Milwaukee Brewers prospect Jorge Lopez has been dominant in Winter Ball

Jorge Lopez had a rough 2016. After coming into the year a Top-100 prospect on just about any preseason list you could find, Lopez became a victim of Colorado Springs. With the altitude flattening out his curveball, he was hit hard for 12 home runs in 17 games (16 starts) and lost all control -- and confidence -- with 55 walks in 79.1 innings.

He started to get that confidence back by the end of the year after a demotion back to AA Biloxi, though, and as Adam McCalvy recently noted, Lopez's season didn't end there. He volunteered to go to fall instructionals, and since then he's been tearing it up in Puerto Rico.

Brewers farm director Tom Flanagan told McCalvy the stint in instructs ironed out some of the issues Lopez developed on the mound in the past year:

"He attended that program for two weeks and was committed to solidifying some issues with his delivery and working on some things that he had gotten away from. But he is in a very good place now."

Pitching for Mayaguez in Puerto Rico, Lopez led the Liga de Beisbol Profesional Roberto Clemente in WHIP over 9 starts (0.87) and had the second-lowest ERA in the league (1.56). Now the league is into its postseason, and Lopez put together another scoreless outing on Tuesday, throwing 5 shutout innings with just one hit and one walk allowed to go with 6 strikeouts.

It's worth noting the league isn't the most offensively-friendly environment, but it's still good to see him pitching well after such a rough year. David Stearns told McCalvy the club thinks it's a combination of adjustments, confidence and environment leading to his newfound success.

As McCalvy notes, Flanagan and David Stearns will have an interesting decision to make once the 2017 season starts -- do they send him back to Biloxi, where he's been dominant for a year and a half, or do they roll the dice on sending him back to Colorado Springs?

Statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference