The Rox

The Crew just came off of a 3-game sweep of the Colorado Rockies, perhaps the team with the worst major league talent on it in all the league. By completing the sweep, the Brewers were able to return to .500 yet again before they take on the almost equally woeful Houston Astros this weekend. But back to the Rockies series...I would seriously feel comfortable that our own Triple-A Nashville team could beat the Rockies, since if you took away Todd Helton, that's pretty much what is left, a young AAA roster.

It is fairly obvious that the Rockies and Brewers have taken different paths to develop their own players. The Brewers could have chosen to do what the Rockies have done and called up just about every single prospect and let them learn on the job in the big leagues, but they did not. The Rockies have gone from being the oldest team in MLB last year to the youngest team this year, with an average age of 27 years of age. Whereas the Rox have 11 rookies currently on their 25-man roster and will almost assuredly add more throughout the year, the Brewers only have 2 of their main prospect group up -- J.J. Hardy and Jorge de la Rosa.

There are several reasons why I do not agree with the Rockies' plan. First, by giving the majority of playing time to rookies, it gives the message to the casual fans that they are not willing to be competitive this year. Second, by having all of these rookies collect major league service time, it speeds up their arbitration clocks. While they could be gaining more valuable experience down in AAA, it is most likely that at least some of these players have been rushed to the major leagues and were not ready for the jump. But by starting their arby clocks, the Rockies have chosen to develop them the costly way instead of the cheap way via the minors. This is especially tough for teams like the Brewers and Rockies because when these players finally develop and turn into good ballplayers, they will be too expensive for the teams to afford and will either lose them through free agency or will be forced to trade them.