MNBrew

I love Jay hay, he would be a great IF platoon, he plays all IF spots, some better than others so he could definitely get in 130+ games Harrison would be an interesting acquisition. I'm not sure I'm crazy about him, but they could do worse. I was driving cross-country when the Brewers were playing in (and losing every game) to Pittsburgh in July. Listening to the Pirates announcers use of that "J-Hay" nickname was grating beyond belief. (I always thought the A-Rod thing was unique until teams/announcers started trying to do as many nicknames as they could in that format, at which point it became highly uncool IMO.)

Clancy's been a ceaseless advocate of the Brewers still using Braun at 3B over the years. While I admire his enthusiasm, I think it's tons more realistic that Braun will retire without having ever played another inning at 3B.

The guy played in all of 12 games with Milwaukee and had just 32 PAs. Talk about a small sample size. Even with that, he had 2 doubles, 2 homers, slugged .500, and drove in 5 runs. Wish all our guys sucked that much. Im with this guy on choi, he was in aaa most of his time with us and was an absolute monster im spring training. Going into the season, we had yelich, braun, santana, thames, aguilar, and choi vying for time in 3 spots. Heck choi was so impressive in spring that he almost took aguilars roster spot. Choi did not suck in his time with us and that's not up for debate Small sample, sure. That works for both sides of the argument. Cumulatively he still wasn't good enough. Choi had 4 XBH in 32 PAs. That's respectable. But SLG propped up his OPS. Otherwise he had 3 singles, 2 walks, 14 K's, and 9 outs putting the ball in play for an overall .281 OBP -- an identical figure to Keon Broxton, just worse than Hernan Perez -- and with a K rate well worse than either of those two AND Eric Thames. In other words, when it wasn't one of his 2 2Bs and 2 HRs, Choi's success rate at the plate was really, really bad. And the Brewers already had too many high-K/low-OBP guys as it was. Stearns and Co. were willing to give Choi up for a chance that Brad Miller might hit remotely like he'd done before AND solve their woes at 2B -- neither of which happened, as we know. And to Choi's credit, he got better opportunities in Tampa (not his first chance at greater MLB PT) and ended up with his most productive MLB output over the balance of the year. I like that he was successful there. If he'd produced like that in his limited time in MIL (and if we didn't have Thames, Aguilar, and at the time Braun ahead of him on the 1B depth chart), we may have traded someone else for Brad Miller instead. By all accounts Choi is a good dude, but he just didn't get it done enough in MIL. We've had lots of guys tear up ST and mash in AAA and not contribute enough in MIL to be kept around terribly long. Choi is far from the first and far from the last.

Right, maybe, but in truth everyone eventually gets worse as they age, and Shaw's in his prime years, so you can't definitively say when that decline will actually begin. A 2- or 3-year contract at a reasonable dollar figure for Shaw would be solid and merited. His defense is solid now and most guys don't fall into the abyss at age 28. It's not like 2B where there's a Hiura on the horizon. Erceg has shown legit promise but isn't pounding down every door in front of him on his way through the minors quite yet.

Fine. Then Choi is the LHB 1B and Thames PH's and plays some RF against RHP's. The point remains that literally every single one of them would have been better options than Braun when you factor in salary, trade value, availability, and/or flexibility. All things considered, he would literally be the last one I would choose for a roster spot for, behind Santana, Broxton, Choi, Davis (for trade value), Aguilar (nearly cut in ST so Braun could move to 1B), and probably Thames. Basically all those guys have been pushed to the back burner in way or another for him in recent years. It's asinine. And no, you don't have to hate him like I do to understand the economics of it or the productivity/injury issues. On the contrary, I think you have to be biased in favor of him to deny it. I get what you're saying but just don't see it the same way. We just disagree and that's alright. But seriously, Choi sucked in MIL and gave the Brewers little reason to believe he'd do what he ended up doing for Tampa. If you saw his Tampa productivity coming, you may be about the only one. If he just needed more PT to get his bat going in the bigs again, that opportunity wasn't going to come in MIL unless about everyone in front of him went in a major slump and/or got hurt since he was the 25th guy on the roster and was only there until someone better came along to take his place, and that didn't happen.

