LouisEly

If Schafer played every day he'd put up the same numbers that Revere puts up. Prolly better; Schafer put up better OPS numbers in the minors than Revere at every level. Schafer hit more HRs in Brevard County in 113 games in 2011 than Revere has hit in his entire career at every level combined.

If Thornburg is going to step in for Gallardo for a game, that creates a situation where the bullpen is short and thus they cannot afford to have an extra inning game. They said that Thornburg wasn't available, even though it was the second day after going 3.2 innings. If that's the case, then I'm fine with pulling the infield in and going for the win.

So what's the solution here? Assuming that there are other teams who will claim Wang if the Brewers expose him to waivers (assuming at least several teams didn't know about him prior to the Rule 5 draft), I think the two best solutions are: 1) Trade Wang for a LH 1B/3B 2) Trade Wang for international signing bonus slots (if Gilbert Lara will in fact command a $3.5M signing bonus, the Brewers will need more bonus pool dollars to avoid penalties) 3) ?

Getting back to the strike outs, if you sort that link by SO/9 you'll see that the organization only has 8 RHPs across all levels with a rate over 8 and only one of them in on the major league staff in Marco Estrada. Toss in Hobbs Johnson who's the only lefty above 8 and we have a grand total of 9 pitchers out of a total of 29 possible with a reasonably high K rate. To me, the most concerning part of your link is that there are only five LH starting pitchers in the entire organization, one of them a 29-year-old AAA free agent, and only six LH relief pitchers in the minors under the age of 30, one of them a 26-year-old in high-A. No LH relief pitchers under the age of 30 in AA or AAA.

Part of me would like to see the Brewers rectify the organizational LH shortcomings - on the mound and at the plate - with this draft, and they may be able to do it: #12: Sean Newcomb, LHP, or Kyle Schwarber, C/OF #41: Matt Imhoff, LHP, or Cody Reed, LHP 2nd: Mac Marshall, LHP, or Alex Blandino, 3B 3rd: Evan Skoug, C, or Eric Skoglund, LHP I could easily be tempted by Chavis in the first, or Tiquan Forbes or Keith Weisenberg in the 2nd.

Um... Michael Pineda?

The worst thing about tonight is that Overbay's double and "hard-hit out" probably guaranteed him another month on the roster.

Odd statistical lines of the night: Jeffress struck out 7 of the 10 batters that he faced. Gagnon in four innings gave up five hits, walked four, struck out eight, and gave up only one run.

RR went to the umpire first and gave him the double-switch. Umpire had already written it in his card, so I'm guessing that is what makes it official.

How do you know it's RR's fault and not Hanel's fault or the pitching coordinator's fault?

This is inaccurate. I suggest everyone read up on the rules surrounding Rule 5 here: http://www.thecubreporter.com/book/export/html/3517. Some items of note in the link: "7. If a team decides not to keep a player selected in the Major League Phase of the Rule 5 draft on its MLB 25-man Active List (and/or MLB DL), the player must be placed on Outright Assignment Waivers, where any of the other 29 MLB clubs can claim the player for the $25,000 Rule 5 waiver price and assume the Rule 5 obligations." "8. If the Rule 5 player is not claimed off Outright Waivers, the player then must be offered back to the club from which he was drafted, and the player's former club can reclaim the player for $25,000, with the player being automatically outrighted to the Reserve List of the minor league club from which he was drafted. The club from which the player was drafted usually has 72 hours to decide whether to reclaim the player." So, if the Brewers put him on waivers, they can't revoke it. If a team claims Wang, he's gone. There is no ability to play teams against each other to try and up trade value. You need to read your own link: 5. A player selected in the Major League Phase of the Rule 5 Draft can be traded at any time http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_5_draft Any player chosen in the Rule 5 draft may be traded to any team while under the Rule 5 restrictions, but the restrictions transfer to the new team. If the new team does not want to keep the player on its 25-man roster for the season, he must be offered back to the team of which he was a member when chosen in the draft. And I think your link may be wrong. Unless the rules have changed recently, this happened to R.A. Dickey "Dickey became a minor league free agent after the season. On November 28, 2007, he signed a minor league contract with the Minnesota Twins that included an invitation to spring training, but was claimed in the Rule 5 Draft by the Seattle Mariners on December 6, 2007. On March 29, 2008, the Mariners traded minor league catcher Jair Fernandez to the Twins to retain the rights for Dickey and initially optioned him to Triple-A Tacoma, recalling him to the major league club on April 14." So the Mariners and Twins worked out a trade to keep Dickey. Essentially you trade ownership of his rights so that you technically return the player, but you return him to your own team because you now own the rights.

