Never Outhustled

The problem with that 20/20 type of OF in Ray is Milwaukee has Phillips, Trent Clark, Demi Orimoloye, and potentially Rymer Liriano and Monte Harrison that mold in near that 20/20. Maybe it'd be 15/25 or 25/15 but if 20/20 makes one excited viewing that there's a handful with that kind of excitement to develop. What does he really add to the Brewers Organization? Now say he was a 30HR or 30+SB guy with .300+BA, one could be okay with it. You can only play 3 OFs a game. You need 5 SPs, 3 of them to be good to give your team playoff hopes. 4 and 5 just adds to the likelihood. And if we switch gears and say well how about the defense? I don't read a Jason Hayward type of Defense projection. Just that he has the arm to play all 3. Another negative, personally is he's listed 5' 11". Would be the only one of that group of 5 under 6'. I'm telling you, height results in higher ceilings. 6' 3"-6'6" especially seems to be a magic spot in that regard. 6'7"+ has the awkward balance issues seem to begin. Delvin Perez is 6'3" currently. He could grow still. Milwaukee needs to continue with high ceiling choices and not solid floor/ceiling settles. They will always be behind in MLB payrolls. You hit on a few of these youngest with high ceilings together in a period this team can make a run for multiple seasons at a division title. Don't? well, bad results will result in high picks to keep churning on the upside choices. You trade away the ML pieces in the time you're building such an event. We're not looking for 20/20 guys, we're looking for high OPS performers. We have very few OFs who fit that description, but Ray doesn't either. Ray is simply not a great hitter, and hasn't progressed much in his 3 years of college ball, so there's no reason to belive he'll suddenly make a big jump with the bat. Zack Collins, Kyle Lewis, and Will Craig are the 3 best bats available. Craig will be under-drafted because he's likely a 1B only. Collins might be too. Senzel is a ways behind those bats, and is a Boras client, so he's not on my Brewers list.

Yea but you liked the Jungmann pick so you broke even... Yup, and he was a very good big league pitcher last year. Now he's pitching hurt. He'll be back. Jungmann was one of the better selections out of that draft round.

I'm assuming alot of Braves brass saw him at Georgia Tech and someone asked to see if they could spend a few euros to acquire him to see if they can jumpstart his career. If they saw him at Georgia Tech, I doubt they'd have much interest in him. He was nothing but mediocre there too. Simply a horrendous pick, just as I said it was the day it was made. It's relieving to know Ray Montgomery is now in charge of next week's draft.

Didn't far well? Jhan had a 1.92 ERA with a 1.09 WHIP and more KS than innings pitched last year. You won't find many better than that. Late bloomer, but that's common among late relievers. I'll predict he'll pass up Thornburg within a month. Very solid addition. Well done Stearns. If it was Melvin, we'd have a bunch of relievers locked into muti-year deal and zero flexibility to do a deal like this. 2013 and 2014 numbers were horrible. One good year, yes. We have guys at AAA that have as good of numbers as Martinez that should of been brought up first. Currently Barnes has a lower era, k an inning and lower whip. So you'd rather rush up pitchers who've barely pitched at AAA than add another terrific arm to the organization? I like Barnes and Magnifico too, but just let them develop. They'll fit up here perfectly in August if we deal a reliever or 2 to some desperate contender at the deadline. What's amazing to me is that the Brewers were able to land Marinez when the Reds could use 7 of him. Lucky for us that they were sleeping behind the wheel.

The Royals will just go with 23 year old Chelsor Cuthbert, who had an OPS over 1000 at AAA. I wish there was a match here, but there isn't. I was hoping we'd be able to get Cuthbert, but now that's out the window.

Nearly 30? He's 28. Improves offensively every year, and is now a terrific AAA hitter. He's always been good defensively. Catchers are often late bloomers offensively, because they get so fewer at-bats each year than players at other positions. Pina is becoming a solid candidate to hold the catching spot warm until Nottingham is ready. Pina could be a Latin version of Damien Miller.

Didn't far well? Jhan had a 1.92 ERA with a 1.09 WHIP and more KS than innings pitched last year. You won't find many better than that. Late bloomer, but that's common among late relievers. I'll predict he'll pass up Thornburg within a month. Very solid addition. Well done Stearns. If it was Melvin, we'd have a bunch of relievers locked into muti-year deal and zero flexibility to do a deal like this.

Nice addition. Hard thrower. Was wild a few years ago, but was outstanding in AAA last year, and was off to a strong start this year. High K rate. Hard to believe that the Rays didn't have room for this guy. Lucky for us.

We all love walks....OBP is more important than OPS (according to Moneyball, as OPS undervalues OBP), but isn't that a bit of an overstatement? Agreed. Gatewood walked 32 times in under 400 ABs as a 19 year old. Not great, but shows he's willing to take a few. Most importantly, he has 10 hits in his last 20 ABs, with 3 home and a bunch of doubles. He's still adjusting to the major fundamental changes to playing 3B, but has the tools to be a major defensive asset there.

