Noche

The consensus among AFL scouts is that his first base defense grades as plus, or even plus-plus, with one observer calling it Gold Glove caliber. His athleticism also plays in center field, where he is an average defender with an average arm This is one of the most nuts blurbs I have ever seen in a prospect write up. Power hitting, walk taking, gold gloving 1B who can be an average CF? I'm gonna go take a cold shower.

Near-Brewer Greg Allen one spot ahead of Diaz

Lucas Erceg, Taylor Williams, Mario Feliciano and Gabriel Garcia are the big risers since mid-season. Erceg has as much helium as anyone in the minors right now. Williams will be a fantastic late inning guy at least. Feliciano and Garcia seemed to impress the AZL scouts while putting up numbers as 17/18 year olds. Could see Nate Kirby getting a similar bump pending his scouting reports during lead up to 2017 season. Ryan Cordell basically takes over Keon Broxton's old spot and I think they could be similarly impactful/useful big leaguers. Bumped Diplan over Ponce but both are fantastic prospects. Hell of a Lucroy trade made by Stearns. Go Brewers! 1. Lewis Brinson (+1) 2. Luis Ortiz (+1) 3. Josh Hader (+1) 4. Corey Ray (+1) 5. Trent Clark (+1) 6. Isan Diaz (+1) 7. Phil Bickford (+1) 8. Brett Phillips (+1) 9. Brandon Woodruff (+1) 10. Lucas Erceg (+13) 11. Taylor Williams (+14) 12. Marcos Diplan (+2) 13. Cody Ponce (-2) 14. Jacob Nottingham (-2) 15. Monte Harrison (-) 16. Demi Orimoloye (-3) 17. Freddy Peralta (+1) 18. Kodi Medeiros (-2) 19. Jorge Lopez (-2) 20. Devin Williams (-1) 21. Nathan Kirby (-) 22. Corbin Burns (-) 23. Ryan Cordell (NR) 24. Gilbert Lara (-) 25. Mario Feliciano (+24) 26. Gabriel Garcia (NR) 27. Michael Reed (-1) 28. Rymer Liriano (-1) 29. Braden Webb (-1) 30. Zack Brown (-1) 31.Aaron Wilkerson (-1) 32.Jon Perrin (-1) 33.Brent Suter (-1) 34.Tyrone Taylor (-1) 35. Joantgel Segovia (-) 36. Troy Stokes (-) 37. Angel Ventura (-) 38. Miguel Diaz (-) 39. Trey Supak (-) 40. Clint Coulter (-) 41. Javier Betancourt (-7) 42. Bubba Derby (-1) 43. Adrian Houser (-1) 44. Carlos Herrera (-1) 45. Jacob Gatewood (-1) 46. Chad McClanahan (-1) 47. Nate Orf (-1) 48. Garret Cooper (-1) 49. Zach Clark (-1) 50. Franley Mallen (-)

Back during the Lindor/Baez draft, my dream was to get one of them. I remember Javier Baez had major helium leading up to draft day, some of that due to the assault he led on TGIFridays during his pre-draft workout at Miller Park. Lindor on the other hand was very highly rated all year but in the weeks leading up to draft there were rumors he was going to slip because he wasn't going to hit enough. Well, Baez indeed had too much helium and Lindor didn't slip far enough and I always think about those facts when their names come up. Two Stearnsian young players who will be impacting games for a long time.

I'd argue he didn't change. The ERA was low in AA and AAA but he was allowing a boat load of base runners still. Then in the MLB, his WHIP was almost 2.00 over 7 innings. He also had successful stretches in the Brewers system as well so let's not pretend he was some sort of lost soul in our system. This is a lefty specialist ceiling and those guys are easily acquirable off the scrap heap as reclamation projects every year. If you feel like getting up in arms over a pitcher we dumped, look no further than that Lind-Estrada deal. Thank goodness we received solid value for Lind.

It's pretty absurd revisionist history to say Medeiros was some huge reach. And it is equally absurd to write him off after his age 20 season. Development is never linear and Kodi is still a tremendous prospect with an impact quality arm. Give him time.

When thinking about Lara and his career to date, I am reminded of another, Eloy Jimenez. Jimenez was a big bonus signing who immediately played stateside. He struggled mightily in the AZL and then improved a little in his second season in R+. The reports on Eloy were always mixed. Obviously the guy is huge and athletic but he seemed to be coasting sometimes and the results were not there. Everything changed in 2016. MWL MVP. Futures game MVP if I remember correct. Now he will probably be a top 25 prospect in 2017, certainly by year end. Way to early to be forgetting about Gilbert when you remember the unpredictable nature of development. Enjoy the pie in the sky!

