The trade value of Casey McGehee ?

[The Truth]

Since I've railed so much about the mistakes of selling low on players like Hardy, Hall and now Hart (i.e. not trading replaceable players at the peak of their value), I would advocate that this year's trade deadline or at the latest in the off-season after this season would be the perfect time to try to trade Casey for prospects...

 

But what would his trade value be (if he continues to hit at a .300 + clip with good power and stays healthy)? We need more pitching in the future more than we need Casey right now, especially with Gamel as a prospect

[prophet]

We can't trade Casey. I just bought his jersey. The Sheets, Jenkins, Sexton, Overbay, and Lee jerseys are already getting piled up in my closet. Seriously though, I'm not sure if Casey by himself would bring a boat load of prospects, especially not high ceiling guys, or guys that are ready for the bigs.

[The Truth]

We can't trade Casey. I just bought his jersey.

My concern is management and ownership will fear that precise reaction from fans and won't explore the possibilities.

 

Could Casey bring a good solid A ball or AA pitching prospect? Or, could he be added to a Prince trade to insure bringing in an elite prospect or three?

 

 

[nate82]

Trading McGehee right now would be a big mistake. With Gamel not even being healthy and with a shoulder injury where he may not even come back as good as he once was is not a smart idea. I'm not even sure you can count on Gamel to be healthy next year or this year. We really do not know what we are going to be getting with Gamel. I really like Gamel but lately he hasn't done anything yes part of that is due to Macha not playing him when he was up last year but ever since he was promoted last year he hasn't really done all that much and now he is injured after taking BP in spring training? I'm not sure the Brewers can really count on Gamel as being an everyday 3B.

 

I'm not even sure McGehee will have much value in the trade market as he still has question marks. At best you are going to get a teams top 20-25 type of a prospect for McGehee and they are probably going to be players who are in low A or high A minor league players. So these players won't even help you out until at best 2013 or probably later. Gamel is probably a better option to trade to get a top 10-15 type of a prospect who will be in the AA to AAA range. I believe Green has bypassed both McGehee and Gamel as the organizations top 3B and as for prospect status goes Green is ahead of Gamel at this time at 3B.

 

I don't see McGehee having much trade value it would be best for the Brewers just to keep McGehee and ride the wave with him. He will be cheap for the next couple of years and if the Brewers do want to sign an extension with him it shouldn't be all that much compared to other 3B contracts around the league.

[Teatoe993]

His value is about as high as it will be. But it isn't gonna get us any of those flame throwing ace prospects that we covet. Hall and Hardy at their peak couldn't have gotten anyone either. Odds are that McGehee only fetches cheap soft tossers like Bush, Cappy & Jackson. Middle-Rotation potential only.

If we want studs, we're gonna have to trade Prince. And I even question what we can get in return for him. Teams just don't part with their top pitching prospects anymore.

[Invader3K]

Teams just don't part with their top pitching prospects anymore.

This is pretty much the case, but gets ignored around here all the time.

[jerichoholicninja]

Are we that conditioned as Brewer fans that anytime a player does well we need to trade him? I understand that McGehee pretty much came out of nowhere and it's debatable whether or not he can continue to play like this and that being a small market team we need to continue to have young, cheap players but at some point you need to stick with the talent you have. Yes we could trade Casey for a prospect and that player might turn out to be something but other teams have to be skeptical of Casey for the same reasons we are and are not going to give anything of value up for him.

[monty57]

I think Prince is very likely to be traded. I also think it's very likely that Hart will not be back next season, as he'd be assured a raise through arby. If we have RF & 1B open, I don't think it'd be a good idea to trade away one of our productive bats, especially for prospects... we still need to field an MLB team next year. If Gamel and McGehee are both ready to play next year, I'm sure we'll find a place for them to co-exist.

