Never Outhustled

Brantley is still recovering from his high ankle sprain, and won't be 100% until the offseason. I would putting him in LF is just a way to reduce the workload on his bum ankle. I don't know where the idea that Cain has better natural range than Brantley came from. Brantley is every bit as fast, and the Brewers didn't use Cain as a CF until this year, and not until Brantley got hurt. Don Money has stated that Brantley "has turned the corner defensively in CF", and nobody is more critical of defense than Money. I'm not ripping on Cain, I argued last season that he was a better prospect than Brantley, but that was before Brantley became a CF. I'm esctatic that after the PTBNL is named, we'll still have at least 1 of them. The guy I'm hoping to hold on to the most is Lucroy. You simply don't find a catcher at any level with better pop times than Lucroy's at 1.68, thats amazing, and it shows in his caught stealing %. Salame is years away defensively,, while Lucroy could be a starting catcher defensivly right now. To me, Taylor Green has the least upside because he has the least tools of anyone on the list. Green's offensive stats are really special when you curve them for the league he's in, but its possible he's very close to be maxxed out as a hitter. However, he plays an OK 3B, something Mat Gamel can't do, but the Brewers appear that they're go to stick with Gamel at 3B regardless. The Brewers don't need Green at 2B because they already have an extra middle infielder because of Escobar. I would think Cleveland will take whoever there scouting staff feels is the best player, regardless of position, and I take solace in the fact that there scouting just isn't that good.

I wish Salome would go on an incredible tear defensively. The only position he can play in the Bigs right now is DH. All his offense is wasted if he doesn't make major strides defensively. Salame has poor pop times, and thats the best part of his defense, its really scary the way Don Money talks about his game-calling, and passed balls and framing remains a problem. He's not as good deefensivley as Jonny Estrada. Lucroy is the Brewers best catching prospect, as he is actually a catcher.

Frerichs has had a very good season, but the P50 is a prospect list, not a hot sheet. Bryson made the list because of his stuff, not his stats. Every year we have a reliever dominate A ball. When has any of those relievers made an impact in the majors? Never.

Dedrick sounds like a terrific athlete, and is an exciting sign. It would be interesting to see how much he signed for, and if his bonus was spread out for the 2 sport athlete rule. He has almost no baseball experience, similar to Lorenzo Cain. Hopefully he can develop into a similar prospect.

My boy Brent Brewer with a big night tonight, 3-5 with a double, a homer, and a sac fly. His OPS in August is now higher than July. To put into perspective what he's accomplished, he is just the 2nd 20 year old Brewers prospect to have a 700+ OPS month in Brevard County. I mention this because I think he's unfairly been compared to players at the same level as him, despite the fact that he has far less baseball experience than his peers. He is still a terrific prospect, with a huge ceiling, and a floor that's being raised almost daily.

I can't believe I'm the only one on the Cutter Dykstra bandwagon. His OPS in Helena is over 1.000 , and has done that despite battling injury. He's athletic, fast, and explosive, with great desire. At #39, he is the most misplaced player in the history of the P50, at least 25 spots off.He's ranked behind 3 players drafted after him, despite staff comments that say we can't judge these new draftee's yet. He's ranked behind a 3rd year RHP pro who's throwing 85MPH in A ball, and a 2nd year pro LHP who is mediocre in the same league as Cutter, and is tiny. Cutter may have dropped because he was injured, but 2 others who were injured throughout July actually moved up on the P50. He is the opposite of Tony Gwynn, as Gwynn was only a prospect because of his name, Cutter seems to be hurt here as some are either annoyed by bloodlines or personally don't like Lenny Dykstra. If he was Cutter Smith, I'm guessing he'd be the rage of the board. Another exciting thing about Cutter is he stated in an earlier interview that he might start working at 2B in instructional league. That would be the best fit for someone with his athletism and short area quickness, but only an average arm. I doubt he'd have much fear turning the double play. He played SS for most of his HS career before moving to CF.

I can't believe I'm the only one on the Cutter Dykstra bandwagon. His OPS in Helena is over 1.000 , and has done that despite battling injury. He's athletic, fast, and explosive, with great desire. At #39, he is the most misplaced player in the history of the P50, at least 25 spots off. He is the opposite of Tony Gwynn, as Gwynn was only a prospect because of his name, Cutter seems to be hurt here as some are either annoyed by bloodlines or personally don't like Lenny Dykstra. If he was Cutter Smith, I'm guessing he'd be the rage of the board.

