biedergb

I think the other part is not burning the options/40 man spots on the AAA guys (like last year with CF Rodriguez who used a 40 man spot before he was really ready). If Quintana plays well great, if he is a pick up like Julio Teheran or more like Keuchel last year, then use the innings and you can always trade or DFA the pitcher later. AAA (or AA) will likely have some good arms, but may be a few months or a year away from being MLB ready (Miz, Henderson, Hunt, Wichrowski, Rodriguez)

Interesting question. Going back to MLB top 30 prospects and looking at the top 5-10, they haven't "blown" many prospects as several who were very high either became MLB starters at one point (T. Taylor, Arcia, Hader, Frelick, Mitchell etc), were ranked high but were way too far off (H. Perez among others) or were traded for quality players (Brinson, Harrison, I. Diaz, B. Phillips, T. Grisham). The last group of top prospects who failed to live up to the expectations was the 2019/2020 trio of Hiura, Ray and Lutz, and pitcher Small.

Shane Smith will now likely replace Reece Olson as the prospect I will miss the most. Fortunately the Brewers haven’t lost many prospects that have come back to bite them, but these two would be great pitching depth at a time when the team is looking for just that exactly. Ok - better now that I got that out. Havemt followed spring training much but getting excited for the season ahead.

Henderson with a 94-95 mph Fastball, a very good change up and a solid 3rd pitch goes from a middle relief / borderline 5th starter profile to a back to middle of the rotation profile. That would be great.

Thanks for the update ARobs ugh another gut punch. I was so stoked to watch some of our young pitchers (letson, knoth, meccage and the 2023-24 HS picks) progress this season, Robinson had his surgery last season mid year, correct? But we are expecting some who may return from injury - the aforementioned Shears, and hopefully healthy years from Woodward, Birchard. But Crow should be returning, and what was Galindez’s injury/rehab status? Am I missing anyone?

Interesting article. And given the recent few years with high interest rates, the team will want to minimize any loans it needs to keep cash flow in the positive territory. A few years ago they could probably average out some short term crunches with various measures, but may be more reluctant to now, so keeping the bottom line lower - as well as whatever they are doing to pay off the infrastructure of the buildings they have invested into such as Arizona and DSL. However, it still stinks that these things are factors for the club and they can't just dole out some extra cash for good players to augment the roster.

Add to the equation that we have a high end prospect with good defense, and some older but solid C prospects in the lower minors. I don't know they have completely given up on it, but they see the offense that Contreras can bring, and he and Quero split C reps in 2026 and 2027 then we can have a little of both, or even more than that if Quero can translate his bat to the MLB or Contreras improves his defense even some, But as noted robo-umps will change the framing qualities, although receiving and arm will still be valuable.

Here is a weird question - is there a statute of limitations of this - like if he plays international or independent ball for X years can he forgo the suspension? Otherwise that effectively kills a player’s chance of getting back to milb with a new team given roster limits etc. Wish him luck and wonder if that was another factor for his release (if known) but his poor performance at low A probably did it anyway.

Well, yes. But for a catcher he has some (low bar), but he has more offense right now than defense was more my point. But last year he had zero power, and his BA stunk, but prior to that he had good OBP (yes as noted it was primarily driven by his BB and HBP) and did have some power. Basically everyone's offense gets sucked into the Southern League and Biloxi vortex. I would argue there is some upside for him as a catcher, but I also agree last year his BB rate was all he had, and if that doesn't improve his BA or ISO, then he has then no real value unless his framing or arm become magically better. If he was forced to another position then his offensive "upside" is non-existent. I wonder if he is going to ST (Along with Rodriguez and I think Garcia) since they just need bodies at the catching position since there are like a zillion arms in spring training.

The can do far far better. Miller has some offensive upside, but stalled at AA (although who doesn't in Biloxi?) but his defense has left a lot to be lacking. He would have to really start hitting to be considered a real MLB catcher, as his glove work and arm will not get him there.

