The Brewers have been active at the trade deadline in recent seasons, but GM Doug Melvin is downplaying the impact a deadline acquisition might have, writes MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy. “We’re out there, we’re going to have our ears open,” says Melvin. “But we still have to play well as a team and not to think that one acquisition makes a difference. Not many times does that acquisition make the difference without the team still continuing to play well.” Melvin’s acquisition of C.C. Sabathia in early July 2008 was exactly the sort of high-impact move GMs hope for when they make summer deals, although Melvin is obviously correct that one player can’t carry a team all by himself. McCalvy suggests that the Brewers could be in the market for right-handed relief help this summer. Here are more notes on the NL Central.
- The Reds have struggled recently, and it’s unclear what they’ll do at the trade deadline, MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon writes. If they end up buying, they’d like a hitter who can play more than one position. Injuries have hurt the Reds this season, and a number of bulky salaries in 2015 could impede their ability to upgrade. If they do decide to sell (although there does not appear to be much evidence that’s likely), they could make available a number of desirable pieces, including Johnny Cueto, Homer Bailey, Mat Latos and Mike Leake.
- Pirates manager Clint Hurdle agrees with general manager Neal Huntington that the Bucs need to be careful trading top prospects for short-term upgrades, Travis Sawchik of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writes. “You start talking about moving three or four prospects in your top 10, 15? That can get a little dicey,” Hurdle says. “What can help now versus hamstring you later?” Hurdle also notes, however, that the Pirates have made late-summer moves to improve their club in each of the last three seasons, getting players like Derrek Lee, Ryan Ludwick, Wandy Rodriguez, Marlon Byrd and Justin Morneau. The Pirates’ biggest need this year is probably in the bullpen, and upgrading there shouldn’t necessarily cost top prospects.
whatever happend to Jim Henderson last I heard he was doing a rehab stint and now the brewers are open to right handed relief help?
Rehabbing in AAA still, good chance to rejoin the club this week.
Well if I was leading my division I’m not sure I would want to count on a guy who had a bad spring, was bad the start of the year, and has been injured 2 months. Not likely the best course of action. They are likely looking for a set up man. They don’t have a go to right hander late in the game. They rely on a ton of lefties.
There’s Jeffers and Thornburg might come back at the end of the season. Kintzler is pitching well again. They don’t really have a spot for another pitcher regardless.
Jeffress has pitched like 3 innings and has always had horrible control throughout his career…disaster waiting to happen. Thornburg is like you said injured and before being injured was average at best. And Brandon Kintzler is unreliable and his stats are horrible. His FIP floats at nearly 5.
If they have the chance to add a reliable set up man they will do it. Those 3 and Henderson will create the sketchiest bullpen ever. They need reliable guys.
Also if they didn’t need any arms why has Doug Melvin been mainly looking for relief help(right handed to be exact)? I think he knows what he is doing.
Thornburg was absolutely great till he had a sore elbow. Kintzler was among the most reliable pitchers in baseball till he had a sore elbow. Henderson had a long stretch of reliability as well. Whoever you’re thinking about getting, you can go back and find out when they were hurt and use those stats and they’ll be bad. What would it prove?
Melvin is the guy who gave Weeks his contract and offered 100 million plus for Prince Fielder. The list doesn’t end there.
Wow that is impressive. You can look at things in retrospect. How about you think of those two things when they happened. Neither was consider bad…and the Fielder offer wasn’t even a serious offer.
The only bad deals he has is probably the Suppan deal and the Bill Hall deal…Both that happened a long time ago.
Just recently:
Kyle Lohse signing(brilliant)
Matt Garza(too early to tell)
Aramis Ramirez(good)
Aoki trade(brilliant)
K-Rod trade 2011(brilliant)
K-Rod signing 2014(pretty good)
And I’d like to just cut short and end with the extension of Jonathan Lucroy…you know possibly the 2014 NL MVP that was signed to a 5/10mil deal. Don’t forget Carlos Gomez…Wow can’t forget that. If not for that Carlos Gomez isn’t a Brewer anymore. Would be inked to a 100mil+ contract somewhere else. Then don’t forget about the first Braun extension.
