International Signings, Trade Rumors Starting

For those of you who don't know, during a time frame following the June amateur draft international free agents are allowed to be signed. That time has now commenced. Typically these players are Latin American/South American, although the Pirates did just sign a trio of Taiwanese prospects. International players are not eligible for the draft under current rules.

Many of these nations allow players to be signed at the age of 16 (I'm not sure how those rules works, like who makes that decision and what not). Not all players sign that young, and they may continue to hone their skills (and monetary value) with continued work. Some of the bonuses these players receive are very high. The Yankees to date have already signed at least 3 players who are getting 3.2, .75, and .4 million dollar bonuses.

Well, the Brewers aren't the Yankees, if the Sabathia signing didn't already inform you of that. But today the Brew Crew did sign two nice prospects.

The first and foremost is Jose Pena. Pena is an outfield who just turned 16. He's already 6'2" and 190lbs and is still considered to be projectable. He's supposed to be a plus player all around and should develop into a good power hitter. Scouting Director Bruce Seid just flew back from the Dominican after the signing and liked what he saw. GM Doug Melvin has also been out to see Pena play. $400,000 is rumored to be the signing bonus, over 300k short of the franchise record they doled out for a pitcher in '05. Seid commented that Pena will be the highest profile player signed by the Crew internationally.

The second is a hard throwing 17 year old righty named Jean Capellan. Capellan sits around 92mph with his fastball and has a hard breaking ball. Not considered a highly touted prospect, the Brewers think he will have upside. Signing bonus here is expected to be around $50,000.

Both players are expected to start their careers at the Brewers' new training facility in the Dominican.


Trade Rumors:

So, a couple of things have gone down in the trade rumor world involving the Brewers. First off, I hope we're all aware that former Indian Mark DeRosa is now a Cardinal. Which is bad for us because the Cards have had a bit of a whole at 3rd with Glaus being on the DL. It was confirmed by Doug Melvin that the Brewers had talked to Shapiro and the Indians about landing DeRosa, but the Brewers lacked the Major League ready pitching that they wanted in return. Oh well, McGehee is hitting so well right now, I'm not too worried about 3rd.
Secondly is the everlasting search for starting pitching, now especially with Parra down at AAA and Bush on the DL. I really see the Brewers as having to make a move. Hopefully some things get sorted out, but even with Yovani hovering around a 3.0, it's entirely possible for everybody else in our rotation to be up over a 4.50...bad. The name that's getting tossed around is former Brewer Doug Davis, who is currently with the Diamondbacks (Brewers traded him there for Johnny Estrada). Davis is throwing the ball well, he's a control lefty, who kinda reminds you of a Jeff Soupan, cuts the fastball, slow curve, high WHIP. Don't let this worry you too much though, Davis is actually good. Despite his 3-8 record right now Doug's ERA is actually 3.15. The only real issue now is that there are so many teams still in a hypothetical contention that there is way more demand then there is a supply, so prices are inflated. Seems like we're going to have to wait until closer to the July 31 trade deadline to see any move happen.

That's that for now. It sure was a shame to see Gallardo's 12k gem wasted in that loss yesterday... I kinda really want Yo' to be a 20 game winner. It'd be super cool to see a Cy Young in Milwaukee, although that would probably make him unaffordable to us. (The Brewers had talks with his agent about an extension last year but they didn't go anywhere. When Yo' hurt his knee it seemed like that may have worked out well for the Brewers, but now he's pitching so awesome that waiting is definitely going to pay off for Gallardo and his agent.)

So nice little tangent there.
Brew Up! Brew Outta Here! Gone!