TheCrew07

Nelson Strong Again, Offense Lights Up RedHawks In 8-5 Series Finale Win Nashville Completes First Winning Road Trip Since 2011 Nashville Sounds http://www.milb.com/assets/images/8/1/0/72294810/cuts/_MPS4547_Medium_7ykdi0uy_e28aqzjb.jpg (Mike Strasinger / Nashville Sounds) OKLAHOMA CITY - Jimmy Nelson worked his fifth straight quality start and Nashville batters slugged three homers for the second straight game to propel the Sounds to an 8-5 victory over the Oklahoma City RedHawks in the finale of a four-game series on Sunday afternoon at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. With the victory, the Sounds wrapped up their first winning multiple-series road trip since August 2011, closing the swing with a 5-3 mark. Nashville (12-11) now possesses a winning record for the first time since the third day of the season. Nelson (3-1) worked his fifth consecutive quality start to open the year and picked up his third victory by holding the RedHawks to two runs on six hits while striking out six batters (video - 6th strikeout, full at-bat) in his seven innings of action. His ERA stands at 1.97 through his five starts. The Sounds scored a season-best eight runs by cranking out a season-high 14 hits on the afternoon, including a 4-for-4 effort by third baseman Taylor Green. Every member of the Nashville lineup either rapped a knock or drove in a run in the contest. Oklahoma City opened the contest by taking a 1-0 first-inning lead against Nelson as Robbie Grossman led off with a single and later scored on a groundout. Jeremy Hermida (3-for-4) powered the Sounds into the lead in the fourth when he slugged a two-out, two-run homer to left off RedHawks starter Bobby Doran, the outfielder's second big fly of the year (audio). Robinzon Diaz followed with a double and scored the third run of the frame for Nashville on a single by Green to make it a 3-1 contest. All three runs in the inning were unearned following a two-out throwing error by shortstop Ronald Torreyes. The Sounds plated more two-out runs in the fifth when Caleb Gindl and Hunter Morris put together Nashville's first pair of back-to-back homers this season, both off Doran. The roundtrippers were Gindl's second (audio) and Morris' fourth (audio) of the year. After Oklahoma City got a run back in the sixth when Gregorio Petit doubled and scored on a Domingo Santana single, Nashville extended its lead to 7-2 in the top of the seventh with a pair of runs off David Martinez. With the bases loaded, Sean Halton lifted a sacrifice fly to right to bring home Irving Falu, who extended the Sounds' longest hit streak of the year to nine games with a single earlier in the frame. Gindl, who had doubled, scored a second run on the play as the result of a throwing error by first baseman Jon Singleton. After Nashville added its season-high 8th run in on a Falu sacrifice fly, Oklahoma City took immediate advantage of Nelson's departure in the bottom of the eighth by touching Kyle Heckathorn for three runs to pull within striking distance at 8-5. Torreyes led off with his first homer of the year, a solo shot to left, before the 'Hawks later added two more runs on back-to-back two-out RBI doubles off the bats of Max Stassi and Enrique Hernandez. Donovan Hand retired the RedHawks in order in the ninth to close out the victory and picked up his fourth save of the year, matching Rob Wooten for the team lead. The Sounds return to Music City tomorrow to begin an eight-game homestand with a 7:05 p.m. opener of a four-game series against New Orleans (AAA-Marlins). Right-hander Hiram Burgos (1-3, 6.50) will make the start for the Sounds to face Zephyrs right-hander Jay Rogers (0-1, 5.51). Nashville Boxscore Jimmy Nelson wasn't as dominating as he was in his previous 2 appearances, but I'll take it. Kyle Heckathorn is having a season to forget so far, Kentrail Davis may well be the last man standing from the top of that once promising 2009 draft. Caleb Gindl (2-5,2B,HR) has pushed his AVE back up to .250 and Taylor Green's (4-4) day pushed his AVE up to .283. Outside of his 4 run outburst on April 16th Donovan Hand has pitched very well. Houston's once #1 prospect Jon Singleton (he's slid down to 7) went 2-12 for in the series. Nashville Recap Extremely busy game log as one would imagine. Nashville Gameday

