colbyjack

There was a reason Weeks dropped to the 8th round in 2005... He was unsignable. That's not true. As I noted just above Jemile entered the draft fully intending on signing as long as teams met his asking price (upper 6-figures). The Brewers did that, but Jemile's father convinced him to go to Miami.

A few people had Weeks going #12 to the A's. You can't fault the Brewers for not signing Weeks. They offered him what he wanted, but his dad really wanted him to go to school.

Again, don't be surprised if the Brewers take Wallace. The White Sox, Astros and A's were the main teams he needed to get past to fall to the Brewers.

Alvarez is a Mark Teixeira type slugger that projects to hit anywhere on the field. Moving to 1B shouldn't effect his value. I personally think he should be able to stick at 3B. I've seen him compared to a left-handed hitting version of Aramis Ramirez, which is a solid comp.

For Mac/Safari users out there... Has anyone had problems with the MLB.com pages? Each time I try to load a page I get sent to a "sorry, but this page no longer exists screen." It's fine in IE. If you are experiencing this problem, any suggestions on how to correct it?

Perry's FB is straight and hittable despite the impressive velocity. He's better off as a projected closer with arguably the best fastball in the draft. LetsGoBrewCrew, check out my interview with Wallace over at PGCrosschecker: http://www.pgcrosschecker.com/columnists/patrickebert/2008/draft/playerspotlight_brettwallace.aspx While the team doesn't need Wallace, he's going to keep on hitting as a pro.

Just a reminder, I will not be at tonight's game, although it doesn't look as though there will be a tonight's game.

Sheets comp: Sonny Gray, but it seems as though he's heading to Vanderbilt. Potential fast-moving HS pitcher targeted for round 2: Quinton Miller. Jeremy Sowers comp: Tyler Stovall Brett Anderson comp: Brett DeVall

Thanks X. I'm not saying you should avoid Boras clients, but it's not guaranteed that you're going to strike it rich if you do select one of those players. They're far from sure things, just like any other player. I have always contended that you need to take the right player in any and all situations, and personally I don't get bent out of shape when I see team X passing on player Y.

That's a good point X, I guess I was just trying to point out that most to all teams have guys like Alonso and Wallace ranked ahead of Smoak at this point in time, and while those two sluggers are plenty good, Smoak just doesn't seem to have the luster he had entering the season, or even the luster he had after the summer of 2006 when he was considered to be one of the top prospects on the Cape after his freshman year (and the league MVP). One more note, watching Stephen Drew and even Max Scherzer of the D-Backs this most recent Brewers series it reminded me how hit and miss Scott Boras clients can be given the amount of money it takes to get them in the fold. Both of those young men obviously could become a lot better than what they've been up to this point in time, but recently it seems as though you had better be as close to sure as possible that a Boras advisee is as close to perennial All-Star ready if you're going to go through the hassle of drafting them and eventually signing them via the draft. Of course the situations of players like Arod and Kenny Rogers have left somewhat of a black mark on Boras' reputation (not really, because he'll be just fine), but it does suggest that just because you pass on a Boras client doesn't mean you're necessarily doing a bad thing talent-wise. Of course you have to make sure you make the right pick (attention Pirates).

The fact that they produce will excite Brewers fans. And it's not as though they're slouches athletically, but it may signal a trend that actually has been picking up steam the past several years as the team targets more players that actually know how to play the game and aren't drafted just because they throw 98 or run incredibly fast. All of those players have a good mix of tools and skills.

Here's an awesome story from my PGCC associate David Rawnsley, who is set to be part of ESPN2's draft coverage tomorrow (if you haven't noticed, Rawnsley is one of the brightest and most underappreciated voices on amateur talent): http://www.pgcrosschecker.com/columnists/davidrawnsley/2008/draft/draft08_ramblings.aspx Please excuse him if he constantly refers to Rickie Weeks as "Richie." http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

I say this to my fellow 9-game pack holder every time we got to a game together, but JJ Hardy is still the most enjoyable player to watch on the field. He makes the game look so incredibly easy defensively, and while he doesn't have the greatest of range, he makes every play he can get to and every throw to first base is right on the money, which is important since Fielder isn't exactly the most savvy 1B defensively.

Guys like Lawrie, Ross and Dykstra are more polished all-around players than most high schoolers. None of them have the ideal athleticism you look for, such as the pure tools that Hewitt presents, and I'm guessing that would excite most Brewers fans. If all three of those guys are among the Brewers early picks, fans will be pretty happy come September when they've had a chance to see what they're capable of doing at Helena.

If Smoak was pretty awesome, he wouldn't be falling out of the top 10. I didn't hear the exact reason as to why he's falling, but I know seeing him in the past I'm a little concerned with his swing and bat speed. I'm one of the few people that have preferred Yonder Alonso all along. Although I did hear last night that the Brewers might be a darkhorse candidate for Brett Wallace. Heck, if they're good at developing bats, even if those bats don't project to play anywhere other than first, keep taking them. I also kind of took that to mean that they might have more flexibility with LaPorta if they wanted to dangle him for a pitcher at the deadline. That's must my speculation, as I still would be surprised to see Wallace's name called. Oh yeah, I've also heard that Zach Collier may not be as good, or at least polished, of a hitter as the hype over the last month or two may suggest. It seems as though his reputation is still riding on his game he had vs. Aaron Hicks.

