TheCrew07

I'm the opposite, the Big Ten really needs a National Champion in basketball... pretty much the same way I felt going into the college FB playoff when I rooted for OSU even though I despise Meyer with a passion. I would like MSU to make the final four even though I'd rather not play them again. I've never been a Pitino fan either so there would be the added bonus of seeing him denied another Final Four.

1. Tyrone Taylor 2. Orlando Arcia 3. Monte Harrison 4. Clint Coulter 5. Wei-Chung Wang 6. Gilbert Lara 7. Devin Williams 8. Taylor Williams 9. Taylor Jungmann 10. Joantgel Segovia 11. David Denson 12. Tyler Wagner 13. Kodi Medeiros 14. Jason Rogers 15. Tyler Cravy 16. Michael Strong 17. Sthervin Matos 18. Miguel Diaz 19. Gian Rizzo 20. Jacob Gatewood 21. Chris McFarland 22. Dustin Demuth 23. Juan Ortiz 24. Gregory Munoz 25. Joan De La Cruz Just missed: Jorge Lopez, Hobbs Johnson, Tommy Toledo, Jacob Barnes, Eric Marzec, Martin Viramontes, David Goforth, Damien Magnifico, Johnny Davis, and Yadiel Rivera. 1. Tyrone Taylor - I watched Tyrone grow leaps and bounds in WI, he just lacked consistency. He'll continue to improve and I look forward to his AA campaign. 2. Orlando Arcia - Orlando is the only Brewer prospect to come through WI in recent memory that could make contact with a pitcher's pitch and put it in play. The trumpets continue to blare for him, he's similar to Alcides Escobar in many ways, but he'll be more of an offensive threat. 3. Monte Harrison - I had the Pirates taking Monte in the first round of our mock draft last year, thank god he slipped to our 2nd round pick, I hope to watch him in WI this year. 4. Clint Coulter - Finally moved off C, didn't look good at 3rd in instructs but took to the OF. He's got legit 25-30HR power if he can make enough contact. He'll be fine in RF, I do have some long term concerns about his swing. 5. Wei-Chung Wang - We desperately need a lefty who can at least be a #3, I think he is one of the organization's best moves in a long time. 6. Gilbert Lara - Encouraging reports this fall out of AZ, it will be interesting to see what level he starts at and where he plays in the field. 7. Devin Williams - has made incremental improvements, now it's time to a take jump. 8. Taylor Williams - his 2 pitch mix was more than the MWL could handle, I was hoping he would dominate BC in that short stint and start this season in AA. His command can come and go rather quickly from inning to inning, but he's a legit starting pitcher at this time. 9. Taylor Jungmann - My thoughts on him have been well chronicled over the years, made a huge jump last season. 10. Joantgel Segovia - 17 year olds that hit .384 catch my attention regardless of league. 11. David Denson - I probably didn't do Denson justice in the Link Reports, like Arcia before him, but David impressed me. He made tremendous strides both in the field and at the plate, don't be fooled by his .741 OPS on the season. The light bulb went on in May and then he hurt himself and pressed some when he finally got back in July. If I had to pick a break out player for 2015 he'd be my pick. 12. Tyler Wagner - I think he's a bit better than prospect gurus have given him credit for, I see a pretty solid #3. 13. Kodi Medeiros - Kodi didn't set the world on fire out of the gate and I'm worried some about his command, but his stuff was plenty filthy as his K/9 was still 13.5. 14. Jason Rogers - Solid yet unspectacular, Jason just keeps hitting, I don't believe he's a 3B, but why not the RH part of a 1B platoon? 15. Tyler Cravy - My boy... please be healthy and effective this year Tyler. 16. Michael Strong - I have an affinity for lefties, simply because I'm one myself, but I think Michael could be a decent enough MLB reliever. 17. Sthervin Matos - Broke out in Helena, his D needs quite a bit of work from what I saw in WI, but I saw enough to be intrigued. 18. Miguel Diaz - He's the best sleeper pitching prospect we have in the system. 19. Gian Rizzo - Doesn't throw as hard as I had hoped but had a nice bounce back season as a 20 year old in AZ. He didn't get to start a single game last year but put up 2.22 ERA, .776 WHIP, 1.0 BB/9, and 10.2 SO/9.... those are video game numbers. 20. Jacob Gatewood - Lots of potential, lots of contact issues, he was the most difficult player for me to place. 21. Chris McFarland - Chris looked the part last season in WI. He defense improved though he's still shakey on the backhand and his offense took a significant step up. 22. Dustin Demuth - Made it to WI in his first season but struggled in pretty much every facet once he got there. I'm curious to see how he responds this season. 23. Juan Ortiz - I don't really have a good justification for this placement, Ortiz is just someone who intrigues me at this point in time. He got a surprise bump to AZ and held his own, this is probably a make or break year for him. 24. Gregory Munoz - Just 2 years in the system and bumped all the way to the Pioneer League for his second season where he held his own. Not much power and appears to be more of 2B but color me intrigued. 25. Joan De La Cruz - Another player I don't have much justification for other than he's made incremental improvement and I'm intrigued, he should be state side for 2015.

