adambr2

I noticed you have Broxton (and others, but Broxton is the biggest name) as a Super 2, is that the case? I thought Broxton was pretty firmly a 0-3 through 2019 based on his service time last year.

Chase isn't bad. Diaz is obviously what made the deal happen but Chase is a 4.30 ERA or so, youngish, cheap starter. For the bottom of your rotation or as a placeholder you could do a lot worse.

Absolute nightmare inning for the Giants.

I couldn't believe when I read articles after that trade by writers scratching their heads, bewildered as to why we traded for Aaron Hill when we're rebuilding. So we could get Isan Diaz, duh.

I guess I'm not too upset about him exercising that right, he had the right to do it, and he did. What leaves a bad taste in my mouth was the whole way he handled leaving. I may be wrong, but it just seemed like the guy had a poor attitude toward the organization there towards the end, so while I won't actively root against the guy, like you I am not terribly disappointed he is out. Especially since he basically did nothing to help them at all in this series, got what, 1 hit and allowed a passed ball that was key in losing the elimination game? Not exactly a performance to tell the grandkids about. I do however kind of wish the Rangers would have won it all, for the sole reason of getting Prince a ring. Feel bad for him. I guess I just don't understand at all why anyone is mad at Lucroy for exercising his NTC, and I don't understand why anyone thought he had a bad attitude. His agent negotiated his NTC. That was a contract between him and the Brewers. He had every right to decline it, and that was a life altering decision whether or not to go to Cleveland, and he didn't want to go there. Should he be mad at the Rangers for exercising his $5.25M club option next year? As for his comments, I never once recall him bashing Milwaukee or ever expressing anything negative toward the organization. He knew as we all did that the writing was on the wall for him to be traded, and as any top player in their 30s does, of course I'm sure he wants to contend for a championship. He was pointedly asked about his feelings, and he answered candidly and honestly without disrespecting the organization. Guy was nothing but a class act his whole time here and even took out a full page ad to thank Brewer fans.

Scooter would only get a measly $800K at 1 WAR/8M. Peralta $7.2M. Chase $4.8M. Maldonado would get a crazy $6.4M and Nieuwenhuis an equally crazy $8M. Torres at $5.6M and Thornburg a whopping $16M. I do like WAR and refer to it a lot but there are too many variables and situations to try to use it as a salary predictor especially using pre-FA players.

After seeing Carter's arbitration projections, I can understand why they are considering non-tendering him. He's probably overpaid at that amount, and I think Stearns is wise to modern analytics and isn't bound to keeping him just because of his HR count. They may try to non-tender him and negotiate a lower deal. If they don't have a backup plan at 1st like Santana and want to buy some time, a short multi year deal might work out for both sides to skip the whole arbitration process, something like 2 years/10-12M. Thornburg and Torres are no-brainers. I'd keep Anderson and Peralta at those amounts. Peralta still has 2 years of control and looks like a possible bounce back candidate. Gennett...I don't know. I don't think he's worth 3M, but if he's tradeable as an arbitration player at that amount, why not. I really don't see any reason to go another year with Maldonado. Nieuwenhuis is probably worth 1.6M as a 4th OFer, but after seeing how much playing time he stole from Broxton and Santana this year, I don't want him anywhere near this team in 2017. The last thing we need is Brinson coming up in July and playing 3 games a week.

If you're getting Sheffield for Garza and Lopez, that's plenty of value for Lopez. Garza alone surely isn't bringing in a top 100 prospect.

http://baseballdocs.sportsblog.com/posts/26299215/creating-a-ryan-braun-yasiel-puig-trade-package.html Some hypothetical Braun to Dodgers trades from Baseball Docs. Dodgers Get: OF Ryan Braun, Cash Brewers Get: OF Yasiel Puig, 1B/OF Cody Bellinger, P Brandon McCarthy($11MM) OR Dodgers Get: OF Ryan Braun, Cash($6MM from Brewers per year), IF Jonathan Villar? Brewers Get: OF Yasiel Puig, 2B Willie Calhoun, P Jordan Sheffield, P Jacob Rhame The first deal looks pretty good to me. I'm not crazy about the 2nd, don't like trading Villar away as a secondary piece.

That would not be disappointing. Being in the NL, getting a pitcher who can swing the bat too is also a nice bonus.

