What is your 2018-2019 Offseason Plan for the Brewers?

[trwi7]

Erceg is still listed anywhere for 4-8 on our top prospect lists depending on where you looks with average to a-average hitting tools and plus defense.

 

The 4th-8th prospect in a bad system isn't a good prospect.

[KeithStone53151]

Erceg is still listed anywhere for 4-8 on our top prospect lists depending on where you looks with average to a-average hitting tools and plus defense.

 

The 4th-8th prospect in a bad system isn't a good prospect.

 

I don't think it's a bad system, the better upside guys are in the lower minors is all. Hopefully many take a step forward. Would also be nice if the Grisham's and Erceg's of the world finally hit at a level.

[3and2Fastball]

I'd trade Hiura, Burnes, Woodruff, Hader & Ray to the Angels for Mike Trout

 

I'd then sign Craig Kimbrel for 6 years $100 million

 

I'd sign JD LeMahieu for 3 years $60 million

 

Trade middling prospects to the Yankees for Sonny Gray

 

Sign Adam Ottovino 3 years 48 million

 

Roll with

 

Cain

Yelich

Trout

Shaw

Aguilar

LeMahieu

Pina

Arcia

 

Chacin

Gray

Anderson

Nelson

Guerra

 

Bullpen of

Kimbrel

Jeffress

Knebel

Ottovino

 

Plus...

 

Brewers win the World Series, I get a statue at Miller Park, the team sucks in 2022 but so what...Mark A still makes money because Brewers get new TV contract despite the bigger payroll

[trwi7]

Erceg is still listed anywhere for 4-8 on our top prospect lists depending on where you looks with average to a-average hitting tools and plus defense.

 

The 4th-8th prospect in a bad system isn't a good prospect.

 

I don't think it's a bad system, the better upside guys are in the lower minors is all. Hopefully many take a step forward. Would also be nice if the Grisham's and Erceg's of the world finally hit at a level.

 

It is a bad system. Every team has "better upside guys in the lower minors that hopefully take a step forward."

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

 

It is a bad system. Every team has "better upside guys in the lower minors that hopefully take a step forward."

 

It is possible that not everyone shares your opinion.

[trwi7]

 

It is a bad system. Every team has "better upside guys in the lower minors that hopefully take a step forward."

 

It is possible that not everyone shares your opinion.

 

Why is admitting that the farm system isn't good such a big deal? Burnes, Peralta and Woodruff have graduated. We've traded a ton of prospects over the last couple years. That tends to weaken your farm system, it's okay to admit it.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

 

It is a bad system. Every team has "better upside guys in the lower minors that hopefully take a step forward."

 

It is possible that not everyone shares your opinion.

 

Why is admitting that the farm system isn't good such a big deal? Burnes, Peralta and Woodruff have graduated. We've traded a ton of prospects over the last couple years. That tends to weaken your farm system, it's okay to admit it.

 

If you believe that, that's fine. I'm not telling you what you should believe, nor should you tell me or anyone else what to believe. I'm just saying that there are a lot of people here, myself included, that don't see it the way you do. Personally I think there is a ton of system strength.

[trwi7]

What specifically do you view as a strength that we have that other teams don't?

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

What specifically do you view as a strength that we have that other teams don't?

 

Close to MLB-ready talent for one. While you are probably going to argue that some of these guys have major holes, all could find themselves in MLB roles soon: Hiura, Ray, Dubon, Zach Brown, Nottingham, Gatewood, Diplan, Supak, Stokes, Houser. Also several very young guys that have looked very good in limited pro action so far: Turang, Lutz, Gray, Henry, Ashby, Bello, Rodrigues, Ernesto, Ward, Fernandez. Severa other high upside bounceback candidates as well.

 

I agree that the team has graduated a bunch of young guys and traded away several solid prospects in the last year that hurts the overall ranking of the system. But I disagree wholeheartedly that the cupboard is bare or that the system is bad. This team has done a terrific job drafting over the last several seasons, plus they are making some very intriguing international signings, and there is no indication that won't continue. They have a World Series contender, and are using their system correctly, as both reinforcements for the MLB team, and as currency to acquire MLB pieces. I have no doubt that will continue.

 

Again, this is my opinion, and I am by no means asking or telling you to agree.

