Playing Catch

Also, if you plan to look at his defensive record, you may want to sit down first.

After reconsidering his career, I really like the Maldonado-floor comp. Maldonado's star was probably boosted by his Gold Glove and playing on those Astros teams. I guess I had thought that MM's career was a little stronger than it was. I agree that Quero is most likely going to play in the Show for a long time. I like the Perez-comp as a ceiling for Quero, especially considering their comparable ages/development stages. I guess more than anything, I wanted to remind folks that most catching prospects just become JAGs.

I think we need to be able to recognize that (A), Quero is a really, really good prospect, and that (B), prospects this good fail EVERY SEASON in MLB. Penciling him in as a future all-star, or even every day starter is probably expecting too much at this point. His high floor has him on perhaps a Manny Pina-type floor, not an all-star. He's super exciting, and it's worth debating if he's the Brewers' best prospect, but let's reestablish the failure rate of top prospects before we crown him as the next Adley Rutschman.

This is totally on point. The TV box is often wrong.

After this draft, there won't really be a position group on the farm that we can complain about the Brewers ignoring, or being unable to develop. Including this year's rookie crop, they have legitimate prospects at all the positions. Of course, many of them won't work out, as that is the nature of prospects, but it's suddenly a varied, deep system.

I love Quero because his floor keeps going up. Above average defense, burgeoning power. As a player that can contribute positive WAR in MLB, he's becoming closer to "can't miss". But he's not the same type of prospect as a lot of other catching prospects. His pedigree isn't necessarily with the bat (though his performance this year may be changing that a little bit). IMHO, the quality of a farm system lies in its ability to churn out big-leaguers, not all-stars. This is a quality farm system.

I've decided that I hope they save a little money to take advantage of the deep draft. Getting 4 or 5 guys would be fun. Misiorowski was paid more than Brown Jr. last season. Let's do that again!

About a month ago, I was hoping for a college pitcher like Waldrep, but my brother talked me out of it (the thought being that college pitchers that end up being good can be found all over the first few rounds). Since then, I can't seem to find any player that I really WANT. I guess Davis is probably the guy. Miller would be really exciting, but his lack of games played has me concerned, only because scouts haven't had as much time to evaluate him. I think the only player that I would prefer NOT to draft would be Troy.

But if they drafted Miller, where would Luke Adams play? It would be fun if they drafted Miller.

Did he not get a suspension from his actions in Nashville's brawl the other day?

Yeah, going through this exercise every few days of trying to scrounge up some modest production in the lineup is a chore. It makes you appreciate that they are at least thinking outside the box by getting guys like Perkins, Tapia, and Jones.

Wow. That is a sweet, but scary tweet. What a successful organization. I hate them so much.

I don't mind at all when they draft shortstops, as in, typically, long, lean, athletic, big armed shortstops. But I don't understand the value of drafting 2B-only guys (Robert Moore, Dylan O'Rae), as those players are just as limited defensively as a big, burly first baseman.

After some consideration, I don't want to trade Chourio for Alonso. With this said, there is a school of thought that says you want to trade a player when they are at their peak value. While I'm not predicting this, it's possible this is perfect time to trade Chourio.

You have to admit, though, in spite of the objective evidence, that this is, indeed, hard to believe. According to my subjective eye-test, he's much, much better out there this season, so I get it. It probably means many teams are putting their bats out in left this season, or that if he played for the bottom-half of the league, he may be a below average CFer.

Some former Phillies executive stated on MLB network yesterday that the Mets should trade Alonso, who has yet to sign an extension, but has team control through 2024. Anyone on board with selling Chourio+ to get Alonso? I probably would be. (But I'm sure this would just be Stearns plotting in his dark corner of the Front Office to get his future employer the transcendent teenager!).

