Tedaldtada

Here we are on the precipice of the most anticipated Brewers minor league season of all time. We’re about a month out from placements. We’ve seen a plethora of prospect-laden lineups so far this spring. It’s officially dreamin’ season. Who is your pick to click in 2026? My first pick is a guy looking to build off an impressive 2025 AFL campaign — Dylan O'Rae. Entering his age-22 season, I’m expecting him to re-establish himself as a notable prospect. He’s cut from the prototypical Brewers cloth, with a profile built on commanding his at-bats, speed, and defensive versatility. And he might be the smallest of the small-sized Brewers — 5'7" and as wiry as 14-gauge copper. How he performs at that size and build will be a fascinating stress test for how a modern baseball player can be put together. It’s a body type that has rarely been offensively productive. Nonetheless, he gets on base 40% of the time and really pressures the defense once he’s on. I predict he improves a power grade — or more — this season with some natural physical maturation and gets back closer to the gaudier batting averages that litter his track record. He’s capable of more extra-base hits, if not home runs, as a prodigal hustler with plus speed. If he can’t get to second base out of the box, he’ll likely try to steal it. It looks to me like 2024 was the batting line outlier, particularly his time in Biloxi. The naysayers lined up in droves after that performance. I’d argue O’Rae still found a way to be pretty damn disruptive with 62 steals and 87 walks that year. It’s wild to me that with all the fawning over Brewers depth, O’Rae is rarely cited as part of it. He’s one of those guys who’s beloved in the building, and he’s already in the high minors. He’ll get his due if he’s more impactful in Double-A. I’m betting he’s going to do it. Dylan O'Rae Stats: Statcast, Visuals & Advanced Metrics | baseballsavant.com Dylan O'Rae - Stats - Batting | FanGraphs Baseball

Andrew Fischer 110+ EV home run out to RF - as advertised.

Factoring in organizational constipation, I’d expect Peña, Fischer and Dinges to be hitting 1-3 in Appleton for the first month of the season. Then all bets are off. Let the production dictate from there.

What the hell are we going to do with all these guys? 😎 A season w/o an IL stint would do wonders but I don’t typically get too worried about innings. These guys throw most of their pitches during the year outside of the actual games. You can get plenty of work on backfields and in bullpens. Not ideal obviously. It has to be daunting to be one of the guys attempting to work their way up the Brewers MLB pitching staff pecking order. So much young cost controlled talent layered ahead of this guy, and we’re talking about a borderline top 100 AA prospect popping mitts with 5 average or better pitches in 2026 Spring Training. The ultimate Cream Will Rise experiment is unfolding with vigor. Hopefully our org culture can withstand the immense pressure that accompanies such intense competition.

Easy to dream on this one but Dinges is tough. It felt like he was a man-amongst-boys last season at both stops. Feels similar to what Made felt like before last year. The under the hood metrics make me confident. Nervous that the package is too good to be true. Let’s extend that track record young man!

Kuehner is shoving so far this Spring - easy 96 sinker

Do I hear Skubal’s walk-up music??

Love it! I know they had down seasons last year due to injuries and lack of production but I see O’Rea and Black as part of this hitter tier as well. Crazy that all seven of these guys are knocking on the door simultaneously!

Fun times. We have seen so many pitchers throw over the last few days. To think guys like Torres and Kuehner won’t be in the top 20 is wild. Ebel should open some eyes early especially if he looks good at SS. My guess is he is better than advertised on D.

Me likey

I certainly can vibe with the naysayers but this is an organization and 40-man roster built for this. It’s not just 13 pitchers. It’s probably more like 20 primary arms supported by another 10-15 fringe arms that create the infrastructure for this to work. I believe this is what the Brewers are working towards. Position-less pitching staffs. Everyone capable of getting at least 6 outs each outing they pitch. And most are able to approach 12-15 outs effectively and safely every 3-4 days. It takes a village to survive the regular season AND to be positioning well for the playoffs. You want our most talented arms peaking late in the year. Long outings (even north of 60 pitches) are too risky in April and May. Warm them up less. Ramp them up slowly. Allow for the cream to rise and enter playoffs with fresh arms.

I’m not sure what to make of it, it’s not researched, but my gut is telling me these lists were all more similar than ever this year. Is this group-think manifesting itself or is this exercise becoming more straightforward with the data we have access to? I love Made, but you cannot find a single dissenter out there. It’s chalk that he’s top 3. Did anyone have him outside the top 10 anywhere? The difference between the #50 and number #250 prospect is probably a grade and half. Someone go out on a limb and have a unique opinion ☺️. Where’s Clancy?