[trwi7]

I guess if I was a GM I wouldn't really care if a player was close to MLB. A guy like Houser is close to MLB but out of options, so really how much value does he have to a team? If he's bad, it's not like they can just send him down to the minors without the risk of losing him and all of those guys do have a ton of holes. Ray has major strikeout problems, Dubon takes a walk once every decade, Nottingham might not be able to stick at catcher, Gatewood has a career OBP under .300. Diplan should give some of his walks to Dubon.

 

Teams have guys like that scattered all over their system and these guys aren't going to get you much unless they're traded for a flawed MLB player or used as some secondary piece in a package that includes Hiura and/or Burnes/Woodruff/Peralta or something like that.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

I guess if I was a GM I wouldn't really care if a player was close to MLB. A guy like Houser is close to MLB but out of options, so really how much value does he have to a team? If he's bad, it's not like they can just send him down to the minors without the risk of losing him and all of those guys do have a ton of holes. Ray has major strikeout problems, Dubon takes a walk once every decade, Nottingham might not be able to stick at catcher, Gatewood has a career OBP under .300. Diplan should give some of his walks to Dubon.

 

Teams have guys like that scattered all over their system and these guys aren't going to get you much unless they're traded for a flawed MLB player or used as some secondary piece in a package that includes Hiura and/or Burnes/Woodruff/Peralta or something like that.

 

Pretty easy to find a flaw in every prospect. Even the top top guys. Its whether their value is greater than their flaws. But that's why they are prospects ... you don't know for sure. All it takes is one great year for a guy like Lutz or Turang to vault into the top 50 prospects in baseball. Look at Ray ... people were ready to dump him last year at this time, and now he's the system's player of the year. Yes, he still has flaws in his game, but his overall value took a nice jump I think.

[jackailius]

Free agents

LHP Wade Miley 2 yrs $12M

 

"Curtis Granderson 1yr $2m

 

Util/2b Marwin Gonzalez 4yr $36m

 

Trades

Trade Corey Ray, Eric Thames, Domingo Santana, Marcos Diplan, and Tre Supak to Arizona for Paul Goldschmidt

 

Trade Jesus Aguilar for something similar to the Adam Lind deal

 

Projected Rotation

Chase Anderson

Jhoulys Chacin

Corbin Burnes

Wade Miley

Zach Davies

 

I would love to get a TOR but I think we have a lot of good arms that we need to see how they handle themselves in the first half season ie will Anderson be 2017 or 2018 Anderson, how about Davies?, how good will Nelson be? What does Burnes look like in the MLB over a longer stretch? We may not need a TOR or if we do I would like to wait until midseason to try to fill that hole as I think any will cost you Huira + one of the Woodruff/Peralta/Burnes or we will be taking on a of cost (Grienke)

 

Projected Bullpen

3 inning relievers every 4ish days

Jimmy Nelson

Woodruff

Junior Guerra

Adrian Houser

 

High Leverage

Corey Knebel

Jeremy Jeffress

Josh Hader

 

Situational

Matt Albers

 

Projected Starting Lineup

CF Lorenzo Cain

RF Christian Yelich

2B Marwin Gonzalez

1B Paul Goldschmidt

3B Travis Shaw

LF Ryan Braun

C Manny Pina

P

SS Orlando Arcia

 

Projected Bench

C Kratz

IF/OF Hernan Perez

OF Granderson

OF Broxton

 

Summary

I am firmly of the belief that the rotation will be fine without a TOR as long as we have the bullpen to allow them to work short starts. I don’t want to see any of the starters go through the lineup more than 2 times. I added Granderson to the bench as a lefthanded on base guy who is a good clubhouse presence. I liked keeping Kratz over the cost of going with an outside addition at C for the clubhouse and game calling ability. With the addition of Gonzalez and Goldschmidt I feel we can stick with a little lower offensive production at catcher and stay with a good defensive tandem of Pina and Kratz.

 

The bench is a bit light hitting overall with no big thumpers but I feel we are going to have more of an on base approach and Braun will be sitting plenty of days to rest with Granderson starting some of those games. Broxton back was the tough one. I was close to looking at swapping him out with Matt Davidson who just was non-tendered but chose to stick with him for his defense in the outfield and will let Perez play 3b against tough lefties to spell Shaw.

 

I was thinking about bolstering the bullpen a bit and putting woodruff in AAA to start the season to stay stretched out or even just as insurance for a bullpen injury and pickup Britton or Miller but the cost of that seemed too high for my liking and the bats were more important. My plan comes in pretty much right at $125M. Not bad for our first World Series Championship ever!