Rattlers end road trip with 10-2 loss at Kane County Cougars complete three-game sweep of Rattlers By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers GENEVA, IL - The Kane County Cougars collected fourteen hits to defeat the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers 10-2 Sunday afternoon at Fifth Third Bank Ballpark. Jake Hannemann and Will Remillard did most of the damage for the Cougars. Kane County swept the three game series from Wisconsin. The teams each scored a run in the first inning, but in different ways. Wisconsin (10-12) loaded the bases as Kane County starting pitcher Jen-Ho Tseng hit leadoff batter Johnny Davis with the first pitch of the game and walked the next two. Clint Coulter grounded into a 6-4-3 double play to get Davis home with a 1-0 lead. Kane County (17-6) got a leadoff single by Hannemann and he took second on an error. Yasiel Balaguert singled with one out to drive Hannemann in to tie the game. The Cougars broke the tie in the fourth inning with four runs on five hits off Rattlers starter Barrett Astin. Danny Canela started the inning with an infield single and he went to second on a throwing error. Remillard followed with a single to put runners on the corners. Daniel Lockhart was next and he singled to knock in Remillard for a 2-1 lead. Jordan Hankins made it four straight singles, but his sharp hit to right forced Remillard to stop at third. Astin looked like he might get out of the inning as he got Shawon Dunston, Jr, to ground into a force play at the plate. But, Hannemann singled with two outs to drive in a pair of runs and the Cougars were up 4-1. Astin threw a wild pitch on the first pitch to the next batter and Dunston scored from third for a 5-1 advantage. Tseng recovered from his shaky start and to hold the Rattlers off the scoreboard through the remainder of his start. The Taiwanese righty allowed one hit and struck out seven over his five innings. Wisconsin tried to rallied against Kane County reliever Tyler Bremer in the top of the sixth inning. Clint Coulter and David Denson singled to start the inning. Taylor Brennan singled with one out to load the bases. Bremer got out of the inning with a strikeout and a grounder to third. Kane County added onto their lead in the bottom of the sixth. Remillard homered, his first as a professional, to start the inning. Lockhart and Hankins followed with singles and Dunston grounded into a force play at second base. Dunston would steal second base to get into scoring position and Hannemann drove in both Lockhart and Dunston to make the score 8-1. Hannemann finished the day with three hits and four RBI. The hit by Hannemann drove Astin out of the game. The Rattlers starter gave up eight runs on twelve hits over 5-1/3 innings. Tyler Linehan got the final two outs of the sixth. Wisconsin got back on the board in the top of the seventh. Johnny Davis reached on an error to start the inning. He was still at second base with two out. Coulter lined a double to center to drive in Davis and the Rattlers were down 8-2. Coulter extended his current hitting streak to seven games with a 2-for-4 day on Sunday. Coulter is 12-for-27 during the hitting streak. Kane County tacked on two more runs against Linehan in the seventh. A walk and a double brought Remillard back to the plate with two runners in scoring position and no outs. Remillard doubled to knock in both runners and give Kane County their ninth and tenth runs of the game. Remillard also had three hits while driving in three runs for the Cougars on Sunday. Wisconsin ended their seven game road trip with a 1-6 record. They have fallen two games under the .500 mark for the first time this season. Kane County won their fifth straight game thanks to Sunday's victory. They have the best record in the Midwest League at 17-6. The Timber Rattlers return home to start a seven-game homestand. Wisconsin will face the Burlington Bees in the opening game of the homestand on Monday night. The Timber Rattlers have Victor Diaz (0-1, 3.46) as their scheduled starting pitcher. Burlington plans to send Clint Sharp (0-2, 3.93) to the mound. Game time is 6:35pm. Monday is a Qdoba QMonday at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium. Purchase a lunch entrée at either Qdoba location in Appleton (3813 E. Calumet Street or 4343 W. Wisconsin Avenue) on Monday and receive a ticket to any Monday home game during the 2014 season. If you can't make it out to the ballpark, there are several ways to catch the action. MyNEW 32's Sports Showdown will televise the game starting with their pregame show at 6:00pm. The radio broadcast may be heard on AM1280, WNAM or IHeartRadio starting with the pregame show at 6:15pm. Subscribers to MiLB.TV may watch the internet broadcast. HOME RUN: KC: Will Remillard (1st, 0 on in 6th inning off Barrett Astin, 0 out) WP: Jen-Ho Tseng (2-0) LP: Barrett Astin (3-2) TIME: 2:30 ATTN: 3,629 Wisconsin Boxscore Swept by the Cubs.. ouch. There just isn't much to discuss beyond what Chris wrote in the game story. Wisconsin Recap

Not sure if this was posted anywhere on the MLB forum yet. Brewers Have Some Fun With ’80s Classic Tune (VIDEO)

Alcantara's five hits help Iowa win in 13 Cubs' No. 6 prospect singles home tying run in ninth, adds RBI triple

I empathise with Sutton, I won't listen to a Brewers' broadcast on TV anymore, Rock's continual cliches drive me nuts, as does the lack of actual insight he provides.

Baseball America Prospect Report (April 27)

