And That

To illustrate why there is actually a pretty big difference between drafting #3 or drafting #7, it doesn't help so much to look at success teams have had with those picks in the past, so much as how much money the Brewers get to spend as a result of receiving the pick this year. The more slot money you have, the better chance you have to sign really talented players who fall in the draft as a result of signability concerns. Furthermore, assuming ownership is willing to pony up the penalty money, teams can go 5% over their total slot value-based budget without forfeiting any future picks. So while the talent may be somewhat of a crapshoot between picks 1 through 7, the money you get is not. Here are the 2015 draft slot values for the first seven picks, along with 105% of that amount to represent how much the team could spend based on that slot value, without forfeiting a future draft pick, and along with the decrease in value from the next highest slot value: 1. $8,616,900 ($9,047,745) 2. $7,420,100 ($7,791,105) | -$1,196,800 (-$1,256,640) / -13.89% 3. $6,223,300 ($6,534,465) | -$1,196,800 (-$1,256,640) / -16.13% 4. $5,026,500 ($5,277,825) | -$1,196,800 (-$1,256,640) / -19.23% 5. $4,188,700 ($4,398,135) | -$837,800 (-$879,690) / -16.67% 6. $3,889,500 ($4,083,975) | -$299,200 (-$314,160) / -7.14% 7. $3,590,400 ($3,769,920) | -$299,100 (-$314,055) / -7.69% So going by last year's rates, the Brewers have picked up $565k in slot value money in the past two days. Philly and Atlanta have slots 1 and 2 more or less locked down, but if the Brewers could "get to" #3, that would be huge.

Yes, by Southern League managers/coaches. I don't think BA provides a breakdown of how many people were polled, but realistically you'd have to think that many players win by a plurality rather than a majority. And that unknown is what waters down these polls for me. If they asked 20 managers/coaches who had the best curveball and 15 said Lopez, great. If 4 said Lopez, and a handful of others got a 3, then... eh. It might have just come down to which night certain opposing coaches saw certain players. And we don't know which one it is.

I love the guy and hope he succeeds at the highest level - I'm really not trying to get down on Lopez so I'll leave it at this, but I think expectations based on his manager's quotes may need to be tempered. It's Subero's job to build his players up, so he probably goes out of his way to provide as many fluffy quotes as possible. And that's fine. For instance, I doubt you're going to find as many (if any) Subero quotes on how awful Hobbs Johnson was in the second half of the season. Or how bad Nick Shaw was pretty much all season. So until we see a number of actual non-partisan scouting reports from, or based on opinions of, actual scouts (e.g. BA, BP, MLB Pipeline, the Kiley McDanielses of the world) come in on Lopez at the end of the season, I just don't think it's a good idea to jump to conclusions based on a handful of quotes from his manager.

And his curveball.

Exactly. The best way to stick it to those teams is to beat them. Let's get better and then worry about schadenfreude.

I don't usually quote long full posts, but when I do... nevermind, overdone meme. Exceptionally well said.

Houser had a game score of 91... has to be one of the better game scores in the minor leagues this year. Still don't quite understand why people aren't more impressed with him. He's a top 10 prospect to me.

From reports I've read, Harrison has more range, a better arm, and is generally thought to be able to stick in center. Most of the predraft stuff seemed to indicate Clark was more likely a corner OF long term. Hence some trepidation about his bat (and power potential) being good enough to play at a corner OF level. I have no doubt Clark will play some CF next year and it could be similar to what the Brewers did with Rivera and Arcia last year in Brevard, when they alternated those players between second and short.

There are probably still more good candidates than there are job openings. I don't think this will impact the Brewers' hiring time frame much, if at all.

Really good Q&A with Kantrovitz at Fangraphs.

Picture of the 2015 DSL squad from before the season (I believe). If you can pick out any individual players, you're doing better than me.

Gomez and Parra have a net -0.2 WAR (BR version) with their new teams. Santana has a 0.5 WAR for the Brewers. Though to be fair, Parra's WAR is -0.6.

