Trade Rumors Thread - Brewers Open for Business (30)

[ReasonablySober]

Dodgers are interested in Ramirez if the Brewers start selling.

Related: START SELLING NOW, DOPES.

[El Duderino]

Jay Jaffe predicts the Brewers will move Greinke for a package of players centered around Mike Olt. He's a power hitting 3B with gold glove potential. Yes please.

Does he play any other positions? With A-Ram at 3B, would we move him next year to 1st and Hart back to OF?

I don't think next year is a concern. Maybe near the end of next season if everything is going well Olt plays 3B, Aramis 1B, Hart RF but I am thinking that Aramis will be nearing the end of his 3-year stint when Olt is ready to roll.

Plus, for me all that really matters is that whoever is the main piece in a Greinke, that guy has to pan out and become a good big league player. When and where to play the kid is far more secondary to me. If we ended up getting Olt and he developed well, he'd eventually get his way on the field even if Aramis is kept. Those type of things tend to get worked out is some fashion. In the end, landing a young impact player is all that really matters. Acquiring a lesser player just because that guy fills a bigger positional need is how teams make mistakes.

[BUCKnation]

Dodgers are interested in Ramirez if the Brewers start selling.

Related: START SELLING NOW, DOPES.

I like Ramirez but Id dump for the right value for sure. His contract is bad in his last year.

[ReasonablySober]

At this point I'm open to a fire sale. Weeks, Hart, Axford, Ramirez, Rodriguez and Marcum could all go. If the money saved means we could afford Greinke then great. If not then move him too. Stock the farm system.

[jakecronus8]

At this point I'm open to a fire sale. Weeks, Hart, Axford, Ramirez, Rodriguez and Marcum could all go. If the money saved means we could afford Greinke then great. If not then move him too. Stock the farm system.

Agree with everything, other than Greinke. Move him for sure. Wouldn't be a fan of resigning him at 20+ million. In general I think it's a bad idea for a small market team to give roughly 1/5th of its payroll to a guy who plays at maximum 20% of the games. Also, for as good as Greinke is, I think he's ideally your teams #2 starter.

I guess given how well he's played at first, I'd try to keep Hart on a sweetheart deal. He's gone from being an atrocious defender in right to a very good one at first. If not, move him. I'd also offer to pay a decent portion of Ramirez' contract if it meant legit big league prospects coming back. Marcum will be tough to move with his health status up in the air ATM.

If they do this correctly, the Brewers could really replenish the farm system very quickly and only waste a year or two of Braun's prime.

[ReasonablySober]

I think a team with cash is going to give Hart boatloads. Maybe even $100 million after '13. I think we should move him now while his value is absolutely highest.

As for Greinke, he's 2nd only to Verlander on Fangraphs WAR. If he's not an ace, nobody is.

[Kerb Hohl]

Good lord. Corey Hart signed a 3/28 extension when he was near free agency. You think some team is going to be stupid enough to give a 32-year-old (by then) above-average offense, minimal value defense player $100 million dollars?

Jayson Werth may be what he is, but I can't see somebody giving a guy that is a 4.0 WAR guy in a good season $100 million. You could be right, I guess. Some stupid team could do it, but I see somebody giving him a 4/45 deal or something like that.

[Kerb Hohl]

It's also maddening that the bullpen is this bad. Before and during the season, myself, an avid fan of the rebuild almost every year leading up to this, was on the "buy" bandwagon. The idea was to bridge the gap until we can replenish the farm system ourselves since Braun is right in his prime.

We made some good signings like Ramirez, Gonzalez (in principle), Aoki. This team should be right in the first place mix, if not in first if they did not have such a horrendously bad bullpen. There was a stretch where the team probably should have won 18 of 20 games or so in early/mid June and I think the bullpen blew, what, 6 or 7 of those?

I'm on the sell wagon now, but it would have been cool sitting in first again with our farm system getting one year older.

[El Duderino]

It's also maddening that the bullpen is this bad.

Yea, the bullpen has been such a trainwreck and a decent amount of that strikes me as simple bad luck. While i expected Axford and K-Rod to regress some given both were near perfect last year in protecting leads or tie games, i sure didn't expect either of them to blow anywhere near as many games as this year. Veras pitched much better for the Pirates the previous two seasons than he has this year. Those three have blown so many games.

I do fault Melvin though for not having any backup plans for Parra and especially Dillard. I don't care who Doug would have called up and tried because neither should have been allowed to stay on the roster this long. It reminds me of the team sticking with McGehee as long as they did last year.

Bullpens in general though tend to be quite volatile from year to year, for whatever reason. With many starting pitchers today not throwing as many innings as they used to and pen usage so specialized, i think bullpens in today's baseball are more important than any time in baseball history. No question starting rotations are still more important, but it's nearly impossible to be a playoff team today without a productive bullpen. All teams have their later innings guys and if your guys in those roles are blowing a bunch more close games than other teams in playoff contention, it's just so hard to make up those games elsewhere.

[El Duderino]

At this point I'm open to a fire sale. Weeks, Hart, Axford, Ramirez, Rodriguez and Marcum could all go. If the money saved means we could afford Greinke then great. If not then move him too. Stock the farm system.

