And That

Jerry Sands was just DFA'd by the Indians. He's generally hit in the upper minors, but hasn't been able to translate it to the big leagues. Has some OF experience as well.

Just scanning the 2014 top 10 prospect lists from BA, the following guys come to mind, to varying degrees: -Matt Skole, Nationals -Kyle Parker, Rockies -Jon Singleton, Astros -Max Muncy, A's

Webster's FB velocity is way down from where it was a few years ago, and to make it even worse his slider velocity has been up. Seems there is either a major mechanical problem, or something structural with his arm. If the Brewers think it's mechanical and they can fix it, sure a minor league deal makes sense.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2015/12/brewers-sign-nick-hagadone.html Hagadone throws hard for a lefty but has rarely been able to harness enough control to be overly effective. Another camp body on a minor league deal shouldn't hurt, though.

Trey Supak goes from being the Pirates' 15th best prospect to the Brewers' 30th best prospect. Tyler Cravy was removed from the list (was #27). Denson, Houser, and Ponce all moved up one.

I didn't like him anyway.

The Brewers still have a lot of time and options in the market for filling first base. I don't think moving Santana or Braun is in the cards right now. My guess is Nava (switch hitter with some positional versatility, kind of a theme) and some RHB of the same ilk (Steve Pearce?).

Unless you mean Trent Clark, Matt Clark is no longer a member of the organization.

The Brewers should trade for Jason Rogers.

I am more than a little stunned that the Brewers were able to get both of those guys for Rogers. The Pirates do realize that Rogers is going to be 28 on Opening Day, right? Edit: Also, I guess that makes Shane Peterson our first baseman at the moment?

Stop.

They drew 2 mil+ two years in a row (2004-2005) after consecutive 94 loss seasons (2003-2004). They drew nearly 2.8 mil in 2014 after an 88 loss season. The evidence, albeit a relatively small sample thereof, would suggest a dip down to 1.6 mil in 2 years is quite unlikely.

I'm going to go with 2,340,870. The Brewers will, somewhat maddeningly, not be as bad as advertised and compile a win total in the low 70's. They will borrow from the Bucks' playbook a little and be successful marketing their younger talent (Arcia, Phillips, Lopez, etc) once they have a permanent place on the team later in the year. They would draw more, but there is still the hangover of last year's 68 win club. This would also happen to be the lowest attendance total in 10 years.

Don't you usually have to read about WAR? Braille. Text to voice apps. Plenty of opportunities for blind people these days. Clearly there's a market for a podcast where the host just reads WAR statistics for a few hours. The nerds would go wild for it.

That's interesting, but I'm going to take it one more step, number of people in attendance per win: 2001: 41,339 2002: 35,173 2003: 25,005 2004: 30,782 2005: 27,297 2006: 31,142 2007: 34,568 2008: 34,094 2009: 37,968 2010: 36,059 2011: 31,993 2012: 34,113 2013: 34,204 2014: 34,114 2015: 37,391 That's an average of 33,683 people in attendance per Brewer season win, with a standard deviation of 3,950. Since Miller Park opened, the absolute value of the change in attendance from year to year has been within one standard deviation 10 of the 14 years, and within 2 standard deviations all but once, the 2002-2003 change. So if you assume the Brewers are going to win 62 games next year (which is probably a few games low), I would put attendance at a bottom of the barrel minimum of 1.8 million, and probably closer to 2.1 million. If they win closer to 70, attendance will very likely be over 2 million, maybe closer to 2.3 million. Edit: I split this off the Cheap 1B Options thread in the trade rumors forum. Thought it might be interesting to hear people's guesses on attendance next year.

Don't you usually have to read about WAR?

Again, this is not a prediction of what I think will happen, this is a projection of where the current pieces fit in. The Brewers have seemed to indicate an unwillingness to trot Santana out any more in CF. I suppose if they think Flores will be back soon after Opening Day, they could live with Santana out there for a little bit, but then he's going back down when Flores gets back anyway.

There's nothing to hate about this because the Brewers are risking nothing, but I would be shocked to see Middlebrooks turn into a solid regular at this point.

There's nothing to hate about this because the Brewers are risking nothing, but I would be shocked to see Middlebrooks turn into a solid regular at this point.

Hope we trade for Brock Holt to complete the trifecta.

Hope we trade for Brock Holt to complete the trifecta.

Brandon Kintzler has signed with the Twins.

Cecchini has generally been regarded as a fringey defender at third. The Brewers should absolutely keep him there to see if there's any room for improvement, but Adrian Beltre he's not.

I admit to not knowing a ton about the guy, but Luke Curtis' peripherals were sub par. He was knocked out of the Wisconsin squad by Villegas. Again, there will be injuries so I assume Curtis will indeed start out with Wisconsin or Brevard. Presley is the starting CF by default at the moment. The Brewers seem to be shying away from Santana in CF, and I don't think Reed is either capable of handling CF everyday, nor is he ready to do it at the big league level anyway. That leaves Presley and Peterson, unless you think Villar can play there. I have very little doubt that Presley will not be Milwaukee's opening day CF. Bradley is to the point where he needs to go or get off the pot, as it were. They put him in AAA last year, and I think they do it again. He and Lambson are almost exactly the same age, but don't you have to go with the guy you have more invested in? I don't have an issue with Houle and Leal splitting time in Brevard. Houle has all of 103 ABs above short season ball, so Biloxi is a big stretch for me. If either of the two do go to Biloxi, my guess would be Leal, but it would be difficult to say that either is ready. I considered Lara, Stokes, Orimoloye, and Perry for Wisconsin, but in the end I think the Brewers will be a little more conservative after the struggles Gatewood and Harrison went through last year. Clark is a different case, as his approach is so advanced. Cotto and Stokes in Wisconsin was a coin flip. I went with the older guy because it would be difficult to give enough OF work to Collymore, Harrison, Clark, Belonis, and Stokes if they were all on the same team.

