Greenleaf1

A man can always hope for Justin Verlander....

They've been pretty careful already with Williams' innings, not sure what their plan is for him this fall/winter but AFL seems like it might be too much. Bickford seems like a near-certainty. I'll go with Ortiz, QTC, and Derby for the other 3 slots.

I could still see them putting Adrian Houser on the 60-day DL now that they wouldn't have to give him that much service time. Same with Brinson if they don't think he's coming back, although my guess is they'll give him every chance to make his way back. Susac/Suter are both rehabbing right now and figure to be activated around 9/1, so neither is going to get DFA'd. I think we're pretty much set for bullpen reinforcements. We have Brooks, Lopez, Guerra, Jungmann, Wang, Webb, Williams, and Suter to choose from there. My thought would be to DFA Yadiel Rivera and bring up Ivan De Jesus. He has positional flexibility, has had a great year, and it would give us a chance to see him and see if he could stick on the 40-man through the winter. Then if he doesn't work out, his spot opens up for Dubon in the winter. I think my one move would just be swap Rivera for De Jesus.

Not sure how I forgot Taylor Williams, but obviously add him to the list. I don't really know how excited to get about DSL guys until they come stateside so instead of embarrassing myself I just didn't try.

My list hasn't even included that our major league team has seen a huge improvement in pitching potential too. Nelson/Anderson have both developed into strong #2 guys (Nelson could even be have ace potential, honestly), and Hader/Woodruff are both delivering too. And even with Hader/Woodruff up, our upper minors pitching depth is still incredible, with lots of guys to pull from given the chance. I'm glad Espino/Blazek got their shots this year too, and gave the other guys more time to develop in the minors. Even though neither really worked out, this team is what it is right now because we took chances on a lot of guys who were down and out and overlooked.

I know the word about Derby was that he always seemed like he would be destined for the pen, but I wonder if the thinking on that has changed given his stellar performance this year. The organization as a whole seems like they've figured out how to play at Colorado Springs a lot more this season than last. They've had some real success stories with pitchers there this year, even with curveball pitchers like Jungmann, so I kinda wonder if they roll the dice and send Burnes/Peralta/Ortiz there next year and see how they do. I don't think enough can be said about the success of our pitching staffs in the minors this year. Just going through each team and look at how long a list I can make of pitchers that are showing real promise/potential: Rookie: Joaquin De La Cruz Phil Bickford (just putting him here because that's where he's currently pitching) Caden Lemons A: Thomas Jankins Carlos Herrera Adrian Houser (same reasoning as Bickford above) Drake Owenby Josh Pennington Cameron Roegner Braden Webb A+: Marcos Diplan Kodi Medeiros Jordan Yamamoto Trey Supak Wuilder Rodriguez Nate Griep Zack Brown AA: Corbin Burnes Freddy Peralta Luis Ortiz Cody Ponce Aaron Wilkerson Jorge Lopez Jon Perrin Nick Ramirez AAA: Taylor Jungmann Bubba Derby Angel Ventura Tristan Archer Wei-Chung Wang That's a lot of minor league depth all throughout the system, and I'm sure I even missed a few names in there too. It'll be interesting to see how they choose rotation candidates over the next couple years and when they feel like they could trade depth and for what. It certainly seems like we could trade away some pitching prospects for a TOR guy though and still have a lot of depth in the system.

Excited to see what happens with Hader going forward, not just this year but next year. He has tremendous value in his current role (clearly they are trying to model his usage somewhat after Andrew Miller this season). I wonder if, given the Brewers surprising amount of pitching depth in the minors, they might try to keep Hader in that situation. I'm sure they're considering it and it depends on how certain other players do next year, but Hader could really be a great way to keep our bullpen strong next year without having to go pay top dollar for a big reliever. Weirdly, his fate could be tied to that of Garza. If we don't trade Garza and decide to keep him around for at least the first half of the year, he could be taking the 5th spot away from Hader (assuming Nelson/Anderson/Davies/Woodruff are all sticking around). The pitching depth of this organization is an incredibly surprising and really fun problem to have going forward. After a pretty lackluster start to the year, it's incredible to see the success stories at every level of the organization as the year has gone on. Nelson/Anderson were both about ready to lose their spots to the up and comers in the minors, and now they are a pretty solid 1/2 going into next year and under control for several years. I know the offense is struggling lately but part of that could be a young team acclimating to a complete season (players like Santana, Arcia, Broxton, Thames don't necessarily have the full season MLB experience yet), and the pitching is likely to be a strong suit of the team all year next year as opposed to just recently this year. I hope they can pull out a playoff berth this year because it would be so fun to watch, but I really like our chances to win at least 90 games a year over the next couple seasons.