Mass, there may be a reason to disagree with that. It typically takes at least 4 years for an international signee to reach high-A, likely 5 years plus to reach AA-AAA. Going back that far, the bonus rules for international players were not in place, so in essence it was an open auction for talented players. Is it because teams with more resources (Yankees were/are notorious for making up for losing draft picks by overpaying for international players) overpaid for the talented players, leaving the Brewers with not much talent to choose from? Yes, the Brewers should have taken at least half of what they spent on Suppan and Hammonds and invested that in international or draft-eligible scouting and talent, but that's water under the bridge. In 2008, when the Brewers would have had to sign those international players to be in the upper levels of the organization, the Brewers were prepping for their first playoff run in 27 years so they were investing in a young, talented ML team instead of trying to win auctions for unproven prospects against the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, etc. The biggest mistake any under-resourced business can make is to try to compete on every level; the fact is that the Brewers have fewer resources than many teams, so they need to choose carefully which sources of talent (major league, draft-eligible, Latin America/Caribbean, Central America, South America, Far East, minor league free agents/trades) to invest in. They can't, and I'll argue shouldn't, compete in every one. Not saying for sure that is the reason, but it may be. Now that the international rules are in place (except for Cuba and the Far East) it's more of a fair fight and we should expect more from international signees.

its been made known that he wont clear waivers to even make working a trade out with the pirates possible Then the Brewers can work out a trade with that team. You can trade a Rule 5 player to another team without exposing him to waivers first. The Brewers can rescind the waiver, see how many teams put in a waiver claim, and then play those teams against each other to get the most return in a trade. There's your solution - trade Wang to a team for a LH 1B/3B.

The silver lining may be that with Wang pitching poorly it may lower the cost of working out a trade with PIT to keep him. Maybe the Brewers can get him for a Jose Pena, Gian Rizzo, Jorge Lopez, or Chris McFarland. I'm not as high on Arcia as most, so I might even consider trading him for Wang.

Of course that's what they would want. Anyone would ask for Nelson. But no way are those guys worth Nelson - not at their ages with their contracts/free agency up so soon. Nelson could command a 23-year-old Zobrist who could play 3B, not a 33-year-old Zobrist.

I think I can tolerate only 4 K's in 9 innings when there are zero walks and... that. Only 9 BB in 54 innings with a 3.61 GO:AO. Welcome back to prospect status, Jed.

1) Jimmy Nelson 2) Clint Coulter 3) Tyrone Taylor 4) Taylor Jungmann 5) Damien Magnifico 6) Jed Bradley 7) Mitch Haniger 8) Orlando Arcia 9) Devin Williams 10) Hunter Morris 11) Johnny Hellweg 12) Victor Roache 13) Tucker Neuhaus 14) Tyler Cravy 15) Drew Gagnon 16) Tyler Wagner 17) Michael Reed 18) Nick Ramirez 19) Nick Delmonico 20) Taylor Williams First five out: Chris McFarland, Martin Viramontes, Hobbs Johnson, David Goforth, David Denson Next five: Andy Hillis, Kevin Shackleford, Ariel Pena, Jose Pena, Jorge Lopez Wouldn't be surprised if they made the majors: Adam Weisenberger, Tommy Toledo, Brent Suter

If the Brewers decide to go for it, I think a good trading partner might be the Tampa Bay Rays. I think one of the biggest problems the Brewers have is lack of LH/RH balance in their lineup. Vs. RH starters the Brewers rank 21st in the league in OPS and 22nd in the league in OBP (not including tonight's start against Teheran, which is looking like it could drop those numbers even further). The Rays have a couple of players who could help. 1) James Loney - debated during last offseason, he doesn't have much power but his .373 OBP would look good in the lineup and his .768 OPS would be a big upgrade over Overbay. Reasonable contract. 2) Ben Zobrist - has played all over the diamond, so I don't think it would be a stretch for him to play 1B adequately. Has the size for it at 6'3". He's also played enough SS that he could probably play 3B adequately as well, and perhaps the only reason he hasn't played 3B is that the Rays have Longoria. Age may be getting to him, but if it is he's only owed a $500K buyout for next season. Being a switch-hitter, it could allow the Brewers to get rid of both Overbay and Reynolds and possibly keep Wang. Power is down this year, but his .352 OBP is about his career average and would be a nice addition to the lineup. 3) Matt Joyce - I think he's one of the more underrated players in the league. OBP is almost always .100 higher than his BA; his OPS was down the last two years but it was mostly because his BA was down; now that his BA is up this year his OPS is back up and his OBP of .372 would look really nice in the lineup. Career .343 OBP. Problem is that Joyce plays the same position as Khris Davis. But Joyce is more productive. What type of value would Davis have to the Rays? 1st year arby 2016 and not a FA until 2019, so he's cheap for a while. Would Khris Davis be enough to get one of Zobrist/Loney + Joyce? If so, would you do it? If not, what would need to be added to Davis to get Zobrist/Loney + Joyce? Zobrist has a team option of $7.5 for next year w/$500K buyout and Joyce is 3rd year arby next year and FA in 2016 so they aren't under control for long, and Tampa may not want to pay them a combined $11M plus next year.