Sounds Homer Thrice In 6-3 Win Nashville's Velez Goes 2-for-4 with 2 RBIs; Falu Extends Hit Streak to 8 Games Nashville Sounds http://www.milb.com/assets/images/1/0/2/73522102/cuts/Velez_Eugenio_taken_by_Mike_Strasinger_Medium_i33ohivq_iz0jpcoe.jpg (MIKE STRASINGER) OKLAHOMA CITY - The Nashville Sounds went yard three times Saturday night a Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark to defeat the Oklahoma City RedHawks by a 6-3 margin. The Sounds Eugenio Velez, 2-for-4, started the team's home run party with a solo shot in the third inning (audio). The opposite field homer, Velez's third this season, put the Sounds up 3-0 and makes Velez the first player on the team to go yard as the designated hitter. Outfielder Sean Halton, 2-for-3, also connected for a home run off of Oklahoma City's starting pitcher Ross Seaton (0-1) in the fourth inning: a no-doubter that landed outside the ballpark (audio). Shortstop Hector Gomez followed later in the inning with a dinger over the left-field wall (video), giving Nashville the 5-0 lead. The three-homer night ties for the team-most this season, matching their April 20 showing against Omaha earlier in the road trip. Ten of the team's 18 home runs this season have been solo shots. Nashville plated its first two runs in the second inning on Gomez's sacrifice-fly and an RBI groundout from Taylor Green. Hunter Morris, Halton and Jeremy Hermida each drew a walk to load the bases for Gomez. The RedHawks scored their only three runs on four hits in the fourth inning, with two coming from Domingo Santana's home run. The Sounds made it a three-run game in the following inning with Velez's RBI single scoring Irving Falu. Sounds starting pitcher Brad Mills (2-0) held the RedHawks to three runs on eight hits over 5 2/3 innings of work. He fired two strikeouts and walked none to pick up his second win of the season. Sounds relievers Michael Blazek, Dustin Molleken, Donovan Hand, and Rob Wooten combined for 3 1/3 scoreless innings. Hand entered with one out in the eighth to face Santana, who represented the game-tying run, and fired two strikeouts. Wooten came in to pitch a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his fourth save of the year (audio - final out). Falu, 2-for-5, reached base with a double in the fifth inning to extend his hit streak to eight games, the most by a Sounds player this season. He grabbed his second hit in the ninth inning: a two-out bunt single. The Sounds wrap their four-game series against the RedHawks (AAA-Astros) Sunday at 2:05 9.m. The Sounds will send Brewers top prospect RHP Jimmy Nelson (2-1, 1.80) to the hill opposite Oklahoma City's RHP Bobby Doran (0-0, 8.15). Jeff Hem has the call on 102.5-FM "The GAME". Nashville Boxscore Hunter Morris drew a walk for the third game in a row! Okay so it's not "!" worthy but that stretch more than doubled his season output and 4 of his 5 walks for the year have come in the last 10 games. Eugenio Velez is having a heck of a season thus far everywhere but on the base paths, he only has 7 successful steals in 13 attempts. He's been picked off at least twice that I remember (including tonight) but those count as a caught stealing as well. Nashville Recap With 21 hits and 5 walks there was plenty of action on the bases all night. Nashville Gameday

Rattlers' Williams hurls six one-hit innings Brewers' No. 16 prospect strikes out six, sets down final 13 batters By Jake Seiner / MiLB.com http://www.milb.com/assets/images/8/1/2/73472812/cuts/640_Williams_x14kaegb_6ow7lc0f.jpg Taylor Williams ranks fifth in the Midwest League with a .167 batting average against. (Wisconsin Timber Rattlers) Taylor Williams considers his fastball and slider his "bread and butter." On Saturday afternoon, he gave Kane County all it could eat. The Brewers' No. 16 prospect allowed one hit over six scoreless innings and retired the final 13 batters he faced Saturday afternoon in Class A Wisconsin's 5-4 loss to the Cougars. Williams said he relied mostly on his touted fastball-slider combo and mixed in a developing changeup as well. "I think the key was just attacking the hitters and getting ahead," said the 22-year-old Kent State product, who struck out six batters and walked one. "That way, I could kind of dictate what I wanted to do later in counts. I was able to command the fastball early. I was getting ahead, and then I could either put them away or give my [defense] a chance behind me." The outing matched the longest of Williams' pro career -- the 2013 fourth-round Draft pick also went six innings in his final start for Rookie-level Helena last summer. Through five Midwest League appearances, he has a 3.27 ERA, 20 strikeouts and seven walks over 22 innings. Williams established his fastball command early, retiring the side in the first inning on two groundouts and a bunt. He hit a few speed bumps in the second, though. After striking out Jacob Rogers, he walked David Bote, got a popup from Danny Lockhart, then allowed a single to Jordan Hankins and hit Cael Brockmeyer with a pitch to load the bases. With two down, Williams jumped ahead of Trey Martin with a pair of fastballs and, by Williams recollection, Martin fouled off both. The 22-year-old right-hander burned a fastball inside for a ball, then, confident he'd flashed Martin enough heat, spun a slider away and caught the Cougars' No. 9 hitter fishing. "Because I had gotten his bat started early with those fastballs, I was really confident in the slider later in the count," Williams said. "That's a good out-pitch for me. That's what I went with and it worked." Williams cruised from there, retiring the next 12 batters and striking out the side in the sixth. In its preseason summary, MLB.com's prospect writers graded Williams' fastball and slider as above-average offerings. The heater can clock into the mid-90s when he reaches back, while the slider has been his go-to strikeout pitch since college. "The fastball is your foundation, should be the foundation of any pitcher," the Vancouver, Wash., native said. "You're working off that. I feel like I have good confidence in my fastball early in counts and to put hitters away. "I think that I was able to mix my fastball in, which helped set up the slider away a bit. Get them on their heels with the fastball in. Then I mixed the slider in early in counts, as well, which helped them not sit on the fastball as well." While he's worked to improve that 1-2 punch, he's also been developing his changeup. MLB.com rated the pitch as below-average heading into the season and Williams said he didn't need to use it much to succeed in college. It's been a point of emphasis as a pro, and he said he mixed in a few Saturday, using it to record some of his seven groundouts. "The changeup has been a pitch I've been working on a lot," Williams said. "I'm confident in it. I'm just throwing it a lot in games to gain confidence in it. I feel comfortable throwing it. I mixed it in quite a bit today, which helped a lot. I got some ground balls on that, getting guys on in front on that." Wisconsin had a 4-1 lead when Williams exited and protected it until the ninth, when Kane County plated four runs. With the bases loaded, Yasiel Balaguert singled home the winning run off right-hander Harvey Martin (1-1).

