Yelich to the Brewers in exchange for Brinson, Isan Diaz, M. Harrison and Yamamoto

[Austin Tatious]

I just spent the entire evening, the last 3 hours, flipping back and forth between the Major League Forum and Rumors/Transactions forum and had no lag time between posts. Constant outpouring of posts.

 

That was fun...

 

Let's see what tomorrow brings!

 

Ditto. I love baseball and the Brewers and this sure is a fun day, especially with some more moves on the horizon.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Grisham and Ray can still develop at higher levels.

 

The team just traded arguably their two top OF prospects. I think the onus is on Grisham and Ray to start fulfilling their potential. I imagine both will be at AA this year. Time to put up or shut up.

[homer]

Not sure if this has been mentioned but Yelich has a pretty big home/road split. For his career he's an 839 OPS away from home and 759 at home. He's 128 wRC+ away and 113 at home.

[reillymcshane]

Grisham and Ray can still develop at higher levels.

 

The team just traded arguably their two top OF prospects. I think the onus is on Grisham and Ray to start fulfilling their potential. I imagine both will be at AA this year. Time to put up or shut up.

Exactly. Let's see how these guys can do. The OF is fine for a few years - they can be ready when they are ready (if ever).

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Not sure if this has been mentioned but Yelich has a pretty big home/road split. For his career he's an 839 OPS away from home and 759 at home. He's 128 wRC+ away and 113 at home.

 

Miller Park is a better offensive park than what he's used to. I would imagine that evens out some.

[reillymcshane]

Not sure if this has been mentioned but Yelich has a pretty big home/road split. For his career he's an 839 OPS away from home and 759 at home. He's 128 wRC+ away and 113 at home.

Yeah, that's been something that's been brought up quite a bit. He should be thrilled to be out of Miami.

[Eye Black]

Not sure if this has been mentioned but Yelich has a pretty big home/road split. For his career he's an 839 OPS away from home and 759 at home. He's 128 wRC+ away and 113 at home.

 

Miller Park is a better offensive park than what he's used to. I would imagine that evens out some.

Dan Szymborski said Miller Park is typically the 2nd or 3rd friendliest park to left handed hitters in MLB. He believes the Brewers will try to get Yelich to focus on more loft in his swing. Jeff Sullivan of Fangraphs has had a couple articles on Yelich where he pointed out that Marlins Park really suppress left handed power. The ZiPs projection added a few home runs to Yelich’s 2018 projected total after the trade.

[Brewer Fever]

Dan Szymborski said Miller Park is typically the 2nd or 3rd friendliest park to left handed hitters in MLB. He believes the Brewers will try to get Yelich to focus on more loft in swing.

 

Gee I hope not. Don't mess with success. Throw him in the lineup with the same swing and approach and naturally let a few more of those balls he hits wind up over the fence.

[Eye Black]

Dan Szymborski said Miller Park is typically the 2nd or 3rd friendliest park to left handed hitters in MLB. He believes the Brewers will try to get Yelich to focus on more loft in swing.

 

Gee I hope not. Don't mess with success. Throw him in the lineup with the same swing and approach and naturally let a few more of those balls he hits wind up over the fence.

We’ll see, I think there is a decent chance we will see them try it with him. This also reminded me that Barry Bonds was his hitting coach at one point which made me chuckle for really no reason.

[DR28]

Still have a lot of great prospects on the farm. The pitching is basically all still in tact, and numerous position players could break out in '18 - Hiura, Erceg, Grisham, Ray, Dubon, Gatewood, Lutz. Lots of exciting things happening on the farm still.

 

Obviously lots of exciting things happening in Milwaukee. Crazy how we are about 5 hours removed from calling this the most boring off-season ever.

 

And isnt the draft this year supposed to be pretty decent?

[Eye Black]

I am not sure if this has been posted, but worth the read from Fangraphs: The Brewers Are Here

 

I thought this was a fun fact...

 

Over the last three years, out of all major-league outfielders, Cain has ranked fourth in total WAR, and Yelich has ranked 11th.

...and there are plenty more, so check out the article.

[DR28]

Jesus, keeps getting better and better.

 

We have to have one of the best OFs in MLB now.

[adambr2]

Never thought Ryan Braun would be our worst starting outfielder, ha.

[CheeseheadInQC]

A little late to the game on this one because of work. Losing Harrison in the deal does sting (he was probably the guy I was dreading most given that Brinson was almost certainly going to be in the deal). That being said, it makes sense for the Brewers to deal from their depth of hitting prospects, not just for the usual hitting-pitching reasons but because the team has expended most of its top draft picks and international signing bonuses on offensive players in recent years. The prospective rookie ball (pre-draft of course) and A-ball lineups look a lot more interesting than the pitching staffs.

[pacopete4]

Never thought Ryan Braun would be our worst starting outfielder, ha.

 

He has to be one happy guy right now. A lot of the pressure has been lifted from him tonight. Now if we can get lucky with some health he can go back to being Braun. Should be fun out there in 2018.

[wallus]

The Brewers definitely sold high on three out of the four of these prospects. I like the trade for both teams.

[NievesNoNO]

I also like it for both sides. Yes, the Brewers gave up a lot but they're getting an all-star level player entering his prime with some upside yet on a really good contract for the next 5 seasons. That kind of situation doesn't present itself very often. Who knows, maybe when all is said and done the Marlins end up on the better end. It's a bit like selling your Bitcoin for gold. Five years from now Yelich will still be worth gold. Not sure on the guys they gave away but I think typically the edge goes to the team trading FOR the star player (no I don't have examples to back that up). I'm happy about it and it looks like there are some more dominoes to fall. Looking forward to see what's next.

