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.

Mat Gamel / 3B / 6’0” 195 LBS / 7/26/85

It is fitting that a player like Mat Gamel would end up number one in the Brewer’s system this year. He represents perfectly the strengths and weaknesses of the Jack Zduriencik era of drafting players. Gamel is an advanced hitter who is going to hit at the major league level. He also has significant problems fielding the position that the Brewers have decided (thus far, anyway) to play him. While the positional questions create doubts about just how valuable his bat will be at the major leagues, there is no question that he is going to be a solid big league hitter, and he just keeps getting better all the time.

The Brewers drafted Gamel out of Chipola Junior College in the 4th round of the 2005 draft. As so many Brewer hitting prospects do, he hit right away, posting a .872 OPS in the Pioneer League as a 19 year old. 2006 found him still hitting (.286/.357/.467/.824) at Low-A West Virginia. His numbers got even better in 2007, with a move to Brevard County (.300/.378/.472/.850). Sure, the HRs dipped (17 to 9), but his doubles went up (28 to 37), as did the triples (5 to 8). Basically, he was still hitting the ball roughly as hard as he did previously, but the parks of the FSL were turning HRs into doubles and triples. His walk rate (9.6% career) held pretty steady throughout the last few years, and while it’s far from “elite,” it is quite playable for a young hitter who makes contact like Gamel does.

Gamel took a big step forward in nearly every aspect of his game in 2008 at AA Huntsville. He hit (.329/.395/.537/.932) with 19 HR, 35 2B and 7 3B in 508 AB’s. In fact, those prodigious numbers may have been even higher had it not been for the fact that he was suffering from right elbow tendonitis in the second half. His OPS’s in the first three months of the season were 1.128, 1.107 and 1.013, and dipped to .638 and .656 in July and August. Part of that is no doubt due to the fact that he was carrying BABIP’s well over .400 the first three months and they dipped well under that later. Gamel undoubtedly had a run of good luck in the first half, but that doesn’t explain away just how good he was. As you might expect, his 21 AB’s in AAA at the end of August netted a similar result (.685 OPS). He did get his first ML hit out of the way in a September callup, going 1 for 2 with a double. As a hitter, Gamel is more advanced than most 23 year olds. He may not post outstanding walk numbers, but his career K/BB ratio is better than 2:1 and he uses all fields.

Unfortunately, he’s not nearly as advanced at the hot corner. Errors aren’t a great measure of a defender, but when you make 53 of them (as he did in 2007), they cannot be ignored. Gamel deserves credit for improving those numbers quite a bit (30 in 2008), and his fielding % improved from .826 to .918. Of course, that is still nowhere near acceptable for the big leagues and the last thing the Brewers need is to add another poor defender to their infield. The Brewers seem determined to try and keep Gamel at third, at least to open the season, but there have been whispers that they are starting to think about other places for him to play.

If Gamel can’t stay at third, his bat will lose some value either at first or in a corner OF position. Gamel would probably require more time to adjust to the OF than he would first base, though his greatest value probably lies in RF, where he probably has the arm to succeed. The problem with that is that the Brewers currently have all three of those positions filled with players who have made the Allstar game within the last two seasons and are all under team control for the next 3+ years. So if Gamel can’t improve his defense significantly at 3B, there isn’t a place for him to play unless the Brewers trade someone or move one of their current corner OFs to center after Mike Cameron’s contract expires at the end of 2009. Despite the fact that there isn’t an obvious place for him to play at the major league level in 2009, his bat is pretty close to being ready and should be well above league average for years to come. Once they get his position sorted out and either clear a spot for or trade him, Gamel’s bat is going to open some eyes around the big leagues.

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

#14: Omar Aguilar

#13: Cutter Dykstra

#12: Zach Braddock

#11: Caleb Gindl

#10: Jake Odorizzi

#9: Cole Gillespie

#8: Lorenzo Cain

#7: Brett Lawrie

#6: Taylor Green

#5: Angel Salome

#4 Jon Lucroy

#2: Alcides Escobar