I understood your point from the start, but I didn't do a very good job elaborating on mine, nor is that theory all that new, Melvin has been talking about being at least average at every position since he became the GM. In the end this boils down to 1 thing, how many prospects, regardless of how high their ceiling is, will actually reach it? If you have a bunch of prospects who profile as average MLBers best case, then you likely have a bunch of career reserves. I don't mean to suggest that all higher ceiling players are surer bets to at least be average, many of those players come with very low floors as well. However the system still needs to develop enough top end talent to match other organizations, especially within the division, and to do that you need fair amount of players with high ceilings. Of course some of those guys are going to fall flat, some will succeed wonderfully, and the rest will be around the middle; that's exactly what happened with that first wave of prospects that came up through Milwaukee. Eveland and Parra didn't pan out, Braun and Fielder (though Prince's 4 year trend isn't looking so hot) became special, the rest of those guys were average to above average for the course of their careers. If you can match the talent on the top end, chances are trickle down is going to take care of the rest, you'll be able to find adequate role players as well. However if you aren't able to match the talent at the top then long-term you are losing ground, regardless of reason or justification, as I said you simply cannot maintain the same level of success replacing 4 WAR players with 2 WAR players, or whatever other measure you want to use. I just use WAR because I think everyone pretty much understand that concept now. To maintain your level of success you have replace talent with similar talent or gain wins some place else... There is absolutely nothing wrong with league average players or role players, all bullpen pitchers are essentially role players, it's awesome to have the system developing those kinds of players because they are relatively cheap and free up resources to do other things. However, and this is especially true of pitching, there's no such thing as "averaging" your way to championship. Your pitching staff sets the ceiling of your team, it's nearly impossible to give up fewer runs and lose a playoff series, you would need extreme run distribution in a couple of games to make that possible. However you can be outhit and win on a regular basis. I would much rather bring up Jimmy Nelson through the farm system than sign Kyle Lohse, there is absolutely value in developing a ton of 3s through the system. The problem isn't so much the regular season, the problem is the post season, when you need to match-up best on best. If we don't have enough top end talent to match-up, then it's just a matter of time before we get bounced and wait till next year. It's nothing against Davis, Gennett, Fiers, or any other prospect, but those guys only really work because of the above average players around them in Ramirez, Braun, Lucroy, and Gomez. If those players form your core, then you're in trouble as an organization. Rating prospects is about projecting tomorrow not about how they fit into the current structure of the team, that's where trades come into play. It's awfully difficult to project good things when we're talking about someone like Davis to fill an OF hole while the rest of the division is talking about Polanco, Taveras, Bryant, Winkler, and so on. If our high ceiling prospects start to perform the Brewers will move up in the rankings... if they do what they did last year just showing flashes of brilliance here and there then we deserve to be rated low. Every team has high floor/low ceiling players who are performing well, players like Suter don't make the Brewers stand out from the rest of the crowd. Players like Coulter, Arcia, Taylor, Roache, D. Williams, Neuhaus, and Denson do if they perform at an elite level, those players will make the Brewer system stand out. I'm not trying to argue that having a 2 WAR player is better than than having a -.5 WAR at a position, that concept should be self explanatory. I'm arguing that most of those guys who project to be average best case won't ever have a MLB career, they won't come close to reaching that ceiling. I'm also stating once again that the talent at the top of the farm systems is what separates them, not the depth at the bottom, and why that top talent matters the most.

