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

[cragi]

1 hour ago, Team Canada said:

If what Claude tells me is correct, Chourio got as high as #2, but the Brewers have never had the top ranked prospect in baseball.

im a huge fan of Claude and been using it as my primary AI for the past year, but its not the best tool for research. Grok and Perplexity for research. Chourio was #1:
https://www.mlb.com/news/jackson-chourio-is-brewers-first-no-1-prospect

[homer]

Sam Dykstra wrote an article about Braylon Payne:

https://www.mlb.com/news/brewers-prospect-braylon-payne-home-run-streak-high-a

 

Quote

Even if the season ended today, Payne would be the only Brewers prospect aged 19 or younger to hit double-digit homers over a single High-A season since 2006. Jackson Chourio came closest when he hit eight in his age-18 season in 2022, though that was in only 31 games.

 

[wallus]

16 minutes ago, homer said:

Sam Dykstra wrote an article about Braylon Payne:

https://www.mlb.com/news/brewers-prospect-braylon-payne-home-run-streak-high-a

 

 

I thought I read somewhere that the balls have been juiced in the low minor leagues? Can anyone confirm? Some of his homers look extremely effortless 

[sveumrules]

1 minute ago, wallus said:

I thought I read somewhere that the balls have been juiced in the low minor leagues? Can anyone confirm? Some of his homers look extremely effortless 

@wiguy94 posted some numbers awhile back showing that all of the Brewers affiliate leagues have seen big jumps in OPS over last year. Currently its at Southern League (.740 vs .660 last year), Midwest League (.767 vs .693), and Carolina League (.719 vs .665).

Believe FanGraphs prospector Brendan Gawlowski has also mentioned his suspicions that something is up with the minor league balls this year.

[Spencer Michaelis]

32 minutes ago, sveumrules said:

@wiguy94 posted some numbers awhile back showing that all of the Brewers affiliate leagues have seen big jumps in OPS over last year. Currently its at Southern League (.740 vs .660 last year), Midwest League (.767 vs .693), and Carolina League (.719 vs .665).

Believe FanGraphs prospector Brendan Gawlowski has also mentioned his suspicions that something is up with the minor league balls this year.

I've heard Baseball America is working on an article of some sort on this that should be out soon. It definitely feels like something has changed with walks and homers both up quite a bit across the board for non-AAA levels (the one level that they use MLB baseballs)

[Playing Catch]

9 minutes ago, Spencer Michaelis said:

I've heard Baseball America is working on an article of some sort on this that should be out soon. It definitely feels like something has changed with walks and homers both up quite a bit across the board for non-AAA levels (the one level that they use MLB baseballs)

Different balls are different balls, no doubt, but I would suspect that teams are trying to teach their pitchers to beat hitters in-zone to combat all of the plate-discipline that teams are promoting with their hitters, too. Learning how to pitch in-zone and beat contact comes with a lot of bumps and bruises, as every little league pitcher learns the hard way.

[biedergb]

1 hour ago, sveumrules said:

@wiguy94 posted some numbers awhile back showing that all of the Brewers affiliate leagues have seen big jumps in OPS over last year. Currently its at Southern League (.740 vs .660 last year), Midwest League (.767 vs .693), and Carolina League (.719 vs .665).

Believe FanGraphs prospector Brendan Gawlowski has also mentioned his suspicions that something is up with the minor league balls this year.

So this is the opposite of the tacked balls from 2022 or was it 2023

[sveumrules]

2 minutes ago, biedergb said:

So this is the opposite of the tacked balls from 2022 or was it 2023

Yeah, believe the tacked balls were first half of 2023 when Chourio was in Biloxi, then he went off on a tear shortly after they switched back to the regular balls.

[Spencer Michaelis]

18 minutes ago, Playing Catch said:

Different balls are different balls, no doubt, but I would suspect that teams are trying to teach their pitchers to beat hitters in-zone to combat all of the plate-discipline that teams are promoting with their hitters, too. Learning how to pitch in-zone and beat contact comes with a lot of bumps and bruises, as every little league pitcher learns the hard way.

I suppose that could be tied to the slugging, but I'm not sure I get how that would be connected to walks going up significantly as well? If you're encouraging more in-zone attacking vs trying to get chase, I'd think walks would be going down or at least holding pretty steady. 

My educated guess is that we're going to find out the baseballs are slicker, with less drag this year.

[wibadgers23]

Can they just stop messing with the baseballs?  It drives me nuts.  Just use the same ball across all levels (including MLB).

[wallus]

Lara is #5 on BAs prospect list now

[Playing Catch]

14 hours ago, wibadgers23 said:

Can they just stop messing with the baseballs?  It drives me nuts.  Just use the same ball across all levels (including MLB).

I think that is part of the point of trying different balls in different leagues. If they understand how different balls work, they have a better chance at finding the "perfect" ball for MLB. I look at it the same way them trying out new rules in lower leagues.

Add in all of the variables in different leagues (e.g. low-altitude, hot humid air in the Southern League, or high-altitude, cool dry air in California League), and it's really impossible to make one ball to rule them all.

[cragi]

didnt see this posted here but Fangraphs has a Brewer as the #1 power rank in the minors and it wasnt who i expected to see (Made is #6 overall)
https://www.fangraphs.com/roster-resource/depth-charts/brewers

[MattK]

Super interesting to see Lara, Adamczewski, and even Burke rated as high as they are!

[Jim Goulart]