colbyjack

Just so everyone knows, I have been updating the FA signings as they have occurred in the post on the first page of this thread. There are already 13 sandwich picks that will be awarded, with a lot of Type A and Type B free agents to go. The sandwich round could easily go 30-picks deep, meaning the Brewers second round pick could be in the 65-70 range as opposed to the 45-50 range overall.

I caught the last two innings, and both Toby and Jim explained Thatcher really well. Not the greatest of bodies, and not the greatest of stuff either, but he seems to command his fastball well enough, but that seems to be all he has. His breaking ball isn't even slurvy, it's like a floater, and RH hitters are sure to feast on him as he moves up. Toby pegged him perfectly, as a cutter would serve him extremely well, although his fastball does seem to have some dip and dive to it. He's a LOOGY, no doubt, but he's going to have to find another pitch to get RH hitters out with any consistency. One thing I didn't see mentioned was the amount of deception involved in Thatcher's delivery. There is a fair amount of "herky-jerkiness" involved, and he throws from the low-3/4s, more good things for his chances to succeed as a specialist making him especially tough on LH hitters. While Jim compared his body to Dana Eveland, he kind of reminded me of Mike Remlinger. Cain's body is picture perfect. High waist, broad yet sloped shoulders, long and rangy limbs. When and if he puts on some weight I could easily see him hitting for a lot more power. Physically he resembles Eric Davis. I also agree with Toby's assessment on Ford. He has a nice inside-out swing, and an overall nice approach at the plate despite the high number of Ks he has racked up over the last two years. If he keeps improving as he has so far I like his chances as he moves up. And yeah, it was great to watch some baseball in late-November with a couple of players of interest.

The link that Rotoworld has included in Zaun's summary has no mention of the connection to the Brewers, so I wonder if this is just speculation on Rotoworld's part. I hope its true. Zaun would be a very nice addition, and as pogo said, he could take over where Miller left off and serve as the team's primary catcher for the next 3 years.

His career numbers are pretty close to those of Dave Roberts', and Figgins is a heck of a lot younger, has more versatility and switch hits.

I really like that scenario yoyo. I don't think the Brewers mix up their team that much, but it certainly is one of the more appealing scenarios that I've seen. I don't think Braun is in the opening day lineup, but you could easily swap him out in LF with someone else.

I think that's a pretty astute call Don. I wouldn't be surprised if Figgins were a trade candidate given his base-stealing skills. I'm a little concerned that he had a down year, but that followed up two pretty decent ones. I also remember reading somewhere that if the Angels were able to find a true candidate to play CF that Figgins would be made expendable. I have no idea what kind of player he is defensively in the OF, but again, good call.

Interesting points. But I would guess if he can't play anywhere but first base, he's not reallly an option for the Brewers anyway. I guess I just assumed that's why you brought his name up as a possible trade possibility for the Crew.

I agree with the notion that the NL Central is pretty right-handed heavy, but Davis has always been better against right-handed hitters due to his cutter. Lefty hitters actually hit him pretty good, so to get rid of him because the team could face more right-handed hitters would be a very poor decision. I'm still not sold on Garland. I don't doubt his numbers would improve in the NL, but he still got hit pretty hard last season, and his reputation seems to be better than his actual production. While I like the idea of shedding the contracts of Jenkins, Turnbow and in this case, Davis (since we would be trading for a player that would probably be equivalent of Davis' productivity, at least prior to '06), talent for talent however, I'd rather re-sign Ohka.

At first I wondered why the White Sox would make such a move, then I looked at found he is going to make $10M next year and $12M in '08. That's crazy. For a guy with a career 4.44 ERA and only one season in which his ERA was below 4.00 as a full-time starter? Plus he gives up too many hits and doesn't strike out very many batters. He's durable, which is a huge plus, but so is Doug Davis, whom I'd much rather keep, or re-sign Tomo Ohka. Of course, Garland is only 27, which is another plus, but otherewise he's an average pitcher, unless you can convince me that his best days are ahead of him. Jenkins, Turnbow and Davis for Garland? Only if your intent is to save $5 million for the 2007 season.

