CheeseheadInQC

He really did dominate lefties last year. Combined 46% K rate and better than 12:1 strikeout to walk rate against left-handed hitters between AAA and the majors. And his big league numbers were actually the better of the two in both regards.

As was pointed out earlier, middle infielders are at a premium right now, with second basemen joining shortstops in that regard. At Fangraphs, they only have 16 2nd basemen accumulating 3 WAR total over the last two years, and Gennett's single partial season places him 23rd on that list. I'm not saying Gennett is going to be a star, but I could easily see him putting up Howie Kendrick-type numbers. That is pretty much average second base production these days, and at Gennett's salary, that's not bad at all. As for the scouting reports, I could be wrong, but I thought Gennett's scouting reports had always been good average hitter, squares up enough balls to sneak 5-10 over the fence, could stand to walk more often. That's not really out of line with the .280/.330/.400 guess that brewcrewdue80 posted earlier. Oh, and to add to the non-top 100, you're right on Cano and I don't think Zobrist ever even cracked his own team's top 10. Also, while not a star, if Gennett can give the Brewers the second-base equivalent of Lucroy's production, I'd be thrilled.

Thanks for the welcome, and I agree with you about the independent league guys. Were Alan and Mark Williams the last ones?

I guess I'm not sure why this is that big of a deal, for a couple of reasons. First, in some respects, the Brewers actually got a jump on minor league free agency with the year+ deals for Molleken and Leach and what turned into essentially a year+ deal with Velez. Second, there are many faults in the Brewers minor league system, but a lack of fringe Major Leaguers or guys worthy of a triple-A roster spot isn't among them. For the sake of argument, let's say that the Brewers' bench heading into the season is Maldonado, Aoki, Schafer, Weeks and Bianchi. That leaves a Nashville starting lineup of Diaz at catcher, Morris at first, Velez at second, Statia at short, Green at third, Rogers, Kentrail Davis and Gindl across the outfield, and Halton DHing when applicable. Herrera and Prince serve as utility men (with Herrera probably getting a significant amount of playing time) and Zarraga or Weisenburger fills the backup catcher spot. Parker could also slot onto the bench in case of injury or opt-out. That leaves three spots that are filled by guys who aren't either former big leaguers or 40-man roster members, and although none of those guys is a likely future star, they also aren't automatic upgrades. The most likely spot to target here is a shortstop to compete with Statia. On the pitching side, if Thornburg gets the No. 5 starter job and Hand, Wooten, Blazek either Figaro or a second lefty finish off the bullpen, that would leave four returners in the starting rotation with Nelson, Hellweg, Burgos and Fiers with Jungmann likely filling the final spot (I could be wrong, but I think that the Brewers start him at AAA). The bullpen could feature de la Torre, Heckathorn, Molleken, Leach, Shackelford, Goforth, Pena and Olmsted, with Marzec, Holle and Medlen as other possibilities. I just don't know if a big minor league free agent haul is in the plans, and I'm OK with that. If they don't re-sign Hart or pick up a different first baseman, I could see an Ishikawa-type to challenge Francisco, but other than that, an NRI-caliber shortstop (the one place I fear we might have missed a couple of the better ones) to either challenge Bianchi or provide better triple-A insurance, and an NRI-caliber lefty (given the Brewers recent proclivity for making pitchers sidearmers, Clay Rapada could make some sense, as could Schlereth, if healthy, or Severino) to battle for a bullpen job would be the only real "needs." If you think a guy can be a solid MLB player, fine, but other than those spots anything beyond that is likely just spring training injury insurance.