Austin Tatious

Sammon is mixed up. Quero is in no way a third tier prospect. He’s highly regarded. He must have goofed him up with Jose Sibrian.

The recent upswing in stocks: counter rally in a bear market or we’ve already bottomed? I tend to think it’s the former.

It will be interesting how the lists look with the new draftees and potentially some trade deadline activity (could lose some). I think I would find spots for Misiorowski, Brown, Jr, and Wood. Rudy, Metzinger (underrated) and Moore are guys I’m intrigued by and could jump in there with some early production..

Good catch. I like him. I think I had him between 20-25 and made an edit and lost him through an editing error. Sorry about that.

Misiorowski is probably my favorite pick, but Metzinger is probably my favorite pick in terms of value. I like his skill set and positional fit. https://www.si.com/college/louisville/othersports/metzinger-selected-in-2022-draft

Article on Wood with some good info... https://www.collegian.psu.edu/sports/penn-state-baseball-catcher-matt-wood-s-top-5-landing-spots-for-the-mlb-draft/article_6e8cc086-dbbc-11ec-88a1-33593d8750bd.html

JSOnline has a baseball podcast called Microbrew (I think). They had Keith Law on as a guest this week. They discussed Yelich and Hiura's precipitous dropoffs. Law says someone in the organization has tinkered with Hiura's approach. He is trying to get more loft and power. Law was very critical of it. He says that it takes Hiura away from his strength, which is hitting for average and doubles as opposed to all or nothing. Regarding Yelich, he tried to figure out whether the knee injury robbed him of power in his lower body and he hasn't gotten back to what he once was. But Law admitted he couldn't really figure it out.

Thanks for sharing that. Sounds like a great kid. Military father. Gives credit to his parents and coaches. Appreciative for his opportunity. Sounds like a humble grinder.

I am not going to pretend to be an expert on these guys but I really like both picks. I think there’s legit upside. Brown looks like an electric athlete with a rocket arm at short and a very good hit tool. Potential for some pop too. The comp to Counsell seems exceptionally lazy. No shot at CC who had a distinguished career but other than both playing shortstop and holding the bat high, they are pretty different types of players. With Misiorowski, the Brewers are taking advantage of that JC market inefficiency. Kid has upside and is reminiscent of Kelly. Rocket arm. I am happy with an IF with a good hit tool and a projectable pitcher with a power arm.

I didn’t realize our attendance is flagging. The offense is so tedious to watch. That’s likely one of the reasons attendance is down worse than most.

I’m shocked that a team full of .240 hitters, no one above an .800 ops, and Wong in the five hole can’t string together any hits. Wong batting fifth is self immolation.

I am hoping we see a Churio move to Wisconsin. I think he has done all he can at Carolina. But the Front Office would know more than me. They've been aggressive in the past so let's see if they stay the course.

I don't have a problem with the rule as a whole. A pitcher pump fakes to the plate and then whirls and does a pickoff move. That's a violation unless you want to change how the game is played. But, the interpretation with Gustave last night was horrendous.

Oil is trending lower and may continue to do so in the short term. And that might help bring a reading or two down for upcoming CPI prints. But, there is a long term supply issue and energy could go the other direction again. If so, some other inputs will need to come down, particularly housing, or else inflation could be choppy and a more protracted problem than people want to believe.

We just can’t string together hits. I think our entire infield is under .230. Urias. Adames. Wong. Tellez. Center field is a black hole of gigantic proportions. Our best player is probably Adames and he’s hitting .213 and batting second. We need some guys who can get on base and string hits together. The whole thing is broken. We’ve got some guys in the minors who can fix some of this but we are talking 2024 and it’s a question mark where we will be with our front line starting pitchers by then.

I’ve been going off the MLB write ups (just because I’ve followed their lists) and there is divergence from Frangraphs. For example, MLB has Locklear much lower (I think around 100). Will be interesting to see how it shakes out. I suspect Fangraphs will be closer to reality.