The 0-2 utley was down the middle https://pasteboard.co/GHEqeXB.png Umm, yeah sure ok....

Both hits off Nelson so far were not bad pitches at all. Utley went up and got one and Seager went down and got one.

While this is true, it's also of note that some of those winners still put up stellar years, so it doesn't really matter that they beat out the rest of a bad system, they likely would've beat out even our very good system now. Burgos/Hellweg/Lopez all had years that rival Burnes' this year, and Hunter Morris looked like a future All Star for years before just never living up to that potential. Point being, one great year in the minors, no matter where it happens, is not a guarantee of Major League success. You can have a terrific year in the upper levels of the minors and still be a total and complete bust at the Major League level. I guess I didn't meant to turn into the negative nancy of this thread, I love these awards and it's fun to look back at all the great performers this year. My votes go to Phillips/Burnes, but I would love to see Monte Harrison win some sort of award. He's looking like a really fun player to keep an eye on over the next couple years. I wonder if they start him at A+ next year or bump him up to AA.

susac will enter 2018 spring training with one minor league option remaining. the three other catchers currently on the 40-man will be out of options in 2018. I kinda forgot that this was the case. To me, this is a strong indicator that Bandy will be traded during the offseason. It's going to be hard for him to keep a roster spot over Vogt, and if we can't option him we're just going to lose him anyways. Obviously this makes his trade value pretty low so I wouldn't expect much. If Susac has an option year and can make it past the rule 5 draft and still be on the 40-man, then I think he's got a good shot to stay there at least until the start of the 2018 season.

I don't know about that. Diaz is still a Top 100 prospect, Arcia has the look of a long-term star at SS, and Rogers netted some nice pieces in Broxton and Supak in a trade. I'm still holding out some hope for Coulter as well. Morris I suppose belongs in the "What Ever Happened To" file. As for the pitchers, Woodruff looks to be a long-term rotation piece at the very least, with the potential of a #1-2 down the road. Lopez has scuffled, but has looked better as a reliever, and as this season has proven, you cannot have enough talented bullpen arms. Nelson has been arguably the team's top starter this year. Injuries ruined Hellwig's career. Burgos is still surprisingly kicking around the system. Out of the 10 players on this list, only 4 are either on a big league roster or are still considered a top prospect. Certainly a higher success rate than your average prospect, but not exactly awe inspiring is all I'm saying. I started this thread, I think these awards are fun, but not exactly surefire proof of future success.

For what it's worth, looking at previous winners of these awards is not the most inspiring. Player of the Year: 2016 - Isan Diaz 2015 - Orlando Arcia 2014 - Clint Coulter 2013 - Jason Rogers 2012 - Hunter Morris Pitcher of the Year: 2016 - Brandon Woodruff 2015 - Jorge Lopez 2014 - Jimmy Nelson 2013 - Johnny Hellweg 2012 - Hiram Burgos Players on these lists seem just as likely to crash and burn as they are to succeed at the Major League level.

Now that we have Walker, Dubon seems like less of an option. We do have to add him to the 40-man this winter anyway, but I don't see us calling him up until at least after the minor league season is over as we've already got 3 2B options and multiple SS options ahead of him with the team already, and there might be better options in the minor leagues for a pinch runner too. Not sure they want to bring him up if he's not going to get playing time but we'll see. I think adding 3-5 arms to the bullpen is a must. After the minor league season is over, I don't see much reason not to bring up Webb/Wang for some extra lefties, plus give Jungmann/Lopez a chance to show what they can do out of the bullpen. Guerra/Suter will be up as well. I could see the Brewers having 30-35 guys on their roster by mid September. As for what we'll see on September 1st, I'd guess Brett Phillips, Brandon Woodruff, and maybe a reliever or two.

