Not surprisingly, the Brewers farm system slips to #14 after graduating so many high-level prospects. #1 prospect in the system is now AAA 2B Mark Loretta.
One player not starting the season with the club? Starting SS Jose Valentin. Valentin injured his back 3/25 and won’t return until the third week of the season.
To try to make better use of the folks on the roster, I made some adjustments to the everyday lineup.
- Garret Anderson's advanced bat and strong defense need a place in the outfield. To make room, Greg Vaughn gets moved into the DH slot.
- I can no longer stomach John Jaha's feast or famine approach at the plate. I want a higher OPS for the team and he's not helping. As such he grabs a spot on the bench and Roberto Petagine gets regular starts at 1B.
- Since he's not going to play in the outfield, and he's certainly not going to supplant Dave Nilsson at catcher, BJ Surhoff becomes the starting 3B. Bill Spiers, last year's starter at 3B will slide over to start at SS while Valentin is on the mend and play supersub across the infield after that.
On the pitching side of things I (perhaps foolishly) decide that the future is now and start calling up promising kids. What's the point of dumping all this money into the rotation if the bullpen is going to give up all those leads? Tory Percival and Mariano Rivera embark on their rookie seasons