Joseph Zarr

Prepare yourselves to be wounded by the early IL announcements coming in from full-season affiliates...

In honor of the Lions weeping for a reformat of Playoff seeding, I am publicly proposing all 'Merican football games be played outdoors on natural grass. Thank you. I concede my time.

Wait, are you directing this self-proclaimed 'baseless thought' on Minor League ST line-ups?! Mr. Mueller. Hold your tongue! 😜

A beautiful spring day. I'm drinking a tall glass of Matthew Trueblood's tears. 🤭

A man can certainly dream: Many a player the Packers were surely looking at. Great to see a full arsenal of Packers evaluators.

Wasn't expecting a Luke Musgrave retort this am but here we are. 😅 We're never going to agree here but it's a fun disagreement. Musgrave does not and has not run fluid routes his entire time as a Packer. He has fairly tight hips. He is what I would call straight line fast - and for a man his size he certainly can really move. However, let's not forget, this is the same TE who was the running joke of his own locker room his rookie season because he could not stay on his feet in the wide open field. So much so his HC made a joke publicly when he stayed on his feet and found the end zone. I think it's also more than fair to point out he is also mostly incapable of breaking arm tackles because he has very little wiggle ability in his hips - ie he can't avoid tacklers. That just is not fluid from my POV. Kraft? Very fluid in the open field with the strength to match it. A very very agile and strong human being who moves naturally and with great purpose in the open field. Musgrave, again, from my POV is quite a bit more straight line fast than he is anything else and I would also casually opine he is moderately stiff. His 3-cones and shuttles were always 'good' but not 'great', if you recall back in his testing days. That bares out at playing speed where he lacks wiggle in his routes. We've disagreed on Musgrave his entire unimpressive tenure as a Packer. It's why I personally would love to see a Day 2 TE pick in the draft. And, this being said, we all know TE prospects are (at minimum) given a 3 year window to show signs of life. I personally expect very little from Musgrave when all is said and done. Would absolutely love to be wrong. If you want to talk 'Fluid' as a TE athlete, look to a guy like TE Terrance Ferguson out of Oregon in this year's draft. That man is 'fluid' in his game. His routes are incredible. In my perfect Packers football world, that's my target for the Packers to swap into Musgrave's role.

Very cool article. Really interesting to get a deeper discussion of where he and the Brewers are thinking as he positions himself on the rubber. I think it's fair to point out he didn't really see any type of regression whatsoever in his jump from High-A to Double-A - a level jump historically seen as the most challenging across all levels of the Minor Leagues. And, it's no secret, the jump to the Southern League can be brutal for many a player. As a matter of fact, Yoho was striking out more batters per inning out of Biloxi's Pen than he was in Wisconsin. What he (and KC Hunt) did in their leap to Biloxi was what really made the season so dang remarkable. The jump in free passes did indeed happen at the tail end of the season in the International League. He pitched a mere 14 1/3 frames in Nashville over 14 appearances. Personally, having watched every one of those outings more than once (re-watching them this off-season), I saw it just as much from a fatigue and fluke perspective than anything else - 5 of those 9 free passes came in 2 of 14 appearances. We can nitpick, sure. But, as always, context helps. None the less, the main takeaway from my vantage point is he understands he can't get away with too many of those types of outings at the MLB level and the Brewers and Yoho himself recognize how good his stuff is.

Welcome to Brewer Fanatic! Let's see if we can't figure that out for you. But, be prepared, this may be a case of they shifted all these replays to Condensed Games.

BTW for those of you unable to watch any of the Breakout Game, here's an extended look of RHP Tyson Hardin with RHP Craig Yoho interviewing and discussing his outing. Includes a swinging K to a lefty on a really nice inside slider working off heat and Wood's CS throw to 2B to end the frame:

Yeah, I saw he had the lowest win rate amongst the GT DL but 9.54 RAS and nearly ducked for cover. This is PFN's draft profile: Yikes?

I imagine, come draft day, it will be 'The Biggers they are, the harder they fall.'. I still don't see him getting picked beyond the 7th or UDFA range but what do I know? My specialty is obscure DSL and ACL'ers.😅

My main takeaways: (1) Hostetler is indeed filthy and there is indeed a set of reasons he was originally in the transfer portal to Oregon State before signing on with the Brewers. (2) Hardin with a Five-Pitch Mix?! IF he can dial in more control (significantly lacking in 2024's short stint) this is considerable development. (3) Really refreshing to see Jose Anderson swing the lumber. That is a very natural swing with flexibility, repeatability, and innate power. It kind of answered my own questions about his late 2024 DSL season power drought and mini slump. If we recall, he was essentially shelved the last week or so during that DSL 1 failed playoff push (they stacked the Uno roster before the Orioles Orange pulled away). I wondered at the time if that was injury, rest, fatigue or getting others more opportunity. I think it's reasonable to seriously wonder aloud if he doesn't just start in Carolina, after all. Edit to Add (I can't believe this wasn't #1 originally) (4) Holy simplified swing and leg lift Luke Adams! Whoa! Fascinating.

Hope some of you had a chance to watch the Breakout game yesterday. It was only one over-hyped contest but, none the less, there were several things to take away of note imho.

