ClosetBrewerFan

Jason Rogers is higher than Morris. Can't argue his logic (pick the better performer) since they are basically the same age and have similar skills. Still surprising to see.

What is everyone's thoughts on Adam Weisenburger? He gets little press so I don't know much about him. I understand he is a good defensive catcher and gets on base (OBP is 100 points greater than AVG in his career). He had a rough 2012 but he skipped low A and was rushed to AA. His other two years he had a OPS over 700, which is good for a catcher. He appears to have a future as a big league backup catcher. That has value, but you do not hear much about him.

Roster is technically still at 42 with FA's and suspended players. With the 3 FAs coming off, that will leave us with 39. Looks like Hunter may be the only addition prior to rule 5 draft, pending any other changes.

Here is mine (1-25): Hellweg J.Nelson Thornburg Gennett Jungmann T.Taylor H.Morris Delmonico D.Williams Coulter Roache Kh.Davis Gindl Haniger A.Pena Brooks Hall O.Arcia J.Bradley Goforth Ke.Davis Magnifico M.Reed T. Neuhaus D'Vo Weisenburger

I had hoped to do a prediction but I never got around to it. So instead I’ll do an post analysis of the selections: OF Mitch Haniger – Not really a surprise as he is a top prospect but what does this say about Kentrail Davis? He’s closer to the majors. Does this mean Kentrail is not considered highly by the Brewers? Or maybe they already decided to give him a Sept callup. Or maybe I’m just reading into this too much. C Adam Weisenberger – Don’t know much about him. In looking at his stats, I’m really impressed with his ability to get on base. OBP has been 100 points higher than BA in each of his three years. I believe he is also a good defender. I’m going to have to move him up my top prospect list. 1B Jason Rogers – Has always hit well (but not great) in the minors, and now showing some power. Seems like a fringe prospect that the Brewers are trying to decide what they have and whether to add to the 40 man this year. With Hunter not going to the AFL, does that mean he will be a Sept callup? RP Kevin Shackelford – Here is a guy who may just be starting to figure it out in AA. Big guy who throws hard. Brewers need to decide on whether to add to the 40 man roster to protect him. Looks like AFL will be his audition. SP’s David Goforth, Taylor Jungmann – Two good choices. Both had decent years and are under their innings ceiling for the year. Jimmy Nelson and Brooks Hall are probably at their innings limit. Jed Bradley and Ariel Pena would also have been good choices. Would have been interesting to be a fly on the wall during that discussion.

Clearly Francisco has a number of holes, but the Brewers can I'll afford to let someone with his power potential go for free. His salary is at league minimum and is under team control. I see many more players likely to go before him. I don't think Green should be left unprotected as well. My point was that he is similar in value to francisco. We need to clear 7-9 spots on the roster and I can see 9 guys I'd rather see go before either of the above. My list would be: The three FA's: Betencourt, Hart, Gonzalez then: Lalli, Halton, M. DLS, Manzanillo, Olmsted, Prince - in that order

Not sure why Francisco would be on the bubble as the Brewers have indicated they want to keep him long term. He's also making the minimum. But if he is on the list, I would add: Green, Sanchez, Wooten, and Prince as also at risk. There are a few prospects they will need to add to protect from the Rule 5 so they will need to clear a few spaces. Most notably are Jimmy Nelson and Hunter Morris. Maybe Kentrail Davis and D'Vo as well.

1. J.Nelson 2. Hellweg 3. Jungmann 4. Gennett 5. H.Morris 6. Coulter 7. Thornburg 8. Haniger 9. Roache 10. A.Pena 11. J.Bradley 12. Gagnon 13. O.Arcia 14. T.Taylor 15. Brooks Hall 16. Burgos 17. Kh.Davis 18. Devin Williams 19. T.Wagner 20. Gindl 21. Magnifico 22. Goforth 23. Ke.Davis 24. M.Reed 25. Tucker Neuhaus The new guys are hard to place. Since neither are a #1 pick I placed them lower than some of the others. I hate to get too excited before I see them play. Its a deep organization but still missing impact players. Makes it tough to rank. I could shuffle 4 thru 15 fairly easily.

I'm also highly skeptical of that 47% poll number. I did a search and could not come up with that number anywhere. I did find on Gallop's site this poll from 2002: http://www.gallup.com/poll/6745/Baseball-Fan-Numbers-Steady-Decline-May-Pending.aspx This shows a steady increase in women baseball fans from 1937-2002 from 27% to 37%. Hard to believe that percentage would shoot up another 10% in only 10 years. Still I was surprised to see that more than 1/3 of baseball fans are women. I'm not being sexist, just that in my experience I know very few women that are baseball fans. Still, with 1/3 of their viewership, you would think baseball would try to focus more on women. The fox sports girls are not a good start to that. I personally don't have a problem with them but don't see how they increase viewership. By the way, is it me or do the Fox sports girls wear way too much makeup?

