JosephC

And the standings [attachment=3]4_27_NL Standings.jpg[/attachment] [attachment=2]4_27_NL Wild Card.jpg[/attachment] [attachment=1]4_27_AL Standings.jpg[/attachment] [attachment=0]4_27_AL Wild Card.jpg[/attachment]

https://www.ootpdevelopments.com/ April 27 - Off One huge piece of news on the minor league front. The Brewers sign 16-year old left handed pitcher Alex Pistoni out of Venezuela. He is 6-1, 170 pounds. Throws a fastball, splitter and circle change with 88-90 MPH fastball velocity. He unseats Turang as the Brewers #1 prospect and debuts on the Top 100 prospect list at #40. Brewers 26-man roster- Starting pitchers - Brandon Woodruff, Brent Suter, Freddy Peralta, Adrian Houser, Josh Lindblom Relief pitchers - Josh Hader (closer), Corey Knebel (setup), Corbin Burnes (setup), Devin Williams (middle), Ray Black (middle), Alex Claudio (middle), Chris Lee (long), Drew Rasmussen (long) Catchers - Omar Narvaez, Manny Pina Infielders - Logan Morrison, Keston Hiura, Luis Urias, Eric Sogard, Brock Holt, Jedd Gyorko Outfielders - Christian Yelich, Lorenzo Cain, Avisail Garcia, Ryan Braun, Ben Gamel Disabled list - IF-Justin Smoak (4 weeks), RP-David Phelps (10 days) Other players on 40-man roster- Relief pitcher - J.P. Feyereisen Catcher - David Freitas Infielders - Ryon Healy, Orlando Arcia, Ronny Rodriguez Outfielder - Tyrone Taylor 40-man roster currently stands at 34 players. Brett Anderson has cleared waivers and is still on the DFA list. [attachment=4]4_27_team stats.jpg[/attachment] [attachment=3]4_27_MLB hitters.jpg[/attachment] [attachment=2]4_27_MLB pitchers.jpg[/attachment] And here are stats from San Antonio. [attachment=1]4_27_AAA hitters.jpg[/attachment] [attachment=0]4_27_AAA pitchers.jpg[/attachment]

https://www.ootpdevelopments.com/ April 26 - Brewers 9, Rockies 7 Brewers now up to an impressive 18-10. Roster move made- Justin Smoak is placed on the disabled list Logan Morrison is placed on the 26-man roster Bad news on Smoak. Out three weeks with an oblique strain. Big blow to the Brewer lineup. Morrison had slashed .545/.615/1.455/2.070 in AAA but in a very small number of at-bats. He is just coming off a hamstring injury and had only played in games on the 9th, 24th and 25th. Braun fans will be disappointed to hear that Morrison has been placed into the starting lineup, although Braun will start 50% of the games when facing left-handed pitching. Houser blasted again and now we are six starts in and he currently has an 8.04 ERA, 6.71 FIP, 1.89 WHIP and is definitely a candidate for a move to the bullpen. Brewer pitching got lots of help as the Rockies made four outs on the bases. Pina throws out two runners trying to steal second, picks another runner off 1B and Cain throws out a runner at the plate. Pina also with three hits. Sogard named player of the game with another big performance. Drew Rasmussen picks up his second win in as many days. [attachment=2]4_26_game summary.jpg[/attachment] [attachment=1]4_26_hitters.jpg[/attachment] [attachment=0]4_26_pitchers.jpg[/attachment]

https://www.ootpdevelopments.com/ April 25 - Brewers 11, Rockies 4 Interesting that this would have been Lindblom's turn in the rotation, but he had thrown 53 pitches on the 22nd, so the Brewers ended up skipping him and going with a bullpen game. So all 8 Brewer relievers appeared in this game which is a bit of a concern as Houser is scheduled for tomorrow and Houser (with a poor performance so far) + a used up bullpen + Coors Field looks like it could be trouble. Drew Rasmussen picks up his first MLB win. Keston Hiura with a 3 hit, 3 runs scored, 4 RBI performance. The bad news is that Justin Smoak was injured and it's listed as an upper body injury, so not related to the quad problem he's also dealing with. Hopefully this will not keep him out of action as he is #1 on the team in OPS among qualifiers (.973), tied for the team lead in doubles (8) and tied for the team lead in home runs (5). Brewers are now 17-10. They have a 3 1/2 game lead over the Cubs. Their winning percentage (.630) is tied for 3rd best in the NL with the Phillies, only trailing the Padres (.692) and Dodgers (.667). The Yankees have the best record in baseball at an amazing 22-6 (.786). [attachment=3]4_25_game summary.jpg[/attachment] [attachment=2]4_25_hitting.jpg[/attachment] [attachment=1]4_25_more hitting.jpg[/attachment] [attachment=0]4_25_pitching.jpg[/attachment]

