Matt Breen

Aren't you going to post one? I just put mine list into my spreadsheet, which I don't have in front of me. It's not terribly different than the final list. I had Ponce higher than most, Davies lower than most. At the bottom of the order I had a lot of starting pitcher types - Ortega, Sneed, Houser, T. Williams, etc. - sort of interchangeable. I didn't have any relievers. The only guy who didn't make the Top 25 this year that wasn't on my list was Rivera (the guy I had on my list that didn't make it was T. Williams.)

You're welcome. Results should be posted on Friday.

McMahon would be an awesome pickup, but he's a pretty nice prospect already (MLB pipeline has him at #50), so he's going to cost a lot. The Rockies probably aren't going to want a veteran, so getting a third team involved would be the best way to get him. If you start talking big names - Lucroy, Peralta, etc., perhaps that's the way to make some kind of deal. Ultimately, the Rockies want to sign Arrenado to a long term deal, so McMahon would potentially be available. But Colorado would probably want to wait until such a deal is finalized before trading McMahon.

Madden took the Cubs much further than anyone anticipated. I figured they were a .500ish team. In the end, Madden can't make his guys hit the ball or pitch better - it's the players job at some point. The Cubs have a young team not without flaws, but they did well with what they had. Good health played a big role in that. They simply ran into another good team that is playing better. All that said, I hate the Cubs and the Cardinals, and will be thrilled to see them out of it.

Last day to vote!!! Get your ballot in today.

Murphy is a good hitter for average, doesn't walk much, and has modest power. His versatility is a plus. Defense is meh. That's a complimentary player best suited for a team that is already contending - or close to contending - and has a hole to fill. If I had a 24 year old version of Murphy making $500,000, I'd plug him in at 3B or 2B and be thrilled. But not at $10-12M a year for the next 3-4 years. Paying top dollar for average players is not what Milwaukee should be doing at this time. Develop guys, make trades, invest wisely. Again, it's not that we couldn't use Murphy or that he's bad. It's just not at this time should we invest in this kind of player. Our resources are better off going to other places.

Only a few days left to vote! Get your ballot in soon. Thanks much.

Drafting pitching vs hitting is tough. I think studies have shown picking hitters is more of a sure thing. The problem with that is that if you pick the more reliable guy (the hitter), how do you develop top flight pitching? I don't have the answer to that. It's the problem every team has. I think the Cubs went specifically after high end hitters - the kinds of players who could move quickly through their system and provide impact at the major league level - with every intention of buying starting pitching. Having Arietta become one of the league's best pitchers is a huge surprise, but I think their plan was pretty clear. Get the hitters in place via trades and the draft, then plug in pitching using the team's financial resources. Unfortunately, Milwaukee can't do this. We can't sign a pitcher like Lester and then a pitcher like Price in back-to-back years. While I wouldn't shy away from a pitcher, I'm betting we focus on hitters. We should have a couple of years of high picks to go with the bats we currently have. Then continue to add arms in the later rounds, like Ponce and Kirby, and hope we can develop guys like the Cardinals do - perhaps not #1 types, but a stable of mid rotation guys. You hope a couple of those guys can be even better. Solid rotation, good bullpen and quality depth go with a good lineup. You can even supplement that by using your depth to make a deal when you feel the time is right - like when we added Greinke (but you do that because you have lots of minor league depth). In the end, it's drafting well not just in the 1st round, but in other rounds as well. I know that's obvious, but

It really depends on how many people vote. The more people that vote, the more points that are available, thus raising the number for everything. Based on previous polls, if we have 25 people or so vote, something like 70 or 90 points will likley get someone around #25. But if we get 30 participants or more, it'll probably be near a 100 or more. It's hard to say.

We've got 20 so far, which is pretty good. I was shooting for at least 25. We had over 30 this past mid-season, but I'm just not sure how many people are hitting the boards at this time. OK. BTW, any surprises based on the ballots so far? Nothing really earth shattering at first glance. Cravy and Wagner have really dropped - much of that is simply because we have better players - but also the growing realization that both guys have limited skillsets - thus limiting their upside. Also, fewer and fewer votes for guys who project as part timers - Wren, Rivera, relievers, etc. Again, probably the simple fact that we have really improved our system over the last two years. The community tends to focus on potential impact players over guys that look like role players.

awesome. thanks.

