2014 Brewers' 1st-Rd. Pick Speculation & Overall 2014 Prospects Discussion Thread

[Fear The Chorizo]

Except Hoffman's not a major league pitcher yet - arguing that the Brewers have a good record at preventing big league pitchers from blowing out arms doesn't work in this case, because as TheCrew posted, many of the better arms in the Brewer organization have blown out well before they even reached the big leagues for any significant amount of time. Mike Jones, Nick Neugabauer come to mind.

 

In another draft year when Hoffman would be the clear leader of a thin pitching crop, maybe you take him with a bum elbow at 12...not this year though, when a majority of the top 15-20 players rated highly in the draft are pitchers and there is alot of argument who's going to end up in the top 10, there are other options with high ceilings that I'd much rather the Brewers select than a college arm who likely won't get a shot at full minor league pitching season until 2016 due to arm surgery.

[TheCrew07]

Maybe the broader concern is that whatever the Brewers do to keep pitchers healthy also stunts their upside as players. It seems that Atlanta is toward the top both with developing young pitchers and then having those pitchers get injured. Not sure where the right trade off lies.

 

Without going into great detail I think you're drawing conclusions and parallels because that's what you want to see.

 

The injury rate has more to do with the type of pitchers the Brewers are targeting than anything special they are doing from a development or treatment standpoint. You want them to be progressive when they just aren't, they are an extremely conservative organization not on the cutting edge of basically any aspect of professional baseball. They aren't the worst at anything, but they certainly aren't the best at anything either. Many of the pitchers they've targeted haven't even made it as far as AA, others had significant injuries, you arbitrarily limited your focus to TJ surgery because it's a hot topic, but shoulder injuries are actually the pitcher killers.

 

Frederickson, Lintz, Adams, and Lasker never made it out of A ball from 2008, Lasker dealt with a plethora of injuries, Adams was suspended for a drug of abuse.

 

Arnett, Heckathorn, and Hall were the "upside" picks from 2009. Arnett hurt himself outside of baseball but it didn't matter by that point, Heckathorn is a poor reliever, and it turned out that like Anundsen before him Hall didn't have projection left.

 

2010 was the Dylan Covey debacle, Jimmy Nelson, and Tyler Thornburg. Obviously Covey didn't sign and wouldn't have been a great pick regardless, I'm happy with Nelson and Thornburg, 5th rounder Matt Miller never made it out of A ball.

 

In 2011 they picked Jungmann, Bradley, Lopez, and Gagnon. Bradley has yet to make it through a full season, Lopez is finally out of the tandem system for the first time, Jungmann is what he is repeating AA, and Gagnon is pitching well in AA.

 

2012 was Zach Quintana who hasn't been all that impressive in A ball so far but is still in a tandem system and Tyler Wagner whom I really like.

 

From last year's draft you have a bunch of guys that haven't even really had a chance to be injured. Devin Williams who is at least 2 years removed from being out of the tandem system, Barret Astin who is nothing special, Taylor Williams whom I like the most on the current T-Rat staff, and Josh Uhen who was already hurt in college. Astin and Williams are in the tandem system in WI.

 

If you look at that list of pitchers what you don't have is is a ton of big arms like Peralta, you have a bunch of above average to average arms. Relievers won't get injured as much as starting pitchers to start with, nor will pitchers in a tandem, which is the whole point of the tandem. If you are so ineffective you don't make AA then you aren't really throwing enough to be injured in the first place.

 

The commonality for the most part from those drafts is body type; The Brewers are targeting big bodied guys early and going with less prototypical guys later. Eventually I think many of those guys will get injured, that's the nature of the beast with pitching, it's not an ergonomic motion and most pitchers apply additional unnecessary stress with problems in their deliveries which will have an effect over time. Pitchers like CC Sabathia are rare, and that has more to do with genetics than anything special Cleveland did when developing him, and the same is true of the Brewers. They've been targeting big bodied workhorse types because statistically those guys have a better track record of health. If they had drafted Taylor Guerrieri instead of Jungmann we'd have a pitcher with more upside but who has already needed TJ surgery.

 

It's almost entirely about the player, little of this has anything to do with the Brewers' development system.

 

Finally including position players show the overall approach to injuries that the organization takes, I'm not sure when we're talking about possible treatment methods the Brewers are using we'd arbitrarily limit the discussion to pitchers. They've treated the pitchers in the organization exactly the same as the position players when it comes to injury diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation. If you want a true sense of what the organization is doing you need to look at all of the available data, regardless of position or injury type, to see if there is something unique going on.

