On the mound, the first thing that stands out about Andrews is his stature; he’s the size of Jose Altuve, a full foot shorter than Jimmy Nelson. Look beyond that, though, and Andrews has some some interesting tools. To start with, he’s left-handed. That puts him at an automatic advantage, personnel-wise, and lowers the ceiling Andrews would have to hit in order to have a major league career. At worst, he’ll need to develop into a competent platoon lefty, facing just one or two batters at a time.

The soon-to-be 22-year-old also has a few building blocks that could help him hit or exceed that role. Because Andrews is so short, he can’t reliably generate the steep, downward plane with his fastball that helps so many taller pitchers miss bats and coax ground balls. Andrews operates in the upper-80s with his heater, topping out around 90 mph. It’s not a very exciting pitch, but shows some signs of life and can be used high in the zone to tie hitters up. Happily, Andrews boas  ts a pair of advanced secondary pitches in a mid-70s changeup and a slower, sweeping curveball. The change looks a little better right now, with late fade and plenty of separation from the fastball. But both pitches flash plus, and could help the young hurler reduce his reliance on his fastball. Andrews’ command is solid for a pitcher his age, and should be at least big league average by the time he climbs his way to the top of the organizational ladder.

The combination of solid stuff and decent command was enough to help Andrews excel in his professional debut last summer. He tossed 33 professional innings between Helena (2.13 DRA) and Wisconsin (1.95 DRA), and managed 54 strikeouts against only 7 walks. The Brewers deployed Andrews out of the bullpen, but that may have been more about innings management than anything; Andrews started in college, and had already tossed 99.7 innings (with 118 strikeouts and a 1.99 ERA) for Long Beach State, easily a career high, by the time he came off the draft board.

Andrews’s alma mater might also provide insight into the southpaw’s profile. Long Beach State has a history of embracing players who have faced long-term questions over their futures in baseball. They recruited former Angels star Jered Weaver when most scouts thought he was better suited to basketball. And when Evan Longoria was told he was too scrawny to play Division I baseball out of high school, it was Long Beach State who swooped after the star third baseman spent a year proving otherwise at community college.

The Brewers, too, have flirted with unconventional players in the past. Milwaukee even employed a 5’6” lefty as recently as 2011, when Danny Herrera made two ill-fated Brewers appearances before being released and catching on with the Mets. As Milwaukee continues to challenge accepted pitching roles, there could well be a place for Andrews on a future big league roster. Even if he falters on the mound, he can turn back to hitting. Better still, he could carve out a fascinating career as a late-inning defensive outfield sub who trots to the mound whenever a left-handed batter steps to the plate. Keep an eye on him in the seasons to come.

His first go-round in the Southern League came in 2015, the inaugural season for the Biloxi Shuckers. He spent the majority of the year manning center field, but after posting solid True Averages (TAv) of .266 for Wisconsin in 2013 and .267 for Brevard County in 2014, Taylor could only manage to put forth a .260/.312/.337 slash for a TAv of .243. Power has never been a major part of Tyrone’s profile but what little pop he could boast all but evaporated, as he clubbed a mere three home runs while posting an .077 Isolated Power (ISO) mark.

It’s not uncommon for a player to struggle during their first exposure to Double-A, especially when they make it to the level by the tender age of 21. So it wasn’t much of a surprise when Taylor returned to the Southern League for a second time in 2016; his continued struggles were flummoxing. This time, he yielded a .232/.303/.327 batting line across 519 plate appearances, with his TAv of .244 almost mirroring his total from the year prior. Tyrone did run into a few more homers (9), but still posted an ISO below .100 and stole fewer than 10 bases (9) for the first time since debuting in full-season ball. Taylor was Rule 5 eligible for the first time that offseason, and he was left unprotected by the Brewers and unpicked by any other team around the league.

His prospect stock was already plummeting when hamstring issues began to plague Taylor during the following season in 2017. He wasn’t able to get on the field until late June, taking at-bats in the Arizona League for a couple of weeks before heading back to Biloxi for a third time. He wound up finding action in only 25 games for the Shuckers and again, failed to inspire any sort of confidence with his bat. Taylor ended 2017 with a .247/.316/.376 slash in 95 plate appearances, tallying a single home runs and two stolen bases. Another sub-.250 TAv, and Taylor was nowhere near the club’s top-30 prospect rankings and was once again passed over in the Rule 5 Draft.

Despite his struggles, there was at least one man within the front office who was still in Taylor’s corner. “Tyrone Taylor is a guy who really battled injuries last year. He’s fully healthy. He’s had a chance to get over into some big league games. The power stroke seems to be coming back. It’s just great to see him healthy. He’s been a sleeper in the past,” Farm Director Tom Flanagan told MLB Pipeline’s prospect team during Spring Training 2018. The Brewers remained steadfast in their belief that there was still untapped offensive potential within Taylor because of his bat speed and contact ability, and hoped that ability to pepper the gaps with line drives could translate into more home run power. So after three years if struggles in Biloxi, the org decided it was time for a new challenge and assigned Taylor to Triple-A Colorado Springs for the 2018 season.