 

Of course minutes after posting this Goldy gets traded to the Cardinals... so instead lets change that a bit. We will take out the Goldschmidt trade and make an even bigger trade with the DBacks and also not invest in Miley and take Ray instead.

 

So here is what I propose:

 

Trade Freddy Peralta, Chase Andreson, Corey Ray, Eric Thames, Mat Albers. Domingo Santana, Marcos Diplan, and Tre Supak to Arizona for David Peralta, Robbie Ray, Zach Grienke and $40M- $20m coming in the first year with $10M in 2020 & 2021 each. If I calculate everything this puts us pretty much right at 125M. We would then move Braun to primarily 1b duties and have a lineup that looks like this:

 

CF Cain

RF Yelich

2B Gonzalez

LF Peralta

3B Shaw

1B Braun

C Pina

P

SS Arcia

 

Rotation would be:

Grienke

Ray

Chacin

Burnes

Davies

[Eye Black]

My off-season moves...

 

Free Agent Signings:

 

Sign Catcher Yasmani Grandal; 3 years for $43.5 million ($14.5 million AAV)

 

Sign 2B/3B/OF Daniel Descalso L/R; 1 year for $2 million

 

Sign Relief Pitcher Óliver Pérez; 1 year for $1.75 million

 

Trade Acquisitions:

 

Trade with Arizona Diamondbacks (first trade in MLB history that is a Peralta and Ray traded for a Peralta and Ray)

 

Brewers Receive

OF David Peralta

LHP Robbie Ray

 

Arizona Receives

RHP Freddy Peralta

OF Corey Ray

OF Keon Broxton

OF Domingo Santana

Competitive Balance Round A Draft Pick

 

 

Brewers 25-Man Roster:

 

Rotation

Robbie Ray (LHP)

Jhoulys Chacín (RHP)

Brandon Woodruff (RHP)

Corbin Burnes (RHP)

Jimmy Nelson (RHP)

 

Bullpen

Josh Hader (LHP)

Óliver Pérez (LHP)

Corey Knebel (RHP)

Jeremy Jeffress (RHP)

Adrian Houser (RHP)

Taylor Williams (RHP)

Junior Guerra (RHP)

Matt Albers (RHP)

 

Catchers

Yasmani Grandal

Manny Piña

 

Infield

Jesús Aguilar

Orlando Arcia

Travis Shaw

Daniel Descalso

Hernán Pérez

Tyler Saladino (Opening Day 2019)

Keston Hiura (Called up in late May 2019)

 

Outfield

Lorenzo Cain

Christian Yelich

David Peralta

Ryan Braun

 

*Tyrone Taylor and Mauricio Dubon start in Triple-A rotating starts in CF

 

Batting Order vs. RHP

1. Christian Yelich RF (L)

2. Lorenzo Cain CF ®

3. David Peralta LF (L)

4. Jesús Aguilar 1B ®

5. Travis Shaw 3B (L)

6. Yasmani Grandal C (L)

7. Daniel Descalso 2B (L)

8. Orlando Arcia SS ®

 

Batting Order vs. LHP

1. Lorenzo Cain CF ®

2. Christian Yelich RF (L)

3. Ryan Braun LF ®

4. Jesús Aguilar 1B ®

5. Travis Shaw 3B (L)

6. Yasmani Grandal C ®

7. Keston Hiura 2B ®

8. Orlando Arcia SS ®

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

 

Trade Acquisitions:

 

Trade with Arizona Diamondbacks (first trade in MLB history that is a Peralta and Ray traded for a Peralta and Ray)

 

Brewers Receive

OF David Peralta

LHP Robbie Ray

 

Arizona Receives

RHP Freddy Peralta

OF Corey Ray

OF Keon Broxton

OF Domingo Santana

Competitive Balance Round A Draft Pick

 

I love that deal! I think the only one who may love that deal more is Tyrone Taylor

[ThisIsMyCrew]

Another guy to think about it Guerra. He was solid out of the pen last year. Could be a valuable in house option. At the end of the day we have too many major league pitchers (Davies, Anderson types) that moves will need to be made. Last year we saw the value in players having options. I wonder if that will continue to be a strategy, or they overachieved and was necessarily the plan.

