WV Brew

Hate to say it but so far Coulter has been brutal in RF. Misplayed a more or less routine fly into a triple to cost Ortega a run in the 1st. Not the first misplayed ball this year either. Got to hope for improvement because it doesn't look like there is another position to go at this point.

Washington Nationals on extending Jordan Zimmerman: http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nationals/fear-of-second-elbow-surgery-may-lead-to-zimmerman-strasburg-departures/2015/03/29/80367f62-d646-11e4-8103-fa84725dbf9d_story.html Bottom line: They are afraid a second Tommy John would likely finish him and these injuries tend to recur after a given length of time. The Nationals could probably sign him for less than anybody else and they are passing. The Brewers should not expend a huge amount of money either, in my opinion. Some are counting on a home town discount but even with that, it will cost the Brewers plenty. Also, I agree it's way too early to panic.

Daytona 2, Manatees 0 Viera, Fla. - The Daytona Tortugas (2-1) continued its dominant pitching with a 2-0 win over the Brevard County Manatees (1-2) at Space Coast Stadium on Sunday. Identical to their win on Thursday, the Tortugas used a first inning home run to get on the board. Robert Ramirez, who had changed positions in the batting order and field after a late scratch to Alex Blandino, uncorked a one-out home run to right field to give Daytona all the offense they would need. The 'Tugas would be gifted its other run in the fourth inning, which started when Angel Ortega overthrew first base and allowed Phillip Ervin to reach. Ervin then stole second and advanced to third when Cameron Garfield's throw went into centerfield. He would come home on a sacrifice fly by Chad Wallach to provide the final result. The Manatees had their opportunities early on to get on the board, but failed to capitalize. Taylor Brennan walked to start the second inning and moved to second on Victor Roache's single to left. Garrett Cooper then struck out. Cameron Garfield and Angel Ortega both flew out to left, and the threat was extinguished. In the third, Omar Garcia led off with a walk. With one out, he stole second and third with Chris McFarland at the plate, who would walk as well. With two speedsters on base and Clint Coulter at the plate, the 'Tees attempted a double steal. Carlton Daal cut off Cam Maron's throw to second, and Garcia was tagged out at the plate. Shortly after, Coulter fouled out to third to end the inning. Over the next six innings, Brevard County would manage just three base runners, none of whom advanced past first. Four different Daytona pitchers caused a lot of the woes at the plate. Nick Howard, the Reds' first round pick in the 2014 draft, threw five innings of two-hit shutout ball and struck out three. Barrett Astin, a former Brewers farmhand, followed with two perfect innings. El-Hajj Muhammad pitched a clean eighth inning and Evan Mitchell earned his second save of the series with a perfect ninth frame. Javi Salas, in his first Manatees start, threw five innings, and gave up two runs (one earned) on two hits. He walked three and struck out four. The Manatees begin a four-game series on Monday against the FSL South Division leading St. Lucie Mets. First pitch at Space Coast Stadium is at 6:35 p.m. RHP Jorge Ortega (0-0, 0.00) makes his season debut against RHP Rob Whalen (0-0, 0.00). Box Score Game Log 'Tees bats were silent in this one. The Daytona shortstop was scratched at the start so they had 2 players out of position. 2 of the 3 'Tees hits were ground balls off the glove of one of the players out of position. The other was a Texas League bloop by Brennan. Nick Howard, who was the Reds' first pick last year out of UVa, started the game. Barrett Astin pitched two perfect innings against the 'Tees to add insult to injury. Salas and Clint Terry pitched well for the 'Tees. By the way, Walkovic admits to having jinxed the T-Rats by mentioning the situation in that game.

Viera weather: "Wind gusts of 45 to 55 mph will be possible with this storm." Let's see Coulter hit one out into that wind. Supposed to be over by 5 so they still may get this one in.

Looks like Hobbs Johnson left early. Hopefully not an injury issue.

Coulter has added his 1st home run into the teeth of the Space Coast wind. Yep, McFarland looking good so far this year.

I've been listening to the Manatees and they've been in and out with the audio all night. Really frustrating. Nick Travieso, who was the Reds' Minor league pitcher of the year retired 16 in a row at one point. Manatees really having a bad night. I'm packing it in.

Looks like it's going to be an adventure with Coulter in right. Burgos has nothing so far after 2. Fastball below 90 in the first inning. First batter hit a homerun. I guess it's a rehab start.

Looks like a lot of the catchers were held back also. I guess to make room for Centeno and LaTorre.

Baldkin- That just says he had a really good year and hit the ball hard consistently. In MLB last year, players with around that OPS level: Rizzo .913/ .311 BABIP Bautista .928/.287 Trout .939/.349 Stanton .950/.353 Now Bautista, of course, was heavy on HR and BB unlike Hunter Morris. While Morris' BABIP may have been slightly high, it generally is high if you hit at that level because you consistently hit the ball hard. I don't want to push this too hard, but it does rankle somewhat when the Brewers bring in a bunch of AAAA outfielders released by other organizations and drop their own. I didn't expect much from Hunter Morris but it's possible that he might develop into something more. They could have put Clark or even Morris in leftfield instead of importing all those AAAA guys.

