TheCrew07

Sometimes you just gotta slide on the ice – Postgame Post for June 9, 2013

Rattlers rally to snap streak Wisconsin scores six runs in the 8th to beat Clinton 11-9 Wisconsin Timber Rattlers GRAND CHUTE, WI - The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers erased an 8-5 deficit with six runs in the bottom of the eighth inning and held on for an 11-9 victory over the Clinton LumberKings on Sunday afternoon at Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium. Adam Giacalone had a pair of hits and three RBI in the game to help Wisconsin snap a five-game losing streak. The Timber Rattlers (25-33) broke out on top in the bottom of the first inning. Tyrone Taylor hit a solo home run with two outs for a 1-0 lead. Taylor moved his hitting streak to eight games with his fourth home run of the season. Clinton (30-32) tied the game in the top of the second inning on an RBI double by Gaby Guerrero. The LumberKings went in front in the top of the fourth inning. Brock Hebert made it 2-1 with a sacrifice fly. The Rattlers staged their first big inning of the game in the bottom of the fourth inning. The frame started with Orlando Arcia being hit by a pitch and Taylor drawing a walk. Max Walla's single to right drove in Arcia and a poor throw to the plate let Taylor scoot home with the run that made it 3-2. Giacalone doubled with two outs to drive in Walla and Parker Berberet singled to knock in Giacalone for a 5-2 lead. Rattlers starting pitcher Eric Semmelhack retired the first two batters in the top of the fifth inning. But he could not get the third out. Taylor Ard hit a home run to start Clinton's rally. Patrick Kivlehan was next and he singled and stole second. Marcus Littlewood followed with an RBI single and took second on the throw to the plate. Guerrero was next and he singled to knock in Littlewood to tie the game 5-5. Semmelhack walked Jordy Lara and was pulled from the game. Taylor Wall took over on the mound and gave up a single to Hebert to load the bases. Then, Jabari Henry drew a walk on a 3-2 pitch to force in the run that put Clinton up 6-5. Preston Gainey came on in the top of the seventh inning and gave up a home run to Littlewood. The LumberKings padded their lead with another run in the top of the eighth on a sacrifice fly by Kivlehan. That put them up 8-5. Jochi Ogando, the third Clinton pitcher of the game, entered in the bottom of the eighth. He walked Arcia, gave up a single to Taylor, and walked Victor Roache to load the bases. Walla drove in Arcia with a high chopper to first base that turned into an out at first and cut Clinton's lead to two runs. Ogando walked Mike Garza to reload the bases. Oliver Garcia came out of the Clinton bullpen to face Giacalone. The left-handed hitter lined a single through the left side of the infield to drive in Taylor and Roache with the tying runs. But, the Rattlers weren't done. Perez walked Berberet to reload the bases, but got the second out of the inning. Then, Mike Reed drew a four pitch walk to force in Garza to put the Rattlers in front 9-8. Arcia capped the inning with a two-run single to send Giacalone and Berberet home with two insurance runs for an 11-8 lead. In the top of the ninth, Lara homered off Gainey to make it 11-9. Henry singled with one out to bring the tying run to the plate, but Gainey got the final two batters to close out Clinton. Giacalone extended his current hitting streak to ten games with his performance on Sunday. It is the longest hitting streak by a Timber Rattlers player this season. The final game of Wisconsin's homestand is Monday night. Milwaukee Brewers starting pitcher Hiram Burgos will not make the start for the Timber Rattlers on a rehabilitation assignment. Burgos felt discomfort in his shoulder while playing catch today and was scratched from Monday's game at Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium. Tyler Wagner (5-4, 3.00) was scheduled to make the start for the Timber Rattlers on Monday before Burgos was announced as a rehab assignment. The LumberKings have not named a starter for Monday night. Game time is 7:05pm. Monday is a bonus Bang for Your Buck Night with soda, beer, and hotdogs available for $1. The first 1,000 fans to attend the game on Monday will receive a poster of Wisconsin outfielder Tyrone Taylor courtesy of Dunkin Donuts. It's also a Qdoba Q*Monday with 106.7, The KRUZ. Purchase a lunch entrée from either Qdoba location in Appleton and receive a free ticket to any Timber Rattlers regular season Monday home game through the end of the 2013 season. If you can't make it to the ballpark, there are several ways to catch the action. Time Warner Cable SportsChannel will telecast the game. The radio broadcast is available on AM1280, WNAM or timberrattlers.com starting with the Miller Lite Pregame Show at 6:45pm. Monday's game is also available to subscribers of MiLB.TV. HOME RUNS: CLN: Taylor Ard (4th, 0 on in 5th inning off Eric Semmelhack, 2 out) Marcus Littlewood (2nd, 0 on in 7th inning off Preston Gainey, 0 out) Jordy Lara (4th, 0 on in 9th inning off Preston Gainey, 0 out) WIS: Tyrone Taylor (4th, 0 on in 1st inning off Charles Kaalekahi, 2 out) WP: Preston Gainey (2-5) LP: Jochi Ogando (0-1) TIME: 3:17 ATTN: 4,235 Wisconsin Boxscore Orlando Arcia was on base 4 times, 1-2, 2 BB, and a HBP. He also stole a base. Tyrone Taylor's big day was covered earlier in the thread, and Adam Giacalone also had a nice day going 2-4 with a double. Obviously the pitching wasn't good but hey, the T-Rats played clean defense for the first time in a while. Wisconsin Recap The gamelog is extremely busy, have at it if you wish. Wisconsin Gameday

I still think it has the potential to be a win\win. He'll get his degree, have something to fall back on, he has the chance to improve again, and maybe get a bigger bonus next year. I am sorry for your and probably his disappointment in the system and the fact that he didn't get drafted, and I do agree that baseball still has many issues. Hopefully things work out better next year.

Final: Clinton (Mariners) 10, Wisconsin 5 Wisconsin drops fifth straight Rattlers put themselves in 4-0 hole with three errors in the first inning By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers GRAND CHUTE, WI - The Clinton LumberKings sent the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers to their fifth straight loss with a 10-5 decision at Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium on Saturday Night. The LumberKings slugged 15 hits, including seven for extra bases, and pounced on every Wisconsin miscue to build an early lead on the way to victory. The game did not start well for the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers (24-35). Jabari Henry doubled on the second pitch of the game. Adam Giacalone ranged far to his right to attempt to flag down Ketel Marte's grounder to the right side of the infield. Chris McFarland, Wisconsin's second baseman, fielded the ball easily. But, his throw was behind Jorge Lopez, the pitcher racing to cover first base. Henry scored and Marte wound up at second base. Lopez walked the next batter on four pitches. Taylor Ard was next and he sent a grounder to Mike Garza near the bag at third. Garza touched third for the force and threw to first for the double play. But, Giacalone missed the ball at first and there were runners at the corners with one out. Lopez got Guillermo Pimentel, the next Clinton hitter, to hit a sharp grounder to short for another potential double play. But, this ball went through the legs of Orlando Arcia to let a run score and the inning to continue. Tyler Marlette singled to right to drive in Ard and send Pimentel to third base. Janelfry Zorilla capped the scoring in the inning with a sacrifice fly to center and Clinton led 4-0 before the Rattlers got to hit. Clinton (30-31) added to their lead in the top of the second. Jordy Lara doubled to start the inning. Henry doubled with one out to send Lara home for a 5-0 lead. Giacalone drew a walk in the bottom of the fourth. Mike Garza followed with a line drive home run to left and the Rattlers were down 5-2. Lopez went six innings and only two of the five runs against him were earned. He didn't give up any runs after the second inning, allowed seven hits, walked two, and struck out four. He was charged with the loss. Clinton pulled away in the seventh and eighth innings against reliever Ryan Gibbard. The LumberKings had two outs and none on in the seventh. Ketel Marte bunted for a hit and stole second. Dario Pizzano drew a walk, his third of the game. Ard and Pimentel had back-to-back RBI singles to drive in Marte and Pizzano for a 7-2 lead. In the eighth, Zorilla doubled and Lara followed with an RBI double. Marte had a sacrifice fly later in the inning to knock in Lara for a 9-5 lead. Wisconsin scrapped for three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning against Grady Wood. They loaded the bases on singles by Giacalone and Garza and a walk to Parker Berberet. Chris McFarland grounded into a force play at second to score Giacalone. There were still two outs and runners on the corners when Tim Lopes dropped a popup off the bat off Arcia. That let Garza score and McFarland get to third. Wood would commit a balk to send McFarland home to make the score 9-5. But, Clinton tacked on one more run in the top of the ninth. Ard doubled to start the inning. Zorilla singled with two outs to drive in Ard to account for the final run of the game. Giacalone went 2-for-4 and extended his hitting streak to nine games. Tyrone Taylor tripled in the game and moved his hitting streak to seven games. Garza also has a seven game hitting streak for the Timber Rattlers. Game two of the series is Sunday afternoon. Eric Semmelhack (1-2, 3.48) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. Charles Kaalekahi is scheduled to make his Midwest League debut for the LumberKings as their starting pitcher. Game time is 1:05pm. The first 1,000 fans to attend the game will receive a rally towel from Kagen Allergy Clinic. Sunday is also a Brewers Sunday with 107.5, The Fan. Timber Rattlers players will wear Brewers-themed jerseys during the game. There is also catch on the field for fans before the game and a postgame autograph session with the players. Subscribers to Time Warner Cable may bring in their cable bill and receive up to four half-price reserved bleacher seats for the game. If you can't make it out to the ballpark, tune in for the radio broadcast on AM1280, WNAM or timberrattlers.com starting with the Miller Lite Pregame Show at 12:45pm. Sunday's game is also available to subscribers of MiLB.TV. HOME RUN: WIS: Mike Garza (2nd, 1 on in 4th inning off Scott DeCecco, 1 out) WP: Scott DeCecco (5-5) LP: Jorge Lopez (2-5) TIME: 2:56 ATTN: 5,714 Mehring's stock gets a significant boost with his Star Wars leadoff of the of the post game. Chris +4! A great disturbance – Postgame post for June 8, 2013 Wisconsin Boxscore There are only so many ways to say that this team continually beats itself and obviously this game was ugly from the start. It's been pretty much the same recurring themes all season for this T-Rats squad, I'm still counting on significant improvement in play as we near the 2nd half. Wisconsin Recap Wisconsin Gameday

LE you are still coming at this issue from entirely different perspective. No one is saying these guys don't have value, we all know the odds. What we are saying is that it was disappointing to get 3 upside picks out of the first 10 given the state of the system. I also wish when talking about this stuff people would stay out of the extremes both positive and negative. Every soft tosser doesn't have the potential to be Greg Maddux nor does every short CF have the potential to be Kirby Puckett. Certainly every prospect isn't going to fail. I would never argue that defense isn't important, but given the state of the farm we need to take some risks on young impact pitching and impact position players. I like both HS kids taken here on day 3 so far, they both look intriguing. We have a system loaded with depth, we have lots of 4th OFs types, we have legit OF depth in WI and with Haniger in BC. We don't have much on the IF, we have no impact LHP, and we're very thin on impact RHP pitching below AA even giving Lopez the benefit of the doubt. With the slotting system the senior signs are what they are, signing Lohse really hurt Seid's ability to be more aggressive from a talent standpoint. 1st round picks are a long shot to be impact MLB players as well, the round here isn't the issue, it's the amount of risk an organization is willing to take. Without the risk there's no reward, and you can't have a well balanced system if you don't have the legit talent at the top, that's why I maintain we need to sprinkle as many high upside picks as we can through the draft. Of course not every 4th round pick is going to be Hellickson or even Archer but TB has proven that if you keep at it you can continually hit on impact HS talent later in the draft, Matt Moore was a 8th, Desmond Jennings was a 10th, and James Shields was a 16th round pick. Jennings certainly hasn't hit in MLB like TB would have hoped, I also would have thought him to be an .800+ OPS guy but that's just the way it goes with some players. He has the potential to be a double digit HR guy and I think it's far too soon to write him off. I had written off Gomez 3 years ago, he's making me look pretty stupid right now. I don't want to do this for every pick we've made, but the area scout who signed Yovani Gallardo was Jim Stevenson, he was also the scout that identified Dava Eveland. Jim was no longer with the organization by 2008, he took a job in Houston. If we don't have the scouts to identify pitching, then we better draft impact hitting and flip those guys for the young impact pitching we need. Without the impact hitting you can't possibly hope to acquire impact pitching, so either way we need more impact talent. The Cubs went high floor for most of the first 2 days of the draft, but they are linked to 3 of the biggest talents out of Latin America for July 2. I would love if the Brewers were going to be serious players internationally this year to make up for the limited options they had with the draft, but so far the Brewers haven't been linked to a single player of note. Right now to acquire the pitching we need all we have is the draft and MLB trades so it's disappointing to draft 1 legit arm with significant upside in the first 2 days of the draft. The intention isn't to slam the players taken, rather to point out that the Brewers need to do a better job spreading risk across multiple prospects than pointing to Mark Rogers and Mike Jones getting hurt when the organization doesn't have the pitching. Pitching injuries are part of baseball and should be expected. The Giants can pick 1 HS kid and hit on that player nearly every time, it's irritating to watch from afar, the Brewers haven't even been close to that with college players. There's just a wide gulf between the Brewers and the top 4-5 pitching organizations. I hate to keep going to back to TB but they aren't all that good at identifying 1 player, in fact they are as bad as the Brewers in that regard. However they keep at it and make up for in volume what they lack in precision, I think that's a realistic goal for the Brewers as well. The Brewers could make up for a lack precision in the scouting process by taking a greater volume of high ceiling players and spreading the risk amongst all of the players instead of relying on 1 pitcher from each draft to be "the guy".

I have to work this weekend so I won't be around much until Sunday evening. At the very least I'll catch up on the T-Rats late Saturday night but I may not catch up with the divisional prospects until after the Game of Thrones season finale on Sunday night.

Snappers beat Rattlers 3-2 for a three-game sweep Henderson strikes out the side in the ninth on rehab assignment By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers GRAND CHUTE, WI - The Beloit Snappers completed their three-game sweep of the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers with a 3-2 win at Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium. Tyrone Taylor went 3-for-3 with a walk for the Timber Rattlers, but Wisconsin could not avoid their fourth straight loss. The Snappers (35-25) took advantage of a Rattlers miscue in the second inning. Ryan Mathews reached on a two-out error. Nick Rickles was next and he lined a 3-2 pitch off the scoreboard for a home run and a 2-0 lead. Wisconsin (24-32) cut Beloit's lead in half with a two out rally in the bottom of the third. Orlando Arcia singled to left with two outs and none on base. Tyrone Taylor continued his hot hitting by lacing a double inside the bag at third. Arcia raced in to score and the Rattlers were down 2-1. But, that was the only run Wisconsin would get off Beloit starter Michael Ynoa. The tall righty out of the Dominican Republic scattered six hits, didn't walk a batter, and struck out three to put himself in position for his first win of the season. John Wooten put the Snappers back up by two runs in the top of the sixth inning. He blooped in a single to shallow center with two outs to drive in Bruce Maxwell for a 3-1 lead. Milwaukee Brewers closer Jim Henderson entered the game in the top of the ninth inning as part of his rehabilitation assignment. Henderson struck out the first two batters. Brett Vertigan looped a 1-2 pitch from Henderson just fair inside the left field line for a double. Henderson came back and struck out the final batter of the inning. He tossed 19 pitches and 14 were for strikes. The Rattlers tried to cobble together a rally in the bottom of the ninth. Adam Giacalone singled to left with two outs to extend the game. The hit also extended Giacalone's hitting streak to eight games. Adrian Williams entered the game as a pinch runner for Giacalone and noticed that he was not being held on with Alfredo Rodriguez at the plate. Williams moved up to second on defensive indifference. Rodriguez fouled off a couple of 3-2 pitches to stay alive before lining a single to right-center to drive in Williams and cut the Beloit lead to a single run. But, Snappers reliever Andres Avila finished off the game with a strikeout. Avila tossed the final four innings and struck out four to pick up his first save of the season. Wisconsin has lost four games in a row, are 1-6 in the first seven games of this homestand, and have fallen to eight games under .500 for the first time this season. The Timber Rattlers host the Clinton LumberKings on Saturday night. Jorge Lopez (2-4, 8.33) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. Clinton has Scott DeCecco (4-5, 4.03) is set to start for the LumberKings. Game time is 6:35pm. Saturday night is Star Wars Night. Timber Rattlers players will wear jerseys based on the science fiction classic. There will be a silent auction during the game and you could take one of those jerseys home with you. Plus, there will be characters from the movies on hand to meet fans and pose for pictures. Proceeds from the jersey auction go to Make-A-Wish Wisconsin. It's a Fly Away Saturday, too. One fan will win charter airfare for two courtesy of Funjet Vacations and Fox World Travel. If you can't make it out to the game, tune in for the broadcast on AM1280, WNAM or timberrattlers.com starting with the Miller Lite Pregame Show at 6:15pm. This game is also available those who subscribe to MiLB.TV. HOME RUN: BEL Nick Rickles (3rd, 1 on in 2nd inning off Mike Strong, 2 out) WP: Michael Ynoa (1-1) LP: Mike Strong (0-2) SAVE: Andres Avila (1) TIME: 2:42 ATTN: 3,053 Wisconsin Boxscore I don't envy Matt Erickson at all, this team just keeps finding ways to lose, mostly by beating themselves. Tyrone Taylor makes me happy, I'll go as far as to say he's tied for my favorite position prospect at this time. I bag on the Brewers scouting department quite a bit for our pitching struggles, but Taylor was on no one's radar prior to the draft and the Brewers definitely saw something that others weren't, or had a connection whom tipped them off to Tyrone. He's a fantastic 2nd round pick, even if he doesn't make it. I believe Taylor is 12 for 23 over his last 6 games, that's a .522 average, he's been white hot. Mike Strong pitched well, too bad his worst pitch was tattoo'd for a HR, though without the error that's not the difference in the game. Taylor Mangum is an odd study, I guess I'd term him effectively wild even though he only walked 1 batter, he just doesn't hit spots very much, but his K/9 is almost 9.0... he's an interesting relief prospect. Michael Garza is a tough guy for me, I want to like him as he does many good things at the plate but committed his 12th error which led to 2 unearned runs tonight, and for some reason his errors always seem to hurt badly. Victor Roache stuck out in the bottom of the 6th on a nice curve, he was obviously looking for a different pitch, the bat never moved. However in the first pitch of the AB he hammered a ball so hard foul down the LF line and into the woods beyond that both TV announcers and all of the cameramen lost it. I have no idea where it landed in the woods, I'm guessing it went into the tree tops because there was a trail of leaves falling about 3/4 of the way up that the camera caught, but my goodness that was blast, too bad it was foul. Without factoring in the poor fielding numbers from the T-Rat catchers Chris pointed out during the broadcast that the Rattlers are now the 2nd worst team in the league defensively. Wisconsin Recap Beloit should not have scored in the 6th, both of the "singles" were misjudged by the OFs, Roache's especially could have been caught. Beloit Top of the 6th Pitching Change: Taylor Mangum replaces Michael Strong. Bruce Maxwell singles on a fly ball to left fielder Victor Roache. Renato Nunez out on a sacrifice bunt, pitcher Taylor Mangum to first baseman Adam Giacalone. Bruce Maxwell to 2nd. Matt Olson strikes out swinging. John Wooten singles on a line drive to center fielder Tyrone Taylor. Bruce Maxwell scores. Ryan Mathews called out on strikes. Wisconsin Gameday

