Cory Sparks

Week 3 of the Arizona Fall League has come and gone, and while the Brewers are one of the last two teams left standing at the big-league level, their farm system continues to prove itself in the form of a strong showing with the Scottsdale Scorpions. Let’s dive into some of Milwaukee’s contributors and what their performance implies about their progress. Jett Williams Earns Brighter Days After a tumultuous start to his fall league tenure, the Brewers’ no. 12 prospect (per Brewer Fanatic) has found his power stroke. Jett Williams went yard Saturday night for his first homer of the fall, lifting a ball out to straightaway center field. Williams was part of the return package for Freddy Peralta, whom the team dealt to the Mets before he landed in Tampa to help the Rays to the World Series. Entering Saturday’s contest, the 2022 first-round pick stole five bases in his first nine AFL games, displaying the speed and dynamism that still give him a high ceiling as a prospect. His zone-contact percentage, walk rate, and whiff rate all imply he can be a pesky on-base presence, too, despite his .232 batting average in Triple-A Nashville this year. The plate discipline and speed are a given. If three extra-base hits (a double, triple and home run) in 10 Fall League games are indicative of any power upside, that’s an added bonus. Eric Bitonti Shows Pop Over First 50 Plate Appearances The Arizona Fall League usually doesn’t allow for a very large sample size, as the season is just a month and change long. Eric Bitonti, however, is making the most of the opportunity. The 2023 third-round pick has two home runs, eight runs batted in, seven runs, two doubles, seven walks and three stolen bags, all in a 12-game sample. Bitanti is slashing .256/.360/.442 over that span. The 20-year-old has grown leaps and bounds from where he was even a year ago. Bitonti played 119 games in Low-A Carolina in 2025, and he sacrificed his average (.238) for power (19 home runs) in what was just his age-19 season. This year, Bitonti started in High-A Wisconsin and lit the world on fire. The corner infielder throttled 25 homers with 88 runs batted in, to the tune of a .270/.391/.525 slash line, before spending a week with Double-A Biloxi. He is very much a true slugger, still accepting a high whiff rate in exchange for one of the better Pull Air percentages (25.2%) in the minors. His next step is cutting down on the swing-and-miss—an achievable feat considering he chases less than the average minor-league hitter. Peyton Niksch As everything stands through the first three weeks, Peyton Niksch is still one of the more impressive prospects on the Scorpions. So far, he has 10 strikeouts to only three walks and three hits allowed in 9 2/3 innings. The 22-year-old righty has a minuscule 0.62 WHIP, following a season where he played across three levels, clocking a sub-3 ERA in Low-A (2.70) and High-A (1.13) before running into some trouble in Double-A (8.63). Keeping the walks down and preventing the home run ball (two allowed in AFL play) will be paramount in his development. Image courtesy of USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect View full article

Matthew Wood (Matt Wood ) is not on the Milwaukee Brewers' top 30 prospects list according to most publications, yet he drew a walk 18% of the time and slugged 18 home runs in Double-A Biloxi this year. Now, the 25-year-old backstop is tearing it up in the Arizona Fall League. Should the Brewers protect him on the 40-man roster before the Rule 5 Draft, or should they take the risk to allow him to play baseball from the get-go next year? View full video

