CheeseheadInQC

I don’t know if something similar has been posted elsewhere, but the Brewers have 4.5 fWAR from pitchers 25 and younger, more than 1.5 WAR ahead of any other team. The Yankees are second with 2.7 (all Schlittler) and the Blue Jays third at 2.5. Five teams have negative fWAR and three have 0 (four if you count the Mariners, who have no pitchers in the age range). The Brewers are on pace for the most fWAR in this category since the Hudson-Mulder-Zito A’s.

Jesus MadeLuis PenaJett WilliamsCooper PrattLogan HendersonLuis LaraBishop LetsonJosh AdamczewskiJeferson QueroBraylon PayneAndrew FischerLuke AdamsMarco DingesBlake BurkeShane DrohanRobert GasserJosh KnothTyson HardinColeman CrowHandelfry Encarnacion

@Brock Beauchamp Can you add Handelfry Encarnacion?

Could Wednesdays be used to balance out the schedule (I could be wrong, but I think there are 15 teams)?

Just looking at Fangraphs, they’ve got the his overall contact rate at 69.6, which isn’t great, but is better than last year so far at a higher level.

While a lot might have changed since then (or they might have felt compelled to get the new arrivals stateside more action), it feels based on the spring training lineups that you’d be looking at Antunez, Frias and Fenelon as the primary outfielders, three of Hughes, Acosta, Martinez and Liao at 2nd, SS and 3rd, Mills behind the plate, with some other interesting names manning the first base and backup spots. Hoping some of remaining players from the absurd Made/Pena led class can make their presence felt (Martinez, Rangel, Paulino, possibly a few others). Excited to see Diustin Mayorquin making his stateside debut as well.

It almost seems like it will be disappointing on nights Wisconsin doesn’t score at least 8 runs at this point.

The strikeout rate is what I am guessing keeps him in Appleton a few more weeks. Now Josh Adamczewski on the other hand, I keep checking for that promotion every day.

Have we seen an ABS challenge on a hit by pitch yet? It would be kind of hilarious to have one overturned because the pitch was actually a strike.

If it is a 5 game cycle, probably Healy followed by Carra.

It wouldn’t be a big Luke Adams day without a hit by pitch.

Nice sweep! Big relief innings from Meneses and Manfredi.

Maybe something has been mentioned, but I wonder if the Timber Rattlers do a modified tandem system. They have Meccage, Dorchies and Torres going the first three games and then five guys who started games this spring (Galindez, Woodward, Owens, Smith and Low). While I am skeptical of Low being anything more than an opener, any of the others could be starters for them.

As @Ro Mueller stated in the other thread, Hernandez was never that I can remember brought over to big league camp and never showed up in minor league lineups that were posted. It could be an unofficial rehab assignment or they could have been working on something and wanted to start with the easier placement.

Yah, but I don’t know if he ever moves back to the rotation if he stays in Milwaukee.

I know there are more, but two of the missing players on the minor league rosters who caught my eye were Jacob Morrison and Kevin Garcia, who I don’t think I have seen mention of this spring. Any update on them?

I think if I remember correctly, they have speculated that some of the things the Brewers are good at in concert create some sort of force multiplier.

Williams is coming off a really down year. 2 years, $22 million is I believe what Brad Keller got. $10-11 million per year is what good setup guys or unproven prospective closers were getting. Two more years like last year and Ashby would probably get at least that on the open market.

