Baseball America's Top 10 Brewers Prospects
Journal/Sentinel writer Tom Haudricourt wrote an article about the Top 10 Brewers prospects. The list is most likely formulated by the many employees of BA, and not just Haudricourt. I would hope not, since he is a beat writer for the Brewers and probably doesn't see the minor leaguers much at all. Anyway, here is the article.

It's interesting to look at the columns on the right of the page and see who the top prospect in the Brewers organization has been by year, and also the top draft picks for the Brewers over the past ten years.

Out of the top prospects in the organization over the past ten years, what can you say about these guys?

1995 - Antone Williamson - Possibly the worst first round draft pick in the history of Major League Baseball, the fact that AW was the number one pick speaks to how pathetic the Brewers farm system was. Williamson made it to the Show, only so that the Brewers could pat themselves on the back and say "wow what a draft pick, he got to the big leagues". One of Sal Bando's many terrible, terrible moves. He had 54 at bats in 1997, with a very productive .204/.254/.259 line. The Brewers took Williamson fourth overall, ahead of other first rounders like Todd Walker (Twins, 7th Pick), Jaret Wright (Indians, 10th pick), Nomar Garciaparra (Red Sox, 12th pick), Paul Konerko (Dodgers, 13th pick), Jason Varitek (Mariners, 14th pick).

1996 - Jeff D'Amico - The beginning of a Brewers theme. "Big righty out of high school, injury troubles limited his career". This is exactly what the Moneyball types are talking about. Still, "Big Daddy" had an incredible 2000 and is still in the Majors.

1997 - Todd Dunn - A great five-o'clock hitter. He had a solid two weeks in the Major Leagues before getting sent down. My dad takes most of the blame for this because he once told him that he was "tearing the cover off the ball" and also instructed Dunn to "keep it up". Soon afterward Dunn faded into obscurity.

1998 - Valerio de los Santos - The lefty came to the big leagues with a lot of promise but couldn't even last as a middle reliever for more than a few years. By the end of his tenure in Milwaukee many referred to him as Valerio de los Suckos.

1999 - Ronnie Belliard - I guess the fact that "he made it to the Major Leagues" is a great accomplishment for any of the Brewers top prospects over the past ten years speaks volumes. Belliard had an amazing first half of the season in 2004 and made the All-Star Game for Cleveland. He looked more like the lost and confused Belliard I remember in the second half of the season when he struggled to a .254 batting average.

2000 - Nick Neugebauer - "Big righty out of high school, injury troubles limited his career" part II.

2001 - Ben Sheets - Thank you, Dean Taylor.

2002 - Nick Neugebauer - See above.

2003 - Brad Nelson - Big power-hitting OF/1B. Still putting up good numbers in the minors. I look forward to him being in the Show in a year or two.

2004 - Rickie Weeks - A player with star potential. Let's all hope that potential is realized.

So out of the last ten top prospects in the Brewers organization you have...
1 - star (Ben Sheets)
2 - decent Major Leaguers (Jeff D'Amico, Ron Belliard)
2 - still legitimate prospects (Rickie Weeks, Brad Nelson)
1 - border line reliever (Valerio de los Santos)
3 - complete disasters (Antone Williamson, Todd Dunn, Nick Neugebauer)

Really, if you take the years before Dean Taylor, they have no star players, one decent Major Leaguer, no legitimate prospects, two complete disasters.

The Baseball America Top 10 Prospects List is a better example of what the top scouting service in the world thinks about the Brewers organization, not necessarily what the Brewers think of their players. Tomorrow I'll look at the Brewers last ten first round draft picks and how they have faired.