July Transactions; Latest: OF Ryan Knox back to AA

[Al the Thinking Man]

Anyone else think Knox was chosen as an organizational soldier to go to Indy? A .289 AA OBP in 600 AB's would seem to tell me he isn't remotely ready for that level.

[LouisEly]

Anyone else think Knox was chosen as an organizational soldier to go to Indy?

 

Yep. Kind of like how Brandon Gemoll will be the organizational soldier promoted to AAA next year to make way for Nelson at Huntsville and Fielder at High Desert.

[MassBrew]

Jim Powell just reported that Beloit OF Steve Moss will miss the rest of the regular season -- he's going to have surgery on his injured shoulder. Moss might see time in the fall instructional action in Maryvale.

 

Also, High Desert OF Dan Boyd was officially placed on the Mavericks' disabled list on July 1st; he's been out since early June with an injured left wrist.

[batman]

That really sucks for Moss. I hope he comes back 100% and is able to catch up with the rest of the Beloit gang.

 

Do you know what the surgery/injury is? Phil Nevin dislocated his shoulder in the Spring and had season-ending surgery. Jeter and Griffey both got back pretty quickly. Not sure what the difference between their injuries is/was... hope Moss' is the latter.

 

~Bill

 

EDIT: Well, it turns out that Nevin is slated to come back in late July/early August. Hopefully Moss' recovery is at least that quick...

[cooper9]

for your info, belcher is not dhing everyday. please get your facts straight. he is playing right field.

[MassBrew]

Catcher Simon Guhring of the Arizona Rookie Brewers was placed on the Temporary Inactive list.

 

Pretty interesting, actually...

 

Guhring was given permission to play for the German National Team in an attempt to qualify for the Olympics. He will be gone approximately three weeks.

 

Nice of the Brewers to allow him to compete for a spot in the Olympics. Guhring is one of only two German players in organized affiliated ball right now. The Brewers released their other "German import" (sorry, couldn't resist http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif ) this spring, 3B Mitch Franke.

 

This article details Mike Piazza's trip to Germany this offseason and mentions Guhring...

 

mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/ml...&fext=.jsp

 

Guhring is holding his own thus far in limited Arizona action this year and last, hitting .237 with a relatively low strikeout total. Neat story, if nothing else...

 

As always, our thanks to the Brewers for responding to our requests about the status of specific players.

[MassBrew]

The newest Brewer farmhand is RHP Nick Bates, a 23-tear-old who made his Arizona Brewer debut Tuesday.

 

Bates completed his Michigan State career in 2002, with a very nice senior year (9-3, 2.97 ERA, 7 CG, 30 BB and 100 K in 88 IP), and was Kansas City's 22nd round selection in the 2002 June draft, but apparently never signed with the Royals.

 

Earlier this year, Bates was pitching in relief in the independent Frontier League with Evansville. He was given his release there on June 20th, and signed with the Brewers shortly after that.

 

RHP Nick Bates 2003 numbers with Evansville:

 

www.baseballamerica.com/c...ates%2C+ni

 

Bates' Profile Page at Michigan State (prior to senior year):

 

msuspartans.ocsn.com/spor...ick00.html

 

Nice Detailed Feature Article on Bates from Spring 2002:

 

www.statenews.com/article.phtml?pk=9934

 

Not sure what the circumstances were that kept the Royals from coming to an agreement with Bates, but he's Brewer property now...

[MassBrew]

Man, nothing like a successful web search at lunch time!

 

Nick Bates feature story on his Brewer signing:

 

www.lenconnect.com/articl...ports1.txt

[bork]

For your info, belcher is not dhing everyday. please get your facts straight. he is playing right field.

 

Recently, he is playing the OF again, but check the June box scores. There was a stretch in June where he was almost exclusively used as a DH.

 

Edited: to adjust font to prevent extra wide thread.

[squarepusher]

Yesterday (July 9th), the Brewers signed shorstop Alcides Escobar and assigned him to the Arizona Brewers.

 

No data on Escobar so far...

[Past Member]

Escobar is 5' and 100lbs? I read that an just grinned. Good for him. A little guy like that, and now he's a professional athlete.

[MassBrew]

Minorleaguebaseball.com also stated that the contract was for the 2004 season, which seems a bit odd. Either another typo, or a very young Epy Guerrero find for next season.

[MassBrew]

Helena OF Manuel Melo is recovered from his slight groin strain, and was activated from the Brewer disabled list for Thursday's game, going 2-for-5 and stealing a base.

 

Helena RHP Todd Gelatka was released Thursday. The Brewers 28th round pick in 2000, the soon-to-be 22-year-old Gelatka appeared in only six games in three seasons (three this year). Not sure if he recently encountered additional injury issues, or simply became a victim of a numbers' crunch.

