ctmyers

A leg kick is solely a timing mechanism. Has nothing *directly* to do with generating power. That's your opinion, but plenty of players attribute their leg kick and stride as a direct correlation to their power generation. To say that it's solely a timing mechanism is inaccurate.

I remember Taylor taking BP a few years back in AZ and he didn't have any leg kick at all. I've never been a fan of that approach, because you're essentially trading power for bat control, unless you've got extremely strong wrists, shoulders and core. Watching a few games in CS this year, he has a more exaggerated leg kick which, when coupled with the thin air in CS, would substantially help with power numbers. He's definitely a good athlete. You see a lot of players with bad bodies who just aren't that athletic, but they are naturally good baseball players. Taylor is the opposite. He's an athlete transitioning to a good baseball player and that's likely the trend that Brewers front office is banking on.

1. Keston Hiura 2B - Hiura may need some more time in the minors to work on defense, but his bat could play tomorrow. 2. Brice Turang SS - Above average tools across the board. Will have ample opportunity to grow, with very few SS's to compete against. 3. Corey Ray OF - Turned a corner…kind of. Hitting .240 isn't going to cut it, especially with Cain signed through 2022. His bat will need to play up in a corner spot, if he's going to make it to the show in the next couple years. 4. Zach Brown SP - Credit to the Brewers scouting department. Another college arm who's knocking on the door quickly. Not as electric as Burnes or Woodruff, but has good command of all his pitches. 5. Braden Webb SP - Though Brown and Webb were both college righty's drafted in 2016, they are different pitchers. While Brown is consistent, yet not flashy, Webb has that 'wow' factor. Typically works mid-90's with the heater and has a huge 12 to 6 hook. The ceiling is higher for Webb than Brown, but the floor is lower, as well, due to command issues. Kind of has those Nolan Ryan mechanics, where he hunches over and rocks back off of the rubber, puts the ball over his head and fires. Favorite pitcher in the minors, just behind Hiura overall. 6. Maurcio Dubon SS - Dubon is probably a good comp for Turang. Solid tools across the board, yet not overwhelming in any one department. Will be an important piece on this team if Schoop/Arcia/Perez struggle out of the gates in 2019. 7. Jacob Nottingham C - I think it's his time. Still very young, Nottingham may start the year in San Antonio if the organization prefers a veteran 2nd catcher behind Pina. Not an indictment on Nottingham, but he probably could use another season's worth of experience to hone all of his skills. 8. Aaron Ashby SP - Huge fan of Ashby and very happy to see a lefty with plus stuff in the organization. I think he and Webb have probably the highest ceilings of the arms currently in the minors. Ashby doesn't yet have the velocity of Webb, but it likely will develop as he matures. 9. Tristen Lutz OF - Not a bad year for Lutz, but certainly not what we hoped to see, with all of the pre-season hype. Still very young, he should get a ton of AB's in Carolina. 10. Lucas Erceg 3B - Similar to Ray, Erceg will need to improve his hit tool before he can hope to break through. 11. Trey Supak SP - Supak is the good version of Cody Ponce. Big-bodied righty with solid stuff, able to eat multiple innings. He'll be on the 40-man this year, so he'll be in competition with Peralta if one of the five ML starters falters or is injured. 12. Adrian Houser RP - This placement may be too high, but Houser has the potential to be a very valuable bullpen piece. Starting probably isn't out of the conversation yet, but the Brewers likely have 5-6 guys ahead of him in the pecking order. The bonus with Houser in the bullpen would be the potential for multiple innings. 13. Marcos Diplan SP - Still young! I feel like that's been said of Diplan for 5+ years…He had more success in 2018 than 2017. So there's that. He'll likely still be on the 40-man to start the year, so it will be interesting to see if he stays as a starter or if the Brewers try to transition to the bullpen, as they've got a number of options ahead of him and behind. 14. Quintin Torres-Costa RP - Have to think that QTC would have been the 1st or 2nd option to get called up if a reliever were to go down, especially if it's Cedeno or Jennings. Stuff really plays up against lefties. Tough break on the TJ. 15. Jake Gatewood 1B - I don't think Gatewood makes the 40-man, so hopefully he doesn't get poached in the Rule 5 draft. Contact issues are still there, so he'll likely be in Biloxi for another season. 16. Carlos Rodriguez OF - Hopefully Rodriguez becomes the next DSL kid to make it work. Not much to show from that program thus far, aside from Arcia. 17. Joe Gray Jr OF - Tools, that's all I got. 18. Micah Bello OF - Bat speed looks legit. 19. Payton Henry C - Maybe too low of a placement, but we've seen a number of catchers perform well low in the minors only to flame out in the uppers. Cautiously optimistic. 20. Phil Bickford SP - It will be very telling to see how the Brewers feel about Bickford by the placement or lack thereof on the 40-man. 21. Larry Ernesto OF - Another DSL product?! More pop than Rodriguez, but hasn't shown the same hit tool yet. 22. Zach Clark OF - Toolsy player who could play himself into 4th outfielder, if things go right. Not exactly young, so he'll need a good Carolina season to start garnering prospect traction. 23. Devin Williams SP - Similar to Bickford, another Rule 5 eligible player with multiple lost seasons under his belt. 24. Caden Lemons SP - Showed some potential albiet in limited innings 25. Nathan Kirby SP - Similar to Bickford and Williams, Kirby is yet another Rule 5 eligible player.

