TheCrew07

Draft Concludes With Thirty Rounds On Final Day June 10, 2015 by Teddy Cahill

Pitching, Then College Seniors Dominate Draft’s Second Day June 9, 2015 by Teddy Cahill

It was only that way because Pittsburgh gave away so many outs in the first 2 innings. Without the 3 extra outs on the bases that game was out of hand by the 3rd.

Dayton defeats Rattlers 4-3 in ten innings By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers http://www.milb.com/assets/images/6/2/2/129895622/cuts/Gatewood_Article_Photo_h2hhs8w4_bx2siw06.jpg Jake Gatewood went 2-for-3 with a walk and 2RBI for the Timber Rattlers on Wednesday night in Dayton. (Wisconsin Timber Rattlers/Ann Mollica) DAYTON, OH - The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers got off to a good start on their 12-game road trip to end the first half with three first inning runs. But, the Dayton Dragons wound up winning the game at Fifth Third Field 4-3 in ten innings. Wisconsin (18-41) started their long road trip with a good first inning. Brandon Diaz doubled to start the game. Francisco Castillo reached on a bunt single to put runners at the corners. Elvis Rubio was next and his single on a hit-and-run play scored Diaz and sent Castillo around to third base. Sthervin Matos drew a walk to load the bases. Jake Gatewood made it 3-0 with a two-out single to drive in Castillo and Rubio. The Dragons (31-28) got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the second. Angel Ventura hit Avain Rachal to start the inning and a passed ball sent him to second. Later in the inning, a sacrifice fly by Jimmy Pickens drove in Rachal from third base. Dayton tied the game in the bottom of the third. Ronald Bueno singled and Luis Gonzalez reached on an error to start the inning. Gavin LaValley followed with a double to left to knock in Bueno. Brian O'Grady followed with a bloop single to right that scored Gonzalez to even the game 3-3. The game remained tied at three until the tenth inning. Dayton went without a hit from the RBI single by O'Grady in the third until a one-out single by Pickens in the ninth. Zach Cooper pitched around a leadoff walk in the fifth and retired the next three batters. Luis Ortega worked 4-1/3 innings out of the bullpen and allowed just one hit while striking out three, Wisconsin had opportunities to add to their lead early, but couldn't score after a leadoff triple by Monte Harrison in the second and a leadoff double by Carlos Leal in the third. Ortega retired the first batter he faced in the bottom of the tenth inning and gave way to Scott Lieser. Gonzalez reached on a single. Then, LaValley lined a 2-1 pitch from Lieser to right-center. Gonzalez, who was running on the pitch, scored easily on the double by LaValley and the Dragons celebrated a walkoff win over the Rattlers. Gatewood had a pair of hits and a walk for Wisconsin. Leal had a pair of doubles in the game. Game two of the series is Thursday night at Fifth Third Field. Devin Williams (1-3, 4.64) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. Dayton has named Junior Morillo (1-0, 1.80) as their starter. Game time is 6:00pm CDT. Catch the broadcast on AM1280, WNAM starting with the Miller Lite Pregame Show at 5:40pm. The broadcast may also be heard on Tune In Radio and IHeartRadio. Subscribers to MiLB.TV can follow the action that way. WP: Jake Ehret (1-1) LP: Scott Lieser (0-1) TIME: 2:57 ATTN: 7,750 Wisconsin Boxscore My first thought here was "Rats!" and you know what I'm going to let that stand. Wisconsin Recap

I wouldn't want to give up next year's 1st rounder, the pitching is shaping up to be awesome, maybe better than last year. If we were going to take the the penalty I would have rather done that last year and given up this year's 1st round pick.

I didn't get to watch until the 5th but from what I saw Jungmann did a real nice job keeping the ball down, lot's of halfhearted swings.

brewmann04 I made a mistake, I linked the BA 500 instead of the draft DB, I'm sorry. Here's the link to the draft database, you can filter by organization, round, name, whatever you choose. It's what I use to find my favorites if I missed where they went. BA Draft DB edit. Later on it's very helpful for determining the amount of the pool money that's left and who still needs to be signed. The signings will also be indicated in the signing thread here on the forum.

You can easily filter the BA draft database by last name to see who has been selected. It's located here.

