HiAndTight

Alvarez is definitely a big time prospect, but I expected more out of him thus far for where he was drafted and the hype surrounding him coming out of college. He's putting up a good line in AAA, but I'll stop short of calling him a beast. He's having a good AAA season right now. But he's about .275/.370 with good power numbers.

I would guess it would be a reference to how Gamel was picked a little bit later and has turned into a very good bat. He was a 5th rounder I thought though. That's about as good a guess as I can get. Anyway, I don't think anyone "anointed him" the heir apparent to Prince. The question was "might he be ready to take over".....not that he'd some how replace Prince. Simply be ready to play 1st in a short period of time.

I agree this is not good news, but there's a whole helluva lot more to our farm system in the way of pitching prospects than Rivas and Rogers. Peralta, Scarpetta, Heckathorn, Odorizzi are a few with higher upsides. I just hope he doesn't focus on just 2 pitches while in the bullpen. I hope he continues to refine them as though he's going to become a starter. It's sad though that you're forced to do this for a lack of friggin attention. He's one of the guys with no injury history(until this recent bought of tenderness) and a free and easy delivery in which he can hit the upper 90's later on in the game. And HE'S now moved to the pen. No, this has to be a temporary move. At least I really hope so.

I don't agree with the comment, and I feel for Angel, but this without question takes a enormous bite out of his MLB future. He went from a guy who I think could have been an exceptional catcher(or a bust, he was a boom for bust type player in my mind) to a guy who I don't think will ever make it and I don't think will ever be a starter if he does. Obviously his emotional well being is a distant 2nd to his playing future, but this obviously hurts his playing future a TON.

The LuCroy situation is actually fine with me. This is ONE case where I'm somewhat alright with a young guy coming up and not playing everyday. In pretty much every other situation and position I'd like to see your young player getting the starts, but with a catcher I almost equate it to a QB. I think it can help to watch and learn for a while at the big league level. As for Salome, he's actually not catching anymore? I haven't heard this. That seems.....asinine to say the least. I don't know if that's his decision or the organizations, but either way, you pretty much just went from a potential starter at the big league level to a slow, slight hitting RF'er. I cannot fathom why they would do this.

You want to see the absolute poster boy for bad luck, look at Doug Davis. Everything across the board is up from last year except for BABIP and ERA. I do think Stetter can be a key component to our BP as a Loogy....well...as "key" as a Loogy can be, but he can be very good in that role, and alright as a full inning guy provided he's down the list. I do not like Hoffman, and to be honest I didn't last year when he was exceptional, but I think he HAS to bounce back and improve a ton on what he's done thus far. He hasn't lost velocity(didn't really have it to lose, many of us could come close to matching his fastball), you don't forget how to throw a change after all these years. Not exactly sure with him, but I think he'll figure something out and be serviceable. I'm very, very worried about Axford. I think Turnbow had less of a chance to turn into...well..."Turnbow" than Axford does. Here's a guy who has almost no track record. Sometimes those guys come out of nowhere, more often they come out of nowhere, have a nice stretch and return to nowhere. I spent the first two weeks watching this team, results be damned, just watching them and thinking, "this is a good team". I don't know what happened. Their pitching taken individually is NOT this bad. Their defense taken individually is not this bad. They're actually less than the sum of their parts to me. Parra stepping up and grabbing hold of the #3 spot would be monumentally important. I would still like to see a complete tear down happen, but it's not likely.

Given the Brewers recent success with drafting players later on for above slot deals, and a smaller draft budget with a number of college picks, plus a pretty standard 1st rounder(or at least he appears to be), I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if we signed Gibson. I also think spending 360-400K on a pitcher here is a far better investment if you believe him to be among the nations elite Left Handed prep arms, than...well, any FA signing. I'm betting the Brewers get this one done.

