Thurs. 8/28 - Big League Matinee; Farmhands Get All the Evening Attention

[biedergb]

Two great at bats by Fischer and Made. Both get down 0-2 and watch some balls and fight off good pitches, Fischer walks, then (Made spoiled 2 great pitches) Made hits to middle and fielded on a couple of hops but Made beats it out. Runners at the corners for Adamczewski.

Lets go Josh!

[biedergb]

Adamczewski grounds to second and no chance of beating it out.  Still T-Rats up 2-0

Birchard with a career high 6 IP.  Good chance he will pitch in the 7th.

[biedergb]

Two more strike outs to end the top of the 7th inning. Birchard’s career night continues. 8 K, and only 1 baserunner. Still at 83 pitches,  it will be interesting to see if he comes out in the 8th and is allowed to go to 90 or so pitches?

It would be great for the offense to get a few insurance runs….

[biedergb]

Wichrowski in trouble again. Runners 2nd/3rd and one out. 

He can be a decent reliever in short stints. He doesn’t have the overall command or secondary offerings to be a consistent starter. With shorter stints I could see him upping his velocity and becoming more of a K.

Just my thoughts as he struggles a little here and there. He now walks the bases loaded. 
 

and in Wisconsin Luke Adams doubles, then moves to third on a grounder and scores on a wild pitch. 3– TRats

[biedergb]

Wichrowski navigates it by getting old friend Gregory Barriosto ground into a 6-4-3 DP. Didn’t watch it but nice job Brett who is now Through 6 innings now. Still trailing 6-1.  Shuckers up bottom 6.

[biedergb]

Nashville clinging to a 5-1 lead. And it’s not Craig Yoho’s night. I don’t know if he had a bad inning at all last year.. He has still been good, just not elite this season.

[biedergb]

And Ryan Birchard is out.  Yerlin is in. Ok let’s see how this goes. 😬

[biedergb]

Welp. I mean best chance to keep the no-hitter going was Yerlin. But he was not the best chance of winning it though. Strikes out the first man with beautiful 97 mph heat. Then a walk and could not locate. Then grooves one and the first hit by River Bandit ends the no-hitter and the shutout. Now Yerlin has to figure out how not to blow the lead. This guy is tantalizing - 97 mph heat, and a very nice slider. But 20-30 grade command. 

[biedergb]

But Ryan Birchard. He was dominant for 7 innings. Just phenomenal tonight. 8 K, a single walk, no hits and no runs. Awesome job Ryan!

[sveumrules]

2 minutes ago, biedergb said:

Nashville clinging to a 5-1 lead. And it’s not Craig Yoho’s night. I don’t know if he had a bad inning at all last year.. He has still been good, just not elite this season.

Last year he had a 23 ERA- | 33 FIP- over 57 IP with most of that dominance coming in Wisco and Biloxi where he ran K rates north of 40%.

This year he’s at a 19 ERA- | 56 FIP- all at Nashville. Out of 190 International League pitchers with at least 40 IP he has the lowest ERA and 3rd lowest FIP entering tonight.

Thats still pretty elite stuff.

With the ER surrendered tonight he has 34 zeroes and five 1 ER games in his 39 AAA outings.

[biedergb]

2 minutes ago, sveumrules said:

Last year he had a 23 ERA- | 33 FIP- over 57 IP with most of that dominance coming in Wisco and Biloxi where he ran K rates north of 40%.

This year he’s at a 19 ERA- | 56 FIP- all at Nashville. Out of 190 International League pitchers with at least 40 IP he has the lowest ERA and 3rd lowest FIP entering tonight.

Thats still pretty elite stuff.

With the ER surrendered tonight he has 34 zeroes and five 1 ER games in his 39 AAA outings.

Ok. So it is confirmation bias for me. Thanks for correcting me on that.

[biedergb]

Fischer just missed hitting a double or HR to right. Just barely under it and it’s a long fly out. 