I'm in the seller camp also, but i see no reason at all to shop Axford at this point. His value couldn't be any lower than it is right now and it's not like he has some long term contract which would be nice to try and shed. He'll still be cheap again next season and hopefully Ax can get back to at least being an above average closer next year. I don't see him being a fluke one year wonder like say how Turnbow was, his command is just a little off this year for whatever reason. I'd bring him back to close games next year and if he gets his groove back, he could either be traded at the deadline or kept if the team has a better season than expected. Baseball can be quite unpredictable from year to year.

I don't think many analysts would have predicted any of the Dodgers, Pirates, Nationals, and/or White Sox would be leading their division at the break, much less all of them.

As for Hart, i wouldn't be dead set against trading him, but i'd only pull the trigger if the offer was simply to good to pass up. He can play two positions, is a quality hitter, and has another year left on his contract for only 10 million dollars. His contract status should add value to any team interested in Hart. He wouldn't be just a rental and isn't saddled with an expensive long term deal either. So the team getting him would not only get to use Hart for a year and a half at a pretty team friendly dollar amount, if they let him walk after 2013, they likely would also get two comp picks.

[ReasonablySober]

That's why I'd shop him now. Whomever gets him has him for a stretch run this season and all next year. His value has to be huge.

[Kerb Hohl]

Yeah...no way I throw Axford out on the market unless you get an equally struggling player for him that can be every bit as good as him. Either Axford flames out and you throw him to the wolves in a year or two (he's not even at arbys yet) or he recovers and you have a strong bullpen arm under control for I believe 3 or 4 more seasons.

[Kerb Hohl]

I don't think many analysts would have predicted any of the Dodgers, Pirates, Nationals, and/or White Sox would be leading their division at the break, much less all of them.

I agree with you, though Vegas had a hard-on for the Dodgers that I didn't understand. I was really tempted to take "the field" outside of the Padres on that one. I'm glad I didn't now, though I do believe they'll lose that division. Eithier is back in his normal swoon/injured and Kemp is that entire offense. That team is a pile of **** offensively without Kemp and I think they got way luckier than they should have those first 50 games or whatever when they flew way out ahead of the pack and may hold on. They had some vet pitchers that should have thriving numbers out in spacious Dodger stadium and not run the train off the tracks, but Capuano's season has obviously been a bit better than expected.

The White Sox are an interesting team. Kenny Williams seems to have the ability to -- and loves to scoop up huge contracts that are seemingly overpaid or washed up. Youk is better than what they had at 3B, Rios is having a resurgent/great season randomly, I have no idea what they were thinking in that Edwin Jackson/Hudson deal -- granted, Hudson has struggled this year. Peavy healthy, Dunn being the only obvious bounceback candidate they had as nobody at the age of 30 drops off a cliff like that unless there is something wrong.

Pirates, if you said before the season that Bedard and Burnett (another fantasy sleeper I really liked) would stay healthy all year, I would have told you they had a snowflake's chance in hell at the division. Obviously, that was a longshot. McDonald coming around and McCutchen playing like an MVP have made them serious contenders. To hang on (and if the Brewers don't win 15 in a row and get back in the mix, I hope they do) it is kinda like the Dodgers -- they need McCutchen to carry the offense the entire 2nd half, they need Burnett and/or McDonald to keep being Capuano, and Bedard can't keep falling apart and needs to be at least hanging around.

The Nats -- well, it's just about 2 years earlier than we expected it to happen.

[El Duderino]

That's why I'd shop him now. Whomever gets him has him for a stretch run this season and all next year. His value has to be huge.

I view Hart as pretty much any quality player on the roster who isn't a pending free agent, they all could be had if the offer is good enough.

Speaking of the deadline, i do think it's going to be interesting to see how much of an impact the new rules on draft pick compensation have on teams trying to trade pending free agents like Greinke. Will teams making offers for a Geinke or other pending free agents expect a discount compared to previously where they'd get a pick or two if that player signed elsewhere?

[Jollay]

I'm in the sell camp but I see no reason to do it until closer to the deadline, especially with some bidding perhaps evolving to the Brewers' favor. Why gut attendance/interest/revenue somewhat prematurely.

Still hope the Brewers wax the Pirates, Reds, and Cards though. But if these rumors are true with the type of prospects the Brewers can get for Greinke--maybe not.

[ReasonablySober]

I'd obviously only make a deal now if it was one I loved, but if you shop them now the team getting a guy like Greinke would have him for two-three extra starts.

[MetroDrugUnit]

Hopefully Philly can sign Hamels and take him off of the market, that would help out Greinke's value right now

[WEFFPIM]

I don't see much of a reason to do much selling beyond Marcum, Rodriguez and Greinke (although I prefer keeping him around). I just don't see how this team is that terribly far away from being what they were last year. Restock the pitching corps by shipping out Marcum, K-Rod, maybe Gomez, and only take a really stellar deal for Greinke.

[trwi7]

K-Rod has almost no value and Marcum is hurt, so how exactly are we going to restock using them?

[mlloyd10]

K-Rod has almost no value and Marcum is hurt, so how exactly are we going to restock using them?

K-Rod still has "closer" value - Teams see that his fastball is up 1-2 MPH and the highest it's been in 3 years. It wont be a lot, but more then the what the Brewers gave up. The Mets just wanted to get rid of him so they wouldn't have to pay the Bonus and guarantee his contract