My thought was that the Brewers might want to develop a core of players together in Wisconsin. To that end, they might even bring Matos back. Neuhaus is also still just 20, so in repeating Wisconsin he would still be young for the league. On the flip side, Brevard has a chance to have one of the worst producing offenses the Brewers have ever put on the field for a full season minor league team. If they're going to win a lot of games, the pitching staff is going to have to post a lot of zeros. Houle, Leal, and Pray for a Squall?

TheCrew07 has commented a number of times regarding how Neuhaus looks a lot better defensively at second than third. Guessing it's going to be a permanent switch to second, with the possibility of playing third and short if needed.

I had a dream last night that Hobbs Johnson had Tommy John surgery. True story.

Side note that if Medeiros and Torres-Costa wind up on the same roster, the T-Rats are more or less obligated to have a Hawaiian Luau themed night. If Medeiros, Torres-Costa, and Yamamoto all end up on the same roster, guessing that would be a record for most Hawaiians on a roster in baseball history.

The Brewers have a bit of a starting pitcher logjam. If Medeiros earns it, he would take priority over Terry/Hirsch, but neither of those guys has earned a demotion, and there's not much room in Biloxi, and no room in Colorado springs. By my count and barring injury, there are 13 pitchers locked into starting roles in A+/AA/AAA without Medeiros. Besides Terry/Hirsch, Hobbs Johnson has been pretty awful in Biloxi the second half of this season and might be injured and/or switched to relief, but those three guys are about all the room Medeiros has to move up. My point being, unless Medeiros really earns it, there's not only no need to rush him, he might be squeezing another deserving starter out and into the bullpen. Medeiros has a lot of work to do in terms of control, and another year or half year at Wisconsin would not hurt or stunt his development.

Roache is already so prone to swinging and missing that I'd rather he stay in a more neutral offensive environment. I worry that if he's promoted to Colorado Springs too soon, he'll develop habits that'll work for hitting the ball a mile in the thin air, but would be counterproductive in AA, or in Milwaukee. Sort of like the Home Run Derby syndrome where guys change their approach to hit more balls out of the park and then can't get their normal swings back right away.

I honestly don't know the answer to this question as my knowledge of contract/union law is pretty light... could the Brewers try to get out of Garza's contract now that he's refused to perform his duties as a pitcher? I assume there's a reason why they can't do that, just curious.

Collymore.

I don't think Demi gets pushed to Wisconsin. The Brewers are already overloaded with outfielders there (Harrison, Clark, Collymore, Belonis), and Demi is still learning the game (though admittedly, Harrison was too this year).

