colbyjack

Wednesday's Menu: Times Central; pitchers subject to change -- Nashville: RHP Tim Dillard and LHP Chris Cody in a doubleheader at Memphis (Cardinals), 5:35 PM pre-game; 6:00 gametime; each contest slated for seven innings, one half-hour between games Live Audio Link Huntsville: LHP Sam Narron at home vs. Carolina (Reds), 6:45 PM pre-game; 7:00 gametime Live Audio Link Brevard County: RHP Mark Rogers at home vs. St. Lucie (Mets), 6:05 PM gametime Live Audio Link (Mets' Feed) Wisconsin: LHP Daniel Meadows at home vs. Dayton (Reds), 7:05 gametime Live Audio Link Helena: Idle Arizona Summer League: on the road vs. the Angels; no more day games -- all games begin at 7:00 local time in the desert; no audio, naturally... Dominican Summer League Brewers / Orioles: at the DSL Marlins (see this thread for some roster background) -- all games are 10:30 local time in the Dominican, and no need to ask about web audio; we usually won't see updated box scores until the overnight...

http://www.brewerfan.net/images/store/dailylinkreport.jpg

Details of the makeup game between Nashville and Memphis: Tuesday's game a wash MEMPHIS, Tenn. The rain got the best of Tuesday night's game, which was scheduled to feature the Memphis Redbirds (47-47) and the Nashville Sounds (53-42). Showers began around 2:00 P.M. in downtown Memphis and never let up, preventing batting practice and regular team warm-ups. The game went into a delayed start at 7:05 and stood in hiatus for just over an hour before being called. Tuesday's game will be made-up Wednesday as a part of AutoZone Park's third double-header of the season. The first game will begin at 6:00 P.M. as Memphis' Blake Hawksworth battles against Nashville's Tim Dillard. Game two will follow a thirty-minute break between games and feature southpaws Evan MacLane and Chris Cody for Memphis and Nashville respectively. Gates will open at 5:30 P.M. for Wednesday's doubleheader. Fans who purchased tickets for Tuesday's rainout may exchange them at the box office for tickets to any other remaining Redbirds game at AutoZone Park this season.

Final: Jupiter 1, Brevard County 5 Brevard County Box Score As noted above, Logan Schafer's 4th inning grand slam is the big hit in this one. Schafer is enjoying a fine July after a ho-hum June, and overall this season he is much improved in the plate discipline department, as he's walking more and whiffing less than he was during his pro debut last year. Eric Farris swipes his 42nd bag of the year, and Amaury Rivas has another outing that gives him a case for one of the organization's top 5-7 pitching prospects. Omar Aguilar's time with the 'Tees may not last much longer the way he has been pitching. Brevard County Game Log Plenty of short innings for Jupiter in this one, always a pleasant sight.

Funny you just mentioned Rosario Mass, I was just going to say that I was looking forward to see what Daniel Merklinger does this evening. I know this is his second time through the low-A level, and he's 23 years old, but he has significantly reduced the number of walks he has issued, by far his biggest problem prior to this year. He has 184 strikeouts in 170 career minor league innings and has only allowed 12 home runs during that time while also limiting the number of hits off of him (roughly one per inning pitched). He's always had good stuff for a lefty and is a prime candidate for a bump up to Brevard County sooner rather than later.

If Anundsen can ever get back to sitting at 91 mph - he becomes a very legit prospect. That's a pretty huge if, but I do agree with you. Anundsen is still one of the top pitching prospects, in the top 5-7 range, due to his performance alone (and the lack of impact starting pitching prospects in the team's system), although he, like Cody, are going to be scrutinized until they prove they can get outs at the MLB level given the lack of average to below-average stuff. Braddock is a tough one, because a lot of people still assume that he will return to the starting rotation, but how do we know that actually will occur? He's had a hard time staying healthy, and the bullpen might be the only place for him to make a big-league career given his arm troubles. His upside obviously is immense, but you really have to temper your expectations with him until he can put together one, if not two, injury-free seasons together. The same was true for Parra not too long ago. Peralta is going to have another significant jump on my personal P50 list the next time I take a stab at that.

I think a few Power 50 editors might have been a little too excited about Arnett. I always contend that the Power 50 is a top prospect list, not a hot sheet. Arnett is performing poorly so far, but his upside is nearly unrivaled in the system. I saw him at 94-96 this spring with a wipeout slider, and he's a great overall athlete. If he pulls a Cody Adams and continues to struggle at this time next year, I may change my stance on him, but it's too early to be concerned about the results so far. He tossed 108 innings this past spring for Indiana, 66 in '08 and 35 in '07.

midwest entries: Sprecher (bringing the Mai Bock . . .any good?) I've raved about Sprecher's Mai Bock a few times in this thread. It's my favorite all-time brew, although a seasonal. Definitely make sure to try it out as I'd love to know what you think (especially since I know your opinion of midwest micros). I'm curious if they brewed a fresh batch for that event, since it usually comes out in March. That's a tasty looking list overall.

I thought that too, but I asked Keith Law and he said that we'd get #39A next year if we failed to sign Davis. Unsigned draftees from the first two rounds (first, first round supplemental, and second rounds) garner a pick right after the overall selection in the following year's draft, unless the pick was already a compensation pick for an unsigned draftee. Unsigned third round picks garner a supplemental third-round pick. I too think Davis will get signed by August 17th. I don't think the Brewers took him unless they were confident they could get that done. If not, my guess is that either Gennett or Howell (or possibly both) are the backup plans.

Here are some of my favorite comparisons to prospects over the past fews years that I feel are dead on: Lucroy = Terry Steinbach Escobar = Omar Vizquel Cain = Randy Winn Cole Gillespie = Matt Murton Lee Haydel = Jason Tyner Brett Lawrie = Jeff Kent Pitchers are a lot tougher IMO. I've compared Jeffress to Edison Volquez in the past. Scarpetta has a good, but not great fastball for him to be compared to some of the names being thrown out. Wooten doesn't have the kind of fastball to be mentioned with the guys listed above. Omar Aguilar is very similar to Chad Cordero. Gamel to Votto is a pretty good one, as is Green to either Mueller (best-case) or Kelly Johnson. Gindl is very Brian Giles-esque, but I hate pegging that unfair comparison on him. Same goes for Chris Cody, who is going to need a lot to go right to live up to previous Jamie Moyer comps. Heether is nothing like Brian Roberts. Cirillo is a better comp for Heether, or possibly even McGehee, keeping it local.

So far, I have one lender at 5.5% on a 30 year fixed rate with around $1,200 in closing costs. You can do much better. Try Wells Fargo, even if you don't go with them, they're very valuable to use their rates as a guide. You an usually find a place or two that will beat WF's rates (give Accunet a call). Check them out for yourself: https://www.wellsfargo.com/mortgage/rates/ And the closing costs of course are negotiable as well, as I'm guessing someone could get you 5% with the same $1,200 closing costs. I gave up 1.125 points to lock in at 4.375% to re-finance in April, when 30-year rates were the same at 15-year ones.

I can't believe how long of a leash they have given Jeffress as compared to how they handled Tom Wilhelmsen a few years back, a player who Reid Nichols clearly made it a point to make an example out of him before completely running him out of the organization and the game of baseball. I also can't believe how stupid Jeffress is. As often as Jack hit on the good ones he's missed just as many. Anyone agree?? If Jack Z. had 50 picks in one year, and hit on one of them, and that player was Ryan Braun, would you still say that he was only one-for-50? He injected the system with a ton of talent, as it's hard for me to go out of my way to find fault in the guy. Find another scouting director from 2000-2008 that did a better job procuring talent.

