And That

Exactly. Bigger/better strike zone, and shorten pitching change times. This three batter minimum nonsense doesn't help the game. Can't wait for a pitcher to come in, get in trouble, have to muddle through an extra batter or two (making him unavailable to pitch the next day), and then have an even worse pitcher come in to relieve him. Great stuff. I am optimistic that this rule will never see the field. Hopefully, it will get negotiated away for something less stupid, and something the players actually agree to.

Finally picked up Baseball HQ's minor league annual, and they have the Brewers' organization 20th out of 30. They give the team a B- for hitting, a C- for pitching, a B- for top-end talent, a C for depth, and a C overall. I think that severely undersells the pitching/depth, but 20th is a lot closer to where the minor league system is at than 27th or whatever, IMO.

In honor of position player reporting day for minor league camp, here are my 2019 minor league roster forecasts. First, a link to the "Way Too Early" forecast from September. Almost six months ago already, holy smokes. The system clearly shows its pitching strength throughout. Look at that AAA staff for exhibit A, and then look at everyone who did not make the A-ball staff for exhibit B. The Brewers are turning into a pitching development machine with their "create-a-prospect" approach to taking pitchers with interesting and non-standard skillsets and making them into usable pieces (at least), at the highest level. Without regard to the offense in the minor league, the pitching depth and breadth the system possesses should itself prove that this is not a bottom tier farm system in the game. It's just not. I have seen some really bad Brewers farm systems. Legitimately bottom five in the game. This is not one of them, in large part due to the mass of quality pitchers present. Indeed the offensive upside in the minors lags behind the pitching as a whole. The Biloxi hitters in general and the Carolina infield specifically are not up to par in terms of prospective MLB talent. That said, most of the high-end prospects are in AAA and make the system better as a whole due to their proximity to the big leagues. I'm also optimistic about a number of players in A-ball and below. The Brewers' preference for drafting high schoolers coupled with their increased presence in Latin America has given them a solid base of teenage talent that should begin bubbling into full-season ball in 2019. There are a number of players who could slide up or down a level without any argument from me. I just picked a level for every active roster player and went with it. Some pitchers listed as relievers could end up being piggy-back starters. I limited each team to five starters. The "other considerations" guys tend to be lower-priority prospects than the players listed on the team roster forecasts. Except for the A-ball roster, where there are just more players than there is space. The Brewers could field about 2 more A-ball teams with all the pitchers they currently have. * is for left-handed hitters and ^ is for switch hitters. There are a number of players who are currently injured included below, but for the most part, they were included in the "other considerations" parts. I used the Brewers-standard 13 pitcher roster alignment. MLB C: Yasmani Grandal^, Manny Pina INF: Jesus Aguilar, Orlando Arcia, Mike Moustakas*, Hernan Perez, Travis Shaw*, Eric Thames* OF: Ryan Braun, Lorenzo Cain, Ben Gamel*, Christian Yelich* Other offensive considerations: Erik Kratz ©, Tyler Saladino (INF), Cory Spangenberg* (INF) SP: Chase Anderson, Corbin Burnes, Jhoulys Chacin, Zach Davies, Brandon Woodruff RP: Matt Albers, Jacob Barnes, Alex Claudio*, Junior Guerra, Josh Hader*, Jeremy Jeffress, Corey Knebel, Taylor Williams Other pitching considerations: Jay Jackson (RP), Jimmy Nelson (SP), Freddy Peralta (SP), Jake Petricka (RP), Josh Tomlin (SP), Aaron Wilkerson (SP) AAA C: Tuffy Gosewich, Jacob Nottingham INF: Mauricio Dubon, Lucas Erceg*, Jake Hager, Keston Hiura, Nate Orf, Tyler Saladino, Cory Spangenberg* OF: Corey Ray*, Troy Stokes Jr., Tyrone Taylor Other offensive considerations: Jake Gatewood (INF), Erik Kratz ©, Brett Lawrie (INF) SP: Zack Brown, Jimmy Nelson, Freddy Peralta, Josh Tomlin, Aaron Wilkerson RP: Tristan Archer, Bubba Derby, Deolis Guerra, Adrian Houser, Jay Jackson, Jake Petricka, Miguel Sanchez, Burch Smith Other pitching considerations: Nate Griep (RP), Jon Olczak (RP), Cody Ponce (SP/RP), Danny Reynolds (RP), Trey Supak (SP) AA C: Skyler Ewing, Max McDowell INF: Blake Allemand^, Luis Aviles Jr., Bruce Caldwell*, Patrick Leonard, Tucker Neuhaus*, Wes Wilson OF: Ryan Aguilar*, Trent Grisham*, Cooper Hummel^, Dillon Thomas* Other offensive considerations: Rob Henry (OF), Pat McInerney (1B), Nate Rodriguez ©, Robie Rojas ©, Nick Roscetti (INF) SP: Conor Harber, Tom Jankins, Cam Roegner*, Trey Supak, Braden Webb RP: Luke Barker, Marcos Diplan, Nate Griep, Nate Kirby*, Jon Olczak, Angel Perdomo*, Cody Ponce, Danny Reynolds Other pitching considerations: Rodrigo Benoit (RP), Alec Bettinger (SP), Phil Bickford (RP), Dan Brown* (RP), Nattino Diplan (RP), Preston Gainey (RP), Alec Kenilvort (RP), Brad Kuntz* (RP), Christian Meister (RP), Jorge Ortega (SP), Wuilder Rodriguez (RP), Tyler Spurlin (RP), Josh Uhen (RP), Devin Williams (SP) A+ C: Mario Feliciano, Payton Henry INF: Dallas Carroll, Devin Hairston, Pat McInerney, Trever Morrison*, Nick Roscetti, Eddie Silva OF: Zach Clark, Rob Henry, Tristen Lutz, Joantgel Segovia Other offensive considerations: Jay Feliciano (OF), Connor McVey (INF), Nate Rodriguez ©, Robie Rojas ©, Brice Turang* (INF) SP: Clayton Andrews*, Aaron Ashby*, Alec Bettinger, Dylan File, Bowden Francis RP: Cody Beckman*, Rodrigo Benoit, Phil Bickford, Dan Brown*, Nattino Diplan, J.T. Hintzen, Alec Kenilvort, Devin Williams Other pitching considerations: Sal Biasi (RP), Jake Drossner* (SP), Chris Dula (RP), Gabe Friese (RP), Tyler Gillies (RP), Matt Hardy (RP), Carlos Herrera (RP), Nelson Hernandez (SP), Adam Hill (SP), Robbie Hitt (RP), Joey Matulovich (SP), Michael Mediavilla* (RP), Christian Meister (RP), Drake Owenby* (SP), Michael Petersen (RP), Drew Rasmussen (RP), Wilfred Salaman* (SP), Peter Strzelecki (RP), Scott Sunitsch* (SP), Christian Taugner (SP), Christian Trent* (SP) A C: Alexander Alvarez, David Fry INF: Yeison Coca^, Gabriel Garcia, Julio Garcia^, Korry Howell, Chad McClanahan*, Brice Turang* OF: Pablo Abreu, LG Castillo, Jesus Lujano*, Je'Von Ward* Other offensive considerations: Luis Avila (INF), Jeyner Baez ©, Micah Bello (OF), Brent Diaz ©, Larry Ernesto (OF), Jay Feliciano (OF), Joe Gray (OF), Alex Hall ©, Andres Melendez ©, Charlie Meyer ©, Connor McVey (INF), Nic Pierre (OF), Antonio Pinero (INF), Kekai Rios ©, Carlos Rodriguez (OF), Edwin Sano (INF), Jose Sibrian ©, Bryan Torres © SP: Nelson Hernandez, Adam Hill, Joey Matulovich, Scott Sunitsch*, Christian Taugner RP: Sal Biasi, Carlos Herrera, Robbie Hitt, Michael Mediavilla*, Michael Petersen, Drew Rasmussen, Wilfred Salaman*, Peter Strzelecki Other pitching considerations: Freisis Adames (SP), Jose Alberro* (RP), Jesus Brea (RP), Tate Budnick (RP), Justin Bullock (SP), Victor Castaneda (SP), Harold Chirino (SP), Chris Dula (RP), Gabe Friese (RP), Logan Gillaspie (RP), Tyler Gillies (RP), Chris Hall (RP), Matt Hardy (RP), Justin Jarvis (SP), Max Lazar (SP), Caden Lemons (SP), Blake Lillis* (SP), Carlos Luna (SP), Christian Meister (RP), Jenri Montas (RP), Brendan Murphy* (SP), Joel Pinto (SP), Jayson Rose (SP), Austin Rubick (RP), Brady Schanuel (RP), Matt Smith (RP), Renny Tolentino (RP), Tyler Tungate (RP), Michele Vassalotti (SP), Andrew Vernon (RP), Nash Walters (SP), Chad Whitmer (RP), Noah Zavolas (RP), Lun Zhao (SP)

