Arcia Traded to Atlanta for RHP Chad Sobotka and RHP Patrick Weigel

[Thurston Fluff]

Stearns seems to know what he's doing when it comes to pitching so I'm not all that worried about what team he gets it from. I doubt he cares about the hype generated by another team or media outlets preferring instead of use the metrics he's relied on since he's been here.

 

Does he though? He has had a few nice signs (Gio and Miley), but outside of that it hasn't been overly successful. His prized guys from last offseason (Lindblom and Lauer) have been horrendous to date. Burnes was in his first draft so hard to know how much he should even be credited for that. Devin Williams, Adrian Houser, Brandon Woodruff, Brent Suter, and Josh Hader are all guys who were here before he became the GM.

 

I am not trying to hate on his ability to build a pitching staff, it just doesn't seem like he has not done an overly impressive job.

 

There are bound to be busts when forced to put a staff together via the bargain bin. What he hasn't done is mortgage the future on major contracts like Jake Arrieta or Yu Darvish. He's also been pretty good knowing when not to trade. Part of knowing pitching is knowing what you have and not getting rid of it. Stearns didn't trade players like Devin Williams, Brandon Woodruff or Corbin Burnes for players like Sonny Gray, Chris Archer or Jose Quintana. However he got the players what we've seen is a steady stream of good pitching. I think he's been here long enough to give some credit for knowing how to find pitching.

[bjkrautk]

For all of the negative buzz around Arcia, he was coming off his best offensive year in 2020 (in his age 25 season), and the team is now giving up his projected peak years (the ones where he's potentially good enough to be a major-league regular, rather than a guy the club promoted too early because of a need) to hand the shortstop role over to another 23 year old.

 

That being said, I have high expectations for the two pitchers acquired from the Braves, based on the team's track record in recent years. They did not have a "need" to trade Arcia now, nor to sign him to a contract in the off-season, so the team at least believes they got value out of the move.

[A Swing and A Drive]

Wasn’t Sobotka the name of the head union guy on the docks in The Wire? Hopefully this guy fares better...

 

 

And wasn't Weigel the names of one of the officers in RENO 911?

[StearnsFTW]

Wasn’t Sobotka the name of the head union guy on the docks in The Wire? Hopefully this guy fares better...

 

Yep! Frank Sobotka.

 

And his idiot nephew Ziggy.

[Jopal78]

Man, they should’ve kept Knebel and non-tendered Arcia. If the team “needs pitching” as the GM says, and they’re so strapped they don’t have 3 million dollars (the difference between Knebel salary and Arcia) heaven help them. As is I’d bet $10 the Dodgers get more from Knebel this year than the Brewers ever will from these two guys.

[PeaveyFury]

Man, they should’ve kept Knebel and non-tendered Arcia. If the team “needs pitching” as the GM says, and they’re so strapped they don’t have 3 million dollars (the difference between Knebel salary and Arcia)

 

....But now they don't HAVE Arcia, so they have two pitchers AND that full $5 million.

[AJOHNSON104]

I think Arcia will be non-tendered this off season, so we can always re-sign him if things don't work out.

[adambr2]

Man, they should’ve kept Knebel and non-tendered Arcia. If the team “needs pitching” as the GM says, and they’re so strapped they don’t have 3 million dollars (the difference between Knebel salary and Arcia)

 

....But now they don't HAVE Arcia, so they have two pitchers AND that full $5 million.

 

Assuming they aren't eating any of Arcia's contract, plus the cost of the two pitchers.

 

But Knebel's velocity has ticked up again and his curve is looking good. Still early, but the Dodgers are pretty happy with it. He even got a save chance yesterday with Jansen out.

 

That one will hurt if Knebel returns to '17-'18 form, especially since I'm not especially high on our pen depth after the big 2.

[brewcrewdue80]

I will take the 2 RPs with longer control and BP depth over a redundant Util Inf that failed expectations.

If the offense is going to be this absolute terrible, best thing to do is have a few more BP arms to pick up garbage innings to shuttle. When 2runs by an opponent seems like 5, may as well put your 24-26th BP rostered players to work. Better return imo than cost for Claudio and potential draft choice lost. And who knows? Maybe at 1-3 and the offensive fails being shown, you're planning ahead for a trade deadline where Milw has it's share of players to trade off. These two if any good shown can be included....or backup who is sent from the current bullpen(Hader,Suter,Boxberger for example)

[SomewhereInTime]

Wasn’t Sobotka the name of the head union guy on the docks in The Wire? Hopefully this guy fares better...

 

 

And wasn't Weigel the names of one of the officers in RENO 911?

 

 

[FVBrewerFan]

This can only mean the value of my Gauntlet bobblehead has skyrocketed.

 

Good luck in Atlanta, Mr. October!!

[wallus]

Would anyone have been really upset if they had released Orlando? I mean, we got something for him at least.

[adambr2]

Would anyone have been really upset if they had released Orlando? I mean, we got something for him at least.

 

That would have been the equivalent of flushing 2 million dollars down the toilet for no good reason when they could have just released him in the spring, so I would have been a little annoyed, yes.

[TURBO]

Wasn’t Sobotka the name of the head union guy on the docks in The Wire? Hopefully this guy fares better...

 

Yep! Frank Sobotka.

 

And his idiot nephew Ziggy.

 

Ziggy is Frank's son, not nephew. Nick is Frank's nephew.

 

[MrTPlush]

For all of the negative buzz around Arcia, he was coming off his best offensive year in 2020 (in his age 25 season.

 

Because he ended a 60 game season on a hot streak. Last year was incredibly flukey and you basically could change the story line of your year as a hitter in the last three days.

