3and2Fastball

I'm thinking that Gallardo could be packaged with either Ramirez or Hart to Texas and get us a decent return. Gallardo is from Texas and the Rangers might feel like a chance of scenery could do Yo well. Plus being reunited wth Mike Maddux might help Gallardo with any mechanics issues that he has. A bat like Ramirez or Hart can always help a contending AL team

Those are the precise reasons to trade Aoki: being under control and inexpensive, plus having a larger sample now of proven ability to hit MLB pitching, gives Aoki some trade value.

yeah, I was going to say: Hart coming back and showing that he's fully healthy and hitting well could help us by trading him in July

Possibly, although Braun may have been trying to poke it in between 1st & 2nd with the vacating 2B and just missed

I'm already looking forward to seeing the "Jesus Saves" signs in Miller Park when Sanchez is our eventual closer

The Cardinals realized one player does not make the team and knew when to cut bait. Yeah, because the Brewers didn't let Prince Fielder leave

Interesting. Although we don't know: did he have a bad game because his mechanics were off or did he just have one of those "baseball days" where everything was right in terms of mechanics but the game just didn't work out? I was scouting a kid a few days ago (it's something I do as a hobby but have aspirations to be a coach or scout professionally someday), and he's a sophomore starting on a varsity high school team. He went 0 for 3 that day: smoked a line drive to the warning track that the LF caught, and struck out twice. Also failed to drop down a bunt when his coach called for it. It wasn't a good day but his mechanics, approach at the plate and attitude were off the charts great. His team was losing by 5 runs late in the game and he was being a great team leader, getting the dugout going and making focused plays in the field.....

Sounds like he's starting to hit more. He is hitting .286/.435/.920 in his last 10 games with 2 HR's

Thanks very much for your reply. I was asking sincerely as I really didn't know I like Victor Roache's potential alot if he can fix some of swing mechanics

Who do we have in the Minors who has the potential to be an MLB All-Star (or even an impact player)?

I'd love to see Gallardo traded for a couple of Top 100 prospects. I think the James Shields comparison is a good one although Gallardo might have *slightly* less value than Shields but not a lot less. I think the Brewers could also get a prospect for Ramirez (especially if trading him to an AL team), Hart & Lohse

That sounds like some inferior scouting on the part of the Brewers unless his 4-seamer had some unusual movement to it. Plenty of examples of kids who threw mid-90's 4-seamers in high school or college who never made it as pitchers because the 4-seamer was straight as a string (JJ Hardy being a great example of that: All-State high school pitcher in Arizona who threw mid 90's and straight as an arrow)

From what I understand, once a kid is labeled a prospect, the scouts look much more at mechanics. attitude and overall makeup than they do at the immediate results of a particular game

He certainly has an outside chance of passing up Hunter Morris & Mat Gamel as the "1B of the future". Hitting well in AA ball now Power numbers are way up this season but the OBP is down. Still a small sample

thanks for the great write-up. I apologize for my ignorance because I haven't been paying enough attention lately, but whats up with the loss of velocity? An injury? A change in mechanics? Purposefully taking something off in order to have better control?

I'm still a fan day in and day out and watch every game. I'll stick around in a blow out just to watch Braun & Gomez & Segura bat and to marvel at how well Lucroy frames pitches and how much Gomez hustles and to check out how someone like Figaro or Bianchi looks (and yes to complain about managerial decisions too!) My family & I are looking forward to going to Miller Park 3-4 times this season. If the "direction' of the franchise is mostly based on being sellers at the deadline and models itself after fleecing the Angels for Jean Segura, I'm excited about the future. But I realy have my doubts about that. If we trade Ramirez, Galardo, Lohse, Hart, Aoki, Weeks at the deadline and actually acquire some solid talent for them (or even a few of them) I'll be optimistic Generally speaking, I like that we "went for it" in 2011 but we didn't have the right GM & manager in place to really complete that run. Melvin not trading for Furcal and instead going with Yuni B hurt us badly. Roenicke starting Kotsay in CF in a playoff game hurt us badly If the "direction" of the franchise is what it appears to be from the outside in, of continually trading our prospects for Shaun Marcum types, then we are doomed to mediocrity. What we do at the trade deadline this season will tell us a lot. Personally I'd like to see the Brewers clean house and model themselves much more going forward after the Cardinals & Rays: build the farm system, rely much more on advanced scouting metric/sabermetrics, be much much more selective on who the team signs longterm

We'll see. I still think it could happen in the next few weeks.

