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Aguilar, I've already come to the conclusion he's expendable. I was thinking he'd get maybe through the next week or so but if his fate were decided earlier it wouldn't shock me. Shaw has had 4 ABs the last 2 games, all strikeouts. Not a great look but prior to that his numbers were trending solidly in the right direction. I'd hate for these most recent 4 ABs to smother that progress too much. I wonder if Perez is safe? Great jack of all trades guy but as the saying goes, master of none. He's a bit of a luxury. There are guys in AAA that could fill in for the things Perez does, it might take more than one but they can shuttle them if needed. I love his personality and role with the team but I'd rather lose him than Shaw. Plus he could have a little trade value as a Swiss army knife piece, and whatever value that might be it wouldn't be skewed by slumping numbers like Aguilar or Shaw. What good would it do to let Perez go just to bring up a guy from AAA to fill his spot? They need a guy who can play SS if Arcia goes down. Plus Perez is a very good 5th OF. Shaw or Aguilar will go when Hiura comes up.

Yeah, this is where I'm at too. Hiura is in house, so if he takes Aguilar's spot so be it. However, I'm skeptical of jettisoning Aguilar and acquiring somebody else who is basically just like Aguilar... a streaky-ish right handed bat that only plays plays first base. I believe the only way they let Aguilar go is when Hiura comes up again. They won't try and replace him with anybody except Hiura.

The Brewer pitchers allowed a lot of hard hit balls in many of the June games. High pitch counts have been far too prevalent for many of the starters. They are far too often behind in the count which leads to a higher BABIP and many baserunners. In June the ERA was deserved rather than unlucky.

I have to wonder about the Brewer minor lg. pitching coaches. So many young guys come up w/o any sort of change-up. How in the world did Peralta progress w/o somebody showing him and then demand he throw a change-up? A circle change or even a straight palm ball is thrown like a fastball. Neither pitch is that hard to learn or throw. With Peralta's motion, a change-up would be a devastating pitch for him. It would make his 92-93 fastball look much quicker and help dramatically against lefties.

The problem with the whole excess value thing is the minors are filled with 45 type guys. Nottingham is a 45 and the Giants would laugh themselves silly if you offered Smith straight up for him even though the "excess value" says they would be getting the better end of the deal. Smith's value will depend on how many teams are looking at him. Value is in the eye of the beholder and the number of teams in the bidding.

I don't see the improvement coming from SPs. It's going to have to come from the bullpen. The Crew can improve with some obtainable arms and hope Gio, Anderson, Nelson, etc.. get better.

While the proposal might work from the Brewer side, to be clear I doubt the Tribe accepts that package proposed by Briggs. The Tribe is NOT in need of a LH slugging INF... As it is the Tribe sluggers are either LH or Switch hitters... If the Tribe really wanted more LH power, their top 1B prospect is Bobby Bradley at AAA Columbus (International league). 22 homers already. He is already on the 40 man roster & is a pure lefty. Listen, I am a fan of Freddy Peralta (I've thought for a while he would make a VERY good RHRP) & a fan of Travis Shaw (he & I both went to Kent State) but considering the number of teams that would have an interest in Brad Hand (if he was to be dealt) the offerings of those other teams are likely much greater than the Briggs suggestion... Its why I pointed to Oliver Perez. He won't cost as much to acquire and it allows the Brewers to retain & use its assets for other needs. I'm a little leery of Perez. 38 yrs old and has regressed significantly over last year. More hits than IPs and 10 ERs in only 21 IPs. He is headed in the wrong direction.

Rtot for Aguilar for 2018 and current 2019: 3/4. Thames 0/0. Encarnacion -3/-4. EE is actually an inferior 1B compared with either Thames or Aguilar. If you see EE at 1B he is a lot worse than a -4.

Brewer pitchers' FIP this year so far: 4.38. Last year 4.01. Very significant difference. ERA 4.37. Last year 3.97. Those two stats says this year's staff is quite a bit worse than last year. It depends on what stats you want to use.

Isn't Perez the RH option at multiple positions. To add Freese and Hiura, CC would have to jettison BOTH Shaw and Aguilar. Perez is needed for his versatility, Gamel is the 4th OF, Pina = backup catcher, Freese.

Allen was horrible for Clev. last year and is even worse this year. He got worse with the change of scenery. If the Brewers could get him to sign an AAA contract, maybe.

I'd make the deal right away if KC would take two bums in return for Diekman.

NO! Santana is set to make $21M next year and $17.5M in 2021. Bauer is arby eligible and due a big raise from his current $13M contract. Both are too expensive for the Crew.

It would be nice if we had a bullpen that could keep things close when the SP was taken to the woodshed by the other team. It would also help if CC understood bad Freddy isn't the type of pitcher you try to get 1 more inning out of when your team is trailing by 1. That 4 run 5th really did in the Brewers - take it away and they are battling to the end in a close game (or minimize the damage by going to the bullpen to start the 5th), maybe even winning a tough game against a good team. Instead another kick in the ass loss. We’re getting closer. With Chacín being activated Monday to the rotation and Peralta probably to the pen, with Barnes going back down, that will strengthen the front of the pen. No Barnes, by itself, strengthens the pen, but with Houser emerging as a real weapon to go with Peralta, I believe the crew can keep games closer. When Barnes is sent down, our bullpen, imo, will be as strong as any pen we had last year, including the post deadline pen. And if Burnes can get his command just a little better, we might not need a pen arm at the deadline. I don't see the pen being anywhere close to what they had last year. No Knebel to close and no Woodruff in the pen. Hader is giving up the long ball too often and not as consistent as he was last year. CC can't count on Peralta or Burnes. Peralta is all over the place and who knows what Burnes is going to do when he gets in. Ditto with Albers, Williams, and Barnes. Houser has been a real pleasant surprise and could be better than Soria. Jeffress is coming on as the weather gets warmer and last night he hit 96 consistently with a good breaking ball and his splitter may have been the best all year. They need one very good late inning type guy to be close to what they were last year.

