TheCrew07

BA has the best tools up. LOW CLASS A BEST TOOLS No Brewer prospects. HIGH CLASS A BEST TOOLS No Brewer prospects. DOUBLE-A BEST TOOLS Josh Hader makes the list! TRIPLE-A BEST TOOLS Orlando Arcia made it twice.

I think that's an oversimplification of what happens. I've long made attempts to convince people that playoff baseball is much different because of the off days... playoff baseball is about best on best more so than who has the best team. This reliever trend which is attributed to KC actually started in 2011 with the Cards. In a series with off days the Brewer pitching simply didn't match up best on best. I've haven't done a very good job convincing people of how different playoff baseball truly is, what appears random really isn't. Being on a roll matters, but not as much as the match-ups do.

Great defense is always worthwhile. If you have 3 guys that combine to hit 60 HRs, does it really matter if they are all CFs? Why does one have to hit 30, another 20, and the CF 10?

Rattlers Rally to Beat Bees 9-2 Wisconsin pushes their way to tie for Wild Card Spot By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers http://www.milb.com/assets/images/7/9/2/193748792/cuts/PlayerOftheGame8_4_2o0kuxaw_1rb7j0l4.jpg Isan Diaz went 2-for-4 with a double, a run scored, and two RBI for the Rattlers on Thursday night. (Wisconsin Timber Rattlers/Nick Guenther) Wisconsin Boxscore So this is the 3rd straight game Lucas Erceg has DH'd, and I believe Chris also mentioned that during the broadcast, but he didn't drop a hint as to why. Are they working hard on his D prior to the games and giving him a break during the game? Is he nicked up? I have no idea but I do know that Jonathan Oquendo (2-4) has caught me completely be surprise playing 3B in his stead, I've been extremely impressed with him in just 2 games. He's looked right at home when batting, he's had a really good ABs, and he's played good defense at 3rd in a small sample. I didn't think much of the promotion at the time but he's been outstanding. Thomas Jankins pitched alright, most everything was up from him and the balls in play were tagged, he was followed by Alex Farina who I've never seen pitch well even though his ERA is just over 3. It was raining hard at the time, but it sure would be nice to see the other side of him. Scott Grist and Nate Greip both went scoreless, doing what they do. Greip has a nice off speed pitch, it's probably a change but I've never been able to tell for sure from the camera angle. Trent Clark (2-4,BB), Troy Stokes (2-4,2B), and Isan Diaz (2-4,2B) had the other multi hit games. Did you listen to the Matt Erickson interview that MH posted in yesterday's LR? If not you missed some excellent insight into Isan's progression as a player. Stokes is hitting nothing but rockets all over the yard, he was about 6 feet short of another HR, his double hit half way up the wall. Wisconsin Recap

Shuckers squander late lead in loss to Suns Jorge Lopez sets a career high with 10 strikeouts in the rubber match loss Biloxi Shuckers http://www.milb.com/assets/images/1/8/4/193730184/cuts/Taylorthumb_a3mzd7s9_vn6n92z4.JPG Tyrone Taylor blasted a two run home run in the sixth inning on Thursday (Mike Krebs) Biloxi Boxscore This team always seemed to find a way to win early in the season, now the reverse has been true. Jorge Lopez had an outing similar to Jungmann a couple of weeks ago... as in he struck out the world, but still gave up too many hits and runs, and didn't make it through 6. Jorge's final line: 5 IP, 7H, 4R, 4ER, 2BB, 10SO, 1HR, throwing 63 of 93 pitches for strikes... I'll let you be the judge of whether that constitutes progress or not. Junior Rincon and Stephen Peterson were just awful in the 8th: Jacksonville Bottom of the 8th Brian Anderson singles on a line drive to center fielder Tyrone Taylor. Alex Glenn singles on a fly ball to left fielder Tom Belza. Brian Anderson to 2nd. Garrett Weber walks. Brian Anderson to 3rd. Alex Glenn to 2nd. Pitching Change: Stephen Peterson replaces Junior Rincon, batting 9th. Peter Mooney walks. Brian Anderson scores. Alex Glenn to 3rd. Garrett Weber to 2nd. Sharif Othman grounds into a double play, shortstop Angel Ortega to catcher Jacob Nottingham to first baseman Dustin DeMuth. Alex Glenn out at home. Garrett Weber to 3rd. Peter Mooney to 2nd. Offensive Substitution: Pinch-hitter James Roberts replaces Tyler Kinley. James Roberts walks. Kenny Wilson walks. Garrett Weber scores. Peter Mooney to 3rd. James Roberts to 2nd. Austin Dean walks. Peter Mooney scores. James Roberts to 3rd. Kenny Wilson to 2nd. Pitching Change: Mitch Lambson replaces Stephen Peterson, batting 9th. J. T. Riddle singles on a line drive to left fielder Tom Belza. James Roberts scores. Kenny Wilson out at home on the throw, left fielder Tom Belza to catcher Jacob Nottingham. The Shuckers managed just 5 hits, but scored 5 runs thanks to the 2 HRs. Brett Phillips' multi hit effort stopped his recent hitless streak, it would be really nice if any of the hitting prospects in Biloxi would start streaking the other way. The box has been rather depressing for the most part since Cooper was promoted. Biloxi Recap

