colbyjack

TheCrew07, thanks again and as always for promoting the PG content. In the past week we've provided the top 250 prospect list for next year's draft, as you linked above, as well as a top 100 list for the 2016 draft and a top 50 list for the 2017 draft. We've also provided the top 50 junior college prospects, as well as the top 100 college only players in addition to our usual HS player rankings for the 2015, 2016 and 2017 classes. All of this is subscriber-based content, but it's a good time to sign up for a month and then opt out if you can't afford the full year-long package(s).

Nice pickup. The Braves were clearly looking to move him after firing his father from the GM role. He seems to be a pretty safe bet to make the big leagues, even if his ceiling is as a 4th OF. Good on-base skills, some speed and a contact-oriented bat. While Quintana may have the higher upside, he clearly is much farther away from sniffing the big leagues, making this a fairly safe trade. Obviously not a blockbuster, but a nice little, astute deal for the Brewers.

Looking only at the position players two guys stand out to me: Chris Marrero and Charlie Cutler. Marrero is a career .277/.344/.441 hitter in the minors, hitting .310/.371/.475 vs. LHPs and would be a potential platoon target at 1B w/ Lind. He's 26 years old and was handled somewhat oddly early in his pro career, being rushed through the lower levels before seemingly plateauing in the AA-AAA levels. I personally feel Jason Rogers will eventually be the platoon target for 1B, but Marrero would be a good spring training invite to see what he can do. Cutler has hit through his career, from high school to college at Cal and in the minors. He hasn't seen time above AA, but is a .304/.394/.414 in the minors. He's a platoon/pinch hitter type of player with some versatility, as he can play C, 1B and a corner OF spot, but it would be as a pinch hitter that I would be most interested in him. There's not much pop, and best-case scenario is that he develops into a Brian Harper (80s/90s with the Twins) type of player. He's a LH hitter and deserves a chance given how well he's performed throughout his career.

To splitter's point, Gatewood was mentioned quite a bit in last year's thread on the same topic, especially when we thought the Brewers would have a pick among the top 5 overall. Overall, a fun thread to go back and read: viewtopic.php?f=69&t=30192

I'm pretty sure that Jonathan Lucroy was the first regular behind the plate that the Brewers developed internally since Mike Matheny. I'd agree with the original premise that the team has been generally bad at developing catchers. If things don't change soon, third base could be mentioned in a similar fashion. I'm so glad they moved Coulter out from behind the plate. He wasn't going to stick there, strong arm or not. In the limited views I had of him it didn't even look as though he could get into a full crouch. I think others have mentioned that as well. And TLB said it best, if the Brewers had any sliver of a hope that he could play 3B I'm sure they would have tried it. Although pogo's point about RFs production is really surprising, and interesting.

LaPorta and Haniger have to be counted in the plus column by the logic you've defined above. And saying "But if Milw was remotely close to StL's success in 1st rd draft choices. You had better believe we'd have made the Playoffs this year instead of an epic collapse" is pretty much a master of the obvious statement considering we're sitting here discussing the Brewers' success with draft picks and the Cardinals are currently playing in the postseason. They're one of the better, homegrown teams out there right now and it's reflect by the success they've enjoyed in recent years. But I don't think that was HiAndTight's point, as you took just one of his comments and ran with it. He was talking about the totality of a draft, and I agree with the premise. Yes, in 2009 their first-rounder was a bust. However, the rest of the draft was pretty strong, and I agree overall that it was a good, but not great draft. In 2007 they took LaPorta (who didn't pan out, but was used to get Sabathia), but Lucroy was their next pick. Hardy followed Jones in 2001 and Gallardo followed Rogers in 2004.

I think there's a huge pool of players that could be considered for the team's first-round pick at No. 17 at this point in time. I agree that Rodgers, Cameron and Matuella are gone by the time the Brewers pick, but I'm not so sure about Nathan Kirby, who has some red flags in his delivery, and Justin Hooper, who has said time and time again that he intends to head to UCLA. I would put prep lefthander Kolby Allard on the list of players that are unlikely to be available at No. 17, as well as Brady Aiken, Phil Bickford and Carson Fulmer. College guys I like that could be available in that range include Bregman, although if he bounces back next spring there's no way he falls, Cincinnati OF Ian Happ, Boston College OF/1B Chris Shaw, Vanderbilt SS Dansby Swanson and Kentucky RHP Kyle Cody, who hails from Chippewa Falls. Cody, like Bregman, is unlikely to be there with a big spring as he's a 6-7 RHP with a mid-90s fastball. Some of my favorite prep players include OFs Jahmai Jones, Daniel Reyes and Mitchell Hansen as well as RHP Austin Smith. Each player mentioned offers a different package to be intrigued by, but next spring, probably more so than most, is going to go a long way to determine the top prospects, and the list then could look significantly different than it does now.

