Spencer Michaelis

Curious what you don't like about Houser as a starter?

I highly recommend the Athletic subscription, especially for free. Really love their content. I've been paying for two years, it's the only subscription I have for sports writing.

Couldn't they just make a trade for "a player to be named later"? I've been thinking the same thing. I'm guessing that is something we will see a lot of this year, as long as MLB allows it, which I'd imagine they would pretty much have to.

Mitchell signed for slot according to Adam McCalvy‘s Tweet

Noah Campbell, a switch hitting infielder from South Carolina has been signed according to the South Carolina team Twitter’s tweet here Can’t find a ton on him but there’s some video on YouTube from his high school days And a few links that tie him to his time with the CCBL team, the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox. Tweet with batting averages and showing infield hands And then Appears Campbell was the Brewers 19th round selection in 2017 and was actually Baseball America’s 111th ranked prospect in that draft. Definitely looks like an interesting pickup to follow!

First, that Minigoon person's post history is quite interesting to peruse. Rarely posts but sure seems like a barrel of fun. Now for my deep dive into optimism. The Brewers have tended to start pretty well, then fade a bit in the middle of the season the last few years before getting hot with the extended September rosters. They led the division in 17, 18 and 19 at the 60 game mark. So if that trend were to continue, we'd be in good shape haha. In regards to the newcomers. I am a huge Avi Garcia guy, have been a fan since his Detroit days and am really looking forward to seeing what he can bring to the team. Such an underrated athlete and still has some major untapped power. I think he can explode in Miller Park. Smoak was actually the guy I was hoping for most after the team declined the Thames option. Smoak was ridiculously unlucky last year by pretty much every metric that measures it. His power should also play up in Miller Park and just in general, he and Avi will see smaller stadiums than they did in the AL East. Urias seems like he could be a small tweak away from being back to a 70 grade hit tool. Which would make for quite the offensive pairing up the middle. Narvaez can definitely come close to replacing some of the offensive loss that comes with Yaz leaving, the defense is... Well this is the optimism thread after all, so maybe some work with Charlie Greene can make him a closer to average defender! The combo of Sogard/Holt/Gyorko seems to give a good chance to have one or more of them being productive and the other(s) can brings solid versatility to the bench. Lauer is a guy who flashed some new and improved velo and secondary pitches before getting hurt in ST 1.0, it would be a lot of fun to see those carry over to the actual season. Lindblom is definitely an interesting signing, I loved it at the time and I'm still excited about it. It came with very little risk but some mid-rotation upside. Any move like that is exciting to me. Anderson concerns me with what will likely be a pretty mediocre infield defensively, but hey once again this is the optimism thread! So I'll say this, Anderson has been solid pretty much every season and consistently fills the back of the rotation and gets the job done. Every team needs those types of starters. As for returners, I will never, ever be able to quit Burnes or Freddy and have pretty high hopes for both figuring it out. Woody made such huge strides last year, maintaining that production would be great. But he also showed flashes of being able to take it even a step further which would be even more fun. Houser can definitely be a solid starter and I have some hope that he could break out a bit further as well. Continuing to improve his secondaries could go a long way towards doing that. The bullpen should be getting Knebel back, has quite possibly the best reliever in baseball, some change of pace guys in Suter and Claudio and has some interesting options such as Ray Black, Rasmussen, Feyereisen, Devin Williams and Bobby Wahl. If one or more from that group make a jump to being solid MLB relievers, the pen should be in good shape. A pen that is to be managed by an extremely smart manager and that will have a plan set up by a very smart front office. Offensively, Braun getting to DH should be great for his production. Cain was hampered by a ton of injuries and a lot of bad luck last year, he is a great bounce back candidate. He was a top defender in center either way and will likely always be able to bring quite a bit of value. Gamel could be the odd man out, but he's very solid depth for the outfield. Most of the infield is filled with the newbies, but I can't wait to see what Keston does now that pitchers will be a little more aware of him and to see how he adjusts in the always fun sophomore season. As for the other part of the catcher tandem, Manny is going to get the job done defensively behind the dish and hopefully can continue to hit well against lefties, as I imagine he will get the majority of those starts. It will be interesting to see who the third catcher ends up being, the one that is required to be part of the travelling taxi squad. And finally, there's one other piece I haven't mentioned yet, and that's that mediocre outfielder we acquired from the Marlins in January of 2018. The guy who couldn't even win 2 MVPs in his first two seasons in Milwaukee. We still have him, so that's good too I guess

