Never Outhustled

I would think AA is a possibility. Jeffress just dominated for the month of June, posting a 2.29 ERA with 43 Ks in 37 innings. He was a groundball machine, and averaged just over 6 innings a start. His only hiccup this month was a game he pitched in the rain, and he was dominant for the 1st 4 innings of that start too. If Jeffress can spend some time in AA this year, and then make up for lost time in the AFL, he could be in AAA as early as next year. Jeffress is a different pitcher than Gallardo, but they have similar results, and could be on the same timeline.

Where has someone complained about a non-prospect playing out of position? The minors in for developing major leaguers, than why did non prospects like Moss and Caufield play CF ahead of Brantley? Why is Chris Dennis risking further injury and important development time playing injuried? Why is Braddock, and Sarafate among others in the past, pitching on 3 days rest? Well, except the 7 other affiliates. Also, the minor league 7 day DL is there to try to protect young players from the laziness of guys like Nichols. To add some good news, Jeffress scoreless threw 4, it sounded like Brent Brewer just helped him out with a nifty play.

True, but Mota has a bad ERA for the 4th straight year. He is not a good pitcher.

I don't think you were, as these types of problems have plagued Reid Nichols for years. Nichols also allowed Braddock to start on 3 days rest yesterday. Having prospects play injured, starting pitchers DH, and pitchers start on 3 days rest is rediculous if avoidable. Nichols already lost some of his responsibilities, but it looks like he still has too many. He was also part of the decision to not let Michael Brantley play CF until this year, another bone headed move. Nichols doesn't really have a positive, as the biggest part of player development he could impact is defense, and all the prospects he was in charge of are wretched defensively despite having worthwhile tools.

In the last 2 games, Carolina has stole 9 bases in 10 attempts against Salome. He also had his 8th and 9th passed balls of the season. Ouch. Its easy to figure out how a team with the offensivew talent Huntsville has doesn't dominate. They are awful defensively.

Thanks for re-opening the thread Maas Haas. Even though everyone seems to be either all in or all out on this one, its been really fun to follow, and I'm guessing it will continue to be for years. If anything, it will be educational. Jack Z has had phenomal success with bloodline picks. There hasn't been a single bust yet, and some great success's, and it looks like more are coming. Dykstra is a great athlete (IIRC, he won the athletic skills compitition at the Area Code Games, over guys like Aaron Hicks) and his stock should be on the rise just because he is a Jack Z bloodlines pick. Luis Martinez had awesome stats until he hit the bigs too. I like Inman, but stats only tell half the story. San Diego only believes in stats now, but they've been a wreck since the change in philosophy. Then the the matter of Inmans past medical history, which the Brewers know better than anybody. Until Inman proves he can handle a starters workload without breaking down, he profiles closer to Matt Herges or Heath Bell than a #3 starter.

Venditte was also drafted by the Yankees last season late, but didn't sign. He got alot of attention last season after rolling up something like 40 straight scoreless innings. I wish we would have drafted him. A cheap senior sign, and I like his chances better than most 20th rounders.

Yes, its kind of a free for all after the 5th round. The only requirement (suggestion actually) is the commissioners office asks teams to sign players after round 5 to more than the amount slotted for the last player of round 5, which this year is up to $150,000. This year theres also been a 2 player exemtion for up to $250,000. to the best of my knowlege, the Brewers have yet to exercise those exemtions. No penalties, but supposedly its counted against you in things like all-star game consideration and others favors a team might ask of the commissioners office.

He signed for slot. Why is that suprising?

Zarraga is definately somebody to get excited about. He recieved the 3rd highest signing bonus of all Brewer draft picks last year, an overslot $250 K. That says a ton about his ability. The Brewers have awesome catching depth. In a few years, we'll be argueing about which catchers will have to move to a different position so we can get there bats in the lineup. You heard it here 1st.

So Grudz has never once matched Weeks 374 OBA from last year? Weeks had a poor OBA at this time last year too. Odds are pretty good Weeks will have a better OBA than Grudz from this point forward. Odds are excellent Weeks will have more steals, and advance more bases on hits.

LaPorta is a much better RF than Gamel is a 3B. Also, Laporta's hitting this year is more impressive to me as its the 1st time he's seen anything close to this caliber of pitching, while Gamel has seen the level of pitching he's seen increase gradually. Laporta may be a few months older than Gamel, but he hasn't had the same quality of experience, and his junior year of college was basically a lost year because of nagging injury. As for Sebathia, he hasn't been as good as Greinke this year, and had only pitched 200 innings once in the last 5 years.

Whats your source on that? http://www.mlb4u.com/profile.php?id=845 gives him 1 year and 135 days entering this season, but there a year off IMO. There not 2 years off though.

