Article: Revisiting the State of the Farm – Full-Season Starting Pitching

[Harold Hutchison]

When it comes to starting pitching, the Brewers have a number of prospects on their full-season teams. Some have high ceilings and are exciting. Others seem to emerge out of nowhere. There are a lot of pitchers in the system to look through, so we’ll divvy this up between the full-season teams and the Rookie League squads.

Image courtesy of © Steven Bisig-USA TODAY Sports

Let’s start by taking a look at the full-season squads, where some pitchers have been making some very strong cases.

Nashville Sounds

Robert Gasser, Janson Junk, and Justin Jarvis have each made the Brewer Fanatic Top 20 list at times, and they headline the Sounds' rotation. Jason Alexander, who filled in the Brewers rotation in 2022, is on the comeback trail after spending a lot of time on the injured list. Eric Lauer has been struggling after some solid years in the MLB rotation, while Pedro Fernandez and Caleb Boushley have also spent time in the Nashville rotation. Should the Crew be forced to deal Corbin Burnes and Brandon Woodruff in the offseason, there are potentially solid replacements in-house for the team, which at the MLB level has been able to get higher-than-expected performance from pitchers.

Biloxi Shuckers

Carlos F. Rodriguez has been the undisputed ace in Biloxi, but the real game-changer has been James Meeker’s move to the rotation after a dominating stretch in the bullpen in Biloxi in 2022. He set himself up for this breakout in 2023, with an amazing winter in Brisbane. Meeker’s shift to the rotation, following injured list visits by Brandon Knarr and Adam Seminaris is an interesting development that could be an opening for a couple other pitchers in the Brewers system, and could be a huge benefit for the Brewers come 2025. Christian Mejias, Tobias Myers, and TJ Shook also have spent time in the rotation.

Wisconsin Timber Rattlers

There are two sides to the Timber Rattlers rotation: The struggles of prospects Stiven Cruz, Cameron Waggoner, and Alexander Corinelle on the one hand, and the continued development of Tyler Woessner and Joseph Hernandez on the other, plus the promotion of Jacob Misiorowski from Carolina. While Misiorowski still has yet to average more than four innings a start in Wisconsin, he’s shown dominating stuff.

Carolina Mudcats

While some touted prospects have struggled in Wisconsin, a number of below-the-radar prospects have exploded on the scene in Carolina. Patricio Aquino has posted a 2.06 ERA and 1.01 WHIP for the Mudcats, emerging as the ace of the rotation. Logan Henderson is also putting up outstanding numbers. Will Rudy has also emerged as a solid starter in Zebulon. Quinton Low, Alexander Vallecillo, Yujanyer Herrera, and Aidan Maldanado have also seen time in the Mudcats rotation.

Overview

The Brewers have seen a number of their starting pitchers have setbacks down on the farm this year, but those who are emerging look to be quite good. In essence, the Brewers have some solid options at every level of the fam, and this is before anyone takes into account what may happen in the upcoming trade deadline period. After those moves, the Brewers could be very well-stocked, indeed.

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[RedStickBrew]

I am enjoying reading your series of articles @clancyphile well done.  I had a chance to see James Meeker pitch last night- it will be interesting to see how he develops.  It would be a benefit to him to develop a slower off speed offering I think.  He appeared to be pretty much fastball/slider.