colbyjack

Aaron Fitt continues to update the BA blog over the weekend. Last night he mentioned (via BA's Dave Perkin) that Stephen Strasburg pitched in front of 50+ scouts last night and touched 98-99 with a low-80s breaking ball. Overall here's his line: 5.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R (0 ER), 11 K, 2 BB Here are some more lines to open the season. Most of these guys probably won't be pitching 6+ innings until they have warmed up a little to the new season. Alex White 5 IP, 8 H, 3 ER, 9 K, 1 BB, 1 HR Dustin Ackley went 3-4 with a BB Kendal Volz 6 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 5 K, 2 BB Kyle Gibson 6 IP, 3 H, 1 R (0 ER), 6 K, 3 BB Brad Boxberger 6 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 11 K, 6 BB Grant Green went 0-4 Ben Tootle 4 IP, 0 H, 1 R (0 ER), 4 K, 3 BB Tootle still is more likely to be a future closer, although I also think Volz and Boxberger will eventually be used in short relief at the pro level -- some feel the same way about Gibson and White I tuned into last night's Stanford-Vanderbilt contest to check out RHP Jeff Inman and LHP Mike Minor. Neither pitcher was particularly sharp, but both had their moments. That is kind of Inman's M.O. Every time I see the guy pitch he can throw one brilliant pitch followed by a hanger. The guy seems so incredibly laid back and loosey-goosey on the mound, almost to the point where it seems as though he looses his focus. He has a great three-pitch arsenal: low-90s FB, 80 CB, nice fading CH, and he can show through the course of the game that he can throw any of those pitches for strikes. I really believe that Inman could be a top 5-10 pick to a team that feels they can get him focused to the point where he pitches more consistently. Minor also had his moments, although he wasn't particularly sharp with his FB-CH command. He was nibbling more than usual, although he wasn't missing by much. He looked to gave some pretty good giddy-up on his fastball, and similar to the times I have seen him in the past, his breaking ball is clealry his third pitch and something he continues to struggle to master. Physically it looks as though he has grown a little taller, and kind of resembles Brian Matusz, and while Minor does have a nice change, he isn't quite as strong and his fastball isn't as powerful as Matusz'. Minor: 5.2 IP, 5 H, 3 R (2 ER), 6 K, 2 BB Inman: 7 IP, 9 H, 5 ER, 3 K, 1 BB To Inman's credit, his defense wasn't particularly sharp behind him, and easily could have had only 2 ER cross the plate against him. Vanderbilt's Jason Esposito, a freshman from CT who is taking over at 3B for Pedro Alvarez, definitely has been watching Arod's career. Esposito's batting stance is almost exactly the same, and as he continues to fill out, he will look a lot more like the controversial slugger. Cal's Blake Smith should be going on Sunday, while playing RF the first two games of the weekend series, similar to how Rice used Joe Savery a few years ago. Andrew Oliver reportedly will pitch this weekend, although I'm not sure which day (it wasn't last night). Overall I'll provide updates on the hitters and closers on a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis.

The Diamondbacks are putting together a nice little draft haul with Hudson going to the Dodgers. I'm not sure if Juan Cruz is going to end up signing anywhere else, but Arizona already has consecutive first-round picks (16 & 17) and a pair of sandwich picks for Hudson and Brandon Lyon. I know this could fire up some Brewers fans, but that is closer to the haul we were expecting with the free agents we had entering the offseason. Not to mention the Dodgers were the worst of the top 15 teams, and the only FA they could sign that would bump the pick to the 2nd round would be Orlando Cabrera, and I don't see that happening. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/images/jfellhauer09428309lg.jpg The college baseball season is upon us. BA had their first weekly preview story of the year up yesterday, focusing on Josh Fellhauer and the Cal State Fullerton Titans host TCU. Today BA's Aaron Fitt is in Florida covering the inaugural Big East/Big Ten showdown: http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/college/?p=756' EDIT: One game has already been completed, UConn vs. Michigan State. Normally I wouldn't bring this up, but UConn does have a very interesting pitching prospect by the name of Dan Mahoney who is a darkhorse to become a first round pick in June (and named to my sleeper/breakout team a couple of weeks ago). He's a draft-eligible sophomore with a big body and a big arm, and found more success last summer as a closer playing in the NECBL. The first game of the season today Mahoney appeared in relief, pitching the final inning for the Huskies, tossing 1 inning, giving up a hit and an ER while striking out 3 and not issuing a walk (his biggest problem a year ago). He has Andrew Cashner-type potential as both an overall prospect and in regards to his draft status. CSTV/CBS College Sports also has video of quite a few games through their Gametracker feature. Some of their games are available for free (including Vanderbilt @ Stanford, which pits LHP Mike Minor vs. RHP Jeff Inman), so check it out (be sure to download Microsoft's Silverlight 2 plug-in application to be able to do so): http://www.cstv.com/media/livegame.html And of course, don't forget to check out the two games scheduled to be on the MLB Network tomorrow night. I have it confirmed from San Diego ass't. coach Eric Valenzuela that Kyle Blair, one of the top prospects available for the 2010 draft, will take the mound for the Saturday TV game. An interview with Valenzuela should be up on PGCrosschecker's homepage later today. EDIT: The interview with Eric Valenzuela is up. I hope you enjoy it: http://www.pgcrosschecker...yArticle.aspx?article=590

