The Minor League Season Recap and System Extravaganza - Nashville Closes Out the Set

[biedergb]

Ok a few more - catching depth behind Quero and Dinges - it’s likely Wood and which DSL/ACL/Low A catcher can be the next in line?

how bad is it hitting the southern league, and what do we make of the offensive stats there - any precedent?

Thoughts on Birchard’s season and was his late season surge just his up/down, or could there be something going right and clicking?

which Milwaukee IFA pitching prospect makes it to the bigs next - Manuel Rodriguez, Stiven Cruz or Jesus Broca, or who did I miss?

Final question - where do we see the ‘25 draftees play in 2026 - specifically the pitchers like Thompson, Morrison, Cairone, Healy and Flores

[duewizard]

Post Rule-5 shenannigans:

Thoughts on not protecting Warren? Was he redundant (I dont like the word but I dont know how else to say it) with Peña, Made, Adams, Wilken, Fischer, Boeve and Burke? All way ahead of him in 1B/3B? 

Thoughts on new acquisition Phillips?

What do you think happens with the outfield? An already thin group lost Perez and Spain, and Lara could go to Nashville amy day now. I doubt that an outfield consisting of Alastre-García-Nicasia would be successful in AA

[Scooterfletcher]

But Brett Lockridge and Tyler Black will help the opening day Nashville Sounds outfield. 

[MattK]

3 hours ago, duewizard said:

Post Rule-5 shenannigans:

Thoughts on not protecting Warren? Was he redundant (I dont like the word but I dont know how else to say it) with Peña, Made, Adams, Wilken, Fischer, Boeve and Burke? All way ahead of him in 1B/3B? 

Thoughts on new acquisition Phillips?

What do you think happens with the outfield? An already thin group lost Perez and Spain, and Lara could go to Nashville amy day now. I doubt that an outfield consisting of Alastre-García-Nicasia would be successful in AA

Adamczewski planned for Biloxi starting day 1? That would help the OF.

[duewizard]

5 minutes ago, MattK said:

Adamczewski planned for Biloxi starting day 1? That would help the OF.

Oh yeah probably. The other spots are still interesting. O'Rae? Brown? I love Nicasia and the others but Southern League pitching will eat them alive

[Joseph Zarr]

Update:

We have our debut Pod, folks!

We really cut it short this year at just under 3 hours for the Opener.

😅

Enjoy!

 

[snoogans8056]

Welp… I was already waaaaay too high on our young pitching. This didn’t help that any.

Can’t wait to see this DSL pitching class added to all those HS drafted arms. Then having all that getting combined with the college arms down the line… Yeesh.

With some velo jumps this offseason, we could have a legit top 20 of just teenage arms.

EDIT - Wanted to add a question for next week: Was that 2025 Carolina team the youngest A-ball team of all time? Can’t imagine it gets much younger than that, especially with R+ ball no longer existing.

[Spencer Michaelis]

Joseph and I are planning to record the Carolina episode the day after Christmas. If you have Carolina specific questions, this would be a good time to get those in!

[Jim Goulart]

1 hour ago, Spencer Michaelis said:

Joseph and I are planning to record the Carolina episode the day after Christmas. If you have Carolina specific questions, this would be a good time to get those in!

To jog your memory, sortable hitting/pitching stats for 2025.

[MattK]

12 hours ago, Spencer Michaelis said:

Joseph and I are planning to record the Carolina episode the day after Christmas. If you have Carolina specific questions, this would be a good time to get those in!

Thanks guys, looking forward to it. I have a Bjorn Johnson question. Where do you think he is at, and what can he become? Being picked the round behind Letson, and a lefty, I had pictured them proceeding together, but obviously they are different pitchers on different paths. 

Thanks! 

[biedergb]

On 11/22/2025 at 12:25 PM, biedergb said:

Low A -that HS pitching group was impressive in Meccage, Dorchies, Dubanewicz and Renz. Did I miss someone? How much patience should I have with Bitonti and DiTuri or should I jump off the bandwagon already as they keep teasing with potential but never consistent and seem to struggle in the second halves.

My Carolina questions. So that first question about the HS pitchers is who are your top 3 to watch from that group?

