Justin Smoak

[DuWayne Steurer]

Giving up prospect capital to make what would appear on the surface to be a nearly lateral move isn't great business.

 

Smoak is hitting slightly better than Thames right now, but the question that needs to be asked is do we expect that to continue? .834 would be the 2nd highest full season OPS he's ever had. Is Smoak an upgrade for the rest of the season over Thames for the rest of the season? I don't know if that's an absolute clear cut "yes", and to give up ANY kind of prospect capital for that kind of an answer, I'm not sure if that's the kind of moves the Brewers should be making at this point.

[Brew crew 92]

Giving up prospect capital to make what would appear on the surface to be a nearly lateral move isn't great business.

 

Smoak is hitting slightly better than Thames right now, but the question that needs to be asked is do we expect that to continue? .834 would be the 2nd highest full season OPS he's ever had. Is Smoak an upgrade for the rest of the season over Thames for the rest of the season? I don't know if that's an absolute clear cut "yes", and to give up ANY kind of prospect capital for that kind of an answer, I'm not sure if that's the kind of moves the Brewers should be making at this point.

 

I don’t think Stearns is going to make any moves until closer to the deadline, so we’ll see how Smoak Thames Aguilar Shaw EE Abreu do over the next 5-8 weeks.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Giving up prospect capital to make what would appear on the surface to be a nearly lateral move isn't great business.

 

Smoak is hitting slightly better than Thames right now, but the question that needs to be asked is do we expect that to continue? .834 would be the 2nd highest full season OPS he's ever had. Is Smoak an upgrade for the rest of the season over Thames for the rest of the season? I don't know if that's an absolute clear cut "yes", and to give up ANY kind of prospect capital for that kind of an answer, I'm not sure if that's the kind of moves the Brewers should be making at this point.

 

I don’t think Stearns is going to make any moves until closer to the deadline, so we’ll see how Smoak Thames Aguilar Shaw EE Abreu do over the next 5-8 weeks.

 

I would agree with that assessment. Plenty of time yet for Aguilar especially to turn it around. I think he's really the key to seeing what kind of offensive moves the team will consider making.

[KeithStone53151]

Justin Smoak is an excellent target. I was recently playing with advanced stats for fantasy baseball purposes and he appeared to be one of the most unlucky hitters in all of baseball to this point. BABIP of .224, 5 year low k rate of 18.9%, 5 year high bb rate of 17.5%, hard hit rate of an insane 51%. I have absolutely no idea how his avg is only .224. All those numbers should indicate at least a 260 avg and over 900 OPS. I love the idea of renting him assuming the price is right. I would much much rather acquire him than Abreu. The fact that both could be available and very few teams really NEED a 1b should help us get the right price.

[Brew crew 92]

Justin Smoak is an excellent target. I was recently playing with advanced stats for fantasy baseball purposes and he appeared to be one of the most unlucky hitters in all of baseball to this point. BABIP of .224, 5 year low k rate of 18.9%, 5 year high bb rate of 17.5%, hard hit rate of an insane 51%. I have absolutely no idea how his avg is only .224. All those numbers should indicate at least a 260 avg and over 900 OPS. I love the idea of renting him assuming the price is right. I would much much rather acquire him than Abreu. The fact that both could be available and very few teams really NEED a 1b should help us get the right price.

 

Excellent information.

Unfortunately there are teams in the American League that need first baseman, Houston and Tampa bay among others. I hope the report of stearns talking to Toronto last month lead to something being done sooner rather than later.

[TURBO]

So what would be the plan with Jesus and Thames? Thames is doing fine, Jesus is not. Waive Jesus?

[Brew crew 92]

So what would be the plan with Jesus and Thames? Thames is doing fine, Jesus is not. Waive Jesus?

 

Or trade Aguilar to a rebuilding club that can play him till he hits again, he would be a rebound candidate. I would also trade Thames, we have plenty of players that can play first to cover for injury.

[TURBO]

So what would be the plan with Jesus and Thames? Thames is doing fine, Jesus is not. Waive Jesus?

 

Or trade Aguilar to a rebuilding club that can play him till he hits again, he would be a rebound candidate. I would also trade Thames, we have plenty of players that can play first to cover for injury.

 

I think we would all be deeply disappointed to see what Jesus brings back in a trade...

[Brew crew 92]

So what would be the plan with Jesus and Thames? Thames is doing fine, Jesus is not. Waive Jesus?

 

Or trade Aguilar to a rebuilding club that can play him till he hits again, he would be a rebound candidate. I would also trade Thames, we have plenty of players that can play first to cover for injury.

 

I think we would all be deeply disappointed to see what Jesus brings back in a trade...

 

Your probably right, but then again who cares, we’d have first base for the rest of this year in good hands, and next year Stearns can get us another.

[pacopete4]

Who cares? Yeah that’s the best way to operate. You just cannot run teams like that let alone the Brewers.

[nate82]

I would rather just keep Thames and Aguilar than spend the prospect capital even if it is small on a marginal improvement at best.

[Brew crew 92]

I would rather just keep Thames and Aguilar than spend the prospect capital even if it is small on a marginal improvement at best.

 

But what if the improvement is marginal at worst and huge at best?

 

Don’t think anything is gonna happen trade wise for a while so we’ll continue to see what our guys do.

