Brewers Minor League Observations: Coleman Crow is a Bulldog

We're back, for week two of farm system observations. As we did last week, we'll cover two relatively well-known names and a lesser-known, intriguing-looking arm in the lower levels of the system.

All statistics are season-long unless otherwise noted
Coleman Crow - RHP - Biloxi Shuckers: 2.90 ERA, 2.00 FIP, 29.6 K%, 5.6 BB%, 30.1 Whiff%
Crow was a 28th-round selection by the Angels in 2019, but due to COVID, he didn’t make his professional debut until 2021. He worked his way through the system the next two years and ended up starting 2023 in Double A. He made four starts before going on the injured list with an elbow issue that would eventually necessitate Tommy John surgery. He underwent his procedure in August 2023 and would subsequently miss the 2024 season, his first in the Brewers organization. Knowing that, the Brewers still decided he was worth two respectable big-league players, Adrian Houser and Tyrone Taylor. He appears to be proving them right.

Watching his entire start on Sunday, Crow showed off his five-pitch repertoire on his way to striking out nine Trash Pandas in five scoreless innings. His four-seam fastball was sitting in the 91-93 range, with a shape that appears to play well at the top of the zone. He was mixing in his cutter as a change-of-pace fastball in the upper 80s, and it was able to generate some swing-and-miss on pitches away. Mainly, though, it drew a lot of foul balls and soft contact. 

The best pitch (and the put-away pitch) for Crow is his curveball. Thrown in the mid-70s, he has spun some of his curveballs up to nearly 3,600 RPMs. Shuckers broadcaster Javik Blake tweeted out some data on one of Crow’s curveballs in April: 77 MPH, -15.5 IVB, -19.3 HB, 3,240 RPMs. Even when you account for the different baseball used in Double-A, that pitch is expected to move similarly to Seth Lugo’s curveball—one of the best curves in MLB. Crow’s curveball accounted for five of his nine strikeouts on Sunday.

Crow also throws a high-spin, low-80s sweeper that he can use for whiffs against righties, though he has struggled to command it when I have been watching. It has a lot of sheer horizontal movement, likely contributing to the difficulty with throwing it where he wants to. He rounds out his repertoire with a rarely used mid-80s changeup, and he has shown a good feel for killing the spin on it, though its shape and his command of it are lagging pretty far behind.

As odd as the comparison may seem on the surface, Crow has some similarities to Logan Henderson. Sure, Henderson’s main non-fastball is a changeup. The changeup is Crow’s worst pitch right now. Henderson struggles to spin breaking balls, and Crow is elite in that regard. However, when you look at their builds and mentality on the mound, the similarities begin to crop up.

They are always the attackers on the mound. They want to go after batters, and because of this, they both limit walks. Both have the “bulldog mentality,” where they appear to be all business until they record a big out and suddenly, they start showing some positive emotion. They never look flustered on the mound and have a presence about them that is bigger than their stature. 

Despite only being 24 years old, Crow has been in professional baseball long enough that he is not only Rule 5-eligible this offseason, but also a minor-league free agent at year’s end. The Brewers may have to add him to the 40-man roster to keep him in the system. In order to make that decision, the organization will likely want to see how his stuff plays at the Triple-A level. Crow’s performance is making a promotion in the near future almost unavoidable, though the depth in Nashville also makes it difficult to see where he would fit. His recent performance may force their hand, regardless of the other influences.

Luis Peña - SS/3B - Carolina Mudcats: 169 wRC+, 10.7 K%, 9.9 BB%, 5 HR
Well, I said I would try to avoid focusing too much on the likes of Peña or Made in the article last week. I made it one week. To be fair, Peña returned from his short stay on the concussion IL on Wednesday and proceeded to have three multi-hit games and smash two home runs in that time, bringing his season-long total to five. Even while trying not to focus on him, he continued to catch my eye on both sides of the ball.

Defensively, Peña has sometimes struggled with errors this year, which is not unusual for younger players. At the same time, he has shown solid actions on the infield and an above-average arm to boot, though his throwing accuracy is a work in progress. He looks especially comfortable when coming in on the ball or ranging to his glove-hand side. When ranging to his backhand, it seems he gets caught between steps at times, which has caused some of his struggles. Peña likes to slide when going to his backhand, which helps him set his feet, but it generally slows down the operation. He made some nice plays on Sunday, including one of those sliding plays to his right.

Peña continues to impress across the board on the offensive side of the ball, and the home run power is starting to show up far more often. Not only has he improved his 90th percentile exit velocity from 99.9 MPH to 106.5 MPH, according to Baseball America, but he has also begun to lift the ball to his pull side more often. With that, including the two games before he ended up on the IL with his concussion, Peña has now homered in four of his last seven games. 

With his swing starting to generate more power, Peña has also continued to avoid strikeouts well. Jesús Made had his national breakout while in the Dominican Summer League. Peña is having that breakout now, and he appears to be on the fast track to finding himself in a similar position to Made's on national prospect rankings. The Brewers seem to have found two players with true superstar ceilings in the same international signing class.

Carlos Carra - RHP - ACL Brewers: 5.40 ERA, 5.99 FIP, 25.0 K%, 7.8 BB%
A 2024 signing by the Brewers out of México, Carra had a very successful first professional season in the Dominican Summer League. He finished the season with a 1.66 ERA, and struck batters out at a 27.8% rate. He would, however, need to improve his walk rate of 16.3% as he moved up.

Given that ACL games are not often streamed on video, Carra caught my eye in a format other than video this week when his outing against the ACL Rangers was played on a Statcast field. Some footage from his DSL stint had piqued my interest in the past, though.

The pitch tagging through Statcast was not great in this game, but Carra appears to be throwing a four-seam fastball, a changeup and a curveball. His four-seamer was generating induced vertical break numbers that reached up to 21 inches, and averaged 17.5 inches (combining the pitches tagged as four-seam and sinkers). When you include the horizontal break that averaged 12.8 inches between the two, the fastball's movement profile is actually similar to Logan Henderson’s in MLB (17.2 IVB/11.0 HB). Henderson throws the pitch from a lower release height, though, and thus has a Vertical Approach Angle of -3.9 degrees. That's an elite number, whereas Carra’s VAA trends closer to average at -4.6 degrees.

While the induced movement on Carra’s changeup appears rather average on the surface, he kills spin on the pitch well and also takes around 10 MPH off of it, relative to his fastball. The shape, spin, and velocity compare favorably to Michael Wacha’s changeup, which has been a great pitch for him.

His curveball stood out in the video I had seen from his DSL days, and the shape and feel for spin are both very interesting for someone his age. I like that it also gives him another velocity band to play with, sitting in the mid-70s. It's a pitch that can tunnel well with his high-carry fastball, and also slow down bats when he wants to go back to the fastball.

One thing the Brewers are likely interested in adding is a shorter slider or a cutter in the mid-80s—something that can give him even one more velocity band to work with and to bridge the gap between his fastball and curveball shapes.

Carra’s ERA and FIP may be high at the moment, but I’m betting on his stuff. With proper development, continued velocity gains, and good luck with health, there’s the potential for a future starting prospect within him. I will be monitoring Carra closely moving forward.

That’s all I’ve got for this week; let us know what you think in the replies!

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