And That

I'm with JimH5... this dude was totally gone from the memory banks. He's probably the only person to have pitched for the Pirates, Brewers, White Sox, Twins and Rays.

Yah, like I mentioned, I doubt Fielder ends up donning a Brewers uni next year, but the only source I use for projections are players currently under 2011 contract with the club.

Al, Thornburg has always been in the Wisconsin rotation. Haven't changed anything with that. Only changes I made were mentioned. Milwaukee doesn't use a DH, so I don't use DHes for projections. Most of the guys that DH rotate through it and play regularly in the field. Erick Almonte, Angel Salome, Steve Felix and Kevin Berard were the only players to get more time at DH than all other positions combined. So, it's really not an everyday spot for anyone in particular. I think Walker will play everyday, just as a guy that rotates through 1B, 3B and DH, like he did with Helena. Lamontagne turns 25 before camp breaks next year, so that works against him... with so many starters in the upper minors, they may want to try to get a reliever or two fast-tracked to Milwaukee. Then again, they may see enough in him to keep him as a starter for the time being. I think it could go either way. If Lawrie is moved again, we might see Dykstra back to second and in Huntsville. With his OBP skills, they need to find a place for him to be sure.

Cain graduated off the Power 50 with his first official AB tonight. Congrats, Lo! In case you're wondering... if Cain had graduated before this last edition of the Power 50 went online, Lucas Luetge would have been #50.

Pair him with Kottaras, and that's a winning marketing campaign.

Brian Anderson always seems really impressed that he remembers Ryan Braun as a third baseman, like it is some obscure fact. It's getting up there with his "would be next" line and unknowing fly ball calls.

It seems to me that when Braun catches a ball in the outfield, he often has a problem gloving it. As in, the ball gets caught in the heel or high in the webbing. He just looks awkward catching the baseball. My guess is he'd have some similar problems at first, only with gloving short-hops and low throws. I also wouldn't totally discount instincts at 1B - have you seen Adam Dunn play there? All that said, Braun would probably be an upgrade over Fielder, but as Roderick mentioned, I have serious doubts that Braun would be thrilled with the move.

Very Niese observation.

If Wolf starts the season finale and pitches 7 scoreless innings (which, given his run of good starts isn't out of the question), he can get his ERA to or below league average. Not too bad for a guy that had a terrible first half.

If I can intuit anything from those text messages, it's that he's communicating with someone in Finland. Babii's last name is probably Tirkkonen or something. Sorry, lame joke. Seriously, though, I hope they get the douche who stole your iPod, and more importantly, that you get it back.

What is Kottaras' ground-out-to-second-base%?

I like Webb, but only on a low guarantee/high incentive deal. Same with Justin Duchscherer, though I wouldn't pay him much more than the minimum guaranteed. Chris Young's fastball velocity by year, starting with 2004, ending 2010: 91.2, 89.9, 89, 88.7, 87.2, 85.8, 84.7. Anyone else notice a pattern? No thanks.

I'd bet Gardenhire is the manager in Minnesota until he decides to call it quits. OTOH, there might be a chance that the Twins might let Rick Anderson interview for a manager's job - he's the pitching coach who gets good results out of that staff year after year.

With the re-signing of Arlis and Wright, I just made a slight adjustment. Merklinger slides down to AA, Periard gets bumped from the AA rotation and Wooten comes off the AA roster. Wooten is coming back from TJ surgery and I don't know if he'll be healthy or not.

We already knew about Delarosa and Machado, but McCalvy informs us that Patrick Arlis and Chase Wright have re-signed as well. No word yet on which disabled list the non-injured Arlis will open the year on.

Coffey and Villanueva might be non-tendered, Hawkins is coming off shoulder surgery and what ever trade value Gomez had was all but extinguished this year. We would get almost nothing for any of them. Dickerson is more valuable to us on the field than in a trade. Salome is a free agent that we have yet to re-sign. If we want to get trade value out of our bullpen, it'll have to be from Axford, Loe or one of the younger guys, and I doubt we'll be trading any of them.

Like I mentioned in the notes above the projections, I have no idea what his status is, so I didn't include him. I assume he will be back at some point.