A drop in velocity is a precursur to a shoulder injury, but not an elbow tear. Velocity is not effected by the elbow, control is. That's not true. A quick and distinct drop in velocity often is a precursor to serious elbow problems. I'm guessing you're thinking of how quickly pitchers recover their velocity after TJ surgery, and how control often comes 6-18 months later.

Baseball is a money pit and a dying sport in college. Far from it. College baseball is alive and well, with attendance figures continuing to climb the past several years, reaching all-times highs which is continuing a trend that MLB and minior league baseball is also experiencing. The problem of course is that people don't care about college baseball around here, which includes the Big Ten in general. It's possible to have a well-run program in the area, as Michigan is clearly well-funded, but for the most part the sport is thriving from the ACC to the SEC to the Big 12 and the Pac 10. I was pursuing a story on the whole UW program a few years ago. I had contacts (thanks to some of the people here), read quite a few stories in the Madison papers on the topic and even talked to a few people close to the players on the field. The university will often blame Title IX as the reason for the end of the program, but it really comes down to money. As already noted, there wasn't interest in the program back then, and there has been no indication that the interest will increase when they come back. It's nice that there is a small legion of loyal followers that thinks its a shame the university doesn't have a team, but how many of us are willing (or more importantly, able) to step forward and donate a significant amount of money to get the program back on its feet? I've always wondered why Bud Selig doesn't have more of a vested interest in this as an alum. Herb Kohl too. It's going to take those kind of parties, those with a lot of money and a lot of influence, to have the program return, and I just don't see it happening anytime soon. (The reason I didn't continue my story was because quite a few people have already written stories about this, and they all have come to the same conclusion.)

I just found out that Zach Braddock got a well-deserved bump to Huntsville.

My Perfect Game associates, Allan Simpson and David Rawnsley, offer quite a bit of praise to the Brewers for their recent draft efforts. Check out what they have to say here: LINK

Worldwide draft, treating Japanese high-schoolers the same way we treat Canadian high schoolers. Professional baseball players in foreign leagues should still operate under the type of buyout system we've seen for players like Ichiro. Canadian baseball is far from the profitable industry that professional baseball in Japan is though. You would never be able to get Japan to simply allow their amateur baseball players to be subject to the MLB draft. Scott Boras would become instantly irrelevant. First of all, Boras will never be irrelevant. He is one of the most savvy and powerful people in the game. Secondly, that is exactly why the proposed changes will never happen. Agents are involved with so many aspects of the game of baseball in todays game, from free agency to trades and the draft. When the next CBA rolls around, MLB better have a mighty big chip they're willing to trade in exchange for some of the ideas people are suggesting, because even if amateur players don't fall under the player's union, any changes to the draft are still subject to be bargained. As I brought up in another thread, I really don't think people understand how difficult a true worldwide draft would be. Getting most of the world may be easier than trying to figure out how to get Japan and Cuba involved. TheCrew07 brings up an interesting point that could put some bargaining power back into the teams' hands. Make players that declare themselves to be eligible for the draft lose their NCAA eligibility. This point somewhat came up over the past year when Oklahoma State's Andrew Oliver was suspended from the NCAA for his involvement coming out of high school with an agent. There would have to be some kind of reinstatement process, since some players are going to get screwed by teams in the draft, and they're too young to be held completely accountable for giving up their college plans, and basically, most of their negotiating power, if they declare for the draft.

