What prospect did you 'miss' on?

[Eye Black]

I forgot one, back in 2011 I was pretty certain Taylor Green was going to become a major league regular.

[JimH5]

Randy Ready..Ernest Riles..Bill Spiers..Joey Meyer..Billy Jo Robidoux..Glenn Braggs..Marc Newfield..JM Gold..Nick Neugebauer..Cristian Guerrero..Cutter Dykstra..David Krynzel..Jon Steitz..Jeff D'Amico..Mark Rogers..

 

Now I expect all the pitchers to be flameouts (sorry, Kodi) and if they actually make it and produce, I'm pleasantly surprised. I'll start to get excited if a hitter makes an impact in AA.

 

In truth, this is a thread on what prospect "I" missed on, and I don't have enough knowledge to scout on my own. I just look at where they were drafted, what the national writers say, what their stats say, what the Brewers writers say, and what I hope for. And most of it is what I hope for.

 

And more often than not, they don't really pan out. I'm sure they're talented and hard working. But the Brewers' prospects have teased me too many times to get worked up.

[Crash2303]

there are certainly some older nationally ranked prospects who never reached their potential- in addition to the already mentioned Meyer, Surhoff, & Billy Jo, there was Glenn Braggs (incredible minor league numbers), Tyrone Hill (super hyped BA prospect), Narcisco Elvira, Jamie Cocanower, Mike Birbeck, Duane Singleton, Angel Miranda, Valerio De Los Santos.

 

Here are some others that never reached the hope we all had for them for various reasons:

* Nick Neugebauer- I thought he was going to be better than Sheets (injuries cut him short)- I was so excited how he started out in 2001 in AAA (as a 20 year old!)

 

* Rickie Weeks & Brett Lawrie- thought for sure Lawrie'd be the next Ryan Braun. Every year, I say this is the year Rickie breaks out (recalling those scouting reports of gary Sheffield comparisons and uber fast batspeed). this year was no exception, and no exception to the disappointment.

 

* Jeff D'Amico & Cal Eldred- both had injuries plague them, but when Eldred went 11-2 as a rookie- I think we all thought he was going to be a future ace

 

* Brad Nelson & Hunter Morris & (Kevin Barker)- I still remember one of those scouting reports on Nelson with his "barrel size chest". both had a great year in AA that made me a believer

 

* Laporta & Gamel - even without the injuries to Gamel, not sure he would have been more than a AAAA player like Laporta

 

* Jose Capellan & Jorge De La Rosa & (Ben Diggins)- La Rosa ended up turning it around w/ Colorado of all places, but I was so excited when we picked these highly ranked guys up in trades

 

* Ben Hendrickson & Manny Parra - I thought both would be great mid-rotation starters for years to come

 

* Jungmann & Bradley & (Thornburg & Burgos)- verdicts still out I guess. I loved Thornburg from day 1- especially those scouting reports likening him to Tim Lincecum. Burgos' WBC was awesome- seeing him match up against all-stars- hopefully he can still harness that awesomeness for the Crew one day.

 

* JM Gold, Eric Arnett, Mike Jones, Mark Rogers & Antoine Williamson - all 1st round picks- I always had them penciled in, in my future Brewer rosters I'd create. what a let down that none of them were ever penciled in for the real thing

 

* Zach Braddock & Angel Salome - maybe not stars, but both had me really excited at different points. always believed Salome would be able to hit .300 in the show, and Braddock's K-rate was awesome to see in the boxscores. both sort of went AWOL.

 

* Cristian Guerrero, Raul Mondesi, Cutter Dykstra, & Tony Gwynn, Jr - never really bought in that they'd be stars, but was still disappointed that these sons of allstars didn't do more

 

* Jose Mieses & Jose Garcia- both pitchers didn't receive national attention, but both put up good numbers- was really hoping they'd turn out, and was always curious if that infamous Mieses palm ball would translate to success at the MLB level and equally disappointed that we never got to see the answer, because injuries took them both out.

 

* Taylor Green, Caleb Gindl, Jeff Bianchi, Logan Schafer, Dave Krynzel, Sean Halton, Shawn Zarraga, Josh Prince, Kentrail Davis, Cody Scarpetta, Nick Bucci - 2nd tier prospects who I thought "for sure" would have been solid MLB contributors/bench guys at worst...and probably best too.