All valid point - prospects are just that - they are not known quantities and all is prospective predictions. But on the individual basis it is so difficult to predict, so taking the bigger picture of a large group, and particularly a deep pool like what Milwaukee has now, is how you hedge. If our division title last year was based upon Tyler Black's success (rather than Chourio), or our playoff chances in 2026/2027 are based upon Luke Adams progression then we are back in 1990s Brewers baseball (where the top 3-5 prospects HAVE to make it). But for example at 1B/3B alone we have Adams, Wilken, Bitonti, Baez, and a bevvy of 1b (Black, Burke, EMJ) or ss (Pratt, Made, Pena, Quintana) that could also fill in those roles in the next few seasons. And this team has done reasonably well in getting and developing those players. Our 2022 MLB Pipeline top 10 list had in order: Frelick, Wiemer, Ashby, Mitchell, Turang, Quero, Black, Small, H. Perez, and Chourio. If you told me we would have one likely All Star, 3 MLB regular players with solid traits, one pitcher who can succeed as a SP or RP, and a solid prospect who still could be a future MLB star, I'd take it. Now if that SP/RP had to be Small, then we struck out, but having Ashby turn out as decent is OK. If that star had to be Frelick or Weimer we would be struggling, but having Chourio become the face of the franchise makes it better. The fact we didn't need to Hedbert Perez and Joey Wiemer become our OF, but now have Chourio, Mitchell and Frelick in OF gives the team that benefit. So it is a gamble, but having multiple chips makes the gamble a little easier. And I do love the depth there is right now, and we know only a handful will fulfill their promises, but I will take it.

Thanks @Joseph Zarrand @Spencer Michaelis. 12+ hours of brewers minor league talk, amazing. Thanks for answering all those questions too. What a golden age of Brewers baseball with a competitive MLB club, and very good player acquisition and player development- at all levels. This got me so pumped up for the milb season - looking forward to watching the games and sharing some spring and summer evenings with many of you (Jospeh, Daniel, wiguy as regulars, among many other intermittent posters like me). Looking forward to the 2025 season!

Seeing that list made me go back to the list of 1st rounder the Brewers have had, and it is striking how bad the drafting was in the 1990s, which is why the team was not relevant from 1993 until the late 2000s. But also the drafts (particularly the top few rounds) from 2008 - 2012 were pretty barren too considering multiple first round picks in 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2012, and the ones that did have success (Lawrie, Odorizzi, Kh. Davis, Haniger) did so with other organizations. Of the picks during that time Jimmy Nelson, Mike Fiers and Brent Suter are the only ones who made a significant mark with the organization, with Gennett, T. Taylor and T. Thornburg as other of note. Recently the 2017 and 2019 drafts are barren, but 2014 (Woodruff), 2016 (Burnes), 2018 (Turang, Ashby, Rasmussen), 2020 (Mitchell), 2021 (Frelick) have produced players who have played a role in the teams 2021-2024 success mostly directly (or Rasmussen indirectly by netting us Adames).

Missed that article, do you have a link, or list of the names? I assume these are just names, and not necessarily highly ranked players. And now I'm just lazy - does anyone recall how many additional signings we made last year after the January date? Finally - we should be in line to try to sign a prospect or two who get left out by the Dodgers or Padres once one of them finalize the Sasaki signing, assuming we don't trade some money (and presumable get a player in return)

But can't a just turned 17 year old grow? I mean if he goes from 5-11 to 6-1 there is some potential upside right? I mean he is pretty solidly built already, but yeah if he hits 94 mph at that age I am intrigued. Both him and 6-2 Ramirez Looking out for more names and signings over the next few days. And would love to see a former Dodger or Padre who flips to Brew Crew as they all wait on Sasaki.

I will say he was one of two IFA signings from that class that appear on this lis - Reminton Batista is the other one. Also, Severino may be turning it around, but he lags behind a couple other top hitters from that same '22 IFA class, namely Lara and Baez who both were in A ball for the whole season (Lara in high A, Baez in low A with AFL stint). And he is ahead of Johan Barrios at this time point, who spent the whole season in the Complex and looked better but not as good as Severino. I will definitely be watching him (more closely than Cam Devanney lol)

I overlooked Devanney in my assessment, I guess I didn’t follow him as much. Good for him. And bad for,the brew crew as Clarke never panned out.

He is so high on Yophery for the past two years, and I hope Aram is right. Could be an exciting multi-tool player in the next few years and kept the Latin pipeline going.

