Austin Tatious

I believe the point was, it is difficult to predict on a year to year basis how a reliever is going to perform. There are only a handful of relievers in MLB who I would more or less pencil in to be good year in, year out. And I don't believe the Brewers have any of them. That's why they should seriously consider selling on Thornburg, Smith, and Jeffress. Going with your 2012 example, Axford had two very good years preceding his melt down that year. K-Rod the same. Relievers are fickle. I disagree on Will Smith. I think he's solid, year in and year out. He's not a catch lightening in a bottle guy. He's legit IMO.

Zack Braddock? Manny Parra? Thanks, good call. I meant Braddock. Man, I had high hopes for him as a lefty reliever. I liked his stuff. He seemed to fall off the deep end, mentally.

Good for Taylor Green. I believe McCalvy or one of the other beat writers had pointed out that Green was scouting. I always liked Green. After some years of following prospects, it's a great reminder to look at the past. We had the likes of Mat Gamel, Green, Salome, Will Inman and others who didn't pan out due to injury or whatever. You can name others further in the past. I can remember seeing Randy Ready's stats in the Texas League in the 80s and getting excited. Or Bill Wegman as a starter, maybe at Stockton. But in that Taylor Grren era, we had that lefty reliever with good stuff who mentally flipped out and we got rid of. I was high on him but his name escapes me. Thorny was under consideration as a #3 starter. To be fair, the flip side is that other guys like Lo Cain, Brantley, et al emerged big time. I will freely admit that I was wrong on Gamel. I loved the way he handled the bat. I'm going to say injuries got him, and I'll stick with that story. But, honestly who really knows what he'd be. Green's name reminds me of prospects from years past and the cautiousness going forward in our expectations for our current crop. Let's hope the success rate is good but probably 2/3 of our top 30 won't be much. The common thread in the franchise's history is there have not been enough developed TOR starters. Higuera. Sheets. Neither had longevity due to injuries. The really good franchises develop multiple top pitchers together and then have a tough rotation to deal with. Until that hurdle is crossed, our historical trends will likely not be broken.

He will likely use the no trade clause to get a financial kicker from somebody. If a franchise is pushing back on the contract commitments as it is, that extra kicker may exacerbate the financial agreement that clubs will need to reach. Speaking only for myself, if no one is making it worth our while, I'd just keep Braun. You take Braun and Lucroy out of here, and a few other trade candidates, and this franchise will truly fall off a cliff. The utter disaster that the Astros became has not even come close to happening yet.

Very impressive for a middle infielder. You gotta like the pop. We are hearing good things about his makeup too.

Thanks for the information. I did not realize that about LaPorta.

Just curious - what was LaPorta's issue? Was he arrogant toward fans?

Article on Devers' season http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20160710&content_id=189147550&fext=.jsp&vkey=news_milb&sid=milb

Diplan. One third of an inning. 3 hits. 2 walks. 3 earned runs. I wonder if he was nervous and freaked out. He's young for that league.

I like Villar and hope we just roll with him. He's a guy to me who would have more value to us than whatever he might bring back. The pickoff today was annoying - I get that. Leake had thrown over like 7 times, literally, and Braun was up. It was stupid. But I still like the way he handles the bat and his athleticism.

I'm in the camp that I wouldn't have done it. If you talked to Davies and he welcomed it, that could be different but an unlikely situation. There is a psychological aspect and morale of all of the players. It's different from the situation where a player is struggling and needs some minor league attention and work to get back on track, like Peralta or JJ Hardy years ago.

Agree. I'm a big fan of Diaz. The slow start threw me off but slumps, funks, adjustments, are part of baseball. He can provide a nice boost offensively for a middle infielder.

When are we doing our mid-season rankings? Maybe after the trade deadline?

Great updates, guys. I'm surprised they moved Peralta up to BC before they moved Diplan. Diplan is still at Wisconsin, right? Or did I miss his promotion?

