Four Brewers in the Baseball Prospectus Top 101 Propects list

The Baseball Prospectus Top 101 Prospects list was released today on their website, so we now know that four Brewers inhabit the list. The list has actually been publicly available since Monday when the publisher of the 2016 BP Annual sent out an email blast with a link to download a PDF of the list, but we wanted to wait until it was up on their main site before we ran with the news. It's more confirmation of the huge step forward the organization has taken over the past year, as last year the Brewers had just one entrant on the BP 101: SS Orlando Arcia at 93.

Arcia jumps up 81 spots this year to #12, and he is the third ranked shortstop on the list behind the Dodgers' Corey Seager, who is #1 overall and hardly qualifies as a prospect since he'll be in the Dodgers' Opening Day lineup, and J.P Crawford of the Phillies, who is ranked fourth overall. Arcia, who has always been regarded as having plus defense and speed, had a breakout season at the plate and now projects to have a potential front of the lineup bat in addition to go along with his Gold Glove caliber defense.

OF Brett Phillips, the headliner of the Carlos Gomez/Mike Fiers trade with Houston in July, checks in at 61. RHP Jorge Lopez, who had a breakout season of his own with Double-A Biloxi, is the only Brewers pitcher on the list, coming in at 71. Rounding out the Brewers' portion of the list is OF Trent Clark, who just snuck in at 99. The 19-year-old was the Brewers top pick in the 2015 draft, selected 15th overall.

The National League Central is well represented on the list with the exception of the Cardinals, who place the division's only prospect in the top 10 -- RHP Alex Reyes -- but have no other prospects on the list. Reyes, who is still serving a 50-game suspension for violating the league's substance abuse policy after testing positive for marijuana, had his Arizona Fall League stint cut short and will miss 36 games of the 2016 season. Of course, the Cardinals' Devil Magic could turn a soggy piece of toast with a slingshot glued to it into a 3.2 WAR starting pitcher, so they don't necessarily need to worry about filling up the top prospects lists.

The Cubs lead the way for the NL Central with six players, headlined by SS Gleybar Torres at 41 and C Willson Contreras at 57. The Pirates have five, including RHP Tyler Glasnow at 11 and OF Austin Meadows at 22. The Reds match the Brewers with four prospects, led by #30 RHP Robert Stephenson -- no relation to the author of Treasure Island.