CheeseheadInQC

I'll guess Wiemer for hitter (although could just as easily be either of the last two top picks) and Smith for pitcher of the year. Random longshot predictions: 1. Corey Ray's strikeout rate is closer to 20% than 25% 2. Israel Puello leads the system in K/BB rate 3. One of the indy ball trio of Hasler, Meeker and Baker is in AAA by August.

I'll guess Wiemer for hitter (although could just as easily be either of the last two top picks) and Smith for pitcher of the year. Random longshot predictions: 1. Corey Ray's strikeout rate is closer to 20% than 25% 2. Israel Puello leads the system in K/BB rate 3. One of the indy ball trio of Hasler, Meeker and Baker is in AAA by August.

Smith is a high enough pick (and is known for control) where I think there is a good chance he starts in the Wisconsin rotation. Also, while he might get pushed down by the backlog of relievers at AAA (there look to be about 15 guys who belong in the Nashville pen), Cam Robinson starting in Biloxi wouldn't shock me.

Yep, but with that mostly done, at least outside of the bullpen, it appears the lineups have stabilized (no one has started games at two different levels this week) with the complex league guys filling in on the bench for players called up to the big league game that day. Really, outside of Carolina which seems the most likely to be tweaked, there aren’t many surprises. McGee and Peters would be a level higher than I would expect, but that is about it.

With the exception of a few guys, most notably Campbell, who haven't been listed the last couple of days (and obvious ACL/DSL guys starting like Avina, Silva and Lara), it seems like the starting lineups this week are starting to reflect the teams the players will likely be on. It will be interesting to see how many of the guys who started last season in the Dominican make the Carolina roster. I doubt they place Chourio there right away, but Mendez, Jimenez and Segura all seem to have a shot.

Am I forgetting someone or does that just leave Perdomo, Lindblom and I guess Reetz among the NRIs?

One of McCalvy’s articles mentioned a non- injury issue that popped up during his physical.

I don't think I've seen Shane Smith yet either, but I assume he is still rehabbing from the Tommy John surgery that cost him most of his last college season.

Looks like MLB.com's list came out a couple days ago. Outside of Frelick being a little higher and Feliciano a little lower, it isn't that far off what the prospect poll here is probably going to end up looking like. I guess the biggest surprise would be Cam Robinson cracking the top 30, It has a consensus ranking feel to it.

I agree with you on Vargas, but that was more of a, if they like him enough to put him in full season ball, then he is starting, so he is either the primary second baseman in Carolina or starting out in Arizona. I had Valerio 60/40 on AA/A+ but Black at 90/10 on A+/A. Given the scouting reports and where they drafted him, he seems like the type that wouldn't see Carolina this year unless something goes wrong (I'm also of the "slot in your top 20-25 guys where you think they should go and then fill everything else in around them" mindset). As for Murray, I would have put him in low-A, but there looked to be more playing time in A+ (slotted in Turang, Zamora and Garcia at shortstop and then filled in from there). I could be wrong, but I think both Coca and Pinero are minor league free agents at year's end, so if they want to give them an extended look as more than organizational middle infielders, it would probably involve Zamora staying in A+ so they could sink or swim at AA.

I’ll probably end up wrong on several of these, but I could see the lineup talent being a little more evenly distributed between Biloxi, Wisconsin and Carolina on opening day, something like AA Valerio, 2B Zamora, SS Mitchell, CF Wiemer, RF Howell, LF Dillard, 1B Lutz, DH Holt/Cantrelle, 3B Reetz, C A+ Frelick, CF Black, 2B Gray, RF Warren, 3B Martinez, 1B McGee/Campbell DH Miller, C Rodriguez, LF Murray, SS A Mendez, LF Quero, C Perez, CF Clarke, DH Garcia, SS Chirinos, 1B Bello/ Peters, LF Raabe/Vargas, 2B Ferrer, 3B Lots of potential at all three, although I would still probably place Biloxi at the top.

The Brewers Player Development twitter account, the same one that posts the lineups, will sometimes post scores and a couple of top performers, but that is about all you get from these games.