Now additional questions:

Braylon Payne - he had so much hype going into 2025, and so little at the end of the season - injuries played a role, but was he overhyped by us (brewers prospects fans), or does he have the chance to move up the prospect ladder if he remains healthy.
Finally which of the non-Payne OF prospects wowed you the most (Anderson, Encarnacion, Ragsdale or IF-turned-OF Rodriguez and Alastre)?

EDIT: one more question - what is the plan with Bjorn Johnson do you think? He pitched exclusively out of the bullpen but often multi-innings and is a young former HS pick. Did he have an arm injury that I overlooked, or why pitch only as a reliever at this point of his career?

[Jim Goulart]

 

[biedergb]

I am looking forward to this one. Can't wait.

I just watched the first episode, man it was a great 3+ hours.  loved every minute of it.

I also noted you guys alluded to a trade you missed, and I forget which one it was, but my mind went straight to a different one - the Priester for Yophery/Holobetz trade.  I haven't watched this episode #2 yet to see if there is any discussion on Holobetz, or if Yophery will be discussed briefly in Wisconsin, knowing they are gone, not much to say really, so no big deal.

Thanks for doing this. Hoping one of my questions makes the final cut

Anyway these are the Highlight of the offseason for me!!

[Joseph Zarr]

2 hours ago, biedergb said:

I am looking forward to this one. Can't wait.

I just watched the first episode, man it was a great 3+ hours.  loved every minute of it.

I also noted you guys alluded to a trade you missed, and I forget which one it was, but my mind went straight to a different one - the Priester for Yophery/Holobetz trade.  I haven't watched this episode #2 yet to see if there is any discussion on Holobetz, or if Yophery will be discussed briefly in Wisconsin, knowing they are gone, not much to say really, so no big deal.

Thanks for doing this. Hoping one of my questions makes the final cut

Anyway these are the Highlight of the offseason for me!!

We did briefly touch on Holobetz and Yophery in the Mudcats episode, yes - tho not the trade specifically. The loss of Holobetz from the early Mudcats rotation very obviously had impacts (the Red Sox quickly moved him to their High-A Greenville affiliate) and I cross-referenced Payne and Yophery (I believe?) when I discussed Payne's CF defense.

Back to Holobetz, I think what is most remarkable about his post-trade season is his late season promotion to Double-A. I do wonder if he can elevate his ability to strike out opposing batters, tho (only 27 K in 37 2/3 Double-A IP). It's something I'll be paying attention to peripherally in 2026. He very clearly is capable of pitching in the zone (only 15 BB in 15 GS in 2026 is extremely impressive).

[MudcatsfaninBrunsCO]

Wish I knew about this earlier);

[Jim Goulart]

 

[snoogans8056]

BA had a Stuff+ article (BA Stuff+ link here) where we placed in the middle / bottom of most of the top metrics. What jumps out is that we are 1st in almost all spin related metrics, along with horizontal movement. Where we fall off is the velocity, which seems to be the biggest influence on the actual “Stuff+” number.

In roughly the same week they came out with an article on production from players young for the league (BA Young Production link here). We are blowing teams out of the water here, and that’s with their specification of “young player” being a 26 year old in AAA. If you narrowed that age for being “young” down even more, I imagine that spread between us and the rest of MiLB is shocking.

I’m just an idiot fan, but putting two and two together… This seems like a canary in the coal mine.

Our arms are the youngest by far in the league, pitch the most innings, have crazy ball manipulation data, and have the results already going for them. Everything seems to be setting up for something huge if the velocities come around.

Not sure I gave you an actual question here, Spencer, but I guess it would be “Are you taking away the same things from this data? Just how much are you buying in on what we are up to?”

Sorry for being long winded. I’m avoiding all Packer stuff on the internet at the moment and this helped a little bit.

[Tedaldtada]

38 minutes ago, snoogans8056 said:

BA had a Stuff+ article (BA Stuff+ link here) where we placed in the middle / bottom of most of the top metrics. What jumps out is that we are 1st in almost all spin related metrics, along with horizontal movement. Where we fall off is the velocity, which seems to be the biggest influence on the actual “Stuff+” number.

In roughly the same week they came out with an article on production from players young for the league (BA Young Production link here). We are blowing teams out of the water here, and that’s with their specification of “young player” being a 26 year old in AAA. If you narrowed that age for being “young” down even more, I imagine that spread between us and the rest of MiLB is shocking.