For those wondering about Jake Gatewood's absence, he was hit on the thumb by a line drive while doing glove work during batting practice. It's not serious and isn't expected to keep him out very long which is why he wasn't put on the DL. Per Chris on the TV broadcast tonight.

T-Rats in a rain delay, it's a conspiracy.

Diplan and Peralta were fast tracked already, I'm not opposed to demoting Medeiros but I find that scenario extremely unlikely so who you suggest Williams replaces?

It's the way small markets have A short window of time..... A long window has never existed for small market teams. As I've posted on this literally hundreds of times, I do not subscribe to the window theory, rebuilding should never be necessary, retooling is the way to go. I agree that the Pirates were very shrewd, that's the kind of thing that many of us have been talking about for a long time... you make moves based on what's best for your long term outlook as an organization, every time we suggested moving a piece on the MLB forum it was considered laughable because "we were still competing". On sports radio for 2 days it's been "how could the Pirates trade their closer when they competing?", well the answer is simple, but people have to be willing to look past the antiquated "window" model that most professional sports franchises operate on. The question really is, do you want to pseudo compete for 6 years and make the playoffs twice or do you want to cycle talent and be competitive most years? There will certainly be down years here and there along the way, but never a complete rebuild. Our 6 year run wasn't even that great, it was just so much better than the 20 years which came before it that fans tended to over dramatize what was happening. If not for an epic Mets collapse in 2008 the Brewers only make the playoff once in that entire window, and that would have been awful considering the hitting talent that successfully made it through the minors. We simply never had the pitching to truly complete, our run differential in NLCS was awful, the Brewers were mauled, they barely beat an overachieving AZ. Short term solutions will rarely be the answer for Milwaukee, the more short term we operate the shorter the competitive window becomes.

Rattlers Batter Bees 5-1 By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers http://www.milb.com/assets/images/6/1/8/193532618/cuts/8_3_PlayerOfTheGame_Trey_Supak_0u1yy84u_6vbmktpm.jpg Trey Supak pitched five shutout innings, allowed three hits, and struck out five to earn the win for the Rattlers on Wednesday night. (Wisconsin Timber Rattlers/Ann Mollica) Wisconsin Boxscore Trey Supak topped out at 95 according to Chris, his FB was mostly up, but he had to be throwing a change that ended up at the shoe tops consistently. He didn't throw it for strikes, but he induced a ton of swing and misses with it. Devin Williams topped out at 93 from what I remember, this was actually the best he's looked in my limited opportunities to watch him pitch this season. Trent Clark (2-4) had the only multi hit game. Lucas Erceg was the DH so Jonathan Oquendo played 3rd and made a real nice pick, he looks the part defensively, he's played 3B, 2B, 1B, and SS so far this season with 3 errors total. Speaking of errors, Troy Stokes looked pretty silly misplaying the line drive in the 9th that he nearly snow coned and ultimately led to the only run for the Bees, he may have lost it in the lights. He was interviewed by the TV crew after the game and they asked him about the home run, the gist of his response was "I was looking FB and got one", sometimes baseball is pretty easy. Wisconsin Recap ****** I waited for the post game from Rattler Radio but it still hasn't popped.

