Some items from the NL Central…
- Cole Hamels has been nothing short of excellent since joining the Cubs, posting a microscopic 0.72 ERA over his first 25 innings with the team. With Hamels pitching like an ace again, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News wonders if this could bode well for the Rangers, as Texas wouldn’t be on the hook for the $6MM buyout of Hamels’ $20MM option for 2019 if Chicago decided to exercise that option. There are some complications, Grant notes, as the Cubs may not want to spend that much on a pitcher who turns 35 in December, no matter how well Hamels performs down the stretch. The Cubs already have quite a bit of money tied up in their rotation, and keeping Hamels would put them in danger of surpassing the luxury tax threshold (MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes has written in the past about the Cubs’ strange reluctance incur a tax penalty, despite the relatively meager financial cost they’d face as “a first-time payor.”)
- “There are rumblings that the Brewers will try to flip” Jonathan Schoop after the season, Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com writes. If a trade partner can’t be found, Milwaukee might just non-tender Schoop. The middle infielder earned $8.5MM this season and, despite his struggles, will be due a raise in 2019 in his third and final year of arbitration eligibility. Schoop has posted just a .384 OPS over 50 PA this joining the Brewers, and he has only started two of Milwaukee’s last five games. Barring a turn-around, it’s hard to see Schoop generating much interest on the trade front.
- After being designated for assignment by the Indians in the 2016-17 offseason, Jesus Aguilar told Tyler Kepner of the New York Times that he considered leaving MLB due to overseas interest. “I even was thinking about Korea and Japan,” Aguilar said. “When they put me on waivers, my agent was talking to me: ’They got people there. They want me there, too.’ ” This career crossroads ended when Aguilar was claimed by the Brewers, and the first baseman blossomed after receiving more playing time, hitting .280/.366/.579 with 29 homers and a league-best 89 RBI over 413 plate appearances this season.
- The Reds’ recent front office shuffle was likely due to the team’s lack of recent success at developing pitchers and finding international prospects, John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer writes. While the Reds signed Aroldis Chapman and Raisel Iglesias out of Cuba, they haven’t had a real find in the Dominican or Venezuelan player markets since Johnny Cueto back in 2004, which Fay argues could stem from parting ways with scout Johnny Almaraz in 2007. (Almarez has since gone on to become the Phillies’ director of amateur scouting.)
I think the Cubs have to sign Hamels. Lester, Hamels, Darvish, Hendricks, Quintana is pretty tough
Tough as in an old, tough piece of meat. Average age would be 32, with both Hamels and Lester being 35 next year. If they don’t get any younger Heyward might opt out to avoid the aging core
So you’re saying they should get older?
The Cubs current core has never included a pitcher. But go on and knock Heyward for saying something two years ago that was 100% accurate.
heyward is not opting out of that stupid large contract
Still bitter?
Haha Reds that what you get not sticking with Chapman no trouble since and look what Phillies is doing in the Latin market should’ve held on to Johnny Amaraz and you gave Bumb Bailey all that money .Haha
You must have failed your ESL classes, huh? There are English words there but together they make no sense.
Yeah I read his comment 3 times and still don’t understand it
I think he means they should have chose Johnny Cueto instead of Homer Bailey when deciding between the two for a large extension. I am totally guessing from context, but it makes sense. The Amarez could be a nickname in the DR or something.
The article clearly says that Johnny Almaraz was the Reds scouting director.
The Brewers collecting all these hitters, and not having positions for them to get their bats in the lineup everyday, has really hurt the players and the team. Horribly constructed team.
I don’t know what Ivy league school David Stearns went to, but they don’t often teach common sense. Getting value is different than constructing a winning team.
NO it killed the team chemistry, the Schoop trade was made to appease all the critics at end of trading deadline,I also think they now teed off Shaw who figured to be playing 2nd base regularly,the Moose trade I can see and resigning him possibly,the Soria trade didn’t make sense either due to the shuffling back and forth pitchers from AAA,they probably could have gotten Gray a starter they wanted last year if they would have persued it.
The Soria trade made perfect sense to bolster their late inning corps for the stretch run and would have paid huge dividends when Knebel faltered if Soria hadn’t got hurt. And we could debate the Shaw/Moose/Schoop thing all day. It would be moot if Schoop had continued to hit anwhere near what he was when the trade went down. Neither Moose or Schoop are long-term signings so Stearns didn’t commit the Brewers to burdensome contracts like the Cubs have done.