This was a good one. Instead of just giggling, why not explain why you think that would be a bad idea? They obviously drafted Love to be the QB of the future. Aaron's play has clearly slipped the last few years. They're probably looking at a 2-3 year window with Rodgers now before they'd either have to turn to Love or trade him. If Rodgers wanted out and you got massive offers for him now, why wouldn't it be worth considering? I would never completely dismiss anything that gets thrown out there on a message board. There have just been so many thing "that could never happen" that ended up happening that I don't know if anything would be too far-fetched. However, the salary cap rules pretty much rule out Rodgers getting traded this off-season. If he's on the team, it counts 21.6 million against the cap. If he's moved off the team, the cap hit is 51.1 million dollars. So it actually costs the Packers roughly 29.5 million in cap room to trade him. The following year, his cap number is 36.3 million and the dead money if moved is 31.5 million, so trading him would come with a huge cap hit but would actually make another 4.8 million available. So if Love looks world-class in practice this year, we can re-visit this subject next year when there is more of a possibility that it could happen.

I remember watching the draft in it's entirety when it was a Saturday/Sunday thing. While I still care about the draft and follow it, I really don't watch any of it anymore. Last night I watched "Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood." Pretty disappointed as I felt it was a subpar effort for Tarantino, but the end saved it. How can anyone resist a pit bull named Brandy? Nonetheless, I'm sure it was much more entertaining than watching Roger Goodell.

I thought the end of round two was kind of a dead area in terms of matching up value with need for Green Bay. We can cross our fingers and hope one of those receivers or Kmet or OLman make it down to the end of round two but it's pretty doubtful. I was thinking the Packers would stay put at #26 and then maybe move up with their second round pick, now since they moved up in round one maybe they will look to trade out of round two and end up with someone like Adam Trautman/TE/Dayton, Malik Harrison/ILB/Ohio State, Reakwon Davis/DE/Alabama after the trade down. The one guy that is interesting is Chase Claypool, he could be a dropper because it sounds like NFL teams can't figure out if he's a WR or TE. Since the Packers need both, he might be ideal. Just bring him in and see where he fits best.

I don't have a problem with the timing. It's pretty clear that Rodgers skills have started to dip (especially in terms of consistency with his accuracy). Every year he becomes more and more of an injury risk. I just question if Love has the same value that the Packers put on him. They obviously think very highly of him. Reports are that he has great physical skills but has all sorts of question marks as well. If he was a consensus top 15 pick, then I would love that that Packers took him. I just don't think his grade makes him stand out from many other players that would have had the added benefit of filling a position of need. As reilly just said, there is no right answer because nobody has that magical crystal ball. If Love turns out to be the next Mahomes, then Gutekunst is the smartest guy in the room. If Love busts and some of these other guys turn inot really good players, then Gutekunst is the dumbest guy in the room. Time will tell.

MLB did a great job in delaying this and slipping it out when no one would notice, and the sports media really fell flat (yet again!!) by pretty much ignoring it. Rosenthal and Drellich's column at The Athletic is pretty comical in so many regards. Once again, Manfred and the owners just pick one insignificant guy, scape-goat him and just hopes it all goes away. It will never, never, never, never, never happen...but I really wish these sports leagues would go back to hiring a commissioner that would truly act "in the best interest of the game." Really sick of just having a total lackey in that spot. Manfred is a complete buffoon, but I have no doubt that the owners got together after the Fiers things and collectively decided that this whole sign-stealing thing will be poo-pooed.

What does this mean? If Attanasio will sit on people's money, basically taking the best customer's money out of their pockets during a pandemic....then I will gladly encourage people to not put more money in Attanasio's pocket by buying official over-priced Brewer merchandise. But the cheap Chinese counterfeit stuff instead.

