Offseason Prospect Rankings, Media and Misc. Affiliate News

[Matt]

Four in Fangraphs top 100.

#3 - Chourio
#34 - Misiorowski
#40 - Quero
#45 - Ortiz

[Jim Goulart]

Keith Law's Top 20 at The Athletic ($) is up.

In his miscellaneous notes, I corrected:

Second baseman Oliver Dunn is 26, but he may have a major-league roster spot waiting for him after the Brewers acquired him as a Rule 5 pick (via trade with the Phillies). Dunn can run, he can hit a little, has some sneaky pop, and he’s fine at second base with experience at third and in the outfield. He seems like a great last-guy-on-the-bench player given his speed and versatility.

Thanks, Keith. One correction on Oliver Dunn, not a Brewers Rule 5 pick. Phillies acquired him from Yankees in the minor league phase of 2022's Rule 5. Milwaukee acquired him via trade after a blistering 2023 Fall League performance.

[umphrey]

Was not expecting Joey Ortiz to be so high on FG at 45. Kind of interesting, I checked the 2023 list and Ortiz was 66 and Turang was 65, they will now likely fight each other for playing time. 

[Jim Goulart]

Doesn’t include the Fangraphs rankings just above:

 

[SRB]

ZiPS loves 19-year old 3B Luke Adams. Has him #106 overall.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/zips-2024-top-100-prospects/

[wallus]

14 minutes ago, SRB said:

ZiPS loves 19-year old 3B Luke Adams. Has him #106 overall.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/zips-2024-top-100-prospects/

Pretty good for a prospect that doesn't get a lot of discussion. I like our system because there are a lot of guys like Luke and you only need a few of them to pan out to have a good major league team.

[Jim Goulart]

 

[Joseph Zarr]

4 hours ago, wallus said:

Pretty good for a prospect that doesn't get a lot of discussion. I like our system because there are a lot of guys like Luke and you only need a few of them to pan out to have a good major league team.

He gets plenty of discussion amongst the Minor League aficionados. I guess I don't know what you are talking about exactly here.

I featured him last spring in my own 'Underrated' series HERE - Came in at #5 for me. This was well before he was on any national radars. I hadn't seen him play, let me be clear as ACL is viewing dark unless you live there or are employed by MLB, at that time. I had just religiously followed his 2022 ACL game logs. To that end, he was a high school draft pick who was flashing routinely albeit in limited scope. 

Fast forward to 2023 and he has been in @Smichaelis9's and my wheelhouse for quite awhile. BUT, let's be real: he is still very raw. There's a ton to like in terms of raw 5-Tool athletic profile and 'want to' - ie he is very very much a very likable intense gamer. But, at he same time, as someone who watched 80-85% of the Mudcats 2023 tilts, you are very much left wondering what is his natural position? Does he even have one? Does he play any of them well enough to consider a platoon? He is very inconsistent at 3B and is not fluid and often unorthodox and wild. I still casually contend his best position is possibly 1B where he could prove ridiculously good - some of the plays I've seen him make there in limited action left me wanting much much more. If that is the case, he will need to hone his free swinging tendencies and massive hacks to harness his innate contact skills. His swing is a bit 'All-or-nothing'. I know the Brewers tend to let the players be themselves - and kudos to them for doing so -  but, I personally foresee a point in time as Adams gets older where they are going to have to enforce he harness aspects of his game. There is very much a Wiemer-esque downfall possibility inherent in his free style approach. Huge leg lift. Massive hacks. That works in Low-A but I have serious serious doubts that is applicable at the MLB level.

 

[markedman5]

 

[wiguy94]

7 minutes ago, markedman5 said:

 

SHEESH! If Henderson is really hitting 96 now with his FB shape then his prospect status could explode this year. Especially so if the slider takes a step forward and gives him 3 good pitches to work with.

[wallus]

47 minutes ago, markedman5 said:

 

Great to hear. Let's get him to AA as he isn't exactly young for his level at the moment.

[Brewcrew82]

He'd probably bump up to Carlos Rodriguez/Josh Knoth territory on my list if these reports are accurate. With the potential to get into the top 5 if he transfers this into the season and repeats his statistical dominance from last year. 

Always been a Henderson fan. Brewers have done well taking pitchers in the 4th round. 

[wiguy94]

1 hour ago, wallus said:

Great to hear. Let's get him to AA as he isn't exactly young for his level at the moment.

21 in Carolina last year was slightly under age league average pitching age. He turns 22 next month. Plenty age appropriate for his levels.

[ARobsBrewCrew]

1 hour ago, wallus said:

Great to hear. Let's get him to AA as he isn't exactly young for his level at the moment.

He’ll be 22 in A+ which will likely be more than a full year younger than the average age for that level.

