Playing Catch

I like Perkins. He only got 168 PAs in his rookie year last year, and looked like handled himself well enough that he could have a Tyrone Taylor-like role on a big league team. Top notch defender and switch hitter with some speed, what's not to like for your fourth outfielder?

85

This is just so, so disappointing. I've been dying for an extended run from Mitchell -- just to see what they have in him, and he's always hurt. It just stinks. So: Yelich, Chourio, Frelick, and Perkins. That's a solid four. As others have mentioned, this may put the Frelick at 3rd experiment on hold, I'd expect Dunn to take the spot on the roster in Mitchell's absence.

14-16

I know you were responding to someone else, but there's more to front court play than being athletic. I want them to recruit differently as well, but let's not just throw out all of the positive contributions that players like Crowl and Wahl can make... Point forward?? Not many of those guys out there. Inside AND outside? Not many 7-footers with that skill-set. I don't disagree that rules changes have effectively neutered positional defense in favor of bouncy, big shot blockers that go over the back on every possession, and can't pass out of a double-team to save their life (just jump and throw it towards the hoop! Then chase down the rebound!). But let's not pretend that Wahl and Crowl didn't provide UW with tremendous benefits.

I would imagine it's too soon to say. Even guys that haven't spent the last year injured sometimes won't get back to their expected velocity until after the first few starts of the season. I guess I don't remember how hard he threw before but 92-94 doesn't seem too far off. Maybe a couple of clicks?

I think the Badgers will smoke JMU. Excluding MSU, in the first game of the season, the best team they played was T-Rank's #99th ranked team, Appalachian State... who they lost to... twice. I think all of the noise about 12 over 5, and looking at JMU's gaudy record will quiet down by halftime, by which time, the Badgers will have dominated the paint/boards. The lone worry for me is 3-point shooting, as JMU has enough good shooters, especially shooters with a little height. Badger guards will need to especially crash the boards, and I hope Gard has them crash the offensive glass as well.

Especially because Gasser will need every drip and drop of experience and knowledge from Miley... a near perfect MLB pathway for Gasser.

I don't like this news. With that said, this isn't an arm injury, or a chronic back problem (unless I'm missing something). For that reason, he's getting a few months off so he can be fresh for September. I think there's enough depth for the Brewers to be okay. It may even open up the opportunity for others to strut their stuff. It also gives the team a sense of what the 'pen could look like when Devin is traded in the offseason.

I'm sure Zaidi knows all the nuances of the CBA, but it's also possible that they didn't want to roster him, and knew they'd have to pay him no matter what. The fact an arbiter sided with Davis in his hearing is a pretty potent piece of evidence for him to file a grievance. I don't know if this is a thing, but maybe the Giants end up paying the difference between his new team's contract and $6.9M.

The B1G decided years ago that they would try as best they could to call games the way the home team would prefer a game to be called... Meaning, play at the Kohl center, expect hand-checks to be ignored and moving screens and over-the-backs to be called. At Mackey? Play as physically as you want, there won't be fouls called on either end. Now obviously, the problem with the Mackey strategy on Senior Day with Zach Edey is that it will get out of hand if no calls are made, and that lends itself to inconsistency, and refs just making stuff up in order to maintain control of the contest without guys getting [too] hurt. Reffing at Mackey, on Senior Day, with Edey's last game ever at home... the refs are in a no-win situation. Considering all of what goes into it, I thought the refs kept the game from being too slanted in Purdue's favor, even though they were awful on many individual calls. As I've made perfectly clear when it comes to reffing in the B1G... I don't mind home-cooking so long as my team gets it too. And THAT is what I think made me upset this year, and THAT is why I agree that Gard needs to play the game a little bit. I think he needs to raise a stink every now and then. Make it a story. The problem for Gard is that he seems to have ingrained it into the team's head that the refs are always right. Over the long run, this is probably for the best, but in the case of the obvious contrast between stopping the game for Smith and not Chucky... well, you can raise a stink, and the players won't believe you are "blaming" the refs. That was simply apples to apples. Edit to add a tangential point: I also think that once or twice, early in the game, a Badger needs to LAY OUT the shooter. I believe one of the reasons that the Badgers have been so poor on 3 pt. defense is that the other team KNOWS there is no threat to block their shot attempt. The Badgers play physically in the post, they need to take a foul here and there on jump shooters that are getting too comfortable.

