Brewers Farm Update

Looking Back at Top 10

Now that the World Series has ended, the baseball offseason can officially begin. This time of year brings with it not only speculation about trades, free agents, and what a team might look like next year, but also plenty of talk about prospects. Indeed, Baseball Prospectus will begin to roll out their updated top prospects […]

USATSI_10246510_168381442_lowres

Could The Answer In Center Field Actually Be Two?

The 2018 Brewers will come into Spring Training with far fewer question marks in the lineup than they have in recent years, but center field remains an area of uncertainty. Keon Broxton has been good for 2.4 WARP in 707 plate appearances of action over the past two seasons, but his high strikeout rate makes […]

USATSI_10291349_168381442_lowres

Brewers Minor League Awards

The minor league regular season wrapped up about a week and a half ago, ending the year for most of the prospects within the Milwaukee Brewers’ organization. As a whole the organization’s seven affiliates combined for a 372-381 record with each of the three highest level affiliates posting winning records – AAA Colorado Springs at 80-57, AA […]

Brewers Farm Update

2017 Brewers Minors: Bats

The Milwaukee Brewers minor league affiliates completed their 2017 campaigns on Sunday, in the form of a gutwrenching Game Five Colorado Springs loss in the Class-AAA Pacific Coast League playoffs. Now that the minor league season is over, fans and analysts can begin to process information about the season, including scouting reports and statistical analysis […]

USATSI_10093068_168381442_lowres

Call-Ups Reveal the Idiocy of Service Time Rules

What an exciting week to be a Brewers fan! The results were mildly disappointing at best following a home split against a poor Giants team and a series loss in Arizona. But the games took a bit of a back seat to the call-ups of pitcher Josh Hader and outfielders Brett Phillips and Lewis Brinson. […]

USATSI_10091669_168381442_lowres

Update: Cashing Out OFP 2

Earlier this week, I examined the surplus added by Brewers GM David Stearns, which is undoubtedly one of the reasons the club is performing quite well. Stearns, in stark contrast to recently famous rebuilds in Chicago and his previous front office (Houston), is building competitive clubs at the MLB level by cashing in on short-term […]

Minors Picture

Minor League Context: Bats

It’s been nearly three weeks since the first installment of “Minor League Context,” which is an attempt to understand the factors and environments in the minor leagues so as to not misjudge minor league performances. This is an essential antidote to “scouting the stat line:” given the minor league development assignments, different developmental standpoints, and […]

USATSI_9349102_168381442_lowres

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, […]

USATSI_9564185_168381442_lowres

Grading Trades V: The Long View

One of the most interesting aspects of the Brewers rebuilding thus far is that nearly everyone involved in the Carlos Gomez-Mike Fiers trade took a step back in 2016, or raised some question marks about their profile. Mike Fiers and Josh Hader arguably had the best years of the bunch, and even Hader himself still […]