Image courtesy of Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images Two weeks have come and gone in the Arizona Fall League, an extended showcase allowing some of baseball’s rising stars to get extra reps against top-level competition. Notably, for anyone who will be on a 40-man roster next year, this could be the last taste of baseball for a while should a lockout come. While the big-league Milwaukee Brewers are dancing onto the World Series for the first time since the 1982 season, they have a few farmhands capturing headlines in AFL play so far. Matthew Wood The minor-league backstop is Rule 5-eligible going into this offseason, meaning if the Brewers don’t protect him by adding him to the 40-man roster next month, another organization could pick the 25-year-old up and give him a shot—assuming that, despite the looming lockout, the Rule 5 Draft actually happens. One of the catcher’s most notable attributes is his plate discipline, as he walked 18.4% of the time while only striking out in 13.5% of his plate appearances this year. That performance has carried into the first two weeks of the Arizona Fall League. So far, he's 4-for-11 (.364 batting average) with four runs, a double, a run batted in and a stolen base. Wood has 10 walks and no strikeouts through 21 plate appearances. He enjoyed a career-best season with the Double-A Biloxi Shuckers this year, throttling 18 home runs to the tune of an .890 OPS in 95 games. Before this year, Milwaukee’s rising signal caller had just 15 long balls over the course of 290 contests. With every well-worked at-bat, the Penn State alum is making a larger case to be placed on the 40-man roster, but it's important to take AFL results with a grain of salt, especially in small samples. Jett Williams Williams didn’t have a good season in his first year with the Brewers organization. He was one of two prospects (Brandon Sproat being the other) in a trade involving two-time All-Star Freddy Peralta and Tobias Myers. The 22-year-old utility player swatted nine home runs, had 41 runs batted in and hit just .233 over 81 games with the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. In the AFL, things aren't going any better. He's gone just 3-for-27, with six runs, a triple and three stolen bases over 33 plate appearances. Williams has six walks and 10 strikeouts. Selected in the first round of the 2022 MLB Draft, he's known for his blistering speed and doubles power. Neither will come much into play, though, if he can't become a more consistent pure hitter. Jose Meneses Meneses is a very intriguing prospect in the Brewers pipeline, and his start in the AFL is a fine microcosm of his overall baseball profile. He's made three appearances for the Scottsdale Scorpions, and he has allowed one run on no hits in 2 1/3 innings of work. The 21-year-old Venezuelan has handed out three free passes while striking out two. Take a step back to look at Meneses’s overall prospect makeup, and it’s clear what the ceiling and floor look like: a 28.6% strikeout rate this year, but a sky-high 16.9% walk rate. Meneses forces a remarkable 61.5% ground-ball rate. Now it’s just about staying ahead in counts, if he wants to be a major-league contributor someday. View full article

Image courtesy of IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect Outside of Jacob Misiorowski in the rotation, the Brewers don’t have a full-fledged superstar on their team. They have a few players who are just below that line, though, and that fraternity has a new member this year. The Crew took Games 1 and 2 of the NLCS over the Dodgers and are on the doorstep of their first National League pennant. The linchpin of the lineup that might finally get that monkey off their back is Jake Bauers. Game 1's Recipe for Success Was Not Sustainable Milwaukee edged out Los Angeles 2-1 in the NLCS opener. While a Brice Turang equalizer of a solo homer, a Luis Lara go-ahead base hit and a lockdown bullpen can clearly lead to a win, it’s not feasible to expect the Dodgers to score just one run a game throughout the series. The Brewers’ offense was second in MLB with 5.1 runs per game, but the Dodgers weren’t far behind, at 4.9 (fourth-best). Playoff games have a reputation for being more pitcher-friendly, as there are more breaks built in for arms to stay fresh, but Los Angeles still managed to score 14 runs (3.5 per game) in a 3-1 series win over the Atlanta Braves to get here. They scored four times in Game 2, too. The Brewers needed to hit well to win that game, and they'll need to do so again to get to the World Series. Bauers’s Career Year That Bauers drew a crucial walk (on 12 pitches, against the great Yoshinobu Yamamoto) is one of the most improbable pages in the storybook of this playoff run to date—unless you've been paying close attention to his breakout 2026 campaign. He was on five teams over the course of six years, but has since found some stability in Milwaukee. Entering the 2026 season, Bauers had 58 home runs over 613 career games; last season brought the first real evidence that he could hit enough to hold onto a full-time role. This year, though, the 31-year-old slugger has hit a new gear. His 28 round-trippers and 86 runs batted in set career highs by wide margins, as Bauers went from a fringe-starter to an everyday contributor with 144 games played. He posted a .389 on-base percentage, playing the Brewers’ brand of baseball to perfection and serving as a true reinforcer in the middle of the lineup. Every championship aspirant needs a thumper. Bauers, who paced the team in homers and had 50 extra-base hits, is just that. Numbers Don’t Lie So where did this power surge come for Bauers, and how is he doing it? For one, he’s working with the same major-league coaching staff for the third consecutive year. Before this stint in the Cream City, he hasn’t had that luxury of continuity. Take a look under the hood, and he isn’t doing this by accident. According to Baseball Savant, Bauers is hitting the baseball on the screws. He ranked in the top 10 percent of major-league hitters in hard-hit percentage, average exit velocity, barrel percentage, sweet-spot percentage and bat speed. The last of those cruised up to a career-best 76.5 miles per hour this year, but one of the real keys is that his launch angle is down to 12.1 degrees. Two years ago, it was at 22.6°. What were popouts or deep flyouts last year more often got out of the ballpark this season, as Bauers found the right trajectory more often. The Knockout Blow What makes Bauers so important to the Brewers’ success? Look no further than last year’s NLCS showdown, a 4-0 sweep for the Dodgers. Shohei Ohtani went 3-for-3 with three homers and a walk in Game 4. Milwaukee can be pesky, and Bauers can be part of that. He kept the line moving in Game 2, and it was Christian Yelich who delivered the scoreboard-flipping hit. Sooner or later, though, there’s going to come a point where they have to put up a crooked number and swing momentum to put the Dodgers away with authority. The most efficient way to do that is through one big swing, and Bauers is the most likely candidate to get that job done. View full article