 

* Yohannis Perez, Rolando Pascual, & Jose Garcia (OF) - some latin American players that never reached the level that their signing bonus hinted that they would reach. especially for Perez, who pulled a Wang and sat in Milwaukee for a season, thought for sure he'd be there again in a couple years.

[BallFour]

I thought Mat Gamel was going to be a great and he was going to give us much needed left handed pop at 3b.

[remfire]

* Yohannis Perez, Rolando Pascual, & Jose Garcia (OF) - some latin American players that never reached the level that their signing bonus hinted that they would reach. especially for Perez, who pulled a Wang and sat in Milwaukee for a season, thought for sure he'd be there again in a couple years.

 

Are you thinking of Enrique Cruz? Never remember Yohannis Perez on our bench, let alone for a year.

[logan82]

Mat Gamel for sure. Thought Green would be good too.

 

What about Lou Palmisano?

[Baldkin]

Mat Gamel. I thought he was gonna rake.

 

For no real reason, I loved Zach Jackson. His odd delivery always made me think he could put it together.

[GAME05]

It's Nick Neugebauer for me, too. I followed him pretty closely. He'd struggle for that half-season after a minor-league promotion, then the next year would be light's out. Really sad he got injured because I fully expected him to be All-Star material.

[paul253]

In no particular order:

 

1) Mark Rogers

2) Mike Jones

3) Dana Eveland

4) Angel Salome

5) Lou Palmisano

6) Brad Nelson

7) Logan Schafer

8) David Krynzel

9) Nick Neugebauer

10) Ben Hendrickson

[NievesNoNO]

Most I've seen mentioned already but:

 

Nick Neugebauer and Will Inman come to mind. For a pitching starved organization I always get excited for the young arms. I thought those two would be pretty dynamic.

 

Outside the organization I really liked Trevor Cahill when he was coming up with the A's. I badly wanted the Brewers to somehow trade for him.

[remfire]

It's Nick Neugebauer for me, too. I followed him pretty closely. He'd struggle for that half-season after a minor-league promotion, then the next year would be light's out. Really sad he got injured because I fully expected him to be All-Star material.

 

I understand there's coulda, woulda, shouldas littered up and down this post and that injuries happen but Neugey is still only 34 years old. It would most likely not be for the Brewers anymore, but he could still be pitching. He would have looked great on the 2008 piching staff at 28 years old, and 31 in 2011. He'd have most likely been at the tail-end of his prime. I would have loved to see him on the mound instead of Suppan and Marcum.

[TheCrew07]

Wow great thread. For me there were a ton of hard lessons, almost all pitching the side.

 

Pitching wise is no particular order other than how they came to mind:

Ben Hendrickson

Manny Parra

Kyle Heckathorn

Eric Arnett

Dana Eveland

Zach Braddock

Will Inman

 

Hitting wise there were really only 2:

Mat Gamel

Angel Salome

 

I am surprised that Matt LaPorta hasn't managed to stick at the MLB level but he had a blog which turned me off of him before he was even traded to Cleveland.

 

Edit. I guess it would be fair to throw Taylor Green in there as a 3B, I thought he would be a nice stop gap player once Gamel was gone.

[danzig6767]

Glenn Braggs

 

Had great stats in the minors and looked like this when he came up, during a time where players building up their bodies wasn't very common. Thought he'd be a mashing beast.

 

http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/1805791/BraggsGlenn90.JPG

[AKCheesehead]

Steve Woodard.

 

I eagerly anticipated him getting the callup. Finally, in his MLB debut vs Toronto he gave up a leadoff double. At the end of the game, his line was 8ip, 1h, 1bb, 12k in a victory over Roger Clemens. Nowhere to go but down from there.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Steve Woodard.

 

I eagerly anticipated him getting the callup. Finally, in his MLB debut vs Toronto he gave up a leadoff double. At the end of the game, his line was 8ip, 1h, 1bb, 12k in a victory over Roger Clemens. Nowhere to go but down from there.

