Eye Black

Two games in and the Brewers have struck out 28 times over 65 at-bats (74 PA's). That's pretty awful.

Not really, except for the Cincinnati Reds who I believe actually do attempt to list accurate measurements (this was a topic on an Effectively Wild podcast). The Baseball Reference listed heights and weights can be laughably inaccurate at times. Sometimes the international players who signed as teenagers go many years without their measurements being updated.

The difference is he would be pitching in Carolina for us. All that would mean is he's not ready for the major leagues but we wouldn't have to have him in the major leagues. It is indeed a small sample size for Miguel Diaz, but now that he is in the majors we have access to his Pitch F/X data (LINK) which has been impressive in the 53 pitches that have been tracked thus far between Spring Training and yesterday.

I updated the original post to include the San Diego 2nd Round schedule as well. The Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico are opening things at Petco Park right now.

I think "Pleskoff loves him" might be an understatement. He added this on Twitter after the scouting report came out...

In the D.R.'s extra inning win over Colombia, starting pitcher Wily Peralta went 4.0 innings (59 pitches/40 strikes) allowing 2 hits, 1 run, 1 walk, and striking out 6. Offensively Jonathan Villar was 1-for-4 with a single, a walk, and 2 runs scored. Former Brewers SS Jean Segura had 3 hits from the leadoff spot including 2 doubles. If you haven't seen the highlight of Jose Bautista saving the game for the D.R. with a throw to home plate in the bottom of the 9th inning, check it out (VIDEO).

Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to watch the Puerto Rico game last night, but it appears starter Jorge Lopez was pretty good. He went 4.1 innings pitched throwing a total of 59 pitches, 40 of which were for strikes. He gave up 2 hits and 1 run while walking 2 and striking out 5. Here is a very short VIDEO of the final pitch of each of Jorge's five strikeouts, four of which were swinging strikes.

I think Nelson would be the best fit for the Rockies among Brewers pitchers that would potentially be available. The problem is the Rockies have a solid core of young starters (Jon Gray, Jeff Hoffman, German Marquez, Kyle Freeland), so I am not sure if trading away any significant assets for Nelson would make sense for them.

Even though the first round is still on-going for a couple of the pools, the second round also begins tomorrow for the 4 teams that advanced to second round of play in Tokyo (Israel, Japan, Netherlands, Cuba). I have added the second round schedule to the original post (LINK). Also, in addition to the much anticipated matchup between the U.S. and Dominican Republic tomorrow night, we can also look forward to watching Jorge Lopez who was named the starting pitcher for Puerto Rico against Mexico.

USA currently down 2-0 against Columbia heading to the 6th inning. Jose Quintana has allowed zero hits through 5.0 IP. Luckily for the US he is only 15 pitches from the pitch limit. Losing to Columbia would be a very big blow for the U.S. chances to advance. It would make the game versus the Dominican Republic likely a must win.

Ha, [sarcasm]obviously anything less would be a disappointment[/sarcasm]. On a recent Fangraphs podcast Dave Cameron compared the offensive profile of Byron Buxton to Lewis Brinson. Buxton is only 6 months older than Brinson. It brings up a good question, barring injuries which player would you bet on to develop into a better offensive player? Both have had some struggle with contact, and I think I would bet on Brinson to develop more power. I think a lot of Buxton's value will be tied to his defense, but I don't think I would pick him as likely to become a better offensive player than what I hope for Brinson to develop into. Curious which player others would choose offensively?

Dempster's last professional pitch thrown was in the 2013 World Series. Three and a half years between outings and having to face a stacked Dominican Republic lineup wasn't exactly a recipe for success. In other news, Italy scored 5 runs in the bottom of the 9th inning (without recording any outs) to walk-off with a shocking comeback over Mexico 10-9. With regards to Brewers in action, Carlos Torres pitching for Mexico in the 6th inning managed a strikeout, gave up a walk, and induced a double play groundball to end his one inning of work. In the D.R./Canada game, Jonathan Villar checked into the game at 2B for the Dominican Republic in the 9th inning (replacing Robinson Cano), but did not get an at-bat.