This is an interesting block of trades. First having the 2023 trade deadline and 2023/2024 offseason trades makes it more interesting by definition. In the first piece, it was a lot of tinkering around the edges deals with three clear wins for the Brewers (not necessarily “winning the trade” but helping to build a winning team!), in trading Renfroe (addition by subtraction), Wong (had younger defensive minded prospects coming up) and Ruiz (surplus of fast and defensively oriented OFs), to get Pegeuro, Payamps and Megill (key pieces of very good bullpens in ‘23 and ‘24) and some guy named Contreras. And I will grant the Erceg deal as purely a good faith move for the player which does help a lot in recruiting the minor league or lower tier FAs. This second block has some good or meh trades, but the end result was acquiring a bunch of pieces who did not necessarily help a lot because of injury/ineffectiveness (ie T. Clarke) or just were OK (ie Canha, Bauers, Dunn). Obviously the jury is out on them but none really add the team “better”. Santana helped solidify the offense and 1B and Hudson was a stud last year. The biggest win so far was Ortiz. However, other side of the ledger has a lot of young prospects who may or may not or pan out. Way too early to tell if they are the next Will Inman/Luis Ortiz/Demi Orimoloye/Brett Phillips (overvalued by me and probably other fans), or the next Lorenzo Cain/Reese Olson (traded prospects who performed well in the bigs and would have been nice in the Brewers during their prime). I still highly of Avila, and didn’t realize Severino had such a nice season, while Moore /Mendez had bounce back seasons, and Chambers never threw a pitch for the Brewers. So for the most part this looks like a lot of so-so for the Brewers, and some future prospects that could be future missing parts. And this then doesn’t even touch on Burnes - it’s always hard to lose a star, and the gains are decent since he was going to leave anyway (the aforementioned Ortiz, along with wild cards in Hall [almost literally] and the draft pick of Burke). The end result of these 26 trades was helping to keep the momentum of division leaders (and two years of division champions), so I will take it, as you have to give to get - and overall the gets (mainly key contributors in Contreras, Megill, Peguero, Payamps, Ortiz, Hudson) seem to have more value than the gives (only 1 season of Burnes, and several young prospects who may or may not make the big show in Mendez, Severino, Avina, Chambers). Look forward to the last installment but so far I’d say I’ll take it, but still hoping for more solid to great moves from the front office moving forward.

The dominos are starting to fall, as it is almost a certainty that LA signs Sasaki. The Dodgers IFA prospective signees will be available for others to have. Looks like the Pirates have started first (or at least first reported that I have seen so far): https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/01/pirates-to-sign-dodgers-committed-intl-prospect-darell-morel.html

I hear you. I think that since we don't see often is the Brewers signing the young guys to extensions - Peralta, Ashby and Chourio are the exceptions - nor spend in FA, then the Brewers are perceived as cheap. I am sure they would like to do that for a lot of players - by signing to an extension, rather than agreeing in arbitration, you don't upset the cart too much by setting a single year arbitration number (and therefore set a new precedent), AND you can lock up core players, who could still be valuable as trade pieces later. However, it takes two to tango, and players are also just less willing to sign an extension and give up that first year or two of FA. This arbitration process highlights exactly why - why would I give a potential discount for only 1-2 years of FA when a lot can happen (regression, injury), rather then go through arbitration years and then run for the riches of New York/Chicago/LA/bigger market as soon as I can. So the "Attanasio is Cheap" doesn't fly, while he may not break the bank on every young talent we have, I'm sure most of them don't want to sign extensions but rather get their real salary in free agency as soon as possible. It would still be fun to see them occasionally "break the bank" for a few young players. I think the Yelich extension was an attempt to do that, however, unfortunately that has hurt the team financially (in flexibility), and I know they just did it with Chourio. If we could add another player or 2 (like Contreras, and/or a Mitchell/Ortiz/Turang for example) on longer term contrast then it would really allow a core group of players to be set to play together for several years. Would be nice for us fans. But it takes both sides to agree, and the high end young player like Contreras do not get true market value in those arbitration years, and many feel they deserve to get those 9-figure contracts once eligible, so the dance continues. At least we have Chourio for the next what 8 years?

1)Fast riser(s) - Bitonti sounds like an option- starts at low A but moves up; pitcher I think TSmith or DeBerry 2)Out of no where - I will go with Holobetz and D Sanchez as pitchers, and Tyler Rodriguez or Yannic Walter 3)Rise into consensus top 100 prospect - Payne, Bitonti 4)Comeback Player (re-establish lost prospect status or return from injury) - Lara 5)Struggles/Disappointment (feel free to skip if you worry about jinxing anyone) - no one I hope, but I will say someone like Boeve and/or Peña just because expectations are so high. But likely this will be a injury or struggle we can’t predict 6)Individual/team predictions- Victor Estevez leads his team to the playoffs again.

I was actually going to go to the 'way back' machine and call out Michael "Mitch" Franke, but most posters may not even remember him - nor should they. Having German parents, every German signing is stored and filed away in my brain. So Paul Hoff and Yannic Walter have lifelong fans here with me https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=franke001mic

Yeah how could you forget Jolon Zhao 😉😂

As indicated in the article he could be a swingman/back of the rotation starter. But we picked a pitcher in the Rule V draft for that Bryce Wilson role. But let's say Connor Thomas does not perform well enough to stick around all season, and after a 1-2 month tryout, and Miley is healthy, that is what makes the most sense. Or if an injury hits a starter, then he would be on the short list to call if the AAA starters are not quite ready yet. Now I hope Thomas makes this discussion a moot point with sustained success, and I hope no injuries hit the starting staff, but those are the scenarios of Miley coming back happen - if it does.