Category Archives: Prospects/Minor Leagues

Prince Fielder signs with Detroit

Posted on January 24, 2012 by | 3 Comments

Posted by Steve

So much for the growing theory that Scott Boras and Prince Fielder overplayed their hand in free agency somehow. Prince got a 9 year/$214 million contract from the Tigers, yet another “mystery team.” That’s one heck of a contract for Prince, and it shows that his gamble to forgo extensions from the Brewers paid off in a big way.

From a Brewer fan perspective, this isn’t a bad thing at all. Obviously him signing with the Cubs or Cardinals would have been worst case scenario, and now he isn’t even in the National League. I don’t really mind the Tigers either way, so I can’t complain.

As far as compensation, it could have been better, but it could have been worse too. The Brewers will receive the 27th pick in the first round. This means they will have the 27th and 28th picks in the first round, along with a pick a few spots later in the supplemental round. This will be the second year in a row the Brewers will have a chance to restock the farm system with some early-ish picks.

This off-season has turned out to be okay, pending the Braun outcome. I still don’t like the Aramis Ramirez deal, but the defense will be improved. Aoki signed (and very cheaply, too). The Brewers probably aren’t the favorite in the division the way I saw it last year, but they should be in the mix. And their farm system, which was just about depleted a year ago, is back on the rise.

To prove I’m not a robot, I will say that it was awesome having Prince on the team, and that there should be no hard feelings from any Brewer fans. I still remember when Prince and Rickie Weeks each hit their first home run in the same game against Minnesota. After hearing about those two as the saviors of the franchise for a few years, that was an awesome moment. Some of his homers down the stretch this past year and in 2009 were pretty memorable, too.

 

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Posted in 2012 Hot Stove, Prospects/Minor Leagues, Transactions

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Top draft picks sign

Posted on August 15, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Posted by Steve

This has been a pretty interesting situation. As of 12:01 ET, the deadline to sign draft picks, most first rounders were yet to be announced. Most likely the deals were being signed at the last minute and the announcements were slow to come out. At any rate, the Brewers got their guys, although they did pay quite a bit to do so.

Jungmann got a healthy bonus of $2.525 million, which was over slot. I was right about Jed Bradley having leverage. He got 500k over slot, for a total of $2 mil. Good for them, but at least the Brewers got it done.

There was some animosity directed toward these players for waiting this long to sign, but the reality is that their college teams gave them plenty of innings–they pretty much pitched full seasons already. They aren’t losing much by signing this late. Jungmann’s velocity was even down a bit in the College World Series from what the reports were, so he may have had a tired arm anyway. I’m not concerned about them missing time at all.

The funny thing about at least having attempted to work in baseball is many of the friends I made are still in the business. One of them shall made a report on both Jungmann and Bradley, and was nice enough to share that with me. Here’s what he said.

Taylor Jungmann

-Excellent control of his fastball
-Very good sink on fastball
-Average slider
-Poor change-up
- Struggles against lefties

My response: Wow… To me that sounds like Kameron Loe.

His reaction: Yeah, but he has room to get much better. If he can develop a change, he could be really good.

Jed Bradley

-Good control of his fastball
-Not good sink
-Average change-up that can improve
-Below average slider
-Loses his “stuff” out of the stretch

Neither sounds particularly exciting right now, but my feel is that he was looking at what he saw right now. Both of these are obviously young pitchers and haven’t even received any coaching from the Brewers yet. He likes Bradley’s potential to develop a good change, and he thinks Jungmann needs one to be effective against lefties.

You may recall I wasn’t thrilled with either selection, but once they were made, I just hoped they got both signed. These guys give the Brewers some impact arms that hopefully aren’t too far away from the big leagues.

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Posted in Milwaukee Brewers 2011, MLB Draft, Prospects/Minor Leagues

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Let’s go down to Nashville

Posted on June 8, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Posted by Steve

As well as the Brewers are playing, they have some areas that could certainly be shored up. The bench is terrible. Wil Nieves might be the worst player in the majors. They could use another dependable relief pitcher. Conveniently, pretty much all of that can be improved upon from within the organization.