Regarding the first round, I’m hoping for one of the college pitchers. It’s hard to tell who might be available but going off MLB’s list there seems to be depth with college pitchers squarely where we are. The Alabama pitcher coming off injury, Connor Prielipp, might be my first choice. He’s from Wisconsin originally. High upside and reward could be tremendous. Also like Hughes, Tidwell, and Horton, in that order. I assume Rocker will be gone but if he’s there I would be interested. If all of those guys are gone, Hjerpe is interesting and his homer avoidance is super interesting. Ferris is an interesting high school pitcher but I would avoid prep guys this high unless they absolutely look overwhelmingly better than the college options because prep arms are a crapshoot. I’m fine with high school pitchers in the mid rounds but not this high unless it’s an unusual circumstance. (High school hitters are less risky IMO a la Turang who is developing nicely and was a steal where we got him. Just don’t compromise on hit tool. If you don’t have a hit tool as an amateur I just don’t like the profile and that seems obvious yet we have screwed that up in the more distant past like the Corey Rays of the world. Come on, if you can’t show a good hit tool as an amateur, against that level of competition, how on earth can you expect a good hitter as you go up the ladder? It’s a longshot to say the least. Turang was a high schooler and he looks good because he has a hit tool.) There are a couple of college outfielders who look ok in our range but none really seem to add much to where we already have great depth. Infielders in our range seem relatively weak. There is a catcher I like, Logan Tanner, but he’s rated lower (MLB has him at 41). Too bad our supp pick is after the second round this alternate year. I think the draft matches us at pitcher and that’s where I hope we go.

How many tie games in the history of baseball were decided because of a balk because the pitcher stepped off the rubber to re-set without starting any semblance of a motion? It’s unprecedented insanity. I watch Jomboy regularly. I highly recommend it to any baseball fan. There is a lot of crappy umpiring. And I’m all for electronic ball and strike calls. That stuff changes games. A bad ball or strike call in a 1-1 or 2-1 situation can totally shift the power in an at bat and effect an outcome. Pitch framing is too prominent. Let’s play the game in the right situations.

Crazy that the ump would decide the game that way. Isn’t the intent of the balk rule is so you don’t fool the runners unfairly? This seems way off track and useless. Thanks for the explanation.

Hiura was one of the only ones, if not literally the only one, with an OPS over .800. For all his warts, he’s a rare guy on the team with some juice in his bat. He should be up here to play against right handed pitching.

I didn’t see the balk. Why was it a bad call?

Looks like Counsell took his stupid pills again today. Batting Wong fifth is something else. Batting orders matter and today’s loss shows that. Wong should bat 8th or 9th every time he plays. Then maybe he can get on base for the top of the order. Placing him in a run producing spot is anti-common sense.

If the Brewers deal Hader, I hope we get multiple infielders with good hit tools (maybe in the form of a major leaguer with control and a quality minor leaguer). This is the organizational weak spot. The Brewers have done a lot of good things in building the roster the past few years but there’s an obvious blind spot for getting infielders in here with good hit tools. That’s how you end up with a lineup full of guys hitting between .200 and .240 with OPS all well under .800. Hiura was one of our few .800 ops guys despite his swing and miss problem and they inexplicably sent him down the other day. Anyway, back on point, we have some very good outfield prospects but at some point you’ve got to address the infield in a more significant way. And going forward, both in the foreign signings and the draft, I hope we balance in some quality infielders with pop.

Last I heard, and it’s been awhile, Andujar was really struggling with his defense at 3B. I can’t comment if he’s ever gotten better. I would be curious to know, though.

Julio, first of all, your writeups and links are probably my number one source for prospect info so I thank you and tip my hat to to you. I will take a closer look at Cam Robinson and may add him. Once I got past about 22, the crapshoot factor escalated. Overall, I tend to favor starters over relievers in minor league rankings. Yes, if a prospect starts for awhile and then becomes a major league reliever, that's fine. But if you are relegated to a reliever already fairly early on your track, I tend to rank them lower than a starter. That doesn't mean I would never rank a reliever high. These are all factors. I like your Cam Robinson comment. Also, I LOVE the discussion and people offering their ideas!