TheCrew07

1) No it doesn't, not if you trade pitching for a rental, because it takes so long to develop pitchers... best case scenario any draft pick we'd get this season wouldn't be ready till 2013, we'd get picks no higher than 16 and it's rare for talent to moe through MiLB in 3 years or less, and there's no gaurantee what round the selections would be in, with the exception of the comp picks. 2) You're assuming they hit on the draft picks... I will say that I like the CC selections better than the Linebrink selections. However, the only selection of those four that has a chance to reach MLB in the next couple of years is Frederickson. So while you might be able to replace depth, you also definitely push it farther away from Milwaukee, quality of the prospects aside. I guess Davis has an outside chance of making it in 3 years but I wouldn't count on it. Dykstra and Walla will progress one step at a time since there's no reason to rush them and I don't think Dykstra is all that good to begin with.

BC up 1-0 in the first. Rivas has now pitched himself over a 3 to 1 K:BB ratio... whatever is in the water in BC, they need to send some of it up to WI for the T-Rat pitchers. Gindl with another hit... It would be nice if Wheeler would bust out of this month + slump he's been in, he's a better than what he's shown so far. As red hot as Schafer was before his call up to AA, he's been a wee bit cold since coming back.

you had me at vortex... that was funny.

Bryson was a DFE wasn't he? Picks 15 and 16... edit. Cripes, I meant the 15th and 16th round picks as Battlekow noted below.

I've come to the conclusion that Griffey and Thomas were probably the only 2 clean players in the game. Sosa was obviously cheating anyway he could, this might be the least surprising revelation in some time.

As a non Milwaukee resident, I'll probably only make 2 games this year instead of the 6-8 trips I normally made, but that's because I'll be going to rattler games instead. We have a family outing at the end of June, and my immediate family will probably go down to another game, I'll utilize the bf.net discount at that time and have more feedback on the experience.

Didn't we already make a move for a rental last season? Didn't we dump prospects for Linebrink? Melvin has been making deals with prospects. I realize you don't care about the future as much as you want to win today, to each his own, but at some point it would be nice if you would at least acknowledge that buying rentals fills a hole today, but leaves a hole tomorrow... Had we acquired a more lasting solution for the rotation instead of Sabathia we wouldn't even be having this conversation right now. I'm not sold Sabathia was the only way the team was making the playoffs, maybe a different move has the dominos falling a different way... if it's fair to play the "what if" game with Sheets staying healthy, then it's fair to play the "what if" game with a different trade. I say again, look at how the relatively new regime in TB has gone about building their pitching staff through trades, with Price and an effective Kazmir (hopefully) that rotation is top notch, and 2 of their starters were acquired via trades. At some point people are going to have to get past the notion that prospects are valueless and the only players worth acquiring are "big name" FAs or players like Cain whom are consistently being tossed around as trade bait. X mentioned Edwin Jackson, I would have been fine with him instead of Looper (I had no idea Jackson would to pitch to an ERA under 3 thus far though), I would have liked Melvin to go after depth like Niemann as opposed to cast offs like Wright and Green. I remember names from the draft, but mostly I stumble across guys bouncing around MiLB.com looking at the various leader boards for each league. It doesn't take very long to look at K, BB, IP, and WHIP to quickly do K/9, BB/9, and K:BB as all of the lists are sortable by clicking on the stat you want to sort by, I also use Baseball Reference quite a bit. The point is, there are plenty of possibilities out there than obvious guys who are also the most expensive to acquire, and at this point I favor lasting solutions as most of our better arms are 2-3 years away yet. For example, I'm as excited about Zach Braddock as I have been any pitcher coming through the system, but even if he's as good as I think he is he'll still need 2 or 3 years to build up IP to the point where he's ready to step into the rotation. He's been injured (misdiagnosed) enough that he's never pitched more than 72 innings in a season (by the way, depending on the site he's sometimes listed as William as that's his true first name). Our top MiLB Pitchers and their most IP in a season Jeffress - 100 in 2008 (not sure exactly, 94 in the regular season and I forget how many IP he got in the AFL) Arnett - 108 in college this season, no idea how much action he'll see in the minors Cody - 117 in 2007 Anundsen - 145 in 2008 (I was surprised by this number, I wish we had an accurate first hand report of his velocity) Rogers - 98 in 2005 Rivas - 120 in 2008 Butler - 126 in 2007 Bowman - 139 in 2008 (92 in college, 47 for Mil) The closest player we have IP wise is Anundsen, though I gotta believe that with Cody being 25 they'd be willing to push him a little as well if need be. Bulter might also figure into the mix as he's already 24 so if he continues his success they might be inclined to push him a tad harder as well Bowman could be a sleeper if he keeps having success as he moves up. A general reminder is that the standard practice is to increase workload about 20-25 IP per season for most prospects.

