Sports On Deck - Brewers Deadline Duds

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
You were listening to Sports on Deck with Dave Gasper.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Welcome to Sports on Deck with Dave Gasper here on
thirteen to ten WIBA. I am Dave Gasper. You can
follow me on Twitter at d Gasper twenty four. Lots
to get to on the program today. The trade deadline
in Major League Baseball was this past Tuesday. A lot
of trades happening, a lot of moves across the league.

(00:36):
Milwaukee Brewer is making a couple of their own. We'll
get into that. Also, the MLB draft signing deadline a
big shocker for the Milwaukee Brewers as they are not
able to land one of their top picks in the draft.
They were not able to sign them. It's not like
the NFL where you draft these guys and they're gonna

(00:57):
be playing for your team. No, these guys have the
option to go back to school and not sign and
not turn professional. And one of the Brewer's top draft
picks took that route. So we will get into that
coming up on the program as well. But first, as
I as I mentioned previously the MLB trade deadline, the

(01:19):
Milwaukee Brewers made a couple of moves in the final
days before the trade deadline acquiring Nick Mehars, a reliever
from the Colorado Rockies on Saturday, and then on Monday
getting Frankie Montas from the Cincinnati Reds, and then Tuesday
deadline day, thirty two trades are made across the league,
and the Brewers didn't make any of them, which left

(01:43):
a lot of Brewers fans feeling disappointed. And I understand,
I really do you look at the trade deadline the
hall that the Brewers got. Frankie Montas had a five
something in the era, he had a five oh one era.
Nick Mehars had a five point fifty six era at
the time that the Bruers were trading for these guys.

(02:03):
There's a lot to like about them, but you just
look at the numbers and it's like, this dude hasn't
been good. Why are we going after this guy? Why
don't we get someone good? Oh it's a great strategy, truly,
is get someone good. My question to you is who'd

(02:27):
you want them to get? Who was out there? Who
was worth selling the farm for? Who are the top
players that were moved that the Brus missed out on
that they didn't get Eric Fetty, Eric Fetty, maybe you
know the biggest miss. But prior to this year, nobody

(02:50):
knew who Eric Fetty was. He had a couple of
mediocre years in the big leagues. He goes to Korea
last year, comes back this year, has a really strong
first half, and all of a sudden everyone wants them.
There weren't that many good pictures moves, and the prices
for these guys, the prices for some of these pictures

(03:13):
that got moved were ridiculous. Redict you lyss and they're
mediocre pictures. Who was the best player that was moved
at the trade?

Speaker 1 (03:26):
Donald?

Speaker 2 (03:26):
Who is the best picture that was moved? Jack Flaherity?
Was he worth selling the farm for? Jack Flaherty is
a rental pitcher. He's a free agent at season's end,
and there were medical concerns with him. That's important to

(03:51):
remember too, because we look at the package that he
was ultimately traded for. Jack Flaerity was traded in like
the final five minutes of the trade deadline. He goes
to the Dodgers, because of course he does. Of course,
he goes to the Dodgers for a prospect package that
the Brewers could have easily put together. Essentially, I've seen
a lot of people on Twitter complaining that the Brewers

(04:12):
could have easily paid up that kind of prospect price
to get Jack Flerity to come in and be the
frontline starter to help their rotation. The Yankees were also
in on the Jack Flarity market, and they pulled out
because of medical concerns, and word of those medical concerns
got around the league. The Brewers have enough injury problems

(04:36):
of their own on the pitching staff. The last thing
they need to do is worry about selling the farm
in order to get another injured pitcher that's only going
to be here for two months and might pitch only
a month of that. If even who knows Flarity had
some back troubles, He had some injections in his back

(04:57):
earlier this month, missing some time, but still has been
a good picture. But those are concerns that also you
have to take any consideration. So without him, who's the
guy I've seen so many people begging go get a
frontline starter. You need a frontline starter, Freddy Peralta's not
an ACE type of guy. You got a bunch of

