ZBTMP

From the California League Chat I'm just going to go with the Brewers having the top 2 prospects in the Cali League without fielding a team.

1. Brinson- May never walk a ton, but if he hits .382, Im ok with that. 2. Hader- Can we loan him to an International League franchise for a couple of months to start 2017? 3. Woodruff- 3 plus pitches, runs it up to 99 with above average command. Outside of a high draft selection or long track record, hard to find a wart. 4. I. Diaz- .973 OPS in the second half? That'll do. 5. L. Ortiz- Anytime a pitcher has a significant change in there statistical profile I get alittle worried so his 10% K rate drop at AA is a concern. 6. Ray- An .819 OPS with 5 dingers in August. I didn't even realize that happened. 7. Bickford- Velocity reports are all over the map, but he can generate Ks 8. Clark- The season seemed to be lacking any kind of hot streak. We shall see how he responds to his first down year 9. Diplan- Usually the jump from A to A+ hasn’t been too hard on pitchers given the nature of Space Coast Stadium, but it was a strange year in that regard 10. Phillips- It was a rough July, but he did have his best K:BB ratio in August, so hopefully he is headed back in the right direction. His path has gotten a lot more crowded though with the addition of Brinson and the emergence of Broxton. 11. Ponce- Velocity reports are devestating and it wasn't a good year, but maybe it’s a temporary mechanics adjustment thing. 12.Lopez- His command got far better in Biloxi, a nice start there next year, and I'd use the MLB bullpen as his next developmental stop over a return trip to Colorado Springs. 13. Erceg- More power than expected, but I still wish he'd walk more. 14. D. Williams- He needs to get better in the walk department and seems to be going the wrong way 15. Nottingham- Trying to find a positive in his season is tough, but at least he was young for the level 16. Harrison-Shows flashes of his potential, but injuries may derail any chance he had of breaking out 17. Webb- His college stats and scoting report make me think this was a first round talent, who scouts didn’t know where to place with only 1 post injury college season. 18. Peralta- Lots fo positives from his first year of full season ball 19. Kirby- Do the Brewers keep their TJ surgury recoveries in hiding? Hardly a peep on him, Williams, or Missaki. 20. Burnes- I don't quite understand why he was still on the board in the 4th round 21. Yamamoto- Got torpedoed a few more times than you'd like, but being youg for the league with a double digit K rate will put you on my radar. 22. Stokes- I am sucker for guys who show progression as the season goes on and an .850 OPS on the second half does that for me. 23. Barnes- With Knebel's struggles this year, seems like a logical 8th inning candidate next season. 24.Wilkerson- A sub 4 FIP tells a different story than his unsightly Colorado Springs ERA. Probably should get a shot at some point but with 7 rotation candidates on the 40 man (Davies, Guerra, Nelson, Peralta, Garza, Anderson, and Jungmann) and Hader knocking on the door, Im not sure when. 25. Cordell- Not a fan of this acquisition. He can knock the piss out of the ball in High Desert, but do not see enough OBP here to be useful moving forward Perrin- Self-described "run of the mill" college right hander, but the Brewers should find that mill and get some more. Reed- His season wast a disaster, but it won’t get him more MLB playing time and the power doesn’t seem to be coming. Lara- I want so bad for Gilbert to tap into the potential, but he has shown little progression M. Diaz- Had a nice year, but got statistically overshadowed by younger pitchers on that Wisconsin staff T. Williams- After 2 full years of waiting, if he gets taken in the rule 5 draft I might cry. Suter- Well I still shrug my shoulders at a fastball averaging below 84 mph and pedestrian K rate, I don’t mind him as a long man in the pen Medeiros- A disaster from start to finish. Was in my top 5 preseason as I saw a dominant reliever as his floor, but that doesn’t even seem likely. Gatewood- A plummeting BB rate and little indication of a breakout Orimoloye- Having loud tools is nice, but you don’t want to see regression from a raw prospect in year 2. M. Feliciano - Still not yet 18 so I'll assuem the second round tools are there even in a pedestrian start to his pro career. G. Garcia- Soemone in the Brewers scouting department did their job here, but his production did tail off at the end. Coulter- It was a nice 100 at bats, but rediscovering the power stroke would make believe again Supak- No red flags in his season, but nothing standing out either Z. Brown- Rewarded the Brewers faith with his results in Wisconsin after an underwhelming college career. Dreaming of Woodruff 2.0 here. Walters- Is it possible for a pitcher to improve their command as much as Walters needs to to become a have a big league future? The jump in strkeouts was nice though Taylor- Well he hit more dingers than last year. McClanahan- Meh pro debut, but $1.2 million makes an interesting follow Wang- Doesn’t do much exciting, but he limit walks enough that he might make the backend of a rotation at some point Ventura- Didn’t excel at AA, but I'm willing to wait another year. P. Henry- Coming out of cold weather high school, a 98 wRC is a fine start to his career C. Herrera- Was hoping for a better stateside debut, but certainly a wide range of outcomes here still Magnifico-Looked overmatched in the bigs. He has never missed enough bats for me to be super excited about his future. Neuhaus- He has really hit well in his last 100 at bats. Unfortunately they have come over a season and a half. Still I can't say for certain something hasn't clicked Pina- Probably undervalueing what he is, relative to what others "could" be. I don’t see an reason why he shouldn’t be a 1-2 win player. Rijo- The Brewers front office is much smarter than me, but I didn’t get super excited about players who don’t hit regardless of age

