Brewers Minor League Link Report (6/19): Misiorowski Rebounds in a Big Way; Chirinos Sends Darvish to the Showers in 5 RBI Night

[Joseph Zarr]

It was a 4-0 mark for the full-season clubs - without looking, it sure felt like it's been awhile. It was a 5-0 mark if we include the ACL Crew. It was a 6-0 mark if we include the Brewers.

Nashville outscored Durham 6-3 in the middle innings to pull away for the win. The Shuckers rode RHP Jacob Misiorowski's stellar start and plated five winning runs in the sixth and eighth frames. The T-Rats rode LHP Tate Kuehner's performance to a second consecutive victory in Fort Wayne. The Mudcats rewarded RHP Daniel Corniel's quality start and plated two late for the 'W'. And, in the desert the ACL Brewers finally had a clean inning and stole one 12-10. Lets get into the report!

Image courtesy of Brewer Fanatic

Transactions:

• INF/OF Eduardo Garcia was activated and assigned to the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers
• INF Oliver Dunn was optioned to the Nashville Sounds by the Milwaukee Brewers
• RHP Bradley Blalock was recalled by the Milwaukee Brewers from the Biloxi Shuckers
• INF Tyler Black was recalled by the Milwaukee Brewers from the Nashville Sounds
• OF Frandy LaFond was assigned to the DSL Brewers #2 from the DSL Brewers #1

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Final:  Nashville 9, Durham (Rays) 4

Via the Sounds' website, please be sure to click and read each of the affiliate write-ups as part of your season-long Link Report routine (believe me, it's worth it):

Sounds Snap Losing Streak in Debut as Elite Giants - Mejía Totals Three Hits

Box Score / Game Log

Pre-Game Media Notes

The Sounds ended their five game skid when they broke away in the middle innings. It's clear, with the cloudy starting pitcher scene in the Brewers pitching staff, the plan is to stretch out RHP Taylor Clarke. Clarke managed to complete 4 2/3 IP - his longest outing of the season. He has now pitched four innings or more in 3-of-4 June starts for the Sounds. He did surrender a solo shot in the top of the fifth frame on an inside belt high 93 mph heater. It was launched out at 95.7 mph and lofted quite a bit over that far right field wall. Regardless, I think most managers will gladly take two earned runs over a near five-inning outing from their starter. All told, Clarke manage to give up 5 H, 2 BB, 2 ER, 1 HR, with 1 WP and 6 K in his 4 2/3 IP. Not enough for a win in his stat column but enough to help his team grab a 'W' in theirs. Clarke threw 59 of his 92 overall pitches for strikes.

Three Quick Strikes:

1) C Fancisco Mejía got some sweet 'revenge' on his former team with a 3-for-4, 1 R, 2 RBI evening. His biggest knock in a fine day at the plate was a two-run opposite field line drive double down the third base line to plate two insurance runs in the bottom of the seventh. Mejía continues to have a really decent season back with his original parent organization. Unfortunately, he was credited with two passed balls on the evening - only his third of the year. In other words, these haven't been a recurring issue whatsoever.

2) RHP Tyler Woessner continues to struggle and regress at the Triple-A level. He opened the eighth inning in relief protecting a 9-4 Sounds advantage. He proceeded to walk the first batter faced on four pitches. It didn't get any prettier from there. The velocity continues to sit low 90's and he just isn't controlling his toolkit regardless of the velocity fluctuations as it is. Woessner is barely treading water. A 1/3 IP, 3 BB outing is absolutely not what the doctor ordered as the Sounds try to repair his season. If these struggles and inefficiencies continue, it would certainly appear a re-assignment to Biloxi could be in the cards.

3) OF Brewers Hicklen is clearly rusty as he returns from a three-week injury absence. More than anything, his timing at the dish appears just a tick behind. This just isn't the same bat we witnessed pre-injury - and, I don't say this with any concern as he's only had four games of exposure. I personally envision he'll need at least this series to fine-tune his swing and overall timing. He's too talented an offensive player to stay down for much longer.

