Rockies acquire Jonathan Lucroy

[Brewcrewin07]

[torts]

We won on that deal

[markedman5]

For PTNL.......

[torts]

Woooooof

[jerichoholicninja]

In the grand scheme of things he really didn't do anything to warrant it, but I have really enjoyed his fall of a cliff over the last year.

[brewmann04]

Wow we made the move at the right time

[DocLuna7]

Amazing that his stock could have fallen this much in one calendar year.

[MillerParkSouth]

And there were some here that wanted to extend him last year...

[BuckyBrewer61]

This is a case in point on why some fans want to make trades of good players. No it's not because we are afraid of success or think the farm system is more important than the MLB club.

 

It's because we want to sell high and maximize value on what we have before that value is lost, with an ultimate plan for MLB success in mind. When you do it right, this is how it looks. When you do it wrong, it looks like Junior Guerra and Jonathan Villar.

 

And to be clear, I'm not claiming I forsaw Guerra and Villar's drop offs coming. Recognizing when the time is right to maximize that value is certainly among the most difficult parts of a GM's job.

[3and2Fastball]

Many (including myself) scoffed when the Indians couldn't guarantee that Lucroy would be their starting catcher in 2017. I sure wish the Indians front office was as dumb as me because I sure think Francisco Mejia (currently hitting .317/.367/.520 in AA while throwing out over 50% of base runners) is going to be a much better MLB player than Lewis Brinson (hey maybe I'm wrong on that one, too!)

[trwi7]

Many (including myself) scoffed when the Indians couldn't guarantee that Lucroy would be their starting catcher in 2017. I sure wish the Indians front office was as dumb as me because I sure think Francisco Mejia (currently hitting .317/.367/.520 in AA while throwing out over 50% of base runners) is going to be a much better MLB player than Lewis Brinson (hey maybe I'm wrong on that one, too!)

 

Brinson hit .332/.403./.601 between A+, AA and AAA as a 21 year old.

[Eye Black]

Many (including myself) scoffed when the Indians couldn't guarantee that Lucroy would be their starting catcher in 2017. I sure wish the Indians front office was as dumb as me because I sure think Francisco Mejia (currently hitting .317/.367/.520 in AA while throwing out over 50% of base runners) is going to be a much better MLB player than Lewis Brinson (hey maybe I'm wrong on that one, too!)

I would make a friendly wager on just the opposite occurring. Mejia has an elite hit tool, but my primary concerns are his small stature for the catcher position and that reportedly there have been issues with his attitude in the past. I think Brinson has a better chance to develop into a 4+ WAR player at his peak.

[3and2Fastball]

Many (including myself) scoffed when the Indians couldn't guarantee that Lucroy would be their starting catcher in 2017. I sure wish the Indians front office was as dumb as me because I sure think Francisco Mejia (currently hitting .317/.367/.520 in AA while throwing out over 50% of base runners) is going to be a much better MLB player than Lewis Brinson (hey maybe I'm wrong on that one, too!)

I would make a friendly wager on just the opposite occurring. Mejia has an elite hit tool, but my primary concerns are his small stature for the catcher position and that reportedly there have been issues with his attitude in the past. I think Brinson has a better chance to develop into a 4+ WAR player at his peak.

 

I sure hope you are right. He looks like he's been extremely overmatched at the MLB level so far. Very small sample of course

[GAME05]

There is an article floating somewhere around the internet that takes a look at Lucroy's catching stance. The article notes that at one point Lucroy's stance was pretty much lower than anybody's, which helped both pitch framing and throwing people out. But looking at it this year he's standing a LOT taller behind the plate and therefore isn't near as effective as he used to be. Changed him from probably the best pitch framer in baseball to one of the worst.

[tmwiese55]

I hope Lucroy fired his agent from when he signed that deal with the Brewers. What a bad contract that was for him

[MrTPlush]

I hope Lucroy fired his agent from when he signed that deal with the Brewers. What a bad contract that was for him

 

At the time some experts questioned it from the Brewers point of view. Lucroy clearly didn't believe in his skills to be anything more than average. Lucroy probably surprised himself.

[tmwiese55]

From a team perspective I don't think you can ever worry about a deal that is 2 mil per year, there is no chance it will ever be crippling no matter what happens. I guess from Luc's and his teams view they knew he was a C and obviously there is injury risk that goes with it so they just wanted to lock in money. But to give a team option for the last and just not figuring in that he wouldn't hit FA until he was 31, when catchers are usually falling off, cost him any chance at a big payday. As best I can tell the team bought out 2 years of his FA, though I'm not an expert on that process. So I suppose there isn't much that could have been done, if he doesn't give up a couple years of FA then the team has no incentive to give an early deal. So kind of a tough spot for Luc, and it's not like it was the Brewers fault, it's just the system that is in place. Maybe he could've held out and made the last year a player or mutual option. But yea I guess it was that deal or ride out another year and hope your position improves to negotiate a better deal the next year.

[torts]

Thank you for Brinson and Ortiz, Texas

[Dean Machine]

I remember an interview where Lucroy specifically called out Braun and a few other Brewers by name for telling him that he needed to take the money as soon as it was available. I'm assuming they were thinking about Hall and Turnbow etc. BTW do we feel bad for Lucroy for making 11 Million dollars the last 5 years? I would imagine that very few on this board will make that in their lifetime.

[tmwiese55]

If he hit FA 2 years ago he'd have over 50 mil. Even last year without the team option I'm sure he'd have gotten a healthy multi year deal. Now, he'll be playing one years for the rest of his career. 11 mil is of course a lot of money, but after paying taxes and his agent he got 5-6 mil, not set for life type money. Hopefully he can hang around a few more years and put some more away, dude always played hard and played the game right while getting his body beat up as a C so he deserves it.

[sveumrules]

I think he's almost got to be injured. Running a 56% ground ball rate this year compared to a 42.5% career average.

 

His free agency will be interesting to watch play out for sure this winter.

[monty57]

Getting the Lucroy and Gomez deals signed right before both of them broke out was probably the biggest reason we hopefully won't suffer an extended rebuild period. I'm almost always for signing low cost deals to young guys who you think could be good. The downside won't hurt the franchise too badly, and the upside is tremendous.

[tmwiese55]

As much many here like to rip the 'win now' mantra of that era. They signed some good team friendly deals extending guys to 31ish, so you essentially bought their primes for cheap without overcommitting the small market team. Luc, Gallardo, Weeks, Hart

[BuckyBrewer61]

I think he's almost got to be injured. Running a 56% ground ball rate this year compared to a 42.5% career average.

 

His free agency will be interesting to watch play out for sure this winter.

 

Let the Lucroy to the Brewers hot stove speculation begin!

[pacopete4]

I think he's almost got to be injured. Running a 56% ground ball rate this year compared to a 42.5% career average.

 

His free agency will be interesting to watch play out for sure this winter.

 

Let the Lucroy to the Brewers hot stove speculation begin!

 

He won't. He was buthurt to begin with that we didn't want to give him a lot of money to stay. Let him be a league journeyman now and see how that turns out for him. I'll take Pína.