(05:17):
back end starters. You need someone that can be front
of the rotation, ACE type guy that can lead this
group in October? Who was he? Who was that guy
that was moved? That can fit that bill? If the
Brewers were gonna go after a rental ace, wouldn't they

(05:40):
have just kept Corbyn Burns. They had Corbyn Burns on
February first, They had him two weeks out from pitchers
and catchers reporting it was gonna be his final year.
He's a front of the rotation type guy. If they
wanted that, if they were willing to go out and

(06:02):
get that, wouldn't they have just kept Burns. It wouldn't
make much sense for the front office to trade Burns
right before the season and then middle of the year ago.
Oh no, we need an ace to help us get
through the rest of the season. Now, we need to
give up the farm and give up the future in

(06:22):
order to get a guy like this, even though the
reason they traded Burns in the first place was because
they wanted to protect their future. So I'm not surprised
that they didn't get Nace at all. You shouldn't be
surprised that they didn't get Nase at all. They got
some back end guys. Mantas has ace upside. He hasn't

(06:44):
realized it in a while. It's been a couple of
years since he's been that good. He missed last season
due to injury. He's been back this year kind of
put up some mediocre numbers, but he's made every start
in the rotation. He's made every turn, so he hasn't
been on the il once this year. That's important. That's

(07:05):
key for this Birers team that has ten pitchers on
the injured list. You gotta have a guy like that
and Montas. Maybe they can turn things around for him,
get a better defense behind him, and his numbers can
vastly improve. We have seen that with a lot of
pitchers that the Birds have brought in over the years.

(07:26):
Colin Ray was never anything special. Now all of a sudden,
he's putting up really good numbers. Tobias Myers was putting
up five something eras and the miners. He's got a
three ten ERA this season in fifteen starts. It's no
small sample size anymore. With Tobias Myers three ten ERA.

(07:47):
So they have the ability to make these guys better.
Great defense behind him definitely helps the pitching coaching staff.
Chris Hook, Jim Henderson, they have been phenomenal Walker Convin
as well, so I think they have the ability to
turn these guys around. You're getting guys with five eras. Yes,
you're getting some a little bit of projects here. So

(08:12):
it's understandable why you look at it and just kind
of go, oh, I'm not so sure this guy has
been pitching so well, but I think they can get
them to improve. And the important part too here is
because of that era, there are a couple of important things,
two major important points if you're disappointed in this trade deadline.

(08:34):
Number one, the Brewers did not overpay for anyone. You
look at the pitching market. What the Astros paid for,
you say, Kakuchi, a huge price tag for a guy
who is also not very good and a rental starter.
You look at what Tanner Scott was able to get

(08:56):
as a rental reliever from the Marlins, but the Padres
gave up for that the prices out there. The Brewers
did not overpay for anybody that they got. They did
not overpay for Savali, they did not overpay for Nick Mears.
They did not overpay for Frankie Montas. So that's number one.

(09:16):
Number two, the Brewers addressed their big needs at this
trade deadline. Their big needs were the starting rotation and
the bullpen. It's the pitching staff entirely. They get a
bullpen arm and Nick Mears a leverage bullpen arm with
good stuff. They get two starting pitchers that they really

(09:37):
needed to help fill this rotation out. You got Savali
who's already been here for a couple of weeks. Now
you got Montaze that fills out your five man rotation. Yeah,
Freddy Peralta, Colin Ray, Tobias Myers, Aaron Sevali, Frankie Montas.
That's your five right there. You got Joe Ross that
just came back from injury. You got Dale Hall who's

(09:58):
going to be coming back from injury.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:01):
Bryce Wilson in the bullpen already. So all of a sudden,
now your rotation has depth, which is something that it
has not had for most of the season because injuries
have ravaged it. So you have good opportunities there. Once
they got Montas, it felt like, okay, that's really kind
of it for the rotation because they have their number

(10:26):
of guys. Now, you can't kick Tobias Myers out. You
can't kick Colin Ray out. They've been pitching too well.
You're not kicking out Freddy Peralta from their rotation, so
you've got your five D. L Hull could start, Joe
Ross could start if they need it, but we're also
probably going to see them in bulk rolls in the bullpen,

