Spencer Michaelis

I'll start it off with this https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/2020-international-mlb-prospects-preview-more-top-players-to-watch/ Jackson Brayan Chourio, SS/CF, Venezuela

Thought we needed a 2020 version of the July 2 rumor thread. Good place to drop anything you see linking the Brewers to July 2 international signings to be.

Rosters just released Brewers (Glendale): Tristen Lutz, OF (No. 2); Payton Henry, C (No. 16); Pablo Abreu, OF (No. 18); Clayton Andrews, LHP; Victor Castaneda, RHP; David Fry, 1B/3B; Nathan Kirby, LHP; Quintin Torres-Costa, LHP

Well a little power would certainly be a welcome addition to that profile... and maybe some more walks while you’re at it, please Carlos

I'm on your side here, mostly. I agree that farm rankings can be off in baseball (though maybe not to the degree you had suggested). I was mostly responding to the idea that, "they were wrong about Grisham! [maybe?] Never believe a word they say again!" I didn’t intend to suggest anything big really, mostly just gave that link to the rankings with the Marlins and Rangers as an (obviously over the top) example to show that it wouldn’t be the first time they had been a ways off in their evaluations. They’re obviously very good at their job though, which is why they are right much more often than not.

My point wasn’t to say, don’t believe them or anything they say or put out there in regards to prospects for us or other teams. It was simply to say don’t take their word as gospel either, which I think the majority of you know anyway.

I went to 3 different sites for 2012 and the LOWEST rating for the Marlins was #13. The highest was #10. I can't believe any credible site had the Marlins the 3rd WORST farm in 2012. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.baseballamerica.com/stories/2012-mlb-organizational-rankings/%3famphtml *shrug* this is what I’ve got, but Rangers were actually #1...

There is obviously a middle ground and I personally think And That is a good person to listen to. He's never been afraid to be down on Brewers prospects that he didn't believe in, and he's been right on guys that the big publications have given up on. But yes, BC92 is obviously a hyperbolic guy...

People who actually do this for a living think you're wrong, so I'll go with them. These guys are good at their jobs, but that doesn't mean they're perfect or could truly know the depth of a system. In 2012 the Rangers ranked as Baseball America's 2nd best farm system. Their top 5 prospects were listed as Jurickson Profar, Martín Pérez, Mike Olt, Leonys Martín, and Neil Ramirez. Also in 2012 the Marlins ranked as Baseball America's 28th farm system. Their top 5 prospects were listed as Christian Yelich, Marcell Ozuna, Jose Fernandez, Matt Dominguez, and JT Realmuto.

Mudcats release again: 8/25: C Mario Feliciano assigned to Double-A Biloxi from Carolina. 8/25: C Nathan Rodriguez reinstated from Carolina injured list. Pretty awesome for Feliciano after those injury plagued seasons the last few years!

Mudcats press release: 8/24: INF Devin Hairston assigned to Double-A Biloxi from Carolina. 8/24: RHP Anthony Bender assigned to Double-A Biloxi from Carolina. 8/24: RHP Nelson Hernandez reinstated from Carolina injured list. 8/24: UTL Jackie Urbaez assigned to Carolina from AZL Brewers Blue.

Well, you're half right here. Just like, "really good teams don't pull their starters in the 5th every night." That's because those teams have Verlander/Greinke/Cole or Clevenger/Bieber/Kluber (when healthy). They still pull Adam Plutko in the 5th because it's the best thing you can do to win in modern baseball. Same thing here...Houston doesn't platoon as much because they have about 7 All Star caliber players that hit both hand of pitchers pretty well. However, a lot of contending teams in the past 5 or so years have platooned their lineups to the gills. If you don't have the money or the fortune of being loaded with 6-7 guys that shouldn't be platooned...you platoon. This is how Tampa and Oakland have been competitive in a lot of the last 5-10 years. The Dodgers have platooned half of their lineup in recent years and have done just fine. This is exactly it. Look at Woodruff, Craig let him go deep into games because he maintains his stuff and command as well as having better stuff than anyone else who starts for us. If we had 5 Woody’s we wouldn’t see our guys get pulled before the third time through as often as we do right now.

