Eye Black

Per this TWEET from the Brewers Player Development account the team has signed former 2007 first round pick (#32 overall) infielder Nick Noonan to a minor league contract.

Baseball America released their top 100 prospects list on MLB Network this evening. Brewers prospects appearing on the list included... #93: Isan Diaz #82: Brandon Woodruff #79: Luis Ortiz #42: Corey Ray #33: Josh Hader #27: Lewis Brinson Also of note, former Brewers prospect LHP Anthony Banda (Dbacks) was listed at #88 and temporary Brewers trade target C Francisco Mejia (Indians) was #28.

Had a chance to go through the Baseball America Prospect Handbook a little more in-depth. The Handbook includes BA Grades which is a number grade that represents a player's potential ceiling. The BA grades use the 20-80 baseball scale, and the grade is coupled with a player's risk factor to reach the ceiling which ranges from Low risk to Extreme risk. A player's ranking within an organization isn't just about ceiling since sometimes players with 50 ceilings (or in some cases 45 ceilings) often have lower risk factors of reaching their given ceiling and thus are ranked more highly. One example of this in terms of the Brewers is Mauricio Dubon who has a BA grade of 50, but with only Medium risk. The Brewers have nine players with BA grades of 55 who rank below Dubon because their risk against reaching their ceiling is either High or Extreme. I went through each teams top 30 prospects focusing merely on BA Grades, and ignoring the risk factors. Of the 900 prospects ranked in the Handbook, 227 of them received a BA Grade of 55 or higher (that is 10 more than last year). A BA Grade of 55 marks the divide between players that Baseball America considers having the ceiling to become first division regulars or mid-rotation starters. Of these 227 players here is the breakdown of BA Grades: 143 prospects were ranked 55's; 61 were 60's; 21 were 65's; 2 were 70's. The Brewers and Braves had the most prospects with 55 or higher grades, with each at 19 players qualifying. The Braves however have a greater number of players with higher ceilings, they had 4 prospects with 65's and another 5 with 60's (the other 10 were 55's). The Brewers had 3 players with 60's (not necessarily the players you might be thinking) and the other 16 were 55's. I did put together this Bar Graph illustration of this data for all teams, from the Brewers and Braves at 19 apiece all the way down to the Dbacks (2), Angels (2), and Tigers (1)... LINK: Baseball America 2017 Prospects with BA Grades 55+ By Organization I was going to paste that image here but was having trouble resizing it to display smaller, so please check out the link for now. The color on the bar graph darkens slightly as the grade numbers rise (i.e. 55 is the lightest to 70 which is darkest). I should note that I used the scouting reports within each players write-up for these grades and not the organizational overview prospect list at the front of the team sections. I note this because it does sometimes vary. Josh Pennington for instance is listed in his scouting report as a 55 BA Grade with Extreme risk, but on the front Brewers Organizational Overview page Pennington is listed as a 50 / High risk. So occasionally some discrepancy exists, but again I always used what is listed within the scouting capsule. Also, I accouted for the two players with 55 or greater BA Grades that have been traded since the Handbook went to print, Luiz Gohara (now with the Braves) and Jose De Leon (Rays).

I sense a Brewerfan.net Kickstarter effort forthcoming!

I will be very curious to see how Lewis Brinson and Josh Hader stack up in the Baseball America top 100 prospect rankings scheduled to be released next week. One observations from the Baseball America Prospect Handbook is that Baseball America's primary contributers appear to be slightly higher on Hader than Brinson. Each of their top five contributers (Ben Badler, JJ Cooper, Matt Eddy, John Manual, and Kyle Glaser) list their personal top 50 prospect rankings. All five of them have both players ranked in their top 50's, and all of them have Josh Hader ranked above Lewis Brinson. Hader's average ranking among them is 23.6 while Brinson's is 32.2. This is a little curious because Lewis Brinson is ranked the top prospect in the Brewers organizational rankings, but I believe the top ten rankings (released earlier this winter) include some influence from Tom Haudricourt. Among the BA contributers, both Ben Badler and Kyle Glaser have four Brewers ranked among their top 50 prospects in baseball.

Received the Baseball America Prospect Handbook today. The Brewers farm system talent ranking moved up one spot from last year to 8th. The Brewers ranked dead last in Baseball America's 2011 rankings, and remained among the bottom ten teams from 2011-2015. Now the Brewers have finished in the top ten for the second straight year. Here is the Brewers annual spot among the Baseball America farm system talent rankings over the past seven years: 2011 - 30th 2012 - 25th 2013 - 22nd 2014 - 29th 2015 - 21st 2016 - 9th 2017 - 8th The Brewers are the second highest ranked in the division, just behind the Pirates who were ranked 7th. Other NL Central team rankings are the Cardinals at 12th, Reds at 13th, and Cubs at 16th. The BA Prospect Handbook introduction page notes the cutoff date for transactions to be accounted for in the book this year was December 9th.

