Joseph Zarr

Just a Bucks sidebar: The Herd have won 6 straight. Bolden (lotta double doubles of late), Gabriel, Livingston, Elijah Hughes and TyTy all really playing well. Marquese Chriss recently signed and making a consistent impact. After weeks of being mired in the thick of irrelevance, the Herd are suddenly 12-8 in the second half and a mere 1/2 GB of first place Delaware. Pretty cool.

I keep waiting on my guy RHP Tyler Herb. He got so absolutely jobbed by that injury last year. He was playing his best ball. Slinging that white rat with skill and savvy. Injury. Boom. Season done. He has yet to sign with any organization. I check his MiLB page every day. I keep hoping he re-ups with Nashville. But, man, he is in that same scenario you are speaking to @damuelle. And, this is coming off an unknown severity of injury. His website is suddenly down and he hasn't posted on twitter since April of last year. Sheeeesh, I sound like a creepy stalker🤣. In reality, he's just one of my favorite of the unheraldeds.

Yeah, it's strange for me. I grew up in Wisconsin but I absolutely never became a diehard fan of either Wisconsin or Marquette. BUT, being a basketball fan in general I've certainly grown to appreciate Marquette's style of play (historically and presently) quite a bit more. I want them both to do well - I have zero animosity - but if both are on I am most likely watching a Marquette match-up.

While Bucky fades, Marquette has now won 7 straight. That was a solid second half comeback vs St. John's. Noice!

Amen to that!

Jackson ChourioJacob MisiorowskiTyler BlackJeferson QueroYophery Rodriguez I'm going big here. I just watched the DSL video. It is abundantly crystal clear the Crew expects Big Big things here.Luis LaraBrock WilkenDL Hall Hall has nasty stuff. Get him in the Brewers Lab and I already think he's the best pitcher in the organization. Doesn't have the raw nasty of a Misiorowski but he's further along and could be filthy as well.Robert GasserCooper PrattCarlos F RodriguezJoey OrtizMike BoeveEric Brown JrJosh KnothLuke AdamsEric BitontiLogan HendersonPatricio AquinoBradley Blalock This system is absurdly deep 1-15. My goodness. We get past there and it just gets fascinating because there are so many intriguing players we simply need to see more of. With the new Academy in the D.R., we're cooking with gas folks.

IF you were to place a speculative round on such a player, where would that be? I'm personally at a place where I find it hard they take any type of Move or receiving TE with a 1-4 rd pick. And, obviously, I have no idea what they are really thinking. BUT, I see Musgrave; Kraft; and then Sims to an extent as athletic diverse TE's the Packers seem to love. And, for good reason. However, in Deguara, I see a guy who never really has fulfilled their vision for the H-Back role. Hence, why I see a guy like Sinnott and see a natural fit and a fit they'd likely be willing to spend premium capital on. Then again, they might also really like Deguara (kind of how they really seem to like Myers) and re-up him on the cheap?

Well, it was an injury depleted Hornets squad. BUT, it sure looks as tho Pat Bev could have a PJ Tucker like impact on this sleepy squad. His energy. His loudness. His brashness. His desire to WIN are exactly what this team needed. Couple that with cracking a Miller Lite at his first post-game presser? It's clear he knows how to play to the crowd. Let's hope the good times keep coming!

Hopefully, this also means a possible and unexpected boon to the Atlantic/Pioneer/<insert Independent League of choice here> Leagues nationwide. As we've seen for many years now, there are fantastic baseball players playing everywhere. Oftentimes, these talented young men simply need that right set of serendipitous circumstances. And, obviously, with the give-and-take of the most recent CBA, these affiliated roster spots became all the more coveted given the upgrades given to the players. I continue to be amazed by those Indy League players and wish them all the chance to rise through the ranks.

Goodness gracious the Brewers' 1-through-15 is STACKED. Whewwwwwww, what a time to be a Brewers fan! You get past there and there is just a carousel of intrigue. We couple all this with the recent International class and the opening of the D.R. Academy? We. Are. Cooking. With. Gasssssssssss.

LOL. Wasssssss literally just coming here to post this. Of course. I should have know you'd be here. Sheeeeeesh. Some juicy Yophery batting practice swings in der! Two strictly player things of note here: 1) The Crew are very clearly pushing Yophery front and center. Beyond what we could surmise from last year's DSL flashes, I think it is very fair to say: they expect very big things here. He is all over this piece. Also: Yophery is already speaking English incredibly well. Very very impressive. 2) 17-year-old German RHP Paul Hoff makes several random 'who's that they keep editing in here' appearances. Not given the spotlight but I certainly noted how they snuck him in there more than a handful of times.

Well, sheeesh. I certainly didn't need to reckon with the depth of this conversation this early on a Friday! I don't begrudge Hader one bit for anything. The system is broken if they are only quantifying value off of 'Saves'. How ridiculous and myopic. I'll always root for the players and the people. Period. I'm a fan of the Brewers, yes, and always will be but I'm not an ignoramus. I can psychologically (and, honestly, philosophically and spiritually) separate the two.

Right. I think that's more a thing of the NBA and NBA.com not registering what the Bucks staff is actually going to do. At least it certainly seemed he was just going to hand it off to Prunty and the original staff? You're right, tho, in that I certainly don't know how it's actually going to go.

