Blake Swihart & Henry Owens

[pacopete4]

Trade Lucroy and Lohse for Owens and Swihart.

 

Dump quite a bit of money, get your stud switch hitter of today and a possible stud pitcher.

[sheetskout]

I don't think Lucroy and Lohse get it done. I'm guessing the other teams in MLB are viewing Lucroy's great 2014 as a fluke at the moment.

[MrTPlush]

Trade Lucroy and Lohse for Owens and Swihart.

 

Dump quite a bit of money, get your stud switch hitter of today and a possible stud pitcher.

 

I think it is too steep of a price considering Swihart is at AAA and Lucroy is only controlled another two years. I would probably role the dice on Swihart vs. making that trade.

 

If anything I could see a trade centered around Owens with them just trading Lucroy in the offseason to pave the way for Swihart. Kind of like how the Red Sox treated Cespedes in a way.

[paul253]

I think people are undervaluing Lucroy. He is an all star catcher, still fairly young and under control for two more seasons after this one at a very reasonable price. He is actually one of only two guys (Peralta) that I absolutely do not want the Brewers to move. Swihart is an exciting prospect but he's just that....a prospect. He's put up good but not great minor league numbers. I don't know how he is defensively but offensively it seems as though his ceiling is about what Lucroy is giving us now. Again, I don't know how he is defensively but if he is not a huge upgrade over Lucroy then the only real advantage he has over Lucroy is age. You'd save some money but not a ton.

 

That said if we could dump Lohse and include Owens in the deal I'd definitely have to consider it.

[MrTPlush]

I think people are undervaluing Lucroy. He is an all star catcher, still fairly young and under control for two more seasons after this one at a very reasonable price. He is actually one of only two guys (Peralta) that I absolutely do not want the Brewers to move. Swihart is an exciting prospect but he's just that....a prospect. He's put up good but not great minor league numbers. I don't know how he is defensively but offensively it seems as though his ceiling is about what Lucroy is giving us now. Again, I don't know how he is defensively but if he is not a huge upgrade over Lucroy then the only real advantage he has over Lucroy is age. You'd save some money but not a ton.

 

That said if we could dump Lohse and include Owens in the deal I'd definitely have to consider it.

 

Honestly Lucroy is not a part of the Brewers future. The Brewers won't compete the next two years and extending a 32 year old catcher(his age in what would be first year of any extension) would be a horrible idea. I think they will hold onto him for now though.

 

I would trade him for Swihart and Owens in a heart beat.

[reillymcshane]

Interesting idea. Three years Luc at a discounted rate for a top 20 and a top 50 guy. That doesn't seem out of line in what you would expect. Boston, however, has been reluctant to deal Swihart already (for Hamels).

 

If the club decided to rebuild, it's the kind of thing you try to do. As much as you hate losing Luc, adding two premium young players would be a nice starting point for rebuilding. Do the same thing with Gomez, and you're talking about something interesting around 2017-18 when Coulter, Arcia and Taylor are arriving in Milwaukee. Add in couple of years of top 10 draft draft picks.

 

The team could have dealt Lohse and Parra this past off season. Maybe Garza as well. Saved money on signing A-Ram, Cotts, K-Rod. Not worried about getting Lind (although his nice season might be making him good trade bait). That could have saved the club $50M+ this past offseason.

 

The challenge is you need a LOT of young talent because players just don't pan out. That means it's really hard to just do a half-hearted rebuild. You end up with mediocrity.

 

I can't blame the team for doing what it did this past off season. They thought they had a chance. I just hope they aren't afraid to make the necessary moves to put us on a better course. The same middling path just isn't going to work.

[brewcrewdue80]

I just read MLB's prospect writeup on Swihart and there's mention of him being Buster Posey-like. Why would the Red Sox willingly trade that potential away? It'd be one thing if he was just beginning AA but Swihart is in AAA and is likely going to see the ML team before the end of this season. The only way that would make sense to trade him away is that he takes a Giant step backwards by midseason. I mean think about it, Lucroy is getting paid Peanuts for these 3years as Swihart would be his first 3 years. So when Swihart hits Arb would be when Lucroy hits FA. Just don't see it happening.

 

Owens reads as a talented, but control issue pitcher. If he fixes his control he's a #2/3. If not you're looking at a #4+ or a RP. As someone around here has posted, his Prospect ranking may be attributed to the fact he's in the Red Sox system. While he's ranked around 20 now had he been in the Brewers system he'd be ranked more like 95th with more emphasis on his downside of control and fastball velocity vs his upside having a quality Changeup. Cecchini, Barnes, Ranaudo, and Ball come to mind of prospects that were mid 50s to 80s as prospect ranks who have fallen in rankings/in Ranaudo's case a AAAA pitcher.

[reillymcshane]

I just read MLB's prospect writeup on Swihart and there's mention of him being Buster Posey-like. Why would the Red Sox willingly trade that potential away?

 

Swihart is an excellent prospect, but still a prospect. He's just potential. There's buckets full of top 20 can't miss prospects who never panned out. Luc is a proven player in his prime. If the Sox thought he'd put them over the top, they would be hard-pressed to not want a guy like Luc. Plus, even if Swihart turns out to be good, it often takes time for catchers to develop, so he might start out with a couple of averageish seasons. The Sox would get Luc for three years at his peak. No uncertainty, no waiting.

 

Luc's injury makes this all a moot point. Not to mention the fact that Boston has other issues (starting pitching) that they may need to address. But if Luc was healthy, he should easily fetch, in my opinion, a couple of top prospects in trade (if we decide to go down that path).