Madhawk23

I apologize if this has already been discussed on here in another thread, but where is Taylor Williams? Did he have a set back, or why hasn't he pitched in what seems like a couple of weeks now?

Yeah, I was actually pretty impressed with that list overall when I scanned through it. Considering what a crap shoot the MLB draft is, I'd say there is a pretty decent track record of successful #9 picks there.

Didn't they have it on a Thurs/Fri/Sat the past few years? Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought they were trying to get more interest in it by making it more of a late week/weekend deal? I guess not though, since it is starting on a Monday this year. Anyone know the logic behind this? Also, did I hear that they are only televising the 1st round this year? I thought they did 1st and 2nd on TV the past few years?

It seems to me that we have at least few internal candidates that could probably help our MLB pen almost immediately. Here is how I'd rank the internal candidates: 1. Hader - they've already started limiting his innings (which seems a bit odd to me), so I wonder if we don't see this call-up sooner rather than later. Calling him up this year to help in the pen, wouldn't mean that we'd have to give up on him as a starter. In fact, maybe they could still keep him loosened up a bit by giving him some 2-3 inning relief stints from time to time? Big question with Hader though - can you rely on his control issues in high leverage MLB relief appearances? We can't have him coming in and walking the first two batters that he'd face. 2. Taylor Williams - They are already limiting his innings this year, coming back from his surgery - so why not bring his nasty stuff up to the Brewers and limit his innings at the big league level. We know how filthy his stuff is, and I'm guessing he'd be an immediate upgrade. 3. Michael Blazek - He's done well at times for us in prior years, and seems to be doing some good things lately at CS as a starter. Not sure if they feel that he is now better suited to be a starter, but they might want to give him another shot in the pen. 4. Tristan Archer - Honestly, I have no idea on this guy's stuff, but he seems to put up solid numbers at every stop so far in his minor league career. 5. Wang - ERA is good at CS this year, so that intrigues me. Not sure though if he's got the type of stuff to be a late inning guy that can shut down a left handed bat? So, seems like we'd have some decent internal candidates here that we might be able to take a look at.

It's hard to see the Rockies farm system as a great "match" right now for the Brewers, as they don't really have the high-end pitching that they'd be willing to trade - since most of their attractive young arms are contributing at the MLB level now. Also, do we really provide them with solutions to whatever their needs might be at the deadline? Pint is certainly intriguing, but he's not exactly tearing it up thus far in his professional debut season. I doubt they deal Rogers, and as already suggested - Tapia just adds to our OF logjam. You've got to figure though that this is a team that is going to want to go "all-in" this year if they are in the thick of the race.

And that speaks more to the depth of our system than anything. Coca is probably a borderline top 20 in many systems. I heard a couple of Baseball America guys do a podcast this past offseason where they stated that some of the guys ranked 31-40 in our system might legitimately be ranked in the top 10 in some of the weaker systems in baseball. Speaks to just how much depth we currently have right now, and also confirms that Coca could very well be knocking on the door of the top 10-15 in many other systems around baseball. Not a bad "throw-in" player in what already looks like an amazing return for us in this Thornburg deal.

I'm a bit surprised this hasn't been done yet. Who knows if the leg injuries are the main cause for his recent struggles, but either way it is pretty obvious that the guy needs some time off to rest his body and his mind. I'd be all for putting him on the 10 day DL and bringing up Phillips. What do you really have to lose right now, as Thames is literally giving us nothing at the plate - and you can't play him much in the OF with his lower body injuries. This would allow Aggy to play every game at 1B for the next 10 games, and would allow us to see what we might have in Phillips - with his hot start in AAA. Would love to get a test run with Cooper too, but I'd hate to take those valuable AB's away from Aggy right now, and I don't think Cooper has much positional versatility, right?

Colby - with all of this speculation (true or not true?) in these mock drafts that have the Brewers either picking Adell or Austin Beck - I'm curious which of these two you'd prefer to see them take? Obviously, we have no idea if this is really the direction that Stearns and Montgomery are leaning, but there sure is a lot of speculation that they'll go with one of these high floor/low ceiling prep OF prospects. Just curious which player you'd prefer out of those two, and what you've seen from both?

