Lind to Mariners for 3 lower level RHP prospects (Daniel Missaki, Carlos Herrera, Freddy Peralta)

[RobertR]

One year of Lind is worth more than the return in this specific trade. He just is

 

One year of an 32 year old, injury prone, platoon 1B whose defense is likely pushing him to DH for the Mariners is not worth more than this, it just isn't. Lind has some value against RHP but not a ton of it given all of his limitations. We were not going to get any sure thing prospect for him. Last year was nice and all but his previous 3 seasons combined were for negative WAR as in he has been below replacement level over that time. His poor defense and baserunning just eats away at whatever value the hitting gives him.

 

Yet the Brewers got more for a half year of broken down Aramis Ramirez.

 

I don't think anyone is really angry about the deal. Certainly it fits in the right direction. But I think it's silly to think that a reasonably priced player coming off a productive season with no long term risk has practically no value. This off season is littered with trades that show otherwise.

 

I think it's mostly a matter of preference for these types. I think lottery tickets are mostly a bad investment whether you have one or three. You can always flip major league talent if the timing isn't right.

 

But, really we won't know if these guys are actual prospects for another few years. I hope they are, but I think the odds are long. Either way I doubt this deal has any appreciable effect.

[StearnsFTW]

You should try this approach next time. It would've been a good, positive read.

 

What are you even talking about? What did I say that was so terrible?

[BrewersAA]

One year of Lind is worth more than the return in this specific trade. He just is

 

One year of an 32 year old, injury prone, platoon 1B whose defense is likely pushing him to DH for the Mariners is not worth more than this, it just isn't. Lind has some value against RHP but not a ton of it given all of his limitations. We were not going to get any sure thing prospect for him. Last year was nice and all but his previous 3 seasons combined were for negative WAR as in he has been below replacement level over that time. His poor defense and baserunning just eats away at whatever value the hitting gives him.

 

Yet the Brewers got more for a half year of broken down Aramis Ramirez.

 

I don't think anyone is really angry about the deal. Certainly it fits in the right direction. But I think it's silly to think that a reasonably priced player coming off a productive season with no long term risk has practically no value. This off season is littered with trades that show otherwise.

I think it's mostly a matter of preference for these types. I think lottery tickets are mostly a bad investment whether you have one or three. You can always flip major league talent if the timing isn't right.

But, really we won't know if these guys are actual prospects for another few years. I hope they are, but I think the odds are long. Either way I doubt this deal has any appreciable effect.

 

So much i like about this comment!! I bolded what i 100% agree with ;-) . there is nothing wrong with acquiring guys close to the majors right now, we need a team there too, and if they hit, and the timings wrong, you just flip them again, its how the good small markets have always done it. I italicized what i am seeing people say that i highly disagree. I feel like lottery ticket is reserved for guys like medieros, orimoyle, clark, harrison, and gatewood guys with tangible tools that add value to a system because other teams value those tools as well, yes chances are none of them ever make the majors, but if they do the payoff could be big. the second thing i italicized is killing me reading this thread!!! since when do we think that players arent scouted and evaluated until they are in their 20s? i am not saying that there is no such thing as a late bloomer, but guys with tools and talent are identified VERY early, and yes, even internationally. these guys all have proball under their belts and they are all not even ranked in the top 1000 players in the minor leagues (most of which are also teenagers) with all of the collective scouting data out there.

[1992casey]

Yet the Brewers got more for a half year of broken down Aramis Ramirez.

 

That's what I don't get. I didn't think that Ramírez would net much of anything at all. I don't want to knock any individual trade, but when you compare them, the returns from one trade to the next don't always seem to logically fit.

[bill hAll Star]

Yet the Brewers got more for a half year of broken down Aramis Ramirez.

 

When the trade was made, Barrios was in AA/AAA at age 23, with a 1.35 WHIP and 5.5 K/9 that season out of the bullpen. Yeah, flamethrower, supposedly...but I don't know if the return was deemed all that great in the scheme of the Pirates system, was he?