 

The organization just isn't that good at injury prevention or treatment, regardless of the organizational spin you'll get out of the TV & radio broadcasts or JSO. Even when they won that silly award for the least amount of DL time it had more to do with having a roster full of ascending young players than anything the training staff was doing at the big league level at that time. The lack of impact talent could be a developmental issue, but I think it's more of a draft philosophy issue. They focusing on a body type for injury prevention rather than attempting anything progressive from the developmental side.

[brewcrewdue80]

I wouldn't draft Hoffman seeing as he's coming out of College and will miss a full year. So he would hit the ground running age 22 in RK ball. With Limitations on his work load. Then you best case scenario get him through A ball and he sees a couple/few starts in AA at age 23. He spends age 24 in AA with your progression hope that he jumps in to AAA. A season at AAA at 25? Finally our #1 pick makes the team at age 26(miraculously w/o another lost season due to TJ) It's 2019 and he joins the Major League club.

 

Yeah right. Hoffman shouldn't be drafted in the 1st rd. He has zero leverage in signing a contract. You don't pay him 1st rd money when you can get him for 2nd/3rd round money. Let some other team waste their cash in the 1st rd on a player to miss a year's worth of time.

 

This would be different if he were a HS kid like Kolek coming down with TJ. I'd draft him at 12 just because you know on the lengthy timeline to the Majors he's only 22 when he makes the team. Not 22 before ever throwing a Professional Pitch as Hoffman will.

[SRB]

Except Hoffman's not a major league pitcher yet - arguing that the Brewers have a good record at preventing big league pitchers from blowing out arms doesn't work in this case, because as TheCrew posted, many of the better arms in the Brewer organization have blown out well before they even reached the big leagues for any significant amount of time. Mike Jones, Nick Neugabauer come to mind.

See my subsequent post. They are near the best in the majors at preventing TJ injuries at all levels, not just the major leagues. I don't think Mike Jones's injuries from over a decade ago are really relevant to the current Brewers development/medical staff.

 

Without going into great detail I think you're drawing conclusions and parallels because that's what you want to see.

 

The injury rate has more to do with the type of pitchers the Brewers are targeting than anything special they are doing from a development or treatment standpoint. You want them to be progressive when they just aren't, they are an extremely conservative organization not on the cutting edge of basically any aspect of professional baseball. They aren't the worst at anything, but they certainly aren't the best at anything either. Many of the pitchers they've targeted haven't even made it as far as AA, others had significant injuries, you arbitrarily limited your focus to TJ surgery because it's a hot topic, but shoulder injuries are actually the pitcher killers.

Hmm...

 

Frederickson, Lintz, Adams, and Lasker never made it out of A ball from 2008, Lasker dealt with a plethora of injuries, Adams was suspended for a drug of abuse.

 

Arnett, Heckathorn, and Hall were the "upside" picks from 2009. Arnett hurt himself outside of baseball but it didn't matter by that point, Heckathorn is a poor reliever, and it turned out that like Anundsen before him Hall didn't have projection left.

 

2010 was the Dylan Covey debacle, Jimmy Nelson, and Tyler Thornburg. Obviously Covey didn't sign and wouldn't have been a great pick regardless, I'm happy with Nelson and Thornburg, 5th rounder Matt Miller never made it out of A ball.

 

In 2011 they picked Jungmann, Bradley, Lopez, and Gagnon. Bradley has yet to make it through a full season, Lopez is finally out of the tandem system for the first time, Jungmann is what he is repeating AA, and Gagnon is pitching well in AA.

 

2012 was Zach Quintana who hasn't been all that impressive in A ball so far but is still in a tandem system and Tyler Wagner whom I really like.

 

From last year's draft you have a bunch of guys that haven't even really had a chance to be injured. Devin Williams who is at least 2 years removed from being out of the tandem system, Barret Astin who is nothing special, Taylor Williams whom I like the most on the current T-Rat staff, and Josh Uhen who was already hurt in college. Astin and Williams are in the tandem system in WI.

 

If you look at that list of pitchers what you don't have is is a ton of big arms like Peralta, you have a bunch of above average to average arms. Relievers won't get injured as much as starting pitchers to start with, nor will pitchers in a tandem, which is the whole point of the tandem. If you are so ineffective you don't make AA then you aren't really throwing enough to be injured in the first place.