I didn't like the pick and I didn't like trading a fourth round pick as part of the pick. Lots of comparisons between the Rodgers pick and the Love pick but there is one huge difference. Rodgers was a consensus top 5 pick that slid all the way into the 20's. On Arif Hasan's last consensus board, Love was #35. Love is a very risky pick because there is huge upside with him and huge downside. Patrick Queen probably was the safest pick, I don't think he has nearly as much upside as Kenneth Murray but I think the bust factor on Queen is less than players like Love and Denzel Mims. To me Love and Mims seem to be pretty similar in that each sure look like boom-or-bust candidates. I'm 100% behind picking for value when the value is there, it seems like there is enough of a bust-factor associated with Love where I don't like the idea of using picks #30 and #136 on him when he doesn't address an immediate need. The guy I ended up liking the most that was still available at #30 is Ezra Cleveland. It will be interesting to see where he gets picked. McGinn has him as a 1/2, ESPN have him as the #3 player who hasn't been picked yet, but was only #54 on Hasan's consensus board. I would have looked to have traded down from #30, hope that Cleveland or Xavier McKinney (who would be very hard to pass up as a value pick once past...say...pick #35) make it down to the new spot...and still have the fallback option knowing that there will still likely be 2-3 receivers from that "second tier still available even down at #40 (Higgins, Mims, Shenualt, Pittman, Hamler all still available). One thing that I am pleased about is that Jordyn Brooks is off the board. Read McGinn's write-up on him and he sure sound like one of those big and fast guys that has zero instincts and isn't exactly the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree either. I had been thinking he'd be the prime target for Gutekunst to trade about 3 picks to move up in round two and take. Thankfully he is off the board.

https://www.ootpdevelopments.com/ April 24 - Rockies 8, Brewers 3 Roster move before the game- JP Feyereisen optioned to AAA Drew Rasmussen is added to the 26-man roster Since there has been so many pitching staff changes recently, here is how the staff currently shapes up: Starters = Brandon Woodruff, Brent Suter, Adrian Houser, Freddy Peralta, Josh Lindblom Bullpen = Josh Hader (closer), Corey Knebel (setup), Corbin Burnes (setup), Devin Williams (middle), Ray Black (middle), Alex Claudio (middle), Chris Lee (long), Drew Rasmussen (long) David Phelps on the DL. Brett Anderson is on waivers. Rasmussen makes his MLB debut and pitches a scoreless 8th inning in a lopsided loss. The game was still within reach heading into the bottom of the 7th, but Devin Williams had an awful performance and put the game out of reach. Williams is maintaining a good FIP (3.60) due to a ridiculous K rate (17.4 K/9), but his ERA (8.71) and WHIP (1.74) indicate he might be ready for a trip to the minors. Charlie Blackmon was a stud in this game, bashing 2 home runs, scoring 3 runs and knocking in 4. Rockies starter Jeff Hoffman was injured and left the game in the sixth inning, no word on how much time he will miss. [attachment=2]4_24_game summary.jpg[/attachment] [attachment=1]4_24_hitters.jpg[/attachment] [attachment=0]4_24_pitchers.jpg[/attachment]

KEEP BUYING MORE OF THOSE CHEAP, COUNTERFEIT JERSEYS FROM CHINA!!!

I went though the FanSpeak mock draft simulator GUESSING WHO I THINK GUTEKUNST WOULD TAKE. I used the Arif Hasan board, User-Voted team needs and the Difficult level. 1-30 - Denzel Mims/WR/Baylor 2-62 - Jordyn Brooks/ILB/Texas Tech 3-94 - McTelvin Agim/DE/Arkansas 4-136 - Alex Taylor/OT/South Carolina State 5-175 - Stephen Sullivan/TE/Louisiana State 6-192 - Quez Watkins/WR/Southern Mississippi 6-208 - L'Jarius Sneed/S/Louisiana Tech 6-209 - Danny Pinter/OG-C/Ball State 7-236 - Shaun Bradley/ILB/Temple 7-242 - James Smith-Williams/OLB/North Carolina State Queen went #26 and Murray went #29.

https://www.ootpdevelopments.com/ April 23 - Brewers 7, Pirates 3 Significant roster moves before today's game- Brett Anderson designated for assignment and placed on waivers. David Phelps is put on the disabled list. Diagnosis is a dead arm with an injury time of 2 weeks. Corey Knebel finishes his rehab assignment and is placed on the 26-man roster. J.P. Feyereisen is recalled from the minors. Josh Lindblom has been placed in the starting rotation. The Cubs lost again, so the Brewer lead in the Central is up to 3 1/2 games. Brewers win another game against the Pirates. Again the big dogs in the lineup did not do much (Cain/Hiura/Yelich a combined 2/13 with 1 walk), but big performances from Sogard, Urias and Braun and Pina both started and each had 2 hits. Woodruff looked a big shaky in this game, but was still good enough to get the job done. [attachment=2]4_23_game summary.jpg[/attachment] [attachment=1]4_23_hitters.jpg[/attachment] [attachment=0]4_23_pitchers.jpg[/attachment]