The obvious resolution is those swing lefties will start a lot of games as openers. Work once through the order and possibly face the premium top of the order LHB’s a second time. Then they give way to the next guy. They are not lefty specialists. Each has an arsenal capable of pitching to opposite handed batters. I see a shift towards 2-4 inning outings up and down the pitching staff. Even with starters like Woody (shorter outings, survive intact for playoff innings) and the high lev guys like Uribe (multi-inning outings resulting in fewer overall outings and in-game warm-ups but similar number of outs recorded over course of season).

The beauty of Jett is that he could potentially be used to convert two roster spots into one allowing greater flexibility. His skillset could fill both the Mona/Perk roles immediately freeing up a roster spot for a more traditional bopper (like Wilken or some such) to hold down a bench job.

It’s part of the Brewers ethos to push their players aggressively yet methodically. And these days, some teams, including the Brewers, use about 3 dozen pitchers each season. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if every name you listed sees BL innings health permitting.

This is a good rundown of the next most imminent wave though I would have included Hardin, Lara, and Burke in the other names to know section. Hardin should be in that AAA rotation with Crow, CarRod, and possibly Gasser. I think we all sense Lara is an org darling. And Burke is an older, but ascending, masher who is neck and neck with Adams and Wilken in my book. Author definitely had a strong grasp of how the Brewers operate. Great insight. Pratt, Fischer, Made, DeBerry and Letson lead the charge of the next wave. It’s easy to forget about Tyler Black and Craig Yoho. I sense both are firmly in the Brewers plans even if some fans have sold their stock. Yoho never really lost anything stuff-wise, he was just buried in the pecking order and lost a half tick of command maybe? Black has shown a knack for getting on base at the highest level which is a very valuable skill.

Greed is a helluva drug

Robert Gasser, Craig Yoho, Coleman Crow, Tyson Hardin and Carlos Rodriguez are all better positioned now to soak up innings this season. Will be exciting to see them battle it out in Spring. The DeBerry/Letson/Dorchies wave are right behind those guys. This might actually be the year we don’t sign a vet arm at the outset of ST. I cannot help but observe the Brewers seem to have a boatload of guys who can tick up their stuff for medium-length outings (30-50 pitches). My prediction is we see some sort of mutant piggyback approach this season. Shorter starts followed by high leverage swingmen eating up 2-3 inning each until the game is over. Even Megill, Koenig and Uribe are built for multi-inning work, which I would prefer, if it meant fewer appearances overall.

Tobias isn’t inconsequential. A key cog of the resilient pitching staff depth. This is a fair trade although our end of the value (most likely) won’t convey for a few years. Not only is the farm system strong but it’s at the precipice of churning out a myriad of various skill sets from the high minors. Those clamoring for power surely see the homegrown power of Wilken, Adams, Burke, Dinges, Fischer bubbling up? Just keep collecting eclectic high-end skill sets across the timeline spectrum and eventually the stars will align. Although the underlying data isn’t as sparkling, Jett’s batting line looks Made-esque at similar ages/levels. He looks like a rock solid 2-win player with a couple more impressive seasons mixed in during the course of his career. A very good Collins replacement with much more upside. Sproat is giving me Priester vibes. The Mets know what they are doing with pitchers but let’s see if he can take another half step or more.

I suspect they get aggressive with their top guys. Could easily see Fischer and Pena in AA at 3B and 2B. Baez goes to the bench or A+. Garcia heads to the OF.

It’s probably just a function of a tight budget and minor league free agent decision bottlenecks BUT what if the Brewers are also planning on doubling down on the aggressive placement of their players to backfill the holes at AAA and AA currently? That would be interesting. They were young at all levels last year and it wouldn’t surprise me if we continued to be this year.

8 man double 🐖 LOL I agree we will continue to see the lines blurred within the pitching staff. High effort extended outings every 5-6 days make as little sense as high effort short outings multiple days in a row. The sweet spot in performance, and likely health, is probably something more like 6-12 out stints every 2-4 days.

Bregman is a really good all-around player on a per game basis. Could see him getting some MVP votes with good health. Shaw is a great fallback option. I also think Cabrera was a good bet for them. They moved their chips in for this year and acquired fringe blue chippers. I’d be very happy if the Brewers had made similar moves.

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.

This is precisely my prediction as well. Tons of piggybacks. Let the cream rise to the top for the post season.