And That

Optional assignment clock starts on the first day of the regular season. Almost positive about that. http://www.thecubreporter.com/book/export/html/3521 If you're optioned in spring training, you have to be down for the first ten days of the regular reason, except for the usual caveats. Injury, 26th man, etc.

I keep Diaz over Goforth without much thought. I continue to be baffled that Goforth sticks around. Wang is a tougher call as to who you cut. With all of the OFs they are accumulating, slightly surprised they didn't cut Nieuwenhuis. I might keep Wang over Blazek, Scahill, or Rivera as well.

I don't think the comparisons to Carter are quite accurate - similar profile, but Carter walked more and struck out less in the minors.

MLBTR is reporting it now so I guess it's real - the Brewers have indeed claimed Adam Brett Walker from the Twins. The Brewers' 40-man roster is presently full. They have to try Walker at first base, right?

Maybe both - players who go by their first and middle names are the new market inefficiency!

The Brewers have also claimed Adam Brett Walker from the Twins, according to the increasingly intriguing Milb_Tracker. Or at least I think claimed - the wording is a bit vague. May have been traded for. If they have indeed acquired Walker, he has 2 options remaining.

Baseball America's current list omits Williams, FWIW. I believe the deadline is 4pm EST to protect players. Teams have waited to add additional players until closer to the deadline in the past, so it's possible they still add Wang. They have one open 40-man spot, assuming Williams was added.

https://twitter.com/MiLB_Tracker/status/799670030522810368 And moments before. Should note that these moves have not been confirmed by the Brewers.

Even if his elbow isn't an issue, there's still the issue of repeating his 2016 season. I believe he had an unsustainably low BABIP (.250) and HR/FB (8.3%) in 2016. Very few pitchers are able to maintain either of those at those levels over multiple seasons, and even fewer could maintain both. So he is very likely to either give up more hits or give up home runs at a higher rate in 2017, or both. I wouldn't put money on Guerra putting up an ERA under 3.25, much less another 2.81. The question is how much higher is the ERA going to be, and how high can it go before he has less value in the future than he does now? I certainly won't fault the Brewers if they hold on to him, there are lots of good reasons to do so.

Wes Wilson has plus power. He's probably a 3B/corner OF down the line, but I like him a lot. Ryan Aguilar is a gamer, and can play CF.

The Brewers are in a bit of a tough spot with Guerra. He probably has more value this time next year if he's able to repeat his 2016 performance and remain healthy, but do you trust him to do both or even either of those things? Even for half a year? I tend to lean towards getting what you can now. I don't think he'll be part of the next Brewers playoff team, and his elbow sure seems like a ticking time bomb. And in a way the Brewers are playing with house money on this anyway as they picked him up for just about nothing.

I like the signing, but assuming the Brewers keep 12 pitchers on the MLB staff and 13 on each of the four full season minor league squads, the Brewers currently have 72(!) non-restricted pitchers slated begin the season in extended spring training (i.e. on the Helena, AZL, or DSL roster). That's insane. At some point, you have too many guys. The Brewers have too many guys.

Salt River Rafters 0, Scottsdale Scorpions 4 Box Score Game Day Salt River gets blanked, and is unable to secure the division title. Not much to report on offense. Salt River managed 3 hits, and none of them were by the three Brewers in the lineup. Isan Diaz went 0-3 with a walk and two strikeouts. Brett Phillips went 0-3 with a walk and three strikeouts. And Jacob Nottingham went 0-3 with two strikeouts. Diaz and Phillips both stole a base. Phillips made his first error of the AFL season. Tayler Scott and Josh Uhen made what are likely to be their final AFL appearances. Scott was impressive again with no runs allowed, allowing a double and a single in one and 2/3 innings of work, striking out three and walking none. He (likely) finishes with a 1.88 ERA and a gigantic 3.29 GO/AO ratio, which is elite level. He's always been a pitcher who gets groundballs, but never at this rate. Could be a fluke, or could be something the Brewers sent him to the AFL to work on. Josh Uhen threw a clean frame, striking out one. His AFL ERA is 6.39, though there were some positive signs from a scouting perspective. If Salt River wins Thursday afternoon, they play in the championship game on Saturday. If they lose, they have to wait and see if Mesa wins or loses.

Astros got him for lower AAV than his 2016 salary, and though the 2 years is risky, I think this will turn out well for them.

There is a fascinating dearth of scouting information available on Espino. Only mentioned once in BA prospect handbooks, back in 2007 to note he had an intriguing background because he pitched in the 2006 WBC. Not mentioned after that as far as I can find, 2007 or any year since. Not even in the organizational depth charts. So based on that... guessing he doesn't throw 95. Edit: He threw in the upper 80s as of four years ago.

Sac flies are in the denominator of the OBP calculation, so if you have more SFs than BBs/HBPs, your OBP can be lower than your AVG.