Georgia Tech Pro Day:

I can still remember being at a bar in Dinkytown Minneapolis watching A-Rod come into a game at Dallas in the regular season - spelling an injured Favre (? I was mildly sippy sippy by that point as a younger lad). He nearly completed the comeback. I knew then and there - and, I swear I remember I was obnoxiously pontificating aloud and pointing to the big screens: "The Future! That is the Future right there! Aaron fricken Rodgers!". Part of me was praying we could just move on from the interception buffets of late-career Favre, part of me had probably drabk a couple too many, but the other part of me saw what was possible in the years ahead if the stars aligned. Watching the Atlanta playoff game in their dome was the absolute drive it home moment for me. That performance was unbelievably good given the context and given how dominant that Falcons team had been. To your point, though, absolutely agreed. It's so easy to forget with the silly storylines that have bled into the conversations around him - some his doing, no doubt, but the vast majority I would politely opine are just frivolous nonsense. In his prime he was an unbelievable talent. And, in that same prime, he was annually considered the best player in the entire League by a good margin. We were blessed as fans to witness his greatness.

FWIW:

Congrats, Bucky fans! Big Dub!

More Transactional Bookkeeping: - OF Brewer Hicklen was optioned to the Nashville Sounds by the Milwaukee Brewers - 17-year-old Dominican LHP Joan Pena (2025 International FA signing) was officially assigned to the DSL Brewers #1 *** Which, if I'm being honest, led me to ponder, In the Quiet Morning: Will we ever see a 'Joan Baez' from down yonder? *** I digress. More transactions surely to appear in the days ahead.

I should preface this by saying: I have zero thoughts and feelings about Connor Thomas as it pertains to Shane Smith. I'm glad Thomas has had a successful ST to date. I hope it works out beyond our wildest dreams with the Brewers. I'm also beyond excited for Shane Smith's opportunity and I hope he runs with it and never looks back. He deserves it. I also know the Brewers as an organization will move forward regardless and be fine and continue winning on the margins like they've done for some time now. AND... Regardless of what happens with Smith in 2025, the developments so rapidly achieved in one off-season speak to what anyone who watches the vast majority of his Minor League games (like I did) might be thinking: he has the size, the frame, the competitive nature, the make-up, the arm action, and the willingness to expand his evolving and already zesty tool kit (See adding slider after a single 2023 AFL stint // See capably stepping into starter innings with a beleaguered Biloxi staff // See capably closing games // See capably Holding games) to really make a serious go of it in the Big Leagues. He was already sitting 95 mph before re-committing to his heater profile this off-season (as I've said in other threads I reached out to his training facility and outfit to ask about some things). He already had well over a plus 1 K/ IP as young 24-year-old (soon to be 25 yo) arm. I really don't care about anything other than what my eyes have told me for the past two some years (including his interviews): it was a mistake to leave him unprotected. It just was. I had automatically pegged all three of Smith; Henderson; and Patrick as Rule 5 Adds and I could have easily have made a case at the time Smith was the first add. This isn't the first mistake the Brewers have made on the pitching side of things. It won't be the last. And, we all know when you are juggling a 165 stateside limit and a 40-Man roster these players falling through the cracks inevitably happens. I think every team goes through this. But, man, this one was such a blatantly obvious 40-Man add to me it still stings from the old school scout that lives in me. I literally find myself like a cantankerous radiator hose popping off randomly during the week about this (which is hilarious in and of itself). When you watch as much Minor League baseball as I do, you tend to learn over time when something pops - what players simply look the part and innately differentiate themselves. Shane Smith's stuff definitely popped and it definitely pops. In the very least it was blatantly obvious the Brewers had a set-up man. A really good set-up man. That was legitimately his lowest floor. His versatility given the year-to-year importance of the pitching staff just carried bountifully more weight to me than a utility positional player on a 40-Man. I know Babe Capra is having an incredible spring and kudos to him for doing so - I hope he grabs a hold of that utility role and never looks back. It is known in these parts how much I've loved Isaac Collins over the past two seasons as a Brewer and how stoked I was he was called up and added to the 40-Man. I turned people's eyes to 'Mona' well before he was a call-up when he made my most underrated and unheralded list many years back. I was hyping Brewer Hicklen for months before he was even a call-up consideration. Why do I mention these players? I flat would have rostered Shane Smith with ease over all these talented young men (and this doesn't even get into rostering LHP Tyler Jay at that time - I believe I'm not mistaken here? - which is an entirely different box of rocks) because of the importance of what he brings and how he brings it and where he might be heading if the dice roll the right way. You just don't let that type of player walk risk-free to another organization. You just don't do it. And, well, if you can't tell I'm still just a little bit ticked off about it 😅. Now, being the generally rational middle-aged man that I am, I would also like to leave room for the possibility there was an agreement between the player and the organization. Perhaps a difference of opinions of where they wanted to take Smith's career in the short-term. There is always the possibility the Brewers and Smith agreed to leave him unprotected so he could pursue an MLB path more aggressively if he were to be chosen. Is this likely? I really don't think so. Is this possible? Yes. And what better staff to go to than a staff with Walker McKinven as its bench coach. At least I can tell myself this fairy tale to make it all better.

I am fully prepared for a goose egg given how this past fall's Aussie Winter League news cycle rolled out 😉.

Yeah he is definitely a pass rush specialist. 50 pressures too in less than 400 snaps. It would be a really nice 3rd down weapon in Hafley's toolkit. I agree on the one year deal. They'd likely sell it as a two year deal - 2nd year Team Option?