Jake Bauers was once on five different teams over a six-season span. He has made Milwaukee his home for the last three years, and in 2026, he's enjoyed a career-best campaign. The 31-year-old first baseman has thrashed 28 homers and 50 extra-base hits, and the Brewers will need his potent power if they want to advance to their first World Series of the century. View full video

Job one, done!

Image courtesy of Wm. Glasheen USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin While the big-league Brewers are dancing in the postseason, some of their top-end prospects have extended their seasons into the Arizona Fall League (AFL). The AFL is a showcase opportunity for some of baseball’s brightest young stars to get more reps, and nine of the team’s farmhands are in it this year, per MLB.com. Let’s dive into some of the standout performers so far and how their first few games of action relate to trends they set into motion this summer. Braylon Payne (MIL’s #4 prospect) Braylon Payne’s prospect pedigree is the highest of anybody on this list. Ranked as Milwaukee’s No. 4 prospect here at Brewer Fanatic, the outfielder enjoyed a breakout 2026 campaign, which he divided between the High-A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers and Double-A Biloxi Shuckers. The 2024 first-round pick saw a power surge this season. At just 20 years old, he slugged 28 home runs while slashing .277/.358/.552 over 102 games. His AFL sample size is small, but the power has followed the outfielder into the month of October. Payne has gone 4-for-15 (.267) with two doubles, three RBIs and a stolen base through four games. The one aspect he needs to work on is critical, though: swing decisions. While Payne had a 20.0% pull-air percentage (65th percentile, per Prospect Savant), his 28.2% strikeout rate (30th percentile) and 41.3% chase rate (5th percentile) suggest there’s plenty of room to grow. The future Brewer has stayed aggressive in the AFL, striking out six times over 18 plate appearances. Matthew Wood While Matthew Wood isn’t a ranked prospect in the Brewers’ pipeline, he still enjoyed a productive season in Double-A and is parlaying that into a promising start with the Scottsdale Scorpions. The 25-year-old backstop throttled 18 homers, compiled 67 RBIs, and walked (71) more times than he struck out (52) with the Shuckers this year. In fact, that caliber of strike-zone control is something the 2022 fourth-round pick has done throughout his pro career, drawing 241 free passes while going down on strikes just 223 times. That plate discipline has carried over nicely in Arizona. Wood is 3-for-7 with four runs scored, a stolen base and a whopping six walks in just 13 plate appearances. The catcher has proven his worth as a cerebral up-and-coming option for the Crew, and seeing him in the top 10 percent of minor leaguers in strikeout rate, walk rate, chase rate, whiff rate, zone-contact percentage and more is an encouraging sign. Peyton Niksch Peyton Niksch is one of five pitching prospects representing Milwaukee in Scottsdale this year, and he’s been the most impressive so far. Niksch climbed the team’s minor-league ladder this year, playing at three different levels. He dazzled for Low-A Wilson, logging a 3-1 record with a 2.70 ERA (26 2/3 innings) with the Warbirds. Upon getting a promotion to Wisconsin, he looked even better, going 1-0 with a 1.13 ERA in 16 frames. He ran into some trouble in Biloxi, allowing an 8.63 ERA with a WHIP that ballooned to 2.13 over 24 innings of work. In the AFL, Niksch has served well as a pure strike-thrower. The 22-year-old right-handed pitcher has made two appearances (one start), allowing just one run on two hits over 4 2/3 innings of work. He has four strikeouts and no walks in 16 batters faced. He doesn’t blow people away, as shown by his 8.4 SO/9 rate, but generating weak contact can be an equally effective way to find outs—especially for a hurler with plus control. View full article

The Milwaukee Brewers take a 2-0 lead into game three of the NLDS, and in order to complete the sweep, they'll have to hone in on these three aspects. View full video