DHonks

The end is near (Rapture??)! oops...I guess not. THE SKY IS FALLING! THE SKY IS FALLING! just checked...not really happening. BUT....Pascual just threw a clean 1-2-3 inning. He even attempted to allow a runner to reach on a pitch in the dirt, but luckily the catcher saved him. Toby, put him at #1!

colby, in the past I always asked who compares to Sheets (our biggest draft success on the mound in recent history). However, let's turn the page. All of these guys seem to have 2/3 pitches. Which players (HS/College) compare most to Yo? Some things to consider (doesn't need to fit all criteria, but these are just some guidelines for your answer(s)): -Yo throws 4 pitches (doesn't throw the changeup much now, but as a rookie he had a pretty good one). -He doesn't need to throw 96, but instead regularly 91-92 and touching 94 is sufficient -perhaps has some deception. Yo records a huge amount of K's looking on fastballs, and I remember that even in his MLB scouting bureau video as a prep he was catching guys looking as well. -cool demeanor, but doesn't seem to ever mentally take a pitch or two off

YoungGeezy, just a couple of thoughts to your posts. The Brewers have every reason to be afraid of pricetag. The correlation between bonus and performance doesn't always work out. For every Stephen Drew there's been a bunch of Matt Harrington, Matt Bush, etc types. Jeff Clement was supposed to be a stud but hasn't worked out. Hochevar was a stud that has been mediocre at best. The Brewers need to get the highest ceiling and the best possible player, but they also need to consider the cost. They will not go cheap. But they had better be wise.

Didn't Hart skip A and jump to A+? I remember thinking it was odd that we drafted a 6'6" shortstop, but he quickly was moved to 1b. Hart always hit well in the minors, but he was limited because of his lack of a position. He played 1b, 3b, and RF. Where I get concerned is that while he's settling in at RF, I am positive his speed has greatly diminished.

fondy, I still contend Yost was far better than most here give him credit for. I think that tactically, the ones that have been awful have been Macha and Lopes. Yost was adequate tactically, but he seemed to be a great leader. Garner was a lot like Yost, only a bit less fiery with the media and perhaps a bit more sound in his game decisions. At this point, I have not found any serious flaws the RR. I don't like his overuse of Loe. I don't like that he seems to limit relievers to 1 inning (Yost was the only recent one we had that really let guys go more than an inning). RR is starting to pinch hit and double-switch more. I think the biggest gripes people have of RR so far are that he continues to play Betancourt and Gomez, yet those are not his fault. Until getting Morgan back, we have had no options. As for Shortstop, I'd like to see Counsell start 1-2 times per week for his OBP ability, but the difference is marginal in terms of overall performance. People also complain that Gomez hits second...unfortunately, if you put Gomez, Betancourt, and the pitcher together, you've just given the other team some easy innings.

I would speculate that CoCo throws few strikes. It seemed that with the Brewers he almost never threw his slider for a strike

during his time in the minors we heard some rumors about him being benched for not running hard as well.

I have never been impressed with Lawrie's comments and supposed actions in the minors. I always got the feeling that he felt he was the second-coming of Ryan Braun, and that allowed him to be lazy (leading to conflicting reports of his benchings). He wanted to be a catcher, but didn't want to work to be a good one. He wanted to play 2b, but never became adequate. Suddenly his national team trades for him and asks him to switch to third--now he's full of energy and excitement! To me he's a drama queen. I hope he does well, but I won't fondly follow him like Can, Brantley, and Odorizzi

Wow, just looking at the numbers for Hawn, Hopkins, etc, and they're reminding me of the Helena success that Richardson, Festa, etc etc had (I can't remember the other OPS college studs that couldn't hit in rookie ball)

kind of crazy that's what it would take. Both look to have a lot of promise, yet last time he was dealt--while at his peak value--he merely acquired a chronic underachiever

TheCrew07, It's quite conceivable that Schafer and Komatsu could both be in the outfield together in a few years. We currently are a team built around power with iffy OBP. I'd rather we build around high OBP and mediocre SLG. I, like many others, prefer high ceiling younger players (think HS, not college in most cases). I also would love to draft some SS/3b types. The key is that there's always flexibility. We can't draft solely based on need, but if two players are rated equally, we should take the need-based player. Having said all of that, I'm worried about the state of the system. We've now had 3 pitching heavy drafts in a row, with little to show for it. There's still lots of time, but instead of taking all these college pitchers in rounds 5-15 with minimal upside, why don't we take toolsy players with a high upside? I see we released Trey Watten....his stuff never really impressed and he was a 9th rounder because?????

I think Counsell's lack of playing time is based on healthy infielders that provide more offensive punch moreso than he can't play 2-3 times per week.

dang, I just realized I won't be able to watch the draft as I'll be driving cross-country. Perhaps I can load the draft updates on my phone at rest stops

McGehee looks to be pulling off on the ball. When he's right, he's a very dangerous hitter to all fields.

It's 9 games, but yes it would have an impact.only 6 that we're talking about in June, though. Still would be nice to have: Weeks Hart Braun Fielder McGehee Gamel Lucroy Morgan Betancourt Suddenly that's a solid lineup with even Betancourt being a solid 9th hitter in that he drives the ball.

17-10, higher if we add Gamel to dh those 6 games

Nice to see Big Brock and Zarraga starting to heat up. Brock's OPS just fine for BC. Also good that milb.com now lists Zarraga as a switch hitter, which is something we'd only heard as a rumor last year.

After watching the first 7 weeks, Morgan both goes back on balls and reads balls off bats FAR better than Gomez. I'd rate Morgan in Cameron-esque territory with these as a perfect 10, whereas Gomez is about a 7/8. In terms of coming in on the ball, I haven't seen enough from Morgan, but Gomez usually is very good. And Gomez's arm is better. Having said that, I think a straight platoon is best, or at least one where Morgan gets the majority against righties. Also, the differences are negligible, so they should not be pinch hitting for one another.

TheCrew07, I think you're right. It's about time we hire House to properly diagnose (or accidentally kill) our players! Just kidding...couldn't help but go there

McGehee was solid all throughout the minors while being young for his levels. He's been above avg for 2 full years in the majors. He's likely just in need of making an adjustment or two before he takes off again. I'd expect something along the lines of .275/.335/.460 for the year.

Sessile Fielder, I agree on Gamel and Green. I was saying "pretty much flopped" when looking at the group as a whole. We may still produce 2 or 3 keepers out of the group, but on the whole the best this group was known for was 4 or 5 that were traded away and the vast majority of the rest that flopped.

Colby, if you could take a look at my post on the last page regarding my students, I'd love to hear the latest thoughts. Also, I spoke with one today--Nick Valenza--and he says some teams are talking to him about the top 5 rounds, other teams are saying 6-10. The Brewers have said that they have a round in mind, and if he's available then, they're taking him.

with a torn UCL. Tough luck for the former Brewer, but at least it happened after he had some success, or else this would likely be career ending

TheCrew, I'd argue that we didn't trade away the 2nd wave. The second wave pretty much flopped. Players like Tony Gwynn, jr, Cole Gillespie, Laporta, Gamel, Braddock, Will Inman, Alcides Escobar, Taylor Green, Michael Brantley, Joe Thatcher, Steve Garrison, Mark Rogers, Angel Salome, Evan Anundsen, Alex Periard, Grant Richardson, Tony Festa, etc etc were supposed to be the 2nd wave. In fact, the only contributors from the second wave at this time are Braddock and Lucroy. Of the Latin talent, we have failed miserably. Wily Peralta and Rolando Pascual are still around, but at best we might get one mid-starter/reliever out of that wave. The third wave is making progress with plenty of fringe pitchers hoping for breakouts and a few hitters or role players developing. Let's face it, almost no team has an entire lineup of guys like Fielder, Braun, and Weeks. We'll need some solid role players. This is where the Brewers have failed mightily. Our boom-or-bust approaches has hit on some stars, but failed with far more guys that had high expectations. With our third wave we've had guys like Lawrie and Odorizzi traded away. But we got guaranteed big leaguers. At this point, there are no guarantees that either will ever amount to much in the big leagues. Patching holes--as you say--with temporary solutions does work, but ideally most are coming from within the organization and are cheap. They can't be your top players, or you're asking for trouble. Betancourt and Gomez are patches, and both will surely be replaced after this year. As for your critiques of Melvin's moves, I've liked plenty of them. I can't critique the Sabathia trade (don't you wish we could get them to take Salome and not Brantley? He was my favorite prospect at the time). The Marcum trade looks brilliant so far. Even the Linebrink trade is looking good so far, and I hated the deal when it happened! The biggest issue I've had with Seid and Jack Z is that we've now done three EXTREMELY pitcher heavy drafts in a row. It has yet to produce any positive results with pitchers, however, it has really limited the amount of talented position players in our system. I'd like to take this draft and obviously add roughly 10-15 signable starting pitchers with potential (mostly HS), but the bulk of the other players need to be hitters, especially hitters showing raw power, defensive prowess, OBP skills, and especially some with the capability to play shortstop. If we develop 2 or 3, I'd love to move one or two in trades or to other positions. Also, some left-handedness would be nice, although the lineup should get more balanced with Morgan, Komatsu, and Shafer lining up to take over in CF in the near and long term.

Katin should get the knee taken care of this offseason, then we should go into 2012 with Morgan and Gomez sharing CF with Katin as the backup corner outfielder/1st baseman.