Actually that was banter about Corey Hart. Jungmann's arsenal was very average coming out of college, he never profiled as a top of the rotation pitcher. People around here got over excited for 2 reasons... 1) The scouting reports that his FB hit 97MPH, I never saw him throw anything above 94, and that was on 4 seamer the ESPN gun and 2) Melvin made the mistake of saying Taylor could possibly help the big club immediately after the draft. Both of which set the bar way too high for him considering the quality of secondary stuff at the time, I actually thought his change had better movement than the curve post draft. I'm glad he pitched well though and his peripherals were much much better last season so he's trending upwards. I still don't buy the whole, "he was working on stuff" Brewer management excuse as every pitcher in the minor leagues is working on their pitches and command. There was a break through that hasn't really been reported on in depth, the light went on, we had plenty of reports of him trying "strike out" guys and missing when he was in BC, something changed from a command standpoint. He's also obviously made improvement with curve from what I've read (which was necessary) and I've gotten to the point I'm somewhat interested to see him pitch. When I get around to posting my top 25 this week he'll actually break the top 10, and not by default because there weren't other options like in the past. He's genuinely improved as did Nelson before him which is almost positive trend pitching wise for the Brewer organization. A couple of more breakouts and we can claim the Brewers have turned an important corner towards taking the organization to the next level. Being able to develop and sustain a MLB rotation from within is huge for any MLB franchise, but especially a small market club like the Brewers.

Scouting Venezuela Is About To Get More Difficult March 3, 2015 by Ben Badler

My point wasn't that K-Rod had raped anyone, it was that once these terrible things happen to someone you care about, your perspective forever changes. I come from a small town in northern WI and I unfortunately have people close to me that have been raped, abused, and sexually assaulted. Predatory men are an issue, and while the NFL has taken the majority of the heat for it, this is a problem that crosses all racial and economic boundaries. My best friend's wife was abused in her first marriage by a guy who I actually used to stick up for, in fact the last fight I was in my life to this point was because I was defending him. She's an absolutely adorable woman in every single way, not to mention one of my sister's best friends, and it took me a long time to understand her mentality regarding the abuse and why she wouldn't press charges. It took quite a bit of reading and watching of documentaries to finally wrap my mind around it as her actions didn't fit my "fighter mentality". Once I realized how brave she truly was to leave in a relatively short time I was ashamed, most women in that situation take far more abuse than she did it. The shame and terror these women live through... well I honestly don't know how to put it into succinct enough terms to post it here, but it breaks my heart. I don't need present anymore facts than are already in public, this is an unfortunately very common cycle. Instead of rallying in defense to the abuser because he wasn't convicted of a crime and can help your team, I'd rather people take the time to educate themselves on how unfortunately common this K-Rod story is. I don't have the power to keep K-Rod out of baseball so all I can do is voice my opinion in regards to my favorite team employing him. I thought the commentary posted by Outlander was spot on, I find it very difficult to balance my hatred of K-Rod against how badly I want the Brewers to win:

The high horse comments are in incredibly poor taste. Perhaps you've been fortunate to not have anyone in your circle of friends and family be abused. That is not my reality and as such I have an incredibly low tolerance of men who prey, and make no mistake, K-Rod is a predator. He may not have been convicted or prosecuted of any crimes, but that has more to do with the psychology of abuse victims than anything else. He put a woman in the hospital, he then beat up her dad, and then came to Milwaukee and beat up another girlfriend. If you're naive enough to believe that those are the only 3 instances he's abused someone in his life and deserves a second chance I'd say he's already had a 2nd and 3rd chance, and no there's no way these are 3 isolated instances. He's a piece of human garbage, I don't care what the other players say about him as a "good locker room presence". I root for the Brewers, not so much individual players like I used to because I believe in cycling talent, and I find extremely it irritating that Mark A will keep bringing a known predator back and employing him to win an extra couple of games per season. He should be in jail, instead he's making millions of dollars playing baseball, and I realize he's not first athlete to skate by and won't be the last, but right and wrong should matter. I guess it's okay though because it wasn't your mom, sister, or friend and he'll help the Brewers win games.

The kid I'm referring to was a 4 time state champion and is now wrestling D1, it's an apt comparison. I've watched enough wrestling to know that there's more to winning an individual state title in High School than pure athleticism. As I said Clint is pretty average athletically compared to his peers, he's not like Lawrie who could have come out from behind the plate and played pretty much anymore. I would guess the unathletic comments come from the way he runs, he's more deliberate than smooth as a runner but that in it itself doesn't mean a person is limited athletically. It can be a symptom, but isn't the defining characteristic. Instead of worrying about what other people are saying, go look yourself and form your own opinions. Clint Coulter T-Rat highlights. Coulter's MiLB page, highlights middle bottom. For the record, I do think Schwarber might be a better athlete than Coulter, it's hard to tell because he's carrying more weight, but I didn't get to see Kyle play in person against the T-Rats as they played that series in Kane County so I'm just going off of the video I've watched and comments I've read. Coulter far and away has the better arm. Schwarber draft video. Schwarber pre-draft scouting video. Baseball America uses consensus opinion for the player's scouting report and neither Coulter or Schwarber were knocked for their athleticism, it just depends on the outlet one chooses to get their information from. Both were knocked for their defense, understandably so, and both were praised for their power. Schwarber is just a better natural hitter than Coulter by a wide margin, that's the disparity in their placements and has been the difference in their career arcs. If Clint had hit like Kyle no one would have cared that he was awful behind the plate and we wouldn't be having this conversation.