Here is a good article on Boston's trade ideas and some quotes from Dombrowski on working to get Aaron Hill. http://www.weei.com/sports/boston/baseball/red-sox/rob-bradford/2016/07/08/dave-dombrowski-says-trade-talk-picking-so-le

I think Reilly is correct vis a vis Boston. I was listening to Boston radio and the hosts essentially said the same thing, that Devers is their "top" prospect they are willing to deal. Benintendi wasn't even considered. One of the talking heads was talking up Chavis as a top 3b prospect anyway. The context, though, was trying to get a good pitcher. Lucroy was not on their radar. They are not happy with LF either. I'd love to listen in on the discussions between the ball clubs.

Agreed, I hope we can get some good value back on the relievers. I wish we had this bullpen in 2012 and 2013. We might have seen something different those years. We've got up and comers like Barnes, Barrios and Magnifico coming behind our top guys now.

I didn't see the game yesterday, but I liked the Maker pick and I stand by it. He's got upside. I like his motor. I'm not sure how much bulk he will ever add but I think he can be active on D, protecting the rim, and on the glass. I think he will hit open shots. More than anything, where the Bucks were picking, I like Maker compared to what's left on the board. I also like Brogdon as a glue guy with character. As for Rashad Vaughn, I never liked the pick and he's just not my cup of tea. I don't hold out much hope on his improvement. I don't care that he's young. I don't like his game even if he theoretically developed.

Alex Bregman, Ian Happ, Dansby Swanson, and Andrew Benintendi were college bats taken last year and were rolling in Double A by the middle of the second year. That was the track Ryan Braun followed. When you take a college bat high, that's a particular type of player. You aren't talking about a high school arm where you know there are risks and developmental challenges. You take the safe pick in Ray, and you're expecting a good trajectory and for him to be in Milwaukee putting up numbers by mid-2018. I wouldn't minimize expectations. You took a kid fifth overall as a college bat with a lower risk profile than if you took a shot at, say, a high school arm. We all know that the high school arm can have a number of risks, including injury or arm troubles, poor development, bad makeup, etc. You take a college bat, knowing you don't have the same risk profile. That's the deal. I'd say the same thing about Nick Senzil. Ray seems like a great kid. That's the expectation. I wouldn't start the excuse train out of fear. The organization took him high, didn't take risks elsewhere, now they own it. Be confident in the kid, and let's go.

As we're told as teachers, the average Mexican immigrant has a 3rd grade education. So often we have greater responsibilities to teach their children than other nationalities. While I'd like to say they need HS, the reality is many may live in villages or towns without HS. As was said, teams now try to educate these kids in ways that schools in impoverished nations may not be able to do. Good info and post. Thanks.

Thanks for the summaries, guys. They are much appreciated and one of the best things on this site. Great to hear about Ponce. As for Ray, I'm sure he was anxious. From what I saw of him at Louisville, he needs to work on chasing bad pitches and understanding the strike zone.

I think Scooter is developing some value. He's having some good at bats against some lefties. He had a great at bat against the lefty today where he battled then hit it the other way for a base hit. Guys like Villar and Gennett are doing better at the MLB level than some of our prize prospects are doing in the minors (Arcia, Diaz). Speaking only for myself, I would hang on to Scooter and hope he adds more value. Further, i know we all want to make a bunch of trades, myself included, but I'd keep some powder dry for trades in future years, and Scooter comes to mind there.

The guy I'd keep is MCW. Sure, he's been a disappointment. But his salary is so low and he can be an ok guard with length while playing less minutes. My premise is I don't think the Bucks will get squat for him, so I'd keep him unless there is some compelling trade situation perhaps as a sweetener to something else. I sure wouldn't take a lower first round pick for him or some nonsensical garbage player.

Great post. Very true. I like the Delly signing. It was a nice identification of a void we had. His skill set and attitude were two huge needs. We needed a bit of nasty.