[wiguy94]

6 minutes ago, ARobsBrewCrew said:

He’ll be 22 in A+ which will likely be more than a full year younger than the average age for that level.

Yupp. Last year the average age of pitchers in the Midwest League was 23.1. 

[Joseph Zarr]

Not to mention Logan building up innings and stacking healthy seasons is just as important for his development. High-A will be just fine as his logical next starting point. No need to rush what's working.

[Jim Goulart]

Via BrewerFanatic's "Destination: The Show" Podcast (iTunes): 

Spotify Link

"Draft tandem Jeremy Nygaard and JD Cameron team up for a podcast to discuss prospects on their way to the big leagues and the MLB draft, produced by Theo Tollefson."

Episode 25 is all about the Brewers. JD and Jeremy both did Top 20s and for this episode the two are going to compare lists and talk about prospects.

0:00 Intro

3:00 Improptu Draft Talk

7:00 What do you want for draft content?

8:00 Brewers Top Prospects

9:30 Top 4

16:37 Number 5

23:59 Prospects 6-8

29:44 Prospects 9-12

35:30 Prospect 13

42:19 Prospects 14-18

46:08 Prospects 19-21

46:34 15-20 range guy to watch

50:41 Prospect most likely to be a Top 100 prospect

[Jim Goulart]

 

[CheeseheadInQC]

Four Brewers got mentions in Fangraph's Names to Know article which discusses 100 prospects who didn't make their top 100.

The list was divided into groupings. Josh Gasser was in the low-variance starter category and Tyler Black was in the Issues on Defense section (although the writeup was surprisingly complimentary of him at 3rd given the category he was put in).

The two less expected names on the list, however, came in the Guys Who Sit 97-Plus Category: Quinton Low and Yerlin Rodriguez.

Each of the four got a little writeup.

[BrewerFan]

On 2/16/2024 at 11:25 AM, wallus said:

Pretty good for a prospect that doesn't get a lot of discussion. I like our system because there are a lot of guys like Luke and you only need a few of them to pan out to have a good major league team.

I love Adams...and I keep forgetting about him at the same time. Wilken, Black, Ortiz...and then I think of Baez, Pratt, Bitonti..and Adams could legitimately be the best of the group.

I love our system. If we just had a couple more highly touted arms, I'd be even more excited...but I have little doubt we'll keep producing pitching.

[Playing Catch]

24 minutes ago, CheeseheadInQC said:

Four Brewers got mentions in Fangraph's Names to Know article which discusses 100 prospects who didn't make their top 100.

The list was divided into groupings. Josh Gasser was in the low-variance starter category and Tyler Black was in the Issues on Defense section (although the writeup was surprisingly complimentary of him at 3rd given the category he was put in).

The two less expected names on the list, however, came in the Guys Who Sit 97-Plus Category: Quinton Low and Yerlin Rodriguez.

Each of the four got a little writeup.

For experts on Rule 5 eligibility... I didn't think Low was eligible until December '25 (Fangraphs says '24, but I don't think that's right)?? What am I missing?

[wiguy94]

56 minutes ago, CheeseheadInQC said:

Four Brewers got mentions in Fangraph's Names to Know article which discusses 100 prospects who didn't make their top 100.

The list was divided into groupings. Josh Gasser was in the low-variance starter category and Tyler Black was in the Issues on Defense section (although the writeup was surprisingly complimentary of him at 3rd given the category he was put in).

The two less expected names on the list, however, came in the Guys Who Sit 97-Plus Category: Quinton Low and Yerlin Rodriguez.

Each of the four got a little writeup.

Just browsing Fangraphs this past week during their Prospect Week and Longenhagen is considerably lower on our system than the rest of the industry. Interesting to see. Feel like in the past he was higher on us than consensus but now he has us probably outside the top 10 in terms of farm system rankings compared to us being I think top 3 according to everyone else.

[wiguy94]

34 minutes ago, Playing Catch said:

For experts on Rule 5 eligibility... I didn't think Low was eligible until December '25 (Fangraphs says '24, but I don't think that's right)?? What am I missing?

Must be a fangraphs mistake. He was drafted in 2021 out of HS. He shouldn't be Rule 5 eligible until 2025. Avina and Nicasia were both drafted out of HS in the same draft and Fangraphs has them Rule 5 eligible in 2025.

[CheeseheadInQC]

1 hour ago, Playing Catch said:

For experts on Rule 5 eligibility... I didn't think Low was eligible until December '25 (Fangraphs says '24, but I don't think that's right)?? What am I missing?

I checked, and it doesn’t appear he was already 19 upon signing, so I think you are right. He might have gotten the two Brewers confused. There are going to be almost no newly eligible international signings this year because of the shift of the start of the signing period from summer to winter for 2020/2021. The only exceptions are the handful who signed during the 2019 offseason. Among those I believe is Yerlin Rodriguez.

[Jim Goulart]