Schoop will generate plenty of trade value
As a Braves fan I could see Schoop at 2nd and Albies at SS. Swanson seems like a good guy, good teammate and his defense is good but is he the answer at SS long term? I’d say, no.
His stats were bloated playing in Camden Yards. I don’t see Schoop as much more than a .260/14-15 HR guy.
Schoops can hit 15 Hrs in his sleep. Projecting him as a .260. 15 Hr guy just shows you are talking out of your ass. I could see an argument for him not hitting 260 but saying anything about his pop shows a complete lack of knowledge. 9 hrs at home 8 on the road. Tell me how inflated that is…,
And Miller Park is a pitchers paradise.
Schoop sucks ass
I called that this would happen with Cole. Saw it too many times with the Phillies. The brighter the lights get, the better he is.
Saw it happening for Hamels as well but for a different reason. Brocail is a horrendous pitching coach. I’ve watched him mess up a lot of our arms. Getting away from him is the best thing that could happen to Hamels.
Odd and unlikely, but logical trade idea…
Jordy Mercer for Jonathan Schoop*.
Brewers get a real SS who is a solid NL #8 hitter for their run this season (and potentially beyond) and the Pirates get a free tryout of Schoop (which might also allow them to trade Josh Harrison) and can pick up his arb year or non tender him depending on how well he fits.
This would also allow the Pirates to give Kevin Newman a real audition down the stretch, which is unlikely if Hurdle has Mercer available to him.
*This also assumes that both would clear waivers, of course.
I find it hard to believe that the Brewers have soured on Schoop that much. Kubatko’s “report” is kind of equivocal, and they just traded two interesting, albeit not great, prospects for him. Unless they don’t like his personality or something, I think they’d rather have him than Mercer still.
More power to them and their 5 2B/3B at one time formula.
I don’t even really want Schoop (though I wonder if the Pirates could mine a decent prospect for Harrison the way they got Oneil Cruz for Tony Watson, in which case Schoop would be fine to finish out the year), I just want Newman to get his feet wet this year instead of next year.
Yeah I can get behind that. If I were Pittsburgh, I’d basically give Newman the everyday job, move Mercer to a utility role, and hope Newman takes off. Mercer’s fine, but they’re basically buried this year, and I can’t believe they’re dying to extend a guy who’s slightly below average at everything.
Aguilar is hitting .220 with just 5 HRs since the break. So he fits right in with the rest of Brewers who fold in the second half.
Cards could schoop now with Wong probably heading to the DL.
I was unaware of the caveat that Texas was only paying money if the Cubs declined the option.
But if that’s the case, and Hamels keeps pitching like this then the Cubs should decline. Then offer him a 2year/$30 mil deal.
I’d rather Hamels on a 1 year 20 million contract at this point. He’s obviously pitching like an absolute ace right now but he’s nearly 35 years old and I wouldnt guarantee anymore cash than I had to. The option is there to have him for that now and I doubt the cubs and Hamels would do some kind of backhanded deal so they could take 6 mil from Texas. There might be some language written in the contract that would prevent that kind of thing from making Texas liable for the 6 mil as well.
I’m still pissed the Indians designated Aguilar, not like they care what I think though. Glad he got playing time somewhere because he certainly didn’t get it in Cleveland.
I’m not necessarily upset that they got rid of him as much as I’m upset that they didn’t even know what they had in him when they got rid of him. They called him up a few times just to bury him on the bench and only put him on waivers when he ran out of options.
I get a lot of guys like him end up being AAAA types so they probably just assumed that he’d be one too, but they never gave him a chance to prove otherwise.
Brewers could use another SS
Yeah about as much as we can use another dumb ass troll comment from you. Moron.
Pot calling the kettle black
Haha there’s no way in hell Cubs keep Hamels for $20 mil. Sorry Texas.
ok there is no way the Brewers are going to trade Schoop for Ortiz and other prospects to just non-tender him.Second base has been a hole since Gennett. He hasn’t felt comfortable yet as a Brewer, it will take him time
The orioles will consider giving you Jon Villar back for schoop. Keep the prospects as the cost of doing business….Milwaukee’s plan just blew up in their face. If they want to play Hiura next season there’s no room for schoop. Its tough to believe that they couldn’t get a small prospect for schoop. Id take him back in BAL tomorrow and try to flip him again next year if/when he’s hitting again.
2b was a hole with gennett also. He didn’t do much of anything until he whined his way out of Milwaukee. Remember, he was a platoon player with the brewers, so he couldn’t even beat out an equally bad player to win the everyday job, AND they wanted to remove him further from the 2b job by asking him to become a utility player (some 3b, some corner OF).