Milwaukee signed a handfull of players to minor league contracts in the past week.

RHP Kris Dabrokiecki

The Brewers originally drafted the right-hander out of high school in the 34th round back in 2004.  After three strong seasons with Northeastern and becoming their all-time leader in innings pitched, Kris scuffled to a 5.80 ERA in his senior season.  His struggles caused teams to shy away from him in the 2008 First Year Player Draft, but Milwaukee signed him as an undrafted free agent after a successful tryout this winter.

In college, Kris consistently had a K/9 rate over 7.00 and a HR/9 rate under 0.5.  The young man can miss bats and keep the ball in the ballpark.  His control is a bit of a problem, however, as he has a career BB/9 around 3.00.  One can only assume that will jump a bit in professional ball.  Kris will almost certainly begin the 2009 season with either the Arizona Brewers or Helena Brewers.  Turning 23-years old early in the 2009 season, the young man should find at least moderate success against younger players.  Whether he will do anything of note, however, remains to be seen.

RHP Mike Burns

Mike Burns is a relatively unexciting signing for the Nashville Sounds.  The right-hander has a career ERA of 5.88 in the big leagues and had a mediocre 4.67 ERA with the Chicago Cubs' Triple-A affiliate last season.  He shows impeccable control, posting under a 2.00 BB/9 rate in his last three seasons in the minor leagues.  He did have a couple short stints in the bigs with the Houston Astros, Cincinnati Reds, and Boston Red Sox, but they were largely unsuccessful.  His best season was a 4.94 ERA in 31 innings with the Houston Astros in 2005.  

Burns throws a fastball in the 88-91 MPH range, but his best pitch is his hard slider.  Think of him as a very poor man's Michael Wurtz of the Chicago Cubs.  The right-hander will turn 31-years old next season, and there is little reason to believe he is anything more than a roster-filler for the Nashville Sounds.  He does not strikeout enough batters to be effective, and big league hitters have hit a career .320 in very limited innings at the major league level.  Nothing too exciting, as I said earlier.

RHP Sandy Nin

Sandy Nin will be pitching in the minor leagues for the first time since 2006, when he threw 44 innings for the Colorado Rockies' organization.  He had elbow surgery in 2006, and Milwaukee apparently believes his elbow is completely healed.  Before the injury, the right-hander threw a fastball that clocked about 90-92 MPH with a power slider.  He also throws a change-up, even though it is not his best pitch by any stretch of the imagination.  One would have to believe his velocity will drop a bit now that he is coming off major surgery. 

In his last professional season with Colorado's Triple-A affiliate, Nin posted a 4.55 ERA in 31.2 innings with 26 strikeouts and 8 walks.  He has decent control and can miss a few bats, but his potential is, again, nothing special.  FanGraphs has his FIP in 2006 to be 3.64, so perhaps he was a bit unfortunate with the defense behind him.  Either way, Sandy will likely pitch for the Nashville Sounds.  He will likely start the season in the bullpen, unless he can prove his elbow can withstand the major wear starting pitching puts on his arm.

RHP Matt Ginter

Ginter, a former first-round pick, will likely be a part of the Nashville bullpen in 2009.  He has a fastball that sits in the low-90s and a power slider, but lacks a third pitch that can neutralize left-handed hitting.  The slider is his best pitch and he can get righties to fish for it, but the right-hander does not have a change-up to keep lefties honest.  Lefties simply wait on his fastball, as they have no reason to chase his slider down-and-in.

The right-hander spent a few big league seasons with the Chicago White Sox, but has a career big league ERA of 5.43.  He has decent control, but does not strikeout enough batters to be overly effective in the middle relief role.  Throughout his career, he only fans 5.12 batters per nine innings.  At this point in his career, Ginter is more of an innings eater and mentor for young pitchers.  It is important to note, however, that Matt did throw 21 innings with the Cleveland Indians last season, so he is not far removed from the big league stage.  He even pitched for the Nashville Sounds in 2007.  That did not last long, though, as he had a 40.50 ERA in 0.2 innings for the Brewers organization.  I would not expect much from Ginter in 2009, as Milwaukee has plenty of bullpen options that are much more attractive than the veteran Ginter.

OF Adam Stern

Adam, soon to be 29-years old, is the latest left-handed outfield bat to be signed by the Milwaukee Brewers.  He is best known for batting .667 for Team Canada in the last World Baseball Classic, but has been relatively unsuccessful as a professional.  In 122 at-bats with the Baltimore Oriole's Triple-A team last season, Adam hit a terrible .221/.254/.303.  He has never walked much at all in his career, as he has a lifetime walk rate at 6.05%.  To put that in some perspective, that is almost equivalent to Alcides Escobar's unseemly 5.4% walk rate with Huntsville last season.  In short, Stern has little-to-no power, hardly walks at all, and has never hit above .270 in a season since 2005.  He will likely be a backup outfielder for the Sounds next season, behind three of Trot Nixon (who will probably make the big league squad), Chris Duffy, Tony Gwynn Jr., Brendan Katin, and Hernan Iribarren.  Nothing to be excited about here, unless Stern is able to catch lightning in a bottle like he did in the first World Baseball Classic.