Hummel was an 18th-round draft pick out of the University of Portland in 2016. A well-regarded defensive prospect, his glove drew interest from as many as twenty big league clubs before the Brewers called his name. The question that divided scouts was whether Hummel would hit. He batted .118 and .192 his freshman and sophomore years, respectively, albeit with sporadic playing time. Hummel assumed full-time duties behind the plate his junior season, and responded with a loud .320/.422/.490 slash line. That was enough to convince Milwaukee to bring him into the fold. Hummel signed with the Brewers for $98,500, just shy of the threshold at which Milwaukee would have been forced to allocate resources from higher-round slots.

Like most new picks, Hummel packed his bags for rookie league. He was in uniform for Helena days after the draft. Hummel appeared in 35 games that summer, stepping to the plate 133 times. A quick glance at his numbers engenders little cause for excitement. The backstop hit just .176 in Montana, though that figure was significantly deflated by a .224 BABIP. Hummel, it seems, ran into some ordinary bad luck. Consider this: The young backstop walked more than he struck out, reaching base via the free pass in 20.3 percent of his plate appearances. Baseball Prospectus credits him with a palatable .266 Total Average (TAv) for the season, alongside 0.3 FRAA.

The Brewers liked those numbers well enough to assign Hummel to Class-Advanced A Carolina at the start of the 2017 season, eschewing low-A altogether. (This, in turn, allowed the club to challenge Mario Feliciano behind the plate in Appleton, where the 18-year-old has exceeded expectations.) But finding a path to regular playing time hasn’t been easy, as Hummel shares the roster with Mitch Ghelfi and Max McDowell, a pair of 2016 Midwest League All-Stars who are eager to insert themselves into the organization’s long-term plans. For the first part of the season, Hummel was the odd man out, catching bullpen sessions and taking his swings in live BP.

A late-May injury to Ghelfi provided Hummel an opportunity, and he’s since wrestled his share of slots in the lineup card away from a struggling McDowell. Hummel has amassed all of 59 plate appearances this season, the smallest of small samples, but he’s playing like a man on a mission. Entering Monday, is slash line is sitting at .265/.390/.429, and his 16.9 percent walk rate exceeds his 15.3 strikeout percentage. Hummel’s power is more of the doubles variety for now, but his performance this year shows a nice continuity with the patience and power he flashed during his junior year in college. Hummel boasts a .292 Total Average (TAv) and 0.4 WARP thus far in 2017. Not bad at all for a player who’s appeared in just 14 games and counting.

The narrative that the Brewers organization is thin on backstops persists, but it’s becoming less and less accurate as catcher has been something of an area of focus for Milwaukee under David Stearns. Under his watch, the club spent early-round draft picks on Feliciano, Payton Henry, and K. J. Harrison. Ghelfi and McDowell performed beyond expectations last year, and Ghelfi in particular raised his stock with a hot start to the year before his injury. Meanwhile, Stearns added Manny Piña, Jett Bandy, and Andrew Susac via trade. And don’t forget Jacob Nottingham, who’s hitting .333 over his last ten games as he tries to rediscover his top-prospect stroke in Biloxi.

Hummel, too, is part of this organizational turnaround. He may never amount to more than a big-league backup, and even that would be a fantastic outcome for an 18th round pick. But he’s still young, and has ample time to develop on the farm. Most importantly, he’s proving that he belongs on the Carolina roster,  with a season OPS that is second only to Jake Gatewood’s. Keep an eye on him as the year wears on. Hummel may yet emerge from under the radar as he marches his way up the depth chart.

Continuing age-based analysis of minor league statistics, the 2016 Midwest League could be the most interesting case yet. Unlike the Southern League or Pacific Coast League, the Midwest League featured a group of three different age levels with similar production, and two adjacent age groups that did not fall far. From age-21 to age-22 to age-23 players, Midwest League bats slashed .245 / .316 / .356, .249 / .318 / .352, and .247 / .317 / .353, respectively. On the outskirts, age-20 batted .249 / .307 / .367 while age-24 batted .252 / .315 / .333, giving the league an expansive middle ground of 345 players that can be judged by very similar production standards.

One might ask whether this reflects the nascent stages of minor league competition, perhaps where players may be closer to the same development curve, thereby exhibiting less stratification among minor league players. Perhaps Class-A is the first level at which “organizational lifers” emerge, or players hit their first professional ceiling and stick around for a year or two before heading to their next career. It would be worthwhile digging into a scouting explanation for this phenomenon, in order to see how the physical tools relate to the statistics; perhaps everyone (or almost everyone) at Class-A is still learning the strike zone, or pitch recognition, or some foundational trait that places the vast majority of players on the same level.

There are a number of notable bats that defined the Timber Rattlers in 2016. Isan Diaz produced one of the best seasons at the Class-A level, and although he did not win MVP, he certainly has the performance level worthy of consideration. Lucas Erceg also stormed the league out of the 2016 draft, demonstrating a completely different developmental stage (relatively polished college draftee) than Diaz. Along with Diaz and Erceg, several depth players produced interesting or good seasons, giving fans and writers more players to think about and watch during the 2017 campaign. Perhaps no one will be more interesting to follow than Monte Harrison, whose statistical line was damaged by a rough April and early-May, and whose hot streak was cut short by injury. Harrison has shown flashes of “putting it together,” so it will be crucial to see how he returns from injury.

Down in Florida, the Brevard County club had a rough season, mostly due to the bats. This level lagged behind in the system during 2016, and unfortunately, even age-based statistics do not allow one to reconsider many gems.

It is worth noting that Corey Ray produced a fine campaign, based on his age level and the fact that he was making his professional debut in an aggressive assignment. While Ray’s surface stats of .247 / .307 / .385 does not look very good, age-21 players in the Florida State League were notably worse than that production level, allowing one to see that Ray showed solid hitting, discipline, and (especially) strong isolated slugging. Even if one follows scouting reports to raise some questions about the hit tool, there is a sense that Ray’s tools are already showing up in his stat line, even if that line is depressed by his environment.