I haven't given up on Trent Clark yet, but looking back at the 2015 thread makes me wish that the mock draft that had Buehler to Milwaukee would have become a reality. I know there was the arm injury and probably some signability issues with him, but he's certainly living up to his potential now that his arm is back to health. Embarrassment of riches for the LA Dodgers.

I'm certainly no scouting expert here, but I really don't like all of these Adell predictions. Really hope that he doesn't end up being our pick, as I just think there is too much risk with guys like that (in the Buxton mold). I watched a bit of the UK/Fla game last night and UK really hit Faedo hard. I know it's just one start that I saw, but I certainly didn't come away real impressed with what I saw from him either. At this stage, I guess I'm not sure who I'm hoping we take at #9? I wouldn't mind seeing Bukauskas or Pavin Smith fall to us there, but it seems that most are projecting that they go off the board just before #9.

I might puke if they go Adell over Baz, Haseley, and Peterson. That would be the worst case scenario. I do not expect Lewis, Gore, or Bukauskas to be there at #9, and won't be surprised if Smith isn't there, but of the four I mentioned above Adell is #4 by a long margin. Actually, he's #5 behind those three and Hall. Everything I read about Adell has him compared to Melvin Upton and Byron Buxton. Why in the world would you ever want to draft a kid that compares to those two guys? Yes, I'm sure the tools may be off the charts, but what good is that if you can barely hit your weight? Personally, I want nothing to do with Adell or Kendall in this draft. I know you want to draft the BPA, but I just don't want another toolsy OF with our first pick.

I thought I saw that Espino was scheduled to pitch today's game for Col Springs? Did I read that wrong? Or could there be an injury situation or perhaps even a call-up that hasn't been announced yet with him? Sorry in advance If I missed something here.

Let me just say that I definitely fall on your side of the argument with this. But, what if we are talking about a pitcher that we'd have control over for the next few seasons beyond 2017? Again, maybe a deGrom or Quintana type guy that would/should be a bit piece of your rotation for the next few years as you try to build a championship level team? I too don't like the idea of selling off any of our big prospects that we've worked hard to acquire, but I might at least entertain the idea if we were getting back a quality starting pitcher that we could build the rotation around. Eventually, we are going to have to do this anyway as I just don't see much high-end starting pitching in our system right now. I guess the question would be: is this year the right year to start looking at deal like this? Coming into the year, we all would have said that NO, it is way too soon, but perhaps our timelines get moved up a season if this team continues winning games with the offense over the next month+ here?

Here's an July/August bullpen idea that hasn't already been discussed: Taylor Williams. He's on the 40 man already, and they are clearly trying to limit his innings this year. So, if he's still dealing come July/August and showing that he is back to being completely healthy, why not consider him for a pen spot? We know the guy has nasty stuff. Just don't know how he'd handle himself coming out of the pen in the Major Leagues. Might be an option to consider though if he's still progressing nicely in a couple of months.

My enthusiasm was brought back down to earth a bit here this morning when I saw that we are at or near the bottom in several team pitching statistics. In fact, I believe we are dead last in hits allowed, whip and batting average against. Obviously, this isn't a recipe for success long term. Maybe Junior helps these stats a little bit when he returns, but I also don't think we can expect that he'll be our savior. I agree - probably is best to just let this whole thing play out and see how far this team can go on their own, and then look to potentially promote guys like Woodruff (rotation) and Hader (pen) later this summer to see if they can give the team a bit of a boost? Just too many holes still in this pitching staff.

With that amazing series sweep over the Mets, our Brewers are 4 games over .500. Maybe this is all smoke and mirrors and we'll be back under .500 by the end of this month, but what if this team really is ahead of schedule here and are sitting 5-10 games over .500 by July 1? While I certainly don't want to trade away many of the prospects that we've worked so hard to accumulate over the past 2 years, would you be more willing to trade a couple of them if we were picking up a player that isn't just a 3 month rental, but a guy that we would have control of for the next few years? And, how many of those guys do you think might be on the trade market this July? Would the Mets be willing to part with deGrom if their season continues as it has? Or, how about a Jose Quintana? Would you be willing to part with one of our OF prospects as the headliner in a deal? For example, maybe the White Sox would have a lot of interest in bringing hometown kid Corey Ray to the southside? Obviously, Ray would have to start hitting here soon to even make this an option, but I wonder if he could be a headliner in a deal? I absolutely wouldn't want to trade any of our prospects for a rental, but I might be willing to part with a couple of guys in our deep system, if it helped bring back a pitcher that we could still control for awhile. I know I might be putting the cart ahead of the horse here, but curious to get some thoughts on this.

