What a great potential staff they are building.

DETROIT - Andrew Miller (LHP, North Carolina): The consensus top collegiate hurler, he generates plus movement to his 79-83 MPH slider and varies the speed on his fastball, sinking the ball at 84-89 MPH and dialing his four-seam fastball to 96 MPH. He'll also offer an 82-85 MPH cutter from his low ¾ slot, though his straight-change is a below average pitch. Sensing the need to work hitters instead of relying on the strikeout, he has become a better pitcher without losing his aggressiveness and only gave up one HR all season. He went 12-2 with a 2.26 ERA, a 3.1 Cmd, 9.4 K/9, and a .217 oppBA. His command remains inconsistent and does pitch with some effort, but can be a dominating starter at the Major League level.

I went to his first start last year in Detroit and wrote the following to a friend:

He is obviously pretty good; I was impressed in some ways and in
others disappointed.  I had to remind myself that this is a 19 year
old kid out there, not a polished college guy.  The first inning he
was really up and down, very poor command.  I couldn't believe how
much time he took between pitches; I was hoping that it wasn't part of
his normal routine.  Once the second inning hit, he was more of what I
had envisioned he would be like.  Got the ball from the catcher and
was locked in.  He is mostly arms/shoulder thrower; those big guys
must have difficulty stretching out.  That is what I like a lot about
Oswalt/Bonderman that there release point is as extended as they can
get their body to home plate, really using there legs.  Felix uses his
legs more so than Carlos Zambrano, but there are some similarities
between the 2.  Maybe it is because I have seen Z/Wood/Prior up close,
but he really was like a cross between Wood/Big Z.  Some of that is
good, but in a long term sense I have worries.  His lack of command
comes from this extreme fall off the mound to the left, very much like
Wood.  It is hard to imagine someone who has been throwing like this
from such a young age not developing some kind of problems in his arm
shoulder with how much stress he uses throwing.  Felix throws serious
gas; it was really impressive how much power he generates from his
body not using a huge Nolan Ryan leg kick.  His curve/off speed
pitches are as good as advertised as well.  All in all, he is a very
special talent, with time if he can evolve his motion I would expect
him to become a major star player.  Depending on how the M's use him
this year I think he will be very valuable.  In the second inning it
was a treat to watch Mags go to battle with him and end up striking
out.  Mags is one of my favorites (no duh?!?) and he fouled off some
good pitches before missing badly on a hard breaking curve.  Going in
I was sort of expecting Prior, I'm sure I have told you I sat about 15
rows up visitors side dug out for his first start at Wrigley.  He
faced Oswalt that day, one of my favorite memories for a game that I
attended.  I had read so much about Prior going into the game, and
seeing him that day blew my mind away.  Felix was nowhere near that
level, but Prior was 3 years older.

It was ironic reading this quote from Bustor Olney for ESPN last month:  

"Watched a lot of Sunday's game and was taken aback by the mechanics of Felix Hernandez -- how often he falls off to the first base side of the mound after throwing the ball. The first name that pops into your head when you see this: Kerry Wood, who has broken down repeatedly in his career, possibly because of his own awkward mechanics."

The reason why I bring this up at all is because watching him today (this is his first start I have watched in a month or so) is that I think the M's are trying to correct his motion more direct to home plate and it appears to have straightened out his stuff just a tad.  I have no bias one way or the other toward him so I don't want this to become a huge flame war that killed an interesting thread on Verlander/Liriano/Felix.  I was going to post on it since I have seen Liriano/Felix and Cain up close but thought maybe a new thread could be started on it instead where I could post pictures.

Back to Felix.....anyone else notice a difference in how he falls off the mound from last season to this one?  He seems to come forward more toward the plate instead of falling to 1b like Wood does.

I know a lot of us who visit this board go to games around the country and I thought it would be sort of interesting if we started posting out reviews of what we saw.  You can only take so much out of the box score than what you see the action.  I try to watch as much baseball as I can with the baseball ticket but even that can't grasp everything from the game live.  I am a Brews fan so this will be sort of slanted in that way.  I also have a hard time hiding what a poor strategic manager I think Yost is and what a terrible everyday player Clark is.

I had a pretty mixed bag of thoughts on this past weekend's games I went to for the Brewers/Twins.  Liriano has pretty amazing stuff but his numbers don't indicate how lucky he got not serving up at least 4 runs.  Terrible base running by my personally favorite Brady Clark (Clark makes me sick at the plate and in the field) was 1 inning killer with 2 on and no outs getting caught in a run down on a caught ball to the outfield.  He has the base running awareness of a rookie. Also Weeks just missed hitting a 3 run homer off Liriano too.  He was brilliant the first 2 innings but his command completely left him facing the line up a second time.  I wish the Brews would have been able to take more pitches on him.  Prince especially seemed to expand his strike zone this weekend.  Liriano fast ball reached as high as 99 MPH the first 2 innings (according to stadium gun) and sat mostly in the 95/96 range.  His other offerings are unreal too.  He is a lot bigger than I originally thought he would be as well.  Very built and tall, not at all what I envisioned last year and bigger than what he looked like the 1 time I have seen him in relief on the ticket.  Johan II is very accurate for how he looks and throws on the mound but his slider doesn't have that amazing break to it that Johan does but his FB is probably better.