Catching up from last night's game, Cody Decker went 1-for-3 against the Netherlands with a first inning single to left field. Israel scored 3 1st inning runs and held on for a 4-2 victory. Brewers scout Pete Orr has tallied a hit for Canada against the Dominican Republic with more at-bats yet to come.

Thought this article provided some nice insight into some of the present day third party data providers that are influencing baseball front offices. The suprising places MLB teams get their information from in the post Moneyball era By R.J. Anderson I highly recommend reading the entire article as it moves in a lot of different directions and acknowledges quite a few third party data influencers, but here is one snippet I found particularly interesting: “Right now, we have teams out there, who, when they evaluate a player, they’re taking their 2017 schedule, they are prototyping the opposing pitcher array -- perhaps, if they’re really sophisticated, even assuming what the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings look like against those teams -- and they’re simulating a batter’s performance, a prospective acquisition, his performance against that pitching opposition, in those ballparks. Because they’re not looking at his stats, they’re looking at his exit velocity and his launch angle. “If you hit the ball 86 mph to let’s call it straight-away right field at Yankee Stadium at a 32-degree launch angle, depending on the wind, that probably drops into the first couple of rows. If you hit that same velocity and launch angle at AT&T Park, Hunter Pence is taking two steps in to field it. So, all of those things are being incorporated into the analytics of the most sophisticated teams.“

Agreed, great to hear from kalle8! Despite still having to play each other in pool play tonight, both the Netherlands (2-0) and Israel (2-0) are now guaranteed to advance to the next round.

Video: Lucas Erceg's grand slam landing on a roof at Goodyear Park versus Indians

Game 2 for Israel is starting. A little strange that I am about to watch them play for the second time "today" (yes I was crazy enough to get up for first pitch this AM), and it is two very seperate days for them. Will try to keep the thread updated with individual performances of players in the Brewers organization, a poor man's version of the great recap's Mass Haas gives us. Israel DH Cody Decker isn't starting game 2, but he did start this morning's game in the 6th spot in the order and went 0-for-3 with a strikeout (swung at a couple of pitches outside of the zone), a pop out to the first baseman, and a fly out to deep right field that was caught just onto the warning track. Decker was replaced after his third at-bat by Ike Davis. Edit: In Game 2 Cody Decker came off the bench and went 1-for-2 with a single to left and fly out to center.

ARTICLE: Tyler Thornburg is taking some time off while he battles what is deemed mechanical issues and a "dead-arm period." Statistically he has had a rough Spring thus far allowing 7 hits and 9 runs (7 ER) over 1.1 innings.

I have been thinking about starting a thread like this for a while, but seeing Adam McCalvy's comparison between Keon Broxton and Eric Davis' low hand placement pre-swing load comparisons (something I had been ruminating on recently) pushed me over the edge. Player comparisons are so intriguing, but can also prove reckless. Player comps are often given using past players who were All-Star caliber, and in some cases even HOF players. In these cases the comparisons represent the absolute ceiling for a player, their top 5% outcome. Comparisons can also border on being dangerously generic for outlier attributes (i.e. tall pitching prospect with Randy Johnson, or shorter pitching prospect with a good fastball with Pedro Martinez). Still, the comparisons can provide value to understand successful paths that have been forged by players with similar skills sets, or strengths/weaknesses. Certainly using player comparisons is not a perfect science, and in many cases the comparison is very specific to a single trait or skill a player possesses (i.e. Trout-ian size neck). My goal for this thread is two fold. First, hopefully it sparks some discussion of prospect player comps and their perceived worthiness (or lack thereof). Second, I wanted to provide a place where we could share and collect player comps attributed to Brewers prospects. Below I have listed a few of the Brewers prospects with comps I've heard. Feel free to comment, or share additional Brewers prospect player comparisons whether an original thought or something you have heard from another source. Lewis Brinson On a recent Baseball America podcast they compared Brinson to Adam Jones. I believe it was John Manual who repeated the comp a couple of times. Bernie Pleskoff in an article on Lewis Brinson compared his game as similar to Chris Young. In the BF.net Lewis Brinson thread some posters compared Brinson to Mike Cameron. I always find it interesting when a player offers up insight on who they grew up watching or emulating, and in Brinson's case he has noted that he grew up idolizing Juan Pierre. Corey Ray You can't discuss Corey Ray comps without immediately thinking about Harold Reynolds famously (or infamously?) dropping repeated Odibe McDowell comps on Ray at every possible opportunity. With Ray the comparison that surfaces the most often is Ray Lankford. That comparison seems to make a lot of sense. Another comparison I have thought made sense was Brett Gardner, although others have pointed out to me that Ray may not possess Gardner's speed. Some have asked Corey Ray himself and he brings up two names, he discusses working closely in the past with Curtis Granderson and has also mentioned that he patterns his game after Jacoby Ellsbury. Trent Clark I don't have much in the way of Clark comps, but I have never been able to get the "Troutian Neck" comparison out of my mind. Obviously there is much, much more to being a great baseball player than neck size. Luis Ortiz Since he was in high school I've thought Ortiz's connection to Matt Garza was interesting, but obviously they have different physiques and pitching styles. The not-so-complimentary body type comp recently placed on Ortiz by Fangraphs prospect writer Eric Longenhagen was Rich Garces. Isan Diaz I don't own the Baseball Prospectus annual, but I did come across the comparisons listed for Diaz in this year's BP annual. They were Corey Seager, Addison Russell, and Trevor Story. Maybe someone with access to the annual can give some context regarding whether all comps listed lean towards far-fetched highest ceiling possible comparisons, but obviously those are high praise.

