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You can't really believe the Yankees would part with Torres and a prospect for Hader and Arcia. They would laugh themselves silly if the Brewers offered that. Torres is going to play SS the way it looks and he is just about the last Yankee they would trade.

I doubt seriously that the Yankees would ever trade him, but Urshela would really interest me. Especially if he came along with a Luis Gil. Again, I don't think the Yankees would ever make the deal, but it would be nice.

I like that idea. It would be workable, would still give the umps the first call, and the most egregious mistakes would (hopefully) be caught and corrected. I also think it could be useful to generate percentages of how accurately umps call the zone, and where they miss. It was used in the minors as the primary ball/strike authority. The umps behind the plate only changed the call if a ball bounced into the zone, on foul tips, etc... Umpires said they got near instantaneous notification on strikes so the actual call was also near instantaneous. Pitch "framing" was a non-factor and the arguments about the zone were minuscule. There are still some minor bugs to be worked out, but the technology is coming soon to the big leagues.

If the Twins did sign Donaldson and the Brewers thought the left handed hitting Luis Arraez could serve as the primary third baseman he might be a nice target, although it would likely cost the Brewers some quality major league talent to acquire him. His strikeout rate was just 7.9% and his OBP was .379 last season. I can't imagine the Twins would even entertain offers for Arraez. He hit extremely well at every level including last year in the majors. He can play OF and 2B besides 3B. The Brewers just don't have enough young talent to pull off a deal like that.

IMO the Yankees wou't part with Urshela, but would deal Andujar. I think Stearns would gladly take on one year of Happ ($17M), not let him pitch enough innings to get vested for 2021, if he got Andujar in the deal. The question is; what do the Yankees want in return? If it was Arcia or Ray or somebody like that, I would do it in a heart beat.

IMO the Yankees wou't part with Urshela, but would deal Andujar. I think Stearns would gladly take on one year of Happ ($17M), not let him pitch enough innings to get vested for 2021, if he got Andujar in the deal. The question is; what do the Yankees want in return? If it was Arcia or Ray or somebody like that, I would do it in a heart beat.

He plays solid D wherever he’s moved so there’s no reason to think he would do the same at 3B. From the Royals perspective, I don’t see why they wouldn’t trade a guy now in his 30s, who will net a good return, when they’re not close to contending. Instead of needing the be overwhelmed, just be whelmed and get some good young players back. That said, I don’t think it’s be the brewers who could provide that. You can't assume that he would play well at 3B just because he plays a good 2B and is a decent OF. Ian Kinsler is a great example. He was a pretty darn good 2B and Det. tried to make him a 3B in spring training. He failed miserably and quickly returned to 2B. In 2016 or 2017 KC talked of Merrifield playing third too. He played 6 or 7 games there and then quickly moved back to 2B. In reality not just any infielder can play the hot corner. To count on a career 2B to be your everyday 3B would be folley.

He plays solid D wherever he’s moved so there’s no reason to think he would do the same at 3B. From the Royals perspective, I don’t see why they wouldn’t trade a guy now in his 30s, who will net a good return, when they’re not close to contending. Instead of needing the be overwhelmed, just be whelmed and get some good young players back. That said, I don’t think it’s be the brewers who could provide that. You can't assume that he would play well at 3B just because he plays a good 2B and is a decent OF. Ian Kinsler is a great example. He was a pretty darn good 2B and Det. tried to make him a 3B in spring training. He failed miserably and quickly returned to 2B. In 2016 or 2017 KC talked of Merrifield playing third too. He played 6 or 7 games there and then quickly moved back to 2B. In reality not just any infielder can play the hot corner. To count on a career 2B to be your everyday 3B would be folley.

Not to down play the other two because they had very good years in AA but I'm very excited about File and Lazar. Lazar because he's embarrassed the competition. File because his pitches move so much he seems to cross the entire strike zone. And he's not joking about that. The slider sweeps the curve ball dives and the FB plays up because he can put it up in the zone and make it look like the curve until it doesn't tumble. One of his past coaches pointed out that he throws multiple pitches and they all look the same at the release. He's just very interesting and he's improved as he's climbed up the ranks. I could see a big start in AA jump him into MLB considerations by the late season. It's not that he has a powerful arm but his movement and the late read hitters get on that movement is very promising. Unlike his slider model, he walks about half as many batters. He just has that vibe of a guy (who isn't even on pipeline) that is going to fly up the ranks and be in the rotation before they can adjust the rankings. I saw File pitch when he was with the T'Rats and he really wasn't that impressive. He allowed more hits than IPs and didn't strikeout a lot of guys. More of a control type pitcher that other teams were hitting hard at times. Now he's improved at AA, but he really isn't anybody to get super excited about. Now Lazar is a different story. He was dominate with the T'Rats. Lots of strikeouts and I think his K to BB ratio was something like 5 or 6 to 1. He's a bigger guy with room to fill out even more. He could move up fast. We'll have to wait and see though. Many Brewer pitchers do real well in the lower minors only to get to AAA and fizzle out like a burnt match.

