Sat. 4/6 - Early Start for Wisconsin. Birchard and Blalock Feature Tonight

[Ro Mueller]

Thread will be utilized for any minor league news Saturday, lineup updates, etc.

Organizational Scoreboard including starting pitcher info, game times, MiLB TV links, and box scores

[Ro Mueller]

RHP Alexander Cornielle starts his early-promotion campaign this afternoon for High-A Wisconsin. Season debuts are on tap for C Ramon Rodriguez, 1B Jesus Chirinos and RF Terence Doston, as the Timber Rattlers strive to even their home series against Peoria. 

[Ro Mueller]

Wisconsin tied their hit total from yesterday (1) via a SS Gregory Barrios infield single in the 2nd inning, but he was then caught stealing. Thankfully, 1B Jesus Chirinos and CF Dylan O'Rae (isn't this lineup better with him in the outfield?) came through with an RBI double and RBI single to grab a 2-0 lead in the same frame.

 

[Ro Mueller]

The Timber Rattlers have loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the 5th inning in this 2-2 game: Luis Lara single, Mike Boeve single, Luke Adams HBP. Time to do some damage in support of Alexander Cornielle, who's probably done at 81 pitches (50 strikes).

[Ro Mueller]

SS Gregory Barrios 2-run double, 2B Jadher Areinamo 2-run single. Wisconsin leads 6-2, still in the 5th inning.

Glove-first Barrios, who'll turn 20 on Monday, consistently puts the ball in play and can steal some bases (32 last year), so if he can keep his BABIP at about .320 (was just .267 last season, helping lead to a deflated OPS of .586 at Low-A Carolina) he can keep climbing the ranks.

 

[Ro Mueller]

25-year old RHP Jake Polancic, coming off 2 solid seasons in the independent Frontier League, got himself into trouble (2 walks), then freed himself from it (GIDP, K).

[Ro Mueller]

20-year old RHP Ryan Birchard (2023 fifth round pick) makes his official first appearance as he looks to lead Low-A Carolina to a 2-0 series lead in Salem. The team also welcomes recently-signed LF Yhoswar Garcia. 

[Ro Mueller]

RHP Bradley Blalock makes his first AA start as Biloxi aims for a 2-0 home series lead over Montgomery. 2B Freddy Zamora and converted-CF Eduardo Garcia get their first starts of 2024. 

[Ro Mueller]

The AAA Sounds are tied 2-2 in their home series against St. Paul, with RHP Tobias Myers making his 2nd start of 2024. Recently-signed Francisco Mejia (2-for-4 yesterday) makes his first start behind the plate. 

[Ro Mueller]

RHPs Ryan Birchard and Jesus Rivero are dominating Salem thus far, conceding only an unearned run and 2 hits while striking out 11 in 7 innings.

Carolina leads 4-1.

1B Tayden Hall, C Satchell Norman, LF Yhoswar Garcia and 2B Miguel Briceno are 8-for-15 with 3 extra base hits, a walk, 3 RBIs and 3 SBs.

Norman exited after 4 1/2 innings, hopefully not due to injury (he’d just struck out).

[Ro Mueller]

Biloxi has just 1 hit through 6 innings, but it’s enough for a 1-0 lead thanks to Bradley Blalock (5 IP, 1 H, 4 Ks) and 2B Freddy Zamora (solo shot):

 

[biedergb]

Any scouting info or videos of Ryan Birchard's debut

[CheeseheadInQC]

If Rivero can keep the control issues in check, that pairing could be pretty fun for as long as it lasts.

[Joseph Zarr]

3 hours ago, biedergb said:

Any scouting info or videos of Ryan Birchard's debut

I am just getting in from 10 hours of forestry work. About to sit down and sip a cold one and <gasps> watch the Mudcats baby. I'll let you know what I see.

[Joseph Zarr]

The pitching has generally been solid in Nashville. The bullpen is once again fantastic. The offense? Very very much a work in progress. Lots of RISP deficiency issues at present. Not a lot of pop in the lineup to date. It's early but these trends will need to shift regardless of how early it is.

Speaking of bullpen efforts - heck of a job by the Shuckers bullpen to hold the 1-0 lead. Muh man RHP Justin Yeager pitches a scoreless 9th to grab the save after LHP's Russ Smith and Justin King did the same. Heck of an effort all the way around. Surely, the Biscuits fans feel their pitching staff accumulating 15 K's while allowing a mere run deserved better.

[Joseph Zarr]

Lovely to see RHP Yerlin Rodriguez kick off his High-A campaign with a 2 K Save. Big time if he can find last year's dominant first half in a higher level of play. He can be downright filthy when he's in control. You love to see it.

[Joseph Zarr]

First thing that stands out with RHP Ryan Birchard is his size. He's a very formidable presence on the mound. I should mention it was clearly cold in Salem - nearly every player was wearing long sleeves and several had face coverage. Birchard was wearing solely the jersey with bare arms. Clearly a man beast.