The White Sox are up today, with BA shifting to the AL Central. BA hasn't updated the list of the ChiSox top 10 (its still listed as the D-Rays top 10), but under the subscirber section Ryan Sweeney, Josh Fields and Lance Broadway take the top 3 spots. Not the sexiest of top three's, but each one is a solid prospect, and all three are pretty close to contributing at the big league level. www.baseballamerica.com/t...62878.html

Actually, the Dodgers are re-signing Nomar to play 1B. I think their intent is to move Loney to a corner OF spot, as he has more than enough athleticism to handle such a move. He's better at 1B, but he should be fine in LF.

I'm kind of expecting the Brewers to lose their 2nd round pick, particularly if the rumors about them pursuing Type A FA Dave Roberts are true. And even if they don't lose their 2nd rounder, that pick could come much, much later than usual given the high number of Type B FAs that will likely fetch their previous teams a sandwich pick. That number of picks will go down next year when the Type A and B classifications are reduced significantly, but since Type B's no longer cost the signing pick a pick directly, I think the sandwich round next June could easily go 20-picks-plus deep. Which would mean the Brewers 2nd-round pick would be more in the 55-65 range. Still pretty good for a deep draft pool, but not as good as it could be. Of course the Brewers could be aided if Tony Graffanino signs earlier than expected. According to the MJS report from yesterday, his agent mentioned that they could know in the next couple of days where Graffy ends up, which of course is a good thing for the Brewers draft next June. I don't see Graffy garnering a couple of extra picks if he isn't signed by the arby deadline in early December.

The Mets are reportedly close to signing Moises Alou, which will give them one crazy offense. And that fills up their OF with Green and RF and Beltran in CF. The Mets don't have to move Milledge, as he could use more time in AAA and might be a valuable asset off of the bench as he learns the ropes, but for the immediate future its possible he could be had. Don't try to push Jenkins or Mench on them, that ain't gonna happen. You would have to be talking about pitching, and I'm not sure the two teams are a good fit for one another. Maybe Doug Davis.

Gonzalez to the Reds has been confirmed according to ESPN, which in my mind only strengthens the chances of the Blue Jays and Red Sox going after a SS this offseason. This IMO is one of the more intriguing trade possibilities for the Brewers this offseason.

Loewen isn't going anywhere. I have heard that Penn could be available, but only in a deal in which they were to land someone like Tim Hudson. In other words, don't get your hopes up that either Mench of Jenkins could land a pitcher like Penn.

I hadn't thought about this before last night, but as long as the compensatory pick system in the sandwich round remains the same (meaning the worst teams get the highest pick, cycling through all of the teams one-by-one before starting over again for teams with mulitple comp picks), the Brewers could get the 5th pick in the sandwich long assuming Type B free agent Tomo Ohka signs elsewhere (I'm not counting on Graffanino being offered arby, but you never know). Neither Tampa Bay nor Kansas City have any free agents to lose, much less garner comp picks, while the Cubs have Pierre, the Pirates have Burnitz, the Orioles have Hawkins and the Nationals have Soriano, Guillen and Ortiz. Since Pierre, Burnitz and Hawkins are all Type B FAs, like Ohka, teams don't have to worry about losing their own draft picks anymore by signing them. So, as long as these rules haven't changed, the Brewers could be looking at the 7th and the 35th overall picks next June, and exciting situation that we haven't seen the Brewers have in quite some time. I have a quesiton in to BA to see if the comp picks for Type B FAs will be awarded after the ones for the Type A FAs have in the sandwich round. That detail has not been established, or at least not discussed publicly from what I have seen. EDIT: As for the Elias Sports Bureau rankings, they are based on the player's past two seasons using some weird, and clearly outdated, system. This link doesn't really explain the process, but it is the lead-in (it mentions Pujols earned a perfect score of a 100) for the individual players rankings as linked above: www.usatoday.com/sports/b...OE=SPOISVA

Brewers fans go through this every offseason. Many wonder and wonder and wonder some more why the Brewers aren't doing anything, because there aren't any substantiated rumors floating around, and year after year Doug Melvin makes a significant move or two. He plays his cards very close to the vest. If we're still wondering when Melvin will make a move in February, than I may join in adding some venom of my own, but it's way too early for that. We're still about three weeks away from the Winter Meetings, which is the time Melvin has made the most noise the past three offseasons (trading Sexson, trading for Lee and trading Overbay).

The ratings for the most part are based on what scouts observed from the player's performance and the tools they exhibited in the AFL.

