Brewers Prospect Weekly: Bitonti's Power Week Turns Heads, Hardin Fans 12 at Nashville
By Mason Grant ·
Brewers Prospect Weekly covers the last 7 days of action for the Brewers farm system.
Bitonti's Monster Week at High-A
Eric Bitonti (A+, 1B, Rank: 23) went 11-for-26 with four home runs, five doubles, and 13 RBI over his last seven days at Wisconsin, a line that would look outrageous for any prospect and borders on absurd for a 20-year-old whose profile centers on a 40 hit tool and a body still being asked to prove it can stick at the hot corner. Bitonti's 60 raw power grade was never in question, but a week like this one asks whether the bat can actually get to it often enough to matter. The full-season numbers at High-A already showed something real: a .272/.393/.532 line across 456 plate appearances with 24 home runs and 83 RBI, plus a 16.7 percent walk rate that reflects genuine zone awareness rather than passive hitting. The strikeout rate, sitting at 33.6 percent, is the honest part of the profile, but a 20-year-old first baseman putting up those damage numbers in a full A+ season is not a profile you dismiss.
What makes this week more than a fluke is the 30-day window backing it up. Over his last 116 plate appearances, Bitonti is slashing .295/.397/.600 with seven home runs and eight doubles, a sustained power surge that goes well beyond a hot series against a weak rotation. His swing rate has tightened slightly over that stretch to 41.6 percent, and his contact rate has held around 62 percent, so the extra-base production is coming from better execution on hittable pitches, not a decision to hack at everything. The scouting report frames him as a second-division regular at best if the hit tool climbs to fringe-average. A 20-year-old posting a .600 slugging month at High-A with a 16-plus percent walk rate is making that projection look like a floor rather than a ceiling. The path to a third base future is still uncertain given his footwork and lateral agility, and first base may be where this lands, but the bat is ahead of schedule regardless of where he ends up standing defensively.
Hardin's Best Week in a Bumpy Triple-A Season
Tyson Hardin (AAA, RHP, Rank: 20) delivered eight innings of two-run ball against International League hitters this past week, striking out 12 and walking just two while generating 23 swinging misses on 129 pitches. That is his longest outing of the season and his cleanest by a significant margin, a welcome development for a pitcher whose Triple-A ERA sits at 4.86 through 83-plus innings. The 30-day context around this week is less flattering: a 6.88 ERA across 17 innings with 25 strikeouts and 13 earned runs, which means the week was genuinely exceptional rather than a continuation of a rolling hot stretch. Still, the whiff volume and the low walk total are what Hardin needs to show. His season-long walk rate at Triple-A is a tidy 6.8 percent, and the 12 strikeouts this week are consistent with a 25.4 percent strikeout rate on the year. When the fastball is commanding both edges and the slider is tunneling off the four-seamer, he misses bats at a real rate.
The problem is what happens when the timing drifts. Hardin's four-seamer sits 95 to 97 mph, plus by velocity, but it grades average because location consistency is still erratic. The changeup grades fringe-average and remains his biggest liability against left-handed hitters, which has driven some of the hard contact and run-scoring clusters that have kept the ERA elevated. His Double-A numbers from earlier this season were genuinely rough, a 7.67 ERA in 29-plus innings, though the move to Nashville came after that and the 4.86 number at Triple-A is at least defensible for a 24-year-old still figuring out how to command a mid-rotation fastball. The back-end starter projection with an up-down ceiling is still the right read. But a week that featured 12 strikeouts, two walks, and 23 whiffs across eight innings gives the development staff something real to point to. If he can hold the walk rate and start trusting the changeup against lefties, the fifth-starter path is still there.
Quick Hits
Andrew Fischer (AA, 3B, Rank: 7) · went 6-for-23 with four home runs and 8 RBI across 23 plate appearances at Biloxi, his 42nd and 43rd home runs of the season coming against Southern League pitching. His combined slash across High-A and Double-A reads .267/.399/.638, and over his last 30 days at Double-A he is hitting .195/.324/.529 with nine home runs in 108 plate appearances. The contact rate sits at 61.7 percent and the strikeout rate has climbed to 36.1 percent over that stretch, so the power is real and the swing-and-miss is equally real. A 60 power grade and a 50 hit tool give him a shot at an everyday first base role if the contact settles, and 42 home runs across two levels before September is a convincing argument that the power translates.
Jeferson Quero (AAA, C, Rank: 8) · drove in 5 runs on 2 hits, including 2 home runs, across 10 plate appearances this week at Nashville, his 16th and 17th home runs of the year. The season-long line at Triple-A stands at .257/.331/.419, which is modest but consistent with his profile as a 60-grade defender whose offensive ceiling is more gap-to-gap than true power. His last 30 days show a .207/.281/.397 clip in 64 plate appearances, so the week was a welcome spike in an otherwise flat August. A glove-first catcher with average bat-to-ball ability, double-digit home runs in a full Triple-A season are a reasonable outcome and a genuine bonus if this pace holds.
