Power 50 discussion -- Latest: September Power 50 now up!

[pogokat]

mcclendon was on the list before as was zarraga...who actually had a ton of buzz as a power hitter when he was first drafted...BA had him as the most intriguing power draftee from our draft class on e year

[TooLiveBrew]

What's been the story for Max Walla this season? The talk about McClendon made me remember how much gushing was done about Walla's raw power upside on his draft day.

[battlekow]

What's been the story for Max Walla this season? The talk about McClendon made me remember how much gushing was done about Walla's raw power upside on his draft day.

Huge problems making contact. He struck out almost 39% of the time last year; this year, he's reduced his K-rate about 3% so far, but it's still way too high. The power isn't really showing up when he does make contact, either; his career ISO is < .100.

[dadofandrew]

HS power always takes a long time to develop, maybe with ARod and Griffey Jr. as the exceptions.

[RobertR]

I'm surprised that Cain is still behind Gamel. And Braddock. Broad range of skills, plays a premium defensive position, has bounced back strongly from injury, and is very easy to project into the starting lineup in 2011. We still don't know where Gamel is going to play at the big league level due to questions about his defense and that absolutely reflects on the value of his bat. And I think people underrate just how much a good centerfielder is worth and how rare they are. There are all of 6 centerfielders in baseball with an OPS over .800 that qualify for the batting title, 11 with an OPS over .750, so Cain has a great chance to fall in the above average group offensively with solid defense. And, I don't think I've ever seen anyone question Cain's attitude, work ethic, etc.

 

That's potentially a very valuable player.

 

Robert

[twobrewers]

I really like Cain, but I'm skeptical that he can keep a .382 OBP with limited power.

 

Of course, a .300 OBP would be an improvement over Gomez.

[igor67]

I don't think Cain's OBP is driven by any fear of him as a slugger, and his power out put isn't so low that I see pitcher's just grooving him stuff like a Jason Tyner. He could very easily be the classic under rated player because he does everything OK to kind of good, but nothing stands out. On the flip side he does have enough tools that he could still surprise and develop some refinement on the batting side and have a nice power spike (or perhaps a batting average spike) that would make him very valuable.

[kramnoj]

It is uncommon to have a high OBP without lots of power, but it can be done. Brett Butler's career OBP was higher than his slugging. Butler isn't that close of a comp, just noting that it's possible.

[RobertR]

Yeah, I'd like to see Cain show more power, but he's not Tony Gwynn Jr. either. I don't think a .350/.420 obp/slg line would be anything to complain about and that seems like something he could do. Especially since he seems to have a good working knowledge of the strike zone. Yeah, he might not have enough power to last, but there's a good chance he could become a classic "power comes last" player. It's a good thing that he has all the other pieces of his game already in good shape.

 

Robert

[JohnBriggs12]

Another guy who is conspicuous by his absence from the list is Jonathan Pokorny. Maybe it speaks to the depth, but how can you ignore a guy with 65 K's in 44 IP and a 4.3 to 1 K/BB ratio? Granted he's a reliever, but he's clearly more than a lefty specialist having logged 44 innings in 30 games.

 

Anybody seen this guy throw? Is he a hard thrower or finesse guy with big breaking stuff?

[biedergb]

RE: POKORNY

 

As a 22 year old closer in A-ball, he would seem to be overlooked. His B-fan.net profile from the 2009 draft forum had this to say "he has a decent three-pitcher reportoire, including a upper-80s fastball that has touched the low-90s"

 

Also, he should maybe garner more attention, because while he is a 22 year old college pitcher in A-ball, the B-fan.net profile also had this to say, "With only 97 college innings under his belt, his arm has relatively low miles on it". So he may be 22 in age, but may be more of a 20-21 year old pitcher in experience and use.

 

He certainly is another of the better relief pitching prospects in our system, and should allow us to have a relatively cheaper pen for future years, which will allow more resources (ie money) for starting pitching and/or starting position players.

