If the Brewers end up selling this season, Zack Greinke could be the prize of the trade market. The 28-year-old right-hander has been electric in 2012, entering play tonight with a 2.82 ERA, 9.0 K/9, 1.9 BB/9 and 52.3% groundball rate. His FIP (2.21) suggests he's been even better than his ERA indicates. Here are Monday's rumors surrounding the Milwaukee ace…
- Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweets that the Braves are "definitely" interested in Greinke and that they're willing to trade their young arms to facilitate a deal.
- The Braves have sent one of their top scouts to attend Greinke's start tonight, according to David O'Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (on Twitter). Atlanta recently lost Brandon Beachy to Tommy John surgery. It's been reported that Atlanta is only interested in Greinke if an extension can be reached.
- Brewers manager Ron Roenicke told reporters (including Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel) that the team will make another run at extending Greinke prior to the deadline. If Greinke remains with the team beyond the deadline, the Brew Crew will revisit extension talks this offseason, though Roenicke feels that Greinke will want to "know what's out there for him" in free agency.
That’s do a blockbuster – White Sox Sale and Beckham for Greinke, Weeks and Ashford.
Who’s Ashford?
I’d only trade Ashford if Simpson were also included in the deal.
I can’t see the White Sox getting significantly better by subtracting Chris Sale.
Why would the Braves trade their young arms for him they probably would not be able to resign him
Because Greinke’s one of the best pitchers in baseball right NOW and they want to make a run this year. Not really a strange or unheard of concept at the trade deadline……
i think the braves can get him to sign. i say throw 18 million a year at him and see what he says. i say trade teheran and another prospect. then sign him. if it means mccann is done in atlanta then so be it.
They’d probably want to have an extension in place with him before agreeing to the deal. In that case, it would make sense.
The 2nd paragraph says “..
that Atlanta is only interested in Greinke if an extension can be reached. “
O boy Mark Tex two o this should be fun
Unless the Braves have given up their “no no-trade clause” philosophy, I don’t see them ever signing a big time free agent.
It has more to do with the fact they’re a mid-market team with smart general management.
NTC = more flexibility, but also more $$$
It just doesn’t make sense for a sub-$100M payroll team to dump $20M on one player for 4+ yrs.
Never say never. ATL is a classy organization that doesn’t have a history of going against players wishes and bending over backwards to make our players happy.
if the braves trade for Greinke they will trade for him they will only do so if they know they can resign him to a long term deal. Wren has said that many times.
I bet the sox will check in
The Sox already have about $75 Million dedicated to their awesome rotation.
The Braves have sent one of their top scouts to attend Greinke’s start tonight.
Yeah, he’s the same guy who was working the warehouse scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark…..”We have top men working on it now.” “Who?” Top. Men.”
I mean don’t the Braves remember trading for Mark Teixeira? I mean come on, get serious! They’re going to unload all their prospects just to get Greinke and for what? He might not like Atlanta, much less do well down there.
“Unload all of their prospects”…? Really, you think that was all of our prospects? That’s why we were #4 best ranked farm systems in all of MLB not 3 years after trading for Tex. Yes, we lost a lot of talent (3 future All-Stars), but they were by no means “all of [our] prospects”.
And why wouldn’t Greinke like ATL? Classy organization with some money that might not make him the richest RHP in MLB, but will pay him what he’s worth, make him the headliner of one of the best rotations in MLB, be on a team that’s always in playoff-contention, a short plane-ride away from his hometown (Orlando, FL), and mid-market team. What’s not to like about that? I mean, KC is the AAAA-affiliate of the Braves, so he’s already had a taste of what it’d be like to pitch for Atlanta.
I wouldn’t call Atlanta a mid market they are a low market team similar to the NYM which should change the Mets will become mid market again.They sometimes do act like a mid market team though
If the Brewers do end up trading Greinke to the Braves I hope they can get Simmons in the deal. He looks like the real deal at short.
