June's Power 50 is Up -- Plus Your Earlier Predictions Here

[PrimeTime955]

An opportunity to throw out your opinion of the Power 50. Not a guess of what it will be, what you think it should be.

 

1a. Matt LaPorta

1b. Mat Gamel

3. Alcides Escobar

4. Angel Salome (up 1)

5. Jonathon Lucroy (Up 5)

6. Cole Gillespie

7. Omar Aguilar (up 17)

8. Michael Brantley (up 1)

9. Zach Braddock (down 2)

10. Taylor Green (up 1)

11. Jeremy Jeffress (down 7)

12. Luis Pena (down 4)

13. Hernan Iribarren (down 1)

14. Caleb Gindl (up 3)

15. Chris Errecart (up 15)

16. Brad Nelson (up 12)

17. Tim Dillard (up 21)

18. Steve Hammond (up 7)

19. Alex Periard

20. Derek Miller (up 3)

[battlekow]

01. LaPorta

02. Gamel

03. Escobar

04. Salome

05. Jeffress

 

06. Lucroy

07. Gillespie

08. Green

09. Cain

10. Braddock

 

11. Brantley

12. Gindl

13. Aguilar

14. Hammond

15. Iribarren

 

16. Pena

17. Errecart

18. Nelson

19. Bryson

20. Anundsen

[dadofandrew]

I'd move Brantley up to #5, but I'd agree with the top 4.

[PrimeTime955]

I'd move Brantley up to #5, but I'd agree with the top 4.

Until he develops at least SOME power, can we really assume he's not just a Tony Gwynn clone?

 

[twobrewers]

11. Jeremy Jeffress (down 7)

I would think his 5 inning 10 K game alone keeps him around #5. Young pitchers are going to struggle. It is all about ceiling. And so far, while the results have been mixed - Jeffress has looked very promising.

 

13. Aguilar

He has been amazing thus far. And he throws 100 mph - I would think he is higher.

 

1. Gamel (Defensive much better. Best pure hitter in the system)

2. LaPorta (Lots to love, but also has defensive limitations)

3. Escobar (HR stroke has been a very pleasant surprise)

4. Salome (We are quickly approaching the point where Catching is no longer a need)

5. Jeffress (Too much promise to ignore. 10 K game was a gem)

6. Brantley (Young and playing great at AA. What position does he play? Will his OBP transfer with limited power?)

7. Aguilar (No one is even touching him. Debut at AA with two scoreless innings. And he throws 100)

8. Braddock (He is still only 20 years old)

9. Green (Look up Gamel's numbers at Brevard from last year. And then look up how Green is doing)

10. Lucroy (He is playing great. But he is the same age as Salome and only in low A)

 

[Ando Calrissian]

Except that Brantley is having a better minor league career than Gwynn. As has been discussed on the board, Brantley is tough to project because he is quite unique in what he does offensivley, but he's exciting because of what he's showing at AA for such a young age. He very well might not pan out at the big league level, but you've got to respect what he's doing at the plate a little bit, even if it would be nice to see a little more pop in the bat. Brantley is a bit of an anti-Gwynn in that his OBP is not nearly tied to his BA as Gwynn's is. In my mind, it's that ability to get on base that will likely get him a longer leash in the majors than Gwynn gets.

[Tbadder]

1. Gamel

2. LaPorta

2A. Escobar

 

4. Jeffress

5. Green

6. Salome

 

7. Brantley

8. Braddock

9. Lucroy

10. Gillespie

[uwisfan]

1 Gamel - I thought the 2 were pretty close but hearing the Sounds radio guy talk about LaPorta and Gamel really swung my opinion. Gamel is more versatile defensively and it sounds like LaPorta has some holes in his swing.

 

2 LaPorta

3 Escobar

4 Jeffress

5 Salome

6 Lucroy

7 Braddock

8 Green

9 Brantley

10 Gillespie

[twobrewers]

I can't believe I had to leave off Gillespie and Errecart.

 

I am excited about a lot of prospects right now.