You can rationalize those numbers all you want, but Dallas Keuchel's track record counts for something and Scott Boras is his agent, the latter point there pretty much blowing any chance of Keuchel accepting an offer in that range of the water. If I'm wrong, I'll gladly eat crow. I'd think if the Brewers could add him, it would be a very positive step forward for the team (just like Kluber & Bauer).

Clearly I was referring to Yelich's arm in RF, not Braun's arm. They'd be better off with Yelich in LF and a true RF or just a masher whose defense can be hidden by Cain/Broxton. Besides, it just proves my point that you choose to focus on nit-picking that, which is by far the least important aspect of the argument, and not address all the other myriad issues. News flash, almost all corner outfielders can put up some decent offensive numbers. Guys like Santana, Choi, Thames, and Khris Davis - all guys who have taken a backseat to Braun in one way or another when it comes to building the roster - have all been cheaper, younger, and approximately as productive over recent seasons. Who knows, maybe cutting Aguilar in ST in hopes of Braun being the RHB 1B would have finally made it clear to Braun apologists what the issue is, but luckily that didn't happen. You're right about one thing though - it is beyond pathetic that this conversation still has to occur. I buy a bit of the discussion on some of the guys you're saying Braun's being on the roster cost chances to, but to put Choi into the discussion significantly discredits your whole POV in my opinion. Choi's a backup 1B at best with 121 MLB games over 3 years and who's been mostly a 25th man on a roster at best, having a hard time staying on the right side of the roster bubble. Braun had a down year last year but much of that was due to just plain bad luck and Braun's 2nd-half OPS puts any "we would've been better off keeping/playing Choi than Braun" notion down the drain. Choi wasn't anything near good in MIL. His bat touched the ball in exactly half his AB's -- 14 K's in 30 AB's w/ 2 walks in addition to his very non-intriguing slash line. Yes, 4 of his 7 hits were for extra bases, but nearly half the time he couldn't even hit the ball. He showed basically nothing to deserve to be kept in the plans when Brad Miller, who had shown more promise, became available. The Brewers' decision making was highly defensible based on Choi's lousy production and Miller's previous MLB track record (Miller's 2016 was not outrageously far off from Schoop's 2017 -- the 50-point BA difference, thus OBP difference, was about the same net difference in OPS). On top of that, Choi is NOT a viable MLB corner OF like you assert he is. 20 of his 21 MLB games appearing in the OF were in 2016. In the past two years, he played the OF in the majors exactly once. I don't have much attachment to Thames but he was a far better OF option than Choi. According to baseball-reference.com, Choi's dWAR last year was negative, and that's with virtually all his PT coming at 1B. . . . Thames, though nothing noteworthy (and not too bad) defensively, is decent enough in the OF to have played over half his 415 career MLB games there -- and neither Thames nor Choi deserves playing time in an MLB OF at the expense of Ryan Braun. Overall it took a half-decent 190 ABs in Tampa this past year and a 1.1 WAR to elevate his career WAR to 0.6 -- only one year in three where he rated as good as a replacement-level player.

Exactly. We could make 10 signings like this if we wanted, including Solarte. None of this is guaranteed. I guess it's possible the minor league portion is guaranteed but 10 of those would cost all of $2-3 million. All you need to do is hit on one and it's a huge win. I can understand being annoyed if this is all we did at the 2b position. But this 1 move as a stand-alone move really should not be viewed negatively by anybody. Besides whatever his bench role for the Brewers could turn out to be, if Spangenberg only ends up in San Antonio, there's still legit value in having capable depth with MLB experience down at AAA.

