2026 Prospect Reports / Lists / Rankings / Interviews / Etc.

[Spencer Michaelis]

5 minutes ago, Joseph Zarr said:

There was talk about JD Thompson via Instructs or the Complex competitive (non-recorded) games after the ACL season a bit ago - ie late summer/early Fall. I can't quite remember who was discussing Him - someone from BA (?) or MLB (?) - either way what stood out is they didn't tout his 93-95 low slot good riding heater or the change-up but they touted his breaker/curve ball. I found this fascinating - unfortunately, I can't find the commentary as of now (maybe @Spencer Michaelis can dig that up for us?) but I was always enamored with his change-up (57% whiff rate in college, after all) and thought that was the pitch thay would play right away off his heater as the others were worked in via a professional development program. You can see here the curveball definitely has life:

 

Believe it's actually the Fangraphs comments that I started this thread with that you're thinking of haha. Here's the article itself.

Yeah, I've been surprised by the view of the changeup since he entered pro ball. The concern seems to be with the command of the pitch, I personally have a hard time believing he can't command it and rather would speculate that he purposely left it out of the zone regularly in college, because he still got swings against it, without any of the risk.

[Joseph Zarr]

4 minutes ago, Spencer Michaelis said:

Believe it's actually the Fangraphs comments that I started this thread with that you're thinking of haha. Here's the article itself.

Yeah, I've been surprised by the view of the changeup since he entered pro ball. The concern seems to be with the command of the pitch, I personally have a hard time believing he can't command it and rather would speculate that he purposely left it out of the zone regularly in college, because he still got swings against it, without any of the risk.

What's even more mildly hilarious is I went back through this thread looking for the comment! 😳

[Jim Goulart]

The Brewers strike out (pun intended) and don't place an arm in Baseball America's Top 20 Dominican Summer League pitchers for 2025.

[Spencer Michaelis]

10 minutes ago, Jim Goulart said:

The Brewers strike out (pun intended) and don't place an arm in Baseball America's Top 20 Dominican Summer League pitchers for 2025.

I think that article came out a while ago, but the BA people pushed it out there again because the kid who the Mets got in the McNeil trade was included in there.

Re-reading it now, and based on what I've heard about Diustin Mayorquin, I'm pretty surprised he missed the list. 

[Jim Goulart]

$1.3 million January 2025 international class, top #Brewers signing in terms of $$

 

[Ro Mueller]

Some love for Logan Henderson:

Adam McCalvy mlb.com article

Wisconsin Sports Heroics content

[Jim Goulart]

The “free” portion at this link will surely please fans of Manuel Rodriguez, Andrew Fischer, Logan Henderson and Jesus Made.

 

[MattK]

9 hours ago, Jim Goulart said:

The “free” portion at this link will surely please fans of Manuel Rodriguez, Andrew Fischer, Logan Henderson and Jesus Made.

 

Love the read, thanks Jim! 

Rodriguez comes at hitters with a pair of mid-90s fastballs, a slider, and a changeup, and can throw any pitch in any count. 

Manuel is throwing mid 90s? This is something I've not seen noted anywhere. Would think if he actually is throwing that high, he would be a top 100 prospect, though, so guessing it is wrong.

[CheeseheadInQC]

1 hour ago, MattK said:

Love the read, thanks Jim! 

Rodriguez comes at hitters with a pair of mid-90s fastballs, a slider, and a changeup, and can throw any pitch in any count. 

Manuel is throwing mid 90s? This is something I've not seen noted anywhere. Would think if he actually is throwing that high, he would be a top 100 prospect, though, so guessing it is wrong.

Yah, the start I saw him, I think he topped out at 88 on the River Bandits’ stadium gun.

[Joseph Zarr]

4 hours ago, MattK said:

Love the read, thanks Jim! 

Rodriguez comes at hitters with a pair of mid-90s fastballs, a slider, and a changeup, and can throw any pitch in any count. 

Manuel is throwing mid 90s? This is something I've not seen noted anywhere. Would think if he actually is throwing that high, he would be a top 100 prospect, though, so guessing it is wrong.

Manuel is most definitely currently not throwing anything higher than 91 mph (at least I can't remember seeing a single pitch that we have seen in any competitions any higher and 91 may even be generous). However, and I have alluded to this a couple times this off season, he is purportedly expressly working on velo elevating work for the first time this off season. We can certainly dream. IF he was already throwing mid-90's he would almost certainly be a much more highly touted young arm. 

