TooLiveBrew

PG's recap of their system has the following comment on the guy they rate out at #1 (ahead of Addison Reed): "Lacking a true out pitch, Molina relies on his ability to work ahead and execute his pitches well, his curveball and splitter both flash above average potential, but neither is likely to generate a lot of punch outs in the Majors." If that's the #1 guy...

lock done deal

I want a Ferrari really badly, & will trade in my current vehicle to get more cash to buy one! I bet the ChiSox want Greinke, but I want no part of the prospects they'd have to offer.

I posted this in the Greinke thread in the MLB forum, too... Perfect Game's take Rawnsley's take is that the inconsistency with his breaking balls is what's held Teheran back in the upper levels thus far.

Perfect Game's pre-2012 Braves top prospects list notes that Teheran already has a very good FB & CH. The author (David Rawnsley) notes that Teheran's inconsistency with his slider & CB are what have held him back a bit at the higher levels of MiLB, but he also comments a couple times that Teheran is young enough that no one should be panicking yet about his secondary pitches. If Teheran is the centerpiece for Greinke, you can't get much more 'high-upside' than that. The rest of this week is going to be very interesting. http://www.perfectgame.org/Articles/View.aspx?article=6603

It's been rumored he also has a TV at home

6/$138M is the rumored deal for Hamels with PHI. Greinke's going to be looking at offers much closer to $150M this offseason than $115M. While I hate to see the Brewers lose Greinke to FA, I'm happy that the org. wasn't willing to go to like $135-140M to sign him. The money that's getting thrown around in MLB lately is kind of crazy.

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

6/$138M... wow. I've been guesstimating $125M as the baseline for Greinke in FA, but he might wind up closer to $150M. And at that potential price tag, I'm happy the Brewers weren't willing to meet his asking price.

Glad to hear it... and good catch, man.

I'd just like to add -- There are some pretty legit-looking bats on this Huntsville roster. It's been a lot of fun to follow them this season. ... Oh yeah, and Hiram bleeping Burgos!

Huntsville 6, @Pensacola 1 Huntsville Box Hiram Burgos, Hiram Burgos Hiram Burgos. Hiram, Burgos... Hiram Burgos Hiram. Burgos; Hiram Burgos. There! ... Just in case there was any confusion as to what the focus should be on from this one. His final line: CG, 8 H, 1 R/ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 7:8 GO:AO, 103 TP (73 strikes). Nice to see the Brewers take the kid gloves off Burgos & just let him pitch; seems like his outings were rarely past 85-90 pitches lately. A first inning HR (shortly after Burgos picked off Billy Hamilton) was the only Pensacola XBH on the game. Not much else to say about Burgos -- he was dominant. Now I said the focus should be on Burgos, and while that's true, there was one other wrinkle to tonight's game. A couple Sundays back, TheCrew07 posted one of his excellent division-rival prospect updates on the Reds' Tony Cingrani. Cingrani had recently turned in his fourth consecutive 0 ER start, and TC07 prefaced the MiLB.com story with a note on the streak: "My goodness, when will it end?" Well, the answer to that question turned out to be... tonight! The Stars put together two 2B, a 3B, two BBs, and two HRs from the 4th through the 6th innings. They hung two ER on Cingrani in each of those three innings before a Hunter Morris 2-R HR chased him with one out in the 6th. He finished having allowed 6 ER on 6 H in 5.1 IP. I haven't looked back through his career game logs, but with Cingrani's career MiLB ERA of 1.66 -- yes, that includes tonight's outing -- I'm going to go out on a limb & say the Stars knocked the '11 3rd round pick around for one of his worst outings as a professional. Morris's only hit was the HR, and he finished 1-4 with 2 RBI. Kentrail Davis kept up his hot July -- his OPS for the month is now all the way up to 1.012 -- 2-4 with a 2B. Meanwhile... the 'other' K. Davis, Khris Davis has done absolutely nothing but hit & completely restore his prospect status this season. Kh. Davis had cruised through the system without much trouble -- all the way through A+ Brevard County last season. After he was promoted to Huntsville last season, however, he scuffled to the tune of a .603 OPS over 124 AB. I have to admit that I was one who'd forgotten about him a little bit, or written him off somewhat. But Khris Davis isn't having any of that -- his OPS so far at Huntsville this season is 1.013. He finished tonight 2-4, with a single and a 2-R HR that opened the scoring. Nice to see "Kh." get back on track -- keep raking, kid! Scooter Gennett was 1-4 with a 2B, and scored on Khris Davis's HR. Josh Prince also went 1-4, with his lone hit being a two-out, two-RBI 3B in the 5th. Hainley Statia was 0-2 with 2 BB; Anderson De La Rosa finished 1-3 with a BB. Huntsville PbP Since Mr. Burgos kept the Pensacola bats quiet for basically the whole game, let's look at the Stars taking it to Cingrani. In each of the three run-scoring innings, they were able to come up with a huge XBH: Huntsville Top of the 4th -Josh Prince pops out to second baseman Brodie Greene. -Tommy Manzella strikes out swinging. -Scooter Gennett doubles (25) on a line drive to right fielder Josh Fellhauer. -Khris Davis homers (5) on a fly ball to right field. Scooter Gennett scores. -Hunter Morris flies out to left fielder Donald Lutz. Huntsville Top of the 5th -Hainley Statia walks. -With Kentrail Davis batting, Hainley Statia picked off and caught stealing 2nd base, pitcher Tony Cingrani to first baseman Beau Mills to shortstop Billy Hamilton. -Kentrail Davis doubles (16) on a line drive to right fielder Josh Fellhauer. -Anderson De La Rosa walks. -Hiram Burgos bunt pops out to pitcher Tony Cingrani. -Josh Prince triples (3) on a line drive to right fielder Josh Fellhauer. Kentrail Davis scores. Anderson De La Rosa scores. -Tommy Manzella flies out to left fielder Donald Lutz. Huntsville Top of the 6th -Scooter Gennett grounds out sharply to first baseman Beau Mills. -Khris Davis singles on a line drive to left fielder Donald Lutz. -Hunter Morris homers (16) on a fly ball to right field. Khris Davis scores. -Pitching Change: Brian Pearl replaces Tony Cingrani, batting 9th. -Hainley Statia strikes out swinging. -Kentrail Davis singles on a ground ball to shortstop Billy Hamilton. -With Anderson De La Rosa batting, Kentrail Davis caught stealing 2nd base, catcher Tucker Barnhart to second baseman Brodie Greene. Huntsville Gameday

