ZBTMP

1. Brinson- Hopefully tough decisions are required soon about how the Brewers outfield will look moving forward 2. Hader- Hoping for 17 MLB starts out of Josh this year. 3. Woodruff- I thought he'd get held back to Biloxi to start the year to gain some momentum and delay his ETA but sounds like he is going to be a level away from Milwaukee 4. I. Diaz- Like so many in the organization, cutting back on the Ks should be the highest development priority 5. L. Ortiz- Intently hoping his K rate climbs in return to Biloxi 6. Ray- Intangibles are there, now could use some production 7. Bickford- While I think his suspension shows poor judgement, the universal drop in prospect status seems excessive 8. Clark- Trent cannot be successful striking out in over a quarter of his Pas. That needs to change this year or he will drop like a rock 9. Erceg- Hard not to like the scouting reports 10. Diplan- Command still has a ways to go it seems 11. Dubon- A repeat of .199 ISO at AA and the Brewers future middle infield plans will need to change. 12. Phillips- Another bat that needs to dial ack the strikeouts. 13. Webb- Excited for the Brewers debut of the SEC strikeout king. I still contend that had scouts had a chance to watch him in summer leagues/more than one season at USC, he would have never still been on the board. My 2017 vote for biggest riser in the system. 14. Lopez- His last start in the WBC wasn't particularly encouraging 15. Ponce- Would love to hear reports of him hitting 97 again. 16. Harrison- Getting closer to now or never 17. Peralta- Promising results so far 18. Kirby- No setbacks, so far so good. 19. Burnes- Would like to see him miss more bats this year 20. Yamamoto- Challenge will be to keep overpowering more advanced hitters without overpowering stuff 21. Nottingham- His past offensive exploits are becoming more of a distant memory replaced with disappointing reports on his defense 22. Stokes- Often overlooked, but really had a nice second half last season 23. Wilkerson- Still deceiving hitters and dominating the strike zone. Looked good in the spring. 24. Barnes- An underappreciated big league debut and you could make a logical argument for the most likely to get 3 outs in the organization 25. T. Williams- No setbacks, so far so good. 26. Medeiros-The movement on his pitches in the spring training video, reminded me why I liked him so much, but yikes last season was bad 27. Lara- Im out until any kind of success at the plate or even a report showing he still has plus tools 28. Cordell- Looked good this spring, but still want to see him excel in meaningful at bats outside of High Desert 29. Perrin- Im still going to be a skeptic until he proves he can get advanced hitters out 30. Pennington- Trading Shaw, a former 26th rounder, and a 29th rounder for a reliever coming off the season that Thornburg had is quite the testament to the Red Sox scouting and development

Thanks for the link, but am I missing something? Barnes appears to be superior to reliever Tyler Cravy in all those things with the exception of ERA and BABIP. And that seems pretty much negligible unless you are telling me that a .213 BABIP and a 0% HR/FB with a 38% hard contact rate is sustainable.

Neither Myers or Roegner were projected to make the T-Rats roster on the pinned roster projections. Should be interesting to see who is squeezed out.

Thats not clear at all. He most certainly was in competition for a bullpen spot. He didn't definitively outpitch Jungmann. Hughes becoming available was unforeseen (though I don't much like him either). Barnes should have been and apparently was exempt for being better at every pitching criteria: K%, BB%, HR%, Swinging Strikes%, GB%, Hard Contact%, velocity, etc. (besides maybe the ability to pitch multiple innings). Milone was apparently exempt because of his handedness and having the threat of a lefty. He may not have splits but bench players on the other team certainly will. (For the record I think he sucks and am not thrilled with his inclusion on the team). Basically, Im struggling to come with a lie that Stearns/Counsell could have told him or would have had any incentive to tell him. "Have an ERA under 3 in spring and you'll make the team" "We are going to ignore all past evidence and make roster decisions solely how everyone pitches in their dozen innings this spring". Im doubting thats how the conversation went. Its OK for Cravy to be upset he got cut, but specifically calling out the organization as being dishonest is going well beyond that. Beyond unnecessarily pissing off his boss, he comes off as lacking perspective and over inflated self-worth to me at least.

Projection systems arent irrationally unfair to Cravy because of 3 home runs. Sure it factors but we have a far larger sample size than that. Performance wins and loses games but how do you predict performance. Projection systems based off of historical stats seem to be a reasonable way. But Barnes also throws the ball 3-4 mph faster, generates swinging strikes 14.8% of the time (far more than Cravy), and walk FAR less batters. Stearns should be fired now if he thinks Tyler Cravy will outpitch Barnes

Barnes isnt even close to the same boat as Cravy. His ZIPs ERA projection is a full run better and the best on our team. Im not sure you can objectively say he pitched better than Jungmann. Jungmann walks a lot of guys but still had a lower FIP. I have no idea what was said to Cravy, but I would presume the Brewers told him they expected him to compete for a spot. And the fact that he made it to the final weekend of spring training means he was, in fact, competing for a spot. They had other options they liked better. I don't have a problem with calling out the management if they are wrong or unethical, but unless they gave Cravy definitive metrics he needed to reach to make the team Stearns wasnt wrong and Cravy should be handling it better.