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Final: Biloxi 5, Rocket City (Angels) 0

Misiorowski's Dominant Start Leads Biloxi to Shutout Win over Trash Pandas - Miz Ties Career High with Six Shutout Innings

Box Score / Game Log  

Pre-Game Media Notes

You have to love the a rebound, one hit, six-inning shutout effort just one start after arguably Misiorowski's worst start of his Minor League career. Despite the HB in the first inning, 'The Miz' was dialed in shortly thereafter. Zero walks. One hit. Nothing hit particularly hard throughout - 10 GO to 3 FO. Let's toss in a shutout quality start for good measure. Interestingly, with this as a baseline you can see why we all want so much more - perhaps, we're just greedy. The off-speed offerings actually weren't especially accurate consistently. Sure, he threw in some fantastic sliders as only Misiorowski can do, but even in an outing like this you can see the improvements needed to reach that next level only the truly elite arms reach. I'm not ever going to complain about 6 IP, 1 H, 5 K, 0 R, 1 HB. BUT, by my eyes this type of performance 'should' and could be this young man's baseline. We 'should' all be yearning to trend further upward from here. I sincerely hope we can witness further growth in 2024.

 

Three Quick Strikes:

1) It should be understood by now, but let me remind you: when Ernesto Martinez Jr. gets a hold of a ball, few in Minor League baseball can hit it harder. The Trash Pandas announcer claimed he hadn't ever seen a ball leave the Trash Panda's yard so quickly as this two-run 421 foot rocket  in the top of the eighth frame:

 

2) Is 3B Brock Wilken heating up? Oh man, I sure hope so. Just one night after his oppo taco, we saw a rocket double deep off the left field wall over an outstretched glove and we saw a reach muscled line drive single to left field in the ensuing AB. 2-for-5, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 K. OPS back above 0.700 at 0.706. When we're crawling out of the cave, we have to follow any slivers of light. I'm starting to see the lumens with these recent efforts.

3) In a nine-inning shutout, the bullpen deserves some love. Tip of the cap and kudos are deserved from the combined scoreless work from RHP's Nick Merkel and Justin Yeager. Of the two, I was particularly impressed by Merkel. He was extremely effective in his 2.0 IP of 0 H, 0 BB, 1 K, 0 R, 1 HB ball. When his breaking ball is dialed, he is a force to be reckoned with. 

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Final: Wisconsin 8, Fort Wayne (Padres) 3

Chirinos Drives in Five as Wisconsin Wins Fourth Straight - Rattlers DH Cracks Tape-Measure, Three-Run Homer off Yu Darvish

Box Score / Game Log  

Pre-Game Media Notes

LHP Tate Kuehner was absolutely cruising through 5 IP. In his sixth and final inning of work, a brief downpour clearly impacted his off-speed grips leading to a walk. A bit of bad luck on some weak contact. Another walk. And, just like that a sublime outing became tarnished. Lets not miss the forest for the trees here, however: he was absolutely fantastic. 5 1/3 IP, 2 H, 2 BB, 1 ER, 7 K. As the Tin Caps announcers noted: the home bats were out of sorts. They couldn't sit on anything because his off-speed offerings were so zesty. It was the best I've seen him. We certainly appear to have somethings in Manfredi and Kuehner and I am all aboard the savvy lefty bandwagon.

Three Quick Strikes:

1) One has to imagine there will be a day in DH Jesus Chirinos' off-season when he looks back plating five runs off MLB's RHP Yu Darvish. And, let me tell you: his three-run homer on a mistake high heater was absolutely demolished. The camera couldn't find it. They were searching in a daze. 

He followed this up, in his next AB, by plating two more on a looping line drive single to center field. I was not kidding: Chirinos drove Darvish to the showers.

2) I continue to absolutely love 2024 RHP Chase Costello. I obviously love the results - tonight's 1 2/3 IP, 1 H, 0 BB, 2 K, 0 R work also included helping Kuehner out of his bases loaded jam. But, it's more with Costello. He has an old school look to boot. He has the imposing size, the swagger, the long hair, and a fine mustache for good measure. I'll take him in my bullpen seven days a week. No blinks.

3) What more can you ask for from a young man than what LF Felix Valerio gave us in his first full-season ball of 2024? 3-for-4, 1 3B, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 K is a fantastic night of work at the dish. He was smiling out there to boot. It was fantastic to see after some really tough times in Biloxi the past season plus. It's really apropos to point out: this talented young man is still just 23 years old (12/26 birthday).

