CheeseheadInQC

Corey Hart, Scooter and Lorenzo Cain not bad. Gamel's career was derailed by injury. I was just talking college bats. I believe Hart, Scooter and Cain were all picked out of high school.

To be fair, the track record after round 3 isn't quite the same. Over the last 20 years, outside of Khris Davis, you could make a case the college bat drafted after round 3 that provided the most value to the Brewers is Jason Rogers. They've gone that route a bit more heavily the last couple of years, so hopefully between Kahle, Dillard, Holt and Hamilton and now Wiemer and Cantrelle, along with a couple of other at least productive minor leaguers in the system like Hummel and Fry, that trend will be broken soon.

It's interesting the Brewers have been very willing to take guys who either haven't caught much or haven't caught in a while. The Dillard experiment never really got off the ground, although who knows what they had planned this year, but Fry was still catching by year's end. I'm generally lukewarm on taking college bats, especially non-catchers, in the early-middle portions of the draft (4-10, or rather 4-5 this year). That said, at least Wiemer kind of gives you something to dream on. The losers from this draft have to be the college bats taken after Round 10 last year (Devanney, Wilson, McGee, Nnebe) who saw their path to a full-season roster spot next year get more complicated.

Except if you're drafting someone who expects to be taken in the third round and offer 40% of the first round bonus, that still might be enough that he accepts it, unless he has told the Red Sox that he doesn't want to sign regardless and would be the sacrificial lamb for that strategy.

Interesting take on Lazar in the Fangraphs one, and gives hope beyond the radar gun readings. They also seem more bullish than most on a couple of other pitchers (Castaneda and Robinson). Also, with the prospect digest handbook, I guess there is someone higher on Francis than I am.

Shocked by Lindell. After a couple of bad outings to start he was pretty dominant. Also, it is increasingly seeming as if the Brewers DSL bullpen should have a sign reading "Abandon all hope ye who enter here." It is possible that, if the season had happened, the total number of pitchers on the full-season affiliates' opening rosters with Brewers DSL appearances would have been two, and one of those two had exactly two appearances. And given these cuts, it seems like a maximum of three pitchers from last year's squad were slated to come stateside (Olguin, Castaneda, Garcia) and even those weren't sure things. I know almost all of their Latin American resources have gone toward hitters, but even the diamonds in the rough have been few and far between.

I'd believe that if CC hadnt said Peralta and Lauer are battling for the #5 and guaranteed spots to Houser, Lindblom.....and Anderson. After Freddy's contract his service clock matters 0. Woodruff will be a Super 2. Lauer will be a Super 2 if he is on the roster 130days? Roughly. Hader is a Super 2. That will add up 2years from now. Hader#3 Woodruff#2 Lauer#2 Houser#1. So just saying, it would help their payroll quite a bit to option him for 9starts. Didn't he also say the loser was likely headed to the pen? That's the other thing with Lauer's injury: If they stick with the plan of having Burnes in AAA it opens up another bullpen job.

To quote the old Ben Affleck-Alec Baldwin SNL sketch: "Those are my moves, you're stealing my moves" I think I might have jinxed Gainey. As soon as I started listing him as a sleeper every season he started getting repeatedly injured. I still think if he had stayed healthy he would have found his way to the big leagues as a reliever.

I'll bite: Sleepers: The entire non-Antoine Kelly portion of the likely Wisconsin starting rotation. Each has something to be intrigued by: Luna: All he has done since joining the organization is get guys out and get hurt. If he can avoid the latter ... Lindell: RM stats pretty dominant after awful start Walters: Upside was touted in draft and was good enough to indicate it might still be there Jarvis and Olson: Could shine on second go-around. Deep sleeper: Andre Nnebe: Likely the next Zach Clark, except in a more crowded outfield situation, but at least offers something to dream on.

Quero shouldn't be a huge shock. He has kind of separated himself as the No. 3 July 2 signing of the Brewers last year, as least as far as lists such as this go. He made Baseball America's list as well. He also was one of four July 2 signings to be brought over for minor league camp in Arizona this spring (well five, but I am guessing one was because he was from Curacao). Is the hype warranted? Who knows. It would make more sense if the list was more consistently upside based. Having him there and then Taylor at 21 when the writeup caps his ceiling as a fourth outfielder seems weird. The biggest surprise for me (other maybe than Kahle being as high as he is, although that's not entirely shocking either) was that Abreu stayed in the top 30. Although given that I've got him even higher it was a surprise I am completely OK with.

Not much to add, but when I saw this thread title while getting ready to leave for work yesterday, my first thought was, "Wait, it's not April 1 yet." Genuinely surprising and pleasantly so.

So far, Lazar has a much higher K rate than Suter did. Lazar's K rate at A-ball last year was very similar to Mike Fiers (12.4 for Lazar, 12.0 for Fiers, 8.4 for Suter), if you're looking for a high 80's FB comp. I know he didn’t come up in the Brewers system, but what about Davies as a comp?

