Game action in the 2017 Arizona Fall League starts this afternoon, offering baseball fans the nation over a welcome respite from those boring, Brewer-less playoffs. Milwaukee’s sending a good crop this year, headlined by a quartet of young hitters. It will be fascinating to see what Corey Ray, Monte Harrison, Jake Gatewood, and Lucas Erceg […]
Author: Noah Nofz
The Quiet Ascendance of Jon Perrin
In the fall of 2011, Jon Perrin arrived at Oklahoma State University as a lanky freshman with a mid-80s fastball and so-so command. He walked on to the Cowboys’ squad that year and made five mediocre appearances, mostly out of the bullpen, resulting in a smoke-and-mirrors ERA of 4.05. But he had his foot in […]
Considering the Keystone
Heading into the 2017 season, few Brewers fans were worried about second base. Jonathan Villar had spent the previous summer making good on his potential, authoring a 4.7 WARP season along the way. Scooter Gennett and Yadiel Rivera provided a decent insurance policy: one could be relied on for some decent at bats, while the […]
Joaquin de la Cruz and Second Chances
Here’s a well-worn story: A Dominican kid signs a contract with a Major League team, plays ball for a few seasons, struggles to develop as a prospect, and gets cut. This sort of thing happens so often it’s scarcely worth reporting. The kid finds another job or starts a family and that’s that. At least […]
Valuing Brent Suter
Last Friday, in one of the biggest games of the season, Brent Suter shone. Suter delivered seven innings of brutal efficiency, mowing through the Cubs’ championship lineup in just 82 pitches. The lanky lefty scattered four meager singles, walked one batter, and fanned five. It was an electric performance, and one that carried the slumping […]
The Land of Booms and Busts
Class-AAA baseball is the league of good-but-not-good-enough, the land of booms and busts. On one hand, that can be thrilling. You can find many of the game’s top prospects honing their talents in AAA before an inevitable ascent to the big leagues. On the other hand, it can be devastating. AAA rosters are littered with […]
Luke Barker is Blazing His Trail
The thing about the bottom falling out is that there’s usually no warning. So it was for Luke Barker on June 10, 2015, the final day of that year’s MLB First-Year Player Draft. Barker sported a 2.91 ERA over 72 collegiate appearances, stands 6’4” and weighed in at 210 pounds on draft day. He has […]
The Other Overlooked Cooper
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 […]
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 […]