1-20: OF Garrett Mitchell, UCLA
2-53: SS Freddy Zamora, Miami
3-92: C Zavier Warren, Central Michigan
4-121: OF Joey Wiemer, Cincinnati
5-151: SS Hayden Cantrelle, Louisiana-Lafayette
The Brewers knew what they were looking for in this class, spending all five picks on well-known college bats. I think they did a great job picking up talent, especially starting off with one of my favorite players in the entire class, Garrett Mitchell. Mitchell has serious top of the draft upside, and I think his floor is plenty high enough to have justified the pick far earlier in the first round, so the Brewers got a steal. Behind him, Freddy Zamora and Zavier Warren come with higher floors, while Joey Wiemer is somewhat of a Mitchell-lite and has a ton of upside. Hayden Cantrelle, meanwhile, has a good combination of upside and floor as well if he can shake off an awful 2020 season. I like the class overall.
Full index of team reviews here.
1-20: OF Garrett Mitchell, UCLA (my rank: 6)
I meant it when I stuck Mitchell well inside the top ten of my rankings. I don't think we've seen an amateur hitter with his combination of raw power, speed, and polish in a long time, and I think a team should have been perfectly happy to draft him in the top ten picks. So, why did Mitchell fall? I don't think any single team saw him as the 20th best player in the class, it's just that no single team felt comfortable spending their one first round pick on him. It's been well-publicized that he's a Type I diabetic, which concerned a lot of teams, but which personally I don't give a crap about. My fianceé is a diabetic athlete and she kicks ass on the equestrian circuit. Anyways, the diabetes talk ends there, because Mitchell is a hell of a ballplayer. He's a top of the scale runner who can change games with his speed, and he's a plus pure hitter that has hit .350/.419/.550 with six home runs, 23 stolen bases, and a 44/33 strikeout to walk ratio over 77 games since the start of the 2019 season. In batting practice, he shows parking lot power that should scare anybody parking beyond the outfield wall, right up there with some of the best power hitters in the class. However, he employs much more of a line drive approach in games and has hit just six home runs in 121 games in his college career, all of which came in 2019, instead spraying doubles and triples into the gaps and running wild on the bases. The Brewers had massive success with a similar hitter in Christian Yelich and will hope to help Mitchell tap that power way earlier in his career. If they can, he has Yelich-like upside, which is extremely exciting. Mitchell uses his speed well in the outfield and will be a plus defender in center field, adding in a cannon arm because why not. Slot value is $3.24 million. Pre-draft profile here.
2-53: SS Freddy Zamora, Miami (my rank: 88)
Zamora earns a lot of comparison to Rays competitive balance pick Alika Williams, and for good reason. A glove-first shortstop, he had a relatively strong showing with the bat as a sophomore in 2019, slashing .296/.393/.447 with six home runs, 13 stolen bases, and more walks (31) than strikeouts (27), but his stock has slipped since. He was briefly suspended over the offseason for "violating team rules," and just before the 2020 season began, he blew out his knee and would have missed the entire season even if it played out. He makes consistent, line drive contact from the right side, and while nobody is mistaking him for a power hitter, he's hit for more impact as he's grown and he could profile for close to average power. Defensively, he's supremely talented and can make the big play with anybody in this class, but he lacks focus at times and makes unnecessary mistakes. The Brewers have some rough edges to iron out with Zamora, but there is some really nice upside as a 10-15 home run bat who can get on base and play very good defense at shortstop. He signed for $1.15 million, which is $220,000 below slot, saving some money for other over slot candidates. Pre-draft profile here.
