Brock Beauchamp

Will Sammon of The Athletic takes a look at the players the Brewers might be willing to offer in trade to shore up the big league club before the August 2nd trade deadline. While we all know Jackson Chourio is the shining light of the farm system, I don't see the Brewers offering him unless the return is massive and under team control for several more seasons. Sammon points out that Milwaukee's third-tier prospects are more likely to be moved, such as Hendry Mendez or Jeferson Quero. Sitting just below Chourio the Brewers also have the likes of Joey Wiemer and Sal Frelick, the latter having a very strong season in AA Biloxi. Like Chourio, I can't see the Brewers moving either without bringing back a starting player with multiple cost-controlled seasons remaining. And, of course, there's always the enigmatic Keston Hiura. Who are you most willing to part with in the farm system and which MLB players would you target to bolster a Brewers lineup that hits well but lacks top-end hitting talent? View full trade rumor

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You’re totally right. How have I been under the impression he’s an FA after 2023 for all this time?

Okay, this isn’t good. The Brewers can’t afford to lose Peterson for an extended period.

The Brewers locked up the young left-hander through his arbitration seasons with team options in 2028 and 2029 while utility IF Jace Peterson has been retroactively sent to the 10-Day Injured List. The Brewers announced today they have agreed to terms to LHP Aaron Ashby, extending him through the 2027 season with team options for 2028 and 2029. Reports are coming in that only $20,500,000 is guaranteed through his free agency years with escalators and options bringing the potential amount to $46,000,000. For a pitcher with the upside of Ashby, it’s hard to view this as anything but a great deal for the Brewers with very little assumed risk by the club. Ashby has spent the 2022 season in a flex role for the Brewers, making 12 starts and 18 total appearances. While the 24-year-old's 4.57 ERA looks unimpressive, he has swing-and-miss stuff but has been held back by control issues early in his MLB career. Never considered an elite prospect, Ashby moved through the organization in a very Brewers-esque way, displaying flashes of potential before breaking out post-Covid in AAA Nashville, posting an elite 14.2 K/9 rate in the 2021 season and later earning himself a promotion to Milwaukee. In 100.2 career MLB innings pitched, Ashby has a pedestrian 4.56 ERA - which translates to a 91 ERA+ - but has a much better-looking 3.83 FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching), which bodes well for his future. There is obviously talent in that left arm for the Brewers to develop at the major league level, now Ashby just needs to take the next step and solidify himself in the Milwaukee rotation, which will need to make some difficult decisions this offseason with Corbin Burnes and his pending free agency after the 2024 season. Peterson to the 10-Day Injured List In less-good news, the Brewers announced that Jace Peterson has been placed on the 10-Day Injured List with a left elbow strain, retroactive to July 20th. Peterson has been instrumental to the Brewers first-place status this season, playing all over the field competently while posting his best offensive season with a 115 OPS+ and and 112 wRC+. Hopefully, this is a minor setback and due to the All-Star break, Peterson may only lose a week of play before being eligible to return to the Milwaukee lineup. View full article

Great entry, thanks for the read! Also, I had no idea Tony Gwynn Jr had five career WAR. I didn't realize he was that productive in his career.

Agreed on Peterson, would give Hiura a lower grade due to the strikeouts, his reverse splits making him less valuable to the team than one would expect, and the fact he doesn't play any position even adequately.

I just don’t see how this makes sense for New York given their odds of facing the Jays in the second round. And besides, how badly do the Yankees really need another bat?

Honestly, it doesn’t matter if we have multiple threads on the same person. Descriptive titles work better and old threads tend to turn to wallpaper within just a few weeks. People want to talk about this stuff, as evidenced by the number of replies in just a few hours. As for Benintendi, I agree he’s not a perfect fit but his offensive profile looks really good on this team, even if his defensive profile isn’t a great fit. The Brewers could fit him into a lineup easier than they could another first baseman.

I don't think Stearns would hesitate to "clog" centerfield but I think the price of doing so is probably more than the Brewers are willing to pay, particularly from the A's given the rumors of what they were asking for Montas in the offseason (and I was personally quite satisfied how badly that bit them in the ass).

One thing to keep in mind about grades is "objective vs subjective". Yelich and Tellez are great examples of the differences between those two values. Objectively, Yelich is the better player and it's not particularly close. He's a pretty good MLB starter in LF. Tellez is just a hair above replacement level. Subjectively, it's a wildly different story. Yelich is paid a boatload of money and has the expectations that go along with that paycheck. Inversely, my expectations of Tellez were quite low; the mere fact he is treading water as an every day first baseman is a pleasant surprise and might warrant a B- grade under a subjective system. So how do you want to grade each of these players, objectively or subjectively? Neither is wrong depending on perspective.

