Past Member

Congrats to Ryan on the 1st career hit. Now lets win this game

Yovani Gallardo meet Dave Bush, Dave Bush meet th **** bullpen!!!

I love this lineup. Take out Miller put in Estrada and we got a perfect lineup. Maybe Hart for Gross.

Colby, No, I was not taking a shot at you, and yes I was aware that you do some work for PGCrosschecker. I do not know if you are aware of this or not, but within the community of amateur baseball, there is an ongoing argument regarding the issue of all star teams/tournaments, travelling teams and their place in the game of baseball vs traditional high school baseball teams. The latter of which I am, and members of my family, are a part of believe that people involved in PG are taking huge short cuts and we are not very fond of them. Now I realize that you write a column for them and are not neccessarily involved in the teams or day to day operations of such groups. I know that you enjoy the game, you know a lot about the game, and for the purposes of this website and forum those are nice qualities to have. Having an opinion and being an authority are not one in the same. And being a fan or a writer or doing work for a baseball website do not necessarily put you "in" the game either. I am willing to leave this be as a difference in opinion between someone who is in the game, and someone who enjoys it. And niether persons opinion is more important than the other.

"pgcrosschecker doesn't have vitters in their top 10, he is going to be a stud" Pg crosscheckers is a glorified marketing site for Rawlings. To be part of "Perfect Game" you simply have to have the equipment they use. Although they rate players close to where a credible source, like Baseball America, does, I woundt take too much stock in where they place/rank players. No one in baseball actually uses or looks at that site.

One additional note on Francoeur and Jack Z... Today I saw on ESPN that their analysts, and not that this means all that much, but both Kurkijan and Phillips (I think) say that Francoeur is the best bad ball hitter in the NL. The flip side of this is that in the AL that guys is often mentioned to be Vladmir Guerrero....I would still much rather have a guy who hammers pitchers pitches, like Francoeur. I dont care if he doesnt walk. And on Jack...He has been at this for 7 years now. When Schuerholz took over, it only took him about 3 years, along with Cox to build that franchise into a powerhouse, and as the previous poster mentions, Id look for KC to have the same results in a very short period of time. At some point the SD's performance has to be reflected on the Major League roster/standings...and so far...Jack Z hasnt measured up. It of course is possible that if all stays healthy this year, that could change, but Jack Z, I think, is about 3 years overdue for a major review of his performance.

Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention that the Brewers are also the worst at identifying and developing pitching talent. Over the time frame mentioned in the previous post, the Brewers have only developed 10 pitchers. If it were not for Ben Sheets, Ruddy Lugo is the last pitcher to be drafted by the Brewers to put in major league experience. Once again, other teams, in the same period of time that Jack Z has been at the helm have drafted and developed and turned into legitimate ML stars their pitchers, Jack does not. I mean this is a fan site, but c'mon.... I agree that Hardy, Weeks, Fielder and Hart are all guys that Jack drafted and are now at the major league level and those things kind of impact the numbers I have quoted in earlier posts, but the fact that they are at the bottom of both of these lists says something, I think, about Jack's performance as SD.

Well first off, he has had 7 years at this and he's still got the team at the bottom. But lets take the Devil Rays as a comparison. (Since they have been around for the same amount of time that Jack has been SD for the Brewers). The Devil Rays have drafted 31 players that have a combined 42 years of experience. And I might add that the Devil Rays have the #1 farm system in baseball (which also means they have even more "players on the way" that will impact those numbers mentioned above. The only team in baseball that has fewer of its drafted players reach the majors is the Reds and they had 20, but those 20 have over 47 years of experience under their belts. I just think these numbers scream (towards my opinion) about the job Jack Z has done.

Everyone knows by now how much of a cynic I am concerning Jack Z and the Brewers at large for that matter. The newest Edition of Baseball America has 2 very interesting pieces of info in it that I believe are great barometers of Jack Z's performance as Scouting Director. I will say that Gallardo is on the cover and he appears to be the next big thing. I am excited to see his arrival to the Majors and instantly become a #1 or #2 starter for the team. The observations I make are as follows: Cameron Maybin is listed as the top candidate for Minor League Player of the year, with niether Gallardo or Braun being mentioned. The winner of this award generally goes on to be a pretty decent major leaguer. The two disappointing things I noticed (directed at Jack Z) are that the teams farm system is in decline. It went from #1, to #3, to #5 and now this year is ranked #7. I know how hard it is to maintain high levels like this, but it is still in decline. And this is the big one.....The Brewers have the lowest, in all of MLB, in "Total Player Seasons Produced". (in the last 12 years). Only 21 players that the brewers have drafted in that time have made it to the major leagues, and of those 21, they have only played 26 years total in the Majors. Of this group, Geoff Jenkins is one, and he has 9 years under his belt. So take away Jenkins and those numbers drop to 20 players with only 15 years of experience. I would say these numbers directly reflect on how Jack conducts, or should I say "badly conducts" his draft. Just my jaded thoughts.......

Id play him at third. He is a Bill Hall type of jack of all trades kind of player. Its possible that Braun's arm never develops to where they want it for him to play third and he becomes another outfielder. Blake at least has experience playing 3rd in the Majors. Plus he has a decent bat, which is more than you can say for Graffanino or Counsell, and better yet, you get to dump Turnbow.

I think the Phillies would be a prime trading partner because they are in the market for relievers and Derrick Turnbow just has to go, add to it that we could send Jenkins/Mench as well....But the only thing the Phillies could offer in return that could help the Brewers would be Abraham Nunez to play third, but thats no good. Id say you could move the two guys I mention, easily, to the Indians for Casey Blake and a prospect.

I know that I am old school when it comes to this forum, but I believe, as do most people in the game, that closers are "made" not born (i.e. you take a guy see what he has in the minor leagues and then you make him a closer if you need him to be). I think that drafting a guy, especially within the top 10 who is a closer already is a waste. Of course now you can all respond to me by talking about Huston Street.....

Neither one of those guys are going to be available when the Brewers picked, besides picking two college pitchers, regardless of their talent, upside, and eta to the majors, would go completely against the Brewers philosophy when it comes to pitchers and first rounders, which is "cheapest and most likely to develop arm problems."

I have met coach Tanner, I believe he is a member of FCA, so this is no surprise for him to let two players like this go from his team.

Why pick Vitters if we just picked Braun? I'm liking Howard, I fear he might be one of these guys that gets priced out by the Brewers (and I will once again state my disgust with the fact that the Brewers shy away from guys like this, looking only at the short team cash flow vs. long term value). As I said previously, things will have to pan out by draft day to happen, but Howard would be my guy over Vitters, maybe even over Arietta.