PeaveyFury

They've taken three players with some leverage in a row here- two juniors and a HS guy that is being pursued by much of the SEC. A guy like Lucroy is going to take some serious cash to sign as a 3rd rounder.

They certainly seem to be taking a system where with Braun now in Milwaukee it's Angel Salome and some guys in West Virginia for position prospects and adding some polished college bats to instantly infuse talent into that side of the system.

Minorleaguebaseball.com summary of Lucroy: "Lucroy is a pretty good, if lesser-known, all-around catching prospect. He has a good line-drive stroke and has the chance to hit for average with some pop. Defensively, he is a natural leader who throws extremely well. Those who look for college catching in this draft should surely take a look at Lucroy."

I'm stunned they're on pick 70. Last year at this point 20 rounds would be done.

If you get the best college hitter in the draft, then you have done well I agree completely. I was quite stunned when I saw his name taken by the Brewers this afternoon, but looking at his numbers, it's almost stunning that he didn't get more press and wasn't higher rated to begin with.... is that solely based on his defense? If it is, we heard the exact same stuff with Fielder and Braun, along with Weeks' well documented struggles in he minors at 2B, and we can plainly see how that has worked out. I'm pretty thrilled, but as others have said, that might be mainly because it's not a prep pitcher.

Moderately surprised about the Royals going that way. Should be a good pick for them.

Moustakas to the Royals is a surprise.

Yeah, that's a good prediction, NDOG. The coma/Kevin Finnerty thing was so out there and obscure, they almost have to tie it in like that.

Bob Howry would be a great bullpen addition if it wasn't the Cubs that will be chasing us in the central.

I'd much rather have him work out of a jam than Turnbow. At this point, I agree completely.

You're right, Peavey. You're always smarter than everyone else here. My apologies for not bowing to your superior baseball knowledge. Unfortunately, that's the usual response to valid questions being asked that question one's viewpoint when they don't have a valid reason for it.

Maybe Yost should just stick with the formula that has worked so well - Turnbow gets the 8th, Cordero the 9th. What's so difficult about that? Why is getting an extra inning out of a pretty solid Villanueva to keep the rest of the pen fresh is a bad idea for some reason?

Ok, one more please. Save Yost's ass.' Yeah, nevermind that Turnbow put two of the three runners there. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/eyes.gif

Huuuuuge K.

Coco getting loose in a hurry.....

Tau- Yes. He also would have gotten the save for going more than 3 innings to end the game.

This Braun guy is scary good.

Come on, Patrick only sobs into his custom-ordered Kotchman Brewers jersey wondering what could have been just once a year at this point. He's making great progress. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

But you are essentially replacing Ben Sheets with Dontrelle Willis. All that really accomplishes is delaying free agency/a decision by a year, and makes it less likely that said pitcher will resign. We have a chance to retain Ben. We wouldn't have any chance to re-sign Dontrelle.

A washed up player that came to the Brewers at the tail end of his career (the Brewers were big on that in the mid-late 90's) got mad at me for asking for Marquis Grissom's autograph 'too close to gametime'. I think he was just upset because he was sitting right there doing nothing and I wasn't interested in having him sign my ball in the least.

I think Braun can stay in the 3-hole for a while.....

I would be all for making trades to make this team better for now and in the future, however it seems like you just want to make trades to make this team different. It's lines like this that make no sense to me. You've already agreed a couple times that Buehrle is considerably better than Vargas, so how in the world is that making a trade just to 'make the team different?' That's nothing more than a back handed insult. But anyway, thanks for an interesting and civil discussion up to then.

