Brewers (In Person) Minor League Observations: Wisconsin Timber Rattlers

[Spencer Michaelis]

Image courtesy of © Wm. Glasheen/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Rattlers were facing off with the Great Lakes Loons, and the starting pitcher was Wyatt Crowell, who sat 91-93 with a sinker and four-seam combo. He mixed in a solid-looking upper-80s cutter, mid-80s changeup and low-80s sweeper. He reminded me a lot of Robert Gasser, with a better changeup, but otherwise similar or worse pitches across the board.

Before I get too deep into this, it’s important to note that watching players one time is never enough to form a strong opinion on them, so these are merely observations I made Tuesday night, mixed in with some opinions I had already formed via watching them regularly on MiLB TV.

SS Jesús Made -- 1-3, 2B, BB, K, CS, R
Made looked the part of a top prospect in this one. His first at-bat, he poked the first pitch down the right-field line for a leadoff double. He proceeded to get a bad jump on his steal attempt of third base, though, and the throw beat him by quite a bit.

In his second at-bat, Made chased a first pitch cutter from Crowell, before hitting a routine grounder to second base. The third time up, he showed off the tremendous plate discipline he is known for, taking a well-placed changeup to begin the plate appearance, laying off a back-foot sweeper to make it 2-0 and eventually loading the bases by drawing a five-pitch walk against Crowell. His final plate appearance came against a fireballing reliever, who was able to blow a lively 98 MPH fastball by Made for a strikeout.

Aside from the double that he poked to right, the bat speed was evident on every swing, from both sides of the plate. At times, the swing gets a bit too aggressive and he loses his mechanics, especially when it comes to having too much hand movement in his load. The only pitch that gave him some issues against the lefty was the cutter that ran in on him, which he chased twice, but those were well-executed pitches more than anything else.

The defensive side is where Made really shined on Tuesday. His instincts jumped out from the start. He was attacking the ball aggressively and confidently. He has a strong arm that can play from anywhere on the diamond. He made the routine look routine, and did the same with some more difficult plays, as well.

The play of the game came in the seventh inning, when he ranged up the middle for a ball that, off the bat, appeared to be ticketed for center. He gloved it, spun, and fired to first base from shallow center to record an out—an important one at that, as it kept the bases empty for the top of the order in a one-run game.

He played with confidence and conviction in everything he was doing, and if you haven’t seen his pregame media availability yet, you will want to check that out as well. Both he and Luis Peña seem to have a great head on their shoulders, and the talk of hustle with the media was far from empty, as they were both hustling every opportunity they had.

2B Luis Peña -- 2-4, HR, 3 RBI, 2 K, R
Speaking of Peña, the other half of the recently promoted dynamic duo also looked the part of a top prospect—particularly on the offensive side of the ball.

Improving his ability to hit for power has been the biggest positive change for Peña this year, and he put it on display in this one. After striking out in his first at-bat, Peña took an 87 MPH cutter that was left over the heart of the plate and deposited it 384 feet away for a solo home run. The ball left the bat at 104 MPH.

Peña’s calling card in the DSL was his hit tool, and he showed that off in his third at-bat by getting himself on plane with a well-executed changeup by Crowell, to line a two-run single up the middle. His ability to get to pitches like this one and line it to center is not normal for a player of his age, with the relative lack of experience he has. It reminds me of what Jackson Chourio was showing a few years ago.

He followed that up by stealing second base with ease, and advancing to third on a throwing error by the catcher. The speed was evident, as were the instincts on the bases. 

Unlike Made, Peña’s night defensively did not go as well as his night at the plate. To my eye, there was a hesitation to most of his reads off of the bat, and he wound up finding himself in-between on most of the hops he was attempting to field. 

He didn’t wind up with any errors on the books in this one, but he easily could have had two. He saved himself in the first inning when he booted a grounder, but caught the runner on second rounding too far around third base, and fired a bullet behind him to record the third out of the inning. He also whiffed on a perfect throw from Dinges on a caught stealing attempt, that was going to be close enough that they didn’t give him an error.

That said, the athleticism and the arm strength will likely allow Peña a lot of time and opportunity to improve in these regards. I think it might be more of a lack of trusting his eyes than anything else. If he never figures it out enough, he has the speed and athleticism that could easily allow him to move to the outfield long term.

On the offensive side of things, Peña looks like the better present hitter between him and Made, but lacks some of the pure upside that Made possesses. Defensively, I would definitely give Made the advantage presently. You can view the previously mentioned Peña media availability here, where he also comes off as very mature and grounded.

C Marco Dinges -- 0-3, BB, 2 K
Dinges didn’t have the eye-catching hit(s) that Peña and Made each had, but seeing him in person only further solidified my view of him as a top-five prospect in the system. 

Offensively, he struck out twice, but the walk he drew was an impressive one. He fell behind 1-2, before laying off three well-executed sweepers below the zone. These were tough, aggressive takes. While he didn’t end up hitting anything especially hard in this game, the bat speed was impressive and stood out in a game featuring a lot of top-tier talent.

On the defensive side, I had a very impressive 1.79 pop time on his perfect throw in the first inning, which Peña dropped. The arm strength is very real. It’s not quite to the level of pre-injury Jeferson Quero, but it’s also not that far behind.

His athleticism stands out behind the plate as well, jumping on multiple dribblers in front of the plate to nab fast baserunners at first base. His receiving continues to improve as well, and I also liked the way he called the game on Tuesday. He was willing to double or triple up on pitches that clearly had hitters off balance.

I’m sure there will be much better performances to come for Dinges, but the ability was still evident watching him in person. He looked like he fit in with the upper-tier talent in Made and Peña, as well as Zyhir Hope on the Dodgers side (side note: Hope is ridiculously strong and the ball sounded different off his bat when he made contact).