Rattlers let win slip away in Kane County Cougar score four in ninth to win 5-4; Spoil fine outing by Williams By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers GENEVA, IL - Early offense and six scoreless innings from Taylor Williams put the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers in position to win Saturday afternoon at Fifth Third Ballpark. But, the Kane County Cougars rallied for four runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to deny the Rattlers a win. Yasiel Balaguert capped the comeback with a two-out, two-run single in Kane County's 5-4 win. The Timber Rattlers (10-11) took advantage of a Kane County mistake to put the first runs of the game on the board. David Denson was at first with one out. Jose Pena sent a grounder to third for what might have been an inning ending double play. The throw to second was low and could not be handled and both runners were safe. Taylor Brennan drew a walk to load the bases. Rafael Neda sent a single to center to drive in both Denson and Pena for a 2-0 lead. Wisconsin added to their lead with two more runs in the third inning. It was Brennan's turn to bat with the bases loaded and he smacked a single to left to score two runs for a 4-0 advantage. That looked like more than enough for the Rattlers. Williams took the ball to start the game and allowed one hit over six innings. He walked one, struck out six, and turned that 4-0 lead over to the bullpen for the seventh inning. Tyler Alexander got the first out after the stretch with a strikeout. The next two batters singled before Alexander got the second out with another K. Then, Cael Brockmeyer singled to right to knock in Kane County's first run. Alexander pitched a scoreless eighth and went back out for the ninth. David Bote was the first batter in the bottom of the ninth and he sent a grounder to third. Brennan fielded the ball cleanly, but threw wildly to first to allow Bote to reach. Alexander walked Danny Lockhart on a 3-2 pitch to put two on with no outs. Jordan Hankins was next and he singled to right to drive in Bote to pull the Cougars to within 4-2. Wisconsin went to the bullpen and brought Harvey Martin on in relief of Alexander. Cael Brockmeyer was at the plate and on Martin's first pitch Lockhart strayed too far from second base. Neda threw from the plate down to second with Angel Ortega covering. Lockhart headed for third and Ortega's throw to Brennan was on target. But, Brennan missed the ball. Lockhart was at third and Hankins took second. Martin did get Brockmeyer on a popout to short for the first out. But, he walked Trey Martin on four pitches to load the bases. Then, Jake Hannemann walked on four pitches to force in Lockhart and make the score 4-3. Martin would get the second out when he struck out Carlos Penalver. Balaguert, the eighth Cougar to bat in the inning, lined a 1-1 pitch from Martin down the left field line. Both Hankins and Trey Martin scored easily and the Cougars celebrated their walkoff win. Kane County has won five straight games and holds the best record in the Midwest League at 16-6. The Timber Rattlers have gone 1-5 on the first six games of their seven game road trip. The final game of the series - and of Wisconsin's road trip - is Sunday afternoon at Fifth Third Bank Ballpark. Barrett Astin (3-1, 1.23) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. Kane County has named Jen-Ho Tseng (1-0, 2.93) as their starter for Sunday. Game time is 1:00pm. Tune in for the broadcast on AM1280, WNAM or IHeartRadio starting with the pregame show at 12:40pm. WP: Nathan Dorris (2-1) LP: Harvey Martin (1-1) Wisconsin Boxscore Clint Coulter (2-4) extended his hit streak to 6 games and he's hit safely in 9 of the last 10. Rafael Neda had the other multi-hit game for the T-Rats. In case you missed it above Taylor Williams was just awesome, allowing 1 hit, walk, and HBP, and all coming in the 2nd inning, but it didn't cost him. He went 3-up and 3-down the rest of the game ending with a bang in the 6th, just a masterful performance. Wisconsin Recap Let's focus on the positive, I give you Taylor Williams' outstanding day. Kane County Bottom of the 1st Jacob Hannemann grounds out, third baseman Taylor Smith-Brennan to first baseman David Denson. Carlos Penalver bunt grounds out, pitcher Taylor Williams to first baseman David Denson. Yasiel Balaguert grounds out, second baseman Steven Halcomb to first baseman David Denson. Kane County Bottom of the 2nd Jacob Rogers called out on strikes. David Bote walks. Danny Lockhart pops out to shortstop Angel Ortega. Jordan Hankins singles on a line drive to right fielder Michael Ratterree. David Bote to 3rd. Cael Brockmeyer hit by pitch. Jordan Hankins to 2nd. Trey Martin strikes out swinging. Kane County Bottom of the 3rd Jacob Hannemann grounds out, second baseman Steven Halcomb to first baseman David Denson. Carlos Penalver grounds out, third baseman Taylor Smith-Brennan to first baseman David Denson. Yasiel Balaguert pops out to first baseman David Denson. Kane County Bottom of the 4th Jacob Rogers flies out to center fielder Omar Garcia. David Bote flies out to center fielder Omar Garcia. Danny Lockhart grounds out to first baseman David Denson. Kane County Bottom of the 5th Jordan Hankins grounds out, second baseman Steven Halcomb to first baseman David Denson. Cael Brockmeyer pops out to first baseman David Denson. Trey Martin strikes out swinging. Kane County Bottom of the 6th Jacob Hannemann strikes out swinging. Carlos Penalver strikes out swinging. Yasiel Balaguert called out on strikes.

I was so disgusted with the T-Rats loss I went and watched a movie. I'll have the summary up shortly.

Glasnow sharp in Marauders' debut Pirates' No. 3 prospect fans six, allows two hits in five shutout

I guess there's 2 ways to look at that... 1) At least Jose was honest with teams and didn't cost anyone a 1st round pick that year. 2) Jose forced himself to the Marlins. I tend to lean towards #2 and generally once a player goes to the "I'll only play for team X" card in the draft of any sport, I'm done with them and will never be a fan. Why not the Rays, they were actually his hometown team? Draftees still have way too much leverage in baseball, they should have to declare for the draft so they lose their "college" leverage. If they don't get drafted they should still have the opportunity to go to college, but in no other sport do draftees hold so much leverage. It would also take care of the college junior who doesn't get drafted where he wants refusing to sign and going back to school. Let them go play independent ball for a year and cost themselves money long-term... if they become even an average pitcher they'll get 10+ million that first year in FA. Is a year and 2 million dollar difference in bonus worth the 8+ they are leaving on the table?

