Why would we call Arcia up now and start his clock towards arbitration. He wasn't having a particularly good year in AAA and we aren't trying to win anything. We should have waited till late April 2017 before he got his chance.
I would get it if he were crushing the ball in Colorado as you want to continue to develop him and know what results were real, but that wasn't happening. I haven't watched a ton of games this year live, but is Villar's defense a problem? I know he has a ton of errors but that isn't always a true indicator of defensive play. Maybe they want to see if he can stick at a different position defensively. (I'd prefer second).
The Brewers side of the Smith deal: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/giants-pay-steep-price-for-brewers-reliever-will-smith/ Maybe Susac can be a MLB average catcher and let Nottingham develop slowly or move to 1b and work on hitting for more power.
Villar is not good defensively at all but what difference should it make for this season. Calling up Arcia is a move that had to be dictated by ownership to keep fans interested. All it really does is potentially cost us a year of control in the future and really Arcia is not exactly Braun or Fielder with the bat.
Hopefully Susac can at least be a nice stopgap but I am also fine with Maldonado as the catcher as we continue the rebuild. Maldonado is really a great defensive catcher and that is perfect for the young pitchers we will be throwing out there. As for Nottingham if he cant make it as a catcher he is of little value as the bat is just not good enough at first base.
Couple of interesting rumors that I read. Expect some changes in the scouting department as their recommendations on the prospects coming our way from Texas were pretty much ignored. The scouts told Stearns to stay away from both Gallo and Brinson but someone higher up recommended Brinson (Doug Melvin is that guy). The scouts completely hated Gallo and compared Brinson to Weeks saying he will get eaten up at the MLB level on curves and sliders. They wanted Stearns to take 4 or 5 prospects from the A and rookie ball levels instead of taking Brinson.
Stearns has usually gone lower in the minors to get his guys and that's what he did in the Cleveland deal. We all know that Melvin has always favored the guys close to the majors so his recommendation of Brinson makes sense even though Gallo would really be the Melvin prototype. I keep going back and forth on whether or not I like this deal at all.
I think they would almost definitely be leftovers. We really didn't make many changes in the scouting department. Remember Montgomery was a former Brewers scout so he is probably friends with a bunch of them. The year we took Coulter, Roache, and Haniger as supplemental picks we could have drafted both Gallo and Brinson but the scouts didn't like either of them at that time and apparently that hasn't changed. I would like to hire some new scouts but let Montgomery make that decision.
I get that Gallo is going to be rather polarizing with the strikeouts. Brinson seems to fit the toolsy centerfielder that might develop power profile they keep accumulating. I dont know what about him would bother anybody that wasn't an issue with Phillips, Clark, Ray, etc. Especially since he's cut his K rate by so much.
Gallo is as hit or miss as it gets but Brinson is far from a sure thing. He has been terrible this season but if he was playing as well as he did last year he would be untouchable. Should we really be relying on the same scouts who have us in this position to begin with. These same guys preferred Coulter, Haniger, and Roache over both Gallo and Brinson so they can't be trusted anyway. A number of them should be let go. I like that Stearns is willing to trade for A ball guys that are years away but Brinson and Ortiz are both young with big upsides.
Ortiz is 20 but he is built like Bartolo. If he is 250 pounds at this age I can't imagine how big he will get.
He has half the K's this year that Phillips does (both in AA), otherwise their stat lines are almost identical.
If they both make it to Milwaukee Phillips will be the RF. The minor league system is absolutely stacked.
I hope Jeffress does well in Texas but he was really comfortable in Milwaukee and really failed in both KC and Toronto. He really didn't want to leave.
We probably did about as good as we could because there was just so little interest in Lucroy. From what I can tell the PTBNL is a legitimate prospect.
You still have plenty of legitimate prospects. I think its going to be some low A or rookie ball guy. Maybe we get lucky and get another Diplan from you guys.
I thought I saw this as a reason for the "to be named later" part, you can trade them but cant announce it until later on.
I could be wrong but I think they changed the rules because of the whole Trea Turner fiasco. I am pretty sure he was the PTBNL in a deal and everyone knew it but he had to play for a Padres minor league team till exactly one year after being signed. I am not 100% sure of this but I don't think a 2016 draftee can be the unnamed player.
Maybe the player is insignificant but Haudricourt was thinking that its a real prospect. Then again Tom Haudricourt is not the best source so who knows. I think we really should have gotten at least 2 additional players considering how much relievers went for and the fact that Jeffress is cost controlled for 3 more seasons after this.
Q-Ball: What team helped themselves the most during the deadline, in your mind? 9:15 Jeff Sullivan: Short-term, Rangers. Long-term, Yankees 9:15 Jeff Sullivan: Brewers are the runner-up to the Yankees
Nathan: The Brewers have 8 top prospects to go along with a number of guys who could be feature top 100 guys. (Diplan, Diaz, Ponce,…) what’s your outlook on the Brewers organization as a whole? 9:36 Jeff Sullivan: David Stearns has done a fantastic job. Many of the best prospects have considerable boom/bust potential, but, compare that rebuild to, say, the Reds. Brewers still a couple years off but it’s getting exciting
Most of our prospects are boom or bust types but with so many of them we should be able to hit on more than enough. I expect quite a few more guys to get traded in the next year; Thornburg, Nelson, Gennett, Guerra, and Villar are all possibilities if they play well.