The Mets are supposedly making a deal for an unnamed reliever. Is it K-Rod? It would make sense.

Baez was similar, he went to the MLB and struck out 40% of the time and he's still waiting on a 2nd try. Joc Pederson is striking out 30% of the time, hitting very good though. Springer has been great with 30% K rate. If he can keep it under 30% I think he can be fine maybe even good. One thing to add about Baez is that he only had a 833 OPS at AAA before his promotion last year. He was simply too young and raw.

That just isn't true. He got 337 PAs in 2013 in 134 games. It would be great if he turned into Brady Clark as a guy who puts it together during ages 29-31. It is just rather unlikely. Most relevant are Schafer's poor AAA numbers. He fits better in AA than in the Majors. He was a poor hitter the day they drafted him, and predictably that's never changed. It disappoints me the Brewers didn't acquire some AAA player and give him his shot for the remainder of the year.

YES! a solid GB rate is KEY for half a season at Miller Park Agreed. Davies also limits the home runs. Never underestimate a pitcher with a great changeup. Absolutely nothing like Dave Bush. He's more similar to Marco Estrada with a much better breaking ball. That combination has a chance to be a real good pitcher. The Brewers bet on the fact that Parra would improve at the plate once he had time to work Kirk Gibson's poison out of his head. They were right.

Domingo Santana has played a little CF in the minors. Can he play there for the Brewers now at least until Phillips is ready?

Gatewood is a SS, did you mean Harrison? No. They just look much different at the plate. When I saw Taylor it was when he was still hitting before he tailed off, and I commented that I thought he was just mature for his age and not a great prospect. That's turned out to be pretty much true. I see the exact opposite from Gatewood, he's someone to truly get excited about.

Gatewood is now hitting 343 over his last 10. Plans can change, he'll stay in Wisconsin. I've seen all the top prospects the last 15 years. Gatewood is special, awestrikingly gifted. I like him so much more than Tyrone Taylor.

It's exciting to think with the new man in charge that we can get back to predicting the Brewers will make a good selection. I'll predict Cornelius Randolph, announced as a 3B. He's underrated, you can't ignore that bat. Talent, and coincidently fills a need.

Could be more injury issues. I'd prefer the news to be that's he's been dealt though.

Me too. I was sick of people here telling me they'd never sit a vet to play Clark or Rogers in September. RR wants production, and he knows he not going to suddenly find it in the washed up has beens he was forced to use the first 5 months of the season. I might have good with Rogers over Clark, but I'll take either over Lark Roverbay.

Well then curve the number for "park effects," for us and prove him wrong....though to be fair, I'm not sure you can since he didn't "rate," their impact highly at all. He simply stated a couple facts and said he doubts the Brewers are going to dump two veterans for a guy who's never played in the big leagues this September. Being a vet doesn't secure your job, nor should it. The only way to secure a job is to be productive at it, which Reynolds and Overbay were not. No way the Brewers push aside 2 vets in a pennant race you say? Sure they would, Matt Clark starts today. Kudos to RR for not accepting mediocrity. The only hard part of that decision was whether to start Clark or Rogers.

Mark Reynolds has a 540 OPS in August, and a sub-700 OPS for the season. Give Clark a starting oppurtunity, I doubt he would be worse, and could be significantly better. Reynolds is actually making better contact this month (3.92 AB per K) despite the bad numbers so an argument could be made he's hitting in some bad luck. He did have a .799 OPS in July. Overbay's OPS in August is .873. Yes Clark is having a great half season in AAA. But they aren't going to sit both Overbay and Reynolds for a career minor league first baseman with no major league experience in the heat of a pennant race. Clark should and probably will get a long look in spring. He's earned that. He also may have made Hunter Morris expendable. They could add him strictly as bench bat in September by clearing Gindl's 40 man spot. Let's see what happens. If you curve the numbers for park effects you're way off. Park effects matter, but your grossly over rating their impact.

Nice. Not concerned about the money next year because winning now helps increase next year's budget.

Sean Halton's best minor league season above rookie ball was an 852 OPS. Matt Clarks career OPS is 863. These 2 players don't compare. Jason Rogers still might be the best of the bunch though.

Mark Reynolds has a 540 OPS in August, and a sub-700 OPS for the season. Give Clark a starting oppurtunity, I doubt he would be worse, and could be significantly better.

No, what that says is that you should heavily discount guys in their late 20s putting up good numbers in the PCL, i.e. Rogers and Clark. Schafer was terrible last year and was terrible this year. Rogers and Clark shouldn't be discounted simply because Schafer is no good. That duo's stats are on a different spectrum. In the same time frame that Schafer put up a rather pedestrian 815 OPS, they OPSed over 1.100 and over 1.200 respectively. Rogers has a history of strong finishes. They're earning their oppurtunity, something Schafer was given by default, and predictably failed with. Clark could be the next Garret Jones or Mike Carp, which would be an upgrade to our present situation.