Fiers Fires, Hunter Homers, Sounds Win 5-3 Nashville Right-hander Fans 10, Earns 4th Straight Quality Start Victory Nashville Sounds http://www.milb.com/assets/images/3/6/6/71205366/cuts/Morris_Hunter_taken_by_Mike_Strasinger_b6g4ggsw_cp6jcqhq.jpg (Mike Strasinger / Nashville Sounds) OKLAHOMA CITY - Mike Fiers continued his early-season dominance on the mound and Hunter Morris belted a three-run home to lead the Nashville Sounds to a 5-3 victory over the Oklahoma City RedHawks on Friday evening at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. Fiers (4-0) has won each of his four outings this season with quality-start efforts, including a six-inning, one-run performance to defeat the RedHawks. He struck out 10 batters on the night and leads the Pacific Coast League with 36 strikeouts on the year. His ERA stands at an impressive 1.01 through four outings. Fiers, who struck out 12 Omaha batters in his previous outing, became the first Nashville hurler to fan 10+ batters in consecutive starts since Yovani Gallardo accomplished the feat on May 17 & 22, 2007. Morris powered the Sounds to a 3-0 lead with a three-run, two-out homer off Jake Buchanan, the slugger's team-leading third big fly of the season. He has hit safely in eight of his last nine contests at a .314 clip (11-for-35). To set the table for Morris, Irving Falu (3-for-5) extended the Sounds' longest hitting streak of the year to seven games with an infield single and Hainley Statia contributed a two-out single in his first Triple-A plate appearance of the year. Buchanan (1-2) drew the loss for the RedHawks after allowing three runs on six hits in four frames. Oklahoma City got onto the board in the fourth when second sacker Enrique Hernandez took Fiers deep to left for a two-out solo homer, the infielder's first roundtripper of the year. The Sounds got the run right back in the top of the fifth when Falu singled for his second hit of the night and raced around the bases to score on an Eugenio Velez RBI double to right, upping the Nashville advantage to 4-1. Nashville tacked on another run in the top of the eighth when Jeremy Hermida singled with two outs against Oklahoma City reliever Kevin Chapman then scored on Hector Gomez's double to the wall in left-center, making it a 5-1 contest. Outfielder Caleb Gindl enjoyed a season-best 3-for-4 night for Nashville. Alfredo Figaro and Donovan Hand each followed Fiers with a scoreless inning of relief work for the Sounds before Rob Wooten ran into trouble in the ninth. The RedHawks were able to plate a pair of unearned runs against the Nashville closer following a fielding error by third baseman Irving Falu on a potential double play grounder. The teams continue the series with another 7:05 p.m. matchup on Saturday evening. Left-hander Brad Mills (1-0, 2.13) will toe the slab for Nashville and face RedHawks right-hander Ross Seaton (NR). Nashville Boxscore There isn't much more to be said about Mike Fiers' start to the season, what a fantastic run he's on. All of the hitting was covered in the game story above. Nashville Recap Nashville Gameday

Kane County's fast start sinks Rattlers Cougars go up 7-0 in first two innings, hang on for 8-4 win By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers GENEVA, IL - The Kane County Cougars got out to a fast start and beat the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers 8-4 Friday night at Fifth Third Bank Ballpark. The Cougars scored five times in the first and twice more in the second to build a 7-0 lead. A pair of Kane County pitchers struck out eleven Rattlers without issuing a walk in the game. Kane County (15-6) sent nine men to the plate and scored five times in the bottom of the first. Rattlers starting pitcher Zach Quintana got the first out, but gave up a pair of singles and a walk to load the bases. Danny Canela singled to send two of those runners home. Quintana walked the next batter to reload the bases. Will Remillard lined a double down the right field line to drive in all three runners on base to put Kane County up 5-0. The Cougars kept coming in the second inning. Jacob Rogers grounded to first with runners at first and third to score a run. Canela followed with a single to center to score a runner from second and Kane County was up 7-0. The Rattlers (10-10) got their first hit off Kane County starting pitcher Daury Torrez in the fifth inning. Torrez had retired the first 13 batters he faced in the game. Then, David Denson lined a single to right-center. But, Denson was left stranded. Wisconsin found the range on Torrez in the seventh inning. Michael Ratterree, who was playing his first game back with the Rattlers after a stint with Huntsville in the Southern League, doubled with one out. Clint Coulter drove in Ratterree with a triple to deep left-center to get the Rattlers their first run. The RBI was the team-leading 16th of the season for Coulter. Denson was next and he singled to center to drive in Coulter. The inning continued as Jose Pena reached on an error and Rafael Neda singled to load the bases. That knocked Torrez out of the game. Juan Paniagua entered from the Kane County bullpen and Angel Ortega singled off him to sent Denson home to make the score 7-3. Paniagua regrouped to get the final two outs of the inning. In the top of the eighth, Ratterree hit a solo home run with one out. The longball to left was Ratterree's third of the season and got Wisconsin to within 7-4. Rattlers reliever Rodolfo Fernandez tossed three scoreless innings out of the bullpen to give the Rattlers a chance to get back in the game. He allowed two hits, walked none, and struck out three in his second appearance of the season. Kane County tacked on an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth against Chris Razo, the Rattlers third pitcher of the night. Remillard doubled to start the inning. A two-out triple by Carlos Penalver drove in Remillard for the final run of the game. Wisconsin is 1-4 on the first five games of its seven-game road trip. Kane County, the team with the best record in the Midwest League, has won four games in a row. Game two of the series is scheduled for Saturday afternoon. Taylor Williams (1-0, 4.50) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. Duane Underwood (0-0, 1.13) is set to start for the Cougars. Game time is 1:00pm. Tune in for the broadcast starting with the pregame show at 12:40pm on AM1280, WNAM or IHeartRadio. WP: Daury Torrez (3-0) LP: Zach Quintana (0-1) SAVE: Juan Paniagua (1) TIME: 2:12 ATTN: 2,805 Wisconsin Boxscore Michael Ratterree (2-4,2B,HR) enjoying bumping back down 2 levels, David Denson (2-4) after 2 off days, and Angel Ortega (2-4) posted multi-hit games for the Rattlers. Denson continues his slow climb back to respectability, his defense remains a work in progress as he botched a double play opportunity and nearly cost the T-Rats another out, but he's been impressive overall considering his age. After getting no hit through 4 Wisconsin piled on 9 hits in the last 5 innings. The only pitch I remember Chris mentioning from the broadcast for Zach Quintana was a 90 mph FB. Wisconsin Recap edit. Added a velocity report I forgot to mention earlier.

