Is it possible that we could be buyers at the deadline?

[MillerParkSouth]

Morosi: Sources: #Brewers are prepared to buy at Trade Deadline and have begun background work on Jose Quintana, Sonny Gray and other starters. @MLB

 

I can't begin to express how much this displeases me. Don't do anything stupid DS!!

[brewerfan82]

Really depends on who they have to give up, but at least with those two guys you're getting them for multiple years beyond 2017 so I can get behind that. But you know there would be a couple guys involved that will hurt to see go. Nervously excited!

[MillerParkSouth]

I really don't want anything to do with Gray and his injury history

[Lathund]

There are so many teams interested in the TOR-type starters available at the deadline that the price will be very high. Too high to represent value for what we're giving up.

[Ennder]

I didn't read this whole thread but I think this is new info, hard to tell on the internet~.

 

http://nesn.com/2017/07/mlb-rumors-brewers-to-be-deadline-buyers-eyeing-sonny-gray-jose-quintana/

 

Sources: #Brewers are prepared to buy at Trade Deadline and have begun background work on Jose Quintana, Sonny Gray and other starters. @MLB

 

I'm ok with someone like Gray or Quintana since they each have 2+ years left before free agency so can help with the rebuild. Please no rental starters though.

[Ennder]

The Cubs are nowhere near a borderline dynasty. Come on man. Lots of work left to do for them.

 

I wouldn't say they have a lot of work to do, although they obviously will need to continually re-build their pitching staff. Their position player group is set up extremely well for the next 5 years.

 

 

They have 2 clearly above average positional players and Contreras most likely makes 3. Russell hasn't shown much with the bat and his defense has slipped this year. Schwarber is a disaster and needs to be in the AL, Baez is toosly but makes a lot of dumb mistakes and isn't much of a hitter. Happ may join those ranks to make 4, too early to tell. They have nothing in the way of young pitching and are going to have to pray young guys get it really fast or keep cycling in free agents. There is no dynasty here, just a good team. If you had to rate teams with the top 25 and under talent in baseball I wouldn't put the Cubs at the top of the list.

[A Swing and A Drive]

Morosi: Sources: #Brewers are prepared to buy at Trade Deadline and have begun background work on Jose Quintana, Sonny Gray and other starters. @MLB

 

- I can't begin to express how much this displeases me. Don't do anything stupid DS!!

 

A couple of quick points:

 

1. The Brewers have a 4.5 game lead in the division on July 7th. They ARE playoff contenders.

 

2. Rockies are fading to the point where 2nd WC will be an option for Brewers as well as division.

 

3. Nationals, Dodgers and Dbacks might be better than the Brewers but anything can happen once you get into the postseason.

 

4. The Cubs (or Cards) could win 100 games next year and the year after and this might be a rare opportunity.

 

5. The Milwaukee Brewers have only made the postseason 4 times out of nearly 50 years as a franchise.

 

6. The Brewers 40 man-roster is starting to fill up and we will not have enough spots for our beloved "top" prospects.

 

7. Moving our Farm pieces at positions of depth (OF, MI) for controllable talent at positions of need is not "straying from the plan."

 

8. Quintana, Gray and Cole are all cost controled for several more seasons. They could always be moved at a later date to re-stock the farm.

 

9. Bob Uecker and Bud Selig are both 82 years old. They both celebrated their 50th birthday the year our current GM was born. Carpe Diem!

 

10. Less than 20% of prospects even make the majors, with a far less percentage becoming average regulars. For every Ryan Braun, there are 100 Mat Gamels.

[adambr2]

People keep saying the wild card doesn't seem in play, but do you guys even look at the standings? The Rockies hold the second spot and are trending down pretty fast right now. Their rotation isn't good and at Coors that is going to bring them down. They are good, but I expect them to have a record that sports <90 wins. They only hold a 3 game lead over us right now....we have a bigger divisional lead than that.

 

If and when the Rockies continue trending down look at the Wild Card contenders not including the Cubs. It is the 40-42 Braves and the 40-44 Cardinals right now. We hold a 5 game lead over the Braves right now(who are directly behind the Cubs in the Wild Card race. There is not a single winning record in the NL that isn't currently holding a playoff spot.

 

STOP WRITING OFF THE WILDCARD

 

Calm down. That post I wrote saying the wild card didn't appear to be in play was written on June 20th. Obviously the standings looked a lot different 17 days ago.

[Ennder]

 

Calm down. That post I wrote saying the wild card didn't appear to be in play was written on June 20th. Obviously the standings looked a lot different 17 days ago.

