Offseason Minor League Transactions

[Mass Haas]

Here is the link to our transaction thread for the pre-June draft portion of the regular season.

And the just-closed thread covering all transactions post-draft through the end of the regular season.

 

On to the off-season --

 

The first thing all organizations do in a paperwork move is activate all players from minor league disabled lists, regardless of their current state of health. Some of the names below were actually activated in the final week of the regular season and made appearances, such as RHP Nick Bucci, who started Wisconsin's finale.

 

Reinstated from DL: RHP Cody Adams, RHP Evan Anundsen, RHP Jeff Bennett, RHP Nick Bucci, RHP Mark DiFelice, RHP Luis Guerrero, RHP Rob Wooten, LHP Casey Baron, LHP Bobby Bramhall, LHP Jose Ramos, LHP Chris Waters, LHP Brae Wright, C Dayton Buller, C Mike Melillo, C Michael Roberts, C Brett Whiteside, 2B Mike Brownstein, 3B Wayne Dedrick, 3B Steffan Wilson, SS Connor Lind, OF Juan Barrini, OF Reggie Keen, OF Logan Schafer, RHP Alex Periard

We will process these activations soon within our Brewerfan transaction archive (within a few days). Notice that as of this current post, when you visit our homepage and click on a team name, there is a breakdown of roster that includes disabled list assignments (and injury when known). For instance, this is Huntsville's page with its three Tommy John pitchers.

 

We'll also note for you at this time that when you click on a player's name on any of our roster pages or our Player Index, one of the things you'll see is the "Article Crawler" section for that player, where links are included to feature articles on that player that we have highlighted on this forum over the years. For instance, take a look at Amaury Rivas' page (keep in mind we stopped posting stats back in '07).

 

Rivas has four articles listed, but the 2009 Florida Today link is no longer valid. Earlier this season, we started linking to our posts on the forum instead of the actual newspaper sites for these types of features. Which means that you won't see dead links in the future when you're revisiting a player's feature articles via this route.

[Mass Haas]

The first two potential minor league free agents have been brought back for 2011.

[Minigoon]

Mark DiFelice has resigned. Should be ready to go by spring training.

 

http://brewersbeat.mlblogs.com/archives/2010/09/difelice_re-signs_with_brewers.html

[And That]

We already knew about Delarosa and Machado, but McCalvy informs us that Patrick Arlis and Chase Wright have re-signed as well. No word yet on which disabled list the non-injured Arlis will open the year on.

[And That]

BA Transactions page.

 

We already knew that Stern was granted free agency, but we did not know that the Brewers re-signed perennial Huntsville Star RHP Robert Hinton and former Milwaukee C Mike Rivera.

 

I would hazard a guess that Rivera was given a spring training invite. Kind of surprised to see that there was mutual interest with Hinton - thought a change of scenery would have been good for the slider specialist.

[trwi7]

I'm surprised that Rivera came back. I'd imagine it's Lucroy and Kottaras for the forseeable future. Maybe he just wants to go to an organization he's familiar with and one that's one catcher injury away from him getting the call?

[And That]

Familiarity is one thing, and the Brewers have no depth at catcher beyond Lucroy and Kottaras. The only two catchers they had above A-ball before the signing were Anderson Delarosa and Patrick Arlis - both guys are more likely to see the major leagues as coaches. As of right now, he is without a doubt the "guy" they would get from AAA.

[And That]

After I asked, Haudricourt confirmed w/Gord Ash that Rivera indeed received an invite to big league spring training.

[And That]

My domination of this thread continues...

 

Makes more sense now why Hinton decided to re-sign here - he was invited to big league spring training along with Rivera, per McCalvy.

 

And then with his next tweet, McCalvy reports that the Brewers have also re-signed Milwaukee native and 2010 Huntsville Star 1B/3B Chris Nowak to a minor league deal, though with no spring training invite for Chris.

[JohnBriggs12]

Glad to have Rivera back in the organization. Seems curious that shortly after Macha departs, they bring Rivera back ostensibly for AAA depth. Makes you wonder if the only guy in the organization that didn't like Mike was Macha.

[CheezWizHed]

Hopefully, Kotteras continues to improve and Rivera is the wrong side of 30, but I'm not certain its set in stone to have Kotteras as the backup C.

