Trade Rumors Thread - Brewers Open for Business (30)

[RiotPunch]

Greinke for Lawrie?

[Kerb Hohl]

Mensch/Cruz being failed prospects? Cruz was wayyyyyy better in the minors.

[mlloyd10]

If the Brewers are still in it, Do they make a play for 1 of these two 1B man,

Ryan Howard - There was that report that the Brewers would have made a play for Howard if he didn't get hurt last year. I don't know if this is still possible, but I would look into it. He is due back in a month and if we can hold on until then, he might be worth the risk. The report stated that the Phillies would eat 30% of his remaining 5yr/$125 mil contract.

Adam Dunn - Seems to be having a rebound season - According to B/R - Getting a team to take the $44 million left on Dunn's contract would be a tough sell. But if the White Sox agree to eat some of that salary, maybe that could get a deal done and get better prospects in return.

[Kerb Hohl]

What would be so hard about taking on 44 million on a 31 year old player that is murdering the baseball? It looks clear that last year's struggles were due to the early season appendectamy.

If the White Sox seriously wanted to dump Dunn on us I would have done it weeks ago (for Matt Wise, of course).

[jr lucosa]

Didn't we get Laynce Nix in that Carlos Lee/Nelson Cruz deal also? Maybe that's the OF prospect he was referring to. Mench was far from a prospect when we got him.

[wichmae]

Nix was at one time a big prospect, but I think he at the time of the trade was more of a bust than prospect.

[BigDee]

Let the Ransom era begin.

[jr lucosa]

edit.

[humanrefutation]

Not sure where else to put this

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/blog/bal-adam-jones-agrees-to-sixyear-855-million-extension-with-orioles-20120526,0,6912749.story

Big Adam Jones fan. 6 years 85.5 million seems like they overpaid a bit though.

There is an Around the MLB thread about a 1/3rd of the page down. We should keep this to Brewers trade rumors.

[jr lucosa]

Oops scrolled through twice and missed it both times.

[Kerb Hohl]

Cruz was also way better than Nix in the minors (offensively).

[xTitan]

This from Bleacher Report regarding the Brewers upcoming draft...

There are few farm systems in the major leagues that are worse than the Milwaukee Brewers' farm system. They are looking to add a number of high-upside prospects.

The Brewers own both the 27th and 28th picks in this year's MLB draft, so they can definitely afford to go after two high-upside pitchers.

The Brewers have zero chance to make a run at the World Series, they need to be major sellers and hope they can get a few young starters both in the field and on the mound, or they will suck for at least the next 5-6 years.

[Kerb Hohl]

I'll put this disclaimer that I've always been a sell/prospects/etc. guy at the deadline, build through the draft, have a home-grown pitching staff...

I STILL would not write the Brewers off as a team that cannot make a run. We'll see where we're at at the deadline. They need to make a buy move for somebody like a Mark Reynolds at 1st and grab a reliable reliever. I think you can actually get that with just dollars and not having to really give up much for prospects.

If some of the injuries still seem to be lingering and we're 5+ games back, then sell.

I'd like to sell, but I am still in wait-and-see mode.

The key is that we're in Ryan Braun's prime which makes me a little less tempted to sell (again, I hated Melvin for not selling during a lot of the 2006-2010 deadlines...I would prefer to build that way) and Melvin is definitely not going to want to if we're close to the pack.

I'm not making any suggestion that the Brewers are a top 3 World Series contender from the NL, but who really bothers you in the NL? Is it the Dodgers and their Kemp + Ethier + poop lineup? The Nationals and their injuries? The Phillies may not make the playoffs.

The starting pitching has played its absolute worst, and I think we'll see it round into form against some awful offenses over the next two weeks.

I think Atlanta is the team to beat, but the Brewers may rebound if Weeks gets his head out of his ass and puts the ball where defenders aren't (and contacts it more) and we solidify the bullpen. Nobody else is really making me want to sell indefinitely.

[xTitan]

I think both Cincy and St. Louis are significantly better than the Brewers, add to that a very poor farm system, only Yo signed to come back next year, and this team is bad for quite a few years to come.

[A Diddy2231]

Can't believe I agree with Titan on something..but I'm with him on this idea. With the extra wild card spot some of the teams on the fringe will be looking for that player or two to put them over the top. Sell Sell Sell

[Kerb Hohl]

I'm not suggesting that those teams could not run away from the Brewers, I guess I'm asking why they are much different than last year? We have an improved 3B, improved defense overall, LuCroy getting better (he'll be back in a month). Big dropoff at 1B obviously.

The difference has been our starters sucking, bullpen sucking, and Weeks being trash. Those are the things I expect to even out soon. Bullpen maybe not so much.

Yes, the truth is that Weeks is horrendous right now and Aramis is only slowly rounding into career form.

That said, our pitching has been literally as bad as it can be while St. Louis' was as good as it can be. Berkman is out for a long time, every single other masher on St. Louis' great offense is horrendously brittle. None of those guys can or will make it through a full season.

Cincy has improved their staff, but it is still dicey. Right now, they may be the best, but we blew them away last year.