I’m just an idiot fan, but putting two and two together… This seems like a canary in the coal mine.

Our arms are the youngest by far in the league, pitch the most innings, have crazy ball manipulation data, and have the results already going for them. Everything seems to be setting up for something huge if the velocities come around.

Not sure I gave you an actual question here, Spencer, but I guess it would be “Are you taking away the same things from this data? Just how much are you buying in on what we are up to?”

Sorry for being long winded. I’m avoiding all Packer stuff on the internet at the moment and this helped a little bit.

Great post! I’d add that the whole strategy seems to be coming to a precipice this season (and next). The backfields in Arizona will be fascinating this year. I see the timeline like so:

Year 0: Draft/Sign/Acquire very young player with projectable traits. Tweak arsenal and sequencing or teach proper swing decision, defense, and grinder offensive philosophy.

Year 1: Those performing on the backfields are pushed aggressively in order to face advanced competition. Reward strong performance with further promotion. Backfill with the next wave. First signs of breakout start showing.

Year 2 and 3: Cream continues to rise. Body maturation and pro experience result in rapid improvement for the hard workers.

With so many entering year 2 and 3 of this process, I’d expect to see some of the fruits of all this labor. We already are but it should only amplify.

[Spencer Michaelis]

5 hours ago, snoogans8056 said:

BA had a Stuff+ article (BA Stuff+ link here) where we placed in the middle / bottom of most of the top metrics. What jumps out is that we are 1st in almost all spin related metrics, along with horizontal movement. Where we fall off is the velocity, which seems to be the biggest influence on the actual “Stuff+” number.

In roughly the same week they came out with an article on production from players young for the league (BA Young Production link here). We are blowing teams out of the water here, and that’s with their specification of “young player” being a 26 year old in AAA. If you narrowed that age for being “young” down even more, I imagine that spread between us and the rest of MiLB is shocking.

I’m just an idiot fan, but putting two and two together… This seems like a canary in the coal mine.

Our arms are the youngest by far in the league, pitch the most innings, have crazy ball manipulation data, and have the results already going for them. Everything seems to be setting up for something huge if the velocities come around.

Not sure I gave you an actual question here, Spencer, but I guess it would be “Are you taking away the same things from this data? Just how much are you buying in on what we are up to?”

Sorry for being long winded. I’m avoiding all Packer stuff on the internet at the moment and this helped a little bit.

Love this. Will likely take this at the end of the final episode when we cover all the questions that aren’t specific to a level.

[brrosenow]

Highest floor and ceiling: Kaleb Bowman, Tyler Bryant and Nick Merkel?

[Brock Beauchamp]

10 hours ago, brrosenow said:

Highest floor and ceiling: Kaleb Bowman, Tyler Bryant and Nick Merkel?

Welcome to Brewer Fanatic!

[jay87shot]

How much stock should we put into the Southern league being notoriously pitcher-friendly, (.230/.321/.340 league averages) assessing players like Adams, Lara, Wilken, and Pratt? In turn, de-valuing pitchers strong seasons? If you add an extra 20-30 points on BA/OBP and 50 points on slugging for each player they become much different prospect in terms of evaluating the 2025 season. Does the national scouting community put enough stock into ballpark/league differences?

 

[CheeseheadInQC]

Just got caught up on these. Great job as usual. I feel like at this point, I almost have more follow up questions than regular ones.

I guess for Biloxi, my question would be, was there some noticeable improvement from Matt Wood beyond the surface-level stats? I think the fact he was never really impressive when the T-Rats came to town has me a bit more skeptical of his Biloxi numbers than I otherwise would be.

[kxm]

Not for this episode. But potentially as a look towards the future. As it appears we are beginning to see the team stack waves of minor players.  Milwaukee may be in position to start trading major players with 2+ years left in the near future to increase the minor league talent pool as replacement talent comes up. 1) which minor players that are rule 5 eligible next year do you expect to be trade bait, 2) what is the ideal 2027/2028 team look today, 3) which of major league players become the best to trade early? Ex. turang value in the trade market compare to options we have to replace him. 

[brrosenow]

You guys mentioned the lack of minor league signings in an early episode, is it concerning that they haven’t picked up at all?