TheCrew07

I agree that in the Cardinals case, better scouting has played a key role, they've pulled more gems later in the draft than anyone. However in the Rays case they miss as much they hit, the difference is that they continually draft high upside players throughout their drafts, which is a major difference in philosophy from the Brewers in particular. I find that you're being rather dismissive of the varying nuances here and just trying to paint with a broad brush, which may be your impression of what's happened, but I don't necessarily agree is factually true. Last year the Brewers drafted 2 HS kids with relatively high upsides then went extremely conservative and didn't draft another HS kid until the 13th round, and didn't take another HS pitcher until the 29th round. This is a pattern that largely existed under Jack Z as well, he'd take his shots at high upside players early, then go conservative, mostly taking his later round high upside risks with the draft and follow process (which no longer exists, Manny Parra was key hit from that strategy). TB historically has sprinkled in high upside HS school kids all throughout their drafts and they make up for in volume what they lack in precision. The Brewers have had neither the precision nor the volume, in addition the Rays haven't been afraid to hand out big bonuses to players later in the draft, such as WI native Kevin James in the 9th round. Historically the Brewers haven't gone over the recommended slot value pretty much anywhere, preferring instead to focus the majority of their player budget on the MLB payroll, leaving little wiggle room to be creative in either Latin America (international FAs) or the Amateur Draft. I've pointed this out numerous times but 1 season of Wolf or Suppan was worth 5-6 international/overslot draft signings. There have been other strategies being utilized by other teams which would have been worth pursuing for the Brewers, they just haven't been willing to go down that road. This last international signing period was a good start, hopefully they will be actively engaging all means to acquire impact talent in the future rather than what they've done in the past with the amateur draft. I can understand if people don't want to follow the minor league side including the draft and international signings, that's a huge time commitment to be somewhat educated on just the Brewers, let alone what's being done around baseball as a whole. However if posters don't truly understand what a big deal losing a 1st round pick is to an entire draft because of the slotting process, then you probably shouldn't be commenting on that aspect of Lohse signing at all. It's not just about losing that first round pick and the potential talent, it's about losing that pool money which severely limited the Brewers to the talent they could chase later on in the draft. It actually affected every aspect of the Brewer's draft in those first 10 rounds, that why you saw so many easy signs/college relievers taken. No mid to small market team should want to put themselves in that position, which is why it is taking so long for FAs with that kind penalty attached to be signed. There are much deeper issues in play here than how Lohse pitched last year or will pitch in the future. A small core of posters has been beating the drum about ultimate value over the last handful of years and yesterday BA posted a nice article in which it was mentioned how many teams are shifting their view of what's truly valuable. Over the years there have been a litany of excuses proposed for the organization's short comings, I would have hoped they would dry up as the end result has rapidly become more obvious. We haven't been haters crusading against the Brewers because we personally dislike the decision makers, the crusade has been about a strategy that never was sustainable. For example and I pointed this out at the time but the Brewers could have easily used Wolf's money to sign Chapman instead of the Reds getting him, which player had greater upside and which proved to be more valuable over the course of their contract? To me that's the core issue here, the ultimate value out of the dollars spent, the Brewers have chosen to spend their money out front on middling FAs for the MLB roster, when it would have better spent developing a larger talent base to draw MLB players from. Creating a larger talent base should have included trading players like Hardy or Hart at their peak value for replacement players, and no 1 good year from Gomez doesn't make the Hardy trade a good deal. Everything the Brewers have done roster wise has been very linear in natur, the best GMs in baseball, like Freidman in TB, don't think or operate that way. They understand that the talent at the bottom of the pyramid is equally as important as the talent at the top if you are going to sustain success. Even a larger market team like the Rangers will regularly buy and sell prospects to recycle the talent base. I've seen just about rationalization possible on this forum as to why something would work for other teams but not the Brewers, however in the end that's all just bunk. The Brewers have had the same opportunities as any other organization to work outside of established protocols but haven't because they are operated by a conservative management team with a singular focus on the MLB roster. A great many posters have gotten exactly what they wanted out of the Brewers and so I understand they will wholeheartedly support what DM and MA have done, but that doesn't mean those actions were the best possible course to be taken, every move made also had and will continue to have a cost associated with it. I still firmly believe it's better to give up a 1 or 2 wins now and gain 4-5 wins in the future than hold onto someone to get those wins when the team wasn't truly competitive. '09 & '10 were the cost of '08, '12 & '13 were the cost of '11, and the root cause here is that the Brewers have never had enough talent in house to sustain the franchise. Posters can rationalize whatever excuses they choose but the proof has been in and continues to be in plain sight. Ultimately DM and MA are responsible, they hired everyone beneath them... we can blame the scouts, but who put them there in the first place? We can blame the developmental staff, but who hired them? Who do we blame for the Brewers failing to acquire talent through as many different avenues as possible over the years? Why no overslot signings in the draft? How did we manage to only develop Peralta and Escobar in all these years out of Latin America? The marquee signings were generally around the cost of a 1st round draft pick's signing bonus, why not go after 1-2 legitimate impact international talents every year? The bottom line is incredibly simple; if a team isn't drafting impact talent, isn't able to sign impact talent, and isn't able to develop impact talent, then that kind of talent needs to be traded for in order to cultivate enough depth to sustain the franchise. The Brewers only made that kind of trade 1 time, selling Greinke to the Angels, and their hand was basically forced to do so. Constantly buying players with prospects isn't necessarily a bad thing if players with some longevity are targeted, players you have a chance to control 3+ years, instead the Brewers focused on temporary patch after temporary patch so the same roster holes continually keep coming back around.

