TheCrew07

You seriously don't get why there is a contingent of people that don't want him around because of the multiple domestic violence issues in his past? Yes I know, never convicted, but that's because battered women hardly ever follow through with charges the first hand full of times the abuse occurs. It comes up every year, I personally want nothing to do with him on a personal level. Francisco Rodriguez has domestic violence charges dismissed This blog post is good summation for the uneducated. Why Abused Women Don’t Press Charges – A Jailhouse Study As a pitcher I hate everything about his game except for his plus off speed stuff; his FB isn't special, his mechanics suck, and he can never hit his spot, his success depends almost entirely on hitters getting themselves out. He had reasonably good fortune all year in 2011 and he repeated that for the most part this year, but it shouldn't be a surprise if he's awful for half a season, has a terrible year, or has another year like 2014. He's basically the same guy every time out, the difference is whether or not the hitters can get him to a throw FB when they are looking for one. I see him as a risk as I think he's just as likely to fall apart as to repeat his success this year and when I add my personal distaste for him on top of how I view him a pitcher, I see no compelling reason to bring him back at any cost. I'm extremely disappointed that the Brewers have continued their relationship with K-Rod given his past, and yet people are willing to crucify the NFL over similar issues. I'm just not willing to look the other way, it's not who I am. The odd part is that the organization goes out of it's way to avoid character issues with amateur players but has seemingly looked the other way with K-Rod because he was cost effective for the level of production at the big league level. I think his continued employment has been extremely hypocritical of the organization given the stance they've taken on other character issues with players in the past like cutting all ties with Tom Wilhelmsen for being a pot head. However, since the organization tends to do the opposite of my wishes I'm sure there's a reasonable chance K-Rod will be back for 2015.

Tyler Glasnow of the Pirates leads off this list heavy with divisional prospects at #1. Orlando Arcia and Tyrone Taylor check in at 9 and 16 respectively. 2014 Florida State League Top 20 Prospects With Scouting Reports October 6, 2014 by John Manuel

Yea he's a little above average with the bat and good with the glove, but is going to be 29 next season. The Brewers really need to quit acquiring players in this age range, we should be should selling those types of players, not buying. Will he still be the same player at 31 as he was even in 2014? What's a realistic projection? I think over the course of those 3 years he'd be roughly average, if he was going to be that good why would the A's be looking to sell him? It's not like they have a 3B waiting, Renato Nunez is their best 3B prospect who will start 2015 in AA but is a hack defensively, he DH'd a 3rd of the games last year in A+. I apologize that I don't wet myself because someone made an all-star team, hooray for a good half a season? By that measure shouldn't we keep Ramirez since he was also an all-star? Finally Nelson is a scrub? I didn't realize... ohh that's right, simply because he didn't set the world on fire in his first extended MLB stint he sucks. Sure we have plenty of starting pitching options for 2015, but what about 2016 when Lohse, Gallardo, and Estrada are gone? Assuming Nelson is traded for the rotation we'll have the oft injured Garza who will be 32, Peralta will be 27, Fiers will 31, and Jungmann who will be 26. You could maybe add Thornburg who'd be 27 and has never pitched more than 150 innings in a season and 26 year old Tyler Cravy who profiles as #3 best case but has yet to eclipse 100 innings in any single season. If Garza can stay healthy then you have a decent 1-2 with Peralta, Fiers just doesn't have stuff, nor does Jungmann, and then it's 2 pitchers who were injured this year and have bounced between the pen and the rotation. If Donaldson would be a .850+ OPS type hitter for the 3 years he'd bere I could maybe see an argument but the truth is swapping out Ramirez for Donaldson doesn't make the Brewers a serious contender. The Brewers are not 1 player away, they aren't even 2 players away for what they can afford to spend. I don't think it's safe to assume the pitching staff will be as healthy and effective next season, swapping out better production at the corners might be worth 3-4 wins, but there isn't a huge upgrade to be had at 1B. It would make more sense to try and recycle some of the older guys into younger talent than be buyers once again as we only have 1 year left with this roster as is. "Going for it" to come up short yet again only makes 2016 and beyond much more difficult to navigate. The Brewers were fortunate with injuries within the division in 2014 but moving forward the Pirates and Cubs will continue to ascend, the Cards are going to be good for at least the next handful of years, and the Reds will probably rebound some as well. The division is only going to get tougher, I believe it's foolish to think the Brewers are legitimate contenders basically maintaining the status quo.

As MH linked to Mehring's blog earlier this week, Clint Coulter comes in at #7, lots of divisional prospects make this list. I agree with Chris in that I was surprised Taylor Williams didn't make the list but there's quite a bit of interesting divisional pitching regardless. 2014 Midwest League Top 20 Prospects With Scouting Reports October 3, 2014 by J.J. Cooper The scouting report on his arm doesn't make any sense. It's like when we read Gindl had a poor arm even though he could run the ball up 90+ on the mound and had a chance to be drafted as a pitcher if he would have been taller. I suppose I could biased towards Clint but obviously I feel he has a plus arm, that was the only attribute which allowed him to gun baserunners. edit. And of course I read the article on MLB.com which MH linked that mentions Coulter's strong arm as well. I wonder which opposing scouts put the arm thing out there.

