And That

I lose. That didn't take long. Edit: And I forgot Del Howell. I lose again. Time for bed.

Sorry about the notes being separated. My keyboard mashing needed a break in the middle.

As Jim has noted in the minor league spring training notes thread, the following pitchers haven't pitched in a spring game (that we know of) and therefore I assume that they will not be available to break camp with an affiliated club: Alex Periard, Brae Wright, Andre Lamontagne, Mike Ramlow and Corey Frerichs. I don't have the following position players assigned: Sean McCraw (has not played), Logan Schafer (thumb injury - should be back in May), Mikey Marseco (has not played) and most notably, D'Vontrey Richardson. Richardson hasn't played since early in spring training. I would assume he's injured, but we don't know to what degree. Since he's not playing, I'm not going to project him. It wouldn't shock me to see Josh Prince break with Huntsville, but I couldn't pull the trigger on it. The Brewers have a lot of talented relievers from top to bottom in the minors. I reserve the right to look dumb about where they might end up. Some of them are bound to start the year on the DL, too. There's just more relievers than spots right now. I would think it likely that either Byrd or Watten are in AA, that Pokorny is closing in Brevard and there's another lefty reliever with him in the Manatees' bullpen. It's too fluid to get a handle on, but I think I have large chunks of the bullpens right. I'm closer to certain about the A+ and A rotations, unless they decide to hold Lasker or Bucci back for another year in Wisconsin. They're both young. It's possible. Cameron Garfield looks to have won a spot over Rafael Neda if I'm reading my tea leaves correctly. Somewhat surprising to me, and I wouldn't be surprised to see those two flipped at some point. There's also a chance Zarraga goes to AA. Thornburg will have a piggyback partner. My guess is that it will be Cravy, but Holle, Wawrzasek or a host of other dudes are possibilities also. The rest of the Wisconsin rotation will be straight - no piggybacks. If the Brewers elect to not go with 5 OFs in Wisconsin, I could see Jason Rogers or T.J. Mittelstaedt making the club instead of Garvey or Romero or Dishon. If you think I've missed anything, let me know. I probably won't get back to you until tomorrow. Cheers!

Sorry for the formatting on that, and that. The Milwaukee roster is what it is. If someone asks me why I don't have Greinke listed as a starter, you owe me $5. I'm not sure if Caleb Gindl is going to be ready to go by Nashville's opening day or not. If not, Brandon Jones or Chuckie Caufield wind up with the Sounds, with Carroll starting in CF. If Gindl is ready, he'll play CF and Jones and/or Caufield will probably end up in AA and/or the "DL". I'm also assuming Riggans (still recovering from pneumonia) and Arlis (because he's always stashed there) will start on the DL, too. Milwaukee seems to like Frankie de la Cruz as a starter. I think they're nuts, and that he should be a relief pitcher, but he may wind up in the Sounds rotation. Speaking of the Sounds rotation, I'm assuming that Estrada will be Milwaukee's 5th starter on 4/6 and will be stashed on Helena's roster until then. And Mark Rogers' innings/pitch counts will be limited, so Sam Narron or Chase Wright may turn out to be pseudo-piggyback starters with Mark. Hand could beat out Fiers for that last bullpen spot in Nashville. Others have an outside chance, too. Huntsville has an interesting situation if Nowak, Wilson and Morris all make the roster. All three are 1B with the ability to kind-of play 3B and the corner OF. Not sure how playing time is going to work our between the three. And if Sean Halton makes the Huntsville roster too, um... it's always possible one of those guys ends up in Nashville somehow. More in a minute...

