Keuchel and the Cubs signing Kimbrel immediately after the draft (while the Cubs are maxed out on their budget, since Zobrist left the team there's a question if he's been drawing his salary, if not that saved money would help pay for Kimbrel in '19). That would change the balance in the division as well. The Pirates have too many injuries in their rotation currently to keep pace with the top 3. Their offense isn't good enough to catch up if they fall behind. Conversely, the Reds pitching has been very good and their offense has been bad. That could change with Senzel up and Gennett coming back from injury; the real question for the Reds will be if they hang on to their players on expiring contracts in an effort to compete or trade: Puig, Gennett, Wood, Roark to further reload for 2020.

Twins have 8 (soon to be 9) wins against winning clubs. 28 wins against teams with losing records. Why do Brewers always play down to lesser talented teams?

Not a straw man argument at all. Of their top 10 prospects before the Yelic trade they swapped off #’s 1,3 5, 6 and 8. That’s 50% of their top ten. So even if they “strategically traded the right guys” it’s still says their farm system isn’t as good as it was hyped to be since Monte Harrison is the only minor leaguer out of the those in the top ten they’ve traded who has flourished.

As it turns out it was a pretty weak system before Milwaukee traded many of their minor leaguers away starting in January 2018. Lewis Brinson was the crown jewel of the system when he was shipped out and has struggled to the point; it’s no a legitimate question to wonder if he’s a major league caliber player. Brett Phillips is trending in the wrong direction with his minor league production this year, and despite rebuilding the Royals had enough concern about his game to go out and pick up proven fringe major leaguer Billy Hamilton. Likewise Luis Ortiz is pitching poorly in the Orioles organization and couldn’t pitch his way onto a roster lacking enough legitimate major league arms they had to go out and trade for Dan Strailly (who since flopped as a starter and was shifted to the pen). Ryan Cordell might be the most successful if the prospects that came back to the Brewers for Lucroy. His numbers aren’t good for the White Sox (.678 OPS) but the Sox are at least giving him regular major league at bats. None of this really means too much other than the fact that some Brewer farm hands were overrated by the pundits who follow this stuff closely. To wit, I’d take the Brewers’ current crop of prospects with a grain of salt. The preceding generation was held in higher regard than the members of the current generation (Hiura non withstanding) and they have really struggled it disappointed since leaving the organization

Why is Doug Melvin out of a job as the Brewers GM? Mainly, because the pipeline of talent he built dried up. Sure, the player selected by Texas with the Competitive Balance A pick is not a sure bet to see the majors, but statistically most players in the majors come from the top couple of rounds, rather than picks outside of the first 100 or so. When the Brewers had a LOOGY like Cedeno under team control, this is just a unwise gamble

A rare miss by Stearns. Loogys are a dime a dozen and that’s what they’ve got in Claudio. Regrettably they traded their competitive balance A draft pick for him. With right handed hitters hammering him, an era of close to 6 and lacking swing and miss stuff; I think there’s a real chance he doesn’t make it to the end of the year in Milwaukee

Well if those are the playoff contending teams I’m sure glad the Brewers are done with the Dodgers, Phillies and Mets before the calendar turns to June. Maybe the my can flatten up beating up on some cream puffs Inn june and July before the deadline

Lyles has some great numbers for the Pirates and really isn't doing anything different than he did with Milwaukee in terms of hits, walks and homers allowed. Maybe I'm missing something in the peripherals but that kind of production seems like they could've picked up the option and swapped him off to somebody at least.

After last week, the team most likely would have preferred to use an opener with Peralta. However, while being at the outset of 10 days in a row without a day off, with the 15 inning game on Saturday they used everybody in the pen during the Cubs series with Burnes, Claudio, Albers and Houser going twice. Having Houser finish it up last night, was probably the right move in the long run so everyone else out there got a night off, but it also means they'll take their chances with Peralta starting this evening.

What is sort of sad is he was living pay check to pay check so he embezzled (that's the correct term) money from his employer, yet as a 10th round pick he likely got at least a 100k+ bonus when he signed, so he apparently frittered that away as well as about a half-season worth of big league pay in 2004 ($300,000/year), and another month worth of major league pay in 2006 ($327,000/year). So besides being a thief, he also must be kind of stupid.

It's sort of ironic for a team that has only developed a half dozen quality starting pitchers in the last 30 years to have traded one of them away who subsequently goes on to through 2 no hitters. (Then again, Fiers is a fly-ball pitcher, which is not in vogue ).

....just keep in mind the Brewers got the #55 prospect in baseball (Segura) plus two pitchers (Johnny Hellweg and Ariel Pena) from the Angels for 13 starts from Zack Greinke in 2012. I don't think trading Hiura is really as far fetched as it may seem.