Just after I typed the above out, Dinges hit a home run in Wednesday’s day game, so the better performance didn’t take long to show up.

RHP Travis Smith -- 5.2 IP, 5 H, 2 BB, 0 K, 3 R, 2 ER
Smith got the start for the Timber Rattlers in this one, his second since being promoted to High-A. While he didn’t rack up strikeouts, I came away intrigued.

Smith’s repertoire is very fastball-driven, as he throws all three variations of the fastball. His four-seam is not used much, but he did go to it to try to get whiffs up in the zone at times. It topped out at 94 MPH Tuesday, but he has touched 98 MPH this season. The sinker also sat in the 91-93 range and touched 94. His cutter also sat in the low-90s and is the pitch that stood out to me the most.

I think the reason he struggled to get whiffs and strikeouts is largely tied to his lack of secondaries. His slider isn’t a bad pitch, but he throws it in the 86-88 MPH range, so the difference in velocity from his fastball is not big enough to cause many timing issues. I didn’t notice any changeups in this one, but he has used it at times this year.

He seems capable of spinning the ball, so I feel like improving the breaking ball will be the clearest path forward for him. He has a starter’s build, and the three-fastball combination is usually one associated with starters. That said, this feels like more of a relief profile for me, unless he can both improve the breaker and the changeup. I think if the velocity plays up in a relief role, though, he could do good work in that role.

LHP Jesus Broca -- 3.1 IP, 1 H, 3 BB, 5 K, 0 R
Broca was the most pleasant surprise for me on Tuesday. I had seen a velocity jump for him this year, but seeing it up close made it clear just how much that jump has helped him.

I would imagine that Broca’s delivery was already helping the velocity play up a bit above what the gun was reading, as he hides the ball well, and his release point appeared to be tough to pick up. Broca generated a bunch of whiffs with his fastball, which sat 92-94 MPH and even touched 95 once, according to the scoreboard. He mixes a two-seam and a four-seam heater. The two-seam command seems a bit worse, but it looks pretty heavy, and definitely plays a big role in his 56% groundball rate. The four-seamer was used up in the zone quite a bit, and hitters really struggled to get to it. He struck out Zyhir Hope on a high fastball for one of his five strikeouts.

The pitch I had always known Broca for was his changeup, which he also showed a really good feel for on Tuesday. It sat around 84 MPH, but he seemed to be adding and subtracting velocity and movement at times for different situations. It looked like an above-average secondary. He also threw quite a few 80 MPH curveballs with pretty good depth that he showed good command of. 

I think Broca is definitely capable of raising his current strikeout rate of 17.9%, closer to the 25% that we saw from him in the ACL and Low-A. He will need to limit walks moving forward, as well, but the groundball rate could help limit some of the damage walks normally cause by generating double-play balls. It’s an interesting profile.

Summary of the Night
Wyatt Crowell isn’t quite the level of prospect that Gasser was, but I think the Dodgers have something there. The Timber Rattlers did well to get to him for four earned runs, especially in less than five innings. In fact, coming into this start, he had only allowed three earned runs in his last 34 innings. Peña’s home run was the first he’d allowed since June 26. 

I mentioned it throughout, but Made, Peña and Dinges all looked the part of top-five prospects in the system, and I left the stadium feeling even better about their futures than I did heading in. Travis Smith is a work in progress, but he has an interesting baseline to work with, and Jesus Broca has made some serious strides in the past few months.

If you have an opportunity to go see this talented group of players in Appleton (or anywhere else), I’d highly recommend it, especially with first-round pick Andrew Fischer getting added to the roster this week.

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Hope you enjoyed a bit of a different version of the weekly observations. We will be back next week in some capacity!

 

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[Trax]

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Excellent report, I'm trying to get there yet this year to see these guys...

[MattK]

Love me some Spencer in-depth breakdowns!!  Great stuff, as ever ....

[BarremlensTSSC]

Going to our first TRats game since Made and Pena were called up tonight. First one since Dinges got back from the IL too although we saw him play a few earlier this year.  I'm just a casual but I'm nearly as excited about Dinges as I am Made and Pena.   Thanks for the excellent write up!

[Spencer Michaelis]

4 minutes ago, BarremlensTSSC said:

Going to our first TRats game since Made and Pena were called up tonight. First one since Dinges got back from the IL too although we saw him play a few earlier this year.  I'm just a casual but I'm nearly as excited about Dinges as I am Made and Pena.   Thanks for the excellent write up!

Enjoy!

[mkingcheckmate]

excellent  recap of what's going on  tues nite. I love this . great job

[Spencer Michaelis]

A lot of nice defensive plays included in this video. Really, really been impressed with Made on that side of the ball. Had heard in the offseason that Peña was the better present defender, but I've seen the complete opposite this year.

 

[Joseph Zarr]

35 minutes ago, Spencer Michaelis said:

A lot of nice defensive plays included in this video. Really, really been impressed with Made on that side of the ball. Had heard in the offseason that Peña was the better present defender, but I've seen the complete opposite this year.

 

Agreed entirely. Made is very clearly the more talented defender. He has legitimate top-tier Gold Glove potential. Peña might end up a solid defender - really nice arm - but I don't see Made's innate feel. It's actually mildly nuts how good he has become in less than a season. All those early season gaffes - and there were many in that first month and change - have gone out the window. He elevated and has quickly become my SS #1. Anyone who knows me on this board knows historically I am a Pratt fanboy extraordinaire. Made is on another level. He really is. Which, considering how good Pratt is....well, it sure is something!

[MudcatsfaninBrunsCO]

I appreciate this as I'm in NC so Appleton is a haul for me.