igor67

Clark isn't the worst comparison, but I guess the biggest difference is that I can see him putting up the same kinds of OPS' as Clark, but the difference in offensive environment turns Reed into a serious potential asset as a high OBP good defense corner OF. A league average starter as a ceiling.

I'm at least glad that Harrison was able to get a few weeks of really hitting well before getting hurt. I would imagine at this point that he is probably done for the season. Hopefully that was enough for him to start at Low A again next year and succeed.

While I'm optimistic that we could do an August deal or two, my only concern about waiting is we have a fairly large number of players to get some value for, and it becomes something of a logistical problem to complete that many deals at the last minute interest or not.

I can't see them dealing Sano either given how hot he has started his career. Arcia would be an interesting starting piece, but in that type of deal you have to pick up at least 1 high ceiling pitcher as well. Parra or Segura seem like they would provide more value as well for the Twins. Segura and Lucroy in particular would really up their offense now and going forward.

I'm rather curious because I thought the Rogers Center was a big HR park, and yet Estrada is doing great. I mean certainly if they have a secret that cuts way down on the long ball Fiers becomes young, cheap, and looks like a #2 which is a pretty great deal.

I'd call 2 grade B prospects (Sickel's ranking style) well above nothing. Alvarez is just a body and salary call it an open competition with Rogers and Nick R. for next year, maybe even a non-tender at the end of this year.

Lind and Aramis for Alvarez to help even the roster and a couple of B grade prospects. That's not terribly expensive and they are getting a large boost in their line-up. Lind helps them a lot for next year as well.

It occurs to me that Reed's tweener label while accurate seems less applicable in the current low offense environment. A good corner defender with a high OBP and modest power could very easily be a top 15 OFer these days.

In answering the question, yes but only because its a good topic to discuss all winter.

Nothing pushes up Farm system ranking like a big name for everyone to put front and center.

If Hernan Perez can be a solid contributor it's not too hard to see the Brewers retool dealing off Lohse, Aramis, Cotts, K rod and maybe even Segura and coming back next year with a much younger squad that would be a .500 ish team with a chance depending on how the younger arms developed. Lind might be tradeable under that scenario as well, but finding similar quality has proven tricky. I would tend to favor that approach certainly at least from a bargaining standpoint unless I got amazing offers for Gomez and Lucroy. If either goes I don't see it being likely that we could field a competitive team next year. The nice thing about retooling in this environment is that we have a lot of arms in AA and AAA we can look at in bullpen roles in the second half, as well as some other guys who are really role players but you might be able to get the regular ABs and see if they can show you enough to round out the team next year. You end up getting some more youth via trade, get a high round pick next year and can still deal your big value guys if things don't go well next year.

I wonder who is playing for leverage with delaying the announcement? My first thought was Kirby's agent might be involved with some other negotiations, and wanted to keep Kirby's numbers off the table for the moment, but maybe the Brewers want to leave some unknowns until the last moment in the exact size of their bonus pool?

My recollection is that ground balls usually generate a higher batting average, but dramatically cut into power.

I'm not sure exactly how much competition will improve Parra's value. I'd have to say that a large part of his appeal is the chance to get an upgrade for these teams without the blockbuster prospect cost. It does seem to make it more likely that he is dealt and for maybe even more than we paid.

Hellweg with another very bad outing. Not really sure how much longer they'll try and keep throwing him out there.

I don't have the link, but on a recent rundown of possible trade targets Lohse showed up as possible on multiple teams. Given his track record I don't think he'd have to string together that many solid starts for a team who is looking for a veteran presence, but doesn't want to give up much in the way of prospects pick him for a throw-in and maybe splitting the cost of his remaining salary. The Astros for example might really want a veteran for the sake of veteranness and the ability to say they made a move without really disrupting their depth of young guys.

Brandon Diaz has upped both his walk rate and his ISO for the season to date over last year in Helena. I wouldn't say he is having a good year yet, bet he definitely is showing some development.

Didn't intend to set of a mini-firestorm. Given how crammed the list of guys was I wanted to put down I kind of punted on Jungman because at this point I really have no idea where he fits in. The minor league record and scouting reports have been so mixed over the years that 5th starter has seemed like a victory for a few years now and then goes nuts for his first half dozen starts? I'm loving it, but it's hard not to wonder if the league won't catch up to him, in which case despite already banked MLB production I wouldn't rate him in the top 20.

I wouldn't force a Segura deal, but given our depth and the fact that he is still young enough that another team might pay extra for that youth on top of a potential upgrade at midseason means I'd certainly be willing if a good offer came

Even though by rules Jungman was still eligible, I didn’t include him since I think of him as a big league now. 1. Orlando Arcia 2. Gilbert Lara- Normally I put a decent amount of emphasis on production at higher levels but the early performance and reviews are backing the hype so #2 it is 3. Kodi Mederos- I admit to having difficulty figuring out how to rank our pitchers, a lot of guys having pretty good years with solid stuff, so Kodi gets the nod right now based on ceiling 4. Micheal Reed- my preference for production at a high level 5. Clint Coulter- I feel like he may explode next year at AA 6. Tyrone Taylor- Not the big step forward we would have liked, but also not a terrible first half young enough that a hiccup in the trajectory isn’t the end of the world. The down movement in many ways is more about the other talent that has been added 7. Jake Gatewood- the last month or so he has shown a lot of that talent under some tough circumstances 8. Jorge Lopez 9. Devin Williams- 10. Marcos Diplan 11. Cy Sneed 12. Tyler Wagner 13. Tyler Cravy- Doing it where it counts, but the ceiling is lower than some of the other guys 14. Monte Harrison- Unlike Gatewood he hasn’t shown me a long enough stretch of OK production yet could easily move back into my top 10 by the end of the season if he can show that he has started to figure things out 15. Trent Clark 16. Taylor Williams 17. Victor Roache- the batting average hasn’t been there yet in AA but the other secondaries are still showing up. A strong second half and he would move way up on my list as well. 18. Carlos Leal 19. Troy Stokes 20. Cody Ponce 21. Knebel 22. Damien Magnifico 23. Jorge Ortega 24. Yadiel Rivera 25. Wei-Chung Wang- Flashes of being really good not unexpected after his last couple of years So many interesting names I left off, I didn’t jump yet on some of the draft picks from later round this year who are off to good starts yet, but that could change quickly.

I believe the relevant part of that is that the talent acquired by dumping assets is almost irrelevant to the fact that the blueprint for rebuilding a farm system is not all these magic moneyball themed tricks, but multiple high draft picks. That's not building a long term winner that's a return to the success cycle idea.

The beauty of Rookieball is that everyone by and large is still young enough to hope when looking up and down the lineup card. Let's see some in game power out of Gatewood and Denson tonight.

Jungmann has sure pitched really well to start his big league career, can't complain about that so far.

What a game, that along with the Eddie Perez walk off game are easily some of my best memories of games.

I'm actually pretty convinced that if you totally dropped the draft total amateur spending would only rise a little. GMs will only drop so many millions on guys who never see the big leagues. The top talents would probably see their money increase, but other players might easily see their money drop off. We currently see these absurdly high bonuses because the draft artificially restricts the supply when some player manages to find away to be signed as an amateur free agent that you get bidding wars.