 

People had lower expectations of the return so they trumpeted an unheralded flamethrower.

 

People had high expectations for Lind, so they don't like the box of unknowns as much. Do you really think none of these 18 year olds will be in AA/AAA at age 23, surpassing a 5.5 K/9 (and yes, I know that Barrios' potential is much better than this)?

[pacopete4]

Couldn't the reason he targeted these three younger pitchers with Lind be because he had planned to add Walsh, Pina, and Cecchini all along? I mean, it isn't out of the realm of thinking that he knew who he wanted so he wanted to add depth to the lower minors while he had the chance? Don't get me wrong, I originally scratched my head on this trade but GM's have a greater overall plan sometimes that we are not privy to.

[BrewersAA]

the reason i dont like the trade isnt that i dont hope these guys turn into aces. its not that i think DS doesnt know something other dont (i think he probably does, I hope he does). its that they turns an asset into virtually 0 value. as baseballs smallest market, we cannot afford to do that, in my opinion. it has nothing to do with proximity to majors either, i keep seeing that, there are guys with value up and down farms.

 

I can remember back to doug melvin complaining about the political and monetized process of getting your prospects ranked and his frustration in other teams not valuing the brewers prospects evenly against others because they refused to pay and play the game of prospect promotion. It hurts the ability to trade into what you need when you do not have valued, which all teams eventually need to do.

 

Cheers to these guys becoming Aces hopefully!

[bill hAll Star]

the reason i dont like the trade isnt that i dont hope these guys turn into aces. its not that i think DS doesnt know something other dont (i think he probably does, I hope he does). its that they turns an asset into virtually 0 value. as baseballs smallest market, we cannot afford to do that, in my opinion. it has nothing to do with proximity to majors either, i keep seeing that, there are guys with value up and down farms.

 

I can remember back to doug melvin complaining about the political and monetized process of getting your prospects ranked and his frustration in other teams not valuing the brewers prospects evenly against others because they refused to pay and play the game of prospect promotion. It hurts the ability to trade into what you need when you do not have valued, which all teams eventually need to do.

 

Cheers to these guys becoming Aces hopefully!

 

We could have traded for DJ Peterson, the rumored player, recently ranked in the top 100 prospects and a 1st round pick as "buy low." Remember when we traded for the Orioles' #5 prospect and now he's probably never going to make it past AA?

 

DJ Peterson, as a buy low candidate, had an OPS of around .600 last year. What if he doesn't recover his value that much? Now he's completely unranked and a finished product at age 24 or 25.

 

The chances of an upper-level, ranked minors player staying ranked/hitting the majors is higher, of course. How much higher I think is being overrated. At least the caliber of prospect being offered for Lind, that is.

[BrewersAA]

Couldn't the reason he targeted these three younger pitchers with Lind be because he had planned to add Walsh, Pina, and Cecchini all along? I mean, it isn't out of the realm of thinking that he knew who he wanted so he wanted to add depth to the lower minors while he had the chance? Don't get me wrong, I originally scratched my head on this trade but GM's have a greater overall plan sometimes that we are not privy to.

 

The thing is, you can add guys to the lower minors who also have value, thats whats dissappointing. when i initially heard that they were adding 3 teenagers that hadnt played full season ball the first thing i thought, based on the other players rumored to be offered to lind, of similar value were Luis Gohara, nick neidert, and and nick wells. which made sense based on how it was reported that seattle "really sweetened the deal". then i thought "cant possible be Gohara, plus those 2" so i way lowered my expectations to dylan thompson in place of gohara. all four of those players are teenage pitchers that havent pitched full season a ball all four have more value than the other 3 put together. its just crazy!

[bill hAll Star]

Couldn't the reason he targeted these three younger pitchers with Lind be because he had planned to add Walsh, Pina, and Cecchini all along? I mean, it isn't out of the realm of thinking that he knew who he wanted so he wanted to add depth to the lower minors while he had the chance? Don't get me wrong, I originally scratched my head on this trade but GM's have a greater overall plan sometimes that we are not privy to.