Preseason projected wins... BPro: 88 wins Vegas: 86.5 wins 538: 86 wins ZIPS: 85 wins Current Pace: 84 wins OOTP: 83 wins With 40 games to go this team is playing right within the range of its most likely outcomes, hard for me to say that Stearns did a terrible job, especially with a quarter of the season as of yet unplayed. Good point sir. Let me be specific with my terrible assessment of Stearns this year. Roster with too many poor plate discipline hitters with way too high a K rate. Too LH hitting dependent. Terrible pen options especially early in the year. Kept saying early on he thought the pen had the right pitchers they’d just have to pitch better. Burnes Peralta in the rotation to start the year. Trades for Freitas > great great trade, but leaves him in AAA all year, even as the team struggles to hit LHP, even as his average has STEADILY CLIMBED to where it’s at .387. Then doesn’t add upgrade at SS, for small salary only, no prospects given up to improve this teams chance at the central title. I’ll stop there. First of all, I’d have loved to upgrade shortstop at the deadline, I’m with you on that. I’d also like to see Freitas get a chance, but its understandable that he’s not up. He raked in AAA last year too (before the change to MLB balls this year) Pina’s defense is a valuable trait for a backup catcher and Yaz/Braun can fill in at first against lefties. There aren’t unlimited roster spots to carry a guy who’s the third catcher and potential platoon at first base. We already have 5 outfielders up. Second, “terrible pen options heading into the season” is very iffy to me as well. Knebel went down a couple weeks before the season. Even if Jeffress was likely to regress, you can’t blame him for not forseeing this big a dropoff. Guerra had come into the role last year and done well, Claudio started poorly but the pitcher he’s been the last couple months is the guy they thought they were getting. He expected to have Bobby Wahl available, Anderson was doing well in the pen, so much so, that he was the first guy to get a chance to fill in as a starter. The likelihood of both Barnes and Williams being this bad with *that* kind of pure stuff was pretty damn unlikely imo. I believed in Albers being solid, so that also made me feel a bit better about the pen. Did I think it was going to be shutdown? No. Did I think it was going to be a good bullpen? I did yeah. Maybe you didn’t, and if so then you were right I guess (although I’d still say it’s been pretty decent considering the amount of innings it’s had to cover). You can say now that Burnes in the rotation to start the year was a bad idea, but nobody thought he’d be close to this bad. Nobody. Peralta is a fair guy to argue against having a backup plan for (but I think Anderson was that one backup plan). I mean, if you call Rasmussen a future ace, I can’t even imagine what you called Burnes heading into the season. Oh wait apparently we were going to have 3-4 TOR arms heading into the playoffs! Stearns made some mistakes, but you have to look at things rationally too. Can’t just use hindsight and say he’s been terrible when at the time the thought process was totally reasonable. Sorry I sort of ranted there, I really do love how invested you are in the team, and it’s fine to have strong opinions. It just gets old seeing you talk as though you know everything. When you throw a bunch of crap against the wall some of it will stick, so you get a few things right and then you come on here and brag to those who didn’t agree (I was even with you on Grisham, I love the dude, but you can’t actually think people are going to credit you for that). I even know that you’re aware of your hyperbole, but at some point... it’s just too much.

Those innings basically coincide with the return of the split-change to his repertoire. I would not be shocked if he turned it around with the way that pitch has been looking since he un-retired it during the Pittsburgh game. Definitely giving me hope again! The question is why he abandoned it in the first place? I know a lot of guys who throw splitters have said the balls are making it difficult. Still, that was the pitch that was the difference maker for him last year. Completely abandoning it was really weird. Only other thing I can think of was that it bothered his elbow or something, because splitters do put more pressure on the elbow.

If I had to put out a guess, based on the assumption that we would have about 6 players in the AFL... I would guess: Mario Feliciano- Got hurt before he really got to get any time on the field last year, but they obviously wanted him there, so I think he will return this year and hopefully remain healthy this time around. Tristen Lutz- I think they'll want him to get more at bats, especially if they're going to keep pushing him each year (meaning they want him to start next season in AA) Cooper Hummel- I know "And That" has been a big fan of Hummel, and I think he's a guy that is pretty undervalued in our personal prospect discussions (the more I've looked into it, there's no way he shouldn't have made my top 75 prospects). He seems like the prototypical "non-prospect" guy that a team would like to see in that environment. Johan Bellisario- Belissario is a guy I think could be a late bloomer as a reliever and I think the Brewers will give him the Miguel Sanchez treatment of last year. Luke Barker- Another potential relief pitcher, I honestly wouldn't be completely shocked if he ended up being in the majors this year, but if they don't plan on that, the AFL seems like a great place for him to go and get some more work. Phil Bickford- Seems like there's a chance he's turning a corner the last month or so, with 16 1/3 scoreless innings, along with 25 Ks. Working his way into a guy who might need to be protected this offseason (probably not, but it's gone from 0% chance to at least 25% imo) Others I think would be considered: Ryan Aguilar, Nate Griep, Max McDowell, Payton Henry, Zack Brown, Clayton Andrews, Thomas Jankins, Angel Perdomo (perhaps to decide whether to add him to the 40 man or not), and lastly if Nathan Kirby returns from his Thoracic Outlet Surgery I could see him sort of rehabbing it in the AFL. Now that I've typed all this out, they'll likely choose 5 or 6 guys that I didn't even mention here

Exactly. He only throws 94-95. If they know it's coming MLB hitters are going to figure it out eventually. If you're at 101 like Chapman, not so much. I don't know why he's shyed away from the slider, it's a very good MLB pitch. On this topic though, since he was starting in the minors. I'd assume he at least used to throw a changeup of some kind but can anyone verify any information on it? Just wondering if he's done it before then maybe it would be easier to add in at least a bit next year. He actually was throwing changeups in the majors his rookie year. It was not nearly the pitch the slider is (or the fastball of course) but he mixed three pitches that year.