MLB box scores are awful. You have to sift through all that gameday garbage. Why can't they have a concise boxscore like the newspapers? I hate going to ESPN for something that simple.

Nobody in AA last year (1B men) had as high an OPS as Morris did at Huntsville in his big year. Only three did at AAA. Those were all in the Coast League which must be taken with a grain of salt. You're probably right that he is nothing special but releasing him after a serious wrist injury could be an unforced error. He had shown a glimmer of being able to hit in that one year.

I guess I'm the same age as JohnBriggs12. We used to go to the Braves' games as well. Generally, I went with my father and brothers. My father was only ever a lukewarm Brewers' fan after the Braves left but I guess I was young enough not to have become totally embittered. Of course, it was years before Atlanta drew as well as Milwaukee. It was the TV money that made the difference and then the Braves would always have blocked another NL team in Milwaukee. With good reason. I did go to a couple of those White Sox games. I remember one in which the crowd was sitting on the warning track because so many people had showed up. Must have been difficult for the outfielders but it was only an exhibition. I never did really believe the Sox would move to Milwaukee though. They used Milwaukee to get concessions from Chicago I suspect. I will always be grateful to that Sox ownership though for its small bit of help in returning baseball where it belonged.

No. Long was OBP of .340 in AA and .358 in AAA. Schafer: .370 and .352 SLG .431 in AA and .442 in AAA. Schafer: .382 and .460 So Long is not much different than Schafer at the plate whereas Schafer is superior in the outfield. In addition, I doubt Long plays CF at all. Schafer plays a decent CF.

Not to rip McCall but he is the same age as Cam Garfield. Take a look at Garfield's 2012 in Wisconsin. Not a bad year. Let's see if McCall can do that. Finally, Garfield has hit in Space Coast the last two years. I think he is a better hitter than he's shown. Personally, I'm looking for a big year out of Garfield now that he will probably be liberated from Space Coast.

1. Orlando Arcia 2. Tyrone Taylor 3. Clint Coulter 4. Gilbert Lara 5. Monte Harrison 6. Taylor Jungmann 7. Taylor Williams 8. Corey Knebel 9. Kodi Medieros 10. Devin Williams 11. Jorge Lopez 12. Tyler Wagner 13. Wei-Chung Wang 14. Jason Rogers 15. Jake Gatewood 16. David Denson 17. Joantangel Segovia 18. Nicolas Pierre 19. Marcos Diplan 20. Yadiel Rivera 21. Jed Bradley 22. Chris McFarland 23. Michael Reed 24. Joshua Torres 25. Angel Ortega

If you look at K-Rod's splits for 1st half/2nd half last year you have: G: 45/24, K/W: 5.20/2.63, BAA: .190/.214, SLG: .344/.488 A lot of the bad impressions, I think, come from the 2nd half where he did struggle a bit. He was very good in the first half. RR simply overused him (along with Smith and Thornburg). I hope he is not still addicted to having roles set in stone. Players need rest and back of the roster guys need work.

J-S has $13 million. http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/294207171.html

Really superfly? Tyrone Taylor: .387/.434/.667 (majority at Helena) Monte Harrison: .261/.402/.339 all in Arizona. Not based on their rookie seasons.

I hope this will give the Brewers pause about playing Lucroy at first on his days off. He needs the rest.

Zimmerman was dead last in FO/GO among Cy Young contenders last year. That might not play well in Miller Park. He is getting up there in age. The Nationals keep adding very expensive starter free agents rather than extend Zimmerman at probably lower rates. That might be significant. He also seems to be injury prone. Brewers need a 3B after this year and have nothing remotely close in the system. They will probably need to spend something there. Look how much the Panda cost the Red Sox this year.

May have a Brewers component: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-matheny-manifesto-mike-matheny/1120420221?ean=9780553446692 You must have Cardinals immunity however.

Arcia comes out at 88 at MLB: http://m.brewers.mlb.com/news/article/107831704/shortstop-orlando-arcia-represents-brewers-on-top-100-prospects-list I really think he's better than that. Probably because he doesn't have top speed, power or arm. However, he's above average in all that whereas guys ahead of him often have glaring weaknesses.

Playing in Miller Park really necessitates getting groundballs compared to other teams. Here are the top 10 Cy Young guys in GO/FO: Wainwright 1.68 Kershaw 1.55 Greinke 1.47 Fister 1.30 Arrieta 1.30 Strasburg 1.28 Cueto 1.11 Bumgarner 1.04 Zimmerman 0.93 Hamels 0.93 Wily Peralta is at 1.67 last year and Nelson at 1.46. I think Jimmy will improve on that. I think he was higher in the Minors. The Brewers do seem to be trying to get a staff that throws ground balls. They also have some good infielders to catch them (except for 1B and 3B). Now if they can only get a 3B for the post Aramis era.

Not the only thing he's done. Release from Sen. Ron Johnson: http://www.ronjohnson.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=785dcb68-96f8-4e0a-9976-cb5b9a633cf5 It's an honor to be associated with this young man. Don't believe he's doing this stuff just for publicity either.