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How Close is A?

Yesterday, former Brewers prospect Miguel Diaz made his MLB debut for the San Diego Padres, pitching a fine scoreless outing in the midst of a lopsided defeat. In one-and-a-third innings, the young righty threw 15 pitches (10 strikes), and inherited a runner to close the bottom of the fifth inning. After the Rule 5 draft […]

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Assessing Roster Moves IV: Prospect Value

In the previous installment of this series, a reader comment provided an excellent point about judging prospects: monetizing prospect value appears to inflate their potential value, compared to MLB players. That this should not be surprising does not diminish the salience of the point — analysts have much, much more information available about MLB players. Moreover, […]

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Assessing Roster Moves II: Trending Sideways

It was difficult to discern a roster building plan during the Brewers’ two week stretch of Rule 5 roster protection and waiver-and-designate, but that sense has disappeared completely this week. First, GM David Stearns effectively closed his waiver spree by signing Korean Baseball Organization superstar Eric Thames, adding a well-priced value play to the MLB […]

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Assessing Roster Moves I: To Protect and Tender

Marginal theory is central to economic valuation because it provides tools for analyzing the cost and benefit of one additional unit added (or subtracted) from a current situation. In one economic game, the competitive market, marginal theory can be used to help find an equilibrium between supply and demand; in another economic game, such as […]

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Timber Rattler Arms

After the storybook season the Class-AA Biloxi Shuckers provided for the 2015 Brewers farm system, the 2016 minor league season might seem like a drag. On the surface, there are fewer prospects taking leaps forward, and some of the most notable prospects in the system are struggling with maximizing their tools. Yet, if the Shuckers […]

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Five Things To Watch In The Second Half

(1) Who stays? Who goes? The trade deadline and whether the Brewers will sell in a meaningful way will be an omnipresent and, likely, irritating discussion over the next two-and-a-half weeks. Twitter will be aflutter with tweets about players increasing or decreasing their trade value based on 25 plate appearances, a trio of relief appearances, or a […]