[Jim Goulart]

On 12/25/2025 at 12:09 AM, Jim Goulart said:

The “free” portion at this link will surely please fans of Manuel Rodriguez, Andrew Fischer, Logan Henderson and Jesus Made.

 

The associated podcast:

Dynasty Podcast Episode #100 - Brewers and Tigers Dynasty Outlooks - Go to the 21:00 minute mark for the Brewers discussion - exact minute mark may vary slightly

Brewers players discussed: William Contreras, Brice Turang, Jackson Chourio, Sal Frelick, Garrett Mitchell, Christian Yelich, Caleb Durbin, Brandon Woodruff, Abner Uribe, Marcos Dinges, Jeferson Quero, Andrew Fischer, Cooper Pratt, Jesus Made, Luis Pena, Jacob Misiorowski, Quinn Priester, Logan Henderson, Robert Gasser, Tyson Hardin, Chad Patrick, Craig Yoho, Aaron Ashby, Manuel Rodriguez

[Jim Goulart]

 

[Jim Goulart]

Let’s be real up front - discussion pales to the in-depth discussions of Spencer and Joseph, but obviously they all do.

You’ll see the Top 20 List discussed within a few moments of the start:

Audio version - Apple PodcastsApple Podcasts 

[Jim Goulart]

So much audio content for us this week!

Latest Milwaukee Tailgate Podcast - "The regular pod is off for the holidays this week, but here is a one-hour excerpt of December's Minor League Extra where RD Topp and @Spencer Michaelistook some questions on player comps, pitch tipping and Orlando Arcia's career."

Support the MKE Tailgate pod as indicated at the "top" of the pod by RD (pun intended).

[MattK]

7 hours ago, Jim Goulart said:

Let’s be real up front - discussion pales to the in-depth discussions of Spencer and Joseph, but obviously they all do.

 

Audio version - Apple PodcastsApple Podcasts 

Amen on that! Spencer & Joseph ....

[ClosetBrewerFan]

Best farm system & prospect in a year from now?  Worth a listen if you are a Brewer fan (hint, hint...)

 

The future is bright.

[Jim Goulart]

2 hours ago, ClosetBrewerFan said:

Best farm system & prospect in a year from now?  Worth a listen if you are a Brewer fan (hint, hint...)

 

The future is bright.

To be honest, any Brewers mention in the entire pod are actually extremely minimal despite the Made talk tease.

[snoogans8056]

1 hour ago, Jim Goulart said:

To be honest, any Brewers mention in the entire pod are actually extremely minimal despite the Made talk tease.

Yeah their Brewer reasoning was strictly “Made, Pena, and Pratt probably won’t graduate” and not the reason we are all excited: literally 30+ mystery boxes in the low minors.

We could very easily have a Mets 2025 type season where a Jett, Reimer, Ewing, Clifford, Benge, and Tong all blew up at age 21-22.

[Jim Goulart]

 

[snoogans8056]

29 minutes ago, Jim Goulart said:

 

Just seeing Letson throwing is huge.

I’ve said it before, but he’s the lodestone of this whole draft system that we’ve hitched our wagon to.

His success blazes the path for everyone else behind him (kind of a Chourio / Made thing). I’m pulling for him most out of any prospect we’ve got.

[SF70]

Can’t imagine a system with as many potential pitching prospect breakouts as ours. Positional as well, with what should be a healthier year for the likes of Quero-Boeve-Wilken-Adamczewski & Payne.

And with all of the control the team has over their BL team, this system shouldn’t graduate too many over the next year giving the team what should be their most highly rated farm system ever.

Of course trades could thin things out a little but with another international class added in 2 weeks and another draft-class in July, they could be in an incredible position of strength come trade-deadline with a farm system literally bursting at the seams.

[Jim Goulart]

 

[snoogans8056]

Slight spoiler for BA’s 2026 system grades…. We are the 3rd best system in the NL Central.

[Tedaldtada]

Is what it is. There are strong systems throughout the division including ours. I’m pretty happy with the floor/ceiling combo we possess. 

[mudbutt]

What are you looking at for that? That’s rather odd considering Brewers were ranked number one overall midseason and also given an A+ grade in September by BA.

Edit: Ah I could see Miz graduating impacting the ranking enough