Brewers Minor League Link Report (9/21): Chad Patrick Caps Off a Tremendous Season

[Jim Goulart]

There are certain conversations one would love to have with the Brewers braintrust, including of course VP/GM Matt Arnold. Arnold's acquisitions of starters Aaron Civale and Frankie Montas should rightly be applauded, as they clearly were the proper veteran presences to make sure the Crew brought their division title home. There has been a young (OK, relatively young) starter running circles around AAA batters all season, and if we have seen commentary from Arnold on this Nashville stalwart, it's been deeply buried. Chad Patrick put an exclamation point on his remarkable season-long brilliance on Saturday. Can't wait to find out how Patrick's journey unfolds in 2025 and beyond.

Image courtesy of BrewerFanatic

Transaction:

• RHP Sam McWilliams assigned to Nashville Sounds from Biloxi Shuckers.

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Nashville Pre-Game Media Notes (Not available for this date)
Final: Nashville 6, Norfolk (Orioles) 1
Box Score and Game Log

Via the Sounds’ website, game details, and we encourage readers to review affiliate write-ups as part of their Link Report routine:

Sounds Best Tides, Patrick Picks Up 14th Win - Nashville starter continues stellar season in 6-1 win over Norfolk

In case you didn't read that game summary (c'mon, folks, you know the routine by now 😉), here's some love -

Chad Patrick (5.0 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K) became the first Sounds pitcher since Rodney Bolton in 1995 to reach 14 wins in a season. He’s also the first pitcher in the International League since Cole Irvin (Lehigh Valley) in 2018 to get 14 wins in a season. Patrick lowered his league-best ERA to 2.90 and will finish the Triple-A season with 145 strikeouts, currently the most in the International League.

Patrick finished his fantastic season with a flurry, one run allowed in 17 innings over his last three starts. 

It'd have been nice to have a more recent audio interview archived, but the last one we have with Patrick is from August 9th, you can find that here.

It's certainly possible that the Brewers could add Patrick to the big-league roster to take a start against the Mets next weekend and save the staff. If not, Patrick would have to be added to the 40-man roster before Rule 5 protections are finalized.

It would be easy for Patrick to be bitter about his status (and there's no public indication he is). A week spent on an MLB roster is worth over $30,000, and even that cookie hasn't presented itself to the recently-turned 26-year-old over this super-solid 1.09 WHIP of a campaign.

Here's the November 15th, 2023 MLB Trade Rumors blub on Patrick upon the Abraham Toro non-tender candidate trade - 

"A former fourth round pick, Patrick spent the 2023 campaign in the upper minors. He logged a 5.59 ERA over 124 innings between the Arizona and Oakland organizations. The Purdue-Northwest product struck out 23% of opponents while issuing walks at a slightly high 9.4% clip. He won’t be eligible for the Rule 5 draft until next offseason, so Milwaukee can keep him in Nashville as non-roster rotation depth."

Those numbers were in insane offensive environments, but still, nothing screamed the Brewers just pulled one off on the A's front office. Would Patrick have thrived if still in the Oakland system in 2024? Just the nature of the Pacific Coast League western ballparks says not to the extent he did with Nashville, but there's a very good chance he would have made his MLB debut.

Kudos for the behind-the-scenes analysts in the front office who identified Patrick as a target, and to pitching coach Patrick McGuff and others for their work with the right-hander.

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Tyler Black took offense to me relegating his status in the organization yesterday -

Thirty-eight of Wes Clarke's 2024 knocks have gone for extra bases, yet all three hits Saturday were singles.

Elvis Peguero kept everything on the ground and induced a GIDP after a Freddy Zamora error to face the minimum in a scoreless 6th.

Bottom 7th
Pitching Substitution
Pitching Change: Jacob Misiorowski replaces Elvis Peguero.

Strikeout
Dylan Beavers strikes out swinging. 1 Out

Strikeout
Jud Fabian called out on strikes. 2 Outs

Hit By Pitch
Forrest Wall hit by pitch.

Single
Anthony Servideo singles on a ground ball to left fielder Carlos D. Rodriguez. Forrest Wall to 2nd.

Pop Out
Noelberth Romero pops out to first baseman Tyler Black in foul territory. 3 Outs

It's either going to be a fascinating series of moves with the Brewers' pitching staff this week, or a collective yawn.

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This wraps up my Link Report duties for another season, Next year, God willing, will mark Year 25 for me within the Brewerfan/BrewerFanatic sphere, and I so appreciate the load that was lifted when my fellow Link Reporters Joseph and Daniel joined in. Their efforts have been sublime.

Good luck to Manager Rick Sweet and the Sounds Sunday afternoon. Look for Daniel's write-up, and we'll all be around all offseason keeping up with all things Crew farm system within our forum world.

Enjoy your day, everyone. Go Brewers, can't wait for October 1st!

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[James Zumstein]

Thanks for another great season of reporting, Jim!