Final minor league roster projections are up!

[And That]

Since it is a few days before the affiliate rosters will be announced, I'm going to refresh my minor league roster projections one more time tonight. These will be a lot more accurate than they were a few months ago, but I have little inside knowledge of what the Brewers are going to do with anyone, so the projections won't be spot on. Check back in this space sometime after dinner tonight to get my final take on where our minor leaguers will be headed to start out 2011.

[Mass Haas]

Video from Don Money and Rich Gale might help -- expect Caleb Gindl in CF, probably not a long-term home, but nice for future flexibility

[And That]

Milwaukee
Starting Catcher	W. Nieves		Backup Catcher	G. Kottaras
Starting First Baseman	P. Fielder
Starting Second Baseman	R. Weeks		Backup Infielder	C. Counsell
Starting Third Baseman	C. McGehee
Starting Shortstop	Y. Betancourt		Backup Utility	E. Almonte
Starting Left Fielder	R. Braun
Starting Center Fielder	C. Gomez		Backup Outfielder	N. Morgan
Starting Right Fielder	M. Kotsay		Backup Outfielder	J. Reed
Starting Pitcher #1	Y. Gallardo		Long Relief	S. Mitre
Starting Pitcher #2	S. Marcum		Middle Relief #1	K. Loe
Starting Pitcher #3	R. Wolf		Middle Relief #2	Z. Braddock
Starting Pitcher #4	C. Narveson		Middle Relief #3	B. Kintzler
Closer	J. Axford		Middle Relief #4	S. Green
			Righthanded Setup	T. Saito
			Lefthanded Setup	M. Stetter
Nashville
Starting Catcher	M. Maldonado		Backup Catcher	M. Rivera
Starting First Baseman	M. Gamel
Starting Second Baseman	E. Farris		Backup Infielder	A. Machado
Starting Third Baseman	Z. Wheeler
Starting Shortstop	E. Maysonet		Backup Utility	T. Green
Starting Left Fielder	B. Boggs
Starting Center Fielder	C. Gindl		Backup Outfielder	B. Carroll
Starting Right Fielder	B. Katin
Starting Pitcher #1	M. Rogers		Long Relief	S. Narron
Starting Pitcher #2	A. Rivas		Middle Relief #1	M. McClendon
Starting Pitcher #3	T. Dillard		Middle Relief #2	Z. Segovia
Starting Pitcher #4	J. Butler		Middle Relief #3	M. Fiers
Starting Pitcher #5	C. Wright		Righthanded Setup	M. DiFelice
Closer	J. James		Lefthanded Setup	E. de la Cruz
Huntsville
Starting Catcher	A. de la Rosa		Backup Catcher	D. Buller
Starting First Baseman	S. Wilson
Starting Second Baseman	M. Cline		Backup Infielder	Y. Ortiz
Starting Third Baseman	H. Morris
Starting Shortstop	S. Miranda		Backup Utility	J. Sanchez
Starting Left Fielder	L. Haydel
Starting Center Fielder	E. Komatsu		DH/Backup Outfielder	C. Nowak
Starting Right Fielder	B. Jones
Starting Pitcher #1	W. Peralta		Long Relief	J. Henderson
Starting Pitcher #2	D. Merklinger		Middle Relief #1	D. Hand
Starting Pitcher #3	C. Scarpetta		Middle Relief #2	R. Mercedes
Starting Pitcher #4	Je. Sanchez		Middle Relief #3	D. Meadows
Starting Pitcher #5	M. Bowman		Setup #1	R. Hinton
Closer	R. Wooten		Setup #2	L. Luetge
Brevard County
Starting Catcher	C. Garfield		Backup Catcher	S. Zarraga
Starting First Baseman	C. Dennis		DH/Backup 1B	S. Halton
Starting Second Baseman	S. Gennett
Starting Third Baseman	M. Brownstein
Starting Shortstop	J. Prince		Backup Utility	K. Dhanani
Starting Left Fielder	Kh. Davis		Backup Utility	M. Roberts
Starting Center Fielder	Ke. Davis
Starting Right Fielder	B. Kjeldgaard		Backup Outfielder	S. Krieger
Starting Pitcher #1	K. Heckathorn		Long Relief/Piggyback	D. Howell
Starting Pitcher #2	E. Anundsen		Long Relief/Piggyback	R. Seidel
Starting Pitcher #3	N. Bucci		Middle Relief #1	A. Rosario
Starting Pitcher #4	M. Lasker		Middle Relief #2	M. Willinsky
Starting Pitcher #5	H. Burgos		Setup #1	T. Watten
Closer	D. Byrd		Setup #2	J. Pokorny
Wisconsin
Starting Catcher	R. Neda		Backup Catcher	B. Dean
Starting First Baseman	C. Hawn
Starting Second Baseman	S. Vucinich
Starting Third Baseman	G. Hopkins		DH/Backup Utility	M. Walker
Starting Shortstop	C. George		Backup Utility	J. Paciorek
Starting Left Fielder	J. Dishon
Starting Center Fielder	C. Stang		Backup Outfielder	R. Keen
Starting Right Fielder	F. Romero		Backup Outfielder	R. Garvey
Starting Pitcher #1	T. Thornburg		Long Relief/Piggyback	T. Cravy
Starting Pitcher #2	E. Arnett		Long Relief	D. Krestalude
Starting Pitcher #3	M. Miller		Middle Relief #1	G. Holle
Starting Pitcher #4	J. Nelson		Middle Relief #2	C. Bashara
Starting Pitcher #5	A. Ross		Setup #1	E. Marzec
Closer	B. Garman		Setup #2	E. Nieves

