Spring Training Photos and Misc. Prospect News

[Mass Haas]

This story from Massachusetts (actually not far from me) details what's happening with three local products in the minor leagues, including infielder John Delaney (and his brother).

 

Full article at the link, John's portion below (note about catching interesting, whatever it takes, right?) --

 

***

 

While Jason is starting his fifth full season of professional baseball, his younger brother John is still hoping to get through his first. The Milwaukee Brewers drafted John out of Quinnipiac in the 25th round of the 2008 entry draft, and he spent the rest of the year in the Rookie League with the Helena Brewers. Last year was supposed to be his first full season in the minors, but a torn quadriceps muscle and two concussions limited Delaney to just 70 games and a .207 average with the Brewers’ Class A affiliate, the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. Now, Delaney said he is back to 100 percent and anxious to get his career going again in 2010.

“Things didn’t go exactly how I planned,” Delaney said. “But right now, I feel like I’m in the best shape I’ve been in to start a season and I’m looking forward to this year — I think it will be a good one for me.”

When he did play, Delaney said A ball felt more like an extension of his years at Quinnipiac rather than a big adjustment and is confident that he can make an impact now that he is fully healthy.

“To me, it wasn’t a big jump,” he said. “There was nothing I hadn’t seen before and it was just the best players from each team [in college]. I still think I have the ability to play there.”

Delaney hopes to move up in the Brewers organization behind a strong arm and a Mark DeRosa-like versatility to play almost anywhere on the diamond. He reported early to Brewers camp in Arizona this year to add catcher to his repertoire, a position the 24-year old infielder has never played.

“It’s been a little different,” he said. “You have to be the leader on the field, and that is not a problem for me.”

[battlekow]

Injury updates and a catching analysis from both Adam and Anthony

Witrado reported that Salome was scratched from tomorrow's B game because of his ankle injury, but I guess it doesn't hinder his swing because he just pinch hit against the Reds.

 

McCalvy also has a full-length article on Salome.

[battlekow]

Jack Zduriencik and the Lawries
Larry Stone/Seattle Times

I had a fun time writing the story that ran today on the relationship
between Husky softball superstar Danielle Lawrie and
her brother, Brett Lawrie of the Milwaukee Brewers
organization.

Brett was the Brewers' No. 1 pick in 2008 -- the final No. 1 pick
chosen by Jack Zduriencik as Milwaukee's scouting
director before he left to become the Mariner general manager. In that
former capacity, he obviously spent a lot of time around the Lawrie
family while scouting Brett and assessing the Brewers' chances of
signing him. Brett, who was a senior in high school at the time, had
accepted a scholarship to Arizona State University, but wound up signing
for a reported $1.7 million bonus.

Brett and Danielle both had very nice things to say about both
Zduriencik and Tony Blengino, who was also active in
the scouting of Brett Lawrie as Zduriencik's assistant scouting director
in Milwaukee. Blengino was one of Zduriencik's first hires after
getting the Seattle job, bringing him aboard as a special assistant.

Here's Danielle Lawrie
on Zduriencik: "I know him really, really well, actually. When Brett
signed with the Brewers, they flew our family there. So I got to go and
meet all those guys, watch Brett hit BP and all of that. Jack
Zduriencik is the sweetest guy. And Tony, Mac (M's scouting
director Tom McNamara, who also worked for the
Brewers).

"They're all such good guys. Its sounds funny, but I know if I needed
something -- 'Hey, this little girl needs something signed by this
player,' -- they'd say to me, give me a call, and I'll get it to you.
When you have that connection with someone, you know they're respectful
and good people."

Here's Brett Lawrie on Zduriencik: "He's moved up
and doing great things for the Seattle Mariners now. He followed me
everywhere. He was at the world championships, followed me in my draft
career, followed me in Dominican Republic. He also follows my sister as
well. He always knows what she's doing. He paid very close attention to
what my family was up to, which told me me what kind of guy he is. Tony Blengino followed me as well.

"They kept a close eye on me, which was awesome, and they were very
understanding through the whole process. It was a shame to see them go
to Seattle, but it's a business. I'm very happy for them. I know he's
going to do great things for that organization.''

Here's what Zduriencik had to say about the Lawries in an e-mail
Tuesday: "We took Brett #16 so we liked him a lot. He can hit, he's
athletic, physical, tough kid, wants to win, i.e. Danielle. Both are
enormously competitive individuals. I love her career + achievements;
extraordinary! He's a future ML player. Both will be and are successful
and have that "not to be denied" mentality. I'm proud of both of them +
their families."

[Mass Haas]

brief Trent Oeltjen video interview -- g'day to the likely Nashville Sound!

[Mass Haas]

Video highlight of Jonathan Lucroy's home run Thursday night

[TooLiveBrew]

That looks like a nice compact stroke from Lucroy. Kinda reminds me of McGehee's swing.

