Milwaukee Brewers: Biloxi Shuckers Week 5 – Betancourt Helps Spark the Offense

While the AA Biloxi Shuckers had some struggles on offense at the beginning of May, they showed some sparks on offense this week and many have made sure to get their name out their besides the big name prospects on the team.

Going 4-3 this week, the Milwaukee Brewers AA team are 0.5 ahead of the Pensacola Blue Wahoos (CIN) and have the best record overall in the Southern League. So, let’s take a rundown look at how 2B Javier Betancourt made his mark to make the headline and how the other top prospects did during this past week.

2B Javier Betancourt

.255/.306/.347 / 1 HR/18 RBIs / 8 BBs/15 Ks

Betancourt didn’t originally start with the Milwaukee Brewers organization as he came to the team through the Francisco Rodriguez deal. While he’s not highly ranked through Baseball Prospectus, KATOH Projections is a big fan of him. Of Javier Betancourt’s 8 RBIs, he got 5 of them this week including the game winner in the 6-5 win against Jacksonville Friday night. While he impresses scouts more with his glove, more weeks like this will prove he has the offensive skills to make it to the big leagues.

P Josh Hader

34.2 IP / 1.04 ERA / 12 BBs / 46 Ks

While the Biloxi Shuckers have allowed plenty of runs that somehow their offense has outdone to continue a win streak, it didn’t mean Josh Hader’s start was any different. With 6 IP, 1 ER, 6 Ks, and 1 BB, he got his first win of the year. Yes, that’s right. His 1st win! If anyone wants to argue that Ws mean something for pitchers, I’ll point to Josh Hader from now on. But, as Adam McIntosh points out, he’s got got a problem being consistent as his pitch count can suddenly jump and not allow him to go deeper into games.

OF Brett Phillips

.264/.355/.479 / 6 HRs/25 RBIs / 15 BBs/45 Ks

Any time you’re a big prospect and have a 3 HR game, you’ll have more expectations to come. But, Phillips made sure to continue hitting well. Adding a HR to his numbers and getting his AVG up to a decent level of .264 is pretty good. But, he’ll l still need to work on simply not striking out so much. With 45 (now leading the Southern League), he easily beats all his teammates (by nearly 20) and is at the highest percentage of his career thus far in strikeout percentage at 31.1%. Impressive to say the least his OBP is still at .355.

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3B Garrett Cooper

.325/.418/.482 / 0 HR/14 RBIs / 12 BBs/10 Ks

Cooper has given good reason for the Biloxi Shuckers coaching staff to give him more playing time as he’s had at least 6 hits in his last 7 games. With Nate Orf being called up to AAA, Cooper has taken over in the OBP department at .418 and is staying at the clean-up spot while not being a power hitter. He might not be on any high prospect list at this point, but a 156 wRC+ will get any player more attention.

OF Victor Roache

.259/.333/.469 / 3 HRs/8 RBIs / 9 BBs/26 Ks

Roache’s AVG is slowly shrinking as on 4/29 it was at .302, but now .259. But, adding some power to his stat line with a 2 HRs this past week with all the runs the Biloxi Shuckers have produced, he at least has stayed up their on a more important stat line like OPS at .802. Close to Brett Phillips at .834. But, Victor Roache has seen a few less games playing 5 as the Shuckers have changed up the lineup a bit over this past week.

While the AA Biloxi Shuckers had some struggles on offense at the beginning of May, they showed some sparks on offense this week and many have made sure to get their name out their besides the big name prospects on the team.

More from Reviewing the Brew

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