Just like the Milwaukee Brewers themselves, a prized-prospect 20-year-old is leading the Milwaukee Brewers' Class A affiliate toward a Midwest League championship.
Cooper Pratt, one of the gems of the 2023 Major League Baseball draft class for the Brewers , has been all over the place for the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, who won a thriller over Lake County on Sunday to move within one win of a league championship.
The high schooler out of Mississippi, taken in the sixth round of the 2023 draft, is regarded as the organization's No. 2 overall prospect by MLB.com and No. 5 by Baseball America. His double off the bag in the bottom of the eighth on Sunday broke a 4-4 tie, and the Timber Rattlers held on for a 5-4 win in the opener of the best-of-three championship series. The two teams play again Tuesday in Ohio, then again on the road Wednesday, if necessary, for all the marbles.
It's far from Pratt's only contribution to Wisconsin's postseason run. Heads-up baserunning enabled him to score from third on a ball on the infield earlier in the game.
On Sept. 12, Pratt drove in the tying run and scored the winning run on a Luke Adams walk-off winner that gave the Rattlers a 2-0 win over Quad Cities in the Midwest League divisional championship with a 7-6 win . Pratt went 3 for 4 with a double, walk and three runs scored.
In a 1-0 win over the River Bandits in Game 1 on Sept. 10, Pratt made a diving catch at shortstop to prevent the tying run from scoring in the ninth, and Wisconsin then nailed down as a 1-0 victory.
The Timber Rattlers, who play home games in Appleton just more than 100 miles north of Milwaukee, last won a Midwest League title in 2012. Former Brewers pitcher Brent Suter closed out the victory in that championship, defeating Fort Wayne, 4-2, for the clincher. Nick Ramirez, who has since converted to pitcher and has worked eight games for the Los Angeles Dodgers this year, was a first baseman drafted by the Brewers in 2011, and he scorched a two-run double that tipped the scales.
Pratt, who just turned 20 years old and is just more than five months younger than Milwaukee phemon Jackson Chourio (in case you needed one last illustration of how absurd Chourio has been), batted .277 this season over two minor-league levels with eight homers and a .768 OPS.
Biloxi Shuckers also headed to playoffs
Another Brewers affiliate, the Class AA Biloxi Shuckers, will begin their best-of-three playoff series for the South Division title Sept. 17 against the Montgomery Biscuits. The Shuckers are in the postseason for the first time since 2019 after securing a berth with a strong second half that ranked them second behind Montgomery (which already clinched a playoff berth by winning the first half).
In Class A, the Carolina Mudcats dropped a 2-0 series to Fredericksburg in the North Division playoffs; Fredericksburg is currently battling with Kannapolis for the Carolina League crown.
Class AAA Nashville was eliminated from playoff contention over the weekend.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: One Milwaukee Brewers top prospect is having a whale of a postseason with Wisconsin Timber Rattlers
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