I believe so, and yes. But he's just a big dude & physically looks like a guy who'll continue to put on muscle... I just don't expect him to be a graceful outfielder with good instincts. Not questioning his athleticism; just making the counterpoint that his defense probably shouldn't be expected to be a plus either. Wrestling isn't necessary hella athletic, it depends on the kid. The most highly recruited wrestler out of the high school I coached at wouldn't have even cracked the top #20 male athletes in the last 20 years athletically, he was just that technically proficient and is currently wrestling at Purdue. He was at least the 5th best athlete in his own class, maybe worse. People here are continually overstating Coulter's athleticism, but I've watched him play for a season and a half. He's not impressive from a quick twitch standpoint at all, he's pretty average for professional baseball, which is obviously leaps and bounds beyond the majority of us, but he's no where Harrison or even Taylor/Arcia for that matter, he's just not in those upper tiears. He'll be fine in the OF but Schwarber will be too... all this hand wringing about our prospects "not getting respect" is basically garbage. Arcia is one an argument could be made for but Coulter has had 1 really good season in 3 and while he had a break out campaign last season he's going to have to match that this year and then he'll get some looks, at least prospect watchers liked what Taylor and Arcia were doing defensively, Clint was so bad both ways in 2013 that he was very easy to write off. I'm a tad skeptical that he will match last year's numbers in BC, he's prone to long periods of "bleh" where he's not really making any adjustments. Here are his splits from last year, look at how remarkably similar his OPS is after teams adjusted to him. [pre]Split G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB Total 126 529 429 84 123 28 3 22 89 6 4 73 103 .287 .410 .520 .930 223 7 21 0 6 2 Last 7 days 1 5 5 2 3 0 0 2 3 0 0 0 0 .600 .600 1.800 2.400 9 0 0 0 0 0 Last 28 days 1 5 5 2 3 0 0 2 3 0 0 0 0 .600 .600 1.800 2.400 9 0 0 0 0 0 Last 90 days 23 99 86 19 33 5 1 5 19 1 0 8 14 .384 .444 .640 1.084 55 0 3 0 2 0 Home 65 272 211 46 58 10 0 11 47 3 2 44 46 .275 .419 .479 .898 101 2 12 0 5 2 Away 61 257 218 38 65 18 3 11 42 3 2 29 57 .298 .401 .560 .960 122 5 9 0 1 0 vs RHP as RHB 121 408 328 88 21 3 17 67 53 77 .268 .397 .506 .903 166 6 21 0 6 0 vs LHP as RHB 57 121 101 35 7 0 5 22 20 26 .347 .455 .564 1.019 57 1 0 0 0 2 April 22 92 74 11 24 7 1 4 17 2 0 15 12 .324 .457 .608 1.065 45 2 3 0 0 0 May 28 122 98 21 25 3 1 6 22 1 2 17 25 .255 .393 .490 .883 48 1 6 0 1 1 June 22 91 70 18 17 8 0 3 13 1 0 15 20 .243 .396 .486 .881 34 2 4 0 2 0 July 24 95 75 13 19 5 0 4 16 1 2 14 20 .253 .400 .480 .880 36 2 5 0 1 1 August 29 124 107 19 35 5 1 3 18 1 0 12 26 .327 .403 .477 .880 51 0 3 0 2 0 September 1 5 5 2 3 0 0 2 3 0 0 0 0 .600 .600 1.800 2.400 9 0 0 0 0 0 2 outs RISP 78 107 87 25 7 0 2 26 18 28 .287 .421 .437 .857 38 0 2 0 0 1 vs. Younger Pitchers 33 81 68 17 3 0 3 10 7 19 .250 .370 .426 .797 29 2 6 0 0 0 vs. Older Pitchers 123 448 361 106 25 3 19 79 66 84 .294 .417 .537 .955 194 5 15 0 6 2[/pre] Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table Generated 2/26/2015. He had a nice bounce back August but the middle part of the season was pretty blah and he wasn't catching near as much as he did the previous year, so there's no "worn out" type excuse to play. I like Clint quite a bit, but his swing gets long like Khris Davis and even last year he swung through way too many hittable pitches. I think he could be a .280/.370/.500 guy if he'll clean up his swing and make adjustments as he progresses, if not he's more of a .250/.330/.480 guy at his peak... historically he's been slow to change at the plate. He's not someone who consistently hit rockets all over the yard when he put the ball in play as evidenced by the fact his 2B rate was just slightly higher than this HR rate. I've watched him enough that I'm more hopeful than confident in his ceiling at this point. I don't mean to suggest he has massive holes in his swing/breaking ball issues like say Victor Roache who came before him, I think he has a much higher ceiling than Roache. The difference here is that I'm pretty positive Schwarber is going to be an impact hitter and I'm not sure Coulter is going to reach that high, but then again I thought LaPorta would be a productive MLB hitter as well. In fact I still have a hard time believing that someone who can put up an .880 career AAA OPS can't at least be MLB average at the plate, but sometimes that's the way it goes.

