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The Brewers don't have enough decent prospects to even think about Story w/o completely emptying the system.

The Royals won't take two bums like Barnes and Williams for Diekman. They would get a better pkg. from any other team interested in Diekman. Diaz is nowhere near the pitcher he was last year. More hits than IPs - 21 ERs in only 38 IPs - 1.6 HRs/9. 3+ BBs/9. Right now I wouldn't give up Williams for him, much less the whole pkg..

AAA#’s Salad > .288 .375 Spang > .317 .385 Freitas > .361 .442 Grisham > .353 .426 Didn’t show home runs and ops because of the juiced ball. Huge difference statistically between the 2 sets of players. Grisham and Freitas also don’t K and walk a lot. Freitas had about as many ab’s last year in his mlb trial with Seattle when he hit .221 as Pina has this year hitting under .200. And this is Freitas’s second AAA year in a row raking. He’s obviously found his hitting stroke, aka Max Muncy, and I’m assuming will be our starting catcher next year. Good job unearthing this guy by our GM. Freitas will be 31 next year. How many career minor league catchers in their 30's suddenly do better in the big leagues?

I just can't see Eilas even in the picture this year. 4.85 ERA - 4.91 FIP - 42 IPs -40 hits - 1.7 HR/9 - 3.6 BB/9. He has regressed badly from last year. Colome and Giles would be far and away better than Elias, and either would be a huge help to the beleaguered bullpen. Their salariers and both being arby eligible is a problem that may stop Stearns in his tracks. The Nats aren't going to part with Doolittle and you're right that Smith is going to be too expensive prospect wise. Kennedy's massive salary rules him out unless KC dumped in $10-11M, and then the prospect pkg. they would want would go up. I too would love to have Diekman. Many other teams are also looking for lefties and who knows what that does to his price. Holland and Romo would help the pen, that's for sure. Both should be affordable and either one of them might be where Stearns concentrates his efforts.

Why would the Crew want to take on Leake's salary? He may be marginally better than a #5 (4.80 FIP - 24 dingers already - more hits than IPs), but his salary is more than the Crew wants for a #5 and in no way a difference maker. Elias 4.85 ERA - 4.91 WHIP - 1.34 WHIP - a HR every 5 IPs. He is worse than Albers, Jeffress, Guerra, Houser. Not much help for the Brewers and the Mariners get a salary dump plus a pretty good prospect.

FIP definitely does not like guys like Davies or guys who give up HRs. FIP places a large value on strikeouts (-Ks X2) and Davies' lack of Ks is a detriment when figuring FIP.

Spangenberg has very limited time at SS. MLB = 1 inning. Minors = 8 games. He certainly isn't a starting SS.

Would Kipnis be the salary dump Clev. wants to move Bauer? He would cost the Brewers $9.5 - 10M for this year including his $2.5M buyout. I can't see any reason why the Brewers would want him otherwise. Kipnis isn't capable of playing SS so he doesn't fit as the backup INF. Gamel is better in the OF so he doesn't fit there either. Stearns would have to DFA him immediately. Bauer would be about $6M this year and being arby eligible, around $17-19M next year. In your deal the Brewers would be putting out basically $32M - $34M for 1 1/2 years of Bauer. I don't know if the price is right for that.

If they are looking for pitching what's left to offer them? Arcia may interest them. Grisham may interest them as part of a package, but where's the pitching they'd want?

If Grandal is traded and Frietas is brought up to replace him, it would not only severely diminish the team, but also signal that Stearns has completely given up on the season. Frietas is a career minor leaguer (10+ years) who is going to be 31 yrs old. Shaw may have figured it out and may be Moose's replacement. If he hasn't, it would be a huge blow to the offense and an end to the season. Chacin won't bring anything other than a a bag of used balls right now. He would be a rental and no contending team would give up any decent prospect for him. Anderson has some value because he is still controlable. Thames may have small value, but again, wouldn't bring any kind of meaningful prospect.

I can't believe the Giants go for it. Ray is an iffy prospect right now. I can't imagine Moose will bring back any big prospects either. The Giants are giving up three pitchers who individually would bring much more than your offer.

