Is
Jeremy Beeson, the Denver Brewers first round pick in the 1984 draft, destined to soon be the starting third baseman for the big league club?
It is increasingly looking like that is the case.
Beeson certainly helped his case with a great week last week and at age 23 is proving that he can conquer AAA pitching.
The Brewers currently have a superstar veteran third baseman in
Ryan Campbell (.275/.378/.466), who last season finished strong to put up a 5.5 WAR season and even with another slow start is on pace for 4.6 WAR this season. He will turn 31 a bit later this summer and is under team control for two more seasons of arbitration eligibility. So one would think that would block
Beeson from getting much big league playing time soon. But rumor has it that Brewers management hasn't been happy with
Campbell's performance.
Campbell does draw walks but his power production, which theoretically should be one of the strengths in his game, has been largely missing since joining the Brewers, he hits into a lot of double plays, his defense at third, while improved this year over last, is underwhelming, and he often seems to wilt at the most crucial moments of games. There has even been some talk of the team moving him in a trade prior to the deadline at the end of the month.
Speaking of prospects like
Beeson, with the season having hit the technical half-way point, updated prospects lists have been published.
As a further indicator of how strong this most recent draft class was, three of the top four prospects in the game were just drafted earlier this summer.
The Brewers see their top prospect, pitcher
Mike Warner fall from #3 overall to #21, while their 17-year old pitching prospect
Mario Valle rises from #14 to #12 and now sits atop the Brewers prospects list.
The Brewers most recent first round pick, first baseman
Jonathan Murphy, is next among Brewers prospects, debuting at #43 overall.
Bernie Lopez, who is probably past-due for breaking into the Brewers rotation, goes from being #30 to #56 in the WPK.
And
Nick Mull, currently on the active roster with the Brewers, drops from #54 to #60.