 

The thing is, you can add guys to the lower minors who also have value, thats whats dissappointing. when i initially heard that they were adding 3 teenagers that hadnt played full season ball the first thing i thought, based on the other players rumored to be offered to lind, of similar value were Luis Gohara, nick neidert, and and nick wells. which made sense based on how it was reported that seattle "really sweetened the deal". then i thought "cant possible be Gohara, plus those 2" so i way lowered my expectations to dylan thompson in place of gohara. all four of those players are teenage pitchers that havent pitched full season a ball all four have more value than the other 3 put together. its just crazy!

 

Have you scouted any of these players, or are you just going off the slightly higher $-signing expectations of Gohara/Thompson and the absolute unknown of Baseball America's rankings of rookie league 18 year olds with minimal scouting reports?

[BrewersAA]

the reason i dont like the trade isnt that i dont hope these guys turn into aces. its not that i think DS doesnt know something other dont (i think he probably does, I hope he does). its that they turns an asset into virtually 0 value. as baseballs smallest market, we cannot afford to do that, in my opinion. it has nothing to do with proximity to majors either, i keep seeing that, there are guys with value up and down farms.

 

I can remember back to doug melvin complaining about the political and monetized process of getting your prospects ranked and his frustration in other teams not valuing the brewers prospects evenly against others because they refused to pay and play the game of prospect promotion. It hurts the ability to trade into what you need when you do not have valued, which all teams eventually need to do.

 

Cheers to these guys becoming Aces hopefully!

 

We could have traded for DJ Peterson, the rumored player, recently ranked in the top 100 prospects and a 1st round pick as "buy low." Remember when we traded for the Orioles' #5 prospect and now he's probably never going to make it past AA?

 

DJ Peterson, as a buy low candidate, had an OPS of around .600 last year. What if he doesn't recover his value that much? Now he's completely unranked and a finished product at age 24 or 25.

 

The chances of an upper-level, ranked minors player staying ranked/hitting the majors is higher, of course. How much higher I think is being overrated. At least the caliber of prospect being offered for Lind, that is.

 

First it didnt have to be an upper minors guy, lower minors guys are ranked too! nicky delmonico is entirely different, he was NEVER regarded like DJ peterson. He also hit 12 homeruns in high A. DJ Peterson hit 31(!!!), very few players have that type of ability. Delmonico then started doing meth.... lets assume no player has the meth addiction variable come into play. hes clean, playing for the whitesox, played in the AFL (and won an award) and is a prospect again.

[BrewersAA]

Couldn't the reason he targeted these three younger pitchers with Lind be because he had planned to add Walsh, Pina, and Cecchini all along? I mean, it isn't out of the realm of thinking that he knew who he wanted so he wanted to add depth to the lower minors while he had the chance? Don't get me wrong, I originally scratched my head on this trade but GM's have a greater overall plan sometimes that we are not privy to.

 

The thing is, you can add guys to the lower minors who also have value, thats whats dissappointing. when i initially heard that they were adding 3 teenagers that hadnt played full season ball the first thing i thought, based on the other players rumored to be offered to lind, of similar value were Luis Gohara, nick neidert, and and nick wells. which made sense based on how it was reported that seattle "really sweetened the deal". then i thought "cant possible be Gohara, plus those 2" so i way lowered my expectations to dylan thompson in place of gohara. all four of those players are teenage pitchers that havent pitched full season a ball all four have more value than the other 3 put together. its just crazy!

 

Have you scouted any of these players, or are you just going off the slightly higher $-signing expectations of Gohara/Thompson and the absolute unknown of Baseball America's rankings of rookie league 18 year olds with minimal scouting reports?