All 3 young Brewer SSs make the playmaker section, a testament to their excellent range as a group. Hector Gomez made the AAA list and Orlando Arcia made the High A list. Getting Defensive: Shortstop Prospects Worth Loving For Their Gloves October 2, 2014 by Matt Eddy

Reese McGuire and Austin Meadows of the Pirates back to back at 5 & 6 on the list. 2014 South Atlantic League Top 20 Prospects With Scouting Reports October 2, 2014 by J.J. Cooper

You want to acquire 3 years of an average 3B who's about to hit the backside of his career for 6 years of an average MLB starting pitcher in Nelson, and 6 years of our best hitting prospect who profiles best at the corners? Boo!

Not exactly, it cost the organization a talented player of some type. Too often the discussions around here come down to payroll flexibility and once again I submit the real goal to be chasing is talent flexibility. Lohse could pitch to a 2.0 ERA and what would it ultimately mean if the Brewers never make the playoffs? Sure you can say that but it's categorically untrue, the Brewers didn't exceed either the international bonus or draft pools in 2013 so that money didn't go towards amateur players at all. As stated many times, neither Lohse nor Garza has been the difference in pushing this team over the top, at least the Garza signing didn't carry the additional opportunity cost of losing a potential impact talent. However we're only in year 1 of the Garza deal and there's no way I'd go out on a limb and claim I think that contract is going to end well. I really liked both Garza and Marcum early in their careers but I wouldn't have tried to acquire them when the Brewers did, the ship of healthy and productive longevity with any team had long sailed by then. I think many fans have simply denied the opportunity costs which have come from all of the short term moves this organization has made. There's been no such thing as a win/win, that's not how it works with short sighted and term moves, there is always some kind of negative which will circle back around. Acquiring Sabathia directly led to 2009/2010 and the Greinke/Marcum moves directly led to where we are now. Signing Lohse has failed to make a significant impact on the Brewers' fortunes and also cost them a 1st round pick. Sure we didn't trade any impact talent in those deals but we certainly didn't acquire any impact talent with longevity whom could permanently plug a hole either so the same problems just keep coming back around. There are always pluses and minuses but for whatever reason many posters have focused only on the potential short term upside, even DM and MA have admitted those moves came with a long term cost.

A hand full of Cubs' prospects make the list here. 2014 Northwest League Top 20 Prospects With Scouting Reports October 1, 2014 by Brian Murphy

Rowan Wick of the Cards the only divisional prospect here checking in at #17. 2014 New York-Penn League Top 20 Prospects With Scouting Reports September 30, 2014 by Aaron Fitt

I agree he's ultimately responsible but he's not personally making the decisions.

This has literally been covered hundreds of times but Melvin has nothing to do with the Draft, that entire process is overseen by the Scouting Director... baseball is much different from other sports in regards to how the front offices are setup.

Or it's just blowing smoke and misdirection... like when Braun pointed his finger at the sample collector. "..players who want to win.." sounds a lot like "look at what is happening is over there!" to me. The Brewers just aren't well rounded from a talent or cost standpoint. Too many of the same types of players, too top heavy from a payroll perspective, and they basically ended up being exactly the team many of us thought they'd be. I'm not sure why the collapse is any more noteworthy than their 20-7 start? There's no way that record reflected their true talent as a baseball team anymore than the 6 week collapse reflected their true talent. With Melvin staying I don't see anything major happening, I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see them getting away from putting attendance over talent, which I think is the downfall of most organizations in professional sports, they chase attendance when chasing talent will bring attendance with it. I could see MA and DM actually trading more players like Taylor, Arcia, and Coulter in an attempt to bring back some short duration "Name" players at the corners. At which point I'd be bitter enough to consider seppuku a viable option...

2015 MLB Draft: Raw Draft Order Patrick Ebert Published: Sunday, September 28, 2014

Initial 2015 Draft Order Set, Benefitting Astros September 29, 2014 by Clint Longenecker

Aristides Aquino of the Reds at #1, in fact Reds' players were scattered over the entire list. Devin Williams checked in at #16 as the only Brewer prospect. 2014 Pioneer League Top 20 Prospects With Scouting Reports September 29, 2014 by Bill Mitchell

1 Cardinal prospect makes the list. 2014 Appalachian League Top 20 Prospects With Scouting Reports September 26, 2014 by Clint Longenecker

AZL is up: Monte Harrison at 7 and Miguel Diaz at 18, lots of Cubs' prospects... bastards.

An awesome read. The Ever-Evolving Process Of Prospect-Ranking September 24, 2014 by John Manuel

The lists started today with the GCL, the Cardinals and Pirates have players on the list. Additional links to the subscriber articles for each league are/will be provided. 2014 League Top 20 Prospects Index September 24, 2014 by Staff Report

I think assuming that either Thornburg or Henderson will actually pitch next year is taking a big leap. I'm holding out some hope, but I'd feel better if both guys would have just had surgery and were already actively working on their rehab.