[battlekow]

Kevin Goldstein said Pokorny was 91-93.

[JohnBriggs12]

With three "decent" pitches, is it set in stone that Pokorny projects solely as a reliever? I would think a guy with 3 pitches including a low 90s fastball might be starter material.

[TooLiveBrew]

To me, "decent three-pitch reportoire" means solid but not great -- I would personally infer that he has one, maybe two plus pitches, but not three. If he sits 91-93 as a reliever, I'd guess he'd be in the 88-91 range as a starter.

[And That]

Lucroy graduated off the Power 50 with his second AB on Saturday. Congrats!

[colbyjack]

The latest and greatest Power 50 is now up. Come out of your caves to defend the likes of Lee Haydel, Sean Halton and Lucas Luetge!

http://www.brewerfan.net/ViewPower50.do

[CheezWizHed]

Well, I did peek at Haydel's stats earlier this year and was pleasantly surprised, I won't claim he deserves a P50 spot. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

 

Glad to see Lasker and Kh Davis bumped up. That was my main complaint last time.

 

Dykstra sure has made a great turn-around this year. I started reading this thread, thinking that it was a new and started at post #1. Someone commented about Dykstra being removed from the list and my eyes almost bugged out. But then I realized that was from earlier this year. Now he is back up to #25.

 

Got to wish he could get together with Lintz, Adams, Fredrickson and some others to give them his secret!

[uwisfan]

looks pretty good, but I'd probably have been a bit more aggressive with Rogers and Gennett. I think Rogers is on par with Jeffress at this point, and Gennett looks like a clear top 10 talent at this point.

[battlekow]

looks pretty good, but I'd probably have been a bit more aggressive with Rogers and Gennett. I think Rogers is on par with Jeffress at this point, and Gennett looks like a clear top 10 talent at this point.

Given Rogers' injury history, it would take several healthy years to put him on par with Jeffress in my mind.

[Herm]

Responding to a couple of earlier questions, I went to a T Rats game this weekend and my observations:

 

Pokorny - Struck out the side to close game I saw. No radar readings but he did appear to throw a tick harder than other pitchers in that game and appeared to have reasonably good life. Hard to project and I don't have a good comparison in mind. Looked decent in this setting, but my best guess is he's "just a guy" to use football scout lingo.

 

Dykstra - Looked good offensively, quick bat, good baserunner. Arm looked quite weak though -- I don't see any chance he sticks at 3B (which is where he's been playing all year) and I'm not real sure where that arm would play.

 

Morris -- Went yard twice, one of them easily clearing the beach area beyond right center wall. Legit power with a smooth, easy stroke.

 

Kentrail Davis -- Puckett type body. Very legitimate bat - quick stroke, good pop. 3-4 with a triple, hit it on the screws all 4 times. Showed good burst on the triple from a speed standpoint. Odd play in RF on fly ball with runner at 3rd tagging -- he caught it then on attempt to make throw he face planted into the ground and held the ball, appeared to be some kind of leg situation (maybe felt something in troublesome hamstring as he set for the throw). Arm appeared adequate for RF. Most impressive to me was his last AB with 3 hits already in the book -- worked a walk after an 0-2 or 1-2 count, fouled off a couple of tough pitches and took a couple of close ones to draw the walk, looked real confident in the way he knew zone. Looks for real to me. Stayed the longest to autograph for the kids after the game, for what that's worth...

 

Kh Davis -- Didn't do much and did not stand out offensively or defensively to me.

 

Richardson -- Looks the part, clearly a good athlete. Didn't see much since he was tossed after he got HBP then got in a tussle breaking up double play.

 

Gennett and Garfield did not play.

 

Rigberto Almonte threw one inning and has a live arm but short-arms it a bit.

 

Nieves started and went just shy of 5 innings, nothing spectacular but has some ability.

