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What is Player Development?

Brewers GM David Stearns had a wild non-waiver trade deadline to close July, and the GM once again proved that he was not afraid to deal potentially quality talent as the August waiver trade deadline was closing. As the waiver trade deadline closed, Stearns parted with college catching development project KJ Harrison (who might also […]

Brewers Farm Update

Which Roster Crunch?

The Brewers have made a series of moves lately, both in terms of standard (non-waiver) trade deadline impact deals and post-deadline deals, involving players that would be exposed to the 2019 Rule 5 draft (info here). These players include LHP Kodi Medeiros, a probable MLB reliever; RHP Luis Ortiz, a potential mid-rotation starter with more […]

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Grading the System 3

The splash happened: For two-and-a-half years, Brewers fans and analysts wondered aloud what it might take for GM David Stearns to trade an impact prospect at the trade deadline. The debate softened somewhat during the 2017-2018 offseason, as Stearns certainly proved himself capable of parting with (several) impact prospects. This transaction was always explained away, […]

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Aces Don’t Exist: Third Time Charmers

The Brewers are gaining a reputation for becoming a bullpen squad, part of the MLB bullpen revolution, and rightfully so. Over the offseason, the Brewers lost out on all the major free agency starting pitchers, and never consummated a trade for one of the (presumably, oft-rumored) available aces, instead remaining satisfied with marginal moves involving […]

Brewers Farm Update

Luis Ortiz is Coming

Although fans have been clamoring for the team to add a rotation-topping starter to the mix (joining most fans of every team, everywhere), the Brewers have a rich seam of advanced arms surging towards Miller Park. Craig Counsell has singled out names like Corbin Burnes, Freddy Peralta, and Adrian Houser this spring as prospects with […]

Brewers Farm Update

Speculating on on Rookie Arms

The release of Baseball Prospectus PECOTA projections is exciting for many reasons, not the least of which is finding the player comparisons that helped inform the projection system. Since PECOTA (and its redesigns) is based in part on finding comparable players in order to assess “true ability” and design aging curves suitable to each prospect […]

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 […]

Brewers Farm Update

2017 Brewers Minors: Arms

At the big league level, the Milwaukee Brewers became a team known for pitching in 2017. The club featured the most single-season 2.00+ WARP pitchers in franchise history, thanks to strong campaigns by Chase Anderson, Zach Davies, Corey Knebel, and Jimmy Nelson. Between June and July, the club mostly hovered between 162-game paces for 25-to-50 […]

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Aces Do Not Exist

If the progression of Brandon Woodruff did not awake the question last season, Corbin Burnes’s ascent through the minors has certainly raised it loud and clear, week in and week out, this season: does the Milwaukee Brewers system have an ace? In the cases of both Woodruff and Burnes, the answer is quick and easy, […]

Brewers Farm Update

Minor League Context: Arms

Following the original April 25 Minor League Context post, and yesterday’s note on the batting environments for Brewers affiliates, it is time to look into the environments faced by system arms. I looked at pitchers with 13.0+ innings pitched thus far, which produced a smaller batch of pitchers than bats. Yet, many of the environmental […]