Austin Tatious

That’s a lot of mental masturbation and no discernible point being made other than undercutting your post by admitting you’re obsequious. That’s not a good thing. In any event, very hard to read all of those non-sequiturs, excuses, straw men, wild speculation and general superiority complex. Just because you’re blindly positive doesn’t make you smarter than everyone else. PS 90% of my posts are positive so the snarkiness is unnecessary. I want the Brewers to do well.

You may be a really sharp guy. But pretending that Tellez is the answer doesn’t help the discussion. He is a losing player. He’s what you call a second division player.

Arnold needs to be on a short leash. For those of you who reflexively and blindly support every move the franchise makes, the problem you will have is Mark knows he needs to be on a short leash. He’s not going to be here indefinitely if we don’t turn it around in terms of roster construction. For example, you come back with a guy like Rowdy Tellez as your first baseman and you have to answer for that. He’s not even a Chris Carter. He came up yesterday with two on in a tie game against a struggling reliever and was feeble again. Then you lose the game. You can take simplistic data like WAR all day and that’s an actual loss you would have been able to flip around with a simple single. It happens too frequently. When you have subpar guys like that, you lose difference-making games. Sadly, the fan base understands this and you can’t be having the fans outsmarting the GM. It’s like when we drafted Corey Ray. The scouting director was gone because it was so obviously a stupid pick. The comedy is the genius fan brigade who will defend Rowdy to death because data like “batting average and RBI do not matter” and then you have the guy with a horrific hit tool squander a winnable game. You can move Yelich to first in time and make room for an OF of Frelick, Chourio and Wiemer with Mitchell in the mix, but that doesn’t help you now when you have good pitchers who aren’t under contract forever. And the organization’s decision to stubbornly and incorrectly eschew corner infielders in the draft and foreign market has really caught up with them. Arnold has had a prominent position and is part of all of that. There are too many baseball men who are really bright to keep chugging along if things don’t start getting better in terms of roster construction.

https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/news/brewers-sal-frelick-avoids-serious-injury/amp/

I am biased toward college players in the first round but Aidan Miller has the kind of upside that is really enticing. I like Soto as a pitcher but it might be early.

I believe Hiura is hurt. Correct me if I’m wrong. Ruf has been a bright spot as a niche guy. Winker and Voit should be in Korea.

Informative mock draft here from Prospects Live https://www.prospectslive.com/prospects-live/2023-mlb-draft-mock-3

Braden, do you think Adams can stick at 3B?

If either of them get hurt is Payton Henry next?

Great info, Braden. You were fair and mentioned the pluses and minuses which gave us all an informative piece.

Good article. I keep banging the drum that Turang has been undervalued and under appreciated by Brewer fanatics. He’s an excellent athlete and his stats don’t tell the story. He’s always been challenged and is physically maturing. I think he ends up a good starter when you take into account his defense, speed, and hit tool. He’s like the opposite of Arcia where his stats were misleading the other way.

The backup infield and bullpen will be fascinating to see how they work out. Both look pretty jumbled. Also, some IFers can go out and play OF which adds flexibility. With a 26 man roster and 13 pitcher limit, that leaves you five backup/DH position players, and Caratini will be one of them. So that leaves you four. Winker absorbs one. If you assume Taylor, Mitchell and Yelich in the OF, then Naquin could be another. If you assume an IF of Anderson, Adames, Urias, and Tellez, you’re looking at two backup IF with lots of candidates. I don’t know how to handicap it without getting spring training results. Who are the last two? Is Hiura still going to be here? Miller is versatile and a pro. Brosseau is good against lefties. Toro is maybe still developing. Will Turang be given a chance? Voit doesn’t bring flexibility but could be a hedge for Winker or Tellez injuries, or a possible Hiura trade. Right now, without any trades, I might guess Hiura and Miller for those spots but anything is possible. The other possibility is Naquin doesn’t make it and they rely on Anderson’s ability to play RF and Hiura LF. Then you keep a Toro or Brosseau.

It’s action definitely looks like a screwball to me so I get the argument.

