2017 Brew Crew Ball Community Top Prospects in Review: Primer

There are lots of top prospect projections by lots of organizations and individuals. Some are more valued by the national audience than others. The one that I value the most is the one that Brew Crew Ball community members produce each year, because we are more invested in a Brewers’ list, we pay attention to all of the various projections and ratings - and include those in our own ratings, and we just plain CARE about Brewers’ prospects (and actual Brewers) more than others.

That said, we are perhaps less objective in our ratings because we take into account team needs and individual biases rather than just the ability of the system’s players. As we learn over and over again, it is almost as difficult to project what the team will need in three years as it is to project how minor leaguers will perform in three years. And players that are good prospects have value beyond what they will do for the Milwaukee club.

I’ll review each 2017 ranking over the next two weeks; what we expected, what we hoped for, and what we got. We’ll look at the numbers those players put up and the whys and wherefores. Then, of course, we’ll repeat the whole process for our expectations for our 2018 prospects. Some of the 2017 prospects will disappear from the list because they are now major leaguers, some will disappear because current minor leaguers showed more development last year, there were additions from the 2017 draft that will replace them, or they played themselves off the list with their 2017 seasons.

Of course, players can play themselves back onto the list as well. Just like major leaguers - and as much as we like to expect linear development - development can happen at different times and in different ways. Poor numbers can mask other technical development that will show up in the future. We saw some good examples of that during the 2017 season, and will review it. League and ballpark variations can affect numbers more than actual development. This prospect thing is a very fluid situation.

Here is how we ranked our prospects last year:

1. Lewis Brinson
2. Josh Hader
3. Corey Ray
4. Luis Ortiz
5. Isan Diaz
6. Lucas Erseg
7. Brett Phillips
8. Trent Clark
9. Phil Bickford
10. Brandon Woodruff

The offseason means that there are no losses. We can assume a win in every signing, trade, promotion, demotion, extension, arbitration case, and on and on.