... and Lucas Luetge who still has control issues but managed almost 78 MLB innings over the last 2 years.

Brady Aiken the first pitcher discussed... Draft Tracker: High School Hurlers (VIDEO)

Wall wasn't flashy from a stuff perspective but exhibited decent command and knew how to pitch, he was pretty awesome for WI last year. I remember posting multiple times that he should have been bumped to A+ at the break. The Brewers have this weird pattern of letting lefty relievers go early, I hope this one doesn't come back to hurt us. You would think it has to be something along the lines of injury or discipline because his performance was anything but awful. He was never going to be a high strike out rate type pitcher and his walk rate was tad high, but not excessively so. He had a slower start giving up 5 runs in the first 2 months and settled in nicely as the weather warmed only giving up 7 runs the rest of the year.

I'm shocked to see Jenkins and Harris on this list but I would guess that means players like Neuhaus and Castillo are pushing those guys out, which should be a good thing from our perspective.

Yet another feature with no Brewers... Baseball For The Ages Comes Back To Life

No Brewers players or prospects. Top 50 Players 25 And Under

Unsurprisingly the Brewers are next to last (#29) on this list as well. Top Organizations With 25-And-Under Talent

Thinking about this some more if Peralta continues his yearly progression he could be a difference maker, regardless of what happens with the rest of the staff. I gotta believe he's better than a 6.3 K/9 guy which he showed last year, he had similar dip making the initial jump to AA. I've never been a huge Wily supporter, more cautiously optimistic over the years, but his progression (or lack there of) this season may be the most important determining factor. An ascending Peralta and healthy Garza could be pretty formidable, I understand that's a big IF, but again, that's kind of the issue with this entire team. We have so many unknowns performance and health wise all over the 25 man roster that it's hard to make any statement with an adequate degree of certainty. What can we realistically expect from Gomez, Segura, Davis, Gennett, and Weeks? What about Braun? Ramirez? Estrada is prone to the big inning and has trouble staying healthy, Garza has health issues, Lohse is a year older, Gallardo has been trending negatively stuff wise for years and last year his stats basically matched his current physical stuff. Outside of Garza none of those guys are locks to regularly pitch into the 7th inning, let alone beyond, which puts more pressure on the pen. This might be the single most fascinating year we've faced given the possible extremes for the team, there's certainly no shortage of story lines or intrigue to follow. The one thing we do have is legitimate depth, being able to plug any number of starting pitchers from AAA into the rotation without the expectation of much drop off, but that's more of a commentary on the MLB staff than the upside of those guys in AAA. I also like our depth from a relief aspect, I really like the potential bullpen additions waiting in the minors, I actually think we have some potential difference makers for the pen in the minors. The problem of course is that the impact of relievers is severely limited by the number of innings they can pitch, but if we run into "tired arms" we should be able to DL a guy or two and bring in a productive substitute from the minors. Which made me think about Wang, if he makes the roster and the Brewers decide to keep him, RR has to be willing to use him on a regular basis, I just don't see the Brewers being able to make it running a pitcher short in the bullpen all season.