No he was away for a personal matter recently.

We covered this yesterday on the MLB forum but Alcides Escobar is the best defensive SS to come through the organization in my opinion. He was just crapped by many posters on the MLB forum at the time because he wasn't JJ Hardy and the "Brewers won't be able to compete with him" hyperbole... except you know he was good enough to be the SS on a World Series winning team... The gold glove is less about defense than offense, but Hardy now has 3 Gold Gloves as well. JJ made every play he could get to, he was awesome that way, but he didn't have Escobar's range or athleticism after that ankle injury. As an aside I had forgotten Jeter won so many Gold Gloves, bleh.

Chris just said that David Denson was promoted to BC in order to activate Trent Clark.

Luis Aviles scored the first run of the Rattler game on 3 poor throws, the pick off wasn't terrible it just broke into Aviles' body... the other 2 throws were about as bad as you'll see in professional baseball. It will be interesting how much of the play is visible in the highlights because the last 2 throws were out of the screen when watching on TV.

Shuckers split doubleheader with Suns Rubber match of the series forced for Thursday night Biloxi Shuckers http://www.milb.com/assets/images/8/7/0/193415870/cuts/2Q5A2026_vsdy5we4_qi7ftw5e.JPG Gabriel Noriega went 3-for-6 with a home run, two doubles and four RBI in the doubleheader on Wednesday. (Michael Krebs) Biloxi Game 1 Boxscore That's quite the pic of Gabriel... baseball should be fun! Man I despise 7 inning doubleheaders from a development standpoint, but they are nice when you're there, it's 4 less innings for me to take notes on. Wei-Chung Wang wasn't bad, but he wasn't great either, Tayler Scott left quite a bit to be desired. Biloxi managed 2 runs on just 5 hits thanks to a timely double. Biloxi Game 1 Recap ****** Biloxi Game 2 Boxscore Brandon Woodruff wasn't as good as he had previously set the bar, but he was good enough, I'll take 1 run in 6 innings 100 times out of 100. Stephen Kohlscheen closed out the game without a strike out, which suggests he must have been sick or something, because he always strikes out at least 1 batter, it was his 16th save if your into those kind of stats. Biloxi recorded 4 hits, all in the first inning, Gabriel Noriega's HR was it for the scoring from the good guys, but that's all they would need with Woodruff on the mound. The Shuckers are dead last in AVE, OBP, and SLG, so they are obviously last in OPS as well, and it's not even really close, The team above them in the 10 team Southern League OPS wise is a full .036 higher, which is quite a bit even if it doesn't seem like much. Biloxi is 7th in BB, 5th in HR, and dead last in every other category. If you're curious. Biloxi Game 2 Recap

Unfortunately no, my schedule has matched up with any Rattler home series in months. I've only caught bits and pieces of the televised games since mid June, it's just been one of those years. edit. The game I was able to watch the most of was Miguel Diaz last televised start, whenever I mentioned his arm slot was different on 7 pitches in a row.

That's always been the crux of the development argument, 1 extra player from each draft making MLB pays for the extra development cost in player salary. In years past we mused if it was possible to add extra coaches at each level to get players more individual instruction and things like that. Field time is always going to be limited, especially on the road, so to me the question has always been how to get the most out of that time. I don't know, maybe on the hitting/positional side it's something as simple as eliminating daily BP and doing more small group fielding/hitting stuff. I've actually been thinking about that quite a bit because I've been asked to help coach youth baseball and while I haven't committed it got my wheels turning... having to teach everything where you do start, how do you get most out of 2 hours, how do you make it fun, etc? I can tell you that as a lefty if I wasn't on the mound, or at 1B, baseball practice was the worst, because as a LF there was literally nothing to do. I lost track of the number of extra laps around the field I had to run because the CF and I were turned around in left center talking and watching the girls run track... it got to the point we'd hear the fungo, the strings of the ball whipping past over our heads, and start running before we were even yelled at. On the pitching side I believe everyone needs bullpen sessions for individual coaching in season or not, reliever or not, and really the only way to accomplish that is to have a set schedule. You know the one thing I never understood about baseball is why everything pitching related is max effort? I don't train that way, we go 3 sets of about 50-60% effort from 45 feet working on mechanical issues, then 3 sets 70-80% effort from 60 feet doing the same, then go max effort for 1 or 2 sets. 1 set for me is 12 pitches. There are pitching coaches who are adamant that during games while warming up between innings a pitcher should throw max effort... that's just dumb to me, why take bullets out of the gun? Throw 70-80%, load up on the last pitch if you want, save the arm strength for what matters. Why throw 60+ max effort pitches on top of the game pitch count?

