CheeseheadInQC

Despite the hard-luck loss, it is nice to see Rodriguez was dealing. If you want to see how to raise a system up without a high draft pick, look to the year 2021 with the Brewers. Chourio and Mendez heading a deep signing class and Frelick, Black and Rodriguez leading a draft class with a few other very intriguing names as well.

The Guilarte one is interesting. The MLB pipeline list seems to usually be the most conservative of the major prospect lists, not sticking their necks out far for someone they might like more than industry average. So for Guilarte to jump on there relatively high, along with how the write-up is phrased, would seem to indicate that the enthusiasm is coming from talks with people inside the organization.

A number of reasons 1. A number of people simply weren't very high on the pick. 2. He was the highest pick, but Misiorowski had the bigger bonus and is seen as having the higher upside. 3. Perhaps most importantly, a lot of the guys who came into the season high on prospect lists are actually producing, and in many cases doing so at AA or AAA. I can't remember for sure but I think I had him 11th (ahead of Small) simply because of Misiorowski's upside and the fact that I couldn't justify ranking a late first round below slot signing ahead of any of the others without him, at the time, having gotten any at bats above rookie ball.

I can't speak for every game, but tonight he had a double to lead off the game and immediately stole third. The guy has posted huge steal numbers previously, but he at least got caught a time or two.

I wasn't clear. That would be stupid. It is still crazy that no one has caught him.

If he hasn't been caught, why not keep him running?

The stolen base numbers in the Midwest League have gotten absurd this season. There is a River Bandit who is 52-52 on stolen base attempts. How does that happen?

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.

I wonder if they had him tweak his approach and he is struggling with it. His walk rate, the one bad part about his early-season stat line, has been consistently improving without a noticeable rise in strikeouts, but the hard contact seems to be disappearing.

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.

Tough to say level since they have missed most of the season, but toss the done for the season Abner Uribe with his absurd fastball and the rehabbing Logan Henderson in there as well. Of the guys likely to be in Carolina next season, the recently promoted Alexander Vallecillo, Yujanyer Herrera and Patricio Aquino (if healthy given his recent IL placement) seem the most interesting from a statistical perspective at least.

The 10 strikeouts for Cornielle is nice, as are the six shutout innings, but the bigger story is 0 walks. He has five walks in his last 34 innings over six starts. Considering that has been his biggest weakness this year and last, it is great to see the improvement. If this uptick in command sticks, it is fairly easy to think he’s got a good shot to see AA by midseason next year.

I feel like Love has shown he can make all the throws, and not just in a presumptive way because of the arm strength. The one Doubs dropped on the bootleg was a pretty great throw given the circumstances. He just has to show that he can do them consistently. There were a few really good throws, but plays like the running back ones (unless the back was actually supposed to turn the route upfield instead of into the flat) or the tip drill Winfree came down with need to get ironed out. It felt a bit like a Rorschach test game for him (obviously in this post displaying my tendency to cautiously stake claim to middle ground).

They are definitely getting more production than you would expect from the position. I am usually cautious with guys repeating the DSL like a few of them are, but catchers just seem to develop later anyway. That is why I think there is a case to be made for Quero being a top 3 prospect in the system. It is rare you get a guy that young who has shown a level of competence with that bat in full season ball and who no one seems to doubt will stick behind the plate.

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.

Early on they were competitive with everyone except Wisconsin and Cedar Rapids, but the second half record is just brutal. South Bend is the only team they have won a series against since May. We got spoiled having an Astros affiliate here during their system's recent heyday when they could turn over 75% of the roster that built the big lead to start the year and still have a good enough team to win the title come playoff time.

Speaking as someone who lives in the Quad-Cities, pretty much everyone has been dominating the River Bandits this season.

I have them virtually identical. They have the same biggest issue (strikeouts). Lutz has more consistent success but Gray is younger and has athleticism/defense advantages.

Nice to see Ernesto Martinez and Logan Henderson getting back on the field in Arizona.

For me on Brown I almost focus on bonus over draft position so I had Misiorowski above him, and then it was just a case of liking the other guys enough where I am holding off on ranking Brown higher until he gets some full season at bats in.

I kind of did a little scan of the ballots, and 10 players have been on every ballot, two on all but one and two on all but two. I counted 40 players receiving votes. In my opinion the best not to receive a vote yet (unless I missed him): Alexander Cornielle

It looks like with the Brewers Blue game canceled because of COVID, they basically just combined the squads with Moore, Metzinger and Hall swapping teams for the night.

Good call. Maybe it was LaPorta. I just didn't think he was part of big time lineup earlier in the season.