With the September 1st active roster expansion, the Brewers called up a few players from AAA Chester who are getting their first taste of the big leagues.
Chester is in the midst of a potential championship run, with a 92-46 record with 6 regular season games remaining, so not everyone who might have been called up was, but with a few AA prospects being ready for AAA, at least a few Chester players were considered expendable for the Big Stick stretch run and post-season.
Relief pitcher
B.J. Adams, just one of a handful of excellent bullpen prospects in the Brewers system, earns his first taste of WPK play. The 21-year old
Adams, who was a 6th round draft pick in 1983 out of Phoenix College, features a tremendous curveball and plus fastball, which he throws in the mid-90's, is an extreme groundballer, and has the stamina to be a multi-inning reliever. He is thought to have plus plus stuff, decent and still developing movement, and average control. He profiles quite similar to setup man
Willie Ramirez, though perhaps with a slightly lower ceiling and less stellar makeup. (
Adams is fine makeup-wise, but
Ramirez is special in that regard.)
Also joining the club for the first time is second baseman
Mike Garcia.
Garcia, the Brewers 2nd round pick in the 1983 draft, tore up AAA this year, hitting .343/.411/.570 to put up 5.3 WAR. And while this was his most successful minor league season, he hit well at pretty much every level of the organization on his way up. He is considered a bat-first second baseman but his defense is more than adequate and he is very good on the pivot. He has below average speed and won't steal many bases but his base running skills are a bit above average. His average contact skills are enhanced by an above average approach at the plate (good Eye and Avoid K), and he has both plus gap power and above average home run power. If there is a knock on him it that he lacks baseball IQ. But his bat alone means he will be given a long look at the big league level and will compete for a spot on next year's Opening Day roster, and could be the future starting second baseman.
Adams and
Garcia are the only first time Brewers to come up so far, but good hitting catcher
Omari Williams does return after a short stint earlier this season, for his second taste of the WPK.
Williams is by far the best hitter among Brewers catching prospects but his defensive abilities are only above average. It's not clear yet whether there is a future for him in Brewers purple, but he could make good trade bait before long. (He was the Brewers 3rd round draft pick in the 1981 draft.)
This seems like a good time to talk about a trend that I am noticing.
After several years where the Brewers farm system was ranked at least in the top 10 in the WPK, primarily due to a high number of well-thought of starting pitching prospects, it is starting to appear that the idea of the Brewers organization as a pitching factory might not have been completely accurate.
If anything, it seems like it may be a hitting factory, with so many unheralded prospects turning into offensive weapons. Take for example the tale of
Chris Romines, a 7th round draft pick who is currently 2nd in all of the WPK in batting average and has an OPS+ of 127 and 4.2 WAR. Or
Javier Hernandez, an 11th round pick, who is hitting .368/.443/.654 and just recently saw an 8 game streak of collecting at least one extra-base hit end.
Hernandez has an OPS+ of 173 and has put up 2.6 WAR in just 213 plate appearances.
It is too early to know what might happen with first baseman
Gene "
Basher" Brasher, but the slugging 8th round draft pick (1982) is off to a decent big league start, hitting .290/.333/.419 and profiles as the best pure power hitter on the team with a plus eye and average contact hitting skills.
Marty Crumbley was not a Brewer draft pick, but rather was obtained in a trade with Boston last summer (along with
Roberto Costocurta), but he is also emerging as an elite hitter. He has hit .387/.433/.600 over the course of 164 PA's for Denver this year, and if he can develop his defensive chops just a big more, he has a good chance of becoming the everyday shortstop in 1986.
Now, when you add in
Mike Garcia to the mix, a picture starts to emerge of the Brewers organization as being particularly good at spotting and developing hitters.
And we haven't even mentioned a pair of corner outfielders who tore up single A this season:
Wayne LaCross and
Bill Tucker.
LaCross, the Brewers 2nd round pick in 1984, hit .367/.421/.581 with 5.6 WAR at Bainbridge before getting called up to AA Nashville recently, where he is also off to a good start. He profiles as both a plus plus contact hitter and at least a plus power hitter. He isn't particularly fast (and won't run the bases well at all) and his defense is merely adequate for the corner outfield spots (his future could be at first base), but in two minor league seasons he has a combined slash line of .373/.425/.598 and has accumulated 16.7 WAR.
Tucker, who was picked in the 16th (!) round of the 1983 draft, does not have the same over-the-fence power that
LaCross has, but is a good contact hitter with great speed, a slightly better outfielder who has the arm to play right field, and has a great work ethic. He hit .352/.415/.475 at single A Bainbridge this season for 3.6 WAR and is also off to a good start at AA Nashville. While his minor league offensive numbers aren't quite as eye-popping as
LaCross's, they are still very good and don't count out this late round draft pick's chances of becoming a solid big league starter.