Lowest I have seen Doug Melvin ranked is #12. Most have him in the Top ten.
Doug Melvin is one of the best.
There are a lot of positives to Melvin, but that doesn’t make his faults disappear. You may think its great to buy at the trade deadline at magnificently high prices, but I don’t.
With huge numbers of fans you can always find people to say a deal was good. There are media and fans who will say that Suppan and Hall were good deals. Weeks has always been a favorite of a small clique of elitists. It was a terrible deal. As for Fielder, I think you’ll have a hard time putting together an argument. Thank goodness Jocketty snatched Cordero away.
Remember Melvin is the guy who was confused and dismayed that nobody would give him anything for Dave Bush (another favorite of that small clique).
He does a lot of things well and many of them don’t matter if he keeps draining the minor league system.
I don’t think you even under stand the Fielder situation. That 100mil dollar offer had no chance to be accepted. No one thought Fielder would accept it…and even if he did everyone would have considered it an amazing signing. Once again you trying to think in retrospect on everything.
Also you continue to complain about him draining the farm, but what valuable pieces has he traded away that actually ended up being good?
Jake Odorizzi, Michael Brantley….Yup look at all that talent. Sarcasm. I’m taking Sabathia and Greinke over those two every day of the week. Those runs were worth it.
Actually the rumor was more than a 100 million and it had a big chance of being accepted, but if you want to argue that Melvin is manipulative and dishonest publicly to manipulate the fanbase, ok. You think getting stomped by the Phils and losing to the Cardinals was worth it, fine, but I sure don’t.
I’m thrilled that the Pirates have that approach. With how they fared in this series and the position in the standings combined with remaining schedules, the playoffs are a long shot. Moreover, what trades would make this team a true contender for the World Series this season, without costing the obviously brighter future? None. Be patient and just enjoy what the current group produces.
Have you actually seen the standings? They’re 3 games out of the division and only 1.5 from the Wild Card with 58 games to go. The shot isn’t as long as you’re making it out to be. But that doesn’t mean you go all in and mortgage everything either. They’ve struck a good balance in recent years in that regard, and I hope they maintain it.
They have a nice collection of young players on their team and in the system. If they trade a long term asset the need to get a long term asset in return.
They struggle a lot vs. teams in their division though and their schedule is loaded with the Brewers and Cards…along with some other top notch teams. The second half of August will not be friendly to them.
Their only hope is if the Cards, Reds, Brewers beat up each other and let the Pirates sneak in…kinda like this year so far I guess. But how long can you count on that to keep happening?
Agreed, they should be looking at guys who are controllable through at least 2015 like Kennedy. I’m not sold we can go far in the playoffs this year but we should at lease look to improve where we can.
I’d be intrigued on dealing with Philly for Burnett. I don’t think we’d have to give up much in the way of good talent if we acquired Burnett + Bastardo and paid Burnett’s entire salary. While AJ isnt what he used to be, he’s still proven he can be a fairly reliable innings-eater.
Lester for Josh Bell or Austin Meadows centered package! Get them a true number one and deal from their OF surplus.
Pirates give up their 2 best OF prospects for 2 months of Lester? lol, dude, lol.
I said Josh Bell OR Austin Meadows. No way you can get both but just thinking when you have the best young cost controlled OF in the game and two young OF prospects but lack a true number 1 pitcher and could get one by trading one of the 2 of Prospects you should.
I hope they’d trade Homer either way
They’re gonna trade Bailey right after they inked him to a long-term contract? I call shenanigans on that. Theoretically, yeah, sure – sounds great. That almost never happens. Buerhle is the only one I could think of and that was a package deal with back-loaded contracts that was almost a pre-meditated trap door for Loria/Sampson. Leake is the most likely to be traded it would seem. If the Reds tank in the second half I can’t see them punting 2015 as well when you can have Latos, Cueto and Bailey right there with a presumably healthy Votto. Leake and Phillips are the guys that seem likely to be shed, if any.
No team is going to take on that whole contract so it makes little sense to trade him and eat salary. Just slapping yourself in the face after such a short amount of time.