Ronnie: Espinoza, Torres, Frazier & Brinson seem to be the top guys traded at the deadline. Which of the four do you think turns out best? 10:03 Jeff Sullivan: Brinson
dock ellis: if you were in the brewers front office, which would you have preferred: the Cleveland Lucroy return + unknown Jeffress return (say something similar to what Smith got), or the return from the Rangers for the pair as a package? 10:13 Jeff Sullivan: I liked the Rangers return because I like both Brinson and Ortiz. Susac was a nifty get in the Smith move
I purposely left out the possibility of trading Braun because I just don't want to do it but I know its probably inevitable. I want him to retire as a Brewer as crazy as that sounds.
It's just going to take a special set of circumstances. I get why the Brewers would value him more than other clubs for non baseball reasons.
I am still infuriated with the Mets and their leaks to the media that we were asking too much for Lucroy. I don't even want Stearns to take their calls anymore.
Same reason why Orlando Arcia was called up today. Its all about selling tickets. Its not exactly a coincidence that Arcia is with the team after they traded away a popular player in Lucroy.
In the offseason he should flood his phone with trade proposals for Matz or DeGrom centered around Scooter and Coulter.
There's also this ESPN Stats & Info @ESPNStatsInfo 3h3 hours ago 3 MLB HOF debuted on this date: Walter Johnson (1907), George Brett (1973) & Frank Thomas (1990) - via @EliasSports
Thanks to a strong Draft and a commitment to rebuilding, the Brewers improved their farm system more than any other organization did from the beginning to the end of 2015. First-year general manager David Stearns has continued to build for tomorrow throughout 2016, including a pair of dazzling deals at Monday's non-waiver Trade Deadline. http://m.mlb.com/news/article/193317666/midseason-ranking-of-mlbs-top-10-farm-systems/
"Consider that the Brewers would have to go 37-20 the rest of the way to get to 85-77, which is probably not even a good enough record to make a wild card game. A one game playoff does nothing for this team, it only lowers their draft position for next year. This "fringe contender" mentality is what landed Milwaukee in this place to begin with. After trading Greinke in 2012, the entire team should maybe have been blown up, what with Gallardo's trade value at a peak position and Hart establishing himself as a solid 1B option. Grabbing Aramis that year didn't help things either, don't get me wrong, he was awesome and didn't cost a draft pick, but had he been traded earlier than 2015 they might have gotten a serious return. 2012's little push towards the end of the season only made Mark/Melvin think this team could compete, so they signed Lohse for 2013, losing a draft pick in the process. Well obviously they biffed, Ramirez got hurt, Hart never played for the Brewers again, Braun was suspended and Gallardo had his worst season yet. The Garza signing before 2014 didn't affect their draft position at least, but once again, a mirage of winning baseball games turned out to hurt Milwaukee in the end as they fell short like 2007 and 2012. So they traded Gallardo and Estrada from the organization, but sold low on both. Basically every trade they made from 2012-14 was a low sell aside from Greinke. Ramirez, Gallardo, Estrada got the team far less than they could have, and Lohse and Hart yielded zero due to ineffectiveness and injury. Basically this pretend to contend scenario screwed the Brewers out of a lot of trade assets and destroyed their draft slots when they could have been picking top 5 in all of those years. But it appears that Stearns isn't buying into that nonsense and is stocking the farm system at every level to give this team more than just a puncher's chance to compete for a 1 game playoff." Reddit question of whether the team could make the playoffs.
We dont have any player that is a sure thing like a Bryant, Seager, etc but hopefully with the depth they've amassed they will hit on enough to build a winning team. We have been talking about the lack of power profiles with these prospects, but thinking about it the ball is going to get out of Miller Park. Gomez wasn't thought of as a power hitter but over a three year stretch he gave us 22/yr. Have a lineup of on base guys and find a Carter every year for cheap. On the other hand that kind of sounds like Pittsburgh, and while they have had a good run over this stretch it hasn't been enough to do better than the 1 game wild card spot.
The only thing I disagree with is the selling low on Gallardo. We got Marcos Diplan in the Gallardo deal and he has as much upside as any pitcher in our organization. Some scouts consider him to be our best pitching prospect.
Gomez always had big power potential but it just took a long time for him to tap into it. Guys like Ray and Clark just don't fit that profile but Brinson does have 30 HR upside. Still think we need more power to be added to the organization at some point but I am pretty much just nitpicking at what is a very good system.
By the way Isan Diaz hit his 16th HR last night which I believe still leads the Midwest League. He probably has 25 HR potential as well.
https://twitter.com/JoeDRobinson4/status/761534725647396865?s=09 Over his last 9 games, Brewers 1st Round pick CF Corey Ray, is 10-29 (.345) with 2 doubles and he hit his 1st homer last night.
Lucroy's first HR for Texas http://mediadownloads.mlb.com/mlbam/mp4/2016/08/04/1009712283/1470353417358/asset_1800K.mp4
If you guys get a chance, read Luc's account during the deadline fiasco. Love the guy http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...eland-leaving-milwaukee-getting-traded-winner
I find it hard to believe that Cleveland wouldn't guarantee that Lucroy would be the everyday catcher next season. I do thank him for turning down the trade since we did so much better in the Texas deal. Two years in a row we had trades cancelled and we ended up better both times.