Our best bats are LH? Granted, they're good, but that's still only Yelich and Shaw. I'd counter that Cain, Aguilar, and Braun (yes, in spite of his down 2018) are also very good bats and they're RH. I think the LH bats issue mainly pertains to the bench, which, other than Thames, was entirely RH (Pina/Kratz, Perez (and Saladino), Broxton, & Santana before this deal went down). Having an LH bench bat that's not all-or-nothing (and mostly nothing at that -- sorry, Thames, but it's often true) and thus without much of a LH batting average weapon doesn't usually help us. Worse yet for me is that Thames' RBI/HR ratio was never spectacular, meaning he wasn't particularly strong at driving in runners when he wasn't hitting HRs. It sure seemed to me that Thames, for the past 2 years, has been quite good at hitting solo HRs. I do think the past season soured many of us on what Santana could do at the plate. September & most of October were good testimony to what we're going to be missing. But I think there's another piece to this that no one's yet elaborated on in this discussion: If Gamel's paid between $500-600k vs. an arby projection of $2M for Santana AND they can somehow trade Thames, that's a net savings of around $7.5M. That doesn't mean signing a Lowrie or Dozier, or trading for a Kluber or Bauer or whomever, is inevitable. However, that kind of savings can help open doors for the possibility of a new acquisition that fills a more pronounced need, whether that happens in the off-season or anywhere up to the trade deadline. While it's more of a side note, I also think that, contrary to an opinion stated earlier, trading Thames doesn't leave us with no viable options at 1B if Aguilar slumps or gets hurt: - Braun can play 1B but Shaw can play it better. Perez and even Pina (a bit) can play there, too. - If Gamel & Broxton are both on the roster, both those two and Perez can play the OF better than Thames. Besides the quality of players themselves, both of those bullet points underscore Stearns' regular emphasis on positional versatility.

This seems like a smart, very Stearns-like under-the-radar-type-guy addition. Hopefully it works out well and according to the video of Stearns that Adam McCalvy posted on Twitter, there's reason to think it has a decent chance of doing so. At some point we were going to add someone to our staff like Alex Claudio, and I'm glad it's him rather than a more spendy gamble like Boone Logan was last year. He'll be 27 by ST, he has 1 or more options left, and 3 remaining years of team control, plus peripherals that have been pretty consistent according to Stearns. If we'd given up a low-level lottery ticket, there would be similar angst/outcry about giving up a known entity rather than the angst/outcry about giving up a draft pick that may or may not turn out meaningful. Every acquisition has its cost, either in a new contract (FA) or in current assets (trade). Stearns has a good overall track record and I'm inclined to trust him on this one. These discussions can be lively or annoying depending on where your opinions lie, but at least on BF.net they're pretty thoughtful and even usually pretty informative if/when you don't have a nose for deep stats.

Hiura was recovering from a torn UCL when they drafted him which limited his ability to play D. He's no Gold Glover, but he's not a bad defensive 2B. I think people have been confusing the two, taking the initial "he can't play D right now" from when they drafted him to mean he's a lousy 2B who would be better off as a DH because that narrative has continued ever since he entered the organization.

^^ The whole reason you get him is for his bat. Anything he gives you -- or doesn't give away -- on defense is a plus.

What more would Scooter have to do to earn your trust? Home & road BA have both been very respectable in his two years in CIN. Last year he finally hit LHP quite well, and his overall results both years have been very solid. Personally I don't care if he's a power hitter or not. He's turned out to be every bit the good hitter. I also realize your point was not trusting him enough to meet the Reds' likely asking price, not just not trusting him in general. But the root issue is still not trusting him. My own bottom line is that while I think Scooter would help MIL right now, I don't think you give up a ton for him with Hiura - not to mention also Dubon - on the horizon unless the point is to flip him again later, which I don't think makes sense -- why bother getting him in the first place when what you give up to get him could well be more than you get in return. . . . Scooter's a good hitter & ballplayer but trying to get him, while sounding good on the surface, just doesn't seem to me to make good big-picture baseball or business sense.