[uwisfan]

looks pretty good, but I'd probably have been a bit more aggressive with Rogers and Gennett. I think Rogers is on par with Jeffress at this point, and Gennett looks like a clear top 10 talent at this point.

Given Rogers' injury history, it would take several healthy years to put him on par with Jeffress in my mind.

you could say the same about Jeffress' drug risks or the fact that he is now a reliever.

[And That]

you could say the same about Jeffress' drug risks or the fact that he is now a reliever.

Jeffress is on the 40-man and won't be subject to MLB sanctions for smoking pot; he's being used a reliever to get his pitching feet back under him (or at least that's what the story is). I don't think Jeffress' situation is comparable to Rogers' at all. He's also 1.5 years younger than Mark.

[TooLiveBrew]

Excellent P50, Patrick. One comment I have for you is on Kentrail Davis -- he mentioned in an interview with the Appleton Post-Crescent that he was moved to Wisconsin due to his hamstring issues, not performance issues. Rediscovered power stroke or not, it seems the org. wanted to keep Kentrail healthy(/ier) the rest of the way rather than risk further injury to his hammy(/ies).

 

I'm fully expecting Davis to either start '11 in BC, with a very quick promotion to Huntsville... or just start in Huntsville.

[HiAndTight]

Excellent P50, Patrick. One comment I have for you is on Kentrail Davis -- he mentioned in an interview with the Appleton Post-Crescent that he was moved to Wisconsin due to his hamstring issues, not performance issues. Rediscovered power stroke or not, it seems the org. wanted to keep Kentrail healthy(/ier) the rest of the way rather than risk further injury to his hammy(/ies).

 

I'm fully expecting Davis to either start '11 in BC, with a very quick promotion to Huntsville... or just start in Huntsville.

Agreed on the last part. I think he could very well just start out in AA next year. His numbers would likely be similar as BC is obviously where HR's go to die.

 

With regard to the hamstring, I thought he said there was a partial tear in it that would need to be addressed in the off-season? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that was a very limiting injury that's slowed him down significantly and won't be healthy until he has an off-season of rest to help it recover.

 

I don't know about anyone else, but if this is Kentrail Davis injured, I'm salivating at Kentrail Davis healthy. I think we've got a lot more talent in this farm system than meets the eye. Are we lacking in elite, can't miss prospects, sure. Beyond Lawrie and Gamel(whom I believe belongs in that list, but generally is not) we're limited, but we've got more potential solid big leaguers and talented 5 tool guys who've already refined their games at least a little bit(not just of the Brent Brewer ilk) than I can remember us having, even when we had the top farm system in the game.

[HiAndTight]

looks pretty good, but I'd probably have been a bit more aggressive with Rogers and Gennett. I think Rogers is on par with Jeffress at this point, and Gennett looks like a clear top 10 talent at this point.

Agreed, I always look forward to these coming out as most on here do. They're truly fascinating.

 

I also agree on Gennett AND Rogers. Gennett was a guy I was hoping we'd pull the trigger on last year as early as the 3rd, so when we got him in the 16 AND signed him I was positively giddy. Rogers return to the starting rotation and 100 pitches has been nothing short of remarkable. If he can improve his command a bit, he's a potential ace. That's a helluva comeback from a guy who I think made everyone hold their breath with each pitch for fear that he may injury that cannon for a right arm.

 

This has been a weird year for the Brewers. We were certainly hit with the injury bug early on and have had some disappointing situations, but between Jeffress and Rogers bringing upper 90's heat, the influx of relievers who are seemingly coming out of the woodwork to put themselves into the conversation moving forward with our BP, and Cain, Escobar and Lucroy stealing everyday starting gigs in the big leagues, I think you'd have to be pretty happy about the farm system at this point.

 

Of course a very ugly draft does a bit to temper that enthusiasm, but when you figure next year we'll have at least 2 early to mid 1st rounders, that certainly helps quell that disappointment significantly.