[JoeHova]

1. Matt LaPorta- I'll still give some credence to the scouting reports that say he has plus-plus power. I like a guy with at least one very good tool.

2. Mat Gamel- Is the power here to stay?

3. Angel Salome- I really like this little guy. Extremely high BABIP may portend some regression, but I still like his bat.

4. Alcides Escobar- glad to see his bat coming around a bit. Already has twice as many homers than he's ever had before.

5. Jeremy Jeffress- going solely on arm here, not results.

 

 

Those are really the only 5 that I feel strongly about. It's pretty hard to separate some of the other guys. Lucroy looks good, but he's old for his league (then again, so is LaPorta, to some extent). Brantley has the great OBP, but no power (which even separates him from Luis Castillo, who had occasional pop. Then again, he didn't display that in the minors either) and those guys are few and far between in baseball history. Suffice to say that nobody has (consistently) put up a .400 OBP with a .350 SLG. Eddie Yost once had a .412 OBP with a .336 SLG, but for his career, his SLG was only .023 behind his OBP.

Taylor Green looks pretty good, but I'd like him a bit better if he was still a middle infielder. Hernan has the same problem, plus he's having a bad year.

Braddock looks good, as does Aguilar. You've got to love their home run rates, especially Aguilar.

Gillespie is hitting, but he's pretty old and he's not hitting like some of the other guys in Huntsville. It's hard to see where he fits in in the future. Same thing with Errecart.

Then you've got a bunch of guys who are intriguing, like Gindl, Cain, and Brewer, but they are still notable mostly just for interesting tools, not results (not counting rookie ball).

[jjfanec]

1. Gamel - I am about as pro-LaPorta as there is but gamel's numbers are just to hard to ignore along with seemingly improving defense.

2. LaPorta - I am not overly concerned with the slump because I never thought he was a .300 plus BA guy. If he can continue to hit home runs and get that BA to .290 that is great

3. Escobar - Bat is catching up to glove and he is starting to walk some

4. Jeffress - The arm is there and I feel like the numbers will follow the second half of the season.

5. Salome - Hope he can stick defensively

6. Lucroy - It is nice having two catchers to talk highly of

7. Gillespie - I think he gets over looked a lot because of the others but he is hitting for nice pop

8. Braddock - Lefty arm who's K's are encouraging. Needs to cut down on the walks

9. Brantley - Hard to project because he doesn't have power but his age and OBP are very intriguing

10. Green - I forget about him but need to remember the numbers he is putting up are very impressive for Brevard County

 

Others. Aguilar, Errecart, Cain, Bryson, Hammond. I am also intrigued by Donovan Hand who doesn't strike guys out but just gets batters out.

[homer]

"Angel Salome- I really like this little guy. Extremely high BABIP may portend some regression, but I still like his bat. "

 

Not to hijack the thread, but remember the days not so long ago when we had to scour the far reaches of the internet just to get minor league LH/RH splits? My how far we've come in a very short while.

[EbbaStClaire]

1. Gamel

2. Laporta

3. Escobar

4. Salome

5. Jeffress

6. Brantley

7. Green

8. Gillespie

9. Lucroy

10. Pena

11. Braddock

12. Cain

13. Brewer

14. Errecart

15. Aquilar

16. Dillard

17. Iribarren

18. Hammond

19. Ramlow

20. Welch

[lexi881]

not sure where to put this - but Mat was #2 on Baseball America's Prospect HotSheet this week!

 

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/prospect-hot-sheet/2008/266213.html

 

No. 2 MAT GAMEL, 3B

BREWERS

http://www.baseballamerica.com/images/mgamel08100144.jpgTeam: Double-A Huntsville (Southern) Age: 22 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.

[uwisfan]

from same article:

 

. . . 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 . . .

