And That

Biloxi has a Southern League-worst .582 team OPS through 7 games.

My theory is that the Brewers are going to trade this to one of the teams that is over the international bonus pool for this signing period, in exchange for a competitive balance pick. I do not believe there is a rule against trading a bonus pool slot for a competitive balance pick. It would save the team trading for the slot more than what the slot is worth because they are currently being taxed on their overage. The Padres' pick in competitive balance round B is worth $858,600, for reference.

The Brewers just left Toronto, and now they have Drake. I see what you did there, Stearns.

Cedar Rapids Edges Rattlers 2-1 Rattlers miss opportunities and drop second straight game By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers (Photo: Wisconsin Timber Rattlers) Wisconsin Boxscore Another game of slim offensive output for the Rattlers. Their pitching did a great job, but as Mehring notes in his game story, the offense just could not quite come through. The team had another woeful night with runners in scoring position, this time going 1-9. The offense was lead by Monte Harrison, Mario Feliciano, and Trever Morrison, each of whom had two hits. Feliciano had the lone extra base hit, his second double in as many nights and his third game in a row with an extra base hit. The 200th oldest (aka the youngest) player in the Midwest League on Opening Day has a smooth .994 OPS after 21 ABs, good for 11th in the league. Harrison was hit in the face while batting in the top of the 8th. He left the game, but was reportedly not much the worse for wear after the game, with a puffy lip and not much else. It's great to hear Harrison is ok after a scary moment, and that he avoided serious injury. Gilbert Lara, playing third base in the game, went 0-4 with 3 strikeouts and looked lost at the plate. Jordan Desguin and Trey Supak tandemed 8 really good innings. Desguin just slipped a bit in the 5th, allowing the lone runs of the game for the Kernels. Supak allowed a single over his three innings, and that was it, paired with 4 punch outs. He's off to a really impressive start, and is in an 8-way tie for the lead in the Midwest League ERA crown, with an ERA of naught. Wisconsin Log This was all the Kernels, which I refuse to believe is a serious name for a baseball team, needed: Cedar Rapids Bottom of the 5th Caleb Hamilton homers (1) on a fly ball to left center field. Aaron Whitefield grounds out, shortstop Trever Morrison to first baseman Ryan Aguilar. Christian Cavaness singles on a bunt ground ball to pitcher Jordan Desguin. With Jermaine Palacios batting, Jordan Desguin picks off Christian Cavaness at 1st on throw to Ryan Aguilar. Jermaine Palacios walks. Travis Blankenhorn triples (1) on a fly ball to right fielder Joantgel Segovia. Jermaine Palacios scores. Mitchell Kranson grounds out, third baseman Gilbert Lara to first baseman Ryan Aguilar.

No.

Per Ben Badler on Twitter, the bonus slot is for this signing period. It expires on June 15th.

Monte Harrison got hit in the helmet by an errant pitch in the 8th and had to be taken out of the game. If he didn't have bad luck...

The affiliates are 13-12 entering today's action. Given the overall minor league records of the past few seasons, this is a welcome change. Let's hope they can keep it up.

FWIW, which is not much. If you take the top prospect rankings from a number of sources, including Perfect Game, Baseball America, D1 Baseball, among others, and then you average them together, these are the guys that come in at the Brewers' picks: 9: D.L. Hall 34: Quentin Holmes 46: Evan White 84: Jake Mangum 114: Connor Wong I'd be very happy with that.

What are your thoughts on Brent Rooker? He's not Andrew Benintendi, but he seems to have had a Benintendish rise up draft boards recently, to the point where he's probably a first round consideration. Should the Brewers consider him at 34 or 46 if he's still there?

I guess I would interpret this data not so much as "will a 32yo player decline" - it is highly likely that the player will - but will the player decline too much? Extreme back of the envelope math tells me that Braun would have to produce about 8 WAR between '17-'20 to justify the remainder of his deal. Yes, the production is likely to be front loaded, but if he eclipses 8 WAR all you're doing is saving on the first bit of good production and eating the last bit of bad production. Assuming there is inflation, this is not a bad move. There is also the fact that he has a significant chunk of deferred compensation. This also works in the team's favor. Given the players on that chart, using WAR provided, this is how much they produced in their 33-36yo seasons: Walker: 19.9 Berkman: 8.9 Holiday: 6.8 Lee: 3.3 Mondesi: -0.5 Bagwell: 17.3 Guerrero: 5.2 Edmonds: 19.2 Giles: 13.2 Alou: 6.8 5 of the 10 cleared the 8 WAR hurdle, most of them pretty easily. Holiday and Alou were pretty close. And I'm not sure Mondesi is a great comp because he was toast physically by that point. The contracts he got from the Pirates and Braves in the '04 and '05 seasons gets to that point. Given that extremely small sample size of information, it appears to me that Braun is a little more likely than not to be worth the remainder of his contract. That does not mean he won't decline. It just means that the level of his decline will be acceptable. Which is what Braun's suitors are attempting to determine, and what the Brewers are attempting to value.