He's brutally slow and he's nothing special behind the plate at this point in the time, I'm not sure exactly where he fits it. If he were taller I'd be intrigued by him as a 1B.

Sure, but you weren't going to get Nieman for an A ball LF like we did for Wright. Why do you think it was a buy low oppurtunity at all? The guy they moved was Edwin Jackson, in hindsight, he would have been a great addition. I would have given up more him, TB doesn't need pitching.

The lowest FB velocity I saw from Frederickson was 89, the upper was 92, mostly 90-91. I was peaking on probably 80% of his pitches, so he may have had some more extreme pitches, I'm not sure. Velocity wise he was very similar to Scarpetta... the Time Warner Field gun doesn't like the delivery of either player I just mentioned as it's usually 4-5 MPH off, but for some reason it was right on Peralta. At least early in the game, his 94s and 95s that I saw were the same on both guns, I didn't even bother charting his pitches, he brings gas. X nailed Frederickson's delivery, here's the video I shot.

It could be the difference between his 4 seam and his 2 seam fastball... maybe he takes a bit off the 2 seam and it breaks more for him?

This Bud Norris guy for Round Rock is pretty decent, too bad he's in Houston's system.

I dislike it very much that Periard is getting his first start on the road and may be gone the next time the T-Rats play a home series. Lawrie's Error, then a single, followed by a triple lead to the big 1st inning. Periard has settled in nicely though. Anundsen stinks, he walked a guy, the scrub... Gindl with a homer and for some reason I just noticed Wilson has the best BA on the team. His batting line is still comical.. only 4 2Bs and he's still sporting 800+ OPS. Brewer with another hit as well. Nothing happening early for Nashville at the plate, but Gulin is pitching well and it's 0-0 in the 3rd

I've been on the buy Niemann low bandwagon for some time, Sonnanstine hasn't been good, but neither has Kazmir to this point in the season. Niemann's walks are down but so are his strike outs, I like the former and I'm not sure about the latter as I haven't seen him pitch yet in 2009, but his over all results have been better, even though his K:BB ratio is worse. I would have rather acquired him than Wright for example, and I believe I posted that at the time. The Rays are an Ex-Brewer haven, and I like the organization, it just made too much sense to target an arm they were having a problem moving at the all-star break last season, they made it known he was expendable. I've always liked his natural ability and he's been in AAA forever, like Buchholz, except the Rays have dynamite young pitching in front of him. edit. I should add that his ESPN stats are now good enough that he's probably not a buy low option anymore, another missed opportunity!

He kills the Brewers even when he's not playing them... boo...

TLB that was sort of my point about him, he hit 9 HRs last season as a friggen twig... 6' 1", 180... there's no guarantee that he cares about developing a power game, but he certainly has the frame to support 205-210 LBs comfortably and it shouldn't effect the rest of his game if he strength trains properly. He's a very exciting 4 tool prospect, and the neat thing about him is that he has a realistic chance to be a 5 tool player at his peak, but he's going to have to work at it like Hardy like did, he's probably not going to get there through natural growth. I'm just not sure he'll ever be a selective enough hitter to reach that top tier of players, but the SS position is the least of my worries for the next 7 or 8 years.

I was wondering, going forward would it be better to put the velocity range in the video threads instead of the Link Reports? Or is the Link Report better? Or both?

MLB.com is where I usually go, but it's done by player and ballpark, so it's easier to look at the player's Home park.

Wow, an outing with 145 pitches, and another outing with 142? I probably shouldn't even look at stuff like this because it just makes me angry, how can college coaches totally disregard the rest of a player's career? It's no wonder so many college arms flame out, I have no use for PAP, but if he was drafted by the Brewers out of high school with pitch counts that high I'd be going crazy. How about protecting the player's career a little bit? edit. I wouldn't have a problem with Arnett pitching a relief role the rest of the season.

There were reports earlier this year that his fast was sitting in the mid 90s. I'm sure it was a link report but the forum isn't cooperating when I search for Braddock. edit. NM, somehow I linked a Rogers take.

I wonder if Frederickson is finding his rhythm, no crooked number BBs since May 29th when he had 2... he's gone 2, 1, 0, 0 in his last 4 outings.

Anyone listen to the broadcast and know why was Escobar pulled? It didn't happen until they came to bat in the 7th, was it just to get Garciaparra some playing time?

Mass already linked this in the link report, you have to work pretty hard to get news out before Mass or Battlekow

I probably just have my rules crossed up, I was under the impression that a draftee is only under Brewer control for 6 years total regardless of the 3 options.

Aren't service years independent of options though my friend? Edit. I guess what I mean is if we have 3 years with Rogers and 4 with Braddock then I really don't care at all, I was working off the idea that Rogers was a minor league FA in 2011 and Braddock 2012.