StaTuesday: Six Brewers appear on prospects list; Arcia No. 5
Milwaukee Brewers fans are no doubt waiting on some of the young prospects down on the farm to make their way to the majors.
It might make them salivate even more to know that at least one person thinks Milwaukee has one of the top prospects in all of baseball and three of the top 40 (and six of the top 100).
Chris Mitchell of Fangraphs.com has a projection system he calls KATOH, and he recently released the results of his findings. It should be noted that Mitchell only considers players who had 300 plate appearances or pitchers who faced 300 batters this past season, while Mitchell orders his prospect list by their expected WAR through age 28 of each player.
Having six players on the list is nothing to sneeze at. In fact, the Brewers have more than anyone else in the division. The Cardinals have three, the Cubs five and the Reds two. The Pirates also have six, although their highest-ranked player is at No. 17.
According to KATOH, shortstop Orlando Arcia comes in tied at No. 5 on the 2016 prospects list with a 14.5 projected WAR through age 28. Arcia, who was recently added to the Brewers' 40-man roster, just turned 21 in August and batted .307 with a .453 slugging percentage at Double-A Biloxi in 2015.
Dodgers outfielder Alex Verdugo, one of three Los Angeles prospects in the top six, is tied with Arcia. The top four (with projected WAR in parentheses) are: Twins outfielder Max Kepler (19.6), Phillies shortstop J.P. Crawford (17.5), Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager (16.4) and Dodgers pitcher Julio Urias (15.6).
As mentioned, Arcia isn't the only Brewers prospect in the KATOH computations. However, the second-highest ranked player in the Milwaukee system is one who just arrived.
On Nov. 20, the Brewers acquired outfielder Ramon Flores from Seattle for infielder Luis Sardinas. If KATOH is accurate, that was a pretty good deal for Milwaukee. Flores, who turns 24 in March, comes in at No. 30 on the list (7.7 WAR by age 28). In Triple-A last season, the left-handed hitting Flores hit a combined .308 with a .454 slugging percentage with two teams. It will be interesting to see what kind of shot he gets in training camp, perhaps even at first base.
Flores isn't the only new player in the system on the KATOH list. In fact, other than Arcia, the other five players listed all were recently acquired via trade.
Outfielder Brett Phillips (6.8 WAR), who came over from Houston in the Carlos Gomez and Mike Fiers trade, is ranked No. 40.
At No. 57 is second baseman Javier Betancourt (5.4 WAR), who is known more for his fielding than hitting. He batted just .263 in Single-A last season with a .304 on-base percentage and .336 slugging percentage.
Rounding out the Brewers in the top 100 are a couple of pitchers who could find their way in the Brewers' rotation or bullpen in 2016: Josh Hader (tied for No. 62, 5.1 WAR), who also was involved in the above-mentioned deal with the Astros and Zach Davies (tied for No. 69, 4.6 WAR), acquired from Baltimore for Gerardo Parra. Davies made six starts for the Brewers in 2015.
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