The idea of Santana at 1st has grown on me a bit. He's still very young and improving, and should have enough athleticism to adapt to 1st, though his best defensive to, his arm, is kind of wasted. If we could get average D and a .850 OPS out of a healthy Santana, that's definitely good enough to be the 1B of the future.

His bat will play at 3rd, but it'll play at 2nd better, and more importantly, I think he's got a better chance of becoming a serviceable defensive player at 2nd than he does at 3rd.

For perspective, when Lou Gehrig gave his famous Luckiest Man speech, Coyne was in his 4th year as an usher for the Pirates.

I wouldn't want to keep Villar at 3rd. I think his glove will be a much better fit at 2nd, not to mention his bat will play better there. I'd focus on getting him at one position and keeping him there and I think 2nd is the right place. I'm not concerned right now with who the guy at 3rd will be, there is more than enough time to figure that out. At this time last year we assumed it was between Segura and Arcia for 2016 and no one had heard of Jonathan Villar.

I would hardly call Gwynn Jr. a solid contributor, much less a top player, and I think you're missing some big names in Lucroy and Gallardo. But overall I think your post is a good reminder of how we probably expect too much from our draft picks. It's a long journey from draft day to MLB.

Yeah, I think Taylor is for sure gone in the Rule V if they leave him unprotected.

Yep, for 2017, lineup balance is not overly important. We've got plenty of lefties in the pipeline. Gennett won't bring much back, but with Villar moving to 2nd, Gennett isn't even worth to us what we'd pay him in arbitration. Who knows, I thought Segura was pretty much worthless at this time last year, and we landed Diaz. Lineup balance will come in time, as others have mentioned. Between Villar, Phillips, Ray, Clark, Diaz, and Erceg, and probably one other prospect that we end up acquiring, I would expect 3-4 of that group in the lineup sometime in 2019.

It's 95% position. .800 OPS 1st basemen with mediocre defense are a dime a dozen. .800 OPS middle infielders are much tougher to find, and the speed is a bonus. Your first basemen are expected to be your sluggers. To a bit lesser extent 3rd basemen and corner outfielders are expected to hit too. Catcher, middle infield, but especially SS, and CF, are all positions where a great bat is a big bonus.

Terrible mental mistake by Posey. Forgot how many outs there were, wasn't running on contact on the missed flair to Zobrist, and cost the Giants an extremely valuable run.

So is it flabbergasting that the Braves removed Bradley from their 40-man roster and the Orioles claimed him? These things happen to every team. Kyle Wren is making the Braves look about as silly as Jed Bradley is making the Brewers look silly. As I stated in the Bradley thread I was very surprised the Braves let him walk. That said, it doesn't change the drastic difference between his performance between the two farms. It's possible that Bradley just needed a change of scenery. I don't really follow the Wren comparison. His performance here hasn't been drastically different than with the Braves, especially if you account for the Colorado Springs factor.

Carter only had a 1.1 WAR in 2016, which shows how limited his game is besides hitting for power. But, for lack of a better option, I'd offer him $5-6M in arbitration. It's pretty fair and affordable and buys they another year to figure out 1st. Barring a trade for a young MLB ready 1st baseman or a plan we don't know about yet (like Santana at 1st), no real reason not to tender Carter.

What did Carter make this year, $3M? I think he'll get around $5-$6M in arbitration.

A couple tidbits today: 1) The Brewers aren't sure they want to tender Carter an offer in arbitration. 2) The Brewers see Villar as their 2nd baseman, not at 3rd. Have to think Scooter is unlikely to return in 2017. http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/10/heymans-latest-chisox-santana-cozart-rockies-davis-brewers-smith.html?fv-home=true&post-id=74445

Yeah, that's true. I'm surprised the Braves just let him walk like that.

That makes sense better to be learning how far you can push the envelope in a rebuilding year. It is not like the Brewers were going to lose anything with Villar and the number of times he was caught stealing. I also wouldn't be surprised if this is the same next year with the running being tuned down a little bit. Next year is going to be another rebuilding year so no big loss if he gets thrown out making some bad base path errors. Ok. Season's over. Villar improved..... Big time on the bases. Yes. Let's not try to keep excusing the earlier season play. He was sat. He was doing stupid stuff on the bases. He learned from it. Case closed. Let's not say oh, this was the plan. It’s matchups and timing and (pitch) counts and game situations,” Counsell said. “You have to experience that. That’s how you figure it out. What Jonathan went through at points during the season, I feel like that was necessary. I feel like we had to go through that.”