I just saw Adam McCalvy's ARTICLE on Broxton's mechanical tweak lowering his hands. Last month I watched some of Eric Davis hitting highlights (Eric Davis' swing/power still fascinates me) and had this exact same thought about how notably low Davis' hands were loaded pre-swing. I honestly (realizing no one is going to believe me now) had intented to post about some similarity to Broxton's low hands (and frame) earlier. The pictures from the article shows the similarity well... http://m.brewers.mlb.com/assets/images/7/6/8/217862768/cuts/batters_vgmkd3wz_z5q303lr.jpg One other link between the two from the article, Sky Sox manager Rick Sweet was with the Reds organization during Davis' playing days.

This is the most comprehensive listing of the rosters I could find: 2017 WBC Team Rosters

The World Baseball Classic kicks off this week. I know it isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I thoroughly enjoy the event. For others looking forward to it, feel free to weigh in here with WBC news, notes, discussion, etc. The WBC first round schedule is listed below (EDIT: I will add in additional rounds as they are scheduled). All times listed below are Central Time (CT). Many of the games are shown live on MLB Network, and the games on MLB.TV are shown on MLB Network tape delayed (see note at the bottom for more information). First Round Game Schedule Monday, March 6 3:30 AM- Israel vs. Korea (MLB Network) - Israel 2, Korea 1 (10 innings) 9 PM- Israel vs. Chinese Taipei (MLB Network) - Israel 15, Chinese Taipei 7 Tuesday, March 7 x-3:30 AM- Korea vs. Netherlands (MLB.TV) - Netherlands 5, Korea 0 4 AM- Cuba vs. Japan (MLB Network) - Japan 11, Cuba 6 9 PM- Cuba vs. China (MLB Network) - Cuba 6, China 0 Wednesday, March 8 x-3:30 AM- Chinese Taipei vs. Netherlands (MLB.TV) - Netherlands 6, Chinese Taipei 5 4 AM- Japan vs. Australia (MLB Network) - Japan 4, Australia 1 9 PM- Netherlands vs. Israel (MLB Network) - Israel 4, Netherlands 2 Thursday, March 9 x-3:30 AM- Korea vs. Chinese Taipei (MLB.TV) - Korea 11, Chinese Taipei 8 (10 innings) 4 AM- Australia vs. China (MLB Network) - Australia 11, China 0 (8 innings) 5 PM- Canada vs. Dominican Republic (MLB Network) - Dominican Republic 9, Canada 2 8 PM- Mexico vs. Italy (MLB Network) - Italy 10, Mexico 9 x-9 PM- Australia vs. Cuba (MLB.TV) - Cuba 4, Australia 3 Friday, March 10 3 AM- Seoul tiebreaker [if necessary] (MLB Network) x-4 AM- China vs. Japan (MLB Network) - Japan 7, China 1 5 PM- Colombia vs. USA (MLB Network) - USA 3, Colombia 2 (10 innings) 9 PM- Venezuela vs. Puerto Rico (MLB Network) - Puerto Rico 11, Venezuela 0 (7 innings) Saturday, March 11 4 AM- Tokyo tiebreaker [if necessary] (MLB Network) 11 AM- Colombia vs. Canada (MLB Network) - Colombia 4, Canada 1 2 PM- Venezuela vs. Italy (MLB Network) - Venezuela 11, Italy 10 5:30 PM- USA vs. Dominican Republic (MLB