molitor fan

this fire/re-hire was a litmus test for the new regime of Stearns for me and in my eyes it passed with flying colors....this was a while in coming - did a great deal of the little things wrong

I just wish people would consider the whole play when framing their judgements against Utley...he spent the majority of the play charging hard towards the right side of the bag thinking the ball was going into center and rounding his run in order to get to third base....the play was made, astoundingly, and then the fielder bounded directly into his path....Utley never planned to slide - he was planning to catch the corner of the bag and advance to third....it was just a collection of events that quickly led to a split decision to try to break up the double play, which truly never had a chance to be made. To imply intention in this is pure lunacy.

you have to look at the whole play - it was a remarkable play to even track down the ball from going into center field, and Utley positioned himself to the right of the bag so he could make the turn at 2nd base in order to get to third on the single to center. I think many on here think the players are automatons....the more I think about the play, the more I think the crowd that believes he was intentionally trying to injury Tejada is looking at it from a very limited scope, not realizing the holistic nature of the play

Dodgers are evil? good grief....the slide was a post-season aggressive slide that was made many times worse by Tejada leaving himself wide open by doing his crazy piroutte...there is a reason why you do not see shortstops make that type of pivot - it leaves them wide open to a hard charging baserunner....though Utley never did hit the base, his hand would have hit it if not for the impact with Tejada....he was erroneously called out so he left the field...the umps made the correct call. The vilification of Utley is comical to a degree, but it is verging into the downright stupid. The Mets would have wanted David Wright to make that same slide into Corey Seager, and you Brewer fans, would have wanted Ryan Braun make that same slide into the Diamondbacks shortstop the last time the Brewers were playing on this date. Tejada's injury is awful but the statements I have seen stating that Utley was intentionally trying to injure him are just asinine.

Please read that Greinke article above...it is amazing - I love that guy...and the parallels pointed out to Lou Gehrig - one of my favorite all time greats, is fascinating.

1. Orlando Arcia - I want him up in May....Barry Larkin is my statistical ceiling comp for him 2. Maverick Phillips - Maverick needs to be cultivated a bit yet...see him as a Grady Sizemore as a Indians rookie type of player 3. Trent Clark - if the 15 class was redrafted, I think he would go top 7 as of now 4. Jorge Lopez - I am unduly proud of my June 27th post...it really tells you how quickly he has risen in the eyes of many 5. Gilbert Lara - the stats mean little to me right now..his age for level is just silly and the first hand initial reports support this lofty ranking 6. Josh Hader - have him ranked this high even though his most likely landing spot is as a top notch shutdown reliever because: A) that is pretty doggone good all in itself, 2) I think there is still a chance he develops his secondary's to the point that he becomes Chris Sale part deux 7. Zach Davies - did the Orioles corner the market on drafting skinny ass quality pitchers that end up with the Brewers?....Jimmy Key is my ceiling for him. 8. Michael Reed - excellent athlete that will 100% be a quality major league reserve...30% ish chance he becomes a solid starter in my estimation...tough guy to spot in rankings 9. Clint Coulter - power hitters that spend a full season in FSL should get combat pay 10. Tyrone Taylor - batted .340 during playoff run and is still regarded as Albert Almora type defensive outfielder..... 11. Adrian Houser - meteoric rise after the trade, but honestly, this is what he was supposed to be before underperforming as Astro...even so he was 21st ranked guy even with those below par Astro results in a super stacked Astro minor league system....no way he belongs in the 20's in Brewer prospect ranking given those facts...if our new GM had the profile of Jason Kidd, the same alegations that followed Kidd for the failed Larry Sanders for Lopez trade would be dogging Stearns - that Houston haul was so good... 12. Monte Harrison - if he gets all his speed back, just a dazzling type of player that I would love seeing play in outfield next to Clark for a decade or so 13. Devin Williams - this past year in Appleton was horrible, but it saw some extremely talented arms...Brevard is going to give up 7 runs all year next year 14. Cody Ponce - big guy with a mean streak....he will move at a rapid pace I believe 15. Marcos Diplan - Managers in Pioneer league loved him, even with control and results that made some dismiss him a bit.... 16. Kodi Medeiros - scary prospect that can still boom, but needs velocity back to really excite me...should be noted that he did not give up any homers last year.... 17. Nathan Kirby - i think this injury may have been a good thing for Brewers in long run....this guy has chance to be a top pitcher if he comes back to where he was before injury 18. Demi Orimoloye - Might be too low....hearing that more than one scout has said "holy crap" after seeing him in instructionals....if he ever collides with Monte Harrison in outfield, the resulting black hole created may suck up our universe 19. Jorge Ortega - I would love to see a Cy Young winner without a walk or k for a season 20. Yhonathon Barrios - 7 innings - 3 hits - 0 runs or walks with 7 k's in majors is a heck of a debut...the fact he converted to pitcher late makes the fact he is still 23 even more remarkable....any chance he could convert to starter? 21. Cy Sneed - i love the fact we were able to transport him from 1979.....the guy and his moustache are a throwback 22. Tyler Wagner - I have no clue where to rank him.... 23. Jake Gatewood - still a believer...he has some tools that are pretty rare 24. Tyrone Perry - this spot could easily go to others, but something about Perry makes me think is a potentially special player 25. Angel Ventura - another guy from Rattlers staff I full expect to dominate the FSL next year....I left off Burkhalter, but I like him quite a bit too Honorable mention: A ton of talent still there such as aforementioned Burkhalter, as well as Leal, Cooper, Roache, Rivera, Wang, Diaz and Colleymore....I am serious when I say that any of these guys would be in running for top 10 in a handful of other organizations....we have a very deep system