3-92: C Zavier Warren, Central Michigan (my rank: 108)
This is a really nice pickup fro the Brewers, one that could end up being a steal. Warren is an extremely consistent hitter who has produced everywhere he's gone, including an exceptional .363/.498/.571 slash line with eight home runs and more walks (59) than strikeouts (56) in 60 games as a sophomore and a strong showing on the Cape as well. He takes very professional at bats, working counts and hunting his pitch, and turns that into consistent line drive and extra base contact from both sides of the plate. While he will always be hit over power, there is some home run power in there as well, and he could profile for 15 or more per season with high on-base percentages if he reaches his ceiling. He's played shortstop at Central Michigan, but he profiles more at second or third base in pro ball because he lacks the necessary range. The Brewers, interestingly, drafted him as a catcher, a position he played in high school, and if they can refine his game back there, this could be a real steal. He's probably a utility infielder/fringe starter as it currently stands, still solid value for the third round, but as a catcher, that bat profiles as a full timer, huge value at pick #92. This will be interesting to watch. Slot value sits at $637,600, though I imagine he could take a slight discount.
4-121: OF Joey Wiemer, Cincinnati (my rank: 138)
The second straight Michigan native drafted by the Brewers, Wiemer might be the exact opposite of Warren as a player. While Warren is a professional, high-floor type with a great track record, Wiemer is all over the place and does not have a track record. Over three years at Cincinnati, Wiemer is a career .264/.379/.408 hitter with 12 home runs, 35 stolen bases, and a 104/71 strikeout to walk ratio over 122 games, solidly decent numbers but nothing to write home about for a fourth round draft pick at a mid-major program. He's a lanky, 6'5" athlete with lots of raw pop and speed, but he hasn't put it together yet. He starts from a noisy setup in which he holds his hands high over his head before dropping them down in his load, using a big leg kick and a long follow through to generate power. He has an aggressive approach, too, but he toned it down a little bit in 2020 and everything considered, there still isn't that much swing and miss in his game. I mean, there is, but not as much as you'd expect given the profile. If the Brewers can calm Wiemer down a little bit, they could have a real breakout, power/speed threat on their hands. Slot value is $437,700, which sounds about right.
5-151: SS Hayden Cantrelle, Louisiana-Lafayette (my rank: 137)
Coming up to the 2020 season, Cantrelle looked like a top two rounds pick. He hit .309/.426/.504 with nine home runs and 28 stolen bases as a sophomore at Louisiana in 2019, the more than held his own with a .303/.404/.419 line over 42 games in the elite Cape Cod League. However, 2020 was a different story – over 17 games, he hit just .136/.320/.237 with one home run and a 16/12 strikeout to walk ratio. He wasn't getting many good pitches to hit and that threw a wrench in his approach at the plate, as he made lots of weak contact and just didn't produce at all. The Brewers are hoping those 17 games were just a fluke, as Cantrelle does show some real upside as a player. The switch hitter has a simple swing that ~usually~ produces consistent line drive contact and moderate power from a 5'11" frame, while his speed enables him to pick up extra bases when he drives the ball to the gaps. He's also a solid defender who could remain at shortstop with a little added refinement, though a guy like Freddy Zamora could push him off the position and let him become an above average second baseman. The upside here is 15-20 home runs a year with solid on-base percenages, but he'll have to get back to the hitter he was before and cut down on some moderate swing and miss as well. If Brewers fans want to get to know their fifth rounder, he's very active on his YouTube channel, 5Guy. Slot value is $353,700, but I think it might take a little bit more to get the Lafayette native out of Lafayette.
Undrafted: 2B Drew Smith, Grand Canyon (unranked)
Drew Smith, from the Omaha area, began his career at Creighton before spending two very successful years at Northeast CC in Nebraska, then transferred to Grand Canyon for his redshirt junior year. He was off to a hot start, slashing .315/.412/.466 with two home runs and a 7/9 strikeout to walk ratio over 18 games before the season shut down. Smith has a very simple, line drive swing from the right side of the plate, which when combined with good plate discipline, helps him make very consistent contact. There is some power in there as well, but at 5'10", he's unlikely to get to average in that regard. He probably fits as a utility infielder who can get on base and play hard, but the upside is relatively modest. Even though he's a redshirt junior, he's closer in age to a regular junior in that he doesn't turn 22 until September.
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