Milwaukee Brewers Top Prospects 2014

Here is my list of top prospects at each position (a 25 man roster) based only on 2013 hitting and pitching stats (I haven't seen them play) for the Milwaukee Brewers.

1B  Of course the obvious are Morris and Rogers but their Batting averages just aren't that exciting. I think it is another year in the minors for each which will be interesting because Rogers needs to be at AAA where Morris is. I predict a trade or a position change. Therefore my pick for top 1B prospect is
        21y/o  Adam Giacalone  L/R  .336/.429/.874 at Helena. Doesn't strike out much. Needs to get stronger.
        I am still hoping Mat Gamel will have an injury free season in 2014 and be our 1B for the future

2B  Scooter is here to stay so who cares. However,

        Eugenio Velez. .377/.437/.960 . OK it is hard to consider a 31 y/o career minor leaguer a prospect, but with this kind of year at AAA, this switch hitter certainly deserves another chance and a September call up which we wont do because we want to keep guys like Figaro, Gonzalez, Francisco, Betancourt, Maldonado, Bianchi  on our 40 man!

SS  Segura is our guy for the future but just in case we can't sign him long term, I'm going to give you 2 who are a distance away. Besides, with a 25 man team, I need to give you a utility fielder so one of these guys fits the bill.

        Gregory Munoz  19y/o LH .292/.376/.738 in his 1st year in professional ball leading our Dominican team in hitting

         Steven Halcomb 23 y/o RH  .317/.406/.760 in his first professional year drafted out of Gonzaga playing with the Arizona rookie team

3B   Nathan Orf 23y/o RH  .313/.452/.872 in his 1st year drafted from Baylor playing in Helena. What can you say about a .452 OBP? Most people don't do that in softball.

 C    I'm going to give you two because all teams carry at least 2 catchers

    Robinson Diaz - OK, once again it is hard to consider a 30 y/o a prospect but with a .328/.375/.833 at AAA he certainly should be up in September replacing the highly overrated  Maldonado being outhit by most of our pitchers.

    Clint  Coulter - 20 y/o RH   .350/.409/ 1.026 in Arizona . Unfortunately, he has been my biggest disappointment of the year because he has failed in Wisconsin and Helena and I'm wondering if he can make the jump

OF   Because of injuries and suspensions, we have depleted our upper level prospects bringing up Gindl and Schaefer well before their time of never. Khris Davis shows promise but runs hot and cold too much. So here are my 5 prospects who admittedly are a distance away.

    Michael Ratteree  22y/o RH 1st year at Helena  .327/.405/1.013  This is my position player prospect of the year. I hope he moves up quickly.

    Omar Garcia 20y/o RH 1st year in Helena .316/.433/ .780   Needs to get more power but hard to argue with a .433 OBP

     Elvis Rubio  19y/o RH in Arizona from DSL  .314/.386/.867

     D'Vontrey Richardson 25y/o RH in Brevard  .325/.372/.778  Admittedly this guy isn't anywhere on the Brewers radar screen so watch for him to be unprotected and have another team steal him. The closest hitter to him on BRV hit .258! Either BRV was terrible or it was a pitching rich league. Either way, he deserves attention and I hope the Brewers have him move quickly at the age of 25.

    Take your pick for #5 - Tyrone Taylor, Mitch Haniger, or Victor Roache. I'm not as sold on them as the Brewers because Doug Melvin overvalues HR's and MPH and lets contact hitters and finesse pitchers languish in the minors for years. Mitch had a great AFL campaign so he is moving up on my radar.

 P  Starters

     Jimmy Nelson -  24y/o RH  3.25 ERA HVL and Nashville  152 innings 163K. Only fear - a fair number of walks. Batters hit .241 against him

     Johnny Hellwig - 24 y/o RH 3.15 ERA   12-5 on a terrible AAA team. Fear - didn't make the major league transition well and loses his release point frequently because of his height.

     Austin Blaski - 23 y/o RH 2.01 ERA hitters batted .207 against him at A ball

    Tyler Wagner - 22 y/o RH  3.21 ERA 116 K at A ball

     Tyler Cravy - 24 y/o RH  2.04 ERA hitters batted .207 against him in high A

      Long relievers/starters

       Clint Terry LH  21 y/o LH 1.54 ERA  .99WHIP  hitters hit .211 against him

       Tristan Archer  RH 22 y/o 3.16 ERA in Helena (a hitter friendly park) but the most impressive thing - 3 walks in 37 innings!!

       Short relievers

    Tyler Spurlin  22 y/o RH .90 ERA  .90 WHIP 2 walks in 23 innings in Arizona. MOVE HIM UP

    Hobbs Johnson 22 y/o LH .86 ERA 21IP  4BB 32 k  in A ball. MOVE HIM UP

    Tyler Alexander  21 y/o LH at Helena 1.88 ERA 14IP 3BB 25K.  MOVE HIM UP

    Now for my 2 pet peeves. How bad has our bullpen been this year in the majors? In the last homestand we lost 7 games in a row due to relief . Yet - maybe because these guys are under 6 foot and don't light up the radar gun, Doug Melvin has forgotten about them.

     Jesus Sanchez 25 y/o RH 2.83 ERA Nashville who has dominated AA last year and AAA this year gets picked over by Figaro, Badenpop, Gonzalez. Hand??? Come on Doug. Bring him up NOW! Addendum - dropped from 40 man. Watch us lose him like Mat Gamel.

     Eric Marzec  25 y/o RH at HVL all year. This guy has dominated at every level yet isn't getting moved up in a pitching poor farm system.  6-0 1.95 ERA.

As you can see, most of our prospects are a few years away thanks to very poor drafting. Maybe it is time for a complete overhaul of our scouting dept. because I would say the Brewers have one of the, if not the worst farm system in all of baseball.