The 2017 MLB Draft Thread (#9 Pick + #34 & #46)

[nate82]

Joe Boyle is a name to watch. He was only throwing in the mid 80's and is now throwing in the mid 90's. If he can consistently sit in the mid 90's he should be a top 10 draft pick.

 

I liked what I saw though it was just against one batter on Monday. Maybe Colby has some more info on him?

[brewmann04]

Nice job appreciate the work and if Braun out for a while think we can move up from that 9th spot.

[Yolk]

Back half of the top 10 seems like the perfect position to grab by personal favorite pitcher in this class -- Hagen Danner.

[Mudville9]

Just looked at the standings today and thanks to the Cubs taking us behind the woodshed, we are only 3 games out of the #2 pick. You would think with the schedule hitting a rough stretch, losing the back end of our bullpen, and our "best" player, that may not be out of the realm of possibility.

[brewmann04]

add that Davies seems to hit the wall not looking good.

[MrTPlush]

Between all the games against the Cubs, Cardinals, and on the road we are going to lose a ton of games. If Davies has hit reality/wall that is just a cherry on the top. I also have to imagine quite a few players will get shut down early possibly adding a loss or two.

 

The bottom of the league is pretty tight together, but I still expect them to end up in the Top 5.

[Crash2303]

I find myself checking the standings daily (something I haven't done all season) and its not to see how close the Brewers are to the top, but rather, how close they are to the bottom. now tied for the 7th worst record and only 2.5 games back from the 3rd and just 3.5 games back from the 2nd pick in the draft- that is exciting...in a matter of speaking- lol. having something around the 10th pick isn't very high odds of being an organizational game changer- ie Braunesq. but, a top 5 pick, certainly does. on most draft analysis that I've looked at the top four picks, especially, over the last twenty or so odd years have a much higher likelihood of being significant MLB players- all-stars etc. then there's a drop-off and another drop off later on down. certainly, the higher the pick, the more players you have to choose from and the highest talented are drafted first.

 

there is a significant and fundamental difference between rebuilding and tanking. A team can be rebuilding and not tanking, which is what I've seen happening with the Brewers in the last year. Moving short-term, big league pieces for young, controllable talent while still maintaining a competitive major league team, but prioritizing playing younger developing players. Whereas tanking is doing all of that with the intention of losing games for a better draft position (ie 76ers). But, this has all been discussed here before. And I think most of us here, and for that matter, most fans have embraced the rebuild at least on some level.

 

However, knowing how important a #2 pick (and continued round by round draft position) could be in this coming year's draft, I am now all about the TANK. Yes, bring it on! we're out of it- outside of Braun, not many casual fans know many of the guys on the team anyway. if its just 2-3 games that separates us from a #8 pick and a #2 pick, how do you justify NOT trying to lose? Now, I know Counsell and the players are going to do what they can do to play their best and win. and that's great- we need to be for the integrity of the actual game. But calling up some extra under-developed guys in September and giving them an opportunity to play-out couldn't hurt.

 

Arcia and Suter are great examples of this. it's actually a win-win. If the young guys play and are over-matched, we may inch closer to the #2 pick and they get valuable MLB experience. If they do well and make improvements (ie Broxton, Peralta 2.0) it gives us more options in the future.

 

it looks like we may already be doing this- intentionally or no. we didn't begin the season like this, but we're here in position to strike now, so i say let's ramp it up even more and bring on the TANK!

[reillymcshane]

Brewers play 32 of their next 41 games against teams with winning records, including the Cubs, Cardinals, Mariners, Pirates and the Rangers. All these clubs are in the playoff race, so they are going to be looking to win.

 

The other nine games are against the Rockies (6 games) and Reds (3 games). The former is only three games under .500, while the Reds are tied with us.

 

You just don't take a bat like Lucroy out of our lineup and expect success. I said a month or so ago I expected us to collapse at some point. We just have a tough schedule and with so many young guys, it's going to be a painful time. I bet a bottom 5 finish is in the cards.

 

Still, I'm excited to see Arcia and Broxton and guys like that get more playing time. Getting those growing pains out of their system now will make them better in the future.

[paul253]

Add another top 5 pick to our system and it only gets better. Unlike our last rebuild we don't have as many of the all star caliber bats like Braun Fielder and Weeks but we do have more pitching depth, and more depth in general. I think this rebuilt team won't have as high a ceiling as the last but will have a higher floor, if that makes sense. Obviously we're not done yet but the additions of Ortiz Brinson and Bickford were huge IMO. If Hader and Ortiz match their potential and Looez turns things around I think we could have a solid rotation. Hopefully next draft we get that ace or another all star caliber bat to go with Arcia and Brinson.

[brewcrewdue80]

Lucroy's loss isn't the reason why Milwaukee is losing. The Offense has scored at a higher run average than each of June and July. The pitching losses of Smith and Jeffress plus Guerra along with Davies' collapse, has lead the team on their losing ways. 5.66 runs per game given up in August is higher than the Baseball leading Red Sox Offensive runs scored. As well as higher than Arizona's Baseball leading Defensive Runs/game given up. The bullpen have given up at least 1 run in 14 of the 18games this month. Thornburg no runs in 6games. Smith Runs in 4 of 8 games appeared this month. Jeffress runs in 2 of 7 games appeared. 6 of 21 is a lot less than 14/18 You can maybe see why Bullpen guys are so highly valued currently.