I think what is most indicative of the Sounds handling this poorly is based on Melvin's reaction. I can't recall many, if any, situations in which he has openly and publicly expressed obvious frustration directed at a specific organization and group of people. Sure, the Sounds have the right to shop around, just like the Brewers do, but for the simple fact that Melvin seemed to be a little out of character I'd say something doesn't smell right. And it's really too bad. I read a lot of posts here, mostly from Mass, about the trials and tribulations of the Sounds' difficulties getting a new stadium, and it would have been cool for the Brewers to be part of that next step simply because they were part of that journey. It does sound to be mostly a loyalty issue, as the Brewers did stick by them during that time, as now that the Sounds have a brand new stadium starting next year, it's just too bad they felt it was necessary to move in a different direction. Kind of like 'dance with the one that brought you,' and Nashville's a great town, too.

Good point on the international guys, both the talent itself, and the cap space allotment, which is an underrated part o the game these days. I remember reading in more than one place that Seid was involved with the scouting of Lara, although given how much money the Brewers signed him for, I'm sure they had a handful of their top scouts in to see him. And you're right, Strong, and Denson, who was also mentioned in this thread, are two more pieces in the system that also offer promise.

Those videos of Harrison are just so much fun to watch. While I'm not a football (or basketball) scout, in addition to his obvious explosiveness, his first-step quickness really stands out. And does anyone know who is quarterback was? #14 looks as though he will be playing college somewhere, if he isn't already.

