Your 2012 Brevard County Manatees -- Latest: OF Reggie Keen to pursue non-baseball career

[Mass Haas]

AUDIO: Brewers Pregame Interview with RHP Taylor Jungmann

[Tedaldtada]

2012 Brevard County Manatees Season Review

 

1st Half Record: 29-39

 

2nd Half Record: 34-33

 

Notable Hitters (League Average .255/.326/.373)

 

Mike Walker: 525 PA .280/.361/.415 191 TB 10 SB 54:123 BB:K

T.J. Mittelstaedt: 324 PA .258/.359/.469 129 TB 14 SB 42:84 BB:K

Jason Rogers: 279 PA .300/.416/.412 96 TB 7 SB 42:42 BB:K

 

Others: Reggie Keen, Nick Shaw, Cody Hawn, Shea Vucinich

 

Notable Pitchers: (League Average 3.86 ERA .255 BAA)

 

Taylor Jungmann: 153 IP 159 H 7 HR 46 BB 99 K 3.53 ERA .267 BAA

Jimmy Nelson: 81.1 IP 63 H 3 HR 25 BB 77 K 2.21 ERA .216 BAA

Drew Gagnon: 67 IP 56 H 3 HR 18 BB 49 K 2.82 ERA .229 BAA

Eric Arnett: 60.2 IP 54 H 4 HR 31 BB 61 K 3.56 ERA .241 BAA

Casey Medlen: 54.1 IP 52 H 2 HR 17 BB 63 K 2.98 ERA .246 BAA

Hiram Burgos: 41.1 IP 21 H 1 HR 6 BB 41 K 0.87 ERA .150 BAA

Nick Bucci: 31.2 IP 25 H 3 HR 15 BB 37 K 1.99 ERA .210 BAA

 

Others: Greg Holle, Seth Harvey, Alan Williams, Brian Garman, Eric Marzec

 

The Burgos Train Leaves the Station: To think, Hiram Burgos' first appearance on the year was in relief. I can recall mentioning in that particular L.R. that Burgos appears to be transitioning towards a bullpen role. He did not appear in relief again the rest of the season at any level on his way to Brewers MiLB PotY honors. He was simply un-hittable in 6 BC starts. The 0.89 ERA is just sick and Fangraphs has him posting a 2.04 FIP with the 'Tees. Hiram's April was foreshadowing of things to come in the BC rotation.

 

The One Man Show: For the majority of the 1st haf, T.J. Mittelstaedt was the main man in the BC order. With an OPS 24% above league average, Mittelstaedt was the lone hitter playing at an All-Star level. Not only was his bat powerful (33 XBH in 76 G), but Mittelstaedt logged time all over the diamond (2B, 3B, LF). Not bad for a 44th round pick in 2010.

 

The Rogers Promotion: After a .301/.394/.485 stint in WI, few thought Jason Rogers would smack around FSL pitching just as well. After posting a 20% above league average OPS in the MWL league, Rogers kept chugging along with an OPS roughly 15.5% above average in the FSL. The bigger parks (especially at home) sapped some power, but Rogers is clearly headed to Huntsville to mash in 2013. I honestly cannot decide if I like him or Sean Halton better. Nice to have both honestly.

 

Pitchers Haven: 489.1 IP 430 H 23 HR 158 BB 427 K

 

That is what the 7 pitchers listed above combined to do in almost 500 IP for the Manatees in 2012. I would argue all 7 have major league arms. All 7 should be in AA or higher next season with the exception of maybe Eric Arnett and Drew Gagnon. Arnett may return to the FSL in the rotation in 2013 and Gagnon will probably be on the Jimmy Nelson path next season. None of these guys are aces but they are all useful pieces to be sure.

 

Bullpen Bites: I am not sure I can remember a bullpen with quite so many interesting names. Alan Williams, Seth Harvey and Casey Medlen all throw in the mid-90's. Williams comes from the left side. Brian Garman and Eric Marzec get less pub, but they each posted fantastic numbers this season. Greg Holle was the bullpen horse logging 61.2 IP. Tommy Toledo, who was promoted mid-season after smashing up the MWL, struggled but he also sports a hard heater. There have been some whispers that Toledo will join the rotation next season.

 

The Always Next Year Crowd: We all know Jed Bradley's story this season. He started off gangbusters looking like a true mid-rotation workhorse from the left side. Then, it all fell apart. Minor, nagging injuries and some possible over-working by Jed could be to blame. Certainly one to watch next year. Brooks Hall showed up in mid-season but really failed to impress what-so-ever. I find it hard to give up on him, especially with the way Chris Mehring would talk about him when he pitched for the T-Rats. Austin Ross started out wonderfully, then he needed TJ surgery. At least the injury happened in April. Shawn Zarraga had an .821 OPS through about a month, then he did not appear in a game again for the rest of the season. His injuries always seem mysterious.

