filthyfrog

Even if the World Cup weren't a factor, I think asking Lawrie to go to the AFL would be asking too much of him this year. This was his first full year and it seemed like the grind got to him for a while, but also that he's figured out how to stay sharp over the long haul. At this point, congratulate him on a fine year and give him a well deserved break.

Like I said, Farris might be useful as a PR for a contender in Septmember, but he is otherwise not a prospect. X, based on your opinion of Farris, I have no idea what it takes to be a "prospect" in your mind. Like just about every "prospect" in baseball, Farris has a couple tools to be excited about and a couple tools that need work. While he'll likely never hit for power, it's too early to conclusively say he'll never hit for average or walk enough to be a productive major leaguer. All prospects in the minor leagues need to improve in some area or another before they get called up to the bigs. Most never make the adjustments and flame out, but that doesn't mean they were never prospects in the first place. Farris is certainly a prospect and no one here is saying he'll be an All Star. They're just saying that like all prospects, he has the chance to have a big league career if he shows improvement as he climbs the ladder.

Is there anything else you would like to see him accomplish, we can work on it in the off season as we have the last few years!!! Yes, can you work with Angel on staying healthy? Seriously, do you have any comments on Angel's ability to call a game or handle a pitching staff? Managers and GMs always talk about those things, but I don't think anyone really knows how to measure it.

Prospects below AA have to be evaluated largely based on their tools and not just by their performance. Farris has shown this year that he has at least one exciting tool and a .332 OBP isn't terrible even if you are old for your league. If he continues to swipe bags this well and plays a passable 2B, he'll be decent trade bait at the very least. And if he shows reasonable improvement in his OBP skills, it seems like he could jump up prospect lists pretty quickly. He's certainly not a top prospect, but saying he's not a prospect at all is going too far IMO.

Wish we had this guy two years ago. We did. Four years ago, then.

catcher Jhonatan Javier is an offensive stud Despite his studliness, is it safe to assume that at 21 years old in the DSL, Javier is not really considered a prospect? Or is he one to keep an eye on? Do we know anything about him other than the numbers?

Which is a shame because his bat projects much better in RF First of all, I think the difference between LF and RF is way overblown. Throws to second are the same and throws to home are the same. The only difference is the throw to third, which doesn't happen all that often. An arm that's good enough for LF is good enough for RF. If it's not good enough for LF, then it's only good enough for 1B. Second, like everyone else, I remember the reports saying that Cole's surgery would limit him to LF when he was drafted. Why is everyone taking that as gospel when so many people vehemently deny other opinions from scouts, such as Mat Gamel will never play 3B, Brett Lawrie will never play 2B, etc.? In all those other cases people claim that it was probably just one scout's opinion and that we shouldn't trust it. Is there something about this situation that makes it so much more credible? Like I said, if his surgery left him with a truly terrible arm, then it wouldn't be good enough for LF. But if it's good enough for LF, then it's probably good enough for RF. Finally, we've seen a lot of puss-armed CFs (Sanchez, Podsednik, Clark, etc.) come through Milwaukee. If Gillespie can run down the ball well enough (and I have no idea if he really can), then there's no reason he can't be a puss-armed backup CF just like he can be a puss-armed backup LF. If he can't run it down well enough, then it's not his arm that's limiting him to LF.

Why one earth is Julio on the big league team? With Hoffman, Difelice, Coffey, Villanueva, and Stetter all throwing the ball well right now, we can afford to hide Julio. At some point those guys are going to cool off. If Julio is pitching better at that point, he gets important innings. If not, that's the time to replace him. There's no need to replace him right now. It ain't broke.

A common complaint with Weeks's defense over the last few years has been that even when he's not making errors, he's failing to turn double plays. Lawrie seems to start or turn one or two every game. While MiLB box scores obviously don't track missed double play opportunities, there are enough double plays to suggest that it's not a problem for him. However, and I hate to say this, there have been several recent cases of scouts saying a Brewers prospect couldn't handle his position and the Brewers saying that he'd be fine. Braun was an obvious disaster at 3B, Fielder has been below average at best, and everyone knows how frustrating it's been to watch Weeks learn on the job. So far the scouts are up 3-0, which does not bode well for Lawrie or Gamel.

I think the point here is that Gamel has to earn the benefit of the doubt. He has a track record of a poor defensive third baseman, so while 10 games without an error is encouraging, he's going to have to do more than that to prove that he's reliable. If he can sustain that success for half a season, then we might be able to say he's truly improved.

Does anyone think Corey can have a 30/30 season? Well, after a 1/1 start he's on pace for a 30/30 Spring Training.

Keith Law has Salome ahead of Gamel? That's something I simply can't phathom. They've both shown they can hit and have major question marks on defense. But where Salome can only play one position, Gamel can fall back to the OF or 1B. Even offensively, Gamel has a natural, classic-type swing, whereas Salome is highly unorthodox, which could mean that Major League pitchers with Major League scouting reports will figure him out quickly. I can't imagine how someone would argue that Salome is a better prospect than Gamel. Was there even one person who voted that way in the fan poll?