Then you must not have been watching the game. 2 hard hit balls all night, and one of them should have been caught. Pitched 6 innings, and gave the team a chance to win the game. He’s now stretched out, so outside of the cardinals start early in the year, he finally has the stamina to pitch like a starter. Oh, and the 3 run home run he gave up to Freeman was a good pitch, Freeman just a great hitter. I guess it's a matter of what your definition of "hard hit" means, but I saw a lot more than 2 hard hit balls. I agree Braun misplayed the one over his head, but it was still hit hard. When you say he gave his team a chance to win, how many runs does a pitcher have to allow to NOT give his team a chance to win? What may be a good pitch to some hitters, is a bad pitch to others. Freeman loves the low ball. He is the prototypical lefty "golfer". He has been for his whole career. Years ago I saw him play a couple of times in Gwinnett and he had the big uppercut and feasted on the low ball there too. Freeman devours those types of pitches. If you saw his last AB he took a huge swing at a ball low and out of the zone and fouled it off. The bottom line is Houser allowed 8 hits and 4 runs in just 6 IPs. If he pitches 120 innings and allows 160 hits and 80 ERs, would that be considered pitching well or would he be back in the minors?

I was trying to show that the number of minor lg. starts is not indicative of success in the major leagues. I disagree that Houser pitched well vs. the Braves. I guess it's a matter of semantics, but I don't believe allowing 8 hits and 4 runs in 6 innings is pitching well.

That's where I'm at. Burnes just isn't as advanced as Woodruff is right now. Houser has started far more games in the minors than Woodruff and he isn't nearly as advanced as Woodruff either. Despite what the tv people say, Houser has stunk as a starter so far. 6 starts -- 23 IPs -- 36 hits -- 20 ERs -- 6 HRs -- 10 BBs. Not as bad as Burnes, but still horrible. Despite the hype for both Burnes' and Houser's 4 pitch mix, neither has shown they can start in the big leagues and do the job.

Rather than sell I'd like to see Stearns try and re-sign Grandal (4/$70M -- 3/$51M with a $3M buyout after 3 years. 4th year at $19M) and Moose (4/$50 -- 3/$36M with a $2M buyout after 3rd year. 4th year $14M). I have no idea if that gets it done, but who knows. Chacin $6.75M -- Nelson $3.5M -- Albers $2.5M -- Perez $2.5M -- Anderson $8.5M -- Thames $7.5M -- Claudio $1.3M -- Jeffress $4.3M; all or most of them will be gone. Braun's contract is up after 2020. Re-signing Grandal and Moose would add only a minimal amount to the payroll of this year. If Shaw can truely come back to what he was, Moose could go too and free up more money for pitching. Nelson (if they see a clear cut path back to being an MLB pitcher) or Anderson will likely be kept for pitching depth.

The only problem with waiting two weeks is the trading deadline is July 31. If Stearns is selling there won't be much time to make a good deal for whomever leaves, and if he is buying most teams will already have moved their players. I like your idea, but I think after this week Stearns has to make up his mind. Buyers or Sellers.

Exactly, bullpen reinforcements are exactly what this team needs to be able to win the central. I’d do the following with the aforementioned pen reinforcements: Trade Chacín for prospects. Trade Grandal for prospects Gio replaces Chacín. Freitas replaces Grandal Don’t need Chacín with Gio/Peralta Freitas can hit and defend, less than 100 ab’s At .214 in ML not enough to judge, last 2 years .950+ ops 500 ab’s, .450+ on base telling, non K bat too. At least he gets a real shot to show us what he can do. At least one of the 2 pen reinforcements should be controlled past this year, but hoping for both. Where do you get Freitas can hit and defend? Freitas is a career minor leaguer who is an average defensive catcher and has failed to hit MLB pitching. He's almost 31 yrs. old and hitting in the very friendly PCL. There's a reason he has spent 10+ years in the minor leagues. Chacin wouldn't be a huge loss, even though Peralta has proven he isn't a starting pitcher until he gets a third pitch and a consistent breaking ball. Grandal would be a huge loss to the offense. Your trades would mean the Brewers are giving up on the season.

I totally agree, what could it hurt? CC's bullpen is terrible right now. Once again Burnes is awful. For the year: 46 IPs - 66 hits - 46 ERs. I don't care what his "potential" is or how "great his stuff" is. MLB is a results league and right now Burnes is horrendous. He belongs in AAA. Albers gets killed for the second consecutive time too. Jeffress is a shadow of what he was last year. Guerra has been over used and has been getting shelled since the end of May. Claudio is iffy at best, Peralta is up and down just like he was as a starter. AAA guys that have been brought up have been terrible. CC has very little to choose from when Hader is unavailable. The season is slipping away fairly quickly unless Stearns can get some help.

