Crash2303

I think it's interesting/cool that all three players thus far, were possible 1st day draftees on the other side of the ball as well. I read somewhere that Harrison can throw 97! So, there's always a Max Walla route, if they don't turn out. [kinda blue]

Sincerely, Carlos Rodon

Thought some might be interested in this- it seems life is a winding road for Josh Murray- from prospect bust, to football, to TV. http://brewers.mlblogs.com/2014/05/27/former-brewers-player-josh-murray-on-season-10-of-the-bachelorette/

Maldonado is hitting great. he's already in a top tier of defensive catchers and has played 1b before. I'd love to see him in the lineup more. with Overbay playing regularly, to a tune of .138/.215/.207 (over the past month). Why couldn't Lucroy or Maldonado play 1B at least until A-Ram comes back?

Letting hot-hitting 26 year old Juan Francisco go over a 37 year old washed up "gritty" veteran who plays overrated defense in Lyle Overbay.

With the organization (at least at the major league level) stressing, "swing away, if it looks good" instead of patience and working the count. it seems, Nathan Orf wasn't paying attention- lol. I know its early, but his OBP is an astonishingly 200 points higher than his BA so far. 2 other guys are walking at incredible rates too. Nathan Orf- 68 PA / .279 BA / .475 OBP = 196 point difference Michael Reed- 106 PA / .282 BA / .457 OBP = 155 point difference Nick Shaw - 82 PA / .203 BA / .370 OBP = 167 point difference

as for a dynamic duo, lol. I agree espn was pretty vague. I think there's three distinct categories here: *in terms of young duo to build a franchise around- i'd go Strasburg/harper. *in terms of dynamic 'playmakers' (people you love to watch)- gomez is pretty near the top. he is exciting- both in a good way and bad way, but either way exciting. either he's getting chased on the basepaths or stealing 2nd and 3rd. love it. I also like watching k-rods delivery. *in terms of best two players- i'd probably go Cabrera and verlander

worthless discussion? it's all worthless lol. baseball, sports- its all a big distraction. that's the point. to take your mind off of stuff and shoot the breeze with your friends and talk and argue about who the greatest pitcher of the last decade has been etc. and when you're done- nobody's mad- you know why? because it doesn't really matter. and we all know that. but, its fun. that's why there is an entire forum that we all love called Brewerfan that gives us a place to talk about this "worthless" stuff. so, who would be your two?

A recent ESPN article stated Assuming he's talking about 1 pitcher, 1 position player: 1) is there anyone you would take over those two? Cabrera/Verlander or Strasburg/Harper or Trout/Weaver or Kershaw/Puig. 2) what two from the Brewers would you take? and where do you think they'd rank on the "Dynamic Set of Teammates" rankings?

for my part, I've loved Gian Rizzo, and am excited for his year to start, as well as Andy Hillis. I can't wait for Devin Williams and Tucker Neuhaus to get off the ground and, like a lot of people curiously looking forward to Max Walla pitching.

definitely. and its interesting how many superutility guys (play at least five positions), we brought in at AAA this year: Velez, Orr, Herrera, Falu, and we even had Joe Thurston before he was cut this spring. now we just need to find Joe Inglett to round off this team.

well, it would have made last night a lot more pleasant.

Getting kicked in the shin hurts less than getting kicked in the balls. But I'd rather not be kicked at all. lol. true. but, I've always like Ishikawa wish we had kept him with us. and yes, he would be better than overbay.

Disciples of Uecker has a great break-down of our "new," 'if its good, swing at it approach'. http://disciplesofuecker.com/for-brewers-batters-impatience-is-an-unexpected-virtue/18029

Checking up on Juan Francisco (a guy I think everyone on this board was upset from being releasing over Overbay), I saw that he followed his monster spring by absolutely tearing up AAA and has continued hot hitting with his callup to the Blue Jays. http://mlb.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=464433#gameType='R'&sectionType=career&statType=1&season=2014&level='ALL' this just makes me sick to my stomach. I know its early, but at age 26, it seems a good chance it could be for real. this marks an extreme and rare short-sightedness on behalf of Melvin (a la Tobias Harris for Bucks fans). it has been hit enough, so i won't get into the merit of taking a 37 year old guy with an OPS of .685 over the last three years and average defense over a 26 year guy with at worst a .720 OPS, below average D, but big offensive upside. Melvin has a strong long-term focus- just look at the Wang situation- even in this 'win now' year. Excluding trades, as you are giving something to get something (and his positive trade record has been discussed at length here in the past), the Francisco move not only seems a strategic anomaly, but also one of the few that Melvin released that ended up biting us in the butt. I have been disappointed over lots of players that have been let go over the years, keeping tabs on them, fretting that they'll come back to haunt us- a la, Fautino De Los Santos, Jairo Asencio, Zach Braddock, Chris Dickerson, Travis Ishikawa, and even most recently, Nick Bucci, Cody Scarpetta, Mat Gamel, Mark Rogers, and Jesus Sanchez. but, it seems none of these guys ever end up doing much after they leave the brewers, which gives me faith with the most recent set of releases. the only ones i could think about was Marco Scutaro and Grant Balfour unless you include Rule V guys like Lucas Luetge. am i missing anyone?