And it goes beyond the actual #'s, if ever there was a player who passes the "eye test" more than Gamel, I don't know who it is. Maybe it's just me, but I'm absolutely infatuated with him. I see him as having an ideal LH'ed stroke spraying line drives from gap to gap, hitting for power, staying in vs lefties like no young left hander that I've ever seen us bring up. Had you not heard a word about his defensive struggles in the minors, you'd say his defense was average to well above average. Had you not heard a word about his offensive prowess, you'd have likely seen a guy with a picture perfect approach and short, compact, swing at the plate who stays in the zone long. Those who's arguments are, "He's no sure thing while McGehee is", I just vehemently disagree with that. Nobody is a sure thing, but this suggests you don't go with prospects as they're almost NEVER a sure thing with a few exceptions like Strasburg...but again, Mike Prior anyone? Not far behind coming out, and quite possibly equally regarded at the time of the draft. The next generation of stars come from these "no sure things". And the next generation of disappointments come from these 27 year old-career year types who vastly exceed minor league expectations. Not say this is black and white, but it needs to be kept in mind. As I've said, if Gamel and McGehee both get to play 450 games in the following 3 years, I'd bet every dollar that Gamel posts hither BA, high OBP, hits more HR's and carries a higher OBP. I'm THAT certain he's going to be a stud. Notthat Casey's anything to sneeze at, just think with Gamel AND Taylor Green(another guy I like a great deal) and McGehee's high value, it might b e time to make a move on Casey. Which is getting a bit off topic from Corey Hart I understand.

I don't think you're serious, but just in case you are... I think "selling high" is trading a player when you know there's no way they will sustain that level of on-field success (Hart right now)... and it's unlikely that Braun or Gallardo decline in performance anytime soon. We may not have even seen the best of them yet. Exactly. Selling high isn't trading Peyton Manning when he's 26 years old because his value is at it's highest. He's a cornerstone of your franchise, as our Gallardo and Braun. Selling high would be trading those players who are not going to be substantial pieces of your future for the next 5+ years, or even less. Corey Hart, Casey McGehee, Carlos Villanueva, Todd Coffey when he was healthy, Rickie Weeks perhaps earlier in this season(though I'd much prefer to "buy low" on him and sign him to a 4 year ext. at 7 per). Those types of players. And Prince Fielder, I don't know that high or low makes a world of difference with him as his track record and age make his value high enough. Of course a Justin Morneau season would help, but teams know what a monster he is...... But c'mon, OBVIOUSLY we're not talking about Braun or Yo. Though we could almost certainly bring back an absolute haul. Joke question, but does Braun net us Mike Stanton+Matt Dominquez+Chad James from the Marlins(He'd fit with his contract). And Yo+McGehee to Minny for Gibson+Hicks+Revere... That's a throwaway joke of a question, just curious what you think two superstar players at ages 24 and 26 locked up through 2015 would net us. I'm thinking 5 top 50 prospects and a couple other top 100-ish is about what they'd be worth.

I don't want to be rude, but I almost have to ask what in the world are people watching? First of all, if you think Gamel's "atrocious" on defense, you must be going by his scouting reports several years ago in which he's was A-Worse defensively and has since improved, B-playing in the minors on fields well below those he'll play on up here, and C-playing in the minors where Errors are handed out far more liberally. As for his swing, this hole? Griffey had a hole. Bonds had a hole. Gamel's got about the prettiest damn swing from a Left hander I've ever seen. So saying he's got holes in his swing with Gamel, that up and in, which he CAN get to, it's just not a strength, is like saying a pitchers 4th pitch isn't an out pitch. Well, fine, but that applies to everyone. As for Gamel being "wishful thinking", dude, we're talking about a guy who put up a .840-ish OPS when he was starting at 3rd last year(small sample size) and a .760 OPS overall while being severely jerked around. Now I certainly can and have been wrong many times before, but I don't understand WHAT more you want from a kid who was jerked around as severely as this kid? He looked fluid defensively, had soft hands and showed very good range to go along with a very strong arm. Makes some easy plays errors, no question about that, but looked SOOO much better than his reports suggested, and at the plate, looked patient and balanced and showed such a beautiful, quick, easy stroke and his bats stays in the zone for a LONG time. Short of MAYBE Braun, I don't know who we've had in the last 10 years that would have truly thrived the way Gamel was handled. And with regard to McGehee, I think Gamel will be better than him in every-single-facet of the game. And I like Casey. But we're already starting to see him revert back to where he'll likely fall as a career player. A .275-ish/.340-ish hitter who will be around .780 OPS and who has average defense(and I'm one of the few who still believes he WILL end up showing that he's average defensively).