Chourio was given a very similar breakdown as he has in the others, but there were 4 new players listed. Two more Venezuelan shortstops named Gregory Barrios and Daniel Guilarte. Barrios is, “a switch-hitter with good baseball instincts, playing a sound shortstop with smooth actions in the field to go with a high-contact bat and good feel for the strike zone for 16.” Guilarte is said to have, “good bat-to-ball skills from the right side of the plate and a good offensive approach. He's an above-average runner with a strong arm and should stay at the position.” Then they’re connected to two Dominican outfielders named Hendry Mendez and Manuel Vargas. They say Mendez is, “ a 6-foot-3 corner outfielder who impressed some scouts with his bat and power potential, though he was up-and-down with his offensive performance at big events.” And that he is in line for a high 6-figure bonus. Vargas, “has hit well during games in the Dominican Republic, making frequent contact with a line-drive, all-fields approach.”

The Brewers drafted Crochet out of high school too. He’s been the guy I’ve been locked in on for a while, feels like a good fit for what we should be looking for. Of course, he has to make it to our pick for any of that to matter.

Searched the site for a place to post something like this, so if a post already exists similar to this, or this isn't the right subforum to post this on, my apologies. I am looking for the Rickie Weeks home run from July 18, 2005 against the Cardinals at Old Busch. I have been looking for this highlight forever, and MLB.com has taken down the archives from 2005. I was at the game in St. Louis for a 7th birthday trip my family took. Weeks hit it into Big Mac Land and it's one of the most ridiculous home runs I can remember seeing. If anybody somehow has access to this video I would be extremely grateful for any help I could get!

Austin Wells, a catcher from U of Arizona

Keep in mind that Baseball America will not actually be ranking the players until after they've seen them post-signing. Much like they did last year. However, Chourio ranked 14th in the expected signing bonus rankings. They said this about Chourio:

https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/2020-mlb-international-signing-preview-prospects-to-know-part-5/ Another one listed here Gregory Barrios SS from Venezuela

It's not right or wrong. It's that this is an insanely aggressive optimistic placement in the rankings. He could be great, he could be nothing, I don't know, I'm sure they don't either. You can't really criticize a guess but it's a really risky guess. Haven’t submitted my list for the sites top 25 yet but he has been slotted at 19 while I've thrown it together a bit. The Baseball America write up was really, really nice. The little video they posted showed a very solid build, swing and throwing arm too. I don’t think this is too crazy honestly. Not to mention Tom Flanagan specifically mentioned him as a guy they had really liked post-signing, on (I believe) Matt Pauley's show later last year. Edit: woke up this morning and suddenly remembered that it was Lane Grindles show lol

FYI, I believe Black should have graduated, he is no longer rookie eligible.

I think Houser taking the step Woody took last year, to being a legit high level 2 or low level 1, is more likely than Burnes taking that big of a jump. But I think there's a small chance, like others have noted.

I'm never really sure exactly how much to share from a paid site, but I'll do my best to summarize it and include some of the quotes, but most of the parts in the quotes will be paraphrased or cut up into smaller parts of the full quote. Hedpert Perez: (This one is really exciting so I'm basically including everything written about him) So yeah... That's a really fun write up. About as excited as I've ever been for an international signing. Luis Medina: (Got the biggest bonus for this Brewers Class) Jeferson Quero (another super intriguing write up) I'll get a little less in depth now... Jheremy Vargas and Alexander Perez (two 16 year old shortstops) Alberto Ciprian Beyker Pastran and Jose Caballero (two more Venezuelan SS's) Eduarh Colina Jose Gonzalez Mauro Garcia Jesus Garcia Sleepers: Blayberg Diaz Luis Watter Yujanyer Herrera I probably inlcuded more than I should have, but once I started going through it I got excited haha

I believe of those guys mentioned, Black, Faria and D. Guerra are out of options. They also picked up Yardley as well, but I'm not sure where he is option-wise. Looked that up at the time of the Yardley claim, he has 2 options left

I’ve had a very similar scenario running through my head all day. I’d definitely be a fan of a move like this...