I actually think the return For Arenado wouldn’t be that great. Like Stanton with the Marlins, the big contract with player opt out gives all risk to the team. The Rockies would have to get a huge haul to even think of trading Arenado. He's only one year away from signing the monster deal and their management would be tarred and feathered if they let him go for little or nothing.

I have us at $103m spent. Anybody's guess how much is "available". Based on last year, another $25m or so. But no guarantee they open with a payroll as big as last year. Lineup will be something like Cain - CF Yelich - RF Hiura - 2b Smoak - 1b Garcia/Braun - LF Narvaez - C Urias - 3b Arcia - SS Braun will play some 1b as well. If we sign a 3b or Healy wins a job, Urias probably moves to SS. Sogard is available to fill in at 3b/2b/ss. Let's hope your lineup never comes to fruition. It would be one of the weakest lineups in all Mlb and coupled with a very weak starting staff, the Crew would win 65-75 games tops.

Smoak made $8M for a very, very mediocre year. I hope Stearns didn't go crazy like the Sogard contract and get Smoak for even 1/2 that amount. I can't see Healy and Sogard ever being the full time options at 3B. Spending money on Healy, Sogard, and Smoak just takes the money away from what he needs the most. Starting pitching and a thrdbaseman. It's still early, but the more Stearns piddles away money the less he has to actually sign a difference maker for 2020.

But I don't like revisionist adds. His 2019 doesn't mean much to me. He has a long track record of not being 2019 and he only has 3 years over 90 OPS+. 250/320/660 blah and a career OPS+ 82. He's good at 2b 3b and the rest of his utility summed up as not being bad at other spots. It's not like I've been a Perez advocate either. Useful and 4.5 mil is a different level in MKE. I'm so sick of this SS turnstile we have going on. Trade Escobar before his prime. Trade Segura before his prime. Now we trade Arcia before his prime. Cue up Urias. When was Escobar's "prime"? 6 of his last 7 years he had an OBP under .300.. His career: .258/.293 and .636 OPS....Escobar had two decent years and a bunch of crappy ones. Segura was and continues to be a cancer in the club house. Despite his numbers, he is with his 4th team in 5 years. Teams seem eager to get rid of him once they have him for a season.

You put Healy (.237/.289 career OBP under .300) as a B? Healy was a fill in for AAA type signing. A low C or D at best. Anderson to a minimal $5M contract and you have that as an F-....On what basis do you make your grades? Obviously not on MLB production.

Who are those 'good' guys for 3B? Anybody on the current roster would be the worst or one of the two worst 3B in all baseball.

So the O's give up one of the better players in baseball and get a big contract in Lowrie, Smith who has had one good year, and Gimenez who was very mediocre at AA. Once again the Brewers make out like bandits and the other teams get screwed. The Mets could make a better deal just dealing for Hader one on one.

More potential 3B trade options... Johan Camargo (Braves): Switch hitting 3B that currently projects to be on the Braves bench after the emergence of Austin Riley. Injured last year and had a down performance, but put up a 115 OPS+ and was nearly a 4-win player as a 24 year old in 2018. Also good defensively. Has played every spot on the infield as well as the corner outfield. Good bounce back candidate if healthy. Hunter Dozier (Royals): He projects to be around an .800 OPS hitter. He’s not great defensively. David Fletcher (Angels): Very good defensively. Was bounced from 3B by the Rendon signing. Might move over to 2B for the Angels if they prefer his youth over Tommy La Stella. Tommy La Stella (Angels): Left handed batter that had a 119 OPS+ last season. Played 30 games at 3B in 2019. See above note regarding David Fletcher. Miguel Sanó (Twins): I doubt he gets traded, but there continue to be rumblings that the Twins are in on Donaldson and would either move Sano to 1B or entertain offers. I don't think the Twins trade Sano either. They won't get Donaldson the way it looks and I don't think the Brewers have what the Twins would want for Sano anyway. Thanks for mentioning Fletcher. He has very, very little power, but hits the ball well (.290/.350). I don't know what the Angels would want for him, but he's expendable with the Rendon signing. LaStella's a decent hitter with a little more pop, but going to be 31 in January. A lefty bat and as good an option as any (other than Donaldson or McNeil) that's been discussed. Dozier is horrible at 3B and probably not an option. Camargo was shuttled between AAA and Atlanta last year. He was injured part of the time and hit a terrible .233/.279. He would be a good target for Stearns and should be relatively inexpensive to procure. I like your thinking.