I'm different here from most as I tend to give the Brewers FO most leniency on moves as there is a lot more going on than we understand. I tend to give them the benefit of the doubt. A kid like LuCroy, I'm actually fine with how they're handling him. With catchers, I'm fine with working them in slowly. The fact that we might actually be starting our future catcher right now(and a helluva a catcher if he can block the ball better than Gina Davis in a League of their own, actually Gina, not the Women she was portraying) also muddies the situation. But with Gamel, I simply don't understand what the hell they were thinking. Gamel's up there in my mind with the Brauns, Princes, Weeks, and Gallardos in terms of what type of priority they should be given as prospects coming up. I don't expect him to be as good as any of those, but I expect him to be very, very good. I'm just stunned at how he's seemingly dropped exponentially in value within this organization. There almost has to be some maturity issues, or SOMETHING else going on here, because he has the prototypical left handed swing, and I think profiles as a incredible #2 hitter, and could be a average #3 hitter. I think .300 for his career is realistic and 25-ish HR's is also within reach, not to mention he has great plate discipline, almost too good at times as he takes too many borderline calls to get those reverse K's last year. But he'll right that with regular AB's in my opinion. Personally I think he should be one of the guys we're looking at as a cornerstone of the Milwaukee Brewers moving forward and he almost seems as though he's a forgotten man.

I still am not confident it would happen, but I would gladly move Hart for any live armed pitcher showing even decent control above Low A ball right now. A Wily Peralta type? I'd gladly move him. Save this team 3 million or so for this season. Tampa may be the better option as they have such an abundance of arms it seems, but a surplus or arms is like a surplus of money. Is it ever really a "surplus"? And Hart isn't enough to get any of their top couple arms in the minors. Maybe Hart+Villanueva AND we pay his salary for the rest of the year for Hellickson. That's a trade I would gladly make as I think Hellickson in the NL could become our 3rd best starter right now. Of course off topic a bit, if packaging McGehee+Hart+Villanueva would be needed to pry Hellickson+ perhaps Jake McGee. Pay Hart's salary as well. Then turn around, deal Prince, and put up all of our arms, Bush, Davis, Wolf, and whoever esle on the market as simply salary dumps. I've certainly done an about face on Wolf thinking that with the demand for pitchers in the previous signing deadlines and the difference in demand in season vs the FA market we might be able to move him for little or no loss financially to realizing that this market for the first time in a long time will actually be flush with arms making it unlikely(though I still do feel he's going to end up being a good pitcher over the duration). Bush, Davis and the like need to re-establish themselves. In short, the McGee+Hellickson trade ideas are no doubt fantasy. Perhaps throwing in another nice, but not big future piece(Coffey perhaps as a PTBNL when he comes off the DL or hell, even Axford) might get it done. I really don't know, I'm sure everyone will tell me there's no chance, but it's something that needs to be addressed. OR frankly even Prince+Hart8 million to the Rays for a package of Hellickson+McGee+Colome. Throw in CV if you must to facilitate the trade? Then look to deal McGehee separately. I continue to covet Gibson from Minnesota hoping that someone that RH'ed hitting power stick that they desperately need+a couple of fillers, CV if not inlcuded with the TB package, Coffey again as a PTBNL, maybe even Edmonds may have some value to them...again, just as a filler. Just anything to try and get a couple nice young arms into this system. I do believe this time next year our system is going to be, or at least if healthy holds up will be recognized among the upper tier in terms of impact arms, admittedly a big "if". But I truly do love our young arms, but being able to bridge that gap and relieve some of the pressure on the young guys by going out and getting a couple guys who could slide in behind Yo and Wolf and rack up some strikeouts with some swing and miss stuff could change the entire outlook of this whole franchise. Right now we're in a desperate position in which it seems there is pressure on everyone to do something...anything to figure it out. This would almost be akin to giving the whole damn organization an anti-anxiety when it comes to the pitching and just let the guys develop on their own schedule. And at the risk of rambling, I understand the monumental loss that Prince would be, but I can honestly envision a scenario in which we're a better offensive team in the near future with the likes of Lawrie, T. Green, Cain, Gindle, LuCroy/Kottaras, K. Davis, Escobar, Gomez to go with Braun and Gamel(Who I'm 100 pct convinced is a GOOD big leaguer). My point is losing that giant, game changing bat in the middle hurts, but surrounding your two-three better players(Braun-Gamel-Lawrie) with league average guys as I believe most of those guys to be will disperse the responsibility of every player and could actually work to improve the club as a whole. It'd absolutely KILL us this year, and we may finish with 60-ish wins perhaps, but it gives us a definite plan moving forward. We've got a couple Type B Free Agents, plus a very high draft pick(top 2-3) and the turnaround could be very short. As it is, we're stuck in the no mans land that BB talks about where you're not special and you're not working toward being special.