I really don't have the words for how much I despise K-Rod on a personal level. As a player he's marginal and I have no idea why the Brewers would want to 2 years plus an option for him, regardless of cost? I wanted no part of a Papelbon trade but this isn't much better. To me this is a case of better the devil you know...

If you watched the video then I'm surprised you don't already know... I don't like an inconsistent arm slot (mostly low 3/4), windmill like motion with the throwing arm, or the fact that he barely threw a well located pitch of any type in the entire video, nor could I get a feel for his athleticism. The lead article in this thread summed it well: He's got a big arm, but there are plenty of players around with big arms, he's not worth breaking the international signing bonus pool in my opinion as he's not a good fit given his raw state. The Brewers simply are not good with "projects", they need pitchers to have a certain amount of polish, and many of those haven't even worked out well. As I've said repeatedly when it to comes the draft there is nothing wrong talent wise with raw big armed amateur kids as pitching prospects, I just don't believe that they are good fits for the Brewers. The organization has never turned one of those players into a MLB starting pitcher in the modern era which I why lean towards more polished pitchers who may only have #2s as their ceiling but I believe the organization has a better chance of success with. There's nothing wrong with Kodi Medeiros as a prospect, but he's another in a long line of highly drafted Brewer pitching prospects which have struggled with the strike zone out of the gate. I view Alvares similarly, though he's RH, I'd rather target Gutierrez who can throw strikes, has a plus CB, and looks to be #4 worst case though he has projection remaining and could become a #2 best case. At this point in time I'm willing to take a step down velocity wise to pick-up more polish. Down the road my opinion certainly could change if the Brewers ever prove more adept at developing pitching, but for right now that's where I'm at.

Until the Brewers prove they can develop control in pitchers I want no part of guys with big arms who don't throw strikes. Of course I talk quite a bit about stuff, but as I've also said over the last couple of drafts we don't need to hit on a "true ace", we need just need impact pitchers who can average more than 6.5 innings per start. I want a legit FB, command, and at least 1 legit secondary pitch on draft day. Just like with the draft all of the players discussed early on in the International signing period are going to have big arms so control and secondary stuff are going to be my determining factors. Yes Alvarez is young and already touches 97, but his mechanics suck and his command is erratic. Once again as the Brewers have historically have struggled with those kind of talents I'd rather they stay away from Jeffress and Rogers types, regardless of how athletic they are. I'd rather drop down a tier FB wise and pickup better command and stuff like they did with Gallardo.

I realize I have a ton of catching up to do but my circumstances have changed, work is now blocking Brewerfan.net as social media, which it is, but unfortunately I'm not going to be able to utilize my dead time to keep up with news items anymore. Vladimir Gutierrez, Yadier Alvares Can’t Sign Until July 2 February 21, 2015 by Ben Badler

With digital formats the loss of quality is negligible. If you were burning a DVD you notice a loss of quality, burning any HD format it shouldn't be an issue.

I don't think this information was anything new, the NFL goes crazy in-depth on every player, all of their draftees have spent at least 3 years in college, and there are still a ton of busts. Physical talent is one thing, what goes on in a player's head is another, and until someone figures out how to adequately predict the mental side of sports there will continue to be major busts at the top of the draft in every major sport. Specifically Baseball speaking If I had a son who had MLB potential as a pitcher there's very little chance I would encourage him to go to college, and I obviously believe in getting an education. I'd rather he sign out of HS, get money for college, and go right into a professional pitching program. No way would I want my son going to college and getting abused and used up before being sent on. He would likely flame out regardless but at least his arm would be healthy and he'd be able to focus on academics once his professional career was over. If he was a position player I wouldn't have a strong feeling either way, but I'd still insist the contract include money for college if he chose to sign. edit. Forgot to quickly discuss veterans... The problem with veterans is that they are getting paid for what they did in the past, rather than what they are going to do in the future, and no one can really predict when that slow decline is going to turn into a steep slope of sunk cost. Many of us have been posting that veterans carry significant risk, it's not just prospects who have risk associated with them. For the most part this article just recycled what we already knew.

