With the spring training games in full swing, it's time to wrap up the off-season prospect talk with a look at a few things the Brewers can do to improve the vital player development department. Overall, the team of Jack Zduriencik and Reid Nichols did a solidly above-average job procuring and developing a good number of impact major league players over the past decade or so. There were, of course, areas where they struggled. That tandem has produced far more hitting talent than pitching talent to date and though there is some reason to hope pitching-wise in the lower minors, it's a long ways off. Furthermore, most of the offensive players that have been produced are not well-rounded players and instead rely on their bat, specifically power, to give them value. This is not to say that they are not useful to the team, or that they don't help them win, just that they tend to have limited skill sets.

The hallmark of Jack Zduriencik's tenure was the ability to produce position players who could hit the ball hard, but had trouble picking in the field. The Brewers spent their top 5 picks on Rickie Weeks and Ryan Braun, knowing full well that they would have a lot of work to do to stay at the position where they were drafted and that they might not make it. Current top prospects in the system Mat Gamel, Angel Salome and Brett Lawrie would all fit the bill of bat-first types. Of course, the ability to hit is key in a position player prospect and a team needs to draft guys that can hit. Ultimately, though, preventing runs is also important and finding guys who are more well-rounded is the difference between a good and a great team. What can new Scouting Director Bruce Seid do to improve the quality of position players being developed by the team?

• Draft and sign players who are more polished defensively early in the draft. Of course, there is nothing wrong with taking a Mat Gamel or an Angel Salome in the 4th or 5th round, despite obvious defensive shortcomings, when their bats are good enough to make them big league prospects. After the first few rounds, you take whatever pluses you can get and live with the shortcomings. Early on, though, it would be nice to find the occasional advanced defender.

• Put a premium on defensive development. It isn't really fair to knock the team for bringing up Weeks and Braun before they were ready to play big league D at their assigned position because the team had a 20+ year monkey on it's back and they needed to get it off before they could start delaying the big league development of key prospects. Now, though, the team can and should (at least sometimes) delay promoting a guy who is raking to get them time to develop defensively.

• Improve the quantity and quality of defensive coaching in the minors. It's a relatively inexpensive way to improve the value of your top assets. Spending an extra $50,000 to hire a coach to work extensively with a guy to whom you gave a 2 million dollar bonus and who can be leveraged into years of well below market value productivity seems like a wise investment to make, if that is what it will take to develop the player.
  

Defense isn't the only issue in the system over the past half dozen or so years. The Brewers have had a difficult time drafting and developing healthy pitchers. First round picks Mike Jones and Mark Rogers had their careers sidetracked by injury. 2006 first round pick Jeremy Jeffress has had personal and developmental issues and is far from a sure thing. With the exception of Yovanni Gallardo and Manny Parra, they haven't had any luck outside of the first round either. So what can be done?

•  Zduriencik showed a definite preference for high-ceiling, high school flame throwers in the first round when drafting a pitcher. The injury rate for those types is very high, as is evidenced by the repeated surgeries that Rogers and Jones have gone through. Of course, Gallardo was a high school draftee and he made it to the majors just fine, but he is the decided exception right now. Seid would be well advised to mix in more appreciation for solid mechanics and post high school pitching when evaluating pitchers to take early, though he should by no means disqualify guys because they are high schoolers or have some mechanical flaws.
  

• Producing pitching for the major league level is largely a volume business. Young pitchers get hurt; it's just what they do. So if a team wants to produce pitchers, they need to put a high priority on drafting them. From 2000 to 2007, the Brewers had 8 first and 5 second round picks. They only used 3 of the first rounders and 1 of the second rounders on pitchers. That's 4 of 13 top picks on pitchers, and if Jeffress and Gallardo both turn into quality major leaguers, that isn't bad odds, though clearly there wasn't enough of an investment made in the first place. Considering just how good the Brewers' scouts have been at finding hitters in the later rounds, choosing more pitchers early seems to be a no-brainer. They took a good step in that direction in 2008, using 4 of their 6 picks in the first two rounds on pitchers and would be well advised to use some of the extra picks they'll have in 2009 (5 total picks in the first two rounds) on pitchers.

The Brewers built much of their current group of homegrown players on top 10 picks in the amateur draft. Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun and Rickie Weeks were all taken with top 7 selections, as was Matt LaPorta who was flipped for CC Sabathia. Barring a bizarre run of bad luck, the Brewers will not be routinely drafting in the top 10 any time soon, so they are going to need another way to acquire elite talents if they want to become a perennial contender. The key to doing so is improving Latin American player development, and there are a couple of ways to do this.

• The Brewers are not often players for top flight Latin American talent. They do not step up with big bonus offers for top end guys, instead they rely on their scouts to find players others have overlooked, somewhat. To date, the only Latin American "impact" player of note produced in the Zduriencik tenure is Alcides Escobar, and he has yet to prove that he can play everyday in the big leagues. An increased effort in this area is probably the best way to acquire potential star talent.
  

• Just bringing those guys in is not enough, however. The Brewers have had trouble developing some of the players they have acquired in Latin America over the past few years. Jim Breen of Bernie's Crew had a theory on why in the  Prospect Chat Part I that ran a few weeks ago:

The big problem I see with the international operations is a lack of a facility in the Dominican Republic, as their current philosophy is simply not working. Shawn Zarraga, Hitaniel Arias, and Carlos George all have potential, but the team as a whole was terrible. Something has to be remedied, and it appears Milwaukee is sincerely looking to reopen a facility in the DR. Perhaps that will help.

Most teams have just such a facility someplace in Latin America, which allows time for a team to prepare a prospect in more familiar environment before exposing them to pro ball in the US. The original strategy behind closing the facility they did have was that it wasn't cost effective and that the team would be better off simply bringing guys directly to the states. The low productivity rate of the Brewers international operations suggests they should, at the very least, reevaluate.

Ultimately, these are small things compared to the good things that have been done in the last few years in player development. Many franchises would love to have had the Brewers' "problems" developing players if it meant they could also have the successes. There is always room for improvement, however, and that is the spirit in which this was offered. Starting in April, Jay and I will be back with our Prospect of the Week feature, which will run directly on the blog this season. Make sure to check in on a weekly basis for that.