Milwaukee Starting Catcher W. Nieves Backup Catcher G. Kottaras Starting First Baseman P. Fielder Starting Second Baseman R. Weeks Backup Infielder C. Counsell Starting Third Baseman C. McGehee Starting Shortstop Y. Betancourt Backup Utility E. Almonte Starting Left Fielder R. Braun Starting Center Fielder C. Gomez Backup Outfielder N. Morgan Starting Right Fielder M. Kotsay Backup Outfielder J. Reed Starting Pitcher #1 Y. Gallardo Long Relief S. Mitre Starting Pitcher #2 S. Marcum Middle Relief #1 K. Loe Starting Pitcher #3 R. Wolf Middle Relief #2 Z. Braddock Starting Pitcher #4 C. Narveson Middle Relief #3 B. Kintzler Closer J. Axford Middle Relief #4 S. Green Righthanded Setup T. Saito Lefthanded Setup M. Stetter Nashville Starting Catcher M. Maldonado Backup Catcher M. Rivera Starting First Baseman M. Gamel Starting Second Baseman E. Farris Backup Infielder A. Machado Starting Third Baseman Z. Wheeler Starting Shortstop E. Maysonet Backup Utility T. Green Starting Left Fielder B. Boggs Starting Center Fielder C. Gindl Backup Outfielder B. Carroll Starting Right Fielder B. Katin Starting Pitcher #1 M. Rogers Long Relief S. Narron Starting Pitcher #2 A. Rivas Middle Relief #1 M. McClendon Starting Pitcher #3 T. Dillard Middle Relief #2 Z. Segovia Starting Pitcher #4 J. Butler Middle Relief #3 M. Fiers Starting Pitcher #5 C. Wright Righthanded Setup M. DiFelice Closer J. James Lefthanded Setup E. de la Cruz Huntsville Starting Catcher A. de la Rosa Backup Catcher D. Buller Starting First Baseman S. Wilson Starting Second Baseman M. Cline Backup Infielder Y. Ortiz Starting Third Baseman H. Morris Starting Shortstop S. Miranda Backup Utility J. Sanchez Starting Left Fielder L. Haydel Starting Center Fielder E. Komatsu DH/Backup Outfielder C. Nowak Starting Right Fielder B. Jones Starting Pitcher #1 W. Peralta Long Relief J. Henderson Starting Pitcher #2 D. Merklinger Middle Relief #1 D. Hand Starting Pitcher #3 C. Scarpetta Middle Relief #2 R. Mercedes Starting Pitcher #4 Je. Sanchez Middle Relief #3 D. Meadows Starting Pitcher #5 M. Bowman Setup #1 R. Hinton Closer R. Wooten Setup #2 L. Luetge Brevard County Starting Catcher C. Garfield Backup Catcher S. Zarraga Starting First Baseman C. Dennis DH/Backup 1B S. Halton Starting Second Baseman S. Gennett Starting Third Baseman M. Brownstein Starting Shortstop J. Prince Backup Utility K. Dhanani Starting Left Fielder Kh. Davis Backup Utility M. Roberts Starting Center Fielder Ke. Davis Starting Right Fielder B. Kjeldgaard Backup Outfielder S. Krieger Starting Pitcher #1 K. Heckathorn Long Relief/Piggyback D. Howell Starting Pitcher #2 E. Anundsen Long Relief/Piggyback R. Seidel Starting Pitcher #3 N. Bucci Middle Relief #1 A. Rosario Starting Pitcher #4 M. Lasker Middle Relief #2 M. Willinsky Starting Pitcher #5 H. Burgos Setup #1 T. Watten Closer D. Byrd Setup #2 J. Pokorny Wisconsin Starting Catcher R. Neda Backup Catcher B. Dean Starting First Baseman C. Hawn Starting Second Baseman S. Vucinich Starting Third Baseman G. Hopkins DH/Backup Utility M. Walker Starting Shortstop C. George Backup Utility J. Paciorek Starting Left Fielder J. Dishon Starting Center Fielder C. Stang Backup Outfielder R. Keen Starting Right Fielder F. Romero Backup Outfielder R. Garvey Starting Pitcher #1 T. Thornburg Long Relief/Piggyback T. Cravy Starting Pitcher #2 E. Arnett Long Relief D. Krestalude Starting Pitcher #3 M. Miller Middle Relief #1 G. Holle Starting Pitcher #4 J. Nelson Middle Relief #2 C. Bashara Starting Pitcher #5 A. Ross Setup #1 E. Marzec Closer B. Garman Setup #2 E. Nieves

Since it is a few days before the affiliate rosters will be announced, I'm going to refresh my minor league roster projections one more time tonight. These will be a lot more accurate than they were a few months ago, but I have little inside knowledge of what the Brewers are going to do with anyone, so the projections won't be spot on. Check back in this space sometime after dinner tonight to get my final take on where our minor leaguers will be headed to start out 2011.

I wonder if the board is Duck Hunt compatible?