What? No habla incoherenta I think he's trying to say that Jackson got a chance and blew it miserably. In 3 games (2.1 IPs) he gave up 5 ERs with 2 HRs. The Brewers DFA'd him and are now bringing him back (I guess that says it all about the sorry state of CC's pen). He's another AAAA type guy like Wilkerson, Smith, Orf, etc.....

Isn't Honeywell hurt for the second time? Anyways, no deal. You are giving up on the season for a 1B and an injured pitcher.

7 runs is going to get you a win 9 times out of 10. The bullpen was crap tonight, and that's why they lost. Trading for a starter and a pen arm or two isn't going to solve every problem, but it would sure as heck makes this team more competitive. The offense is streaky, but playoff worthy. Pitching is holding them back ... specifically another good starter and the back end of the pen. Tonight Anderson had a pretty decent start. He continues to give up the long ball, but didn't do badly. Burnes, Hader, and Albers cost the Crew the game. Burnes is an enigma. He can't be counted on for any late innings because he is so wildly inconsistent. With another two HRs given up tonight, Hader has already allowed as many homers (9) as he did all of last year. Like Smoltz said, Hader has fallen in love with his fastball and has gotten to the point where he cannot throw the breaking ball for strikes. Hitters are sitting strictly FB and not worrying about anything else. Stearns needs to find CC some late inning help or watch the season slip away in a hurry.

No, we're not reading too much into that site. He literally just chimed in saying what the numbers broke down too after it was already discussed a bit, not vice versa. Yes, I know they've said they want to deal them separately but if one team is able to offer what they're looking for in totality then why would they do two different deals? Ray had a ton of value heading into this season and broke his finger in spring training then didn't tell anyone because he wanted to play. Nobody is putting any stock into his AAA numbers. His injury isn't career altering and now he's back. The only thing that sucks is him missing the first half of the season. He has plenty of value and very well might be less than 1yr away from MLB. Of course they're going to be expensive. But Arcia, Peralta, Ray isn't remotely close to a cheap package value wise. It just matters how the Jays value a package like this over competing ones. Will other competing teams also view Stroman as the brand he is or the actual performer he is? Because his performance doesn't match his brand (ie he's performed like a really good mid-rotation while having the brand of a frontline starter) You value Arcia, Peralta, Ray highly. Many others look at how they are performing and don't see anywhere near what you do. Arcia is not playing that well. CC said his defense is lacking and he is hitting .238/.300.. The Jays have Galvis at SS and he is out performing Arcia. Peralta has been rocked consistently the last two years. He has been decent at times, but his lack of secondary pitches is a glaring weakness. Ray had one year where he hit a lot of HRs, but he hasn't hit above .240 from A+ through AAA ball. Right now none of the three would headline a package for Stroman.

No, we're not reading too much into that site. He literally just chimed in saying what the numbers broke down too after it was already discussed a bit, not vice versa. Yes, I know they've said they want to deal them separately but if one team is able to offer what they're looking for in totality then why would they do two different deals? Ray had a ton of value heading into this season and broke his finger in spring training then didn't tell anyone because he wanted to play. Nobody is putting any stock into his AAA numbers. His injury isn't career altering and now he's back. The only thing that sucks is him missing the first half of the season. He has plenty of value and very well might be less than 1yr away from MLB. Of course they're going to be expensive. But Arcia, Peralta, Ray isn't remotely close to a cheap package value wise. It just matters how the Jays value a package like this over competing ones. Will other competing teams also view Stroman as the brand he is or the actual performer he is? Because his performance doesn't match his brand (ie he's performed like a really good mid-rotation while having the brand of a frontline starter) You value Arcia, Peralta, Ray highly. Many others look at how they are performing and don't see anywhere near what you do. Arcia is not playing that well. CC said his defense is lacking and he is hitting .238/.300.. The Jays have Galvis at SS and he is out performing Arcia. Peralta has been rocked consistently the last two years. He has been decent at times, but his lack of secondary pitches is a glaring weakness. Ray had one year where he hit a lot of HRs, but he hasn't hit above .240 from A+ through AAA ball. Right now none of the three would headline a package for Stroman.

Zero chance. Ray is playing himself out of top prospect status. 2016 at A+ .247/.307... 2017 again at A+ .238/.311... 2018 at AA .239/.323. 2019 before getting hurt at AAA .178/.259.. 49 Ks in 112 PAs. Until Ray proves he can hit better pitching, his value won't be anything other than a lower end of a package.

Did Gammons happen to say what would the owners' incentive be to quadruple the salaries of pre-arby players? That would raise the league minimum salary to $2M.