Scouting director Jack Zduriencik has had a pretty nice offseason. First, he became the first non-general manager to receive Baseball America's Major League Executive of the Year award at their annual gala at the Winter Meetings. A couple of weeks ago he was promoted along with assistant GM Gord Ash to serve as a vice president alongside Doug Melvin.

Most Brewers fans are well aware of the talent he has been procuring for several years now, and he often receives a lot of the credit for accumulating most of the more recognizable players the Brewers roster currently boasts. Having Ryan Braun win the National League Rookie of the Year award and watching Prince Fielder become the youngest player to ever hit 50 home runs may very well epitomize the job Zduriencik has done.

It has been well documented that Zduriencik has done his job without the benefit of extra, compensatory selections, and in fact he has not had a second-round draft pick in 2000, 2005 and 2007 due to the free agent signings of Jose Hernandez, Damian Miller and Jeff Suppan.

So what better way for the Brewers to say thanks to Zduriencik for all of his accomplishments than to reward him with four compensatory selections for him to play with?

Due to the departures of Francisco Cordero and Scott Linebrink, the Brewers will own seven picks in the top 100 selections in the 2008 draft. Last year they had only one pick among the top 100, which was the seventh overall selection that they used to take outfielder Matt LaPorta.

Since both Cordero and Linebrink were Type A free agents, they both garner the Brewers a supplemental first-round pick and a second round pick. Neither the Reds (who signed Cordero) nor the White Sox (Linebrink) finished among the 15 best teams in baseball during the 2007 season, so neither forfeits their first-round pick.

The supplemental picks are the 32nd and 35th overall selections, that much we know for sure at this point in time since all of the other Type A free agents have signed.

The additional second-round picks at this point in time stand to be the 50th and 51st overall selections. Add these picks to the Brewers first-round selection (16th overall), second-round selection (59th overall at this point in time) and third-round pick (91st) to round out the picks among the top 100 overall selections. With only five unsigned free agents remaining that would effect free agent compensation, these second round picks could be no worse than the 55th, 56th, 64th and 96th overall selections.

It should be noted that the Brewers will not lose any of their picks after signing three type B free agents in Mike Cameron, Jason Kendall and David Riske.

For a team that still has plenty of talent in their farm system but seemingly is missing the same impact players they had a year ago after graduating Ryan Braun and Yovani Gallardo, while losing some key pitching depth in the Scott Linebrink trade, the 2008 draft will be a huge opportunity for the organization to re-stock the shelves.

Examples, please
Look no further than what teams like the Giants, Padres, Blue Jays and Nationals did a year ago with numerous extra compensation picks. And the Oakland A's had a book, “Moneyball," written primarily about what they did with all of their extra picks during the 2002 draft.

Which also brings up that each team has their own preference in how they handle their draft picks. The A's obviously took a conservative approach, identifying players they felt were a fairly good bet to contribute at the big-league level.

Teams like the Twins and Braves in recent years typically take chances with extra picks, identifying high risk, high reward types of players in an attempt to hit a home run.

And since the extra picks are likely to cost the team somewhere between two and three million dollars, the team likely is going to reach for a player or two that they really like that otherwise may not be considered to be selected in the early rounds of the draft.

Needs vs. BPA
Most scouting directors will tell you that they always identify and select the best player available at the time of their selection. While this is somewhat true, you have to believe that the Brewers previous hole in left field prompted them to select Matt LaPorta, and considering that they asked Troy Tulowitzki if he would be willing to slide over to third base before the 2005 draft, I think it's also clear that they intended to fill an immediate need when they took Ryan Braun fifth overall that year.

Looking ahead, the Brewers are well-stocked at several positions from the big-leagues down to rookie ball, as corner outfield in particular is full of talent but lacking in opportunities at the big-league level now that Ryan Braun has been moved to left field.

Centerfield could be a position of need with Mike Cameron signing a one-year deal, with an option for a second. Corey Hart could eventually slide over from right field assuming Cameron departs after either the 2008 or 2009 season, or someone like Darren Ford could be ready to step in, but it is one position that currently has some uncertainty looking forward.