It is more than just speculation. Brewer played both SS and OF in high school, and scouts were split as to where he fit better. Since I have already had this argument with Josh (and others), and fully recognize that the Brewers have no plans to move him (or at least they didn't at this time last year), I'll leave it at that http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what he can do this year after his impressive, although short stint in the AFL. He remains the best overall athlete in the system, and I've seen enough raw but talented players be able to overcome their weaknesses by their natural athletic talent to keep me a believer.

Matthew Purke has been throwing in the low-90s, touching 94, early this spring, showing impressive command of his three-pitch repertoire while getting some attention as a possible 1/1 per PGCC's David Rawnsley. He's currently #2 overall on my list. http://www.pgcrosschecker...yArticle.aspx?article=583 There have been some excellent updates in the blog section of PG Crosschecker, with roughly 2-3 updates a day.

The college baseball season kicks off this Friday, and on Saturday the MLB Network has a couple of games on their schedule. The College Urban Invitational will once again be televised, with the participants including San Diego, San Diego State, Southern and Bethune-Cookman. You won't be able to see Stephen Strasburg pitch, since he's slated to go on Friday, but there is quite a bit of talent to watch on the USD team that includes a impressive sophomore cast (Kyle Blair, Victor Sanchez, Sammy Solis). Blair or junior Matt Thomson are likely to take the mound in Saturday's contest for the Toreros, and Sanchez is one of the top hitting prospects available in the 2010 draft. These games a year ago gave us the opportunity to see top prospects (for last year and this year) such as Tim Murphy, Grant Green, Robert Stock and Brad Boxberger. http://mlb.mlb.com/network/schedule/?ymd=20090221 Nice to see the MLB Network joining the fray among the channels that carry college games. With ESPN (mostly during the CWS), the FSN college sports trio, CSTV and ESPNU, hopefully we'll have quite a few games to cover this year. Also, don't forget about last year's college baseball thread, in which several people in addition to myself chimed in with a variety of observations, which makes me wonder if some of our non-Brewers fans will start to re-appear in the days to come... http://forum.brewerfan.net/viewtopic.php?t=8874?page=3

http://www.baseballamerica.com/images/ggreen09428309lg.jpg Grant Green highlights BA's preseason All-American team. http://www.baseballameric...ca-teams/2009/267613.html

With the college baseball season scheduled to kick off this coming Friday, be sure to check out PG Crosschecker's overviews of the top 100 college teams, which includes projected lineups, top prospect and tools lists for each team: http://www.pgcrosschecker...ll/2009/top_100_w_sr.aspx

http://www.baseballamerica.com/images/tmendonca09428309aw.jpg Oliver's situation caused me to miss BA's West conference previews late last week. Tommy Mendonca was a huge part of the Fresno State Bulldogs College World Series victory, although he really, really needs to tone down his swing (NCAA record 97 strikeouts a year ago). http://www.baseballameric...-preview/2009/267597.html

http://www.baseballamerica.com/images/rsierrajr09428309mf.jpg Ruben Sierra Jr. and some other Puerto Rican players are creating quite a bit of stir for the 2009 draft class. The picture from above is from Baseball America, but their coverage from the event is for subscribers. PG Crosschecker has a report from Puerto Rico as well via their new blogs: http://www.pgcrosschecker...yArticle.aspx?article=543 Be sure to check out PGCC's blog page. You can catch up on the PG Indoor Showcase from a weekend ago, as well as first-hand reports from the early juco action and another on DII SS prospect Robbie Shields. All of the blogs are free to all to enjoy. http://www.pgcrosschecker.com/blogs/blogs.aspx