 

I have never personally scouted them, no, and i doubt you have either. All i have to go off of is all of the scouting data available, which is robust. over 1000 players more highly regarded. most of which are teenagers. there seems to be this impression that teenagers and lower level minors guys arent scouted or ranked, its crazy. its big business and these are not considered 'good' or 'prospects' in comparison to the other 16-20 year old kids around the world base on the analysis of the experts who have been doing this for ever. my opinion is on the side of the evidence and analytics and the opposite is on plain opinion against that evidence and you are implying that my opinion is the one thats off because i havent personally scouted them, but the other is more accurate from people who also havent personally scouted them?

[Boomer5]

Yet the Brewers got more for a half year of broken down Aramis Ramirez.

 

When the trade was made, Barrios was in AA/AAA at age 23, with a 1.35 WHIP and 5.5 K/9 that season out of the bullpen. Yeah, flamethrower, supposedly...but I don't know if the return was deemed all that great in the scheme of the Pirates system, was he?

 

People had lower expectations of the return so they trumpeted an unheralded flamethrower.

 

People had high expectations for Lind, so they don't like the box of unknowns as much. Do you really think none of these 18 year olds will be in AA/AAA at age 23, surpassing a 5.5 K/9 (and yes, I know that Barrios' potential is much better than this)?

 

Barrios was a better arm than his stats indicated, in part because of the position change.

 

As of now, we received more MLB projectable value in each trade for two months of ARam and Parra than we did for a full year of Lind.

 

Thats the issue with myself and others. I have no idea what these three kids will do. No one does. They are just write ups at this point and very unheralded. When you trade away a reasonable asset and you go for a very low level set of players they need to be firmly in the prospect category and not in the organizational depth category.

 

Time will tell....

[MKE81]

the reason i dont like the trade isnt that i dont hope these guys turn into aces. its not that i think DS doesnt know something other dont (i think he probably does, I hope he does). its that they turns an asset into virtually 0 value. as baseballs smallest market, we cannot afford to do that, in my opinion. it has nothing to do with proximity to majors either, i keep seeing that, there are guys with value up and down farms.

 

I can remember back to doug melvin complaining about the political and monetized process of getting your prospects ranked and his frustration in other teams not valuing the brewers prospects evenly against others because they refused to pay and play the game of prospect promotion. It hurts the ability to trade into what you need when you do not have valued, which all teams eventually need to do.

 

Cheers to these guys becoming Aces hopefully!

 

We could have traded for DJ Peterson, the rumored player, recently ranked in the top 100 prospects and a 1st round pick as "buy low." Remember when we traded for the Orioles' #5 prospect and now he's probably never going to make it past AA?

 

DJ Peterson, as a buy low candidate, had an OPS of around .600 last year. What if he doesn't recover his value that much? Now he's completely unranked and a finished product at age 24 or 25.

 

The chances of an upper-level, ranked minors player staying ranked/hitting the majors is higher, of course. How much higher I think is being overrated. At least the caliber of prospect being offered for Lind, that is.

 

First it didnt have to be an upper minors guy, lower minors guys are ranked too! nicky delmonico is entirely different, he was NEVER regarded like DJ peterson. He also hit 12 homeruns in high A. DJ Peterson hit 31(!!!), very few players have that type of ability. Delmonico then started doing meth.... lets assume no player has the meth addiction variable come into play. hes clean, playing for the whitesox, played in the AFL (and won an award) and is a prospect again.

 

Peterson followed up 31HR with 7HR (granted he had 100 less ABs). But what's your point? It's beyond obvious that Stearns knew he was getting Cecchini for next to nothing therefore instead of trading for Peterson he decided to stack the lower level with 3 young dudes who possess pitchability with room to improve their fastball speed as well as continue to develop their secondary pitches. All 3 already pound the zone to begin with. If you don't think the Brewers did extensive scouting on these guys then you're crazy. People, in general, need to stop assuming that any team can just walk outside and sign 3 teenagers that are identical to these 3. Not a lot of 18-19yr olds possess this kind of pitchability and command of their pitchers. They see more upside in these 3 guys than they do others. And knowing he's getting Cecchini made this decision that much easier instead of shopping Lind for Peterson or similar level dudes. Maybe Seattle did not want to give up the other top draft pick pitchers that others have listed (nick, dylan, etc). Maybe Stearns preferred the 3 he got over those. We don't know. Too many on this board assume they know what's best because the think their access to fangraphs, top prospect rankings, etc is equivalent to the same info Stearns and his decision makers have. Combine that with the large majority on this board over-inflating the value of our players nonstop and you have nothing but negativity.