[And That]

Sorry for the formatting on that, and that.

 

The Milwaukee roster is what it is. If someone asks me why I don't have Greinke listed as a starter, you owe me $5.

 

I'm not sure if Caleb Gindl is going to be ready to go by Nashville's opening day or not. If not, Brandon Jones or Chuckie Caufield wind up with the Sounds, with Carroll starting in CF. If Gindl is ready, he'll play CF and Jones and/or Caufield will probably end up in AA and/or the "DL". I'm also assuming Riggans (still recovering from pneumonia) and Arlis (because he's always stashed there) will start on the DL, too.

 

Milwaukee seems to like Frankie de la Cruz as a starter. I think they're nuts, and that he should be a relief pitcher, but he may wind up in the Sounds rotation. Speaking of the Sounds rotation, I'm assuming that Estrada will be Milwaukee's 5th starter on 4/6 and will be stashed on Helena's roster until then. And Mark Rogers' innings/pitch counts will be limited, so Sam Narron or Chase Wright may turn out to be pseudo-piggyback starters with Mark.

 

Hand could beat out Fiers for that last bullpen spot in Nashville. Others have an outside chance, too.

 

Huntsville has an interesting situation if Nowak, Wilson and Morris all make the roster. All three are 1B with the ability to kind-of play 3B and the corner OF. Not sure how playing time is going to work our between the three. And if Sean Halton makes the Huntsville roster too, um... it's always possible one of those guys ends up in Nashville somehow.

 

More in a minute...

[TooLiveBrew]

D'Vontrey Richardson? Is he injured at the moment?

[DHonks]

and Logan Shafer. I guess I expected Shafer in either AA or AAA and Richardson in A+ (or repeating A, but expecting to jump to AA)

[TooLiveBrew]

Nice work, Toby, in all seriousness. THAT should've been what I said first, not, 'Hey, this thing you worked a really long time on -- I SEE A MISTAKE!'

[And That]

As Jim has noted in the minor league spring training notes thread, the following pitchers haven't pitched in a spring game (that we know of) and therefore I assume that they will not be available to break camp with an affiliated club: Alex Periard, Brae Wright, Andre Lamontagne, Mike Ramlow and Corey Frerichs.

 

I don't have the following position players assigned: Sean McCraw (has not played), Logan Schafer (thumb injury - should be back in May), Mikey Marseco (has not played) and most notably, D'Vontrey Richardson. Richardson hasn't played since early in spring training. I would assume he's injured, but we don't know to what degree. Since he's not playing, I'm not going to project him.