If he threw a decent slider I could conceivably see them trying to recreate Zach Duke, but he is basically a junk ball pitcher who has gotten afraid to throw a fastball. Oh well, I guess it gives them a long man for now. The 8th man in a bullpen isn't overly worth getting excited I guess, but taking lesser players for a veteran presence gets old.

What does height have to do with it? He's played a significant amount in CF over his career. Think Aoki. His plate discipline has shown marked improvement and that has resulted in increased production. Anyway just a thought. While plenty of shorter players have succeeded in MLB the correlations are otherwise. A swing will generate more leverage off the front foot as well as a frame that can support more muscle mass if a player is taller. Im sure their other scouting reasons but in general the average MLB position player is quite a bit taller than the general population. He could succeed at the MLB but his height makes it less likely. Not much different than any scouting report on Troy Stokes that starts off by listing his 5’8” height.

A 5'9" corner outfielder who has really only hit in his age 24 season at AA? The Brewers passed on him and any other Rule 5 eligible player in December and I doubt their thoughts have changed.

Well there is certainly reasonable doubt that Gallo will ever make enough contact against the best pitchers in the world; he has done plenty to make you think he can outperform Peralta. 19 year old: 163 wRC+ in A 20 year old: 221 wRC+ in A+ 20 year old: 141 wRC+ in AA 21 year old: 192 wRC+ in AA 22 year old: 135 wRC+ in AAA That's about as impressive of a resume independent of strikeouts as a batter can have. I know KATOH has flaws, but it does account for his strikeouts and still has him at 10+ WAR over the next 6 seasons

Surprising, he was young for his class and won't turn 20 until September. His numbers last season werent inspiring but he was young and the Pioneer League isnt pitcher friendly.

According to ESPN

My bad, I thought he was hurt last spring too, but misremembered.

Yhonathan Barrios last season? May have been against the rules to option him though, but Houser last pitched in the majors so I don't see a difference. We've already been fed a bunch of stories about Joba sharing his wisdom with younger players, and Counsell saying "he has proven he can major leaguers out". His contract is reminiscent of a NRI they want on the team with his MLB salary already worked out (Capuano, Reynolds, Overbay).

Out of curiosity, why? Last season, the same management purchased both Capuano and Boyer’s contract (and cleared a spot for Torres). Not to mention, they eventually put NRIs of Pressley and Elmore on the roster at points. They already can push Houser to the 60 day to clear a spot without losing anybody.

Anyone know if Lopez or Peralta are scheduled to start in Round 2?

Missing Feliz Think Milone and Joba (over Suter, Cravy, and Blazek) make the pen, because Counsell like a veteran presence out there. I'd be surprised if Garza gets cut over optioning one of Nelson/Anderson. They all project about the same but that keeps the most bodies to start the year.

Fangraphs Top 100 is out. Pittsburgh placed 6 St. Louis placed 4 Cincinnati placed 3 Cubs placed 2

Procedural questions, It seems likely to me that he is going to end up on the 60-day DL at some point anyway, couldn't the Brewers have saved an option at the expense of service time here?

Nonexistant. Though i would have watched it if i got the channel. Guess mlb doesnt much care about people being able to view their product, Did you try the WatchESPN app if you have a smart TV or Roku or stream the on your computer? The spanish broadcasts are available to me on there.

How is your Spanish?

Please don't ever do this again. I realize this is only spring training but no, don't even think about this as an option.

Brewers check in only 20th on MiLB.com’s rankings of prospects 21 and younger. The Brewers lack of high profile or successful lower profile International Signings outside of Lara and an inability to successfully draft and develop high school talents still seems like a gaping hole that needs to be addressed. Obviously there is enough raw talent (and probably more depth than is credited) within the parameters of these rankings for the Brewers to end up with more value than quite a few teams ahead of them on this list, but…

I realize there is going to be dissenting opinions on over 4500 minor league players, but I find these things interesting anyway. Take Supak's report:

The 6 years younger is a decent enough reason, but there is a difference between whether they "can hit" and the 44 wRC+ Yadiel is projected for. A dozen pitchers will likely outhit that number. If we are going to keep a 3rd middle infield type, I wish they would have just kept Andrianza, but oh well. I'd prefer they just use Perez for back-up shortstop,