 

The New Additions: Miguel Velazquez (minor league free agent) and Hector Gomez (waiver wire pickup) did absolutely nothing. Both were formerly well thought off as prospects and I would welcome the organization to take similar risks in the future.

 

The Rest: Shout out to Cody Hawn, Nick Shaw, Reggie Keen and Shea Vucinich for being rocks in the lineup. Each had their moments. Franklin Romero Jr. chucked out a bunch of guys from the OF. John Dishon joined him in the 2nd half.

 

I really had a great time following the kids this year and sliding in my 0.02 whenever possible. Best of luck to all of the young men. Surely some of these names will be wearing Brewers uniforms in the near future.

 

I am not really one to remember the particulars of certain games, so if you can remember some special ones, post it here.

 

The only one I can remember is Burgos' near no-hitter on April 24th. Here is the L.R. from that day.

[TheCrew07]

Nice wrap-up post Ted-whatever!

[TooLiveBrew]

Nice wrap-up post Ted-whatever!

!

 

[Tedaldtada]

Nice wrap-up post Ted-whatever!

!

 

 

I don't mind a little ribbing if it's from "Jedi Darkside Boy" and "Mr. Hates the Brewers". [sarcasm]As for the rest of yous, keep it to yourself![/sarcasm]

 

PS I am also a huge SW's freak.

 

And so goes the 2012 Brevard County Manatees. They shall be remembered as a plucky bunch if nothing else.

[Mass Haas]

Baseball Prospectus on Taylor Jungmann's instructional ball outing

[TheCrew07]

Baseball Prospectus on Taylor Jungmann's instructional ball outing

 

Mayo continues to be the only person outside of the Brewers organization who's really championed Jungmann's stuff at all, other people/publications have repeated his scouting report but those that have watched Jungmann pitch have pretty much all said the same thing. A disappointing situation to say the least.

 

The top of 2011 draft #12 Jungmann, #15 Bradley, #70 Lopez is starting to look like the top of the 2009 draft #26 Arnett, #39 Ke Davis, #47 Heckathorn, #73 Walla. While he was far and away the best performer from the top of the 2011 class hopefully Jungmann finds some bite for his breaking stuff and Bradley/Lopez turn the corner, because right now it's fairly difficult to be excited/optimistic about the top of that class.

 

2009 Draft Class

 

2011 Draft Class

 

It's looking like the Brewers are going to do better with the lower round picks from each draft as there are plenty of guys picked later who are performing well and/or have some exciting tools. Khris Davis and Hiram Burgos are 2009 draftees who will probably start next year in AAA and that 2011 class has a whole slew of players who are interesting starting with Gagnon.

[paul253]

Reading that he sat 91-93 was very disappointing. Wasn't he a 93-95 guy in college?

[TheCrew07]

Reading that he sat 91-93 was very disappointing. Wasn't he a 93-95 guy in college?

 

His 4 seam was there, his 2 seam was regularly 88 in the college WS

[paul253]

It's looking like the Brewers are going to do better with the lower round picks from each draft as there are plenty of guys picked later who are performing well and/or have some exciting tools.

 

The Brewers need to be more aggressive in their picks I think. The past couple of years they've seem to be way too cautious. I hate to play Monday Morning QB on the 2011 draft, and at the time Jungmann and Bradley seemed like decent picks, but Bradley had really started dropping before the draft IIRC. A guy a lot of us liked was Taylor Guererri, who is now one of TB's top prospects. In the last draft, I hated the Mitch Haniger pick. He just screams Cole Gillespie to me. A low to mid ceiling college player who projects as a 4th outfielder and whose numbers are going to get progressively worse the higher up he moves (I hope I'm wrong). The guy a lot of us wanted to Joey Gallo, whom I've noticed is getting a ton of attention for his power potential and his early results. On top of the fact that we have zero third base prospects so he could move as fast as his game allows, his upside is much higher than Haniger's.

 

I just fee like one of the big reasons the Brewers system is still so barren is because they don't draft and sign enough high ceiling players.

[narwhalattack]

The problem is that even when they do draft and sign high-ceiling players, they usually fail. I know I'm going beyond the Seid era by saying this, but look at Mark Rogers, Mike Jones, and Jeremy Jeffress. Only Mark Rogers turned out to be a viable major league player and even he had his share of troubles in the minors. And even if the Brewers signed Dylan Covey it would have been difficult to label the pick as a success, as Covey struggled in college. I think the problem lies more in the scouting department.

 

I do, however, like the way the Brewers drafted in the 2012. Neither Coulter nor Roache are safe picks, but both have very high ceilings. Tyrone Taylor was viewed as extremely raw, but he's been doing very well until he got hurt and may be a future leadoff guy if everything turns out right. Hopefully the Brewers start drafting high-ceiling arms too. I still think about how they passed on both Fernandez and Guerrieri in the 2011 draft.