I’m pretty sure Simmons is untouchable. He been straight filth since he came up and the Braves have other SS options in the minors such as Tyler Pastornicky, Nick Ahmed, Edward Salcedo and Matt Lipka
Salcedo moved to 3B and Matt Lipka moved to CF.
yes but I’m assuming they could move back if necessary
Simmons is running for ROY he has to be untouchable. Has Heyward been offered or is he untouchable as well? I would presume too think Teheran+Pastornicky+ off the beat prospect gets this done.I will tell you this much the Brewers do nt want Minor with the way he hasbeen struggling
Heyward hasn’t been offered and he won’t be. I would think the best you’re going to do on the current team is Minor and/or Delgado. And from what I’m to understand, the only untouchable guy in the minors is Teheran. Seeing as how the Braves are making a push for two SP’s (Sheets included), I would think the Braves will be willing to offer Minor and Delgado together somehow. The Braves need to stop hoarding these pitching prospects with intent to have them in the rotation at some point. Saying goodbye to Minor and Delgado would allow them to pick up Huddy’s option and not spend the entire winter trying to trade Jurrjens
I agree Teheran is good but when your talking Greinke u cannot say he is untouchable
Not a chance. Seriously. You’ve got our SS of the past (Alex Gonzalez) and you can have our bench player of the future (Pastornicky), but even if you dip Greinke in gold and send a confidence coach, we still wouldn’t be sending Mr. Simmons.
Think of him as our Brett Lawrie, our Mr. Untouchable.
Bad comparison for Simmons. We moved our Mr. Untouchable (Lawrie) for Shaun Marcum. Which proves, everyone has a price. I doubt Simmons will be in a deal, but we’d be stupid not to ask.
“Think of him as our Brett Lawrie, our Mr. Untouchable.”
The Brewers traded Brett Lawrie…….not a great comparison.
Irony, my friend.
They shouldn’t have traded Lawrie. He should have been untouchable.
If the Brewers didn’t trade for Marcum, there is a good chance that
Greinke wouldn’t have waived his no trade clause to come to the Brewers.
Why are people talking about Lawrie like he is Mike Trout?
Not to mention, Lawrie has a lot of red flags – Refusing to play winter
ball when the Brewers asked him to (as a teenager). Then pictures
popping up of him last year with a 40oz. bottle of beer duct taped to
his hand.
Then, in his first full big league season, we haven’t even hit the all
star break and he has hit an umpire with a helmet (I could care less
about intent – he should have gotten a MUCH longer suspension) and then
throwing his arms into a catchers face this past weekend.
Personally, I’m glad he is gone from the Brewers organization and
anytime you can trade a prospect hitter (ESPECIALLY one that has been
nothing but a PITA since you drafted him) for proven MLB pitchers…… it’s a no brainer.
I agree with you, I just thought someone with Lawrie’s abilities could fetch more than a 13-game winner with a mid-3.00 ERA. Yes, he was pitching in the tough AL East in a hitter’s park, but his numbers really haven’t come down while being in the NL and he keeps battling arm issues – which popped up while he was in TOR.
Currently, Marcum has a 1.3 WAR for MIL.
Lawrie leads the MLB with a 4.8 WAR (Trout is a 4.2 in 2nd). And Lawrie’s numbers aren’t all that off-the-charts. That’s what I mean by “untouchable”.
simmons, prado, and heyward are pretty much untouchable IMO. but i can see the braves giving up teheran and just for the heck of it lets say, zeke spruill. 2 good pitching prospects for grienke
If the Braves trade for Greinke, they are going for it this year. Subtracting Simmons leaves a gaping hole at SS this year. That wouldn’t make much sense.
No that is not neccesarily it. The Braves will sign him to a extension
Not much from Grienke to watch tonight. He already got warned by the umpires for throwing at Zambrano, then the next pitch was way inside anyway. He has no control and is down 5-2 in the 3rd inning… Braves scouts shoulda’ skipped this start.