Even with the loss, they ended the season on a good note. Easy to talk themselves into some confidence in tourney season... ain't no more road games.

This is the deepest system the Brewers have ever had, that I can remember. I'm not sure how many stars there will be, but there are a lot of players that will get a chance to be a starter in the big leagues.

Failed mutinys have a way of being explained away as, "just kidding".

Yes. This is certainly a consideration. But the Crew's payroll is low enough where it leads one to believe that they have flexibility to add. It seems like a fair price for Davis, if he is the right fit for a roster/payroll. I'm not even sure I want him, perhaps preferring to give Black, and others a shot. But I also think he would make the 26-man better.

I like him more than Bauers... https://www.mlb.com/news/jd-davis-on-waivers-giants

Domingo German?

I'd be fine with Lorenzen. Not interested in Clevinger. It would be fun to sign Grienke. He threw 142 innings last year. Obviously not a world-beater, but he's an all-time favorite of mine.

This was an excellent article.

I'd take Crowl over Reuvers. Not even sour grapes. Optimist- This team is good but unlucky... F4 is possible with parity in NCAA and a lucky draw. Pessimist- I hate this team. They are hurting me so, so much.

At the risk of overemphasizing my previous point, I'll reiterate. How would you feel if you're Michael Busch, drafted by the Dodgers? You were the 31st pick overall, you mashed your way to AAA, and went on to play in over 200 AAA games in your age 24 and 25 seasons, before finally getting traded to a team that will play you. IMHO, that's a lot worse than delaying FA for a season because you actually value, and want to keep the player. If I were a top draft prospect, I'd make the big money teams pay through the nose to sign me. Dude has legit MLB dreams and never gets a chance because the Dodgers just sign superstars.

I agree with your thesis. My belief is that it is driven by the fact that "top prospect" lists get clicks and eyeballs. There are a lot of clicks and eyeballs to be had in the biggest cities in the USA. It also only takes a handful of "top lists" to color all of the other lists -- including Brewerfan's own! Fangraphs and some of the others try harder to tier the players and have more realistic outcome predictions, but if you are someone like Brock Beauchamp (no offense!), running a website for all MLB fans, and you are parsing through the 250 40-45 future grade prospects, wouldn't you simply add a couple to the "top 100" for the thirsty fans of New York City, or Chicago? No one from Bucktown cares if Brock Wilken is an incrementally better prospect than Matt Shaw. I don't particularly care about it too much, except when trades are being speculated about or assessed afterwards, and people feel like the Brewers "didn't even get a top 100 prospect!!". Edit to add: I also believe that certain orgs, (now including the Brewers!), get artificial "bumps," because of reputation, or perhaps even artificial downgrades due to the same. The A's are woefully shy of top prospects, for instance.

I'm going to have to disagree with you there. Even if one goes along with your first sentence, I would disagree with your 2nd sentence.

3 FTAs, 2 TOs... we saw the game... not sure what the coaches could do differently, or better. They missed some open looks and Indiana made them. The home team got the benefit of the officiating. But Indiana shot 62%. The defense needs to be better. I feel like so many poor outcomes this season have come down to how the officials call the game for Crowl. Either he gets into foul trouble for ticky-tack stuff or he gets dominated physically because he's afraid to get into foul trouble. He's the Rodney Dangerfield of B1G senior post players.

I went back and looked at All-star type catchers minor league stats at their respective ages/levels and compared them to Quero and came away feeling like I've been perhaps a little too cautious with my excitement about Quero. He really DOES have a really good prospect profile with the bat. Of course, any prospect can flop, but Quero is looking better than I thought!