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Tom Haudricourt posted his Baseball America Chat and his Baseball America story on his blog. The chat is him taking questions about the Top 30 list that he put together. A lot...and I mean a lot of questions about Cody Scarpetta in the chat. Here is the fourth question about the former Rattler pitcher.

Mike (Milwaukee): How in the world does Cody Scarpetta not make the top 10 when the team puts him on the 40 man roster last year and goes out and is the #9 prospect in the Midwest league? Thats horrific!!!!

Tom Haudricourt: I'll answer one more Scarpetta question (it seems like every other one is about him). Being ranked No. 13 is no insult. And, as noted earlier, a signing technicality forced the Brewers to put him on the 40-man roster a few years earlier than otherwise would have happened (his original contract was voided because of a finger injury). Everybody, settle down. Scarpetta's a fine prospect and the Brewers really like him. And, as for why being No. 9 in a low Class A League would put you in the top 10 automatically, I don't understand your thinking. We considered potential impact in the majors in ranking prospects. Again, lucky No. 13 is no insult.

And here is a bit about some maybe, possibly, potential Rattlers...

Patrick (Milwaukee): Which prospects do the Brewers intend to fast-track in 2010? I'm assuming Eric Arnett and Kentrail Davis would seem to be the most likely candidates. Any chance Del Howell might be given an aggressive placement to open 2010, and could Scooter Gennett open the spring with Wisconsin? Will Lawrie be given the chance to stick at AA Huntsville after skipping Brevard County late last year?

Tom Haudricourt: I'd say yes to most of your questions because they are all talented players. But Lawrie might go to Brevard because of his young age. Players can always be elevated in season. One of the reasons the Brewers drafted advanced pitchers in '09 was with the hope of getting them to the majors ASAP. Gennett signed too late to play so he might have some rookie ball in his future.

If you haven't already seen it, go read the whole thing.

On to the pitching question...There is a lot of the recent history of bad luck, bad breaks, and various other bad things in the set up of the article.

Then, there is this

Ash wants to learn if the Brewers are doing anything fundamentally wrong that has slowed the progress of pitching prospects. One tactic on the agenda is the use of young starters in tandem, with each pitching half a game to limit their pitches.

“We had one of these symposiums about four years ago," said Ash. “From that one, we came up with the idea of tandems in the lower levels.

“Now that we've had some history with tandems, we want to review that. Is it a good thing? Not a good thing?"

Ash said a novel thought by Melvin will be batted around.

“Doug has this idea that starters never get the feel of what it's like to pitch in the eighth and ninth innings (in the minors)," said Ash.

“He's had this long-held idea that it might be a good idea to start (games) with the bullpen and have the starter come in, in the fourth inning and having him pitch four through nine.”

With input from farm director Reid Nichols and minor-league pitching coordinator Lee Tunnell, who replaced Jim Rooney last year, each pitching coach in the system will be evaluated.

“What you can't forget is that a big part of the equation is the player himself," said Ash. “I think you have to be satisfied that (instructors) work hard, that they are intensive in their approach.

“If you're sitting in the clubhouse playing cards or watching TV, you're not working at it. Beyond throwing bullpens and sides, there's video work and enough research from games where you can print out the guy's game and see where was he in the strike zone and things like that.

“We'll exchange ideas and come up with what our game plan is going to be. I don't expect it to be revolutionary. I just want to refine it and make sure we're all on the same page, even to the point of recruitment."

In hiring new pitching coach Rick Peterson after the season, the Brewers also committed to his somewhat unique system based on biomechanics that will be used throughout the organization. Peterson breaks down a pitcher’s mechanics into minute detail with the aim of assessing his chance of injury while also improving performance.

Here is an SI article from December of 2003 about Peterson's philosophy and techniques.

The Rick Peterson experience opens next month for New York Mets pitchers. A few weeks before the start of spring training Peterson, the pitching coach who signed a three-year contract with the Mets in November after six seasons with the Oakland A's, will shepherd many of his new charges into the American Sports Medicine Institute (ASMI), a biomechanics lab in Birmingham. Peterson will ask them to don unflattering spandex suits. He'll attach computer sensors to various body parts. Then he'll tell them to relax and go through their regular bullpen routines while six high-tech cameras, each snapping 240 frames per second, record every motion and muscle twitch.

...

Peterson, 49, has been opening minds and eyes since the A's hired him in 1998. He might be the prototypical 21st-century pitching coach. He's an information junkie whose oft-repeated motto is, In God we trust; all others must have data. But he balances that obsession with New Age visualization techniques, yoga and sermons about the importance of the mind-body union. "Any controlled movement takes skill, physical conditioning, and mental and emotional strength," says Peterson. "You need all three sides of the triangle to succeed."

Peterson's program isn't for everyone—Oakland lefthander Mark Mulder, for one, was less than enamored with some of the coach's techniques—but it has proved effective. The A's had the American League's lowest team ERA in each of the last two seasons and didn't rank lower than third during Peterson's tenure. More impressive is his track record for keeping pitchers healthy. Under his watch no A's pitcher suffered a major elbow or shoulder injury.

Something to think about, eh?