Three months have passed since last I made an effort to project (not predict) 2016 rosters for all full season teams in the organization. A number of players have come and gone since then, obviously, so there are a fair number of adjustments. I'll aim to do a third (and final?) projection in mid-February. I am fully confident that this is not how things will end up, but it's a fun exercise to see how the minor league teams will more or less shake out. So feel free to disagree. Couple of player notes... first up are injured players who played in full season ball in the last few years who do not appear on any of the projected rosters because as far as I know, their injuries will preclude them from being ready for the beginning of the season. In no particular order, they are: Johnny Davis, Ramon Flores, Daniel Missaki, Nathan Kirby, Taylor Williams, Victor Diaz. I haven't seen anything about Clint Terry's injury, so I left him in. Tanner Poppe, who went on the Biloxi Restricted List late last April, has been left out as well. If you have updates on Terry or Poppe or anyone else, let me know and I'll adjust. Players who played in full season ball last year and who are healthy to the best of my knowledge, but not in the projection are: N. Mejia, P. Eshleman, R. Neda, S. Halcomb, N. Shaw, M. Meyer, L. Curtis. Mainly the reasoning is performance related. I have both Rule 5 picks making the big league club, which may or may not be realistic, but it is plausible. I'm leaving Brandon Diaz as an OF for now, though he played some second base in instructionals. Should also note the glut of relievers top to bottom. I'd be surprised if the Brewers signed many more minor league pitchers between now and spring training. They have a lot to sort through as it is. I fully expect a guy like Gian Rizzo to break camp with Brevard, but right now there's no room at the inn. There will be injuries and releases before spring assignments roll around though. Once again I stuck with a 12 position player/13 pitcher format for each roster. Anyway, here are the projections: MLB: Catcher: J. Lucroy, M. Maldonado 1st Base: J. Rogers 2nd Base: S. Gennett Shortstop: J. Segura 3rd Base: J. Villar Left Field: K. Davis Center Field: A. Presley Right Field: R. Braun Utility: C. Walsh, H. Perez, Sh. Peterson RHSP : M. Garza, Z. Davies, W. Peralta, T. Jungmann, J. Nelson LHSP: None RHRP: T. Thornburg, J. Jeffress, C. Knebel, M. Blazek, A. Pena, J. Guerra, Z. Jones LHRP: W. Smith AAA: Catcher: M. Pina, A. Weisenburger 1st Base: N. Ramirez 2nd Base: Y. Rivera Shortstop: O. Arcia 3rd Base: G. Cecchini Left Field: M. Reed Center Field: M. Phillips Right Field: D. Santana Utility/DH: J. Elmore, N. Orf, B. Guez RHSP: A. Houser, J. Lopez, T. Wagner LHSP: B. Suter, J. Hader RHRP: J. Chapman, D. Goforth, J. Barnes, Y. Barrios, J. Miller, T. Cravy, D. Magnifico LHRP: J. Bradley AA: Catcher: R. Garcia, P. Berberet 1st Base: G. Cooper 2nd Base: C. McFarland Shortstop: J. Betancourt 3rd Base: T. Brennan Left Field: V. Roache Center Field: T. Taylor Right Field: C. Coulter Utility/DH: B. Allemand, B. Macias, K. Wren RHSP: H. Burgos, J. Ortega, B. Woodruff LHSP: H. Johnson, W. Wang RHRP: M. Viramontes, B. Hall, D. Tillman, A. Ross, D. Gagnon LHRP: St. Peterson, T. Seidenburger, M. Lambson Advanced A: Catcher: C. Leal, D. Houle 1st Base: A. Sharkey 2nd Base: G. Iskenderian Shortstop: A. Ortega 3rd Base: S. Matos Left Field: E. Rubio Center Field: B. Diaz Right Field: J. Pena Utility/DH: D. Demuth, O. Garcia, F. Castillo RHSP : A. Ventura, D. Williams, C. Ponce, J. Salas, D. Burkhalter LHSP: C. Terry, Z. Hirsch, K. Medeiros RHRP: K. Earls, Z. Cooper, P. Gainey, T. Archer, S. Leiser LHRP: None A: Catcher: M. Ghelfi, G. McCall 1st Base: D. Denson 2nd Base: T. Neuhaus Shortstop: J. Gatewood 3rd Base: J. Cuas Left Field: M. Collymore Center Field: M. Harrison Right Field: T. Clark Utility/DH: L. Aviles, O. Cotto, C. Belonis RHSP : E. Hanhold, J. Perrin, M. Diplan, C. Harber, J. Torres LHSP: J. Drossner, C. Trent RHRP: J. Uhen, G. Rizzo, K. Villegas, T. Spurlin LHRP: L. Ortega, T. Linehan Edit: I flipped Kyle Wren and Nick Ramirez to provide more balance.