brewerfan82

Has anyone looked into which players might be potentially exposed to the Rule 5 draft this offseason? As some have mentioned, we are getting stocked to the point that we're risking losing talent this route each year. If we can identify the Miguel Diaz's of the world now and use them to get returns in-season before we potentially lose them for nothing in the offseason, that may be an interesting starting point for some possible trade ideas.

I am that folks, lol. Part of it for me, beyond the remote possibility of an usher actually kicking you out of the game for it, is having the person that actually paid for the seats show up and putting them in a position to deal with someone sitting in their seats. I'm not big into awkward interactions with people and I hate the thought of putting someone else in that spot. So I'm unable to get comfortable and enjoy the game if I'm concerned about that the whole time. I'd much rather just buy the seats I want to sit in and enjoy the game.

What evidence did you see that Phillips was equal to or better of a prospect than Brinson [sarcasm]He made that one really good play in center his first game.[/sarcasm] In all fairness, he did restrict it to their "brief MLB stays". So he's not taking into consideration either's minor league careers or their prospect statuses to this point and I guess technically Phillips' .400 OPS in 11 PAs was better than Brinson's .361 OPS in 35 PAs, despite Brinson only striking out 42% of the time in comparison to Phillips' 70% of the time?

This year has two HR Derby contestants that aren't on the All-Star rosters: Mike Moustakas and Justin Bour. The Bour pick is pretty perplexing. They already have a hometown guy from the Marlins in Stanton, and even if they wanted to double up Miami players, they could have gone with Ozuna who's actually an All-Star and has four more homeruns than Bour. Otherwise, the following NL All-Star players also have more homeruns than Bour's 18: Votto (24), Harper (20), Zimmerman (19), Goldschmidt (19). Maybe they all declined? But even then you would think Thames would at least get a call before going with Bour. Gary Sanchez is a pretty odd pick as well especially since they already have Judge representing the Yankees. It'd be nice to give a couple more teams' fanbases guys to root for, especially when they have more deserving players than the 2nd guys picked for these teams. Although with both Springer (25) and Gallo (21) saying they wouldn't do it, pickings are a bit slimmer in the AL. But seems like Logan Morrison (24) was game and while I think Sanchez' power is more legit than what Morrison's done, I'd take him to represent TB and award him with for his year so far over having a second Yankee in the event. All that said, looking forward to watching Stanton defend his title in his home park against the youngsters Judge and Bellinger!

Bandy started out playing over his head and now is playing worse than he really is. Vogt had a bad start to the year, but has since played about as well as he did during his two all-star campaigns. I don't think anyone thinks Bandy's as bad as he's been lately, but Vogt's the safer bet to play to his abilities the rest of the year. Throw in the added versatility and the left handed bat and it's pretty hard to complain about it. Not the biggest move in the world, but definitely a nice little maintenance move. Vogt since May 14th: .239/.357/.408/.766 in 71 ABs Vogt in 2016: .251/.305/.406/.721 in 490 ABs Vogt in 2015: .261/.341/.443/.783 in 445 ABs

Just looked it up and Knebel had a K in his last outing of last year as well, so he really only needs 11 more to best Chapman's overall record.

Wow. Really? I have a feeling if any SS in baseball not named Yuni made that play, that thought would never have crossed your mind. I'm not sure how any SS is able to step on the base himself on that one.

No it was just being lazy. Well, he was sure it was a homerun. I guess you could say he was being lazy for not sliding just in case, but I don't see many guys sprinting full speed and sliding into home on homeruns. The confusing thing was it didn't seem like *anyone* was signaling him to pick it up or get down or anything.

The same medical staff that went along with Thornburg not having surgery... I'm aware a 2b won't throw as much or as hard as a pitcher, but a 2b will have many more opportunities to throw at awkward angles without proper form, which is just as dangerous as a pitching, if not more because they are not keeping their arms warm like pitchers do. Like I said, I hope I'm wrong, but I am in favor of taking the most cautious approach in these situations. MRI's aren't perfect for reading how the injury is, actually doing an exploratory is a lot more sure fire way of ensuring it's healed properly. I'll trust the Brewer's brass on this. They have a lot to lose by not taking the most cautious approach, so I would venture to guess after reviewing his medicals, that's exactly what they feel they are doing by not having what they feel would be an unnecessary surgery at this point.

Who goes from the outfield? I would think Phillips will go when Braun comes back by why would any other move need to be made in order for Brinson to play? I don't think Broxton has done enough to block anyone. Hard to make a spot for Braun by sending Phillips down when he's already in AAA.

Not a shortstop play, but I'll always remember this play by Dave Krynzel when he came up to the bigs (0:38 mark): He was positioned in shallow, right center and robbed a homerun in left center... I was so excited to watch this guy play for a long time...

I'd also add that I do realize we're getting to the point that we have prospects bubbling into the majors with no room to put them and at some point we need to maximize their value to us by trading them for other needs on the major league roster. However, I'd rather hold onto our chips one more year and save them for a Greinke-esque starting pitcher acquisition rather than use them on a reliever. If we're at the point that we have 1 or 2 real aces to head into the playoffs with and our offense is set, then I look into seeing if we can round out the roster with some nice relief pieces, but until then I don't want to prematurely give up valuable pieces that might help with a more impactful acquisition down the road.

