Dueling Prospects

Bernie's Crew and Between the Green Pillars are counting down their respective Top 25 Milwaukee Brewer Prospects.

Bernie's Crew's #25

Evan Anundsen

Anundsen put together a pretty good season with the West Virginia Power, going 12-8 with a 4.28 ERA. He has a very heavy fastball that works in the lower-90s or higher-80s, which allows Evan to induce tons of ground balls -- his GO/AO ratio was a very impressive 2.71. To go with that fastball, Evan throws a pretty good curveball and a changeup. He mostly relies on his fastball, however. His strike out rate is a modest 6.3 K/9 and will likely stagnate as he progresses up the system, so his upside is rather limited as a starter.

Between the Green Pillars has #25 and #24

#25 Evan Frederickson

Going into the draft last year there was a lot of talk amongst Brewer fans, who had just watched Eric Gagne and his 10 million dollar deal go up in smoke, that the team should target a college closer with a chance to make a big league impact soon. Well, leave it to Jack Zduriencik to take a college closer with big upside and a lot of work needed early, because that’s what Evan Frederickson is.

The big lefty has the classic closer stuff, a big fastball that can reach the mid 90’s and a sharp slider. His lack of a third pitch pretty much ensures he’ll be in the bullpen, though the Brewers have been giving him some starts so far to get him innings. How far he goes in the pen will depend on how well he can gain control of his prodigious stuff. He did that pretty well in his 11 2/3 innings at rookie Helena, striking out 16 and walking 5. Then he went to Low A and all hell broke loose, he walked 26 and struck out only 18 in 20 1/3 innings. If he can cut down on the walks and let his stuff take over, he could shoot right through the system and have an impact in the big league bullpen within the next couple of years.

Jim projects Frederickson as a Timber Rattler to start 2009.

#24 Cody Adams

The former Saluki was the final pick of the six the Brewers had in the first two rounds of the 2008 draft. Adams isn’t a dominator at this point in his career, though he throws a low to mid 90’s fastball that he complements with two solid, if underdeveloped, secondary offerings. What stood out most about his college numbers was his ability to avoid the BB, as he barely walked 2 batters per 9 innings.

Jim projects Adams to start 2009 with the Timber Rattlers, too.

Click on the player names for the complete posts.