This year we’ll be releasing our top 25 list in conjunction with the people over at Bernie’s Crew,
which means the list is going to posted somewhat out of order to match
up with what Jim has for his Top 25. An up-to-date list of the Between the Green Pillars Top 25 can be found at the bottom of the page.
Omar
Aguilar / RHP / 5’11” 220 LBS / Born 3/31/85
Before 2008, Omar Aguilar was an interesting hard thrower who struck guys out, but wasn’t keeping runs off the board. Like many pitchers before him, that turned around with a trip to the Florida State League, and by the end of the year, he had forced himself firmly into the Brewers long-term bullpen picture. Drafted out of college in the 30th round of the 2005 draft, he only threw 9 innings before 2007 as a result of missing time to Tommy John surgery. 2007 was something of an adjustment year for Aguilar; his numbers at West Virginia hardly suggested what was going to come in 2008.
Opening the season in Brevard, Aguilar dominated the competition in his 25 2/3 innings there. He held hitters to a .155 average, struck out 25 while walking 10. He allowed only one earned run which resulted in an ERA of 0.35. The walk rate is high there, but when he got the ball over the plate he was practically unhittable. Of course that sort of success preventing runs isn’t really something that can be sustained, especially with those walks.
After being promoted to AA Huntsville, Aguilar had a roller coaster second half. In 38 innings he still held hitters to a .191 batting average and his K rate actually ticked up a bit to just over a batter per inning. He also continued to walk batters (22) too often for a dominating late inning reliever. What really changed, though, was a new found propensity towards the gopher ball. After allowing none in the pitcher friendly parks and conditions of the FSL, he allowed 5 at Huntsville. His ERA in AA was a very misleading 3.08. Sure, he only allowed 13 earned runs, but he allowed another 11 unearned runs, which is logically a product of his putting so many runners on. When a defensive miscue happens with runners on, it’s going to hurt.
So what should we make of Aguilar? He throws in the high 90’s and has the ability to destroy hitters when he’s locating his stuff. When he’s off, he walks a bunch of guys and his strong flyball tendencies make him a blowup waiting to happen. Former Brewers bullpen coach and now pitching coach Bill Castro had success working with Mike Maddux to get hard throwing relievers like Aguilar to throw at 95% and improve their command enough to be effective for a time. If Aguilar can show enough improvement at AAA in 2009 and the team has a spot for him, they may want to consider giving that old gambit another shot. The potential for a dominating late inning performer is there, but Aguilar has some serious polishing he needs to do to the rough edges of his game.
Between the Green Pillars Top 25 Prospects:
# 25: Evan Frederickson
# 24: Cody Adams
#23: Alex Periard
#22: Brent Brewer
#21: Brad Nelson
#20: RJ Seidel
#19: Tim Dillard
# 18: Seth Lintz
# 17: Efrain Nieves
#16: Erik Komatsu
#15 Cody Scarpetta