Nice proposal. However, the Dodgers will have all the leverage because it's pretty clear that they are the ONLY team realistically in play to make a trade for Braun before the deadline this year. With Bumgarner out, the Giants are fading fast and won't be making a move for Braun this year. I think Walker Buehler is off the table as an option. When talks with the Twins for Dozier came up, Dodgers came out and said they valued Buehler more than Jose De Leon and Brock Stewart. Since then, Buehler has been pumping fastballs in the upper 90s and has looked unhittable in the minors. A more realistic proposal may be something like this: LA gets: OF Ryan Braun, ??? million Mil gets: RHP Mitchell White (or RHP Brock Stewart) AND 2B/OF Willie Calhoun (or 3B Edwin Rios) The amount of money the Brewers kick in would probably be determined by their "choice" of offered prospects. Although most Brewer fans would be disappointed with the return, I think it's because they feel that Braun is still a franchise player in their minds and expect a equal "FANTASY TRADE" type return. So this still begs the question: SHOULD a rebuilding team like the Brewers pull the trigger on a deal like this? PROS: - Brings in more depth of controllable, young talent. - Frees up LF for Brewers to develop young OF prospects at MLB level. - Invest money from contract savings back into future of the organization. CONS: - Trade away a Hall-of-Fame level talent that is still being productive when healthy. - Lose long-time "Face of the Franchise" - PR hit and Ticket sales hit It's a interesting dilemma for the Franchise, but ultimately the ball is still in the Dodgers court or else Braun remains a Brewer and we keep hearing Braun trade rumors for years to come. If he had the character of a Robin Yount, I'd say the Brewers should allow him to be a lifetime Brewer and mentor the youngsters coming up. The way Braun handled the whole PED thing, showed his true colors and makes me lean toward moving on from him if/when the opportunity even arises. You are probably right, in that your trade proposal is probably much more realistic to what LA would be willing to offer for Braun. I guess I still think though that we really need potential impact pitching in any return for Braun. If Alvarez and Buehler are both off the table, do you think there is any chance we could get Sheffield and White from them? I'm not nearly as excited about this package as I was the Buehler/White combo, but I guess I'm just not crazy about Brock Stewart - and I just don't think we have a need for Calhoun at this stage. Or, would it be worth trying to get a White/Lux package in return - even though I'd much prefer to get a couple of high potential arms? I agree too that it is a really tough spot right now with Braun, based on all of the issues that you outlined. I'm still fully supportive of Stearn's stance though in holding firm on getting good value back in a trade for him. Yes, we need to free up one of those OF spots here soon for our prospects, and yes we need to strike on a deal while Braun still has some value - but I just feel like he's still worth getting a couple of LA's top 10 prospects back in a deal.

Again - I know that this isn't my money I'm talking about, but why wouldn't the Brewers be willing to eat some of Braun's salary (maybe just enough to make the remaining money worthwhile for another team to take on the "risk" of taking Braun for his final years), as long as that meant that we got back one Top 50 prospect in the return? We'd still be saving ourselves millions of dollars by getting rid of most of that remaining salary, and we'd get another big piece for our future that may help bring a winner back to Milwaukee? To me, this seems like a no brainer. With that said, who says "no" to this deal: LA gets: Braun, 15 million Mil gets: Buehler, Mitchell White I know Buehler is blowing up right now, but shouldn't they have to give up something of value to get a bat like Braun that might be the missing piece to get them over the hump in the playoffs? If we can make this happen, Buehler might be the "ace" pitcher that our system still appears to be lacking right now. Then, you could start to slot Woodruff, Hader, Ortiz, etc. behind Buehler in our future rotation plans. Maybe I'm dreaming here, but I think this is a deal that would make sense for both teams come July. Now, please get health Braun.....and stay healthy!

