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Brad's Diary from AZ -- with Minor League Photos; Chris Mehring's Reports

Mass Haas

By Mass Haas,
in Brewers Minor League Talk

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Mass Haas GOAT

Mass Haas

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Another log from Brad

 

Just rest your pointer on each Brewer farmhand photo, a nice tour

 

Among them:

 

Orlando Arcia

 

Jose Pena

 

Cuban product Rodolfo Fernandez

 

Lots of Victor Roache

 

Brad's tweets

 

At Brewers Reds Low A game. Victor Roache just blasted a home run to left.

 

Michael Reed just missed one, doubling high off the center field wall, but got thrown out trying to stretch it to a triple.

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bkrause2 College Ball

bkrause2

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Just wanted to share a couple quick observations from Arizona. Of course, the Brewerfan motto "Beware the small sample size" applies here.

 

- Victor Roache looks like the real deal. I've seen him hit with power to all fields, and he is a lot more athletic than I was aware of.

 

- Orlando Arcia had booted a couple of balls in the two days I've seen him. That's to be expected with any young player, but it really reinforced in my mind just how good Yadiel Rivera's defense is. I've seen him make several nice defensive plays and he always looks so smooth doing it. Hopefully he will hit enough to make it to the big leagues because his defense is fantastic.

 

- Mitch Haniger was playing with the High-A squad in both the intrasquad game on Monday, and the game I attended against the Reds yesterday. After his brief stint in Wisconsin I thought he might be headed back to the Timber Rattlers, and he still may be, but I just thought it was kind of interesting that he's been working with the BC squad.

 

- While on the subject of roster projections, it appears like Jason Rogers may have jumped past Cody Hawn. Hawn was with BC yesterday splitting time at first base with Nick Ramirez. Ramirez looks like he's slimmed down quite a bit since the end of last season. He looks noticeably skinnier. On a side note, there was a funny moment in yesterday's game when Hawn took second on a ball in the dirt. A big cheer went up from the Brewers dugout as Hawn is not exactly a speed demon.

 

- Finally one player who has stood out to me so far has been Jose Sermo. MiLB.com has him listed as a 2B and Brewerfan has him listed as a SS, but he has been playing first base when I've seen him. He has hit the ball hard in the few at bats I saw. Looking forward to seeing more of him this week.

 

No Brewers action for me today as I'm off to see the Mariners and Padres, but I'm taking in the Brewers/Royals AAA/AA games tomorrow so hopefully I will get to see some of our pitching prospects.

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pete Draft Eligible

pete

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Hey, that's the "cheetah" taking second! Just kidding.

 

Does Jason Rogers start in AA? It'll be interesting to see how his numbers change after he leaves the BC ballpark (and league).

Formerly AKA Pete
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bkrause2

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A couple quick notes from yesterday:

 

Burke Badenhop looked dominant in his first two innings, striking out four, but then the Royals started to tee off on him in the third. He gave up a hard hit double, a broken bat single, a triple and hit a batter. He also had a couple of really hard hit balls that were pulled foul. Doug Melvin was in attendance to watch Badenhop throw.

 

Hunter Morris hit the ball well. He had three hits that I saw, including two doubles. One he pulled right down the first base line. The other was tagged to right center. I happened to be right next to the Royals dugout during the second double and some of the Kansas City players and even one of the coaches were talking about how Morris didn't hustle, calling him lazy and that he could have had a triple. Personally I didn't see any problem with Morris effort, it was pretty clearly a double from the start and Morris cruised in to second, he wasn't getting third unless the outfielder booted the ball, and if that were the case he would have made third easily anyway.

 

Kentrail Davis also had a couple of hits, including a home run that he crushed to right. Again I was right next to the KC dugout and there was an audible groan as soon as the ball left the bat. I still have high hopes for Kentrail. He shows flashes of real talent, just needs to flash it more consistantly.

 

Scooter Gennett just continued to do what Scooter Gennett does and hit everything in sight. I know I'm higher on him than most, but I firmly believe he is going to be an every day second baseman in the big leagues for many years. It may not be in Milwaukee, depending on what happens with Rickie Weeks but he's hit everywhere, consistantly, every time I've seen him play.

 

Yesterday was my first real chance to see Josh Prince play centerfield. When I had seen him play in the past he had been a shortstop. He seemed to get decent jumps, had a little trouble with the high Arizona sun on one play but did a good job of staying with it and making the catch.