I'd be surprised if it's Aiyuk because to this point Gutekunst has shown a very strong preference for receivers with height and Aiyuk is only 5-11 5/8. I don't watch much college football outside of the Big 10 but did see the Arizona State/Oregon game and Aiyuk looked quick and explosive in that game. Shorter receivers never bothered me, lots of people think that they are less of a deep threat but Greg Jennings was not tall and caught 27 passes of 40+ yards from 2007 to 2010 and was an excellent deep threat (just for comparison, Julio Jones has 37 catches of 40+ yards in his 9 year career). But height, it seems like lots of GMs have trouble getting over that one. It should be noted that Aiyuk has 33 1/2 inch arms which is long for a WR and also posted a 40 inch vertical jump at the combine. So there are definitely some traits there that indicate he will play taller than he actually is.

https://www.ootpdevelopments.com/ April 22 - Brewers 8, Pirates 6 Brewers go to 15-9, Cubs lose and the Cardinals have now dropped 3 straight. Brewers are 2 1/2 games ahead of the Cubs, 4 games ahead of the Cardinals and 5 games ahead of the Reds who have won 3 in a row. Pirates really look dreadful. They took a 3 run lead in the first inning as Peralta really struggled out of the gate and by the fourth inning that three run lead had turned into a three run deficit. Great offensive performance by the Brewers "non-impact" hitters. 8 runs on the board in a game where Cain, Hiura and Yelich went a combined 0/12 with two walks (both by Cain). Peralta settled down after inning one but again ran up a high pitch count and was yanked after just 4 1/3 innings. Hader was money in the ninth inning. [attachment=2]4_22_game summary.jpg[/attachment] [attachment=1]4_22_hitters.jpg[/attachment] [attachment=0]4_22_pitchers.jpg[/attachment]

McGinn is reporting that Zack Baun tested positive for a diluted sample due to excessive water intake at the combine. It raises more questions about his size and how much weight he'll be able to carry through an NFL season.

https://www.ootpdevelopments.com/ April 21 - Brewers 5, Pirates 2 David Phelps was injured while pitching in this game. Further information is still pending. Houser needed a good start against a bad offensive team in Pittsburgh (tied for 13th in the NL in runs scored) and had mixed results. Only allowed 2 runs, but also gave up 7 hits and 2 walks in 5 innings and just can't seem to get on track. And there was some bizarre use of the bullpen in the 9th inning, which may have been explainable if Hader was tired.....but following an off-day? On the plus side, Urias with a 2-hit game that was badly needed and Narvaez and Yelich both with home runs. [attachment=2]4_21_game summary.jpg[/attachment] [attachment=1]4_21_hitters.jpg[/attachment] [attachment=0]4_21_pitchers.jpg[/attachment]

The Athletic have posted their consensus board, which is a compilation of 56 different top prospect lists. I was figuring ILB at #30 strictly based on need, but the board has Kenneth Murray at #18 and Patrick Queen at #19. It could be wishful thinking that either of these players make it to the Packer's pick. I have Baun as an ILB in the NFL and I would guess that most teams see him that way too. NFL OLBs are getting bigger and bigger. Baun did weight 238 at the combine but most think he actually was 228-232 during the season. Most would probably agree that the biggest needs on the team are, in no particular order - WR, TE, OT, DL, ILB Starting at #25 on The Athletic board and working down, here is the players that would be top 10 possibly available for Green Bay at a position of need- 29. OT-Josh Jones/Houston 30. LB-Zack Baun/Wisconsin 33. WR-Denzel Mims/Baylor 35. WR-Tee Higgins/Clemson 39. WR-Jalen Reagor/Texas Christian 40. DL-Ross Blacklock/Texas Christian 41. OT-Austin Jackson/Southern California 42. WR-Brandon Aiyuk/Arizona State 43. WR-Laviska Shenault Jr./Colorado 46. DL-Justin Madubuike/Texas A&M Also worth noting that the #11 WR is off the board at #53. So if the Packers wait until round two (currently pick #62) to take a WR they are likely going to miss out on all the top talent there. Chase Claypool/Notre Dame (#65) would still be available, but it seems like more and more people are reclassifying him at a TE. The next highest ranked WR left is Bryan Edwards/South Carolina (#80). I'd guess the pick will be Mims.