 

The commonality for the most part from those drafts is body type; The Brewers are targeting big bodied guys early and going with less prototypical guys later. Eventually I think many of those guys will get injured, that's the nature of the beast with pitching, it's not an ergonomic motion and most pitchers apply additional unnecessary stress with problems in their deliveries which will have an effect over time. Pitchers like CC Sabathia are rare, and that has more to do with genetics than anything special Cleveland did when developing him, and the same is true of the Brewers. They've been targeting big bodied workhorse types because statistically those guys have a better track record of health. If they had drafted Taylor Guerrieri instead of Jungmann we'd have a pitcher with more upside but who has already needed TJ surgery.

 

It's almost entirely about the player, little of this has anything to do with the Brewers' development system.

 

Finally including position players show the overall approach to injuries that the organization takes, I'm not sure when we're talking about possible treatment methods the Brewers are using we'd arbitrarily limit the discussion to pitchers. They've treated the pitchers in the organization exactly the same as the position players when it comes to injury diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation. If you want a true sense of what the organization is doing you need to look at all of the available data, regardless of position or injury type, to see if there is something unique going on.

 

The organization just isn't that good at injury prevention or treatment, regardless of the organizational spin you'll get out of the TV & radio broadcasts or JSO. Even when they won that silly award for the least amount of DL time it had more to do with having a roster full of ascending young players than anything the training staff was doing at the big league level at that time. The lack of impact talent could be a developmental issue, but I think it's more of a draft philosophy issue. They focusing on a body type for injury prevention rather than attempting anything progressive from the developmental side.

I'm not sure what you're arguing. That there are no SP in the Brewers minor league system? I don't disagree with you that they have been terrible at drafting quality pitchers, but I fail to see any unique characteristics that would somehow make Brewers pitchers immune to TJ injuries. Nor am I aware of any correlation between "big bodied" pitchers and protection against TJ injuries. Yes, TJ surgeries does not cover all possible pitcher injuries, but it is a convenient proxy.

 

I don't pretend to know the details of the Brewers development system, but it seems that they have always emphasized certain medical aspects of developing and evaluating players (e.g. I remember reading about their system for evaluating pitcher injury-risk and their belief that they had tweaked Gallardo's delivery to make him particularly "good" at being less injury-prone), and at least one metric seems to bear that out. Maybe that means they are better at drafting less-injury-prone pitchers to begin with, but even if that's the case it suggests they know what they're doing with regard to pitching mechanics, and it doesn't change the fact that the Brewers have overseen some impressive rehabilitation campaigns in recent years. I think you're the one dead set on believing that the Brewers organization is simply incompetent at everything.

[TheCrew07]

I'm not sure what you're arguing. That there are no SP in the Brewers minor league system? I don't disagree with you that they have been terrible at drafting quality pitchers, but I fail to see any unique characteristics that would somehow make Brewers pitchers immune to TJ injuries. Nor am I aware of any correlation between "big bodied" pitchers and protection against TJ injuries. Yes, TJ surgeries does not cover all possible pitcher injuries, but it is a convenient proxy.

 

I'm saying that where you see something like a medical solution, or possibly different developmental practice based on some statistical data set, the root cause is actually something much simpler, it's the type of pitcher the Brewers are targeting. When Seid came in there was quite a bit of chatter out of the organization about targeting a certain body type, which is why I reference a "big bodied frame" when discussing the pitchers I think the Brewers might be into. They've said publicly that they believe those types of frames help prevent injuries. Believe me, if I got wind that the Brewers were doing anything different than the majority of organizations I would post it and offer some thoughts. For example the Astros are doing something different: Astros organization gives tandem rotation a test drive

The Astros are the first organization to use two starting pitchers per game at every level of the minor leagues. Instead of employing a typical five-man, five-day rotation, the Astros have eight pitchers working as pairs every four days.

Every time I've come across an organization who's taking a different tact I'll post the article on the minor league forum because I don't believe that the development system MLB has had in place for 60 years is very effective at all. MLB is lagging behind the other major sports in almost every way imaginable when it comes to athletic and personal development. I tend to champion organizations whom are looking at the game in a different way or trying to problem solve from a different angle than what would be considered the standard methodology.

