The Brewers Are Building A Stockpile of Prospects (And That’s A Good Thing)

Nine trades, sixteen players. Those are the numbers that Tom Haudricourt pointed out the other day in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal. Since David  Stearns has taken the reins of the Brewers over nine trades he has acquired a total of sixteen prospects. Stearns has made for trades for prospects I’ve never heard (Garin Cecchini from Boston, for example) other trades have been high profile, such as the most recent that sent Khris Davis to Oakland. Some in the fan base weren’t too happy with that trade (it was a great trade in my opinion).

Stearns, on his part, as been slowly accumulating all the prospects he can get his hands on. Lucroy is sure to net some prospects (if he managed to deal two for Khrush he can get two for Luc) if Garza bounces back he’ll get some for Garza. At this point, Stearns has announced that all hands are on deck and that we’re building for the future now. While it took the Astros and Cubs five years to rebuild, Stearns wants it is done faster with the Brewers and he’s putting the pieces of the puzzle in place to get that done.

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Those sixteen prospects that he’s acquired so far? Not all will turn out the be Ryan Braun, not all of them will turn out to be Khris Davis either. But, that’s not the point (nor is it even an issue). Stearns is getting prospects that are overlooked and to an extent undervalued (Liriano, for example, was all but done in San Diego if some reports are to be believed) and he is hoping that some of the prospects turn into an average or better-than-average everyday player and bring back a huge ROI for the Brewers.

Stearns is putting his chip on the odds that enough prospects turn themselves into better-than-average MLB players to propel the Brewers to the World Series. Even better, the Brewers get to the point where an NLDS appearance becomes a regular thing. Stearns isn’t trying to acquire the cream of the crop (yes there are plenty of good ones he is acquiring) but the majority of the ones that he has acquired have the potential to make it as an average or better-than-average player. We can argue who belongs where on what list all day, but that’s not the point.

At the end of the day, Stearns is using the law of large numbers (DEFINITION of ‘Law Of Large Numbers‘: A principle of probability and statistics which states that as a sample size grows, its mean will get closer and closer to the average of the whole population.), that is get enough prospects and you’ll eventually field a world series caliber team and that’s a good thing for the Brewers.