Both Monte and Jake were pulling off the ball terribly most of the season, but Gatewood has been much better of late. Regardless though I'm pretty sure it's a done deal that both guys go back to Helena. My issue with Monte is he's so visibly upset with himself all the time, he hasn't dealt with failure all that well, hopefully he'll improve in that regard as he matures.

Demi Orimoloye reads like another Lorenzo Cain, there are so many reasons to like this pick I can already tell he's going to be a personal favorite of mine.

geez another upside pick, I'm digging this.

Shouldn't everyone!?

That's a pretty in-depth question so I'll answer it as succinctly as I can. I'm not sure what the Brewers look for, in the past it appeared just FB velocity, then it was a body type and a well rounded arsenal, now it appears to be more stuff. The Brewers and I do not see eye to eye when it comes to evaluating pitching, I've liked some of the picks in the past like Arnett, but the more I've learned from working with and teaching in regards to throwing mechanics the farther apart the Brewers and I get so I wouldn't be on board with many of those picks now. I would still be down with picks like Odorizzi and Rogers, I like multi-sport athletes with natural talent who are somewhat malleable. I'm not down with specialization at any level below college for many reasons but most importantly in terms of this discussion the young man has thrown too many pitches, has too much mileage on his arm, and now just wants to do what he's always done, which is why the Brewers let them fail before actually coaching certain aspects of pitching. As to what I look for? All else being equal I want stuff, I want a pitcher to have out pitches, the kind of pitch MLB hitters will regularly swing through. MLB average pitches are more of the "get me over" variety... you can catch a hitter looking for something else and get a strike, but if he's looking for it chances are he's going to make contact. A plus, or plus plus, or wipe out pitch is going to be something like the Ben Sheets hammer curve, or a Randy Johnson slider... a pitch that hitters are rarely going to make contact with. I'm not into allowing hitters to hit foul balls and get another shot, I want them back in the dugout in 4 or fewer pitches. The truth is that all things are rarely equal so my single most important criteria is control, I think a pitcher can learn command. A good study in filth without control from a minor league perspective would be Martin Viramontes, from a MLB standpoint Edwin Jackson. I prefer a clean and simple delivery which allows the pitcher and the ball the easiest path to home plate. Without going into great detail many pitchers, including MLB, have horribly complicated deliveries, which means they are taking the hardest possible path to hitting spots. It's 100 little things like a RHP stepping across their body towards 3rd base, or having way too much trunk rotation so they fall hard towards 1st when they finish, or a lower arm angle, or not firing their hip and elbow at the same time... it's a complicated mesh of geometric planes and physics but the best and most concise way I can put this is that the less body parts you have working together in the same plane, the more your body has to compensate for the extra rotational motion and make adjustments. On top of that most pitchers have a completely different pitching motion and timing out of the stretch, but spend most of their time in the wind-up, so it's no wonder pitching effectiveness goes down with runners on base. It's a less practiced motion with different timing, why should we expect the same proficiency? I often wonder why the wind-up is even a thing... So because most pitchers are set in their ways and basically fight themselves, I want the best athletes possible, because the better athlete you are the easier it is for you to learn a motion and make those 100s of finite adjustments necessary to throw a strike with each pitch with a complicated delivery. For example the T-Rats have a plethora of Latin pitchers this year, all of them have the same basic motion out of the wind-up, and all of them struggle to be consistent even pitch to pitch. The idea in baseball isn't simplicity, it's repetition, so with that in mind I want athletes who can hopefully learn to throw strikes in the 10-15,000 repetitions before they reach MLB. Many of these guys have enough talent they could be something, but because of how they throw the ball they will never throw enough strikes to be successful. The truth is that FB velocity is also important for obvious reasons, but I'm not personally chasing 1st tier velocity in draft picks (95+), I'm happy with 2nd tier guys who work 92-95, I'm not chasing 1s, I'm chasing 2s. An ace would be great but I think you get there by hoping the pitcher will add velocity as he matures. As to the "hides the ball well" delivery, well that's kind of loaded question and depends how it's all put together when he's throwing a ball. Most of those guys load the ball low behind their shoulder (load point being that spot just before the ball is whipped forward) so many will naturally drag their arm, which leads to shoulder and elbow issues down the road. If he's in sync with the hips and arms and leads with his elbow chances are he's going to be alright. That's more of a case by case thing... so I wouldn't want to draft another Inman for example, and these days there's so much video out there is pretty easy for me to eliminate the guys with all that funk which I think is going to cause problems.

