Eric Sogard

[Greenleaf1]

Massive small sample size alert, plus years of evidence of below average player to the contrary, but Eric Sogard has looked really impressive in his time with the Brewers thus far. If he was controllable long term, I'd be really interested in holding onto him as a utility player, as he's a major upgrade over someone like Yadiel Rivera, at least on offense (and, again, for now at least).

 

Unfortunately, he's a free agent at the end of the season, and if he's having a Gerardo Parra esque season (although definitely over less PAs than Parra had for us at the time we traded him), why not try to maximize value from him by getting something out of him on the trade market?

 

The Brewers have been pretty good at maximizing value from players like this over the past few seasons (Parra, Aaron Hill, Jason Rogers all come to mind), and as great as Sogard has been, I don't know if I'm sold that he's the guy who will carry us on his shoulders this season to the playoffs.

 

Also, once Villar comes back they will undoubtedly want to see if they can get him back to what he was last year, but even if that doesn't work out, Perez could see more time at 2B now that the outfield is becoming quite crowded (there's also Nate Orf and Ivan De Jesus at AAA who are both having pretty great seasons and could maybe provide small contributions as well if need be).

 

I like Sogard, and I do think we're a better team with him and his value at the top of the order since joining us has been pretty incredible, but we're still way less likely to make the playoffs this year than not, and I'd hate to see him have an amazing season then walk at the end of the year and get his payday somewhere else and leave us with nothing.

 

His value could be maximized by packaging him with someone else (like Broxton or Garza) in order to get a better prospect package from a team.

 

I'm not saying I would be disappointed if we didn't trade Sogard, and we all know that Stearns is going to listen to any offer that comes his way, but I'm just saying that I think there's an opportunity here to turn a guy who I thought looked like complete garbage in spring training into something of value for our system in the future.

 

What do you guys think?

[MrTPlush]

We Didn't get much for Sparta and he was 27, better offensively overall in his career, defense that was highly regarded, and had at least one good season offensively(2011) previously. No one is going to give us something worthwhile for a 31 year old Sogard. If we fall out of the race of course we will trade him. I would expect little to nothing though. He sure won't bring back enough where I would trade him if we were still competing.

[liveforoctober]

Sogard by himself won't bring much back I would imagine ... I could see him being a nice sprinkle on a different deal though as an add on. If some team wants Guerra, they could take Sogard in the deal too and it would increase the value of that package.

 

However, if we are contending Sogard needs to stay. Whatever pixie dust he has found in Milwaukee is a huge benefit right now.

[CheezWizHed]

Trade him to a team that has a young up-coming 2B that they have soured on. Then Sogard can help him tank this year. Then in the offseason, we trade a reliever for him and a few other guys. Only to have him bounce back with us have have a great career.

 

Its a complicated plan, but it worked before...

[patrickgpe]

Wouldn't He get about as much as the brewers had to pay for Jerry Hairston jr? It wouldn't be a hall.

[Roderick]

Wouldn't He get about as much as the brewers had to pay for Jerry Hairston jr? It wouldn't be a hall.

 

I don't even think he should bring in that much. JHJ had more of a hitters track record.

[brewcrewdue80]

At this stage in the season, what teams with playoff potentials, need a 2b? Going with names off top of head, Altuve, Pedroia, Cano, Murphy, Lemahieu, Baez, Wong, Odor, Forysthe, and Dozier. Where is Sogard upgrading a Playoff team needing a 2b?

[Humans Need Water]

At this stage in the season, what teams with playoff potentials, need a 2b? Going with names off top of head, Altuve, Pedroia, Cano, Murphy, Lemahieu, Baez, Wong, Odor, Forysthe, and Dozier. Where is Sogard upgrading a Playoff team needing a 2b?

He can also play SS, 3b pretty solid as well as be a versatile lefty contact bat off the bench. No idea if any playoff team "needs" that but that's what he can bring to a playoff team

[MrTPlush]

At this stage in the season, what teams with playoff potentials, need a 2b? Going with names off top of head, Altuve, Pedroia, Cano, Murphy, Lemahieu, Baez, Wong, Odor, Forysthe, and Dozier. Where is Sogard upgrading a Playoff team needing a 2b?

 

Milwaukee Brewers could use a guy like that. Their normal 2B has struggled and is injured.

[tmwiese55]

I don't think the scenario will come up as we'd get so little back that we'd just keep. But if we fell out of contention and traded him to a contender they would probably just be looking at him as a backup/utility guy rather than a starting 2B to finish the year. So just an upgrade to their bench and insurance in case an IF gets hurt. Think the Hill trade to Boston last year, something like that.

[brewcrewdue80]

I don't think the scenario will come up as we'd get so little back that we'd just keep. But if we fell out of contention and traded him to a contender they would probably just be looking at him as a backup/utility guy rather than a starting 2B to finish the year. So just an upgrade to their bench and insurance in case an IF gets hurt. Think the Hill trade to Boston last year, something like that.

 

That's my point. You're not giving up something of realistic value for just a little bench player help or about 70 PAs down the stretch and 1-10 in the Playoffs. It'd be something different if he were to be a starter but as noted above what playoff team is he starting for currently....aside from our own?

[Crash2303]

as much as i'd love for Nerd Power to be a Brewer for life, his value probably doesn't get much higher than its going to be right now. As a free agent after the year it's possible we bring him back on a 2-3 year contract to be our primary middle infielder backup, not the worst idea ever. but, backup infielders are fairly common and we could find a cheaper option in house. considering how hot Ivan DeJesus is right now, i think you could trade Sogard, bring up De Jesus and not have much of a drop-off in production offensively or defensively. afterall, he's been Sogardesq- hitting .363/.422/.500 on the year - but in the past month he's hit an astonishing .430/.485/.613 in over 100 PAs- that's crazy!!! and the most impressive thing about it is (unlike seemingly everyone else in Colorado) his Home/Away splits are not that drastically different- in fact all 4 of his HRs have come on the road. admittingly this would be a bit of a drop-off in cult hero status for fans (which probably should be factored in), but i think it would still be a solid move- even if we're in the play-off chase.

 

i don't think we'd get much for Sogard straight up (though we did get Zach Davies for Gerardo Parra- which i think would be a baseline return) - but packaging him with one of the plethora of middling OF prospects we have, i think we could get back either some relief help or a solid low level prospect.