CheeseheadInQC

It is tough to give much perspective to rankings because I don’t have more than a cursory knowledge about any of the systems other than the Brewers and to a lesser extent the Royals with the River Bandits being in town. I do think, though, this is the best the Brewers system has been in recent years. Looking ahead to next season, there are going to be very few spots in the full season starting lineups that aren’t filled by at least moderately intriguing prospects. Partly this is because of probably the two deepest international signing classes in recent team history. I don’t know if that level of success is sustainable, and the most recent DSL class, while it has its bright spots, doesn’t look to be quite at the same level. They have to keep having some success there, though. Also, since they invest more in position players, they need to keep having pitching breakthroughs with mid-to-later round picks and lower dollar signings. More years where you have low-A trios like Rodriguez, Cruz and Cornielle break out will make the current trajectory much more sustainable.

Robinson’s stuff has long been seen as plus. Honestly, he spent three years at Rookie ball never posting an ERA below 5. If he didn’t have plus stuff he wouldn’t have survived the COVID purge. It was just a matter of putting it all together, which he has. Guys with huge fastballs also tend to get picked. Despite the injury, I think there is a better chance Uribe is taken in the top three picks than that he goes undrafted if he isn’t added.

Robinson’s stuff has long been seen as plus. Honestly, he spent three years at Rookie ball never posting an ERA below 5. If he didn’t have plus stuff he wouldn’t have survived the COVID purge. It was just a matter of putting it all together, which he has. Guys with huge fastballs also tend to get picked. Despite the injury, I think there is a better chance Uribe is taken in the top three picks than that he goes undrafted if he isn’t added.

I think there are going to be a lot of Valerio types left unprotected this year. The COVID year backed up a lot of players’ progress making more eligible players more years away from the majors. Turang and Robinson are arguably MLB ready and Uribe throws 102-mph fastballs. Those are easier to roster than a promising player who should probably start the year in AA and ideally would probably be a second-base only guy. Outside of the top three, I think Castaneda has the best chance of getting picked both because more pitchers typically get chosen and because I know I have read some thoughts that his stuff would play better in relief, the role he would have in the big leagues at this point.

I think there are going to be a lot of Valerio types left unprotected this year. The COVID year backed up a lot of players’ progress making more eligible players more years away from the majors. Turang and Robinson are arguably MLB ready and Uribe throws 102-mph fastballs. Those are easier to roster than a promising player who should probably start the year in AA and ideally would probably be a second-base only guy. Outside of the top three, I think Castaneda has the best chance of getting picked both because more pitchers typically get chosen and because I know I have read some thoughts that his stuff would play better in relief, the role he would have in the big leagues at this point.

Yah, at this point with Robinson's promotion I can't see him not being kept. Andrews is kind of a sleeper, but between his size and the fact he hasn't pitched much since 2019, I don't know if he gets picked, especially this year when the missing COVID year is probably leading to a backlog of guys eligible.

Yah, at this point with Robinson's promotion I can't see him not being kept. Andrews is kind of a sleeper, but between his size and the fact he hasn't pitched much since 2019, I don't know if he gets picked, especially this year when the missing COVID year is probably leading to a backlog of guys eligible.

Between the stuff in that video and his stats, I wonder if Cam Robinson is a good comp in that patience will be required, but in a few years you could be looking at a pretty good prospect.

Between the stuff in that video and his stats, I wonder if Cam Robinson is a good comp in that patience will be required, but in a few years you could be looking at a pretty good prospect.

Not standing in White's way if he had a potential path to the big leagues, outside of potentially helping a playoff rival given the restorative powers the Braves seem to have for some hitters, makes sense for both sides. He was probably behind Singleton as the break glass in case of emergency guy at first and this frees up the DH at-bats to use among the four outfielders and the catching duo at Nashville.

Not standing in White's way if he had a potential path to the big leagues, outside of potentially helping a playoff rival given the restorative powers the Braves seem to have for some hitters, makes sense for both sides. He was probably behind Singleton as the break glass in case of emergency guy at first and this frees up the DH at-bats to use among the four outfielders and the catching duo at Nashville.

Good read on this group. There are a lot of the guys on this list I imagine the Brewers would like to bring back, the question is will the feeling be mutual. There will definitely be space at Nashville given the number of players here and how stingy the Brewers usually are with AAA promotions for non-top prospects. The top possible 40-man adds would probably be Erceg for the upside; Walters, who advanced stats place as the best pitcher at Biloxi this season; and the recently resurgent Brown. With needing 3-5 spots to protect Rule 5 guys and possibly reserve an eventual spot for Frelick, I don’t know if it is in the cards. Regardless, it is nice to see Walters putting himself back on the prospect track even if it doesn’t end up benefiting Milwaukee. So many injuries slowed things down there. This probably won’t be a popular opinion, but I think a reunion with Ray next year makes sense for the Brewers more than it does for Ray. Even if Frelick and Ruiz make the roster out of spring training, if the Brewers are confident in the readiness of Mitchell, going with a Ray or Whitley type might be more advantageous than using the spots alongside Mitchell, Wiemer and likely Lutz for high-floor, lower ceiling guys.

A little late to the party. I like the series, but I just want to say, I have seen Brantley called a throw-in a couple of places lately, and that simply isn’t the case. PTBNL does not necessarily mean throw-in. He was the No. 2 piece in the deal. He was a PTBNL because how the Brewers did determined how good that No. 2 piece would be.