I wish I knew more about Benintendi in CF. He hasn't played there in quite some time but if he's even playable there, I'd pursue him pretty aggressively. I don't think I'll like the iron price the A's ask for Laureano.

He doesn’t have a lot of power but this lineup doesn’t need power. What it needs is Benintendi’s near-.400 OBP.

He bats lefty so he could replace Renfroe and/or McCutchen regularly.

This is my thinking as well. Benintendi isn't a perfect option because he's not a natural centerfielder but his bat plays into almost exactly what the Brewers need right now.

Heyman reports the Crew is interested in Benintendi, which makes all the sense in the world. The Brewers (and other NL teams) have a big leg up on acquiring Benintendi from the Royals, as he is unvaccinated. That basically excludes any AL team from aggressively pursuing him, as any matchup with Toronto takes Benintendi off the roster. It's hard to see an AL team that expects a postseason berth to pay for a guy who might write himself off the roster in the first or second round of the postseason. Benintendi is a free agent at the end of the season and has a 127 wRC+. And maybe most importantly, an OPS approaching .400. He'd be a huge addition to a Brewers lineup that is plenty deep with power but often struggles to drive in more than one runner at a time with that power. View full trade rumor

Yep, hard to argue with these grades, though I may have given Severino an F- purely out of spite.

This piece does a really nice job of giving off the “what the ****” vibe that is the Colorado Rockies.

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Welcome to the first presentation of our community awards! A few times a year, we take a moment to recognize the community participants who make this site a great place to talk Brewers. Here are our inaugural winners. We've been doing this at Twins Daily for a couple of years now and it only seemed right to carry that tradition to Brewer Fanatic. The first half of 2022 has been a rollercoaster as we transitioned to the new name, new software platform, and added a ton of features. But at the core of this work is you, the community members who visit every day and provide the best Milwaukee Brewers discussion anywhere on the internet. With that said, let's get into it! Top Posts of the first half of 2022 goes to… Honorable Mention: Covid and Lorenzo Cain are sensitive subjects around here. While most showed regret how Cain stumbled out of MLB after being such a great player for so long, others weren't as kind to him, going as far to complain about him opting out of the shortened 2020 season out of concern over Covid. In defense of Cain, @JRob1125 posted the second most popular post in the first half. It's somewhat controversial to highlight this post but I'm not the one who liked this post a bunch of times. Don't shoot the messenger! The Top Post and Prize Winner: I know, I know. This is going to seem self-aggrandizing but it's the most popular post on the site! I don't know what I'm supposed to do here, folks. Praising the transition to the new Brewer Fanatic, @edfunderburk talks about their Brewer fandom, background, and how much they enjoy the new site. We enjoy it too, edfunderburk, and thank you for the praise. Without the community behind us, we'd just be hollering in the dark. And I do that enough already, thanks. Your prize? This really cool set of vintage Union 76 Brewers glasses. I hope you enjoy them through a deep October run! Top Blog Entry of the first half of 2022 goes to... Blogging is hard. We don't receive many user blogs here on Brewer Fanatic (yet). In time, I hope that will change but in the meantime, several of you ventured into those treacherous waters and gave it a shot. The most popular of them was @CheeseheadInQC and their entry The Carolina number that matters most. I love this entry, as it highlights the lack of organizational strength in Latin America over the past couple of decades and how it feels like the pendulum might be swinging back in the right direction. Minor league coverage is what sets this site apart from others and user-contributed efforts like this are a key part of that coverage. Well done, CheeseheadInQC. For this stellar effort, you receive the "aw, what might have been" prize of a vintage 1982 Brewers World Championship pennant. It stings a little to look at it but it sure is cool. We hope you enjoy it. Prolific Posters of the first half of 2022 Honorable Mention: @Joseph Zarr is the Brewer Fanatic equivalent of Roy Kent. He's here. He's there. He's every-*******-where! The front page. The forums. Blog comments. No one can escape his enthusiasm and this site is the better for it. Thanks for all you do and keep up the minor league reports, Joseph! The Most Prolific Poster and Prize Winner: A game thread staple and constant source of analysis-forward conversation, @Brewcrew82 is the most popular poster of the first half of the 2022 season. Congratulations and thank you for the literal hundreds of great comments over the past three months! The reward for that great content is a personal favorite of mine: an autographed 1986 Teddy Higuera Topps card. As a nine year old living in northern Wisconsin, Higuera captured my interest and started me on my long path of baseball fandom. I'm thrilled to pass this on to another Brewers fan for them to enjoy. We cannot thank all of you enough for the amazing contributions, advice, and input you've given us as we've begun our journey with Brewer Fanatic. None of this is possible without the community that powers it. Here's to another successful four months and GO CREW! See you again in the offseason with our second half awards so if you want to make the next cut, get typing! View full article