2014 - Pre-Season (and subsequently updated postseason) Brewer Organizational Player Rankings -- Latest: John Sickels

[TooLiveBrew]

John Sickels, MinorLeagueBall --

 

Milwaukee Brewers Top 20 Prospects for 2015

 

Wow, Victor Roache was #2 last year

A great read, as usual, from Sickels.

 

I thought he summed up his overall take quite well at the end:

 

"Overall this strikes me as an average farm system that could look much better a year from now if the new 2014 signees reach their considerable ceilings. More depth is needed, but the Brewers have a knack for focusing on what players can do rather than on what they can’t, which helps uncover bargains. Doing that at the same time you add high-upside talents is a recipe for success."

 

To move from being one of the two or three worst farm systems in the game to average in just a couple of years would be a pretty ringing endorsement for the scouting & drafting work that was done.

[pete]

i haven't read it yet. I find him to be persistently negative about Brewers drafts, prospects, MLB players, org... whatever. Yes, his negativity is always couched with a sentence or two about how something positive may happen so when there is a discussion of how he thinks little to nothing of Nelson, Fiers, Gennett, Davis and a host of others, the retort is always to recite that sentence. After time passes and he's very wrong, I don't remember him adding insight as to why.

 

If he calls it average, then I believe its better than that.

[TooLiveBrew]

i haven't read it yet. I find him to be persistently negative about Brewers drafts, prospects, MLB players, org... whatever. Yes, his negativity is always couched with a sentence or two about how something positive may happen so when there is a discussion of how he thinks little to nothing of Nelson, Fiers, Gennett, Davis and a host of others, the retort is always to recite that sentence. After time passes and he's very wrong, I don't remember him adding insight as to why.

 

If he calls it average, then I believe its better than that.

Hmm... he's always struck me as pretty fair-minded. Granted, no one really is as bad as this example, but he's never struck me as being like a Keith Law.

 

Here's Sickels's 2011 Top 20 notes on Gennett:

 

"7) Scooter Gennett, 2B, Grade B-: A very good hitter, needs to polish defense but could make a lot of noise in '11. Keep close track of him."

[pete]

Well, Keith Law is special.

[trwi7]

John Sickels, MinorLeagueBall --

 

Milwaukee Brewers Top 20 Prospects for 2015

 

Wow, Victor Roache was #2 last year

Brewers had 5 'B' grade prospects in 2014. For 2015, we have 9. That's some significant progress with our system.

 

Only one 'B' prospect dropped (Roache), while one graduated (Nelson). Two new guys (Harrison and Medeiros) got B grades, and a bunch of players improved. Again, that's nice progress.

 

Not to mention Lara who's listed as C+ and 14th on the list with Sickels saying he could move to #1 on the list after getting a chance to see him this year.

[TooLiveBrew]

Well, Keith Law is special.

Very true , but my point was that overall I think Sickels is pretty fair... at least enough to not warrant an 'adjustment-up' of the farm system's grade, like I'd apply to a Keith Law 'ranking'.

 

One of the reasons I tend to like Sickels is that he doesn't really go overboard in either his criticism or his praise of players... and he often includes both in his notes on a single player.

[Outlander]

Tom Haudricourt has his top ten prospects and will be chatting at 1:00 about them.

 

http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/2015-milwaukee-brewers-top-10-prospects/