TheCrew07

MLB Draft Prospect Reports: 1-50

Normally I wouldn't post this as it's not division related but look at the asinine comments he posted... Rays Suspend Josh Sale Indefinitely More on Sale, what a putz.

AZ is hard to use as poster child organization though, because they are continually making trades both ways regardless whom the GM there is. They buy and sell pitching more than probably any other organization but if they had just kept their young pitchers they'd be in much better shape. Not that being in first place in their division this year stinks or anything, but I'm talking over the last 4-6 years. Skaggs and Bradley will make nice additions to their rotation, I wish we had 2 guys like that at the top of our system. I wouldn't have traded Trevor Bauer or Jarrod Parker but it appears it will work out for them.

I finally got around to reading that Hunt article from the JSO which was linked here a couple of days ago about the farm not being as bad as we think... what a garbage piece. It read like nothing more than organizational propaganda. All of the respected publications say one thing, but trust "me" Brewer fans, we're better than that. Hunt knows even less about the minor league system than TH does why is he suddenly an expert? I'd go back and quote every inaccurate statement in that article but it's not worth the time. I've been hating on Reid Nichols longer than I've been hating on Melvin, he's a terrible farm director and always has been. He's the reason the players we call up continually stink defensively and aren't fundamentally sound (unless they are naturals), the only organizational priority for many years was hitting. Pitching wise they made a great move hiring Lee Tunnell, I've learned more from his interviews over the years than from any other single source, but then they put him in the MLB bullpen while many of our most important pitching prospects continue to have control issues. The situation is just a terrible waste of resources, he's our best teacher, yet it's Kranitz role to work the MLB pitchers, and our minor leaguers continue to work through control problems. One thing that struck me reading the comments after Hunt's article, which admittedly is something I rarely do, is how few people still don't realize that... 1) Melvin doesn't have hardly anything to do with the draft, 2) He didn't hire Jack Z and 3) He's not directly responsible for minor league development. Melvin is ultimately responsible for everything given his position, but he doesn't directly deal with any aspect of the organization other than the MLB roster. The JSO's sports writers have written nothing more than fluff pieces stating the obvious general opinion of the public or spewing the organization's propaganda. They've continually attacked the wrong the players, blindly supported the wrong moves, and have rarely asked the hard/tough questions. Why does Ash give most of the interviews on the minor leagues? Why aren't Seid and Nichols front and center? It's one thing to acknowledge the team needs to do better developing it's own pitching, even the most casual fan knows that, but it's another to completely avoid asking why they haven't and then fully exploring why the organization hasn't been able to. Isn't the "why" the most important point? Trading for Sabathia, Greinke, and Marcum didn't fix anything, those moves weren't solutions they were patches or band-aids, and the idea shouldn't be to build up the farm system enough to travel down that same road again. That article scares me, because it reads like it came directly from the organization, and if so there's been very little soul searching or even any acknowledgement that they have may have been on the wrong path for years. The only thing close in print has been MA's quote from last year to affect of "we need to stop spending money just to spend money which is basically all we've done in the past"... well no kidding, but then he turns around and signs Lohse this year to have a negligible effect in the grand scheme while giving up a 1st round pick to do so. It's all truly maddening from my perspective, the same patterns just keep repeating themselves over and over and so far the only outlier has been the Segura, Hellweg, Pena trade which we need more of. 1 or 2 effective young starting pitchers would make all the difference for this franchise, that's all we need at MLB. Peralta needs to start ascending, Yo needs to start ascending, and then if we can acquire 1-2 legit pitching prospects and we're in very good shape. It won't take much to right the ship in Milwaukee, but we've been in that same situation for years and have always opted for the "veteran solution". Developing the talent behind the MLB team is another matter entirely but the Brewers really aren't all that far away from having some legitimate starting pitching for years. The flip side of course is that they do nothing to acquire young starting pitching and we stick with the status quo.

