Offseason Prospect Rankings, Media and Misc. Affiliate News

[Brewcrew82]

Chourio exits prospect ranking season (likely for the final time) as the consensus #2 prospect in baseball (among the 6 major outlets) behind Jackson Holliday and the highest ranked Brewers prospect of all time. Gary Sheffield, his only other real competitor, just predated the rankings era. 

https://www.actionnetwork.com/mlb/mlb-top-prospects-rankings-2024

[Jim Goulart]

The NDFA out of Mississippi St., made four Maryvale appearances late last summer, 23 years old (24 in July) - 

 

[Matt Breen]

Nice article on Chourio in The Athletic:

https://theathletic.com/5304057/2024/02/28/jackson-chourio-brewers-patience-debut/

Nothing earth shattering in the article - just a lot of observations and quotes from people (including Chourio). 

Of course, it's behind a paywall, so you have to have subscribed. 

[Jim Goulart]

Murphy boasts family ties with Crew's SS prospect Cooper Pratt

[Jim Goulart]

RHP Carlos F. Rodriguez received an award as the Professional Athlete of the Year in Nicaragua for his season with the Brewers.

 

[jay87shot]

I was looking at the Cubs system and man are the rankings really slanted in their favor. Any decent prospect they have are really over ranked in my opinion. using current mlb top 100. Our system is great ranked #2 overall, but I just wanted to complain about some of the big market bias in the rankings. I think in most aspects the Cubs, Yanks, Red Sox, and Dodgers usually get prospects over ranked in most services (not the Dodgers this year in my opinion).

James Triantos #73   21 yo A+  .287/.364/.391  4 HR 16 SB  45 feilding.  Other than not striking out much I don't see anything that says much more than a utility guy, but the #3 overall 2B really.

Kevin Alcantara #65 21 yo A+ .284/.345/.465  13 HR 15 SB      At 6'6" I get that there is a high ceiling here and he has been a solid player but 65 seems high. 

Matt Shaw #54  22 yo A+/AA  .357/.400/.618   8 hr 15 sb         Drafted #13 last year, he was great in 38 games but he is graded below average defensively and slowed down in AA a bit. Him at 55 and Wilken unranked seems off to me.

Michael Busch #51 26 yo mlb  .323/.431/.618  27 HR 4 SB      Probably a benefit of Dodger prospect overrating but no defense and at 26 a bit old for #51 prospect status for me.

Owen Cassie #47  21 year old           I am not going to complain about Cassie's ranking, he had a great year and has great potential.

Cade Horton #26 A/A+/AA  22 yo     2.65 ERA 21 starts/88 ip 117k/27 bb   Great pitching prospect no doubt, but just over ranked in my opinion maybe more like the 40s.

Pete Crow-Armstrong #16 AA/AAA  21 year old    I am not going to complain about him either, I wonder how much Bellinger is going to block him this year. The have Happ/Belli/Seiya and PCA kind of blocked.

For me someone like Luke Adams is a better prospect than Triantos, Lara isn't to far below Alcantara, Wilken and Shaw are close and Misi is better than Horton. Thanks for listening to me complain about the big market advantage      

 

[Playing Catch]

25 minutes ago, jay87shot said:

I was looking at the Cubs system and man are the rankings really slanted in their favor. Any decent prospect they have are really over ranked in my opinion. using current mlb top 100. Our system is great ranked #2 overall, but I just wanted to complain about some of the big market bias in the rankings. I think in most aspects the Cubs, Yanks, Red Sox, and Dodgers usually get prospects over ranked in most services (not the Dodgers this year in my opinion).

James Triantos #73   21 yo A+  .287/.364/.391  4 HR 16 SB  45 feilding.  Other than not striking out much I don't see anything that says much more than a utility guy, but the #3 overall 2B really.

Kevin Alcantara #65 21 yo A+ .284/.345/.465  13 HR 15 SB      At 6'6" I get that there is a high ceiling here and he has been a solid player but 65 seems high. 

Matt Shaw #54  22 yo A+/AA  .357/.400/.618   8 hr 15 sb         Drafted #13 last year, he was great in 38 games but he is graded below average defensively and slowed down in AA a bit. Him at 55 and Wilken unranked seems off to me.

Michael Busch #51 26 yo mlb  .323/.431/.618  27 HR 4 SB      Probably a benefit of Dodger prospect overrating but no defense and at 26 a bit old for #51 prospect status for me.

Owen Cassie #47  21 year old           I am not going to complain about Cassie's ranking, he had a great year and has great potential.

Cade Horton #26 A/A+/AA  22 yo     2.65 ERA 21 starts/88 ip 117k/27 bb   Great pitching prospect no doubt, but just over ranked in my opinion maybe more like the 40s.

Pete Crow-Armstrong #16 AA/AAA  21 year old    I am not going to complain about him either, I wonder how much Bellinger is going to block him this year. The have Happ/Belli/Seiya and PCA kind of blocked.