ZBTMP - Awesome sauce on your first post.....best list I have seen yet, and I love this last comment on Monte Harrison: 13 Harrison: Not much to say here outside of hopefully he comes back 100% without losing a step and breaks out with the bat. And I'm glad Sojourn Shelton doesn’t have to cover him this weekend….

Exactly what was said above me regarding St. Louis boy above...what a silly statement....Harper sacrifices his body in the outfield on a daily basis...

Matt Eddy: Sure, comparing and contrasting Jorge Lopez and Jose Berrios was a major focal point for me because they’re the top two righthanders in the SL. Every source indicated that Lopez has a higher ceiling because of a stronger breaking ball, more prototypical starter build and a tick better velocity. They’re both going to be qualify major league starting pitchers, and Berrios does offer a few other advantages, such as an outstanding changeup and incredible mound presence (both accurate). Holy smokes........

Tremendous end to the season for Davies that I think may allow us to pencil him into rotation for 16.....heck of a return for Parra...our scouting staff need some major plaudits

"It's gonna work" ------ Craig Counsell

“The Bucks have a young, talented team with huge potential and are in the process of building a world-class organization,” said Thorn. “I’m very pleased to work with a visionary ownership group, a terrific young coach in Jason Kidd and an outstanding and well-respected general manager in John Hammond. This is a great time to join the Bucks family, and I’m very excited to be part of it.” This is stunning....Amazing get for the Bucks, and the words visionary leadership ring very true for this group...wow

Jorge Lopez is Spanish for Joe Ross

I see more Andy Pettitte than Braun personally....literally 8 or 9 national writers have chimed in as how this guy is incredibly well-regarded by those in the industry....sounds good to me

"cheering for losers is for losers" Wow, as an old dude that grew up when the Packers stunk, as did the both the Badgers basketball and football programs, I disagree with you heartily

I agree with twirly completely....it makes me feel rather guilty

Not going to quote the whole thing, but there is a reason why Gregmag has been one of the best posters on this site for a decade or so The haul of the Astros trade alone could change the future of this franchise sooner rather than later

And That, I concur with the excitement you feel regarding Houser...was finding his way a bit with Astros this year and was ranked 21 in their loaded system, now is a revelation with us - I would think top 10 makes a lot of sense... This 91 game score is just ridiculous in a playoff game...I went to bed knowing his first 3 were perfect, and woke up hoping for something good, but this performance wows me. The elaluator that wanted his inclusion in the deal should be lauded....I would love to know how the Gomez trade deadline all went down....to get Santana, Hader, Phillips and Houser in the deal is really stunning in retrospect....

Interesting piece on a guy being mentioned in a few circles...with A's...seen as Beans successor, was with Cards as scouting director before that http://thecardinalnationblog.com/2014/11/25/how-did-the-cardinals-fare-with-kantrovitz-as-top-scout/

Another guy I would like to take a flier on is the Astros Matt Duffy, a 3rd baseman at triple A with 100 rbi's already with a .300 average....he is 26 already as well

I am from the complete opposite perspective as I saw a kid named Farmer from the Texas team basically be the epitome of what Little League is about.

Wow, that article is scathing, had not seen that before...Tony Blengino is now writing for fangraphs.

Josh Hader has been extremely difficult to hit since June 28th. If his one clunker is removed (a 3 2/3 performance against Mississippi), Hader has thrown 27 innings, giving up 11 hits, 9 walks for a .67 WHIP, 4 Earned runs - a 1.33 ERA and an astonishing 43 k's - a 14.3/9 inning ratio Holy crud.

The 2nd Wisconsin game is a bit disheartenening and interesting analysis above about the quality of Kodi's pitches.... Domingo Santana however makes me happy as he is up to .400 after the trade and is hitting around .470 with an equal 4/4 w/k ratio in last 10 games....that is amazing....if he did not have that awful introductory performance to mlb last year, he would be getting talked about as a top 30 milb player

Wow...Yay for the Brewers handling it in such a professional way...When he comes back to Appleton next year I expect the fans to rally around him...