This is loaded for what looked to be a rather uneventful game from the box score and recap. The Silence – Postgame post for May 29, 2013

At least 3 cross checkers and 2 scouts. The Brewers scouting dept was raided for years.

Snappers shutout the Timber Rattlers Wisconsin held to three hits at Pohlman Field By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers BELOIT, WI - Vincent Voiro and Derek De Young foiled Wisconsin Timber Rattlers batters all day long at Pohlman Field on Wednesday. The Beloit Snappers pitching duo shutout the Rattlers on three hits and were supported by a pair of home runs on the way to a 3-0 victory. Beloit (31-21) took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning. Rattlers starting pitcher Eric Semmelhack hit Chad Lewis to start the inning. Then, Christopher Bostick hit a fly ball that barely cleared the wall in left-center. But, it did clear the wall for a two-run home run to put the Snappers in front. Wisconsin (22-26) had problems solving Beloit starter Vincent Voiro. The right-hander allowed two hits, walked none, and struck out three. Plus - due to a some outs on the bases - Voiro faced the minimum through his six innings of work. The only real threat of the day for the Timber Rattlers was in the top of the eighth inning. Victor Roache doubled to left to start the frame against De Young. But, Roache was left stranded at second base when the inning ended. Beloit added to their lead when Matt Olson hit a home run against Preston Gainey to lead off the bottom of the eighth. Wisconsin would get a runner on base in the ninth inning against De Young, but they could not cash in and wound up getting shutout for the fourth time this season. De Young allowed one hit and struck out two to pick up his second save of the season. Semmelhack took the loss for Wisconsin. He scattered four hits and two walks over four innings with four strikeouts. Taylor Mangum pitch an inning of scoreless relief. Gainey struck out five to match his single game high as a professional. The final game of Wisconsin's two-week road trip is Thursday morning when the Rattlers face the Snappers at Pohlman Field. Tyler Wagner (4-3, 3.14) is the scheduled starting pitcher for Wisconsin. Beloit has Dakota Bacus (4-1, 3.15) set to start. Game time is 11:00am. Tune in for the broadcast on AM1280, WNAM or timberrattlers.com starting with the Miller Lite Pregame Show at 10:40am. HOME RUNS: BEL: [Christopher Bostick (3rd, 1 on in 2nd inning off Eric Semmelhack, 0 out) Matt Olson (7th, 0 on in 8th inning off Preston Gainey, 0 out) WP: Vincent Voiro (3-1) LP: Eric Semmelhack (1-2) SAVE: Derek DeYoung (2) TIME: 2:07 ATTN: 711 Wisconsin Boxscore The T-Rats have had a razor thin margin of error in this series. Every hit batter or error has been the difference in the outcome, it just hasn't been a good series as this was the Rattlers 4th loss in a row. Max Walla and Michael Reed were the only baserunners before Victor Roache's 8th inning double, unfortunately both were erased by caught stealing. Unfortunately MiLB.com will probably have a story up on this game later. Wisconsin Recap

T-Rats lose getting shut out. I'll be on the road for the next hour or so but I'll get the summary up around 4 PM or so.

A nitpick but Escobar wasn't drafted, he was signed as a 16 year old FA out of Venezuela, 1 of 2 Latin America success stories for the Brewers, I'm still hoping Peralta will settle in. Orlando Arcia was also signed out of Venezuela as a 16 year old, is currently playing SS for the T-Rats, and is an exciting prospect so we may have a 3rd on the way. There we a couple of young pitchers out of LA that we've been interested in for some time, Jorge Ortega is finally coming stateside this year but apparently Gian Rizzo isn't. Both guys have been intriguing statistically but we haven't been able to dig up any scouting reports on them.

Reds' 2B prospect Ryan Wright profiled here. Cal notes: Wright begins to emerge

International Draft Raises Job Security Concerns Among Scouts

No divisional mentions again. Wednesday Prospect Notebook: Wil Myers Homers Twice

Not surprising at all Latin American Stars Sign Petition Opposing International Draft

Prospects And Draft Chat With Jim Callis

Not that Chris has mentioned the past couple of days. Rodriguez had been hot at the plate, maybe that had something to do with it? I see the T-Rats only have 2 hits thus far and I haven't been able to listen because I've been out at customer sites all morning and I'm hitting the road again, but I'd hope they turn it around.

