BA's Top 100: A Brewers Retrospective (Part One)

By Bill Batterman of bf.net

Concurrent with the release of this year's top 100 prospects, Baseball America made available a complete listing of their annual top prospect lists dating back to 1990. Compiled by their team of writers with the input of scouts and other baseball insiders, Baseball America's list highlights players with a mix of tools and performance that portend an exceptional big league career.

Players with a [high] peak value ... are what scouts look for in the draft, what organizations look for in their farm systems, and what Baseball America looks for when it compiles its Top 100 Prospects list. The goal of teams is to win championships, and when ranking prospects, we seek out players who can help their teams do that. ...

While statistics are an important tool in assessing a player?s past and predicting his future, championship tools make championship players, so the top of BA?s top 100 will always be dominated by players with above-average tools in several categories.

During the 15-year period covered by Baseball America's rankings, the Brewers farm system has gone through a transformation from one of the best in baseball to one of the worst and back to one of the best. In total, the team has been represented by 25 players occupying 42 spots on the Top 100 lists. Of those, the results have been mixed. The following table lists Milwaukee's representatives by year as well as the player's position, age (as of the season following their selection; 1990 for the 1990 rankings, etc.), and rank on Baseball America's list.

Year	Player	Position	Age	BA Rank
1990	Greg Vaughn	OF	24	09
	Narciso Elvira	LHP	22	23
1991	Narciso Elvira	LHP	23	76
	Angel Miranda	LHP	21	81
1992	Tyrone Hill	LHP	20	20
	Dave Nilsson	C	22	29
	Duane Singleton	OF	19	69
	Cal Eldred	RHP	24	85
1993	Tyrone Hill	LHP	21	10
1994	Tyrone Hill	LHP	22	54
	Jeff D'Amico	RHP	18	95
1995	Antone Williamson	3B	21	64
1996	Jeff D'Amico	RHP	19	25
	Geoff Jenkins	OF	21	49
	Antone Williamson	3B	22	81
1997	Valerio de los Santos	LHP	24	52
	Geoff Jenkins	OF	22	78
	Chad Green	OF	22	99
1998	Valerio de los Santos	LHP	25	89
	Geoff Jenkins	OF	23	95
1999	Ronnie Belliard	2B	24	49
2000	Ben Sheets	RHP	21	65
2001	Ben Sheets	RHP	22	05
	Nick Neugebauer	RHP	20	83
2002	Nick Neugebauer	RHP	21	17
	Mike Jones	RHP	19	84
2003	Brad Nelson	1B	20	23
	Mike Jones	RHP	20	56
	Prince Fielder	1B	19	78
	Ben Hendrickson	RHP	22	90
	Corey Hart	3B/1B	21	91
2004	Rickie Weeks	2B	22	05
	Prince Fielder	1B	20	10
	J.J. Hardy	SS	22	19
	Brad Nelson	OF/1B	21	48
	Manny Parra	LHP	21	69
	Mike Jones	RHP	21	84
2005	Rickie Weeks	2B	23	08
	Prince Fielder	1B	21	15
	Jose Capellan	RHP	24	25
	J.J. Hardy	SS	23	28
	Mark Rogers	RHP	19	55

Broken down by position, the Brewers have been represented by right-handed pitchers thirteen times, by left-handed pitchers nine times, by outfielders seven times, by first-basemen four times, by second-basemen and third-basemen three times each, by shortstops twice, and by a catcher once.

MULTIPLE APPEARANCES

Thirteen players have appeared on multiple lists, four of whom have made three appearances each. The following table lists each player that has appeared on more than one ranking along with their number of appearances, peak rank, and average rank.

Player	App.	Peak Rank	Avg. Rank
Tyrone Hill	3	10	28
Prince Fielder	3	10	34
Geoff Jenkins	3	49	74
Mike Jones	3	56	75
Rickie Weeks	2	05	07
J.J. Hardy	2	19	24
Ben Sheets	2	05	35
Brad Nelson	2	23	36
Narciso Elvira	2	23	50
Nick Neugebauer	2	17	50
Jeff D'Amico	2	25	60
Antone Williamson	2	54	68
Valerio de los Santos	2	52	71

Of those thirteen, five are still eligible to appear on additional lists and, barring an extended stint in Milwaukee during the 2005 season, Prince Fielder is primed to set the new franchise record in appearances in 2006.

TOP TEN PROSPECTS

Brewers have appeared in the top ten six times including three times in the past two seasons. Ben Sheets and Rickie Weeks are tied for the highest peak ranking; they were named the number five prospect in baseball in 2001 and 2004, respectively.

Player	Year	Rank
Ben Sheets	2001	05
Rickie Weeks	2004	05
Rickie Weeks	2005	08
Greg Vaughn	1990	09
Tyrone Hill	1993	10
Prince Fielder	2004	10

In the second part of this retrospective, the Brewers on each Baseball America Top 100 will be briefly profiled and their respective contributions at the big league level will be evaluated. This duo of features kicks-off what will become an ongoing series at the Daily Brew revisiting the club's prospects and their history, especially those players who never made the Show or who did but have since been largely forgotten.