[BirdWatcher]

I'll keep this one brief.
Harry made the cut. (Lyerly, that is.) For some reason John Weaver did not appear on the list for protection (is there some kind of Arizona Fall League loophole, intentional or unintentional?)

The most significant omissions from the list were catcher Kevin Curtis and reliever Sam Pruiett. They are both established enough and good enough players that I can't imagine them not being picked by one of the expansion clubs.

I was able to protect minor leaguer Jorge Gonzalez, just in case. He is a highly enough rated prospect that even if I don't ever use him as a Brewer he could bring pretty good trade value.

We'll find out later tonight, but essentially the Brewers should remain pretty much intact for 1975 though surely we will lose a few (to a handful of) decent minor league prospects, along with Curtis and Pruiett.

(Edit: and a little teaser. So now that I've basically protected all of our starting pitchers, including Justin Peacock and prospect John Weaver, the International Free Agent list is revealed. And sure enough, there is a potential generational talent, a right handed starting pitcher out of Japan, who is only 26 years old, an extreme groundballer, with great movement and control. With Cheol-han Lee heading into his mid-30's, this guy could be a great replacement. We can afford him (I've been a very good manager of our owner's money and we always lead the league- by a lot- in attendence) and as the reigning champs you would think he would be happy to come play for us. This is such a dilemma for me. I don't like to stack the team, especially through free agency. But the owner wants me to acquire a Pitcher of the Year and this guy looks like he could end up being that. And Lee won't last forever. And we aren't great at developing front-line starting pitchers. Okay- this was supposed to just be a teaser and I've gone on and on. Enough for now. More later.)