The Brewers have some players performing very well in AAA. Let’s look at who could, and probably should, be up in Milwaukee.

Mark DiFelice

I’ve been driving the DiFelice Bus for weeks now, and he continues to impress: 19.2 innings, 22 strikeouts, 4 walks (one intentional), two home runs, and a 0.9 WHIP. He sure seems to be the same guy he was before his injury/surgery.

The tough part there is deciding who he’d replace. Nobody’s pitching particularly poorly. My choice is a bit unconventional, but I’d send down Marco Estrada. Not because he’s been bad or anything, but because I think he has more value to the Brewers as a sixth starter than as a fourth or fifth reliever. Call up DiFelice, let him do his thing, and let Estrada get stretched back out for when he’s inevitably needed to make some starts in Milwaukee again.

Taylor Green or Mat Gamel

There’s may only be room for one of them, but for both of these guys to be in Milwaukee while the likes of Mark Kotsay, Craig Counsell, Casey McGehee and Josh Wilson (although I guess he’s wait-and-see with the strangely good start he’s had) sop up at-bats in Milwaukee is ludicrous.

Green is 24 years old without much left to prove in the minor leagues. He’s ready to be an MLB bench player right now. Green is hitting .277/.361/.484 in AAA. Not world-beating, but nice numbers. He plays third and second, and he’d be a clear upgrade defensively from McGehee. McGehee is beyond struggling right now; he’s completely useless. Platooning him with a left-handed hitting Green is too obvious. Plus, McGehee’s big-time struggles are resulting in more Craig Counsell ABs, which is just no longer a good thing–he’s cooked.

If Green doesn’t have much left to prove in the minors, Gamel has proven all there is to prove and more. He’s hitting .306/.383/.517 so far in AAA. His career OPS in AAA is .873, which covers four seasons and 937 plate appearances.

I realize the Brewers are playing him at first to replace Fielder, but he can’t possibly be any worse than McGehee at third even with defense factored in. I’d even be willing to bet Gamel would be a defensive upgrade at this point–McGehee has been that bad defensively. Plus, with interleague games coming up, the Brewers need another solid bat available.

The Brewers need to realize they’re in a pennant race, and make sacrifices accordingly. It makes no sense to go all in on this season by trading a boatload of prospects for Greinke and Marcum, and then not field the best bench possible. Gamel is no longer some young prospect who needs to play every day and develop. He’s 25, and more than likely a finished product. He can manage part-time duty in MLB. Same with Green, who’s 24.

Caleb Gindl

If they aren’t going to call up Gamel, at least call up Caleb Gindl and ship out Mark Kotsay. Gindl is a better defensive outfielder at this point (definitely could handle CF in a pinch better than Kotsay), and is sure to be an upgrade over Kotsay and his .306 slugging percentage. Gindl isn’t setting the world on fire, but his .280/.368/.420 line in AAA translates into a solid enough fifth outfielder–something Kotsay is not.

George Kottaras

It was a baffling move when they sent Kottaras down in favor of Wil Nieves, and it looks even worse today. Nieves is the proud owner of a sparkling .400 (!!!) OPS (Here’s a fun fact: Ten MLB players have on-base percentages higher than Wil Nieves’ OPS).

Meanwhile, George Kottaras is blistering AAA pitching to the tune of a .930 OPS. Their reasoning for Nieves over Kottaras was defense, but Nieves has not looked anything close to impressive defensively. Why not just take the vastly superior offensive player? It makes no sense.

So if you’re counting at home, here are the moves I’d like to see:

  • DFA Nieves, call up Kottaras
  • Send down Estrada, return him to a starting role, and call up DiFelice
  • DFA Kotsay, call up Gamel (Or Gindl, if you’re so insistent on keeping Gamel at 1B in Nashville all year)
  • Call up Green. Corresponding move I could go either way on: either send Wilson down to AAA, or DFA Counsell. I love CC, but he’s pretty clearly done.
These moves would make the Brewers a better team than they are today–perhaps by a significant margin.

