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You may recall that yesterday I posted to alert you to news that would perhaps be better known as "news:" ESPN was compiling a list of baseball's top 500 players for 2013 and had ranked four Brewers between 401-500.
They continued the project today with a look at players #301-400, and two members of the 2013 rotation are featured:
Mike Fiers, #360. Fiers' 2012 breakout campaign earned him a spot on this list slightly behind White Sox reliever Jesse Crain (#359) and ahead of Blue Jays catcher J.P. Arencibia. He's a full 50 spots behind Indians starter Ubaldo Jimenez, who posted a 5.40 ERA last season.
Marco Estrada, #375: This is the first Brewer on this list whose positioning I strongly disagree with. I know Estrada came out of relative obscurity a year ago but he also struck out better than nine batters per nine innings while walking less than two. If I had to pick between Estrada and Fiers right now, I'd take Estrada in a heartbeat. Being #375 puts him two spots behind Twins "catcher" Ryan Doumit (#373) and two ahead of Nationals catcher Kurt Suzuki, who via the magic of typos is listed as "Kurk."
Neither of these players were ranked a year ago.
Other former Brewers on this portion of the list include Lorenzo Cain at #363, Chris Capuano at #378 and Carlos Villanueva at 388. Former Brewer minor leaguer Tom Wilhelmsen is at #358.