Seid and his staff won't go until after the draft the finalized and all of the players are signed. It would be a colossal disaster to let them all go before the draft. I guess one could argue what does it matter? However the reality is that no good person is going to leave their current team hanging now so we're going to have count on Seid and his staff at least one more time. I've been calling for Melvin to go for a long time, maybe I've become overly apathetic but I have a hard time believing it will actually happen. I think he'd do much better for a team with greater resources and likewise I think MA fancies himself the owner of a larger market franchise. With that kind of "win now" attitude from the top on down I'm not sure MA would hire the right kind of guy for the job either, DM seems to be the kind of guy he'd be looking for anyway. I think many of us would like someone younger with a good mix of scouting and sabermetrics but that person would be relatively unproven. As for a manager, I'd like a patient teacher who's willing to invest and help young players mature. I can tolerate other shortcomings if the coaching staff is willing to ride out youth through the ups and downs and keep them moving in the right direction. Young players have to be our lifeline as an organization.

Snappers take Timber Rattlers in rain-shortened game Beloit gets a home run just before play stops for a 6-5 win By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers BELOIT, WI - John Wooten hit a home run in the bottom of the fifth inning to put the Beloit Snappers up 6-5 over the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers on Tuesday night at Pohlman Field. The tarp went on the field moments later. Then, the skies opened up and loosed a severe downpour. The game was not resumed and the Snappers picked up a rain-shortened win over the Timber Rattlers. Beloit (30-21) took the lead in the bottom of the first inning on an odd play. They had Brett Vertigan at second and Daniel Robertson at first with one out. Renato Nunez lined a hard shot down the third base line that Mike Garza made a great diving stop to keep the ball from going into the left field corner for an extra base hit. Garza got up and looked to second, but had no play. Then, he threw to first, but he hit base umpire Nick Garvey, who was stationed in the center of the diamond as part of the two-umpire rotation in the Midwest League, with the throw. The ball trickled away from Garvey and by the time it was retrieved, a run had scored for a 1-0 lead. Matt Olson drove in a more conventional run with a single for a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Wisconsin (22-25) rallied to take a 3-2 lead with three runs in the top of the second inning. Orlando Arcia doubled with two outs to knock in Adam Giacalone and send Clint Coulter to third. Tyrone Taylor hit a hard grounder to short and Daniel Robertson missed it for an error that scored two runs to put the Rattlers in front. The Timber Rattlers added to their lead in the fourth inning. Coulter doubled to start the inning. Then, Garza tripled to right to drive in Coulter. Arcia singled through the drawn-in infield to send Garza home for a 5-2 advantage. Wisconsin starting pitcher Ryan Gibbard struggled in the bottom of the fourth. He allowed a one out double to Sam Roberts and hit the next two batters to load the bases. Vertigan grounded into a force play at second to drive in Roberts and make the score 5-3. Then, Vertigan stole second with Daniel Robertson at the plate to get into scoring position. Robertson sent a grounder to second, but the play was booted for an error and two runs scored to tie the game. The Rattlers had a chance to go back in front in the top of the fifth inning. Parker Berberet was hit by a pitch with one out. Pinch-hitter Jose Sermo's fly ball dropped in for a double when the left fielder for the Snappers never saw the ball off Sermo's bat. That put runners on second and third with one out. Seth Streich, Beloit's starting pitcher, got out of the inning with a strikeout and a popup. Jorge Lopez took over for Gibbard on the mound in the bottom of the fifth inning. His first pitch to Wooten was hit for a towering home run that cleared the left field wall for a 6-5 lead. The next batter singled on a 1-1 pitch. At that point, the head grounds keeper came out to talk about the imminent storm. The umpires called for the tarp and lightning flashed in the sky above the stadium as the grounds crew raced the weather to get the cover on the field in time. They just beat the rain and a heavy downpour began within five minutes of the game's delay. There were another thirty minutes of heavy rain before the game was called and the Snappers picked up the win. Streich recorded five strikeouts and picked up his fifth win of the season. Lopez was the tough-luck loser and fell to 1-4. The loss was the third straight for the Timber Rattlers. Game two of the series is scheduled for Wednesday morning at Pohlman Field. Eric Semmelhack (1-1, 3.25) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. Vince Voiro (2-1, 3.55) is scheduled to start for the Snappers. Game time is 11:00am. Tune in for the broadcast on AM1280, WNAM or timberrattlers.com starting with the Miller Lite Pregame Show at 10:40am. HOME RUN: BEL: John Wooten (8th, 0 on in 5th inning off Jorge Lopez, 0 out) WP: Seth Streich (5-2) LP: Jorge Lopez (1-4) TIME: 1:43 (:35 delay) Wisconsin Boxscore I don't mind saying I don't like the home cooking by Beloit/umpiring crew to give the Snappers a cheap win. If the danger was that imminent, and from Chris' call it was as lightening was coming down near the stadium when they came back from the break, why even send the players back out for 4 pitches? That doesn't excuse Jorge Lopez grooving one on his first pitch but I guess that's the breaks in MiLB. Hopefully Chris covers why Clint Coulter was removed from the game in the blog, hopefully it's nothing serious as he was just starting to hit the ball well. i will say that for all of Clint's defensive adventures, and he had another in today's game not scored an error, he sure is head's up picking off runners who stray too far. He seems to have good instincts for the game, if not for catching. Wisconsin Recap