Here is an example of Scooter Gennett's superior mechanics (despite inferior strength/power) and a way to show why Gennett is so much closer to the MLB level than Roache (keep in mind that this video was shot when Scooter was 20 years old, 1 year younger than Roache is now. Freeze the video at 1:01 (right before his HR swing), see how Scooter's hands are further back at front foot touch? Not only does that give him longer to see the ball but allows him to stay off the off-speed junk he was thrown earlier in the at-bat My concern with Roache is that if he doesn't significantly change his mechanics he will be an amplified version of the way Rickie Weeks looks in slumps: hitting line-drives on fastballs but missing badly on off-speed stuff

In terms of Victor Roache's hitting mechanics, he needs to watch a ton of video of Barry Bonds and Ted Williams (or Ryan Braun, or Miguel Cabrera) and realize how important it is to have one fluid load/swing (as opposed to first load, then swing) both for reasons of bat acceleration and in order to see the pitch longer. This is something that Ryan Braun excels at, keeping his hands back longer so that he can recognize the pitch and adjust. Braun is amazing at hitting both fastballs and off-speed pitches and in Roache's check-swings it is clear that his mechanics are making it more difficult to adjust to off-speed stuff He has great, pro hitting instructors to work through this stuff with him though He also needs to have more hip rotation. His swing looks like it is all forward momentum right now and what success he is having is based on superior athleticism and bat-speed as opposed to elite mechanics I hope more video gets posted of him over the years as it would be great to see how he progresses with this stuff

Great post and I agree completely. Attanasio admitting he has to completely clean house is akin to admitting that he himself was completely wrong about his own assessments of the team and the way the franchise has been run. It seems that he would much rather believe that the franchise has been run correctly and that all the Brewers need is a "better" manager because "we are better than this" (his words). He really has a very small window to admit he was wrong and completely change directions because otherwise 2-3 managers from now Ryan Braun will be 37 years old

And yet another sign that Roenicke will soon be gone. When the franchise player starts speaking out like this in public, a change is coming soon "There's been a lot of 'worst' games this year," Ryan Braun said. "It hasn't been good. We're just barely even competitive. It's been horrendous. Terrible. "We have to do everything better. Coming into the year, we expected to be able to compete for a postseason spot, to have an opportunity to win our division, and we're not doing anything well enough to even belong in that conversation. We've been terrible. Horrible. Without many signs of doing anything better. It just hasn't been good."

I completely agree. My response to Mark saying "we're better than this" would be "with all due respect, we really aren't" 5 of 8 of our regulars are well over .300, and the bullpen is much better than last year. Poor fundamentals and many outs on the bases are costing us. I'm not saying they should be the favorites in the NL, but they should definitely be better than this. Good point. And I agree in that regard. But without better starting pitching the Brewers aren't going far. And that is Melvin's fault not Roenicke's. But I could see Mark A focusing more on the kind of stuff you are mentioning and making a change

I completely agree. My response to Mark saying "we're better than this" would be "with all due respect, we really aren't"

Just reading between the lines of Mark A's in-game interview today: "we are better than this", "we are making too many stupid mistakes", "we have got to find a way to get these players playing better" I think he is very seriously considering firing Roenicke. In fact I think this change could happen anywhere from today to sometime in the next few weeks unless the Brewers start playing a lot better My prediction is that Jerry Narron will be named interim manager

All we can go by is history when it comes to Mark A, but his handling of Ned Yost tells us that RRR's job security might not be as solid as some think it is.... hopefully Mark cleans house including Melvin and goes for complete change. Doubting that though.