Kind of a lopsided chat regarding 1 prospect, Gregory Polanco Prospect Hot Sheet Chat With J.J. Cooper (April 25)

If you mean most players, even top prospects, end up being around average for their career like a Rickie Weeks I'd agree. However the core of the Brewers' break out teams were not average by any measure. The pitching was usually below average, which has historically been a huge problem, but the position players were not and are not now.

If he fails as a catcher why wouldn't you try his arm at 3B first? Why do we need more OFs? I asked JJ Cooper during the hot sheet chat today about Coulter's defense but it didn't get answered.

Between shoddy pitching and questionable defense the T-Rats are already down 7-0 at the end of 2.

This should be a neat feature going forward. Scout’s Video View: Reese McGuire

Well the Brewers farm system would be great again if we could count every player we've developed and graduated since 2000, but that's not the case. The reality here is that Brewer fans are overvaluing our own players. Peralta - One of the best pitchers period since the All Star Break That's awfully subjective considering he's doesn't make a top 10 leaderboard in any catagory nor is he on the same level as the other "young" pitchers in the division such as Gerrit Cole or Michael Wacha. He was properly rated as a prospect at that time. Thornburg - A dominant reliever with a very real chance to be an above average starter Again he was properly rated at the time, I've always been high on Thornburg with the exception of his tendency to give up XBHs. Nelson - Very solid potential. You can't tell me there are 20 better SP prospects in the minors than this guy I can and I will list them. If you mean potential impact this year then no, if we're evaluating pitchers on ultimate ceiling it's not really all that close. Bradley, Walker, Grey, Bundy, Syndergaard, Stephenson, Gausman, Giolito, Taillon, Butler, Ventura, Martinez, Sanchez, Crick, Appel, Myer, Glasnow, Stewart, Foltynewicz, (who Nashville faced last night) and Freid. I skipped a trio of pitchers in BA's top 100 whom I think Nelson is on par with or are already in the majors, but even with this list I'm at player 59 of 100. It's not fair to judge any pitching prospect on his best or worst small samples, Jimmy has made steady improvement and he even managed to turn me into a believer, but he doesn't have the same ceiling of any pitcher I listed there, he's hopefully a nice mid rotation guy. Khris Davis - slow start but capable of being a competent every day player If you've read this forum over the years you know I've always been on Kris' bandwagon, but he's not a potential impact player, he's hopefully a league average LF long-term. Gennett - has been great thus far; everyday player This is Gennett's minor league career. [pre]Year Age G PA H 2B 3B HR RBI BA OBP SLG OPS 2010 20 118 525 149 39 4 9 55 .309 .354 .463 .817 2011 21 134 601 167 20 6 9 51 .300 .334 .406 .740 2012 22 133 573 156 30 2 5 44 .293 .330 .385 .714 2013 23 79 349 90 10 5 3 22 .280 .327 .371 .697 4 Seasons 464 2048 562 99 17 26 172 .297 .337 .409 .745[/pre] This is Scooters MLB career. [pre]Year Age G PA H 2B 3B HR BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ 2013 23 69 230 69 11 2 6 .324 .356 .479 .834 127 2014 24 21 70 20 3 1 1 .317 .348 .444 .793 118 2 Yrs 90 300 89 14 3 7 .322 .354 .471 .825 125 162 Game Avg. 162 540 160 25 5 13 .322 .354 .471 .825 125[/pre] He may well ultimately perform better in the bigs than he ever did in the minors but regardless how did anyone "miss" on him? Everyone said he could could make contact and hit for average, the problem was the relative lack of other tools. He's become average defensively but was below average much of his career. He isn't fast, doesn't hit for power, carried a very average OBP, and he's listed at 5' 10". He didn't and still doesn't project to be anything special as an MLB player. Other than his hit tool, it was very hard to find something to hang your hat on, and historically there aren't many MLB players under 6' whom are successful. I loved the draft pick at the time, was extremely happy when he signed, and the fact he's produced very well thus far, but we've been down this road before with McGehee, he doesn't even have a full season of ABs yet. Again I don't have any problem with people latching onto and rooting for any player, regardless of prospect status or ceiling, some of my favorite Brewer minor league players are guys who most people here would have forgotten about already. The point is that churning out a handful of productive major leaguers doesn't make a system underrated, rating a system isn't about depth, it's about the number potential impact position and starting pitchers you have in that system. We have boatload of relief options, we have some guys who could be decent #3s, a couple who could be 2s absolute best case, but where are the pitchers or hitters we can comfortably project to be 4 WAR or greater players? That's nothing against players like Jason Rogers, Hunter Morris, or Jimmy Nelson but core issue with the system is that there's no JJ Hardy, Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder, Carlos Gomez, Yovani Gallardo, Ben Sheets, Jean Segura, Corey Hart, or even Rickie Weeks waiting in the wings right now. I would love it if we had players with those kind of tools and minor league production, but we just don't. Some of those players we still control long-term, most are long gone or have a limited number of years remaining, we simply can't replace 4 WAR players with 2 WAR players and maintain success unless we pick it up at other positions. However if those players aren't coming from the farm system where are they going to come from? We can only afford to sign a limited number of impact players through Free Agency, and how many impact pitchers have we landed through FA?