Following along on gameday as I listen to the T-Rats, at least Segura has 2 of Milwaukee's 3 hits. There's a positive.

Clint Coulter was just pinch hit for in the 5th, Chris didn't have any idea why, hopefully has something for us in the blog later. Apparently the team has been giving Tyrone Taylor the business about his 1 hit per game so I'm not the only one who noticed, all in good natured fun of course. I did in fact jinx Jorge Lopez, he just gave up a HR to the first batter he faced. There is lightning all around the ballpark and Matt Erickson is pretty livid about why they started the bottom of the 5th inning with the lightning to have Lopez throw 4 pitches be done for the night. The tarp is coming on the field and the Rattlers are going to a delay.

Roache with another error, let a low liner that dropped in front of him get through to the wall. The Rattlers have 2 errors now in 2 innings but are somehow leading 3-2.

I think it's all of the above. There are some curious things being reported such as the Brewers never even contacting a player until they draft him. Well that's fine after round 20 or so, but how are they not doing their homework on the players they are targeting, especially in the top 10 rounds? Or do they not target specific guys and just take whomever is there? I guess what I'm saying is how does the organization really know anything about the kid other than what he tools he has if they don't talk to him? The Brewers were notorious about playing their draft cards close to the vest, but if that's the case with limiting contact... well that's just dumb, and I'd much rather that they are just consistently getting beat to the punch and not able to draft specific players they were targeting than they are afraid people are going to snake their picks so they don't talk to potential draftee. Either way I guess the Crew is demonstrating some level of incompetence, but it makes you wonder what is actually going on. As I pointed out earlier the Brewers had 2 chances to get the Covey pick correct and ended up with Jungmann and then drafted Bradley with much better prospects on the board. Yes Bradley was falling, but there's just no way we can say today that he was a higher ceiling prospect than many of the pitchers taken after him. The velocity loss issues that keep coming back around with prospect after prospect might have something to do with player development but I doubt that as well, I just think the Brewers do a poor job identifying the proper talent and pitchers whom are truly projectable vs those that have mostly tapped out their potential already. Off the top of my head Anundsen, Arnett, Bradley, Heckathorn, Adams, Frederickson, and Hall all had more juice in their arms according their scouting reports than they had entering pro ball and guy like Scarpetta had already filled out his frame and was pitching 90-91 by the time I saw him in WI. People might be inclining to throw Jungmann on that list but his 2 seam was always significantly slower than the 4 seam (which admittedly is a bit odd), and he's throwing the 2 seam for the most part now. I posted a BA article in the draft forum talking about HS pitchers and how the kids with the biggest arms on draft day rarely make it to MLB. The HS pitchers which have the best chance of becoming impact talent in the majors tend to be the ones that show an advanced feel for pitching, have a plus pitch or 2, and have legitimate projection left, usually working in that 89-93 range with the FB in HS but picking up more velocity with age. Of all our HS draftees, only 3 have really fit that profile: Odorizzi, Braddock, and Gallardo. Lasker, Lintz, Anundsen, and Hall didn't add velocity, Inman and Scarpetta were mostly maxed out on draft day, and the first rounders