It was Taylor’s first subjection to the highest level of the minor leagues, and at age-24 he was nearly two and a half years younger than the median age for the Pacific Coast League. The outfielder was anything but overmatched, however. It was quite the contrary, in fact, as Taylor put together an offensive season like he’d never produced before. The Sky Sox outfield featured several MLB veterans throughout the course of the season (including Domingo Santana, Keon Broxton, Rymer Liriano, Quintin Berry, Brett Phillips, and Nate Orf, among others) and yet Taylor still saw his name etched on the lineup card nearly everyday, appearing in 119 games. In 481 trips to the plate, he hit .278/.321/.504, translating to a .265 TAv that was his highest in four years. And, as Flanagan and the Pipeline scouts intimated, the power finally showed up: Tyrone launched 20 balls over the fence after never hitting even double-digit dingers in a single season previously.

The key for Taylor appears to have been a successful indoctrination into the ranks of the “fly ball revolution.” Early on in his career, his batted ball profile resembled that of most speedsters; plenty of ground balls, relying on his fleet feet to beat out base hits. But things began to shift during his injury-shortened season in 2017, as Taylor (who posted fly ball percentages around 38, 30, and 39 percent, respectively, from 2014-16 in AA) hit 65 percent of his batted balls in the air during his rehab stint in Arizona.Taylor then produced nearly 45 percent flyball rate during his 25 games for Biloxi. In Colorado Springs, his fly ball rate jumped up again, this time close to 50 percent. Taylor hit the ball in the air nearly half the time last season, and his 11 percent HR/FB ratio was double his previous career rate.

Perhaps most impressive is that Taylor was able to add more loft to his swing and dramatically improve his power without sacrificing any of his bat-to-ball ability. He posted a .226 ISO and mashed those 20 taters while striking out in only 15.4 percent of his plate appearances, and he’s never whiffed at higher than a 19 percent clip at any level of the minors.

Taylor may have added a newfound power stroke to his tool box in 2018, but the speed and defense part of his profile is still indeed present. He once again swiped double-digit bases, nabbing 13 bags on 17 attempts. He’s also a capable defender at all three outfield spots and spent a majority of his time (56 appearances) in the premium position of center field this season. Taylor piled up 8.9 Fielding Runs Above Average in a shade over 950 innings in the field this season and was credited with a whopping 18 outfield assists, including four double plays.

Tyrone Taylor would have been eligible to become a minor league free agent this fall, but as a reward for his breakout campaign in Colorado Springs, the Milwaukee Brewers purchased his contract and made him a member of the 40 man roster earlier this week. A fallen prospect whose career appeared to be on life support just one year ago, Taylor now seems destined to make his MLB debut at some point in 2019. Milwaukee’s backup outfielder mix could be in a bit of flux this winter, as both Keon Broxton and Domingo Santana will be out of minor league options heading into camp next spring. With his right-handed bat, ability to go out and get it at all three outfield spots, and full slate of minor league options, Tyrone Taylor could wind up playing a meaningful role for the Menomonee Valley Nine next season.

Pitching at Security Service Field, the highest-altitude ballpark in the country, was a nightmare for just about any hurler that took the mound. Just ask Taylor Jungmann or Jorge Lopez (or maybe don’t). According to the latest three-year minor league park factor data available online (covering the 2014-16 seasons), no ballpark in the Pacific Coast League, or Triple-A baseball in general, was more conducive to run-scoring than Security Service Field. Though the park plays close to neutral in terms of home runs, base hits, including those for extra bases, have been more likely to fall in at Security Service Field than any other ballpark at the highest level of the minor leagues. The park factors in play in Colorado Springs make it difficult to evaluate pitchers, who don’t get the same break on their offerings at altitude, but also the hitters. The inflated batting statistics made journeymen like Nate Orf and Christian Bethancourt look like stars this season, and a previous study indicated that playing in an extreme hitters park can be negative for the offensive development of younger prospects.

Beyond the on-field issues, there were some logistical problems with the Colorado Springs location as well. Milwaukee obviously utilizes a good amount of their minor league depth and has constantly sent players back and forth from Triple-A to the big leagues over the past few years. Players that got the call to Milwaukee would have to drive more than an hour to get to Denver, and then from there they would have to catch a flight to either General Mitchell Internationa; (in Milwaukee) or O’Hare International (in Chicago). The led to a lot of long travel days for individuals like Adrian Houser, who vomited on the mound at Miller Park after enduring the journey. The altitude also had negative affects on player’s bodies. Manager Rick Sweet once noted that it could take up to a week for a player to re-acclimate to being so far above sea level, but that the team was rarely there long enough for an individual to complete the process of re-adjusting to the low oxygen environment before heading out on another road trip.

Going forward, however, Milwaukee won’t have to deal with having their highest affiliate in Colorado Springs any longer. The Elmore Group, owners of the former Sky Sox franchise and a few other minor league ballclubs, have done some shuffling of their assets. Their Double-A team in San Antonio is moving to a new park in Amarillo for 2019, so the group decided to pack up the Sky Sox and move them into the old facility in San Antonio. There the team is being re-branded as the new Missions, effectively elevating the franchise that existed as a Double-A affiliate for 50+ years to a Triple-A club. Though Milwaukee’s player development contract with the old Sky Sox expired after this season, the front office’s relationship with the Elmore Group helped the two sides broker a new two-year PDC that will keep the Brewers’ top affiliate in San Antonio for the next two years.