It is true that we are through 1/3 of the season so definitive judgments need to be made, but I guess I'm wondering why guys returning to career norms (we're seeing it from a lot of the Cardinals as we speak) would be such a shocking development.

The Brewers' offense has actually pieced together decent results even with the injuries, Weeks sucking, Morgan not coming around, and Aramis being slow to get there and the pitching has literally been as bad as it can be. As the great equalizer brings these guys back to what we'd expect them to do, I wouldn't be shocked if we started to run some of these teams down.

Again, I'm not suggesting it is certain or anything, but baseball is an incredibly predictable sport. Somehow, when guys pitch against San Diego and Pittsburgh, they are "really hot" and then they start to cool off as the law of averages comes on and they face the right opponents (I remember "fearing" Billingsley when we played LA at home earlier this year after he mashed the Padres twice and the Pirates. Now, *gasp* he's right back at his career ERA.

Things happen like Weeks absolutely falling off the face of the earth, but I think we need to give it a few weeks to see if this upcoming easy schedule gets us back within 2 or 3 games when we start to see some games against Cincy.

[coolhandluke121]

I think both Cincy and St. Louis are significantly better than the Brewers, add to that a very poor farm system, only Yo signed to come back next year, and this team is bad for quite a few years to come.

Yep. Philly is better, too, and they're further ahead in the standings. Just because they've struggled a little so far doesn't mean they aren't still good. And they're already ahead of the Brewers in the standings.

Of all these good teams from last year, which ones are really candidates to take a big step back?

Arizona
Atlanta
Philly
San Fran
Arizona
Milwaukee
St. Louis

All of those teams should still be plenty good except Milwaukee, which won't have last year's extraordinary health and also lost Prince, and Arizona, which probably was a fluke team if you look at the last 3 years overall.

Add in the following teams that are clearly a lot better than they were last year and are already 5 or 6 games ahead of the Brewers:

Dodgers
Reds
Marlins
Mets
Nationals

That's a tall order. It's not a matter of how far behind they are, but rather a matter how MANY good teams well ahead of them. Even if the Brewers go on a nice run, you have to just assume that several of the teams ahead of them will go on a run, too. If the Brewers were clearly better than them, I would be more optimistic. But they are all basically in the same non-elite tier, and the Brewers are the ones in a pretty big hole. I don't see it happening. Not without Prince and not without last year's extraordinary health.

[Kerb Hohl]

LAWLZ @ the Mets being better. They're 5 games over .500 with a negative 20 run differential. Let's cool down on this 40 game stretch guys. I don't think we're World Series likely, but some of these things are a bit out of whack. Obviously I don't want to diminish every sample size, but if you think the Mets are better than the Brewers, over a season, pass me those drugs.

The Dodgers also have zero offense outside of Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier fell apart last year.

Let's take a step back and cool off here just for a second.

Again, I'm not suggesting we're ready to explode. Maybe this is the perfect storm of injuries and regressions. I'm not saying that I'm betting on us to get on fire and grab the division, but we've had our worst case scenario and we're still where we are.

Again, give me 20-30 more games and I'll be ready to sell. At that point, it is too late to turn back if everything is still going wrong.

Also, Arizona is probably not a "fluke." Justin Upton has done nothing this year, Montero has been hobbled, Goldschmidt hasn't panned out in his sophomore year, and Hudson was on the DL. Couple that with possibly the best Major League-ready prospects waiting in the wings such as Trevor Bauer to pitch, and that team is still definitely going to be a contender if not this year, the next 3.

I agree that sometimes it just isn't your season. I'd buy low on the Diamondbacks and to an extent, the Brewers right now. The Mets will be 10 games out of their division soon.

And CoolHandLuke, the Phillies are going to miss the playoffs IMO. Halladay is out 6-8 weeks. Pence and Victorino are alright, but their offense mostly sucks now and we have no idea about Howard and Utley. Rollins may bounce back but he's been brutal.

The Mets are like the Pirates last year. They were a feel good story with McCutchen playing great and some OK bats but then the baseball gods realized that Paul Maholm and the rest of that staff blow and suddenly they stopped winning every game 2-1.

[El Duderino]

I agree Grendon, no need to be in a rush to sell now. Come July if the team is still floundering, then they need to think very hard about being sellers.

It's not like in July there would suddenly be a shortage of suitors for teams willing to sell. With the extra wild card, there likely will be more teams than usual willing to trade for help come mid-July to the trade deadline.

Plus, i see zero chance that Attanasio would be willing to wave the white flag on the season in early June. Come say mid-July though and if the Brewers pretty much look dead in the playoff race, only then would i see him allowing Melvin to sell.

[Kerb Hohl]

Coincidentally, July 1 (shortly before) is the big decision day in my mind.

We have some bad competition coming up until June 25, when we face the Reds. If we go into Cincy down 3 games after a hot streak to start June and win 2 of 3 vs. Cincy, we can stand pat or buy. Right before that series we do get a tougher White Sox team and Toronto, but leading up to that we have SD, Pit, Cubs at home and @Royals/@Twins. We need to get hot now going into that Cincy series. It's time for the arms to pitch as we'd expect.

If we're more than 5 out then, then clearly the regressions have really all held true or it just isn't our year. Sell.