BF.net Fan Community Top 25 Prospects - 2016 Post-Season Edition

[Outlander]

Just a heads up that John Sickels at Minor League Ball will be doing the Brewers rankings soon. He currently has the preliminary rankings for the Mets and is discussing the Orioles and after that it is the Brewers discussion and then rankings.

[reillymcshane]

Just a heads up that John Sickels at Minor League Ball will be doing the Brewers rankings soon. He currently has the preliminary rankings for the Mets and is discussing the Orioles and after that it is the Brewers discussion and then rankings.

Eric Longenhagen at Fangraphs should get to the Brewers soon as well. He's currently doing the NL Central - Pittsburgh and Cincy are done - so Milwaukee can't be far behind.

[And That]

I think I remember Keith Law saying his lists would be out at the end of January/beginning of February, so one more to add to the pile of things to look out for.

[sveumrules]

One thing I like about Longenhagen's lists at FG is that they aren't a fixed number; top 20, top 10, etc. The lists published thus far have ranged in size from Top 14 (Arizona) to Top 32 (San Diego) so it gives a little better idea as to the depth of the individual systems.

[A Swing and A Drive]

Here's an interesting read for fans of a rebuilding team...

 

http://prospects1500.com/top-50-lists/milwaukee-brewers-top-50-prospects-2017/

 

I think Steans is building a nice deep farm system, but it still lacks future star power IMHO.

 

We need to have a couple of nice drafts in the next few years.

 

Interestingly, it ranks the prospects in Tiers:

 

Tier 1: Players with high expectations of both making the majors and playing at an All-Star level for a number of years

Tier 2: Players with an above average expectation of making the majors and being a solid contributor

Tier 3: Players with an average expectation of making the majors and being a solid contributor

Tier 4: Players who have the potential of making the majors, or have high likelihood of making the majors but providing minimal impact (e.g. middle reliever, low-ceiling UT guys)

Tier 5: Players who are worth keeping an eye on, but likely to never make a team’s 40-man roster

 

Tier 1 Brewers=1 (Brinson)

Tier 2 Brewers=4 (Hader, Ray, IDiaz, Ortiz)

Tier 3 Brewers=6 (Clark, Bickford, Dubon, Erceg, Woodruff, Lopez)

 

Diplan and Phillips lead off the Tier 4 players.

 

Man, Phillips was considered a Tier 1 player by many at this time last year.

 

He still has a Tier 1 laugh however.

 

edit: I merged this post in from its own topic. - CheezWizHed

[Mass Haas]

Via RotoGraphs:

 

A Minor Review of 2016: Milwaukee Brewers

by Marc Hulet

[Mass Haas]

Just a heads up that John Sickels at Minor League Ball will be doing the Brewers rankings soon. He currently has the preliminary rankings for the Mets and is discussing the Orioles and after that it is the Brewers discussion and then rankings.

 

Sickels just posted the preliminary list of Brewers he's looking at, we'll have to review and post on his site to add others he should consider, or respond via Twitter to this tweet.

[Eye Black]

Just a heads up that John Sickels at Minor League Ball will be doing the Brewers rankings soon. He currently has the preliminary rankings for the Mets and is discussing the Orioles and after that it is the Brewers discussion and then rankings.

 

Sickels just posted the preliminary list of Brewers he's looking at, we'll have to review and post on his site to add others he should consider, or respond via Twitter to this tweet.

Sickels has now posted his Brewers Preliminary Prospect Grade Breakdown.

 

Zero prospects in the A/A- categories, but 12 total in the B+ to B- range. It is worth noting his final grades are subject to change slightly when released tomorrow.

[reillymcshane]

Just a heads up that John Sickels at Minor League Ball will be doing the Brewers rankings soon. He currently has the preliminary rankings for the Mets and is discussing the Orioles and after that it is the Brewers discussion and then rankings.

 

Sickels just posted the preliminary list of Brewers he's looking at, we'll have to review and post on his site to add others he should consider, or respond via Twitter to this tweet.

Sickels has now posted his Brewers Preliminary Prospect Grade Breakdown.

 

Zero prospects in the A/A- categories, but 12 total in the B+ to B- range. It is worth noting his final grades are subject to change slightly when released tomorrow.

As a note, here is a breakdown of Sickles prospects ratings by volume coming into 2016 (using his Top 175 list):

 

A : 8 (1-8)

A- : 17 (9-25)

B+ : 52 (26-77)

B : 67 (78-145)

 

The rest of the guys on his list were ranked as B-

[And That]

I'm a little surprised Brinson isn't an A-, as Sickles called him a B+/A- last year, ultimately landing on B+. It is pretty interesting to look at Sickles' stuff against the enthusiastic backdrop of the BPro folks. Sickles does rely more on number crunching than most, so perhaps he saw the lack of AA progress from Brinson and decided not to move him up.

[MadThinker88]

John Sickels is a well respected evaluator. I put him on par with Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus and a few others.

A club having like the Brewers 12 (or more) players out of 20 name listed at B- or higher is nothing to sneeze at.