Topical discussion at the bottom regarding the Pirates forcing pitchers to throw a certain way (in this case Taillon), we discussed the Brewers doing this with Jungmann a while back. Backfield Blog: Pittsburgh Pirates

It's not how you start the season rotation wise, it's how you finish. Chances are that Estrada and Garza will end up on the DL at some point while Pitt will be plugging Jameson Taillon into their rotation. Any injury weakens the Brewers while adding Taillon only strengthens the Pirates (unless it's Cole he's replacing). I would potentially take Cole/Taillon over any 1/2 punch the Brewers could put together in the post season. If we're talking just regular season, I can definitely see an argument that with the addition of Garza the Brewers will be able to field a better rotation for 162 games this year, but I wouldn't call it a lock. The problem in the short and long term here is that every other team in the division has added or will have the ability to add quality young starting pitching to their rotation, while we just get older. Continuing to use the Pirates as an example, we just aren't going be able to add talented pitchers like Cole, Taillon, and possibly Glasnow in successive years... we can add a guy like Kingham, I think Nelson compares favorably to him, but we just don't have the same upside. For the Brewers assuming that none of the older pitchers slide and maintain last year's performance the key here is going to be health, then the next big key will be how well the BP holds up. On paper the Brewers look to have a middle of the pack pitching staff. I think the Dodgers, Reds, Cards, and Nationals are clearly better, I could see the Brewers as high as #5 if things go exceedingly well all season to #9 or #10 if they go the other way. Atlanta is in a rough spot, but if healthy they would clearly be better than the Brewers as well, so that's some good fortune out of the gate for the Crew.

Cards Count On Taveras To Leg It Out To Bigs

Reds’ Soto Still Hoping To Catch On

Season Of Surprises For Bucs’ Cumpton

Randal Grichuk was acquired by the Cardinals this winter, he has the distinction of being the player drafted right before Mike Trout. In fact the top of that 2009 draft for the Angels was crazy good; Grichuk (24), Trout (25), Skaggs (40), and Richards (42). Actually they got Corbin (80) and Spence (110) before the 4th round as well, what an amazing draft... the Angels sure have fallen a long way. I really liked Kaleb Cowart (.580 OPS in 546 PAs) when he was in the ML but man was he awful last year, since 2009 only 3 draftees have seen big league action: Kalhoun (8th Rnd 2010), Maronde (3rd Rnd 2011), and Roth (9th Rnd 2012)... another guy I liked in the 2011 draft CJ Cron has had his OPS drop with each successive MiLB jump up (.746 in AA for 2013). Grichuk Has Grip On New Shot

Lots of divisional prospects mentioned here. Top 20 Rookies: They’re More Vital To Success Than Ever It's nice to see someone on a national level write this part of the article though as a small core of us have been talking about ultimate value for a long time...

I think Vogelbach is a legit prospect, especially considering the dearth of 1B prospects around baseball. The T-Rats just could not consistently get him out last year even with the exaggerated shifts, I developed a Buxtonesque level of disdain for him coming to the plate. He didn't look like any kind of athlete with that body type but he sure can hit, he surprised me. Slimmer Vogelbach Has Big Plans