First of all, round has nothing to do high ceiling or not. D'Vo was plenty high ceiling and wasn't a 1st round draft pick. Second Magnifico had 1 pitch, arm or not, he's not a high upside pick, and how many 1 pitch pitchers have the Brewers actually developed for the starting rotation? What pitcher have we had that developed whom needed not 1 but 2 secondary pitches from their draft day moving forward? Most of our successful pitchers already had a plus secondary pitch, and a guy like Odorizzi really hasn't developed any, and he's a pretty good athlete, even by pro standards. Just because a guy has a big fastball doesn't make him a high ceiling player, there has to be more that goes with it, because everyone at AA can hit even the best FBs or they wouldn't be playing there. I would think that many people who watch Magnifico pitch see mid 90s on the radar gun early and that's about it. I've watched Magnifico pitch 3 times now, his velocity falls off quickly, TLB actually pointed it out to me when we were at a game together and I started paying closer attention. He also starts leaving FBs up in the 4th inning in every start which is a sign that a pitcher is starting to tire. At this point in his career he's simply not shown enough to project as a starter, he's not holding his velocity in a tandem system, if he's not able to maintain velocity he's not a starter secondary pitches or not. Ynoa looked like 3 times the pitcher that Magnifico is, regardless of the boxscore line tonight. Ynoa's FB has really good arm side run and his curve is incredibly tight, yes he's been injured and is on a very low pitch count as the A's ease him into full season ball, but the stuff is electric. I was somewhat skeptical before watching him pitch tonight but he impressed me. Magnifico throws hard early and locates okay, but there's just not any "wow" factor with him. I don't want to go through all of the college picks and point out who was objectively a high ceiling pick and who wasn't, because it's not necessary and should be fairly obvious. Any pitcher who doesn't top out around 95 and have at least 1 plus secondary offering with a league average 3rd pitch isn't a high ceiling pitcher, it's that simple. We've been having this discussion since before Jungmann was drafted and yet people still think he was a high ceiling pitcher because he threw a 4 seam FB hard pre-draft. I've been very consistent on these points for a long time, I've learned many hard lessons about stuff, projection, floor, and ceiling with prospects I've championed. The only guy who remains a mystery to me is Amaury Rivas... good movement on his FB that topped out around 95, a plus change, but couldn't make it as a starter in AAA. What did we miss with him? As far as bats go, I've championed Khris Davis for a long time, but I'm not going to claim he's a yearly 4 WAR player anymore than I jumped on the Casey McGehee bandwagon. When you're watching A ball, a player better stand out head and shoulders above his peers in one way or another, or he's not an MLB player. If he doesn't jump out at you and just kind of looks like everyone else, he's not special. That doesn't mean he won't contribute, it just means he has a very minute chance to be an impact player. Once again, we have plenty of depth, I'm looking to add players to fill out the top of the system and the top of the rotation. I think you've vastly oversimplified your theory to the point where you've taken what's been written about these guys out of context. There is a chance that some of those guys whom we just drafted are much better than their scouting reports would suggest, but MLB.com scouting reports are basically written like each player is family, MLB has a vested interest in making fans feel good about their draft picks. If we had the track record of some other organizations I'd feel comfortable with the notion that our guys saw something that the other guys didn't see, but given the Brewers history from a pitching standpoint I don't think that's a realistic stance to take. If PG and MLB are rating guys as 3-5s or relievers then I'm not going to hold out much hope that they are more than that. A 5' 9" CF prospect no matter how raw doesn't project to hit for much power and the Brewers haven't exactly been known to push athletic development in the weight room. It doesn't matter how toolsy the guy is, if he doesn't hit for power he's not going to be an impact player. It's much easier to project a body type like Tyrone Taylor to develop power than it is any player under 5' 11". That's just the reality of genetics.

