I was thinking about the comments made by Gammons on baseball tonight, and something struck me as rather odd. Gammons said that the Brewers told him that they will not give up two of the following - LaPorta, Gamel, Escobar, Salome, Brantley. I'm probably not the only one who thought that something is out of place here... Why is Michael Brantley listed in this group? La Porta and Gamel are obviously elite prospects, and Escobar with his major league ready glove and Salome as a good hitting catcher have good value... do the Brewers really consider Brantley in the same class as these guys, considering he's certainly no lock to stay in CF and would have little value in a corner position because of his poor power numbers? Even if the Brewers did consider Brantley to be the real deal, the outfield is full until at least 2012 (assuming La Porta) and there are several other highly rated OF prospects in the system. On top of that, they might need to make room for Mat Gamel if he can't play 3rd...
So why would the Brewers mention Brantley in this group of untouchables? It sounds to me like a marketing tactic... maybe Melvin is trying to pull a good old fashioned pump and dump. By dropping his name to Gammons, the Brewers are getting Brantley some air time to get some investors interested. They'll try to pump up is value as much as possible before they dump their shares. If it works it will be brilliant, because then the Brewers could use Brantley as the centerpiece of a "quantity" trade for a GM who buys in, and hide behind the "we won't trade 2 of those 5" to avoid trading any of the prospects who we really covet the most.
Melvin isn't going to show Peter Gammons his real hand... He can't be too interesting in moving Gamel or LaPorta unless he's getting short sighted because he feels his job is in question or something crazy like that... I think Doug is using the notoriety of the other four prospects on that AA squad to pump up Brantley's value above what his numbers already show, and of course it doesn't hurt that he's a member of the "best prospect squad" in memory for some credible talent evaluators.
I just don't see how Brantley could be the 5th most valued prospect in our system. I'd say the following players are more valuable, based on the depth in the OF: Green, Jeffress, Braddoch, Lucroy.
Edit: I am aware of the fact that I may be reading WAY to much into this... Maybe I think about trades too much...