[TURBO]

I would rather just keep Thames and Aguilar than spend the prospect capital even if it is small on a marginal improvement at best.

 

But what if the improvement is marginal at worst and huge at best?

 

 

Kind of like what we ended up with Schoop? Well, actually, the improvement was far less than marginal, it was non-existent.

[TURBO]

 

Your probably right, but then again who cares, we’d have first base for the rest of this year in good hands, and next year Stearns can get us another.

 

Who cares? ok, well, we as fans would care, and hopefully DS, CC, and everyone else in the organization cares...

 

Stearns can just go out to the 1B tree and pick another one right?

 

My oh my...

[nate82]

I would rather just keep Thames and Aguilar than spend the prospect capital even if it is small on a marginal improvement at best.

 

But what if the improvement is marginal at worst and huge at best?

 

Don’t think anything is gonna happen trade wise for a while so we’ll continue to see what our guys do.

 

There is another probability that Smoak is worse than what Thames and Aguilar are putting up. I think the most probable outcome is Smoak being just a marginal improvement and we have wasted prospect capital for basically nothing.

 

The prospect capital can be used for more important holes that will need to be filled like a relief pitcher or two.

[Brew crew 92]

I would rather just keep Thames and Aguilar than spend the prospect capital even if it is small on a marginal improvement at best.

 

But what if the improvement is marginal at worst and huge at best?

 

 

Kind of like what we ended up with Schoop? Well, actually, the improvement was far less than marginal, it was non-existent.

 

Schoop didn’t want to be here, he’s an idiot.

 

I would imagine Smoak would be happy to have an opportunity to win.

[TURBO]

Schoop didn’t want to be here, he’s an idiot.

 

 

I wonder if he wanted to be in Minnesota?

[Brew crew 92]

Schoop didn’t want to be here, he’s an idiot.

 

 

I wonder if he wanted to be in Minnesota?

 

He chose to sign with Minnesota, so what do you think?

[TURBO]

Schoop didn’t want to be here, he’s an idiot.

 

 

I wonder if he wanted to be in Minnesota?

 

He chose to sign with Minnesota, so what do you think?

 

I don't know him personally, otherwise I'd text him for an answer.

[adambr2]

 

Schoop didn’t want to be here, he’s an idiot.

 

I would imagine Smoak would be happy to have an opportunity to win.

 

How do you know Smoak would want to be traded? He's been in Toronto for 5 seasons. He has a 1 year old daughter.

 

Seems we would have been able to make the same assumptions about Schoop going from the worst team in baseball to a contender, no?

[Brew crew 92]

 

Schoop didn’t want to be here, he’s an idiot.

 

I would imagine Smoak would be happy to have an opportunity to win.

 

How do you know Smoak would want to be traded? He's been in Toronto for 5 seasons. He has a 1 year old daughter.

 

Seems we would have been able to make the same assumptions about Schoop going from the worst team in baseball to a contender, no?

 

Why the silly talk? We just watched another retched Aguilar game, you read Keith’s info on Smoak, I know it’s really hard to agree with me on anything but this is a no brainer.

[adambr2]

You didn't answer my question at all or even address it.

 

Aside from that, it's not like I would be mad about acquiring Smoak, I just don't think over the course of the remainder of the season compared to Aguilar/Thames he's going to be nearly the upgrade you're expecting.

[Brew crew 92]

You didn't answer my question at all or even address it.

 

Aside from that, it's not like I would be mad about acquiring Smoak, I just don't think over the course of the remainder of the season compared to Aguilar/Thames he's going to be nearly the upgrade you're expecting.

 

 

Ok, sorry your right i ignored your question.

 

Very high probability that Smoak has been told already he’s being shopped so like almost all rental players that go from horrible teams to good teams should be excited(think moose).

 

Just think Schoop the rare exception. I also think it was a shock to Schoop, maybe it was duquette’s not telling him till the last minute. It was a trade that came out of nowhere.

[KeithStone53151]

I understand trading for Smoak or Abreu puts us in a weird spot of dealing with multiple 1b that have name value. Aguilar had 1 all star caliber half of baseball last year and 1 mediocre half. He hasn't hit a HR all month, if he can't get going by the all-star break...we need to seriously consider buying Smoak or another 1b and trading him elsewhere for minimal return. Big guys like Aguilar tend to fall off a cliff production-wise very early in their careers. Aguilar will be 29. It definitely sucks to sell low, but we can't afford to ride out a black hole at 1b because he has name value. Or maybe they stick with Aguilar in a bench role and trade Thames. Thames has been decent, not great. Another team may want him for the option year, but we'd definitely get almost nothing but minimal salary relief for him at this point.

 

Regardless of what ends up happening if we look for 1b production, not knowing what to do with Aguilar/Thames/Shaw is not a reason to allow an offensive black hole at the easiest position to field in baseball because we don't want to sell low on name value players. We need production at 1b, period. If nobody else is getting it done, Smoak is an excellent trade target.

[Brew crew 92]

I do like that he's a switch hitter. So sick of watching these all-or-nothing lefty power guys fanning away.

 

Interesting take you had in April, which is in agreement with my take, but now 5 weeks later you do a 180, and this is after Thames has regressed since your comments. Why? Is disagreeing with every take I have no matter how you really feel the thing to do?