50 For 50: Top 50 Players From The First 50 Drafts June 8, 2015 by Matt Eddy

Dated now... Could Draft Be Moving? Who’s Rising Up Draft Boards? June 8, 2015 by John Manuel

2015 Draft: First-Round Tracker June 8, 2015 by Staff Report

PG just keeps churning out quality content. PG Draft Live

Newman’s Wait Much Shorter This Time June 8, 2015 by John Perrotto

Brewers Roll The Dice With Prep Slugger Clark June 8, 2015 by Tom Haudricourt

Cubs Opt For Happ, Take Hitter With Top Pick Again June 9, 2015 by Gordon Wittenmeyer

2015 Draft: Best Available For Day Two June 9, 2015 by Hudson Belinsky

Wisconsin hangs on for 4-3 win over Fort Wayne By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattler http://www.milb.com/assets/images/4/9/4/129449494/cuts/6_June_8_Zach_Hirsch_3ulbm81k_1ib5qekh.jpg Zach Hirsch pitched five no-hit innings to earn the win for the Timber Rattlers on Monday night against the Fort Wayne TinCaps. (Wisconsin Timber Rattlers/Ann Mollica) GRAND CHUTE, WI - The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers scored four early runs and held on to defeat the Fort Wayne TinCaps 4-3 on Monday night at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium. Zach Hirsch pitched five no-hit innings to pick up the win in Wisconsin's final home game of the first half of the season. Brandon Diaz gave the Timber Rattlers (18-40) the lead on the third pitch of the bottom of the first inning. Diaz drilled a 2-0 pitch from Jose Castillo over the wall in left for his fourth homer of the season and a 1-0 lead. Later in the inning, Elvis Rubio drove in Sthervin Matos with a single and the Rattlers were up 2-0. Wisconsin doubled their lead in the second inning. Francisco Castillo and Matos had back-to-back RBI singles in the frame and the Rattlers were up 4-0. Hirsch, who came off Wisconsin's disabled list earlier on Monday, was making his first start since May 2. He walked two of the first four hitters he faced, but settled in to retire the next thirteen batters he faced. Hirsch struck out four. The TinCaps (24-33) broke up the no-hit bid - and the shutout - with one out in the sixth inning against reliever David Burkhalter. Ruddy Giron lined a solo home run to left field to cut into Wisconsin's lead. Fort Wayne made it 4-2 in the top of the seventh inning. Chase Jensen grounded into a force play at second base with runners at the corners to score Franmil Reyes from third. In the ninth, Gian Rizzo took over for Burkhalter and got the first two outs. Jensen had an 0-2 count and sent a grounder to short, but reached on an errant throw. Rizzo fell behind pinch-hitter Trae Santos with three straight balls, came back with two strikes, but eventually walked him to put the tying run on base. Felipe Blanco, who was pinch-hit for in Fort Wayne's three-run game-winning rally during the ninth inning on Sunday, was down to his last strike before sending a single to center on a 2-2 to drive in Jensen to get the lead down to one. Giron was next and he lined the first pitch he saw from Rizzo deep down the line in left, but the ball hooked foul at the last moment for a strike. Rizzo closed out the game by getting Giron looking at strike three. The Timber Rattlers took two of three games in the series from the TinCaps to win their first series since they took two of three in a series at Clinton April 28-30. This was also the first home series win for the Timber Rattlers since they swept a three-game series from the Peoria Chiefs April 24-26. Wisconsin drew 2,879 fans on Monday night to give them a total attendance of 106,829 in 35 home games for the first half. This marks the first time in team history Wisconsin has drawn over 100,000 fans to their stadium in the first half of the season. This is also the first time they did not have a rainout in the first half since the 2005 season. The Timber Rattlers are off on Tuesday. They begin a 12-game road trip when they return to action on Wednesday at Fifth Third Field in Dayton, Ohio with a game against the Dayton Dragons. Angel Ventura (1-2, 2.50) is the scheduled starting pitcher for Wisconsin. The Dragons have named Wyatt Strahan (4-4, 2.73) as their starting pitcher. Game time is scheduled for 6:00pm CDT. The radio broadcast is on AM1280, WNAM starting with the Miller Lite Pregame Show at 5:40pm. The broadcast may also be heard on Tune In Radio and IHeartRadio. Subscribers to MiLB.TV can see the game with the Dayton Dragons broadcast crew on the call. HOME RUNS: FW: Ruddy Giron (6th, 0 on in 6th inning off David Burkhalter, 1 out) WIS: Brandon Diaz (4th, 0 on in 1st inning off Jose Castillo, 0 out) WP: Zach Hirsch (2-3) LP: Jose Castillo (0-1) SAVE: Gian Rizzo (1) TIME: 2:29 ATTN: 2,879 Postgame Post – June 8, 2015 Erickson's comments are always entertaining... Wisconsin Boxscore First