Dueling Prospects

Bernie's Crew and Between the Green Pillars continue their respective Top 25 Brewer Prospect lists over a sportsbubbler.com.

I'll start with #23 from Ryan at BTG.

Pitcher Alex Periard

The first of several Canadians on the list (he gets extra points for being French Canadian), Periard made strides this year but apparently wasn’t quite ready to swim with the big boys just yet. Pitching within the friendly confines of the Florida State League, he held hitters pretty well in check in his 112 2/3 innings there. He induced nearly twice as many ground balls as fly balls while posting a better than 2:1 K to BB ratio. Then he moved to AA Huntsville and things got ugly. His ground ball rate tumbled, he barely struck out one batter for every one he walked and, correspondingly, his ERA jumped over two full points in his 38 innings of work. Things didn’t get any better in the Arizona Fall League for Periard, where he added the ugly tendency to give up homeruns to his repertoire.

Jim at Bernie's Crew has an outfielder at #24

Lee Haydel

Lee is a speedster who is still learning to play the game at the professional level. The young center fielder has all the tools to be a successful big league leadoff hitter, but he is extremely, extremely raw. He has the speed to steal bases (34 SB), but his instincts are still a work in progress (17 CS). Haydel shows that he can hit with his .294 AVG, but his plate discipline is not good with 107 strikeouts and only 32 walks in 522 at-bats (only a 6% walk rate). Is it clear yet?

The bright side is that the 21-year old is improving. Haydel improved in practically every offensive and defensive category from the 2007 season. His batting average and on-base percentage improved from .276/.311 to .295/.335. The walk rate improved from 4.7% in 2007 to 6% in 2008. Even his defense improved, according to his fielding percentage. In center field, Lee earned a .968 percentage in 2007, while improving to a .974 fielding percentage last season. It seems that Haydel is beginning to figure it out. The young man is beginning to be more patient at the plate, and he understands that he only needs to get the ball on the ground and let his speed do the work. Over 56% of the balls he put in play were on the ground, which puts a lot of pressure on the opposing defensive infield. He projects as a prototypical leadoff hitter, and Milwaukee is grooming him to do become that type of player.

Neither player is projected by the authors to be on the Timber Rattlers in 2009.