Aligning with Carolina is such a coup. The talent headed there next year should easily contend for a playoff spot. Now get some ownership stake and end this MiLB team swapping for good at HighA. Just noticed we will share a division with the Cubs, Red Sox and White Sox. The Indians, Royals, Nationals and Orioles are in the other division. This feels like a strong collection of systems to contend with. Also likely that Isan Diaz and Eloy Jimenez get to continue their accent together which is cool. For how good Isan was just look what Jimenez did to the MWL.

I have gotta try this. Awesome!

The less the umpires are responsible for the better

I don't subscribe so cannot see write ups but the view from 30k feet is: -Gabe Garcia probably belongs in the Brewers top 25-30 prospects -Mario Feliciano is still ascending as he was leading up to the draft -Lucas Erceg continues to generate positive reports for his baseball skills -Scouts still see plenty of promise in Gilbert Lara and Demi Orimoloye but to expect success in the MWL in April/May is foolhardy. Strong case to simply send both back to the Pioneer League

Uh...other than professional scouts, are there many fans of the minor league system that aren't primarily scouting box scores to keep up to date on the minor league system? I consider myself a pretty big follower of the Brewers system compared to the average Brewer fan, but I also have a job and family and I don't have nearly enough time to watch games at every level of the Brewers minor league system and dedicate my entire life to baseball. I'm not making fun of people that do; if you can fit it into your life, more power to you, but are there actually such fans? I check box scores, sometimes I follow the First Pitch app, I read the scouting reports, and I go to a couple T-Rats games every year. If I lived in the Appleton area, I'm sure I'd go to more. That's about it. I suppose I could spare a few hours a week to catch one game on the Milb TV app, but I don't know how much a guy would even get out of just that, with there being 5 primary levels in the minors plus fall/winter ball. Couch potato fans have various levels of access to first hand scouting reports through many different websites and publications. Advanced prospects like Phillips often get written up. Many of those writeups get linked here. Besides that, there are plenty of folks (BP Milwaukee comes to mind) who try to put the box score stats into the correct context. By just about any advanced measure, Phillips actually had a very solid offensive season in respect to his age and competition level. People should be excited or at worst in wait-and-see mode. Phillips is not losing stock in my opinion.

I bet he gets released or retires before he ever sees the field in 2017

I agree that Phillips should stay on. Anyone who drops him significantly is clearly scouting box scores and is a bad evaluator in my book. Great defense, good walk rate, useable power and speed, and a successful track record make a Phillips an outstanding prospect despite his low batting average this year. Agree with the rest of the list. Woodruff definitely belongs but we will see. Gotta think Lucas Erceg will make the back end of a list or two as well. Maybe Diplan or Peralta too but next year is more likely their year.

Solid player with impact skills if they develop. Nice pick up. Fantastic trade overall.

I will be very surprised if Woody isn't a fixture on top 100's this fall although helium guys sometimes get pushed to the side.

"Throw strikes Jed and don't be scared out there!" "Now ya tell me!"

Tucker Neuhaus batting second for the Arizona League Brewers. Milton Gomez in CF? Is that the former pitcher?

When your critique is invalid and your expectations are unrealistic, don't be surprised when folks come back at you. But sure, we can agree to disagree on Corey Ray.

He has been on a tear. Walks and extra base hits galore in August.

Orimoloye has jacked up his walk rate and is still pretty effective in the running game. I love his projection. Very similar to Brinson in many ways. I'm guessing he is in the process of tweaking his approach and it may take a little while for it to click. Brinson has had very similar growing pains then he exploded. We can only hope for same from Demi.

The bullpen coach is Lee Tunnell, whom I have great respect for and learned quite a bit about teaching pitching from, his audio interviews with various affiliates over the years were extremely informative. Just clarifying, are you implying DJ should take a backseat to Tunnel when awarding credit to those good bullpen performances?

There has been a pile of nice bullpen performances this year. Also unfair to not reward him for Davies. Davies looked bad his first few starts this year. They encouraged him to trust his repotoire and he has been excellent since.

I remember Keith Law said something nice about Jose Pena in a chat. I don't remember which one! No, I do, it was OF Jose Pena.

I don't think Coulter was mercy-promoted. He must have been doing the non-box score stuff right and to the Brewers' liking. Maybe I'm crazy.