Andrew Fischer has done just about everything a power-hitting prospect can do in his first pro season - except crack MLB Pipeline’s Top 100.
That disconnect is what has people around the Brewers asking the same question: how is Milwaukee’s 2025 first-round pick and No. 5 prospect not already on the national radar’s biggest list? Fischer added another jolt to his remarkable year Thursday night, crushing his 44th home run of the season. That ties him for eighth all-time in Minor League home runs since the current classification system was put in place in 1963.
He now sits alongside Greg Brock, who launched 44 homers in the Dodgers’ system in 1982 before later being traded to the Brewers. And if Fischer keeps mashing - the Double-A regular season runs through Sept. 13 - he could keep climbing toward even bigger territory. The names ahead of him on that all-time list include Gorman Thomas, who hit 51 for the Brewers’ Triple-A Sacramento club in 1974, and Bill McNulty, who hit 55 for Sacramento that same season.
Fischer’s raw production is impossible to ignore. Entering Thursday, his 156 wRC+ led all qualified players in the Brewers’ system, with Josiah Ragsdale sitting at 162 before he was dealt to the Cardinals in the trade for Dustin May and JoJo Romero.
Fischer also owned a 1.049 OPS, which not only paced Milwaukee’s system but also ranked among the top 10 for qualified Minor League hitters. His .647 slugging percentage was the best in the organization by a wide margin and sat in the top five across the Minors.
So what’s the hold-up?
The answer, according to MLB Pipeline’s prospect evaluators, is the swing-and-miss. Fischer’s 34.1 percent strikeout rate entering Thursday was fourth highest in the Brewers’ system.
His 15.6 percent swinging-strike rate ranked sixth. His 175 strikeouts were sixth most in Minor League Baseball as of Thursday.
“Contact rate is the biggie,” said Sam Dykstra, who works tirelessly to maintain MLB Pipeline’s Brewers Top 30 with input from executives and scouts from across the sport.
Fischer’s contact rate as of Thursday was 63.4 percent.
“It’s possible he could make something in the mid-60s work, given how much he pulverizes balls to the pull side,” Dykstra said. “And there have been some gains in Biloxi, so he's still in the Top 100 discussion when we need replacements the rest of the way.”
That kind of profile can still play. Among Major League qualifiers, the lowest contact rate belongs to White Sox slugger Munetaka Murakami at 58.2 percent, and he leads American League rookies in home runs and OPS.
Kyle Schwarber checks in with the third-lowest rate at 60.5 percent, and he’s MLB’s home run leader. Around the game, Schwarber is the comp people circle when they try to imagine Fischer’s ceiling.
But there’s a reason the rankings haven’t fully bought in yet. As Fischer moves closer to Triple-A and the big leagues, the margin for error shrinks. Better pitchers, better scouting reports and better execution against those reports could make his swing-and-miss more costly.
“It’s all about the K’s,” said Jonathan Mayo, one of MLB.com’s original prospect gurus. “I know a certain amount of strikeouts is perfectly acceptable, especially in today’s game.
His power is impressive, but with a strikeout rate over 33% in the Minors this year, I’m a little concerned about him getting to it once he’s facing big league pitching. Our list isn’t about who is performing well right now, though that obviously is taken into account.
It’s about who we think are going to be the best big leaguers down the road.”
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Brewers Just Took A Quiet Bullpen Hit After The Cubs Series
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San Francisco is bringing Kuhnel in for the rest of the year as an extra arm, and the Brewers now have to sort through the ripple effect of losing a pitcher who was at least in the mix. He had a 4.84 ERA with 22 strikeouts this season, but for Milwaukee the bigger issue is less the numbers than the fact that another depth option is gone at a time when every bullpen inning matters. [Read more 🡒]