[BirdWatcher]

Among the call-ups the Brewers made with the September roster expansion was top prospect Joe McPhillips.
The hard-working, talented, and very popular young outfielder, who is a very gifted defender and plus runner, is expected to vie for a spot on the 1972 roster out of spring training. It appears that his bat might not be fully big league ready yet, but in his most recent game he showed signs of the great potential he has, going 3 for 5, hitting his first big league triple and driving in his first run as a Brewer.

Also brought up from AAA was catcher Spencer Wilson, who will surely contend with Jeff Darden (whose -1.0 WAR is the worst on the team) for the second catcher spot on the 1972 team behind starter Kevin Curtis.

A pair of relievers also are seeing their first opportunities in Brewers purple. Justin Bismark, the team's first round pick (#16 overall) in 1966, is at last getting a chance to prove that he is ready for the big time. Bismark is a hard-throwing righty with questionable control, but fits well in the Brewers scheme as a groundball specialist. He has a tremendous change-up to go along with his plus fastball.

Jordan Stephens, who came to the Brewers organization in the July trade that sent former back-up catcher Joey Townsend to Charlotte, has some big league experience but will now get a chance to try to stick at the WPK level with his new team. Stephens is another hard-throwing righty, even more gifted at inducing groundballs than Bismark with a great fastball and a still developing curveball. If his secondary pitch develops a bit more he has potential for top of the scale stuff to go with very good movement and potentially plus control. Intriguingly, Stephens is also quite a good hitter with solid power hitting potential. He has played third base some in his minor league career and it won't be a surprise if he gets at least a few pinch-hit opportunities here in the last few weeks of the season, and might even play a few innings at third.