Henderson topping out at 96 so far tonight for the T-Rats

Arcia is back out there for the top of the next inning, and just showed off a very strong right arm, doesn't look like whatever happened was too serious.

So I was going to comment on Ynoa's impressive curveball and fastball, as I start typing this Tyrone Taylor doubles down the LF line and Orlando Arcia tries to score from first. The catcher misses the relay throw, it skips passed him to Ynoa and Arcia tries to slide around the would be tag and looks like he hurt his left shoulder. He grimaced right away and it was hanging as he went back into the dugout, the last thing he needs is another serious injury.

How exactly would you suggest people discuss the picks? All sunshine and rainbows discussing the various ways they love the picks? There is a tremendous difference in upside between this year's draft thus far and the last year's draft at the same point. Seid certainly had his hands tied in comparison to last year's draft and most everyone seems happy with the first 2 picks. As an organization we still have a gaping LHP hole, so since you brought up the 5th round am I supposed to do cartwheels because Milwaukee drafted a reliever while the Cardinals drafted a HS LHP? It's certainly possible that Uhen will ultimately be a better prospect than McKinney, but if you're a fan who's into upside there wasn't much to be excited about in rounds 3-10, only Diaz appears to have some upside on day 2. We drafted 3 relievers and Williams is just 5' 11" meaning he likely profiles as a reliever as well... 4 likely relievers in those picks, when impact starting pitching is our biggest need. I'm not sure why you went to the Magnifico card? He's a nice enough prospect but he's likely a reliever as well, and if it's because he's a MWL all-star.. well so was Ryan Gibbard and he's not an impact starting pitcher either. I don't think anyone minds drafting higher floor players as long as there is upside sprinkled in around those guys, but that's not what happened for the Brewers. The Pirates, Cards, and Reds all had a nice mix, the Cubs were very college heavy, we had 3 upside players through the first 10 rounds, and only 1 was a pitcher. Can the Brewers really afford to draft a single pitcher with significant upside with our atrocious record developing impact pitching? I don't believe so, I think the Brewers need to 2-3 of those guys every year. We aren't the Giants, we aren't going to be able to just draft 1 high upside HS pitcher and develop him, we need numbers to mitigate what we've lacked in identifying the proper talent. Williams, Uhen, and Astin could maybe all turn out perfectly and be impact starting pitchers, but after reading the scouting reports and taking into account the organization's history, especially Seid's history with college pitching, why should they get the benefit of the doubt by default?

That would be epic... and that.

10th: Michael Ratterree RF Rice

9th: Tyler Linehan LHP Fresno State (CA) I believe they said he was 6' 240 lbs... if so, he's a reliever.

8th: Brandon Diaz, CF HS from FL

7th: Omar Garcia, CF

My honest opinion on the draft so far is that I'm a little bit let down, I really wanted to add at least 1 projectable LHP starting pitcher to the organization. Apparently the 2 guys we discussed early today aren't signable as no one has drafted them.

In the 6th Brewers take Garrett Cooper 1B from Auburn, another senior sign.

Not Seid's fault for having very little to spend on draft picks. Which may be a built in excuse to give him another year. Hopefully I feel as good about this draft as next year as I did about the 2012 draft before this season started.

Cards take another LHP, this time a HS kid, Ian McKinney. The Cards and Pirates are having really nice drafts.

RHP Joshua Uhen from UWM.

#81 overall, Boston.

I posted this earlier this morning. Here was BA's take on the Best Available Players prior to the start of the draft today.

I would take any halfway projectable LHP starting pitcher at this point... and there are a couple prep options out there. I like Garrett Williams quite a bit, nate has repeatedly posted about AJ Puk. Now that we're getting later in the draft some guys whom have at least 1 stand out tool would be nice. edit. Even if the tool is just athleticism.