Another small note on Prince, who has been a revelation to watch so far, that worried me slightly.  After a called 3rd strike he did the drop his bat and helmet on the plate in front of the ump to voice his displeasure and just stood there being pretty cocky.  He started to show somewhat of an attitude the entire series that I have not seen from hm before.  I just hope this behavior gets nipped in the butt quickly.  There will always be bad calls and I think he needs to "pay his dues" just a wee bit more before he has an umpire crew not giving him calls all weekend long.  I guess watching what an absolute pro mauer is with everything he does shows there is a better more mature way of handling things.  More on Mauer later.

Saturday's game was the ugliest thing to sit through.  First off I wish I knew why the Brewers keep on giving Ben Hendrickson more opportunities when it is apparent he is a AAAA guy.  A perfect example of why Yost should go is that he left BH in to face a left handed hitting Morneau after the first 5 hitters pounded hits.  Of course Morneau hit the second pitch to the wall for a 2 run double making the score 5 to 0, game over.  After that Yost brings in a LH De La Rosa (more on him in a second) to face 5 RH batters in a row.  De La Rosa retires like the next 7 guys in a row.  All week Yost has been saying De La Rosa doesn't have the arm strength to start just yet.  Well BH didn't record a single out in the game and DLR had to go 4+ innings.  De La Rosa wouldn't be a bad guy to pick up in other leagues right now.  His overall numbers don't indicate how well he has been doing lately and his stuff is as good as anyone on the team (Sheets included) it's always been a question of his command which seems to be coming around.  He probably will be considered an option for the rotation when the Brews need a 5th starter and has a lot of upside.  Baker for the Twins was solid but looks like a mid rotation guy which is pretty good.  Consistently in the low 90's with good secondary stuff but nothing that blows you away.

Bonser on Sunday actually impressed me the most out of everyone I saw this weekend overall.  Not as good of stuff as Liriano of course but he really knows how to pitch.  At least he did on Sunday.  He has as much upside as Baker with a better fastball and other offerings seemed about the same as Baker.  He kept everyone off balanced and had great presence and command on the mound.  He wasn't afraid to use any of his off speed pitches later in counts. All in all he had a really nice start.  Capuano was his crafty self and he has improved a great deal since last year.  He doesn't nibble the corners and pounds the zone mixing in 4 different pitches.  He hides the ball really well and has a consistent late release point.  Once Bonser left the game and Cain came in the Brews bats sprung to life.  Weeks laced a triple and the come back was on.  Lee had his best ab of the weekend with a 2 run double.

The Brewer defense is really troubling and it showed in spades this weekend leading to a lot of Twin runs.  Hall is miscast at SS and this point makes me really pi$$ed off.  Why they buried JJ at the end of the bench to play Hall at SS is poor management.  JJ needs to play everyday and his defense is outstanding.  It's like Yost has it in his head that if JJ is in the line up he has to bat 2nd.  They should have just kicked him down to 7th or 8th.  Play Hall in CF if they really are that afraid to put Weeks in Center before next season which is a joke as well.    Just put him out there in CF (and put Clark out to pasture) he can't do any more harm than he actually does.  Weeks errors this year (which he leads ML in) don't give any indication for how truly bad in the field he is.  The messed up double plays, the hard hits right at him he misplays are not in that total.  On Friday he had 2 hits right at him any other 2B in baseball would have been able to handle that were counted as hits.  JJ at SS, Hall at 2B and Weeks in CF would be much better than what they current have and would make the pitching that much better.  Super fast defense up the middle of the field is the key to a lot of Braves victories over the past 14 years.  Last week there was a post about Weeks eventual position.  The responses to it were sort of interesting and pointed out they either don't watch the Brewers on the Baseball Ticket and go by the box score full time.  Week's errors and mishaps in the field are not just throwing related.  His footwork angles are all out of whack.  He has a terrific arm as well where he would be a real asset in the OF.  I saw him throw an absolute dart relay to 3b from deep in the corner to nail a runner this year.  Seeing Hunter play CF for the Twins gave me an idea for what could be.

All of this brings me to the magic of Mauer.  I have not been to any Twins games this year to better document Silvas or Loshes struggles but I wonder if it is because they didn't trust Mauer more.  I didn't see more than a couple of nod offs by the pitcher and I think this helped Liriano and Boonser a lot.  He knew when to come out to the mound in very subtle situations before they could have led to big innings and he is mesmerizing to watch.  The coolest cat on the field and was amazing to watch catch.  Nothing rattles him at all and his demeanor is the same from BP to the 9th inning.   The Brews love to send Weeks stealing and they didn't come to close to sending anyone all weekend long.  He had snap up and throw to 3rd base on Sunday that almost caught Cirillo off guard that was an absolute dart.  It was very risky to throw too in the situation in the only late inning close game of the weekend.  His hitting is as good as his defense.  In batting practice it was like watching a machine hitting hard line drives all over the field.  if you make a Twins game I highly recommend getting a great seat to watch him take his cuts.  CRACK...to RF....CRACK....to CF......CRACK to LF and repeat.  Flawless mechanics hitting that he repeats every time.  His line drives in batting practice and the game sound like HR's.  Unreal contact skills.  I saw him swing and miss at 2 bad pitches the entire series against an "amped up" Turnbow on Sunday.

