Milwaukee Brewers Minor League Pitchers of the First Half - 2025

The Brewers ‘24 draft-class has to be one of the most underrated classes in baseball. Payne-Burke-Dinges on the positional side, with a stable of arms too large to list on the other side of the ball.

Can’t imagine a team with more legit starter arm depth throughout their organization from the bigs on thru the DSL. Multiple waves that should hit the bigs over the next 3-4 years that should allow for trades of this depth and that still lead to a BL ready stable of 10+ starter arms starting late next season.

Having this type of rotational depth will protect this team from the inevitable arm injuries like no other team in baseball.

If Hernandez bulks up a little that could make his velocity rise, and at only 139 lbs there’s definitely room for that. Also Penas curve has a similar look as kershaws, which is exciting. Also love being able to look at the box scores for the mudcats because it seems there’s always someone exciting pitching. Also any update on what type of shoulder injury letson is dealing with? Hopefully just inflammation not a rotator cuff 🙏 also think there’s a chance that Hardin could even make it to the big leagues next year if he keeps this up

6 minutes ago, biedergb said:

While i want to be cautious and not be over-optimistic in the pitching depth, I did look back a few years ago and looked at what the full season clubs had as pitchers. Reviewing 2021, all pitchers who were age appropriate or younger (I used less than or equal to these ages - 25 for AAA, 24 for AA, 23 for A+, and 22 for A) and had about 50 IP, and that list in 2021:

AAA - Bettinger, Ashby, Jankins. Small was called up but would have been on this list. Not bad, but meh as Ashby and Small were top prospects, Bettinger and Jankins were hopeful inning fillers (even at the time)

AA - none, although J. Bullock did get some innings.

A+ - Jarvis, Olson, Reifert, Castaneda, H. Chirino, and a couple of others, with Jarvis, Olson and Castaneda deemed realistic SP prospects at the time. So this was a solid team.

A - J. Geraldo, Vasalotti, M. Guerrero, J. Cruz and Brendan Murphy. Vasalotti caught a lot of attention as a very young pitcher who could stand out, and Murphy was a former high draft pick ('17 I think) who was trying to get healthy. But despite a lot of inning this group was uninspired but Vasalotti and Murphy were on prospect lists.

 

Now we have much more (using about 35 IP as those should get > 50 IP by year end barring injury or promotions)

AAA - Miz, Henderson and Rodriguez all as top 10-20 prospects (Miz/Logan as top pitching prospects for the team)

AA - Kuehner, Cornielle, Hunt, Wichrowski, and Crow (who is now in AAA)

A+ - Flores, Birchard, Hardin (now at AA), Aquino and most likely DeBerry will get 50 IP.

A - Hernandez, T. Smith, B. Rivera, Meccage, Torres, B. Johnson and possibly Dubanewicz and Dorchies will see some significant time as teenagers along with Hernandez, Meccage and Torres.

Quite a change in quantity of younger pitchers, most with good stats, and also more upside. So yes this is trending the right direction. Now few are looked at as top of the rotation talent (Miz or Henderson aside) and most are middle rotation or back end depth but can certainly improve their status with either another quality pitch, increased velocity (ie Hernandez, Hardin), or improve command (Meccage and the '24 HS pitchers). Will be interesting to see how we view the pitching depth in the system in a year or two. 

Health, continued development and some good luck will really make a difference between "nice" depth vs true foundational depth that can augment the franchise for the next 5 years.

This organization’s PDS will turn what appear to be back-enders into mids, and mids to uppers, I think we can bet on that.

The pitching scouting staff, both pro & amateur, have done an amazing job adding arms that the PD staff can improve. Just in the last 2 draft-classes the team has added what, 24 pitchers (if we include UFA Hunt). That’s more volume than has ever been added in a 2 year period of time at least since the draft went to 20 rounds.

I think it’s fair to feel “over-optimistic” regarding what this team is accomplishing with organizational starting pitching depth. 

That whole 2024 pitching class (as well as their similarly aged internationals) also seem to be heavily ground ball oriented, with potential to add to their subpar velocity.

If any one of them gets a few ticks more, they’re gonna take off.

2 hours ago, biedergb said:

While i want to be cautious and not be over-optimistic in the pitching depth, I did look back a few years ago and looked at what the full season clubs had as pitchers. Reviewing 2021, all pitchers who were age appropriate or younger (I used less than or equal to these ages - 25 for AAA, 24 for AA, 23 for A+, and 22 for A) and had about 50 IP, and that list in 2021:

AAA - Bettinger, Ashby, Jankins. Small was called up but would have been on this list. Not bad, but meh as Ashby and Small were top prospects, Bettinger and Jankins were hopeful inning fillers (even at the time)

AA - none, although J. Bullock did get some innings.

