Waving Goodbye To Eric Farris

For the second straight year, if you blinked you might have missed Eric Farris' brief stint on the major league roster. Farris was with the team exactly one day in 2011, joining the 25 man roster on July 28 when Rickie Weeks went on the DL but being sent down the next day in favor of veteran warm body Felipe Lopez. He made his major league debut that day, grounding out in a seventh inning pinch hit appearance that I missed because Cub fans in front of me couldn't sit down.

Farris' story in 2012 is similar. He was called up Friday night when Alex Gonzalez left the team to be present for the birth of his son, and was sent back to Nashville yesterday so Gonzalez can rejoin the team today. Cesar Izturis made both starts at shortstop in Gonzalez's place and played all eighteen innings, so Farris didn't even get into a game this time.

Farris was a fourth round pick in 2007 and his prospect status probably peaked in 2010, when he reached AAA for the first time and followed it up with an impressive run in the Arizona Fall League. We ranked him as the Brewers #13 prospect in our 2011 Community Prospect Rankings. Unfortunately, things have turned down a bit for him since then. In 144 combined AAA games between 2011 and 2012 Farris is hitting just .265/.314/.360. Stolen bases were his calling card in the lower levels of the minors (he stole 70 for Brevard County in 2009), but he's managed just 23 steals since Opening Day 2011.

Farris' status is also hurt by his position: 453 of his 493 games in the minors have come at second base, where the Brewers are covered for a long time with Rickie Weeks and have a top prospect in Scooter Gennett. The team has tried to convert him to shortstop but he's played just 37 professional games there and had a rough time at the position in limited game action this spring.

The fact that the Brewers have chosen to play Felipe Lopez and Cesar Izturis instead of Farris at times over the last two seasons probably tells us that they're not high on him at this point. Hopefully he'll turn things around and end up back in the majors someday, but if he doesn't he could be one of just three position players ever to make just one plate appearance in their Brewer career: