James Zumstein

Awesome idea! I'm with you on "if I only lived closer". If I wasn't an hour plus away, you could sign me up.

While I wasn't very excited about either selection at the time, especially Bradley, who I've never thought highly of, I could understand the thinking of drafting some polished, if mediocre, pitching talent at that point in time. We were about to lose Grienke, Marcum and Wolf, and really had no in-house replacements. Of course most people, myself included, think that Melvin would have been better off taking one safe pick and one riskier but higher reward type pitcher, but I understand where the guy was coming from, needing MLB help ASAP.

Before he came along, I used to mute Sutton and Schroeder and turn on Uecker, so maybe him leaving might be a good thing.

Hindsight always being 20/20, it's easy to say that we shouldn't have drafted Jungmann and Bradley, but if you recall at the time we pretty much had ZERO legit pitching prospects anywhere near ready for the big leagues. At the time of their signing, Melvin even hinted that each might be counted on during the 2012 season. Of course that didn't happen, but in June of 2011 nobody knew that Mike Fiers would do what he did in 2012, or that Mark Rogers would be healthy enough to contribute, or if Wily Peralta would be ready. There were lots of unknowns at that time, so going the conservative route was probably the right thing to do at that time.

Like playing any of the almost 200 golf courses in the Phoenix area. While I was out there visiting last week, the Arizona Republic had a great feature on all of the courses in the Valley, listed the price ranges of each and had a map of where they were located. I know not everyone plays golf, but for those of us that do, Arizona is incredible for it's variety of courses. I visit my "snowbird" parents just about every spring, and if we aren't at a Brewer game, we are probably golfing. P.S. Everyone should also venture out to Tortilla Flat. A beautiful drive through the mountains to a great little (population 6, so I mean little) old western town.

I think I'm officially out of fingers to cross hoping the rumors of Braun and PED use aren't true.

I was at the game Thursday, and the guy that stood out to everyone was Josh Prince. Not only did he homer, but he made two outstanding diving catches in rightfield. For a converted SS, he was getting terrific jump on balls hit to the gap and down the line. I know he isn't a top prospect, but with his performance in the AFL last fall, and from what I saw in that game, I truly think this is a guy to keep a close eye on going forward.

As someone else mentioned, posing for photos is rather difficult to accomplish with guys who are usually on a schedule of some sort (remember that this is their job), but I have have seen an occasional photo down there, so it's not out of the realm of possibility. There are others that you might be able to get a photo with, though. Walking on the concourse down the right field side a few years back I ran into Bill Schroeder and he stopped and autographed a ball and posed for a photo. I've also seen coaches pose for photos, too. As for autographs, the best place is down the the first base line before games and down in the right field corner about halfway through games until the end as veteran players leave the game and are headed to the clubhouse. Most of the big names will still snub you (I'm looking at you, YoGa), but there is a fence between the concourse and the clubhouse entrance area, and lots of guys will sign there.

I'm flying down next week and will be at the game on the 28th vs. ChiSox. I've gone down several years over the last decade, and couldn't agree more about the neighborhood it is in. I believe there was some discussion about going back to Chandler a while back. Does anybody have any info into the probability of them getting a new home for ST? I'm pretty sure this is the last year the Cubs are in HoHoKam, but I refuse to go see a game being surrounded by Cubs fans, so I'm not sure of the quality of their complex. While there is nothing wrong with the Maryvale complex itself, I know I would enjoy it more if it were in a nicer part of the Valley.

What? Both Taylor and Coulter are not an embarrasment defensively. I am not sure what you are going off of but both of these two are very athletic and should become more than adequate at whatever position they will play. Coulter may not stick at catcher but that wont be because of his defense there. It will be more along the lines of the Brewers wanting his bat in the lineup sooner rather than later. Coulter will probably become an average to an above average defensive 3B in my opinion. He is far from what you have described his defensive abilities. Drafting based on defense should be the very last thing being evaluated as defense can be taught while athleticism can not be. I guess "embarrasment" was maybe a little hard. I understand that they are both great athletes, it's just that for both of them their bats are definitely ahead of their gloves. There is a distinct possibility that each, especially Coulter, may still be in Helena this season because of the need to continue to advance their defensive skills, even though it's obvious that their hitting skills are ready for the next level. I also didn't mean that we should look to defensive first players, only that if there is a player, like Lewis Brinson, available that is advanced for his age offensively AND defensively that it would be nice to take those guys once in a while instead of guys known mostly for their hitting skills that don't always have defensive abilities to match. And for what it's worth, I would also love to see Coulter end up at third eventually if catching doesn't work out.

While I agree that this is a major disappointment, if we had tried to trade him at any point in the last couple of seasons he would have had to pass a physical with his new team, which now seems unlikely that he would have been able to. Blaming Corey Hart's bad knees on Doug Melvin is perhaps a little harsh.

Amen, brother. I would be okay with taking some high school outfielders a little later in the draft, around rounds 3-5, like a Matt McPhearson or Nicholas Buckner, but I would be thrilled to get a Jordan Sheffield or an Ian Clarkin type at #17 and hopefully Trey Williams at #53.

One thing that has dissappointed me with the Brewers drafts lately is they seem to only look at a positional players ability to hit, not his overall "Five Tool" abilities. Everyone in baseball knows the Brewers have been on of the best offensive clubs year in and year out during Melvins tenure, but one of the worst defensively, also. And every year at draft time, there are several players that we pass on that are accomplished on all aspects of the game that are taken by another club within a couple of picks (Lewis Brinson by one pick last year comes to mind) so that we can draft another "masher" that is allergic to leather (both Clint Coulter and Tyrone Taylor were very good to great offensively, and pretty much an embarrasment defensively). I just wish that we put a little more premium on defense, too.

Hi everybody. New guy here making my first post. Someone I've been looking at that is still out there is Austin Kearns. He's a RH bat that can play both OF corners and like Corey Hart saw his first time ever at 1st last year for the Marlins. He doesn't have the power that he used to, but a .245/.366/.367 line in 147 AB's for the $600,000 he made last year is good value in my mind. With a walk rate of over 10% in 10 of 11 MLB seasons, as crazy as it might seem you could possibly even platoon him at the leadoff spot with Aoki in RF throughout the season also. He also has over an .800 career OPS in Miller Park.