colbyjack

I always thought Texeria was more to help sell tickets in the near term and hopefully by year 4 or 5 of his deal the Nats would have had talent in place around him. That said actually putting together a winning team would help sell a lot more tickets than a local boy made good. Exactly. Any team that fools themselves to think that one player will help them sell that many more tickets is doomed to fail. Winning is the only thing that cures attendance woes. I thought it very interesting in the most recent BA (we get it before a lot of people here in WI because it is printed in Neenah or something like that) and it said that the Braves system is at a critical mass. I'm not so sure I agree with BA to the extent that the Braves are ready to explode. They are still missing quite a bit of impact talent. Jason Heyward is an exciting prospect, but I'm not convinced they have enough other pieces in place for it all to come together. Maybe if Chipper Jones were closer to 30 than 40, and if Jeff Franceour actually showed signs of reaching his considerable potential, but I think they're going to see a lot of new faces before they're a perennial contender again.

Wisconsin native Jordan Zimmerman is at the top of the improving Nationals farm system. The Nats system has gotten a lot better, but obviously they have a lot more work to do, and Jim Bowden should be focusing his efforts on scouting and player development than evening trying to mess with the idea that Mark Teixeira could magically turn their fortune around. http://www.baseballamerica.com/images/jzimmerman08428309kp.jpg http://www.baseballameric...rospects/2009/267400.html

Cleveland definitely can be a contender. They finished the season strong despite moving forward without Sabathia (yes, it can be done http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif). As X noted, they addressed their needs very well, particularly in the bullpen, and they are only a year removed from the playoffs. I don't think LaPorta opens the season in Cleveland, but he and Brantley will likely be a phone call away at AAA.

I feel yoshii's comments about the bullpen and adding Hoffman are dead-on: Hoffman, McClung, Villanueva, Riske, Stetter, and two of Dillard, Coffey, Swindle, Julio, Defilice, Morlan would give us a lot of quality and depth. And the team still may have a few other added members to the depth in Luis Pena and Omar Aguilar. I think adding Hoffman would be more than enough to solidify the 'pen, meaning guys like Cruz and Lyon aren't needed. If Hoffman is added, the focus really needs to be turned to the starting staff and hopefully finding an arm that could take a little pressue off of Gallardo having to serve as the staff ace. Hopefully Haudricourt didn't get people's hopes up too much.

I just received the 50th submission, so I will be closing the polling. If I receive votes by mid-afternoon or so, I will still accept them, otherwise, thank you for your participation.

I have been informed that Zach Braddock had a procedure in mid-December to help move the ulnar nerve in his throwing arm. Initially there was some fear that Braddock would have to have another Tommy John procedure, but according to the Doctor that performed the most recent procedure, Braddock's elbow joint is just fine, which was somewhat suspected since he wasn't suffering a significant loss in velocity. Quite the opposite, as Braddock's fastball was up to 97 last spring, as it was his command/control that suffered the most. He should be fully recovered later this month, and be ready to throw in spring training. I'm not sure if this is going to slow his throwing, meaning, if the Brewers will bring him back slowly or not and how it will effect his placement coming out of spring training, but I would guess that he would be handled somewhat similar to how he was a year ago by opening in Brevard County before being promoted to Huntsville. Braddock will need to remain extremely diligent with his strength and conditioning program, as the root for most of his problems come from the lack of a strict stretching program.

The top prospect lists are back up today, with the Phillies being profiled. While their system doesn't look particularly good, they have developed some high impact talent in recent years. Although the man responsible for much of that talent, Mike Arbuckle, left the Phillies and joined his buddy Dayton Moore in KC when Ruben Amaro got the nod over him. http://www.baseballameric...rospects/2009/267393.html I missed the Mets a few weeks back as well, another organization lacking in impact talent, although Fernando Martinez continues to be a part of every trade rumor the Mets are involved with: http://www.baseballameric...rospects/2009/267356.html

Nice to hear. I thought that when Melvin said he didn't have interest in Hoffman after meeting with him, he was basically saying that he wasn't interested in Hoffman at the price he was asking before, and that came before Rodriguez and Fuentes signed for significantly less than expected. Signing Hoffman could be a very good deal, and would allow pitchers like Villanueva and McClung to remain in more diversified roles. Make it happen Doug!