Between Diplan's sudden start, Zack Brown's sudden departure, and Drossner's DLing, wonder if Pennington or Kirby get activated soon for Wisconsin.

Kind of a phantom transaction, but the Shuckers needed to make a roster move (Allemand) to get Taylor Jungmann activated once he reported.

Think the bullpen has been more lucky than good to this point. They have the second-worst bullpen BB/9 in baseball, and the fifth-worst K/9. Doubt either of those continue to be as bad going forward, but are warning signs all the same. It does help that they are inducing a lot of ground balls. I have been impressed by Knebel. Look like he could be the next great bullpen trade piece if he can continue to locate his curve.

The Dodgers are probably more likely to play Bellinger in LF than trade him for Braun.

Burlington tops Wisconsin 9-1 Bees outhit Rattlers 15-3 as they pull away to win series By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers (Photo: Wisconsin Timber Rattlers) Wisconsin Boxscore Not much to see in the box score in terms of offense. Ronnie Gideon, Mario Feliciano, and Jonathan Oquendo each had a hit, and Feliciano's was a double, dubiously making him Player of the Game. Somebody has to be. Trever Morrison continued his odd start to the season. In his first 14 PAs of 2017, he has struck out 7 times and walked 3 times. He had an error in today's game, his first of the year, which gave him one more error than he has hits. Nattino Diplan had big time trouble locating, well, anything today, which is kind of the thing that usually happens to him. He gets pretty good movement on everything, but really has no idea where it is going most of the time. He generates lots of ground balls, but he often catches too much of the zone and the ground balls are hit sharply into holes. He throws hard, 92-95 at peak, but does not appear to have great arm speed, so he really has to torque the ball up there, which I believe adds to his struggles with control. Dalton Brown followed "Tino" with an equally forgettable outing. Aaron Myers did yeoman work to chew up the final 4 innings, allowing a solo home run and little other incidental damage. And yes, pop outs. Wisconsin Log Pop outs may be all we have, but we have pop outs from Aaron Myers: Burlington Top of the 6th Pitching Change: Aaron Myers replaces Dalton Brown. Jack Kruger walks. Jordan Zimmerman strikes out swinging. Jeyson Sanchez called out on strikes. Brennan Morgan pops out to second baseman Tucker Neuhaus. Burlington Top of the 7th Jordan Serena grounds out, second baseman Tucker Neuhaus to first baseman Ronnie Gideon. Juan Moreno homers (1) on a fly ball to left field. Josh Merrigan called out on strikes. Jahmai Jones pops out to shortstop Trever Morrison.

Corbin Burnes with another strong outing to start the season. The Mudcats' offense, however, remains underwhelming.

Per Brewers PD, Gabriel Noriega has been Helena'd off of the Sky Sox roster. With the arrival of Archer and Blazek, a spot needed to be opened up and the Brewers decided Noriega, one of five utility-types on the roster, would be the guy to go. The Sky Sox are now back at the customary 13 pitcher/12 position player setup the Brewers usually use in the minors. And Deymar Alvarado, a 19 year old right handed pitcher from Panama, has been released. He pitched in the DSL each of the past two seasons.

Jonathan Villar Defensive Appreciation Night in Montgomery tonight.

Wisconsin game postponed due to inclement weather.

Tristan Archer has been promoted to Colorado Springs to make room for Angel Ventura on the Biloxi active roster. The Sky Sox will need to make a move to get back down to 25 players. It's possible Blazek hasn't re-reported yet, so that move may not need to happen right away.

Via the Brewers PD Twitter account, the Brewers have also signed catcher Kevin Martir, and assigned him to extended spring training. Martir was an 18th round pick of the Astros in 2015, so perhaps Stearns was familiar with him. He was released by the Astros during the last week of March.

There will need to be a roster move to activate Ventura from the Helena roster.

Michael Blazek has cleared waivers and been assigned outright to Colorado Springs.

Going to go out on a limb here and guess Villar doesn't finish the season with a 48.4% strikeout rate, a 3.2% walk rate, or a .231 BABIP. The defense remains worrisome, but he's not a bad offensive player. He's going through an awful stretch that just happens to be at the beginning of the season. If this were happening in August after putting up a 750 OPS for the first 4 months of the year, it's probably not a huge topic.