BA's Hot Prospect Sheet Thread

[Mass Haas]

Just one Brewer mention this week

 

Surely I'm jinxing it, but the Brewers have avoided the "Who's Not" section for over a season, I believe...

 

Chat Link

Q:	Scott from Dickeyville,WI asks: What do the Brewers do w/ Gamel? He obviously can't stay at 3rd, and I assume the only other place for him would be a corner outfield position, but he's kind of blocked there. A trade may be the only option, unless there's a serious injury.
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A:	Ben Badler: You never quite know what will happen with prospects, or any baseball player really given the variance in year-to-year performance, but Gamel sure looks blocked, doesn't he? He's no better than Ryan Braun was defensively, so putting him at third would annihilate most of the value he would bring with the bat. That means he has to be a corner OF guy or a first baseman, but you've got Prince Fielder, Braun and Matt LaPorta handling that. Maybe the Brewers could petition a move back to the AL? In all seriousness, given how the Brewers handled Braun, I wouldn't be surprised to see them let Gamel try his hand for a little while longer at third base to see if he can at least become a slightly-below-average defender there. One of those good problems to have if you're a team, I guess.

Q:	Kyle Waldman from Indianapolis, Indiana asks: Why has Will Inman of San Diego, seemingly been overlooked in much of the prospect rankings, not necessarily the Hot Sheet? He is off to a terrific start in Double-A and with the exception of his brief stint in Double-A last year he has been successful. So where do you project him at and do you see him in the majors this year?
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A:	Ben Badler: I like Inman, to a certain extent, as a strike-thrower with solid-average stuff. He had a nice start this week, 8 Ks, 1 BB, 6 IP, 2 R, but not enough to knock any of the guys on Hot Sheet off the list. I don't see him in the majors this year, but I think the Padres clearly got the better end of that deal last year with the Brewers.

[And That]

You never quite know what will happen with prospects, or any baseball player really given the variance in year-to-year performance, but Gamel sure looks blocked, doesn't he? He's no better than Ryan Braun was defensively, so putting him at third would annihilate most of the value he would bring with the bat.

No offense to Mr. Badler, but IMO that's incorrect. I wouldn't put him in the bigs right now with his glove but if the Brewers stay patient with him in the minors, his defensive work will be much better than Braun's. Which wouldn't be all that difficult to do anyway.

[tyguy20204]

No offense to Mr. Badler, but IMO that's incorrect. I wouldn't put him in the bigs right now with his glove but if the Brewers stay patient with him in the minors, his defensive work will be much better than Braun's. Which wouldn't be all that difficult to do anyway.

Have you seen Gamel play? If so, please give us some details on how he has more potential than Braun to stick at the hot corner.

 

[DrWood]

Nelson should have appeared in the "blast from the past" by now. And Salome should be on the "who's hot".

[And That]

A lot of people point to Braun's errant throws to first base as his primary defensive shortcoming, but his biggest problem was his extreme lack of range. He barely got to anything... I don't know if it was discomfort at the position, bad instincts or what. Gamel has a similar problem with errant throws, but gets to the stuff he should. If he can fix his footwork/throwing problem in the minors, he should be an adequate third baseman.

[EbbaStClaire]

I keep reading that Gamel can't throw accurately but this year in the first 35 games Gamel has 10 errors. I went through each box score and 7 of his errors are listed as fielding and 3 errors are listed as throwing. May be a small sample and an error is an error. While he still needs to improve maybe the throws are better. He still is on a pace for 40 errors.

[pogokat]

Gamel also has a problem with balls bouncing off his glove...nonetheless, 40 errors would be an improvement over last year..

[colbyjack]

Entering the year we talked about how this season was make-or-break for Gamel at third base since the organization was setting him up for the perfect instruction at the hot corner with Don Money as his manager and Garth Iorg as the roving infield instructor who was scheduled to spend a lot of time with Gamel in Huntsville. Gamel has the benefit over Braun in that he has spent a full year at each level, giving him more time to work on his defense, and while I know excuses can always be made for every player, he still has 10 errors so far this year, which is a lot.

 

There's a lot of season left for him to straighten the ship, and you could also argue that it really doesn't matter how bad his defense has been given how well he has been hitting the ball. But as we saw with Braun last year those defensive problems are magnified at the big-league level where we get a much better idea than just relying on a box score to see of how much a bad defensive player can be a liability to his team.

 

Fortunately there's no pressing need to rush Gamel, as he has four months to go this year and probably all of next year to determine whether or not he'll be able to stick at 3B long-term. I do think it is somewhat telling that the organization views 3B as a system-wide need despite the presence of both Gamel and Taylor Green, unless they're just getting greedy and want a blue-chip prospect at every position at every level in their system http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif.

[EbbaStClaire]

I think Taylor Green is a 2nd baseman in 3rd basemen clothes.

[battlekow]

LaPorta was "In the Team Photo" in the Hot Sheet from a couple days ago:

Don't worry, we didn't forget about Double-A Huntsville OF Matt LaPorta (Brewers), who hit .370/.469/.593 last week-there were just 13 others who outshined him this week. With LaPorta's bat, he's as good a bet as anyone to make the Hot Sheet routinely, as his season line is now up at .331/.426/.695 with 10 home runs in 33 games.