 

The thing is, you were wrong 17 days ago too. That Rockies rotation is terrible, there was no reason to think it wouldn't fall off. They had also beat up on the Padres and Giants a lot early. The Rockies tend to fade most seasons because it is just a tough place to play and their players wear down. At no point this season did I think the wild card was out of play.

[DuWayne Steurer]

I honestly wonder how much the Brewers being 8 games over has affected DS's strategy for moving players this year. I suspect (though I certainly could be wrong!) that he came into the year expecting another season of 70-75 wins, and he was possibly planning on moving Garza, maybe Anderson, and perhaps Santana and Broxton even, maybe Braun, if he could find a taker. Now they're winning, everyone is pretty much playing well (except Villar), and we have a logjam of players, there's no place to put the young guys like Phillips, Brinson, etc, and there's no justification for trading away guys like Garza, Santana, etc, etc in the middle of a playoff race.

 

Just something to toss around...

[liveforoctober]

I honestly wonder how much the Brewers being 8 games over has affected DS's strategy for moving players this year. I suspect (though I certainly could be wrong!) that he came into the year expecting another season of 70-75 wins, and he was possibly planning on moving Garza, maybe Anderson, and perhaps Santana and Broxton even, maybe Braun, if he could find a taker. Now they're winning, everyone is pretty much playing well (except Villar), and we have a logjam of players, there's no place to put the young guys like Phillips, Brinson, etc, and there's no justification for trading away guys like Garza, Santana, etc, etc in the middle of a playoff race.

 

Just something to toss around...

 

It is a great point and a good discussion. What’s more, a guy like Santana looks like a piece to build around whereas will Brett Phillips ever be as good as the Domingo Santana we are currently seeing? Is Brett Phillips the guy we should be trading now of the two? Keon Broxton looks like a Mike Cameron clone. Do we deal him?

[adambr2]

 

Calm down. That post I wrote saying the wild card didn't appear to be in play was written on June 20th. Obviously the standings looked a lot different 17 days ago.

 

The thing is, you were wrong 17 days ago too. That Rockies rotation is terrible, there was no reason to think it wouldn't fall off. They had also beat up on the Padres and Giants a lot early. The Rockies tend to fade most seasons because it is just a tough place to play and their players wear down. At no point this season did I think the wild card was out of play.

 

Ok Ender. Yes I know you have been mentioning frequently for awhile you think the Rockies will fade. So even though we were like 10 out of the WC or whatever it was on June 20th and all I said is it didn't appear to be in play, yes, there you go, you were right, I was wrong.

[A Swing and A Drive]

Don't toot your own horn too much about calling the Rockies fade.

 

Everyone and their brother have been saying the Brewers will fade as well.

 

Lucky guess on the Rockies though.

[MrTPlush]

Every just needs to take a breather. David Stearns didn't suddenly become a Mark Attanasio controlled Doug Melvin clone. David Stearns believes in having lots of young talent. However they won't all play for us as we have to much talent/depth. When we are competing we should be trading prospects for MLB talent. This team looks real and is holding a strong lead on the division half way through the year.

 

They are doing preliminary homework on Quintana. When they hear the price in a few weeks it may be 10x what they ever would have spent on him. Just because they are the interested in Quintana doesn't mean Stearns would even be willing to sell the farm. When you are a contender you keep tabs on every single option out there. They did it a few years ago when James Shoelds(s) was available. They barely made any deals.

[MrTPlush]

Don't toot your own horn too much about calling the Rockies fade.

 

Everyone and their brother have been saying the Brewers will fade as well.

 

Lucky guess on the Rockies though.

 

No, it is not lucky to guess the Rockies fade. They were on pace to win 104 games with a trash rotation on June 20th. Everyone and their brother knew that 104 pace was going to crash pretty hard. Not to mention they have to play the D Backs and Dodgers all summer long. The Brewers were predicted to fade early in the season because their pitching was terrible and we depended on our offense. It isn't possible to stay over .500 that way. Since then the bullpen has improved and the rotation has done amazing. Now no one is predicting us to fade. Most have us at at least 85 wins when the current pace is 88 I believe. Most view us as a legit contender now that the pitching has joined the offense in doing well.

 

Can't compare the two.

[brewcrewdue80]

Corey Ray is no longer in Baseball America's top 101 prospects. Oops, too late to use him as a headliner. btw, only 4 Brewers were in that top 101: Brinson, Woodruff, Hader, and Ortiz. I find it odd they reduced Hader with his success in the bullpen.

 

AJ Puk #27....Matt Manning #79

[Ennder]

Don't toot your own horn too much about calling the Rockies fade.

 

Everyone and their brother have been saying the Brewers will fade as well.

 

Lucky guess on the Rockies though.

