There’s a player named Cooper opening some eyes on the Brewers farm this year. He can hit for average, draw a walk, and slug one into the gap. He plays a position of recent organizational need, though a few shrewd offseason moves have clouded his path to the bigs. Sound familiar? You might be thinking […]
Author: Noah Nofz
The Rise, Fall, and Return of Matt Ramsey
Value can come from anywhere. More than anything else, this is the edict of the David Stearns era in Milwaukee. For the past year and a half, Brewers fans have been privy to a magical world where minor league filler is flipped for major league assets and grizzled veterans become improbable trade chips. The waiver […]
Analyzing Espino’s Whirl-windy Debut
My dad, who grew up in and around Chicago, remembers driving into Wrigleyville with a friend in the summer of 1969, when Billy Williams, Ron Santo, and Ernie Banks batted 3-4-5 for the Cubs. He was seventeen years old and was there to see his first-place Cubs take on the New York Mets. The Cubs […]
Tristan Archer Aims for Miller Park
Throwing a small object past a man holding a stick and standing 60 feet away doesn’t sound all that tough. But when the object has to land within an area slightly larger than three square feet and the man holding the stick has muscles the size of your head…. Well, there’s a reason I write […]
Chasing Greatness
Chase Anderson was never a heralded prospect. He’s never been a heralded major leaguer, either. In the January 2016 trade that brought him to Milwaukee, Anderson flew surprisingly under the radar. Never mind that he was a controllable young starting pitcher. Aaron Hill blossomed into an unexpected deadline chip and Isan Diaz rode his powerful […]
Signing Shohei Otani
Chances are you’ve heard about Shohei Otani. Talent hounds have been braying his name for years, and with good reason. A quick introduction: Last year, he performed like Noah Syndergaard on the hill and Mike Trout with the stick. His résumé in the Japan Pacific League included a 1.86 ERA with 11.2 strikeouts against 2.9 walks […]
Jorge Takes the Hill
The Brewers’ minor league affiliates are off and running, and early indications suggest that 2017 will be a special season up and down the rungs of the organizational ladder. Early coverage has rightly emphasized the glut of prospects clogging up the boxscores at Class-AAA Colorado Springs and Class-Advanced A Carolina. Meanwhile, right-handed starter Jorge López […]
Walk, Whiff, Smash, Swipe!
In September of 2015, the Milwaukee Brewers hired David Stearns to give direction to what had recently been a rudderless franchise. The move was well received by industry analysts and casual fans alike. Stearns was a rising star in the Houston Astros front office, and that franchise had just emerged from years of futility in […]
Jonathan Villar Powers Up
Last season, Jonathan Villar led the Brewers in fun. His electric offensive performance, his league-leading 62 stolen bases, and yes, even his occasional mind-numbing base running errors did much to elevate an 89-loss team into the realm of watchability. On a more practical note, he also led the team with 4.8 WARP and 79 bases […]
The Intriguing Brent Suter
Spring training is officially underway, and this year’s battle for roster spots should be one for the ages. On a rebuilding club like the Brewers, the first few weeks of March function as an extended open audition. You can see it all over the diamond. Keon Broxton digs in his cleats as Lewis Brinson nips […]