Cheap 1B options

[JohnBriggs12]

Now that Lind is officially gone, and Stearns has stated that they may acquire another 1B to pair with Rogers thought I'd start a thread on possibilities. Feel free to add names to the list:

 

I'll start with a couple. One is Chris Parmelee. He's kind of the definition of replacement level, but that's about his floor too. On the plus side, his AAA numbers: .301/.392/.505 over quite a large sample size are actually pretty good and he'll still be just 28 next season. He is a LH bat too though his splits don't indicate he'd be a great platoon option. He's a FA so won't take anything to get him other than a very, very modest offer. With a real chance to compete for meaningful playing time, if I'm his agent, I'm on the phone with Stearns today.

 

Second option is one I've mentioned before. White Sox would love to unload 36 year old Adam LaRoche and his remaining $13 million. LaRoche was indeed awful last year but was certainly serviceable the year before with Washington. One could make the case he didn't adjust well to a new league and the fact that more often than not he was DHing, which for some is a tough transition especially for an older player. Obviously it won't take much to get him depending on how much of his contract Chicago is willing to eat. Maybe they'd consider a bad contract swap for Garza. If somehow LaRoche regained his 2014 form, he'd certainly have some trade value in July as well. Heck he might bring another teenage arm or two. Even in his awful 2015, his splits vs. RHP were much better than vs. LHP. Career wise vs. LHP his OPS is a fine .831

[Mudville9]

Parmalee I would be ok with, but as hard as it is to say I think Garza is worth more than LaRoche with the price of starting pitching. I like the idea of leaving Garza in the rotation and see if he can regain some trade value.

[mlloyd10]

Corey Hart

[MrTPlush]

If LaRoche wasn't such a horrible fielder maybe we could work something, but I don't see a big comeback worth dealing for him.

 

Just let Jason Rogers have fun and take it over for a year. Maybe he surprises us all.

[trwi7]

Jason Rogers

[patrickgpe]

Jon Morosi is reporting the brewers are interested in Pedro Alverez to play 1st. I guess i am OK with it, as a stopgap measure. I would rather give Rogers a chance, but he will atleast give the brewers some power, which the brewers lack.

[recte44]

Ryan Braun or Domingo Santana please.

[reillymcshane]

Jon Morosi is reporting the brewers are interested in Pedro Alverez to play 1st. I guess i am OK with it, as a stopgap measure. I would rather give Rogers a chance, but he will atleast give the brewers some power, which the brewers lack.

Please no to Alvarez. He's the worst 1B in baseball. I know he can hit, but I just imagine Juan Francisco Part 2.

[jerichoholicninja]

Alvarez. Gross. Why not just bring Mark Reynolds back. At least he could plat 3B if needed.

[A Swing and A Drive]

There might be only 10 or so current Major Leaguers with as much raw power as Pedro Alvarez. Plus he bats left handed.

 

I'm on board with giving him a chance on a one year deal.

 

His upside is still WAY greater than some of the options being mentioned. (i.e. Chris Parmelee, Corey Hart, Jason Rogers)

[Jenkins5]

Jason Rogers

 

Mark me down for a tally. hit almost .300 with ops around .800. Has hit everywhere he has been been. Give him an opportunity and see how it goes. Maybe by July Cooper or Ramirez may earn a look.

 

Santana or Braun work to.

[bill hAll Star]

A caveat here that I'm not going to watch a ton of this Brewers team, given that I'm out of market and I think I'll finally cancel mlb.tv for a little while this year.

 

I'd take a shot on Alvarez or anyone of that ilk. These next 2 years, if nobody is in place (even if somebody is) it's all about keeping the seat warm and seeing if we can coax a buy-low piece to the team or trade the player.

 

Other than the argument that the development of the team is damaged by playing a crappy defensive player, let Alvarez play some 3B as well. I don't really care. If you can revamp any sort of value (maybe his LH splits become so good that an AL team will trade a piece for him, or his K rate goes down, or he magically improves on defense).

 

I'm not strongly advocating for Alvarez, but sure, I'll take him. There is some form of upside and you can probably at the worst get a AAAA player in a trade for him at some point as a team has injuries halfway through next season.

[Brewer Fever]

I gotta admit, Alvarez would be a real head scratcher. Doesn't jive with anything else Stearns is doing.

[JohnBriggs12]

Jon Morosi is reporting the brewers are interested in Pedro Alverez to play 1st. I guess i am OK with it, as a stopgap measure. I would rather give Rogers a chance, but he will atleast give the brewers some power, which the brewers lack.

 

Someone mention LaRoche fielding an issue? He's a gold glover compared to Alvarez. Jeesh. Lets see Pirates couldn't use him because his glove is that bad but Brewers can? Imagine the right side of the infield if Weeks was still around? Better make sure whoever is in the infield have accurate arms. Alvarez doesn't save many errors and commits a ton of his own.

[RWeeksFan23]

What more does Matt Clark have to do to earn a fair look at 1B? Cheap, left-handed, somewhat young, has power, and from what I remember, decent plate discipline.