 

 

I remember listening to that game!

 

It's funny. Brewerfan posters think we're the only team that gets shut down by unheralded guys making their MLB debuts. Woodard matched Clemens pitch for pitch that day, and pitched an absolute gem. Too bad he was never anything more than about a league average guy after that.

[Kelbysdaddy]

I missed on Hunter Morris in a big bad way. I picked up at least 15 autographed cards and 8 game used cards of him, as well as a signed bat. I figured he'd be taking over for Prince and be the next Mark teixeira.

[AKCheesehead]

I remember listening to that game!

 

It's funny. Brewerfan posters think we're the only team that gets shut down by unheralded guys making their MLB debuts. Woodard matched Clemens pitch for pitch that day, and pitched an absolute gem. Too bad he was never anything more than about a league average guy after that.

 

I listened to it too. After Woodard was pulled I had this sickening feeling Fetters was going to blow it for him. Big sigh of relief when he did not.

 

Milwaukee does seem to have a tradition of making a new guy opposing pitcher look like Dwight Gooden 1985.

[SomewhereInTime]

Hunter Morris

 

I really thought he would develop into the first baseman of the future.

[splitterpfj]

The one that hurt the most, and it wasnt so much a miss, as just never was what we had hoped was BJ Surhoff.

 

A really likable guy, hard worker, good person. One of my favorite Brewers. Had all the tools but it never really happened. Then look at the 85 draft.

 

I talked to Dan Duquette about this one about five years ago, Dan was working for the Brewers at the time Milwaukee took Surhoff. He told me Surhoff's agent really wanted to have the top pick that year, so he made a deal with the Brewers to get that done. Basically, BJ was a little bit cheaper than some of the other guys who were available - the Brewers liked Surhoff plenty, but money tipped the scales and made him the top pick.

[Boomer5]

The one that hurt the most, and it wasnt so much a miss, as just never was what we had hoped was BJ Surhoff.

 

A really likable guy, hard worker, good person. One of my favorite Brewers. Had all the tools but it never really happened. Then look at the 85 draft.

 

I talked to Dan Duquette about this one about five years ago, Dan was working for the Brewers at the time Milwaukee took Surhoff. He told me Surhoff's agent really wanted to have the top pick that year, so he made a deal with the Brewers to get that done. Basically, BJ was a little bit cheaper than some of the other guys who were available - the Brewers liked Surhoff plenty, but money tipped the scales and made him the top pick.

 

I believe that. I remember that draft quite well. I recall Harry Dalton admitting BJ was a bit of a surprise but he kept mentioning how they loved is make up and how difficult it was to land a quality catcher.

 

At the time, Will Clark, Witt, Larkin, and Bonds were the names at 1, so Surhoff was a surprise, though he was definitely a top 10 guy.

[Boomer5]

 

Then, there is this list:

 

http://www.baseball-reference.com/draft/?draft_type=junreg&query_type=year_round&draft_round=1&year_ID=1985

 

Oh, man.

 

I missed on...Gary Sheffield. As in, "I missed his being here''....because as soon as he left Milwaukee, he chased the Triple Crown in San Diego.

 

He was a horse's ----, but he could hit. Oh boy, could he hit.

 

Sheffield has to be among anyone's top 5 Brewers bad memories. They guy was a mega talent from day one and had no desire to play here.

[FVBrewerFan]

Every time I see a thread like this I almost cry reading the names of all the pitchers who flamed out- mostly due to injury. There's got to be 30 of them in the last 20 years or so that looked like rotation pitchers, and many of those with the stuff to be top of the rotation guys. What a shame.

[pogokat]

when will inman was traded for a middle reliever, i was ticked. i thought they had traded away the next yovani. i was wrong.

[SRB]

I was a Manny Parra holdout for a long time on the grounds that he was just getting unlucky and he was going to breakout into at least a mid-rotation starter.

 

(On the flip side, I'm proud to have been one of the few -- yes, few! -- vocal Carlos Gomez supporters during his mediocre years )

[Jenkins5]

Mark Rogers. Just never could stay healthy.

 

Ditto for Mike Jones who at 20 was one of the most dominant pitchers in AA before his arm just have up on him...