Latin players usually don't play in the AFL (though Enrigue Cruz did as an injury replacement for Hardy). My question is, do Canadians play in the AFL? Another thing to remember is, the teams sign up position slots, not players. So the Brewers would likely sign up a catcher, a CF, and a 3B for the AFL. If Salome wasn't available, Lucroy could easily go. If Lucroy can't go to Hawawii, Fryer could easily go there. If Brantley is traded, Cain could go. However, if Gamel wasn't available, they wouldn't have a worthy replacement, unless they sent Green, who might be traded. Because of that, they might not sign up for a 3B slot in Hawaii. For Hawaii I'll guess a catcher, a SS (Brewer 1st, then Farris) and an OF, where they could send Fryer to get ABs, and if he has to fill the catcher slot, then Gindl.

The Brewers have sent there top prospects in the past. I say the 1, 3, and 4 hitters from Huntslvlle. Gamel, Brantley, and Salome for AFL. For pitchers I'd guess Miller, Agillera, and Hand. Welch and Wright will have too many innings already. I can't believe I'm saying this, but Mike Jones could figure here. Then the 2, 3, 4 hitters from BC. Brewer, Lucroy, Green. For pitchers, Jeffress, Brahmal, and hopefully Braddock.

Parra has a long history of injury. The 1st thing he should do when he's done pitching is get showered and iced. No exceptions. Also, Prince has no business describing Parra's pitching with an expletive. Prince is Milton Bradly and Carl Everett. The only difference is those guys aren't grossly overweight and to the best of my knowleadge pay there taxes.

There's only a couple of things a man could say to another man that I condone that type of attack, and I guarantee Manny said none of them. Prince is an embarrassment to Brewer fans everywhere. He has serious anger management issues, and they will only escalate if the Brewers continue to allow his behavior. Its laughable to think Fielder is considered the leader of this team, as he's the only guy who's in desperate need of following a true leader.

Brae Wright has really turned the corner. After striking out just 50 in his 1st 90 innings of the season, he has K'd 44 in his last 50 innings, with a 2.34 ERA in that span, covering 7 starts. Cody Adams is starting to get it going, there was some speculation in his pre-draft scouting reports that he was in need of some mechanical adjustments, likely part of his slow start. It is still puzzling though that he doesn't K more considering he throws pretty good smoke.

BC wins 1-0 on a walkoffhomer by Charlie Fermaint to leadoff the 9th. Terrific start by Bobby Brahmal, 6 shutout inning, allowing only 3 singles, K'd 5.

We've seen one scout who thought he was a better player than LaPorta, and another that thought Brantley is a future All-Star. How is that not top 5 worthy? I questioned Brantly before he reeled off 5 homers, but I'm a firm believer now. What is limiting his upside? He's tall, fast, and athletic, with good batspeed. Green is easily the player on the list with the worst tools. He is neither fast nor athletic, and his lack of size could become a detriment to him . Its difficult for small players to cover the plate, and if they try to compensate for that, it can open holes in there swing. I've seen you compare Green to Cirillo, but I think thats unfair because Green just doesn't have Cirillo's natural ability. The MLB player that I think Green compares to is the Cubs Mike Fontenot. Fontenot has similar size and athletism, with the same patient approach, and has some pop. He's a solid part time starter, but not an All-Star like Cirillo. Cain's OPS at Brevard County last year as a 21 year old was roughly the same as Brent Brewer has right now there as a 20 year old. You consider Brewer a longshot, but Cain is better than Brantley after only really having 1 strong month this year? Cain is toolsy, but lags behind Brantley in hitting ability, baserunning, and strike zone awareness. He does have a stronger arm than Brantley, but I don't know if thats a big deal for a CF. I agree that Lucroy is an outstanding prospect. I also agree that Gillespie doesn't have a starting spot in Milwaukee, and is likely very close to reaching his ceiling, whereas Brantley and Cain could improve immensly by the time they reach Gillespie's present age.

I think your being too conservative with your timeline, because Lawrie has faced far more advanced pitching than Fielder had faced in HS. Lawrie made an Olympic team Taylor Green couldn't even make. Lawrie might be a AA caliber hitter right now. While I agree thats the probable course of action, I think that would be detrimental in helping Lawrie to develop into a quality defender at 3B or 2B. He is not good at either of those positions yet either, and I think it takes a ton of experience to develop a player into a good 3B. If Lawrie spent a couple of years catching before moving to another position, he'd likely not be ready defensively when he's promoted to the bigs. We've seen too many players like that the last few years. Contenders don't have the margin for error to tollerate bad defense.

With 2 more hits last night, Brent Brewer is hitting 324 over his last 10 games, with 4 doubles and a triple, and 5 walks.

The Brewers will be adding Escobar and Gamel to the big league lineup within the next year. How many rookies can we really tolerate at once and still be contenders? Trading off every established player and replacing him with a rookie is a good way to rebuild, but we didn't even contend yet. When Escobar gets plugged in at SS, either Hardy moves to 2B, or gets traded to fill other holes. I don't know where Gamel will play, but when he ready he gives us the lefthanded bat we need, and will be an asset at some position. The team is not trading away all the prospects, they kept an appropriate amount. Also, your not acknowledging the fact that they've found a way to add more prospects to the system, and that system also adds dominate players to the big league roster(Sebathia).