 

Either way I’d love to see an infield of moose, Arcia, Murphy and Shaw. Aguilar would be traded away in some package. Ride out the Catching situation. Get kluber for Santana/ray types. Burnes goes on to win 14 games with a 3.2era next year. All will be well.

[TURBO]

Guerra, imo, should be our long relief arm this year. No more starting, let the guy thrive in the situation he had so much success in last season. We have plenty of starting options, give him a key part of the bull pen, and let him throw 2,3,4 innings when needed.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

According to the guy that broke the Moose deal, the Brewers met with Ramos yesterday, and are considering a run at Kimbrel. Ramos obviously makes sense. Kimbrel is a little more of an odd fit, unless you feel that perhaps the top starters are out of their price range, so they are attempting to assemble a super pen instead.

[Eye Black]

Kimbrel is a little more of an odd fit, unless you feel that perhaps the top starters are out of their price range, so they are attempting to assemble a super pen instead.

Another possibility I believe has been floated is Knebel could be part of a trade with a team like the Indians. They would seemingly value bullpen help.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Kimbrel is a little more of an odd fit, unless you feel that perhaps the top starters are out of their price range, so they are attempting to assemble a super pen instead.

Another possibility I believe has been floated is Knebel could be part of a trade with a team like the Indians. They would seemingly value bullpen help.

 

Yeah, that was me that floated that one LOL. Sign Kimbrel, and including Knebel in a deal for Kluber makes a lot more sense. Knebel's overall numbers in 2018 aren't super, but everyone in baseball saw his dominant September and playoff run. Given his contractual control, his value should be extremely high.

[long ball]

Guerra, imo, should be our long relief arm this year. No more starting, let the guy thrive in the situation he had so much success in last season. We have plenty of starting options, give him a key part of the bull pen, and let him throw 2,3,4 innings when needed.

 

I think I would stretch Guerra out as a starter in spring training, but I agree his role in 2019 looks to be out of the pen. His first time through the order numbers in 2018 were very good.

 

https://www.fangraphs.com/statsplits.aspx?playerid=5702&position=P&season=2018

[KeithStone53151]

I'm a bit surprised more hasn't happened for the Brewers, or really any teams to this point. Already about halfway through the winter meetings. Many GM's leave on Thursday, so it's really a 3 day thing.

[Vollbc74]

Free Agent Signings:

 

Sign Catcher Yasmani Grandal; 3 years for $41.5 million

 

Sign IF Jed Lowrie; 2 years for $19 million

 

 

Trades:

 

Trade with DET: Corey Ray, Zach Brown, & Chase Anderson for Michael Fulmer

 

Trade with SEA: Eric Thames for Lottery Tickets

 

Brewers 25-Man Roster:

 

Rotation

Jhoulys Chacín

Michael Fulmer

Corbin Burnes

Freddy Peralta

Zach Davies

 

 

Bullpen

Corey Knebel

Josh Hader (LHP)

Jeremy Jeffress

Brandon Woodruff

Alex Claudio (LHP)

Adrian Houser

Junior Guerra

Matt Albers

 

Catchers

Yasmani Grandal

Manny Piña

 

Infield

Jesús Aguilar

Orlando Arcia

Travis Shaw

Jed Lowrie

Hernán Pérez

Tyler Saladino (Replaced in May by Dubon)

 

Outfield

Lorenzo Cain

Christian Yelich

Domingo Santana

Ryan Braun

 

DL: Jimmy Nelson

[wallus]

Seattle is cutting payroll. Give me the reasoning why they would take on Thames? If the argument is to trade him later, that is a terrible one.

[Vollbc74]

Seattle is cutting payroll. Give me the reasoning why they would take on Thames? If the argument is to trade him later, that is a terrible one.

 

Incumbent 1B Ryan Healy had a 688 ops last year. They are shopping EE so basically they be continuing to to lower the price of their 1B/DH spot with every deal made. Thames salary is reasonable for his (healthy) production and allows SEA to opt out after this year.

[wallus]

Seattle is cutting payroll. Give me the reasoning why they would take on Thames? If the argument is to trade him later, that is a terrible one.

 

Incumbent 1B Ryan Healy had a 688 ops last year. They are shopping EE so basically they be continuing to to lower the price of their 1B/DH spot with every deal made. Thames salary is reasonable for his (healthy) production and allows SEA to opt out after this year.

 

That team is looking past the 2019 season, they are rebuilding so what Healy does with them isn't too important.