CheeseheadInQC

I have no doubt the Brewers' offer is being leveraged to try to get more money or another year out of the Dodgers. The question is, is it a bluff or if the Dodgers don't cave would he actually jump to Milwaukee.

The longer this goes on, the more optimistic I am about Turner ending up in Milwaukee (although to be fair, that's just going from 5% chance of it happening to 15%). If the Dodgers were as motivated to keep him and he as motivated to return as the reports have indicated, it seems like they would have found a way to bridge the gap already.

As a note, Olczak was released by the Brewers last May. https://www.mlb.com/player/jon-olczak-664144?stats=career-r-pitching-minors&year=2020 No team - at least according to MLB - has signed him thus far. Perhaps someone else knows more about his situation. I could be wrong, but I believe Aaron Familia, Anthony Bender and Francisco Gonzalez also aren't still with the organization.

Since I'm the only one to mention him so far, my reasoning on Israel Puello: Moderately high dollar signing ($400K-$500K if I remember correctly) with fairly prototypical size and was above 90 as an 18-year-old. I believe only two starting pitchers currently in the Brewers minor league system logged at least 50 IP in 2019 with 10+ K/9 and less than 3 BB/9: Puello and Max Lazar. Had the best K-BB% of qualifying pitchers in the DSL. Reading Eye Black's list reminded me of one of the things I'm looking forward to this coming season: seeing who from among the next tier of pitching prospects after those who were at the alternate site break through. You've got the Phelps trade trio, Vassalotti, Ramirez, Bennett, Jarvis, Olson, Castaneda, Crawford, Zavalos, etc. Given the sheer number and that the Brewers have seemed to improve at developing pitching in recent years, I have to think a few of them make at least a File/Bettinger type of leap.

Yah, Freitas’ 40-man spot might have been perplexing from a roster construction standpoint, but plenty of players were rewarded with a spot for less than his remarkable AAA season.

Of the Brewers' top 10 prospects, I'll zag a little and say the only one we might see before August is Feliciano if there is a catching injury that will be more than the minimum IL stint. I've got a feeling Turang, Small, Ashby and Lutz all start in AA with hopes of midseason promotions. Among non-40 man guys, even with the number of 40-man bullpen arms likely to start the year in AAA, I'd wager at least two pitchers get added at some point, probably for a bullpen role. Andrews is probably the obvious choice here, but I'm going to guess a starter (Brown or Francis) gets moved to the MLB pen. Cousins and Castaneda have fast-riser potential for one of those spots too.

I still remember being excited over Green's extra-base hit streak at AAA. He is the ultimate one for me here.

While it isn’t the most attention grabbing pitching addition, adding Wong to the infield defense seems to make bringing Anderson back make even more sense.

1. Garrett Mitchell 2. Brice Turang 3. Antoine Kelly 4. Aaron Ashby 5. Mario Feliciano 6. Hedbert Perez 7. Ethan Small 8. Eduardo Garcia 9. Tristen Lutz 10. Freddy Zamora 11. Corey Ray 12. Dylan File 13. Alec Bettinger 14. Micah Bello 15. Zack Brown 16. Payton Henry 17. Jeferson Quero 18. Carlos Rodriguez 19. Bowden Francis 20. Thomas Dillard 21. Max Lazar 22. Jesus Parra 23. Tyrone Taylor 24. Pablo Abreu 25. Israel Puello 26. Justin Topa 27. Zavier Warren 28. Joe Gray 29. Luis Medina 30. Michele Vassalotti 31. Justin Jarvis 32. Brandon Ramey 33. Phil Bickford 34. Hayden Cantrelle 35. David Hamilton 36. Jackson Brayan Chourio 37. Victor Castaneda 38. Gabe Holt 39. Jhonnys Cabrera 40. Mark Mathias 41. Angel Perdomo 42. Nick Kahle 43. Nick Bennett 44. Alexis Ramirez 45. Leo Crawford 46. Zach Green 47. Reese Olson 48. David Fry 49. Clayton Andrews 50. Eduarqui Fernandez 51. Joey Weimer 52. Jheremy Vargas 53. Je'Von Ward 54. Chad Spanberger 55. Korry Howell 56. Juan Geraldo 57. Andre Nnebe 58. Bobby Wahl 59. Arbert Cipion 60. Cooper Hummel 61. Branlyn Jaraba 62. Quintin Torres-Costa 63. Noah Zavalos 64. Braden Webb 65. Felix Valerio Not sure why I went through 65. 22-36 were pretty close.

Out of curiosity since he isn't on either list, is Mathias eligible?