Joc Pederson headlining a deal for Hader would be absolutely awful...

This tells me nothing. Just saying it more in response to the people saying he isn’t on one now. I agree that it says next to nothing. I’d also point out that I have quite a bit of other information in the post...

I think there could be a little more to Spanberger than people are thinking. He was in the Baseball America Blue Jays top 30 lists prior to each of the last two seasons. They say he has 70 raw power, yet he hasn’t had insane K rates at any level (topped out at 24.4% in his first AA stop this year). The issue seems to be derived much more from a crazy 45% ground ball rate. If a guy with that much raw power could learn to elevate the ball a bit more there could definitely be something there. His spray chart is also quite interesting, seems to have decent ability to hit to all fields and with some power.[attachment=0]59452260-8956-4981-9DA3-585DDA83E5CB.png[/attachment] I think this is about as much as we could have hoped for in a return for Chase...

I have trouble getting a good read on badger pro prospects too but Cephus sort of jumped out at me even as a freshman as potentially one of the Badgers better receiver prospects. I did find a web site that ranks him at #176 which makes him a 5th-6th round pick but their scouting report which I will post below seems to factor the trial in as a pretty big negative. Maybe putting another year between his draft and the trial will help but he is going to make it or not, passing up a year of potential NFL pay and delaying free agency is a big decision. PROS: A whole lot to like with Cephus' receiving skills. He's a natural hands catcher, comfortable catching the ball away from his body and showcasing very good body control to adjust to the football. Showed some dynamic receiving ability down the field on back shoulder throws and poorly placed footballs due to poor quarterback play -- hauling in receptions that a lesser receiver couldn't adjust to. He's quick! I like his ability to stack defenders against press coverage when able to establish a clean release -- he feasted against Central Michigan by torching corners at the LOS and separating vertically. I don't think he's a true burner from a 40 or testing perspective, but he's got a second gear when he needs to flip the switch. Runs a reasonably diverse number of routes -- Wisconsin has moved him from boundary to slot and tasked him with running routes to all levels and into the teeth of the defense in the middle of the field. CONS: Missed the 2018 college football season after being charged with two separate accounts of sexual assault -- faced a maximum of 40 years in prison before being found not guilty to all charges shortly before the start of the 2019 season. His name is cleared, but teams will conduct thorough vetting of the circumstances to ensure they are comfortable with the details. On the gridiron, Cephus hasn't been afforded the opportunity to showcase himself with high volume due to run heavy offense and spotty quarterback play. He can get a little sloppy on his breaks with defenders leveraged overtop and won't always snap off his stems when having to play around contact in the secondary. Updated: 09/18/2019 https://thedraftnetwork.com/player/quintez-cephus/A49cn2BxKO Was about to post this exact report when I saw your earlier reply before scrolling... I’ve also wondered how much the accusations will effect him. I’d think it would certainly weigh him down at least a little... On a bit of a side note, I can’t recommend that website (thedraftnetwork.com) enough if you’re into the NFL Draft. They have tools to create your own Big Board, as well as simulate a draft as any, or all, team(s), and pump out high quality content in the form of articles and scouting reports. And for it to be all free is pretty awesome...

Todd Frazier? He was basically average this year. But he might dent the bank. Otherwise yeah, I’m not sure...[sarcasm]maybe Braun?[/sarcasm]

I'm not sold on Grisham yet. He also struggles to make contact and his .231BA is nothing to write home about. I think Gamel is a better OF, but may be more expensive. A toss up right now. It's easy to forget that Grisham is only 22 years old. And that batting average doesn’t matter

That’s the same one I put in before haha. Just the same blurb about Chourio.