How much did the Milwaukee Brewers improve their team this week? and are they a serious contender in the National League Central? Could the Brewers be a sleeper pick for the World Series?
On Thursday the Brewers acquired Christian Yelich from the Miami Marlins. Now the Brewers did have to give up four prospects to get Yelich, but that’s not really a big surprise when you get a when you’re trading for a 26 year old outfielder who’s signed for the next 4 years on a very team friendly contract.
Yelich was a 1st round pick of the Marlins and quickly ascended through their system making his major league debut in July of 2013. Yelich is a career .290 hitter and it appears he is growing into his power as he’s hit 21 home runs in 2016 and then 18 home runs last season. Yelich has already won a Gold Glove in his short career, but you have to wonder if he’ll see the majority of his playing time in rightfield for the Brewers after playing either left or centerfield for the Marlins.
The name you may recognize that went back to Miami in the Yelich deal is Lewis Brinson. Brinson was a 1st round pick of the Texas Rangers in 2012 and appeared in just 21 games for the Brewers last season. Now Brinson did struggled a little in his first trip to the major leagues hitting just .106, but it’s not a very big sample size for him. Brinson played 76 games at Triple-A in 2017 and hit .331 with 13 home runs and 48 RBI’s. We should get to see right away what the Marlins got in Brinson as you have to figure with their rebuild that he’ll be one of their starting outfielders this season.
As for the other three prospects the Marlins got in the deal. Well we might have to wait for a few seasons to see how they turn out. Monte Harrison is a 22 year old outfielder who split last season between Class-A and High Class-A last season. Harrison hit .272 with 21 home runs, 67 RBI’s and 27 stolen bases. Harrison is a big strikeout guy as he struck out once every 3.3 at bats last season and for his career he strikes out once every 3 at bats. Of course trading power for strikeouts is how baseball is played these days; so this isn’t an issue for Harrison.
Isan Diaz is a middle infielder who played in 110 games in High Class-A last season. He hit .222 with 13 home runs and 54 RBI’s. Diaz is a .261 hitter over four minor league seasons, but last season he posted his lowest average in his short career. I guess we have to get use to this as Diaz struck out once every 3.2 at bats last season. Diaz played 70 games at 2nd base committing 14 errors with a fielding percentage of .949. He also played 32 games at shortstop committing 7 errors with a fielding percentage of .932.
The final player headed to Miami in this deal is 221 year old right handed pitcher Jordan Yamamoto who spent last season in High Class-A. Yamamoto made 18 starts, but pitched in 22 games. He went 9-4 with an E.R.A. of 2.51. He also had 2 complete games with one shutout and also picked up a save while pitching 111 innings. Yamamoto also struck out 113 guys while walking 30 batters last season.
With only Brinson being major league ready it’s going to be a few seasons before we know how this trade worked out for the Marlins. Of course on the Brewers side will know right away.
They Brewers didn’t just add one outfielder this week, but two as on Friday they officially announced the signing of Lorenzo Cain. Cain was signed to a 5 year $80 million dollar deal.
Cain has an interesting contract structure. He’ll receive $13 million dollars next season. His salary jumps $1 million dollars as season through 2022. Cain will also receive a deferred payment of $1 million dollars in each of the five years following the contract’s conclusion. Cain has complete no-trade protection in one of the years of his contract, but it wasn’t specified which one. In 2019 he can block a deal to 15 teams, in 2020 it’s 7 teams and then in 2021 and 2022 it’s 5 teams.
Cain was originally a 17th round draft pick of the Brewers in 2004. Cain was traded to the Kansas City Royals in December of 2010 with Alcides Escobar, Jeremy Jeffress and Jake Odorizzi. This was the deal that brought Milwaukee Zach Greinke, Yuniesky Betancourt also came to the Brewers in that deal.
Cain is 31 years old, but has never reached the power numbers people thought he would. He hit 15 home runs last season with Kansas City and has a career high of 16. You have to think moving to a little more homer friendly Miller Park for 81 of his games will help those numbers.
Cain is a career .290 hitter and has hit .300 or better in three of the last four seasons. There is also a speed factor to Cain’s game as he’s reached double digits in steals every season since 2012. Cain made one All-Star appearance while with the Royals. He was named the M.V.P. of the 2014 ALCS and was a member of the Royals 2015 World Series winning team. Cain has spent the majority of his career as a centerfielder where he has a career .985 fielding percentage.
You have to think that Cain will be the Brewers everyday centerfielder with Yelich being moved to rightfield. There is a chance that Ryan Braun could move back to rightfield as he played there full-time for the Brewers in 2014 and 2015. We also may see Braun get some playing time at 1st base as the Brewers will need to find at bats for Domingo Santana if he’s not traded.
After the Yelich trade I thought the Brewers would be done adding position players and I thought it was a big surprise when they signed Cain the next day. Now reports are that the Brewers are looking to add a pitcher. Now with Cain’s contract on their books I’d be surprised to see them add one of the big name starters that are still available, but there are reports that they’ve contacted the Tampa Bay Rays to see if they can get a deal done for Chris Archer.
The Brewers where a surprise team last season, but this season it looks like they’re building a contender. Do you think they have enough right now? Or is there something you think they need to add?
The New Orleans Pelicans pulled off a big 115-112 win over the Houston Rockets last night, but with about 12 seconds left in the game Pelicans center DeMarcus Cousins had to be helped off the court.
After missing a free throw Cousins tried to knock the basketball away from Trevor Ariza. Cousins started hopping on his right foot as it appeared as though he was unable to put any weight on his left leg. Cousins went down to the floor as he tried to put weight on that left leg and eventually had to helped off the court and back to the locker room by his teammates.
It looked bad for a non-contact injury and it turned out to be. Cousins will need season ending surgery to repair a to repair a torn left Achilles tendon.
Cousins was having a fantastic season for the Pelicans and had just posted his second triple-double in three games last night before the injury happened. Cousins has been averaging 25.2 points per game to go along with 12.4 rebounds per game this season. Cousins also has three games this season where he’s scored 40 or more points and has grabbed 20 or more rebounds in a game.
The Pelicans are 27-21 and are currently in 6th place in the Western Conference. While New Orleans does have Anthony Davis to lean on in Cousins absence you have to wonder if they’ll be able to hold onto to a playoff spot.
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