Austin Tatious

There are some quality prospects at lower levels too. Tyson Hardin, Meccage, Bishop Letson and some others look like they’ve got very good potential. I’d probably put all three in my top 20.

I would love Josh Smith or one of the other Ranger 3B types. Someone like that could get you a couple of years while prospects percolate up the system. It might take a couple of quality prospects in the Wichrowski, Black, Lara zone. But this is a huge need. Prospect over-valuation in baseball is as bad as draft picks in the NFL. The football teams act like 4th or 5th round picks are gold nuggets and then most of them barely contribute. Brewers traded packages for Yelich and others and essentially gave up nil. The left side of the infield is a problem and can hurt again next year and the Brewers have been too cautious upgrading. Perfection is the enemy of competent. You can nitpick any player who is a good target. Meanwhile, we’ve seen ineptitude. I am happy to see Durbin come alive. He’s very likable and can be a sparkplug. But he is a second baseman masquerading at third base. I’ve posted several times that I think Ortiz is way better than he’s shown but the past couple of months are just factual on what he’s capable of, and this has been ongoing since the last part of last year. Smith-Turang-Durbin would be far more logical, going 3b, Ss, 2b with Ortiz in a utility role after resetting at Nashville so he can calm down and get some coaching. Sure, you can nitpick everything I said. Here is a problem with this guy, etc. That’s not the analysis. The question is can we do better than we have, and have a bridge organizationally as we wait on some of our prospects (who will also need development time at the MLB level too).

If Priester emerges as a solid back end starter for several years, the trade for him will be vindicated.

Now they are listing Hall as the starter? Did something change?

At what point do you look at swapping Zamora for Ortiz? If Siegler could get more work at third, you could dream on him time-sharing with Durbin since Siegler is a switch hitter. But at least Durbin is a developing rookie showing signs of life. Ortiz has seven rbis playing everyday and a sub .500 ops. Dalbec is trickier. He could bring some needed RH power but with Mitchell coming back soon, I’m not sure you can find him a roster spot.

The 40 man roster creates limitations. Tyler Jay is another guy who could easily be up here. But they’d have to release a guy like Peguero who is on the 40.

Alexander will be sent out soon when DL Hall is activated.

Offensively, we’ve got a number of guys who are falling short of expectations. Hardly anyone exceeding. Hoskins. Turang. Bauers. Collins from a low bar. Most of this category isn’t even here for the long haul Maybe a couple meeting. Contreras. Frelick. Injuries put Mitchell in the questionable category. The upside is tantalizing if he can solve the K’s. Its frustrating.

Hopefully Carlos is new and improved over his lackluster results from last year. He’s got a new approach and has been superb at Nashville. He’s not a physically dominant guy but he may be able to be a major leaguer in some capacity. Hopefully long relief at a minimum. But he’s drifting toward make or break time lest he get passed by a number of other rising arms in the org.

Lara has been flying a bit under the radar but he is coming along.

Not just the arm, he looked very athletic.

I loved Rose as a player. But he had every chance to get reinstated. He decided to live his life like a seedy character and he couldn’t see the big picture. Instead of living in Vegas and attending card shows and signing memorabilia for money, he could have made millions and millions in baseball. He did it to himself. If he played his cards right he could have come clean, expressed contrition, changed his ways, etc. Basically make it impossible for baseball to not reinstate him. He did the opposite of that. As for Joe Jackson, he apparently was given money that he didn’t seek out. He didn’t seem to participate in throwing anything. He had more hits in the 1919 WS than anyone had in any series until 1964. I believe his defense was fine too although there’s some vague accusations of him not being positioned correctly in the field, leading to some triples. I don’t think he was ever convicted. There was a gambling scheme developed by others, he was given money, but he didn’t throw anything based on the data. He was an illiterate guy born in 1800’s South Carolina and was ignorant more than anything else.

We are wasting time with Alexander and Payamps. With some of the pitchers coming back soon, they both G2G.

Love Willy and he didn’t do anything wrong toward Milwaukee. He got an offer elsewhere that was way beyond anything Milwaukee has the wherewithal to do. That’s not his fault.

I’m not going to defend Arnold because it would be laughable to do so. But at the same time, I’m glad they have largely not panicked and stayed the course. There’s a bit of a gap between the complement of talent at the MLB level and the readiness of the reinforcements coming. The injury to Boeve hurt but Wilken has reemerged. The problem is that they can’t help up here yet. Pratt at short is super young and is in AA even though he’s not that far removed from high school. There’s no world where we could have expected them in 2025. Losing Adames and not replacing his production and the overall imbalance in lack of power have been pathetic. While the FO looks hopelessly naive in these respects, there weren’t that many obvious options. But I think the Brewers got caught up in the concept of perfection being the enemy of good. They could critique whatever choices they could have made but unfortunately that paralyzed them from having even basic MLB play on the left side of the infield. The Priester trade may pan out. But they gave up a lot to get him and those assets would have been much more logically moved for 3B. It was a strange trade when they have an absolute emergency at third and short that are causing an entire year to be squandered. Stearns did a great job establishing a vision and infrastructure in the organization. Mark has done a good job keeping it alive by keeping the Tod Johnson and Flanagan types. Arnold is now the steward of that structure. They’ve done an outstanding job with the draft and getting Latin American players. The numbers of potential quality prospects is so high that you’d expect a good number of them to bubble up and become good major leaguers even if many of them don’t. That’s all a credit to the front office.

Nice to see Jaron DeBerry continue to be lights out at Carolina. He was the third round pick last year so he’s got a pretty good pedigree. 8.2 innings on the year with only one ER. Same thing with Tyson Hardin who was an 11th or 12th rounder from Mississippi State. Good production at Wisconsin.

I really don’t think Ortiz is as bad as he looks right now. The poor guy needs to re-set at Nashville but unfortunately there’s no solution right now to allow for that.

Fans definitely sounded upset there.

Brock Wilken is getting everyone’s attention with how bad the big club needs power especially at 3B.

Won’t be surprised if we trade from a surplus of pitching tor a power hitter, perhaps for the corner infield. But Ortiz with his automatic o- fer is as big of an issue as any. Not giving up on him but the poor guy needs a reset at AAA. I suppose we can wait for Boeve and Pratt and sacrifice the season.

Jack does great work and is a natural in podcasts and on the radio. I just heard him on WSSP, and he’s good.

Must reading, as always, Spencer ! Just like your podcasts.

Capra needs a blooper. He’s got the lowest batting average and OPS that I can ever remember. You’ve got to feel sorry for him as a person.

It’s too early to judge but what you’re seeing is posters going on record before it’s all settled. From a discussion standpoint, I like it that people are taking a position based on their own analysis ahead of time. Anybody can state the obvious after the fact. Good for those willing to give their views. Priester may very well get it together and everyone hopes for that. But I’m with the majority here that the tools and profile do not suggest this was a good trade. The FO has goofed up a few things lately. They needed to get more help at 3B AND SS. Even if you think we are waiting on Pratt and Boeve, and later the studs at Carolina, they could have made some stopgap moves. Even if they want to be cautious with their system, it’s then odd and out of character to panic on the Priester deal. It’s incongruous. Now we have a starting SS who should be at AAA trying to gather himself and no legitimate 3B yet they panicked in the Priester deal. They gave up 3 nice pieces.

They obviously gave Yoho a game plan to work on at AAA and I’m fine with it. He got a taste and now has seen what he needs to do to adjust. I’m still confident in his ability.