Coles hired as D-back's hitting coach: http://arizonasports.com/story/1718331/d-backs-hire-darnell-coles-hitting-coach-vacancy/

I agree that Nottingham is underrated and generally agree with not trading hiura for a 2 year rental. I think you generally underestimate what realmuto could fetch on the open market. Think Posey money if he stays at ceiling for 2more years. Massive if, but just saying that's a low contract. I'll say again though, hiura is no longer our top prospect. It goes either burnes, hiura, peralta or burnes, peralta, hiura. Not a knock on hiura, just those other guys had a ton of success at the mlb level at a very young age and are pitchers. I would consider peralta in a package for realmuto, but I'd want a usable mlb caliber player included with realmuto. And it certainly wouldn't be peralta and ray and Nottingham. To each their own I guess. Personally, I think Hiura has a higher ceiling and floor than Peralta and around the same floor but a higher ceiling than Burnes. Regardless of that, for an organization that's had so little success developing quality arms, when these guys are at the precipice, it's hard to see them getting shipped out. A guy like Ray makes sense to move, but the Marlins have a pretty solid collection of OF prospects and now the Victor's.

Coles is a joke but why wouldn’t Stearns give a raise to someone who earned a raise? That’s kind of the whole point of sports. Performance equals $$$ More to the point why did Stearns have a guy so good at his job on a contract that ended after a 97 win season? Pitching coaches make peanuts in the big picture. If they doubled or even tripled his salary (not likely) it would be money well spent. Well, without knowing the specifics, I'm sure they offered him a raise, but it was a percentage increase on what he was currently under salary for. I don't know how pitching coach contracts work, but I doubt they are like players, where they are free to leave whenever they feel.

So Johnson and likely Coles made power plays for raises and the Brewers balked. Thankful for the job he did in Milwaukee, but I hope he gets crushed in Cincinnati.

I wouldn't include Hiura in any package for Realmuto. Hiura's a perennial batting title type hitter and at a premium position. Realmuto is a good player who had a breakout year at age 27, who's likely in line for a 4-5 year deal at $15-20 mill annually after the 2020 season. I'd much rather see the Brewers pony up on a 2-year deal for Wilson Ramos and let Nottingham develop further, who I think is highly undervalued. Nottingham and Realmuto's minor league numbers are very similar, though one was thought of as a glove-first catcher and the other is thought of as being bat-first.

Also worth noting that Jean Segura and Scooter Gennett were cast as guys with significant hitting flaws, only to turn in to All-Star's with other organizations. Villar regressing to a DFA candidate forced Stearns to make moves he probably didn't anticipate. It had to of been difficult to watch a third 2nd basemen improve with another team, only to see Schoop hit himself off the Brewers playoff roster. The Athletic publicized earlier that it was Yelich who recognized a flaw in Arcia's mechanics, which led to the positive reversal. I remember a similar story where Jean Segura returned to the DR over the winter and one of his old coaches told him to lower his hands. That was the catalyst which led to his breakout in Arizona. I think the firing of Coles signals that Stearns and Co. will keep Schoop and hope that the new coach can get something out of him.

1 Corbin Burnes 2 Keston Hiura 3 Brice Turang 4 Zach Brown 5 Maurcio Dubon 6 Corey Ray 7 Jacob Nottingham 8 Tristen Lutz 9 Lucas Erceg 10 Trey Supak 11 Marcos Diplan 12 Troy Stokes Jr 13 Adrian Houser 14 Jake Gatewood 15 Carlos Rodriguez 16 Braden Webb 17 Quintin Torres-Costa 18 Aaron Ashby 19 Joe Gray Jr 20 Micah Bello 21 Trent Grisham 22 Payton Henry 23 Demi Orimoloye 24 Phil Bickford 25 Chad McClanahan

His home/away splits are pretty drastic. .357/.407/.675 (home) vs. .204/.242/.369 (away).

Thames and Santana are really struggling. Both look terrible in person. Aguilar looks slightly better, but Braun better be prepared to play a good chunk of games at 1st. Much more so than I would have originally anticipated. And with the way Phillips, Broxton and Santana have all struggled this ST, the Cain and Yelich deals look extremely necessary. I'm sure they'll straighten out once they get in more normalized weather conditions, but they all look lost at the plate. Miley's fastball has some zip on it. It looks really straight though, so I would expect the good hitters to eat that up once the season starts. Definitely would not want Hader following Miley, with how similar their fastballs look.

Pretty sure Lemons and Vassalloti are righty's, which speaks more to the lack of lefty depth in the system. Could throw in Murphy, Lillis or Fox (probably in that order). Having seen Orf enough times now, he doesn't really have the arm for 3b in any real capacity other than off-day coverage. Which again speaks to a very large dearth of talent at another position.