Perhaps one of the mods could post a thread on the ML forum to alert people that we are doing our post season poll. We've done that in the past, and I think it helps alert people who don't visit the minor league forum often that there is a poll in progress. Thanks.

We've got 20 so far, which is pretty good. I was shooting for at least 25. We had over 30 this past mid-season, but I'm just not sure how many people are hitting the boards at this time.

Thanks, Clancy, for kicking out the first list!

We would like to invite everyone to participate in our 2015 Post-Season BF.net Fan Community Top 25 Prospects voting. Lots of exciting things going on. Please take time and submit on this thread your top 25 Brewer prospects. Please feel free to list any resources or news that you feel might help people with their voting. Also, please take the time to share your insights on players, especially newcomers and guys coming up in the lower ranks. It helps people who don't follow the minors that well with making their selections. RULES 1. Submit your Top 25 prospects, in order, by end of day on October 21. 2. You MUST submit 25 prospects. If there are only 10 or 15 or whatever, your list will not be included. Feel free to post more than 25, just to show to others who just missed the cut. 3. Rankings are determined by total points. The top prospect gets 25 points, second prospect gets 24 points, etc. 4. If you submit your list and want to change something, just add the change to the thread. I'll accept changes up to the deadline. 5. Within a few days after the deadline, we'll publish the new BF.net Community Top 25. Eligibility questions: Rookie eligibility is determined by 50 IP or 130+ ABs at the major league level. - Jason Rogers, Hernan Perez, Luis Sardinas, Shane Peterson, Domingo Santana, Taylor Jungmann and Corey Knebel are ineligible. - Tyler Cravy, Zach Davies, Tyler Wagner, Ariel Pena, Wei-Chung Wang and David Goforth are all eligible. I would encourage everyone to vote based upon the above criteria. Player Notes: - Pitchers Taylor Williams and Nathan Kirby will likely miss all of 2016 with Tommy John surgery. Other notes: - Please note that we have two Diazs in this organization. If voting for Brandon or Miguel Diaz, please be clear who you are voting for. - We also have multiple Williams - Devin and Taylor (there might even be another one!). Just make sure you note who you are voting for. - There are also two Ortegas - pitcher Luis Ortega and pitcher Jorge Ortega. - Please comment if you know other conflicts! Newcomers to consider: - OF Brett Phillips - P Adrian Houser - P Zach Davies - P Josh Hader Prospect Rankings: There are no post-season prospect listings out just yet, but here’s some mid-season lists. MLB (updated mid-season; they move players off the list once they graduate to the majors): http://m.mlb.com/prospects/2015 Baseball America (mid-season Top 50 update): http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/midseason-top-50-prospects2015/ Miller Park Prospects (Top 40 Brewer players updated after trade deadline): https://millerparkprospects.wordpress.com/2015/08/07/6617/ Minor League Ball (John Sickels - Top 75 mid-season list): http://www.minorleagueball.com/2015/7/12/8940113/top-75-mlb-prospects-mid-season-update BF.net 2015 Mid-Season Top 25 list - viewtopic.php?f=64&t=33032 BF.net 2015 Preseason Top 25 list - viewtopic.php?f=64&t=32447 BF.net August 2014 Top 25 list - viewtopic.php?f=64&t=31859 BF.net May 2014 Top 20 list: viewtopic.php?f=64&t=31355 Stats: Looking for stats? Check out this handy BF.net page: viewtopic.php?f=64&t=12293 Thanks for participating!

Philly beat writer says the Brewers showed interest in 3B Cody Asche this past summer. Asche is expendable because the Phillies have a stud in Maikel Franco. http://www.csnphilly.com/baseball-philadelphia-phillies/look-ahead-what-will-be-interesting-phillies-offseason Asche is has been mostly uninspiring during his 2.5 years in the big leagues. He's hit around .245-250 with a dozen HRs and an OPS between .689-.699 the last couple of years. He's lefthanded, doesn't walk a ton and strikes out at a pretty high rate. I know Philly played him in the OF last year after Franco came up, but I don't know how his glove plays at 3B or anywhere else. Asche is 25, so there's might be some improvement in him. In the minors he wasn't a big HR guy, but would hit .280-300 type guy with 10-15 HR. I don't remember much about when when I watched games against Philly, other than he didn't look real athletic. But that's my very limited exposure.

