Overbay Traded to Toronto!
Minor League Report
The Latest News on the Top Prospects
Eric Sacharski
The beat goes on for many of the Brewers brightest prospects. After several weeks of strong play from several farmhands, the excitement continued for players up and down the system.
NASHVILLE SOUNDS (Triple-A Pacific Coast League)
The Sounds continue to ride Corey Hart and Prince Fielder this season, and they currently hold a 6 game lead over Memphis in the American North of the PCL. Hart and Fielder continue to rake, punctuating strong weeks with 2-homer, 6-RBI games by each of them in Saturdays win at Colorado Springs.
Hart not only hit HRs 15 and 16 during the week, but he swiped 4 bases in the series pushing him to a new career high with 28 this season. His 28th one came in Sundays game, tying him for the league-lead in the PCL.
Fielder was nearly unstoppable in the 4-game series, getting his 22nd homerun and 70th RBI in Fridays game, going 5-for-5 with 2 HR and 6 RBI on Saturday, then finishing 2-for-4 with run and an RBI Sunday.
On a downer, Ben Hendrickson is getting ripped again his last two turns through the rotation. Although former big-leaguers Wes Obermueller and Gary Glover notched wins in Fridays doubleheader.
HUNTSVILLE STARS (Double-A Southern League)
The Sounds are struggling again, still?... They were swept at home this weekend, have lost 8 of their last 11 at home, and at 19-23 for the season are 8 games out of first place.
The surprise pitcher of the year for the Brewers minor leaguers, Ty Taubenheim, continues his climb up the prospect list. Taubenheim earned his first Double-A victory Tuesday, going 7 innings with 5 hits, 1 run, 1 walk and 4 K. He ended up losing his second start of the week on Sunday, but still went 6 innings and gave up only one earned run. He has also lasted at least 6 innings in 5 of his 6 Double-A starts.
Pitcher Dennis Sarfate won his 9th game on Thursday, going 7.2 innings with 6 hits and 3 runs. While Sarfate appears to be healthy again, lefty Manny Parra was shutdown for the rest of the year with shoulder problems, again.
BREVARD COUNTY MANATEES (High-A Florida State League)
I have been hard on the Manatees lately, but there are some guys having good showings in Florida this year.
One of them is righty Tim Dillard. Originally figured to be a middle reliever, Dillard was put into the rotation on a spot-start and has not looked back. On Friday when he went 7 innings allowing just 3 hits with no runs or walks, he ran his season totals to 11-7 (with 5 shutouts) with a 2.45 ERA. Dillard has thrown 154.1 innings and 2 complete games, so chances are he won’t earn a just promotion because they dont want milage on his 21-year-old arm.
Carlos Villanueva continues to dominate, getting win No. 7 on Tuesday (7IP, 6H, 2ER, BB, 7K). With a 7-1 record and 2.16 ERA, Villanueva is improving his standing with Brewers brass too.
Villanueva and Dillard aside, Drew Anderson and Adam Heether are playing well, but both are 23-years-old, which is old for Single-A in my book. The should rake, and neither is setting the world on fire.
The team itself is 24-17 in the second half and playing better lately. Whether they can close the 3-and-a-half game gap between them and Vero Beach in the Eastern Division remains to be seen.
WEST VIRGINIA POWER (Low-A South Atlantic League)
I said last week the Power were the team to watch as far as prospects were, and it seems Baseball America followed my lead. This nugget about our Single-A team was in Mondays column:
As it's presently constituted, low Class A West Virginia is probably the most prospect-laden team in the South Atlantic League this season. Having featured Hernan Iribarren, Alcides Escobar, Mark Rogers and Yovani Gallardo all season, it recently added Charlie Fermaint and Angel Salome from Rookie-level Helena and 2005 first-rounder Ryan Braun. The Power prospects were in Greensboro yesterday to take on the Grasshoppers and of course, BA was there.
Fermaint led the said game off with his second homerun at WV, Salome added a two-run double and Gallardo went 6 impressive innings with 8 strikeouts. In fact, Gallardo (the 19-year-old) is 4-0, 2.41 with 43 strikeouts and 15 walks in 41 innings since July 1st.
Braun hit his 6th HR in a 3-hit game on Saturday. Grant Richardson had a 23-game hitting streak into Friday...things are exciting in Charleston, WV these days. With a 22-20 record currently, the Power are 6-and-a-half games back of first-place Delmarva with two teams in between them. Climb Power, climb.
HELENA BREWERS (Rookie Pioneer League)
If you thought the Helena team would fold up after losing Fermaint and Salome to West Virginia, then guess again. After winning the first-half title in the North Division, Helena has yet to lose in the second half and are a perfect 8-0.
Helena also was mentioned in Baseball America this week:
Helena, with an eight-game winning streak, continued to dominate the Rookie-level Pioneer League, and it’s not just because of its hitters. Friday, four Brewers pitchers combined on a no-hitter in an 11-0 win against Billings. Sunday, righthander Will Inman, the Brewers' third-round pick in June, struck out 10 in seven hitless innings, and the Brewers finished with a combined one-hitter in a 5-1 victory against Billings. Inman, who walked one, improved to 4-0, 2.40 in his longest outing as a pro. The stocky 6-foot-1, 205-pounder, has a low-90s fastball and swing-and-miss curveball that helped him set the state of Virginia's all-time high school strikeouts record.
Nice! Thats all I need to say.
EDITORS NOTE - The overall strength of the Milwaukee Brewers organization continues to be in their player development department. With a bevy of promising prospects still just starting their professional careers, the ON THE FARM report will give casual fans a weekly update into what's going on in the Brewers minor leagues.