Your 2023 Biloxi Shuckers

[Jim Goulart]

Shuckers’ Opening Night is Friday 4/7 - at Mississippi (Braves)

The Biloxi formal announcement next week will come directly from the Shuckers, not the Brewers.

Wisconsin and Carolina will send out their press releases next week within an hour or so of each other once the Brewers have given them the official go-ahead to do so.

Feel free to link to any formal Shuckers notices you see here.

Often, we learn via player tweets, who has been assigned where, prior to the formal affiliate announcements. We'll link to any of those posts in this thread as they come out.

As you might know, we use the "Your 2023" team threads to post and link to feature stories, including audio and video, that are outside the scope of game activity covered in the Daily Minor League Link Report.

These threads have become among the most popular for viewing here, and we look forward to kicking them off formally.

Please do not speculate on any player releases. Brewers Player Development or MiLB.com will update us formally.

[Jim Goulart]

 

[Jim Goulart]

Shuckers Announce Javik Blake as New Broadcaster
Blake gets the nod as the third “Voice of the Shuckers” in franchise history

Congrats, Blake!

***
 

 

[Joseph Zarr]

Very exciting news for Javik and very exciting news for Garrett Greene heading to the Astros Triple-A affiliate at Sugar Land. Best of luck to both talented callers in 2023! 

[Ro Mueller]

Biloxi announces a 29-man Opening Day roster, with 14 pitchers and 15 position players, while a separate graphic published by @BrewersPD has 31 players inclusive of RHPs Abner Uribe and Darrell Thompson: 

[Ro Mueller]

RHP Abner Uribe is conspicuously absent, but he and RHP Darrell Thompson show up on a separate graphic published by @BrewersPD, so let's not fret. RHP Justin Bullock is also missing, but he's likely still recovering or building back strength from a late 2022 injury. 

[Joseph Zarr]

Carlos Rodriguez getting that promotion to Biloxi! Let's Go! Stay healthy, young man. Much deserved given what we saw pre-ACL in 2022. Middendorf and Meeker is going to be a fun combo out of the Pen!

[sveumrules]

Both Carloses Rodriguezes on the same Shuckers squad…the singularity is upon us.

[sveumrules]

Looks like both Zach Vennaro and Harold Chirino saw velocity bumps this spring and were added to the Brewers board over at FanGraphs with these reports…

“Another Indy Ball find for the Brewers, Vennaro was signed after pitching in the Can Am League, and it took extra time for his career to get off of the ground because of the pandemic. After toiling away in the mid-minors for a couple of years, Vennaro showed a nearly three-tick velo boost during the spring of 2023, his fastball moving from 93-95 mph into the 95-98 mph range. To call his delivery funky doesn't do it justice. If Adam Cimber's delivery is George Porter Jr., Vennaro's is Les Claypool. He gets deep into his rear leg and strides open as his arm swings with huge length all the way behind his body before he delivers from a sidearm slot. He's throwing 96 or so with huge tail and sink, and very little feel for location. Command issues and Vennaro's lack of a pitch to deal with opposite-handed hitters limits him to an up/down forecast, but he has uncommonly nasty stuff for that sort of role.”

”Chirino showed a velocity bump in the spring of 2023, working 94-97 with sink while mixing in a two-plane curveball in the 80-84 mph range. He looks like a quality up/down middle inning option.”

[Joseph Zarr]

This is great to hear for Chirino and Vennaro! And, thanks for those shares @sveumrules. Both pitchers, at different times and for extended spells before the entire bullpen collapsed there during the summer, were extremely impactful for Mike Guerrero and his staff in 2022. For Vennaro, in particular, that bump is huge as it will boost his already nasty slider. I imagine we'll see him as option 1B in the Closer role. (Politely reminds self of a certain initial roster release omission of a certain flamethrower named 'Abner Uribe')

 

[wiguy94]

1 hour ago, sveumrules said:

Looks like both Zach Vennaro and Harold Chirino saw velocity bumps this spring and were added to the Brewers board over at FanGraphs with these reports…

“Another Indy Ball find for the Brewers, Vennaro was signed after pitching in the Can Am League, and it took extra time for his career to get off of the ground because of the pandemic. After toiling away in the mid-minors for a couple of years, Vennaro showed a nearly three-tick velo boost during the spring of 2023, his fastball moving from 93-95 mph into the 95-98 mph range. To call his delivery funky doesn't do it justice. If Adam Cimber's delivery is George Porter Jr., Vennaro's is Les Claypool. He gets deep into his rear leg and strides open as his arm swings with huge length all the way behind his body before he delivers from a sidearm slot. He's throwing 96 or so with huge tail and sink, and very little feel for location. Command issues and Vennaro's lack of a pitch to deal with opposite-handed hitters limits him to an up/down forecast, but he has uncommonly nasty stuff for that sort of role.”