I don't know much about him, but he gets no love by scouts. He has consistently pitched well for all 5 seasons in the minors as a closer. He doesn't give up a lot of hits or HRs, keeps the walks down with K/9 over 9.0. Hard to argue his performance. I assume he does not throw hard and that's the reason otherwise he'd be in our top 20 prospect list. But he rarely gets mentioned as a prospect. I don't recall Melvin ever mention him. Thoughts?

Yuni > Donnie Murphy However having to sign Yuni because your backup SS is your starting 1B; Not so much

Overbay must really not want to play in Milwaukee. Either that or Melvin does not like him very much. I really thought this would get done. Made too much sense. Instead we signed a backup IF because our current backup IF is our starting 1B. Wow!

Found this stats driven analysis of Lohse's dramatic improvement the last two years: http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2012/10/21/3522486/-kyle-lohse-analysis-sabermetrics-lucky I don't believe the last two years were a fluke. There is no guarantee he can continue to perform like this, but I feel better about this signing knowing there is at least a reason for why he has improved.

Tosoni just got drilled during the Mex -Can game. Bench clearing brawl, punches thrown... Yo better not be anywhere near that (as well as Green, Ax, Henderson - Man we have a lot of representation in this game).

4 B's, 7 B-'s, the rest are C+'s. Not bad. Sickels usually has a few C's in his top 20 lists so it shows the team has real depth but no true superstars in the minors. Sounds about right. Nelson as a C+ surprised me. Looking at his stats again, I agree. He needs to show better control this year to rank him higher. He did great in A+ but the walk rate was horrible at AA. Rogers can easily be higher than a C+, but that only occurs if he stays healthy. So, I'd rank him C+ (B if healthy)

Gonzalez has historically been very good against LH and RH's (.605 and .674 OPS against him, respectively). However, the last two years he's been dreadfull against RH's: .863 in 2012 and .900 in 2011. Is this a trend? Is he now just a Loogy?

Mass, I agree, these are the 5 I had listed. Josh Prince could also be considered but is a longshot. A team could pick him and use him as a possible utility player though.

Mass, I agree, these are the 5 I had listed. Josh Prince could also be considered but is a longshot. A team could pick him and use him as a possible utility player though.

Scarpetta is on the 40 man roster so he won't become a minor league free agent. It will be interesting to see what happens to him though as he is out of options. Next spring the Brewers will either have to keep him on the 25 man roster (bullpen option?) or they will have to waive him. If he clears waivers, they can then send him to the minors. Its quite likely he will clear waivers as teams may be unwilling to claim him and keep him on their roster.

Scarpetta is on the 40 man roster so he won't become a minor league free agent. It will be interesting to see what happens to him though as he is out of options. Next spring the Brewers will either have to keep him on the 25 man roster (bullpen option?) or they will have to waive him. If he clears waivers, they can then send him to the minors. Its quite likely he will clear waivers as teams may be unwilling to claim him and keep him on their roster.

Scarpetta is on the 40 man roster so he won't become a minor league free agent. It will be interesting to see what happens to him though as he is out of options. Next spring the Brewers will either have to keep him on the 25 man roster (bullpen option?) or they will have to waive him. If he clears waivers, they can then send him to the minors. Its quite likely he will clear waivers as teams may be unwilling to claim him and keep him on their roster.

I think Scooter Gennett is eligible as well. He was 19 when signed in 2009 and has had 4 years as a professional. I think Gennett, Khris Davis, Burgos and maybe Bucci all need to be protected.

Over at Minor League Ball, they have a topic about who is the most disappointing non-injured top prospect. I gave this some thought and had a hard time coming up with a Brewer who truly disappointed this year. There were some that didn't do as well as I'd hope, but none were really horrible. These are the players I came up with: Jed Bradley - Probably best qualifies. We all expected better Caleb Gindl - After last year, I expected more. Brooks Hall - Even in a pitchers park, he has not impressed. K's are way too low. Nick Ramirez - He's hitting HRs, but a 25:142 BB:K ratio isn't gonna cut it. Taylor Jungmann - I hesitated to list him, but I was hoping for a huge year. He looks more like a inning eater rather than a top of the rotation guy. What do you think?

Jose Pena has been so good this year, we put him on the list twice! All kidding aside, great list. Thanks! Mark Rogers with I assume is his last time on this list. Remarkable career. Who would've thought he would make it to the majors after all the injuries. Also sounds like he is being shut down for the season (per Attanasio). See ya next year Mark!

It'll be interesting to see what starting pitchers get called up. Peralta and Thornburg for sure. But if Marcum gets traded (still could happen) and Estrada and Rodgers and Fiers (later) get shut down, the Brewers will need some more starting pitchers. Burgos is a possibility although he may need to be shut down too due to innings. Don't forget about Bucci who is now healthy and pitching well. He needs to get some innings anyways. Both of these pitchers need to be added to the 40 man roster to protect them from the Rule 5 draft.