Burnes is almost singly responsible for the huge increase in HRs given up. Hader also has given up a lot more than he did at this time last year. The juiced ball also has something to do with the balls flying out this year.

BumMad isn't the same player he was in his prime. He's been pretty consistent the last 300IP and that's a 1.4 WAR/100IP. Last year Wade Miley was better than that and Chacin was comparable. Both of those guys signed as FA for pretty reasonable money. I wouldn't trade any ONE of the 3 you mentioned for about another 1.3 WAR of BadBum. I would much rather see the Brewers go after Trevor Bauer than waste resources on BumScrad. Sure Bauer is a prick, but a talented one. Another possibility of a rental would be Zack Wheeler, who is better then MadScum right now and could be available if the mets become a non-factor in the playoff hunt come the trade deadline. Another 2021FA option would be Robbie Ray, who might be more expensive as the Dbacks want to dump Greinke's salary (who's another target if the Dbacks eat a ton of salary). Wheeler isn't good enough to give up anybody of value to the Brewers. I'll grant he's better right now than Chacin, Anderson, Perolta, Nelson, etc... I just don't know what the Mets would want for him. Bauer won't come cheap, the Indians have made that clear.

Turang is going to be a good one. I've seen him play and he looks like a dandy for the future. Ashby is doing well at A+, but Brown has been horrible at AAA this year. 60 IPs - 71 hits - 5.38 ERA - 1.76 WHIP - opponents hitting almost .300 against him. Not sure Clev. would want guys so far away from the big leagues. Bauer might bring more from other systems.

peralta is a failed starter, at this time, he is, sorry. Now maybe this time next year different ballgame. How do you all KNOW what kind of a starter Wilkerson would be? Again, when has he been given an opportunity for anything more than a SPOT start? NEVER. It’s time. We all talk around here like we know he’s just AAAA “fodder” when in reality he could be a real pitcher. Albeit one that maxes out at 91, but has a curve, slider, and changes speeds effectively with plus command, leading to potentially LOWER pitch counts. Maybe it's time to see what Wilkerson can do. He can't do much worse than what Chacin has been doing, or Anderson's last start, or Peralta, or Burnes. Right now Davies, Woodruff, Nelson and who? With Gio and Chacin down, is there a better option? If nothing else he bridges the gap until Gio can come back.

Anderson has had only one GOOD outing as a starter. In his 6 starts he has gone only 4 innings three times. Another time 4.2 IPs. In only two of his starts did he go even 5 innings. I'm not saying Wilkerson is the answer, but Anderson is a #5 at best and maybe not that good. He was a disaster in the pen to start the year, so I don't know what CC has planned for him.

It would have been a DP either way, but at least he wouldn't be out with the ACL. Pretty sure it wouldn't have. The ball dropped and the throw went to 1st. Once the force out is made on Segura, McCutchen has the right to still occupy that base and there is no force out at 2nd at that point. If the 1B tags McCutchen FIRST and then steps on the base it's a DP even if McCutchen is standing on the base.

Aguilar being out of the picture really doesn't help Hiura that much. Either Shaw or Moustakas is going to play 2B most of the time so Hiura would be on the bench unless a LH throws. Either way he wouldn't be playing on a regular basis. Better to go down and play almost every day. If Stearns could get something decent for either Shaw or Thames, the problem is solved.

It would have been a DP either way, but at least he wouldn't be out with the ACL.

Stearns is smart enough to make sure that never an issue, I’m sure he was told it was temporary, that he was ONLY up because Shaw was down, and to use this as a positive learning experience. On a side note, I was wrong in blaming CC, and it being his fault Hiura had to be sent down because of his aversion to a 12 man. Even if they had a 12 man staff, he’d be down to get regular ABs and not play PT with the crew. They weren’t going to play Shaw at first and sit both Thames and Aguilar, right? Stearns now has problems. How does he spin this to the fans if Shaw can't get it together? If it's really all about winning, was this a good move? There will be tremendous pressure on Shaw to produce right away with this move. He can't continue to be a non-factor. What does Stearns do with Shaw and Aguilar if both continue to struggle? Hiura was producing at the plate and neither Shaw nor Aguilar was contibuting much of anything. Of course all this goes away if Shaw can somehow find his stroke and be what he was last year. Only time will tell.

Even with the cooler market the last two years at 5.5 and 10 mil, I wouldn't pause in offering him 2yr 26 mil right now to keep him here for the next 2 years. Even if the markets cool on him again, he's earned it and when you look at Thames at 7.5 (1mil buyout) vs 13 mil for Moose. Moose is a clearly better price. I've seen a lot of talk about how we need to respect Shaw by putting him back in the lineup with this IL activation. Respect Moose, is it the BEST value, who cares. He's earned a better deal than he signed this offseason. He's earned more than he got paid the last 2 years. Respect the guy who is now one of your guys and pay him even if it might end up a bit of an overpay. 10 mil 13 mil not a big deal. 2yr/26 and lock 3B down. Let Shaw rebound to the new and improved Thames eventually. They have him for $11M next year so he may go for a second year at $11.5M which would be acceptable. If Shaw does get it together he could play 1B with Thames leaving. If Shaw continues to struggle and gets traded, then we have a good 3B for two more years.

Chacin is pitching like garbage in his walk year. If Nelson comes up, Chacin is the prime candidate to go to the pen. Burnes or Peralta (maybe both when Shaw comes back) go down.