Milwaukee Brewers Farm Report: Colorado Springs Sky Sox August 23-29

The Sky Sox went 4-3 this week, while outscoring their opponents 33-20. As a result, they have some hot hitters, not to mention a five inning, no-hit performance.

Who’s Hot

1B Matt Clark continues to claw his way back into offensive relevancy, this time by slashing .400/.609/.467 over six games. He showed minimal pop in that stretch, but walked an unreal eight times in 23 plate appearances against just three strike outs.

His slash line for August is now .348/.487/.587 with 10 doubles, four home runs, 23 walks, and 17 strike outs.

3B Matt Dominguez hasn’t performed particularly well since being a top 100 prospect as recently as 2012, hence his presence with the Brewers system, after being cast off from the Astros farm. In the last week, however, Dominguez has been tremendous, hitting .462/.481/.885 with three home runs.

The door is wide open for Dominguez to capture the third base spot with the Crew, but he really shouldn’t be expected to hit enough at this point, unless he has made some major adjustments. His OPS on the year is now .701, and his season in the Majors last year was a disaster (-2.2 fWAR).

SP Hiram Burgos walked two, struck out one, and allowed zero hits in his five inning performance this week. It was an uncharacteristically low strike out outing for Burgos, but he stifled bats nonetheless.

Burgos has now made 13 starts with Colorado Springs, after improving his ERA in each step from High-A, where he began the year. He tops the Brewers farm system with 25 starts, 140 strike outs, and is third in innings pitched with 138.

I hope to see Burgos join the Major League club in September, as he’s certainly earned it, and it will be very interesting to see if the 28-year-old can regain his possible projection as a back-end starter.

Who’s Not

RP Jim Henderson appears to be about done in a Brewers (organizational) uniform. The former flamethrowing closer is now a reliever with greatly reduced velocity and an inflamed walk rate. This week, Henderson’s opponents slashed .333/.333/.1222 against him. The hits he allowed were a triple and two home runs.

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His FIP with the Sky Sox is now 5.54, and in the last 90 days, Henderson’s opponent OPS is .930.

RF Michael Reed hasn’t lost his uncanny ability to draw a walk, but since joining the Sky Sox, he hasn’t hit much. To be fair to Reed, he was coming off of a down month when he was promoted, which makes for a tough rebound. This week, Reed slashed .167/.348/.278, with five walks and eight strike outs.

His OPS is now .712 since joining the AAA club, and he’s sporting a .223 batting average with no home runs, despite the friendly confines of Colorado Springs. Again, Reed deserves some qualifiers.

He began the year in AA with no previous experience there, after he spent the previous two full seasons with Low-A and High-A. Instead of leaving Reed to succeed against the lower level pitching in Biloxi, the organization is pushing him a little. He likely just needs another half season (at the least) in AAA before he can join the Crew.

C Nevin Ashley continues to either be white hot or ice cold. Given his position on the page, you can guess which he is right now. In four games this week, Ashley slashed .118/.118/.294 with four strike outs.

He’s still having a very nice August (.862 OPS), and you can only be so mad when your last name is Ashley and you’re married to a woman named Ashley.