batman

Lots more info and articles on fourth rounder Evan Anundsen added to the official thread... check it out. EDIT: Not much about 19th rounder Lee Haydel, but I added some notes to his post in the official thread. A speedster, he was a football and track star and has a baseball scholarship to LSU. ~Bill

I'm not sure if you knew this, DHonks, but just so others don't fall for it: this is a joke. The author is criticizing the Mariners record developing young pitchers... Morrow didn't actually blow out his elbow answering the phone. Anyway, here's a good article about Brandon, who is diabetic: 159.54.227.3/apps/pbcs.dl...70367/1002 ~Bill

I added some more information to Cole Gillespie's post in the Official Draft Pick Selection Thread. He has a very interesting story and looks like quite a gritty battler... and he can hit a little bit, too. ~Bill

I just don't understand how the Brewers can be so willing to further compromise their infield defense... Cirillo and Weeks seem to be a historically bad keystone combination. Dave Bush isn't exactly Brandon Webb, but he does induce more groundball outs than flyball outs. Billy must really be in the doghouse. ~Bill

I thought maybe the Cirillo start was motivated by the matchup with Peavy but Jeff is 0-for-5 in his career while Billy is 1-for-3 with a walk... not much of a track record either way, although Cirillo did play with Peavy for a while in San Diego. Interestingly, Geoff Jenkins is 4-for-14 with three home runs and a .286/.286/.929 line against Peavy. He's also struck-out seven times, though. ~Bill

Unfortunately, Jack Z's record with high school pitchers hasn't been good. Using Baseball America's Executive Database and The Baseball Cube, I came up with the following draft summaries for his time with the Pirates and Mets. Take it for what it's worth. Jack Zduriencik was the Pirates' scouting director from 1991 through 1993. 1991: Selected JuCo catcher/outfielder Jon Farrell with the 24th pick; he topped out at Double-A. Selected prep pitcher Dave Doomeweerd and Northwestern pitcher Dan Jones in the second round; neither made it to the Show. The team's best selection that year was Tony Womack, a seventh-rounder out of Guilford College. Other notable selections included Dustin Hermanson (prep pitcher, round 39), Jim Brower (prep pitcher, round 56), and Paul Wilson (prep pitcher, round 57). 1992: Selected prep outfielder (obviously later catcher) Jason Kendall with the 23rd overall selection. Spent sandwich pick and two second round picks on prep outfielders, too; none of them had any real big league impact, although two of them made it there. Not too many other big leaguers. 1993: Selected prep outfielder Charles Peterson with the 22nd overall pick; he topped out at Triple-A. Used sandwich round picks on a college outfielder, Jermaine Allensworth, who spent a little time in the big leagues and on prep first-baseman Andy Rice, who never got past Single-A. Selected prep pitcher Kevin Pickford with the 54th overall pick, a prep pitcher from California, but he only had a cup of coffee in the big leagues in 2002. The only other notable selection was prep pitcher Kane Davis in the 13th round; amazingly, he had the best career of anyone in that Pirates' draft. Zduriencik was then Director of Minor League Operations and Special Assistant to the GM with the New York Mets from 1996 through 1999. I'm not sure how much input he had into the draft selections in any given year, so take these with a grain of salt. 1996: Selected prep outfielder Rob Stratton with the 13th overall pick; he topped out at Triple-A. Spent next three picks on two college and one prep pitcher, with only third-rounder Ed Yarnall seeing the big leagues. Only other big leaguers in the draft were pitchers Dicky Gonzalez (round 16, no info on where he came from) and Tim Corcoran (round 44, prep). 1997: Selected prep pitcher Geoff Goetz with sixth overall pick; he never advanced past Double-A. Second-rounder Tyler Jackson, a pitcher from Cal-Berkeley, has spent the last several years in the Show while third-round prep shortstop Cesar Crespo has seen some big league time. Other notable picks include Garrett Atkins (prep third-baseman, round 10), Jason Phillips (college catcher, round 24), Brandon Lyon (prep pitcher, round 37), Randy Keisler (college pitcher, round 40), and David DeJesus (prep outfielder, round 43). 1998: Selected college outfielder Jason Tyner with 21st overall pick; he's spent some time in the big leagues but never amassed more than 396 at-bats in a single campaign. Second-round prep pitcher Pat Strange made eleven appearances in 2002 and 2003 and next two picks (both college pitchers) never made the Show. Only other notable selections include Ty Wigginton (college infielder, round 17) and Jaime Cerda (college pitcher, round 23). 1999: Didn't have a first-round pick. Selected prep pitcher Neal Musser with 73rd overall pick; he topped out in Triple-A. Other second-round pick, college pitcher Jake Joseph, never made the Show, either. Notable picks include Jeremy Griffiths (3rd round, college pitcher), Prentice Redman (10th round, CC outfielder), and Mike Jacobs (college catcher-turned-first-baseman, round 38) . ~Bill

There are a lot of things that could be called "labrum surgery," some more difficult to recover from than others... it depends a lot on what kind of tear it is (SLAP is the most common in pitchers, AFAIK) and whether there is related damage to the rest of the shoulder. Advances in medical technology have made it possible to diagnose a lot of labrum injuries that would have gone untreated in the past, so its not surprising to see someone so young undergoing this kind of shoulder surgery. I can't imagine that his odds of remaining healthy for the long-term are real high given the repetitive stress involved in the pitching motion, but I trust that the Brewers have done their homework and have consulted the appropriate specialists and concluded that the reward is worth the risk. It'll be an interesting story to follow, at least. ~Bill