I at least have to ask the question... take a chance on Eddie Butler? In two years he has gone from top 50 prospect to earlier today being DFA'd by the Rockies. He is only 25 years old. Are the Brewers in a position to take a chance on a change of scenery sparking a resurgence? Is there even a small chance he could be a Jake Arrieta type success story with a new club?

Well last year Rawnsley had the Brewers ranked the 21st farm system in baseball in The Sporting News annual, so that's progress! I think he is the evaluator lowest on the system.

Don't hold us suspense! Does the Crew win the World Series in 2020 or not?!?! I'm guessing no. The Indians, led by Frankie Lindor finally end the drought on the north shore. Game 6 in Milwaukee ends 4-2 on a strike-out throw out double play as RHP Shawn Armstrong (filling in for injured RHP Dylan Baker) gets Lewis Brinson looking while C Francisco Mejia fires a seed to second to get Corey Rey by a hair. Replay upholds the call on the field as the Series ends for the 1st time on video review. Fans look back at the 9th inning defensive plays and collectively shake their heads. Ray had barely beat out an infield grounder to 3B where Yu Cheng Chang had made an outstanding effort but Villar was outright robbed in CF on a gem by Greg Allen for the 1st out of the inning. As people head to the to the exits, Cleveland fans thank the heavens that Lucroy had nixxed the deadline deal to Cleveland in 2016 and Brewer fans realize how close those talented players were nearly stars for Miller Park. Ha, well the daydream got a little fuzzy when I couldn't tell if it was Yu Cheng Chang or Roger Dorn fielding that ground ball for the Indians, and then my wife asked why the chores hadn't been done yet and all was lost.

I am going to have a little fun with this one. Here is my 2020 NL pennant winning Milwaukee Brewers roster. First two major transactions took place on the way to building a roster to compete for the World Series title (yes I know these things aren't going to actually take place, I said I was having fun with it!): 1) Following the 2018 season the Brewers ownership goes all in on Free Agency by cashing in the savings accumulated over the previous few seasons to sign a then 26 year old Manny Machado to an 8-year, $272 million contract. 2) Sensing the need for an ace to put them over the top the Brewers strike early in July 2020, trading some of their most promising prospects to the floundering Blue Jays for the final half season of control of Aaron Sanchez who has established himself as an elite front of the rotation starter at 27 years old. Starting Lineup Corey Ray, LF Jonathan Villar, 2B Lewis Brinson, CF Manny Machado, 3B Lucas Erceg, 1B Domingo Santana, RF Orlando Arcia, SS Andrew Susac, C Reserves Mauricio Dubon, Super Utility Hernan Perez, IF/OF Isan Diaz, 2B Brett Phillips, OF Jett Bandy, C Rotation Aaron Sanchez, RHP Luis Ortiz, RHP Josh Hader, LHP Brandon Woodruff, RHP Zach Davies, RHP Bullpen Nathan Kirby, LHP Corey Knebel, RHP Marcos Diplan, RHP Phil Bickford, RHP Jorge Lopez, RHP Corbin Burnes, RHP Cody Ponce, RHP Before anyone rains on my parade remember that we're still in the midst of a long winter and now is the time to daydream of baseball and the ever elusive "what could be".

To be fair their "go for it" moment last season was trading away RHP prospect's Frankie Montas, Jharel Cotton, and Grant Holmes to aquire Josh Reddick and Rich Hill. Maybe not the top blockbuster trade of the deadline, but certainly not a small price either.

Good topic, much of the current collection of top talent in the organization will be in the 25-28 age range during the 2020 season. While obviously a guessing game at this point, it is a fun exercise to take a look at the foundation for building what should hopefully be the next very good Brewers roster. Due to current depth at the positions I think the outfield and pitching are the most intriguing of all. Among the candidates for outfield roster spots in 2020 there are currently at least a dozen players in the organization that project as possibly being major league outfielders three years from now. Assuming a then 36 year old Braun is no longer on the roster, scratching Nieuwenhuis from the conversation, and not counting potential IF/OF utility players such as Hernan Perez, here are players (with their 2020 season age listed) that could be in contention for an outfield role: Keon Broxton (age 30 in '20) Domingo Santana (age 27 in '20) Lewis Brinson (age 26 in '20) Brett Phillips (age 26 in '20) Ryan Cordell (age 28 in '20) Corey Ray (age 25 in '20) Monte Harrison (age 24 in '20) Trent Clark (age 23 in '20) Michael Reed (age 27 in '20) Kyle Wren (age 29 in '20) Clint Coulter (age 26 in '20) Tyrone Taylor (age 26 in '20) Troy Stokes (age 24 in '20) There are a few others that haven't been completely written off yet (i.e. Roache, Collymore, Segovia), but they seem much less likely to realistically compete for a future roster spot. With so much depth it's likely to be a position to trade from in order to fill other holes. I do think a high value will be placed on defensive value among the outfielders, and looking at that list it is exciting to see just how good the 2020 outfield could potentially be on defense.