Awesome BrewersAA, thanks for the observations!

Right! His stuff will improve and he'll learn to repeat his delivery through osmosis and progress as a pitcher by not actually pitching, because that theory has worked for whom in the past? Crew, you've constantly bashed the organization for having Lee Tunnell as the bullpen coach at the major league level instead of keeping him on the minor league side to help develop young arms on the farm. But now that Wang is in the bullpen, and presumably working closely with Tunnell during his plentiful off time, he isn't going to develop at all? Those two stances seem to be at the very least somewhat contradictory. I actually hit on that very idea earlier in this thread. We have no idea if Wang is getting side throwing sessions or not, I would hope that he is, but that's only typically something that starters do in all levels of professional baseball. Pitchers in the bullpen typically don't get side sessions because they technically need to be "available" everyday. Which is why I like riding out relievers as starters for as long as possible in the minors, they get more in game action and more bullpen sessions to hone their craft. Obviously I really like Lee Tunnell and always have, I've found his knowledge and insight extremely valuable over the years, I've taken quite a bit of my pitching philosophy from him. I just don't think you are connecting the dots for this situation the same way that I am or you are possibly inferring something I didn't intend from my other posts. I've been around sports my entire life and have coached most of my adulthood, in my experience the hardest thing for any player to do is transition skills from practice to the games. When you're practicing you have time to think your way through something but in a game everything is done on instinct, there's no time to think, just time to react, which is why repetitions are so important... you basically have to reteach your body new instincts and habits. I have no doubt that Wang can make improvements via side sessions but there is really no replacing the varied situations, pace, and intensity of actual game situations to reinforce and cement any new habits. In addition I think Wang can pick up some ideas on how to properly setup hitters just sitting in the bullpen and talking with guys, but it's one thing to know the theory, and it's another to practically apply it. In all my years I've only coached 1 kid who was a horrible practice player but was a fierce competitor and performer come game time, those personalities are extremely rare in my experience. The majority of players are going to continually be working at taking skills from practice and utilizing them in the games, there will be successes and failures, the key for any athlete is that constant cycle of applying what they've learned to successfully navigate game situations. The higher up they go the tougher it gets because the other players and coaches actually start scheming the players' individual strengths and weaknesses. In baseball as a pitcher you start with FB command and basic theory like moving the ball in and out or up and down. By the time you get to MLB it's about staying away from a hitter's hot zones and exploiting the pitches, pitch combinations, or areas of the strike zone they struggle with. As far as TJ surgery goes, I'm not sure how a year of rehab equates to being fully healthy and sitting on a bench? Most pitchers returning from TJ surgery struggle to repeat their deliveries and throw strikes for a multitude of reasons, so it absolutely sets their development back. Not only are they losing a year of possible progression as a pitcher but they also have to reteach themselves something they already knew. To me the TJ angle is grasping at straws to justify a desired outcome; I don't really want to give up on Wang either, but I also don't want him pitching twice every 22 games either. Why would the Brewers intentionally set his development back? It only pushes his possible return date to MLB that much farther away and it's not like we're drowning in potential impact arms as an organization. If he's going to be on the roster he has to be used, for all the reasons outlined previously, it really is that simple. If not then work out a trade or send him back, RR simply cannot keep pitching the same pitchers everyday. I brought this up when discussing 1B as well, but you can't have a bench with no flexibility and also be short in bullpen when you have rotation of starting pitchers who average about 6 innings per start. Too many innings are being left for the bullpen, especially a bullpen running short handed because 1 of the pitchers is arbitrarily forced into blow-out loss situations. You could run an extra position player heavy to fix the lack of positional flexibility if the bullpen was used differently and relievers pitched multiple innings on a regular basis. However to run short handed both in the bullpen and with the position players is a tall task for any manager and I think RR's skills tend to be more on the people side than the strategy part of the game.

The Reds had a heck of week even with Holmberg showing up in the Not Hot section. Prospect Hot Sheet (April 25) In The Team Photo Not Hot

Are you signed up for this? It has always been free, they've been pimping it on the main page for the last 2 days. It's an easy quick hitter of all the top prospect performances from the previous day, yes other sites have "borrowed" the idea. Baseball America Prospect Report (April 25)