Past Member

As I look through my old notes and Baseball America's....I was a Phil Humber fan pre draft in 04, either him or Wade Townsend...I cant quite remember which one was available when the Brewers picked, but he would have been my guy.

I completely agree about Braun's bat. I think that he was a decent pick, and is already a big league hitter. But the question remains, wouldnt you rather have a stud Center Fielder than a pretty good corner infielder/outfielder. For me it comes down to being stacked up the middle and making do with whatever you can develop on the corners, with the exception of a great plus arm in right field. For me, its fun to 2nd guess. The only pick that I have loved that Zduriencik has made has been Rickie Weeks. I was a Kazmir fan in 02, Maybin 05, Daniel Bard 06, and countless other people the crew could have taken in 04 over Rogers. And in these cases they arent even 2nd guesses. These were guys I wanted the Brewers to take pre-draft.

I am not sure if this post/debate blongs in a different area, but I am sure the moderators will place it appropriately.....Anyway.... I am no fan of Jack Zduriencik, I am not a fan of his "high school players first" philosophy, and I have questioned all but one of the Brewers #1 Draft picks since he has been the one with the biggest impact on who the team chooses. So with that in mind, I thougt we could explore whether you would want a 2-3 tool corner infielder vs. a 4-5 tool Center Fielder. I would rather always build up the middle than take anyone as high as the first three rounds on corner infielders/outfielders. I believe those types of players can be made/developed vs. simply being "born" like a guy up the middle usually is. Braun will hit for power and probably average too. He filled a need for the Brewers and if his defense doesn't pan out will most likely be a LF. But with Maybin, you get speed, he has developed power and hitting for average (something scouts thought could happen but werent sure) they knew he had great defense and arm. So who would you rather have? A potential Vernon Wells type of guy roaming your CF two years out, or a guy who will put up nice numbers for you in a position that is not as important? As a side note...to Colby...on an earlier post I mentioned something about Fielder being a "signable" pick, and you mentioned that you felt he was the best hitter available...(this ties into my dislike of Zduriencik), but I believe if you had asked anyone in 02 who the best hitting prospect was, they would have said Jeff Francoeur, but everyone got scared away by his committment to play football at Georgia Tech. Well, the Braves went and got him and signed him. The Brewers have a tendancy to pass on players they cant sign, and the ones they gamble on (e.g. Jamile Weeks) they dont put up what is necessary. I'm rambing here..so its time to stop the post.....but what are your thoughts on Braun vs. Maybin?

Sorry....Posted my own thread on this...without much detail...has more to do with the NL and how the Brewers will finish....I will give more detail, as above in a week or so...... What are everyone's predictions here? (And I'm not talking about "fan" "Yeah, the Brewers are going to win it all this year baby!!!" Types of predictions...I mean realistic, researched predictions.... I am picking the Brewers to finish 3rd behind the Astros and Cardinals. I think there is the chance for the Brewers to finish 2nd, given the Cardinals pitching issues. I think the Astros have good enough pitching to go along with a HUGE middle of the lineup with Berkman and Lee, that that will make them division winners. I think the thing that will keep the Brewers from the top is the uncertainty of their health, and the fact that they still have big holes in the batting order. And like everyone else, I am going with the Mets to win the NL, the Dodgers in the West, and the Giants as the Wild Card, with the Padres not too far behind....

This would be a fun trade to make for the Brewers, but no GM in their right mind would trade Upton for Turnbow. Turnbow is done. He has no control, and when he does have control, its right down the middle, which he then proves the theory: The harder you throw it the further it travels out of the park when hit. His mechanics are downright awful. I think at best he is a situational guy in the 6th or 7th innings. BJ Upton on the other hand, despite his attitude problems, has the highest upside of any player in MLB right now, in my opinion. If we somehow did get Upton, I would not care if he played SS or 3B or even 2B, get that guys bat in the lineup wherever it fits.

I got my copy of the Brewers Top 10 Prospects today for 2007, but they had a list of the top 100 high school and college prospects (2 lists), as well as a projection of how they thought the first round would turn out. I was a little disappointed to see my shortstop Justin Jackson as falling all the way to the bottom of the first round and said that he could rise, if his offense improved.

Ok Maas, how about Carlos Villanueva and Will Inman for BJ Upton? The previous poster was right, were not trying to accomplish anything with this game I have started, I just want the season to begin. Would be nice to have Upton though, wouldnt it?

Sounds like a boastful statement by a overly proud parent or fellow citizen (not you). It would be against MLB rules to offer a contract or anything for that matter to a kid who is not a senior in High School. And to top it off, if that senior was good enough, or even borderline good, he would have been drafted at some point, and for the Astros to be talking to him, they would have had to been the ones who drafted him. Seeing as how he is only 16, that seems highly unlikely.

Heck, if we were going to unload Jenkins for relief pitching, I would rather completely eliminate the middle man, go right to the Padres and get Linebrink, heck we could throw in a mid level prospect if the Padres didnt want to trade Jenkins for Linebrink straight up.

How about trading him and a guy like Inman or even Villaneuva for Cameron Maybin from the Tigers?