 

It wouldn't shock me to see Josh Prince break with Huntsville, but I couldn't pull the trigger on it.

 

The Brewers have a lot of talented relievers from top to bottom in the minors. I reserve the right to look dumb about where they might end up. Some of them are bound to start the year on the DL, too. There's just more relievers than spots right now. I would think it likely that either Byrd or Watten are in AA, that Pokorny is closing in Brevard and there's another lefty reliever with him in the Manatees' bullpen. It's too fluid to get a handle on, but I think I have large chunks of the bullpens right.

 

I'm closer to certain about the A+ and A rotations, unless they decide to hold Lasker or Bucci back for another year in Wisconsin. They're both young. It's possible.

 

Cameron Garfield looks to have won a spot over Rafael Neda if I'm reading my tea leaves correctly. Somewhat surprising to me, and I wouldn't be surprised to see those two flipped at some point. There's also a chance Zarraga goes to AA.

 

Thornburg will have a piggyback partner. My guess is that it will be Cravy, but Holle, Wawrzasek or a host of other dudes are possibilities also. The rest of the Wisconsin rotation will be straight - no piggybacks.

 

If the Brewers elect to not go with 5 OFs in Wisconsin, I could see Jason Rogers or T.J. Mittelstaedt making the club instead of Garvey or Romero or Dishon.

 

If you think I've missed anything, let me know. I probably won't get back to you until tomorrow.

 

Cheers!

[And That]

Sorry about the notes being separated. My keyboard mashing needed a break in the middle.

[Mass Haas]

Technically, this could kick off our "Your 2011 Brevard County Manatees" thread, but we'll place it here:

 

Ex-Grissom, Auburn star Hunter Morris to begin season at Class A Brevard County

By Mark McCarter, The Huntsville Times al.com

 

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- The hopes for a hometown player to begin the 2011 season with the Huntsville Stars ended Wednesday when Hunter Morris was assigned to the Milwaukee Brewers' Class A Brevard County team.

 

Morris, a former Grissom High star and an All-SEC player at Auburn, will be in line for a likely promotion to Huntsville by mid-season, if not earlier, depending upon performance and need.

 

He was the Brewers' fourth-round draft pick last year and is considered one of the Brewers' top prospects. However, he had only 71 games' pro experience last summer at a low-level Class A league, and a leap all the way to Class AA would have been almost unprecedented in the current Milwaukee system. Conventional wisdom is that the transition to Class AA ball is the most difficult in pro ball.

 

"You've got to build on the positive, not on the negative, and give the player the opportunity to have success and move on," said Stars manager Mike Guerrero via phone from Maryvale, Ariz., the Stars' spring training headquarters.

 

"You perform better when you feel good about yourself, and when you have success your mind works in a different way and your attitude is different. So every player that is having a good season, if you put them in a spot to have success, they grow and they have that swagger and they feel good about themselves. That's something I think he'll benefit from. He'll grow into it and we'll go from there."

 

Morris batted .251 with nine homers and 44 RBI in 291 at-bats at Wisconsin, making the difficult transition from college and aluminum bats to the wooden bats of pro ball.

 

His value has increased with his versatility, working at both third base and first base in spring training.

 

Morris was selected by the Brewers' to play in the Arizona Fall League, for fast-track prospects, and had five at-bats with Milwaukee in Cactus League games.

 

Guerrero will reveal his entire roster Thursday. One temporary addition will be catcher Jonathan Lucroy, the Brewers' catcher who began last season with the Stars before moving to the majors. He suffered a broken finger in spring training and will be rehabbing with the Stars in their season-opening series at Jacksonville that begins next Thursday.

 

The Stars will travel to Brevard County next Monday, playing an exhibition game against the Class A club and working out at that facility before going to Jacksonville. The home opener is April 13 against Carolina.

 

Hunter Morris, in file photo from his All-SEC days at Auburn

 

http://media.al.com/sports_impact/photo/9436208-large.jpg

[And That]

I lose. That didn't take long.