Guerra's results at AAA: 2.45 ERA 25.2 IP 16 K 10 BB 0 HR 1.36 WHIP So not stellar or anything, but the ERA and WHIP aren't "high" or "poor", especially not for CS.

Pitcher of the Year is probably easier than it's ever been with Corbin Burnes, so figured I'd just ask people who they think is a contender for Player of the Year. Unless I'm forgetting someone somewhere, these seem like the most likely candidates: 1. Lewis Brinson: .331/.400/.562, 13 HR, 66 R, 48 RBI, 62/32 K/BB, 11-for-16 SB in 76 games 2. Brett Phillips: .311/.381/.587, 19 HR, 78 R, 76 RBI, 117/42 K/BB, 9-for-10 SB in 99 games Cooper probably would've been a strong candidate to win this award if he was still around. Monte Harrison, Jake Gatewood, and hell even Ivan De Jesus, Jr. have had solid seasons, but the numbers from Brinson/Phillips are just a step above everyone else. If Brinson's season was more full in the minors, he'd be a shoe-in for this award given the fact that this award is usually a little more political in nature (it's going to take an amazing season, like Burnes', to give this award to someone who isn't a top prospect. All things being close to equal, the higher ranked prospect is going to get these awards). However, with the injuries and call ups limiting his number of games, I think there's a solid chance that Phillips steals this award away from him. What are everyone's thoughts? If you told me last year that Phillips would have a great chance at being our Minor League Player of the Year in 2017, I'd be ecstatic. If Phillips finishes strong, and since Brinson won't be playing any more minor league games this year, I'd give the edge to Phillips.

My guess is that Nottingham gets promoted to AAA to start next season for a couple reasons: 1. Reports indicate that he's shown a lot of improvement defensively 2. Similar to Brett Phillips, a move to CS might boost his offensive numbers and get his confidence back behind the plate. 3. Adding him to the 40-man with many more 40-man decisions coming in the following years means that he'll have to show something to stay on the roster past the end of 2018. With Pina/Vogt likely to be the duo next season, and Bandy starting at AAA along with maybe Nottingham, there's not a ton of room for Susac in AAA, let alone the 40-man roster as the 5th catcher on the depth chart. I'd say Susac is all but gone after a disappointing season (injuries played a huge part, yes, but we can't guarantee he'd be healthy next year either, that could just be who he is now). Seems like Nottingham, Dubon, and Peralta are the three slam dunks to protect (Dubon I would've thought would be a September call up and get some time at 2B as well as being a pinch runner, but now that Walker is working out so well, chances of Dubon getting the call up seem less likely, maybe they'll call up that new guy in AAA instead for a pinch runner). If they didn't protect Miguel Diaz, it seems unlikely they'd protect Marcos Diplan (I know the cases are a little different but Diplan is years away from being major league ready for the Brewers, we can't afford to give him a spot for that long). If Archer is protected, my guess is it would be at the expense of another reliver (Espino or Webb probably), but I don't think he will be protected. I would really like it if Wilkerson were protected, but it seems difficult to imagine them protecting Wilkerson but not Diplan, so if I'm sticking to my theory, I'll say that Wilkerson isn't protected either. I think the Brewers are willing to just roll the dice on some of these guys, and honestly if Wang/Wren haven't been taken in years past, I think the odds of some of these guys getting taken is a lot less. If we don't protect Diplan, odds are pretty good that someone will take him (hell, Diaz was a lower level and lesser prospect than Diplan and he was taken 1st overall), but not sure if they'll be able to stash him for a full year seeing as he can't even do much in the pitcher friendly Carolina league in his 2nd year at that level (or at least 1 1/2 years). So I'll predict that they protect Dubon/Peralta/Nottingham, and roll the dice on the rest.