[biedergb]

After Yerlin’s interesting 8th. Anthony Flores tries to make life hard on himself. 
strike out, single, walk strike out and then wild pitch 

‘Runners at 2nd &3rd. And he gets the last out T-Rats win, Ryan Birchard awarded the win tonight and truly earned. Great job Ryan!

[biedergb]

Payamps gets the K to end it and Nashville wins 5-2. Yoho gave up the 1 run and no more. Then Holub and finally Payamps to get the W. Tyler Black on three times with a single and 2 walks.

[biedergb]

Shuckers down to their last 2 outs. Two runners on, 1 out. Down 3-1.  Trying to tie it up and force bottom of the 9th. But Burke grounds into a double play  dang it….

 

Oh yeah Fred-Nate lost so Mudacts are tied for 1st still. 

So a 3-3 day. Mudcats, Shuckers and Brewers all lose. T-Rats, Sounds and Packers all win 😉

[Joseph Zarr]

1 hour ago, wibadgers23 said:

Made with an absolute web gem...

 

Haven't you heard? 40-Grade defender right now 🤭

[Joseph Zarr]

14 minutes ago, biedergb said:

Payamps gets the K to end it and Nashville wins 5-2. Yoho gave up the 1 run and no more. Then Holub and finally Payamps to get the W. Tyler Black on three times with a single and 2 walks.

I mentioned it in last night's report but don't look now. Tyler Black is getting hot. Very productive AB's this past week. You absolutely love to see it.

[Joseph Zarr]

Oh, and hey, just like that after Adamczewski gets the nod back to 2B and the T-Rats win. Huh. 

I don't make the rules. I just report the results. 

[Joseph Zarr]

Yerlin gifted yet another high leverage opportunity. 1 H, 1 BB, 2 WP, 2 ER. A 5.71 ERA and a 1.81 WHIP on his season. He's appeared in 40 Games this season. I can very likely count on one hand the number of outings he has had a clean bill of work - ie, no walks/no HB/no WP/no runs. It's an uncanny level of wild. On one hand I get it: when you see those rare glimpses it is so darn electric. BUT, we kind of know the drill by now. This is his fifth season with the Brewers. He does not have a WHIP below 1.47 in any season. 

[biedergb]

4 minutes ago, Joseph Zarr said:

Yerlin gifted yet another high leverage opportunity. 1 H, 1 BB, 2 WP, 2 ER. A 5.71 ERA and a 1.81 WHIP on his season. He's appeared in 40 Games this season. I can very likely count on one hand the number of outings he has had a clean bill of work - ie, no walks/no HB/no WP/no runs. It's an uncanny level of wild. On one hand I get it: when you see those rare glimpses it is so darn electric. BUT, we kind of know the drill by now. This is his fifth season with the Brewers. He does not have a WHIP below 1.47 in any season. 

He was the best option to keep the no hitter going though you have to admit 😂

[wiguy94]

16 hours ago, Joseph Zarr said:

Haven't you heard? 40-Grade defender right now 🤭

I think you just misinterpret how Longenhagen grades. He's saying if you plucked Made out of A+ and put him at SS for the Brewers today that he's a 40 grade MLB SS. That feels fair to me. Made flashes ridiculous defensive upside but he's also very young and has been error prone and inconsistent with his throwing over to 1B. He said he thinks he can be a plus defensive MLB SS in the future as he improves his consistency. 

[Joseph Zarr]

52 minutes ago, wiguy94 said:

I think you just misinterpret how Longenhagen grades. He's saying if you plucked Made out of A+ and put him at SS for the Brewers today that he's a 40 grade MLB SS. That feels fair to me. Made flashes ridiculous defensive upside but he's also very young and has been error prone and inconsistent with his throwing over to 1B. He said he thinks he can be a plus defensive MLB SS in the future as he improves his consistency. 

