FanPost

Getting Realistic about Position Player Prospects



2003 19 -2.7 Beloit MIDW A MIL 137 594 502 81 157 22 2 27 112 2 1 71 80 .313 .409 .526 .935 264 14 15 0 6 16
2004 20 -4.2 Huntsville SOUL AA MIL 135 577 497 70 135 29 1 23 78 11 7 65 93 .272 .366 .473 .839 235 11 11 0 4 6
2005 21 -6.3 Nashville PCL AAA MIL 103 441 378 68 110 21 0 28 86 8 5 54 93 .291 .388 .569 .957 215 12 7 0 2 4

and:

2006 22 -1.0 Brevard County FLOR A+ MIL 59 260 226 34 62 12 2 7 37 14 4 23 54 .274 .346 .438 .784 99 3 4 3 4 1
2006 22 -2.2 Huntsville SOUL AA MIL 59 257 231 42 70 19 1 15 40 12 0 21 46 .303 .367 .589 .956 136 6 3 1 1 1
2006 22 -1.2 Scottsdale AZFL Fal 25 106 92 19 30 9 1 6 25 4 0 11 23 .326 .396 .641 1.038 59 1 1 0 2 0
2007 23 -4.0 Nashville PCL AAA MIL 34 134 117 28 40 12 0 10 22 4 3 15 11 .342 .418 .701 1.119 82 1 1 0 1 0

According to the fine folks at Baseballreference.com these were the stats for Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun during their stays in the minor leagues. Recently there were some quotes about Brewer's minor league players playing up and thus there stats lines are not going to be as good. The reality is premium players play up and achieve premium statistics and the Brewers just don't seem to have any. This doesn't mean that the prospects that are not excelling won't make the majors. They may be serviceable players but not elite. In order to make a run in the playoffs, teams need a few elite bats. The Brewers don't seem to have those bats in the minors right now.

In fact we aren't even seeing Cory Hart or Rickie Weeks stats from the current crew of top position player prospects. Frankly, the prospects are underwhelming.

On the pitching side of things, it is more difficult to project. Pitching at Colorado Springs makes everything difficult to project. Hader may be a premium arm, he seemed like he could have been a future number one talent when he was pitching at Double A and he is maintaining the high strike out rate since his promotion but his WHIP and ERA are much worse.

The Brewers haven't produced a starting pitcher with elite potential since Ben Sheets so there isn't a great comparison available. Other than Hader, there isn't anyone else in the upper minors that is pitching like a future number one starter or even like a successful number two on a championship team. Of course pitchers can become great later ... just look at what Marco Estrada has been doing so far this year.

Rebuilding is tough. It is time to realize that there are essential pieces missing. Attaining as much potential talent as possible was a fine strategy considering how bare the cupboards were, at some point this team will have to acquire at least a couple elite prospects. Perhaps it is time to turn from quantity to quality. We will see if they team heeds this call when trading Lucroy. The Brewers need a future star that can deliver an OPS above .850 every year to anchor the lineup or else is won't matter how many minor leaguers have "potential."