CheeseheadInQC

Was my math off? I could have sworn Supak would be a free agent.

That show was much better than it had any right to be. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Truthfully, given how little the Brewers have invested in Latin American pitching signings, even one of Vassalotti, Uribe or Ramirez turning into a decent reliever would have to be considered a big win from a scouting/development perspective.

Am I crazy for thinking Northwestern is the No. 2 team in the West right now? I know Maryland is the conference's worst team this year, but Northwestern's biggest issue last year was horrific QB play, and Ramsey at least offers a level of competence they didn't have previously. The Purdue-Iowa game was just ugly, and I'm not buying Michigan's offense being that much improved to justify Minnesota's defensive showing in that game.

Not great at doing links on my phone, but per Rosiak’s Twitter reply it sounds like Lazar is healthy and at the facility. Working to increase velocity? Or maybe org just thought other pitchers needed the game action more?

1. Good to hear on Gray and Bello. Was afraid this year could be really detrimental to some of young upside guys. 2. Hopefully this is a prelude to Vassalotti making a big leap next year. 3. You know how when someone is really excited about something they work it into conversations about other things? I think the Brewers are getting that way about Kelly.

Setting aside the Love pick because that is a conversation in and of itself, if you take out the unknowable (who was going to get hurt) there are very few things the Packers could have done to get more immediate value out of this rookie class. Given the preseason plaudits Martin was getting, would any of the ILB available to them from Round 2 on necessarily started over him? Similarly Deguara seemed poised for a decent amount of playing time before he got hurt. Then you come to receiver. The No. 4 wide receiver doesn't get many snaps in this offense so in order to get significant playing time, the receiver would have had to have beaten out MVS or end up in the situation Dillon is in, being an injury away from assuming a significant role. Just because the injuries ended up striking at receiver doesn't change the fact they could have just as easily hit at running back. So which receiver available with the Dillon pick or later could have beaten out MVS? Gabriel Davis? I'd lean no on Edwards and Mooney and they are really the only other contenders. Even defensive line, Hamilton and Elliott are getting enough snaps to suggest they'd probably have roles with the Packers but not enough to think they would be more than minor upgrades. I think just about all the other defensive linemen are playing less than 30% of their team's snaps. To put that in perspective, Keke is above 50% for the Packers. Any questions I have about this draft have far more to do with how it sets the team up for the future than how many snaps the rookies are playing right now.

I think Feliciano is the only lock. I might actually put Brown as the second-most likely. He was clearly the top pitcher not on the 40-man given his spot on the extended postseason roster. I’d put File and Henry at 50% and Bettinger and Francis at 40%. Everyone else is less than 5%.

Hitting-wise I guess Devanney opened some eyes in 2019 getting a spot over Valerio and the two touted infield UDFA signings from this year. Good for him. I would have expected Ward and Nnebe to be there in the outfield, but if it is space-limited, the current group makes sense. Pitching is interesting both for who isn't there like Lazar, Olson, Walters and the group who missed 2019 (Lemons, Murphy, Beasley, Zhao) and who is. I guess maybe this is a sign Uribe, Garcia, Perez, Reifert and Mejia are worth watching given the large number of pitchers who didn't get invites.

If moving the Super Bowl back would be an issue, you could just push the Pro Bowl back after the Super Bowl. Probably fewer logistics with that because it is much less of an event.

I guess I just don't see the value in keeping this secret, unless it is to protect any 40-man players left off the list from criticism. In all likelihood, it is made up of the remaining guys on the 40-man (minus a couple of injuries), Brown and Broxton. I guess maybe you would want to hide if Brown was your next starter up, but if that was the case they evidently didn't tell him that. Maybe someone like File has passed Brown and Lauer and is also on there, but if not, it just seems like secrecy for secrecy's sake, which is frustrating.

Who knows, things might have changed again, but MLB apparently told both Iowa senators a month or two ago that three Iowa teams, including QC, were not on the contraction list and the Bandits owner seemed fairly confident that was still the case last week.

For what it is worth, Quad-Cities has been assured it is now safe.

I wonder if not releasing them completely is a sign the Brewers will try to bring both back on minor league deals. I could see them wanting Rodriguez back with them maybe having two middle infielders for AA and AAA combined, one if Mathias makes the team.

I don’t think the Rays releasing Aguilar is relevant. I do think the fact that the Brewers would have almost certainly non-tendered him is. Was Faria worse than a month-plus of Aguilar? Sure. But counting this year’s production into evaluating the deal isn’t accurate not because he isn’t with the Rays but because he almost certainly wouldn’t be with the Brewers anyway.

Who had Houser outlasting Duffy after the first inning? I know I didn't.

I'm glad he's staying in the system, but I'm not shocked he passed through waivers. He just seems like a tough one to get a handle on what the skill is that is going to bring him big league success. He never became a power arm like was expected; he doesn't miss many bats; while his ground ball rate is slightly above average, no one is going to confuse him for Brett Anderson; he doesn't walk a ton but I'm not sure he's a pure command guy like File apparently is. He had a lot of AA success spread over two seasons, but you could make the case that File, Bettinger and Francis had more interesting peripherals last year. Hopefully he is one of those guys who defies categorization, but those guys are less likely to attract attention on the waiver wire, especially when they don't at least have a good AAA track record.

If they didn’t view Supak as likely to keep his 40 man spot this offseason, it isn’t tough to see where a veteran catcher would be more valuable to have at the alternate training site over the next couple of weeks.

I wonder if Supak was likely to lose his 40-man spot to one of the Brown, File, Bettinger or Francis in the offseason and they thought it was more likely they could sneak him through waivers now than at that point.

Granted, who knows once you get to the postseason, but I'd much rather be the six or seven seed than the five seed. Avoid the Dodgers and Padres in the first two rounds.

Milone gave up eight runs in his start for the Braves and it will likely barely warrant a mention.

The Packers' luck might be a bit overstated but yah, they could stand to improve offensively, whether it be getting a second year in the system, Lazard proving last year wasn't a fluke and doing it for a full season or MVS taking the kind of leap that his athleticism makes him capable of. Never been a big St. Brown guy, but I am more intrigued by Taylor than the usual practice squad holdover. He seems like the kind of guy the practice squad is made for (athletic, small school talent who needs a year to adjust to the big jump in competition). Hopefully he's been paying attention to Adams as far as route-running and the like. Given some of their similarities, he seems like the perfect guy for Taylor to emulate.

Outside of maybe keeping Ento up to IR him I don't see anything too surprising here, especially if Samuels ends up getting that spot. Thought Taylor would make it (Kumerow probably had to be clearly the No. 4 to make the team and it didn't sound like he really separated from ESB) and didn't think they'd give up on Nijman's upside after adding him to the roster late last year. It will be interesting to see who is added when Martin goes on IR. Tipa or Barnes? Go with a different position like Dexter Williams or Lovett? A different team's cut?

This feels very much like a “who is more likely to get randomly hot for a few weeks” move.

Nice to see Francis getting the invite. Only really leaves Lazar from that tier of pitching prospects not at the camp. He's also the last of the group that I'd give even a 10% chance of getting added to the 40-man at season's end to get the call (Feliciano, Brown, File, Bettinger, Henry and Francis).