At this point, with the system at low tide in terms of players who will be in the Brewers' plans for next year, I bumped up far more guys than I was conservative with in my placement. For instance, there's less than a 1% chance that the Brewers' opening day rotation will be Gallardo-Wolf-Narvseon-Parra-Rogers - they are going to add at least one pitcher to that mix, probably more. That bumps everyone else down. I'd bet one or none of Jeffress/Merklinger/Fiers opens in AAA, which trickles down to AA where Heckathorn may start back in Brevard, and so on. So on the pitching side, I'll say Peralta, Burgos, Seidel and Arnett have a chance to be higher than where they are. I won't guess on any relief pitchers... that's totally impossible to guess in March, much less now. You're right that Kentrail Davis may well end up in Huntsville, but I don't think he will for two reasons. First, the Brewers from time to time have shown a tendency to keep a groups of players together. The Davises/Dennis/Gennett/Dykstra/Morris looks like a pretty solid group and it just so happens they are clustered pretty close together in the Power 50. The other reason has to do with Logan Schafer. I tend to doubt he'll have earned a promotion to AAA by the time camp breaks next spring and if Kentrail and Logan are on the same team, Kentrail won't be playing center field. Kentrail's value to the team will be greatly increased if he shows he can play center on an everyday basis. He was already shut out of that opportunity by playing in the same outfield with Richardson in Wisconsin. This is assuming that Richardson isn't promoted to Brevard, but I think he's relatively likely for a repeat, and I think it's much more likely Richardson ends up in Wisconsin than Schafer ends up in Nashville, so Brevard seems like the perfect fit to allow Kentrail to play center. As for other guys, Hawn could probably be bumped to Brevard, but where would he play unless Morris repeats Wisconsin or gets promoted to Huntsville? As I mentioned, Richardson could feasibly go back to Brevard too, but I'd like to see him knock around Midwest League pitching a little more. Finally, if Weeks is traded, I think the Brewers will give Lawrie every shot to make the team out of spring training.

Shortstop definitely shows up as the single biggest weakness in the organization. Farris and Wheeler aren't really shortstops, Prince had a terrible year and George had a fielding percentage of about .900 at shortstop, which sadly is a decent improvement from last year. It wouldn't surprise me at all to see the Brewers go after a shortstop very high in next year's draft. OTOH, the minor league rotations are fascinatingly deep.