Again this comes down to how one chooses to frame their perspective or argument. We have 1 WS appearance in franchise history, we just a handful of play-off appearances in total, and we've never been perennial contenders, not even in this most recent run. At our best we've been mediocre, 1 year in the sun followed by 2 down years... There are many posters on this site who lament the Brewers getting kicked to the curb when football starts but there is a huge disparity in the quality of the franchises, the Packers are a marquee franchise in a marquee sport. The Brewers aren't close to that level, and never will be close to that level because with the way they've been operated it's not possible to sustain success over the long-term without turning over your roster. Which is something many fans on this site haven't wanted to do and the Front Office obviously hasn't wanted to do either. The Brewers need to embrace the idea that they will never compete monetarily with the large markets and accept the fact that they have to play the system differently, with a longer view. The rebuilding process should never stop, the talent cycle should never cease, but that's what happened when the Brewers started trading for a stream of short term solutions over the years. The organization went from building to patching, and patching is only going to get you so far as we have seen, it's simply not a sustainable model for Milwaukee. It can be for the Dodgers, Yankees, Angels, Mets, and so on, but not here, there's simply not the money available to build around veterans. I would love for the Brewers to be the Cardinals, and I say that as someone who despises the organization and roots against them at every level, though I am willing to appreciate the success they've had and give their players the respect they deserve. The Cardinals are a marquee franchise, they have a rich history, they do many things very well, and they've sustained success over a very long period of time. The Brewers on the other hand haven't been able to sustain success even at the peaks of the franchise, we're simply in a different class. We haven't even been able to match the success of the Cards over the last 8 years when we've been "at our best". If you want to call that "sad", I'm okay with it. "Mediocre", I'm okay with that too. However we haven't been "good" at our best... we've had some good years, but we haven't been competitive year in and year out, and I've never felt like we were serious WS contenders. The idea being discussed here is that it shouldn't be acceptable to just be average because for so many years the Brewers were awful. If Melvin isn't capable of building a WS team then why should we fear having a different GM take over? Until we win a WS does the quality of the product on the field really matter? Attendance is going to slowly erode because sooner or later most every fan, even no matter how casual, is going to pick up on the way this team continues to cycle up and down years. Cleveland and Atlanta have proven that without winning a WS, support for the team is slowly going to fade regardless of how good the team is. I honestly believe that Brewer fans in general have set the bar way too low, and I do understand that I've been coming at the franchise from an entirely different direction than most posters for a very long time. Maybe though, just maybe, the site as a whole is starting to catch on to what a small minority of us have been harping about for a long time... If 1 play-off series win is the pinnacle of the franchise under MA and DM, what exactly have people been championing? If that's as good as it gets, what exactly are we afraid of losing?

2014 AFL Rosters And Scouting Reports September 22, 2014 by Staff Report

No, you missed the point. When Melvin had the money and the motivated owner he signed that kind of player to a horrible contract, I wasn't ignoring the reality of the situation. The point Louis made was that Melvin had been smart enough not to sign those deals which was only true because he hadn't the means or opportunity with the Brewers to do so. Melvin wouldn't stand his ground on guys like Lohse and Garza, Mark A went and got those guys and if Mark A wanted to sign a player to a 7 year $230 million deal are we really expected to believe Melvin would say no, or would he'd do what he's always done? It's not that he's smarter than that, it's simply that he hasn't had the opportunity to make that kind of mistake, but if Mark A wanted to do it, Melvin certainly wouldn't stand in his way. I don't want Mark A making baseball decisions for the Brewers, I'd like him to focus on the business side like increasing revenue streams and let the baseball people handle baseball. I don't a want a Jerry Jones situation and we're teetering on the edge of that lately. As I've point out numerous times over the last 8 years Melvin isn't a visionary, he's an extremely conservative reactionary GM. He has his strong suits but the end result of his regime has been death by a thousand paper cuts, he never assembles enough pitching, enough different types of hitters, or a manager willing to work outside of established protocols so the team keeps running back into the same issues year after year.

Speaking only for myself that was simply so the talent train would keep chugging along. We had already lost 3 crosscheckers from the scouting department, losing our SD who would likely take more scouts with him to keep Melvin around didn't seem the best possible solution to that dilemma from my point of view. Z, unsurprisingly, has turned out to be basically a Melvin clone, and was exposed for over selling himself to Seattle. I think many of the GMs, even the older group, have a good basic sabermetric understanding of baseball. In fact as I've said many of the Brewer FA pitching acquisitions are the most bang for the buck sabermetric types... outside of Garza none of them had big arms or great stuff, but the ultimate results look really good on paper. Of course when you factor in age that's why the majority of those guys have flopped before their contract was up, but hey there's still hope Lohse will carry through. Not that those guys would really be difference makers in the post season, but they certainly helped win a bunch of games in the regular season, they have been productive.