kudos to my fellow Fox Valley residents, what awesome attendance for the Rattlers so far this season. The pitching wasn't great from a location perspective, all 3 guys left a lot of balls up, all of Zach Hirsch's fly ball outs were on the warning track. David Burkhalter also threw quite a few "cob shots" (belt high down the middle), the HR and all of the hits against him were of that variety, he wasn't locating his curve as well as he had been either. Gian Rizzo was cruising until the error, the foul ball which was mentioned in the story and by Erickson was "just" foul, it hit the "2" in the 325 down the LF line, watching live I thought it was a HR. Right after I posted Rizzo was coming apart he dropped in 2 consecutive curve balls to get out of the jam. All of the SS taken in the draft got me thinking about Jake Gatewood and while I've said multiple times that his defense was much better than I expected, I realized I hadn't really qualified it. In succession the Rattlers have had Rivera, Arcia, and Ortega; now the Brewers thought Ortega was perhaps the best defender of that trio, I would say Rivera is a slight tick better than Arcia and the best of that bunch, but it's close. All were plus defenders for the level and would play SS or 2B in MLB at a high level (hitting aside), Gatewood is like 2 ticks below those guys, maybe 3. He's not bad but he's not good, he's pretty much average for a MWL SS, and he's sloppy fundamentally (maybe awkward is a better word?), though he generally doesn't repeat mistakes. I think given enough time he could be an average MLB SS but with who he has in front of him I doubt he sticks there, the Brewers simply have too many better fielding options in front of him. Francisco Castillo (3-4) had a big day, he's bumped his AVE up to .284 and is hitting .349 over his last 10 games. He doesn't and likely won't provide much power, but he's a decent defender with positional flexibility, perhaps a utility guy if he can keep it going and progress towards MLB. The Brandon Diaz HR was on a 2-0 pitch, it was an awesome way to start the game. Wisconsin Recap I haven't done a lot of this kind of thing in 2015 but since I mentioned it here are the Rattler adventures on the base paths tonight. Contact play in the 1st. Wisconsin Bottom of the 1st Brandon Diaz homers (4) on a fly ball to left center field. Francisco Castillo singles on a line drive to center fielder Michael Gettys. Sthervin Matos walks. Francisco Castillo to 2nd. With Carlos Leal batting, Francisco Castillo steals (2) 3rd base. Sthervin Matos steals (8) 2nd base. Carlos Leal reaches on a fielder's choice out, pitcher Jose Castillo to catcher Jose Ruiz. Francisco Castillo out at home. Sthervin Matos to 3rd. Elvis Rubio singles on a line drive to left fielder Nick Torres. Sthervin Matos scores. Carlos Leal to 2nd. Greg McCall grounds into a double play, shortstop Ruddy Giron to first baseman Nick Vilter. Elvis Rubio out at 2nd. Agressiveness in the 2nd. Wisconsin Bottom of the 2nd Jake Gatewood singles on a line drive to center fielder Michael Gettys. Alan Sharkey reaches on a force attempt, throwing error by first baseman Nick Vilter. Jake Gatewood to 2nd. Monte Harrison hit by pitch. Jake Gatewood to 3rd. Alan Sharkey to 2nd. Brandon Diaz strikes out swinging. Francisco Castillo singles on a line drive to right fielder Franmil Reyes. Jake Gatewood scores. Alan Sharkey out at home on the throw, right fielder Franmil Reyes to catcher Jose Ruiz. Monte Harrison to 2nd. Sthervin Matos singles on a line drive to center fielder Michael Gettys. Monte Harrison scores. Francisco Castillo out at 3rd on the throw, center fielder Michael Gettys to third baseman Chase Jensen. A bad decision in the 3rd. Wisconsin Bottom of the 3rd Carlos Leal bunt grounds out, pitcher Jose Castillo to first baseman Nick Vilter. Elvis Rubio reaches on a fielding error by shortstop Ruddy Giron. Greg McCall flies out to right fielder Franmil Reyes. With Jake Gatewood batting, Elvis Rubio picked off and caught stealing 2nd base, catcher Jose Ruiz to first baseman Nick Vilter to second baseman Felipe Blanco. A CS in the 5th. Wisconsin Bottom of the 5th Brandon Diaz walks. With Francisco Castillo batting, Brandon Diaz caught stealing 2nd base, catcher Jose Ruiz to second baseman Felipe Blanco. Francisco Castillo grounds out to first baseman Nick Vilter. Sthervin Matos flies out to center fielder Michael Gettys. Another CS in the 8th. Wisconsin Bottom of the 8th Brandon Diaz flies out to right fielder Franmil Reyes. Francisco Castillo singles on a ground ball to shortstop Ruddy Giron. With Sthervin Matos batting, Francisco Castillo caught stealing 2nd base, catcher Jose Ruiz to second baseman Felipe Blanco. Sthervin Matos grounds out, third baseman Chase Jensen to first baseman Nick Vilter.