I've have actually wanted to start a topic on this for quite some time. With the unfortunate passing of Bruce Seid I figured this was as good of a time as any to post this, unfortunately. For quite some time I've felt that despite being ranked so low in national prospect team-by-team rankings that the Brewers actually had a solid depth of talent. There aren't (or at least weren't) many, if any, future superstars in the system, but slowly and surely players continued to move up and improve. Jimmy Nelson is an excellent example of that. It reminded me of the Cardinals of probably about 10 years ago. Their system was consistently ranked toward the bottom of all big league teams, and yet they consistently were able to pull 1-2 players from within and fill key roles. I want to say it was around the time they had Dan Haren. They of course used Haren to get Mark Mulder, and also used other spare pieces to acquire Larry Walker. Of course the work Jack Zduriencik did set the foundation for the Brewers playoff runs in 2008 and 2011, and remains as the foundation on this year's team. Seid did a very nice job taking over in 2008, with several key members of the team on the roster including Khris Davis, Scooter Gennett, Mike Fiers and Jimmy Nelson. I wonder how much different the bullpen and overall pitching staff would be right now if Tyler Thornburg wasn't lost so early in the season. Anyway, here's a year-by-year synopsis of the players he took, listing all of them in the top 5 rounds and then notable contributors after that. 2009 1. Eric Arnett 1s. Kentrial Davis 1s. Kyle Heckathorn 2. Max Walla 2. Cameron Garfield 3. Josh Prince 4. Brooks Hall 5. D'Vontrey Richardson 6. Hiram Burgos 7. Khris Davis 13. Sean Halton 16. Scooter Gennett 17. Tyler Cravy 22. Mike Fiers For being pretty much a huge disappointment at the top of the draft, the emergence of Davis, Gennett and Fiers makes Seid's first draft a very successful one. I still vehemently defend the Arnett pick despite him being a complete bust. If you saw him that spring he was quite simply light's out and it's unfortunate that he was unable to make the transition to pro ball. Brooks Hall still offers considerable promise, and both Kentrail Davis and Heckathorn could have a chance to play in the big leagues at some point. Burgos and Halton of course have had cups of coffee, and Burgos did well in the WBC last year. Cravy keeps performing at a high level as he continues to climb the ladder. And of course, with reports that the Brewers were poised to take Mike Trout with their first pick had he slid one more spot, it brings up the woulda/coulda/shoulda situation and how stupid the previous Elias Sports Bureau rankings were in assigning compensation picks. If Mark Teixeira had one less base hit that year, the Brewers would have received the Yankees first round pick and not the Angels. 2010 1. Dylan Covey 2. Jimmy Nelson 3. Tyler Thornburg 4. Hunter Morris 5. Matt Miller 9. Yadiel Rivera 11. Greg Holle 32. Jason Rogers You can't blame the team for Covey's situation. That was unfortunate for everyone involved, and at least the Brewers got a comp pick for him even if you don't like who they took the following year. Nelson and Thornburg appear to be at the beginning of productive careers. Morris remains a question mark whose window of opportunity may be closing and of course Miller didn't work out as hoped. Rogers could be the 2010 draft's version of Fiers. I put Greg Holle on there because I liked the pick when it was made, and he similar to later draftees such as David Goforth, Tanner Poppe and Tommy Toledo could help fill holes in the bullpen in future years. 2011 1. Taylor Jungmann 2. Jed Bradley 2. Jorge Lopez 3. Drew Gagnon 4. Nick Ramirez 5. Michael Reed 7. David Goforth 11. Tommy Toledo 16. (Carlos Rodon) One of the Brewers more criticized drafts. I really liked the Jed Bradley pick at the time as I had the chance to see him pitch the summer before and in the spring leading up to the draft and he was the real deal in college. Great fastball command and solid secondaries. I like Jungmann for what he was, a potential No. 3 starter and a guy labelled with the usual "innings eater" moniker. Jorge Lopez, like Brooks Hall from the 2009 draft, sometimes gets overlooked at times and still offers promise as long as the team remains patient with his development. Drew Gagnon has his ups and downs, Nick Ramirez has some power and on-base skills, and Michael Reed got off to a promising start this season before coming back to earth. I touched on Goforth and Toledo above, and similar to 2009 with the Mike Trout/Elias Sports Bureau situation, just imagine the Brewers system had they figured out a way to get Rodon in the fold (who from what I told saw his velocity spike after that year's draft). 2012 1. Clint Coulter 1. Victor Roache 1s. Mitch Haniger 2. Tyrone Taylor 3. Zach Quintana 4. Tyler Wagner 5. Damien Magnifico 10. Anthony Banda Banda is added since he was traded with Haniger to get Gerardo Parra, which I felt was a very astute acquisition. Coulter and Taylor obviously are the studs here, not only from this draft class, but for the entire organization. Given how power is becoming a bigger rarity in the game he has significant value in a variety of ways to the organization. Roache has big power too but hasn't been able to tap into it as consistently as we'd like to see. Zach Quintana's pro career is off to a slow start, but maybe he can right the ship similar to guys like Hall and Lopez as referenced above. Tyler Wagner's development on the other hand has been nothing short of spectacular, as he was one of my favorite picks at the time given how he was used in college and his remaining upside. Damien Magnifico is a guy that sometimes gets forgotten a little, and given how much his strikeout numbers have been down my guess is that the Brewers are having him focus on developing his off-speed stuff. 2013 2. Devin Williams 2s. Tucker Neuhaus 3. Barrett Austin 4. Taylor Williams 5. Josh Uhen 6. Garrett Cooper 8. Brandon Diaz 10. Michael Ratterree 22. Johnny Davis 31. Tanner Poppe Obviously this draft was effected the most when the team signed Kyle Lohse and lost their first-round pick. However, they did a nice job getting a first round talent in the second round in Devin Williams. Neuhaus has been slow to develop, and Barrett Austin is more of a control guy. Taylor Williams, similar to Tyler Wagner, was another of my draft-day favorites and is wasting no time making his mark as a pro. Josh Uhen has a big arm but obviously needs more patience than the typical college arm. The other players listed all have flashed promise at times but we'll need more time to see what they'll become. And of course there's the 2014 draft and the three immensely talented players the team took with their first 3 picks. Overall, the pitching depth, both in the form of starters and relievers, has gone from being a huge area of concern to arguably the system's greatest strength even if there isn't a sure-fire ace, or even a No. 2 starter, in the group. They have 2 very productive position prospects in Coulter and Taylor moving up the ladder (although I wouldn't be surprised to see Coulter dealt for a big-time arm at some point either this offseason or next year). There are some solid role players sprinkled in. In other words, we're in better shape than I believe most national outlets give us credit for, and I hope that will be reflected more properly this offseason when the top prospect lists come out. Hopefully Seid's replacement can pick up where he left off to help ensure that the Brewers overall success in recent years continues.

reillymcshane, Eric Davis is a solid comparison for Harrison given their overall athleticism to go along with the power/speed combo.

Very sad news. I had the pleasure of interviewing Seid as part of a feature I did and he always was very open and honest with me, not to mention accommodating. He also was passionate about the work he and his staff did, and read this forum frequently. In fact he called me one day out of the blue after he read some comments here about how down the system's talent was. I believe it was around this time of year after the 2010 draft as he specifically brought up how good Jimmy Nelson, Tyler Thornburg, and at the time, Matt Miller were going to be. RIP Bruce.