 

His OPS was .666 after 57 games. Then he had a homer and a 4/4 day to inflate his OPS to .734.

 

Which sadly for Arcia, still would have been his best offense in years before the hot streak I suppose.

[CheeseheadInQC]

For all of the negative buzz around Arcia, he was coming off his best offensive year in 2020 (in his age 25 season.

 

Because he ended a 60 game season on a hot streak. Last year was incredibly flukey and you basically could change the story line of your year as a hitter in the last three days.

 

His OPS was .666 after 57 games. Then he had a homer and a 4/4 day to inflate his OPS to .734.

 

Which sadly for Arcia, still would have been his best offense in years before the hot streak I suppose.

 

Except pretty much every one of his peripherals was better. He hit the highest percentage of line drives of his career. He had the most hard contact and the least soft contact of his career. His exit velocity was a career high. He swung at the fewest pitches outside the strike zone and made contact on a career best percentage of the pitches he did swing at. Is it possible he reverts to his previous form? Sure, especially with a likely decrease in playing time. But I just don't get the certainty a lot of people had that it was a fluke, that Arcia has always been bad and will always be bad.

 

That being said, the trade makes a fair amount of sense. They are going to need a lot of pitching this year, and with Lauer seemingly broken, and File, Bettinger, Brown, and Jankins all on the shelf, bringing in a guy like Weigel who could give you a potentially passable spot start or two, even if he will likely be better in the bullpen, has some value to the Brewers right now.

[JohnBriggs12]

The trade doesn't solve the offensive issues at SS but it saves some money. Hopefully Turang takes a big step forward this year. Urias looks more like another guy than a prospect.

[StearnsFTW]

 

Yep! Frank Sobotka.

 

And his idiot nephew Ziggy.

 

Ziggy is Frank's son, not nephew. Nick is Frank's nephew.

 

 

I can't believe I got that wrong. But I did.

[Pugger]

Man, they should’ve kept Knebel and non-tendered Arcia. If the team “needs pitching” as the GM says, and they’re so strapped they don’t have 3 million dollars (the difference between Knebel salary and Arcia) heaven help them. As is I’d bet $10 the Dodgers get more from Knebel this year than the Brewers ever will from these two guys.

 

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[MadScientist]

Man, they should’ve kept Knebel and non-tendered Arcia. If the team “needs pitching” as the GM says, and they’re so strapped they don’t have 3 million dollars (the difference between Knebel salary and Arcia) heaven help them. As is I’d bet $10 the Dodgers get more from Knebel this year than the Brewers ever will from these two guys.

 

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On raw stats, maybe. However with options available, these two will be part of the Nashville shuttle, keeping fresh arms available for the Brewers, giving them effectively a larger staff. As long as they can hold their own in low to medium leverage situations, the top guys can be saved for the high leverage situations.

 

At the time Arcia was tendered, Shaw and Robertson were not on the roster. The Brewers needed someone viable at the time. After the others were on the team, Arcia was less important and was traded.

[xisxisxis]

Except pretty much every one of his peripherals was better. He hit the highest percentage of line drives of his career. He had the most hard contact and the least soft contact of his career. His exit velocity was a career high. He swung at the fewest pitches outside the strike zone and made contact on a career best percentage of the pitches he did swing at. Is it possible he reverts to his previous form? Sure, especially with a likely decrease in playing time. But I just don't get the certainty a lot of people had that it was a fluke, that Arcia has always been bad and will always be bad.

And in the second half of 2018 his peripherals were off the charts compared to the rest of his career. Wrc+ of 90, LD% over 25% (better than 2020). Back then it was the run to the "he's broken out" take for 95% of Brewer fans. How did 2019 look? Yes, Arcia has shown in a 60-70 game window that he isn't horrible and could be above average. In-between he has shown he is the worst hitter in MLB (by a long-shot). There's nothing about his results in 2019 that 2nd half 2018 was a breakout and it was wise of Stearns to sell "high" on Arcia.

[pacopete4]

There are no sure things when it comes to pitching but gambling $10M on Knebel was fine by me.

[brewerfan82]

There are no sure things when it comes to pitching but gambling $10M on Knebel was fine by me.

I'm okay with "gambling" $10M-ish each on Wong and JBJ instead.

[CheeseheadInQC]

Except pretty much every one of his peripherals was better. He hit the highest percentage of line drives of his career. He had the most hard contact and the least soft contact of his career. His exit velocity was a career high. He swung at the fewest pitches outside the strike zone and made contact on a career best percentage of the pitches he did swing at. Is it possible he reverts to his previous form? Sure, especially with a likely decrease in playing time. But I just don't get the certainty a lot of people had that it was a fluke, that Arcia has always been bad and will always be bad.

And in the second half of 2018 his peripherals were off the charts compared to the rest of his career. Wrc+ of 90, LD% over 25% (better than 2020). Back then it was the run to the "he's broken out" take for 95% of Brewer fans. How did 2019 look? Yes, Arcia has shown in a 60-70 game window that he isn't horrible and could be above average. In-between he has shown he is the worst hitter in MLB (by a long-shot). There's nothing about his results in 2019 that 2nd half 2018 was a breakout and it was wise of Stearns to sell "high" on Arcia.

Sure he barreled a few more pitches but he was striking out and swinging at stuff outside the zone at rates even higher than his career marks. Last year he actually improved in the areas everyone was saying he needed to improve in and the reaction was “must be a fluke.” I’m not even opposed to the trade, but it feels like anything short of an MVP type season would have been written off, and that also isn’t fair.

[JackNicholson1974]

I am no fan of Arcia’s. But I’m not sure Urias is any better.