Milwaukee Brewers Prospects 2022 Season in Review: #6-10
With Christmas, comes new toys for all the little ones. With New Year, comes new hopes and ambitions for a lot of people. The Brewers have a lot of new toys on the way up and a lot of hopes and ambitions for the future.
The Brewers recently just added the former #7 overall prospect from the Atlanta Braves to fill a wide-open hole at the catching position. Second baseman Kolten Wong was traded away to the Seattle Mariners which in return leaves another questionable hole along the right side of the middle infield.
Let’s take a deeper dive into some of the potential prospects that could fill that hole and how they faired last season.
2022 Brewers prospect season in review: #6 - Tyler Black - 2B
If it weren't for the labrum injury that kept Tyler Black out of the lineup for most of his first season in professional baseball, the Brewers fans would be talking about Black possibly being another guy we could see this season. Coming into the 2022 season, after appearing in 23 games in Single-A Carolina, Black was ranked #9 amongst all eligible second base prospects according to the MLB.com.
After having a decent start in his first month of professional baseball coming out of college ball, the 33rd overall pick looked to make waves in his first full season. He started his season in High Wisconsin where he appeared in 64 games. He showed off his speed in the first two months by hitting 13 doubles and 3 triples. Out of 19 stolen base attempts, he only got caught six times.
Black drew 45 walks as well which is a massive quality for a leadoff guy, which is something the Brewers have struggled to have the consistency with over the years. To cap it off, Black had a solid .281/.406/.424 slash line.
Black showed his versatility in the field as well, as he played mainly second base, but spent some time in center field along with the third base. MLB.com predicts to expect Black to the big league level by 2024, and I agree with that as long as he stays healthy.
With the departure of Kolten Wong and the left side of the infield locked up for the Brewers as of right now, people. expect Brice Turang to fill the second base hole, however, if Brewers were to depart with one of those pieces, Black would be a great option.
2022 Brewers prospect season in review: #7 - Jeferson Quero - C
With the departure of former Brewers catching prospect, Mario Feliciano, 20-year-old Jeferson Quero takes over the top catching prospect in the organization. After dealing with injuries during his first season of Minor League Baseball, Quero came out as a man on a mission in 2022.
Starting the season with the Carolina Mudcats, Quero played in 75 games. With the bat, he showed off his power and consistency as he smashed 18 doubles and six home runs. With the power, he showed how good his eye was as well as he drew 28 walks over the course of 320 plate appearances.
Writers and coaches talk about his elite level of defense and he showed just that this past season as he threw out the runner attempting to steal a base, 31% of the time.
Quero is also predicted to arrive in the MLB by 2024. This is a good timetable for the young Venezuelan, as Brewers backup catcher Victor Caratini will most likely be gone by then and Quero will most likely serve as the backup catcher behind William Contreras, forming a duo of great young catchers.
2022 Brewers prospect season in review: #8 - Jacob Misiorowski - RHP
The Brewers selected righty Jacob Misiorowski out of Crowder JC in the 2nd round (63rd overall) in the 2022 MLB Draft. The Brewers ended up giving him the biggest signing bonus of all their draftees, and rightfully so as he ranked third in the NJCAA D1 in strikeouts (136) and a 16.1 K/9 rate.
Misiorowski played in only two games with the Mudcats, starting both of them. Pitching in only an inning and a third, he gave up one run, and one hit. However, his control appeared to be all over the place as he walked seven batters and hit another one.
His shaky first couple of outings showcase the risk that Misiorowski brings. His command was known to be a work in progress and the Brewers have a lot of work ahead of them to help Misiorowski cut down on the walks. He did look a lot better at Instructional League this fall.
His fastball has the capability to hit 100 mph and he has some nasty secondary stuff. We won't see him in a Brewers uniform for quite some time, but if it's one thing the farm system knows how to do, is develop pitchers, and Misiorowski is one that has a lot of potential and fans should be excited for him.
2022 Brewers prospect season in review: #9 - Eric Brown Jr. - SS
The Brewers' first-round pick in the 2022 draft went to Eric Brown Jr. out of Coastal Carolina. If you ask Brewers fans the first thing that pops out about the young prospect is how he stands at the plate. His bat reminds most of maybe how Craig Counsell used to hold his bat or maybe Kevin Youkilis. Nonetheless, it doesn't prevent Brown Jr. from making consistent contact with the ball.
Brown Jr. was assigned to rookie ball to start and then eventually brought up to Single-A Carolina. In the 27 games he played in the Minors this year, he had 117 plate appearances. He drew 15 walks and got 26 hits. When he got on base he made sure to take advantage of it as he stole 19 bags while only getting caught twice. It's not a huge sample size, but I'd expect him to rise quickly up the prospect list for the Brewers this coming season as many of their current top prospects are expected to graduate this season.
2022 Brewers prospect season in review: #10 - Robert Gasser - LHP
As we get to the end of 2022, it was a season to forget for Brewers fans, particularly in the reasoning for trading away All-Star closer Josh Hader. One of the prospects that the Brewers got back in the Hader trade was left-handed pitcher Robert Gasser who was just drafted by the Padres in 2021.
Gasser is a young promising prospect, who fits in perfectly with the pitching development that the Brewers do so well at. Gasser is known for having great command although the velocity on his pitches lacks a little. That will all come within due time as his speed on his pitches has slowly been ticking up. As far as his 2022 season, he started out strong in High-A Fort Wayne (when he was still a part of the Padres organization) as he earned himself Midwest League Pitcher of the Week during the third week of June.
Other than the week of his award, his time in High-A didn't treat him too well as he went 4-9 with a 4.18 ERA in the 18 games he started. When he was traded to the Brewers in July he was promoted to Double-A Biloxi where he had a decent four starts, pitching to a 2.21 ERA and striking out 26 in 20.1 innings.
Towards the end of the season, the Triple-A club for the Brewers was in the midst of a championship run therefore Gasser was called up to Triple-A to finish out the season where he started five games with a 4.44 ERA, striking out 31 in 26.1 innings.