Manatees place 2 on the 12 team BA Top 20 Florida State League Prospect List. ... 6. Corey Ray, of, Brevard County (Brewers ... 16. Brandon Woodruff, rhp, Brevard County (Brewers)

Rattlers place 4 on BAs Top 20 Midwest League Prospect List. Since this a 16-team league, 4 is a good number. ... 6. Marcos Diplan, rhp, Wisconsin (Brewers) 7. Isan Diaz, ss/2b, Wisconsin (Brewers) ... 17. Trent Clark, of, Wisconsin (Brewers) ... 20. Lucas Erceg, 3b, Wisconsin (Brewers)

After his 2-0 "swing" in the ninth, I don't feel too bad for him.

Mudhens... What could have been. I'll take my crow well done, Nice job Brewers!

With Bakersfield and High Desert (being the 1st and 3rd most extreme parks) relocating, the PCL with Salt Lake, Reno, Vegas, and Albuquerque will probably be a more hitter friendly league.

I guess I missed the Rockies having the tie breaker when I looked at the standings. Every team around the Brewers lost yesterday so jumping Oakland is no longer possible.

The psychological impacts of playing in a skewed environment are impossible to quantify. But that doesn't mean they don't exist. Baseball is a very mental game. Its a goal of the organization to remove mental obstacles from their development system. Having a developmental stop where results continually don't match performance makes for a challenge. A decade ago the Brewers were skipping A+(High Desert) with most of their prospects as a developmental stop. We've now had 2 years of Colorado Springs. Aaron Wilkerson is an example of the challenge it's presented. His ERA went from 2.44 to 6.42 going from Pawtucket to Colorado Springs. That being said, his secondary metrics changed very little outside of a huge spike in BABIP. But how does he come up to the MLB with any confidence that he is going to get MLB players out when he is getting pummeled in AAA? How is a 6.5 ERA good for his development? The Brewers also need to evaluate players to plan their developmental path. Evaluating players gets far more difficult in Lancaster than in a more neutral environment. The Astros have certainly done a great job of player development with Lancaster in its system. But at the end of the day, there is a reason why they are going through the hassle of purchasing and relocating Bakersfield. However, don't let my negative attitudes turn you off to the Brewers' franchise. Lancaster is certainly a better situation than Colorado Springs facilities-wise and hopefully with first hand reports .

I can't speak for others, but I have no reason to doubt the Ballpark Digest report. Also the fact that the Brewers have shown no interest in investing any money to help solidify their development system makes me think this is a inevitability. Would love to be wrong, but I am not getting my hopes up that the Brewers will do what is necessary to get this right.

The Astros, Rangers, Mariners, Braves and apparently the Rockies were able to be proactive in improving less than desirable their A+ situation or recognize they were being squeezed out and invest in a solution. It's 100% the fault of the Brewers.

It was unacceptable when Nashville, but when it happens again 2 years later? There is either systematic incompetence or apathy and likely both. Maybe we'll get a nice public comment about how we were duped by the Brevard/Kissamee after fielding a 97 loss team. That'll be fun. Its not that Lancaster should be a prohibitive excuse. The Astros have developed a great collection of organizational talent, but... I can accept the Brewers' place as a runt at the dinner bowl, but why does this organization chose be a passive, reactive runt? A bad spring training home, a bad AAA home, a bad A+ home, limited international scouting, investment, and development, it is hard not to be depressed.

Initial (extremely) hot take... Nice job Attanasio. What'd we get for fielding the lowest payroll by far in the majors? Gord Ash? That's right we'll spend money when we are ready to compete again At least they will be within a 90 minute drive for our owner to watch Diplan, Medeiros, Peralta, Burnes, Yamamoto, Ponce get lit up, loose confidence, and gain bad habits. Unless it involves spending more than the slotted amount on player development because that isn't going to happen.

The Braves, while actively searching for an upgrade, have had Spring Training at Disney World in Lake Buena Vista since 1998 and will be there until at least 2019. Lancaster to Colorado makes some sense. There is no facility problem, just an extreme offensive environment. Since 2 of my favorite minor league hats are the Brevard County Manatees and the Carolina Mudcats, I'd be happy with Zebulon. Though the Fire Frogs has a ton of potential as well.

