2016 Draft Report Card: Milwaukee Brewers

BEST PURE HITTER: 3B Lucas Erceg (2) was seen as an advanced hitter and lived up to those expectations with a .327/.376/.518 debut between Rookie-level Helena and low Class A Wisconsin. OF Corey Ray (1) projects as at least an average hitter, and his short stroke gives him a chance to be more than that depending on how much he focuses on getting to his power.

BEST POWER HITTER: Ray has above-average power potential and has shown plus raw power. 1B Ronnie Gideon (23) didn’t get much chance to tap into his plus raw power in college, hitting 13 home runs in three years at Texas A&M, but hit 17 home runs in the Pioneer League given almost as many at-bats at Helena as he had in college.

FASTEST RUNNER: Zach Clark (19) is a 70 runner on the 20-to-80 scouting scale underway, although a big swing kslows him coming out of the batter’s box. Ray is a plus runner with a better feel for stealing bases than Clark.

BEST DEFENSIVE PLAYER: Erceg has a 70 arm that helped him touch 97 mph on the mound. He also has excellent short-range agility and good hands. He is a plus third baseman who impressed the Brewers enough they worked on playing him at shortstop in instructional league.

BEST FASTBALL: The Brewers worked on helping RHP Zack Brown (5) get more extension. It paid off as he controlled his 91-94 mph fastball better this summer then he did in an up-and-down spring at Kentucky.

BEST SECONDARY PITCH: RHP Corbin Burnes (4) has a power curveball that flashes plus. a big reason he struck out more than 10 batters per nine innings in his debut.

BEST PRO DEBUT: Erceg hit for average and had 30 extra-base hits in 68 games in his pro debut.

BEST ATHLETE: Ray has power and speed and showed better defense in center field than the Brewers expected. Clark may have the best all-around tools as anyone the Brewers picked in the draft, but he is much further away from utilizing those tools than Ray.

MOST INTRIGUING BACKGROUND: LHP Blake Fox (10) earned Internet fame with a pickoff move where he stood off the rubber removing his cap with his right hand, hid the ball in his left hand and tossed aside his glove to make the pickoff. Gideon’s father Ron has coached and managed in the Rockies system for more than 20 years. Unsigned RHP Kyle Serrano (40) is the son of Tennessee coach Dave Serrano.

CLOSEST TO THE MAJORS: Ray spent of most of his pro debut at high Class A Brevard County. Even if he returns to high Class A to start 2017 he should spend much of next year at Double-A and isn’t far from Milwaukee.

BEST LATE-ROUND PICK: 3B Chad McClanahan (11) signed for $1.2 million. He has the size and power to fit the third base profile, although he has a lot of work to do defensively to get to that point. 3B Weston Wilson (17) lacks a plus tool but is a very well-rounded player.

THE ONE WHO GOT AWAY: RHP Jared Horn (20) was considered a potential first-round pick. The California signee ranked No. 1 on Baseball America’s West Coast League Top 10 Prospects list this summer thanks to his mid-90s fastball an above-average curveball.