Nelson needs just 65 days on the active roster to reach 5 years of service. They'd have to keep him in the minors until July 29th. And once he reaches 5 years, he can decline optional assignment.

Why three batters, though? That seems incredibly arbitrary. Why not four batters or three outs? Or two batters? Or three outs? Or two outs? Agree with the poster above - this seems like a great way to lengthen games by forcing ineffective pitchers to stay in longer.

The Brewers have signed Patrick Leonard to a MiLB deal.

Joining Uribe on the Brewers Blue roster are INF Alberis Ferrer, RHP Cristian Sierra, and the aforementioned Tyler Gillies. As I mentioned on Twitter, Ferrer quietly had a really good summer in 2018 DSL play. Sierra hasn't pitched professionally yet since signing in July 2017.

Could see the Twins or the Rays being interested in Keuchel if his price has come down a little. Minnesota has a chunk of payroll room after 2019 and already are the clear second-best team in the AL Central - if anyone is going to upend Cleveland, it's probably them. Tampa would have to run against their opener philosophy a little but they still should have plenty of room to sign Keuchel.

The issue was that Houser never missed a full season - he missed a calendar year+. If I understand what happened correctly, the Brewers had to appeal because Houser missed large chunks of two different seasons that added up to more than one season.

I'm thinking about censoring the word turd... ...to make the word turd blurred.

Turd is the word. High turd word ratio. Almost absurd.

My takeaway from this thread: the word turd.

Over the years I have seen some very bad Brewers farm systems... this is not one of them. When I see the system ranked like 26th, it just elicits a bit of an eye roll.

WARP for the past three seasons: Yasmani Grandal: 15.2 Manny Machado: 14.5 Bryce Harper: 9.4

Mutual options are almost never exercised, BUT... with the frozen FA market of the past few offseasons, have to wonder if a few more of them will start being picked up.

This is a severe overreaction to not signing Moustakas.

RHP Abner Uribe promoted from the DSL to the AZL Brewers Blue roster.

Surprised about this. Happy, but surprised. Talked to someone from the Brewers this offseason about it and they were pretty sure Houser wouldn't be getting the 4th option.

I enjoy the name change just for all the people triggered by it.

Wait, the Bucks turned Jason Smith and Thon Maker into Nikola Mirotic? That may just about cement Horst for GM of the year, assuming the Bucks get deep into the playoffs.

The NL is shaping up to be an extremely tough slog for good teams. Probably 10-12 clubs with at least a decent shot at 80+ wins.

Sure. But we do have a budget and what is the best way to spend that money. True, though I don't think anyone has a solid idea of what the Brewers' budget actually is. Some estimates had the Grandal signing putting the Brewers way over budget, and if the offer for Keuchel is real that would blow up a lot of other budget estimates. The Brewers have a lot of money they could spend, it's just a matter of a willingness by ownership to spend it. Stearns' best selling point in spending more money is probably to make it a value proposition. If signing Keuchel and Miley both turn out to be great values, it's possible ownership would approve signing both.

I believe it is actually impossible to have too much starting pitching. No team has ever finished a season saying to themselves, "man we overestimated how much pitching we'd need."

MLB is also littered with guys who developed their power tool later on. Far too early to write off his power. From a scouting perspective, it's not that people are writing off his power, it's that his frame is not the kind that is typically conducive to developing power. Which is not to say he can't, just that it's unlikely he'll develop anything above a fringe-average power stroke. With below-average power the most likely outcome.