(10:48):
so your pitching was good. I would have liked maybe
to grab a veteran bat to come off the bench
at some point on Tuesday, maybe like an Isaiah Kiner Filefa.
I think that would have been a solid ad, just
bringing someone who could be an improvement over Andrew Mountasterio.
I like Monasterio, but he's a very light hitter, very

(11:09):
light hitter. There's not much upside with the bat with him,
so I get being disappointed in that respect not getting
the bat. But you didn't overpay, which a lot of
teams are not able to say after this trade deadline,

(11:30):
and you're able to address your needs, so overall, I
think it was solid. I think the Bruers had no
k trade deadline. It wasn't flashy. They usually aren't flashy.
The burers usually don't make the flashy move. CC Sabathia
was an exception, so it's not as bad as everyone

(11:52):
thinks that it was. You didn't overpay, you got your needs.
And again for for the ceiling guys and trying to
go after the that there was no one. Garrett Crochet
didn't even move. He demanded a contract extension. No one
wanted to take that on. Crochet didn't move, Yanny Diaz

(12:17):
didn't move, Zach Lttel didn't move, Chris Bassett didn't move,
a lot of the big time Tarik Skubell, another guy
who was rumored to be out there, didn't move. The
prices the market. It was not right for the Brewers

(12:38):
to just jump out and make some sort of big, flashy,
top of the rotation type move for either a rental
or anybody the controllable guys that would have cost him
even more. Burrs weren't going to do that. I understand
being disappointed, I really do. But the trade deadline for

(12:58):
the Brewers wasn't that bad. It wasn't that bad. It
was disappointing maybe, but it wasn't that bad. We'll get
more into the players that the Brewers gave up in
some of these trades. We'll kind of dig into the
actual details of that coming up. You're listening to Sports
on Deck with Dave Gasper here on thirteen ten, Wiba

(13:36):
Welcome back to Sports on Deck with Dave Gasper here
on thirteen ten WIBA.

Speaker 1 (13:42):
I'm Dave Gasper.

Speaker 2 (13:45):
The money does talk, It really does, especially in Major
League Baseball and of course professional football. The money talks
for Jordan Love. Four years, two hundred and twenty million
dollars for Jordan Low fifty five million a year. Amazing,

(14:06):
just amazing. You knew it would get done eventually, You
just knew it. And the Packers were able to get
that done. And they have their quarterback locked up for
the next four years, so they are good to go,
ready for the season. He's back at practice, Packers feeling good,

(14:27):
and Jordan Love resetting the market. He's now at the
top of the pacecale along with Joe Burrow Trevor Lawrence,
making big time money. It's good time to be a quarterback.
It's always a good time to be a quarterback. But
moving on back to Major League Baseball here as the

(14:50):
trade deadline wrap up kind of continues here, I want
to dig into these trades that the Brewers made over
the final few Nick Mears and Frankie Montas. So the
Nick Mears trade in return, the Burgers give up Bradley Blaylock,
and you hunt your Herrera, you can be forgiven if

(15:13):
you don't know who either of those people are, especially Herrera.
Bradley Blaylock. He was called up a couple of times
this year's on the forty man roster, made his major
league debut, pitched one scoreless inding out of the bullpen
back against San Diego. I want to say it's fine.
Was putting up decent numbers as a starter down in

(15:35):
Double A Biloxi, the only guy on the Burrs forty
man down in Double A. The Birds had to put
him on to protect him from the Rule five draft.
They got him last year at the trade deadline in
exchange for Luis Yuias, and now they sent him out
for Nick Mears. And it may seem like, you know,

(15:56):
decent price to pay. When I was putting together my
top prow Specs list, I had Blaylock at eighteen. Johanya
Herrero was I think thirty one. I think so you
gave up a couple of decent arms. You know, Herrero
was putting up really good numbers in hi A, Wisconsin
this year, twenty year old pitcher, really good stuff sub

(16:17):
three era. It's like, okay, this guy's having a little
bit of a breakout this year. He's improved every single
season in the minor leagues. But you give him up, okay, fine,
in exchange for Nick Mears. So Nick Mears five something
in the era as a reliever, been around the league
a couple of years, kind of going up and down.