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Final: Carolina 4 , Columbia (Royals) 2

Box Score / Game Log 

RHP Daniel Corniel made one mistake and it cost him two runs. Regardless, the 19-year-old was fantastic yet again. 6 IP, 4 H, 1 BB, 5 K, 1 HR, 2 ER. He is stacking success. The poise he and Rodriguez have shown in 2024 is uncanny. They rarely have blow-up innings of any kind - having watched as much Low-A ball as I have I can not impart to you how impressive they have been at such young ages. Corniel has now pitched 54 innings in Low-A. 55 K-to-21 BB. 6 HB. Batters are hitting a woeful 0.211 BAA overall.  He did not factor in tonight's final decision, and unfairly holds a 3-2 record overall in 11 GS.

Three Quick Strikes:

1) RHP Brailin Rodriguez continues to work hard to find his footing in the Low-A Carolina League. He tends to put too many runners aboard as he adjusts to game action and tonight's outing was no different. All his base runners came aboard in his first frame. Rodriguez ultimately faced a precarious bases loaded, one out, situation  - two singles and a walk led to the scene. In a truly inexplicable moment, the Fireflies hit a deep Sac Fly to Luis Castillo in left field. However, the runner also tagged from second base. Castillo wisely saw this and sent the ball in that direction. Miguel Briceno laid down the tag and the Mudcats escaped before the leading run crossed. The game remained 1-1 headed to the ninth. A truly inexplicable out on the base paths. 

2) The Mudcats tipped a cap to their ACL roots. Winning runs in the ninth frame crossed via 2 WP and one free pass. Ahhh, yes the days of summer. After the blown sac fly attempt by the Fireflies in the bottom of the eighth, it is rumored audible sighs were heard in their dugout followed by crickets.

3) No CF Yophery Rodriguez after last night's discernible limp following an attempt to leg it out for an infield hit. No SS Cooper Pratt - likely a well-deserved day of rest. No INF Juan Baez - still out with injury (purported not serious as of the last we knew). Hats off to the Carolina pitching staff. Hats off to the under-recognized depth in the dugout. Hats off to the Carolina coaching staff and manager Nick Stanley for imparting a gritty winning attitude to the team as a whole. 

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Final: ACL Brewers 12, ACL Guardians 10
Box Score / Game Log

This game got real interesting after the fifth frame. The Brewers trailed 4-0 early but plated two in the fifth to take the 5-4 lead. From there, it was a see-saw affair until the final frame. Five lead changes throughout. One thing is certain in the 2024 Brewers ACL: they're going to give up runs. The question going into every night remains: will they score more? They've scored the most runs in the entire ACL. They've also allowed the most. They have a -30 run differential as a result. One has to think if they had any semblance of a dependable pitching staff - less youth learning on the fly, in other words - they'd be near the top of the standings. As is, even with tonight's victory, they sit at 15-19 - good for 10th in a 15 team League.

That's the macro view. If we scrutinize the box score and game logs further, we see that young 17-year-old RHP Melvin Hernandez really struggled in this one. 4 1/3 IP, 7 H, 4 BB, 5 K, 3 ER. That's a lot of traffic on the basebaths. 21-year-old RHP Felipe De Los Santos followed suit with a tough time of his own in 2 2/3 IP of 5 H, 4 BB, 1 K, 3 ER ball. And, despite the blown save we can acknowledge 22-year-old RHP Jose Nova did manage to pitch a clean ninth inning to pick up the win improving to 1-1 on his season. Offensively, it's nice to see Eric Bitonti back in the line-up with a 1-for-3, 1 RBI showing. Rehabbing C Brian Navarreto (DH in this one) grabbed a couple knocks - 1 2B, 1 R, 2 RBI - but he also struck out three times in five trips to the dish. There's quite a bit to sift through when your team pours forth 12 hits so take a gander at the box score linked above. 20-year-old C Edgardo Ordonez managed to smack his fifth long ball of his season. He also walked twice. He drove in four runs. He continues to be a backstop many of us here at Brewer Fanatic are excited about seeing at Low-A Carolina. 