You are skewing statistics to suit your argument. Now let me try. I am almost positive that DHonks is referring to JJ's last three appearances, where he's pitched a total of 3 2/3 innings of 1-hit ball. Small sample to be sure, but there's no denying that he has looked better over the last week. Those innings basically coincide with the return of the split-change to his repertoire. I would not be shocked if he turned it around with the way that pitch has been looking since he un-retired it during the Pittsburgh game. Definitely giving me hope again!

I think the most alarming thing I see is that many of the upside arms we were pegging as potential starters the last handful of years are turning into bullpen arms. On the one hand, it's great that they're at least turning into contributors but given how expensive starting pitching is in the free agent game, those guys not reaching their ceiling really hamstrings us trying to compete with big market squads. I sort of agree, but I also think that’s pretty common honestly. Woodruff obviously has turned into the starter we needed, I believe Houser is a capable starter going forward, it’ll be interesting with the Ashby’s, Ethan Small’s, and Max Lazar’s of the system, seeing if they end up being starters long term.

Odds are that CC uses the relievers available to him? How dare he...

Freitas is no longer a rookie because of his time in the majors. Not a concern here since he is ranked 75 here but others might vote for him since he is having such a great year. Whoops, my bad... Yeah probably good to point that out, thanks!

Yeah, I don’t think he will even be active tonight... Guessing the official move comes tomorrow.

I'll kick it off! Top 75 this time around... 1 Brice Turang SS 2 Trent Grisham OF 3 Tristen Lutz OF 4 Aaron Ashby LHP 5 Ethan Small LHP 6 Drew Rasmussen RHP 7 Lucas Erceg 3B 8 Corey Ray OF 9 Trey Supak RHP 10 Micah Bello OF 11 Eduardo Garcia SS 12 Antoine Kelly LHP 13 Devin Williams RHP 14 Max Lazar RHP 15 Andres Melendez C 16 Payton Henry C 17 Mario Feliciano C 18 Zack Brown RHP 19 Luis Medina OF 20 Joe Gray OF 21 Dylan File RHP 22 Jesus Parra SS 23 Troy Stokes Jr OF 24 Jacob Nottingham C 25 Logan Gillaspie RHP 26 Pablo Abreu OF 27 Alexis Ramirez RHP 28 Reese Olson RHP 29 Braden Webb RHP 30 Lun Zhao RHP 31 Clayton Andrews LHP/CF 32 Felix Valerio 2B 33 Eduarqui Fernandez OF 34 Thomas Dillard OF/C 35 Noah Zavolas RHP 36 Carlos Rodriguez OF 37 Luis Avalo C 38 Miguel Sanchez RHP 39 Jake Gatewood 1B 40 David Fry C/UTIL 41 Caden Lemons RHP 42 Joey Matulovich RHP 43 Alec Bettinger RHP 44 Larry Ernesto OF 45 Justin Jarvis RHP 46 Victor Castaneda RHP 47 Adam Hill RHP 48 Nick Kahle C 49 Angel Perdomo LHP 50 Nick Bennett LHP 51 Ernesto Martinez 1B 52 Jon Olczak RHP 53 Bobby Wahl RHP 54 Je’Von Ward OF 55 Gabe Holt OF 56 Luke Barker RHP 57 Tom Jankins RHP 58 Edwin Sano 2B 59 Yeison Coca 2B/SS 60 David Hamilton SS 61 Quintin Torres-Costa LHP 62 Joantgel Segovia OF 63 Bowden Francis RHP 64 Nate Griep RHP 65 Weston Wilson IF 66 Max McDowell C 67 Korry Howell SS/OF 68 Reidy Mercado OF 69 Alex Hall C/UTIL 70 Ryan Aguilar OF 71 Freisis Adames RHP 72 JT Hintzen RHP 73 Jeferson Quero C 74 Wes Rogers OF 75 Andre Nnebe OF

He already deleted the tweet... Ugh, seeing that one deleted hurt me more than anything today

Or that he's not on the 40-man, he's a year removed from TJ, this is the most success he's had at any level and there's 4-5 guys in front of him. And they just signed another reliever with ML experience to muddy the AAA bullpen. Every year there are guys that perform exceptionally well in the SAL, only to struggle in AAA. Olczak, Zack Brown, Miguel Sanchez, Nick Ramirez, most recently. Before it was Burnes, Burgos, Taylor Scott, Derby, Snow, Ortiz, Lopez, Jungmann. Before that, guys like Tyler Cravy, Tyler Wagner and Damien Magnifico come to mind. AA is for prospects, AAA is for pro's. Williams will likely need to show that he can get AAA batters out before taking the next step. You must not have read the new scouting reports. They think he’s ready to get big league hitters out now. The last month he’s been unhittable, 11 ip 5 h. 1 bb 19 Ks. Legitimately curious, where have you seen new scouting reports saying he could get MLB hitters out now?

Why does everyone hate Davies? Leake has absolutely not been better or more reliable than Davies this year... I guess I wouldn’t mind this deal but I agree with others that I sort of doubt our proposed package gets it done.