He was throwing all heat early and missing - five consecutive balls to start things off. Not wild but definitely just missing the zone. After his sixth consecutive ball he dialed it in - tailing away (arm side) from a lefty bat he gets strike one on heat and then gets a strike looking on an inside breaking ball and swinging on what might have been a change-up. Really nice work. Absolutely overpowered and worked Garcia for another K (who was 3-for-4 in the opening game - dominant work from Birchard who appears to have a very tight curveball in his mix). After one inning: lot of life on the heat - batters were well behind - and a very effective breaking ball. 

Inning 2 he opens with a pitch clock violation. Next pitch, an oppo single to LF. Runner advances and, well, C Satchell Norman shows that arm explaining his CS % rate - let me say, a work very much in progress. He gets a Sac fly after another free pass given. INF Juan Baez shows his continually improving and impressive work at 3B by collecting a tricky two hop grounder and firing confidently to 1B while looking the runner back to 2B. He closes the inning with another K on high heat - the batters continually to be behind his heat when it is in the zone. 

Following this inning, btw, Pratt walked. Stole 2B and then 1B Tayden Hall ripped a 107 mph EV double down the RF line. The ball was absolutely smoked. Just a really impressive inning at the dish (aside from Yophery and Luis) - Norman and Garcia with nice knocks. Norman smoked a ball deep off the base of the LF wall. Clearly his bat carried into Low-A so far (his calling card).

Three up and three down in the 3rd frame for Birchard. He K'd Garcia again to end the frame after a pop up to Norman behind home plate and a weak chopper to Birchard down the first base line. So far, it looks to me as though he is primarily working with a heater and a breaking ball mix but it's hard to tell as I'm unsure if the announcers are seeing. I 'think' he threw one or two change ups but was mainly working his heater (that was giving batters all sorts of problems) and a curveball with a slider thrown in. They didn't call it a slider but I saw two off speed movements that were distinctly different. Perhaps @Smichaelis9can chime in here as I know Birchard was one of his favorites.

Side note: Rodriguez has 2 BB and 4 K. He actually has 3 BB and 3 K. The home plate ump in game 2 absolutely blew his full count call 2nd K in the 4th. Just a bad bad call. He looks to have a feel for the zone. Not getting the ball up at all in the couple of ball to bats I've seen. Mainly pulling balls on the ground down 1B foul territory. He did hit a deep fly to dead Center at the base of the 401 mark to straightaway CF. He legged it into a 3-Bagger but 'should' have been thrown out if they get a better relay mark and a better throw to 3B. As such, who cares? The young man got his first triple of Low-A ball on his first hit! Pratt followed with an absolute muscle job jam shot bloop single to shallow Left CF to score Rodriguez and it was suddenly 6-1 in the top of the 8th. All runs came with 2-down. The 1-through-4 of the Mudcats lineup with Baez, Rodriguez, Pratt, and Hall looks  so dang good right now. Very tasty.

4th frame, I think I've seen Brichard's 3rd change-up of his day. Might have been a slider but I watched it a few times and still feel it was a change-up. His curve ball is just filthy so far.

@damuelle: Norman was called out somehow as a K on a pitch that sailed high and in and either slammed into his throwing hand or hit the base of his bat just above his right hand. He was clearly in intense pain. I don't know how the heck you call that a strikeout. In the very least it's a foul ball OR he check swung and it smashed his fingers. 2:28:31 on the replay goes to a slo mo of the play. I think it smashed the heft of the bat above his hands but, again, it certainly could have been high heat into his fingers. In that image you can see the ball laser shooting directly toward the Mudcats dugout. You also see he has already dropped his right hand due to the impact. I think it was a bang bang massive vibration stinger but if that pitch hit his hand there could definitely be broken fingers. Hopefully it isn't akin to Wiemer's injuries previously. Anyhow, fwiw. Didn't look great. Hopefully, he dodged a bullet. 

Birchard left after 4 complete IP to give way to Rivero. All told, fantastic first outing. 4 IP, 1 H, 2 BB, 6 K, 0 ER? Ummm, yeah.

BTW, KC Hunt has some nasty in him. He's got some really tasty off-speed breaking stuff. Throws them hard and they have late break. He struck out the side in the 9th and looked quite good doing it.

[Ro Mueller]

Thank you @Joseph Zarr for the helpful observations.

[biedergb]

@Joseph Zarr

that was awesome. Thank you so much. I’m really excited about the lower levels again. Can’t wait to see who breaks out this year in Appleton and Zebulon.

[Spencer Michaelis]

Sorry @Joseph Zarr, this is my super busy part of the year so I’m a bit behind on these threads so far haha. But yes Birchard was definitely throwing both a slider and a curve! Both could be above average to plus offerings imo