 

The Brewers use a tandem at A ball, that means pitchers have their pitch counts and innings limited, they don't really start getting pushed until AA. If a pitcher flames out at A+, he never really got to the point where he could get hurt, as that's the first time he's a stand alone starter (some college pitchers get a stand alone slot in WI, typically 1 per season). They draft big bodied pitchers and put them in tandems early to minimize the risk of injury, they aren't overhauling mechanics or doing some significant to limit injuries on the coaching side.

 

So to my point about Jungmann vs Guerrieri, no one is really changing what either pitcher is doing, one was pretty "safe", the other had a higher ceiling but came with much more risk (character questions as well). It's not shocking that HS pitcher with a big arm who specialized in baseball needed TJ surgery before the fully developed big bodied college pitcher. The Rays are just as "careful" with their pitching prospects as the Brewers are, Taylor Guerrieri has a similar frame to Jungmann, he just hasn't filled it out yet. The same can be said of Dylan Bundy, though the Orioles pushed him much harder, but he's a also a bit shorter than the Brewer prototype.

 

We haven't had a starting pitcher make it out of Latin America and up to AA in some time, but last 2 who did both needed TJ surgery in the minors (Rivas and Peralta). Many of the pitchers needing arm surgeries haven't yet filled out their frames and have pretty big arms, because of the change in philosophy the Brewers just don't have many of those guys floating around. When they've drafted those guys they've been ineffective and gone like Lintz or did get hurt like Lasker for the most part. Thornburg has been the notable exception to this point so far, but Tyler is a pretty darn good athlete, better than most give him credit for, and that's one of the reasons I've been so high on him through the years. My only issue with him was his tendency to leave FBs up in the zone.

 

I don't pretend to know the details of the Brewers development system, but it seems that they have always emphasized certain medical aspects of developing and evaluating players (e.g. I remember reading about their system for evaluating pitcher injury-risk and their belief that they had tweaked Gallardo's delivery to make him particularly "good" at being less injury-prone), and at least one metric seems to bear that out. Maybe that means they are better at drafting less-injury-prone pitchers to begin with, but even if that's the case it suggests they know what they're doing with regard to pitching mechanics, and it doesn't change the fact that the Brewers have overseen some impressive rehabilitation campaigns in recent years. I think you're the one dead set on believing that the Brewers organization is simply incompetent at everything.

 

I don't recall Gallardo being significantly tweaked or reading about it, pitching coaches usually do something minor like moving on the rubber, or changing foot placement, or a how a pitcher lands with his plant foot. If you have a link I would greatly appreciate it.

 

I don't think the Brewers are incompetent, though I do think some of their training staff has been, thankfully those minor league trainers were fired and are long gone. I think the organization as a whole is very mediocre as I said, they aren't great at anything and they aren't awful at anything either. I've been around sports and athletic rehabilitation my whole life and where you see success with Rogers I see total failure, they even had him pitch when he couldn't feel ball in his hand. A player like Gamel needed a second surgery and now a 3rd on his knee, Mike Jones needed both shoulder and TJ surgery, Taylor Green was told to rest over the winter but when came back in the Spring he needed surgery anyway, the same for Alex Periard's shoulder, and the list goes on with Zach Braddock, Rickie Weeks, Aramis Ramirez, Corey Hart, and so on.

 

I think many fans have a problem being objective about their team and I do understand why I get labeled a "hater" even though that's not who I am at all, or my intention. Baseball is the one sport that doesn't lend itself to playing hurt at all; there is too much end range motion involved in every aspect of the game, there's really no such thing as holding yourself back a little. Add in the violent stops and starts and the idea that most baseball players aren't the most well conditioned athletes on the planet to start with, it's no wonder that so may of these little injuries to players linger all season, they are never given time to properly heal. A muscle tweak that moves the barrel of a bat 1/4 of a inch on a swing is the difference between a HR and routine fly ball... with such small margins of error is it any wonder why injured baseball players tend to perform terribly? What other major sport has such small +/- tolerances?

 

For most part I believe it's not a question of "if" a player will get injured, it's a question of "when". Part of your method ignores those players which the Brewers dumped and needed surgery that season or the following season, or haven't managed to pitch a full season in their Brewer career. The most recent examples are Wolf, Marcum, and Estrada, and as I said before pitchers like Axford had their surgeries prior to the Brewers, and some guys like Capuano had their 2nd with the Brewers. It's not just about TJ surgery, it's about the total injury picture. If the Brewers were doing something so significantly different then why all the DL time?