Well Andrew Friedman has now acquired Logan Forsythe on two seperate occasions, so he is at least familiar with what he is getting. I do wonder if De Leon was valued slightly less by the Dodgers front office staff than by the rest of the prospect-verse? The fact his name was floated out there so blatantly when we have heard some other Dodgers top prospects were considered nearly off-limits (i.e. Bellinger, Alvarez), makes me think they may not see a mid-to-top of the rotation future for De Leon. Also curious how this effects the Twins. Do you now hold onto a second baseman entering his age 30 season that you were publically shopping the majority of the offseason while coming off a 59 win season? If the Twins believed De Leon was realistically a future mid-rotation starter, they should have pulled the trigger in my opinion.

Sickels just posted the preliminary list of Brewers he's looking at, we'll have to review and post on his site to add others he should consider, or respond via Twitter to this tweet. Sickels has now posted his Brewers Preliminary Prospect Grade Breakdown. Zero prospects in the A/A- categories, but 12 total in the B+ to B- range. It is worth noting his final grades are subject to change slightly when released tomorrow.

Some trends (or maybe "generalizations" is a more apt term) that have stood out for me so far... 1) The seemingly high value placed on defensive positional flexibility (as mentioned above). 2) Acquisition of left handed batters. 3) A "Sum of the Parts" approach. While the current roster is lacking bonafide stars, it does have a lot of useful players. The Brewers used to get knocked for what some deemed a "stars and scrubs" approach to roster building. Stearns and staff appear to be putting together a roster that lacks any true black holes. I found this excerpt from the Brewers 2017 ZiPS Projections on Fangraphs somewhat interesting... As a side note since we are pontificating the philosophical values held by the baseball operations staff, one thing that I would be intrigued to learn more about is what attributes the Brewers valued most highly when they acquired Keon Broxton? Broxton has the potential to be a significant scouting win for the Brewers, and I am curious to what extent they targeted him, and why exactly?

Dipoto has put an emphasis on outfield defense (Jarrod Dyson, Leonys Martin, Mitch Haniger) which certainly suits their park well. He has added some fly ball pitchers to the rotation. Smyly was second among all starters last season with a 49.3 FB% (fly ball percentage) and Gallardo was a fly ball pitcher (36.7 FB% last year). Additionally Iwakuma was at 37.8 FB% last season, so there will be plenty of balls in the air at Safeco this season. Sounds like they believe in Haniger's defensive range quite a bit (per Fangraphs podcast), and he is currently penciled in to start in right field.

Congrats on an exciting week for you and your clients, and thanks for keeping us in the loop when possible. Hadn't realized he was in the process of moving to catcher full time, that can't be an easy transition to make at the professional level.

Tweet from Cody Decker... And he also followed every Navy Blue team in MLB. Ever the jokester... I am sticking with the Brewers/Sky Sox prediction.

Based on his two most recent Twitter follows, the Milwaukee Brewers and Colorado Sky Sox, I am going to guess that Cody Decker is the answer to this riddle. The Antihero Ballplayer is currently in Israel preparing with teammates as a kickoff for the World Baseball Classic. Decker would certainly spice up the Brewers social media scene, and for those unfamiliar he recently became engaged to personality Jen Sterger, and is also well know for pulling off one of the greatest baseball pranks in recent history by convincing Jeff Francoeur that one of their teammates was deaf, here is the .

agent39- Two questions, which client signed with the Brewers, and what was your opener tonight? Congrats on the recent wave of signings.

He clearly has an ability to put the bat on the ball, which I am excited about. I am not a scout and not pretending to be one, but from the very limited video I've seen of him it appears he can be inconsistent in terms of swing footwork. From my NON-PROFESSIONAL point of view he appears to often transfer of all his weight forward as he swings without maintaining much balance. At the very least his lower half swing mechanics appear to fluctuate in this . Below is a picture of one of his swing at the point of contact. That back leg lifts off the ground quite a bit and typically when he brings it down he is falling backwards slightly. Regardless, I am looking forward to seeing how he progresses in the Brewers organization and hopeful he will continue to make contact at a high rate.

: AFL footage of Brett Phillips' at-bats courtesy of the same YouTube source that provided the previously posted Isan Diaz footage.

Came across this Isan Diaz video from the AFL which appears to have been posted yesterday. I know he racked up some strikeouts during his brief stint this fall, but I continue to be a big believer in that swing...

I agree, I have fairly low expectations for Thames (probably more pessimistic than most), but a .626 OPS from a major league 1B getting regular at-bats would be a disaster. Seems like the floor should be closer to .675 (still terrible obviously). Overall, the current roster does look like a mid-60's win team in my opinion.

My first thought as well (LINK: Matt Garza goes on Twitter tirade against Eric and Kaycee Sogard). If baseball had a version of HBO's NFL training camp series Hard Knocks, the Brewers would have a perfect storyline. Will Matt Garza once again "let his competitive edge out" on the Sogard family?