The reason I bring this up is because of the latest Dominician prospect Miguel Angel Sano. Supposedly the Yankees, Orioles, Pirates, and Twins are interested in Sano. But honestly, it would seem just the Yankees and Orioles are the best suitors given the payroll. There is some speculation that the Pirates went the cheap and easy route with the #4 overall pick so they could save some cash to make a serious run at Sano. However, that point probably supports the problem with the draft and the international free agent market than detracts from it. The worldwide draft is a nice idea, but I don't think people can even fathom how complicated it would be. I agree with others that I don't really understand why teams would have to lose draft picks for signing international free agents. I understand the comparison to Type A and B free agents, but that is done more to help the teams losing the picks than to hurt the teams signing them. The thing that makes it most complicated is the contract situation of players from Japan. You could probably have a worldwide draft, minus Japan, a lot easier than a true worldwide draft. And Cuba still wouldn't/couldn't be involved. IIRC, DM shut down the entire Asian scouting department of the Brewers because he knew he would never have the money to land a FA from there anyway. He believed the money would be better spent scouting and developing Latin American players that the Brewers had a shot of signing. The Brewers had an Asian scouting department http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif? The Brewers have tried to be creative a few different ways, spending a few years in South Africa, and even dabbling in Australia, landing a gem in Dave Nilsson (who was considered a top prospect FWIW, way back when) and increasing their efforts in Canada the past few years (players also subject to the draft). Puerto Rico IIRC used to be a free agent market, as I don't think either Pudge Rodrguez, Ruben Sierra or Juan Gonzalez were drafted by the Rangers -- they were free agents. I don't remember what happened to change that, but as noted, Puerto Rican players are now subject to the draft. I'm sure agents play a big part in this, since all of them would love to see all players be able to sign as free agents as opposed to be subject to the draft. Scott Boras has a few players from Latin America (I think Adrian Beltre was his first notable player), and as we all know the agents play a much bigger part of the game of baseball than any of us would like to see.

I'm not sure how many of you have followed, or even heard of, the development of high school sophomore sensation Bryce Harper, a player who a year ago was pegged as the easy top pick available for the 2011 draft, and one that might have given Strasburg a run for his money as the #1 overall pick this year. As Allan Simpson reports, Harper is going to forego his final two years in high school to enter junior college and be eligible next spring for the 2010 draft. http://www.pgcrosschecker.com/articles/DisplayArticle.aspx?article=1586 I don't think I can't say how crazy of a development this is. To no surprise, Scott Boras is his agent, always looking for new ways to improve his advisees' statuses. The Washington Nationals, put to the task of trying to sign Strasburg, still have to be licking their chops at the possibility of drafting two potentially once-in-a-lifetime prospects with back-to-back first overall picks. If this all goes down without any snags, following the College of Southern Nevada will be like following the circus next spring. Anyone looking to make a trip to Vegas next spring should also try to check out this young phenom, much like people flocked out to see Strasburg during his spring tour.

If you can get there next year do it at all costs. It's the last year at Rosenblatt Stadium(very similar to County Stadium) before they move to a new downtown park in 2011. Good point, thanks for the reminder. I may have to fly in to Omaha for a day next year just to catch Rosenblatt before it's gone. This may sound crazy, but that's a bigger priority to me than seeing Fenway before/if they ever tear that thing down.

Getting to Omaha is one of my dreams, so consider me jealous! My current job doesn't allow me to take even a mini-vacation in mid-June unfortunately. Have a great time. Keep an eye on Cal State Fullerton's Khris Davis, one of the Brewers' recent draftees.

Perhaps some team out there is in need of a strong message board, and the hold up is they're trying to get Brian or Colby included in the deal I have a no-trade clause to any city that doesn't have an Oakland Gyros.

Since I'm guessing Brian, Richie and myself all talk to different people, I am at liberty to say that I have heard that Erik Bedard and Cliff Lee have both been discussed at great length.

Sexton is a Wisconsite. Ojala is a really good pitcher for Rice that had a good season. I'm guessing he would return for his senior year, but I thought Luetge would too a year ago. The team has taken quite a few projected 2B in this draft.

cheezscott, we've been putting together the official draft pick and signing threads for several years now. I know this got buried, but here you go: http://forum.brewerfan.net/viewtopic.php?t=13108 I forgot to mention this on Locker, but thanks for digging up that link battlekow. The guy is an incredible athletic talent, and if he had any inclination of switching to baseball he would be a legitimate early first-rounder (and probably would want a lot of money as well). He's going to get drafted as a QB either next year or the year after that, and I know he's excited to work with their new Head Coach at Washington (who IIRC is USC's former offensive coordinator).