[wibadgers23]

1. Gamel (Hard to ignore the ridiculous numbers he's putting up)

2. LaPorta (The recent slump bumps him down below Gamel, but he'll be just fine)

3. Escobar (We all know about his stellar defense, but his offense is the big surprise so far)

4. Salome (Don't know about his defense, but he can sure hit with the best of them)

5. Brantley (For such a young guy playing in AA, he's certainly holding his own and then some)

[TuesdaysWithRillo]

I think you still have to go with LaPorta as #1 because we all know what he can do and he's still putting up good numbers. Gamel is only #2 if he can play 3rd base. If not, he's blocked and then will become a quandry concerning his value to this team. I go with Jeffress at #3 if Gamel can pan out as a 3B. You can't teach a 100 mph fastball and he's still pretty darn young. #4 is Escobar because he's our future SS without a doubt and he's starting to hit while flashing the leather. I go with Aguilar as #5 just for the fact that his numbers are so filthy he could be getting hitters out in the 9th inning right now in Milwaukee. Those 5 don't even touch some other really good talent in the organization, but they seem like the closest to panning out at this point.

[BrewCrewForever]

My God Gamel's numbers are just crazy, very excited to see what he can do probably next season in the bigs. Here would be my top 5:

 

1. Gamel

2. LaPorta

3. Escobar

4. Salome

5. Jeffress

 

I'm very excited for all 5 of those to play for the Crew when ready.

[twobrewers]

I think for the sake of efficiency the Power 50 should look like this...

 

1-8: Huntville Stars

9-50: Everyone else

[PrimeTime955]

I think for the sake of efficiency the Power 50 should look like this...

 

1-8: Huntville Stars

9-50: Everyone else

Not to change the subject but what do you think the brewers record would be if Huntsvilles 1-8 replaced Milwaukee's 1-8 for a full season? Keep the pitching the same or whatever.

 

[Mass Haas]

Power 50 will "crosses fingers" be online by midnight Sunday, as we seek to maintain our so-far maintained goal of posting new the first of each month.

 

My turn for comments, almost by default, as you wouldn't believe the "off-field" events currently impacting each of the P50 four (Brad, Patrick, Toby and myself) if we told you. Don't worry, nothing's wrong and everybody's OK, but in a wild convergence of cirumstances, it's amazing that any of us have found time for Brewerfan (and all of you) as of late. Kind of a reminder that this is all a diversion (hey, but an important diversion) for each of us.

 

Until then, back to my Link Reporting (and "real" life).

 

Jim

[Mass Haas]

The new Power 50 is unveiled.

Lots of big movers this month, and those double-digit numers, unfortuantely, are hard-to-read.

They are:

Erracart +14
Nelson +11
Dillard +16
Bell +15
Chapman -11
Hand +13
Rogers -21
Jackson -10

Enjoy!

[battlekow]

I did pretty well (P50 ranking in parentheses):

 

01. LaPorta (1)

02. Gamel (2)

03. Escobar (3)

04. Salome (5)

05. Jeffress (4)

06. Lucroy (9)

07. Gillespie (7)

08. Green (6)

09. Cain (12)

10. Braddock (10)

11. Brantley (11)

12. Gindl (15)

13. Aguilar (18)

14. Hammond (19)

15. Iribarren (13)

16. Pena (8)

17. Errecart (16)

18. Nelson (17)

19. Bryson (24)

20. Anundsen (26)

 

From the P50 top 20, I missed Josh Butler, who doesn't deserve to be anywhere near the top 20, and Brent Brewer, whose continued lack of production was enough to make me overlook his tools and pedigree.

[wvpowerblkwel]

Very interesting "changes" guys! I'm not sure what to think about it all just yet,but I think much of the commentary is really right on the money this time. Most of the movements comes from the who's hot necessity and after reading much less than glowing reports on the Brewers minor league system in different places, I think we have a lot of strong up and comers to go along with the six newbies next time!! Seems that from a prospect and developmental standpoint, the minor league system looks pretty good to me! Of course I've had great prospects that we've done host family duty in the last 2 years (Zach Braddock, Bobby Bramhall, Rob Bryson, Caleb Gindl) so I'm kinda prejudice! I'm also glad that it seems many of the brewerfan faithful have found a little forgiveness in their hearts for my man Angel! It is well deserved!!

[dadofandrew]

Brantley is going the wrong way for a very young guy with a .400 OBP.