Cain earned enough respect to be named the Hawaiian League's 12th best prospect by BA. His blurb is so short that I'm not going to bother paraphrasing 15-20 words of type, so I'll just supply it here hoping BA won't mind: 12. Lorenzo Cain, of, North Shore (Brewers) Confidence took a hit as he struggled with pitch recognition, but still showed a good package of tools. Cain was ranked just ahead of Jeff Clement. Joba Chamerlain was rated the league's top prospect.

The story actually doesn't talk about financial figures for Nomar's proposed deal. That's interesting that it shows up as a registration only site for you. For me it doesn't, and I don't recall ever registering at the LA Times, at least not recently.

I just noticed that the Reds and White Sox are pursuing FA SS Alex Gonzalez according to Rotoworld: www.rotoworld.com/content...mp;id=2653 That takes one of the two relatively good shortstops off of the FA market, leaving Julio Lugo, who seems destined to land in either Boston or Toronto. Which leads me to ask, what do the Red Sox or Blue Jays do in the event they miss out on Lugo? Do they go with in-house options, such as Pedroia of the Red Sox (who would seem to be a much better fit at 2B), or one of Aaron Hill and Russ Adams of the Blue Jays (both of whom are better fits at 2B, and Adams probably shouldn't be starting everyday at any position)? I know it was suggested that Melvin may be posturing on the issue of Bill Hall playing the OF to possibly increase the value of JJ Hardy by making it seem as though the team is committed to him in the short and long term. Hall doesn't seem to be going anywhere, but would the team deal Hardy, and what could they get in return? Melvin has been looking for more big-league ready players, so I'm hesitant to throw out the names of any prospects, and with the acquisition of Frank Thomas I don't think the Blue Jays are going to deal Vernon Wells. Each team's top prospect is on the verge of breaking into the big leagues (Jacoby Ellsbury and Adam Lind), but then the Brewers still have to endure the learning curve of both players. Lind may be more expendable if the Jays sign the Big Hurt, while Ellsbury (and/or Coco Crisp) could be had if the Red Sox sign JD Drew. I'm probably over-thinking this, as there has been no indication that either Hall or Hardy are going anywhere.

Looks like Nomar is staying with the Dodgers. Drew on the verge of leaving has a lot to do with that I'm sure: www.latimes.com/sports/la...;cset=true

I just want to point out that one's stuff doesn't always lead to the ability to miss bats. Davis misses more bats by mixing up his stuff better than most pitchers. And Davis being cut twice before means nothing to me. That just means two teams made poor personnel decisions by unwisely losing their patience with a good lefty arm. Davis was a pretty highly touted prospect in the Rangers system once upon a time. Given the price starting pitchers are going for these days, I would be reluctant to move Davis unless the return package was pretty dang appealing. He may not have been as good last year as he was the previous two seasons, but he wasn't downright horrible either, and has been extremely durable during his stay with the Brewers.

Frog, you pretty much nailed it already. Tulo is the more well-rounded player, with no doubts about his ability to play SS. Braun's bat seems to be thought of as the best in the league, and while no one seems to really discredit him because of his defense, knowing what he can do at the plate, Tulo gets the nod for the reasons already stated. The '05 draft could be one we look back at and marvel at the number of impact college hitters taken early (Gordon, Zimmerman, Braun and Tulo of those taken in the top 10).

That's certainly possible WestCoast. It's hard to say, as I felt Zimmerman was MLB ready when he was drafted. His line drive approach, keen batting eye and Gold Glove caliber defense were evident during his junior year at Virginia. I'm not sure if being drafted by the Brewers would have changed his progression at all. If Zimmerman were a Brewer, even if he started the '06 season in the minors, he probably would have been called up when Koskie went down as opposed to trading for David Bell. Actually, the Brewers may have never traded for Koskie had they had Zimmerman in their system. Braun has more to work on, but he's a completely different kind of hitter and overall player than Zimmerman is. I have always viewed Braun as more of a true slugger and overall run producer, and others seem to view him the same way. While Zimmerman has hit for more power than I expected this early in his career, I think he's always going to have a lot more doubles than dingers. Braun's defense will probably never win him any accolades like Zimmerman's will, but Braun's bat could/should more than make up for that. And that's why I have always tried to avoid comparing the two. They're two completely different players, and just because they were both third baseman drafted out of college one spot away from one another doesn't mean anything.