It's not very easy. In the simplest terms I can put it you need to capture the video output from your DVR to create a file, then create a Blu-ray of that file. I did a ton of this stuff for football films back in the day, the process essentially goes: original source > computer > DVD or Blu-Ray. In this case since you are dealing with copyrighted material I'm not going to divulge the specifics but a simple google search of capturing DVR output will take you through it step by step.

Ya it's really crazy for a player who hit to a measly 1.061 OPS across 3 levels in his first shot at professional baseball to be ranked so high. How many hitters in the top 100 can even approach his statistical dominance regardless of ratio? High Ave? Check. High OBP? Check. High SLG? Check. Low K rate? Check. High Walk rate? Check. As a baseball fan the only thing not to like about Schwarber at this point in the time is the fact that he's Cubs' property... [pre]Year Age AgeDif Tm Lg G PA AB 2B 3B HR BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS 2014 21 -0.2 Boise NORW 5 24 20 1 1 4 2 2 .600 .625 1.350 1.975 2014 21 -0.5 KaneCounty MIDW 23 96 83 8 0 4 11 17 .361 .448 .602 1.050 2014 21 -1.7 Daytona FLOR 44 191 159 9 1 10 26 38 .302 .393 .560 .952 1 Season 72 311 262 18 2 18 39 57 .344 .428 .634 1.061[/pre] Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table He was the best hitter in the draft, and he's a lefty, the only question is his ultimate position. Your stat line was so arbitrary I find it difficult to take that post seriously. He hit 18 HRs in roughly half as many games as he would get in a full season... Here are the MiLB HR leaders (non prospects removed) from last season, there were only 8 hitters who hit more than 30 HRs on the season, only 3 of those players hit over .300, and Joc Pederson put up his line in the incredibly friendly confines of the PCL west. [pre]Name Age Tm Lg Lev Aff HR G PA AB 2B 3B BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS Kris Bryant 22 KNXIWA SOULPCL AAAAA CHC 43 138 594 492 34 1 86 162 .325 .438 .661 1.098 Joey Gallo 20 FRIMYR TLCARL AAA+ TEX 42 126 537 439 19 3 87 179 .271 .394 .615 1.009 Matt Olson 20 STK CALL A+ OAK 37 138 634 512 31 1 117 137 .262 .404 .543 .947 Steven Moya 22 ERI EL AA DET 35 133 549 515 33 3 23 161 .276 .306 .555 .861 Peter OBrien 23 TRETAMMOB ELFLORSOUL AAA+ NYYARI 34 106 427 399 23 2 21 111 .271 .316 .594 .910 Joc Pederson 22 ABQ PCL AAA LAD 33 121 553 445 17 4 100 149 .303 .435 .582 1.017 Dennis Raben 26 SBRSOM CALLATLL A+Ind LAA 32 107 457 405 15 3 38 96 .301 .370 .590 .960 D.J. Peterson 22 HDSWTN CALLSOUL A+AA SEA 31 123 547 495 31 1 45 116 .297 .360 .552 .912 Jabari Henry 23 HDS CALL A+ SEA 30 114 511 430 26 5 69 109 .291 .398 .584 .982 Carlos Peguero 27 OMA PCL AAA KCR 30 104 418 368 17 1 45 138 .266 .349 .563 .912 Andy Wilkins 25 CHR IL AAA CHW 30 127 529 491 38 1 34 91 .293 .338 .558 .896[/pre] Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table I'll say right now there's no way the Brewers have 6 players in BA's top 100 for 2016... I care about our prospects as much as anyone, and I get to see most of them play as only a handful of players have skipped past WI, but there's no way this system has 6 top 100 players in it for 2016, even absolute best case. We have a ton of intriguing guys, but very few with a good enough track record to be a top 100 type player. I think Harrison has a realistic shot if he continues to ascend, Coulter is a long shot, and on the pitching side a couple of our younger higher ceiling type pitchers would have to take the kind of leaps forward that we haven't seen in this system... ERAs under 2, WHIP around 1, a wipe-out secondary pitch, a 3rd pitch that projects as at least average, and a high K rate. We didn't have anyone like that for 2014... I'm certainly excited about Williams, Diaz, Wang, and I'll say that I'm cautiously optimistic about Medeiros, but it's asking quite a bit to realistically project those kind of quantum leaps for any pitcher... let alone a pitcher in the Brewer's system. I wish we had a Tyler Glasnow type that would explode onto the scene and go from unranked to #46 and now #16, but we don't have that kind of dominant player, our guys generally have to make incremental improvements in their game and their rankings.