Just to clarify, because DHonks brought it up as did HiAndTight, the reports of Jungmann "throwing" 96-97 in college are grossly exaggerated. There was a point in his career that he peaked there, but the times I saw him he was 89-93, and even then he's usually settle into the 88-91 range later in the game. His curveball, the break, velo and command was always a plus pitch. Not one of the best in the game, but good. I always liked him, and can understand why someone would argue why a team would take him as early as the Brewers did, but he had one heck of a college career, which can't be understated. There were similar reports with Jed Bradley. I saw him throw a few times during the summer before he was drafted in the Cape Cod League. He was simply brilliant. Very good command, changed speeds with perfection, and topped out around 94 consistently. Again, there were reports of him touching a few ticks higher, but that wasn't his range. I've heard since being drafted he works more in the 88-92 range, and also know that injuries have slowed his progress, but he too is working hard to get back on track, which is very encouraging to see.

To get this conversation back on track, LouisEly, Tyson Ross is an excellent example for what we can hope Jungmann develops into.

Wow TheCrew07, I wasn't talking about you, I was speaking in generalities. It seems as though I struck a nerve. No need to take my comments personally.

I talked to Bruce Seid specifically about Jungmann and Jed Bradley last fall, two picks he gets unfairly criticized a lot for, in large part due to Doug Melvin telling media outlets that both could be fast-tracked and even called up later in the same year they were drafted. With Jungmann he told me that they had him working on his changeup almost exclusively last year, to the point where he would throw it in just about any count just to continue to find comfort with it. In college he worked almost exclusively between his low-90s fastball and mid-70s curve, which is good, not great stuff, which makes the development of a 3rd pitch all the more crucial. I agree his development has been promising. I'd argue the same point for Bradley, even if it's taken longer than most of us would prefer.

I'm not sure if you read the PG draft reports on Harrison, but he's a special athlete. While he doesn't have Hamilton's or Gordon's speed (few do), he's a completely different kind of athlete. I compare him to Carl Crawford, which isn't the best apple to apples comp, but I like it because Crawford is another guy who was considered a raw multi-sport guy that hit the ground running when he was drafted and signed by the Rays and focused on baseball. Some players just have superior athletic instincts, and Harrison is one of those guys. And while he's still fast, he has excellent quickness and overall body coordination. I agree that he's going to hit for more power as he matures, and that could be the last part of his game to evolve. I also agree that his upside could make him the organization's No. 1 prospect in a couple of years, but the same really could be said for Medeiros and Gatewood as well. Just a huge upside draft overall for the Brewers, and it is fun looking at how well Harrison is handling himself in AZ.

Harrison was a 6.6 (60-yard dash) runner last summer. While that's good (average I believe is around 6.8), that's not close to the Gordon/Hamilton world-class type of speed.

That was a ton of fun to read, thanks for putting that together (and to everyone else for contributing).

I have to say this, and I mean it quite seriously, even if none of Medeiros, Gatewood, Harrison or Lara make it, I give the Brewers a ton of credit for ponying up $9+ million to sign these immensely talented players. Lara got the most of all of them, which is unprecedented for the Brewers on the international front. Also, I'm pretty sure Lara can't start playing in the Dominican League until next year, so don't panic when you don't see his name in a box score for a while.

I'm pretty excited about Jorge Lopez' development this season. For as much attention as a lot of other prospects get, Lopez' may be more indicative that the team's patience and overall scouting/player development system is putting this organization back on the right track. That may sound like a big leap, but Lopez was a very promising pitcher coming out of HS in Puerto Rico when the team took him, so if he's development in a positive fashion it points to a system that has the pieces in place to allow raw, young players to be successful. And he's just one of several feel-good stories this year for the farm system. There may be a night and day different when it comes to the organizational rankings next year. Oh yeah, Lopez out-dueling another Futures Game pitcher this evening, and check out that groundball/flyball rate.

That's great news. Medeiros signed for a little more than I expected, but overall they saved more than I projected with all of their top 10 signings. Yamamoto is going to take some of that savings, but don't be surprised to see them take a run at one of their other notable late rounders that shouldn't have fallen that far.

I'd look for something this weekend when the Brewers return to town. Plus, they're honoring a bunch of Brewers with that new ceremony, as I'm sure they intend to go big

To be honest, I don't think any of these late HS picks are realistic signings. Turner Larkins, Taylor Lane, Chester, Blackman, etc. But you never know. Maybe one of them really wants $100,000 to play ball.