If any of you care to get a concise breakdown of the Senior Bowl and Shrine Bowl talent, here's a really good conversation between John Schmeelk and Tony Pauline. Especially deep dives on the OL, DL, WR, and CB's. Short session on LB's too. Three guys I came away with extremely curious about as to how and where they place on the Packers draft board: DL/Edge Darius Robinson out of Mizzou. Apparently, he was quite easily the most dominant defensive player in all of the Senior Bowl practices. Intriguing player. C/G Jackson Powers-Johnson - by every account he didn't lose a single rep in anything at the Senior Bowl. Was the class of the OL. I'll take that on the Packers OL at any point in time regardless of the position. He's currently guestimated to be valued right around the Packers 1st Rd pick. Can never have enough talent in the trenches. He would be an upgrade at any interior position Center to RG. ILB/WILB Cedric Gray out of UNC. He showed very well at the Shrine Bowl, apparently. Very ideal fit in a 4-3. Sideline-to-Sideline guy. Could be a guy to pair with Quay to let Quay do Quay things. Like Quay would imagine Quay. 🤭

Doc isn't coaching the All Star game. I don't know what he's doing but he's already acknowledged he won't be taking that on. I still imagine he'll want the limelight of the game itself? I agree with you entirely on the overall status of this season. I absolutely agree with you the roster is just filled with old vets who are struggling in the daily grind of a young man's game. We've started to see AJ Green get meaningful burn and, lo and behold, he's validating what anyone who watches the Bucks saw this entire season: he's an NBA sniper. He deserves burn. You'd love to see similar strides and PT for AJax and Marjon but it certainly doesn't look like that's coming. It certainly doesn't feel like that's coming for Marjon at least who appears to really struggle with confidence and stacking success into consistent production. He may just be a fringe rostational player who never maximizes his god given physical gifts. I definitely don't agree with you on your assessment of Giannis (and, maybe I'm misconstruing what you're actually saying here?). He's been otherworldly nearly the entire season - his efficiency is off the charts historic. He is still managing to improve year-to-year. I think we have at least 2-3 more years of his Prime before he starts leveling off. And, who knows, he continues to surprise me so he could just keep on improving! I don't think any of us saw this version of Dame coming - the divorce and his mental are clearly off by a significant margin. It's wild. This is like 50% of the player I watched routinely in PDX - it makes me sad 🫠. But, overall, yes it certainly just feels like a mulligan season whereby they had a train wreck coaching hire where their talent overcame the inefficiencies and managed a respectable record versus an extremely weak schedule. Now that they are facing actual high caliber NBA music (coupled with injuries), we're seeing what a mess they truly are. I mean they had Crowder and AJ Green scoring 20 + points last night and they still lost by over 20 points with a healthy Giannis! That's insane. 😅 Of course, starting Pat Connaughton as your PG is, ummmm. not favorable. Asking Pat Connaughton to cover the 1 is borderline comical. Oh Patty Ice, how your athleticism is fading.

I wish I shared the bullish projections for LHP Aaron Ashby. I certainly hope these prove to be true. AND, my personal addendum here is: he's had 6 months to further rehab his throwing shoulder. This being said, and with all due respect to Aaron Ashby the person, Aaron Ashby the pitcher wasn't even a High-A arm in his late summer rehab outings. At each successive rehab run up the affiliate ladder he was hit even harder. His velo stayed way down. His ball movement and action were non-existent. His pitching form was extremely restricted and tight. He was a sitting duck. Coming out of that injury process and into the fire, he was a shell of his former self. As a Brewers fan, it was truly sad. I sure as hyeck hope we are considerably far away from that period of his baseball career. These shoulder injuries are so unknown and the early returns for Ashby were fairly concerning. And, as such, there is just no way I could project him onto that coveted opening day roster. Here's hoping spring brings new life to that young man's pitching career! To this end, I quite easily and readily swap out LHP Robert Gasser as the opening day long man out of the Pen or the Lefty coupling with DL Hall for that 5th spot. It's an easy call. Gasser proved all he needed to prove at Triple-A last year. He deserves a chance to showcase his wares at the MLB level to start the season. Out of the bullpen makes great sense as a Middleman, so to speak.

Honestly, I think I'm feeling a deep sense of relief I can finally shift my overwhelming feeling of dread. For the past week, I've been grappling with the 'how and why?!' the Brewers would acquire another talented infielder who is going to block Juan Baez from that Brewers starting SS position.

Another staff add. This time an assistant to Jason Vrable in the WR room: Some of you may recognize that name. This is indeed the Myles White who suited up for the Green and Gold for a hot minute some years back.

I am just catching up to the Senior Bowl and Shrine Bowl discourse and I have to say: TE Ben Sinnott (Kansas State) seems like a real upgrade from Deguara at the H-Back. He could be a real weapon for LaFleur and the offense.

Their bench is a mess. They lack any meaningful depth of assets. Their new HC has a half a season to familiarize himself with the young guys (and, hopefully get them PT). Two of their former key role players are pretty much showing signs of aging; slowing down; and regressing. Their back-up Big literally is better suited making balloon animals at children's birthday parties - I seriously can't grok how utterly done Robin Lopez is. My goodness. I digress. They still have Dame and Giannis. They still have the trade deadline and Horst has proven to be a magician of sorts at this time of year. There is till hope they can pull it together but, realistically, it likely isn't this season. Too many cards stacked against them. Really screwed up the Bud fire/hire. That was a pretty colossal mistake. And, it's a shame: what Giannis is doing on a nightly basis is patently absurd. His efficiency is just historic. He's a true unicorn in every sense.

Barry heads to Miami to be their LB coach and run game coordinator. Hafley and Packers grab former Miami LB coach Anthony Campanile - a name linked to several D-Coordinator positions recently.

Recently DFA'd LHP Ethan Small has been traded to the San Francisco Giants for the well traveled MLB veteran known as 'cash considerations'. We wish Small all the best as he looks to find a foothold on that elusive MLB rubber.