Yes I would, and probably Kameron Loe too though he is proving to be too valuable in the pen. Bush has fought his way to 6 quality starts in 11 tries this season. Granted he's occasionally putrid, but he will scratch and battle. Capuano looked to me like the same guy he was late in 2007. He can get through the order twice, but that's it. He might have value as a couple inning reliever but he's far from the guy that once won 18 games. Well, he's only got one single start this year, but being that he's coming back from a second Tommy John, I would agree. However, he was virtually the same pitcher the year he won 18 games as he was the year he went 5-12 if you look past his record. -05 1.7 WAR, .92 GO/FO, xFIP 4.49, LD% 21.2, GB% 37.7, HR/FB 11.6, K/9 7.23, BB/9 3.74 BABIP-.291 -07 1.8 WAR 1.11 GO/FO, xFIP 4.34, LD% 18.8, GB% 43.0, HR/FB 11.2, K/9 7.92, BB/9 3.24 BABIP-.340 I don't see much difference there other than the Brewers didn't defend as well for him and he got unlucky. Of course the same goes for Doug Davis this year who's fallen victim to bad luck and atrocious Defense far more than anything else, but that's for another thread.

That would be an amazing draft. I wanted Allie in the 1st, so in the 2nd? If he or Cole falls to us, it'd be like getting two top 15 picks in this draft. It'd go a long way to temper my envy of the Angels, Rays and Rangers. The later two with already sick systems. Of course I like ours a lot more than others.

I disagree. Weeks has an obvious history of injuries including to both wrists.... I think he has a strong incentive to sign a contract that would guarantee him 30-35 million dollars. I suppose it depends on what he feels his worth is. He talked about a possible extension earlier this year saying that signing one means you have to leave some money on the table, but you for that you get security. Something to that affect. This may take some of the pressure of Weeks and he may relax and become the player we've seen in stretches more consistently.

Well, Estrada would have to be put on waivers, wouldn't he? Anyway, I would agree with adding Loe. He's had some decent years in Texas, certainly a more difficult place to pitch. Low K rates and higher Whips, but hell, that's basically what we have now. Might as well see if he can build on the Nashville success.

It doesn't meet any of their needs? Of course it does. It meets their biggest needs. They're a HEAVY LH'ed lineup, and they're getting almost no production at 3rd base, it gives them two RH'ed bats with .900 OPS to replace very little RH'ed production AND a very good big league reliever. It covers 3 of their top 4 needs. It doesn't give them an elite starting pitcher. Of course there isn't a team in baseball that doesn't have that as it's #1 need. As for the "Gamel getting jerked around thing being a myth", I agree with Trwi, but you could even take that a lot further. Gamel got jerked around like no elite prospect we've had in the Doug Melvin era and it's baffling. I'm a pretty ardent defender of the FO as I do agree with most of their moves and think we're in good hands, but I don't see how you possibly make an argument that we didn't ruin Gamel's big league debut and jerk him around.