I'll put together something in the next couple of days. Santana, Knebel, Rogers, Sardinas, Peterson and Jungmann are for sure ineligible. Regarding pitchers, Davies has 34 IP, Goforth 24, Cravy 43, Wagner 13 and Pena 27. No other rookies else has more than 10 IP. In the past, I've just said if a guy has less than 50 IP, he's eligible. That would make all these guys eligible. My only question is if people think we should use some other criteria. I don't think any of these guys are locks to make the team next year (Davies looks like the one guy who is as close to a sure thing). Any thoughts?

Montreal is far bigger than Vancouver (3.8M vs 2.3M), plus Montreal can (I'm guessing) draw on support from Ottawa and Quebec City, which are both about 120 and 160 miles away, respectively. That adds close to another 2M people to your potential market. And as noted, I'm wondering if Vancouver isn't considered Seattle's territory.

I was worried until I checked Kennedy's agent...just a coincidence I'm sure that it's Scott Boras, Heyman's favorite source. So maybe they're trying to drum up business for Kennedy? How could that possibly make sense for the Brewers? Signing a guy like Kennedy would just be really foolish. Suppan, Wolf, Lohse, Garza - it's worked great so far! I just don't think Stearns is going to be going that route.

I think Segura's value is modest. It's not terrible, but it's not great either. ML shortstops hit .259 BA with a .308 OBP last season. Their OPS was .688. Segura's numbers were .257/.281/.616. As a hitter, he's been below average, but he's generally been a little above average as a defender. He offers plus speed and he's still pretty young (26 next March) - which means he could improve. For most teams, Segura's not an upgrade, but for a few, he would be. The key is no one is probably willing to give much for a guy who's not much better than a replacement player - even if he does have some promise to get better.The best bet is to probably play the first 1/2 of 2016 with Segura and hope he looks better. If he's hitting .270 or .275 after a few months, and playing good defense, he's an attractive option for a few teams. Deal him at that point, and bring up Arcia. But for now, he's just not going to fetch much with two consecutive years of mediocre play.

We gave up a lot more to get this year's haul. Greinke was 2 months of play plus a draft comp pick. Fiers is 4.33 years of control and Gomez is 1.33 years of control (and Gomez can be traded next year if the club is out of the race or they can get a comp pick for him).

I've known a few people who lived in Mexico City and loved it. Yes, there's a level of corruption, crime and violence that's going to freak out people (and rightly so). But it's a massive international metropolitan city, and with the bad you get the good (history, arts, cuisine). It's not like players would live and work in massive slums surrounded by gangs. Yes, there are levels of security you need to take that you might not in the U.S., even more so for a prominent athlete. The distance or culture is going to keep some people away - just as the distance or culture is going to keep people away from Milwaukee or Seattle or Toronto or wherever. A team in Mexico is going to immediately acquire a massive fan base. Also, baseball can only expand so much in the US markets - steps in Latin America are bold, but obvious. As for the majors adding a couple of more teams, that means 50 more big league jobs for the players. They aren't going to argue about that. As noted, some people won't want to play there, but in the end, a million dollar plus job is a pretty sweet gig, even if you have to travel a lot and work three months out of the year in a foreign country. Some players (and not just the Latin American players) may even embrace the opportunity.

Where is Hader listed as the #84 prospect in baseball? I checked Fangraphs Top 200, and he wasn't there. Baseball America didn't have him either. Both those were pre 2015, so maybe I'm missing an updated list. MLB Pipeline, which is updated, doesn't have him in the Top 100. In fact, he's listed as Milwaukee's 14th best prospect - so he'd be way off that list. I believe he's a top 100 prospects according to Sickels. He was actually ranked 67th on the midseason update. http://www.minorleagueball.com/2015/3/16/8215045/top-175-mlb-prospects-for-2015-john-sickels http://www.minorleagueball.com/2015/7/12/8940113/top-75-mlb-prospects-mid-season-update Of course, the one place I didn't look. Thanks.

I just wanted to leave a comment so the thread didn't look so sad. Smith, Jeffress and K-Rod looked great. Wagner did well too, but he looks like he's a hittable pitcher. Not a lot of margin of error for the guy.

I don't get what this means.