Brewers Farm System Rated #1

[splitterpfj]

Jim Callis says the trades have pushed the Brewers to the top.

 

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/193317666/midseason-ranking-of-mlbs-top-10-farm-systems/?topicid=151437456

[homer]

As good as Brewers system is now it will be better next year after the off season trades and a few guys get healthy (Kirby, Williams, Harrison, Clark etc. assuming they return to form). Granted losing Arcia's prospect status will hurt quite a bit.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Jim Callis says the trades have pushed the Brewers to the top.

 

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/193317666/midseason-ranking-of-mlbs-top-10-farm-systems/?topicid=151437456

 

 

 

 

Haha, but seriously. I know to some people having a good farm means squat.... but this is like "step one" of getting the club back to being competitive, and keeping the farm system consistently in the top 10 is another part of keeping a steady pipeline of talent coming into the bigs. Now let's see some of these guys start to show up and produce at the big league level.

[MillerParkSouth]

I know rankings like this are somewhat arbitrary, but this makes me very, very happy.

[Madhawk23]

Yeah, this is a huge step for this franchise. I mean, who could have predicted this just 2-3 years ago when we had what was widely regarded as one of the worst farm systems in baseball. Kudos to Melvin, Stearns and their staff's for making great moves over these past two years that have gotten us to this point. Now, we need to continue to make smart moves/draft picks so that we can stay in the Top 10 and keep the pipeline open as we start to promote some of these guys to the big leagues over the next couple of years.

[homer]

I know rankings like this are somewhat arbitrary, but this makes me very, very happy.

 

Yeah I mean the difference between 1 and 5 is probably minimal but the difference between 1 and 10 - 15 is pretty big deal. I'd be curious how the various rankings correspond to future success? I know BA used to do a five year prediction model. Wonder how accurate they are?

[And That]

It's not arbitrary if we're #1. In that case, it's pure, objective, unadulterated #1.

 

Once we go back to not #1, it's arbitrary.

[JimH5]

It's great to see praise about the system, but why am I suspect about it when so many top players are not performing like top players?

 

Skills and tools have to equate to impressive stat lines and team wins. Right?

[FVBrewerFan]

It's great to see praise about the system, but why am I suspect about it when so many top players are not performing like top players?

 

Skills and tools have to equate to impressive stat lines and team wins. Right?

 

That's what is really interesting to me. We have the #1 system, but if you go down the Top 10 list (or even Top 25), very few of those guys are having great seasons. I'm not saying that means they're not worthy of this honor, as a lot of those guys have aggressive placements this season.

[Noche]

I think second half splits will be a big deal. Aggressive placements suggest slow starts.

 

If you want to feel better, take a look at what the 2016 draft class is doing thus far. Though I wish they could have found room for Ray in WI. Move him up when Harrison returns. Ray's August numbers will be interesting.

[Roderick]

I think second half splits will be a big deal. Aggressive placements suggest slow starts.

.

 

That is just it. Many of these guys aren't improving from the first half or are getting worse. At least it seemed like it when I was putting my top 25 list together. When you punch in the splits button, guys like Nottingham and Phillips are freefalling for second half splits.

[Noche]

I think second half splits will be a big deal. Aggressive placements suggest slow starts.

.

 

That is just it. Many of these guys aren't improving from the first half or are getting worse. At least it seemed like it when I was putting my top 25 list together. When you punch in the splits button, guys like Nottingham and Phillips are freefalling for second half splits.

 

It's not over yet but I'm not going to deny Phillips and Nottingham are struggling. I had them at 5 and 4 in my preseason top 25 but they will be moving down. That doesn't mean their future outlook is trending down significantly. Phillips was clearly hitting and hitting very well. .900+ OPS in May. He took 18 walks in July despite not getting many hits. Something is up but let's not pretend there hasn't been plenty of success for him this season.

 

Nottingham is very young for the league and reports on his defense have been improving if not still mixed. There is no rush for him but I certainly agree it would be easier to dream on him if he could have a big month.

 

If you want to find some more silver lining, check out Orimoloye's walk rate this year. He's learning.

[pogokat]

David Stearns has been gm for 1 year. Another year of prospect pickups like this, and we could compete with the cubs.

 

i love that he just gets good players with no concerns about building a well rounded team---that will come. the only way to get superstars is just to pack as many high level prospects as possible in. The Brewers must develop superstars bc they can't get them long term any other way.

[TigerUppercut]

David Stearns has been gm for 1 year. Another year of prospect pickups like this, and we could compete with the cubs.

 

i love that he just gets good players with no concerns about building a well rounded team---that will come. the only way to get superstars is just to pack as many high level prospects as possible in. The Brewers must develop superstars bc they can't get them long term any other way.

 

I actually think this is mostly true of pretty much every team, small market and large. Superstars just don't seem to maintain superstar status in the "post-PED era" after they hit free agency, at least not like they used to. I'm not sure if there is evidence to the contrary, but the eye test seems to be telling me that alot of guys are now falling off significantly once they hit 30. Get them up, get what you can out of them and move on.

[splitterpfj]

When I was a kid, they used to say a player's peak season were age 26-32, maybe that's what we're back to.

[502 to Right]

That's some great stuff.

[DR28]

Awesome read!

 

Our future is very bright! Can't wait!

[igor67]

It would seem that we are going to be highly rated for at least another year, given the large number of well thought of players I don't think Arcia graduating actually makes a big impact on how people feel about the system. In fact if he plays reasonably well it might even enhance the feeling about the other players. On that front having climbed to the top of the mountain it isn't necessary for lots of guys to do well in the short term, it seems a lot more like those rating the prospects just need a couple of flashy guys at the top to help maintain everyone else. So if Brinson has a good end of the season along with 1 or 2 other guys from the top 10 that is probably enough helium to avoid too much talk of guys underperforming, for awhile.

[MadThinker88]

It's great to see praise about the system, but why am I suspect about it when so many top players are not performing like top players?

 

Skills and tools have to equate to impressive stat lines and team wins. Right?

 

You would hope it does. Developing talent is the main role of the minor league teams. Developing a culture of winning plays into that.

 

Sadly, this season the full season affiliates are not doing well as a collective. 3 clubs around a .500 record and a train wreck (sub .380) in high A...

[DougJonesChangeUp]

Do we need a player development make over as far as coaches in our minor league system? Or is this kind of kind of erratic performance every system goes through?

 

I can understand the Co Springs predicament with our pitchers, but it seems our prospects are pretty erratic in their hitting numbers.

[RobertR]

The one thing that makes me pause is the lack of a superstar / ace. Teams have won championships without one though.

[3and2Fastball]

very very happy to read that

 

so good to see..... I like that the talent level is spread out from Rookie Ball through AAA, so we will start to see some of these guys (Brinson in particular) as soon as next year

[JohnBriggs12]

Now that they've reached the pinnacle, one would hope future deals can focus on both future and current team needs and not just prospects in return. The building of the farm system is phase one.

[RobDeer 45]

This was great to read. I too agree, that pitching will be key, but hopefully that part of the puzzle will be figured out soon.

[tmwiese55]

For the most part I'd say primary focus has to be acquiring as much pitching as possible at this point. good start with the two this week, but keep them coming in any future deals/drafts. Developing all of 1 pitcher during our last rebuild ended up being the overall downfall, if there was a steady pipeline of pitching the last several years they'd have been able to keep being competitive for a long time instead of just a few year window. And of course wouldn't have had to do the Lohse/Garza/Wolf type deals. As others mentioned elsewhere today a re-org of pitching development in the minors seems well overdue.