Again FYI, I have added information to Brent Brewer's post on the Official Draft Pick Selection Thread. Of particular interest is that Brewer was considering signing a professional contract and foregoing Seminole football even before the second-round selection and that he will almost certainly be moved to the outfield (he played there in high school and was planning on playing there in college). ~Bill

FYI, I just added quite a bit more information about Jeffress to his post in the Official Draft Pick Selection Thread. There is a nice picture, some information about where he's from, and a few articles. Unfortunately, coverage of Jeremy appears to have been very scarce before his name started appearing in draft previews over the last few weeks. He's clearly been a big name in his area for a long time, however, and I'm sure everyone in South Boston is really excited to see their hometown boy getting so much national attention. ~Bill

In Progress, 4th Inning: Brevard County 7, Jupiter (Marlins) 1 Ryan Braun walked and went deep, Travis Ezi 2-for-3 with a triple, Hurricane 2-for-2... lots of other good lines for the Manatees batters, too. Steve Hammond has fanned three and has yet to walk a batter. ~Bill

Zach Jackson is starting for the Sounds tonight, not Ben Hendrickson. Lil' Ben will take the ball tomorrow. ~Bill

The two walks were not good, but Jorge escaped. He made Andruw Jones look foolish in both at-bats... that's something to be proud of, no? The team needs to focus on the positives with JDLR... keep using him, keep emphasizing what he's doing well, and get his confidence up. If he's got faith in his stuff, the control problems will take care of themselves (at least to the extent that they aren't debilitating). In any case, I was impressed with how Jorge came back from the walks (and a few borderline ball/strike calls). Still not "there", but he sure flashes brilliance, doesn't he? ~Bill

Not bad at all for Jorge... he couldn't throw his curve for a strike so he relied much more on his fastball. He was consistently at 96mph on the FSN gun and he was being aggressive. Francouer's hit was an infield nubber; only Kelly Johnson made solid contact, lining over J.J. at shortstop. No walks, although he did go to three ball counts a couple times. I definitely think that this is another outing to build on. Let's just hope he gets to pitch again sometime soon. ~Bill

BILL AND DARON ARE NOW DISCUSSING WHETHER MISTER RED WET HIMSELF. SERIOUSLY. THIS IS A BIG LEAGUE BROADCAST, GUYS... ACT LIKE IT. /soapbox, ~Bill

Jorge is dealing like the uber-fantastic filth machine that he is. ~Bill

Ugh. Ned and company really didn't acquit themselves real well tonight. DARON AND BILL: PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO THE GAME. NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOUR MAN-CRUSH ON THE REDS BASEBALL HEAD GUY. SHUT UP ALREADY, OR GO BROADCAST SOME OTHER TEAM'S GAME IF THAT MAKES YOU SO HAPPY. It's fine if they do it in a segment, but stop detracting from the game with lame "bits"! ~Bill

Seems like total crazyness out of the dugout tonight. Yeah... it seems like Yost just doesn't have any confidence in KDavis or Jorge. In a game like this, he just has to bite his lip and hand one/both of them the ball instead of messing with Ohka's routine. Tomo has been awesome lately and this can't be good for him... I know that color commentators always say that this was his "throw day" and so it's fine, but pitching in a game is a lot different than pitching to Marcus Hanel in the bullpen. If relieving on your throw day was no big deal, every team would do it with their good starters. BTW, before anyone goes off on me for being "anti-Yost," please put down your mouse and step away from the keyboard. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif ~Bill

If JDLR is hurt, this move makes sense because they need someone to pitch at least one inning before handing it to Capellan. If not, then this doesn't make any sense at all... I have to imagine that (a) Ohka is not nearly 100% effective working out of the bullpen like this and (b) Ohka won't be at his best in his next start because of this outing. If Jorge is available/fine, then this doesn't make any sense at all. EDIT: Yes, that was a horrible paragraph-plus. I just wanted to make sure everyone was clear on my point. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif ~Bill

Why can't Jorge pitch tonight? ~Bill

Helling, Santos, and now Ohka? Let's get Cappy and Davis in there and complete the rotation! http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/eyes.gif ~Bill

For those that didn't see it, FSN North did a very nice introductory piece about Bob Uecker featuring comments from a host of famous baseball people. Jim Powell is interviewing Ueck right now, too, which is quite cool. Good job, FSN. *** Checking out Uecker's Baseball-Reference.com page, he had quite a bit of plate discipline. While his career batting average was only .200, his career on-base average was a not-bad-by-comparison .293. Amazingly, that is actually higher than his career slugging average (.287). He walked 96 times in 731 at-bats... twelve of those were intentional (!), and he was also hit by three pitches. He must have batted eighth quite a bit. Cool stuff. ~Bill

Thanks, Erik. This is just about the worst thing that could happen to the Brewers. I feel sick. Be okay, Ben. ~Bill http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/frown.gif

EDR (or someone else), can you walk us through exactly what happened? ~Bill

OMG, what's going on?!? ~Bill

Did Sheets just throw one *behind* Chipper? ~Bill