(16:39):
He's gotten an extended run in the big leagues. Now
this year with Colorado his first real kind of extended run.
He's already had a career high in ennings pitched at
the major league level, even though he's been around the
major since twenty twenty. I want to say first started
off with the Pirates, then kind of goes around on
waivers and ends up in Colorado. But the bur really

(17:00):
like the stuff here. The underlying numbers and the underlying
numbers are a lot different than what the actual numbers are,
which can be kind of confusing. And when I first
looked up his numbers, I.

Speaker 1 (17:14):
Was like eh, But then I'm.

Speaker 2 (17:15):
Like, oh, okay, because the stuff here is really great,
so you would think the results would also end up
being great. Ninetieth percentile fastball velocity he throws hard, ninety
six percentile heart hit rate. He doesn't give up a
lot of hard contact, gets great extension down the mound,

(17:38):
doesn't give up a ton of barrels, gets pretty good
strikeout numbers, gets pretty good whiff numbers, swing and miss.

Speaker 1 (17:45):
His expected ERA.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
At the time of the trade was three point zero
and his actually ERA was five and a half. It's like, well,
that's a large discrepancy. How does that happen? Oh, for starters,
they're playing in Colorado. I mean, Colorado is not exactly
a great pitchers environment. Plus the team sucks. The Rockies

(18:09):
are terrible, so that doesn't help you at all. Get
some good defense behind them, that could change things for
Nick Mears. That's what the Brewers are hoping. So you
look at all the numbers and it's like he should
be successful. You look at all of it. He should
be successful. He should be putting up good numbers, but

(18:30):
he hasn't been. So how do you get him to
do that? The Brewers have been great at figuring out
what's wrong with pitchers and making some minor tweaks and
adjustments in order to help them figure things out. Chris Hook,
as I mentioned before, with the coaching staff Chris Hook,

(18:51):
Jim Henderson, Walker, mckinvin. All these guys fantastic at working
with pitchers, so they know kind of the tweaks that
kind of need to be made. But the thing too
with Nick Mears is that he's controllable. So, I mean,
you're giving up a couple of you know, top thirty prospects,
top thirty ish prospects in order to get a reliever

(19:12):
with a five some MERA that you're hoping to turn around. Well,
he better not just be a rental.

Speaker 1 (19:16):
He's not.

Speaker 2 (19:17):
He's under control for another three and a half years.
He's not going to reach for agency until after the
twenty twenty seven season, so you got time. You've got
a good leverage reliever to work with, very talented arm
for the next couple of years. So that's why the
Brus paid that kind of a price for a reliever

(19:40):
with a five something ERA. He should be able to
make those kinds of improvements in the Brus bullpen and
they needed a fresh arm in that bullpen and the
get one. Also, coming back to the day that they
activated Nick Mears was also the day that Devin Williams
came back talk about getting a fret arm. Devin Williams

(20:01):
hasn't pitched all year. Now he's backs. It's like, okay,
that's great. And then of course the next day Trevor
McGill goes down with an injury.

Speaker 1 (20:08):
It's like, of course, can never have anything nice.

Speaker 2 (20:12):
Can never have anything nice. That's just the way it
goes this year. But Nick Mear's in. You give up Blaylocker,
who's a replacement level arm. You give up a lottery
ticket arm and a ball. That's that's a fine price
to pay for three and a half years of control
over a leverage reliever. Now the Frankie Montas trade. Frankie

(20:34):
Montas five oh one era, he's on a one year deal.
He's got a mutual option for next year twenty million dollars.
Don't worry. That mutual option is not going to be
picked up. There is zero chance of that happening. Zero zip, zilch, none,
two million dollar buyout on it. Okay, whatever, Frankie mont

(21:00):
five something right, So you got less time to turn
around Frankie Montas. What'd you give up to get him?
Joey Weimer and Jacob Junas. So you got two guys
who were on the forty man roster. One of them
was actually on the active roster junas he'd actually been

(21:23):
a solid piece out of the bullpen since returning from injury,
and one of them was a former top one hundred prospect. Now,
I'll tell you what, I am not surprised at all
to see Joey Weimer go to see him traded. Not
surprised in the slightest. I was calling it beforehand, like
this is the time to trade Joey Weimer. It had

(21:49):
become quite clear Weimer was not going to be in
the Brews' outfield picture.