Probably his anxiety issues acting up again. Steer clear. Get Hamels instead.
Hamels really doesn’t fit the Braves’ M.O. They won’t be able to afford a contract extension, and if the Phillies were to deal him within the division, it’d be for a king’s ransom.
I’m thinking Edward Salcedo, one of those starters close to the MLB (assuming the Braves refuse guys like Delgado, Vizcaiano, maybe Sean Gilmartin? Speculating.) plus.
Not gonna happen.
No way Hamels goes to the Braves. He’d be way too expensive in terms of prospects and there’s no way we’re resigning him because we’re talking 20MM or more per year for him. If I get home from work on the 31st (I’ve actually considered taking the day off lol) and see “Braves acquire and extend Cole Hamels” I would probably go catatonic.
Maybe he knew that top scouts were at the game and he got nervous. It’s been said that he’s a bit sensitive and can’t handle big pressure games.
He’s trying to drive his price down. Even he doesn’t want to be traded for Teheran.
simmons is going no where
no to hamels i dont want the traded guys to burn us there
I wouldn’t mind the prospects, but seeing Cole Hamels pitch the Atlanta Braves to a World Series wouldn’t be much fun for us either.
Not gonna happen, sorry. We’re not giving prized prospects to the Phils. Hamels is gone after this season and we’re not an organization that will ever trade our prized prospects for a rental.
MARK TEIXEIRA………….AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
Hamels is too expensive being in the same division he will cost much more being with Ruebens mind the Phillies would be contending next year.The Phils would demand
Teheran+Minor+Pastornicky+Nick+a 5th player.
Frank would be dumb to do that plus Hamels is much more expensive
Brewers get: Nick Ahmed, Randall Delgado, and Joe Terdoslavich
Braves get: Zack Greinke
Only if they throw in Alex Gonzalez so we can release him again for effect.
Well, you can’t trade guys on the 60-day DL, so that’s not possible. You can have Cesar Izturis and release him, if you’d like. 😛
Tell Zack to start lookin’ for houses in Alpharetta and send over the contract on linen white.
Switch Delgado with Minor and there you go.
you do know that Bob Melvin isn’t that dumb right.Minor’s MLB experience has not been good too say at the least.
It will take more than that to get Greinke.
That will never happen Teheran has to be included or no deal. The Brewers would also want Pastornicky or Simmons(untouchable).So it would probably be
Teheran+Pastornicky+a off the beat prospect.
I don’t want to throw the salt on the wound here but considering what the Mets got for Beltran last year you would have too feel that the Brewers would want a similar or better deal providing that position players are a dime a dozen and talented top of the rotation starters are neccesarily not.
As a Braves fan i’d be shovk beyond belief if we got him!
It will take Simmons or Teheran at the front of any offer. Maybe Edward Salcedo,Teheran and Sean Gilmartin but think Texas can offer the best deal.
you underestimate Frank Wren’s trading ability. Some of the trades he’s pulled off have made opposing GM’s look quite sub-standard. And no, he didn’t do the Teixeira trade, that was Schuerholtz’s doing.
Wren comes on to me as a Alderson type. Schuerholtz was not quite a Minaya but he was a guy who would not be able to dump there prospects hence the Teixeira trade. I guess the Braves over the last couple of years have become more conseravitive when it comes to dealing there prospects.Although it looks like a sadden end for the Braves unless they trade for Greinke or Garza.As far as Hamels goes they shouldn’t and won’t go after him even despite his 10-4 record with a era in the mid 2s.He will most certainly demand 20 mill over 5-7 years too much for the Braves.However Wren even being a Alderson type props to you NYBravos fan he does make trades that do impact the team far further than any GMs have in baseball.Hence the Michael Bourn deal which was a great deal for Atlanta.They have to extend him.