When it comes to pitches there's fringe, average, above average, and plus, and plus plus. The quality of his secondary pitches depends largely on what scouting report you choose to believe. The consensus on his breaking stuff of is more of "average" which suggests a #3 best case from a stuff standpoint, hence why I was all over someone like McKenzie instead. Even PG's scouting report notes that he's been very inconsistent... so when you take out his best and take out his worst, it reads to me like the sum of his parts is a #3. Having a MLB quality pitch isn't in itself determinate or predictive, every pitcher taken will have 1 pitch of MLB quality, which means essentially an average MLB pitch. Like I said he measures well with size, weight, and FB velocity... I think we'll know much more what we have in him this time next year. I'm not down on the pick, I'm just not thrilled about it either, and I'm hardly one who's going to declare every pitcher taken in the top 3 rounds has top of the rotation upside. Neither pitcher taken today has great control which has been a recurring weakness with Brewer pitchers over the years so again I'm intrigued, but I'm not doing cartwheels of joy or anything. While I'm thinking about it, people are using control and command interchangeably, but they are really not the same. This is the best free article I could find. Control is basically the ability to find the strike zone, command is the more finite stuff... how to back door a curve, run a slider off the corner, run a FB under the hitter's hands... that sort of thing. A good example would be the curve or change Medeiros was throwing the other night; he was controlling and dropping it into the zone consistently for a strike (better than his FB and slider actually), but since it was belt to thigh high and down the middle of the plate he wasn't commanding it well. Or put differently there's throwing strikes, and then there's throwing quality strikes. I hope that makes sense? Generally on draft day I'm mostly interested in control, but if a pitcher shows no ability to command I might be hesitant as well. All in all I think it was a pretty good first day and I agree with Eye Black that Atlanta really stuck it to us, I would have liked the opportunity to draft Allard or Jay, but Aiken was still out there and we took Clark. 3 or 4 years down the road we'll know if that was a good pick or not, but coming out of today we certainly have competition up and down in the chain in CF even with the Johnny Davis injury, and we have 2 guys who comfortably project as 3s... and maybe with a tweak or 3 can be better than that. I'll also be curious to see how Ashe Russell turns out since I was on him early and then backed away after watching video. I feel pretty good about day 1, and while I'm not sure there's an impact player in the trio other than McKenzie or Aiken there really weren't guys who I had strong feelings for when the Brewers were picking so there's not much to argue about.

Not as high on Ponce as others, not enough secondary wise for me, but if he can tighten up his secondary stuff who knows? He could be one of those guys who's never really been taught how to throw off speed. It's really tough to say with so little video but he's got all the measurables.

Kirby and Medeiros are going to be a good test of the Brewer's ability to develop control in pitchers, coincidentally both LH. Kirby has legit stuff, with any control he has potential to be a top of the rotation guy.