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That's a wrap for my reports this week. I'll be handing over duties to Daniel and Jim in the days ahead. With the Carolina League opting to cancel the scheduled double-header tomorrow in Columbia (second make-up from early May postponement), we see a seven-game slate on the docket. Both DSL squads will be back at it - will INF Luis Pena be in uniform (fingers crossed!)? LHP DL Hall will be taking the bump for Nashville. RHP Brett Wichrowski will look to get back on track in Rocket City. RHP K.C. Hunt will look to continue his stellar season in Fort Wayne. And RHP Yorman Galindez will look to continue his stellar transition to Low-A ball.

As always, thanks for reading and thanks for supporting Milwaukee Brewers Minor League baseball and the many players deserving of our time and recognition. 

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

Current Milwaukee Brewers Organization Batting Stats and Depth

Current Milwaukee Brewers Organization Pitching Stats and Depth

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[Jim Goulart]

 

[biedergb]

Melvin Hernandez, 17 yo RHP might have struggled in the complex last night (relative to him), but he has been relatively consistent given the league he is pitching in. All but 2 of his appearances he has gone 4 IP or more. Don't know how many pitchers on the Brewers ACL squad can go that many innings without absolute blow out innings, or pitch counts too high due to walks, etc.

And he is a couple of weeks shy of turning 18, so same age as most HS pitchers for this draft, or next years draft.

[SF70]

Agree we might have something special with our 2 lefty starters at Wisconsin. Both I believe, should be pitching for Biloxi before years end, and if that happens would give the team 3 starters and a reliever from the ‘23 draft-class already at AA.

It’s early of course, but I’ve never seen a class perform this well in my 50+ years of following the Brewers farm and we’ve yet to see Birchard or Woodward pitch. 

[Playing Catch]

8 hours ago, Joseph Zarr said:

OF Frandy LaFond was assigned to the DSL Brewers #2 from the DSL Brewers #1

Now there's an 80-grade name.

[Spencer Michaelis]

9 hours ago, Joseph Zarr said:

OF Frandy LaFond was assigned to the DSL Brewers #2 from the DSL Brewers #1

8 minutes ago, Playing Catch said:

Now there's an 80-grade name.

Not only a great name, but from what I've heard, a name we should keep an eye on once he gets into some games. Brewers have liked what they've seen from him after signing.

One video I was able to find on him:

 

[Playing Catch]

So, is this kind of a promotion?

In my own head, the Brewers deem DSL #2 to be the "younger," or "lower," team of the two.

[Joseph Zarr]

12 minutes ago, Playing Catch said:

So, is this kind of a promotion?

In my own head, the Brewers deem DSL #2 to be the "younger," or "lower," team of the two.

I wouldn't see it that way at all - especially considering the rosters. This is more a thing of IF LaFond were to stay on DSL Uno, there would be a 14-to-12 imbalance between their respective field player groups. Now, they sit at an even 13 apiece. I also am going to choose to view this to mean INF Luis Pena's reasons for absence the past game and a half aren't actually all that serious - at least I'm going to tell myself this for, you know, reasons.

[duewizard]

1 hour ago, Smichaelis9 said:

Not only a great name, but from what I've heard, a name we should keep an eye on once he gets into some games. Brewers have liked what they've seen from him after signing.

One video I was able to find on him:

 

Found his TikTok if anyone is interested.

https://www.tiktok.com/@lafond.frandy

[Joseph Zarr]

I just want to say:

I absolutely LOVE that we have co-created a Brewers Fanatic Prospect following Nerd posse over the past few seasons. It truly brings me joy to see all of us passionately supporting these players as we all strive for that one elusive experience:

A Brewers World Series Championship in our lifetimes.

May it be so. May we continue finding precious baseball diamonds in the lowest of levels while following their careers up the proverbial ladder.

[duewizard]

Did some more digging and found some more TikTok accounts for some of the DSL guys. Figured since its a bunch of teens they would have an account.

Most posts don't show much actual baseball but fun to actually see the guys that we only know by names in boxscores. And we do sometimes get some video.

Kevin Ereu, Kegnnalex Seijías- Has an account but no posts

Roderick Flores, Frederi Montero, Moises Polanco, Argenis Aparicio, Lonel Downs, Enderson Mercado, Yeferson Tales and Ayendy Bravo.

Also found a dude called Edwin Moon who claims to be the DSL Brewers video coordinator. Not sure if its true but he does have some behind-the-scenes footage.