Nice to see Contreras, Sunitsch, Lazar and Brustoski all healthy enough to go Day 1.

Bizarre thing I noticed: Korry Howell was ranked 19th on four straight ballots and five of the 10 submitted so far.

There is also value in certainty for the Braves. There is no guarantee that if the Braves had offered this deal a couple days ago that Freeman would have accepted or that LA wouldn’t have gone higher. If they wait around there is a definite risk they miss out on both.

Note: If they hadn't been traded, Hamilton would have been 15, Binelas 19 and Reifert 22 and Fry would have just missed. Also, I moved Uribe up after the BIloxi placement. Tier breaks are only listed for the top 25 1. Aaron Ashby, SP ---- 2. Garrett Mitchell, OF 3. Brice Turang, SS 4. Joey Wiemer, OF 5. Sal Frelick, OF ------ 6. Jeferson Quero, C 7. Ethan Small, SP 8. Hedbert Perez, OF ------ 9. Freddy Zamora, SS 10. Felix Valerio, 2B 11. Jackson Chourio, OF 12. Tyler Black, 2B 13. Eduardo Garcia, SS ------ 14. Joe Gray Jr., OF 15. Antoine Kelly, SP 16. Hendry Mendez, OF 17. Abner Uribe, RP 18. Mario Feliciano, C 19. Zavier Warren, 3B 20. Korry Howell, OF 21. Russell Smith, SP ------- 22. Corey Ray, OF 23. Darrien Miller, C 24. Israel Puello, SP 25. Alexander Cornielle, SP 26. Max Lazar, SP 27. Lun Zhao, SP 28. Jheremy Vargas, SS 29. Logan Henderson, SP 30. Dylan File, SP 31. Weston Wilson, 1B 32. Taylor Floyd, RP 33. Justin Topa, RP 34. Alec Bettinger, SP 35. Carlos Rodriguez, OF 36. Carlos Rodriguez, SP 37. Victor Castaneda, SP 38. Tristen Lutz, OF 39. Caden Vire, SP 40. Johan Barrios, SS 41. Jhonny Severino, SS 42. Gabe Holt, 2B 43. Ernesto Martinez, 1B 44. Noah Campbell, OF 45. Hayden Cantrelle, 2B 46. Miguel Segura, SP 47. Jeferson Figueroa, SP 48. Thomas Dillard, 1B 49. Brett Sullivan, C 50. Zack Brown, RP 51. Quinton Low, 1B 52. Wes Clarke, 1B 53. Luis Lara, OF 54. Blayberg Diaz, C 55. Ashton McGee, 1B 56. Carlos Luna, SP 57. Clayton Andrews, RP 58. Hobie Harris, RP 59. Cam Robinson, RP 60. Jadher Areinamo, SS 61. Micah Bello, OF 62. Eduarqui Fernandez, OF 63. Luis Medina, OF 64. Luke Barker, RP 65. Gregory Barrios, SS 66. Eduarh Colina, OF 67. Jace Avina, OF 68. Jason Alexander, SP 69. Stiven Cruz, SP 70. Justin Bullock, SP 71. Brailin Rodriguez, SP 72. Edwin Jimenez, SP 73. Yujanyer Herrera, SP 74. Moises Gomez, RP 75. Garrett Whitley, OF 76. Daniel Guilarte, SS 77. Ethan Murray, SS 78. Andruw Monasterio, 3B 79. Jose Caballero, SS 80. Mark Mathias, 2B 81. Lucas Erceg, RP 82. Alberis Ferrer, 3B 83. Jakob Brustoski, RP 84. Shane Smith, RP 85. Brannon Jordan, SP 86. Domingo Mejia, SP 87. Alejandro Vallecillo, SP 88. Noah Zavalos, SP 89. Tristan Peters, OF 90. Jamie Westbrook, 2B 91. Zack Raabe, 2B 92. Jesus Parra, 3B 93. Trevor Kelley, RP 94. Zach Vennaro, RP 95. Robbie Baker, RP 96. Justin Jarvis, SP 97. Nick Bennett, SP 98. Kent Hasler, RP 99. Alexis Ramirez, RP 100. Pablo Abreu, OF

I might have looked by him, but I didn't see Jheremy Vargas either. Good to see Mejia, Cruz and Vallecillo brought over on the pitching side. I'm assuming Jace Peterson was a mistake.

