Since we've got a few days off with no Brewers baseball, it's a good time to look at the farm. I tracked down a few of the preseason prospect lists to see what the conventional wisdom last winter:
Goldstein's and BA's are almost identical, and the top five are pretty much in line with Sickels, too. It was pretty obvious that Gallardo and Braun were the guys, followed by Inman and Jeffress. After that were a lot of question marks, emphasized by the focus on Lorenzo Cain, who hasn't made much improvement this year. You can also see all of these guys not really knowing what to do with Mark Rogers, which is understandable.So, what's changed? Obviously we've got a new crop of prospects, highlighted by Matt LaPorta, who probably goes right into the top five, especially since Braun and Gallardo are off the books. Manny Parra has rocketed back into contention (props to Sickels for putting him in the top ten) while Steve Hammond hasn't built on last year's gains. Sickels's summary rings all the more true now that Braun and Yovani are in the bigs:
The arms are still intriguing: Rogers is young enough he could still come back and turn into something, as evidenced by Manny Parra, who has taken a similarly circuitous career path and is close to Milwaukee. Will Inman is suddenly on shaky ground as he struggles to adapt to Double-A, but Jeffress is starting to put up some numbers that support his super-stud tools.
What do you think? What should the prospect top ten look like this coming offseason? Who do you think has been the biggest surprise/disappointment? Anybody you'd like to see break out in the second half, perhaps like Braun did after his mid-season promotion last year?