Oof. Baseball America's "top organizations with 25 and under talent"

[adambr2]

This is why the Brewers need a major overhaul from top to bottom.

 

Disagree that the Brewers have a solid team in Milwaukee. They look like a team that will struggle to score runs and struggle to finish .500, and are a major injury or two away from a #1 overall draft pick in 2015 (which Melvin will be tempted to give away in order to sign a 30 something big name pitcher)

 

 

Mark Attanasio came out and talked about the process of signing Lohse(and Garza for that matter) and how in both cases, he was the one who brought it to Melvin. It was Attanasio who wanted to sign both. In the case of Lohse, Melvin was the one who was skeptical because of the loss of a 1st round pick. Not to mention of course if you have the 1st round pick, you can't "give it away," for any signing.

 

And I think they're a whole lot more than ONE injury away from being a 55-60 win team.

 

Frankly when this is your track record in the first round:

 

Matt Laporta - Bust. Used to rent CC.

Brett Lawrie - Probably just an average MLB player, used to rent Marcum.

Jake Odorizzi - Used to rent Greinke, then get Segura.

Evan Frederickson - Who?

Eric Arnett - Bust, already gone.

Kentrail Davis - Has managed to crack AA and put together a .754 OPS after 5 years in the minors.

Kyle Heckathorn - Probably the last option out of the bullpen in Nashville.

Dylan Covey - After turning down $1.6M to sign with us, ended up drafted by Oakland in the 4th round two years later.

Taylor Jungmann - Coming along slow posting a 4.33 ERA in Huntsville last year.

Jed Bradley - Still middling in High A.

Clint Coulter - Still developing with some upside but so far has been overmatched at every level above rookie ball.

Victor Roache - In High A, hit .248 and OPS'ed .762 in Appleton last year.

Mitch Haniger - After a nice season in Appleton, didn't show much in High A last year.

 

losing a 1st round pick is a pretty negligible detail. Sad, but true. I was against the Lohse signing simply for that reason, but frankly, with Seid's track record, the missed pick at #17 or whatever it was had a low chance of ever becoming a productive MLB player anyway.

 

Obviously, grading a scouting director on 1st round picks alone is arbitrary, but the fact of the matter is that the first round picks in this system since Jack Z left have simply not panned out (with the jury still out on the picks from the last couple years.

[Fear The Chorizo]

In regards to 1st round pick misses, it goes back to something I posted earlier this year on a similar thread - every year a team's 1st round pick, regardless of their draft position within that round, is likely that organization's highest-rated player remaining on their draft board. Their selection is the guy who they feel has the best chance at becoming an impact player at the MLB level.

 

Sure, teams find impact talent in later rounds of each draft, but some of the signing bonus/slot stuff that has caused talented players to be passed over in years past has ended, or at least evened out the draft playing field somewhat. IMO, if a team's scouting/management can't consistently draft guys capable of producing at the big league level with their 1st pick, there's no reason to expect them to find quality prospects on draft picks in later rounds using their methods to evaluate amateur talent. The sheer quantity of draft picks each year gives any organization odds to find a good player here and there just by dumb luck. The good drafting organizations get production out of their 1st round picks, and the rest of their developmental prospects fall in line behind them in the rankings.

 

Honestly, the Brewers current prospect list looks like what many of the better organizations' systems would look like if you took their last five 1st-round picks off their list.

[logan82]

Honestly, the Brewers current prospect list looks like what many of the better organizations' systems would look like if you took their last five 1st-round picks off their list.

Which is why our system is so bad. Everybody has guys like we do. What separates a good system from a bad is star talent.

[Fear The Chorizo]

Which is why our system is so bad. Everybody has guys like we do. What separates a good system from a bad is star talent.

 

exactly - I'm not saying it's a good thing that many recent Brewer 1st rounders project to be anything but quality MLB players.

[adambr2]

Ryan Braun was our last "star talent" in the minor league system. And it's been 7 years since that.

 

Prince Fielder was one. Rickie Weeks was one too, even though he didn't turn out to be a star.

 

The Scooter Gennetts and Logan Schafers of the world, with apologies to them, are a dime a dozen. Every team has them. They fill a hole for cheap to free up salary to use on other parts of the team, and that's about their best purpose.