Thanks Toby. I updated the raw draft order (again, I'm using a "worst-case," removing players as they sign (or re-sign) as opposed to adding them. Keep an eye on the current draft slots for the team's comp pick for Shouse and their two second-rounders. If Manny Ramirez ends up re-signing with the Dodgers and Sheets doesn't garner compensation (as both scenarios seem likely to happen), the comp pick for Shouse moves up three spots as they would leap frog the Pirates and their compensatory pick for not signing Scheppers a year ago (which is going to remain the 49th overall pick no matter what happens). The same goes for the team's two second-rounders, as the first of two (the comp pick for Sabathia signing with the Yankees) would move up three spots as well, ahead of the Yankees comp pick for not signing Scott Bittle, while the second of the two second rounders (their own) would rest just behind the Yankees comp pick for not signing Bittle. That pick can also move ahead of the Bittle pick if one other free agent either re-signs with their 2008 team or doesn't sign at all (I noticed some talk that Juan Cruz may re-sign with the D-Backs since no one wants to give up a first-round pick for him). Jumping ahead of the Bittle selection would at least be a modest victory for the Brewers over the Yankees.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/images/aoliver08428309.jpg Andrew Oliver will be eligible to play this season after an Ohio court ruled in favor of his case, not only making him eligible to play, but also will put the NCAA's "no agent" and "restitution" rules under question that could significantly change things moving forward. Aaron Fitt does a nice job making sense of the story at Baseball America: http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/college/?p=746

Wright and now Green will provide some very nice depth to the pieces already in place in DiFelice, Narveson, Brae Wright, David Welch and Sam Narron, assuming none of them makes the big-league club out of spring training. The same is true of the bullpen, with a mix of players that aren't going to make the big-league team and players on their way up. The upper-level talent of starting pitchers isn't particularly encouraging, but hopefully they have enough bodies to carry the team through in the event of emergencies and ineffectiveness. The Brewers really need guys like Jeffress and Periard to step up over the course of the 2009 season, and hopefully both of them will be in the mix for the AAA rotation by midseason.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/images/jphegley09428309.jpg Josh Phegley of Indiana is profile today, a potential first-round pick if he comes close to repeating his 2008 numbers while also rebounding defensively. The rest of the Midwestern conferences are also broken down as subscriber-based content, but Phegley's story is free for all to enjoy: http://www.baseballameric...-preview/2009/267596.html

I list a team full of potential break-out players from the college level in my column this week. Please note that I scribed this story a week ago, so I'm not riding on BA's profile of James Jones: http://www.pgcrosschecker...yArticle.aspx?article=571 http://www.baseballamerica.com/images/btootle09428309.jpg As for BA, the turn to the South today while profiling Jacksonville State RHP Ben Tootle (a former rotation mate to Brewers farmhand Donovan Hand): http://www.baseballameric...-preview/2009/267595.html

The Nats have made some real good moves this offseason. If they were to add Orlando Hudson along with Dunn, look out. That would be one tough lineup especially if Milledge and Dukes take a step forward. That's not to say they'd be a serious threat in the NL East, but they could well be a wild card factor. Really? You think so? I think the Nationals are a long, long ways off from contention, and signing Dunn could be one of those deals we look back in a year or two and think, "it wasn't a bad deal, but was it really worth the trouble?" And if the Nationals go cheap in the draft, such as passing on Stephen Strasburg with the #1 overall pick for financial reasons, this signing looks even worse. As for Milledge stepping forward, he has nearly 900 big-league ABs under his belt now, with roughly the same results throughout his career. I realize he's not even 24 yet with oodles of potential, but similar to Weeks I'm starting to think that he who we think he is (sorry to steal a line from Dennis Green http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif). I can see why Brewers fans would be bummed not to land Dunn, but I don't think that automatically means this is a good deal for the Nationals.

Except for 346 at bats (.303/.345/.529) in High Desert back in 2001, there was never any reason to think he had enormous potential. His career obp in the minors was .303! His slugging was .387. His first season in AAA in 465 at bats he posted a .568 OPS. That just flat out stinks. There was no indication in the minors that he'd ever be anything but a backup infielder. Only in a pathetic organization like the Brewers circa 2001/2002 would a player like this be sold as a top prospect. Minor league statistics do not define the potential, enormous or otherwise, of a minor league player. Similar to the comparison to Alex Rios, if that were the case, Grady Sizemore never would have developed the power he currently has. All three's athletic talents were very evident, even if those talents were not reflected in the stats. Without a doubt he was rushed, but Bill Hall still does have the potential to be better than what he has over the past two seasons, as he showed how good he could be the two years prior (2005-06) to that. I personally think it's unfortunate that he got moved to CF in the first place, because as many of us argued even at the time, the team moved the wrong player (Hall vs. Braun) to the OF at that point in time, and we'll never know how much that has effected Hall's impact at the plate. As TLB pointed out, he has significant split differences between LHPs and RHPs. What is interesting is that he wasn't horrible like he is now against RHPs during the 2005-06 seasons. He was at least average, arguably slightly above average. Hopefully he and Sveum are looking at tape from those seasons to figure out what made him so successful during that time. I think we all know he's at his best laying off crap in the dirt while driving pitches he can hit to RCF, but even that is easier said than done.