Salt River Rafters 9, Scottsdale Scorpions 1 Box Score Game Day A nice time for a blowout win over last-place Scottsdale, and the Rafters have won three in a row and remain a game up on second-place Mesa. Mesa's elimination number is now 3. Brett Phillips was the only member of the Brewers' hitting contingent to participate in the romp. He managed a 2-5 day, including a double, RBI, run scored, strike out, and stolen base. Despite the low batting average, Brett has still managed a 695 OPS thanks to his 17 walks. His 5 stolen bases are tied for 6th-best in the league. For the second game in a row, no Brewers pitched. That will change on Tuesday, when the Rafters play second-place Mesa at 1:35 CST. If the Rafters win, Mesa's elimination number drops to 1. Javi Salas gets another start for Salt River, and I am guessing that at least one of the Brewers' relievers will pitch as well.

Salt River Rafters 4, Peoria Javelinas 3 (11 innings) Box Score Game Day You may have heard how this game ended. I caught bits and pieces of the game, but managed to miss almost everything Brewers-related except for a few Brett Phillips outs and a Jacob Nottingham RBI single in the 5th. Phillips had another tough game at the plate, taking an 0-5, though he only struck out once. Phillips also had an awful throw in from right field in the 7th that should have allowed another Peoria run to score, but the Peoria baserunner had already slowed down as he clearly did not except Brett to throw a 90 MPH dart almost straight into the ground. To Phillips' credit, the ball he threw into the ground had enough oomph on it than even despite needing a few bounces and a roll to get into the infield, it got into the cutoff man fast enough that the runner at third could't restart and run home. Nottingham's offensive exploits, such as they were, have already been recounted in the story linked above. Two singles in five ABs, a run scored and 2 RBIs including the game-winner in the bottom of the 11th. When Nottingham is right at the plate, he exhibits good bat control and is able to go down and get pitches close to or out of the zone and serve them into the outfield. It's obvious why so many see promise in him at the plate. Obviously he had his share of not-so-hot days this year as well, but the tools are there. As for the defense today, he threw out D.J. Stewart trying to steal second, which is good, though it was 260 pounds of D.J. Stewart trying to rumble in to second base. Think Kyle Schwarber, plus a little more. Nottingham also seemed to be reaching across the plate a lot to catch the ball, at least during the bits of the game I saw. I don't know if it was pitchers missing their spots, or Nottingham being set up in the wrong place. It's not something I've noticed previously, so it might be the former. No Brewers pitched. On to Monday...

I don't know who they would be, but I would trade for/sign a third baseman, a catcher, and a starting pitcher, and hope like hell the starting pitchers already on the roster manage to not suck.

Agreed. He's one of the guys that really stood out to me, and not just because he's 6'5, 260. Given that he's just 25, there's a chance he might get a major league contract because he would still have three options. If I were the Brewers, I would consider it. I'd rather take a shot on Washington than continue to hang on to Goforth, or maybe even Blazek.

After throwing these guys into the Power 50 scoring system that CWH came up with, my top 25 players to sign in order of priority would be (excluding guys who have already signed): 1. Daniel Castro - SS Rockies 2. Kendry Flores - RHSP Cardinals 3. Henry Ramos - CF Dodgers 4. Peter Tago - RHRP Mariners 5. Johendi Jiminian - RHRP Rockies 6. Roberto Pena - C White Sox 7. Yorman Rodriguez - OF 8. Jhondaniel Medina - RHRP Cubs 9. Cesar Puello - OF Rangers 10. KC Serna - SS Marlins 11. Benji Gonzalez - SS Twins 12. Willians Astudillo - C 13. Andrew Bellatti - RHRP 14. David Washington - 1B Orioles 15. Evan Grills - LHRP Rockies 16. Palmer Betts - RHSP 17. Elliot Soto - SS 18. Kenny Wilson - CF A's 19. Armando Araiza - C Braves 20. Drew Maggi - SS 21. Carson Blair - C 22. LJ Hoes - CF 23. Wynton Bernard - OF Giants 24. Aaron Kurcz - RHRP A's 25. Colin Walsh - 3B Braves 26. Edgar Olmos - LHRP Red Sox ... 64. Paolo Espino - RHSP 75. Andrew Barbosa - LHRP 82. Andy Oliver - LHRP Edit: Apparently as soon as I clicked submit, Walsh was signed by Atlanta.

No way does Garza start opening day. Davies or Guerra will be your opening day starter. I think the current situation is that Garza may or may not start on Opening Day. It doesn't make sense to state it as an extreme either way. And whomever the Opening Day starter is matters to the extent that it will become the obscure answer to a trivia question within the next five years.

The Rays have Eddie Gamboa, who is an older guy who learned the knuckleball in the past couple of years. They also have a few knuckleballers in their minor league system. I think they have Charlie Haeger as a minor league coach or coordinator. They also have Brent Honeywell, who doesn't throw a knuckle, but he's one of the few brave souls who throws a screwball.

I'll have the Thursday-Saturday recaps on Sunday or Monday, but in the meantime here's a nice spreadsheet of various scouting measurements for AFL players. This is from Alec Dopp of 20-80 Ball, and for only players he's seen in the AFL: Nottingham with a decent pop time, Uhen with a good fastball, Spurlin with a good fastball for a sidearmer/submariner (he'd be the former). And based on the video above, Spurlin seems to keep his release point pretty well despite all the stuff going on with his delivery.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=30697 Rajai Davis is the only top 50 free agent (by the BPro rankings) that they have the Brewers signing. I don't exactly see the fit, but he steals bases when he manages to get on base. If he has a BABIP spike, could be a flip candidate at the deadline I guess.