I agree with hawing, I don't think this is about making Milwaukee more appealing. If this happens, JP will be going back home while also (I'm guessing) taking on the #1 duties for the Braves broadcast. That's a win-win, and shouldn't be taken as a slam towards Milwaukee or the Brewers. I'm sure if it weren't a significant step up, JP would likely stay here, as he has never had anything but glowing praise for any and everything that has to do with the Milwaukee Brewers. And you know he's going to keep tabs on the team should he indeed move on. Few know the organizaiton from top to bottom as well as he does. The Brewers actually do have one thing going for them, and that is an impressive line and overall history of successful broadcasters. Over the past decade +, Pat Hughes, Matt Vasgersian, Darron Sutton and Trenni Kusnierik have all moved on to bigger and better things with significantly greater national exposure. Plus, I've been pretty pleased with Brian Anderson, who has significant national exposure of his own, which makes me confident Powell's successor will be a solid addition as well.

I personally think team needs should have nothing to do with rating prospects, of any kind, at any level. That said, I have really enjoyed looking over all of the P50 submissions that were sent to me. Everyone out there clearly has their favorite players, and everyone also has their own theories as to how some prospects are rated higher vs. others (which was usually potential vs. polish). There was even one name on one list that I had to look up, as I wasn't even familiar with who the player was. I received two more overnight, meaning I only need one more to wrap this up. Of course, I will take more if I receive them, but once I received the 50th submission, even if 51-55 are also in my inbox, this poll will be over, and hopefully I can get it to Brian for him to post on the homepage by early next week. Thanks to everyone that participated.

As noted, there are some disadvantages for a LH cacher, but anyone that has that good of a left arm to catch is given a shot to pitch until their left arm falls off.

Yes please, I appreciate the late submissions today, but I still need 3 more.

Lincoln Hamiltion at Project Prospect deserves a ton of credit for taking the time to put this story together: http://www.projectprospec...ge-hitters-quantitatively Of course we need to see if these results correlate with what actually happens down the road, plus I'm sure the overall figure will be more accurate once the sophomores on the list have their junior seasons under their belts, but for nothing else it's a lot of fun to study. I've felt for a while that Pollock's decent BB rate, incredibly low K rate, ability to hit, hit for power and speed makes him a relatively safe pick to succeed, and this formula obviously backs that up. For fans of the under-appreciated, limited tools players that simply produce, keep an eye on Marc Krauss. I think he could be this year's Kevin Youkilis. And Brewers draft fans may remember the name Andrew Clark from the '06 draft, who attended Ole Miss citing that he intended to prove scouts wrong by not taking him earlier, only to transfer to Louisville the next year after some off-the-field issues.

Sadly I'm out this year. Thanks for the call Jamie.

I'm going to let the poll stay open until I get to 50 submissions. I'm at 40 right now, and I'm hoping the holidays caused a few people that I expected to receive submissions from to get their vote in. Thanks to those that have done so so far.

I still need 15 submissions to close the polls, and I'm really hoping I get a late push through tomorrow. I know there are more than 35 minor-league die hards on this forum...

Thanks for the responses, as I received four more between last night and this morning. We're still about 20 votes away from wrapping this up, but I don't want this to carry too far into the New Year. For a teaser, as expected, it's a two-horse race for the top spot. There is also a very tight race for the 4th and 5th spots. The prospect currently ranked third is comfortably nestled in between these two races. There was a lot more disparity on this list a year ago. There are nine players that have received a vote from every person, and a 10th that was voted by everyone except one person. Keep 'em coming!

So far I've received 24 submissions, which is less than half of the 50 total I would like to receive before coming up with the results. I initially put a deadline in for this Friday, so please take the time to get your lists to me in the next few days. Thanks to those that have submitted their lists so far. I typically don't respond to the individual emails and PMs, but some very good comments are flowing in. And when clancy says that he feels some guys are VERY undervalued, he's not kidding http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif.

Thanks, we are aware of the problem and hope to get to it soon.

