All things considered they'd probably rather be back in the NLCS, but the Milwaukee Brewers' long-awaited Zack Greinke trade came through Friday, and it actually looks like a solid move for them. The Los Angeles Angels are the surprise winners, and they had to give up a lot for a half-season of Greinke, starting with top shortstop prospect Jean Segura. (AA pitchers Ariel Pena and Johnny Hellweg round the trade out.)
↵Segura is a replacement for the shortstop-of-the-future the Brewers traded to get Greinke back in 2010, Alcides Escobar, but he's a different kind of player, an odd combination of speed, line-drive power, and average defense. His AA numbers haven't been extremely impressive, thanks to a development delayed by injuries, but at 22 he has some time to unlock the doubles-and-triples potential prospect watchers have seen in him for a few years now.
↵In any case he's a major improvement on Cesar Izturis, the Brewers' improvised starter for most of the season, who's managed an on-base percentage of just .236; Segura could easily take over for the rest of the season, if the Brewers think he's learned all he can in the minors.
↵The pitchers are works in progress, but useful ones. Ariel Pena's best known for his awful performance in the Futures Game this year, but he's also a 23-year-old starter with a live fastball and a strikeout an inning in AA; John Hellweg, another 23-year-old AA starter, is a hulking ex-closer with a mid-90s fastball who might end up back in the bullpen if he can't get his walk rate down.
↵It's not the Herschel Walker deal, exactly, but trades rarely are anymore; teams are increasingly valuing prospects for their affordability prior to free agency, and rentals just aren't worth as much as they used to be. I think this is a solid haul.
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