Seems like with all the options we have for September, it doesn't make much sense to bring up Burnes. I'd rather that they at least wait until next year and see what the rotation needs are come Spring Training (maybe bring him up either a few weeks into the season or in June after super 2 has passed). Guerra and Jungmann seem like near-certainties to get September call ups as soon as the minor league season is over (maybe even before), and Jungmann would be a nice long-relief option in order to limit starts if they start to get out of hand (basically have a shorter leash on Garza is his struggles continue, or any other pitcher). Not sure how Guerra fits in, but they definitely will call him up if only to see what they have for next year. Seems possible that he gets a start or two to see if he can re-establish himself, and have Jungmann or Hader available to go multiple innings if he isn't getting it done. Does anyone know what Guerra's velocity has been like since being sent down?

Zack Brown is headed to Carolina!

After seeing his start at AA, if Troy Stokes Jr. can continue success until the end of the season, I think I'm going to have to find a spot for him on my post-season list. His AVG isn't terrific but his career OBP is .361 (slightly under that this year at .350 but still phenomenal and .408 so far at AA), his SLG/OPS are career highs, and he's maintained his stolen bases while hitting 16 HR already this year (previous career high was 5 and that was in the launching pad of Helena). His walk rate and strikeout rate are very encouraging as well. He was WAY overshadowed by his teammates at Carolina, but was still promoted ahead of all of them (could argue that Stearns is more concerned with the development of the other guys and didn't want to promote them too early even if they had a need at AA, so send Stokes up instead, but Stokes had more than earned that promotion with good numbers in pitcher friendly Carolina). Only 11 games so far with Biloxi so will have to see how he finishes the season, but if his power gains are legitimate he could be looking at a September call up in 2018, having risen through the system at a solid clip (he won't turn 22 until February). Anybody got the scouting report on Stokes? Am I reading too much into the stat line? He was a 4th round pick so he must've shown some decent promise in high school before being drafted. He's only played LF this year as far as I can tell, but was described as a speedy CF after being drafted and the stolen base numbers are still there so I'm guessing he could play center field. Seems like it'd be hard to keep him off the top 30 going into 2018.

Jake Gatewood to Biloxi https://www.milb.com/shuckers/news/brewers-promote-inf-jake-gatewood-to-biloxi/c-247021590/t-196093344

Going to keep the Dunkirk love train moving. It's fantastic.

Checked where I had Gatewood, I put him at #19, which is more a credit to how stacked I think our system is than anything else. Gatewood has shown major improvements this year and is at least maintaining decent numbers while better prospects around him struggle even more. His bat was a lot hotter in April/May though, so I didn't feel the need to put him too much higher. Yamamoto I put at #30 (off the list for this exercise officially), but looking at his numbers and age I'm excited to see what he can do moving up the system, particularly next year in Biloxi. I did tend to prioritize near-Major prospects, which is why my top 5 is Brinson and the big 4 pitching prospects, but I anticipate that by the end of 2018 Hiura will be my #1, assuming he shows average defense somewhere. Just looking through my own #15-20 and it's crazy how much talent there is that far down the list: Supak, Monte, Bickford, Ponce, Gatewood, Medeiros. That's some real talent.

Brewers aren't likely to see a huge uptick in salary next year. Biggest FA acquisitions are likely to be bullpen arms, maybe a quality setup man, and maybe a decent 2B/bench bat. Point being, Vogt's salary won't be a deterrent, and I think they picked him up because they like having the veteran in the clubhouse and he's probably preferable to Bandy or Susac at this point.

Saturday will probably be Woodruff, someone said on Twitter. I'd be surprised if Jungmann gets the call before him. If Garza for some reason isn't ready on the 3rd, they could move up Davies a day and keep him on regular rest, start Woodruff on the 4th and give Garza a couple extra days until the 5th to come back. Woodruff should get 2-3 starts before Anderson comes back. If he's doing well and Suter is still doing well, I'd guess they go to a 6-man rotation for the rest of the year. Otherwise maybe move Woodruff to the pen for the rest of the year and give him some experience with the big league club like Hader, setting him up for a possible rotation spot in 2018.