And why was that? Oh, he was 6'5 and not particularly fast. Though I was always content with his D in RF and even when he filled in CF on occasion and was a good baserunner. But as he got older/bigger he slowed down. Santana is already that big and slow. Despite the awkward package, Hart was pretty fast.

I'm 99% sure Woodruff was exactly #30 on the list prior to the Javier Bethancourt addition, but have no way to prove it. Now that I've used this post to pointlessly quibble, I might as well use it shamelessly brag... Don't bother reading that post, it's as mostly as worthless as anything else I've thought.

He immediately sprang to mind. Even Gamel was given the everyday first base job the day Fielder hit free agency. Not really the organization's fault he lacked maturity and defensive flexibility, and had unfortunate injuries.

No, that was Mark Attanasio. Many of the overpriced signings were Attanasio telling him to do it. Melvin was also forced to keep filling the roster with old players etc. because Attanasio wanted to compete and that was no place for unproven rookies. Also didn't help payroll was maxed out forcing us to go with cheap options that weren't all that great. Doug Melvin threw mud at a wall because Attanasio insisted on trying to compete. Im not really sure when the Brewers stopped playing rookies or what unproven rookie didn't get a fair chance under Melvin. Taylor Green? Melvin built a good to great offense. From 2006-2014, the Brewers were 4th in runs scored in the NL. You think there was a point in time when Doug wanted to tear that offense down and start over? Unfortunately, Melvin didn't draft/develop pitching or acquire any impactful, young pitching; so he was forced to pay a premium for it on the backend and still couldn't get enough of it as the Brewers were 4th in runs allowed over that same timeframe. I'm struggling to believe Suppan, Wolf, Looper, Lohse, Garza, while throwing the farm at Sabathia, Grienke, and Marcum was all or even mostly Attansio.

Toledo hasn't had a winning season since '09 and the Tigers farm system is still poor. I'd say there is at least a 1% chance here. LINK

Never said that. I said it wasn't a negligible level of development as reasoning for your statement of "means nothing to me" would imply; and regardless of the developmental environment, you have to factor that Wren has two additional years of physical and mental maturity. I can't see anyway that is not important in evaluating baseball players. I never called it productive, it is league average. I simply concluded that he is hitting with more power than Wren ever has even in a "down" year. YES, after a .339 career BABIP in 2318 MiLB PA, I would say he posses the batted ball profile that leads to higher BABIP. If anything, given the hitter friendly nature and altitude it is slightly below what I'd expect. A elevated strikeout rate is not "Bad luck" but it is improvable with skill progression. I don't think I am going to convince you and you will not convince me, so we will just have to wait to see how the Brewers value the 2 this off season.

And not surprisingly, he was less productive this year in AA than Reed's performance last year at the same level. .342 BABIP is pretty much career norm for Reed at every level. Despite a down overall slugging, he still has an ISO over .100 something Wren has never done. His reduction in slugging has very little to do with the ~4 lost bases from a reduction in triples that are now doubles, and alot to do with a 5% jump in strikeout rate. The jump in strikeout rate is concerning but this is an area where players tend to improve over time with additional development when they are Reed's age. So Wren received no developmental coaching at Georgia Tech? If we are only counting professional coaching in evaluating players on the developmental curve; college, high school, and latin players would all reach the bigs at the same amount of developmental time. They don't. Age is far more important to the developmental curve than year of professional experience.

Wren's production is being fueled by .417 BABIP which is a pretty big outlier vs. the rest of his career. Reed is still 1.5 years younger and better iso power numbers. The production's coming into this season weren't even close. Taking Wren over Reed is alittle bit too much recency bias for me. Prior to this season. Reed A -1.3 years 125 wRC+ A+ -1.7 years 130 wRC+ AA -2 years 129 wRC+ AAA: -4.8 years 100wRC+ Wren A +.0.4 years 142 wRC+ A+ +0.1 years 105 wRC+ AA: -1.5 years 102 wRC+ AA: 0.0 years 104 wRC+ AAA: -2.8 years 65 wRC+

Before his current 14 ab hitless streak, his OBP was .376. He is still 3.5 years younger than league average. I doubt his 40 man spot is in any kind of jeopardy personally, but I've been wrong before.

I realize that moving spring training to Florida is unpopular with many for a variety of valid reasons; but with a longterm solution unlikely in Arizona, Id at least be investigating with Orlando the possibility of a dual purpose spring training/AAA home. I realize there is a massive amount of coordination that would have to happen, potential purchase and relocation of existing franchise, maybe switching of leagues of another franchise, and the funding of the project... But it would kill 2 birds with 1 stone. Unfortunately, Florida summers would probably keep attendance down even in the large Orlando metropolitan area.

So is Ramon a minor league free agent at season's end or do the Brewers' retain his rights assuming he goes unselected in the rule 5 draft?