"Daniel Murphy, professional hitter" Someone has to pick up the old Matt Stairs label. And a bat like Murphy's would sure be a huge step forward away from having quite so many all-or-nothing (read: high K, low BA/OBP) bats on the roster. A 2- or 3-year deal seems a little large, but if he has a bit of Zobrist positional flexibility to him, he'd be a nice asset to have on the team for a while.

SORRY. My brain was on Deolis Guerra, the guy we signed yesterday & about whom I'd just posted in a different thread, not Junior Guerra. We're starting to corner the market on Guerras -- not unlike how we did with Moutons back in 2000 but also not to the level the Giants did with Alous back in the '60s. I agree, Junior Guerra over Houser. Aren't they both out of options? If it's an 8-man bullpen, then I add Houser to the OP's list.

It's a point worth noting but I think he's still a heck of a pitcher who, at minimum, had a very unspectacular-hitting OF behind him.

I'm curious how Guerra rates highly enough to make your "current" 25-man. I'd agree with brewmann04 that Houser's in that spot over Guerra, at least until he loses it. I also think they're more likely to keep 13 pitchers than 12, though I like the 5-man bench and thus also prefer only 12 pitchers.

Small bit of trivia: Deolis Guerra is the last remaining active player of the 4 guys the Twins got from the Mets for Johan Santana.

The same thing happened last year, too, but Stearns knew what he was doing and didn't make any sort of bum move. Stearns waited for the right move(s) at the right price & time (esp. Jan. 25). It does get frustrating when we want the Brewers to make moves and they could but they don't. I think last year provides a good lesson/reminder. Many of the potential moves that seemingly could've worked for the Brewers didn't happen, especially SPs, and in the end Stearns stuck to his guns. His two low-glitz acquisitions (Chacin & Miley) thankfully worked out better than most of us could've foresaw and the Darvish/Cobb/etc. crew definitely had seasons we could be glad happened for other teams, not us. There's no award for winning the offseason. I'll still take having a better regular season than most/all NL teams over that.

I think it's fairly obvious DiPoto has a trade addiction. Quality of the move sometimes seems less important than making a move.

"Default scenario" doesn't imply anything negative. It means that's the plan, the operating assumption, UNLESS something comes along that creates an improvement on that existing plan. We know Shaw's defense is better at 3B than 2B, not that he was anything poor at 2B either. 3B is Shaw's strength and that's why he's "the guy" there. I think the only reason it changes is if the best 3B option available is more valuable/realistic/whatever than the best 2B option, to the point where they acquire that new 3B knowing they're comfortable enough to move Shaw to 2B. Of course Shaw can also play 1B (probably more comfortably than 2B), as he'd done that in a few spots before, which may also be an option at least for a while in injury circumstances.

That's interesting. DiPoto's definitely open for business, as it sounds like now he's trading Segura to Philly.

The Brewers have a little history with once-highly-touted Mets pitching prospects. Tim Leary was the first. Bill Pulshipher was the next. Syndergaard the next? Based on precedent, if the Brewers get him, it's hard not to anticipate a flame-out sooner than later.

Realmuto's an appealing target. However, with the various angles bouncing around in my head on possibly acquiring him for a month or so, I just don't see the cost being worth the net upgrade. C wasn't a great position for us, but I think more of the issues lie on the pitching side & 2B. Not that we couldn't use more out of the C position, but we need lots more out of 2B & a few of the pitching spots on the roster, and I think they can accomplish some/all of that for less cost (salary &/or trade assets) than Realmuto & a little bit of P or 2B help.

Fun stuff, Nate. Thanks for sharing it. I'm wondering who exactly he feels the Brewers & Giants would match up on (Bumgarner? I doubt the Giants would consider moving Posey, not sure about Will Smith) ... unless, that is, he meant that both were a good fit for a trade with AZ. The way you said it, though, sounds more like your friend sensed a Brewers/Giants trade could line up. On a side note, it's a little funny to see some folks still predicting a week-plus ago that the Brewers would non-tender Vogt . . . . nearly 3 weeks after he was outrighted to AAA (on Nov. 1st), refused the assignment, and became a free agent.