[Thurston Fluff]

I look at getting these guys the same as I do when the Packers trades back in the draft to accumulate more picks instead of having one higher pick. At some point the level of prospect you are likely to get is outweighed by the odds that three others provide more. If we were talking about getting a can't miss, above average, major league player then sure go with that. But Lind was never going to get us that. He might get us someone closer the the majors but every step closer to the majors we got was likely also a step lower ceiling to go with it. Nobody was going to trade multiple years of a sure shot, above average player for one year of Adam Lind.

 

I have been as passionate as any over this because i think its a truly awful trade. I guess, for me, the argument thats driving me up a wall is that these guys somehow have a high ceiling. age and ceiling are NOT synonyms, especially when it comes to the baseball world. Peterson, for instance (and im not implying that he was actually available in this trade though it was reported by several media members), has a far higher ceiling than any of these three. There are very few players capable of hitting 30+ homers in a minor league season, and hes one of them. So he had a down season last year, that literally make him the definition of high risk high reward. there is nothing about these guys that implies any type of high reward so i am just not sure where that is coming from. Keith Law, whom i despise yet respect, said that sterns was good to get 3 players for lind, but that he sacrificed quality for quantity and that it appears he was just looking for organizational depth with a few reliever types.

 

I apologize to you thurston, because this post isnt about you specifically, but the many that keep using words like "ceiling" "prospect" "upside" with these guys. if they had those things the scouting world would know it as best exampled by the top 100 being 20% teenagers.

 

I caution you not to conflate team scouting to media scouts. Each team has it's own list of other team's prospects and I doubt any two are the same. Much less the same as public media outlets rankings. But the main difference is probably how each entity looked at the specific players in question. Team scouts are often asked to look at specific players and assess them. Especially when they may be part of a trade. Media outlets set their rankings by going through the entire minor league system of every team and rank them. The most they get of any player is a snapshot of him. That probably goes double for players with limited exposure to the public eye. I think it's pretty obvious one way gives a much more comprehensive picture of a specific player than the other. I doubt for example Baseball America would have spent nearly as much time vetting each of these prospects as a scout for the Brewers did the past week or so. That is why I do not put much stock into their rankings at this point.

As far as their ceiling goes none of us know for sure what they are. If they had an easy to see high ceiling we wouldn't have been able to get them for Lind. But looking at their age, room to grow, strikeout and control abilities so far there is nothing that says they have low ceiling either. In other words you are correct that they don't necessarily have a high ceiling but that is not the same as saying they have low ones.

[BrewBalls]

Comments like the one's bolded, underlined and italicized do nothing for this board. Never have, never will. If you don't like what someone has to say about a trade, than either don't read it or ignore it. It's very simple. It's a discussion board that people are allowed to express themselves about things like who the Brewers trade for. People can rip it to shreds if they want to.

 

I think what 502 is saying is that you really have no idea what GMs were offering. I think it's silly to rip these international prospects that are all ~18 years old because they're not on a top 30 list yet, but even if that is granted, the main point is that people are angry and believe that they knew a better offer was on the table. That's what he was getting at.

 

The Peterson/Zunino rumors were out there among others, and those rumors have snowballed into the theory for many that they KNEW something like that was out there from several teams and that they also are of the opinion that that offer is clearly better than what he got. Again, the latter part of that (thinking that the package the Brewers got was inferior to the artificial offers) is annoying to me, but OK. It's the fact that people believe that they know something was better out there that is interesting.

