Milwaukee Brewers Blog - Between the Green Pillars : minor leagues

Prospect of the Week 6/15-6/21: Taylor Green

BrewerTron — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:13:47 GMT

Last summer, the Cleveland Indians selected OF Michael Brantley instead of Taylor Green to complete the CC Sabathia trade. Brantley is having a rough time in with Cleveland's triple-A club hitting .264/.342/.352 to date. Green injured his wrinst during winter ball and got a late start his year, but he picked up where he left off in 2008. Green has posted a solid line in 33 games at Hunstville this year hitting .301/.382/.451 and has puts minds at ease that there would be any lingering effects from his wrist injury. Taylor Green earns our Prospect of the Week honor after posting a line of .346/.419/.654/1.073. Green was 9-16, with 2 homeruns and 4 walks.

Green was a junior college selection by the Brewers in the 2005 draft. He was named Brewers minor league player of the year award in 2007 while playing low-A ball in West Virginia. In 2008 Green posted a very solid line of .289/.382/.443/.825 in the pitcher friendly Florida state league. Last season Green showed great plate discipline with a 12.7 walk rate. Green was also good at limiting strikeouts with a 59 to 61 K/BB ratio. Green hit 15 homers from last year, which is very good power for the spacious Florida State League ballparks. On defense Green has played played both second and third base. He has settled in at third this season and projects to be at least at an average defender at that position.

The Brewers definitely have a need for more lefty bats in near future. In 2010, Green could be be called up for interleague play in the same way as Mat Gamel. Green could end up at third for the Brewers if Gamel can't stick there defensively, though there are questions of whether his power will play in a corner outfield position. Regardless where he endsup, Taylor Green is near the top of the list for the next wave of position prospects for the Brewers.

Three Up

RHP Evan Anudson: Anudson just keeps dealing with 8 1/3 IP, 1 ER and 5 K's in his start last week. You have to wonder when his promotion is coming with a 1.84 ERA and 1.04 WHIP on the season.

LHP Chris Cody: With a 1.69 ERA since being promoted to AAA Cody has answered ever challenge the Brewers have thrown at him. Another solid start 8 IP, 7 H, 4 K's and 2 ER this week. Will he get a shot in the Brewers struggling rotation soon?

C Angel Salome: 3 2B, 1 3B and 1 HR led to .777 slugging percentage this week for Salome. Hopefully his bat continues to come alive.

Three Down

C Carlos Corporan: The Brewers other AAA catcher struggled with a 1-14 week. Corporan is a great defensive catcher but a .574 OPS on the season shows he is a long way from the show with his offense.

OF Lee Haydel: Horrendous is the only way to describe Haydels line .059/.059/.118 in 17 AB's last week. With a .294 season OBP, there isn't much of a chance for Haydel to use his speed.

2B Hernan Iribarren: Iribarren was 4-29 with 0 walks and extra base hits. I guess it is not hurricane season right now.

Now For Something Completely Different...

Ryan Topp — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 06:11:38 GMT

Playoff euphoria has taken over the city of Milwaukee.

It's taken over this writer.

Still, I think it's time to take a step back and look at something that was in the news last week, the fact that the Milwaukee Brewers low class A ball team will be the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers for the next four years.

On one hand, this is great for the franchise. It makes it easier for those of us living in the Milwaukee area to get out and see the younger players in the Brewer system earlier. It also helps deepen the connection between the Fox River Valley and the major league club in Milwaukee, which can't hurt ticket sales.

There is one major downside, however. The pitchers who will be coming through Appleton for long stints will by and large be on the young side, as Low A is where pitchers fresh from high school tend to go the year after they're drafted. Young pitchers are particularly susceptible to injury and pitching in cold weather is often cited as a particularly dangerous practice to engage in.

Well, as JSonline blog poster DEX50 pointed out about 15 posts down in the comment section, the weather in Appleton in April isn't great. His numbers are a bit different than those I found, but the point is still the same: It's cold in April in Wisconsin.

Of course no one can say for certain that this will cause any problems. It's not like the Brewers moving their Low A team from a Wisconsin locale to a warmer climate (Beloit to West Virginia) a few years ago led to a noticeable decrease in injuries to pitchers in the system, at least on the surface. So maybe this will all come to nothing in the long run. Young pitchers do tend to get hurt in general, so it's not really going to be possible to pin point injuries as "weather related."

With the success the Brewers have had developing players in general, it seems reasonable to assume they considered all factors and made this decision with open eyes and decided the risk was worth the potential reward. Still, with top flight and fresh from high school pitching prospects like Jake Odorizzi and Seth Linz likely ticketed for the Rattlers early next season, there is good reason to be at least a little concerned here.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled revelries...

Some Overlooked Infielders on the Farm

Ryan Topp — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 01:47:00 GMT

If you haven't seen our series looking at the farm system roughly halfway through the season, you can check out part one here and part two here. It was brought to my attention that there were a few oversights in Wednesday's article on the infielders in the system, so here are the overlooked:

Second basemen Eric Farris of West Virginia was the Brewers 4th round pick in 2007 and was off to a slow start to the season before getting going recently. His season line is up to (.263/.302/.323/.625), which isn't all that good but is an improvement from where he was a few weeks ago. As a 22 year old playing in low A, he'll need to continue to improve quickly to put himself on the prospect map. In retrospect, we should have mentioned AA keystoner Mike Bell if for no other reason than we mentioned the 7 other regular starters on that team. Bell is clearly not on the level of those around him, but he has solid pop (19 2B, 3 3B, 8 HR) for a middle infielder even if his OBP (.306) is way too low.

Moving on up to AAA, there are several other players worthy of at least a mention. Second Basemen Callix Crabbe was selected by the Padres in last winter's rule 5 draft, but had to be returned to the Brewers when the Padres decided to no longer carry him on their 25 man roster. The fact that he is 25 years old and posting a .658 OPS in AAA doesn't bode well for him getting another shot as good as the one he got with the Padres this year again. Though he hasn't played much in the infield this year, Hernan Iribarren still has value as an infielder. Sand-witched around a couple of brief callups to the majors this year, The Hurricane has managed to post a (.279/.338/.328/.666) line. The fact that he has speed, good contact skills and the ability to play in the infield and outfield gives him a solid shot to stick around for a while as a utility guy.

Look for part three featuring starting pitchers on Thursday and part four on relievers Friday.

Thanks to Mr. Breen for pointing out a few oversights over on the message board.