True, but because these players previously didn't receive oppurtunities they may have deserved, it suddenly becomes alright to deny Cruz an oppurtunity he's earned?

He's hitting AAA pitching better than ever, so theres reason to believe he has closed some of those holes. AAA is filled with guys like Dillard and Difilice that have gotten big league hitters out.

Actually, I think you may be looking at it shortsighted. You talk about trading for rentals pushing prospects back years, suggesting that the traded prospects have to be replaced by the compensatory picks. How did we replace the prospects that disappeared from the system when Fielder, Hardy , Weeks, Braun, Gollardo, and Parra graduated from the system the last 3 years? We already had more prospects drafted. We have guys already in our system to replace the traded prospects. Jack Z isn't going to just go crosseyed and forget how to get the next Green, Cain, or Bryson. We have top guys like Gamel, Jeffress, Lucroy, Green, Brantley, Etc., and we got them without the benefit of compensatory picks. Now here's the reason I think your being shortsighted. The Brewers have found a system to exploit there greatest organizational asset, Jack Z, and you haven't waited to see the results. The Brewers have been drafting several players a year that become prospects, and now will be supplamenting that with compensatory picks, which will add even more prospects coming down the pipe than we've seen so far. If your willing to wait for domminance, wait until the draft classes of 2008 and 2009 have a year to develop. The Brewers will have more prospects for the big league club, and more prospects to trade for rentals, which will give us more comp picks.

Thats interesting. The most recent Lucroy article had his pop times topping out at 1.68. That explains how Salame is struggling to throw people out while Lucroy has thrown out 21 of his last 35. I wonder if the Brewers would jump Lucroy past Salome all the way to AAA next year?

While this deal does make perfectly good sense, theres 1 snag. Lawrie can't be dealt until 1 year after he's signed, and he likely won't sign until the middle of August. The deal could be Halladay for a PTBNL and a pitching prospect, with Lawrie being on the PTBNL list, but that would be a PR nightmare for Toronto, to deal Halladay and not even be able to brag up the guy you got to your fans. The Brewers will have a slew of other Canadians who will be working there way into the middle and upper minors next year though. The Brewers Canadian scouting is really starting to show fruit.

You need to take park effects into account. Overbay and Gamel are on opposite ends of the spectrum there. Nobody puts up a line like Gamel is in the Southern League. The only other guy to do it in recent history was Miguel Caberra, and he ended that season batting cleanup for the WS champs. Also, Fielder has just a 854 OPS, and its the end of July. Thats not impressive for a guy with no defense.

So does that mean Gamel and Escobar have no value, because they haven't been traded yet? Its very up in the air if the Brewers will pick up Mike Cameron's $10 million option for next year, leaving Gwynn as the Brewers only in house canidate for CF next year. Forget Hart in CF, he still hasn't mastered RF yet, and wasn't tollerable statistically in CF in the past. That might have something to do with why Gwynn's still here. We have had numerous reports over the last year of teams interested in Gwynn, but the Brewers seem to be in love with him. I don't agree with there infatuation, but its undeniable. Teams do this all the time, because it works. Brewer has an OPS over 700 in July, and is a terrific basestealer. He's earning his keep there. I would think he could put up some big numbers in A+ in a couple years when he gets to be the age of the prospects we're worrying about losing to the Indians. The Yankees did the same with Austin Jackson a year ago, is he a non-prospect too?

While I might have preffered a player we could control versus a rental, no other pitched available offered close to the dominant ability of Sebathia. I also don't think you can look at the deal as LaPorta for Sebathia and Bryson and PTBNL for 2 comp picks. If the comp picks had been eliminated, you still wouldn't be able to get Sebathia for LaPorta. I think the Linebrink deal was different than this one, because the Brewers were able to find a team that overvalued Inman and Garrison because SD is totally statistacally based now. The Brewers cashed in a couple of low ceiling prospects for guys with much higher ceiling. The Indians demanded quality prospects, and got them. The Brewers could make the deal because they still have a number of impact guys in the system, and the comp picks will send more on the way. Brent Brewer is still a high quality prospect. Production is just a small part of prospectum. He's 20 in A+. Gwynn would start in CF in a few organizations. He has trade value. Its unfair to compare pitching prospects to position prospects. The rate of pitching busts is much higher for every team. Thats why you trade prospects for pitchers like Sebathia. Your also assuming that this PTBNL is a sure thing to make it, thats a bit of a leap for a guy in A+. Murray is the last position player bust Jack Z has made, and that was in 2001. His scouting staff is light years ahead of where it was back then.