Cubs' Baez blasts fourth spring home run

Rattlers, Snappers to play at Miller Park

I'm not sure I'd qualify Pena as a non-prospect, he continually shows flashes of brilliance, though he may ultimately end up in the bullpen, or of course nothing like any prospect. However I've said this before but I like him more as a starting pitcher than I do Hellweg, I just don't see Hellweg starting in the big leagues with his rate stats and relative lack of control. There is still hope for Pena, I'm not sure exactly how much, but I'd much rather move Gagnon than Pena at this time. I feel similarly about Pena as I did Peralta, he's intriguing and a guy you just keep hoping will have a breakout season at the upper levels of the minors. He has a nice K rate and one can always hope that the BB rate falls to reasonable level, otherwise like Hellweg he's destined for relief if anything. This was BA's assessment of him after 2012 and its hard to find fault in that analysis: He really tanked after his Future's Game debacle in 2012, but he's an easy guy to hope figures something out. He's a guy I wish Lee Tunnell could spend quite a bit of time with, which won't happen in the minors, but much like Hellweg if you could cut his BB rate in half we'd have someone worth being extremely excited about. That's a HUGE "if", and I don't think that hoping any pitcher will halve is walk rate is all that reasonable, but then again I just have a hard time writing him off. [pre]Split W L W-L% ERA G GS IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO HBP BK WP BF WHIP SO/9 SO/BB Total 8 9 .471 3.68 27 27 144.1 115 63 59 17 79 1 131 2 0 0 604 1.344 8.2 1.66 Last 7 days 1 0 1.000 0.00 1 1 5.0 2 0 0 0 1 0 6 0 0 0 17 0.600 10.8 6.00 Last 28 days 1 0 1.000 0.00 1 1 5.0 2 0 0 0 1 0 6 0 0 0 17 0.600 10.8 6.00 Last 90 days 3 1 .750 1.24 5 5 29.0 18 4 4 1 12 0 27 0 0 0 108 1.034 8.4 2.25 Home 4 3 .571 3.87 14 14 76.2 62 36 33 12 35 0 73 1 0 0 319 1.265 8.6 2.09 Away 4 6 .400 3.46 13 13 67.2 53 27 26 5 44 1 58 1 0 0 285 1.433 7.7 1.32 April 1 2 .333 4.76 5 5 22.2 16 13 12 4 18 0 12 0 0 0 95 1.500 4.8 0.67 May 4 1 .800 1.10 6 6 32.2 22 6 4 1 14 1 39 0 0 0 130 1.102 10.7 2.79 June 0 3 .000 4.08 5 5 28.2 23 13 13 5 16 0 24 0 0 0 120 1.360 7.5 1.50 July 0 1 .000 7.07 5 5 28.0 32 22 22 5 16 0 24 1 0 0 130 1.714 7.7 1.50 August 2 2 .500 2.63 5 5 27.1 20 9 8 2 14 0 26 1 0 0 112 1.244 8.6 1.86 September 1 0 1.000 0.00 1 1 5.0 2 0 0 0 1 0 6 0 0 0 17 0.600 10.8 6.00 As Starter 8 9 .471 3.68 27 27 144.1 115 63 59 17 79 1 131 2 0 0 604 1.344 8.2 1.66[/pre] Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

As Colby noted PG continues to update their player by player articles on a regular basis, it would take me forever to link every article as they get posted but here are a couple of recent updates: Draft Focus: Joey Pankake Draft Focus: Forrest Wall Also another reminder that PG already has full scouting reports for all draft prospects if you are so inclined, it's a tremendous draft resource.

Lots to catch up here being out of town all weekend. Prep Roundup: Standout Pitching Performances Three Strikes: Week Five College Draft Prospects Stat Roundup: Week 5 2014 Draft Chat With Clint Longenecker High School Preview: Preseason All-America First Team Draft Q&A: Josh Morgan Late-Blooming Newcomb One Of Draft’s Most Fascinating Prospects Draft Notes: Fisher Down, Whitson To Bullpen (VIDEO)

March madness into opening day is my favorite time of the year.