Re Medeiros: I know PG was high on him but I just never got the hype. As I said prior to the draft and on draft day in my experience working with athletes regardless if football or baseball a lower arm slot means greater control issues. I won't get into all of the reasons why again, and I'm positive that Kodi is a great kid, but I get why so many people thought he was a reach at 12, especially considering I was in that camp as well. His slider is filthy but that doesn't matter if he isn't able to locate it in the zone or put his FB where it needs to be. Time will tell with him, the Brewers drafted a lefty, and we desperately need a lefty with some sort of a decent ceiling, but I still think Sean Newcomb would have been a better pick. Newcomb was extremely impressive against the T-Rats throwing little more than 95 MPH gas in his last start of the season. We talked about it quite a bit last season but I'll be following the careers of Newcomb and Grant Holmes closely as those were my personal targets for 12. Holmes made it to the PL which is fantastic for a HS drafted kid and as I mentioned Newcomb had a 4 game cameo in the MWL. Of the other pitchers we discussed on the draft forum for that 1st pick Kyle Freeland was a stud out of the gate, he'll start in A+ or AA for Colorado. Tyler Beede pitched well but didn't make it out of rookie ball for the Giants, he'll start someplace in A ball for 2015, and the Giants were his best case scenario, they somehow manage to teach pitchers control. Touki Toussaint wasn't great in AZ but the D-Backs bumped him to the PL anyway and he predictably struggled, he's probably ticketed for a return trip to the PL. Last but not least everyone saw what Brandon Finnegan did as a reliever for KC in the play-offs. Finnegan is still more of a 2 pitch guy and he didn't even have a 2nd pitch till Rodon taught him his slider the previous summer when they played for team USA, but if someone can teach him a 3rd pitch KC got a steal, otherwise he's the mid rotation guy he was projected to be.

That was far and away my least favorite KRod justification...

We could speculate on that but it really depends on where everyone is placed to start the season though I will say that there really won't be a true hitting prospect in AAA, our best prospects will be in AA or lower.

While past performance is not indicative of what he'll do in the future here are Montgomery's 1st round picks: [pre]Year Rnd DT OvPck RdPck Name Pos WAR G AB HR BA OPS G W L ERA WHIP SV Type Drafted Out of 2014 1 16 16 Touki Toussaint(minors) RHP HS Coral Springs Christian Academy (Coral Springs FL) 2013 1 15 15 Braden Shipley(minors) RHP 4Yr University of Nevada-Reno (Reno NV) 2013 1 36 36 Aaron Blair(minors) RHP 4Yr Marshall University (Huntington WV) 2012 1 26 26 Stryker Trahan(minors) C HS Acadiana HS (Lafayette LA) 2011 1 3 3 Trevor Bauer(minors) RHP 0.8 34 7 0 .000 .000 34 7 12 4.44 1.44 0 4Yr University of California Los Angeles (Los Angeles CA) 2011 1s 7 7 *Archie Bradley(minors) RHP HS Broken Arrow HS (Broken Arrow OK) 2011 1s 43 43 *Andrew Chafin(minors) LHP 0.3 3 2 0 .500 1.000 3 0 1 3.86 1.50 0 4Yr Kent State University (Kent OH)[/pre] Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table Generated 2/7/2015. Looks to me like he's a pretty straightforward BPA guy with an emphasis on pitching, Bradley is the pitcher I like most of his 1st round draft picks and yes I'm well aware of his velocity loss and arm slot change last season. I still like him to be a #2 long term.