 

I feel that McGehee is a good guy to go year-to-year with on his contract, as I believe he'll be in his early 30's before he hits free agency. No need to extend him, he'll stay relatively inexpensinve, and he does have some "Bill Hall risk" about him. Once guys like Lawrie and Green force our hand, we could trade McGehee, but I think it's too soon and we'll need him in 2011.

[Invader3K]

I agree with the "no need to trade him", camp. I doubt the demand for him would be that high at this point, despite his strong showing again so far this season. We may also need him around next season, assuming Fielder does get dealt. We also can't be sure Gamel will develop into a quality everyday MLBer at this point (as much as I hope he does).

[bando1234]

Im not for trading Casey right now but that being said I dont want management to give him a 3 or 4 year contract either.

[Baldkin]

McGeehee is set to be a FA in 2015 I believe... so there's no reason to give him a 3 or 4 year contract.

[TheCrew07]

Teams just don't part with their top pitching prospects anymore.

This is pretty much the case, but gets ignored around here all the time.

That's simply not true. While the market has swung back towards pitching, some very intriguing pitching was just traded this off season.

[TooLiveBrew]

Who is it that you're referring to? I just don't really remember the trades made this past offseason (aside from Hardy/Gomez)

[TheCrew07]

Pitchers in BA's top 100? Aumont (93), Drabek (25). Max Scherzer was traded by AZ for Edwin Jackson, Brewer fans should remember him, I believe he no longer qualifies as a prospect. Brandon Morrow was also traded has a very nice arm but isn't a prospect anymore. he's sort of right there with Parra results wise.

 

For reference our best MiLB pitchers didn't even make BAs top 100... Rivas gets so little love he didn't even crack the FSL's top 20 last year, which was a joke... some of that might be oversight like in Rivas' case but we had 3 players on the list.... Escobar, Lawrie, and Gamel in that order.

 

I'm not saying pitchers are going to be falling out of trees into Melvin's lap, but trading for pitching clearly hasn't been a priority. We aren't going to be able to trade for pitching just because we want to, he has to jump on the opportunities when they present themselves like other organizations have done. He's seriously weakened his position because the situation got so bad it's clear to everyone around baseball that the Brewers need more pitching. I really wish we could have acquired Niemann or Jackson from TB, TB couldn't give Niemann away at the 2008 deadline and they traded Jackson for a single hitting prospect named Matt Joyce.

[tigerbrew]

I think Casey McGehee is a keeper. I like Casey's approach at the plate and think he could be a consistent .300 hitter with good OBP and decent SLG. His batting approach is much better than Bill Hall's. Maybe a reasonable extension covering his all arby years could save the Brewers millions.

[twobrewers]

TheCrew07, you are right - but those pitching prospect were traded for other pitchers. Position players rarely get traded for stud pitching prospects.

[TheCrew07]

I think it depends more on how the needs match up than anything else. I would have personally kept Scherzer and I'd be hard pressed to ever trade for a reliever, but those deals happened none the less. Getting back to the idea of trading, there are plenty of position player deals for pitching in the last 5 years but whatever we do it's going to require a team with lots of prospect pitching to be included, our best case is probably a 3 team deal unless Baltimore would want to make a splash.

 

Like I've said many times, I don't have much faith that Melvin will do anything, because he hasn't done anything to this point and our young pitchers are actually starting to get close to MLB.

[Teatoe993]

It's not like we have a Halladay and Lee to trade away for these type of guys. You expect Melvin to "sell high" and trade Gallardo for some high velocity prospects.

[monty57]

I bet Prince makes more money than Halladay or Lee. If he's worth more money in a contract, why wouldn't he be worth more return in a trade?

[TheCrew07]

It's not like we have a Halladay and Lee to trade away for these type of guys. You expect Melvin to "sell high" and trade Gallardo for some high velocity prospects.

When have I ever advocated trading pitching for pitching? It would be nice if one day the Brewers had some excess arms to trade but that certainly isn't the case today, nor has it been the case in Melvin's tenure as GM.