 

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Posted in Defense, DiFeliciousness, Milwaukee Brewers 2011, Prospects/Minor Leagues

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Pitching overhaul

Posted on August 20, 2010 by | 2 Comments

Posted by Steve

After Doug Melvin’s first few years as Brewers’ GM, it appeared that the new regime may have rebuilt the team into a regular contender. It culminated in 2008 with that thrilling wildcard run. At that point, it seemed that Melvin would be known as the man who revived the franchise.

Fast forward just two years later, and it seems Melvin’s legacy may be completely changed. In a couple short years, the Brewers have gone from hopeful contenders to seeing their window nearly closed. Melvin has seen perceptions of him go from savior to one who has been unable to build a competitive pitching staff. And it’s not just at the Major League level; for whatever reason, the Brewers have had a terrible time drafting and advancing pitching through their minor league system. Some examples of blunders/bad luck:

  • In 2004 the Brewers had a very high pick–fifth, to be exact. They took hard-throwing high school pitcher Mark Rogers. He suffered a torn labrum and has missed two seasons due to shoulder issues. He has somehow managed to continue pitching, and is currently in AA, but without those injuries he’d probably be in Milwaukee by now.
  • Jeremy Jeffress was the Brewers’ first round pick in 2008. Another high school pitcher, Jeffress went 16th overall. He has twice been suspended for non-performance-enhancing drugs (revealed to be marijuana) and has essentially missed a full season. Jeffress is also pitching this year, but like Rogers, would have been further along had he not missed that playing time.
  • Last year, the team took college right-hander Eric Arnett in the first round. Arnett was expected to move quickly through the minors. Instead, he’s endured a nightmare season in which he was actually demoted from low-A Wisconsin for a short period. It’s certainly too early to call Arnett a bust, but this has more or less been a lost season as far as his development is concerned. The Brewers are surely disappointed with his performance so far.
  • Obviously, the Dylan Covey situation from this past draft has been a topic of conversation over the last week, and it’s one of the weirdest yet.

Only one of those four have been due to actual poor performance. Injury, a failed drug test, and an ill-timed Diabetes diagnosis have done the team in. Add that with Ben Sheets’ vestibular neuritis and Yovani Gallardo’s freak ACL tear, and the Brewers have sure had some bizarre luck with pitching over the last six or seven years.

Additionally, as much as the Brewers were praised for rebuilding through the draft, they have not had a great success rate with first rounders in the last seven years or so. In fact, aside from Ryan Braun, the last first rounder to reach the big leagues with the Brewers was 2003 draftee Rickie Weeks!

Now, things aren’t all bad. Jeffress has pitched well in relief, and I actually wouldn’t be shocked to see him in Milwaukee come September. Additionally, the Brewers do have some impact pitchers in their system currently–Jake Odorizzi and Kyle Heckathorn are two of the most exciting ones–but these pitchers are mostly in the lower levels of the minors.

————

This article is a couple weeks old now, but I wanted to get to it anyway. It’s no less timely now, and I find it very interesting. It concerns the Brewers’ new approach to developing and acquiring pitching. I highly suggest reading the entire article.

The “checklist” they came up with is interesting. Notably, their last two big free agent pitching signings (Jeff Suppan and Randy Wolf) both wouldn’t have passed. Their study on homegrown pitching staffs proved interesting as well. I think many fans just assume many teams have multiple homegrown starters, but the reality is that not many have more than a couple.

If you grow frustrated as you read that article, you aren’t alone. That was my reaction as I read all the ways the deck is stacked against teams like the Brewers. Doug Melvin is exactly right about the draft process being broken. The draft is meant to give the worst teams the best players in the draft, but “signability” has kept that from happening in many cases.

Finally, on to the part of the article that truly angered me: no trade clauses.

It’s bad enough that the Brewers are at a disadvantage on the free agent market in payroll, but the fact that Milwaukee is on many players’ list of places not to play makes things even tougher. This fact in particular just about floored me:

Melvin had his staff compile a list of what he considered the “good, quality pitchers” in baseball and found that 24 of them have no-trade clauses that include Milwaukee.

Now, admittedly “good, quality pitchers” is pretty vague, but that’s still pretty incredible. You also have to love another tasty nugget that came out of this article: the Brewers made a huge offer for Roy Halladay before this season, but he vetoed it. Roy Freaking Halladay. Ugh.

