Brewers lefty Eric Lauer will open the season on the injured list, manager Craig Counsell told reporters including Jake Rill of MLB.com (via Twitter). He’s dealing with an impingement in his pitching shoulder.
Fortunately, it seems there’s not much worry within the Milwaukee organization. The specifics of Lauer’s potential timeline aren’t yet evident, but there’s no indication he will be sidelined for a significant stretch of the season.
It’s still a shame to see Lauer hit the shelf just now. He had run up nine strikeouts against just one walk and one earned run in his 5 1/3 innings in camp. The recently acquired southpaw has thrown 261 2/3 innings of 4.40 ERA ball to this point in his MLB career.
Having prioritized depth and flexibility in constructing their pitching staff, the Brewers have options on hand. Recently extended hurler Freddy Peralta is a candidate, as is Corbin Burnes. Veterans Jake Faria and Shelby Miller are in camp on non-roster deals, though neither seems likely to command a rotation spot. Trey Supak is the other possibility on the 40-man roster.
Just what will happen when Lauer is ready to return isn’t yet clear, but the Brewers surely aren’t all that concerned. No doubt the southpaw will have ample chances to log innings so long as he’s up to the task. Under Counsell and GM David Stearns, the club has deployed its staff as circumstances warrant, without much regard to formal roles.
No post season for the Brew Crew. Low down dirty shame
Huge loss. their win projections just dropped from 102 to 79
You’re right – there goes that 24-1 Cy Young performance!
So was Shemp
Fourth paragraph it states “the Friars have options”-wrong team. As the article notes elsewhere, he is a Brewer now.
I was wondering about that…..
How’d that sneak in there?! Thanks, fixed.
The statement is true thought. The friars do have options
Now if only any of them were good.
They just got better
Pretty sure the Padres easily won this trade. Sure too early to tell, but Grisham looks legit, a former top 15 pick, and Davies is a pretty safe bet to be better much better than Lauer in the short term.
Funny, because Brewers fans have been ready to call it one of the best trades of the Stearns era and absolute steal from the Brewers perspective. This is because Lauer’s velocity has picked up and he has looked incredible this Spring. Urias is about to make his Spring debut and carries a ton more upside than Grisham.
But all of it, your opinion that the Padres won the trade, Brewers fans opinions that they won the trade, is all based solely on Spring and the joy that comes with baseball returning. We won’t have any real idea until they begin to perform in the regular season. We will see if Grisham can maintain his breakout and Davies remains steady albeit uninspiring or if Urias reaches his potential and Lauer goes up a level.
Just an FYI, Lauer’s velocity had spiked later last year after he made a change. It was known before the trade.
I agree. Grisham wasn’t exactly lighting it up in the minors, excluding his CPL year. One could argue that SD bought on the upswing, or you could argue that MIL sold at his peak. I liken it to the Gallen trade. It’s too early to decide if these guys are more like the MLB side or the minor league side.
Same with Davies, imo. He had a 2:/1 K/W last year, and flattened out after a hot start. He is usually a prototypical #3 type. Lauer might not be much better, but I’d prefer 5 years of #3 than 2 years of #3.
Lauer has been pretty good against the Dodgers and uninspiring against everyone else. Whether Urías can consistently hit major league pitching remains to be seen.
Most of us in San Diego are a little weary of popgun offense and low average hitters. If Urías can cut down on the punch outs and put up even average numbers, it’s a steal for the Brewers.
Urias got better every month in 2019. Especially when they stopped jerking him around the diamond and let him play 1 position every day.
Yes, of course they did because trades are won and lost in the first half of Spring training camp before they played a single meaningful game in their new organizations
Sarcasm alert!
Grisham is definitely the best in that trade
Lauer will eat innings but he isn’t great
Urias
Love him as a player but he AAAA player
You mean like how Anthony Rizzo was a AAAA player?
Maybe yes, Maybe no. Davies, is a 5IP starter soft tosser. Grisham was an afterthought prior to his 2019 season. Brewers are stacked for OFs and were getting the worst production in baseball from SS Arcia. Urias had what? a top 15 prospect ranking with OB skills? What a great fit for the Brewers. More cheaper years of control to the Brewers. Lauer had pretty much the same results as Davies minus any pitching at Coors Field. If Urias hits anywhere close to .300 like he did in the minors, that alone will be better than Arcia’s OB skills. Great use by the Brewers to swap the pitchers Davies/Lauer and buy low on a top 15 prospect and sell high on a top 100-200 prospect due to their 2019 start to their career.
Grisham based on his defense this Spring is said to now be an above average center fielder. This completely changes his value. Loved Urias, but 2b is the easiest position to fill. I saw him play short and don’t think he can handle it full time.
