After seeing the scouting strengths and weaknesses, as well as the Overall Future Potential (OFP) and realistic floors, for the Brewers system, one can begin the New Year with a great sense of the “what if…?” that is the current state of the rebuilt farm system. There is no question that the Brewers front office […]
Category: Articles
BaseballProspectus Brewers Top 10
When you’re following a rebuilding club, “Prospect List Day” is like a Holiday morning: it’s a chance to quantify some of the difficult aspects of future roster building that (by necessity) are not quantifiable. This is perhaps the most difficult part about rebuilding, and the BaseballProspectus team nails that in their report of the system. […]
Assessing Roster Moves IV: Prospect Value
In the previous installment of this series, a reader comment provided an excellent point about judging prospects: monetizing prospect value appears to inflate their potential value, compared to MLB players. That this should not be surprising does not diminish the salience of the point — analysts have much, much more information available about MLB players. Moreover, […]
Drafting and Developing Pitchers
There has long been a narrative surrounding the Milwaukee Brewers that “they just can’t draft pitching.” This idea is mostly rooted in the the fact the Brewers have drafted and developed just one legitimate “ace” during my lifetime: Ben Sheets, who was chosen in 1999 and was a top-20 pitcher in the league for a stretch […]
Jimmy Nelson’s Future
As the Brewers entered 2016, their rotation looked flush with young pitching talent. During 2015, Wily Peralta, Taylor Jungmann, and Jimmy Nelson all made at least 20 starts and were in their age-26 season or younger. Each had experienced some level of big league success: Peralta was coming off a disappointing 2015 season but had […]
Assessing Roster Moves III: Ideal 40-Man
Thus far in the offseason, Brewers GM David Stearns has made moves with 40-man roster implications involving 18 players: Selecting contracts of OF Lewis Brinson, OF/1B Ryan Cordell, LHP Josh Hader, OF Brett Phillips, and RHP Taylor Williams. Losing RHP Miguel Diaz in the Rule 5 draft. Waiver claims of RHP Steven Geltz, RHP Blake Parker, […]
2017 Breakouts
The 2016 season didn’t produce quite as many notable individual performances within the Milwaukee Brewers’ minor league system as the previous year had seen, but there were still a few pleasant surprises by players who we may start seeing included in the various top-100 lists that will come out over the winter. Lucas Erceg hit the […]
Waiving Them Through The Turnstiles
With less than a day to spare, Major League Baseball and the Players’ Union were able to come to terms and sign a new collective bargaining agreement this year, preserving over two decades of continuing labor peace. To the relief of, well, everyone, the All-Star Game will no longer decide home-field advantage in the World […]
Hunting for Great Splitters 1
When the Brewers recently claimed RHP Blake Parker and RHP Steve Geltz off waivers, and signed RHP Luke Barker to a minor league deal within the span of a week, one similarity that bridged the moves was the presence of a splitter in each arsenal. Granted, Barker’s split was listed last on his self-produced scouting […]
Making the Case For Trading Ryan Braun
David Stearns made headlines last week by saying that he expects Ryan Braun to be a Brewer going forward. Part of me does not want to read too much into the comment; general managers have incentives to lie to the media to strengthen their bargaining position, and I’m sure that’s at least part of what […]