Would Todd Helton have any interest in coming out of retirement to play for a first-place team? Yeah, he was only .735 OPS vs. RHP last year but that's a heck of a lot better than Overbay is doing. Perhaps the Brewers can deal from their pitching depth and make a Garza for Swisher trade with the Indians. Salaries are reasonably close, Swisher makes more but is on the hook for only two more years. Speaking of the Indians, Carlos Santana would be a great pickup but probably would cost too much in terms of prospects, however I might be willing to deal any prospect not named Nelson for him. Wonder if Fiers + Jungmann + Haniger would get it done. James Loney is looking pretty good now. Speaking of the Rays, Ben Zobrist is in the last guaranteed year of his deal w/only a $7.5M team option and $500K buyout for 2015. He's played all over the diamond, I don't see why he wouldn't be at least average at 1B and he's played enough SS that he should be serviceable at 3B too. That could allow them to get rid of both Overbay and Reynolds and keep Wang a little longer. Not sure how long it takes to heal from a dislocated thumb though, as he went on the DL five days ago.

There is talk that the Brewers may significantly overspend their international bonus pool allotment; IIRC, that pool is coupled with the draft pool in terms of overspending and potential penalties. If such is the case, I would expect most if not all of the top 4 rounds to be very signable college guys. If the Brewers need to come up with an extra $500K from the draft pool to cover the international pool, I wouldn't expect them to take many HS players in the top 3-4 rounds. Maybe this is the year the Brewers show the creativity of drafting college seniors with low signing bonus requirements in the 6th-10th rounds. Would Tyler Badamo sign for $50K as the Brewers 5th round pick?

And you are sure that it was because major league hitters saw him a second time and not some other reason? The month of September 2012 was because hitters had seem him already, and not because he had pitched 56 more innings than either of his two previous minor league seasons? 2013 was because hitters had seen him before and not because he was distracted by his mother being gravely ill? (BTW, if you take out the Colorado game, his ERA the other five starts in August 2012 was 2.73 and his last two starts in August were quality starts.) Homer Bailey was pretty awful his second year in the league, worse than Fiers in 2013. Yes, age, blah, blah, blah, but including 2013 Fiers has a better career ERA, WHIP, K/9, and BB/9 than Homer Bailey. (Bailey does have the advantage of HR/9 - 1.1 vs. 1.2). And if you want to talk about recent performance, over Fiers last 74 innings in AAA - the PCL, a notorious hitters league - he has posted a 1.82 ERA, a 11.43 K/9, 6.46 H/9 and 94:18 K:BB ratio. No, Fiers isn't a #1, but I will argue that he is as good as 75% of the #4s and 25% of the #3s in the league. And under team control for a few more years at minimum salary he definitely has trade value.

One of the problems, if not the main one, was that his mother was gravely ill. When Fiers was sent back to the minors he asked to be sent to Brevard so he could be closer to his mother, and the Brewers complied, thus the time spent at Brevard last year. I don't know how she is doing now. I don't think that Lucroy really has understood how Fiers pitches; when Lucroy came back off the DL in late 2012 was around the time that Fiers started tailing off. I noticed that Fiers threw fewer changeups when he was pitching poorly; maybe he didn't feel comfortable shaking Lucroy off. Fiers has said this year that he is locating "all four" of his pitches; I don't recall seeing him throw four pitches when he was slumping. I think the big question is, since they do have Nelson and Thornburg, do you deal Fiers for a LH-hitting 1B/3B if you get offered a good one? Are you selling high on Fiers, or is 2013 the abberation and you are shorting your depth and not selling high?

I think the asking-Weeks-if-he'd-play-OF thing was during the couple of games where Braun and Schafer were hurt and they only had two healthy regular OFs, not anything recently. Gindl was in AAA at the time.

FREE MIKE FIERS Even better to see that the Cubs #1 and #6 prospects combined to go 1-9 with 6 Ks against him.

And on cue, Weeks just about spikes a throw from short LF on a play at the plate. Looked like it almost hit first base and bounced twice before getting to home, allowing the runner to score standing up.