No longer will the minor leaguers have to deal with acclimating to the high altitude, or long drives to catch even longer flights when getting the call to The Show. And no longer will the players be trapped in one of the most challenging playing and evaluating environments in the country. Nelson W. Wolff Municipal Stadium figures be a significant departure from the high-scoring environment in Colorado Springs, as the park factors actually favor pitchers a bit more than they do hitters. Only Arkansas was less conducive to scoring among Texas League affiliates from 2014-16, and the park in San Antonio was also less apt to allow base hits than the average Texas League park. San Antonio has tended to be very suppressive to home runs, again coming in ahead of only Arkansas according to the park factors.

The Pacific Coast League still favors offense on the whole, but at least at when they are at home, Milwaukee’s scouts will be able to get a much more accurate read on their pitchers than they could in Colorado Springs. The minor league hitters may benefit from the change of scenery, too, at least from a developmental standpoint. The only real drawback to the move is that Wolff Stadium isn’t considered to be a “state of the art” facility, and the Elmore Group has been seeking a new stadium in San Antonio for nearly a decade now. The city has steadfastly refused to kick in any money for a stadium, however, as their eye is on a possible MLB club if the long-rumored expansion ever comes to fruition.

As part of the PDC, the Elmore’s have at least committed to investing in few million dollars worth of upgrades to the existing facility to get it up to the Triple-A standard. With a fluid ballpark situation, Milwaukee’s stay as an affiliate in San Antonio may not last longer than the two years of the contract that they just signed. But rest assured, the situation ought to be a monumental improvement over Colorado Springs.

The Brewers are sending the customary eight delegates to the Fall League this year, mixing well-known names with a few under-the-radar selections. Most fans are familiar with top prospect Keston Hiura, former first-round pick Trent Grisham, and young catcher Mario Feliciano. Bubba Derby, many will remember, was part of the trade that sent Khris Davis to Oakland. That quartet  headlines the group of prospects on their way to Arizona, where they’ll be joined by relievers Miguel Sanchez and John Olczak, both of whom have been covered on the site in recent weeks, and Daniel Brown. That leaves corner utility player Weston Wilson as the eighth man in.

Wilson enjoyed a nice campaign with the bat this year, producing a combined 270 batting average /.326 on-base percentage /.434 slugging percentage between two levels. The majority of that damage came in the Carolina League, where he played 105 games as a Mudcat and hit .274/.330/.446 for a healthy True Average (TAv) of .273 before a late-season bump to Biloxi. That continues something of a trend for Wilson, who split the 2017 season between Wisconsin and Carolina, hitting quite well at the former and scuffling some upon his promotion. The optimist’s view here is that Wilson makes adjustments as he develops, enduring some early struggles only to emerge a stronger, smarter ballplayer the following year. Someone less inclined to rose-colored glasses may point out that Wilson, a 16th round draftee out of Clemson in 2016, has always started the year a little old for his level, and simply performed in the low minors much as a decent college hitter should. Neither is a bad thing, really. But as a point of comparison, bear in mind that Wilson was drafted the same year as Ronnie Gideon, and signed for a similar bonus. Both hitters destroyed Rookie League ball in 2016, but their paths diverged after that: Wilson hit well for the Timber Rattlers, conquered the Mudcats, and has advanced to Double-A; Gideon struggled in Appleton for a full year, failed to do much for Carolina, and was released mid-season. Wilson may not be a highly-touted prospect, but he is separating himself from his peers in that particular cohort.

Something else to endear Wilson to the Milwaukee faithful: He’s capable of playing all over the field. Wilson started games at first, second, third base, and shortstop, as well as in left and right field this year, racking up most of his innings at first, third, and in left. The eye test reveals at least an average defender; Baseball Prospectus sees his defense as a potential plus. Wilson accumulated 7.3 Fielding Runs Above Average (FRAA) in the minors this year, a strong mark for any player. That’s a bit out of tune with his earlier defensive value (1.8 FRAA in 2017, -3.1 FRAA in 2016), but certainly enough to suggest a competent fielder. As positional labels begin to lose meaning across the league, Wilson’s comfort with moving around the diamond could become a true asset.

Monitoring Wilson’s development in Arizona and beyond should provide plenty of interest. His 2018 season was carried by a monster month of July, wherein he hit .436/.481/.681 across 27 games and 106 red-hot plate appearances. That came after a putrid June which saw him bat .176/.220/.253 in a similar amount of playing time. Ideally, he’d smooth over those kinds of extreme streaks in the future. He’ll also have to prove that he’s capable of handling advanced pitching at the Double-A and Triple-A levels. Happily, there’s some indication that he’s already begun that journey. Though he finished the regular season hitting .239/.286/.326 (.238 TAv) in a dozen games for the Shuckers, he caught fire in the postseason, going 10-for-27 with a pair of doubles for a .370/.452/.444 line in eight games. Fold that into his regular season work, and he hit .288/.342/.370 wearing a Shuckers uniform. Not shabby for a super-utility sort.

Prior to 2018, Wilson was best known as the prospect who proposed to his girlfriend after she threw out a ceremonial first pitch (incidentally, the video clip in that link suggests that Wilson could bring considerable value as a pitch framer, should he ever encounter the tools of ignorance). Another season like his last could change that in a hurry, especially if he shows well in Arizona next month. Should Wilson continue to develop as he has, he could be manning the diamond Hernán Pérez-style with fellow 2018 Shucker (and partner-in-rhyme) Keston Hiura for years of competitive Brewers baseball to come. Don’t be surprised if you start to see a #FreeWestonWilson campaign start to crop up next year or the year after, and be sure to check out Wilson this fall if you have a chance.