There are a lot of studies and models out there and its easy to follow those that support one's biases. I fall into that trap once in a while. There's that Stanford study in Santa Clara County right now showing something like 50 - 80x more people have had the virus than have tested positive (which is all the more reason for massive uptick in testing) and people are using it as justification for the "it's only the flu" argument when the researchers themselves say it's just one study in one very specific (self selected) population group. If they can replicate that all over the place then sure then by all means adjust accordingly but you can't use one set of results to do that. That isn't how science works. The fact remains that we don't know a lot about the virus which is why continuous study is so important. Equally as important though is to not assume any single study is conclusive. One big issue is that, to my knowledge, there has been no actual controlled studies done to test the rate of transmission. If you actually want to do something like that it would require the following: set up a community of 1000 people all testing negative, set up a community of 1000 people with 5 testing positive, set up a community of 1000 people with 20 testing positive, then set up three more groups just like that and run one set of three under a stay-at-home order and the other set of three with no stay-at-home order....test every member of all 6 communities once per week and after 8-12 weeks apply the statistics on hard data and report the results. That is science. Currently all there is are statisticians plugging numbers into models but the models don't have any proven, reliable COVID-19 data which makes it nothing more than a guessing game. And this is science? Pretty bad science then as these experts seem to come up with a completely different set of numbers every week. I still believe Spain is the #1 in known positive cases of all countries with "major" populations. 200,210 positive cases/46,754,778 people = infection rate of 0.428%. Far cry from the 60% infected projections we were seeing a few weeks ago.

NL Standings [attachment=3]4_20_NL Standings.jpg[/attachment] NL Wild Card [attachment=2]4_20_NL Wild Card.jpg[/attachment] AL Standings [attachment=1]4_20_AL Standings.jpg[/attachment] AL Wild Card [attachment=0]4_20_AL Wild Card.jpg[/attachment]

https://www.ootpdevelopments.com/ April 20 - Off Roster move made. Manny Pina recalled from AAA, David Freitas optioned to AAA. Rough day for pitchers around the league. Baltimore pitcher John Means has shoulder inflammation that will keep him out for 4 months. Texas pitcher Corey Kluber has a hamstring injury that will keep him out for 2-3 months. Cleveland pitching Mike Clevinger suffered a rotator cuff strain that will keep him out 4 weeks. Just to catch up on the Brewer's roster situation: 26-man roster- Starting pitchers = Brandon Woodruff, Brent Suter, Adrian Houser, Freddy Peralta, Brett Anderson Relief pitchers = Josh Hader (closer), Corbin Burnes (setup), Devin Williams (setup), Alex Claudio (middle), Ray Black (middle), David Phelps (middle), Chris Lee (long), Josh Lindblom (long) Catchers = Omar Narvaez, Manny Pina Infielders = Justin Smoak, Keston Hiura, Luis Urias, Eric Sogard, Brock Holt, Jedd Gyorko Outfielders = Christian Yelich, Lorenzo Cain, Avisail Garcia, Ryan Braun, Ben Gamel Corey Knebel currently on rehab assignment. Remaining players also on 40-man roster: Relief pitcher = J.P. Feyereisen Catcher = David Freitas Infielders = Ryon Healy, Orlando Arcia, Ronny Rodriguez Outfielder = Tyrone Taylor Team Stats- [attachment=2]4_20_team stats.jpg[/attachment] Batter Stats- [attachment=1]4_20_hitters.jpg[/attachment] Pitcher Stats- [attachment=0]4_20_pitchers.jpg[/attachment]

https://www.ootpdevelopments.com/ April 19 - Brewers 2, Mets 0 Roster move before the game. Brock Holt activated from the DL, Orlando Arcia optioned to AAA. I was really hoping Urias would have been the one sent out as Arcia has delivered some big hits and Urias has been a black hole offensively. Knebel threw 1 inning for San Antonio. 18 pitches, 1 hit allowed, 1 strikeout. For some reason it's listing his rehab time left as only being 3 days, so he should be back on the Brewer's roster by midweek. As far as today's game, Anderson was effectively wild which caused his pitch count to rise and led to an early exit. Chris Lee came in with 2 outs and the bases loaded, and was able to strike out Amed Rosario to end the threat. Lee is looking like a real find. Brewer bats didn't do much again today. Sogard led off the fifth with a single, Lee bunted him to second, he advanced to third on a Cain single and then scored on a Holt ground out. Cain hit a solo home run off of Dellin Betances in the 8th inning. [attachment=2]4_19_game summary.jpg[/attachment] [attachment=1]4_19_hitters.jpg[/attachment] [attachment=0]4_19_pitchers.jpg[/attachment]

Used to love the pre-Gannett days of the Journal-Sentinel where people like Kane and Bice actually got exposure and I would have rated the paper a 9 on a 10 scale. Bice is still there, but it seems like his profile is almost non-existent. RIP Eugene, you will be missed.