A career AAAA player, Velez was about a .800 OPS guy in about 5 1/2 seasons in AAA, doing very little in his major league stints. However, since coming to the Brewers midway through 2013, as you know, he has been phenomenal! In 205 ABs, he has hit .395/.455/1.006 in addition, he plays almost every position on the field (1B, 2B, 3B, corner OF- even short and CF in a pinch). He is a legit super-utility guy. But, Herrera is on the 40 man roster and Rickie and Wang are occupying wasted roster space. Plus, you would think Gindl, Halton, Green are probably ahead of him on the positional callup list. what does a guy need to do?

outside of this year's draft, who are you most looking forward to seeing/follow in our rookie leagues and dsl?

FYI- now the only mysteries left are Mark Williams and whatever happened to Brandol Perez- lol. http://www.chattanoogan.com/2014/4/17/274606/Lee-Baseball-Players-In-The-Pros-Ode.aspx

Taking pitches and working the counts can also have a cumulative effect. in an era with strict pitch counts- for most at 100 pitches- it can be extremely advantageous to take out a team's starting pitcher an inning or two early by working their pitch count. High OBP teams like the 2000s Red Sox & Yankees were extremely adept at this. there's a reason the red sox had so many come from behind wins- once they got a team's ace outta there- they really started to go to work. I do however, agree, that a hitter can be disciplined and still aggressive.

Through 43 ABs this year, Khris Davis has yet to draw a walk. has anybody read that he changed his batting approach this year or anything? I know its early, but this is surprising as he averaged over 100 points higher OBP than AVG throughout the minors and even last year in his stint with the big league club, was about 70 point higher too.

I am trying to keep track of all the roster changes and may have missed these guys posted elsewhere (a la released etc). but, does anyone know the status of the following? are there other notable players left off the early roster posts? I assume everyone else is targeted for rookie ball. Nick Delmonico (personal leave) Zach Kroenke Mark Williams John Dishon Matt Miller Andy Hillis+ Seth Harvey Leonard Lorenzo

If Weeks is still on the team come spring training and has a good spring. any chance they try him at 3B and move Aramis Ramirez and his decrepit knees to 1B? then you could have Francisco back up both 3B & 1B. either way, I hope we don't sell low on Weeks and he has an opportunity to reestablish his value.

I can't speak before 1999, but it is the highest since then. the previous highest was $710K by Rolando Pascual.

really don't want Denson to be this year's Carlos Rodon.

I'm not the first one to mention that Braun might move to first later in his career, and he has plenty of experience in the infield from college and the minors, so why not try out Braun at 1st and give Schafer some playing time in LF until Hart comes back (elligible May 30)? PROS 1) LESS PLAYING TIME FOR BETANCOURT & GONZALEZ Although Betancourt has had a good week, Gonzalez and Yuni at the corners is a pretty scary offensive scenario until A-Ram & Hart return. This move would push one of them to 3B and the other to utility infielder and when A-Ram comes back- they'd both be backups instead of one of them continuting to start at 1B (for another month and a half!). 2) MORE PLAYING TIME FOR SCHAFER Logan Schafer is ready to play at the major league level. problem is he's blocked by three outfielders who are all signed at least through 2016. Roenicke & Melvin are both high on him http://www.jsonline.com/sports/brewers/brewers-will-use-schafer-to-cover-the-outfield-as-backup-q59ac14-200152791.html, but that doesn't mean anything if he doesn't have a chance to start hitting against major league pitching (see Gamel). Judging from his production at AAA and a great spring, he should at least provide whatever Yunizalez is projected to over the next six weeks, and considering his higher ceiling at this point in his career, has the potential to offer much more. 3) IMPROVED OUTFIELD DEFENSE Immediately, i'd put that outfield as third best in baseball behind Atlanta & the Angels. Schafer is an excellent defender and paired with Gomez (gold glove calliber guy) and Aoki (CF in Japan), you'd have three CFers out there covering some major ground. CONS 1) HOW WOULD IT AFFECT BRAUN? would Braun be up for it? and if so, would that affect him negatively in any way. don't want to mess with Braun, but then again, he's one of the most mentally tough athletes there is. 2) DOWNGRADE DEFENSIVELY AT 1B This could be argued, because although Yuni & Gonzo should have great infielding instincts fielding the ball, they too are relatively new to the postion, and may not be that much of a downgrade from what Braun could offer. SUMMARY This is basically saying, even assuming all things a wash defensively, Schafer adds more offensive potential and long-term development potential to our team than Yunizalez.