Sweep Suits!!

The Brewers go for a sweep tonight as Chris Capuano takes the mound for the Crew. Cappy has been the most consistent starting pitcher for the Brewers so far this year. And if you're wondering, coming into tonight's game both the Yankees and the Brewers have identical 28-30 records. However, here is the funny part about that....

NEW YORK YANKEES			MILWAUKEE BREWERS
PLAYER	SALARY (US$)		PLAYER	SALARY (US$)
1. Alex Rodriguez	25,705,118		1. Carlos Lee	8,000,000
2. Derek Jeter	19,600,000		2. Geoff Jenkins	7,333,333
3. Mike Mussina	19,000,000		3. Ben Sheets	6,000,000
4. Kevin Brown	15,714,286		4. Damian Miller	3,250,000
5. Randy Johnson	15,419,815		5. Wes Helms	2,812,500
6. Jason Giambi	13,428,571		6. Doug Davis	2,350,000
7. Bernie Williams	12,357,143		7. Junior Spivey	2,125,000
8. Gary Sheffield	11,496,689		8. Brady Clark	1,150,000
9. Jorge Posada	11,000,000		9. Ricky Bottalico	800,000
10. Mariano Rivera	10,500,000		10. Russell Branyan	800,000
11. Carl Pavano	9,000,000		11. Chad Moeller	700,000
12. Hideki Matsui	8,000,000		12. Lyle Overbay	446,000
13. Jaret Wright	5,666,667		13. Victor Santos	420,000
14. Mike Stanton	4,000,000		14. Tommy Phelps	360,000
15. Tom Gordon	3,750,000		15. Matt Wise	345,000
16. Felix Rodriguez	3,150,000		16. Bill Hall	344,000
17. Paul Quantrill	3,000,000		17. Wes Obermueller	342,000
18. Tino Martinez	2,750,000		18. Chris Capuano	340,000
19. Tony Womack	2,000,000		19. Chris Magruder	325,000
20. Ruben Sierra	1,500,000		20. Derrick Turnbow	322,000
21. Tanyon Sturtze	850,000		21. Jorge de la Rosa	317,000
22. John Flaherty	800,000		22. Jeff Cirillo	316,000
23. Rey Sanchez	600,000		23. J.J. Hardy	316,000
Total Team Salary:	205,938,439		Total Team Salary:	40,234,833
Average	8,953,845		Average	1,749,341
Median	8,000,000		Median	446,000

With the 5th Pick.....

....the Milwaukee Brewers select: Ryan Braun, 3B, University of Miami (FL). You can find anything and everything you would ever want to know about who the Brewers drafted in the first day of the First Year Amateur Player Draft right here.

Braun was the fifth overall selection, yet he was the third 3B taken. So as you can see, it was a good year to draft college third basemen. There are some concerns about Ryan Braun that lead me to conclude he was a bit of a reach at the number five pick. He has a slight hitch in his swing when he loads up, plus there are questions whether or not he will be able to survive defensively at third base. Some scouts feel he will need to be moved to a corner outfield position later in his career.

The Brewers didn't have a 2nd round pick because they lost it to the Oakland A's as compensation for signing Damian Miller in the off-season. The Crew selected 4 traditional college players, 5 juco players, and 9 high schoolers -- pretty much fitting scouting director Jack Zdurencik's draft mold. Rounds 19 - 50 are completed on Wednesday.

Twins Prospects

At the game Sunday in Beloit, I got to see some of the Minnesota Twins' top prospects in action -- SS Trevor Plouffe, SP Jay Rainville, and 3B David Winfree. And now for some brief analysis and observations from the game which pitted 2004 1st round draft picks on the mound, Jay Rainville against the Clinton Lumber Kings (Texas Rangers affiliate) and Eric Hurley.

