Brewers prospects post banner day for Biloxi

It was a banner day for Biloxi, when top Brewers prospects Jackson Chourio (No. 1) and Jeferson Quero (No. 3) combined for four home runs and six hits while accounting for all six of the Double-A squad's runs in its 12-6 loss.

But let’s give credit where credit is due: three of those dingers came off the bat of Quero.

The 20-year-old not only enjoyed the first three-homer game of his career, but it was the first multihomer game of any kind for Quero, doubling his season long ball total in a single night. The backstop also posted five RBIs, marking the first time that he’s driven in more than three runs in a game.

Quero last went yard on May 4, but he wasted no time on Tuesday with a solo jack to left field in his first at-bat of the day off Chattanooga righty Sam Benschoter in the second inning. He took the Lookouts hurler deep again in his next trip to the plate in the fourth, homering off a pitch in nearly the same spot as the first for another dinger to left, this time a two-run knock.

In the fifth, Benschoter was still on the mound and he was about to face both Quero and Chourio again. First, MLB’s No. 2 prospect parked an 0-1 pitch to right field for a solo shot to lead off the frame, and four batters later, Quero took advantage of a mistake on 0-2 and sent his third homer of the game to the exact same spot in the park that he hit the first two.

Scouts rave about Quero’s defense and ability to handle a pitching staff, but his bat has more than shown out in the first six weeks of the season. The Venezuela native was somewhat aggressively promoted to Double-A to begin 2023 after garnering only 20 games of High-A experience in 2022, and he’s certainly looked like he belongs with the Shuckers, boasting a .296/.333/.556 slash line with nine extra-base hits and 14 RBIs in 22 games.

Chourio, 19 years old and the youngest player at the Double-A level, has recently started tapping back into his power after going yard just three times in his first 28 games. The outfielder went opposite field on a 99 mph heater off Angels flamethrower Ben Joyce on May 12, and he once again found the same part of the park when he clubbed a high fastball over the right-field wall in the fifth frame.

It’s Chourio’s fifth home run this season, his fourth off a righty and his third to the opposite field. His other two homers have gone to left and center field, displaying the Venezuela native’s ability to hit to all fields. After a relatively slow start to the 2023 campaign, the teenager brought his average up to .273 with a three-hit day, his second such effort of the year -- he singled to right in the third and to center in the ninth.

With the organization’s No. 2 prospect, Sal Frelick, out until at least June after undergoing UCL surgery in his thumb, Chourio and Quero are Milwaukee’s top two active prospects, and they’re giving fans and the organization something to be truly excited about.