Finally, Melvin mentioned something that I wouldn’t have even realized: many free agents feign interest in signing with the Brewers, only to sign elsewhere and then include Milwaukee in a no-trade clause! Talk about two-timing!

As Melvin said, these challenges don’t excuse the poor pitching, but you can’t help but sympathize with what he’s up against. He’s operating in an uneven financial playing field, and trying to rebuild through a broken draft system and free agent compensation system (remember the CC compensation debacle?).

If anything can be drawn from this, it’s that Melvin and company feel secure enough in their jobs. That must mean he’s not in danger of being fired this off-season. I will be very interested in how they address the starting rotation for next season. It’s bound to look very different. Really, the only ones with spots secured are Yovani Gallardo and Randy Wolf (mainly due to his contract). Dave Bush is unlikely to be back. Manny Parra hasn’t done anything to guarantee himself a spot, and Chris Narveson has been alright but still upgradeable.

Surely at least one pitcher will come from a Prince Fielder trade. It’s likely to be a young pitcher with limited or no MLB experience, but you can bet he’ll meet that checklist of at least a plus fastball and a quality breaking pitch. If nothing else, this has to mean we’ve finally seen the end of overpaying for aging veterans like Jeff Suppan and Randy Wolf, right? Please?

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Posted in Milwaukee Brewers 2010, MLB Draft, Prospects/Minor Leagues

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Cain and Able?

Posted on July 16, 2010 by | 5 Comments

Posted by Steve

First things first… I’m sorry for that awful headline. I just couldn’t resist trying my hand at those one of those terrible ESPN-esque puns. I’ll do my best to keep it from ever happening again.

Potentially exciting news, as the Brewers have called up Lorenzo Cain, one of their best position prospects and someone I hope will be a future starting outfielder in Milwaukee. Cain has been banging the door down this season, hitting at a .326/.407/.439 clip between AA and AAA. He is supposedly a capable center fielder, and may eventually hit enough to play right field.

I called this move potentially exciting, because I am waiting to see whether Cain will get the Gamel treatment. I did not hide the fact that I hated the way the Brewers handled Mat Gamel last season–called him up essentially to be a bench player. It did nothing but waste MLB service time and keep him from getting regular AB’s he would have had in the minors. I will not be happy at all if they use Cain in a similar manner.

The Brewers need to take advantage of a bad situation (a lost season) and play Cain and Carlos Gomez regularly the rest of the year. It’s an opportunity to give them regular time against big league pitching without the pressure of needing to win games. Hopefully Hart is traded soon, and Edmonds should go also. Edmonds is of no use to a non-competing team. He’d be a good fit as a bench bat on a contending team, and the Brewers might be able to get something useful for him. Even if they don’t, there’s no use keeping him around to suck up playing time from guys who could be here long-term.

It’s time to see what Lo Cain can do, and time to see if Gomez can even play. They should each be getting at least 4 starts a week soon enough. If not, the Brewers are wasting an opportunity.

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Posted in Prospects/Minor Leagues, Transactions

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Happy Call-up Day!

Posted on May 21, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Posted by Steve

Oh, Brewers. Just when I’m tempted to give up on the season, you go and call up a fireballing reliever who dominates in his first two outings. Not only that, but you give him a glorious mustache. Then, the very next day, you call up my two favorite prospects. Well played, Mauer.

As soon as Gregg Zaun was removed from yesterday’s game, I wondered if we’d see Jonathan Lucroy called up to the majors. Sure enough. You don’t like to see guys get injured, but I’ve been looking forward to Lucroy’s debut for a long time. He’s their best bet at a homegrown starting catcher since… I don’t know, Dave Nilsson or Mike Matheny? Lucroy probably will only be up for as long as Zaun is out, but it will be fun to get a look at him. Hopefully Macha plays him more than once or twice.