[Tedaldtada]

Man, he looks reeeaaalll good. Do not trade him Doug, please.

[Mass Haas]

Haudricourt:

Lorenzo Cain, who missed much of last season at Class AA Huntsville with a knee injury, was particularly impressive in camp. In 14 games, he batted .286 with a .400 on-base percentage and .524 slugging percentage.

"He's almost been dominating out there," said outfield coach Ed Sedar. "During the season, we don't have to deal with 'sun' balls as much as we do here. Lorenzo is, if not our best, one of our best at catching them.

"He has been very impressive, going side to side, back on balls, throws well. A very impressive camp. He has closing speed. He covers a lot of ground out there."

Ken Macha noted that Cain was impressive last spring as well.

"He just needs to stay healthy and go out there and play."

Zach Braddock also was impressive, with five shutout innings (five hits, no walks, four strikeouts), and Marco Estrada didn't allow a run in 5 1/3 innings over three appearances.

"Those two guys would have had a bona fide chance of making our club last year," said Macha.

[Mass Haas]

Haudricourt on Jeffress

[Mass Haas]

John Axford and Zach Braddock video (and fine accompanying story by Adam McCalvy) showing off their Tommy John scars.

[Mass Haas]

More on Tim Dillard from Tom H.

[Mass Haas]

Tom H. on Joe Koshansky

[battlekow]

Turns out Logan Schafer's groin is worse than thought: "An MRI on the strained groin of center field prospect Logan Schafer revealed a possible slight tear. He will remain inactive in the minor-league camp with no chance of opening the season at Class AA Huntsville, as originally planned."

[Mass Haas]

New Sounds' broadcaster Stu Paul has been in Arizona all this past week and has maintained a blog, be sure to catch up on the older posts on the right-hand sidebar.

While there, he's been archiving many audio interviews, catch up there as well. I need to catch up as well, but for instance, Angel Salome tells us why he didn't make it as a second baseman.

We'll let you know when additions are made to the archived list going forward.

[Paulus88]

Keith Law has a blog post about Wily Peralta and his improving repertoire. It's insider but the first few paragraphs can be read without a subscription. Needless to say Law is bullish on his prospects.

 

Link

[battlekow]

Keith Law has a blog post about Wily Peralta and his improving repertoire. It's insider but the first few paragraphs can be read without a subscription. Needless to say Law is bullish on his prospects.

 

Link

Law also talks about D'Vontrey Richardson, Khris Davis, and Kentrail Davis. Quotes:

Peralta's best secondary pitch last year was his slider, but on Thursday

he showed a better changeup -- one that looks like an 84-86 mph

two-seamer with its late tail...at worst we're talking about a No. 2-3 starter who carries a 200-inning

workload, given that frame and delivery.

Richardson has a pretty good swing given his lack of baseball

experience...I liked what I saw in

BP.

[Khris Davis] was hitting almost entirely off his front foot, with his back foot

going airborne on one swing and barely keeping contact with the ground

on others...if the Brewers can get him to stay

back a little better they could have a modest steal here.

I still saw the same grooved path in [Kentrail Davis's] swing that's going to both

limit his home-run output and his ability to make adjustments unless the

Brewers can make some mechanical changes

[Mass Haas]

Stu Paul's final blog entry from Arizona

 

Added interviews from the 26th -- Fielder, Weeks, Bullpen Coach Stan Kyles

[Mass Haas]

Interesting story about how OF Tike Redman became a member of the Brewer organization (he still is) last August, from an independent league perspective

[TooLiveBrew]

There's no projection remaining here, so Peralta just needs to refine that slider and keep working on his fastball command (which was pretty good on Thursday) to get to the majors; at worst we're talking about a No. 2-3 starter who carries a 200-inning workload, given that frame and delivery.

That's nothing short of exciting. Sounds like Peralta has a great chance to shoot up the ladder this season. Our pitching in 2011 could be very, very good.

[battlekow]

Canadians stick together:

The trade which sent Phillippe Aumont to the Phillies means he’ll sell

the house he bought north of Peoria, Ariz. Aumont of Gatineau, Que.,

doesn’t think it will be a tough sell. He and Brett Lawrie of Langley,

B.C., also a No. 1 pick, bought the house together.

[battlekow]

Haudricourt on Taylor Green.

[Mass Haas]

Jim over at Bernie's Crew with some player projections in various "award" categories...

[Tbadder]

I've only seen Dennis twice live and once on television. But man oh man, the ball just comes off his bat differently. It can be a bit shocking. I thought he hit the ball harder than Lawrie, but I'm a mere pedestrian when it comes to true knowledge, and I only mention it as "this kid has potential", not that he's on par with Lawrie. Really fun to watch him.

[TheCrew07]

He is also below-average in the outfield.

