What’s left on the farm?

As my friend Colin mentioned yesterday, the Greinke buzz has finally begun to subside.  The Packers are also stealing a big chunk of the Wisconsin sports spotlight, but that is nothing new.  After I read an article by Tom Haudricort (Brewers Guru), I began to realize that maybe things were not so good in the minors.  We are poised to have a great season, but what about future seasons?  They are not quite as dark as I once thought, but they are still not good.

When you really step back and take a look though, we did not give up very many prospects.  Lorenzo Cain and Alcides Escobar where already on the roster.  When do you stop calling them prospects and start calling them players?  Jeremy Jeffress had a cup of tea with us, probably magic mushroom tea, but that is not what’s important.  So, the actual “prospects” that we gave up are Jake Odorizzi and Brett Lawrie.

Even though scouting director Bruce Seid swears that the farm system is fine, it’s hard to believe him.  Another shocking fact, our strength in the farm system….is pitching.

How come our farm system is getting reamed by baseball analysts?  We only lost two guys and a hippie out of the minor league system.  The real problem is the holes it left in the major league club.  Yuniesky Betancourt and Craig Counsell at SS, is not what I would call a 1-2 punch.  Carlos Gomez in CF…………I do not like the way that sounds.  My hope, is that Chris Dickerson regains his 2009 swagger and takes one of the outfield jobs.  CarGo is not so good with the bat.  Never was.

So, rather than crying about it.  Let’s look at what we have and be thankful.  There are team in way worse shape than we are.

Here is a quick list of the Brewers quality pitching prospects: Mark Rogers, Cody Scarpetta, Wily Peralta, Amaury Rivas, Kyle Heckathorn, and Andre Lamontagne.  Every one of these guys is either a power arm or had some relative success so far in their minor league careers.  Plus we drafted 4 pitchers in the 2010 draft, all of whom throw in the 90’s.  Just something to keep in mind.

     It’s great to have all of these pitching prospects, but what about position players down on the farm.  Kentrail Davis is without a doubt, the best position player we have left in the system.  Solid glove and he hits for average, but not much in the power department.  Then there is this kid named Scooter Gennett, who I know almost nothing about.  All I know is, John Sickels over at SB Nationthinks that he is going to be a big surprise for us this season.    The only other guys really worth mentioning are Caleb Gindl, Logan Schafer, and Zelous Wheeler.  These three gentlemen have been invited to spring training for the 2011 campaign(the Crew invited a young catcher, but they have Wil Nieves………so……..).  Wheeler will be testing his meddle at SS, while the other two gentlemen will be roaming the outfield in search of a spot on the 25 man roster. 

All of this made me wonder.  Was our farm system running out of steam anyways?  Were the Brewers running out of real talent in the farm system? Or is the classification for a prospect just sort of weird?  The biggest hit in this off-season was to the starting lineup.  As far as I can see, the farm only lost Smokey McPot, Brett ‘Edward 40-hands’ Lawrie, and some unproven kid with alot of upside.  That is not enough to completely destroy a farm system, is it?  If someone could explain this to me, that would be great.