Speaker 1 (21:55):
Just just think about it. Where was he going to
fit in?

Speaker 2 (21:57):
If you're a Joey Weimer fan, if you're like I
wish they had given him a shot, where would you
put him in? He got Christian Yelch for the next
four years. He got Jackson Cherio for the next eight
to ten. Clearly, Garrett Mitchell, salth Frielich, and Blake Perkins
had put themselves way above Weamer on the depth chart.

(22:18):
Weimer had struggled this season. He had made some swing changes.
He was even struggling down in triple A for a while,
but then during the month of July he got hot.
He was hitting like three fifty or something down in
Triple A Nashville at the time of the trade. So
it's like, Okay, he's he's hitting, he's made some improvements,
his values going up a bit. We can trade him

(22:39):
for a rental starter and that way you don't give
up any part of your future because it had become
clear again Joey Weimer was not part of your future
in that outfield. He just wasn't. He had his chance
last year. It did not go very well. He struggled
to hit, He struggled with with breaking balls, struggled with

(23:00):
high heat because of all that fricking hand movement that
he was doing, and he tried to make the adjustments.
They weren't working. Early in the season, other guys passed
him up. He needed a change of scenery. It was
quite clear Weamer needed a change of scenery. And for him,

(23:22):
I mean, he gets to go back to Cincinnati. He
went to school at the University of Cincinnati. That's home
for him. So for Weimer, this is really a dream
come true that this is the best case scenario for
Joey Weamer. He gets to go to great American small park.
He gets to, you know, try and become a power hitter. There,
it's pretty easy to hit thirty home runs a season

(23:43):
when you're in great American small park for half the time.
Now again, he's gonna have to make enough contact to
hit thirty homers a season, which is kind of his
main issue.

Speaker 1 (23:52):
But still.

Speaker 2 (23:54):
It's as best of a possible situation as weamer could
ask for. I think I've seen more people actually upset
with Jacob Junas being included in this trade because Junas
was actually pitching pretty well as a reliever coming out
of the bullpen since coming back from injury. So you
give him up for a guy who hasn't been pitching
well to help you in the starting rotation. So, like,

(24:15):
I get it, I get being upset about all that,
But at the same time, you got to think about
this too. In that bullpen, especially now with bringing in Mantas,
you're gonna have like four bulk pitching options in the
very near future, right because you had Junics, you had
Bryce Wilson, who's a length guy who has been doing

(24:37):
some starting but isn't doing that anymore. Then you got
Joe Ross that you knew was coming back from injury. Okay, so,
and Joe Ross again because of this he's likely pushed
out of the rotation and into the bullpen, and.

Speaker 1 (24:51):
Then you got D. L. Hall coming back as well.

Speaker 2 (24:54):
D L. Hall probably not cracking this rotation right now.
The Brewers probably put him into the bullpen, or he
can again be a bulk length option. You can't have
four bulk length options in your bullpen. That's too many.

(25:16):
You can only have eight guys back there. You can't
have half of them be guys who just simply were
not good enough to cut it in your starting rotation,
despite all the injuries, despite all the issues you've had
in your starting rotation. These four guys are not good
enough for it. But we don't want to get rid
of them, so we're just gonna stick them in the bullpen.