We're getting too hung up on Glenn Perkins. He's the Zach Jackson of this trade, except for Perkins actually has big league success, and a better arm. The whole point that he's struggling is why we'd be getting him. If he was pitching as he has before for the Twins, they'd never trade him. He's a throw in to Gibson and Ramos, nothing more. I have to say, it's getting hard to follow this. First we're not giving up enough to get Gibson, then we're giving up two much by giving up two starting position players. I haven't got a clue if the Twins OR the Brewers would do this, but I do think the overall value is fairly close. And for the record, I wouldn't give up Del Howell for Glenn Perkins. It's not that I think so highly of Perkins, he simply represents a fliar here, nothing more, nothing less, and he is by far the least significant part of this rhetorical deal.

Yeah, I would love to see us approach Rickie with a contract extension this year. The thing about him is you can see with him more than anyone else on the team how he's going just by how he is in the box. When he's calm, has limited movement, and seems to be relaxed, he's taking pitches, working the count and jumping all over any mistakes. When he's not going well, he's diving out, he's on his front foot, and he just looks out of wack. I may be just incredibly stubborn, but I'm absolutely convinced as soon as we move Weeks he's going to become that player we all know he's capable of being, and have seen for stretches. 4-5 years at 6-7 million would be just fine with me. 5 years 35 million extension? The thing about Rickie is even looking back at his incredibly "disappointing" career thus far, he's been a pretty good 2nd basemen offensively. As for Lawrie, having watched him play a couple times last year I can't even venture a guess on his future defensively. He could easily become a good defensive 2nd basemen, but that depends on his concentration. He almost appears as though he's simply waiting for his next AB in the field. And then he can show great soft hands and good range on the next play. I would like to see him moved to 3rd base to be honest as I think he profiles much better there. Plus it's an easy move from 3rd to 1st if it doesn't pan out. I guess I just see him as a disappointment at 1st base with his athletic ability. I hope he does as well because he has the chance to have a special career at 2nd, 3rd, less so at 1st.

I think there have been several plays this season, with his reportedly 100% healthy knees, where he's shown very little moblility. "Very little" it tough to quantify. I'm not suggesting he's got the same potential range or mobility of Gamel, rather from what I've seen with the eye test, he's got enough to be a solid defender at the "hot corner". You're the first person I've seen cite strong fielding scouting reports from the minors. Everything else I've seen has mentioned mediocre or solid scouting reports. Can you share any links, or anything along those lines? I find that a bit surprising. Everything I've read had him as a plus defender. Of course it's difficult to call those up on demand then they entail various reports you've read over a couple year period, but just a quick search shows Sickels very complentary reports on him.... http://www.minorleagueball.com/2010/3/10/1365164/not-a-rookie-casey-mcgehee http://bleacherreport.com/articles/207747-casey-mcgehee-a-quad-a-player-succeeds-upon-finding-an-mlb-job The second link certainly isn't a great source, but it's another article alluding to glowing defensive reports from his minor league days. I'm definitely in agreement that we're dealing with small samples here. However, the phrase 'he makes all the plays he gets to', while undeniably harmless hyperbole, would imply that his rate of converting BIP into outs is strong. To this point, it hasn't been. Right, and while I don't think anyone would argue he's had a good start defensively to his big league career, from watching him, he does seem very sure handed. He struggles coming in on balls, and he doesn't have great range to his left, but he's got very good reaction times, very sure handed, a very strong arm and it appears to be very accurate from what I've seen. But I guess when you're talking about about 100 chances this year, a Fld pct of .941 where as league average is .951. You're right, it is hyperbole, but I look at it as him simply saying, "he's sure handed and makes the plays hit to him". The problem is over 100 chances, one play can have a significant impact on that FP%...which is why again sample sizes need to be taken into consideration. Getting back to the small sample note, I agree that, in terms of data, we need more time with regards to Casey. However, imho, the eye test & the data match pretty well thus far. I think the ceiling for McGehee the 3B on defense is below average to average (while I view someone like Gamel's as average to well above). I would love to see the Brewers keep McGehee, but at 1B. I guess that goes to show how the "eye" test can differ. To me I think it's largely a matter of it becoming popular opinion. If the majority agree's with a sentiment, it becomes easier for you to see that. I think McGehee ends up as an average defender over there, and possibly slightly above. So we're not that far apart. We agree on Gamel though. I love Gamel, and don't understand this argument that he performed so poorly last year. When he was given starts at 3rd base, a very small sampling mind you, but he had an OPS over. 800, and looked very good. Why we're treating him so much differently from previous top prospects is beyond me, but he has a very good stick in my opinion, and is very patient at the plate. With regard to McGehee moving over to 1st, I don't think he'll hit well enough to be anything more than average there. I think the most value he has to the Brewers is to move him now, but that seems unlikely to happen. I just fear that we end up moving Gamel to 1st, or worse yet trading him and keeping McGehee only to see Gamel outperform McGehee in years to come.