First off, Eric Hurley did not impress me as much as his counterpart. Our seats were right behind the scouts near home plate, so I was able to see the guns and noticed that Hurley's velocity was topping out in the high 80's only, a far cry from the high 90's from the previous year during high school. He also appeared to suffer some sort of injury because the trainer and coaches came out to check on him in the second inning, but stayed in the game. Hurley's repertoire included what seemed like a hard-breaking slider and a sinking fastball. He also appeared to throw a few change-ups as well, but it was obvious, to me at least, when the pitch was coming because his delivery would slow down. His delivery is also rather unorthodox because his arm appeared to lag behind the rest of his body. Eric Hurley's final line from Sunday: 6.1 IP, 5 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 8 SO, 3 HR allowed.

Now for RHP Jay Rainville, who was considered an NHL defenseman prospect prior to being drafted 39th overall in 2004's draft. Rainville is a pretty big guy -- 6'3", 230 lbs. He looked like a younger Clemens or Schilling out there. He was consistently hitting low 90's with his fastball that appeared to have some sink on it. His breaking ball that he threw was a nice spike-curveball. And just like his pitching counterpart on Sunday, he also needs to work more on his change-up to have it considered a solid pitch. Rainville's mechanics also looked very smooth as well -- a nice 3/4 delivery which appeared like there was little stress on his arm. As for his pitching line against Clinton: 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 SO, 1 HR allowed. Overall, you cannot ask for much more out of a starting pitcher, it was truly a great performance.

As for position prospects that were in the game today, the Twins' first, first round selection in last year's amateur draft was a shortstop by the name of Trevor Plouffe, (20th overall) from high school in California. To be as kind as I can be, Plouffe has really struggled in his time in Beloit, and what I saw yesterday didn't do anything to dismay his current numbers for the year. Eerily, he has very similar stats to that of J.J. Hardy right now, but the comparison stops at the plate. He is currently hitting only .174, with an on-base percentage of .256 while hitting for very little power. At the plate, Plouffe has a good eye, as he is averaging a walk every 8.8 AB's, including 2 more yesterday. His defense is a work in progress. He has good range on pop-ups, but each ball that was hit to him on the ground, he had an error (three total). He made a throwing error on a lazy ground ball that he charged in on in the first inning. In the top of the fifth, he booted his next chance. And in the top of the ninth, he made his second throwing error of the game, failing to record an out on any of the three ground balls that were hit to him.

David Winfree was drafted as a catcher in 2003, then moved to first base and now plays third base. He is a young, work in progress who has huge power potential but doesn't walk enough and strikes out too much. He had a nice game at the plate Sunday though, going 2 for 4 with a double, home run, and three rbi's.

Test Run

I went out to the Beloit Snappers game on Sunday because it was Dave Krynzel bobblehead day. Since they only give out 500, not 45,000 like they do at Miller Park, I wanted to see just how early I had to get there in order to make sure I received one. I called it a "test run" because along with myself, about 20 of my friends will be making the trip from all corners of the state down to Beloit again on July 31st for Vinny Rottino bobblehead day.

Game time was set for 2pm and we arrived around 11:30 in the morning after making the hour and a half drive from Racine. I didn't think about our plan too clearly, because we should have brought some folding chairs or a beach blanket or something to sit on as well as something to eat and/or drink. It got quite uncomfortable standing in the same freakin' spot until they opened the gates at 1.

Once the line began to move, I began to feel pretty glad to be able to actually move around again, but there were these 4 piece of shit teenagers who decided to cut right in back of me and my sister. They were literally the human version of pure trash with what they wore and how they talked. Everyone around us in line were pretty upset, to say the least about these individuals. I seriously did not even open my mouth until they were out of our sights because I knew that if I had said something, it would not have been pretty. I was absolutely fuming inside, but did not want to let my anger and emotions get the best of me. I also did not want to put my sister in any sort of danger either, but if I were with some of my other friends....let's just say I would have reacted differently. I've shown that I can fend for myself pretty well against one or two individuals, but the writing would have been on the wall if I went after four at once!