Fielder is a good fit for Cleveland, but he is worth significantly more than Sebathia because of there contract situations. I'd rather deal Fielder for a longterm pitching solution with Sheets impending FA looming over us.

The Royals were asking 3 top prospects for Greinke last season, and that was when he was just a reliever. Now he's a dominant starter, and he's 3 years from FA after this season (he did not have 3 full seasons of service time entering this season, as he was a mid May call-up in 2004, and only had a couple weeks in the majors in 2006). Somebody will meet the Royals asking price for Greinke. If you curve his ERA, WHIP, and Ks for moving to the NL, he would clearly be an ace type pitcher for the Crew. We can, and should, get Greinke. He should be the centerpiece of a package for Fielder. Sure, Greinke has some past baggage, but Fielder has some pretty serious present baggage (massive weight problem, anger management issues, financial issues) and a Scott Boras relationship. The Royals seem to like dealing with Boras, they have a suprisingly solid rotation, and a major whole at 1B. There present 1B is Ross Gload, who is terrible, and Billy Butler is a big disappointment as there DH. Butler would likely be the 1B with Fielder DHing, as even the poor defensive Butler in better than Fielder at 1B. I say Fielder and Bush for Greinke and Joakim Soria. Soria gives the Brewers an outstanding closer for years to come, but he just a luxory on a bad team like the Royals.I throw in Bush because he would be out of the rotation, has no trade value as evidenced by him clearing waivers earlier this year, and would have to clear waivers again to go to AAA. I'm not sure if the Royals would him to fill Greinke's spot in the rotation though. They have an outstanding talent in Carlos Rosa presently working in relief, and he could be promoted to the rotation.

If Lintz did indead sign for $900,000, as he reported, then I have a pretty good idea what the hold up is, its the commisioners office. Thats enough above slot value that the commisioners office will get invloved and try to talk ownership out of the deal. They won't approve the contract for weeks.

While disappointing, its almost relieving to find out there was scar tissue to clean out, which was holding him back. I'd rather him need more surgery, than be healthy but throwing with no velocity.

I agree. Dillon plays an allright 3B, but is real poor at 2B. Hall is a better 2B than 3B. Dillon should platoon with Branyan at 3B, and Hall should play 1 of the middle infield positions fulltime while our 2 injury prone middle infielders are out.

Like Tampa did with Josh Hamilton? The man has been through treatment, and I'm more than willing to give him a 2nd chance. With a drug problem in his past , he now has something in common with Brewer great Paul Molitor. Pretty soon, I hope he can add a few more similarities, like major leaguer and all-star.

Matt LaPorta is hot again. Home Run #17 makes it 1-0 Stars. That pushes LaPorta's OPS back over 1.000, which is silly in that league.

His value could get alot lower. He's been hovering around a 700 OPS. That would be a big upgrade for a team like Cleveland, San Fran, and Baltimore, all who have middle infielders with sub 600 OPS. Also, were not even at the seasons half way point, so teams can still assume Hall might turn it around. However, the longer Hall struggles, the more teams will worry his past accomplishments are a thing of the past. The farther removed we get from Halls big season, the less he is worth. The Brewers can platoon Dillon with Branyan, and Mat Gamel is waiting in the wings. Even if Hall improves against RHPs, he won't hit them any better than Branyan. Hall is a luxory on this team. His real value is with a team that needs a middle infielder.

Nieman doesn't have the stuff anymore that lead him to be a high draft pick. They burned him up pretty good in college. Plus, he's overweight. His results at AAA have been only a little above average. He got knocked around in a couple of big league starts this year. He's Seth McClung with less velocity. I could definately see Tampa being interested in Hall, but I expect more in return. I'm surprised we haven't heard any rumors about what teams are offering for Hall, I'm sure Melvin has fielded plenty of calls, as there's a bunch of teams that have a bad middle infielder.

Sgt. Clueless had it right earlier. Sheets future in Milwaukee will depend on his willingness to except on incentive laden contract. MLB rules only permit playing time incentives, which is exactly what we want here. I would be fine with Sheets being 1 of the 3 highest paid pitchers in baseball if he rached his innings pitchers incentives. He's oustanding when he pitches. I'm thinking 3 yrs $36 million, with another $4 million for reaching 200 innings, and another $3 million for reaching 225 innings. Sheets is constantly annoyed by being refered to as injury prone, which might push him to except a deal like this.

Weaver is the worst starter in Nashville. I'd rather see Steve Hammond promoted to his spot in AAA.

The Brewers can simply take the package they recieve for Fielder and deal it for a dominant starting pitcher. The Package we'd receive for Fielder would be as much or more than what the D-backs gave up for Dan Haren this past offseason. What would make the Brewers better next year, Haren equivilent and LaPorta, or Fielder and Bush? Its Haren equivilent and LaPorta is my mind, by a pretty easy margin.