[SRB]

TheCrew07, all fair points. My original post was merely in response to the contention that the Brewers would be an especially bad organization to develop Hoffman. The details of the Brewers pitching development program are beyond my knowledge, I was just pointing out that there is compelling evidence that the Brewers not only are not especially bad, but might actually be especially good at working with pitchers to prevent future TJ injuries.

 

Other factors may contribute to their low TJ rate (like the pitchers they target in the draft, as you argue), but the point remains that there is no reason to think the Brewers are in a worse position than anyone else to draft Hoffman, and if anything they may be in a slightly better position given the possibility of pitching-development medical expertise that you and I are unaware of directly. I find it more plausible that the Brewers emphasize practices in pitching development to avoid TJ injuries, rather than that have developed some way to divine TJ-risk in advance of drafting somebody, since TJ seems like an equal-opportunity menace that is not correlated to body type really.

 

The fact that the Brewers may be above-average at preventing pitcher injuries does not imply that they will never have a TJ case or will never have pitcher injuries requiring DL time. There's no magic technique. Haven't the Brewers been near the top of the league in preventing MLB pitcher DL stints over the last few years too though?

[igor67]

I was originally loathe to draft an injured player, but if they could get the appropriate discount on his signing rate that could be very valuable later in the draft with managing that signing cap.

[TheCrew07]

While I worried the Brewers would draft him, I'm also not liking these injury guys dropping out of the top of the draft, it just means less talent available for the Brewers' pick.

 

UNLV Ace Erick Fedde To Have Tommy John Surgery

May 10, 2014 by Aaron Fitt

[DHonks]

I remember working in the Fall League and having a conversation with a trainer in which he pointed out a baseball study that showed that if a pitcher has arm surgery while in the minors, there's less than a 10% chance of reaching the big leagues.

[ewitkows]

You could say that about all pitchers. They draft 20 pitchers a year and you hope 3 or 4 can make the team

[splitterpfj]

The Brewers know 11 guys will go before they pick, and they also know what they're willing to spend vs what guys are trying to ask for, etc, so I'm sure there are a handful of guys they're considering for their top pick at this point. I know Toussaint is a guy they like, and the more I've thought about that, the more I've liked it, but....now, I'm starting to think he's going to be picked ahead of them.

 

With the injury to Hoffman, I still think someone will take him in the first round, but he's certainly not a lock to go ahead of Milwaukee, so that opens up one early spot that pretty much everyone thought Hoffman would fill. With the injury to Fedde, who also had a good chance of being a first-rounder, it simply reminds teams....you can never have too many pitchers....because pitchers get hurt.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if these two injuries force an arm or two further up the ladder, and if they do, honestly, Toussaint is as good of a bet as anyone else to move ahead of the Brewers' first pick.

 

The Brewers don't, "HAVE TO" take one thing or another first, the only thing we know for certain is that eleven players will go before they pick, which gives them a huge list of outstanding young ballplayers to pick from. I couldn't care less if it's a bat or an arm, I just want the pick to pan out.

[DHonks]

TheCrew07, you have many good points above. One question though is with the honesty of the players. I've known a lot of baseball players and I've never known one to say "hey coach, I'm hurt." Most people also fear having surgery (recall the stories of kids dying from tonsil removals or wisdom teeth). So in many cases where a doctor says rest MAY help heal a problem, players are often likely to agree to it. I think some of your critiques are more for the culture of the player toughness and should not be held against the Brewers franchise.

[LouisEly]

There is talk that the Brewers may significantly overspend their international bonus pool allotment; IIRC, that pool is coupled with the draft pool in terms of overspending and potential penalties. If such is the case, I would expect most if not all of the top 4 rounds to be very signable college guys. If the Brewers need to come up with an extra $500K from the draft pool to cover the international pool, I wouldn't expect them to take many HS players in the top 3-4 rounds.

 

Maybe this is the year the Brewers show the creativity of drafting college seniors with low signing bonus requirements in the 6th-10th rounds. Would Tyler Badamo sign for $50K as the Brewers 5th round pick?

[brewcrewdue80]

Louisely, I think the International spending is completely different in comparison to the June Amateur Draft. The Brewers should have all their Draft picks signed before the International signing period begins. Thus having no impact...IIRC.

[TheCrew07]

There is talk that the Brewers may significantly overspend their international bonus pool allotment; IIRC, that pool is coupled with the draft pool in terms of overspending and potential penalties.

 

The pools are completely separate, Colby among others in the industry have lobbied in the past for the pools to be combined so the teams could spend on amateur talent how they wished but that hasn't become a reality.