[Mass Haas]

LaPorta was "In the Team Photo" in the Hot Sheet from a couple days ago:

Mentioned in post # 25, albeit very discreetly, but with a link http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

[battlekow]

My bad, I just scanned over it quickly and missed that. Thanks MH.

[Mass Haas]

No Brewer mentions at the Hot Sheet this week, but there is a former Brewer draft pick in the top 13.

 

Be the first to tell us who, what year and round he was drafted, what school he was at when drafted, and where he ended up playing college ball after spurning the Crew, and win nothing but bragging rights, and knowing that you've helped educate your fellow Brewer fans.

[SoCalBrewfan]

I wonder what it says that I knew which one it was...Jake Arrieta, drafted out of a tiny JC, opted to go to TCU?

[bullox]

Gamel also has a problem with balls bouncing off his glove...

He's not even looking at the ball in the pic above, so that is not hard to imagine.

 

[EbbaStClaire]

After 10 errorless games in a row, Gamel's on a pace for 32 errors this season which would be quite an improvement from last year, roughly 40% fewer errors. The good news is that he seems to be getting better as the season progresses. While 10 errors is a lot, 3 of his 7 fielding errors occurred in one game and he has made only 3 throwing errors. Of course other stats are important but I don't know where to find them e.g., errors per chance and range.

[DrWood]

After 10 errorless games in a row, Gamel's on a pace for 32 errors this season

Actually, after 10 errorless games in a row he's on a pace for 10 errors this season--he just needs to keep his pace of errorless games going until the end of the season. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

[JohnBriggs12]

After 10 errorless games in a row, Gamel's on a pace for 32 errors this season which would be quite an improvement from last year, roughly 40% fewer errors. The good news is that he seems to be getting better as the season progresses. While 10 errors is a lot, 3 of his 7 fielding errors occurred in one game and he has made only 3 throwing errors. Of course other stats are important but I don't know where to find them e.g., errors per chance and range.

You could go through recap game by game and add up his assists and putouts which would allow you to figure his fielding percentage. I did that about a week ago and he had 10 errors in 103 total chances or a .903 fielding percentage. He hasn't made an error since so figure at least 2 chances per game over say 6 games played, that would put him at 10 errors in roughly 115 chances for a fielding percentage of .913. For comparison, Hall isn't a whole lot better. He has 8 errors and a .926 fielding percentage. As for range, who knows, but the pitching staff at Huntsville has the second best ERA in the league and that would be tough to maintain with a statue at third base.

 

I don't think you can discount having one of the all time best defensive third baseman as manager at Huntsville. That's one reason I'd like Gamel to stay all season at Huntsville. If he can cut his error total in half from last season to this, I think he will have turned the corner into a serviceable defensive player, and with his bat, that's good enough for me.

[rotoherb]

or you could look up his fielding stats on baseballreference.com

 

http://minors.baseball-reference.com/players.cgi?pid=5141

 

Gamel currently has a .922 fielding pct, which is quite a bit better than his past seasons or his .868 career pct.

[EbbaStClaire]

I also wonder how much an infielder is helped by a first baseman who can scoop a low throw for an out rather than miss it for an error by the infielder. Errecart is in his 2nd full year of playing first base so I assume he is much better defensively than he was last year.

[Mass Haas]

This week there's a Brewer at # 5, and another in the "Team Photo" honorable mention section.

 

If you really think about it, you can probably plug in the proper guesses.

 

This Week's Hot Sheet

[TheCrew07]

I was worried that Turnbow might end up in the "Who's Not"... whew. Though he probably because he's had so much big league experience, I'm unsure what rule system they apply to minor leaguers.

[battlekow]

Gamel is #2 in this week's Hot Sheet:

Why He's Here: .484/.500/.806 (15-for-31), 9 R, 4 2B, 2 HR, 6 RBIs, 1 BB, 5 SO, 1/1 SB

The Scoop:

If you look at the best positional players that the Brewers have selected their recent draft picks, you might notice a trend: they may not be the best fielders, but they sure can hit. Whether it's Rickie Weeks, Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun in Milwaukee or Matt LaPorta, Gamel and Jonathan Lucroy, it's the bat that stands out. When you can hit like Gamel, though, you can do a pretty good job of covering up your defensive shortcomings. Gamel has abused perfectly good Southern League baseballs all season, hitting .384/.443/.667 in 244 plate appearances. In his last 15 games, Gamel has 11 multi-hit games. Sure, that .384 batting average is bound to get pulled down, but Gamel has the strike-zone judgement and the emerging power to be a dangerous big league hitter.

Escobar is "in the team photo":

The biggest question about Brewers SS Alcides Escobar is whether he will hit enough to have value as a premium defender at shortstop. He hit .429/.452/.607 (12-for-28) with week with five runs, two doubles, a homer, two walks and two stolen bases in three attempts for Double-A Huntsville this week. On the year, the 21-year-old Venezuelan native is hitting an impressive .311/.347/.418 in 241 plate appearances

[endaround]

If Escobar can get a ISP above 100 consistently he becomes a much better bet to be a big league starter so what he has been doing lately is really exciting.

[TheCrew07]

Salome better get some love soon, he's as hot as anyone thus far.