The Brewers have announced that they’ve signed fifth overall draft pick Corey Ray, an outfielder from Louisville. Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports tweets that Ray will receive $4.125MM, giving the Brewers a modest savings against the $4,382,200 slot value of the fifth overall pick.
MLB.com ranked Ray the sixth-best talent available in this year’s draft, with Baseball America rating him seventh. MLB.com noted that he provided the “best combination of hitting and athletic ability” available in this year’s draft, praising his combination of power and speed, which resulted in 15 homers and 44 steals in a .310/.388/.545 junior season at Louisville. He mostly played right field in college, although he seems likely to get a shot at center field as a pro.
In April, MLBTR’s Chuck Wasserstrom spoke to Ray, who said he imagined himself as a future leadoff hitter. He also described being selected by the Mariners in the 33rd round in 2013 and ultimately deciding to go to college. “That dream was knocking on my door, and those were some pretty tough conversations with my father. He told me I wasn’t ready. All I was seeing was the dollar amount and not the big picture,” Ray said. As it turns out, it looks like he made a good decision, as he’ll now get a multimillion-dollar bonus and an immediate spot near the top of the Brewers’ list of top prospects.
Yes! Lucas erceg is hitting the cover off the ball to start his career too. When prince, Braun, weeks, hart, jj were coming up we had no pitching prospects. Now we have great pitching prospects and until the last 6 months of trades and the draft had no bats besides Arcia. Now we have both
I like your optimism but the Brewers still have a long way to go to properly improve the quality of the farm system’s pitching prospects. Jorge Lopez and Josh Hader, two of the closest to MLB, have struggled this year and there aren’t a lot of others above the A level ready to help. Perhaps after a vigorous trading frenzy this season they will take the next step on the pitching front.
Josh Hader has actually dominated but Jorge Lopez has struggled
Wouldn’t say Hader has struggled. His ERA was under 1 before his promotion to AAA.
But I would agree they don’t have much as far as pitching prospects go after Hader.
Not so sure about having no bats. Arcia obviously as you mentioned, Phillips average is down but he’s still got 24 XBH, and an .OPS over .800, Nottingham is hitting with some pop but will never be a real high average guy, Clark has struggled a little bit this year but still has a high ceiling, and Lara, Diaz, and Orimoloye still project as above average hitters. Those last 4 are probably still all at least 3 years out, but there is potential there. When you add in the fact that Villar is controllable for quite a while and Ray and Erceg I feel WAY better about the batters coming than the pitching, even if it will be a few years. Hader has struggled since the call up, but I think he’ll be fine, but Medrios, Ponce, and Lopez have all been awful and Devin Williams continues his slide down the list on what once looked like a promising guy. The guy I can’t wait to see get back is Kirby, but the injury obviously has really set him back. They need to get someone who projects as a top of the rotation arm in any deals they make this year.
Hader was recently promoted after starting with a .95 era with 88k thru 69 innings in AA. Over the course of 11 starts…He’s now 22 in AAA… That’s not exactly struggling… Lopez I agree but hader has been great….
I think if we do trade Braun/Lucroy/Carter we need to get pitching prospects back. While I love Hader and I think Lopez, Medeiros and Devin Williams all have the potential to be rotation pieces I still think we need that future “Ace” in our system. Also it’s no excuse for Lopez’s terrible numbers but he is pitching in Colorado…what starter has ever had success in that city?