Matt Breen

As always, thanks to everyone for posting updates on potential draft picks. I just don't follow college/prep players, so this is the best way for me to read about these players.

And he's struck out 7 times and hasn't walked in 12 plate appearances with zero home runs. He'll end up hitting his homers if he doesn't tank too much to start the season where he doesn't get the playing time. Davis has always been pretty streaky - so Oakland needs to be patient with him.

Thanks to everyone who put in their ballots. The voting is now closed. Watch for the results in the next couple of days.

Just a few more hours to vote!! Get your ballot in today (Tuesday, April 5) by midnight. Thanks.

proudsoftballdad, I'm going to assume that 'Marcos Dispatch' is actually 'Marcos Diplan' (autocorrect may have gotten you). Please let me know if I'm wrong with my assumption. Thanks.

Can't lay down a bunt either.

Some bad fundamentals hurting the team. Error by Scooter, questionable baserunning by Carter, on two plays Santana looked like he didn't have a clue where the ball was going, walking the pitcher. Oh well.

I'm assuming he's going to Helena. He's only got 52 IP of pro ball thus far - might be the best place to get started.

Record: 70-92; 4th place in the NL Central Team MVP: Braun Home Runs: Santana - 32 Wins: Nelson - 12 Bold Predictions: Lucroy, Scooter, Peralta and Carter are traded by July 31. Garza and Hill are traded or released by the end of 2016. Cecchini is our 3B by year's end.

Well, I thought Luc would be gone by today. As people have noted, let's just hope he stays healthy and produces. If Stearns didn't like what was on the table for Lucroy, I'm willing to take the gamble that he plays well and nets a good trade deal down the road.

I thought Trent Clark would start at Wisconsin.

Just nice to have baseball back. I want to win a lot, but I'm realistic and know that likely won't happen this year. Still, I'm excited to see how guys develop - Villar, Santana, Broxton playing today - all players who could be part of the future (or end up being bad). It'll be fun seeing who steps up.

Need all your ballots in by Tuesday!!! Feel free to make any tweaks to your original posts up through that time as well. Thanks.

Will do.

The Brewers should have the following guys at AA/AAA in the OF playing every day: C. Coulter T. Taylor V. Roache M. Reed B. Phillips I really don't care that much where they want to play them - AA or AAA - but those guys need to be in the line up everyday. And not at DH - everyone of those guys can benefit from playing the OF on a regular basis. You still have one spot open for Wren, plus whomever else the team wants to keep fresh. I don't like keeping down Coulter just so guys like Guez, Peterson, Young and Presley can get ABs. These guys aren't part of our future - having them around doesn't make a lot of sense if they are blocking other guys. That's just my opinion. Perhaps the club really thinks Coulter needs to repeat BC - but I think the guy would have benefited from the promotion.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/04/carlos-torres-likely-to-sign-with-brewers.html Reasonably successful veteran (age 33, produced a 3.59 ERA, 8.2 K/9 and 2.7 BB/9, over the last three years with Mets). Had a minor league deal with Braves but opted out of it when he wasn't going to make their roster. Brewers also placed Knebel on the 15-day DL with an oblique strain.

If this is not rhetorical, here's my answer: An assassination is usually when a person is killed in a plotted out, surprising fashion (the victim is not expecting the attempt to kill him/her). Assassinations often have political/religious/finanical motives behind them, but not always. Often times the victim is prominent - but again, not always. Some people use the term when it might not be appropriate because there's an association to the word that implies that the killing was related to some other greater event or conspiracy.

I thought I read that the Brewers would 'continue to work on Walsh's defense' or something like that. Not sure if that meant he wasn't that good, or that the club wanted him working other positions and he needs to improve in those places. Sorry I don't recall the source. Might have been JSonline.

Will do. Thanks.

Less than a week to get your ballots in -- thanks.

I think this is all pretty spot on. Let's see if Walsh can translate his OB skills to the big leagues - play some 2B in the platoon, get in at 3B, pinch hit, etc. I'm skeptical Rivera has suddenly figured out how to hit, but what the heck. Let's see what happens.

John Sickels has his Top 175: #11 - Arcia #35 - Lopez #48 - Phillips #63 - Nottingham #71 - Hader #118 - Diaz #136 - Clark #143 - Coulter http://www.minorleagueball.com/2016/3/28/11310760/the-top-175-mlb-prospects-for-2016

If a team was required to put away $10M a year into a stadium fund, at 5-6% interest, you would have around $500M in 25 years. Perhaps that's not enough to build a modern stadium (especially in 25 years), but it's a great start. I know this will never happen, because this means taking money out of the players and owners pockets, and we want to spend now because it might help us win, but it's how I wish things were done.

I have the same sense, but I'm not sure how much it's based on analysis and how much on hope. Everybody talks about how spring performance doesn't matter, and mostly they're right, but this sure seems like the mother of all exceptions to the rule. If anyone's been lowballing an offer because of Luc's health, that argument seems to have lost all traction. The key factor, I think, is that there needs to be more than one team interested, because with more than one suitor they all have an incentive to stop lowballing.With regards to spring performance, I don't really think it's exactly what Luc's done - just that he's out there doing his job, he looks good, look sharp, etc. There's nothing screaming out that there's an issue - such as striking out 20 times in 40 ABs or something like that.

How could we win 82 games next year? Here you go: C - Lucroy - .290 BA, 15 HR, .800 OPS (ML catchers had an OPS of .681 last year) 1B - Carter - 30+ HR, .230 BA, .800 OPS (ML average 1B had a .790 OPS in 2015) 2B - Scooter - 10 HR, .300 BA vs righties (2B last year had a .709 OPS) SS - Villar - .270 BA, .720 OPS (ML SS had a .688 OPS in 2015) 3B - Hill - .700 OPS (ML average is .754) LF - Braun - .290, 25 HR, .850 OPS (average ML LF had a .735 OPS) CF - Broxton - .240 BA, 10 HR, .700 OPS (average CF had a .738 OPS) RF - Santana - .240 BA, 30 HR, .800 OPS (aver RF had a .767 OPS last year) This makes us above average in two spots (C and LF), below average in two spots (3B and CF), and about average in four spots (RF, 1B, SS, 2B). I realize that starters generally need to be better than average because the reserves will drag down the positions overall numbers. But this is just a concept of how we could have an 'average' hitting club. Pitchers: Anderson, Peralta, Davies, Nelson, Garza, Jungmann collectively produce a 4.00 ERA. The NL average last year was 4.07 for starters. Jeffress, Blazek, Smith, Knebel and others collectively produce a 3.65 ERA this year. Last year NL relievers had a 3.66 ERA. Again, pitching numbers are collective, so Garza could end up with a 4.50 ERA while Nelson would have a 3.50 ERA, balancing them out. This makes our staff right about league average. I'm not saying any of this will happen. I'm just saying the numbers are feasible (but not likely, in my book). You produce league average numbers, and you are probably going to win around 80 or so games. Again, I stress I don't think this will happen. Injuries, guys struggling, etc., are going to happen. Especially with all these younger guys. But if we are lucky, things could gel. Garza and Peralta could make good comebacks, we stay free of major injuries, the bench produces well - you never know. A lot can go right, and we could reach 82 wins.