[BirdWatcher]

As is tradition, the Brewers scouting department head, Nick Meskill, delivered an update of the scouting team's current take on Brewers players, both at the major league level and in the farm system.

And the upshot was basically this: aging players bad, young players good.

While a few of the older players on the club- the currently injured Ryan Rodgers, thirdbaseman Jamison Bash, ace starting pitcher Cheol-han Lee- are still considered high quality players, even superstars- others, in particular veteran southpaw Daniel Torres, team captain Abel Pennington, and reliever Miguel Solis, are seen as trending very much in the wrong direction at this stage of their careers.

Torres, who led the league in ERA the past two seasons and is the Brewers career leader in wins, ERA, WAR among pitchers and rWAR, strikeouts, innings pitched, opponent batting average/SLG/OOPS, etc., is having his worst big league season at age 37. Indications are that his velocity, which in his prime was in the low to mid-90's, is down to 86-88 mph. His still has good movement but his stuff is mediocre at best and his control, which has always been an issue, is just getting worse with age. He is under contract for one more season but the team has a buy-out option for that 1973 season. With this latest scouting report and given Torres performance this season, it is likely the team will use that option.

Pennington is out for the season with a ruptured bicep tendon. He is still under team control for next year, after which he becomes eligible for free agency. He has been the captain of the team for many years now and it would be hard for the team to part with him. On the other hand, with the emergence of Kevin Curtis as a great team leader as well as the designation of Matt Helm as a sort of captain-in-waiting, not to mention the solid leadership provided by Andrew Kennedy, Pennington's clubhouse role may not be as important as in the past. It is unclear whether the team is likely to retain Pennington's services for the 1973 season, especially if Helm and Justin Peacock continue to develop as solid back-end-of-the-rotation options.

Miguel Solis is the most storied reliever in Brewers history. He is easily the leader in career saves (86), games pitched (252), is 5th in strikeouts (tops among relievers), and 4th in WAR (again, 1st among relievers.) But he also has missed the second half of each of the last two seasons with season-ending arm injuries. He is considered fragile at age 32 and, while he is having a fine season thus far in 1972, our scouting staff sees trouble, or at least less success, ahead. Solis is a free agent at the end of the season. He has expressed an interest in remaining with the club. But at this point there is no word on whether management is willing to take that risk. Much will probably depend upon his performance the rest of this season and whether he remains injury-free.

But the reality is that there are positive reports about several young Brewers relievers, both on the current big league squad (Dave Duncan) and in the minors (Justin Bismark, Dave Harder, Sam Pruiett), so Solis is likely expendable and will not be re-signed.

The latest report indicates the scouting staff is quite bullish on several young Brewers. Spencer Wilson, having a great rookie season as the Brewers second catcher, is considered a solid option for the future. The trick might be getting him enough playing time with the very solid Kevin Curtis owning the starting job. The Brewers have several other solid catchers coming up the ranks also, led by the defensive wiz and highly regarded Zacarias Martell. The recently promoted Jonathan Koch looks to be primed to take over the starting second base job from Tanner Yurek in the near future. And rookie Joe McPhillips is increasingly coming to be seen as a potential superstar and the scouting staff believes his defense at centerfield is even better than they perceived earlier this season and he could well be a legitimate gold glove candidate before long.