I was partially kidding about trading Hiura for Bumgarner. Hiura might be a blue chip player that's plugged into the middle of the order for the better part of a decade, OR he could be wind up being nothing. Nobody knows for sure, and that's what makes following prospects fun. When the Brewers dealt Mat Laporta to Cleveland for CC Sabathia, Laporta was Baseball America's #23 prospect overall. Laporta quickly washed out of the major leagues, and it was the PTBNL Brantley who ended up being the impact player that went to Cleveland. However if the Giants would indeed trade Bumgarner to the Brewers for Hiura, I think Milwaukee probably should pull the trigger. They haven't had a proven ace pitcher since Greinke was traded, they'll never have the money to sign one at a market rate, and they've been terrible at developing front line starting pitching for close to 3 decades. Bumgarner, even if a rental, is a transformative talent and would make the Brewers rotation formidable instead of ho-hum. More importantly, for a team with playoff expectations is there a better acquisition than this generation's most dominant playoff pitcher? Not to mention in his career he has been a monster against the Cubs (9-2, 1.01 whip), Cardinals (1.18 whip), Braves (7-3 1.00 whip) Dodgers (1.06 whip) Nationals (0.98 whip) Padres (1.04) and Phillies (1.12), so you'd have to feel pretty good with him on the mound in a potential tie-break or wild card game. So like I said, earlier if the Giants would do such a trade, then I'd be okay with Hiura arriving in Milwaukee with the Giants some time in 2020.

I take it back. We won't see Hiura until 2020 when San Francisco plays in Milwaukee, because Stearns will have to deal him in order to land Madison Bumgarner.

In 2015, Shaw hit .270/.327/.487 in 250 at bats. One reason he was available in a trade in the first place is he followed up his promising rookie season with a .242/.306/.421 line in 2016. So far in 2019, his BaBiP is a career low of .222, when that number creeps up closer to his career mark of .283 his overall numbers will get better. However, like he showed in 2016 sometimes solid baseball players just have an off year. Also, with Moustakas on the team, the front office more likely than not does not want to make the mental aspect for Shaw even worse by benching him. Secondly, Hiura didn't really play the field in 2017 and has only 120 or so games under his belt as a defender since turning pro. The way the front office values versatility and defense, his relatively light experience as a defender will play against him. As has been previously pointed out, having to make a spot on the 40 man roster right now would be difficult unless the pitching staff stabilizes. For the foregoing reasons, I don't think we'll see Hiura until September.

I know its kind of tongue in cheek since its May 2nd, but the 2019 Brewer offense is far from dynamic in terms of runs scored (156). Half the teams in the NL have 149 or more runs scored. Meanwhile the pitching staff is now dead last in the league in terms of runs allowed with 172 and only the Mets have allowed more than 150. But more importantly I don't see where the needed improvement comes from? I assume Chacin will pitch better, but Peralta, Burnes are not merely rookies taking lumps as they learn on the job, they're going out there and handing the team an automatic loss. Then the collection of Barnes, Wilson, Wilkerson, Hart, Jackson, Petricka, and Houser have pitched 55+ innings or, put another way, over six games worth of innings with mostly terrible results. Nelson isn't even currently pitching so there is no timetable for his return, let alone the expectation that he will be the same pitcher he was before a significant shoulder injury. Nor are their any arms with nothing left to prove at AAA. So maybe last year was a fluke, and the Brewers go back to rebuilding come July.

What happened to this pitching staff? The Knebel and Jeffress injuries were huge, but this pitching staff was decent last year with virtually the same cast of characters. This year this staff is now the worst in the NL in terms of runs allowed and subtract the Mets from that equation and they are the worst by far. Hard to believe.

The Yankees decision not to call Gonzalez up isn't solely related to his performance. First, they got better production than expected out of Domingo German and Sabathia got healthy and has an 8 million dollar contract. The Yankees are also paying around 40 million dollars for their trio of late inning relief: Chapman, Ottavino and Britton. Being over the luxury tax threshold would add another 20% on to whatever Gonzalez was costing them. Which means they would be paying a long relief pitcher nearly 4 million, and if they had to use him as a starter his contract called for a $300k bonus per start, he could really push them even further over the threshold. Each of these reasons including performance were likely the reason he wasn't called up and opted out.

It is interesting though: Chacin and Davies are cemented in the rotation. Woodruff is a pretty good bet to continue, then there is Gio, Burnes, Peralta, Anderson, and Jimmy Nelson for the final two rotation spots. At 750k Alex Wilson's spot on the roster going forward is probably tenuous, and Albers could be in trouble if Gonzalez hits the ground running.

FIP Chacin 5.71 Peralta 5.83 Burnes 9.85 Albers 5.62 Wilson 5.30 Guerra 5.81 I'm sure some of these guys will come around as the season progresses, but the good new is Gio Gonzalez is a useful major league pitcher. He generally keeps the ball in the ballpark, and his FIP was 4.25 last year in arguably his worst full season as a pro.

I’m glad they have Grandal too; but what’s the best case scenario for Grandal a 3 WAR player? The step backwards by the pitching staff will likely more than offset what Grandal adds and he’ll leave as a free agent after the season meaning it would have been better to stick with Kratz and Pina and spend that 18 million adding talent to the pitching staff