That means absolutely nothing. Sometimes in the past the team has requested a certain player. Sometimes they simply have said "we need an extra outfielder" with no deep meaning behind whomever the coordinators send over. It just seemed like it might this year because it appears as if it hasn't been a day-to-day thing with different players getting sent over each day to the best of my knowledge. All of the guys have been listed as available in the boxes I checked, and the starters were noteworthy in their absence when pretty much every other pitcher with even a shot at the AA and AAA rosters is in big league camp either in that group or on an NRI. I just figured if they might be grabbing guys who didn't need to be stretched out given that they already have the likely AAA rotation in camp via NRIs.

I had the same thought on Webb, except that if they don't bump Small, Ashby or I guess even Sunitsch up and Rasmussen doesn't get stretched out, the list of potential fifth starters at Biloxi isn't huge. Also, Webb was absent from the lengthy list of guys brought up to Big League camp (Bickford, Belisario, Hintzen, Lee, Hitt, Hardy, Beckman, Brown, Topa, Derby, Barker and QTC), just like the File, Bettinger, Francis, Zavalos quartet.

The Brewers brought 90% of the potential AAA and AA bullpen arms over to big league camp but not most of last year’s AA starting crew. Belisario was among the guys brought over, so I wonder if he is ticketed for the bullpen. I’m probably trying to do too much tea leaf reading. One guy who wasn’t but could be a rotation piece in Biloxi is Webb.

Yep, per 9. At least back through 2006, I found no Brewers minor leaguer with even 20 innings pitched and more than 1.5 walks per inning, although several came a few innings short, including a Derrick Turnbow AAA season and Santo Manzanillo averaging nearly three walks per inning in 16.1 innings in 2006.

Peralta seems like he should at minimum be a solid bullpen piece. If the expanded repertoire helps him turn into a quality starter, this could really help the Brewers

I'm including tiers for the heck of it 1. Ethan Small: 46.8% K-rate. Arguably as dominant as any starter in the minors, albeit with a very limited sample size 2. Brice Turang: Power questions are just enough to knock him to No. 2 ---- 3. Mario Feliciano: Power took nice step forward 4. Tristen Lutz: Seems forever poised for a breakout 5. Aaron Ashby: Solid but not spectacular first full season 6. Antoine Kelly: Long way to go, but so far, so good 7. Corey Ray: Lost season, but power, speed still there 8. Zack Brown: Needs confidence reboot. 40-man snub drops him a few spots 9. Drew Rasmussen: Can he start and can he stay healthy? If latter is yes, former might not matter much 10. Eduardo Garcia: Injury kept sample size too small to rank him higher than this --- 11. Carlos Rodriguez: Can put the bat on the ball. Now will the other offensive skills progress? 12. Payton Henry: Strikeouts need to fall, but there is enough to like to keep him above the great flattening out with the next tier 13. Max Lazar: Well, that season went well. Stat line pretty crazy --- 14. Bowden Francis: Rough first three starts after promotion masked otherwise great year. Led organization in strikeouts 15. Pablo Abreu: I know, this is a weird hill to die on. 16. Jacob Nottingham: Still on 40-man so Brewers believe in him. But Freitas is too, so they don't completely 17. Trey Supak: Probably needs to miss more bats 18. Devin Williams: Seems to have higher upside than list's other 40-man relievers 19. Dylan File: Great walk rate and passable strikeout rate 20. Alec Bettinger: Most seem to pitch well in Biloxi, but performance too good to keep him out of this tier 21. Joe Gray: Another lost season, but like with Ray, the upside is still there 22. Justin Jarvis: Only thing missing was the strikeouts. Hopefully second go-around at Wisconsin will change that 23. Jesus Parra: Young and pretty effective so far 24. Carlos Luna: Strong RM showing positions him to be this year's Lazar 25. Jhonnys Cabrera: Lack of discussion a red flag, but he was DSL team's top offensive newcomer for most of season 26. Lucas Erceg: Spring training invite shows optimism at least 27. Micah Bello: Tailed off a bit after strong start --- 28. Luis Medina: In general I wait until DSL guys have played to put them in top 25, so I stuck him atop this tier 29. Hedbert Perez: See Luis Medina 30. David Fry: AFL work great, but still probably has to stick at catcher 31. Clayton Andrews: Fast-moving reliever, but feels a bit behind Rasmussen and Williams on upside 32. J.P. Feyereisen: Will almost certainly get big league shot at some point this year 33. Reese Olson: Brewers showed enough faith in him to make me think second Wisconsin season will be better 34. Mark Mathias: I raised him up 10-15 spots because team traded viable catching prospect and gave him a 40-man spot. Feels like a younger Nate Orf 35. Felix Valerio: Just keep hitting 36. Nash Walters: Healthy and pitched just well enough to inspire some renewed optimism 37. Angel Perdomo: Like the upside but seems a bit rawer than the other 40-man relief options 38. Eduarqui Fernandez: Can the contact match the power? 39. Phil Bickford: He dominated but at a level he should no longer be at 40. Bobby Wahl: It seems likely this will look 20 spots too high or too low in a few months 41. Karsen Lindell: His comeback produced a lot of Ks and, after two awful outings to start the year, very few base runners --- 42. Tyrone Taylor: Is he more than a fifth outfielder 43. Thomas Jankins: Quietly has had success 44. Luke Barker: Lack of a big league camp invite dropped him 45. Korry Howell: Did just enough to not seem overmatched and has upside 46. Je'Von Ward: See Korry Howell 47. Cooper Hummel: Still question the upside, but he flat out produced at Biloxi 48. Caden Lemons: Is he healthy? Did the work he put in before the injury produce improvements? 49. Eric Yardley: Seems to have little upside but could be a passable seventh or eighth pen arm 50. Quintin Torres-Costa: Might have to prove himself again after injury 51. Thomas Dillard 52. Nick Bennett 53. Miguel Sanchez 54. Noah Zavalos 55. Braden Webb 56. Nick Kahle 57. David Hamilton 58. Gabe Holt 59. Victor Castaneda 60. Jeferson Quero --- 61. Wes Wilson 62. Ernesto Martinez 63. Arbert Cipion 64. Scott Sunitsch 65. Michele Vassalotti 66. Larry Ernesto 67. Joantgel Segovia 68. Carlos Roa 69. Andre Nnebe 70. Jacob Gatewood 71. Terence Doston 72. Luis Contreras 73. CJ Hinojosa 74. Nathan Kirby 75. Lun Zhao

