Any thoughts on possible Aug. trades?

[TheCrew07]

Jungman is a ground ball pitcher, right? I think he would do well as a setup man.

 

In general I cringe when anyone brings up "ground ball" as a reason or justification of anything when talking about pitching, I'd much rather take "stuff" over a GO/FO rate. Kameron Loe was a ground ball pitcher with average stuff, I get that ground balls are a trendy topic over the last 10 years, but seriously getting ground balls isn't anything new... all of us grew up believing that baseball teams needed to be strong up the middle, or put another way have great defense at C, SS, 2B, and CF... The object has always been to have vacuums on the IF to suck up anything on the ground and a CF who could run down anything in the gaps.

 

In the obsession around baseball with chasing ground balls pitchers have forgotten how to work hitters, pitching inside and strike outs up in the zone are largely forgotten about these days. Hitters aren't attacked horizontally and vertically anymore; there's more to getting ground balls than throwing sinkers at the knees, and why are pop ups on the infield or foul territory rated negatively? Those are easier outs to convert than GBs...

 

The object of a pitcher should be to induce as weak of contact as possible in whatever form that takes.

 

Jungmann may have improved his stuff, his strike out rates suggests he has, but I doubt he's "nasty". I haven't seen him pitch in years though, so I'm unable to say for sure. However I want the relievers at the back of the bullpen to be flat out nasty, I want the top 3 pitchers in the bullpen to have at least 2 plus pitches. I don't care if they are slider, change, or curve guys to go with their FB, but I want the offspeed to be filthy. On that note I think Ariel Pena is much more likely to end up a dominant reliever than Jungmann is... maybe Taylor's stuff will play up in the pen but I just don't see it right now, I think he's better suited to be a back end starting pitcher or middle relief guy.

[JohnBriggs12]

Chad Qualls was reportedly placed on revocable waivers by the Astros. Don't know whether he'd get to the Brewers, but if he did, I see him as a realistic option to bolster the late inning situation.

[brewmann04]

Looking bleak that the Brewers can add a waiver wire trade by Aug 31

[MNBrew]

Looking bleak that the Brewers can add a waiver wire trade by Aug 31

I don't know that it's bleak that they can, but my sense is also that it's fairly unlikely they will.

 

So few August trades made thus far, but there's still time left and it's not uncommon at all to have a flurry in the last couple days of the month.

 

For all that gets leaked or speculated, it's still not always known who has or hasn't passed through waivers, and among them who might possibly be dealt.