Right, because the Brewers will give him a month off of spring training? Furthermore, I have serious doubts that his development is being accelerated. He faces his first big jump in talent for 2015 and I'd rather have him rested than messing around in meaningless winter league games (as far as I'm concerned).

This is going to sound like all of the posts which I truly loathe but I honestly feel that Arcia is one of the more underrated and overlooked prospects around baseball. I do think that if he had been in a more sexy system, like Tex or Pit, that he would generate more buzz. He's athletic, quick, decent arm, surprising power for his size, and controls the barrel of a bat very well. Yes he got himself out more than he should in his first shot at full season ball, but he continues to make steady improvement, and I believe he will continue to ascend as he learns to manage the strike better. I don't mean to suggest that the Brewers are crapped on because they are the Brewers but systems that continually churn out players like Atlanta with their pitching in the early 2000s tend to have all of their players get overrated. Texas is in that same boat right now with their middle infield prospects but I would take Arcia over Sardinas and not even think twice about it. I realize of course that both of those prospects are now Brewer's property, but I think Arcia has both a higher ceiling and floor than Sardinas. Whether or not you believe that Law continually craps on the Brewers is another matter entirely, obviously he's not someone I personally have much respect for. I do think at times his comments are unnecessarily harsh and biting towards the organization which suggests there is some kind of history/backstory we aren't aware of.

I have quite an affinity for Shields, I've been following his progress for a very long time as the Rays under Friedman were my AL team for most of the last decade. That being said, he never has been and never will be an Ace, he simply doesn't have that kind of stuff, he was 3rd best pitcher on the Rays pitching staff for most of his tenure. He had 1 tremendous year in 2011 but he's basically the same as what we already have/had in Lohse, Gallardo, and Garza... and Garza has better stuff. He's also in the downside of his career and like all FA pitchers will be getting paid more for what he has done in the past than what he will do in the future. I have no problem with James making money, I just don't want it to be from the Brewers. After the years on this forum I still have trouble understanding and getting behind the proven veteran and maxing out the possible payroll obsession so many posters have. There is better way than what the Brewers have historically done and if not then why are we wasting our time as Brewer fans? If our pinnacle is 1 appearance in the NLCS every 10 years then there's really nothing to be excited about. At least that's not where I've ever set the bar which is why I've been anti almost everything this organization has done since 2006. The Brewers have continually limited the over all ceiling of the team through a succession of short term moves. Worse yet, instead of finding solutions to problems they simply have continually patched them through those same moves. Shields would just be more of the same "stuck in neutral", "spinning the wheels", whatever cliche phrase you choose to use. He would be an expensive lateral move at best, those kind of deals don't push the organization to the next level.

I'm sure you'll have nothing to say if he turns into Hoffman 2.0. Relievers by the very nature of the few innings they pitch just aren't valuable enough to be worth "closer" money. He's a very good pitcher and shouldn't implode at 34 years old but he's also a douche, and I realize that there are people who don't give a damn what a kind of dude a player is (KRod for example) as long as he performs for the team they root for. I'm not one of those types of people, I won't root against a player, but I'm certainly not going to go out and buy his merchandise either. For me this all comes down to the money and what it costs to get him, but I can definitely see where posters who aren't in favor of this are coming from. Spending money just because they can within the budget doesn't make sense from my point of view, and never has. I'd rather spend money on more potential WAR than what even the best relievers will bring in a year.

He primarily throws a sinker, which isn't straight.