[brewcrewdue80]

I'm surprised to see the Stanton actually batted 2nd as often as he did. Yelich stayed at their #3 for the most part. So Yelich actually batted ahead a 37HR Ozuna and Stanton for 35 games. 3 times on base for Stanton's HRs 13 of Ozuna's 37HRs.

 

Get on Base let the HR hitters drive you in. That will be likely depressed with Braun or Cain most likely batting behind him? So he can swing some more for power, over a Contact/OB approach. His natural talent adding over 10HRs to his normal output....Maybe more if he's a Leadoff hitter.

 

The everyday lineup must go Cain/Yelich/Braun/Shaw now right? If you did the l/r split with Yelich/Cain/Shaw/Braun I'm not sure Braun deserves the cleanup after Shaw's better splits with men on and expecially RISP to Braun's last season.

 

Though, in the other regard, wouldn't having your better hitters 123 over 124?

 

No, you do Cain with Yelich for Hit/run situations for a Leadoff hitter who should steal bases more often than Yelich. Braun remains the #3 hitter....I just talked this out to myself writing this so there you have it.

[Boomer5]

Two very good players in Cain (at least in the near terms) and Yelich but my goodness did Stearns get taken to the cleaners on both deals.

 

He must have really wanted both players because he badly overpaid for both which is interesting since OF was hardly an area where we had few options.

[Baldkin]

Now that Harrison is gone, my next great hope is Lutz.

I’m with you on Lutz. If reports of his pre-draft 110-mph exit velocities are accurate he has a chance to be a difference maker with the bat.

 

[clancyphile]

Grisham and Ray can still develop at higher levels.

 

The team just traded arguably their two top OF prospects. I think the onus is on Grisham and Ray to start fulfilling their potential. I imagine both will be at AA this year. Time to put up or shut up.

Exactly. Let's see how these guys can do. The OF is fine for a few years - they can be ready when they are ready (if ever).

 

Do not forget Troy Stokes. That guy just had a spot open for him at Colorado Springs.

 

He's had good OBP skills and speed, plus he started developing some pop.

[WestCoastCrew]

What a trade!

 

Yelich is entering his age-26 season and the Brewers will have five seasons of control. You can't get that very often, so yes, the prospect haul had to sting a bit to get a player of this caliber.

 

Brinson: 20-20 potential, maybe a question on durability (122 games was his high in the minors), good defender

Diaz: Hit-first shortstop-second baseman who reportedly had some maturity issues this season

Harrison: Had a breakthrough year in 2017, but is he just the next Glenn Braggs? Or better? Or worse?

Yamamoto: Clearly blossomed with a superb 2017

 

Which one of these players hurts the most to lose? I would say Brinson at the moment, but Harrison is not too far behind.

 

The Crew still has outfield depth in the minors. Don't forget about Corey Ray (yes, he struggled in his first full season in the minors after maybe being pushed a bit), with Tristen Lutz and Trent Clark-Grisham still coming. The Yelich trade erases any urgency for these guys.

 

I have wondered if Braun would ever go play first. This would be the time, even if Santana was traded. Thames would platoon with Braun, giving Braun he requisite day off each week and being a top bat off the bench.

 

Yelich will be solid but not spectacular in center. He has good range, but probably won't be pulling them back like Gomez and Broxton have. Yelich, Cain, Phillips and Broxton are all versatile enough to play any outfield spot (maybe not right field for Cain). The defense would be much improved. Santana had his issues and Braun had some lapses, but I don't see that happening with these four out there. If Santana stays? Even more of a reason for Braun to go to first and the offense is dynamic.

[danzig6767]

Still have a lot of great prospects on the farm. The pitching is basically all still in tact, and numerous position players could break out in '18 - Hiura, Erceg, Grisham, Ray, Dubon, Gatewood, Lutz. Lots of exciting things happening on the farm still.

 

Obviously lots of exciting things happening in Milwaukee. Crazy how we are about 5 hours removed from calling this the most boring off-season ever.

To bad Ray didn't pan out so either he was a gem still in the system or included in this trade, allowing us to keep Harrison or Brinson.

 

Come to think of it, Yelish is the type of player i think the Brewers envisioned Ray becoming. Not special at one aspect of the game, but good at pretty much everything.

[liveforoctober]

Grisham and Ray can still develop at higher levels.

 

The team just traded arguably their two top OF prospects. I think the onus is on Grisham and Ray to start fulfilling their potential. I imagine both will be at AA this year. Time to put up or shut up.

Exactly. Let's see how these guys can do. The OF is fine for a few years - they can be ready when they are ready (if ever).

 

The control we have in our major league outfield right now is crazy. Barring major injury, all prospects are blocked until Cain possibly starts declining in 2020? 2021? Cain and Yelich are controlled for 5 years, Phillips for 6, Braun through 2020 I believe plus Santana, although I am mentally preparing for him to be dealt.

 

We may have given up our top 2 OF prospects ... but the next time we need a guy to be something other than a trade chip may very well be Lutz in 3 years or something similar as long as we stay competitive and don't deal anyone from that core.

[kalle8]

I come late like the balls of the duchshund (italian expression), and had to spend my entire morning to read all the posts and threads, I suspect this weekend will be busy as well, with Santana on the move.

Thanks for these moments of pure excitement, and avid reading