Never Outhustled

No big deal, DNA Falu, option Figaro, and purchase Jeffress. Falu isn't going anywhere, and even if he does, we still have the same guy in Bianchi. Disaster averted today.

Mark Reynolds had a 279 average in the minors. Roache has a ton of work to do. The system has just 1 impact bat, Coulter. Arcia is a really good prospect without an impact bat. I've seen Taylor several times and I consider him just really mature for his age and not a high upside prospect. He's a tweener. Hopefully Harrison and Gatewood develop, that would really change the system.

Interesting. Despite his age, he's been outstanding ever since leaving Texas 4 1/2 years ago. His control has improved, and he still throws hard. That said, he's really overpaid because he just a reliever. Plus we need 1B more.

It's not just his stats this year. He's 31 and his last good year was when he was 26. Also, he doesn't play SS. Elian is the back-up SS right now along with being the back-up OF. His value is his versatility. It's needed because we're essentially playing roster spot short with Wang here.

There's no reason to think Gatewood is an over slot player. He has no interest in college so he lacks leverage. He was drafted where his talent dictated. Harrison will get the extra money the team saved with senior selection Demuth in round 2. These guys aren't Boras clients, it will get done. As for Seid, he definately needed this. I don't understand how some blame the farm system lack of talent on the Covey issue. We didn't lose a pick, it was just delayed a year. The problem was Sied flushed it by selecting a pedestrian college pitcher in Bradley. Sied finally seems to be drafting like his mentor, that was long overdo.

Has Jack Z secretly returned to Milwaukee? Melvin did hint at the desire for more HS selections in recent interviews when he spoke about how much more common it has been for HOFs to come from the HS level.

John Sickles calls Kodi's slider the best breaking ball in the draft. Is this an Oakland A's style selection?

The last lefty the Brewers selected early after he blew them away in the Miller Park workout was Evan Fredrickson. Kodi is at least a far better athlete than the robotic Fredrickson.

I like Gillaspie or Holmes.

I'm really excited to be back here with all you dudes. It looks like you all have done your homework. I haven't been in here since a few goofballs called me an idiot for being critical of the Jed Bradley selection. I predict the Brewers do well tonight, they seem connected to the right players.

The Brewers need to seriously consider taking a 1B with #12. The best hitters in this draft are 1Bs, including Casey Gillespie. I'm sure some will say thats an overdraft, just like they did in 2011 when I wanted CJ Cron with our 2nd 1st round pick. Now CJ Cron is mashing in the majors and is the middle of the order caliber 1B we need, while Jed Bradley is unfortunately exactly what I expected him to be. He can't get righthanders out, and profiles as a loogy at best. Gillaspie actually fits our future needs even better than Cron, as he's a switch hitter, an OBA guy, and is a better defender. Unlike other top hitters in this draft, he has shown big improvement each year. The others have had a lower rate of rise, suggesting they're closer to reaching their ceiling. 1st round caliber 1Bs are the safest, most successful 1st round picks made, despite the fact that they're usually drafted later in the round. Gillaspie doesn't swing and miss, and has good work ethic, so he's an incredibly safe pick. I find it interesting that one of the knocks on Casey in his scouting reports is that his brother Conor has struggled. Casey is a significantly better hitter than Conor was at this age, and Conor is now hitting very well in the majors as a 25 year old. What Conor is doing should help Casey's case, if anything. If we have to go pitching, Grant Holmes is an exciting package. The supposed bad body knock doesn't bother me. Remember how Jimmy Nelson was built when we drafted him? I remember being completely disgusted watching him with the T-rats with that frumpy, unconditioned build. Now he's strong and a perfect example of conditioning at its finest, and his stuff has improved dramatically because of it. Holmes doesn't need to improve his velocity, he just needs to maintain it. I agree with TheCrew07 that we don't need to take overwhelming risk with this pick, we simply need to draft intelligently.

2 more players who could be included in package deals are Fiers and Wang. Whoever we aquire a lefty bat from will likely be a re-building club. They seek cheap, controllable assets like Fiers, and have room for a project like Wang. Anyone who tells me Wang has no trade value better be of the stance that they're in favor of with dumping him from the roster, or they're being pypocritical. If he's worth carrying on a contender, then he must be a serious prospect who's extremely likely to earn his way back to the majors in the future and therefore has trade value. Traded Wang as part of a deal to upgrade over Overbay could have a major impact on this team, as it allows for major upgrades at not one but 2 positions on this roster. The real difficulty is finding a worthwhile lefty swinging bat to acquire. They just don't seem to exist right now, which is a shame. Normally this would be a very easy need to satisfy.

I found it very interesting that Sied mentioned 3B as a possibility for Coulter if he moves off catcher. Hopefully that move is made next winter, just like it happened with Lawrie. A year ago someone did a stat analysis of the top hitters including curves for level of competition. Has anyone done that this year? I'd like to see how Roaches sophomore year compares.

I hope there right about Roaches wrist. I'm sure they did there homework. Big power if he can get back to what he was. Picking power is where the Brewers excell.

I'll say Piscotty and Coulter, with Binsen at 38.

At catcher, its extremely likely that his development is held back by injury, and even healthy catchers get fewer at-bats, thus slowing the development of his bat. On top of that, there's no guarantee he'll stick defensively at catcher. The success rate of developing catchers is atrocious. Rather than treating Coulter like a lottery ticket, I say move him to another position, just as I suggested with Lawrie. I don't see any legit RF prospects in the system either. I'd prefer 3B though if that's an option.

As for drafting a SS, I don't think its a priority over other needs. Anyone we draft now is 4 years from the majors. With the state of our farm system, the only positions that aren't holes on the projected MLB team in 4 years are LF and C. Simply take anyone that might have a chance to hit anywhere near the middle of the order in the future.

Exciting times. I like the idea of a productive power hitter like Coulter, and I love the competitive level of anyone who was a HS wrestling state champ. However, I hate the idea of risking the future of such a talented player by playing him at catcher. What other positions could he play? Does he have the hands for 3B? Enough speed for RF?

Yes, Hawkins is good, every bit as good as K-rod. He's just too professional to whine about his role like K-rod.

Lopez is a very intriguing prospect, but has no business in a top 5 discussion. He was drafted in the same range as recent draft picks Evan Frederickson, Cody Adams, Seth Lintz, Max Walla, Cam Garfield, and Jimmy Nelson. Those guys show us we should value high quality AAA players over players drafted after round 1.

Gindl and Manzanillo are locks, as others have said. Meadows and Wheeler will have their fates decided in the AFL.

Exactly. I wasn't disputing his attitude, I reported concerns with that years ago, before it became a hot topic. I simply disagreed with Homers heresay of the Brewers opinion.

Wow. That couldn't be more devoid of fact. Nothing like making things up to support a weak argument. Pretty unfair to the player too.

The thing that bothers me is, Melvin knew all about Gamel's issues, so why didn't he deal him when his value was still high? As for Money, like others have already said, the guy is clueless. The 1st wave of Brewers prospects was far more successful than the 2nd wave, maube that was, in part, because they had a far better AAA manager than Money putting the finishes touches on them. What was the name of our previous, very successful, AAA manager?

Bando hand selected Antone Williamson with the 4th overall selection, because Williamson was an ASU 3rd baseman, just like himself. That ended in disaster. Melvin has very little draft input, which is the most common method of operation.