Milwaukee Brewers Top 5

Mat Gamel -- Longtime Project Prospect readers have known of my fondness for Gamel since his MVP season in the Hawaiian Winter league. In 2007 Gamel showed well in High-A, hitting .300/.376/.472 but struggled defensively. A third baseman in name only, Gamel committed 53 errors in 2007 yet also reached base in 53 straight games. He showed good improvement in 2008, going from -26 runs/150 in 2007 to -2. Along with modest improvement defensively, Gamel took another step forward with the bat, posting a .395 wOBA last year in Double-A (.393 BABIP). In the first half of the 2008 season, Gamel was the best hitter in all the minor leagues, as he put up wOBAs of .479, .462 and .425 in the first three months of the season. Rare for a young lefty, Gamel is equally effective against southpaws (946 OPS vs LHP and 926 OPS vs RHP). While his future position on the defensive spectrum remains up in air, there are few hitters in the minor leagues that are better bets to be solid major leaguer hitters than Mat Gamel.

Alcildes Escobar -- Signed out of Venezuela as a teenager, Escobar’s physical gifts are obvious. A dynamic athlete with plus defensive range, arm strength, and foot speed, Escobar struggled to put those tools to good use, until this year. After making it to Double-A in 2007 as a 20-year-old, Escobar only managed to post a .283/.306/.354 line in his first glimpse of the high minors. There were, however, a few encouraging signs in his performance: his strikeout rate was quite low for a young hitter in Double-A (14.7%) and his 17% line-drive rate supported a solid BABIP of .333. In his second attempt at Double-A Escobar was among the most improved offensive players in the minors, sporting a .350 wOBA and showing some improvement in his walk rate and power. Questions still exist on whether Escobar will show enough secondary skills to be a productive offensive player, his walk rate was just 5.2% last year (a career high) and his IsoP was still a relatively weak .108 (also a career high). Given his precocious defensive ability, Escobar is a safe bet to make it to the bigs. How much his bat continues to improve will determine if he hits at the top of the order or bottom.

Jeremy Jeffress -- Jeffress continually draws Dwight Gooden comps, in both the most positive and most negative sense possible. Blessed with lighting in his arm, Jeffress routinely lights up radar guns hitting triple digits and working in the mid-to-high 90’s. He flashes moments of being truly unhittable with a devastating fastball and big hammer curve, unfortunately there are also times when things go wrong and he allows them to snowball. Concerns over his attitude surround Jeffress as he has already been suspended for 50 games for failing multiple drug tests. The ultimate boom or bust guy, Jeffress showed elite level strikeout rates (29.9%) but poor control (12.4% BB) in Low-A. While he has the stuff to be a front-of-the-rotation starter, I think everything seems to scream bullpen about Jeffress. If he can come close to his potential, he’ll be an All-Star.

Angel Salome -- All he does is hit. He doesn’t look like a ball player, struggles at times behind the plate, he isn’t a great runner, but man can he hit. As a 22-year-old in Double-A, Salome hit .359/.413/.559 placing him among the league leaders in virtually every offensive category (.431 wOBA led the Southern League). Salome was the only hitter in the league under 25 years of age to post an IsoP of .200 or more and strikeout less than 20% of the time – he K’ed a scant 13.9%, which was his career high. His combination of contact ability and power is unrivaled in the minor leagues and is the number one reason you shouldn’t write off a guy just because he’s built like Yogi Berra.

Jake Odorizzi -- Odorizzi love tore up our forums last spring, to the point where he rated as my No. 1 high school pitcher in the country. We think he was a major steal for the Brew Crew at pick No. 32 last June. High school righthanders are an inherently risky commodity, but Odorizzi has everything that it takes to succeed. Standing 6-foot-2 and weighing 180 pounds, Odorizzi has a perfect frame with room for growth. With short arm action, he has plus velocity on his fastball with a well developed and deep repertoire of breaking pitches. Odorizzi showed well in a brief appearance in rookie ball, striking out 19 in 20 innings (21.4%). He’ll likely start next season in Low-A, but has the potential to be a No. 2 starter behind Yovani Gallardo for a long time.

Honorable Mentions -- Brett Lawrie has already moved out from behind the plate, but his bat has the potential to carry him at any position. The first round pick out of a Canadian High School, Lawrie has plus power potential...Lorenzo Cain should be a good defensive center fielder. His bat took off this year, as he posted .351 and .360 wOBA’s in High-A and Double-A. Cain has the power to hit 20 home runs in the majors (.209 IsoP in AA).

Lincoln Hamilton can be reached at lhamilton@projectprospect.com.