I apologize if these guys are being discussed somewhere in another thread, but I'm curious about the MLB potential for a couple of guys performing pretty well so far at AAA: Garrett Cooper - I know scouts don't necessarily love the tools on this guy, but all he's done at every level is hit. And, he's doing the same so far this year at AAA. Also, perhaps starting to see a bit of an uptick in the HR numbers with 3 already this year? I'm guessing that his ceiling is probably a Lyle Overbay? Paulo Espino - I know he was discussed early on when we picked him up as someone to keep an eye on. Is it possible that he could be this year's Junior Guerra story? I see that he has somewhat of a similar history as Guerra - 30 year old guy that just has never gotten much of an opportunity to show what he can do at the MLB level. Should I temper my enthusiasm about both of these guys and their hot starts at AAA? Espino is especially intriguing due to the fact that he's pitching in what usually are some tough pitching conditions in the PCL and especially in CS.

In terms of value and what they could bring back in a trade, here are my top 5 older players that we really need to be rooting for to put up big numbers the first 3-4 months here: Braun - this is obviously a no-brainer, and we obviously have the no-trade clause and 10/5 rights in play here. Worse case scenario is we hold onto him and he still will probably be a very good offensive player for a few more years. Would be nice to get some prospect value from either LA or SF this July though. Guerra - I know there has been healthy debate over what his value would be at his age and lack of history. His injury right now isn't helping at all, but if he can come back and pitch like '16 Guerra - I'd have to think some teams will put a pretty high value on him come July. Whether that value is enough for DS & Co. remains to be seen. If not, you can still build this rotation around him and just hope he doesn't completely fall off. Feliz - we really need this guy to pitch well and shut the door in the 9th inning from here on out. We know how valuable shut-down relievers are at the deadline, and it would be really nice to turn Feliz into a couple of high end prospects come July. Needs to pitch much better though than he has the past couple of weeks here. Hopefully yesterday's performance get's him on the right track. Knebel - I'm not necessarily advocating that we trade him in July, as he's still relatively young and under control for a few years - so probably worth hanging onto him for awhile. But, if a team offered you a similar deal to what we got for Will Smith, I think we'd be stupid not to take it, right? Villar - another guy that I don't think we'll move yet, but if he got really hot here for a couple of months and started to play like he did most of last year, I'd have to think there would be some really good trade value here. As long as teams overlook his stupid baserunning miscues and sometimes shoddy defense. With all of this said, if all five of these guys play really well the next three months here, I'd have to think that we'd be right smack dab in the middle of a WC race - and then that would really make things difficult for DS. Do you continue on with the rebuild plan and trade away your more veteran assets, or hold tight with them and maybe you deal a few of them in the off season?

I know that I don't completely understand the International market, but I do wonder why we aren't being a little more aggressive in this area during our rebuild? When teams like the A's, Pads and Reds are all going hard after this Luis Robert kid, it seems like we should be putting our hat in the ring as well - even if we do have to face penalties for it. Our MLB payroll is down right now, so why not use some of that money to invest in our future with some high end international players? OK - the experts can now feel free to tell me how wrong that I am, and how I don't understand the system!

What's the consensus on Jeren Kendall, outside of the fact that he is a WI native? Obviously, I wouldn't be thrilled with taking another OF prospect when we already have an abundance of OF's in our system. I know you have to take best available player in the first round, but I've got to think that we'll be looking more towards pitching with this pick, right?

Also, what can anyone tell me about Luke Barker? Was he one of the guys we picked up from Independent Ball this off season? I see they have him closing games in WI, and off to a pretty solid start there. What's his stuff like?

Why don't you think Feliciano sticks at catcher? I guess I was hoping he'd be the catcher of the future for this organization, but are his defensive skills not up to snuff there? Impressive start at the plate though for that young man, and the organization must think pretty highly of him at C to entrust him to handle that staff in the Midwest League.

I decided to answer my own question somewhat and looked up some older images of Thames when he was with the Mariners and Jays. He definitely seemed to be pretty jacked back in those days as well, so at least there wasn't some sudden change in physique from his first stint to his second. Doesn't mean that he hasn't taken stuff in past years, but we could say that about any big league player - until they get caught (if they get caught).