For me someone like Luke Adams is a better prospect than Triantos, Lara isn't to far below Alcantara, Wilken and Shaw are close and Misi is better than Horton. Thanks for listening to me complain about the big market advantage      

 

I agree with your thesis. My belief is that it is driven by the fact that "top prospect" lists get clicks and eyeballs. There are a lot of clicks and eyeballs to be had in the biggest cities in the USA. It also only takes a handful of "top lists" to color all of the other lists -- including Brewerfan's own!

Fangraphs and some of the others try harder to tier the players and have more realistic outcome predictions, but if you are someone like Brock Beauchamp (no offense!), running a website for all MLB fans, and you are parsing through the 250 40-45 future grade prospects, wouldn't you simply add a couple to the "top 100" for the thirsty fans of New York City, or Chicago?

No one from Bucktown cares if Brock Wilken is an incrementally better prospect than Matt Shaw.

I don't particularly care about it too much, except when trades are being speculated about or assessed afterwards, and people feel like the Brewers "didn't even get a top 100 prospect!!".

Edit to add: I also believe that certain orgs, (now including the Brewers!), get artificial "bumps," because of reputation, or perhaps even artificial downgrades due to the same. The A's are woefully shy of top prospects, for instance.

[Spencer Michaelis]

Prospects Live's Top 100 was just released. I'm a big fan of the work they do. It's their own evaluations, they aren't just following a crowd. They're often the first on breakouts and their rankings are often quite a bit different than consensus. 

Seven Brewers in the Top 100 (helps that, like with Baseball America, they include DL Hall as prospect eligible still)

https://www.prospectslive.com/prospects-live/2024-preseason-top-100-prospects-list

[Jim Goulart]

 

[Jim Goulart]

Review article, hopefully this Oat Milk promotion won't conflict with Wisconsin's "Udder Tuggers" weekend.

[sveumrules]

FanGraphs list dropped today.

Haven’t had a chance to read the whole thing but glancing at the rankings looks like they are lower on Tyler Black, Carlos Rodriguez and Mike Boeve relative to consensus but higher on Josh Knoth and Jorge Quintana.

System Overview reads…

This is a pretty deep system, though some of my biases as an evaluator/scout/analyst are probably to thank for that, as I tend to gravitate towards the same kind of hitters Milwaukee does: contact-driven little guys at up-the-middle positions. While it has plus depth from top to bottom, the depth in the impact tier (40+ FV tier and above) is closer to average and maybe even a little bit below. Keep in mind that Milwaukee has traded away eight prospects during the offseason (most of them fringy); this list would probably be a few names deeper if not for that. There is a nice mix of short-term and potential long-term impact in this system, and I think that’s true even though I’m bearish on Tyler Black and want to see a little more from Brock Wilken before I move him into the top 100. 

The Brewers have a few transactional patterns aside from just their preference for the little hit tool guys. They pick a ton of junior college or small school players, especially pitchers, and develop them. This list is populated with guys like that for the third straight year, and there are some 2023 draftees (like Jason Woodward and Ryan Birchard) who might show similar improvement in the coming season. Milwaukee’s international scouting operation tends to do well in Venezuela more often than in other places (three of the top six players in the system are from there), but the Brewers’ top two 2024 signees were from the Dominican Republic, and they’ve signed several pitchers from Nicaragua in the last couple of years. 

The Corbin Burnes trade (DL Hall would be ranked somewhere in the Wilken-Josh Knoth range were he eligible for the list) was the second seller-postured blockbuster the Brewers have made during the last three seasons, with the Josh Hader deal being the other. In both instances they got back multiple prospects, but aside from Joey Ortiz fitting their contact-oriented tendencies, the types of players they’ve gotten in those deals have run the gamut. It seems that periodic trades like this are part of the way Brewers ownership is inclined to operate given their market size.

[jay87shot]

https://www.mlb.com/prospects/brewers/

mlb.com put out there top 30 recently. No surprises really, I always forget about the recent foreign signings so Quintana (19th) initially surprised me but then remembered who he was. I am a little surprised Made the other big international signing didn't make the list if Quintana was 19 but no real complaints.

[Jim Goulart]

 

 

[Jim Goulart]

Clearly not expecting folks to watch all ten minutes-plus of these Fangraphs scouting videos, but perhaps a minute or two of batting stance and approach observations helps:
 

 

[Jim Goulart]

 

[Jim Goulart]

Keesler Park? Anything longer isn't as convenient as MGM Park was, for sure -

 

[Jim Goulart]

Won't be much time to acclimate at all, hopefully we'll have Carolina audio from Game One, just 2.5 weeks away, though I find that to be a longshot. We'll be patient with the new guy or gal.

 

[BrewerFan]

On 2/25/2024 at 11:46 PM, Brewcrew82 said:

Chourio exits prospect ranking season (likely for the final time) as the consensus #2 prospect in baseball (among the 6 major outlets) behind Jackson Holliday and the highest ranked Brewers prospect of all time. Gary Sheffield, his only other real competitor, just predated the rankings era. 

https://www.actionnetwork.com/mlb/mlb-top-prospects-rankings-2024

Quote

Poitevint added, “David Green is without a doubt the most talented prospect — physically and mentally — I have been associated with in the twenty-two years I’ve been involved in scouting. . .David Green has Willie Mays’s physical abilities and Pete Rose’s mental abilities.”14 As for the second half of that statement, unfortunately David would not always act in his own best interest.