 

I've seen a few/talked to a few people thinking it was a crappy return and that Stearns should have waited longer, etc. You really have no idea. It is entirely possible that he messed up the timing and picked the wrong return, but I tend to believe that the offers out there were way lower than some believe...and when once criticizes, they seem to do so KNOWING that there was a better offer out there (in their mind).

 

Couldn't agree more.

[BrewBalls]

For what it's worth, a person I know with connections in the Brewer scouting department said the team loves Herrera. They think he's going to be something special in a few years.

 

Just thought I'd add that.

This gets me even more excited about this trade. Thank you for sharing. I do not pretend to know anything about these three pitchers but the all do carry similarities (High K/BB% and good control). So I was good with the trade because I at least felt Stearns wasn't just drawing straws hoping he got a good one but instead went into the trade looking for prospects who possessed specific traits or advanced metric numbers.

[Mass Haas]

It would be interesting if an analysis could be done indicating how many pitchers in the three respective leagues of the teenagers (Midwest, Arizona, and DSL) met the standards set in terms of K:BB, K/IP, and WHIP that this Mariner trio did. Guessing that it's in single digits in each case.

 

If you're going to put your analytical trust in those parameters, and then trust actual boots on the ground for velocity and body projectibility, that seems to be a good combo.

[CheeseheadInQC]

First it didnt have to be an upper minors guy, lower minors guys are ranked too! nicky delmonico is entirely different, he was NEVER regarded like DJ peterson. He also hit 12 homeruns in high A. DJ Peterson hit 31(!!!), very few players have that type of ability. Delmonico then started doing meth.... lets assume no player has the meth addiction variable come into play. hes clean, playing for the whitesox, played in the AFL (and won an award) and is a prospect again.

 

Peterson's 2015 season raises some red flags, especially given that a significant part of his big previous season was at High Desert, which, correct me if I'm wrong, has a reputation for being almost as hitter-friendly as Colorado Springs. College first round position players, even the ones who end up disappointing in the big leagues, rarely have that kind of trouble in the minors. I was curious, so I looked up the 2002-2009 drafts. 23 first round college picks put up full-season OPSs below .700 before reaching the major leagues. Only two have put up more than 2 career WAR, and one of them (Cliff Pennington) is a middle infielder whose bat wouldn't fly at first base. The only other one to become a decent big leaguer was David Murphy. Total, the group averages less than 1 WAR and if you take out Pennington and Murphy, that number drops into the negatives. You can argue the three pitchers would have to beat the odds to contribute, but truthfully so would Peterson.

 

Overall I'm kind of in the middle on the trade. I don't think the value is exceptional and I would have liked a little more established of a main piece, but I don't think it is some kind of travesty either. And to the notion I've seen a couple of places that getting these three bears little difference to signing a trio of DSL pitchers, with the success they've had so far before even coming to Milwaukee they'd already likely be in the top 10 percent of Latin American pitchers the Brewers have signed in the last decade. How many guys coming up through their DSL team have had seasons with the kind of peripherals that these guys did last year? I can come up with maybe four (Ortega, Ventura, Rizzo and Luna) although I might be forgetting one or two. Given the Brewers' track record, this is probably closer to them signing 30 Latin American pitchers and then a couple of years later picking out the best three.

[MrTPlush]

Once again it has now been proven twice Adam Lind has little trade value. Adam Lind was really no better than when we got him and he proved once again he is not very durable. Yes he somehow made it to 500 at bats, but we got lucky and teams know that. He is also a platoon bat and teams just don't like giving up value for that type of player.

 

People keep calling this a bad trade, but that was the best we were offered how is that a bad trade? Why does it matter what Ramirez got? We are talking about Lind! Not Ramirez

 

There is also no knowing if we were ever truly offered Zunino or Peterson. Maybe that was a big lie or maybe we were adding more to the deal in those tumors. None of us know that.