And we WOULDN'T want a top 100 catching prospect why? How about this, he's clearly better than either of our two prospects in LuCroy and Salome, both of whom have defensive question marks. Kottaras has looked good offensively, but absolutely atrocious when it comes to blocking the ball from what I've seen, and those match with his scouting reports. Salome is currently healthy physically and not playing because of anxiety issues, and has always been a huge boom or bust type player. And Ramos was obviously not the focal point of this trade, that's Gibson, but I welcome any snide remarks with regard to him as well?

Well, I'm sure getting squeezed SEVERAL times did nothing to help calm him down. Wolf didn't have "it" today, but he also gutted through 5 innings with a much higher PC than he should have, and while he got lucky with a couple LD DP's, he was equally unlucky giving up a few 3-2 walks on pitches that could have been strikes.

Yeah, he hasn't lost it anywhere near the degree of other pitchers have. Willis has shown enough stuff yet that he could still easily become a good big leaguer. I'd rather we just waive Suppan and be done with it, but again, if we have to get some return on our investment, or this helps the accounting dept sleep better at night, whatever the reason is Suppan hasn't been dumped yet, I'd much rather have Willis than Suppan since they're making almost exactly the same as each other.

Nope.Ok, I'm not sure if I should thank you for giving me what I asked for, or be angry you made me dumber because I inevitably had to read some of the comments from the posters complaining about Rogers W/L records in his inclusion in the top 30, or those whining about how ugly it looks when I would bet they know very little of most of those guys. Anyway, I actually just ordered it. Not sure why I didn't earlier...that's a must have. I usually order it a couple months early. I have some pretty vehement disagreements with that list, starting with Brooks Hall whom I love, and a slew of others, but I'm kinda behind the proverbial 8 ball on that discussion. Seems to me with Pena being such a highly regarded Dominican player he could have cracked that list ahead of a guy like Walla who had a pretty awful debut.

I was actually thinking the same thing about him. He is about as close to a Gallardo like pitcher as you can get. Similar velocity, both came up with 4 good pitchers they can throw for strikes, both are very good athletes. Odorizzi could end up with more velocity as he fills out a bit. This doesn't mean he'll be anything like Gallardo mind you, just that his repertoire is similar. We have to see how he responds to adversity and get more info before we compare he and Gallardo's maturity and temperament which is what set Yo apart. He doesn't seem like he's truly being challenged in Low A right now. I'd like to see him moved up around the ASB and think there's a good chance he will if he continues to pitch as he has. If that happens, I could see an assignment to AA to start the year next year, probably spending a full year in AA, and then AAA until he's needed...as long as that's not before the end of may.....for obvious reasons.