Wow. That's a lot of bile-soaked red meat for Blighty, 888 and others to feast on! "reflexively and blindly support every move" "simplistic data like WAR" "simple single" "fans outsmarting the GM" "obviously a stupid pick" "The comedy is the genius fan brigade who will defend Rowdy to death because [counting stats] don't matter" "horrific hit tool" "move Yelich to first" "stubbornly and incorrectly eschew corner IFers in the draft and foreign market has really caught up with them" As one of those who are probably in the camp of obsequious Arnold defenders, I may as well comment. I think I'll start with this. Baseball is hard. Hitting a baseball is hard. Finding players that hit baseballs better than others is hard. I support most of the moves that this front office has made because most of their moves have worked out. Not all of them, but most of them. Coming into the season, any GM in baseball would think it was reasonable to expect a 28-year old Rowdy to replicate his above average offensive production from 2022, including finishing 2nd on the team with 89 RBIs (including a team-leading 35 home runs). They would also believe it reasonable to want to keep that player, as Tellez is on an inexpensive contract and already on the roster. This does not equate with defending Rowdy to death, nor does it suggest that Rowdy's first half stats have been good enough. They haven't been. He's been really bad, and has had a big role in the Brewers' really bad offense. Arnold should look to improve his 1st base options if they want to stay in the hunt. Ray Montgomery SHOULD have been fired for picking Ray instead of waiting all the way until the 4th round to pick... Corbin Burnes. While I am intrigued by the possibility that Yelich could one day play a serviceable 1st base, this possibility is not necessarily a slam dunk option. For all we know, Yelich is a butcher in the infield. And why would the Brewers want to make room for Chourio since it is so obvious that the foreign market has really caught up with them? Any finally, Arnold has only been responsible for roster construction for 8.5 months. We have no idea what opinions he had on the decisions of Stearns. For all we know he hated every good move Stearns made, or perhaps, he was the mastermind behind every good move. For all we know, Stearns wanted Esteury Ruiz to be the Brewers starting CFer so bad that he traded Hader for him despite Arnold's misgivings, so Arnold quickly moved on Ruiz to get William Contreras. We just don't know.

Tyrone Taylor's IL stint has to be coming to a close soon. I wonder if the Crew activate him before the break, and send down Wiemer (who is 1 for his last 28), taking advantage of the extended break to count as time not on MLB roster. edit: I see Damuelle thinking the same thing in the ML forum.

He wouldn't help versus lefties at all. His splits are pretty stark.

Just a note for yourself, and anyone else that may be having this issue, is that in order to avoid the "double-space" when one hits Enter/Return, hold down the shift key... So, SHIFT+Return will single-space your lines (I learned this with my work software).

In all sports, the common fan is mysteriously priced out of going to games. I can never understand it, and am always asking, "Wouldn't they want me coming in to buy concessions instead of having empty seats?" All I can figure is that some Brewers actuary has convinced Rick Schlesinger that indeed, they would prefer the empty seats. Perhaps there is some hidden benefit in terms of staffing/supplying the stadium, I dunno. But I suppose that we, a flock of golden geese, will continue to faithfully follow our beloved sports teams anyway.

Looking at his splits, Black probably won't be helping the big league team much versus lefties, FWIW.

Tellez is batting .153 in June with a 2.7% BB rate. It's been the same issue all season. Number 2 spot in the order - 30th in MLB (64 wRC+) Number 3 spot in the order - 29th in MLB (76 wRC+) Most of the other spots in the order are also, as one would expect, below average. But when the other team completely neuters the heart of the order, the offense is going to stink. As others have noted, until the players that are probably not going anywhere (e.g. Adames and Tellez, namely) hit better, the Crew will continue to scuffle.

If not for the Frelick/Mitchell/Taylor injuries, I think the Crew would look a lot different right now. I think the plan was to have Yelich/Tellez/Contreras share DH duties and Frelick/Taylor/Mitchell/Wiemer/Anderson share OF duties. The team would have been elite defensively (it's still very good right now, but that would have put them up there with Arizona), and while perhaps the offense would continue to lack HR punch, I think the pressure on the basepaths would have resulted in a few more big innings with SBs, errors, back-to-back doubles and the like. Counsell was up front in the spring about having to rely on rookies this season, and I don't think that mid-to-long term organizational strategy has changed. I would be very surprised if any of the top 5 to 8 prospects in the system are traded, If they want to try and improve the offense at the deadline, I think they'll trade from their newfound depth in the lower minors. They have some really intriguing youngsters that are going to be getting mentioned as "top 30 prospects," in the system sooner rather than later.

Looking through some monthly splits, it looks like there's a number of players that had poor to middlin' April/Mays, but have had strong Junes. In particular, it's nice to see 2021 prospect darlings, Hedbert Perez and Joe Gray Jr. with strong months of June. Gasser's improvement lately, too, has been very very important to see.