I usually do this later in the offseason, but I had a few minutes to kill today, so here's a really really really early projection for next year's rosters. Anyone who is not under contract for next year (to the best of my knowledge) has not been included in the projection. Anyone who is under contract is fair game, though I obviously am aware of the unlikelihood of Fielder still being around next season. And for the most part, if a pitcher ended this year on the disabled list with a major or undisclosed injury, I didn't include him. I never trust pitchers to get healthy until they are healthy. If I made any obvious mistakes, let me know. Again, this isn't a prediction - I don't expect any of the rosters to end up like I have them right now. There are a few spots in Nashville where the Brewers just don't even have a guy yet. This just gives some idea at what me might be looking at next year, as of this very second. Milwaukee Starting Catcher J. Lucroy Backup Catcher G. Kottaras Starting First Baseman P. Fielder Starting Second Baseman R. Weeks Backup Infielder L. Cruz Starting Third Baseman C. McGehee Starting Shortstop A. Escobar Backup Utility J. Inglett Starting Left Fielder R. Braun Starting Center Fielder L. Cain Backup Outfielder C. Dickerson Starting Right Fielder C. Hart Backup Outfielder B. Katin Starting Pitcher #1 Y. Gallardo Long Relief C. Villanueva Starting Pitcher #2 R. Wolf Middle Relief #1 L. Hawkins Starting Pitcher #3 C. Narveson Middle Relief #2 T. Coffey Starting Pitcher #4 M. Parra Middle Relief #3 M. Stetter Starting Pitcher #5 M. Rogers Righthanded Setup K. Loe Closer J. Axford Lefthanded Setup Z. Braddock Nashville Starting Catcher A. Delarosa Backup Catcher P. Arlis Starting First Baseman M. Gamel Starting Second Baseman B. Lawrie Backup Infielder A. Machado Starting Third Baseman T. Green Starting Shortstop E. Farris Backup Utility TBD Starting Left Fielder L. Haydel Starting Center Fielder C. Gomez Backup Outfielder C. Caufield Starting Right Fielder C. Gindl Starting Pitcher #1 J. Jeffress Long Relief C. Cody Starting Pitcher #2 J. Butler Middle Relief #1 M. McClendon Starting Pitcher #3 A. Rivas Middle Relief #2 M. DiFelice Starting Pitcher #4 C. Wright Middle Relief #3 D. Hand Starting Pitcher #5 M. Fiers Righthanded Setup A. Lamontagne Closer B. Kintzler Lefthanded Setup L. Luetge Huntsville Starting Catcher S. Zarraga Backup Catcher S. McCraw Starting First Baseman S. Halton Starting Second Baseman M. Cline Backup Infielder J. Sanchez Starting Third Baseman S. Miranda Starting Shortstop Z. Wheeler Backup Utility P. Fatse Starting Left Fielder S. Wilson Starting Center Fielder L. Schafer Backup Outfielder B. Kjeldgaard Starting Right Fielder E. Komatsu Starting Pitcher #1 C. Scarpetta Long Relief T. Watten Starting Pitcher #2 W. Peralta Middle Relief #1 D. Meadows Starting Pitcher #3 K. Heckathorn Middle Relief #2 D. Byrd Starting Pitcher #4 M. Bowman Middle Relief #3 M. Ramlow Starting Pitcher #5 D. Merklinger Setup #1 A. Periard Closer C. Frerichs Setup #2 B. Bramhall Brevard County Starting Catcher R. Neda Backup Catcher A. Stockfisch Starting First Baseman C. Dennis Backup Catcher M. Roberts Starting Second Baseman S. Gennett Starting Third Baseman C. Dykstra Backup Utility M. Brownstein Starting Shortstop J. Prince Starting Left Fielder H. Morris Backup Outfielder E. Miller Starting Center Fielder Ke. Davis Backup Outfielder S. Krieger Starting Right Fielder Kh. Davis Starting Pitcher #1 J. Odorizzi Long Relief/Piggyback D. Howell Starting Pitcher #2 M. Lasker Long Relief/Piggyback D. Krestalude Starting Pitcher #3 N. Bucci Middle Relief #1 R. Almonte Starting Pitcher #4 H. Burgos Middle Relief #2 M. Costello Starting Pitcher #5 R. Seidel Setup #1 M. Willinsky Closer J. Pokorny Setup #2 B. Ritchie Wisconsin Starting Catcher C. Garfield Backup Catcher B. Dean Starting First Baseman C. Hawn Starting Second Baseman S. Vucinich Backup Infielder J. Paciorek Starting Third Baseman G. Hopkins Starting Shortstop C. George Backup Utility M. Walker Starting Left Fielder J. Dishon Starting Center Fielder D. Richardson Backup Outfielder K. Allison Starting Right Fielder F. Romero Backup Outfielder R. Garvey Starting Pitcher #1 E. Arnett Long Relief/Piggyback S. Wawrzasek Starting Pitcher #2 T. Thornburg Long Relief/Piggyback T. Cravy Starting Pitcher #3 M. Miller Middle Relief #1 R. Currie Starting Pitcher #4 A. Ross Middle Relief #2 E. Frederickson Starting Pitcher #5 J. Nelson Setup #1 E. Marzec Closer B. Garman Setup #2 A. Jones

Neda signed a little late, but he did have 47 ABs between Arizona and Helena.

I agree that it is likely Garfield repeats his assignment, though I don't see Tyler Roberts starting out in full season ball. They've taken it so slowly with him so far, I imagine they'll keep him in line behind Garfield for the time being. To me, it's highly unlikely Garfield and Roberts would be on the same team. The guy I think that will be catching in Brevard is someone who just missed my personal top 50 list, Rafael Neda. Neda is an advanced defensive catcher and is older than either Garfield or Roberts.

Sunday morning new Power 50! Aka "The One Where Mat Gamel Finally Got His One At Bat." Last one until after the winter meetings. Enjoy!

Whoa, Gamel is totally the new Ginter.

Is this another shot at Maine? I don't like below-average defense, which is what the Brewers' infield has produced, whether you judge that by UZR or the naked eye.