I'm exactly right here with Pogo... jumping Ray to BC was awfully aggressive and my expectations were appropriately low given his lack of experience. I might be missing someone but I don't recall a draftee that ended up in A+ during the same calendar year without starting in either R+ or A and hitting at every level before being promoted. I think Kris Bryant possibly skipped A ball, but it's very uncommon to start a prospect at A+ out of the gate... and now that I think about it Zack Collins did to. As I said about Lara in whichever LR that was last week, start them at the bottom and let them earn their way up.

I'm fine with Suter getting a shot if for no other reason than stopping Clancy from flooding the minor league forum with posts about him. It certainly won't hurt the big club to give him an opportunity. In truth I'm pretty much up for giving just about anyone the organization deems worthy some playing time to see what they have, but it probably won't go over so well on the MLB forum.

Rattlers Earn Split in Peoria with 6-5 win Diaz, Erceg each homer and drive in two for Rattlers By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers Wisconsin Boxscore The pitching left something to be desired as Corbin Burnes, David Lucroy, and Jack Brown all gave up runs, but Quintin Torres-Costa was clean in relief of Lucroy and picked up the win. Not that I wish ill on any prospect, but Lucroy hasn't been getting it done for a while, however I think he stays because it would look terrible if he was demoted or let go right after his brother was traded. The hitting was fun again as Troy Stokes (3-4,2B,BB), Isan Diaz (2-5,HR,2B), Lucas Erceg (2-5,HR,2B), and Jonathan Oquendo (2-4) all had multi games. This was Oquendo's first game and he definitely hit the ground running. Unfortunately Luis Aviles has been on a slow yet steady decline since June 23rd and he's only hitting .081 in his last 10 games. Wisconsin Recap

Jungmann earns first win in 3-0 victory over Suns Game two on Tuesday was postponed by rain Biloxi Shuckers http://www.milb.com/assets/images/5/4/6/193251546/cuts/DSC_1110_bzhpmo0r_vu4me2q1.jpg Taylor Jungmann picked up his first Biloxi win in a 3-0 victory at Jacksonville Tuesday night (Mark P Driscoll) Biloxi Boxscore Taylor Jungmann appears to have turned a corner, 3 of his last 4 starts have been very good. I don't think he'll be able to keep those mechanics reigned in every year, but he's absolutely capable of putting together good stretches of quality pitching if he can be around the strike zone. It's possible he's a better athlete than I think he is and he becomes a solid 3, but there just aren't very many pitchers with complicated deliveries that can consistently throw strikes. Chris Archer is the pitcher with the most complicated delivery I can think of off the top of my head who's had a run of 3 very good years in a row, Chris even changes his tempo in the wind-up, he's a bit remarkable. The ever steady Stephen Kohlscheen closed out the final 2/3 of an inning to preserve the win. It's good to see Dustin DeMuth is continuing his hot hitting with Biloxi, and the very intriguing Dustin Houle is off to a nice start going 1-3 in both games he's caught so far. I'm guilty of forgetting about Dustin all the time, as I didn't mention him in the MLB catching thread, but his defense appears to be averagish and he has plenty of tools. Biloxi Recap