Because of my job (despite working in sports) and where I live (the epicenter of MLB blackout bizarreness), I get to actually watch very little baseball. It is one of the reasons I post mainly in the minor league forum, because a far smaller number get to see those with regularity. Following the sport I grew up obsessed with simply from box scores and statistics has given me an eye for oddities. The Brewers' best ACL hitter? When you look at the Brewers' ACL squads, among players with at least 50 plate appearances, the top three in wRC+ are Jace Avina, Jadher Areinamo and Luis Castillo. All obvious, all promoted. So who does that leave atop the leaderboard of current Brewers ACL players? A catcher with a .205 average and two extra-base hits on the season. Those who have noticed my mild obsession with his stat line can probably guess this is a Jhonnys Cabrera entry, and there is one thing that Jhonnys Cabrera has done consistently this year, and that is walk. His stat line has probably gotten less interesting in recent weeks, despite still putting the ball in play in fewer than half his plate appearances, he is no longer flirting with coupling a .500 on base percentage with a .100 batting average. That is to be expected. Even in the ACL that wasn't sustainable. And it is probably a good thing for Jhonnys' prospects as well. A .500 OBP sounds great, but until you show the ability to consistently put the ball in play, no one is going to see how it can translate moving up the ladder. The case of the disappearing line drives One of the things I've touted when discussing Jadher Areinamo's stat line is that he has shown a combination of patience (>10% walk rate), contact skills (<15% strikeout rate) and at least some power (>.1) that is fairly rare. Indeed, only 10 players across the complex leagues hit all three marks. Areinamo, however, is not the only Brewer in the ACL on that list. And you'd never guess who it is. For the second time in as many items, an ACL catcher features prominently. This time, however, it is Blayberg Diaz, who despite a 12.3% walk rate and three home runs under his belt this season has an OPS of only .593, largely thanks to a .169 BABIP. There might well be some bad luck in there, but I think I found another culprit. Blayberg Diaz, at least this year's version, does not hit line drives. Diaz's 5.6% line drive rate makes him the only player in the Brewer system below 9% on this stat. The thing is, this is new for Diaz. When he posted a far more respectable .770 OPS in the complex league last year, he was above 17% for a line drive rate. That might not be stellar, but it is a lot better than 5.6. The stats make it tough to justify giving him a full-season gig next year, especially with the JUCO kids likely taking two catching spots in Carolina, but at the same time, some of his underlying numbers make me wonder if he ends up becoming one of those catchers where the offense (at least, good enough for a catcher offense) just suddenly seems to click in out of nowhere. Martin Maldonado didn't look like he'd hit enough to stick around long even at AAA until he was in his final season before minor league free agency. This is why I like that the Brewers have the two ACL teams and why I hope they continue it. When the kids are that young and still in the process of becoming who they will be as ballplayers, having that extra roster spot or playing time could pay dividends down the road. No Small issue Want to know the difference between Ethan Small's stellar, from an ERA perspective at least, April versus the rest of his season thus far? In April, Small was a master at maneuvering his way out of self-created jams. The rest of the season, not so much. Small's ERA in innings in which he walked a hitter was 0.00 in April. In the months since, it is almost 9.00. Hopefully those walks start coming down so even if the ERA stays the same, the number of innings it applies to will be less.

The Padres were doing all sorts of finagling to get under the luxury tax. I can't see how they avoid it next year, but they were bound and determined to stay under it this year. If the Brewers wanted this deal done, they were going to help. Lamet didn't use any of the value in the Hader deal. We couldn't have gotten some prospect instead of him. If you are making a baseball decision rather than a PR one, Lamet should have been evaluated just like everyone else. They did that and didn't think he was worth a roster spot.

Suter has been pretty good the last two months, Lamet gave up more runs than innings pitched when he was with the Padres earlier in the season. His minor league results were good, but so were a bunch of the AAA guys the Brewers have called up this year. If the Brewers thought his woes earlier in the season were more indicative of who he was at this point, him vs. Suter would be a pretty easy call.

I thought it was fairly common knowledge Lamet was included for the financials. I figured the Brewers might take a week or two look, see if there is anything there they could recapture, but this isn't exactly a shocker here.

This is kind of my problem with Laureano. You are paying for multiple years of control but if the center field defense continues to regress, his offense, which isn’t exactly trending in the right direction either, had better pick up, or you are quickly looking at an increasingly expensive fourth outfielder, which given the pitching arbitration increases coming up probably means non-tender candidate. He just hasn’t been good enough for me to want to pay in prospects what the A’s seem to be demanding.

This is kind of my problem with Laureano. You are paying for multiple years of control but if the center field defense continues to regress, his offense, which isn’t exactly trending in the right direction either, had better pick up, or you are quickly looking at an increasingly expensive fourth outfielder, which given the pitching arbitration increases coming up probably means non-tender candidate. He just hasn’t been good enough for me to want to pay in prospects what the A’s seem to be demanding.

Because there are questions if he is still a plus defender in center (he has graded out poorly this season) and you are going to be paying a premium for extra years of team control that you might not want at an elevated price.

Because there are questions if he is still a plus defender in center (he has graded out poorly this season) and you are going to be paying a premium for extra years of team control that you might not want at an elevated price.

If Turang gives the Brewers that, I would be thrilled. That is a top 5 shortstop stat line.

If Turang gives the Brewers that, I would be thrilled. That is a top 5 shortstop stat line.

I have a feeling it might be closer to their choice of Valerio or Garcia plus maybe Guilarte and Vassalotti or some other pair of players in that range. Even that might feel light.

I have a feeling it might be closer to their choice of Valerio or Garcia plus maybe Guilarte and Vassalotti or some other pair of players in that range. Even that might feel light.