Baseball America Top 100: Jimmy Nelson 96th

One of the final top 100 prospect lists of the spring is out this morning, and it's more of the same for Brewers fans. Baseball America has just one Brewer on their list: Jimmy Nelson at #96. This is another knock against a Brewer system that only got one player on MLB.com's top 100 list (also Nelson, at #83), was completely left off Baseball Prospectus' list and was ranked by Keith Law as the worst farm system in all of baseball.

Nelson made his big league debut as a September callup in 2013 after posting a 3.25 ERA over 27 starts in the minors between AA Huntsville and AAA Nashville. He struck out 9.6 batters per nine innings, a new best for a full season, and allowed just .2 home runs per nine innings over 15 starts in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.

As a Brewer Nelson appeared in four games (one start) and allowed just one run on two hits over ten innings. The Matt Garza signing probably knocked him out of contention to open the season in the Brewers' rotation, but he's likely to get a shot at some point. We recently selected him as the #1 prospect in the Brewers organization in our Community Prospect Rankings.

Nelson was the Brewers' second round pick (#64 overall) in the second round of the 2010 draft. He's one of nine players selected in that round to reach the majors.

For what it's worth, Nelson wasn't the only pitcher drafted by the Brewers to make the list: Rays prospect Jake Odorizzi is #67, making the list for the fourth consecutive year. The Brewers sent him to Kansas City in the Zack Greinke trade in late 2010, and he's since been moved again to Tampa.