adambr2

We had momentum after the HR and double, and RR just killed it. Sometimes the best action is no action.

And Roenicke screws up another game.

Exactly, there are new guidelines under the new CBA. Outgoing free agents aren't offered "arbitration", they receive a "qualifying offer" equal to the average salaries of the top 125 paid players in MLB. The old "Type A", "Type B" free agent system is gone, and the compensation for a player who declines a qualifying offer isn't the same anymore, either.

I like how the one player on the team that actually has a name ending in "ie", Roenicke calls "Rick".

I hardly think anyone needs to "look for a reason" not to trade the leading MLB player in WAR who is signed for the next 3+ years for a reasonable deal and whose trade value may be stunted a bit by the fact that he is somewhat of a recent emergence. A .580 OPS isn't going to be average anywhere in the outfield, in center or the corners. Obviously I expect him to do better, but unless you're looking at a 5 year rebuild, there's no recent to rush Gomez out of town for a player who may or may not even project as a starter in CF. I'm all about doing something, and I've said as much before. But some people want to trade Gomez for whatever haul he can land now without even consideration to whether that return is of equal value, just to get something. That's not the answer. There are other answers, and I would look to shop Aoki for the right deal before Gomez. Is this really coming from the same person who said that we needed to "wait on Segura to get a larger sample size," and "not go nuts over a couple months," when I started a thread about extending him using Schafer's OPS through fewer AB's than Segura had at the time I suggested we re-sigh him(shortly before it came out that we had in fact made an offer to re-sign him)? Now on the flip side, we'd making a decision on 127 AB's, many of which have come without regular playing time? This is of course ignoring the Brewers opinion of Schafer, which at least publicly has been nothing short of glowing. And I don't know who suggested we should "trade Gomez for whatever haul he can land now without even consideration to whether that return is of equal value just to get something?" Yeah, trade Aoki. He's got 1 year left after this one and is a very nice player. Gomez is performing like a franchise type player and as such, I'd entertain the idea of trading him if we could get a big return for him. Correct me if I'm wrong, but haven't you been one of the people who's been a huge critic of Melvin being RE-active as opposed to PRO-active? He's got a chance to have a 8 WAR season this year. It's also likely that he never has another season like that again. So if you can get 2-3-4 young top prospects, particularly pitching prospects in return for him now, I don't think that's suggesting we "trade Gomez without even consideration to whether that return is of equal value just to get something." I don't know if we can get Skaggs, Bradley, Bundy, Tavaras or if GM's are going to be a little skiddish and the teams in contention simply have the need for a CF'er with Gomez' skill set Hence the title "shopping him." Not trading him. Shopping him. Totally different conversation than trying to move Weeks...but perhaps I missed the part where it was suggested we should just blindly decide to trade him without worrying about what we get back in return. Yes I am, but I wouldn't be this proactive mostly because I don't think the return is going to be as good as you are anticipating. I think it's going to take a larger sample size of success for Gomez for GM's to buy in. I think he's a better trade value after 2014 or at the AS break next year.

I hardly think anyone needs to "look for a reason" not to trade the leading MLB player in WAR who is signed for the next 3+ years for a reasonable deal and whose trade value may be stunted a bit by the fact that he is somewhat of a recent emergence. A .580 OPS isn't going to be average anywhere in the outfield, in center or the corners. Obviously I expect him to do better, but unless you're looking at a 5 year rebuild, there's no recent to rush Gomez out of town for a player who may or may not even project as a starter in CF. I'm all about doing something, and I've said as much before. But some people want to trade Gomez for whatever haul he can land now without even consideration to whether that return is of equal value, just to get something. That's not the answer. There are other answers, and I would look to shop Aoki for the right deal before Gomez.

For the life of me I can't understand why people are so high on Schafer. There seems to be a misconception that he's really excelled this year when given the opportunity. He is carrying a .580 OPS and has a negative WAR. How is that success? He's carried some respectable, but not great, numbers in the minors. I don't see how it's going to translate to more than an average player, or a 2.0 or so WAR. The dropoff from Gomez to Schafer, when considering all parts of their game, is significant right now.

I can imagine that at this point, there may be a large discrepancy in the perceived value of Segura between him and his agent, and the team. I do wonder if Segura is looking to get an extension based on an assumption of continued performance at his current level, and the team is somewhere between there and an assumption that he would perform near his expectations brought about by his minor league career. I do not believe for a second that the Brewers "lowballed", I believe they are approaching the situation as they should. They cannot simply look at what he has done so far this year. Segura's rise has been dramatic. I see 3 possibilities: 1) He is performing at unsustainable high levels. I think this is most likely. Don't get me wrong. I think Segura is an .800 OPS shortstop with probably 15 HR power and a lot of speed. That's a very good player. But a .900 OPS? That's Tulo range. 2) He has just improved his game that dramatically in the last year. Obviously, this is the scenario we're hoping for. It can happen and has happened, but it's rare. He is still definitely young enough where it could be plausible that things just started really clicking for him in the last year. But the Brewers have to consider the possibility that this isn't the case and he will come down to very good, if not elite numbers. 3) He is using PED's. Now before any outcry, I absolutely do not believe that he is, though I no longer believe that any MLB player is beyond reproach. I am saying that there is precedent for this with past players who rise dramatically, particularly adding a lot of unexpected power, as he has hit more home runs by June this year than in any minor league season in his career. Again, I am in no way suggesting he is or think that he is, just trying to be fair enough to list every possible scenario.

I get the point you are trying to make but IMO if we trade Gomez, yes we need to get value back equal to Gomez. Gomez is one of our most valuable potential trading chips. I would never concede losing a trade to part with these guys just to fill a hole somewhere else that may constitute a net improvement if we acquire a pitcher over our #5 who is a greater help than Gomez over Schafer. Gomez is a CF with pluses across the board -- power, average, speed, and defense. These guys are so valuable, particularly one leading MLB in WAR and one with a great contract situation. I put Gomez with Braun right now where you don't move him unless you get blown away. We can always re-visit a deal for him in a year or two if the price isn't right. I don't see an immediate need to make room for Schafer in the outfield, as I think he's going to need to show a little more than this to get me to buy into the hype. He's going to need to do better than a .619 OPS to cut it as a starter at any OF position. How do you get better unless you are willing to trade guys? It seems dumb to me just to stand pat because you can't get equal value. You need to get the best deal that will help your club even if you don't get equal value. Well for one, they have no real motivation to trade Gomez immediately. They can always re-visit trading him in a year and a half or so, so I think it would be a lot dumber to trade him now for what you can get while accepting less than he's worth. It's not about being unwilling to trade guys, it's about being unwilling to do so for a net loss. Smart GM's won't. Now there are circumstances where I understand -- particularly with rentals that will be lost to free agency without compensation anyway, or when the trade compensation is still much better than the potential draft compensation (Greinke/Segura last year). But with a guy like Gomez -- why now, unless you get blown away? You've got 3 and a half more years of control. Why put him on the block and just give him to the highest bidder? You can look at doing so again in the off season, you can look at it next off season, next trade deadline, and see what the trade market is then. There's no reason to do it now. Also, people keep saying that Gomez can be replaced with Schafer. Gomez is currently the most valuable player in baseball. Schafer is performing near replacement level and OPS'ing .609. Schafer can't be "replaced" with Gomez. He simply can't. We don't even know if Schafer is capable of being an average MLB starter yet. I think consistently taking below value just to trade a player is a dangerous path for a GM to take, one that should be the exception, not the rule.

I get the point you are trying to make but IMO if we trade Gomez, yes we need to get value back equal to Gomez. Gomez is one of our most valuable potential trading chips. I would never concede losing a trade to part with these guys just to fill a hole somewhere else that may constitute a net improvement if we acquire a pitcher over our #5 who is a greater help than Gomez over Schafer. Gomez is a CF with pluses across the board -- power, average, speed, and defense. These guys are so valuable, particularly one leading MLB in WAR and one with a great contract situation. I put Gomez with Braun right now where you don't move him unless you get blown away. We can always re-visit a deal for him in a year or two if the price isn't right. I don't see an immediate need to make room for Schafer in the outfield, as I think he's going to need to show a little more than this to get me to buy into the hype. He's going to need to do better than a .619 OPS to cut it as a starter at any OF position.

Remember earlier this year when we used to make fun of the Astros? Probably not our place to do so. At all.

Ramirez is definitely not seeing the ball well right now.

No need to even try hustling over to 1st, Juan. Just stand there politely in the batters box and wait for the catcher to tag you out.

I don't like a thing about Francisco so far. He seems overweight, lazy, and is another hacker at the plate. On that last AB of his, he might have been able to make it close if he sprinted all the way down the line, but as soon as he saw he was going to be thrown out at 1st, he slowed to a jog. He reminds me of Johnny Estrada.

If Peralta fields that ball cleanly, it's probably an out at home. Can we have just one inning where at least one of our fielders doesn't act like an enormous klutz?

Good thing Henderson is still available for the save situation.

I thought Maldanado was supposed to be a really good defensive catcher.

Segura doesn't have a rough night at the office very often, but when he does, he goes all out.

We probably aren't as bad of a franchise as it feels like, but it's amplified by the fact that the Cardinals unfortunately are just ridiculously head and shoulders ahead of us as an organization. It's not a good time to be in the NL Central.

Why was Braun pulled?

I feel bad for anyone who isn't a football fan, because training camp can't get here soon enough.

Do we really have a right to be mocking another team's fundamentals, Rock?

I wouldn't shut him down since he's a free agent after this year anyway. You may as well at least see if you can justify making him a qualifying offer next year, or hoping he does enough by the deadline to tempt somebody into giving up a prospect.

One caveat that I would like to add to that is that this should be considered relative to the position that the player plays as well. An .800+ OPS shortstop is probably among the top 5 hitting shortstops in baseball. An .800 OPS 1st baseman is probably pretty close to league average.

Corey Hart is still "a ways away"? This guy heals like a glacier moves. I think we can forget about him being any kind of trade bait. Hopefully he can tear it up the last couples months of the year and make a qualifying offer make sense.