Rogers, Jones, and Jeffress had big arms but always lacked control. I hadn't given it much thought until reading that BA article, but it makes complete sense to me. You're better off drafting "pitchers" with projection left rather than drafting "throwers" hoping to reign them in. I used to just say give me 1 plus tool and projection and I'll be happy but I wasn't looking deep enough as control/pitchability/whatever you want to call it is just as important when developing impact pitching as the arm, and there aren't many organizations whom have had much success teaching throwers to pitch.

The division is shut out on the pitching front. Pitchers of the Week

Matt Hague 3B, Alen Hanson SS, and Stetson Allie 1B all of the Pirates win honors this week. Albert Almora CF Cubs 1st rounder last year picks up the honor after coming off the DL and getting his first action of the season this week. Offensive Players of the Week

Good for him!

You can cherry pick specific players to make your argument, but this is the exact same road traveled down when discussing the Rays who's rotation was made up of 2 players drafted in the first round so they were good because they drafted high. Price and Niemann were top 5 picks, that's true. However Wade Davis was a 3rd round pick and every other homegrown pitcher who's been in the rotation came from the 4th round or later, James Shields from the 16th. The Rays didn't do it drafting high, they've missed on plenty of 1st round picks, they did it through quantity. When discussing the Twins why is it fair to pull out Buxton yet give credit to the Brewers for Weeks? I'm unsure why people are okay rationalizing the Brewers drafting high and netting Fielder, Weeks, and Braun but yet crap on teams that have similar success. What about the teams that out draft us who've had more success than us on the MLB, those teams that are consistently drafting later than us in the 1st round? Draft position matters, but only through the 1st round, after that everyone had an equal shot at every player selected. Before picking Buxton (who's very impressive BTW) the Twins hadn't drafted higher than 14th (2008 when they drafted Hicks) since 2001 when they had the first over all pick (Joe Mauer). The Twins haven't done much with an avalance of 1st round picks, 23 in total since 2001, so I don't think they are all that great at drafting players over the last decade, but they've certainly done a better job identifying impact talent. Even the freaking Twins have spent big money on an international player ($3.15 for Miguel Sano) which is something the Brewers could have easily done if not for spending too much money on the backend making the MLB payroll. Essentially that would have been like signing an extra 1st round pick, heck we could have signed 2 of those players every year if we wanted and been okay, but the Brewers haven't. We've carried more dead money than that every single season since the team got competitive again. The difference between the Brewers and teams whom have drafted simillarily (as in poorly) are that those teams have also supplemented their talent base internationally, which is something the Brewers have failed at miserably. In the Twins case it's not just the draft, but I don't see how it's fair to cherry pick players for arguments. Covey became Jungmann, the Brewers had 2 chances at the same pick and couldn't get it right either time, there's clearly a problem with the way the Brewers evaluate pitching talent when amateurs like us on the MiLB forum can watch a guy pitch and nail his ceiling and the Brewers aren't able to. Many of us are very well read and have watched hundreds of hours of video over the years, but there's no way we've put as much time into the players as the Brewers have.