2B Brett Lawrie:

When Brett Lawrie fell to the Brewers in the middle of the first round of 2008 draft, you knew the Brewers would select him because of organizations preference for power hitting bats and Canadian players.  Brett Lawrie is our prospect of the week, due in large part to a fine display of plate discipline that saw him walk nine times and an OBP of .555.  He also showed some power, hitting  2 doubles and 1 triple which helped him to a .555 slugging percentage. Lawrie also had a .333 average and 2 steals on the week.

When the Brewers selected Lawrie, the team was originally going to try him at catcher.  This winter after some discussion with the team,  Lawrie decided that there was more opportunity for early advancement at second base.  Lawrie does have some athleticism for the middle infield but is still developing his fielding skills.  Playing for the Single A Timber Rattlers, Lawrie has shown some of his highly regarded power with 8 homers and .476 slugging percentage.  Lawrie's walk rate of 11 percent is impressive enough for a young hitter and has been increasing in recent weeks.  His .357 on-base percent is pretty solid for a nineteen year old in A ball, though far from elite. Lawrie's base running needs refinement despite swiping 14 bags because has been caught stealing 8 times. 

Brett Lawrie's is still somewhat raw as a player but is by far the highest ceiling position player in the Milwaukee Brewer farm system at the moment. He has the type of hitting skills that will play anywhere on the diamond, and many scouts think he'll outgrow second base and wind up at third. Hopefully Brett Lawrie will be ready to help anchor the Brewer lineup by 2012, because there will likely be some need for someone to step into the likely void left by Prince Fielder.

 Three Up

LHP Zach Braddock:  Congrats to Braddock after earning a well deserved promotion to AA Huntsville.  Last week he pitched 4 scoreless innings with 5 K's.  His season stats are mind boggling with .84 ERA, a 50 to 6 K/BB ratio and is holding hitters to a .168 average.

RHP Roque Mercedes: Mercedes should also be in line for a promotion soon.  He pitched 4 scoreless innings last week with 5 K's.  The move to pen has really worked for Mercedes with .96 ERA at High A Brevard County on the season.

RHP Jacob Odorizzi:  One of the Brewers heralded young arms recently made his debut this season for Helena.  Odorizzi allowed only 2 ER in 12 innings last week, which is good for a 1.50 ERA. Odorizzi does need to strike out more hitters with 8 K's in 16 Innings this season.

Three Down

2B Cutter Dykstra:  Dykstra is off to bad start defensively after being sent back to Helena to switch to second base.  Last week he had 4 errors and he has 7 during he first 2 weeks at Helena.  He has struggled at plate hitting 4 for 22, though he did hit a homer for the second straight week.

RHP Donovan Hand:  Contact pitchers can sometimes have a bad week like Hand did.  In Hand's outing last week he gave up 8 hits and 7 ER in 2 innings. 

LHP Efrain Nieves:  Nieves's start last week was about as bad as it gets.  Nieves' line was 8 hit,  4 BB, 9 earned runs in 2 innings.  Nieves's stock has dropped some after we had high hopes for him at the start of the year.