Just my .02 cents.  If anyone would like pictures from the game let me know.  I have a bunch of pictures from AT&T Park from 3 weeks ago.  I went to the AZ and Padres series there.  All of the pictures are from 5 to 10 rows behind the plate and I got some cool pictures of Cain and Bonds.  I have many more pictures from other parks but my "eye" for what to take has improved greatly the past 2 seasons.

The Dan Perry piece posted about today had me thinking what "real" experts have for their top 10 OF prospects with the season 125 to 150ab's old.  
I am taking into account current performance and long term projection/upside.  I like Pie and Butler but long term I have some doubts.  Pie with his strike zone judgement and Butler with his body and defensive prowess.
Here is my take:

1)Justin Upton
2a)Delmon Young
2b)Elijah Dukes
4)Lastings Milledge
5)Carlos Quentin
6)Chris Young
7)Nolan Reimold
8a)Jose Tabata
8b)Fernando Martinez
8c)Carlos Gonzalez

Dublin, Ohio - International League president Randy Mobley has today announced that his review of the widely publicized April 26 incident involving Delmon Young has concluded. The indefinite suspension issued immediately following the incident has been lifted and replaced with a defined action.

The action taken by the International League is as follows:

50 game suspension retroactive to April 27 which will allow Mr. Young to again participate on Monday, June 19

Suspension will be without pay

Mr. Young has agreed to perform a minimum of 50 hours of community service while under suspension which will be divided between the Durham Bulls Youth Athletic League1 and the Miracle League of Gulf Beaches2

In making the announcement Mr. Mobley stated, "The goal in reviewing this very serious matter was to arrive at a fair and just action against Mr. Young. With the 50 game suspension, longer than any other uncovered in the League's 123-year history, and the significant fine as a result of the loss of salary, I believe this has been accomplished."

Mr. Mobley went on to say that, "Since immediately following the incident, Delmon was in agreement that community service would be part of the final action taken by the League. I believe there will be mutual benefit in Delmon's involvement with the Durham Bulls Youth Athletic League and the Miracle League of Gulf Beaches. My hope is that this unfortunate incident can have a positive and life changing impact on Delmon's personal and professional life."

"Elijah Dukes was removed from the team at Triple-A Durham because of an altercation with coaches last week.
Dukes, who has a long history of on- and off-field problems, is working out in Florida"

I know this incident was talked about last week but what exactly does "removed from team" mean?  Seems a bit different than a suspension.

I'm not even sure why I ask on this board with how pompous people are here with their replies.  Last week when I posted just asking the simple questions if Dukes and Young roomed together the "outrage" response was pretty funny.  Hopefully the level headed will reply.

Birds of a feather.........

Is there video of the incident?  

Is Delmon rooming with Dukes again at AAA?  I read people felt he had more of an attitude when they were paired up last year in AA.

After Hamilton and the headache Delmon looks to be I bet the Drays might be a bit hesitant drafting a can't miss super toolsy OFer #1 if they get the top pick again.
 

Didn't someone make a diary that he was called up to AA last week?

He wasn't, although he had another nice start last night.

6ip,6h,2r,2er,1bb,8ks,w

Fill this post up for posting here are some ramblings:

~Anyone know why Brignac has only pinch hit the last couple of games?

~Can the dbacks really keep a .350ave Quentin at AAA all season if he keeps hitting like this

~Prince Fielder has tremendous bat speed.  He is really awesome to watch on a day to day bases. Those with the ticket should tune into what those in Wisconsin already know; Prince is going to be an MVP level hitter sooner than later.

Anyone know what his D at SS is like?  With a potential Upton move to 3B or 2B would the organization view Brignac as a possible long term answer there?

Any love for a couple of High A Brewers out there in Gallardo or Escobar?  I don't read a lot about either one though both are very young and productive.

Is it time to re-think the future of Dukes?  BA had a nice write up on him but one part really drew my eye:

"Dukes is slated to start the year at Triple-A Durham, and he's worked hard to improve all phases of his game. Some scouts this spring have said that if it weren't for his history outside the lines, Dukes would be widely regarded as a prospect of the same quality as Young."

Yesterday this was part of Peter Gammons blog for insider:

"* The single most talented young player I saw all spring? Tampa Bay OF Elijah Dukes. Yeah, yeah, yeah ... he has issues, but most of us know nothing about what it takes to overcome such social obstacles."

Throw this on top of a great spring where he made a positive impression on the new manager and I get the feeling he shouldn't have been left off everyone's top 100 lists for prospects.  I don't think Dukes has been in trouble for the last year or so to be kept off of them or is his past that troubling?

If Dukes is this special of a talent wouldn't make the most sense for a future OF in Tampa of
Dukes/Delmon at the corners with Crawford in center?  Does anyone think it is important to the Drays organization for Dukes to be the first "product of Tampa" they drafted to make the Drays?