[monkeyman343434]

This recent 4 game winning streak has put them solidly back into the 9th spot again.

[Austin Tatious]

The Brewers have an out of whack propensity to pull games out at home. But there are a ton of road games the rest of the way. Teams are still bunched and I think we can get into the Top 5. Let's hope.

[brewmann04]

Sept will be their downfall team horrible on the road

[MrTPlush]

We are currently .5 game out of the #3 pick(not considering tie breakers).

 

Right now we have a solid lead for the #6 pick with #7 a ways behind.

[Austin Tatious]

9-20 since Lucroy was traded. The trend is we are headed for the third pick.

[brewcrewdue80]

We are currently .5 game out of the #3 pick(not considering tie breakers).

 

Right now we have a solid lead for the #6 pick with #7 a ways behind.

 

Lead is only on #10 and beyond. When you posted this we would have been in #7. Last nights loss with Tampa win put us at #6 by .5 game. 1game ahead of 8 and 2games ahead of 9. 10 is 4games ahead.

 

9-20 since Lucroy was traded. The trend is we are headed for the third pick.

 

The bullpen+Defensive errors have lost more games than Lucroy's loss has. Last 2 nights it's been Knoebel. Boyer a game in Pitts series.

 

September Callups Help on the way.

But, realistically with the schedule of Stl/Pitts/Cubs/@Tex 21 of 30games is a daunting task to likely exceed 10-20 record. 6games vs Cincy heads up going to be a battle of who can lose vs. win. Hopefully by the time Col series to finish season comes they won't be able to pass Milw in the standings. Have a great chance to get to #3 and with another 10-20 in 30 games, you may be able to wonder on #2 should Atl or Minnesota fall in to some wins.

 

10-20 means a 66-96 record to finish the season. Below my 70win but above others 100losses "easily"

[brewerfan82]

In addition to being the worst team in the league since August 1st and playing some tough teams to finish out the year, the Brewers also have more road games than anyone else they're "competing" with for a higher pick:

 

- Brewers (20 road games remaining)

- Twins (14)

- Braves (13)

- Padres (14)

- Athletics (15)

- Reds (15)

- Angels (13)

- Diamondbacks (17)

[brewerfan82]

In addition to being the worst team in the league since August 1st

I take that back... make that the worst team in MLB since May 28th. Wow.

[trwi7]

Doing a great job screwing ourselves right now.

[MrTPlush]

Broxton/Villar/Perez/Co. playing well > Draft pick position

 

Actually I will give up the 1st round pick all together if it means some of the guys who broke out this year keep it up. I wish we could have all these guys perform and lose 120 games, but unfortunately you can't have both. I will take the former though.

[brewmann04]

we still have another long road trip against teams we can't beat in stl and Chicago

[molitor fan]

if we go 12-12 the rest of the way we go 73-89 and would likely get the 9th pick....I would rather not lose 90 (which I think is a big deal mentally) and get the 9th pick than go 69-93 and get 7th pick...Am I alone in this thought?

[trwi7]

Like players are going to fall apart of they lose 90 games instead of 89? Yeah, I think you're alone with that thought.

[TheCrew07]

if we go 12-12 the rest of the way we go 73-89 and would likely get the 9th pick....I would rather not lose 90 (which I think is a big deal mentally) and get the 9th pick than go 69-93 and get 7th pick...Am I alone in this thought?

 

I think that's an emotional baseline that has no logical basis in either MLB or MiLB development.

 

Why wouldn't we want our young players to get as much experience as possible now and why would we want to sacrifice draft position and potentially talent for an arbitrary number?

 

I really don't understand the "can't win with young players argument" when teams around the game prove that theory wrong every year, I'm not even sure where it came from? The marginal difference in production from a MLB placeholder like Kirk to a hopefully ascending prospect like Broxton is negligible over the course of a full season. This would have been the perfect season to get Santana an extended look but the injury ruined that, and Broxton should be playing every day like Arcia is. I want every day ABs for prospects called up to MLB, I want to start weeding out the players that never will be... but that's very difficult when they aren't getting playing time.

 

Nothing irritates me more than the AAAA label being thrown at a guy who has <=300 sporadic PAs, that short leash leads to players looking over their shoulder and does nothing for their mental development as a player. Somehow it seems that people forget how long it took Gomez to develop with limited ABs... every time he failed he'd end up sitting the bench, and in Milwaukee he had actually lost the CF job to Cain before Cain was traded away. It's not about "pressure", it's about the player looking ahead to his success instead of worrying about what's going to happen if you fail. If you focus on failure it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy because the subconscious focuses on the last dominant thought. That's why you shouldn't tell anyone "not to do something", instead tell them what you want them to be. For example I never tell my pitchers "not to nibble" even when that's exactly what they are doing, instead I tell them to "attack the hitter". On surface it would appear to be the same message however they are anything but. Just like a telling a child "not to lie" leaves them with the last dominant thought of "lie".

 

Give youngsters room to have ups and downs, succeed and fail, until their production evens out, just have patience with them, and please understand that every player is going to have a somewhat unique career arc "or curve".

[brewmann04]

Hey it beneficial for the team to get a better draft pick at this point.