Even more exciting, in my opinion, is the call-up of Studly Studson Zach Braddock. Braddock earned the coveted title of “Steve’s Favorite Prospect”  over a year ago, and he’s done nothing to change that this season in AAA: 16 innings, 28 strikeouts (!), 9 walks, 1 home run. He’s a lefty who throws gas. He was a starter before running into injury problems. He’s been so good as a reliever that they may never move him back; he’s definitely a candidate for closer of the future.

No word yet on which pitcher is out, as this move is only being reported by brewerfan at this point (yeah, they scooped the big boys yet again), but my guess is Claudio Vargas gets the DFA Hammer. He’s been useless this season.

Congrats, everyone, on a reason to keep watching the Brewers!

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Posted in Milwaukee Brewers 2010, Prospects/Minor Leagues, Transactions

Riding it out

Posted on August 25, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Posted by Steve

No, I haven’t bailed on the blog just because the Brewers aren’t any good.  I was out of town the past week and haven’t been able to post–though it was a bit refreshing to get away from the games for a few days.  That Pittsburgh series eliminated just about any desire I had to watch Brewers-Nationals for four days.

This is a rough time to be a Brewer fan.  There isn’t much of anything left to play for.  That wouldn’t be a huge deal if the team was expected to be bad, but the Brewers hoped to be a good team.  This has been an extremely disappointing season, and the dog days of summer will be particularly rough because of it.

Not only are the Brewers not good enough to be in the playoff race, but they are also not bad enough to be in another intriguing race.  In the office, there are fans of the Orioles, Nationals, Royals and Padres.  Many of these guys are openly rooting for their team to lose in order to win the race for Bryce Harper in next year’s draft.  Incidentally, they were all pleased with the Brewers for getting swept by the Pirates… Glad to help :/ . Observing this anti-race has been very amusing, and I find myself jealous that my team isn’t in either race.

With all that being said, the Brewers still need to make the best of a bad situation.  Here are things I would like to see over the last five weeks of the season.

Shut down Gallardo

I realize I’ve beaten this to death, so I won’t rehash everything again, but the point is there’s absolutely no reason for Gallardo to be pitching in September.  Yo is at 164.1 innings after throwing just 24 last year.  Sure, the pitching will be gawdawful without him, but who cares?  Wins don’t mean much of anything at this point.  Unfortunately, I’d be shocked to actually see the Brewers do this.

Hand 3B to Gamel

The Brewers botched the handling of Gamel this season, but it’s not too late to amend that somewhat.  He’s started hitting again in AAA the last few weeks.  It’s time to call him up and play him everyday at third base the rest of the season.  The Brewers should be preparing to make Gamel their starting third baseman from the outset of 2010, and giving him peace of mind in the form of regular playing time should help make that happen.

Making this move even more obvious is the clear pain that Casey McGehee is playing through.  McGehee will need surgery in the off-season but has gutted it out in the meantime.  Whether it’s related to his injury is debatable, but McGehee’s numbers have really fallen off.  Play Gamel at third and let McGehee come off the bench the rest of the season.  Unlike the Gallardo one, I’m optimistic that the Brewers will actually make this move.

Make Rivera the starting catcher

Perhaps laser eye surgery isn’t so wonderful after all, as both Bill Hall and Jason Kendall have had abysmal years.  Everyone’s favorite old, gritty, beardy, crazy-eyed catcher appears to be done.  Mike Rivera has gotten more playing time the last couple weeks, but the Brewers should take the next step and make him the “starter” the rest of the season.  They know what they have in Kendall (not much), and I have no interest in him returning to the Brewers unless it’s in a backup role–and even then I wouldn’t be excited.

The Brewers have a couple of catchers close to MLB ready in Jonathan Lucroy and Angel Salome.  I expect to see Salome called up and given some starts, which means there shouldn’t really be any need to play Kendall more than once a week.  The Brewers will need to decide if Mike Rivera is in their plans beyond this season, and playing him more down the stretch will help them make that decision.

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Posted in Milwaukee Brewers 2009, Prospects/Minor Leagues, The wonders of laser eye surgery

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Might as well talk about Roy Halladay

Posted on July 20, 2009 by | 2 Comments

Posted by Steve

I don’t feel like saying much about yesterday’s game, except that if Seth McClung is still on the roster in a month I’ll be convinced that the Brewers aren’t interested in contending this year.  Instead, let’s go for something more exciting.