 

Edit: And I forgot Del Howell. I lose again. Time for bed.

[battlekow]

I lose. That didn't take long.

 

Edit: And I forgot Del Howell. I lose again. Time for bed.

#winning

[DHonks]

Toby, awesome job...one of my favorite features you do

[foamboy1]

Ditto.

 

Every roster has some interesting player combinations that will be fun to watch. I can hardly wait until they start. There is a prospect-vacuum and some of these guys will step up and demand more serious consideration.

 

Thanks for the great work, Toby.

[brewfan1]

Wow, Morris steps up when Lawrie declines invite to fall league, does well, really does well in ST and this is how the club treats him? No wonder this club has issues. Q: What kind of message does this send to the player. A: A bad one !!!!!!

[Tedaldtada]

Wow, Morris steps up when Lawrie declines invite to fall league, does well, really does well in ST and this is how the club treats him? No wonder this club has issues. Q: What kind of message does this send to the player. A: A bad one !!!!!!

I don't see this as a big deal. He didn't exactly dominate low A. If he proves to be a force, they can just move him up.

Besides, nothing is official yet.

 

[YoungGeezy]

Nothing wrong with this movea player should never be pissed about club not skipping a full level after only 70 pro games. Let him start to roll then promote. There is no need to rush him so quick.

 

I think the way Lintz pitched this spring in the bullpen, he may have finally made it out of rookie ball.....hopefully or he may have a similar fate as the rest of the 08 class

[brewfan1]

The organization seem's to have established this unwritten rule of moving older guys along quicker, even if their play is not on par with younger competition. So, why stop now with Hunter?

[JohnBriggs12]

Seeing that Morris was assigned to Brevard, I have to believe this means Sean Halton will be at Huntsville, not Brevard. There's no way Halton should be behind Wilson who hit just .201/.270/.340 last year, nor do a I see a need for Halton to repeat a level.

[TooLiveBrew]

No wonder this club has issues.

 

Yeah, all those issues we're always hearing about.

 

So, why stop now with Hunter?

 

Morris is likely to start at the same level as Kentrail Davis, another college bat drafted higher than Hunter. Can you explain more where you've seen this so-called unwritten rule on display? Morris has a grand total of 314 professional PAs, and the mid-levels of the Brewers' system are pretty full with 1B or 1B/3B types.

[YoungGeezy]

No wonder this club has issues.

 

Yeah, all those issues we're always hearing about.

 

So, why stop now with Hunter?

 

Morris is likely to start at the same level as Kentrail Davis, another college bat drafted higher than Hunter. Can you explain more where you've seen this so-called unwritten rule on display? Morris has a grand total of 314 professional PAs, and the mid-levels of the Brewers' system are pretty full with 1B or 1B/3B types.

Agreed. I see this as sending only the messege of, hey we want you to go to BC get the bat going, build up the confidence and when we feel you are ready we will get you up to Huntsville. Hunter only hit .251 with an OPB of .306 in A ball. He had pretty solid power numbers but nothing that screams PROMOTE PROMOTE! What messege are you sending when you skip players for average performance and make the other players earn that promotion? I think that is far worse. I would also like you to also show me thin track record of Brewers skipping college hitters levels... It doesn't occur that often and a high school guy like Lawrie are just as likely. We were not at Spring training coaching and seeing how he is doing every second so no way anyone can sit here and say he got screwed cause maybe he didnt have a great spring or they want him to work on something a little more. When Morris earns a promotion he will get it, no need to rush his development just because he went to college....

[DHonks]

the Brewers have long seemed to promote VERY slowly, not aggressively at all. The counter-examples are Hardy, Fielder, and K. Davis, and that's all I can think of.

[dadofandrew]

Morris would be still in A ball if he wasn't such a high pick. He should have dominated that level, and he got out 70% of the time.

 

And yes, it's a fact top picks and uber-prospects like Lawrie get pushed faster, due to the money invested in them. Organizational soldiers and roster filler have to prove themselves more. Life ain't fair, but if you're good enough, you'll make it. There's 30 teams out there, one will find you.