Have to think Axford will make his decision shortly. Rage Against the Machine is making a late push. Rally 'round the family!

This is a bad omen for Brandon Kintzler.

I'm gonna go indie rock on this and say "It's All Gonna Break" by Broken Social Scene. Also... Van the Man! Sorry, video quality is terrible.

I don't think Mitre is going to start at all for the Brewers. It's gonna be Estrada/Rogers. Mitre will be the guy that soaks up the junk innings. As those innings are often distributed very unevenly, I don't want a young reliever pitching those, both for arm health and for development. 50-70 junk innings of 4.50ish ERA ball are valuable, especially when they're pitched by a guy that isn't very valuable.

Boggs was indeed placed on waivers to clear a 40-man spot - we'll find out pretty soon whether or not he accepted the assignment.

The latest, and hopefully last, injury report to come out of Arizona, from McCalvy. The reason Braddock missed the past few days was that he was stung by a scorpion. You couldn't make this up. He'll be fine for opening day.

And from Andrew Gruman (this may have been touched on earlier, sorry, I'm catching up after a day out with the family) about Brandon Boggs: They never officially announced anything but that [boggs] didn't make the team. He packed up and left. No word on waivers yet.

More from McCalvy - Mike McClendon was "sent down" - which probably means optioned to AAA.

Justin James was optioned to AAA, per McCalvy. Probably came down to him and Kintzler for the 8th bullpen, unless they go with McClendon. Heard good stuff about James' stuff in spring training. Should be an option later in the year.

The fact that he didn't take a 25 man spot over a MiLB deal - you don't think the Pirates or Nationals would have given him $1.5M? - makes me think that Milwaukee wasn't really an option, unless it was as a SP. We're not operating in a vacuum, where we can just snatch up all of these guys in the theoretical major league replacement level relief pitcher ether.

Morgan's arm is not that great. I wouldn't want him playing everyday, even though he's an offense upgrade (probably) over Gomez.

See, that's the thing though. You know what you're likely going to get with Mitre, more or less. All these guys floating around in the theoretical major league replacement level relief pitcher ether, like Marco Estrada, might be replacement level, or they might be terrible. Someone brought up Zack Segovia earlier - he's a guy that looks like he might be good. He also might be terrible. Who knows? I'd rather not waste too much time trying to find out if the Brewers are going to be in contention. I'd also rather not have a a guy like Kintzler trying to eat the junk innings that the Brewers are going to foist on Mitre. Mitre is going to have a crap job, and he'll be mediocre at it, but there's value there.

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that Millwood was not going to sign a $900K contract to be a RP for the Brewers.

Mitre had a 2.6 WAR for the Marlins in '07. I don't know how you define well, but that's a pretty decent 3/4 of a season. He was >0 RAR both of the last two seasons, which is more than Dickerson can say. Look, no one is saying Mitre is this great, or even good pitcher. I don't think anyone here seriously thinks he was the bee's knees last season (if they do, well, that's on them). He is a pitcher that will likely be somewhere slightly above replacement level next season, he can pitch junk innings, he provides depth for an already deep bullpen, and he's cheap. I would like to see a list of these "dozens of guys" people keep talking about that we can get for free, who have even Mitre's MLB track record. Dickerson is turning 29 here in a few weeks and has shown both the inability to stay healthy (<600 PA MLB career) and the ability to strike out a lot for what his power is. From watching him, it appears to me that he draws walks more out of guesswork than actual knowledge of the strike zone. He also flat-out can't hit lefties. He's one of those guys that should be really good, and he is defensively, but I think he may well be past his prime with the stick. Maybe the injuries have taken a toll. I dunno.

Hawkins to the 15 day DL, too, sayeth TH. Also retroactive to the 22nd. I agree that retroactive date on Parra probably means nothing. Last we heard (I think) he was still not pitching off the mound. You never know, though.

Courtesy Fantasy411. We'll probably get more info later on how long the Brewers expect Parra to be out. Edit: Haudricourt says that Parra was placed on the DL retroactive to 3/22, which might mean he's not expected to be out much longer.

Greinke to the DL, retroactive to 3/22.

I'm still optimistic he'll only miss 2-3 starts. He already had built his arm up a bit, so he won't be starting from scratch.