It depends a bit on what you mean by sleepers. If you're just talking guys not among the nine who have been consistently getting the most hype, it would probably be someone like Eduardo Garcia (likely A ball), Hendry Mendez (A ball or ACL) or Jackson Chourio (ACL). If you're going beyond that tier, you've got a lot of pitchers. I'd pick Israel Puello and Alexander Cornielle from the likely all-sleeper rotation at Carolina, but I know others would make a case for some of last year's draft picks (Logan Henderson, Carlos Rodriguez the pitcher, or Caden Vire), Jolon Zhao or Jefferson Figueroa. He's going to have to wait for Jeferson Quero to get promoted to get much A-ball playing time, but Blayberg Diaz is another guy I'd put at this level that intrigues me. If you're talking really deep sleepers (make you look smart if they even crack a top 25 at some point) my favorites from the lower levels are: Brailin Rodriguez, SP: Mediocre to bad stats, but I kind of go by the "If the Brewers seem to treat someone like a prospect, consider them a prospect" rule, and his late season promotion makes me think the Brewers see something here. Yujanyer Herrera, SP: Bad stats but generated some spring training talk last year and was younger and at a higher level than guys like Mejia, Cruz and Vallecillo who were excelling in the Dominican. Eduarh Colina, OF: Got a toolsy writeup from Baseball America upon signing and had a solid first season. Shane Smith/Jakob Brustoski, RP: College relievers who went undrafted thanks to needing Tommy John surgery but if healthy to start the season could be this season's Evan Reifert, who was dealt to the Rays in the Brosseau trade.

Looks like Fry is the PTBNL. Sorry to see him leave the organization.

Good for Barker. First time the Brewers seemed to treat him like a real prospect.

I wonder if what David Ortiz was talking about when he said that it would take some time to implement is that the whole system needs to transition to a different model, setting something in place where the opportunities for the youth and teen players don't disappear simply because the people providing them can no longer use them (or at least use them as profitably) to generate illicit income. I guess I am not sure where the perception comes from that 1) this is going to lead to reduced spending given that the hard caps already prevent big market teams from throwing money around the way they used to and 2) this would be an automatic win for the Brewers. It seems like it would be a slight loss for the brand-name teams who might get an all-else-being-equal edge from being the Yankees or Red Sox or Dodgers, and the Brewers I guess would benefit slightly, just like every other team, from that. But really it seems like it would most hurt the teams with the kind of relationships (on the up-and-up or otherwise) that give them the edge on signings. It would probably help the Brewers in the DR, but it might hurt them a bit in Venezuela.

While I am definitely i favor of the international draft, the union counterproposal Drellich cited (if no agreement on international draft by November, the qualifying offers come back after one year without them) seems pretty reasonable as well. Even if some of the union negotiators were in favor of this, it is pretty clear from the reaction today that they are going to need time to assuage the concerns of Latin American players.

Honestly, everyone knew he was strong as all get out. Those agility numbers, though, probably made him a lot of money.

I completely agree with you there.

Because it benefits the owners financially and they are using it as a bargaining position to get what they want. You also have former international signees who want the system to stay because it brings a lot of money to their country and communities regardless of how well those players perform. These 16 year olds get their bonus straight up which means more people benefit within their country. A draft will suppress that influx of cash and put a cap on earnings for the vast majority since it will have hard slotted bonuses. The top prospects will still get their millions, but those players towards the middle and bottom will be phased out of their life changing money comparatively. A 16 year old with a $100k bonus has changed the trajectory of their whole family in the Dominican Republic, et al whereas MLB teams throw that around pretty easily to hopefully hit on a gem. A draft will limit that for the vast majority of players. I guess I don't know where the draft slots would fall, but only seven of the players the Brewers signed in the most recent signing period got $100,000 or more. Most got $10,000. In contrast, only one of the draft picks the Brewers signed out of I believe 14 or 15 got less than $100,000.