Nottingham once faced those questions, too, but he’s put in significant time answering them in recent seasons. Quality catchers are scarce throughout the minor leagues and a number of the top talents come with question marks surrounding their ability to stick behind the dish. Nottingham isn’t a sleeping giant, exactly, but he remains a quality prospect with as good a chance to crack a future big league roster as any in the still-strong Milwaukee system. Numbers aren’t everything, though, and these in particular mask some tremendous developmental strides. He was tabbed as a bounce-back candidate entering the 2017 campaign, but quickly fell off the radar en route to an underwhelming. 234/.295/.347 batting line through his first turn as a Brewer at AA. He came into the Brewers organization following a powerful 2015 split between the Houston and Oakland systems, then proceeded to post a. At first glance, it’s easy to give short shrift to Nottingham’s development. Take 22-year-old catcher Jacob Nottingham, who’s still on track for a major league career despite posting mediocre offensive numbers in back-to-back seasons at AA Biloxi. Now that some of the cream of the system has been ladled into Miami’s cup, it’s time to become (re)acquainted with a few of the promising minor leaguers who’ve been buried behind teammates with louder tools or higher rankings. Prospect hounds, take heart: Even after Milwaukee exchanged a number of potential stars for current-star Christian Yelich, plenty of exciting future major leaguers remain on every rung of the organizational ladder. But after a surprising run atop the standings in 2017 and a pair of bold offseason moves, the Brewers are ready to make that turn. It’s harder, perhaps, to know when pivot back to competitive ball at the highest level. Each new addition to the farm, from Brett Phillips to Keston Hiura, has been greeted by a frenzy of hype, whipped up into a towering mass of expectations that comes crashing down, perhaps unfairly, at any sign of adversity like a nervous soufflé (see: Ray, Corey). The truth is that it’s easier to lose when the future looks bright, and the Brewers system has in recent years been home to a constellation of would-be stars. The last two World Series winners, after all, run on talented young cores that were acquired via lengthy rebuilding projects. By and large, selling a rebuild to fans isn’t that tough.
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