Sigman’s long history in both scouting and managing gives his opinion weight. “I’m not exaggerating,” he told Nicaraguan sportswriter Edgard Rodríguez in 2007. “The reports on him projected more upside than Barry Bonds. Remember that David was a center fielder because of the ground he covered and his cannon arm. He was perhaps like Vladimir Guerrero, but even better. Vladimir has all five tools too, but David ran even better, with an impressive big stride. We all thought he was going to be a 30-30 player every year. Me, I loved watching him run and throw.”

Herzog also believed that he fell off the wagon soon after.43 In a 1999 memoir, he wrote that Green “might have been the most talented player of his generation. . .but [his] troubles with alcohol were a nightmare.”44

 

David Green perhaps? 

Compared to many of the all-time greats by some pretty widely respected scouts and managers...but some maturity issues(as with Sheff) and being separated from family while his country was at Civil War had to have exacerbated that. 

 

[Jim Goulart]

Reviewing the Brew's" Cold Brew Podcast: "Co-hosts Dave Gasper and Matt Carroll welcome MLB Pipeline's Sam Dykstra to the podcast this week as Sam digs into his Brewers Top 30 Prospects list over at MLB Pipeline, discussing Jackson Chourio, Jacob Misiorowski, Brock Wilken, and everything Brewers prospect related. Who are his breakout picks for 2024? What are realistic expectations for Jackson Chourio? Who just missed the Top 30? All that and more in this week's pod."

[nate82]

On 3/12/2024 at 3:19 AM, Mass Haas said:

Keesler Park? Anything longer isn't as convenient as MGM Park was, for sure -

 

Could just call it KFC-U and make people think it is a college for Kentucky Fried Chicken!

[Jim Goulart]

Via the Chicago Post-Tribune:

Former Lake Central star Josh Adamczewski faces a 'long, hard process' in the Brewers' system. Is he ready?
By DAVE MELTON I Chicago Tribune

Josh Adamczewski said doubt has never crept into his mind.

But the 2023 Lake Central graduate also knows the road he's on will test his patience.

That's the mindset guiding Adamczewski as he begins his first full year of professional baseball. He reported to the Milwaukee Brewers' spring training facilities in Arizona on March 1.

Adamczewski was picked by the Brewers in the 15th round of the MLB draft last year after he hit .473 with nine home runs, six triples, 56 RBIs, 55 runs scored, 35 walks and a .632 on-base percentage as a senior for Lake Central. He had committed to Ball State but decided to turn pro and signed with the Brewers on July 25.

Adamczewski then played in the Arizona Complex League, the typical destination for professional rookies who were just drafted. Reminders that he was on another level were everywhere.

"You're walking around next to grown men instead of kids;• he said. "Everyone there is great at what they do. That's why they're there. It took me about a month to fully settle in. I had to make some adjustments to my swing and some mental adjustments. It was a big process, but I'm settled in nicely now:•

As a late arrival to the ACL, Adamczewski made just eight plate appearances, drawing one walk, before the season ended in late August. He got more at-bats during fall baseball, although no stats were kept for those games, before he returned to Northwest Indiana for the winter.

Upon returning home, there were two new things everyone seemed to notice about Adamczewski. His father, John Adamczewski, explained one.

"He definitely got bigger;' John Adamczewski said. "It must've been all of that weight training they've had him doing:'

Lake Central coach Mike Swartzentruber noticed the same thing about his former player, even if those physical tools were prevalent when Josh Adamczewski was in high school.

"He was always active in our weight program at Lake Central, so he was always bigger and stronger for a high school kid;' Swartzentruber said. "But he's filled out even more:'

The other change, as Swartzentruber noted, is likely the result of Adamczewski playing baseball as a full-time job. "He'd always carried himself well as a high school kid;' 

Adamczewski took that professional approach back to Arizona, where he'll be for the foreseeable future. But this season started with a mild setback. Adamczewski is getting treatment for a nagging back injury.

"It sucks missing your first spring training;' he said. "I just get to the facility every day by 7:30 (a.m.), sit in the rehab room, do all of my exercises, get in the hot tub or the cold tub - all of that:'

Once Adamczewski returns to full health, he said he will focus on earning a promotion to one of the Brewers' Class A affiliates, which would be a tangible sign of progress.

"That would be one of my top goals for the season, to get out of Arizona as quick as possible;· he said. "That's everyone's goal when you're out there. Wherever you go, you don't want to stick in one spot for too long:'

[Jim Goulart]

 

[Jim Goulart]

Solid discussion:

 

[Jim Goulart]

 

[TURBO]

9 hours ago, Mass Haas said:

 

Does he sell his photos?