1 Lewis Brinson 2 Josh Hader 3 Lucas Erceg 4 Brandon Woodruff 5 Isan Diaz 6 Luis Ortiz 7 Brett Phillips 8 Corey Ray 9 Mauricio Dubon 10 Marcos Diplan 11 Jorge Lopez 12 Ryan Cordell 13 Trent Clark 14 Phil Bickford 15 Cody Ponce 16 Jacob Nottingham 17 Freddy Peralta 18 Taylor Williams 19 Monte Harrison 20 Corbin Burnes 21 Jacob Barnes 22 Jake Gatewood 23 Ronnie Gideon 24 Trey Supak 25 Gilbert Lara

1. Lewis Brinson 2. Josh Hader 3. Brandon Woodruff 4. Isan Diaz 5. Luis Ortiz 6. Phil Bickford 7. Brett Phillips 8. Corey Ray 9. Marcos Diplan 10. Jacob Nottingham 11. Lucas Erceg 12. Cody Ponce 13. Jorge Lopez 14. Trent Clark 15. Angel Ventura 16. Freddy Peralta 17. Devin Williams 18. Jake Gatewood 19. Monte Harrison 20. Miguel Diaz 21. Kodi Medieros 22. Clint Coulter 23. Corbin Burnes 24. Kyle Wren 25. Damien Magnifico

1. Orlando Arcia 2. Lewis Brinson 3. Josh Hader 4. Brett Phillips 5. Isan Diaz 6. Luis Ortiz 7. Brandon Woodruff 8. Corey Ray 9. Marcos Diplan 10. Cody Ponce 11. Trent Clark 12. Phil Bickford 13. Jacob Nottingham 14. Jorge Lopez 15. Lucas Erceg 16. Freddy Peralta 17. Devin Williams 18. Kodi Medieros 19. Jake Gatewood 20. Angel Ventura 21. Miguel Diaz 22. Monte Harrison 23. Keon Broxton 24. Damien Magnifico 25. Kyle Wren

Matuella has been shut down for the year with elbow pain. He could be a fallback option, but there won't be any additional scouting on him until next year.

It looks like they got Tyler Wagner back in Aaron Wilkerson and got a lottery ticket in Rijo. It's interesting that Soxprospects.com says he has plus speed. He hasn't stolen more than 16 bases in any season.

The game log leads me to believe the defense didn't help Ponce much: Carlos Tocci singles on a soft ground ball to third baseman Blake Allemand. Mitch Walding singles on a fly ball to left fielder Elvis Rubio. Carlos Tocci scores. Scott Kingery to 2nd. Chace Numata doubles (7) on a ground ball to right fielder Clint Coulter. Kyle Martin to 3rd Malquin Canelo singles on a ground ball to shortstop Jose Cuas. Kyle Martin scores. Just a weird infield defense overall with Allemand at 3rd, Cuas at short and Pena at 2nd.

I would also think that the front office is deliberately "overstocking", as there appears to be an extreme lack of elite catching prospects across all of baseball.

Also, of the top 30 starters (ERA) in 2015, only nine played for the team they were originally drafted by.

It goes to the team with the lowest winning percentage.

Your superlatives are interesting to say the least. The rule 5 picks have very little impact on future success, so I'm not sure why they would be weighted as equally as other moves, which have been relatively small in scale thus far. I will judge Stearns by the trades/non-trades of Lucroy and others, as well as the upcoming draft. It's hard to call a move foolish - risking Perez to a waiver claim - when it ultimately worked. He judged the market correctly.

I saw him play a few games in Arizona and take BP and he looks like a player who's watched too many instructional videos. I remember watching Justin Upton take BP and thinking the same thing. Obviously their results have been markedly different, but I worry about players who have to work so hard to be baseball players. When you watch Trent Clark hit in games or take BP, he just looks like a guy who knows what he's doing. His hands, feet, hips are all consistent and there's just a natural rhythm. You watch Taylor and can see the gears turning. He's thinking about where his front foot is going to land (which is rarely consistent), where his hands are going to go and has a hard time staying on balance when covering pitches not over the plate. You wish a coach would just tell him: "Taylor, see ball, hit ball. Don't worry about anything else." I'm sure seeing Brett Phillips take centerfield from him has added extra pressure, but he definitely has the tools to still break out.

It's probably coaching and talent. I don't think the park can be blamed when the pitching has been almost as equally bad as the hitting. 10th out of 12 teams in team ERA, 11th out of 12 in WHIP. Dead last in runs scored and OPS. Just going back through Ayrault's tenure: 2015 - 10th out of 12 in team ERA, 9th in OPS 2014 - 1st in team ERA, 8th in OPS 2013 - 7th in ERA, Last in OPS 2012 - 8th in ERA, Last in OPS Yost IV has been a coach in Brevard for the past 5 season as well. Hopefully they can right the ship when Ponce and Williams come back.