It’s action definitely looks like a screwball to me so I get the argument.

If you’re out of market, can you subscribe to all of the Brewer games on YouTube? How much does it cost and how does if work? I think YouTube has the NFL package so it might be an interesting option.

For all the talk about Stearns wanting to go home to New York, going home to your wife’s hometown may also be a factor. Happy wife, happy life.

I don’t know Houston’s owner but Cohen is crooked. He made his fortune in very shady ways with insider trading allegations left and right etc.

His wife is from Houston so that may be a huge draw for them. Better than working for Steve Cohen who is a true piece of work.

I’d rate them 1. Fielder 2. Cooper 3. Scott 4. Sexson 5. Jaha

I was once intrigued by Salome and Palmisano so I share your pain. But I think Quero has a good shot at being the next guy. By everything I’ve ever heard about him, he’s got a great makeup. There is a hit tool and defense plus he’s young. Every reason to be very optimistic about him as he becomes a consensus top 5 prospect for the Brewers.

Given what’s out there, I’d take him if they could work out the money and we didn’t give up a top 15 prospect. One thing that I hope changes under Arnold is that we emphasize 3B more in our drafting and signings. We, of all teams, are seeing that 3B is actually a premium position that’s hard to fill. You need a crazy accurate and strong arm, athleticism, and a bat with pop. That’s a hard profile to fill and I’d treat it like a premium position. A lot of 17 year old shortstops outgrow it and move to 3B but that’s hardly been the profile of the guys we brought in. You can dismiss 1B while you’re at it but look at what Fielder became. With all of our difficulties at corner infield. I hope that becomes a new emphasis in the draft and internationally. Back to the point: Escobar, Adames, Urias/Turang, Rowdy with Toro, Miller, Brosseau, and Hiura fighting for two spots? I think Turang is underrated due to some folks slavishly overemphasizing his minor league numbers, but even I don’t think the Brewers will overload him this year. I think they will work him in to get him acclimated.

I’ve been a huge fan of Hiura’s and I’ve been wrong to date about him. I saw an electric bat coming up who would be a complete hitter in terms of average, extra base hits etc. He’s shown flashes of being that guy but for three years he’s been plagued by strikeouts, and missing badly in the zone. What’s worse, his role is complicated by the inability to hit lefties despite being a right handed hitter etc Honestly even if he had good splits against lefties, he could carve out a role splitting time with Rowdy or at DH. But he hits righties better and that makes a mess out of it. Nothing would make me happier than to see him succeed here but the path to a consistent role seems elusive. Perhaps he changes his approach from the launch angle frenzy and shows us that electric line drive bat that enticed us to begin with. Just from a layperson’s view, if you watch slow motions from when he’d miss in the strike zone, he looked like he was missing due to the upper cut. Obviously he and the staff would have seen all that too and it didn’t seem to get better.

I doubt that Lutz will be a regular major leaguer. But I left for dead Tyrone Taylor’s major league possibilities and he has proven me wrong. Players develop at different rates and in different ways. As I recall Taylor got to AA and AAA and chopped around, seemingly hitting a wall. We know how that turned out as he’s a solid major league contributor.

Contreras’ OPS against southpaws is huge here. That’s an area in which the Brewers needed significant help.

All three teams may ultimately be happy even if the Brewers caught a windfall. The Braves wanted an elite player and were willing to move a young guy in Contreras where they had depth. Perhaps Contreras’ defense was a factor. I don’t know if it’s Charlie Greene (organizational catching instructor who has been touted over the years) specifically, but the Brewers are obviously comfortable developing a catcher’s receiving skills. So, the Braves’ concern may be the Brewers gain. The A’s got some prospects, including pitching from Atlanta. They highly coveted Ruiz. This is obvious because they had to get the two relievers in there for the Brewers. But, if the two pitchers the A’s got end up middle of the rotation starters and Ruiz can hit at all, they will also be pleased. If Ruiz can slap some hits through and add some bunts, maybe he gets on base enough to swipe 60-80 bags in their big ball park. His speed is electric.