I'll echo Sessile & YG -- thanks MTBrew! Great to read those firsthand accounts.

Whoops, I sure did... nevermind... nothing to see here...

I linked to Perfect Game's pre-2012 top 10 prospects article for the Rangers already earlier in this thread, but here's the blurb on Olt: Not much in there discussing his physical tools, aside from the part I bolded. As TheCrew07 noted, Olt would instantly become the Brewers' best positional prospect, and he'd probably jump to #1 for many other organizations, too. If Melvin can bring him back for Greinke, I will be very pleased.

http://i.imgur.com/S5W58.jpg

Aren't NTCs fun?! I appreciate that Melvin tends to stay away from NTCs. Iirc, only Gallardo & Braun have them right now.

Prince Fielder struck out in 20% (rounded) of his MiLB plate appearances. Joey Votto's rate was 22%. Ryan Howard's rate was 27%. Those are just three guys I checked out off the top of my head. Olt's current (career MiLB) clip is 24%.

No doubles power? You do realize he's hit 26 HR in just 382 PAs so far this season, right? Not much room for more doubles when you're knocking balls over the fence at a clip that translates to 44 HR over 650 PAs. Obviously it's not as simple as to just multiply counting stats out over a projected full-season sample... but if you do with Olt's '12 so far, he's on pace for 26 2B along with his 44 HR pace. And in 2011, with a PA total that equates to roughly half of a full MLB season, he put up a pace to be a 30 2B & 30 HR guy. So in reality, you're talking about a guy whose MiLB power numbers look very good so far, even if you examine his gap power. But you can't examine gap power without also factoring in that Olt's strength & raw power likely mean that some balls he's put in play that would be doubles for other players carry out over the fence for HRs.

Seid & Co. have actually done a nice job of building depth in the system in recent years. While there aren't any star-caliber prospects yet, there's a pretty big pool of quality 'spects, and you never know who might take a huge step forward at any given time (Hunter Morris?). It's nice to see the positional side of things looking fairly healthy, and if you can add an Olt/Castellanos for Greinke, your system gets that much better.

Wolf: 6 IP, 9 R/6ER, 4 BB, 6 K, 3 HRA Halladay: 7 IP, 4 H, 2 R/ER, 2 BB, 9 K OPTIMISM TIME BABY!

If you made an effort to educate yourself on who the better young players in baseball are, I'd respect that your dismissal of them was at least informed.

All that I see is .5 vs. 5.5 and Rental vs. Top 50. And all that I see from you lately is "prospects suck! people who value or attempt to value them are pie-in-the-sky dreamers!"

Well Randy Johnson was a hard throwing lefty with electric stuff, let's not give up on Manny Parra just yet! I have nothing but love for Fiers, but I have nothing but loathing for the Greg Maddux comp.

You must be thrilled about this. Like, literally happy.