For the sake of perspective this year: the Tribe has 14 in that range (#15 Santander was lost in the Rule 5 draft to Baltimore), the Yankees have 13, the Dodgers have 13, the Red Sox have 7 (post trades for Sale & Thornburg), the Rangers have 8, the Astros have 9 and the White Sox have 11 after the deals of Sale & Eaton. I was a little surprised to see Atlanta had all 20 listed at B- or better.

 

Since Sickles rates all teams in depth he is a good measuring stick across organizations. I was happy when in 2012 he started to rank the farm systems 1 to 30. It was another informed opinion to look at beside BA & BP. Last year he had the Brewers at #5. I can see the Brewers listed there again this year (especially since none of the Brewer top 12 had grades of A or A-).

 

I look forward to John's final system rankings for this year.

[Mass Haas]

AUDIO via WSSP 105.7 FM Sunday 1/15: The Hot Stove Weekly Show includes Baseball America Chief Editor John Manuel

 

The full show link is above, here's the Manuel interview as a stand-alone

[sveumrules]

Sickels has posted his Brewers top 20...

 

http://www.minorleagueball.com/2017/1/17/14297686/milwaukee-brewers-top-20-prospects-for-2017

 

Dubon at #5 probably the biggest surprise.

[And That]

Per his Fangraphs chat today, Eric Longenhagen will have the Brewers list after the Cubs list (which will be up in the next day or two). So probably early next week. He said about the Brewers, "That system is fun."

[And That]

As for Sickles, I've always used the following translation to go from his letters to the standard 20-80 scouting scale:

 

A: 70-80

A-: 65

B+: 60

B: 55

B-: 50

C+: 45

C: 40

 

Your mileage may vary, but that's what has usually seemed to line up with other prospect lists.

[Mass Haas]

Via MLB Pipeline: Josh Hader heads MLB Pipeline's list of the Top 10 LHP prospects in baseball

[reillymcshane]

People should look through the comments on the Sickels posting - he answers some specific questions, such as one on Ronnie Gideon:

 

I looked at Gideon and you could put him in the Cs. There’s some thump in the bat, but on the other hand he was an experienced college player in the Pioneer League, his strike zone judgment is questionable,and when I saw him play for Texas A&M I thought his swing was too long to work at higher levels. That said, sometimes those guys surprise you and he’s worth tracking, though right-handed hitting first basemen have a tough profile to live up to.

 

http://www.minorleagueball.com/2017/1/17/14297686/milwaukee-brewers-top-20-prospects-for-2017

[And That]

Gideon hit 7 of his 17 HRs (41%) to CF or RF - center/opposite field power often portends to continued success in hitting home runs.

 

Incidentally, one of the few Brewers minor leaguers with more than a couple of home runs and a higher COpHR% was Isan Diaz, at 60%. He hit 20 HRs, 3 to center and 9 to left.

[CheezWizHed]

Gideon hit 7 of his 17 HRs (41%) to CF or RF - center/opposite field power often portends to continued success in hitting home runs.

 

Incidentally, one of the few Brewers minor leaguers with more than a couple of home runs and a higher COpHR% was Isan Diaz, at 60%. He hit 20 HRs, 3 to center and 9 to left.

 

If his bat speed is ok, I would agree. Given that John mentioned a long swing, I would worry that he is simply late in getting the bat around, but big enough that it goes out anyway. But I suppose if Khrush Davis could do it...

[LouisEly]

7) Brandon Woodruff, RHP, Grade B: Age 23, 11th round pick in 2014 out of Mississippi State; breakthrough season in 2016 with 14-9, 2.68 ERA in 158 innings between High-A and Double-A, 173/40 K/BB, just 121 hits; huge increase in strikeout rate compared to past seasons; fastball reportedly ticked up from low-90s into mid-90s; command improved as well, mixes in average slider and change-up; often viewed as a reliever in the past but performed well enough to change that reputation in ’16; hasn’t received a lot of attention yet outside Brewers circles but that deserves to change. ETA late 2017.

 

Hell, he doesn't even get a lot of attention inside Brewers circles.

 

That''s a heck of a lot of C-grade players who last year were at low-A or rookie ball - 17 by my count - who have plenty of time to develop.

[Mass Haas]

Via MLB Pipeline: Nottingham #10 on the Catcher list

[nate82]

Not sure I would put Hader #1 but I guess he is there because of how close he is.

[And That]

Via MLB Pipeline: Nottingham #10 on the Catcher list

From the blurb on Nottingham:

 

"He's a slugger who's still figuring out the nuances of making consistent contact and cleaning up his defense."

 

I think his defense is slightly further away than "nuance" right now. He still needs to put in quite a bit of work into blocking pitches at the very least.

[And That]

Not surprisingly, the Brewers are not among the 20 worst farm systems in baseball according to Keith Law.

[MKE81]

Not sure I would put Hader #1 but I guess he is there because of how close he is.

Or because his WHIP, ERA, H9, K9 are all great combined with his stuff, age, level. His BB9 is good enough as well - around 3 past few years at A, A+, AA. Hader could just as well be ranked 1 in our system ahead of Brinson (should definitely be ahead of Ray)