The Indians trade Jake Westbrook to the Rangers, the Rangers trade........

It will be easier to guage who the best HS players are in the state once the Wisconsin High School Baseball Coaches Association has its annual convention. They publish a yearbook that has all of the top players from every team in the state. A lot of times though, a HS kid may not mature into a top notch prospect until his senior year.

The Twins trade Torii Hunter CF to the Reds, the Reds trade.....

As much as I would love to see the eventual trading of Jenkins to any team in baseball for a bag of balls (not really a fair trade for the Padres in this case), but how about the Padres send Alan Embree RP to the Brewers to complete the trade... Is this a trade Brewer fans would accept? Jenkins for Embree straight up? Brewers need bullpen help, I'm not very confident in Turnbow coming back strong, would love them to bring in a guy who can come in 50 to 60 times in the year and pitch the 7th before Capellan in the 8th and then Cordero (granted they have a lead or are close near the end of games). This is a trade I would like to see.... Ok round 2....The Brewers trade Carlos Villanueva (dont everyone jump on me now, the team has 5 good starters, established, and if someone gets hurt they can bring Hendrickson or Gallardo for emergency starts) to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays... The Devil Rays trade..........

When it comes to the draft, I am a firm believer that a team (the Brewers) should always draft best available, granted that its up the middle (P, C, 2B, SS, CF). That having been said I feel that, whoever represents the player, or what kind of bonus the player is seeking should not be a consideration. I feel that over the past 5 years or so the Brewers have only made 2 good first round picsk (Rickie Weeks and Ryan Braun). You're going to give any high level first round pick a decent bonus, imagine if the Brewers had picked Jared Weaver in the 2004 draft....Weaver would have been earning his bigger bonus in the majors, as opposed to Mark Rogers who still got his million dollar contract, but may now never see a major league roster. I feel the samw way about the '02 draft when the Brewers drafted a one tool, overweight 1B for signability, when they could have taken Scott Kazmir and payed a little bit more for him, have him make it to the show 2 years prior and become one of the most dominant young lefties in the game. That having been said, if the prospect rankings stay the same when the draft comes around this year, I think the guy for the Brewers is SS Justin Jackson. I love the words "5 tool" you can never go wrong with 5 tool. And some may say "the Brewers need a catcher/catching prospect, why draft a SS when we have JJ Hardy as the future SS of the team"? I would respond by saying that if Jackson develops into what he can be, and Hardy turns out well and avoids injury, when its time to make that decision, you trade one of the two for a C who is already in the major leagues.

Ok, looks like I will have to keep my "game" going along here and either play by myself, or wait for people to join up..... Toronto gets LF/RF Geoff Jenkins to be first guy off the bench for PH and fill in outfielder/DH from the Brewers... Toronto sends RP Jason Frasor to the Twins..... The Twins trade....

Ouch, how about A-Rod somewhere?.....And dont forget its not what the Brewers get for Jenkins, its what the next team down the line gets, before it eventually comes back to the Brewers....Its a game..... Lets try this again....Geoff Jenkins to the Toronto Blue Jays.....

I know I'm new here, but I love thinking up trades (even if they wouldn't work) and all of the things that could be done between teams. So I thought of a game that I thought might be neat to play where one person starts a trade with team A, player A, and then the next person goes from Team B, player B until you go 5 teams or so back to the team that started the trade. (This sounded quite easy to follow in my own head, maybe not for everyone else). For instance, I say "Houston could use some outfield depth, let's trade Geoff Jenkins to Houston." The next person in line, looks at Houston's depth chart or roster or needs and says "Hmmm, they have 3 pretty good relievers there, two of whom might be good closers on other teams." So the next person on the list sends Dan Wheeler from Houston to the Marlins..." and so on.... Until someone brings the trade back to the Brewers (maybe 4, 5 or 6 teams down the line)Does this make sense? So I will start, Brewers trade Geoff Jenkins to the New York Yankees for.....

I love Manny Ramirez. Since he is playing LF and his defense does not have to even register a pulse on the life of a baseball team, I would say that he is one of the best players in all of baseball. If you can drive in 140, hit .330 and hit 40 HR I would trade all those guys AND Ben Sheets just to get him here on board.

I don't know if there will ever be a baseball program again at UW. The cost of a program, and the resulting possible gender firestorm that could be created is something UW does not welcome. It is true that Michigan and Ohio State traditionally field decent programs, but as a former Gopher baseball player, I feel that Minnesota must also be mentioned. In a recent Baseball America article, Minnesota was ranked as the 48th best program in the 64 team NCAA tournament era. Fact of the matter is that even if Wisconsin had a program, the state just does not have a ton of talent to begin with to field a successful program. The same problem that the Minnesota's and Michigan's and UWM's have is that they have to compete with warm weather schools for top players. And if you were a division one prospect, would you rather be playing baseball outside in 70 degree weather in March, or practicing in a batting cage in the football complex until mid-April?

WOOOOOOOOOOOOT! Rivera!

Dammmmmmmmmit..

Can the horse pull his team too victory!

Cmon baby no DP.

Meatball's~MMMMM. Choke job.