This is very similar to my issue with how publications are treating Gindl. He's a below average OF according to whom? To Scouts, to Sickels, to Law, to the author of the blog? Where is this opinion coming from? He was coming off of an injury, and he seemed to get quicker as the year went on, at least in my opinion. I remember posting after watching him get down the 1B line right before his second injury that he was faster than I had initially gave him credit for. I believe I commented that he didn't catch a ball I thought he should have as well, but I could have said that about everyone on that WI team and probably did at one point or another. The very small sample and imperfect metric that Total Zone is has him as a basically scratch defender in his short career. His arm didn't blow me away, but he never had to make a throw where I could make a judgment on it either.

 

For what it is worth I thought he took better routes to the ball than Braun does.

 

I have no idea what he ran the 60 in or how good his arm is, all I really know for sure from the 8 or 9 times I saw him play was that I really like his bat.

[Mass Haas]

Link while active, text follows:

 

Mt. Ararat's Rogers returns to Double-A

Pitching prospect says he’s healthy, ready to prove himself to Brewers

Kennebec (Maine) Journal

 

2010 could be the year Mark Rogers lives up to the promise the Milwaukee Brewers saw in him when they made the Mt. Ararat High School graduate their first-round pick in the 2004 major league baseball draft.

 

Completely recovered from shoulder injuries that kept him out of action for three of his first six years in professional baseball, Rogers -- a hard-throwing right-handed pitcher from Orr's Island -- will start the season with the Huntsville Stars in the Double-A Southern League.

 

"I feel healthy," said Rogers, in a recent telephone interview. "I can honestly say every time I take the mound, every time I have a ball in my hand, I feel good. I feel comfortable throwing it, and I don't worry about my arm."

 

Neither are the Brewers.

 

"We're going to let him go a little bit this year and stretch him out," said Reid Nichols, Director of Player Development for Brewers. "Hopefully, we can get him five innings every outing and be on a five-man rotation."

After spending the previous two full seasons recovering from shoulder surgery, Rogers was held to a strict pitch count last summer while with the Class A Brevard County Manatees in the Florida State League, compiling a 1.67 earned run average in 22 starts.

 

Last season, once he reached his limit, Rogers often would be taken out of the game in the middle of inning. The season, there will be no such restrictions. "We're shooting for 75 to 80 pitches an outing," said Nichols, a former Boston Red Sox outfielder. "I think we were keeping him to 50 pitches (per game) last season."

 

Rogers, 24, spent the first two weeks of this spring training in Milwaukee's major league camp in Marysville, Ari. During two two-inning stints with the Brewers, he allowed a total of three hits and one unearned run with three strikeouts and two walks.

 

"He throws four pitches," Nichols said. "Besides his fastball, he's got the good curveball, and he's been working on that little cutter slider."

 

Rogers has consistently thrown his fastball in the 95-97 mile-per-hour range, and he has a changeup to complement it.

 

In his two appearances since moving to Milwaukee's minor league camp, Rogers has allowed one earned run in seven innings while averaging 51.5 pitches per outing.

 

"I think this spring has been outstanding for him," Nichols said. "I can see a complete difference in his countenance. He's upbeat. I think he feels like he's got something done now. His shoulder feels good. He's a very happy camper now."

 

For the first time since 2006, Rogers said he can focus entirely on his pitching and not just on the health of his right shoulder.

 

"We've been working on my delivery, and it's significantly better," he said. "It's clean. I work on it, day in and day out. I feel I can repeat my mechanics consistently. I feel I'm at the point where I won't be held back by injury. I'll just worry about executing pitches. Everything is second nature now."

 

Rogers' medical problems began during the 2006 season when he injured his right shoulder while at Brevard County.

 

On Jan. 12, 2007, Rogers underwent surgery to repair a torn labrum and to tighten a loose ligament in his right shoulder. About 18 months later, after sitting out the 2007 season, he had surgery to remove scar tissue, which forced him to miss the 2008 season as well.

 

"The farther I get away from that surgery date, the better I feel," he said.

 

At Huntsville, Rogers will reunite with pitching coach John Curtis, the former Red Sox hurler who helped the young pitcher switch to a more compact delivery at West Virginia five years ago.

 

"In my personal opinion, John Curtis is one of the best pitching coaches you will find anywhere, and I'm excited to work with him again," Rogers said. "We have good plans for what we want to accomplish this year."

 

Most of all, Rogers intends to work on his consistency.

 

"I figure if I am healthy and consistent than I can pitch well," he said. "In turn, I'll hopefully will be rewarded for that. I can only control what I can control."

 

At this stage of Rogers' career, the Brewers seem content to wait a little longer for him to get ready to move up to the top rung of the baseball ladder.

 

"Mark is at a point where he knows what he needs to do, so it's just fine-tuning now," Nichols said. "It was over-hauling before. Now, it's fine-tuning."