 

I also got to see some of the catcher's drills in the am and in seeing Clint Coulter three times thus far, I've noticed he seems to have a lot of trouble with making the transfer from the glove to his throwing hand. I first noticed it in the intrasquad game last week, and again against the Reds on Friday, and then yet again yesterday. Probably a result of just trying to be too quick. I definitely think it's something he can correct in time.

 

Going to see the Major League guys in Goodyear today. I'll get a chance to watch the Single-A teams on Wednesday in Peoria and will try to chime in then with anything interesting.

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Mass Haas GOAT

Mass Haas

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Another fine report from Brad, who spent time with the A-ball Brewers and posted his super-gallery from the day.

 

His twitter timeline reflects his thoughts on the day in between camera shutter clicks.

 

RHP's Eduard Reyes, Zach Quintana, and Danny Keller among the youngsters photographed you may not have seen in Brewer uniforms previously.

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bkrause2

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Thanks for the kind words guys, I really appreciate it! Winding down my visit to Arizona. Should see the Brewers AAA/AA teams once more on Monday on our way out of town. Wanted to drop a couple more quick notes before I call it a night.

 

- Victor Roache was in a red jersey today. (Meaning he has some sort of injury) He didn't play in the game I attended on Wednesday either. Not sure what the injury is but he did take part in some stuff this am so it doesn't seem to be real serious.

 

- Got to see Johnny Hellweg and Taylor Jungmann both pitch today. They both looked pretty good. Jungmann did allow a home run but it was on a pretty good pitch and the hitter just did a good job of driving it to the opposite field. One thing I really like about Jungmann is that he always seems to throw strikes. When he misses, it's not by much. I wonder if maybe he throws too many strikes sometimes (if that makes any sense).

 

- Maybe I'm just not very observant but today was the first time I noticed several of the players the Brewers had in camp who played in the DSL last year. Francisco Castillo, Elvis Rubio, and one other player I was unable to identify were all taking batting practice this morning.

 

- T.J. Mittelstaedt was playing 3B in the AAA game today and made a couple of really nice defensive plays. I've seen him at 2B, 3B and LF since I've been down here and he's handled himself well at each position.

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TooLiveBrew Milwaukee Brewers

TooLiveBrew

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- Got to see Johnny Hellweg and Taylor Jungmann both pitch today. They both looked pretty good. Jungmann did allow a home run but it was on a pretty good pitch and the hitter just did a good job of driving it to the opposite field. One thing I really like about Jungmann is that he always seems to throw strikes. When he misses, it's not by much. I wonder if maybe he throws too many strikes sometimes (if that makes any sense).

That makes sense. Especially since he doesn't have overpowering stuff, as he progresses up the ladder he's not going to get away with throwing too many strikes.

Stearns Brewing Co.: Sustainability from farm to plate
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bkrause2

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Got to see Nashville and Huntsville play today against the Reds AAA and AA teams and had a couple quick observations.

 

- Tyler Thornburg started for Nashville and did a pretty good job of shutting down the Reds. He got Ryan Hanigan (who was leading off each inning) all three times I saw him face him. Thornburg did take a line drive off his leg/foot but stayed in the game and appeared to be okay after.

 

- Josh Prince started the game in CF, with Francisco Castillo playing 2B. After a few innings the two switched positions. Prince had a nice sliding catch in center before moving to second. It was the first time I had heard of Prince playing 2B. I know he came up as a SS so perhaps they are grooming him for a super utility type role. Castillo got a bad read on a line drive and let it drop for a hit during his time in center, but that's always one of the toughest balls to read and he was playing well above the level he is likely to start at in 2013. I would imagine he will be staying in extended and playing with one of the short-season teams when they get going. I'm excited to see what he can do after the season he had last year in the DSL.

 

- Got to see Stephen Parker in a Brewers uniform for the first time today. From what little I saw, I was impressed with his defense. Don't know a ton about him. Looking forward to seeing more of him once Nashville's season gets under way.

 

- I managed to get a peak at the Brewers radar gun a couple of times today in the AA game as well. Casey Medlen was sitting around 92-93 mph and Santo Manzanillo was hitting 95-96. Manzanillo struck out Reds prospect Donald Lutz on a 3-2 fastball down in the zone.

 

That's it for me from Arizona. Hope you all enjoyed the photos. I'll have lots more when I get back to Wisconsin and can go through everything I shot over the past two weeks. Looking forward to the Link Report getting under way and following Brevard County and all of the Brewers affiliates this season!

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