Network) - Dominican Republic 7, USA 5 8:30 PM- Puerto Rico vs. Mexico (MLB Network) - Puerto Rico 9, Mexico 4 Sunday, March 12 11:30 AM- Dominican Republic vs. Colombia (MLB Network) - Dominican Republic 10, Colombia 3 (11 innings) 2:30 PM- Italy vs. Puerto Rico (MLB Network) - Puerto Rico 9, Italy 3 6 PM- Canada vs. USA (MLB Network) - USA 8, Canada 0 9 PM- Venezuela vs. Mexico (MLB Network) - Mexico 11, Venezuela 9 Monday, March 13 5 PM- Miami tiebreaker [if necessary] (MLB Network) 8 PM- Guadalajara tiebreaker (MLB Network) - Venezuela 4, Italy 3 x- All MLB.TV games will be shown tape delayed on MLB Network. The 3:30 AM games will air at 7 AM. If necessary the 4 AM game would air at 6:30 AM. The 9 PM game will air at 11 PM. Second Round Game Schedule Saturday, March 11 x-9 PM – Cuba vs. Israel (MLB Network) - Israel 4, Cuba 1 x- This game will air on MLB Network tape delayed at 11:30 PM. Sunday, March 12 5 AM – Netherlands vs. Japan (MLB Network) - Japan 8, Netherlands 6 (11 innings) Monday, March 13 5 AM – Netherlands vs. Israel (MLB Network) - Netherlands 12, Israel 2 (8 innings) Tuesday, March 14 5 AM – Cuba vs. Japan (MLB Network) - Japan 8, Cuba 5 8 PM – Dominican Republic vs. Puerto Rico (MLB Network) - Puerto Rico 3, Dominican Republic 1 10 PM – Netherlands vs. Cuba (MLB Network) - Netherlands 14, Cuba 1 Wednesday, March 15 5 AM – Israel vs. Japan (MLB Network) - Japan 8, Israel 3 8 PM – USA vs. Venezuela (MLB Network) - USA 4, Venezuela 2 Thursday, March 16 5 AM – Tokyo tiebreaker [if necessary] (MLB Network) 9 PM – Dominican Republic vs. Venezuela (MLB Network) - Dominican Republic 3, Venezuela 0 Friday, March 17 9 PM – USA vs. Puerto Rico (MLB Network) - Puerto Rico 6, USA 5 Saturday, March 18 2:30 PM – Puerto Rico vs. Venezuela (MLB Network) - Puerto Rico 13, Venezuela 2 9:00 PM – USA vs. Dominican Republic (MLB Network) - USA 6, Dominican Republic 3 Sunday, March 19 5 PM – San Diego tiebreaker [if necessary] (MLB Network) All game times listed in Central Time (CT)

I am guessing I speak for quite a few of us when I say we need more Mass Haas audio in our lives! Just fantastic, I hope everyone gets a chance to listen!

If the teams do complete a trade again this season one Rangers prospect to keep in mind is 2016 2nd rounder RHP Alex Speas. As some probably remember the Georgia high schooler was among the players that worked out for the Brewers leading up to last year's draft, and has the physical projection of a high ceiling pitcher. According to Baseball America Speas fastball sits 93-96, and touches 99, and he throws a mid-80's power slider.

Brewers Record: 74-88 Playoffs: No Brewers MVP: Jonathan Villar Brewers CY Young: Zach Davies Brewers ROY: Jacob Barnes First player traded: Neftali Feliz or Carlos Torres Surprise player: Andrew Susac Disappointing player: Eric Thames World Series: Indians over Dodgers