Perrin has the build to start, as he stands 6’5″ and weighs in at 220 lbs. Although he doesn’t overwhelm with his stuff, he mixes his four pitches well and can throw his fastball, curveball, slider, and changeup all for strikes. He was scouted in the lower levels as having the potential upside of a mid-to-back of the rotation starter, so it seemed a bit curious when the Brewers converted him to full-time relief to begin 2018. The right started the year with Colorado Springs and authored a 2.59 ERA across 24.1 innings, but was sent back down to Biloxi while guys like Alec Asher and Paolo Espino received turns in the Triple-A rotation. Perrin continued to pitch out of the bullpen for the Shuckers until the trade, which GM David Stearns classified as “allowing Jon to get a little bit of a fresh opportunity.”

Perrin is Rule-5 eligible this fall and given how the org treated him this season, it was probably unlikely that he was going to net a 40 man roster spot. The rebuilding Royals are devoid of pitching talent, and therefore can offer Perrin a better opportunity to not only reach the majors more quickly, but to get there as a starting pitcher. The 25 year old has been pitching in the rotation for Double-A Northwestern Arkansas since the swap, posting a 3.21 ERA across 14.0 innings covering three starts.

In exchange for Perrin, the Brewers received a 22 year old right-hander who, according to Slingin’ Stearns, has “some ingredients to turn into a prospect.” Sal Biasi was an 11th-round pick of the Royals just last summer in 2017 and inked for a $125,000 bonus, the maximum slot value for a pick in rounds 11-40. Baseball America described the stocky right-hander as “a near-average athlete with functional body control and looseness to his delivery” while evoking a George Costanza comp, but a scout I spoke with indicated that Biasi is someone that the Brewers have liked for awhile and that he deserves more credit than that for his athleticism. The Penn State product had an offer to walk on to Villanova’s basketball team before electing to pursue baseball with the Nittany Lions.

Biasi has a pretty simple delivery, pitching exclusively from the stretch while releasing the ball from a standard high three-quarters arm slot. His arm action and head tilt creates a little bit of deception and can make it a bit tougher for hitters to pick the ball up out of his hand. His fastball is his best pitch, sitting in the low-90s with the ability to run up to 95 MPH. Both Baseball America and my scouting source thought Biasi’s secondary pitch, a curveball in the 79-82 MPH range, was a below-average pitch when he was drafted. Those factors, along with the idea that Biasi is a bit undersized at 6’0″ and 190 lbs, lead most to believe that his future will ultimately be in the bullpen. He’s pitched predominantly as a reliever since joining the professional ranks, starting only eight of 44 appearances over the last two seasons.

Biasi posted a nifty 2.41 ERA while tossing 56.0 innings across two rookie levels in his debut season of 2017, though peripherals like DRA didn’t exactly support that level of run prevention. His numbers have come back down to Earth during his first exposure to full-season ball in 2018. Biasi owns a 4.73 ERA in 51.3 innings for Milwaukee’s and Kansas City’s Class-A affiliates this year, though he has allowed only three earned runs in 8.7 innings so far for Wisconsin. He’s missed plenty of bats this season, whiffing 9.3 batters per nine innings, and his 3.9 BB/9 is a palatable number.

Since taking over in 2016, the Stearns regime has done an incredible job developing and deploying their pitchers. Milwaukee’s track record with their arms and their highly-respected cadre of pitching coaches, led at the MLB level by Derek Johnson and filtering throughout the org, gets me automatically interested in just about every pitcher that the front office specifically targets and brings into the fold. After all, this is the org that has coaxed ace-level run prevention from Junior Guerra and Chase Anderson, resuscitated the career of Wade Miley, taught veteran hurlers Jeremy Jeffress and Jhoulys Chacin a split-finger pitch that has become key to the success of both pitchers, and developed Freddy Peralta from teenager to rookie strikeout sensation.

So maybe Sal Biasi, who you won’t find on any top-30 prospect lists, is just a future reliever. Maybe the main driver of this deal was that unlike Jon Perrin, he happens to have another two years until he needs to be protected from the Rule 5 Draft. Or, maybe the “ingredients” are indeed there for Sal Biasi to turn into more. Maybe his track record of pitching multiple innings means he can stretch out to be a starter. Maybe the org can help him improve the bite on his curveball a bit, and perhaps he learns the signature Milwaukee splitter to give him a three-pitch mix. Maybe the Brewers have some sort of biomechanical analysis that will help him thrive even with fringe to below-average command grades, like Guerra and Chacin and Peralta before him.

The “maybes” are the fun part about dreaming on prospects. Now all we have to do is watch how things play out.

Yesterday at the lowest rung of the minor league ladder in the Dominican Summer League (DSL), however, the DSL Brewers no-hit the DSL Rangers (2) behind stellar work from starter Alexis Ramirez and reliever Jose Alberro. The 19 year old Ramirez tossed seven frames while allowing only two walks and striking out six before Alberro came on to close out the contest, tossing two clean innings with a couple of strikeouts. The Brewers won, 5-0, with most of the offense coming thanks to Oswel Leones, who hit a homer and had three RBI in the game.

That game was just one of a half-dozen no-hitters that the Brewers have recorded organization-wide since the start of this decade. Prior to yesterday’s game in the Dominican, the last no-no in the org was just last summer at Double-A Biloxi. The Shuckers had a doubleheader on August 14th, 2017, against the Tennessee Smokies, thanks to a postponed game the day before due to rain. MiLB doubleheaders feature two scheduled seven-inning games, so Hiram Burgos got the start in the seven-inning affair and started by tossing two clean innings with a couple of punchouts. Then came Forrest Snow, who was awarded the winning decision after pitching innings three through five, allowing one walk and four whiffs. Lefty hitting-convert Nick Ramirez threw the sixth while allowing a walk, and Jorge Lopez worked a clean seventh to finish up the no-no and record his fifth save of the year. The Shuckers won, 1-0, thanks to a first inning dinger by Troy Stokes.

Before the Biloxi no-hitter, you have to go all the way back to 2012 to find the previous one. The team that would eventually move to Biloxi, the Huntsville Stars, faced off against the Chattanooga Lookouts on August 4th. A familiar name got the start for Huntsville that night: Jimmy Nelson, worked the first four innings with four walks and four strikeouts, but no hits. Then came reliever Dan Merklinger, who was pitching in his final professional season. He walked four batters and allowed a run during his 2/3 of an inning before getting bailed out by La Crosse native R.J. Seidel. Seidel tossed an inning and a third while issuing two more free passes and was credited with the winning decision. Righty Darren Byrd worked two scoreless innings and then future big leaguer Brandon Kintzler came on for the save. Huntsville hurlers issued 11 walks in the contest but zero hits, and won 3-1 on a three-run homer by Brock Kjeldgaard in the third inning.

That wasn’t the only no-hitter the org registered in 2012. On May 4th, the Class-A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers defeated the Clinton LumberKings 5-0 while keeping their opponents out of the hit column. Chad Thompson, a 27th-round pick in 2011, got the start in that game and threw the first five innings with three walks and six punchouts. He would go on to miss all of 2013 with injury and was out of baseball after the 2014 season. His tandem partner, Mark Williams, came in to finish the context with four scoreless frames while walking one and striking out three. A former undrafted free agent, Williams hung around affiliated ball until 2015 but never made it past Double-A. 2010 24th-rounder Gregory Hopkins had the big hit, a three-run homer in the first inning, to power Wisconsin’s offense in the no-hit victory. He hung around the org until 2014 before playing a year in independent ball and hanging up the spikes.

We head back to the DSL to remember Juan Francisco’s seven-inning “gem” on August 15th, 2011. The DSL Brewers defeated the DSL Mariners by a score of 2-1, with Francisco tossing a complete game no-no. Francisco walked six batters while striking out only two during the highlight of his brief career, which lasted from 2010-12 and never got higher than the Dominican Summer League. Raul Mondesi, Jr. (the other one) and Jose Pena recorded the Brewers’ two runs batted in during the game, while a young Orlando Arcia took an 0-for-3.

The franchise’s first no-hitter of the decade took place on August 24th, 2010, in a Midwest League game between the Timber Rattlers and the Cedar Rapids Kernels. Jake Odorizzi got the start for Wisconsin and dominated, going eight innings with ten strikeouts versus only one walk. He was relieved by Adrian Rosario, who completed the no-no by throwing a scoreless ninth, walking one and fanning two. Both pitchers were dealt not long after. Odorizzi was sent to Kansas City in the famed Greinke deal and is currently enjoying a solid big league career. Rosario was a part of the 2011 K-Rod trade, and his career flamed out in the Mets’ organization in 2013. But both pitchers brought their best stuff that night, and thanks to RBI hits by D’Vontrey Richardson, Kentrail Davis, and Joey Paciorek, the T-Rats emerged victorious by a score of 3-0.

So there you have it, the six minor league no-hitters that the Milwaukee Brewers can claim since the start of 2010. Hopefully some of that good fortune will shine on the big league team soon, and help spawn the future broadcasting career of whatever backup catcher who may wind up calling pitches behind the plate for Milwaukee’s next MLB n0-no.

It was a disappointing tenure from a narrative standpoint, from the frightening injury to the anti-climactic end. Liriano had been a compelling prospect, offering an intriguing blend of power, speed, and defense, and ranking among the game’s best 100 prospects before the 2012 and 2013 seasons. He missed the entire 2013 season after Tommy John surgery, did not impress during a 2014 cup of coffee in San Diego, and found himself out of options and suffering from prospect fatigue. The Brewers saw his strong .290 True Average (TAv) at Triple-A El Paso the season before, and thought he could enjoy a breakout season with a patient-enough big league club. Liriano could have become the kind of low-key acquisition that plays through a rebuild and emerges a few years as a valuable piece on a contending roster.

Baseball has a way of creating its own storylines, though: The Brewers are suddenly fighting for a division title with an overstuffed outfield, and Liriano is back in the organization and trying to rewrite history. Prior to his free agent signing, he had authored a respectable .268/.343/.523 line for the Salt Lake Bees, the Triple-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels. No longer a prospect, and robbed of valuable developmental time by his injury history, Liriano is more under-the-radar now than he has been for most of his playing career. Below the surface, his changing numbers and approach reveal a player who is struggling to find his path forward.

Scouting reports on Liriano have long made note of his athleticism and raw power. But throughout much of his career, his game power played more as an average tool. Throughout his time in the Padres organization, Liriano never tallied more than 14 home runs in a season (2014, 2015), and his Isolated Slugging Percentage (ISO) only ever ran up over .200 during an insane 71-plate-appearance stretch in AAA in 2014, wherein he hit .452/.521/.661 and was promptly called up to San Diego for his major league debut (whereupon his ISO plummeted to .046). For reference, the National League average ISO was .134 that season.