(25:38):
That's too many guys. You got to get rid of
some of them. So Jacob Junas made the most sense.
He's a rental arm. He's a fraging At the end
of the year, the Reds get him to help fill
some dings because they traded away a bunch of pictures
of the trade deadline. They need someone to just come
in and fill, so there's an opportunity for Junis. It
helps make the money work out of it more. I

(26:01):
thought maybe Wilson could go just because he has more
trade value, because he's controllable. But I was thinking a
completely different kind of trade for a trade like this,
Bright including Bryce Wilson would have been a terrible idea,
But for a rental here in Montas, you know, especially
since Joe Ross wasn't back yet, trading Junas it made
the most logical sense. I have no issue with it whatsoever. Yeah,

(26:25):
Ross coming back, who can fill Junas's spot in that bullpen?
I'm curious to see what they do with dl Hall
when he returns. They've been stretching him out. Does he
come back as a starter? Are you going to go
with a six man rotation? How are you going to
make it work with Peralta, Myers, Ray Savali Montas and
then Hall Ross you can put in the bullpen? Okay, fine, whatever? Hall, Yeah,

(26:50):
you could probably put him in the bullpen too. I
mean you still have three bulk guys for that bullpen,
which is a lot. Typically there's just kind of been
that one long reliever out there, you know, in case
of emergency with a starting pitcher.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
But three that's a lot. Four would have been way
too many.

Speaker 2 (27:15):
You gotta have room for all the other guys in there,
So trading Junis made a ton of sense. Including him
in the steel. I had no issue with it whatsoever.
Putting Weimer in the steel, no issue with it whatsoever.
Would it have been nice if Montes was pitching better
at the time, Yes, not gonna say that you're wrong.

(27:40):
There would have been nice if if they had made
this trade package for someone who had a below five ERA.
But that's not what the market was. The market was
insane at this trade deadline. Brewers may do as best
as they could and montass You just gotta hope that

(28:02):
then he can turn it around. Coming up, we'll get
into the Brewer's draft debacle that they ended up having
to deal with as the signing deadline passed on Thursday,
missing out on one of their top guys.

Speaker 1 (28:17):
We'll get into that coming up.

Speaker 2 (28:18):
You're listening to Sports on Deck with Dave Gasper here
on thirteen ten WIBA. Sports on Deck with Dave Gasper

(28:42):
rolls on here for a little bit longer on your Saturday.
The draft deadline, the deadline to sign your draft picks
in Major League Baseball, passed on Thursday.

Speaker 1 (29:00):
Now for those who.

Speaker 2 (29:01):
Are unfamiliar with how this whole process works.

Speaker 1 (29:08):
Major League Baseball.

Speaker 2 (29:09):
The draft is so much different than the NFL Draft
or the NBA draft. There's high school guys that are
eligible to be picked, and there's assigned slot values, and
you can go higher lower, you can go exactly for slot.
It all has to deal with the signing bonus. Teams

(29:30):
are talking to players before the draft, they are coming to.

Speaker 1 (29:36):
Deals.

Speaker 2 (29:36):
They're like, hey, if we offered you this much money
in a signing bonus, would you take it. They say
yes or they say no, and then they make their
decision on who they want to pick from there, and
then you have two weeks to actually sign them. So
you've got a full on bonus pool. You got a
pool of money to pull from to sign all your

(29:58):
draft picks. The Brewers, they went through this draft planning
around two players. Right, there were two crown jewels of
this draft class, and they were not the first two
picks that they made. The Brewers went heavy underslot. They

(30:24):
essentially reached for Braillen Payne in the first round. They
took them at seventeen.

Speaker 1 (30:30):
Overall.

Speaker 2 (30:31):
They gave them the signing bonus that was equivalent to
the twenty fifth overall pick, right, So they essentially traded
down so that they would have money saved up to
sign other guys later on, basically getting those extra picks
that are you know, first second round talents paying them.
So that's kind of the equivalent of how it's going here.

(30:54):
So the Breers went underslot there with Pain. They went
underslot with Blake Burke out of Tennessee their top ten
two picks, and then they followed it up with two
high school pitchers, Bryce Message and Chrys Slavonis, with the
plan to use those savings to sign those two guys.

(31:15):
These are the two high upside type of guys. These
are the top of the rotation upside kind of players.
These were the real crown jewels of the draft class.
This is who they were planning around.

Speaker 1 (31:28):
Last year.

Speaker 2 (31:29):
It was Eric Patanti and Cooper Pratt. That's who they
were kind of planning everything around. This year, it was
Message and Lavonas they got Message to sign for two
and a half mil. But Krys Slavonis, the sixty seventh
overall pick, did not sign. And it is absolutely embarrassing

(31:51):
for the Brewers scouting department that this happened. This is
not something you can let happen. As a scouting director,
as scouting department, you have to know who you're picking,
especially in those first ten rounds. You have to know
that they are going to sign. If there are questions
about whether or not they're going to sign. If you're

(32:11):
not entirely sure, then don't pick them. Don't pick them
out of high school if you're not sure that they
are going to sign. So the Brewers pick them anyways,
either with some sort of uncertainty or they had some
certainty and then something happened, something changed along the way.

(32:35):
From what I'm hearing, it was more like this dude
was leaning towards not signing anyways, and then the Brewers
pick them hoping that they can convince them. Hope is
not a great strategy. I'm sorry, but it's not. Hope
is not a great strategy. I know it's a baseball draft,

(32:57):
and really you're hoping just any of these guys can
come up and be something for you. But when it
comes to signing him, when it comes to something concrete,
the signing bonus you can get them to put pen
to paper on, you have to know someone dropped the
ball along the way, whether it's the Area scout with
the relationship that they developed with them, whether they thought

(33:18):
that they could sign him or not, whether the money changed,
someone dropped the ball and because of that, the Brewers
lost the money from that slot value one point two
million from their bonus pool. The Brewers lose one of
the top talents in the draft, one of their crown jewels.

(33:39):
They lose them before they can even get him in
the organization. It's not like they sign him and then
all of a sudden his elbow blows out. No, they
weren't even able to sign him. He's going to go
to Wake Forest. And it just makes you think because
they they made the first two picks with the plan

(34:02):
to get these guys here, right, The plan was to
save money for these guys. If they had known Lavonas
wouldn't sign, would they have still picked Brailn Payne and
Blake Burke?

Speaker 1 (34:18):
Probably not. It would.

Speaker 2 (34:22):
It changes your entire draft outlook, It changes your entire strategy.
You could have gone completely different. You could have gotten
an actual, really good blue chip prospect that was worth
taking at seventeen. Overall that you could have paid that
kind of money and gotten a better talent into your organization.

(34:42):
Instead of taking a lesser talent to try and get
another guy later on, when that other guy doesn't even sign,
So now you just end up with lesser talent. It's
a massive loss for the Brewers front office, a.

Speaker 1 (34:58):
Massive l.

Speaker 2 (35:01):
And it's so strange because last year they executed the
draft so perfectly. They're able to get a bona fide
first round guy with Brock Wilkin. They were still able
to save some money and they get their blue Chippers
there on Day two with Eric Battanti and Cooper Pratt.
They're able to save enough money for all of them

(35:22):
and have money left over for their Day three guys.
This year, completely different story. It appears they botched it.
They botched the draft, and it all hinges on Chris Slavonis.
You have to know the signability of these players, the

(35:47):
high school players coming out, they have a very tough
decision to make, going to school, going pro. You have
to know, you have to be confident, you have to
be sure that they will sign, and if they don't,
you look like the idiot. So the Brewers end up

(36:09):
having a shuffle around their draft class. They get a
couple of you know, big bonuses out to some of
their Day three guys, Tyler Renz in the eighteenth round,
they're able to sign away from Saint John's with a
massive signing bonus, like eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars
on his signing bonus, way over that for that kind
of pick. The Brewers were able to afford him because

(36:35):
they were not able to afford Bryce Message or not
Price Message Crystal bonus because I didn't sign him. If
the Brewers were giving the bonus, like let's say a
two and a half million dollars signing bonus, then the
amount of money they would have had left over for
Day three guys still would have been about the same