Luke Adams (AAA, 1B, Rank: 12) · reached base in 6 of 15 plate appearances this week, going 4-for-15 with a triple, 5 walks, and a hit-by-pitch. His Triple-A season line reads .259/.418/.509 with 13 home runs in 279 plate appearances, and over the last 30 days he is hitting .289/.500/.474 with a walk rate of 21.4 percent and a strikeout rate of just 7.1 percent. Adams has a 34.6 percent swing rate that borders on extreme passivity, and a 78.3 percent contact rate when he does swing, which gives him an unusual approach signature in the system. The 45 hit tool and 50 power grade feel right, but a .500 OBP in a 30-day window at Triple-A is worth tracking.
Daniel Dickinson (A+, 2B, Rank: 33) · tallied 6 hits, a double, a triple, a home run, and 3 RBI in 29 plate appearances, adding 3 walks and 2 hit-by-pitches. Over his last 30 days he is slashing .337/.446/.584 with four home runs and nine doubles across 121 plate appearances, an extension of the same surge covered in last week's edition. The season line at High-A reads .272/.422/.433 with 10 home runs and 25 doubles, and his 83 walks against 100 strikeouts remain one of the cleaner discipline profiles in the full-season minors at this level. The 40 power grade continues to look conservative.
Sawyer Strosnider (A+, OF, Rank: 4) · went 7-for-28 with two doubles, a triple, and 4 RBI, drawing 4 walks and taking 2 hit-by-pitches across 28 plate appearances. His full-season line at Wisconsin sits at .323/.440/.500 across 75 plate appearances, though the sample is still short. A 60 power tool and 55 speed grade in an everyday right field projection give Strosnider a higher ceiling in the system; the current contact rate of 66.9 percent on a 40.9 percent swing rate suggests the approach is sound even if the hit tool still has development work ahead.
Brailyn Antunez (A, OF, Rank: 31) · drove in 7 runs on 5 hits, including a double and a triple, across 24 plate appearances at Wilson, adding 3 walks and 2 hit-by-pitches. Over his last 30 days he is slashing .372/.471/.628 with five home runs and five doubles in 102 plate appearances at Low-A. His combined season line across both levels sits at .311/.415/.553 with 16 home runs. An 18-year-old center field profile with a 70 speed grade and an emerging 50 power tool, the strikeouts, 110 on the combined season, are the honest risk in the profile, but this level of production at full-season ball at his age keeps the everyday center field projection credible.
Brock Wilken (AAA, 1B, Rank: 18) · went 7-for-23 with a double, 2 home runs, and 6 RBI at Nashville, his 15th and 16th home runs of the season. His full-year line reads .191/.328/.376 across 470 plate appearances, a modest number that reflects both real power and a hit tool graded at 40. The 30-day window is better, a .233/.350/.430 slash with four home runs in 103 plate appearances, suggesting August has been kinder. At 24 years old with a 60 raw power grade and an everyday projection at first base, the bat needs to carry a thinner defensive profile; weeks like this one are the argument that it can.
Jacob Morrison (A+, RHP, Rank: 42) · threw four scoreless innings against High-A hitters, allowing 1 hit and no walks while striking out 6 and generating 7 swinging misses on 57 pitches. The outing stood out for the efficiency: 27 of 57 pitches for strikes. His season ERA at High-A sits at 3.92 across 20-plus innings since joining Wisconsin, a notable improvement over his 5.34 mark at Low-A earlier in the year. A four-pitch mix headlined by a four-seamer sitting 93 to 96 mph, the 45 grade on his changeup remains the developmental piece to watch as he moves toward Double-A conversations.
J.D. Thompson (AA, LHP, Rank: 27) · turned in a mixed week at Biloxi: 9.1 innings across two starts, 11 strikeouts, 24 swinging misses, but 9 walks and 3 earned runs over 42 batters faced. His season walk rate at Double-A has climbed to 18.7 percent, and the 40 command grade is the honest read right now. The 55-grade changeup is the best weapon in the arsenal and shows up in a 30-day whiff rate of 34.1 percent, but the fastball command against both sides of the plate remains the primary hurdle between Thompson and a back-end starter path.
Josh Knoth (AA, RHP, Rank: 26) · was promoted from High-A Wisconsin to Double-A Biloxi on August 27, his first assignment at the level. In 16 starts at Wisconsin this season, he posted a 4.33 ERA across 68.2 innings with 66 strikeouts and 26 walks. The jump to the Southern League will be his most significant test yet.
Eduardo Garcia (AAA, SS, Rank: 46) · returned from a 7-day IL stint on August 26 and went 2-for-9 with a home run across 11 plate appearances in three games at Nashville. His Triple-A season line reads .193/.280/.293 across 161 plate appearances with significant strikeout pressure at a 34.2 percent clip. A glove-first shortstop whose offensive profile grades out at 40 hit and 40 power, the return is welcome but the bat remains the question mark in a quad-A projection.
Brady Ebel (A+, SS, Rank: 17) · was placed on the 7-day injured list at Wisconsin on August 26, his last appearance coming on August 25. No diagnosis has been confirmed. In his brief seven-game stint at High-A this season, he hit .160/.300/.280 across 30 plate appearances after posting a strong .261/.417/.420 line with 10 home runs and 39 steals in 494 plate appearances at Low-A.