Since missing out on the 2016 season, though, Liriano has refashioned his swing to generate more loft, perhaps inspired by the late-career successes of Josh Donaldson, Daniel Murphy, and others. Here he is in 2015, lining a thigh-high middle-inside pitch to his pull side for a double:

And here he is earlier this season, turning on a waist-high pitch for a long home run:

The differences aren’t hard to spot. In 2015, Liriano crouched at the plate and held his hands up behind his ears. As the pitcher delivers, he times his swing with a small step, really more of a tap. He sees that the ball is down in the zone, so he deepens his crouch, reaches down, and uses a level swing to rip a shot down the third-base line.

In 2018, the stance is a little more open, and Liriano has ditched the crouch for a straighter pose. His hands are noticeably lower, and he’s changed to a more exaggerated leg kick. He plants his front foot firmly in the dirt, then turns on the pitch with everything he’s got, showcasing a swing clearly designed with loft in mind.

The resulting power gains are significant. Liriano whacked a career-high 17 home runs in 500 plate appearances last season, and (entering this week) was already up to 19 home runs in 316 plate appearances in 2018. His ISO is almost equal to his batting average, at .254, and he’s hitting the ball in the air at a 43.8 percent clip, up considerably from the mid-30s figures he posted earlier in his career. Part of this is attributable to his offensive environment, but it’s clear that this surge is fueled by more than thin air.

For one thing, there has been a clear and inevitable tradeoff in Liriano’s profile: contact. And unfortunately for Liriano, he didn’t have much of that to trade in the first place. Between 2012 and 2015, Liriano’s minor league strikeout rates hovered around 24 percent, high enough to be concerning, but low enough to be chalked up to youth and inexperience. When he got back onto the field with the White Sox organization in 2017, that number spiked to 26.6 percent. This year, it’s even higher: 31.2 percent at Salt Lake, and 36.2 percent in a limited sample with the Sky Sox. He’s taking his walks (9.5 percent walk rate), but not quite enough of them to compensate for all the whiffs. And with the new feast-or-famine approach, Liriano has connected for only eight doubles on the season.

There’s evidence that other aspects of his game are eroding, too. This year, Liriano has stolen only seven bases, and been caught eight times. Never the best at getting jumps, he used to be able to rely on sheer speed to generate value on the basepaths. But he’s been worth -2.6 baserunning runs on the year, which is hardly the contribution one would want from a fast player with a fringy hit tool.

Liriano’s journey has been rockier than most, and he’s seen his perceived ceiling fall from above-average regular to useful fourth outfielder along the way. He still possesses good athleticism and strong defense, but is no longer a great option to man center field. The newfound power would play in a corner, but Liriano was only able to get there by forsaking a hit tool that never projected to above-average in the first place. The Brewers already possess Keon Broxton in the dingers-and-defense category, and Keon offers a lot more value with the glove and on the bases. If Liriano converts some of the fly balls into line drives and is able to shorten his swing and make more contact, he could carve out a nice role on a major league bench. Of course, that particular profile is largely what Tyrone Taylor has to offer, and Taylor is three years younger. This leaves Liriano in a somewhat precarious position: He’s running out of time to make his mark before he’s slapped with the “org filler” label, and his new contact profile is extreme even in the dawning three-true-outcomes era. Liriano has adjusted once before; ironically, he might have a better chance of reaching the majors again if he’s able to adjust back.

After Saturday, forty innings, he’s struck out 55 batters for a pace of 12.4 per nine innings. That’s almost four times his walk rate (3.2 free BB/9). His worst DRA- at any stop this season is a cool 59.2, or an incredible 40 percent better than league average (in 2003, Pedro Martinez ran a 58 DRA-). His combined ERA is 3.15.

Yet this prospect lacks overpowering stuff and hasn’t appeared on any list of Milwaukee’s best farmhands. His name’s Miguel Sanchez, and he sneaked his way to Triple-A Colorado Springs for a few games this month after starting the season in Class-Advanced A Carolina. (He was subsequently sent back down to Double-A Biloxi.) Even so: At one point this season, at least in theory, Miguel Sanchez was a phone call away from the major leagues. With all the organizational depth the Brewers have created, who could have predicted that at the start of the year?

Eye-popping seasons are worth examining no matter their source, and Sanchez’s has been revelatory. He’s shown a surprising penchant for missing bats in the upper minors, with a combined strike out rate of 32.7 percent. That number is right between what Felipe Vazquez and Corey Knebel are doing in the majors. When opposing batters do manage to put the ball in play, they’re usually beating it into the ground (53.2 groundball percentage in Carolina, 41.3 percent in Biloxi, and an irrelevant 0 percent in two innings for the Sky Sox). Sanchez is walking 8.3 percent of all batters faced, which puts him two percentage points lower than Josh Hader. That means that subtracting his walk rate from strike out rate (K-BB) leaves an excellent 24.4, which would place him among the top 25 relief pitchers in the big leagues this year with at least 20 innings pitched.

That’s the good news. The bad news, of course, is that those numbers are largely irrelevant. You can’t transpose minor league stats into big league production, and “don’t scout the stat line” exists for a reason. Still, that’s a compelling stat line, the sort that’s usually predictive of future success. A wide array of traditional and advanced metrics are in agreement: Sanchez has been lights out this year. And results are results.

