Brewers Land Felipe Lopez

Woah. Didn't see that coming, but Felipe is playing well this year. We'll see who they gave up to decide if it is a good deal or not.

Brewers need pitching more than hitting to win the NL Central. I thought Counsell and McGehee were doing fine at 2nd base with that platoon. This additon improves the Brewers but its not the deal thats gonna send them to the top of the divison.

Decent haul for Arizona. Mercedes could be a key part of Arizona's bullpen in a couple years. Does anyone have a scouting report on Mercedes?

Looks like a win-win trade. Both teams being in different situations.

Extremely interesting young pitcher with 90-94 mph velocity on his fastball and a tight and sharp breaking ball for his age. He has an outstanding pitchers frame with a combination of leverage and musculature).

Roque Mercedes Scouting Report, courtesy of brewerfan.net. Thank you, to whoever wrote that.

.264/83.3%/2.19 (BABIP/LOB%/ FIP) line this year, good stuff. He's a non-draftee out of the Dominican.

The Brewers had three guys (Gamel, Counsell, McGehee) shuffling between 2B and 3B for a while, and because of that the lineup has been very inconsistent. Both Counsell and McGehee have had lingering knee problems, anyhow.

The Brewers finally find a leadoff hitter, and the lineup will fall into a consistent order everyday, something I think is rather important.

I'm assuming Gamel is going back down to AAA until September and it'll be McGehee at 3B with Counsell spelling him vs. tough right-handers.

I like Gillespie, but he's 25 and not a huge power threat. But he'll get on base. I'm not familiar with Mercedes but he's young and putting up good numbers, so it's very plausible that it will be a fair return for Arizona.

Nice to see Omar Minaya doing his job after letting all those other players get away for cheap. Wait! My bad he's not the Brewers GM, lol

Mets need a bat, Brewers get a bat they don't need for cheap, Mets still have an anemic offense. Makes plenty of sense. Use your brain.

Great move for Milwaukee but what will happen when Weeks comes back?

"the Mets current 2nd baseman is actually performing better than him"

Okay I know you're not smart saying something as dumb as that. Lopez' batting average is at least 15 points higher than Castillo's, he has more homers and more RBI too.

Also the Mets are used to plugging players into different positions. I'm sure they could plug Lopez into another position. He's also played LF, SS, and 3rd so know what you're talking about before you make yourself look stupid.

"Okay I know you're not smart saying something as dumb as that. Lopez' batting average is at least 15 points higher than Castillo's, he has more homers and more RBI too."

RBI and Avg are pretty irrelevant stats. Castillo's OBP is 25 points higher that Lopez, and Lopez with his 6 HR's isn't exactly a power bat. His production in left wouldn't match Sheffield's, and his defense is no better. He's obviously not an upgrade to Wright, and he's not capable of being an everyday SS defensively. As stated before, he can barely handle 2nd. The Mets need a bat. They have enough glaring holes however, that they can at least look for someone who fits. You're criticising Minaya for the sake of being critical, not for any other reason.

86 Mets beat me to the punch.

I'm not much of a fan of this haul for the DBacks.

He was a 2 WAR player so far this season, albeit his numbers were inflated via BABIP, and he was rather cheap. Considering that he's likely to net draft pick compensation and is cheap, the haul is rather underwhelming.

"the haul is rather underwhelming"

What do you think "the haul" should have been for less than a half year of Lopez ?

And dont give me that Defense crud, Lopez is a much, much better defender then Castillo has been the past 4 years.

Posted by: SuzysMan | July 19, 2009 at 07:48 PM

Lopez is a better bat, but he's absolutely terrible defensively. Don't let the dropped popup against the Yanks influence your decision, Castillo is at least an adequate defensive player. Lopez' "versatility" stems from the fact that he's either bad enough defensively or inadequate enough offensively to hold down any position full time. He's a bench player on a good team, but the current Mets are not a good team. He wouldn't address the issues they are having, espescially after having another starter go down tonight.

please take the Mets pissing contest to another blog that might have something to do with them.

Melvin mentioned already in his breakdown of the trade that Lopez projects as a type b free agent, so i assume that means they'll offer him arb. Arb, even in a recession, would be a silly option $ wise for Lopez. It would be risky for the brewers to have a utility infielder (assuming Gamel/McGehee at 3B, Hardy/Escobar at SS and Weeks at 2B in 2010) making about $4-6 mil, but it's worth the draft pick. You just don't resign counsell next year if he accepts.

"Lopez is a better bat, but he's absolutely terrible defensively. Don't let the dropped popup against the Yanks influence your decision, Castillo is at least an adequate defensive player."

I'm not, I am letting actual stats influence my decision. Castillo has been a negative value 2B in 3 of the past 4 seasons. (including -6.0 this season and -9.3 last year). Lopez is positive in 3 of the last 4 seasons at Second.

Yeah, but the improvement from Castillo to Lopez isn't going to do much for the team with the crap playing at SS and one of 1B/LF, along with the pitching.

But his not being needed on the club is not grounds for dismissing him as a player either - he is a solid, DeRosa type (Solid 2B, amazing Super-Sub). If they were competing, I would have said that he would have been a great target for them - better at 2B then what they have and when they play Castillo, he could give other guys days off.

Posted by: SuzysMan | July 19, 2009 at 09:06 PM

Don't take my approach towards him as dismissing him as a player...if the Mets were completely, I doubt 2b would be a consideration for an upgrade. Castillo is playing adequately, and he's signed for two more years unfortunately. Replacing him with a rental may be detrimental long term to a player they can at least get some value out of now. Even if you consider Lopez an upgrade, he'd be a marginal one at best. There would still be a very large hole in left (nobody significant is hurt there) and pitching depth issues. I can't see Omar depleting the farm further to add a guy like Lopez.

looks like a trade to set up trading hardy in the halladay deal when hardys traded it will be

Braun/Cameron/Hart
McGehee/Counsell/Lopez/Fielder

Kendall

now they dont have to rush Alcides Escobar

I totally agree with ''Brewers''. This definately looks like a setup 4 a halladay trade. and to ''qudjy1'' felipe lopez has played shortstop for every team he has played for except arizona, so im sure they would be fine moving him there, this is a great pickup for the brewers, i wish they woulda got doug davis too though

this is exactly what the brewers needed. a leadoff hitter who bats .300. this will solve the problems that weve had at leadoff since weeks went on the DL. Now all that doug needs to do is go after Roy Halladay or Doug Davis to give us depth in the rotation.

Steal. Those "prospects" are 2 nothings. I wonder if the Cards regret selling the future for DeRosa and his busted hand?

weeks should never have been the leadoff hitter, obviously a .270 average is not a leadoff hitter, he should have definately hit either behind prince or in the 6 hole, felipe lopez is a pure leadoff hitter, this will be a GREAT pickup for the brewers, now we just need 2 pickup a pitcher, this trade may not be 2 dump hardy for halladay, but it could be to trade hardy for another picture

weeks should never have been the leadoff hitter, obviously a .270 average is not a leadoff hitter, he should have definately hit either behind prince or in the 6 hole, felipe lopez is a pure leadoff hitter, this will be a GREAT pickup for the brewers, now we just need 2 pickup a pitcher, this trade may not be 2 dump hardy for halladay, but it could be to trade hardy for another picture

pitcher***

So this may not be a precursor to a Hardy(plus others) and Halladay trade like we all wish, but this definately looks like a "prep" trade for sending Hardy out for a pitcher, but anyone that is out there seems to be on a "stand pat" team that isn't quite completely out of it yet...Jack Z in Seattle definately knows our system up and down, any thoughts on one of the Seattle boys commin to Mil???