[Mass Haas]

As a formaility, we link to posts on reliever Justin James waiver claim arrival to the Brewers, and catcher Martin Maldonado's addition to the 40-man roster.

[Mass Haas]

1B/DH Erick Almonte, who will turn 33 in February, and has been described as a consummate pro who "knows his role", often praised by Don Money, has been re-signed to a 2011 minor league contract, according to Baseball America.

 

He had a pretty sweet 2010, as his stats page shows. He'll enter his 3rd season in the system at Nashville.

 

He'll be among those we'll track in winter league ball (Dominican League).

 

 

[Mass Haas]

It's a 9th year in the system for 27-year-old RHP Tim Dillard -- minor league deal, spring training invite. Most folks will like to see that, he was pretty lights out in the final month of the season (August stat line included here).

[JohnBriggs12]

It's a 9th year in the system for 27-year-old RHP Tim Dillard -- minor league deal, spring training invite. Most folks will like to see that, he was pretty lights out in the final month of the season (August stat line included here).

Absolutely! Remember when the mantra last spring was that they had to keep "rotation depth"? The problem was they were paying a lot for that depth. If Dillard picks up where he left off, he provides more AAA depth at the right cost without even using a 40 man spot. Narveson didn't make it until he was 27, so it's not too late for Dillard.

 

[dadofandrew]

Dillard is nice to have in Nashville, but that's all he is right now, AAA depth. He's got velocity, but doesn't seem to know what to do with it.

[DHonks]

Remember, Dillard didn't pitch until he was 20 or 21, so he's still learning to harness his sinker and velocity

[brewmann04]

we seem to have plenty of guys fighting for the 5th spot.

[CheezWizHed]

I'm really surprised. I didn't think that the Brewers gave Dillard much of a chance with all the call-ups from AAA this year that passed him over (some deserved, some less so). I figured he would look for somewhere that would give him a better shot. Glad to have him back.

[Mass Haas]

With Baseball America releasing the 2010 minor league free agency class and confirming the Brewer free agents (see our thread in this forum), our sortable, filterable Brewerfan Player Index has been updated.

 

Please note that all players on the 40-man roster are recalled to the big league club at season's end, so all of those players are listed at the major league level during the offseason, such as Amaury Rivas.

 

If years past are any indication at all, MiLB.com will hold all the free agents, such as Norris Hopper, Marty McLeary, etc. on their 2010 roster pages all winter, even if they sign elsewhere. Here's Nashville's roster page as an example.

 

We know Doug Scopel and the Sounds' web site folks would love to keep that up-to-date, but it's out of their control. However, Doug and staff will maintain these two pages to assist us all off-season. Sometimes we'll learn about a signing first, sometimes it's the Sounds site that will alert us to a signing.

 

Minor League Free Agent Signings Update

 

Where Have Former Sounds Signed For 2011?

 

We realize that while the individual player pages in the index lack for content, save for recent newspaper feature article links, the index as a whole can provide you with a way to analyze the names and players by position and level in the system.

[battlekow]

DSL outfielder Erickson Salaya, who was suspended 50 games in July for steroid use, has been placed on the "disqualified list" for the next year because he falsified his age when he signed with the Brewers. Because his suspension already carried over into next year, I'd imagine this makes him ineligible to play until late 2012 and probably ends his Brewers career.

[Spidey]

Anybody know anything about Brian Barden? I saw on Baseballreference.com and the MLB.com player tracker that Milwaukee signed him to a contract. I don't know (but would assume) that it is a minor league deal, but couldn't find him listed anywhere here. I was looking for terms of the contract and any information about him.

[Mass Haas]

Here's the Baseball Reference transaction link, indicating he signed as of October 14th. Looks as though we have our AAA third baseman (waiting for confirmation beyond this link). Scroll up on that first link for major league stats, and here's a minor league look at Barden, who will be 30 in April.

 

If this is so, we should shoot Matt Eddy of BA a note, as this is normally something he would have been reported previously.

[And That]

The thing that's weird is I'm pretty sure he would have gotten an NRI. They usually make it a point to announce those. We'll see.

[dadofandrew]

Very solid AAA 3B, but little chance he'll develop into anything more.