 

I've only ever talked about matching up team needs. Some people around here think trading for pitching is impossible, I don't believe that notion to be true, but it's certainly more difficult now that the market has turned away from SLG and is more pitching/defense orientated. Which is not so coincidentally why I'm irritated with Melvin because he's stuck to his formula of averageness ever since he's gotten here. It works wonderfully for turning a morbid franchise into a competitive one, but we're experiencing the downfall of not having enough impact talent, especially pitching talent. Every year impact pitching gets traded, this year it happened to be for pitching, last year Jackson was moved for a single positional prospect. We can't just decide, "I want to trade now" and expect a good deal to be out there, acquiring pitching has to be a priority like it's been for TB. They jumped on some great deals, built a fantastic rotation through 3 trades (while developing their own pitching), and have now traded 2 players away that they originally traded for, and they still have pitching depth as an organization.

 

The problem is simply that we have to give value to get value, and any time a hitter is productive very few people are willing to move him, and that seems to be the case with Melvin as well. Cincy had the stones to give up Hamilton for Volquez, and then of course Volquez proceeded to get Dusty Bakered, but when have the Brewers ever made a deal like that? The simple truth is that to acquire significant talent we have to be willing to trade a piece that would hurt to give up, no GM is going to take these video game trades that so many trades on this forum end up reminding me of. Trading Fielder would hurt, trading McGehee would hurt, trading Hardy before 2009 would have hurt, trading Hart when he was drawing tons of interest would have hurt, but that doesn't mean the team won't be better off in the long term trading those position players for pitching. Again this nothing to do with Hardy or Hart regressing at the plate, it's about trading from a position of strength to acquire a position of greater need. It doesn't matter who would have played RF or if Esky would have had to play short, the potential hole or holes in the lineup isn't what has been holding this team back, it's always been the pitching.

 

In 2008 we had the best pitching we've had in the modern era and we won't be going anywhere until we can get back into that top tier of pitching, but we aren't going to get there signing aging averagish starters to patch the rotation every year. I'm not interested in patching the rotation, I've always wanted Melvin to build a rotation around youth but it's abundantly clear that we don't see eye to eye when it comes to building a contending team.

[EbbaStClaire]

The desire to trade Casey McGehee absolutely baffles me. He is basically a younger Casey Blake, who has had a solid major league career. In fact, McGehee may turn out to be a lot better than Blake if he keeps improving as he gains major league experience. Not every player on the Brewers can be an all-star. There should be room for a good player who may become a very good player. McGehee also has the advantage of being able to play second base.

[TooLiveBrew]

I don't believe McGehee can handle 2B. He's not a good defender at 3B, and 2B requires mobility.

[JohnBriggs12]

McGehee might be the biggest bargain in the game right now and some want to trade him? He's almost entirely negated the slow start by Prince by driving in runs at a pace of 146 for the year. Having him in the 5 spot in the order instead of Mike Cameron has made a huge difference in this offense. How much longer does this guy have to produce to convince the skeptics? In 145 games as a Brewer his line is .302/.366/.507. He makes consistent contact. He doesn't expand the zone. He hits to all fields with power. What more do you want?

[EbbaStClaire]

I have been resisting adding to this post, but I can't. Why don't the Brewers determine McGehee's trade value so they can acquire 2-3 more just like him.

[BREWCREW5]

McGehee might be the biggest bargain in the game right now and some want to trade him? He's almost entirely negated the slow start by Prince by driving in runs at a pace of 146 for the year. Having him in the 5 spot in the order instead of Mike Cameron has made a huge difference in this offense. How much longer does this guy have to produce to convince the skeptics? In 145 games as a Brewer his line is .302/.366/.507. He makes consistent contact. He doesn't expand the zone. He hits to all fields with power. What more do you want?

I could not agree more with you. Also, he is a class act, hard worker and seems to fit Milwaukee perfectly. I think some on here are just waiting for him to suck....aint going to happen.