Yah outside of the top few guys it seems like most prospect rankings are little more than educated guesses at this point. And I think we are going to see more guys than normal skipping levels, especially if they were at the alternate site and did well. As for the minor league players, a lot of the top prospects, outside of the new draftees, were at the alternate site. Someone else probably has a more comprehensive list (and I hope I'm not listing anyone in error), but from memory of the guys who didn't see time in the majors last year: Alternate site: Hitters: Feliciano, Henry, Dillard, Turang, Garcia, Holt, Perez, Lutz, Ray, Rodriguez Pitchers: Kelly, Small, Ashby, File, Bettinger, Brown, Francis, Andrews Fall instructs: Roster A few guys also played Indy League ball over the summer. I know there were more, including I think one or two of the draft picks, but the three I remember off the top of my head were two guys who had really good seasons (Hamilton and Nnebe) and one who really didn't (Erceg)

If you expect $20 million signings from the Brewers every offseason, you are going to be disappointed. Also, if he is a league average bat, that isn't all defense, especially a league average bat at a middle infield position.

I'm guessing it's due to his age more than anything, as he'll be 27 in July. I'm sure they want to get a good look at him to see if he is a potential arm that can be fast tracked for the pen. True, but that also means they like his stuff enough to view that as a legitimate possibility.

Unless it was part of the deal when they re-signed him, Cousins’ inclusion seems the most surprising and interesting.

Devil's advocate... but isn't this kind of like saying a male doctor shouldn't have a female patient? Or a human veterinarian shouldn't perform surgery on an animal patient? lol. That's obviously an absurd example, but why couldn't someone without 1st person experience evaluate and instruct what another person is doing with their anatomy that could be improved? The bottom line is no one on here really knows what her qualifications are, so if you think this was possibly just a promotional stunt you probably don't think very highly of the front office. I think it's a pretty smart group, so with that in mind I'll maintain confidence they know what they're doing and congratulate her on her new position! No, it's not like that. This young woman has no experience hitting a baseball, let aline at a professional level. The anology you're looking for is a college history major teaching a thoracic surgeon a new technique. Different sport, but Andy Reid and Mike McCarthy both made their name in coaching through their work with quarterbacks. Their college positions: offensive line and tight end. Also, she has been working in the sports science division for four years, it sounds like with a focus on hitting. I'm pretty sure that the things that you're talking about, swing analysis and the like, she has already been doing, and the Brewers were impressed enough to promote her. The sports science side has become a fast-track for people who are able to both understand the data and show a competence in helping the players translate the findings into mechanical or approach changes that produce results. The Reds have a guy with a only a couple of D-I appearances on his playing resume and who is two years younger than Goodrum on their major league staff after he spent a couple of years at Driveline.

Some of the comments make it seem like this is a CEO position. It sounds more like a team leader type spot where you are both involved in the production and making sure that everything is going smoothly with everyone else. Those type of spots are sometimes filled by younger employees. If this was a 38th round pick who spent a couple years as a hitting coach at the affiliate after flaming out in high-A, would the age be raising eyebrows rather than someone from the analytics side who we didn’t know existed? Also, the Brewers pride themselves on their analytics department and have invested a lot of draft/international signing capital in hitters lately. This position is at the nexus of those two things. I can’t see the Brewers not taking the person they felt was best for the job just to get a better press release.

Out of curiosity, why Pettitte and not Clemens? Just because he owned up to it?

I don't agree with you on the NFL HOF at all. There might be some QB's who aren't worthy who were elected decades ago, but there are more truly dominant players who don't get in because they played positions that didn't have real "stats." So while the NFL may have Joe Namath, I'd respond with Harold Baines. Now if there's one that's flawed, it's the Basketball HOF...I have no clue what the criteria is to get into that. Basketball is an odd one simply because it isn't just an NBA Hall of Fame. But yah, it does produce some different results.

Until this year, MLB had been averaging about four per year in recent years. Outside of the one anniversary exception, the NFL has been capped at six or seven, which until recently also included coaches. The NFL has twice as many roster spots. I don't really see much difference here. In the realm of guys who are a coin-flip to get in, was Todd Helton a better first baseman than LeRoy Butler was a safety? I know it is tough to compare across sports, but relative to their contemporaries I'd say no.

That is easier with something like the Warriors. If you were doing that with Braves you would almost have to drop the S because I don't know if there is any other context in which Brave has been used as a noun.

Braun and Yelich were extensions... Grandal is the only FA close to $20 mil. I might have missed one, but I believe from this offseason and the previous two only 10 players have changed teams for contracts averaging at least $20 million (or 11 if you count Donaldson twice). So it isn't like the Brewers are alone in this regard.

Haha good one. Unless they have basically just given carte blanche to agents to include them in rumors whether there is any truth to them or not, it is clear they do have a bigger offer in them given that they have now been linked to at least three guys with whom a $5 million offer gets you a laugh and a hang-up. Whether the money they are offering will be enough to actually land one of these guys is very much in question, but there is too much smoke for the idea of a $10-$15 million one year offer to be laughable.

Between 2006 and 2014, the Packers drafted 14 offensive linemen in the first five rounds. 13 spent at least six seasons in the league, and if Sherrod hadn't gotten hurt, it likely would have been 14/14. And a lot of those guys were fourth and fifth rounders as well. The man was a heck of a talent evaluator.

Between the instructs reports and his performance in Australia, Vassalotti is really starting to look like a nice sleeper prospect.

I might lean no on Funchess only because he wasn’t really ever a part of the team. If it was a guy who had been with the team previously I would probably say yes.