A+ - Jarvis, Olson, Reifert, Castaneda, H. Chirino, and a couple of others, with Jarvis, Olson and Castaneda deemed realistic SP prospects at the time. So this was a solid team.

A - J. Geraldo, Vasalotti, M. Guerrero, J. Cruz and Brendan Murphy. Vasalotti caught a lot of attention as a very young pitcher who could stand out, and Murphy was a former high draft pick ('17 I think) who was trying to get healthy. But despite a lot of inning this group was uninspired but Vasalotti and Murphy were on prospect lists.

 

Now we have much more (using about 35 IP as those should get > 50 IP by year end barring injury or promotions)

AAA - Miz, Henderson and Rodriguez all as top 10-20 prospects (Miz/Logan as top pitching prospects for the team)

AA - Kuehner, Cornielle, Hunt, Wichrowski, and Crow (who is now in AAA)

A+ - Flores, Birchard, Hardin (now at AA), Aquino and most likely DeBerry will get 50 IP.

A - Hernandez, T. Smith, B. Rivera, Meccage, Torres, B. Johnson and possibly Dubanewicz and Dorchies will see some significant time as teenagers along with Hernandez, Meccage and Torres.

Quite a change in quantity of younger pitchers, most with good stats, and also more upside. So yes this is trending the right direction. Now few are looked at as top of the rotation talent (Miz or Henderson aside) and most are middle rotation or back end depth but can certainly improve their status with either another quality pitch, increased velocity (ie Hernandez, Hardin), or improve command (Meccage and the '24 HS pitchers). Will be interesting to see how we view the pitching depth in the system in a year or two. 

Health, continued development and some good luck will really make a difference between "nice" depth vs true foundational depth that can augment the franchise for the next 5 years.

Cool comparison! 

Interesting that almost no one (Olson & Ashby? ) from the '21 group is around only 4 years later. But, as you note, few were considered "prospects".

4 hours ago, biedergb said:

While i want to be cautious and not be over-optimistic in the pitching depth, I did look back a few years ago and looked at what the full season clubs had as pitchers. Reviewing 2021, all pitchers who were age appropriate or younger (I used less than or equal to these ages - 25 for AAA, 24 for AA, 23 for A+, and 22 for A) and had about 50 IP, and that list in 2021:

AAA - Bettinger, Ashby, Jankins. Small was called up but would have been on this list. Not bad, but meh as Ashby and Small were top prospects, Bettinger and Jankins were hopeful inning fillers (even at the time)

AA - none, although J. Bullock did get some innings.

A+ - Jarvis, Olson, Reifert, Castaneda, H. Chirino, and a couple of others, with Jarvis, Olson and Castaneda deemed realistic SP prospects at the time. So this was a solid team.

A - J. Geraldo, Vasalotti, M. Guerrero, J. Cruz and Brendan Murphy. Vasalotti caught a lot of attention as a very young pitcher who could stand out, and Murphy was a former high draft pick ('17 I think) who was trying to get healthy. But despite a lot of inning this group was uninspired but Vasalotti and Murphy were on prospect lists.

 

Now we have much more (using about 35 IP as those should get > 50 IP by year end barring injury or promotions)

AAA - Miz, Henderson and Rodriguez all as top 10-20 prospects (Miz/Logan as top pitching prospects for the team)

AA - Kuehner, Cornielle, Hunt, Wichrowski, and Crow (who is now in AAA)

A+ - Flores, Birchard, Hardin (now at AA), Aquino and most likely DeBerry will get 50 IP.

A - Hernandez, T. Smith, B. Rivera, Meccage, Torres, B. Johnson and possibly Dubanewicz and Dorchies will see some significant time as teenagers along with Hernandez, Meccage and Torres.

Quite a change in quantity of younger pitchers, most with good stats, and also more upside. So yes this is trending the right direction. Now few are looked at as top of the rotation talent (Miz or Henderson aside) and most are middle rotation or back end depth but can certainly improve their status with either another quality pitch, increased velocity (ie Hernandez, Hardin), or improve command (Meccage and the '24 HS pitchers). Will be interesting to see how we view the pitching depth in the system in a year or two. 

Health, continued development and some good luck will really make a difference between "nice" depth vs true foundational depth that can augment the franchise for the next 5 years.

And that’s not counting the injured guys like Woodward (4th Rounder), Knoth (1st Rounder), and Broughton (ranked in the top 150 of his class at BA).