[JohnBriggs12]

What more does Matt Clark have to do to earn a fair look at 1B? Cheap, left-handed, somewhat young, has power, and from what I remember, decent plate discipline.

 

He needed to do a bit better than .291/.367/.492 apparently at hitter friendly Colorado Springs. He turns 29 tomorrow and that doesn't qualify as "somewhat young" either.

[JohnBriggs12]

The problem with Rogers, and some of the other RH hitters being mentioned is that the lineup was already very right handed even with Lind. They just traded their lone power bat from the left side. No doubt Rogers is going to have a larger role this year but you can't construct a lineup against top of the line RH pitching with Gennett and Villar as the lone LH bats. Not that those two aren't decent offensive players, but you really need a thumper from the left side to break up the middle of the order.

 

Alvarez fits very well as LH power bat, but defense is the issue. Then again the Pirate pitching staff survived having him there okay. I also don't think he'll come all that cheap or on a one or two year deal. Alvarez figures to want at least 3 years and at least $10-12 million per year, perhaps more.

[MrTPlush]

We are going to lose 90 games. I do not car one bit how heavy our line up is with RHP. No cares given...

 

He also will make nowhere near $10mil that is baffling. If that was the case teams would have been flocking to get him when he was a 1/$8mil option.

[bill hAll Star]

We just dealt away Adam Lind for 3 lottery tickets, and by all accounts, we probably had some "solid" offers like DJ Peterson, Zunino, or whoever offered that Stearns passed on.

 

Here's something: Alvarez is not unlike Adam Lind. We could probably sign Alvarez cheap for 1 or 2 years. Maybe this time, Stearns can make everyone happy and grab Zunino or Peterson in a trade when Lind is hurt at the deadline.

 

According to Fangraphs, Alvarez is every bit as good of a defender as Lind. He has similar splits/K issues that Lind had earlier in his career, but Alvarez possesses more raw power and also was "not terrible" early in his career at 3rd base. He's 28 and has earned about 6 WAR over his career. Lind has 8 at age 32.

 

It's possible that Clark, and to an extent, Rogers have never gotten their full chance because MLB minds don't think they are MLB players. Rogers probably is the platoon-mate at 1B and will get a chance.

 

We're not going to roll with a payroll of $40-45 million (about what our final payroll would be if we dealt Lucroy). We'll take some veteran risks here and there and maybe get to $55-60 million. I'm OK seeing if I can mold Alvarez into something better than what he is. Heck, if he has the Lind-esque fix and cuts the Ks and ups the average to .275, you can even offer him a qualifying offer if you weren't able to field a good offer at the deadline.

 

If he's a dud, you pack up and move on to the next year or next stopgap before we have someone ready.

[craigharmann]

We are going to lose 90 games.

 

Not enough. If we're wanting the #1 pick (or top 3), we've got to lose more. We're competing against the Phillies, Braves and whoever miraculously heads to suckitude this season.

[MrTPlush]

We are going to lose 90 games.

 

Not enough. If we're wanting the #1 pick (or top 3), we've got to lose more. We're competing against the Phillies, Braves and whoever miraculously heads to suckitude this season.

 

That wasn't a concrete number.

[patrickgpe]

I gotta admit, Alvarez would be a real head scratcher. Doesn't jive with anything else Stearns is doing.

 

not really. The brewers don't really have anyone to play 1st, 3rd, of CF next season. There is no top prospect that the brewers could fill in. To give Alverez a 1 or 2 year deal, is similar to picking up Aram's option last season. It buys time.

[MrTPlush]

I would not be totally against it. His 30+ homers would probably help sell tickets and his defense would make sure his offense doesn't help win too many games.

 

Brewers could probably make some marketing gimmick out of his beard too.

[Brewer Fever]

I gotta admit, Alvarez would be a real head scratcher. Doesn't jive with anything else Stearns is doing.

 

not really. The brewers don't really have anyone to play 1st, 3rd, of CF next season. There is no top prospect that the brewers could fill in. To give Alverez a 1 or 2 year deal, is similar to picking up Aram's option last season. It buys time.

 

It doesn't jive with 2 things...

 

1- a desire to develop young players

 

2- a focus on defense, and more importantly putting a good defense behind our pitchers so as not to diminish their value

 

#2 is the part I'd really hate to see sacrificed. I'm so sick of our pitchers having to get 4-5 outs to get through an inning, whether via errors or missed outs due to lack of range.

 

If they want to go the "sign and flip" route do it with cheap pitchers (SP or RP) and put a great defense behind them.

[nate82]

I wouldn't be against signing Alvarez to a 1-year deal at $5-8m. Platoon both Rogers and Alvarez at 1B and hopefully Alvarez hits enough that you can trade him for some more prospects at the deadline.

 

Even if the Brewers pick up Alvarez he is not blocking anyone important and there isn't anyone who is young that Alvarez is blocking either. Rogers is only 1-year younger than Alvarez.

 

I would rather gamble on Alvarez performing enough to bring back a prospect or two than have Rogers play at 1B every day in the majors. I would prefer the Brewers to move Braun to 1B over Alvarez but it doesn't look like the Brewers are going to do that.