Nothing on the list moves the needle enough to matter. If we want to play with the big boys, then we'll need bigger guns. Sometimes the gun shop is closed.
Of course they will at some point, but who are we realistically going to acquire that is a sure thing better than any of those guys? I'm definitely good going into the playoffs if our rotation is Brown, Framber, LMJ, Arrighetti. If Javier & Garcia are on the way back, that gives us 6 starters, with 4 emergency starters behind them that have shown themselves to be serviceable. You can never have too much starting pitching, but I'd much rather have another bat in the lineup.
At what point do you accept that a pitcher is just better than expected and not the benefit of fluke luck? Assuming he doesn’t get knocked out early, tonight’s start will take Gordon over 40 big league innings; that’s a reasonable sample for most stats. He’s got a 3% bb rate and an expected era of 3.53. Nothing in his performance points to an imminent decline. He might be due for a fall but aside from his lack of prospect pedigree there’s not much evidence that predicts it.
I posted last week or the week before that Peralta was one of the 2-3 guys that the Astros were really interested in - and I speculated part of that was likely as a replacement for Valdez if the Astros fail to resign him. Peralta wants an extension, and that is something that interests the Astros potentially. Why would the Brewers deal him? Unfortunately, the Brewers are in a situation where they have payroll restraints and cannot afford to let their best players walk away. Once strategy is to trade a good player with another year of team control with the idea being that the return will be larger and it will make it easier to be competitive a year or two down the road. I expect the price for Peralta to be higher than some fans expect - as he is one of the most under rated pitchers in baseball .
I would trade one of our top 3 prospects and few others out of our top 10 for him if we can get an extension. He's just as good Framber even without Miller and Murphy doing their magic. I would even give up one of our proven young pitchers not named Brown.
I don't think he is as good as Framber - because Framber is an absolute horse. I agree with you that he is very good though and likely would benefit from M/M working with him. He would likely cost a lot - probably Matthews, as the Brewers tend to like those types of players.
I'm really high on Matthews and Melton (after I saw him play in the bigs), so it would hurt but I would do it if he would be willing to sign a reasonable extension. I still haven't lost hope on resigning Framber. He isn't going to get anything over 5 years which is something the Astros have shown they are willing to do. Framber, Brown, Freddy, McCullers would be pretty darn sick. I see us having to give up Spencer. Crane has also shown he is willing to pay for pitching. Verlander, Greinke, Hader, Montero, etc.
I see Gordon as a future SP3 for the Stros. He looks a lot like Peterson from the Mets IMHO. Lefties with great control are very valuable and dont have to 100 mph to be successful. I wish he was pitching in a bigger ballpark though.
The biggest problem I have w/ Matthews is that he hits right handed. For years this team had Tucker and Yordan ( and Brantley for a bit) and 7 righty hitters. They replaced Tucker with Cam Smith limiting the openings for a 2nd LH bat. Yordan is 1 of 9 starters. RH, Walker, Pena, and Paredes are all among 9 starters for 2 more years. RH, Diaz is 1 of 9 for 3 more years. RH, Altuve is 1 of 9 for 4 more years. RH Smith is 1 of 9 for 5 more years. If Matthews becomes the starting 2b, then this team has exactly 1 opening and it's in CF where RH Jake Meyers is under 2 more years of control and has been one of the 4-5 best players on this team this year. How do they get another LH bat into the lineup?