At 6’3” and 190 pounds, the right-handed Sanchez isn’t exactly undersized, but he’s also not the most imposing presence on the mound. An under-the-radar signing in January of 2016, Sanchez has spent most of his career pitching to younger competition, which partially explains the lack of scouting attention. He reached class-A Wisconsin as a 22-year-old towards the end of the 2016 season, then repeated that level in 2017 to middling results (4.26 DRA with a decent number of strikeouts but a lot of hits surrendered). He’s about the same age as the average Southern League pitcher this season for Biloxi; it’s encouraging to see him holding his own, though again, he’s surrendering a surprising number of hits for someone who strikes so many batters out.

Part of that may be attributable to his delivery. Sanchez whips the ball to the plate from a 3/4 arm slot, which is particularly deceptive to same-handed hitters; righties are mustering just a .594 OPS against Sanchez this year, compared to a .768 OPS from lefties. His fastball tops out in the low 90s and features some late sink that’s useful for coaxing bad swings and ground balls. His secondary offerings show a nice separation in velocity. He throws an occasionally promising changeup in the low- to mid-80s. At its best, the pitch fades away to his arm side and could go a long way towards helping Sanchez overcome his platoon struggles. An upper-70s curveball rounds out the mix. It has nice movement, but too often struggles to cross the plate; he’ll need to become more comfortable throwing the curve for a strike and not simply spiking it in 0-2 counts.

Add it all up, and it’s a reasonable profile. If Sanchez tightens up his command, he could probably turn into a solid low-leverage or situational reliever, with a chance for something more interesting should he enjoy a sudden uptick in stuff. That kind of profile, of course, is a dime a dozen, particularly in a pitching-rich Brewers organization. But Sanchez is turning some heads this year; he’s more on the map now than he ever was. With a strong end to the season and a good showing next spring, he could start to look pretty deserving of a roster spot. Whether he gets that opportunity with the Brewers is another story, but remember that Nick Franklin and Mike Zagurski have suited up for the Brew Crew this year. Anything can happen.

Troy Stokes Jr. was riding a different wave. A former fourth-round pick, he had never received much prospect attention, but a strong 2017 campaign split between Carolina and Double-A Biloxi started to change that. Really, Stokes was just doing what he always did by showing good speed, decent pop, and a patient eye. Now, he was doing it at AA, and the pop was showing up in games. By year’s end, he was one of just ten minor league players to finish with at least 20 home runs (Stokes hit 20 on the nose) and 20 steals (he swiped 30). People started to stick him on their prospect lists.

Given their different trajectories heading in, it’s funny that Ray and Stokes have arrived at… exactly the same place. Through last Friday (July 6), Ray was batting .244/.342/.453 in 81 games for Biloxi, for an On Base Percentage plus Slugging Percentage (OPS) of .796, an isolated slugging percentage (ISO) of .209, and a True Average (TAv) of .282. Ray had tallied 101 strikeouts, against 44 unintentional walks. Among his 78 hits were 21 doubles, 5 triples, and 12 home runs. He’d stolen 21 bases in 25 attempts.

Stokes, meanwhile, was batting .250/.359/.442 in 83 games for the Shuckers, for an OPS of .800, an ISO of .192, and a TAv of .302. He had tallied 101 strikeouts, against 43 unintentional walks. Among his 77 hits were 18 doubles, four triples, and 11 home runs. He’d stolen 13 bases in 14 attempts.

The carbon-copy batting line makes for a fun quirk, and also serves as a useful checkpoint for prospect evaluation. Ray’s performance feels more personally and emotionally significant after the rocky start to his Brewers career. He’s showing a glimpse of the potential the Brewers saw when they signed him for a franchise-record bonus of $4.125 million. Because of his draft pedigree, it’s tempting to think that he’s only now starting to scratch the surface. He has made adjustments this year; that can portend good things. He’s extremely athletic, with loud tools and a positive attitude; these, too, are good things to have on your side.

Stokes’s performance is just as good as Ray’s 2018 thus far. But Stokes is essentially doing the same thing he did at this level last year, only over a larger sample. He had some helium coming into the season, but instead of continuing to rise, he’s riding along at the same (high) level. He hasn’t been underwhelming by any stretch, but he hasn’t been overwhelming either, and his performance doesn’t have the same redemptive narrative quality that Ray’s does.

So what to make of the pair going forward? Ray has more of everything, basically. More speed. More raw power. More of a chance to play up the middle. Certainly more name recognition.

Ray has more variance, too, and higher expectations, which could be his blessing or his curse. It’s easy look at the top prospect and see the makings of a five-tool outfielder if he can tighten up his approach and hit for a bit more average. It’s also easy to see his swing-and-miss issues spelling trouble against better and better breaking balls.

Stokes is younger, which adds a wrinkle to his evaluation. At present, he’s pull-happy, and his high-loft swing leaves him susceptible to lazy pop flies. He’s striking out more this year than he has before. That may be something he can grow out of, or it may be a warning sign that his hit tool will forever hover in the 40-45 scouting grade range. He’s a competent enough outfielder, but fits best in left, so his path to regular playing time will ride more on his bat than will Ray’s.