[HiAndTight]

Baseball Prospectus on Taylor Jungmann's instructional ball outing

 

Mayo continues to be the only person outside of the Brewers organization who's really championed Jungmann's stuff at all, other people/publications have repeated his scouting report but those that have watched Jungmann pitch have pretty much all said the same thing. A disappointing situation to say the least.

 

The top of 2011 draft #12 Jungmann, #15 Bradley, #70 Lopez is starting to look like the top of the 2009 draft #26 Arnett, #39 Ke Davis, #47 Heckathorn, #73 Walla. While he was far and away the best performer from the top of the 2011 class hopefully Jungmann finds some bite for his breaking stuff and Bradley/Lopez turn the corner, because right now it's fairly difficult to be excited/optimistic about the top of that class.

 

2009 Draft Class

 

2011 Draft Class

 

It's looking like the Brewers are going to do better with the lower round picks from each draft as there are plenty of guys picked later who are performing well and/or have some exciting tools. Khris Davis and Hiram Burgos are 2009 draftees who will probably start next year in AAA and that 2011 class has a whole slew of players who are interesting starting with Gagnon.

 

 

I've posted SEVERAL scouting reports that have Jungman and Bradley as both having the ceilings of front of the rotation type pitchers.

 

Not sure why you continually ignore all of those, but it sounds like you insist on using your scouting report and then claim those are the scouting reports of everyone else.

 

Where this myth comes from that the Brewers went safe...I'm not sure. Bradley was potentially one of the top 5 picks months/weeks from the draft.

 

In fact, at the time of the draft, BA I believe it was had them rated 7th and 8th.

 

If I remember correctly you also had Nelson pegged as a back of the rotation pitcher at best and then when he struggled in year one sang the same song.

 

Are we really to the point where we're going to look at players first years in professional baseball at HiA and since they didn't do this or that dismiss them as safe and then in return bad picks.

 

Both guys have the stuff to pitch on top of a rotation. And Lopez is still very young. By the way, I'm not sure how Kentrail Davis, playing in AA this year and putting up respectable numbers is such a huge bust.

 

 

But hey, there is nothing easier than going back and looking at drafts and then looking at the players selected after your picks who have excelled and blame the Brewers for their scouting responsibility.

[Mass Haas]

Baseball America Florida State League Top 20 -- Jimmy Nelson the lone Manatee on the list at #16, no Taylor Jungmann; it's a 12-team league for context and reference

[Mass Haas]

"Peace & Glove" twitterview with RHP Tommy Toledo

[Mass Haas]

Fangraphs Q&A -- LHP Jed Bradley, Brewers Pitching Prospect

 

Excellent read...

[Mass Haas]

Q&A with reliever Seth Harvey, who had an under-the-radar fantastic 2012 (career stats).

[And That]

Fangraphs Q&A -- LHP Jed Bradley, Brewers Pitching Prospect

 

Excellent read...

 

I will second this. Go read.

[Mass Haas]

Q&A with reliever Seth Harvey, who had an under-the-radar fantastic 2012 (career stats).

 

And another, this one via Reviewing the Brew

[Mass Haas]

In this article by ESPN's Jerry Crasnick about the disparity of WBC participation among MLB organizations, is this:

 

"Growing up in Canada, the goal was to try to play Major League Baseball," Melvin said. "With the WBC, you feel like you're representing your team in an Olympic environment. Our guys are all excited. We have a kid named Shawn Zarraga who had an injury and can't go for the Netherlands, and he was heartbroken. His dream was to play in the Classic. Why wouldn't you want to get a chance to play against some of the top players in the game?"

 

Zarraga's season ended May 25th last year, and we never did find out why. So there's carryover now into 2013, which will be Zarraga's 6th pro year. We'll know soon what happened when the new media guide is released.

[Mass Haas]

The Aussies only scored two runs in an abysmal three-game WBC performance, but Mike Walker (mom born in Australia), went 5-for-11 (all singles) to lead his squad. He played first base and batted 6th in each game. The 24-year-old will most likely be Huntsville's primary third baseman in 2013.

[Mass Haas]

It looks like speedster OF Reggie Keen may have called it a career (stats):

 

RVA in 4 days! The kid steps into a new world to start a new life! Too hype to get started! Sky's the limit, gona have fun on the way!!!

 

Gold's membership on deck! Time to get back on the gym grind! Day 1!!

 

From Wikipedia: RVA Magazine is a full color publication which focuses on the art, music, events, and culture of the Richmond, Virginia area. It was founded in April 2005.

 

***

 

Apologies to Reggie if he's in camp in Maryvale (you fooled us), and if he's not, good luck in all new endeavors.