(36:58):
with losing the the slot value for that sixty seventh
overall pick. Now, the reports are the Buds were giving
where they were offering LaVona's late first round money, So
that's around three million dollars that the Brus were roughing.
So because he didn't sign, they actually gained a little
bit of spending power for some of their Day three guys,
and they used that. I think for Tyler Renz, they

(37:20):
got to Banuwett's in the sixteenth round, Travis Smith, Joey Broton,
they got those guys to sign, and we're not able
to get James Nunneley, which is disappointing but also expected.
But now you look at how the draft played out,
like I'd rather have Chrysalavonis than Tyler Wrenz. I'm sorry,

(37:44):
and most of you are probably like, I don't know
either of these guys, and I understand, but this is
your first, like essentially first round type of talent with LaVona,
so you're missing out on and instead you're getting maybe
a fifth, sixth, you know, round kind of talent and

(38:07):
maybe third round type of guy. That's what you're getting.
So you're you're missing out, You're getting a lesser talent
in place of the other talent that you actually wanted.
That's essentially what's happening here when it comes to the value,
when it comes to the talent, when it comes to

(38:28):
playing your your cards, the Burgers played them wrong. They
lost this hand at poker. This draft could have played
out much differently, and it should have played out much differently,
but they wanted to go after LaVona's and they weren't

(38:51):
able to get them.

Speaker 1 (38:52):
It's like the.

Speaker 2 (38:53):
Trade deadline in twenty twenty two when they flipped Josh Hater,
that this is maybe some sort of equivalent that that
maybe can register here. In twenty twenty two, at the
trade deadline, they traded Josh Hater with the plan of
flipping some of those guys, flipping Asteria Ruiz, flipping to
Nelson Lamet and getting these other big pieces coming in

(39:15):
later on. That was the plan. They made that kind
of sacrifice there with the Hater trade so that they
could bring in all these other big things, and then
they didn't end up making any of those trades, so
they didn't end up bringing in Juan Soto or bringing
in any of the other top hitters that were available
at that market and really shaking up and doing over

(39:37):
their team. They didn't make any of those trades. They
made the Hater trade in with the intention of completing
those other trades, but they didn't come through. So they
made the sacrifice there in the first couple of rounds
with Payne and Burke with the intention of taking the
big swings here on Lavonis and Message. Later on, they

(40:00):
swung and missed on Lavonas, so you're just left thinking
that was stupid because it didn't work. That's kind of
I think the equivalent maybe that can help people who
aren't draft nerds like me. I'm like, I'm really nerdy
about it, but that maybe helps paint the picture here

(40:24):
of what the Brewers did. It's it's the draft version
of the Josh Hater trade deadline, is how it essentially
kind of works out. Now, there's a silver lining here
with the Brewers being able to get a compensation pick
in next year's draft for not signing La Bonus. Next

(40:44):
year's draft is much stronger, so they'll get the sixty
eighth overall pick and next year's draft on top of
the other picks that they're going to be getting in
the early stages of the draft. They could have five
probably Day one pick and next year's draft. So that's
a silver lining at least. But missing out on Lavonus,

(41:08):
that's that's a really tough blow and a really bad
look for the scouting department.

Speaker 1 (41:16):
Coming up, we will wrap things up.

Speaker 2 (41:18):
You're listening to Sports on Deck with Dave Gasper here
on thirteen to ten, Wiba, Well would you look at
that when we are out of time here on Sports

(41:39):
on Deck, Hey, did you see the winter warning the
uniforms its packers dropped this week with the white helmets,
the white out uniforms. Oh man, they're looking sick. You
get the third, you know, you get the alternate helmet.
This year Packers bringing in the white helmet, the all
white unis. They are looking nice. Looking forward to seeing

(42:00):
them in action, Looking forward to Packers football being back
in action just about a month now. For me, I'm
out of time.

Speaker 1 (42:08):
Thank you for listening.

Speaker 2 (42:09):
This has been Sports on Deck with Dave Gasper on
thirteen ten Wiba