I thought about that DHonks, but I see no harm letting that first thread go long, and to be honest, I don't want to change the threads at this point in time. Again, I'm hoping people keep the back and forth banter to the chat room and not the discussion threads.

I can confirm the Royals interest in Hosmer. They'll take Alvarez if he falls, otherwise they seem prepared to take Hosmer, although it's not certain that they would sign him. Schlereth is also rising, as I saw one mock where he snuck in at the bottom of the 1st round (maybe that was Goldstein's linked above). Although I wouldn't say he was nowhere near to being a first-round pick a few weeks ago, he's been in the mix for the supplemental or 2nd round for quite some time. Same goes for Ike Davis, who was actually in better position to be a first-rounder before he missed some time not too long ago due to injury. I don't think Alonso falls (have heard the Nats really like him at #9), but I have heard that Smoak might. Not too many teams in the top 10 are linked to Smoak. Kelly could fall since many seem to believe he's a better pitcher, yet he wants to hit, and he has that pesky FB commitment to TEN. The Pirates are obviously going to change who gets taken among the top 3-12 overall picks. Their pick is going to set off a chain reaction that will likely effect the Giants, Reds, White Sox, Astros and A's. My final projection should hit PGCC's homepage by tomorrow morning.

Draft day is almost upon us. If you've been a part of the discussion on draft day in the past, you may remember how it works. There will be one locked thread in which myself or other members of the staff add the names of the players taken round-by-round, as well as individual pages for those players that includes scouting reports, links, pictures, etc. There will also be three separate discussion threads. One for the first five rounds, another thread for rounds 6-20 and another for rounds 21-50. Please do not start threads to discuss individual players or picks. This is pretty much how the other forums at Brewerfan.net work as well. If you want to help the staff by finding links and other info on the players the Brewers take, please feel free to do so in the individual discussion threads for the players taken in their respective rounds. Also, we invite you to hit the chat room to talk, as we don't want the threads to act as a game-chat. Meaning, please avoid series of one line posts that say "the Yankees just took Tanner Scheppers." Keep the threads as informational as possible just to keep things clean and easy to grab information from, especially down the line. Joshua Kusnick, the agent for several of the Brewers prospects (Cain, Ford, Brewer, Brantley, Pena and others) will be stopping by at some point tomorrow to join the chat room discussion. He represents Adrian Nieto, who reportedly has been on the Brewers radar, so be sure to take advantage of his presence and ask him a ton of questions (but go easy on the guy, it's not easy being an agent http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif). Thanks in advance to everyone for your participation. We've been waiting for this day for a long time, and I'm sure Jack Z. will once again work his magic.

Granted, there's virtually no chance that the Brewers take 5 college guys with their 6 picks, but it's my mock draft. They've been taking more and more college players in recent years, so I don't think your projection is too big of a stretch. If that is how draft day shakes out, I think people will be pretty happy with those results. I know I would be. And the one HS player you did take, DeVall, is a rather polished arm that doesn't profile to throw much harder, if at all, but he already knows how to pitch and could advance quickly.

Thanks to everyone for the kind words.

With all due respect to the person that put that site together, there are way too many curious picks to give it much credibility.

If you had a look at the LHP, can you tell us anything about him, as far as being tall, short, big & strong or long and lithe? For the most part we know that the pre-draft was mainly to get a look at some players the team hasn't gotten a great look at this spring, but we also know that there were a few top-tier talents in the mix as well. I know I got a first-hand look at players such as Prince Fielder, Josh Murray, Dana Eveland and Khalid Ballouli in 2002 (and Tom Wilhelmsen was in attendance, but didn't throw), and all of those guys were early picks, so if you get invited to these things you typically are very much in the team's crosshairs.

Escobar = Omar Vizquel Gamel = Garrett Atkins (a left-handed hitting version, which might be Chad Tracy when he's healthy) LaPorta = Pat Burrell Vizquel and Burrell have been popular comparisons to Escobar and LaPorta in the past. Gamel is a little tough, especially since we don't know if he'll stick at third or have to move to the OF.

First, I want to add that I wouldn't be surprised to see the Brewers take an arm with their first pick, as nothing really surprises me anymore, especially after last year. If Brett Lawrie is gone and the team doesn't believe in Hewitt's hitting ability, they may very well go wtih an arm at #16, with Ethan Martin getting a lot of love as the best prep pitcher available that could be available at that spot. Anyway, I rounded out the blogger mock draft taking Lonnie Chisenhall and Chris Carpenter with the back-to-back second rounders and Carlos Gutierrez with their own second rounder, pretty much how I aligned it in the draft prediction thread. After thinking about those picks some more, they obviously would be taking a lot of risk by drafting two prep arms and two college arms with past injury concerns. The reward obviously is through the roof.

ColbyJack...I think one solid MLBer per draft (40-50 kids) kinda sets the bar low...I know all sports come at their drafts at a different angle but I'd be upset if my hockey, basketball, or football team only got ONE starter per draft...and MLB has soooo many rounds...and only 25 guys on the active roster... This really isn't my take on it as much as it is the take of front office executives around the league. You often hear Doug Melvin talking about how getting 1-2 big-leaguers from any given draft makes that draft a successful one. Again, I hate using the word crap-shoot, since that takes away all of the hard work teams put into scouting, but as we all know so much can happen between a player getting drafted and the end of their professional career, which unfortunately usually ends up to most players never even sniffing the big-leagues.