6'5" Carlos vs. 5'11" Omar In case anyone else was surprised to see that sub-six foot mark from Maas Haas, the Baseball Cube has Aguilar at 6' 1", Brewerfan has him at 6', and brewers.com has him at 5' 11". Since height listings are usually exagerrated, it's probably safe to say the shortest listing is the most accurate. So while I was hoping to prove Maas wrong, he's probably right. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

I'm sorry Tom, but that's an incredibly lazy answer. In Tom's defense, I'm not sure what kind of answer you're looking for here. He's not paid to cover all of minor league baseball and he's admitting he doesn't know much about Andrus. The chat format doesn't allow for research or in depth, thoughtful answers. It would be different if the question was for a full time BA writer.

Powell fans know that he frequents this forum, so we should probably address our concerns directly to him: Don't leave us, Jim! We can't listen to Brewer baseball without you! While I've come to terms with the fact that Ueck won't be around forever, I like to think that Powell will.

While I hate to see Brantley go, I think he would have been blocked in Milwaukee. In a couple years we could have an OF of Braun, Hart, and Gamel. I don't think Brantley would play over any of them. I don't think Gamel will stick at 3B and I'm not convinced Weeks is the long term answer at 2B, so I'm glad we still have Green to potentially fill one of those spots.

Or is the type of player Cain is (high ceiling, still somewhat raw) just more expendable than Brantley (high OBP, excellent strike zone judgment)? I think if Cain maximizes his potential, he'll be Corey Hart. Hart's great and all, but we already have him. Brantley's OBP fills an organizational need and I think that's why most people would prefer to keep Brantley over Cain if given the choice.

How does that message apply if you're Salome? The Jeffress and Salome situations are very different. Salome appears to have made a mistake and moved on, whereas it was much harder for Jeffress, who failed multiple tests and clearly had to make some pretty significant lifestyle changes.

By picking Jeffress, the team might be trying to give him some positive reinforcement. "Look what happens when you stay clean."

Did any of the young Latin position players like Arias or Garcia get any votes? Poor Mike, he's simply far too low, and has been for ages. There are three players between Brantley and Green. I don't see how anyone in the top 10 can be "far too low." My personal opinion is that Green is a touch too high (I have Lucroy, Odorizzi, and yes, Brantley ahead of him), but that's pretty much picking nits. We all agree that all these guys are top prospects. And just to be controversial, my top three prospects are Gamel, Escobar, and LaPorta. That's right, I said Escobar before LaPorta. LaPorta will have greater initial success, but I think Escobar will end up being the more valuable player.

When the Brewers picked Lintz, I would speculate that they passed on Tim Melville because they thought he was unsignable. Therefore, they must not have had the same concern about Lintz. That said, after seeing Evan Frederickson's line in the link report the other day, I understand why people are itching to see the same from Lintz and Odorizzi and Lawrie.

With the impending influx of pitchers who can also hit a little bit (Odorizzi, Lintz, Lasker...), does anyone think it would be a good idea to let these guys hit for themselves in the low minors? It's always bothered me that pitchers in our system don't hit at all until AA, and that's only when we're not playing at an American League affiliate. It's hard to expect them to handle the bat very well once they make the jump to the bigs when they've only been swinging for a year or so after a several year layoff. Clearly Gallardo and Parra have held their own despite these conditions, but it still seems like a disadvantage to go so long without hitting. There are some obvious drawbacks I can think of: a. Giving at bats to pitchers takes at bats away from position players, but those players are typically going to be non-prospects. Plus, if you only allow certain pitchers to hit (i.e. the ones you think will actually be hitting in Milwaukee one day), you could still save plenty of at bats for the DH over the course of the season. b. Spurning the DH puts the team at an obvious disadvantage, but the minors are for developing players, not winning games. c. Pitchers could be more likely to get injured swinging the bat or running the bases. This seems like the only reasonable argument against letting the pitchers hit, but it doesn't seem like Major League pitchers hurt themselves this way very often, so minor league pitchers shouldn't either. Finally, you could argue that we just want our pitchers concentrating on their pitching and not wasting time worrying about hitting. But just as you work on pitchers' fielding practice and pickoff moves, I think you should work on hitting. It's not a pitcher's most important job, but it's part of being successful. Given that Jack Z. appeared to target athletic pitchers who can hit, I wonder if the organization is looking to acquire/develop players who can succeed in all phases of the game, which might make them more inclined to do something like this. I doubt we have the next Micah Owings on our hands, but it would be pretty exciting if a couple of these kids could hit at least like Gallardo. Well, ok, I'd settle for them just pitching like Gallardo, but I still think it's worth thinking about.

It is strange that one of the knocks on Odorizzi was that he lacked competitiveness on the mound. He seems very competitive and very confident. I think some people confuse "lack of competitiveness" with "poise." An uninformed observer might also say that Gallardo has a "lack of competitiveness."

I think uwisfan was right to point out that Hardy has lost some range and footspeed after his ankle injury. He probably had average range before, which, when combined with the hands, instinct, and the rocket, would make the minor league reports right. You can't blame the prognosticators for failing to predict that an ankle injury would cost him a step.

I'm just repeating what everyone else has said, but it's worth repeating: Brewer fans are lucky to have such knowledgeable and passionate people working at Brewerfan. Thanks to Colby for months of diligent work and thanks to everyone else who'll be pitching in this week. I'm giddy for Thursday.