“Loved Urias, but 2b is the easiest position to fill.”
Ok then who is the Padres 2nd baseman in 2020?
Probably Dozier for the time being.
Brian Dozier Greg Garcia
Dozier and Garcia could easily platoon 2B this year.
Garica has batted .258/.369/.358 against righties and Dozier has batted .270/.355/.500 against lefties throughout their careers.
You’re leaving out Luis Urias. He’s the only player involved in this trade who will make any difference one way or the other and Preller gave him up.
I absolutely agree. If Urias performs fully up to his abilities the Brewers will win this trade in a landslide. All the other players will just be minor side assets.
Only Padre fan call scoreboard on trade before season starts done by Preller no less
Lauer may fool you. I was surprised the Padres traded him, though it was a good deal for them. But I’m pretty high on the kid.
Hope the injury is mild and doesn’t slow him down.
I know with rest he has the ability to return to activity in a month or less, but impingement is certainly a cause for concern, thats a condition that lingers and its really painful. I can’t remember how long he was out but CC was the last guy i remember who had it and he was dealing with it for a while.
Preller strikes again, Only this time, both players are injured before playing a single game for Milwaukee.
If the Brewers wanted Urias healthy they should have kept him from playing spring ball in Mexico. Preller had nothing to do with it. But don’t let reality get in the way of your narrative.
Wondered how long it would be before I saw this comment
I think the early line was 5 minutes after I started reading the article. I’m not sure it applies here, but why not?
Looking good for the padres
Grisham and Urias are controlled for most of the upcoming decade so this is going to have to be evaluated over the years.
To me the pitching components of this trade are nowhere near as important. If Lauer was still on the Padres I think Quantrill would be more likely to win the 5th starter job than him anyways. Obviously depth at SP is key, but these are back of the rotation arms anyways.
Can’t really write this off as a win for a long time.
Davies and Lauer are basically the same pitcher only they throw with different arms and Lauer is controlled 3 years longer.
You basically have to convince yourself that Luis Urias is a bust to like this trade from the Padres POV.
Davies is a good pitcher, Lauer is not. Davies career era+ 110, Lauer 95.
They are both only good the first two times through the lineup. Counsell usually pulled Davies once the leadoff man came up for the 3rd time whereas Green would often leave Lauer out there and only pull him after he gave up a couple runs.
You don’t really have to convince yourself that Urias is a bust, you have to convince yourself that Grisham is better than him. If one of them is an above average everyday player and the other is an all-star, the team with the all-star is going to feel like they won. I think SD after seeing Urias in the majors some started to doubt his ceiling as a prospect, however he was previously thought to have a higher ceiling than Grisham, so they could end up being totally wrong about long term who has more potential for success.
In terms of peripherals Lauer and Davies should be about the same, but for some reason Davies performs slightly better statistically and gets slightly better results. I agree though it’s basically a wash because of controllability.
Bro, Luis Urias dunks on Trent Grisham. And Lauer is controlled 3 years longer than Davies so even if Urias = Grisham and Lauer = Davies from a production standpoint the Brewers still win that trade.
Oh, and the Brewers also got a PTBNL in the trade.
Lauer’s ERA for both years of his career was well over 4.00. Davies has had an ERA under 4.00 in 3 of his 4 years. That is a big difference. Lauer no longer provides good enough results to even be San Diego’s #5 starter. Yes he has twice as much control, but that means nothing if he is pitching in AAA for the Padres. He only has value to a lesser rotation, thus the trade to Milwaukee.
Again. Lauer and Davies had the same problem. They are both only good twice through the lineup. Davies’ ERA was lower because Craig Counsell never even gave him a chance to go a third time through the lineup. He would just pull him once the leadoff man came up the third time regardless of how he had pitched up to that point. Now Lauer on the other hand, Green would often leave him after he got through the lineup twice and then he’d give up a couple runs without making it out of the inning.
Did you actually look at the splits for either player?
In 2018, Counsel probably did pull Davies early because of how badly hitters would hit him up third time facing him (.984 OPS, 50 PA). Last year, however, Davies was at his best third time through the order (.578 OPS, 113 PA).
Lauer, on the other hand, struggled (in 2018) against hitters third time through (.833 OPS, 100 PA). However, he also struggled against hitters 2nd time through the order that year (.820 OPS, 190 PA).
In 2019, Lauer was at his worst 2nd time through the order (.855 OPS, 257 PA) and was hardly better third time through (.812 OPS, 124 PA).
Imagine being a padres fan. If Lauer only pitches against the dodgers, brewers win the trade
And if he doesn’t they still win this trade because of Luis Urias