 

I linked the pool money in the 2014 International Signing Thread but here it is again. The Brewers have $2,611,800 for their International signings, inking Lara for 3.5 million would blow their pool just by himself.

 

 

The Brewers have a pretty awesome draft pool at $7,605,600 with the competitive balance pick.

[splitterpfj]

Here's my update, I'll do it one more time before the draft. Updated Mock Draft

[splitterpfj]

Tweet from @DanMKirby tonight....

 

Max Pentecost extends hit streak to 32 games. He has 23 multi-hit games during the streak, 68 hits total.

[TheCrew07]

Mock Draft: Pitchers aplenty in first round

Rodon, Kolek, Aiken projected to go 1-2-3 to Astros, Marlins, White Sox

[paul253]

Come #12 I am really hoping Finnegan, Zimmer, and Conforto are all off the board. I've seen Finnegan's name linked to the Brewers in a few mocks. I've also heard a lot of talk about him ending up as a reliever which would seem like a waste. And while I'm sure Zimmer and Conforto would make fine prospects I just think outfielders are the absolute last thing we need.

[brewmann04]

I hope we dont draft a pitcher to move to a reliever down the road we have enough of those types in the minors.

[reillymcshane]

Regarding Finnegan, I've read some reports saying he might become a reliever. But I wonder if some of that is that simple bias against smaller pitchers. The same thing was said about Lincecum coming out of college as well.

 

If the club feels he's going to be a starter, I'm okay with him. But like others say, I don't want a reliever.

 

As for Conforto, what are opinions about him? He's kind of a big guy. I'm worried he'll be strictly a bat - destined for 1B or LF. I think our position players could really use some athleticism, so he worries me a bit. But I've never seen him beyond a few highlight reels, so maybe others have a more nuanced view of him.

 

With regard to Zimmer, I kind of like what I've read. He seems well rounded, and can yet fill out his frame a little more. I guess a lot depends on how much power to expect from him. I think he'd be good value at #12.

[Jenkins5]

I'm sold on Chavis at #12 as I was on Baez a few years ago. With such a lack of impact bats and abundance of power arms in this years class....Go get your impact bat in first then you have pick 41, 51, and think 83 to land yourself some high quality arms. There should still be plenty big, high ceiling arms available at #41.

 

Chavis just has that swagger/confidence that you want in a player. That Braun & Lawrie (except seems less arrogant than Brett) which is very important in a failure sport such as baseball. Fist thing you always read about him is his incredible attitude and energy that he brings to the field day after day. I love that! He doesn't have any tools that jump off the board but he is very good at everything and should only continue to improve.

[LouisEly]

Part of me would like to see the Brewers rectify the organizational LH shortcomings - on the mound and at the plate - with this draft, and they may be able to do it:

 

#12: Sean Newcomb, LHP, or Kyle Schwarber, C/OF

#41: Matt Imhoff, LHP, or Cody Reed, LHP

2nd: Mac Marshall, LHP, or Alex Blandino, 3B

3rd: Evan Skoug, C, or Eric Skoglund, LHP

 

I could easily be tempted by Chavis in the first, or Tiquan Forbes or Keith Weisenberg in the 2nd.

[SRB]

Regarding Finnegan, I've read some reports saying he might become a reliever. But I wonder if some of that is that simple bias against smaller pitchers. The same thing was said about Lincecum coming out of college as well.

 

If the club feels he's going to be a starter, I'm okay with him. But like others say, I don't want a reliever.

 

Wasn't that the buzz on Sonny Gray too, when the Brewers passed on him (among others...) in the Draft of Great Shame? Someone should do a study of draft-time "might become a reliever" versus career outcomes.

[narwhalattack]

Part of me would like to see the Brewers rectify the organizational LH shortcomings - on the mound and at the plate - with this draft, and they may be able to do it:

 

#12: Sean Newcomb, LHP, or Kyle Schwarber, C/OF

#41: Matt Imhoff, LHP, or Cody Reed, LHP

2nd: Mac Marshall, LHP, or Alex Blandino, 3B

3rd: Evan Skoug, C, or Eric Skoglund, LHP

 

I could easily be tempted by Chavis in the first, or Tiquan Forbes or Keith Weisenberg in the 2nd.

 

They shouldn't be hell-bent on getting left-handed pitchers and ignoring everyone else, of course. If there's a RHP who's better than the LHP, then they should pick the RHP.