Gah, he's no Kotchman... In the most recent print issue of BA (the college and draft preview issue) there is a blurb towards the beginning of the paper that notes the Brewers signing of OF Derrick McPhearson. As Mass linked to above, he had some legal issues in college that led to his dismissal from Ron Zook from the football team, and he eventually spent half a year in prison. I think Mass makes a good guess that he likely was signed from one of the team's tryout camps last month. He went to Illinois as a talented two-way recruit. He was a multi-threat WR, so you know he's fast. He never stepped onto the baseball field for the Illini, and ended up transferring to Hampton which doesn't have a baseball team. His father and brother (both named Gerrick) played in the NFL.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/images/kheckathorn09428309ds.jpg Kyle Heckathorn of Kennesaw State is profiled today by BA as they took a look at the conference capsules of the East/Southeast. As you can probably tell by the picture, Heckathorn is a big bodied righty who has a power arsenal and pretty impressive command of a three-pitch arsenal. As you can read in the story below, some consider his changeup to be his best pitch, which is crazy when you consider he has touched the upper-90s with his fastball and upper-80s with his slider. Be prepared to hear this young man's name more and more as the spring progresses. http://www.baseballameric...-preview/2009/267594.html

Baseball America kicked off their region-by-region coverage today, starting with the Northeast. James Jones of Long Island University is profiled today, a player that was the buzz of the Northwoods League last summer. http://www.baseballamerica.com/images/jjones09428309.jpg http://www.baseballameric...-preview/2009/267573.html The individual conference previews are for subscribers only.

In the spirit of the event, hopefully we're not dressed like this guy a month from now... http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y155/colbyjack/wintermeetings.jpg I can't 100% commit to this, but I'll do my best to be there.

Ross, I can get you a vector-based EPS version of the script logo if that is what you want to use. Just shoot me an email at pebert@brewerfan.net.

Kind of highlights whats wrong with the MLB draft. Although he probably would have been a first rounder still, possibly a top 10, he was in no way the best player in that draft. San Diego drafted him because they didn't want to pay for one of the best players. How can you consider a draft to be fair when the best players are constantly falling because teams that need the most help can't afford to pay them? You still have to be responsible for taking the right player. The Pirates have also cried poor over the last decade, passing on the likes of BJ Upton, Matt Wieters and others only to see the players they take fall to injury, ineffectiveness, etc. Are the monetary issues forcing the Padres and Pirates to make bad decisions? The Brewers have been accused of selecting draft picks based on financial reasons. When the Brewers took Prince Fielder there were quite a few people (and still are) that complained that the team passed on Scott Kazmir. Now, you can argue that Kazmir would look a lot better in a Brewers uniform than Prince does all you want, but the fact remains that the Brewers still took a pretty dang good player. I understand there are some glaring economic inequities, but I listened to Bud and Wendy Selig use them as a crutch for far too long when trying to explain the team's struggles over the years.

Kind of highlights whats wrong with the MLB draft. Although he probably would have been a first rounder still, possibly a top 10, he was in no way the best player in that draft. San Diego drafted him because they didn't want to pay for one of the best players. How can you consider a draft to be fair when the best players are constantly falling because teams that need the most help can't afford to pay them? You still have to be responsible for taking the right player. The Pirates have also cried poor over the last decade, passing on the likes of BJ Upton, Matt Wieters and others only to see the players they take fall to injury, ineffectiveness, etc. Are the monetary issues forcing the Padres and Pirates to make bad decisions? The Brewers have been accused of selecting draft picks based on financial reasons. When the Brewers took Prince Fielder there were quite a few people (and still are) that complained that the team passed on Scott Kazmir. Now, you can argue that Kazmir would look a lot better in a Brewers uniform than Prince does all you want, but the fact remains that the Brewers still took a pretty dang good player. I understand there are some glaring economic inequities, but I listened to Bud and Wendy Selig use them as a crutch for far too long when trying to explain the team's struggles over the years.

I do not know about removing the arbitration part of it I like that gamble that teams have to take. I agree that offering/not offering and accepting/declining arbitration are one of the factors that makes the offseason and draft so interesting. However, I meant that the arbitration process should stay the same with the exception of draft pick compensation (meaning, all players lost and signed via free agency would be considered for supplemental round compensation, which would mean Trevor Hoffman's signing could offset some of the picks lost in losing CC and Shouse), and I'm not even sure that's a good idea, just something I've thought about.