Because hitters usually move quicker than pitchers. Then where are all the pitchers from 2000, 2001, and 2002? Weeks, Hardy, Fielder, etc have all been here for basically three seasons now, you'd think some arms would have been here already. The ones that tried, failed here in Milwaukee (Hendrickson, Eveland). And why do you keep leaving out Villanueva. We're talking about players drafted by the Brewers scouting staff. That does not include Villanueva. Big deal. So the Hitters arrived before the pitchers. The jump between the majors and the minors is a big deal, and more so for pitchers. As guys like Hart, Fielder, Hardy, etc are dominating in the majors, you're going to have guys like Dillard, Thatcher and such just starting to get their feet wet. Assuming that all or even any of them will make the jump right away is a bad idea. Because hitters usually move quicker than pitchers. All the more reason why a guy in A ball like Inman isn't likely to be helping the team for another couple of years. Buehrle had a 5.00 ERA last season and his 3 seasons leading up to 2007 is a 4.00. While Vargas had a 4.9 ERA last season and a 5.11 ERA. You left our Vargas' 3-year ERA of 5.08. So you have Buehrle putting up a 3-year ERA of 3.95 in the AL and Vargas put up a 5.08 in the NL. Buehrle's a better pitcher by a large margin. That said, Vargas is a better pitcher than the guy he'd replace in the bullpen, which you didn't acknowledge in your post. It's not just upgrading the rotation, you're also upgrading your pen via a trickle-down effect. Similar with Dunn, you'd then be able to trade Mench and Jenkins for bullpen help. Considering that Mench and/or Jenkins will likely be gone after 2007, Dunn would probably be around a year longer than either of them anyway. Really if what you care about is the future of this franchise in left field (that is why you brought up the age, right) You really think the Brewers would be able to sign Dunn in 1.5 years to a long-term contract and still keep around Fielder, Hardy, Weeks, Sheets, Hall and the rest of the group? I brought up the age because Dunn is more likely to continue to be above average going forward. Mench is in the midst of a career tailspin that has taken place since 2004, and Jenkins seemingly alternates solid years with mediocre to bad years, and at 33 in a month, how much longer is he going to continue to be useful? If the Brewers don't re-sign him (or Buehrle), they get a first rounder and a sandwich pick to re-stock their minor league system. Then they can use it on some nice young hitters that can be contributing in say 2009 like Braun and Weeks (which is ironically about the time Inman would be fully ready to contribute), or they can draft a couple of high school pitchers that will be having their first of several shoulder surgeries in 2009 before being out of baseball in 2012. Either way, they should have options. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

Way to take half of my quote, anyways good point So before you had the Prince, Hardy, Weeks, Gwynn, Braun, Hart Barrage of the past 2+ Years the tally looks closer to Why is it relevant to exclude players that fell in that time period when you keep touting the improvement in the scouting/development? Heck, if you go by the last 6 years from when our current scouting staff took over, you have Prince, Hardy, Weeks, Gwynn, Braun and Hart to NONE. So the Melvin Era pitchers have Villanueva (he was our prospect) , 3 homegrown pitchers in AAA that could contribute to most staffs right now in Gallardo, Dillard, and Thatcher. The gap closes considerably in the Arms vs. bats race. You most certainly cannot count on guys like Dillard and Thatcher to come up and be successful and stick in the majors. Just ask Ben Hendrickson. I like production speaking you like the name recognition. I couldn't care less about name recognition. Fortunately both that AND production are on my side here. In Vargas's starts this year the Brewers are 8-2 and Vargas has a 3.6 ERA. Would Buehrle be an upgrade? probably. But what would he really improve? He would probably give us a slightly better chance of winning going forward Of course if you look at career stats instead of like 10 starts in 2007, you'd see that difference as much bigger. Not to mention, Vargas goes to the pen and replaces the likes of Spurling, Dessens, or Capellan, and we get better there. However I don't really think that Dunn would be that much of an upgrade Jenkins is almost 33 and is really inconsistent. Mench has been sliding horribly the last three seasons already and is nearly 30. Dunn is 27 and just hitting his prime.

we did produce Jeff D'Amico. He was rather solid in the big leagues, too. Scott Karl's career was solid for a 4-man, although I don't understand why he gave it up, unless he had his money and had lost the drive. I had mentioned D'Amico earlier, but he was 1993 and Karl was 1992, so earlier than the 15-year look back I was using. That said, D'Amico had injury issues that essentially caused a 3-year gap in his career, and outside of a great 2000, he was pretty bad. Karl had one season where his ERA was under 4.4, and never had a WHIP under 1.4. While I understand that you were pointing out we developed some several years back, if Inman turns into something like either one of those guys, that's a big disappointment. Let's look at Jack Z's first rounders from the drafts that could possibly help us (ie no one we drafted in 2006 would be helping the big club) in 2000-2005: You have four position players, 3 of which are everyday starters in Milwaukee, 1 is in AAA in another organization. You also have two pitchers, both of whom are out for the year and are having shoulder surgery. Considering that you also have two second-round position players on the Major League roster as well as an 11th rounder, it's pretty tough to say that we've had much better luck selecting/developing pitchers under the current administration.