I'm real excited about the prospect of having Mitchell and Turang atop our lineup in the near future. Both guys have elite speed, get on base, play premium positions and hopefully will set the table for Yelich, Hiura. I think Turang's a future leadoff hitter and Mitchell sounds at the moment like an ideal #2. If he adds a bit more power, then perhaps he becomes more of a middle of the order bat.

But with those two, and then some of the young arms and catchers we've got, I think this system is underrated. We may not have a lot of surplus talent that would allow us to make the types of trades the Pads or Astros were able to, but still...I think we look back on this group in 4-5 years and all agree it's an underrated group.

A starting SS and CF'er who should hit, get on and steal bases while playing very good defense, a couple of lefty starters and a few good pen arms...and that's not counting on the development of guys like Perez who have huge upsides.

That's why I'm almost more excited for Minor League Baseball to start than I was for opening day.

It'll be interesting to see what seeing more advanced pitching did for Turang for instance. Could this maybe even speed up his development? Can Small maintain his reported increased velocity...if so, how high can he rise? He was dominant in spite of a big fastball, but due to his location and delivery. If he can keep all that but sit at 94, he could be nasty. It's not unrealistic to hope to see Ashby and Small making starts this year. That means...it's conceivable the Brewers could have a rotation of Woody, Burnes, Peralta, Small and Ashby. How long have we been praying the likes of Mike Jones or Mark Rogers or whoever could actually make it through the system and contribute. Now we could have 5 homegrown starters.

But...first they've actually gotta starter playing some games.