The trade deadline is suddenly just a couple weeks away, and talks of where Mega-Ace Roy Halladay might end up is the hot issue in baseball.  The Brewers are one of a handful of teams who have confirmed interest in Halladay.

This is interesting, because it conflicts with the reports a couple weeks ago that Doug Melvin considers Alcides Escobar and Mat Gamel untouchable.  If that’s the case, the Brewers don’t have a shot at Halladay–any trade talks for Halladay will start with at least one of them.

This must mean that the Brewers are at least entertaining the idea of moving one or even both of their top two prospects.  Melvin changed his tune just a bit the other day, instead saying that they are “as close to untouchable as you can get.”  That implies that there could be exceptions to that rule.  That’s a good thing, because Halladay definitely qualifies as an exception.

When it was first revealed a few weeks ago that the Blue Jays would entertain offers for Halladay, I didn’t expect the Brewers to be involved.  The asking price is unquestionably sky high, and I assumed the Brewers wouldn’t be willing to meet it.

Naturally, the topic of Halladay came up a lot at work, and the more I talked about it, the more I started to come around to the idea of meeting that price.

There are definitely good reasons to keep their top guys.  Gamel should be the full time third baseman by next season, and despite his unimpressive numbers so far, I’m encouraged by what I’ve seen from him both offensively and defensively.  Escobar would likely be the shortstop by 2011 at the latest, and possibly by next season if the team decides to move J.J. Hardy before then.  That’s two players who profile as above average starters who’d be under team control for six years each.  Obviously, that’s a very valuable asset.

There are also very good reasons for giving up a lot for Halladay, though.  We saw firsthand how much acquiring an ace can tip the scales in a playoff race.  Halladay is actually a better pitcher than CC Sabathia (not that anyone should be expected to match what CC did in Milwaukee last year, but Halladay is the better pitcher overall).  The key here, though, is that Halladay is not a rental pitcher.  He’s under contract for next season as well.  Acquiring Halladay would be as much about 2010 as it would be about this year.  That extra year of service adds a ton of value, and it’s why the Jays can (and should) expect a lot more than what the Brewers gave up for Sabathia last season.

The key is Alcides Escobar.  I see no way of acquiring Halladay without trading Escobar.  The Blue Jays are looking for a long-term solution at short, and from what I’ve read, they love Escobar.  I personally am not crazy about giving up both Gamel and Escobar for Halladay, but I’m not convinced the Brewers would need to.  With my usual disclaimer that I generally don’t make a lot of trade proposals, here’s what I’ve come up with for Halladay.

Brewers receive Roy Halladay

Blue Jays receive SS Alcides Escobar, 2B Brett Lawrie, SP Wily Peralta

That’s pretty much as high as I’d be willing to go.  That’s the number 1 (Escobar), 3 (Lawrie) and probably 10 or so (Peralta) prospects in the Brewers’ system.  Escobar’s praises are well known, and Lawrie was the team’s first round pick just last year, so obviously that’s a big package in itself.  Peralta is a 20 year old pitcher who’s throwing very well this year, though he’s only in A ball.

That may not be completely ideal for Toronto, as they reportedly want more pitching, but I don’t believe many teams could top that offer.  One may be the Phillies, who I see as the favorite to get Halladay if he is even traded this year.  Although Escobar is a higher rated prospect than anyone in their system, they have higher level pitching than the Brewers.  An offer of SPs Carlos Carrasco and Kyle Drabek along with OF Dominic Brown would probably top my offer, as both Carrasco and Drabek are pretty close to the majors.  I also think the Phillies are more willing to part with their top prospects than the Brewers since they’re more of a playoff team at this point.

I’ll also throw out another off the wall idea as long as we’re shooting for the moon.  If the Blue Jays didn’t take that offer, I’d take that same offer to Arizona for Dan Haren.  I see no reason for Arizona to be shopping Haren, as he’s under control long-term and I don’t think the Diamondbacks think they’ll be bad team for the next few years.  Yet, Ken Rosenthal reported a few weeks ago that Arizona might be willing to trade Haren if they received an “overwhelming” offer.  Is this offer overwhelming?  I guess I’m not sure.  It’s certainly more than what they sent to the A’s to acquire him a couple years ago, but with as good as he’s been, it might not be.