IMO any deal with the Mets has to start with McNeil. Davis would be a part-time 1B along with Braun. If they get Davis he would be a secondary piece of the trade.

I can hardly think of a more underwhelming signing. I guess Stearns has to fill out the San Antonio roster somehow. If Healy is on the big league roster other than an injury replacement, it means Stearns has officially thrown in the towel for 2020.

JD Davis also cannot play defense. No way am I trading Hader for Davis alone. Not a chance. Yeah, this is just not an option, especially with Braun at 1B a lot in 2020. McNeil, Kevin Smith, and Brett Baty for Hader. You are kidding right? McNeil is good but Kevin Smith?? He was horrible at AA ( .209/.263 - 151 Ks in only 463 ABs) Baty is still in rookie ball and 4-5 years away. Brewers can do much, much better.

Brewers would love it, A's would laugh themselves blue in the face.

0% is a bit of a reach. Without a new 3B, we are currently looking at Urias starting at 3B and Arcia at SS. Things will change I'm sure, but 0% chance is a risky bet. IMO the chances of Urias starting at 3B are about the same chances as the Brewers had at signing Cole. Zero. Urias was brought in to play SS. Stearns will pickup a low cost 3B or a platoon like he'll have at 1B.

130 Garcia RF Yelich 32 Cain CF as much as he can, 5th OF the rest (Gamel, Taylor or Broxton) Yelich 112 in LF, Braun 50 Braun 62 at 1b, Thames like LH 100 Done. Exactly. A lot of people are all bent out of shape about Grandal and Moose. Narvaez helped a great deal. Moose played 40 starts at 2b. We lose 96 starts of him at 3b surely. However, we should gain about 70 from Hiura at 2b. We lose that big bat for about 66 starts. Gamel started 65 games. Unless Cain is hurt that's not happening with the current roster. Shaw started 58 games. Can't do worse. Aguilar started 78 games. Not good, and those are basically Braun now. Grisham was promising but he also wasn't much better than Gamel. You put Garcia in place of a number of Gamel and Grisham starts. You put Braun in place of Aguilar. Those are some upgrades. Anyone is an upgrade over the games Shaw played. The team is not going to feel the loss of Moose/Grandal as much as people think they will. They don't even need a great 3b. The lineup won't be as good as it was when Moose was at 3rd and Hiura was at 2nd but there was a long stretch of the season where that wasn't the case. That stretch had a lot of Aguilar and Shaw. I joined the party late. I was in after Lindblom and Narvaez. Anderson instead of Gio works for me. I had Garcia as a target. This offense looks very good with Thames LH platoon mate for Braun's 1b time. Flores primary 3b. Why, snap, he doesn't strikeout. That's around 10 mil. The last spot I keep toggling on. Holt to back up 3b and defensive sub 1b (and a ton of versatility and OBP) or a RH 1b/PH bat with Urias as the 3b sub. My question is regarding Gamel Taylor and Broxton. Makes a lot of sense to deal out Gamel, keep Broxton as the CF sub, and stash Taylor as OF 4 when an injury pops up. IMO it makes zero sense to deal Gamel. First, he won't bring anything worth getting. Second, he fills in at all three OF positions. Third, he hit lefties (79 PAs) .354/.456 . Last, Broxton is horrible with the bat. Flores is a good bat to bring in, but can he be an everyday thirdbaseman? His play at 3B hasn't been good in the approx. 75 games he's played there. Urias has been even worse at 3B. He's a SS/2B and that's it. I like Holt a lot as a super sub. He's not a gold glove candidate at 3B, but a good sub at 5 positions.

The Pirates laugh hysterically. Lutz and Ray wouldn't be close to what the Pirates could get for Bell alone.