[Jenkins5]

As it has been stated a million time. International signings who are not bonus babies don't start getting ranked highly until they experience success at A ball or above. Ventura, Luna, Diaz, Diplan....go back to Peralta and others....Takes time for them to generate buzz. Just because these kids were ranked doesn't mean it is a lack of talent at all. Brewers are targeting pitchers who know how to pitch (control the zone with multiple pitches), K batters at a high mark (1 per IP), and are effective.

 

At this age.... that is the most important part! Now if they can develop more velocity and continue to master their craft, they will be in great shape to be a major riser in our system. If Herrera goes from being a good young crafty pitcher working in 88-91 range with good overall stuff (17)...Just think if now he adds velocity and fills out! He will be a refined crafty pitcher throwing 93-96! Better than having a kid who throws 93-96 but now clue as to how to pitch or throw a strike. Easier to groom at least.

 

Overall I am a fan of the trade but ask me again in 3 years how it worked out. If Herrera is looking like he is a future Ace carving hitters up in BC or Missaki (Davies Jr.) is just getting the job done day in and out with his pure craftiness, Thus trade will be looking really nice. Only need 1 to hit to win the trade

[BrewBalls]

 

I caution you not to conflate team scouting to media scouts. Each team has it's own list of other team's prospects and I doubt any two are the same. Much less the same as public media outlets rankings. But the main difference is probably how each entity looked at the specific players in question. Team scouts are often asked to look at specific players and assess them. Especially when they may be part of a trade. Media outlets set their rankings by going through the entire minor league system of every team and rank them. The most they get of any player is a snapshot of him. That probably goes double for players with limited exposure to the public eye. I think it's pretty obvious one way gives a much more comprehensive picture of a specific player than the other. I doubt for example Baseball America would have spent nearly as much time vetting each of these prospects as a scout for the Brewers did the past week or so. That is why I do not put much stock into their rankings at this point.

As far as their ceiling goes none of us know for sure what they are. If they had an easy to see high ceiling we wouldn't have been able to get them for Lind. But looking at their age, room to grow, strikeout and control abilities so far there is nothing that says they have low ceiling either. In other words you are correct that they don't necessarily have a high ceiling but that is not the same as saying they have low ones.

Good explanation Thurston! Those who assume these three young pitchers must have low ceilings just because they are not top ranked prospects are looking to shortsighted. Lara was ranked #14 coming into the 2015 season between Victor Roache (13) and Jason Rogers (15) who are both replacement level prospects at best. It took a full season of exposure in rookie ball to get him into the top five where he truly belongs. And this is a player who was considered the 4th best international prospect prior to signing in 2014. Can you now understand why three young unknown players who were signed when they were 16+ from the D.R. and never played higher than short seasons in the DSL wouldn't be rated high yet. I highly expect at least one of these pitchers will break into our top 30 list within the next 2-3 years.

[MrTPlush]

International signings who are not bonus babies don't start getting ranked highly until they experience success at A ball or above. Ventura, Luna, Diaz, Diplan....go back to Peralta.

 

Peralta actually had a pretty big bonus if I remember right. Further proving their prospect ranking means nothing for international prospects in the low minors. Even guys getting a couple million in bonus money don't get too much love.

[Jenkins5]

Think Peralta was 400k which for Brewers was a lot but really not too much when think what many bonus babies get. I'm talking the 1-4?million dollar ones. Lara gets 400k no one is talking about him for another year or 2

[jerichoholicninja]

For what it's worth, a person I know with connections in the Brewer scouting department said the team loves Herrera. They think he's going to be something special in a few years.

 

Just thought I'd add that.

This gets me even more excited about this trade. Thank you for sharing. I do not pretend to know anything about these three pitchers but the all do carry similarities (High K/BB% and good control). So I was good with the trade because I at least felt Stearns wasn't just drawing straws hoping he got a good one but instead went into the trade looking for prospects who possessed specific traits or advanced metric numbers.

 

Well, I would hope the Brewer scouts thought at least one of these guys would be something special. Otherwise, what was the point in acquiring them?