I was bored and on Fangraphs and found some of the statistics for Brewers minor league pitchers from last year surprising. If you're equally as bored and in the mood for a guessing game ... 1. He led the Brewers' entire organization, majors and minors, in strikeouts last season. 2. Of any Brewers minor leaguer with at least 50 innings pitched, he struck out the highest percentage of batters faced. 3. Of Brewers minor leaguers with at least 20 innings pitched, only these two pitchers struck out more than 35% of batters they faced and walked less than 5% of batters faced. 4. These are the only two Brewers minor league pitchers with at least 50 innings who walked less than 1.5 batters per innings. I only would have guessed one of these, and that's only because I would have guessed the first answer to three for each of the last three categories. Not saying these necessarily point to any future success, and at least one of them was fairly old for his levels, but I found them interesting nonetheless.

Not quite sure where to put this, but the minor league spring training roster was tweeted out. I'll caution I might have missed someone. Last year's DSL players in camp: Eduardo Garcia, Eduarqui Fernandez, Jesus Parra, Jhonnys Cabrera, Alejandro Marte, Carlos Roa This year's July 2 signings brought over: Hedbert Perez, Luis Medina, Jeferson Quero, Jose Caballero, Jamal Zalm

Not quite sure where to put this, but the minor league spring training roster was tweeted out. I'll caution I might have missed someone. Last year's DSL players in camp: Eduardo Garcia, Eduarqui Fernandez, Jesus Parra, Jhonnys Cabrera, Alejandro Marte, Carlos Roa This year's July 2 signings brought over: Hedbert Perez, Luis Medina, Jeferson Quero, Jose Caballero, Jamal Zalm

I wasn't so much advocating for Feyereisen as saying I thought he'd fit well on the list given the number of relief arms on it (although I guess Perdomo isn't on it either). On McClanahan, I don't necessarily disagree with you. There were just other guys who also have upside who have been pushed more than McClanahan has on that Wisconsin roster who aren't on this list, like Abreu and Ward. If there is a breakout from the disappointments on that team, I think they are more likely. On the Hummel debate, he's shown up in a few lists lately, and he was legitimately one of the best hitters in the Southern League last year. The issue is, he is likely stuck as a corner outfielder, and is probably just about maximizing his skill set. To have much value he is probably going to have to keep at least 90% of his AA production on the Major League level, and that is easier said than done. I will say, there are some guys you champion who I don't understand the affinity Clancy, but Hummel isn't one of them. Even if I'm still a bit skeptical, the power surge last year gives him a shot.

I wasn't so much advocating for Feyereisen as saying I thought he'd fit well on the list given the number of relief arms on it (although I guess Perdomo isn't on it either). On McClanahan, I don't necessarily disagree with you. There were just other guys who also have upside who have been pushed more than McClanahan has on that Wisconsin roster who aren't on this list, like Abreu and Ward. If there is a breakout from the disappointments on that team, I think they are more likely. On the Hummel debate, he's shown up in a few lists lately, and he was legitimately one of the best hitters in the Southern League last year. The issue is, he is likely stuck as a corner outfielder, and is probably just about maximizing his skill set. To have much value he is probably going to have to keep at least 90% of his AA production on the Major League level, and that is easier said than done. I will say, there are some guys you champion who I don't understand the affinity Clancy, but Hummel isn't one of them. Even if I'm still a bit skeptical, the power surge last year gives him a shot.

Two biggest surprises for me on this list are McClahanan being on it and, given the number of older relief prospects listed, Feyereisen being left off.

Two biggest surprises for me on this list are McClahanan being on it and, given the number of older relief prospects listed, Feyereisen being left off.