Oh I understand what he is saying. I still disagree with it. It is mildly misleading but I know what he is saying. In no world I live in is Made a below average defender at any level.  He has 12 errors at SS over 68 games. If I wipe out the adjustment period of April, I put that quite comfortably at maybe 8. I lived through Wily Adames fielding last season. I know he thinks he can be future Plus. I also disagree with this. I think it's pretty obvious if his total package comes together he has a lot higher ceiling than Plus. His short area quickness and hand-eye coordination and his overall athleticism is just absurd. He is the very definition of an elite defensive profile. But, regardless, it doesn't matter. Made isn't going to the MLB today or this season. It's a moot exercise. But, I do disagree with it even if it is 'fair'. And, like I said, I often disagree with Longenhagen in this area which is fine. The overarching body of work of what he does is absolutely incredible and an absolute gift to baseball heads.

[wiguy94]

30 minutes ago, Joseph Zarr said:

Oh I understand what he is saying. I still disagree with it. It is mildly misleading but I know what he is saying. In no world I live in is Made a below average defender at any level.  He has 12 errors at SS over 68 games. If I wipe out the adjustment period of April, I put that quite comfortably at maybe 8. I lived through Wily Adames fielding last season. I know he thinks he can be future Plus. I also disagree with this. I think it's pretty obvious if his total package comes together he has a lot higher ceiling than Plus. His short area quickness and hand-eye coordination and his overall athleticism is just absurd. He is the very definition of an elite defensive profile. But, regardless, it doesn't matter. Made isn't going to the MLB today or this season. It's a moot exercise. But, I do disagree with it even if it is 'fair'. And, like I said, I often disagree with Longenhagen in this area which is fine. The overarching body of work of what he does is absolutely incredible and an absolute gift to baseball heads.

So in a span of less than 4 months Made went from having no defensive feel, being a Juan Baez level defender, being 10 times worse than Pratt defensively, and will never be the Brewers SS to being at worst a league average defensive SS in MLB as of right now and even better than plus defensively in the future?

It's just over the top Joseph. The criticism back in April and May was over the top. The disgust over Longenhagen very fair evaluation now is over the top. I get we are fanatics to be on this site and posting about minor league baseball as much as we are but surely there's some self reflection going on here right? Like in a span of 4 months a player doesn't go from no feel and will never be a SS to it's disrespectful to say his upside is only a plus defensive SS.

[Joseph Zarr]

28 minutes ago, wiguy94 said:

So in a span of less than 4 months Made went from having no defensive feel, being a Juan Baez level defender, being 10 times worse than Pratt defensively, and will never be the Brewers SS to being at worst a league average defensive SS in MLB as of right now and even better than plus defensively in the future?

It's just over the top Joseph. The criticism back in April and May was over the top. The disgust over Longenhagen very fair evaluation now is over the top. I get we are fanatics to be on this site and posting about minor league baseball as much as we are but surely there's some self reflection going on here right? Like in a span of 4 months a player doesn't go from no feel and will never be a SS to it's disrespectful to say his upside is only a plus defensive SS.

It isn't disgust. It's simple disagreement. This is a virtual message board. And I really don't care how you feel about my own process. I mentioned several times now and praised you for it: I learned something during that over-reaction. You can either let that in or continue finding problems with how I perceive players. It makes zero difference to me. Truly.

[Joseph Zarr]

I mean, for real @wiguy94. Just for perspectives sake. I imagine you are likely in your 20's. Maybe approaching 30. I am 47 years old and have two children. Believe me when I say: My opinions on this board are very merely opinions. Am I prone to over-emotional hot takes in the game threads? Ab-so-friggin-lutely. Do I reflect upon those 'hot takes' and tone down my ephemeral feelings and search for positives in the Minor League Link reports I literally write twice a week all season? Absolutely. Do my opinions change on players? Absolutely. Was my Made experience instructive? Absolutely. But, again, my opinions - as they form; as they evolve; as they change - are just opinions. AND, none of this is serious. This is purely just baseball. I am a father, husband, and full time farmer first and foremost. And, I have gone on record 10's of times to state: I only want what is best for these players, their families, and  the Brewers org. I definitely come last.