TheCrew07

After the first 15 minutes I had settled on, "character X needs to be dealt with", but then I felt terrible for feeling that way given the circumstances surrounding the character's past. After the climatic scene of the episode I was kicking myself for my earlier sense of remorse. In my little circle of "Walking Dead" fans around work I had that character pegged for many of the early season issues so after the attempted smothering of another character I was done, and by the 2nd break in last's night episode I just wanted that character to die as I said earlier. The only other similar character I've ever despised that much that quickly is Joffrey Baratheon from Game of Thrones. What an extremely dark and depressing episode.

I find the entire situation troubling, it's "fly by the seat of your pants" management all the way up the chain, there doesn't seem to be a long-term philosophy in place at all. The game plan seems to simply be that the Brewers are buyers unless there is absolutely no hope at the trade deadline, then they will sell off a player or 2 who happens to be approaching FA. They've been pretty fortunate with these happy accidents like Aoki, Lohse, and Garza. Even though I don't necessarily agree with the strategy I would at least feel better about it if the players were targeted and always part of the plan rather than a result of fortunate circumstances. I wonder if these random encounters led to the signings of guys like Looper, Ramirez, Wolf, Riske, and so on as well? We already knew Mark A was heavily involved in the Suppan signing...

I admit I have no rational reason behind the fact that I read minoring in twitter every single time it is posted, but I do. Minoring in Twitter: How players survive long bus rides

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I don't think we necessarily need to be focused on trying to find a #1... I'd be ecstatic with a rotation full of #2s. Give me some youngsters with legitimate impact upside and I'm happy. Later on in the draft I would be happy if the Brewers didn't draft a plethora of college relievers again before round 10. Obviously I had no idea that Aiken would add the 2-3 MPH I was asking for before he graduated HS, damn that late season surge for nothing which pushed the Brewers down the draft board to #12. I would REALLY love a projectable lefty... based on what's happening there's no way Aiken is sitting there at 12, he'd have to seriously tank or come up with an injury concern. There just aren't many lefties around who top out at 95+ and this draft is shaping up to feature premium LHP prospects from both the college and HS ranks in the top 10 picks. *sigh*

Catching up... Cubs prospects Baez, Olt tee off in loss Cubs' Bryant, Indians' Lindor sent down Hamilton remains hot for Cincinnati Bucs send Taillon down in first wave of cuts Reds' Hamilton steals two against Mariners

I understand what you were trying to do and your larger point, but taking out the best case scenario is hardly a statistically valid principle in this case because there is no way to eliminate the absolute worst case, because everyone who didn't make it to MLB is equally bad.

That's only true if every draft is the same, which they aren't. This 2014 draft is shaping up to be pretty extraordinary from a pitching standpoint like 2011 was.

I have literally hundreds of posts on these topics over the years, but to sum it up I think people are going to go "chicken or the egg" and pick one or other, I think in terms of how the question was framed the answer is both. However I'll take it a step farther and say the organization's vision has been the core issue, and that runs right up to the top in Mark A. I think for many years you could objectively say that the Brewers were the 3rd best run organization in the division from top to bottom, but with everything that's changed (and some issues which have remained) since 2008 I think we're clearly 4th or 5th best. The Brewers aren't progressive in any particular way, they follow market trends in almost every regard, lag behind the market in others, don't really seem to grasp that if you cycle talent you can win today and tomorrow, etc. Without going into any detail at all as I've previously posted my thought in great detail the Brewers are just plain average or below average in every aspect, though I do think the pro-player scouting side is probably the strongest part of the organization. Melvin is also an adept patcher in that he's good at playing whack-a-mole with holes on the MLB roster, but I don't see any long term strategy or vision from the organization, and that has to change. We've never really had depth of talent as an organization, we've basically been 1 player deep at every position and whenever the organization had a +1 that player was traded for some kind of short term solution. From my perspective depth of talent is key, and I don't mean role player depth, I mean replacing Beltran with Taveras, or being able to replace Holliday with Piscotty... having a legitimate player coming up who can be productive and cover an injury or 4. There are posters around here that are fine with that, JB12 hits on that idea in his most recent post, the idea of "the big league roster is solidified, what else do we need?" but I think that's way too shallow a view of the organization. The Brewers aren't just the 25 man roster, not in the short or long term. I don't understand the fascination with "proven veteran talent", plenty of teams around MLB are showing you can win with young talent and that rookies can play a significant role in the post season. I see the other teams in the division (with the exception of Cincy) working to maintain a good mix of youth vs veterans, which is exactly what I would like to see the Brewers do. However we're more like the Cubs of 5-6 years ago, trying to milk every last productive season out of veteran players while we slowly fade to the back of the pack. I'm dead serious when I say that I have no problem projecting the Cubs to be relevant again maybe as soon as 2015 but certainly by 2017, they have the young hitting talent coming, a couple of intriguing pitchers, and the money to spend on FA pitchers to shore up any holes they might have. I don't see Theo repeating the same mistakes he made at the end of his tenure with the Red Sox. In short I see the Cards, Pirates, and Cubs ascending as franchises while the Brewers and Reds are desperately trying to maintain what they currently are. The Brewers could be competitive in 2014, but I don't think there's much legitimate hope looking ahead to the future. The "one season at a time" mentality is going to get you so far and I think we reached our zenith with this strategy in 2011. We just don't have the resources anymore to chase meaningful short term solutions for upcoming roster deficiencies, but that should have never been the focus in the first place. If you're always 1 step behind the market, if you don't consistently develop impact talent, and you are the smallest market in baseball so you don't have gobs of money to spend, and don't find a way to continually cycle fresh young talent back onto the roster then your days are always going to be numbered. You can have spurts of success, but you're never going to sustain anything, and I think that's the Brewer organization at its core.