Catcher is another obvious need. I think everyone would be in agreement that Jason Kendall is a patch for a year, maybe two. Lou Palmisano appears to be a safe bet to have at least a cup of coffee with the big-league Brewers, while Angel Salome had enough questions about his defense surrounding him before he was suspended for using a performance-enhancing drug. Jonathan Lucroy had a promising debut as the team's third round pick from a year ago but is still years away, while the team spent early round money to get last year's 44th rounder, Shawn Zarraga, in the fold.

Despite all of those names, I'm not convinced the Brewers have their long-term answer at catcher currently within their system.

It was also recently reported by Adam McCalvy of the Milwaukee Brewers website that Gord Ash identified third base as an organizational position of need. While Bill Hall is signed for three more years, this comment may be particularly telling in how the team views top prospect Mat Gamel, who like Ryan Braun, has had more than his fair share of troubles defensively at third base.

Taylor Green, the team's next best third base prospect, is at least three years away from making an impact at the Major League level.

And then of course there is pitching, an area you have to believe the Brewers are going to address early and often in the 2008 draft.

The Brewers pitching depth took a significant hit this past year when they dealt Will Inman, Joe Thatcher and Steve Garrison for Scott Linebrink while their top prospect from a year ago, Yovani Gallardo, graduated with high marks with the Brewers. Jeremy Jeffress didn't make the pitching depth situation any brighter by drawing a suspension of his own for using a banned substance, and Mark Rogers, who missed the entire 2007 season due to injury, remains a huge question mark moving forward.

To read more about some of the more intriguing players that are available for the 2008 draft, I invite you to visit the Brewerfan.net page dedicated to the draft:

http://www.brewerfan.net/ViewDraftArchive.do?draftId=6

Zduriencik has been labeled as somewhat of an old-school scout, taking high-level talent over proven production, which often leads to the high school versus college debate. However, he has taken three college bats out of his last five first-round picks, and last year took college players with his first three selections. That alone may somewhat dismiss the notion that he prefers high school players.

With so many extra, early picks however, you have to believe the team is going to take a chance or two (or more) on players with incredibly high ceilings. Don't be surprised to see a player that is considered a relatively safe pick, such as a polished college pitcher that may not have eye-popping stuff, taken among those picks as well.

Draft-and-follow no more
In past years I have usually reserved some time shortly after the New Year to focus on the draft and follow candidates from the summer's previous draft to get an idea of the talent the Brewers scouting department would be following through the spring.

The draft and follow process is now gone thanks to the universal August 15 signing deadline.

It is too bad, because if properly used it was a very powerful scouting tool, and one the Brewers under the direction of scouting director Jack Zduriencik used very well.

Just look at his first draft-and-follow signee: Manny Parra, who is currently the number one prospect on the Power 50 and was also named the team's number one prospects by the fans in the recent poll I conducted, which featured six total former draft-and-follows.

Add Dana Eveland and Tim Dillard from the 2002-03 crop; Robert Hinton from 03-04; Lorenzo Cain, Darren Ford and Derek Miller from 04-05; Zach Braddock, Mike Ramlow and Taylor Green from 05-06; and Chad Robinson, Lee Haydel, Rob Bryson and Nick Tyson from last year's class and you have a significant amount of talent that the organization has boasted, and continues to boast, over the last three to five years.

Possibly the most important part of this is the amount of money that was invested into these players. The team now will have a lot more money to play with, either to use on the draft (especially this year given the number of compensatory selections) or on the international front. Last year the team spent somewhere between one-and-a-half to two million dollars on Chad Robinson, Lee Haydel and Rob Bryson alone.

Largely through the draft, the Brewers have developed an exciting young talent base, and they are going to need to continue to develop exciting young talent if they ever want to make winning a perennial occurrence.

As long as they are smart enough to keep Jack Zduriencik around there should be an ample supply of talent.

To discuss this story in greater detail, I invite you to visit the 2008 draft forum as part of Brewerfan.net's message boards:

http://brewersfandemonium.yuku.com/forums/69

Patrick Ebert is affiliated with both Brewerfan.net and Perfect Game USA, and can be contacted via email at pebert@brewerfan.net.