”Chirino showed a velocity bump in the spring of 2023, working 94-97 with sink while mixing in a two-plane curveball in the 80-84 mph range. He looks like a quality up/down middle inning option.”

Vennaro pitched in one of those last ST games at the Rockies where statcast data is available. I thought the velo number was interesting. Didn't realize it was that big of an increase. Truly filthy stuff, but seems like he has absolutely no clue where it is going.

[Joseph Zarr]

2 hours ago, wiguy94 said:

Vennaro pitched in one of those last ST games at the Rockies where statcast data is available. I thought the velo number was interesting. Didn't realize it was that big of an increase. Truly filthy stuff, but seems like he has absolutely no clue where it is going.

It's that fine line and most likely will be the difference to where he goes from here. As you say, it's nasty. But, it's nasty when he can effectively keep attacking. His issue, to date, has been the blow up outing. In 2022, for example, 18 of his 35 earned runs conceded on the entire season came in 3 outings. He has the stuff. Now, he apparently has a spike in velo. Can he dial in effective control? As the Fangraphs post above alludes to: he has an insanely deceptive delivery. It makes Middendorf look orthodox. His slider is downright filthy. Now, it's about putting it all together and limiting the damage on a consistent basis. The bullpen in Biloxi is shaping up to be one of the more intriguing early season storylines for me. There are some real weapons in there. And, of course, I'm always waiting for the Robbie Baker break out. Another guy, who with a little tweak here and there, has the tools to be a really solid bullpen arm. Of recent memory (now with the Nationals), I see him as a possible Hobie Harris arm in the Pen.

[Jim Goulart]

 

[Joseph Zarr]

Looks like the Shuckers will be playing an exhibition game Wednesday:

 

[Jim Goulart]

 

[Jim Goulart]

So tempting to fully copy-and-paste, but will resist and limit to a snippet:

For Athletic subscribers, you'll find Keith Law commentary on Jackson Chourio and Felix Valerio here.

Chourio: "I could nitpick the swing a little bit, but I don’t think it matters. His hands and wrists are so quick and so strong that he can even mishit a ball the way he got slightly under that home run and still end up with a good result."

Valerio: "I do think he’s going to bounce back at the plate and hit for more power and a higher BABIP than last year."

[nate82]

I believe Law has been in love with Valerio for awhile now. 

[Joseph Zarr]

1 hour ago, nate82 said:

I believe Law has been in love with Valerio for awhile now. 

He touches on it in the piece, a couple of us touched on it during the season: Valerio's 2022 numbers don't support the amount of solid contact we were seeing through much of the season. This being said, he remains an anomaly due to his extremely restricted defensive versatility.

[Jim Goulart]

LHP Nick Bennett discusses his move to the bullpen within this report

 

[Ro Mueller]

Experimenting in the Southern League: 

https://sports.yahoo.com/mlb-to-test-a-new-enhanced-grip-baseball-in-the-southern-league-in-2023-011149254.html

[Jim Goulart]

VIDEO Report:

 

[Ro Mueller]

Here’s the lineup for tonight’s exhibition game against Pearl River Community College: 

[Joseph Zarr]

I am here (crossing fingers) for the Freddy Zamora bounce back season. Please, oh please, let him be healthy; stay healthy; and toss 2022 in the dumpster and light it on fire.

[wibadgers23]

1 hour ago, Joseph Zarr said:

I am here (crossing fingers) for the Freddy Zamora bounce back season. Please, oh please, let him be healthy; stay healthy; and toss 2022 in the dumpster and light it on fire.

Hoping the same for Valerio! 

[ClosetBrewerFan]

Awesome that they are serious about giving Black an opportunity at 3B.  That could fill a big hole in the future.  Surprised to not see Valerio in the lineup.  Is he battling an injury?