 

Rehabbing Helena LHP Eric Henderson is on his way to High Desert! The 2000 draft 4th round selection will be 24 in September. Off to a very strong start against the Pioneer League kids, he'll get a chance to "catch up" in the system and pitch at the high-A level. If Henderson is truly over prior injury issues, this is one of the bigger roster moves for the Mavericks' benefit of the season thus far. We imagine Tim Blackwell will plug him into the High Desert rotation. No word yet on any accompanying moves.

[MassBrew]

While Friday AM's Helena newspaper accounts had LHP Eric Henderson off to High Desert, the Snappers' site now indicates that he is moving up one level, to Beloit. Sorry about the confusion. We'll trust the Snappers front office here.

 

Also, the Snappers say that the Brewers have released 2001 3rd round RHP Jon Steitz. The "stuff" that wowed them on the bullpen mound never made it into games, did it? Can't win them all....

 

Jon Steitz Brewerfan Player Profile Page:

 

www.brewerfan.net/ViewPla...ayerId=159

 

Jon Steitz Power 50 Archive:

Sorry, Toby, there's something to be said for overlooking truly bad performances too long among the high draft picks; not saying your analysis was incorrect -- just get the sense there's a clamoring among the faithful to reward results more than promise in obvious cases like this...

 

www.brewerfan.net/ViewPow...ayerId=159

[squarepusher]

Well, looks like he at least has a Yale education to fall back on.... Good luck Jon.... Too bad it didn't work out for ya....

[MassBrew]

Yesterday (July 9th), the Brewers signed shorstop Alcides Escobar and assigned him to the Arizona Brewers.

 

No data on Escobar so far...

 

The Brewers now list Escobar on their Arizona roster, squarepusher.

 

Bats/Throws R, 6'1", 155, DOB 12/16/86 -- yup, he's barely 16 and a half years old -- no birthplace info...

 

Also, according to the Brewer web site, Helena catcher Alberto Segura (10-for-24, .417 in the early going) was transferred down to Arizona.

[xisxisxis]

Well, looks like he at least has a Yale education to fall back on.... Good luck Jon.... Too bad it didn't work out for ya....

 

He also has that 3rd round signing bonus. Can't say the writing wasn't on the wall since you really need to be able to get the ball over the plate to have any success in baseball. Maybe they don't teach that at Yale.......

[bork]

I sure hope Palmisano can break the string of 3rd round disapointments.

[BrewDude]

I sure hope he does because these third rounders just aren't doing it for us!!

 

Also was Segura sent down because of the surplus of catchers? Obviously it shows that he truly belongs in Helena though.

[950opsLHcatcher]

I imagine it was a combination of Helena not needing a guy other than Rottino catching behind Palmisano every 4th day (plus Manny Ramirez is a pinch) and Arizona needing catchers to keep Opdyke from having to start more than 3-4 times a week. Segura was awesome in his limited AB in Helena, but they were limited AB. If anyone remembers Mario Mendez's first few weeks in Ogden last season, you'll know what I'm talking about.

[Al the Thinking Man]

No way I give up on Steitz this early. That's a big investment to throw away. You can't tell me we have 11-12 pitchers at Beloit that we feel have the potential to pitch in the bigs. Stietz throws hard, and many of his problems (16 balks this year) reeks of concentration issues.

 

Way too young to think he doesn't have a shot.

[MassBrew]

Well, Alberto Segura played in Helena last night (as the DH), so Brian, if you could back out that transaction off the archive, please.

 

It's not like a birdie is whispering in our ear. Segura was moved to the Arizona roster on the major league Brewers' own site on Friday.

 

Oh well...

[pogokat]

is it possible that steitz was released on his own accord???

[colbyjack]

Stietz throws hard, and many of his problems (16 balks this year) reeks of concentration issues.

 

But he wasn't improving. Plus, we have heard that he wasn't throwing nearly as hard as he once did. The 90-94s that he was throwing with the nasty slider turned into 82-85 with a rather flat breaking pitch. Somewhere along the line he just lost it, probably a combination of control, confidence & concentration issues. Since he passed on the Brewers' instructional league the fall after we drafted him to go back to Yale & finish up his degree, I'm guessing baseball isn't his #1 priority. As pogo noted, maybe he asked to be released to pursue his own ventures.

 

There's always another story & usually a good reason why these things happen.

[Al the Thinking Man]

Stietz may have asked for his release. I wouldn't have given it to him. We still own the rights to Dustin 5th rounder, I woulda let Jon retire.

 

Heck, I'll go as far as to say I'd look for Stietz types to pick up, former top 5 picks that have struggled. Goodness, Chad Green is finally not embarassing himself at AAA. He'll never be a star, but he may still get some ML time. Some take longer than others to figure it out.

 

Obviously, as a high pick, they have "tools", but haven't put it together. It doesn't seem far fetched to say that if you find ten of these guys, a couple will make it.