I think there is still hope for Morris. Part of me is worried that just being able to play in his hometown made all the difference for him in 2012 but he still hit for power last year. He hasn't been awful besides that one season, he just hasn't been good either, but he's maintained his level of production at each step up and his power has come on nicely. The question has been and always will be his plate discipline, will he ever hit enough? If you look at his AAA and AA campaigns, the stats are eerily similar the exception of Hits, which pushed his totals down for everything else: 2B, 3B, GDP, and so on. His walk and strike out rates per PA are similar (I'd still like him to walk more), he just didn't make anywhere near as solid contact as he did the year before. That can be taken in 2 ways: 1) He's not good enough to square up more advanced pitchers (not in terms of stuff, but pitchablility) or 2) He was pressing and swinging at bad pitches, but he had the talent to make contact and put them in play (kind of like Arcia). The jump for hitters to AAA isn't so much about the quality of the stuff, I think you'll find bigger arms and sharper stuff on average in AA, pitching prospects with stuff and pitchability don't spend much time in AAA. AAA is filled with guys who are fringey on the stuff but really know how to pitch or have the stuff but not the control. We know Hunter can square up top tier FBs, he proved that in AA, but the evidence would suggest he struggled with pitchers who take a more savvy approach, he was still able to mash mistakes, but he wasn't consistently making good contact. Regardless of what camp you are in that's a major red flag because most MLB starting pitchers have enough pitchability regardless of stuff to be successful or they wouldn't be there in the first place. I'm on the fence, I can see the argument on both sides, he struggled early with his MLB spring training opportunity and never recovered, the reasons why are open to debate. However I'm still hopeful because pitch selection and/or plate discipline can be learned, I don't believe them to be inherit traits. I still believe Hunter Morris has the potential to be a .820-.840 OPS type hitter, but this is his make or break season. He could be an above average 1B for his peak or he could be nothing... In fact we have many prospects you could say are beginning make or break seasons, but that's a different discussion entirely. I just have a hard time making definitive statements about prospects in general, but especially in this case where I didn't catch a single AAA game all season, so I haven't personally watched Morris take an AB in years. He's a good kid and the team could really use average production at 1B so I'm pulling for him, but I actually think we have plenty of 1B options in the organization beyond the scrubtastic collection of MLB has beens and/or never were in camp for that position right now.

Any scouts talking to him yet this year? If so would you care to mention whom? I would think as the weather warms and the college season progresses he'll have a bunch of teams looking to take him later in the draft as a sleeper type, the slotting system may unfortunately work against him given he's a senior from a D2 program. For his sake I hope he doesn't have to wait until the 20s, I'd like him get a decent draft bonus and go in the top 15 rounds simply because of your connection to him, but in the end the real money is in making a career out of the game, regardless of draft stature. I'm definitely intrigued by him though.

Here's the Brewer's recap, an excellent read on the top prospects signed International Reviews: Milwaukee Brewers

Here are the divisional recaps. International Reviews: Chicago Cubs International Reviews: Cincinnati Reds International Reviews: Pittsburgh Pirates International Reviews: St. Louis Cardinals

Three Strikes: Week Four College Draft Prospects Stat Roundup: Week 4

Actually Lee Tunnell did quite a bit of work with Axford on his mechanics, which is how he gained velocity and enough control to make a difference initially in Milwaukee.

... well that and an unproductive farm system.

I've said this in the past but I was pretty down on the Haniger pick until I had a chance to get an extended look at him in WI, then I really came around on him, he jumped out at me. He's not flashy athletically like the guys who typically catch my attention, but does many of the little things well which really appeals to me given my background growing up in locker rooms, he's the kind of guy coaches will latch onto. The jump to BC didn't concern me any more than the AFL excited me, he's not necessarily an impact guy, though maybe in his best years he could be, but I think he has a nice future in front of him. If nothing else this OF depth we're potentially developing could be used to acquire assets of greater need in the future, like pitching of course, and no I don't mean more Sabathia/Grienke type trades. I've always been looking more along lines of Garza/Young or Hamilton/Volquez type deals. For Brad's top 25 list I really struggled with 23-25, trying to narrow down the last few young players to include in the list. We have quite a few young players with exciting potential who haven't necessarily shown all that much yet, ultimately I settled on a couple of older guys in Bradley and Gagnon with Lopez and Jenkins at the tail of the list. Orginally McFarland was last guy in but I ended up bumping him for Jenkins. Players who may be a bit below the radar not being in full season ball such guys in R ball or the DSL last year like Elvis Rubio, Brandon Diaz, Carlos Belonis, Jorge Quintero, Gian Rizzo, and Francisco Castillo are intriguing. Out of Helena I liked youngsters Dustin Houle, Omar Garcia, Jose Pena, Jalen Harris, and Ruben Ozuna in addition to the a fore mentioned Jenkins and Ratteree. Pitching wise some of the old guys on the H-Crew caught my attention; Tyler Alexander, Harvey Marin, Hobbs Johnson, and Andy Hills. I don't think there's any potential impact starting pitching in that group, but a few could be very interesting bullpen guys or potential a 3/4 like Johnson. I really don't think we have any shortage of interesting players to follow, it's more a question of who's going to step up performance wise and if any of those guys have the potential to ultimately make a significant impact at MLB beyond being cheap cost saving options.

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