We can continue to debate the various merits and red flags of each player, or we could do the more sensible thing and simply sit back and enjoy the ride. Right now, Ray and Stokes are similar prospects doing similar things, having taken very different routes to get there. Who knows where their paths will lead; every prospect develops differently and it’s usually very difficult to identify future major league stars. Either one could become a star or a bust or a quality role-player. They could even continue their ascent locked in step, giving Milwaukee a pair of Mike Cameron-esque options to shuffle into what will continue to be a very crowded outfield mix. Three cheers for organizational depth.

Within the draft, the first 10 rounds are considered to be the most important for the selecting teams. Each of the 300+ picks inside those rounds comes with a bonus slot value attached, and the slot values add up for each team to create their bonus pool for signing players. It is imperative for teams that the players they select in the first 10 rounds sign a professional contract, otherwise the team not only loses out on that drafted player, but also has to subtract the slot value of that pick from their bonus pool. In 2017, only three players selected in the top 10 rounds failed to sign with the team that drafted them. One of those young men was Drew Rasmussen, a right-handed pitcher from Oregon State selected by the Tampa Bay Rays at #31 overall.

Rasmussen arrived at Oregon State as a freshman back in 2015 and immediately hit the ground running in his college career. During his first year on campus he tossed 106.0 frames in 19 appearances (14 starts) for the Beavers, working to a 2.80 ERA. He pitched the first perfect game in OSU history against Washington State, was a freshman All-American and made the Pac-12 First Team. He began his sophomore season in the Beavers’ rotation and during his first six starts he compiled a 3.41 ERA in 37.0 innings, but with an improved 42:10 K/BB ratio and a sub-1.00 WHIP. Then disaster struck in March, and the right-hander heard a pop in his elbow. He needed Tommy John surgery.

The righty was able to work his way back from the procedure relatively quickly and returned to the mound after only about 13 months post-op. Oregon State was one of the top collegiate teams in the nation during the 2017 season and Rasmussen was indeed able to contribute, first in a bullpen role while rebuilding his strength and stamina before returning to the rotation. All together he wound up appearing in eight games, starting four of them, and logging 27.0 innings. He yielded only a 1.00 ERA and stuck out 26 batters against just five walks, once again posting a sub-1.00 WHIP while displaying remarkable control so soon after his surgery. Rasmussen recorded two saves and three winning decisions while helping OSU earn the #1 seed in the College World Series.

Post-surgery, Rasmussen was boasting a plus fastball in the 92-96 MPH range, touching 98 and with good extension, according to MLB Pipeline. He was getting swings and misses with his heater while also flashing a solid changeup and slider. He has a starter’s build at 6’2″ and 225 lbs and an easy delivery with a pretty standard high three-quarters release point, which helped lead to pretty effective control around the strike zone. Even with his previous surgery, the profile was strong enough for the Rays to use their Competitive Balance Round A pick on Rasmussen, which came with a $2,134,900 slot bonus value.

After the draft, however, some concerns arose over discrepancies between his pre- and post-draft physicals. Tampa Bay’s main concern was his surgically repaired elbow. The two sides were unable to come to an agreement, and Rasmussen’s request to become an MLB free agent was denied due to his two remaining years of college eligibility. So he prepared to return to Oregon State for what would be his redshirt junior season. But the elbow issues that the Rays deemed worrisome enough to let the righty walk proved to be significant; he required a second Tommy John procedure in August of 2017.

Not surprisingly, Rasmussen wound up missing the entire 2018 campaign for OSU while recovering and rehabbing from another significant surgery. Even though he didn’t take the mound at all, his scouting report when healthy and previous work for Oregon State had outlets like Baseball America (#109) and MLB Pipeline (#200) convinced that the former first-round pick was still one of the top draft prospects out there. He wound up falling to day two, and with their 6th round pick in the 2018 MLB Draft, the Milwaukee Brewers selected Drew Rasmussen at #185 overall.

Although it’s not official yet, the belief is that Rasmussen will sign with Milwaukee this summer (for potentially below the pick #185 slot value of $251,700) rather than return to school and try the draft again next season, when he’ll be a 23 year old senior sign without any negotiating leverage. Rasmussen told  Brad Ford at Brew Crew Ball that he hasn’t advanced to the point in his rehab where he is even playing catch yet, and that he was waiting to take that next step until he knew what organization he would be a part of. Now the Brewers and their award-winning medical staff will be able to guide him through a recovery and throwing program to get him back to full strength.

Most scouts believe that Rasmussen’s medical history will force him into relief as a professional, although Drew himself says that the Brewers have not yet given him any indication either way as to whether he’ll be in a bullpen role or a starter once he’s fully healthy. He has had plenty of experience, and success, in both spots. For what it’s worth, he says he prefers the structure of being a rotational pitcher although the variability of coming out of the bullpen can be exciting.

The Brewers may have landed themselves one of the most compelling prospects in the draft, a first-round talent with the stuff to be a successful starter who plummeted down draft boards and missed out on a couple million dollars due to injury. The club has been extremely cautious in bringing back their young arms from such dramatic afflictions and we shouldn’t expect to see Rasmussen make his professional debut until sometime in 2019. But the successful rehabs of Taylor Williams and Adrian Houser, both of whom have contributed at the MLB level this season after undergoing Tommy John surgery within the past two years, should help inspire some confidence that Milwaukee’s medical staff can help Drew Rasmussen get back to 100 percent. Once he’s healthy, he’ll be one prospect whose development I’ll certainly be watching closely.