I don't want to go on at length about the player's traded away again, I think I've adequately covered my opinions on that topic in great detail in dozens of posts over the years, so I'll try to sum up a series of linked ideas as succinctly as possible in a single post. 1) It doesn't matter what the players who have been traded away ultimately do. They had an established value at the time of the trade, we aren't getting them back, so the only thing that matters is our ultimate return. As such 1 productive season (or less) of any particular MLB player doesn't push the organization over the top, I'll address that idea in more detail a bit later. 2) Trades do not exist in a vacuum, all moves are linked. Therefore part of the fallout from the Sabathia trade was the horrible pitching staff in 2009 and 2010. People want to dissociate those 2 events, but they are irrevocably linked. In the fact the Brewer's pitching issues go all the way back to the Overbay and Carlos Lee trades. Every trade builds off of what came before it, therefore all trades are ultimately linked together. I will never be convinced that quantity is better than quality, I've put way too much thought into organization building over the years to buy into quantity deals. Had the Brewers adequately addressed the rotation prior to the Marcum trade then that trade wouldn't have been necessary at all and Lawrie could have been used for a different resource or kept. Once again no trade exists in it's own vacuum so it doesn't matter if we're talking Overbay, Marcum, Sabathia, or Greinke, the ultimate result was a tiny blip on the radar followed by more of the same. 3) Young #2 pitchers are the best value in baseball, therefore they are pretty much the only type of pitcher I'm looking to acquire. I'm looking to build a robust talent base which will ultimately maximize the talent on the MLB roster for a given year, not try to solve MLB roster issues through FA which the Brewers will never really be players in, or short term acquisitions of MLB talent. I'm looking to plug injury holes with legitimate talent from the minors, letting those players get their feet wet in short stints, but players who project to be average or better MLB types. 4) Talent flexibility is really the only thing that truly matters while most people are focused on payroll flexibility. The two ideas are not the same, and while flexibility of talent can have a positive impact on payroll flexibility, the reverse is not true. Payroll flexibility is a surface issue, it's not a core issue, talent is and always be the core issue surrounding any franchise in any sport. The more talent you have, the stronger you are, and not just at the highest level of your organization. 5) What's best for the MLB roster isn't necessarily what's best for the organization as a whole. For example, if you never permanently plug a hole with a legitimate player, then you constantly have to keep revisiting that position, which is why long-term solutions are actually better for the health of the organization than short duration solutions. If you are constantly expending resources to fix the same problem, whether it's just dollars, talent, or both, you are mismanaging your resources. For example the Brewers pitching staff has been a joke forever, the organization isn't adept at developing pitching, nor can it sign impact pitching in FA, so the only real option left is to trade for it. However, if you only trade for short term solutions then you are just spinning your wheels, the organization isn't moving forward because the same cycle is going to have to continually repeat itself. Instead of going after Sabathia, Greinke, and Marcum, or even quantity deals like Overbay, the organization would have been better served trying to make prospect for prospect trades when SLG, OBP, and OPS was the trend in baseball. We expended an avalanche of resources for approximately 4 full seasons of 3 pitchers; Sabathia, Grienke, and Marcum... not taking health into account. Doesn't it stand to reason that we could have possibly done better by targeting other players and we could have filled 3 rotation slots long term, 4 with Gallardo, and not been on this revolving door of FA pitching acquisitions? The Rays turned around that organization with 3 prospect trades for pitching, there's no reason other organizations couldn't do the same, it's just counter intuitive to how baseball teams typically operate. Those prospect deals aren't always going to be out there but when they are the Brewers should have/must be willing to pounce. Ultimately baseball is all about pitching, pitching > hitting, and there's no such thing as "good enough" pitching in the post season. 6) For a small market team to remain competitive on a yearly basis they have to be out in front of market trends, not following the market. The Brewers have proven be to an extremely conservative follower of the market, only looking to adopt proven measures and trends. While the core issue is always going to be pitching, there are inefficiencies in every market that can be exploited... right now pitching is so highly valued that you can trade a guy like James Shields for Montgomery, Myers, and Odorizzi... a trade like that wouldn't have been possible 3-4 years ago. This means sometimes the Brewers need to be willing to be sellers, not just buyers, and not just when it's convenient to be a seller at the trade deadline. All that does is arbitrarily limit the number of possibilities available. If you can flip a 4 WAR player and get back at least 4 WAR in that first season, and maybe as much as 8 or 9 WAR in future seasons, then it's a good idea to make the trade regardless of the status of the MLB standings. 7) The organization needs to be willing to take risks, not just operate on proven talent or sign FA contracts. Sabathia, Greinke, and Marcum weren't bold moves, they were incredibly conservative moves because the organization knew exactly what it was getting back. If the player flopped or got hurt, the fans would have forgiven the move like they did with Marcum because the organization "tried to do something", there's literally no downside for the organization on the surface, which is where most fans are going to focus. In addition the organization has to be willing to take on risk to buy wins far below market value, that means the organization needs to be aggressive about approaching young & productive players to long-term deals which buy out a year or 2 of FA with some additional option years. Not just any productive player like McGehee and Helms, rather legitimately talented and productive players like Segura. If the player won't sign that's fine, but then they shouldn't be considered part of the organization's future, and should be considered a trade candidate if the return is good enough.

Red-hot Wong smacks three hits for Cards