Texas isn’t even in the running anymore
Simmons isn’t going to be traded for a 2012 run, because he is essential to that run. Personally, I wouldn’t give up Teheran for a half year of Greinke, but I could see it happening. If that’s the case, any additional prospects will either be lower ceiling or further away from the bigs.
Instead of the Braves focusing on trading for Grienke and extending his contract, they should focus on trying to extend Bourn’s contract.
Bourn will be expensive.He will get 14-15 mill a year because he is a big stolen base threat and hits for a high averege.If Atlanta doesn’t sign Bourn that will be a lol
I guess I’ve never quite understood why Braves fans are still bugging out over the Tex trade. It turned out fine!!! Instead of Feliz we have Kimbrel, instead of Andrus we have Simmons, Salty wasn’t going anywhere in the organization, we have plenty of pitchers that either are or will be equivalent to Harrison and Beau Jones…is he even in baseball anymore?
If Feliz wasn’t injured, could you imagine the Braves still having both Neftali Feliz and Adam Wainwright? We wouldn’t even be talking about needing pitching right now.
I can handle not having Wainwright. He’s great, but he’s only one man we traded for a rental (Drew). Trading 3 All-Stars, not mentioning trading away the draft pick that could have gotten the AL ROY (Trout) just plain hurts.
If we had that “one man”, I’m not so sure we’d be in a frenzy right now to find the parts were looking for, and we could focus solely on a hitter.
hindsight is 20/20
It’s really starting to seem like the Braves are going to be the team that gets Greinke, if the Brewers opt to trade him. Obviously, these are all just rumors, but if the rumors of the Brewers wanting ML-ready players are true, the Braves are most likely the best fit.
Every Brewers fan would want Simmons in a deal. Doug Melvin would want Simmons in a deal. Doug Melvin should ask for Simmons in a deal. The Braves would be stupid to include Simmons in a deal, but it can’t hurt to ask. I think Pastornicky is the best we’re gonna be able to do as far as getting a ML-ready SS goes, unless the Dodgers really want Greinke and are willing to part with Gordon (which is highly unlikely). As far as the pitching included goes, it’s probably a take your pick scenario for Doug Melvin. Teheran, or Minor/Delgado + prospect SP.
The Braves usually don’t give 5 year contracts to pitchers and they also don’t give no trade clauses. That being said, Greinke is kind of special and he’s also a lifelong Braves fan. When he had his mental breakdown and took time away from the game, he still kept up with the Royals games and also watched his Braves… I think we make exceptions for someone of his caliber and his personal loyalty to the team.
I don’t see there being a problem trying to get him locked up long term for Atlanta. The issue would be being able to pull off the trade to begin with. We can give them minor league depth pieces, but there really isn’t anyone that we can afford to part with that would be big enough to tempt the Brewers to give him to us. I mean, Simmons is off the table. Take away Simmons from the ATL lineup and we go back to zero @ SS. Give them Teheran and Delgado and some filler…. but I just don’t see us having the pieces to pull it off.
I’ll say this until I’m blue in the face: The Brewers don’t have to trade him to anyone. They can hold onto him, offer arb, and receive compensation picks next year. They won’t move him for lesser prospects. They definitely won’t move him for mid-level pitching prospects. They have plenty of those already… I’d be more than happy to see the team hold onto him for the rest of the year, as opposed to see them trade for some of the garbage to “meh” packages most of you Braves fans are proposing.
If a deal is made both fan bases will likely be unhappy. If the Braves give up Teheran most Braves fans will be angry. If the deal doesn’t include someone like Simmons then most Brewer fans will be unhappy. In truth, I expect either Teheran or Delgado to highlight the trade package with maybe guys like Bethancourt and Gilmartin to fill it out. The Braves will push Minor to be part of the deal but I don’t think the Brewers will bite on that, unless it is Minor AND Delgado with no other players involved.