 

There was no guessing to it. Their rotation is terrible and they had a really easy schedule to start the season. This was a really easy prediction, not a guess. They are a team that is going to have to outslug people which is really hard to do and be a 90+ win team. They will settle in somewhere between 80 and like 88 wins most likely.

[mlloyd10]

If royals sell, give me Duffy. I could see them being interested in Diaz as the 2nd piece.

[Lee16]

I still think we need at least 1 good bullpen arm before we overwork Knebel. I'd call up the Mets and try and get Addison Reed. He's having a great year, has closer experience and they would probably love to get out of paying him the rest of the year. Give them Taylor Jungmann and Medeiros or Gatewood and call it a day.

[fondybrewfan]

One of those players is not like the other. Jungmann and Medeiros are probably throw in's at this point; Gatewood has taken a leap and is a far more legitimate prospect. Of course I would trade him for the right piece but I think he holds a lot more value than the other two guys.

[tmwiese55]

The way the last week or two has gone you have to think this has all just gotten very real all of a sudden. Others have pointed out the records the Cards/Cubs would need to have if we just play .500. And frankly the Cubs look just really bad right now, the division is theirs for the taking. Have to think they're going to be buyers in some way, my guess is they won't pony up for the top starters but one or two bullpen additions seems likely to me, probably using some of the non top OF prospects since we kind of have a logjam right now.

[clancyphile]

The way the last week or two has gone you have to think this has all just gotten very real all of a sudden. Others have pointed out the records the Cards/Cubs would need to have if we just play .500. And frankly the Cubs look just really bad right now, the division is their for the taking. Have to think they're going to be buyers in some way, my guess is they won't pony up for the top starters but one or two bullpen additions seems likely to me, probably using some of the non top OF prospects since we kind of have a logjam right now.

 

To me, the prospects offer two things:

1. Potential trade chips.

2. Replacements for people traded.

 

Don't just think about dealing Garrett Cooper - maybe the Brewers can get a better bullpen arm by moving Aguilar, and them promoting Cooper.

[tmwiese55]

The way the last week or two has gone you have to think this has all just gotten very real all of a sudden. Others have pointed out the records the Cards/Cubs would need to have if we just play .500. And frankly the Cubs look just really bad right now, the division is their for the taking. Have to think they're going to be buyers in some way, my guess is they won't pony up for the top starters but one or two bullpen additions seems likely to me, probably using some of the non top OF prospects since we kind of have a logjam right now.

 

To me, the prospects offer two things:

1. Potential trade chips.

2. Replacements for people traded.

 

Don't just think about dealing Garrett Cooper - maybe the Brewers can get a better bullpen arm by moving Aguilar, and them promoting Cooper.

 

Or including Broxton in a trade and promoting Brinson type thing.

[Greenleaf1]

I've definitely been advocating a Broxton trade this year now that it looks like a Braun trade is off the table for the foreseeable future. Brinson would likely do well there with regular playing time, but you also have Phillips and could even platoon the two of them in September.

 

We currently have 7 Major League ready (or very close) outfielders competing for 3 spots. Braun is not tradeable, Santana better stay right where he is, which really leaves Broxton/Perez/Brinson/Phillips/Cordell (hell you could even throw Kyle Wren in there too as a 4th OF type), with Perez obviously not really competing for the starting CF job anyway.

 

Every one of those guys is controllable for the foreseeable future. I think Phillips or Broxton fit best as trade candidates for this month (I really don't want to lose Brinson, and Cordell just isn't a big enough prospect to highlight a trade package).

 

With how controllable those guys are, it also makes guys like Ray/Clark more expendable too. Clark probably isn't a strong enough name to highlight a package either (maybe for a reliever?), but Ray is and I think a package with Ray/Phillips or Ray/Broxton could be a very good start to net a controllable starting pitcher this month.

 

Maybe something like Ray/Broxton and a top pitching prospect (Hader/Woodruff/Ortiz/Burnes) could get us close to landing Quintana. Throw in Wang or Archer as a near Major League ready bullpen piece (which always seems to be what the 4th man in these trades is), and that seems like a strong return for the White Sox while leaving us still in a pretty good position depth wise. We replace one of our top pitching prospects with an already established guy, lose some outfield depth which is OK and lose some bullpen depth which isn't fantastic but still fine and not the most important thing.

 

If 2 weeks from now it was announced that we got Quintana for Broxton/Ray/Ortiz/Archer, I don't think that anyone would complain.

[tmwiese55]

I totally forgot about Pat Neshek until seeing him in the ASG last night. Only signed until the end of the year and playing on a garbage team, can't imagine the price would be all too high for him as a rental. Could be a good guy for some bullpen depth.