Just posted this in another thread, but it's directly relevant to this: From MLBTradeRumors.com: Considering both Bickford and Susac's perceived values have likely dropped since we've obtained them, I think including those two in a trade is probably a decent starting point for what to expect to give up, at minimum, for a decent reliever in this market. In which case, I'd pass and sink or swim with internal options.

From MLBTradeRumors.com: Considering both Bickford and Susac's perceived values have likely dropped since we've obtained them, I think including those two in a trade is probably a decent starting point for what to expect to give up, at minimum, for a decent reliever in this market. In which case, I'd pass and sink or swim with internal options.

I also don't have any problem with the way they've approached relief pitching this year, especially in the offseason when this didn't look like a contending team. It's a really strange time in the MLB for relievers. I don't know if it's just the small sample size nature of the position or what, but it seems like 90% of them can be picked off the scrap heap and are incredibly volatile from year to year, and any one of them is capable of being a top pitcher for one season while becoming garbage the next, and vice-versa. Meanwhile, the dependable ones are few and far between and cost a king's ransom to obtain. Coming into the season, it looked like they'd be in a position to throw some darts out there and see what they could find on the cheap this year, but now that the rest of the team has exceeded expectations, it's become frustrating to watch the guys that haven't panned out blow games that they should have won. But while I'd love them to make a move for a stable arm or two, I think the prices to trade for that in-season have become so ridiculous that they shouldn't consider that route. Dependable guys cost way too much, 2nd tier guys having a good season will probably still cost too much and could be bad for the rest of the season/contract, and the others that are available for a reasonable price have shown they're flops this year already. In the end, with the current state of relievers in baseball, I think the best way to manage the bullpen is as follows: - In the offseason, fill the open spots in the bullpen with "cheap" free agent pickups/bounce back candidates and guys you like dropped off other rosters - In season, replace under performing players with internal options from the minors - Always, listen to offers on your guys. As long as teams are overpaying for relievers, they'll be a cheap way to insert talent into the organization. Last year alone, for two guys that have demonstrated that volatile nature of relievers this year, they got a starting MLB 3B (having an All-Star year), a AAA C (former high prospect), a AA SS (#9 team prospect), a AA RHP (#12 team prospect), an A RHP (#21 team prospect), and an 18yo SS (rising prospect). That's not to mention how Jeffress (another example of volatile relief pitching) helped bring a haul that included our #1 prospect (#13 MLB prospect) who's in the majors now, a AA RHP (#4 team prospect, #53 MLB prospect), and a AAA OF (#16 team prospect). That is a TON of talent injected in the system for 3 guys that have since done nothing for their new teams and I'm glad we were on the selling end of all those deals. There may come a time that they should/may need to overpay for a dominant reliever (or even just a dependable one or two), but I would want to be far more confident in the team's current and future talent level than I am now. I don't think a season where you're surprised to be doing well (and let's face it, we're barely over .500 and in any other division we wouldn't be in first place) is the time to start sacrificing the future for a guy that's going to pitch about 50 of the 800 or so innings remaining in the year.

Final 2017 Brewer Draft Depth Chart: http://oi67.tinypic.com/vpda54.jpg Pitching and up the middle of the field heavy, light on the corners. However several defensive question marks, so many will likely move to the corner outfield and first base spots as they move through the system. Still, pretty interesting that they didn't draft a single guy that's expected to start his pro career at first base.

Whipped up a visual summary of the Brewers' top 20 rounds thus far: http://oi63.tinypic.com/2cgeovo.jpg

Think this is the last chance for them to grab Beck before he just heads back to school? Or are we too late already? We'll find out soon...

To be fair, Packer fans aren't much better in terms of complaining about their consistently successful team. I guess everyone always wants more.

Selling high is so much easier to do hypothetically than in practice. Villar was 25 this offseason and many felt he was near untouchable after last season, similarly with Zach Davies as a 24 year old this offseason. Not saying we should have traded them and both could very well bounce back still, but it goes to show how hard it is to sell high on a player. You never want to do it when they're showing so much potential and value, but that's why they return more then than if you wait until you want to trade them. That said, the difference with Santana is that we'd be dealing from a position of strength in the organization. So if someone offers you something that reflects him being an .850+ OPS player through the remaining 4.5 years of his contract, you at least consider it. But that would have to be a heck of an offer!

Adell

Ran into this looking for draft previews: http://www.baseball-reference.com/draft/2017-mlb-draft-preview.shtml It includes the top 5 players by WAR for each pick as well as the total WAR for all players combined taken for each pick. Kind of interesting and relevant to this thread. Actually a pretty good representation of Brewer picks for the top players taken all time in the top 9 picks (Yount, Molitor, Porter, Braun, Sheffield, Fielder, Jenkins).

Or do the next teams in the draft get to start rapid-fire calling their picks because we can't decide on a pick in time (ala the Vikings a few years ago in the NFL draft)?

Correct on both accounts, but with his defense, I'll take the .347 BA he's had the past 3 weeks even if it's empty. Since May 18th: .347/.367/.400/.767 in 75 ABs Has at least one hit in 17 of his 18 starts in that span, but only four doubles accounting for his extra base hits and has only drawn two walks

Man, I know Pence looks awkward with just about everything he does, but is his arm hurt or something? The way he throws the ball back into the infield is so strange looking, almost like he's pushing it from his shoulder or something. But who cares, go Crew! Nice stroke down the line for Aguilar!