First time I've done this in a few years (5? 10?), but as excitement in the minor leagues is starting to reach an apex again, thought I'd post projections on 2016 rosters for the Brewers. This is using current players only, eliminating any free agents (except for Yhonathan Barrios, who is a virtual lock to be either re-signed or added to the 40-man). This isn't a prediction so much as a projection of, if the 2016 season started tomorrow, this might be what the rosters would look like. In the case of guys like Centeno, Ashley, Clark, Hellweg, and Schafer, I acknowledge that there is a not-small chance that they won't be with the team next year. However, they aren't gone yet, so they stay in the projection. I believe the only players who are currently in full season ball and are under contract for next year who are not listed on a full season roster below are Steven Halcomb, Nick Shaw, Paul Eshleman, Michael Ratterree, Mitch Meyer, and Omar Cotto. I don't think Halcomb, Shaw, Eshleman, Ratterree, or Meyer did enough this year to come back next year without some injuries to other guys, and Cotto is squeezed by the glut of OF prospect in Wisconsin. I also left out Tanner Poppe, who was on Biloxi's Temp Inactive list for the final five months of the season. There is obviously a lot of room for debate as to which players should end up playing for which team, and also obviously there will be some roster turnover and new faces by the time next spring roles around. I stuck with a 12 batter/13 pitcher construction for each team. MLB: Catcher: J. Lucroy, M. Maldonado First Base: A. Lind, J Rogers Second Base: S. Gennett Shortstop: J. Segura Third Base: H. Perez Left Field: K. Davis Center Field: D. Santana, Sh. Peterson Right Field: R. Braun Utility: E. Herrera RHSP: M. Garza, Z. Davies, W. Peralta, T. Jungmann, J. Nelson LHSP: None RHRP: T. Thornburg, J. Jeffress, C. Knebel, M. Blazek, A. Pena, F. Rodriguez LHRP: C. Jimenez, W. Smith AAA: Catcher: N. Ashley, J. Centeno First Base: M. Clark, N. Ramirez Second Base: L. Sardinas Shortstop: O. Arcia Third Base: N. Orf Left Field: K. Wren Center Field: M. Phillips, L. Schafer Right Field: M. Reed Utility: B. Macias RHSP: A. Houser, J. Lopez, T. Wagner LHSP: B. Suter, J. Hader RHRP: A. Ross, D. Goforth, T. Cravy, D. Gagnon, J. Barnes, Y. Barrios, D. Magnifico LHRP: M. Strong AA: Catcher: A. Weisenburger, P. Berberet, R. Neda First Base: G. Cooper Second Base: C. McFarland Shortstop: Y. Rivera Third Base: T. Brennan Left Field: V. Roache Center Field: T. Taylor, O. Garcia Right Field: C. Coulter Utility: B. Allemand RHSP: J. Salas, J. Ortega, B. Woodruff LHSP: H. Johnson, W. Wang RHRP: M. Viramontes, B. Hall. J. Hellweg, T. Archer, P. Gainey LHRP: J. Bradley, St. Peterson, T. Seidenberger A+: Catcher: D. Houle, C. Leal, G. McCall First Base: A. Sharkey Second Base: G. Iskenderian Shortstop: A. Ortega Third Base: S. Matos Left Field: E. Rubio Center Field: B. Diaz Right Field: J. Pena Utility: D. DeMuth, F. Castillo RHSP: C. Sneed, A. Ventura, D. Williams, C. Ponce LHSP: C. Terry, Z. Hirsch RHRP: K. Earls, T. Spurlin, Z. Cooper, L. Curtis, S. Leiser, G. Rizzo LHRP: T. Linehan A: Catcher: M. Ghelfi, N. Mejia First Base: D. Denson, S. Karkenny Second Base: T. Neuhaus Shortstop: J. Gatewood Third Base: J. Cuas Left Field: M. Collymore Center Field: M. Harrison Right Field: T. Clark, C. Belonis Utility: L. Aviles RHSP: D. Burkhalter, E. Hanhold, J. Perrin, M. Diplan, C. Harber LHSP: J. Drossner, C. Trent, K. Medeiros RHRP: J. Uhen, J. Olczak LHRP: L. Ortega, B. Kuntz, Q. Torres-Costa

Whatever happened to Hainley Statia?

Per the Brewers' Twitter account. Ashley had a really nice season in Colorado Springs. He'll be making his major league debut at 31 years of age. He was apparently chosen to be the third catcher in lieu of of Juan Centeno, which bodes ill for Centeno's 40-man roster status. Matt Clark was also not recalled, which would seem to put his 40-man status in peril as well. Speaking of that, the 40-man roster stands at 37 now. I don't offhand recall the Brewers' 40-man being so low at this point in the season before. I thought we might see Michael Reed get a cup of coffee this year. Apparently not, at least not yet. Hope to see Jorge Lopez up after the Shuckers' season is over.

Don't have a link because it was an At-Bat alert on my phone, but the Brewers have purchased the contract of RHP Ariel Pena from AAA Colorado Springs. Pena, acquired along with Jean Segura and Johnny Hellweg in the Grienke deal, had been outrighted off of the 40-man roster last November. He's scuffled as a reliever this year, but has been surprisingly good in 7 starts. Pena's stats.