Heading into the offseason many stated that the worst thing that could happen with CC is if both he and Teixeira went to the Yankees. And yes, that's what happened. When it comes to the compensation picks from the team that signs players away, the picks are handed out in order of the ranking of the free agent signed. Since the free agents they signed were ranked Teixeira-Sabathia-Burnett, the Angels get the Yankees' first-round pick, the Brewers get the Yankees' second-round pick and the Blue Jays get the Yankees' third-round pick. The compensatory picks in the supplemental first-round are distributed in order of the worst teams to lose a Type A free agent. The first pick of the sandwich round, no matter who else signs this offseason, will go to the Mariners, since they were the worst team to even have a Type A free agent that they could lose. Teams with multiple Type A free agents cannot get consecutive picks, unless every other team that loses a Type A free agent has already been compensated. That's why the Brewers' sandwich picks for Sabathia and Sheets will not be back-to-back. Once compensation is handed out for Type A free agents, compensation for Type B free agents kicks in. Refer to the official draft resource thread for updated picks and other info pertaining to the draft and draft order.

I agree that Sheets is better, I'm just trying to defend Looper a little bit. He throws low 90s with good sink and a decent slider. With all due respect, Sheets results are way better. Trying to tie the two together because they're two-pitch pitchers isn't fair to either one. The only thing Looper has on Sheets is durability, which is big, but not big enough to consider Looper to have as great as of an importance on the 2009 Brewers as any Brewers team Sheets pitched for. The signing of Looper doesnt mean he is the only free agent they are going to sign. Im sure Melvin wants to add a solid piece to the starting rotation. I think he can do that here with Looper. I dont think this means that this signing is it. I'm not really sure what to take from this statement. I made it clear before that I would be fine with Looper if the team went out and signed Fuentes as well, improving the team's overall depth. The Brewers obviously aren't going to replace Sabathia, but if they can improve the bullpen considerable, and improve the rotation enough in which McClung and Villanueva can continue to be used in diverse roles, the '09 team will be much better off because of it. If Looper is added to the rotation and no other additions are made, it's a rather vanilla move, and it is very hard to defend. He's probably better than a few of our rotation options, If our rotation right now is Gallardo, Parra, Bush, Suppan and McClung, who is Looper better than? Suppan and McClung? If he's better than Bush, Parra and Gallardo, the 2009 Brewers are in big trouble. I agree that the team is better wherever and however they improve, but improving from Soup and McClung isn't that great of a feat. Again, I'm not down on the idea, but on it's own it isn't very encouraging.

I love Perez' D', and his overall approach at the plate, but he needs to add strength before he proves to me he can hang with the big boys on a consistent basis to be considered among the top 30 overall prospects. He has the talent to soar up prospect lists in the spring, but he needs to prove it.

I would say he has a pretty good fastball in terms of both velocity and movement. His slider is decent as well. Isn't Ben Sheets pretty much a two pitch pitcher? I understand the point, but Sheets has had a pretty nice career. Looper is a fine pitcher to fill in toward the back of the rotation, but I don't think that is what this team needs the most right now. Unless they complement the signing of someone like Looper with the signing of someone like Brian Fuentes, which would strengthen the entire pitching staff from the bottom up (instead of from the top down, which is how CC strengthened the team), I'm not a big fan of the team adding Looper as it stands by itself.

Cliff Floyd would be a very nice bench option IMO. He obviously can't play CF, and has never been able to stay healthy, but he has always put up good numbers. He's better against RHPs, but he's not horrible vs. LHPs over his career. Mark Kotsay makes sense too, since he can play CF, although not very well according to the numbers. Both Kotsay and Floyd can play 1B as well, and Floyd in particular would be a nice DH option in interleague.

Still no sign of Iribarren. Escobar continues to play sparingly, but has started the last four games for Lara, going 4-16 in that time with a double, a pair of RBI, 1 BB and 1K. He's now hitting .232 and continues to show better control of the strike zone. Brendan Katin has 12 dingers and a .559 slugging this fall/winter, while Brad Nelson has 8 homers and a .750 slugging despite not playing in over a month. He like Iribarren wore out RHPs. Casey McGehee is hitting .333 with 7 homers and a .550 slugging. But he, like Nelson, hasn't played in nearly a month. McGehee's numbers are much better vs. LHPs. Gwynn, Fermaint and Bourgeois are all hitting on the sunny side of .300. Fermaint is walking at a good pace, but none of them are hitting for extra-bases. There are several pitchers enjoying solid campaigns this winter (including RJ Swindle, although he has been roughed up by left-handed hitters), and Efrain Nieves has joined in the fun, posting a 3.24 ERA in four relief appearances.