FWIW, I think both Minor and Delgado will be very good much league starting pitchers. Delgado practically went straight from AA to the majors at age 21. He’s a keeper.
I just don’t see them matching up if a pitcher is going to be coming back as the centerpiece of the deal. I really don’t see it if they receive nothing but pitching. Delgado’s stock isn’t in a free-fall, but it is falling, ditto Minor, and even Teheran to an extent (True, it really had no place to go but down). They also don’t have a need at catcher. They need infielders of all types.
The Braves don’t have any top infield prospects unless you consider Tyler Pastornicky to be in that category. He is really more of a 2B than a true shortstop. They also have Nick Ahmed who is a bit further away from the majors. Edward Salcedo is also far away from the majors, he is a 3rd base prospect that was highly regarded when he was signed. But you would need more than that for Greinke. And, no, Andrelton Simmons isn’t available. The Braves have waited too long for a high caliber shortstop to trade him now.
Given Delgado’s age (and lack of upper level minor league experience) I don’t think his stock is falling at all. He really should have been pitching at AAA this season but is holding his own in the majors. Yes, I would agree that Minor and Teheran have fallen a little but both still have a high ceiling.
braves fans will be happy if grienke does what sabathia did for the Brewers a couple years ago and pitches them into the post season. It’s a tough road to October without pitching for Atlanta this year. And as far as the Brewers go…name a team that complains about having too much starting pitching in it’s system. The crew has no real all star potential, Tehran would be a great addition.
Teheran is the highest-ranked RHP prospect and has been for some time. He’s made some spot starts but has never had a rotation spot in MLB, so his MLB numbers shouldn’t determine his ability. Simply put, he’s not been given a fair shot yet. He’s still quite young and is getting even better though he’s dominated AAA. If NYM feels like they won out on the deal that sent Beltran and got them Zack Wheeler (who was around #45-ranked when traded), then MIL fans should be elated at getting the top RHP pitching prospect in MLB (and others) with or without a SS of Simmons’ ability. Go try and pry SS Machado away from BAL with Greinke and you’ll get the same “no” because franchise SS are nearly impossible to find.
I haven’t personally seen Teheran throw, but his numbers in Triple A this year are middling, honestly. His track record in the Minors is great. I’ll grant you that, but his K totals are down, and his WHIP is over 1.4. I’m sure he’s a top talent, but I also have faith that Milwaukee will hit on at least two of Bradley, Jungmann, Thornburg, Peralta, and Nelson. Hitting on three of those, and their need for pitching is not great. Teheran is the best prospect the Braves have, but what he offers isn’t what Milwaukee needs the most right now. If nobody is willing to offer their top SS prospect, then I really think it’s best they keep Zack through the season.
To be fair, Teheran is 21 and has already thrown 276 innings at AA or higher. The track record is good, the velocity is easy, and the command is pretty advanced for a guy so young. I think the results are down this year because the Braves have asked him to work on developing his breaking ball so he is more effective against RHBs. The past 2 years he has been primarily FB/CH and he needs a better breaking pitch to become a #1-2 starter. Given his age, I think that’s a reasonable approach.
My point is, focusing only on results for a guy who is still very young may not give you the complete picture of his status as a prospect.
Understood – and I also said that I’m sure Teheran is, and will be a solid pitcher – I just don’t see that he fits what the Brewers need, and any deal centered around him will still feel lackluster for that reason.
The reason Teheran is struggling this year is because the Braves have required him to spend all of his time working on throwing his breaking pitches for strikes. Everyone knows he has an electric fastball but he needs to refine the offspeed stuff so that the major league hitters don’t sit on the fastball.
You are a little behind the times. Teheran’s stock has fallen recently. Several other RH itching prospects have passed him (Bundy, Bauer, Taijuan Walker, Gerrit cole, Jameson Taillon, etc.
I do agree that Simmons won’t be traded for anyone. He was just ranked as the #14 prospect in baseball by John Sickels.