On Tuesday morning, the Brewers’ affiliated minor league rosters were announced, showcasing the roster decisions made by GM David Stearns and the player development staff in perhaps their most important rebuilding season. 2017 is the year that talent acquired in former President Doug Melvin’s 2015 trades, Stearns’s round of moves, and the first Ray Montgomery […]
Tag: Brewers prospect analysis
How Close is A?
Yesterday, former Brewers prospect Miguel Diaz made his MLB debut for the San Diego Padres, pitching a fine scoreless outing in the midst of a lopsided defeat. In one-and-a-third innings, the young righty threw 15 pitches (10 strikes), and inherited a runner to close the bottom of the fifth inning. After the Rule 5 draft […]
Closing Windows
It’s a common refrain now: the Brewers are finished with their rebuild. In terms of shedding MLB contracts for minor league assets, Milwaukee’s front office is basically done wheelin’ and dealin’. As everyone knows, veteran superstar Ryan Braun is the last remaining true trade chip, and the left fielder appears to be in the organization’s […]
Cashing Out OFP
In 2016, MLB owners spent approximately $4 billion on approximately 1065 WARP produced by both batters and pitchers. While the common market assumption prices one additional win above replacement at $7 million on the free market, the vast majority of MLB contracts are not signed on the free market, which drives the cost of WARP […]
Mauricio Dubon: Letting the Game Come
On December 6, 2016, the Milwaukee Brewers and Boston Red Sox struck a deal that sent then-Brewers reliever Tyler Thornburg to the Red Sox for third baseman Travis Shaw and minor leaguers Josh Pennington, Mauricio Dubon, and a PTBNL or cash. Shaw was the headliner in the package the Brewers received, but Dubon was arguably […]
101 Trends
Yesterday, Baseball Prospectus published the 2017 Top 101 prospects, which was a list that substantiated fan sentiment that Milwaukee has effectively rebuilt the farm system. Notably, the laudable Brewers prospects evenly represent regimes, with President Doug Melvin claiming three of the Brewers’ Top 101, and current GM David Stearns claiming four. Taken in concert with […]
The Return of Jorge Lopez
At this time a year ago, the Milwaukee Brewers community was abuzz regarding pitching prospect Jorge Lopez. The right-hander had just completed an excellent season at AA Biloxi, posting a 2.26 ERA and 3.24 DRA across 143.3 innings en route to winning the organization’s Minor League Pitcher of the Year award. He even earned a brief […]
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, […]
Brett Phillips’ Contact Issues are Officially Worrisome
In July of 2015, the Milwaukee Brewers traded away Carlos Gomez, and the centerpiece of the return package was centerfield prospect Brett Phillips. Later, that fall, I profiled Phillips as the newest impact prospect in the team’s rising farm system. In the context of evaluating Phillips, I took a long look at the evolution of […]