OK, same rules I used for the hitters for the pitchers. Sleeper: Yorman Galindez It was June of 2024. Yorman Galindez was climbing the Brewers' prospect ranks while mowing down a higher rate of batters in the Carolina League than current top-100 prospects Jarlin Susana and Elmer Rodriguez. A promotion to Wisconsin seemed to be likely, even with an elevated walk rate. Then he got hurt and hasn't pitched in a regular season game since. Now Galindez is back, starting games in minor league spring training. However he seems to have lost a bit of hype, between the injury and the glut of interesting arms the Brewers have at Wisconsin and Carolina this year. I think Galindez is a good bet to reclaim his ascending status this season while pushing his way up the prospect ranks. Deep Sleeper: Carlos Carra It feels weird putting Carra at this level because, well, his resume through two pro seasons should be generating more hype than it has. I guess, to some degree, you can chalk this up to bad timing. He was a late signee in the 2024 class, inking in April of that year out of Mexico. He was part of a DSL group that outside of Wande Torres and Wenderlyn King all had their statistical warts (Argenis Aparicio, Ayendy Bravo, Saul Sanchez, and Manuel Moreno posted lower K rates, Enderson Mercado seemingly let everyone who reached base against him score, etc.). For Carra, it was an elevated walk rate. He did strike out more than 11 per 9 innings and posted an only in the DSL rate of infield fly balls (Almost a 60% flyball rate, 46.4% of which Fangraphs has listed as pop-ups). Then he wasn't one of the DSL arms brought over for spring training (that honor went to Mercado and Miqueas Mercedes). Him being 18 years old in the ACL might have been noteworthy on some teams. It really wasn't on the Brewers. Even striking out more than a batter per inning (which only 13 pitchers ages 18 or younger with at 20 innings pitched did in either Complex League) only placed him third on that list among Brewers (behind Mercado and Ethan Dorchies). Be one of only 18 pitchers in their age 18 or younger season to throw 10 innings in full-season ball? Well, not as notable when fully 1/3 of those were Brewers prospects. All this is to say, I think he's been overlooked (outside of @Spencer Michaelis and @Joseph Zarr's podcast; amazing work once again, guys). This is especially true given that he turned his biggest DSL weakness into a strength, walking barely over 2 batters per 9 on the season and only issuing one walk in his 11 A ball innings. Really Deep Sleeper: Michael Fowler Usually this is where I'd pick some DSL pitcher with good peripherals but a mediocre to lousy ERA. Raymond Sarmiento didn't quite fit as well as Mercado and Daniel Corniel did in previous years, though. Instead, I am bending my rules a little bit for this choice. Fowler was kind of a combo indy ball and UDFA signing this past year. After 8 1/3 A-ball innings and 1 triple-A cameo, the Brewers first assigned him to the Arizona Fall League and then the Spring Breakout roster. It isn't unprecedented for an UDFA to get on the spring breakout roster the following season (see Hostetler, Jack), it is noteworthy that the Brewers think enough of him to give him those assignments. Not bad for a guy who never posted an ERA below 6.80 in college.

Having too many quality starters is both a great “problem” to have and a “problem” that tends not to last long.

Tyler Black is now the only healthy 40-man hitter in Nashville.

I wonder if Rodriguez is getting pushed to the pen because Kuehner is listed as the Sunday starter.

Lara! Man, if he can show more pop this year …

Nice 3 K inning for Gasser.

I'll start with hitting and break it down in my usual way: sleepers, deep sleepers and really deep sleepers. I'm not including any top-45ish prospects (used to be top 30, but 45 is the new 30 in this system), nor any of last year's draft picks. Sleeper: Juan Ortuno Over the last decade, here is a list of all the Brewers players who posted at least 50 plate appearances of sub 20% K-rate, .125+ ISO in both the DSL and ACL within their first two seasons: Hendry Mendez and Juan Ortuno. While this list is obviously shortened by Made, Pena, Anderson, Rodriguez, Lara and Chourio not getting 50 plate appearances (or, in most of their cases, any plate appearances) in Arizona and Quero skipping the DSL because of the pandemic, it still speaks to how well Ortuno has hit. He had arguably one of the 5 best debut DSL offensive seasons the Brewers have ever seen. It just came in the same year as No. 1 and 2 on that list. I fully expect him to excel, setting the table as part of the exciting quartet atop the Wilson lineup, along with Ebel, Encarnacion and Anderson. Deep Sleeper: Frederi Montero When picking these, I look at two things: stats and organizational signals. And that makes Montero an unusual case, because almost no one in the Brewers system has a higher organizational signals to production ratio than Montero. In 2024, he tied for second among the Brewers' squads and 30th overall in DSL plate appearances. And despite posting an 89 wRC+ as part of a signing class so deep that multiple players with 120+ wRC+s ended up repeating the DSL, he got promoted stateside. Once there, he was playing everyday again, starting more than 80% of their games and finishing 10th in the ACL in plate appearances. And again, he posted a 92 wRC+. But, as the spring schedules are coming out, he appears to have become a lock to start the season in Wilson, and routinely has been slotted 5th in their lineup behind only the quartet mentioned above. Montero is a guy who frequently has "hard-swinging" attached to his name with power potential touted, but it hasn't shown up in games yet. Indeed, his batted ball numbers from Arizona last season indicated a Jadher Areinamo-style pure line drive hitter who sprays the ball to all fields rather than your typical corner infield power profile. The Brewers appear to believe in him, so we'll see if he can make the power leap in Wilson this year. Very Deep Sleeper: Cristian Montilla Here is my annual hit-over-power prospect pick after his first DSL season (see Juan Baez, Tyler Rodriguez, Luiyin Alastre, Juan Martinez ... I think I have a type). I considered a few players for this spot. Brailyn Antunez and Alexander Frias were too high profile. Leonard Rijo and Jefer Lista had good strikeout and walk rates and a lot of plate appearances but almost non-existent extra base pop. Matthew Moses had some interesting stats, but as a guy who mostly played first base, the bar is pretty high. Montilla, though had the lowest K-rate among the first-year DSLers, a 10% walk rate, and at least some semblance of an ISO. He also got progressively better as the season went on. I think this is either your surprise ACL promotion or this year's Martinez-type second year DSL breakout.