Giving up Escobar+ for an ace like Halladay or Haren would be mortgaging the future quite a bit, but it greatly increases the odds of a championship this season and next.  The Brewers would instantly become the favorites in the NL Central this year, and they’d once again be able to go for broke next season with the base of Braun, Fielder, Hardy, and Gallardo still intact.

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New leadoff hitter

Posted on July 19, 2009 by | 7 Comments

Posted by Steve

Here I was, well into a post about Roy Halladay when the Brewers so rudely interrupted with a trade.  They have just acquired Arizona second baseman Felipe Lopez for AAA outfielder Cole Gillespie and A reliever Roque Mercedes.

Lopez is a solid player, and I expect him to be the full time second baseman the rest of the year and also hit leadoff.  He plays good defense at second, short and third, and has good average and OBP skills.  He’s hitting .305/.368/.416 this season.  The best part: Lopez is a free agent at the end of the year, which means second base will still belong to Rickie Weeks next season.  Lopez is also likely to be a Type B free agent, which means the Brewers will get a compensation pick for him.

I’ve always had a soft spot for Cole Gillespie.  I went to the College World Series and saw him play for Oregon State just a couple weeks after the Brewers drafted him.  I’ve followed him pretty closely as he made his way up the minor league ranks.  He has decent speed, good on base skills and some pop.  It’s pretty clear that he’ll be a major leaguer before long, but once I remove myself from my fanboy-dom for Gillespie, I can’t say he profiles as much more than a fourth outfielder.  The pick the Brewers will get for Lopez has a good chance to be a similar caliber of player.

If I had to guess the corresponding roster move, I’d guess Mat Gamel will be optioned back to AAA to get regular playing time.  My preference is to see Gamel playing nearly every day at third, but since it seems Ken Macha simply won’t do that, I’d rather see him playing every day in Nashville than burning up service time warming the bench.  Lopez will play second and lead off, while McGehee and Counsell will likely handle third.  Counsell has done a good job this season, but I don’t mind giving his knees more of a rest.

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June Call-ups

Posted on June 7, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Posted by Steve

I’m very much looking forward to today’s game, even though I’m guessing the Brewers won’t win.  That’s because the Crew will be facing Tommy Hanson, one of the best pitching prospects in the game.  His numbers in AAA this year are downright stupid.  It’s like a video game: 66.1 innings, 1.49 ERA, 17 walks, 40 hits, 90 (!!!) strikeouts.

I was talking with a friend the other day, and we were discussing how the end of May/June has become the time for top prospects to come to the big leagues over the past couple years.  There are certain evens I really look forward to in a baseball season (opening day, MLB draft, trade deadline) but the “June Call-ups” have definitely been added to my list.

I don’t have any proof of this, but it just seems to me that there have been more big names called up this year than in the past.  This is just off the top of my head, but here are some stud prospects who have debuted over the last few weeks: Matt Wieters (Orioles), Matt LaPorta (Indians), Gordon Beckham (White Sox), Mat Gamel (duh), Reid Brignac (Rays), David Price (first MLB start, anyway–Rays), Andrew McCutchen (Pirates), Rick Porcello (Tigers), Jordan Zimmerman (Nationals), Daniel Bard (Red Sox), Gerardo Parra (Diamondbacks), Fernando Martinex (Mets).

I went to an Orioles game with some guys from work.  We had planned it a few weeks in advance, and it randomly ended up being Wieters’ MLB debut.  That was pretty cool… It was definitely Wieters Mania at Camden Yards (which is a great stadium, by the by).  Wieters is Baseball America’s number one prospect.  Now today I’ll get to score the game for Hanson’s debut, so I’ve had some pretty good luck lately.  Hanson is the number four prospect according to BA.  In case you’re wondering, four Brewers make BA’s top 100: Alcides Escobar (19), Mat Gamel (34), Brett Lawrie (81) and Jeremy Jeffress (100).

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