[ayaghmour2]

Happy 500! This marks the 500th post written by myself and it's seen almost two real life years, nine seasons, two pennants, and one championship. The hope is the next 500 posts will have more championships (or at least higher percentage then 11.1%), but I know win or lose that this will continue to be one of my favorite things to do. I want to thank all those who have read along, whether it's just a single post or all 500 of them, as I know how much I've enjoyed writing these. If readers get at least an eight of the enjoyment that I do, I'll consider it a win, as writing on the trials and tribulations of the Cougars has been a blast for me.

Enough about that, let's talk about the latest of the Cougars acquisition failures. As with nearly every other big player moved, we missed out, with both Fred McCormick and the Philly starter (ended up being Frank Crawford) ending up on other teams. My guess is no more big name players will get moved, so the Cougars will enter Spring Training with a very similar roster. That's not a bad thing per se, as we did finish in third place last season and for about half of our lineup, an extra year of age should be a benefit. Plus, we'll get a full season of Billy Hunter and Carlos Montes, two guys I expect to end up top 5 in their respective positions by the end of the season. Doc Love and John Lawson are still elite players, both ranked 3rd at their position, but Ford (7th) and Hunter (8th) are the only others ranked in the top half of the league. These are very volatile rankings, and Hunter was ranked in the top 5 during the season, and I'd argue he should be ranked at least fourth right now. The only real weaknesses in the lineup are catcher and second, but I imagine Harry Mead will eventually take the starting job from Mike Taylor and he currently ranks as the fourth best catching prospect in the league. At second, it'll be a mix of Ollie Page and Johnny McDowell, but a lot of question marks with Page's awful offensive season and McDowell's experience strictly at third.

Looking at the rotation, the big question marks are age. My scout thinks 37-year-old Dick Lyons is a solid investment. He also thinks 34-year-old Oscar Morse can have success in the back of the rotation. It's really hard to rely on old pitchers, especially considering the quality of the Kings and Sailors rotation. Both have jobs secured out of camp, but I could see either or both getting supplanted by Pete, Cy, Parker, or Brown. Cy is probably the closest to big league ready, as his movement and command are extremely polished, but he's the only one of the four not listed as a current starter. The pen looks pretty set, Crane, Purvis, and Kline seem likely to fill the innings are starters can't cover, but they'll lose their job before Lyons or Morse. Even with the exceptional performance from our pitching staff, it is quite clearly the weakness of the organization, at least until the next generation is ready.

The biggest change has been in the prospect rankings, as even though we still maintain the 5th ranked system. There has been a ton of movement, but our system looks to be one of the deepest in terms of pitching. Our top four prospects are now arms, led by the still #2 prospect in baseball, Pete Papenfus. Peter the Heater added another mile to his fastball, now sitting 99-101 consistently. The former 6th Overall Pick (who would've had to wait until the third round under the new draft rules) will turn 20 in April, and only 27-year-old minor leaguer Gene Thompson can throw harder then him. Lucky for Pete, Thompson has a 6.8 career BB/9 and 6.83 ERA, so it's pretty apparent that one can use their velocity better then other. Behind him is likely the top three of our Milwaukee rotation this year, Harry Parker (35th), Joe Brown (42nd), and Cy Sullivan (43rd) who all sit in the top 50. In total, five of our top 10 prospects and 12 of our top 20 prospects are pitchers, something very different then we are used to. We've got a ton of young pitching talent, and finally, last year's 1st Rounder Preacher Pietsch is getting some prospect love. He was chilling in the 400-500 range during the offseason and completely out of my top 50 during the year, but the 22-year-old now checks in at 16th in our system and 153rd in the league. I expect a lot of shuffling before Opening Day, but the current ranks give us 11 top 100 prospects, 22 top 250 prospects, and 38 top 100 prospects. I do wish I was able to unload some of these exciting youngsters, but there is a chance that seven of our top 100 prospects graduate this year.

The future is definitely bright for the Cougars, but unfortunately, with no big acquisition in the offseason and a potential lack of sellers in the regular season, I think we'll be competing for third, not first. This offseason has felt like forever, and I can't wait to see these ones and zeros back in action again! There are very few battles in camp to worry about, so at this point it's just waiting for April 26th...