Charlie Green was on the road all the time working with the catchers in the organization, it's not for lack for effort. There's only so many coaches and each coach only has so much time on the field before the games each day, it's not like there's an over abundance of individual coaching time available. I think many people have an unrealistic expectation of how much individual instruction the minor leaguers in the system get... and that's not even factoring in the political stuff like high draft picks and international signing bonuses which skew the organization's perspective and efforts towards those particular players. Professional baseball isn't an even playing field, or at least it wasn't, not all players receive the same amount of instruction. Coulter was never going to be a MLB catcher, I said after it after watching him play for a month, and people argued with me about it until he was actually shipped to the OF after being terrible at 3B during instructionals. He wasn't a good receiver and he was terrible at blocking balls, never once did I see him react down to his knees and smother a pitch with his body, he was always reaching and trying to pick or stab at the ball. Generally speaking you can tell how good the catcher is simply by the number of wild pitches assigned to the pitchers he catches. I didn't watch much of Biloxi this season, only here and there to get a feel of Hader when I had time, I wasn't taking notes on the entire team like I do when I'm watching on the DVR. There aren't any positive scouting reports on Nottingham's defense and statistically he's been pretty terrible through the first 4 months. The Brewers didn't really start trying to fix Mat Gamel at 3B until he got to AA and I think by that time it's probably too late, there just isn't enough time between AA and MLB to turn someone around. I think there's been a renewed focus on defense up and down the organization since that time, and Nottingham could certainly repeat as he's young enough, but he's got a ton work to do if he's even going to be considered adequate defensively at MLB, and most of it is going to have to come in the off-season. I would consider his outlook as a C to be bleak at this time. He started horribly with the bat and then was very good for about 6 weeks before slumping again, he still has plenty of tools to be excited about from an offensive perspective if he can find some consistency. I really liked Carlos Leal defensively in WI last year but he required shoulder surgery and didn't play at all this season so who knows what kind of player he'll be when he returns. Max McDowell has been absolutely stellar throwing out baserunners down at A ball, but his receiving is below average. He's starting at about the same place (give or take a little) that Lucroy did so you never know, it all comes down to how bad they want to be good and how much work they are willing to put into it. Generally speaking the C to come through WI have been poor defensively, the duo or trio have routinely been at the bottom of the league defensively, so I think it's more the players that the organization has been targeting than any issue on the development side. For those college kids there's just very little time between being drafted, rookie ball, and then hitting WI the following year for player development so I'm seeing them in pretty much the same state they were when drafted, and by comparison to the rest of the Midwest League our players just haven't been as good.

I agree that the Brewers have been questionable developing pitching talent, but I do think Jed's peripherals will come back to bite him eventually. The thing that really set me off was how Jungmann's pitching mechanics have changed for the worse. His college mechanics were pretty decent except for a short stride so he wasn't really utilizing his lower half, and he changed over that to that jumbled/complicated mess he is now. I've always coached simplicity because it's the easiest way to be proficient and I've never let an athlete go the other way and add all that unnecessary complication. It was like watching CC bat when he came back to the Brewers all twisted around like a rubber band and holding the bat super high... he wasn't a talented enough to get away with something that complicated and now he's our manager and going to be teaching these young prospects. I hope he learned his lesson...

I don't think so, I still think Escobar was the best all around defensive SS I've seen come through the organization. I barely remember Yount as a SS and was way too young to make any judgments, though all MLB SSs are awful good defensively with the occasional exceptions like Yuni B floating around. The rest of the guys through the late 80s and 90s were alright, but none wow'd me like Escobar did. Alcides made the fantastic plays in both holes look routine, he's truly my benchmark for SS play. Then again maybe I just got more appreciative with age. I will say that Arcia made one of the better catches on a short pop up that I've ever seen from a SS. He was running on a straight line towards the CF looking back over his right shoulder and caught the ball with a basket catch while sliding, and then popped right up to his feet in one smooth motion like it was nothing special. He probably ended up 30-35 feet into short center on that looping pop up, it was spectacular. For what it's worth between Yadiel Rivera, Orlando Arcia, and Angel Ortega, many in the organization thought Ortega was the best all around SS. I was never sold on that, both Rivera and Arcia flashed more potential when I was watching, but Chris Mehring pointed that out many times when Ortega was in WI.

so much of this!!! Why is Brevard Co so hard to hit in? Just curious. BC is very tough on RH hitters because the park sits in a location where just about every day there is a 15-20 MPH wind blowing in directly over the LF wall. It doesn't effect LH batters so much except to push everything hit to RF towards the line. Since the vast majority of hitters are RH we should expect our pitchers to do very well pitching in the friendliest pitchers park in the league for half their games and our RH hitters to have their numbers suppressed some from playing half their games in those conditions.