Fri. 5/8: Thompson and Morrison Make Pro Starts #2, This Time on the Road

[Jim Goulart]

This thread will be utilized for any minor league news Friday.

Organizational Scoreboard (Not including the Arizona Complex League)

Arizona Complex League Scoreboard (ACL Brewers 2-2 at ACL Cubs 2-2, 8:00 PM Central)

Audio Links

MiLB TV (Subscribers)

[Jim Goulart]

Yesterday we spotlighted 2025 Minor League Rule 5 losses by the Brewers.

Today we checked in on the players who became minor league free agents at the end of the 2025 season who found work with a new affiliated organization in 2026 (or in Daz Cameron's case, the KBO in Korea), as part of our "Alumni Thread".

[wiguy94]

The minor league ball (AA and below) this year looks like it's a juiced ball situation. Typically this early in the year offensive numbers are down especially in the leagues that play further north like the Midwest League and International League but offense is way up relative to the full season a year ago.

2025 Southern League slash - .230/.321/.340 for a .660 OPS

2026 Southern League slash - .240/.345/.403 for a .748 OPS

2025 Midwest League slash - .237/.334/359 for a .693 OPS

2026 Midwest League slash - .244/.356/.397 for a 753 OPS

2025 Carolina League slash - .231/.335/.330 for a .665 OPS

2026 Carolina League slash - .236/.347/.375 for a .723 OPS

[homer]

13 minutes ago, wiguy94 said:

The minor league ball (AA and below) this year looks like it's a juiced ball situation.

So Lara is legit. Whew! 😀

[igor67]

A little bit extra batting average and basically the rest all being improvement in SLG seems like pretty good evidence of a slightly livelier ball. I don't mind OPS average in the mid .700s is very reasonable 

[wiguy94]

Just for comparison on how crazy different the offensive standard has been in the Southern League this year.

David McCabe in 2025 - .286/.379/.434 for a 142 wRC+

Jesus Made in 2026 - .282/.371/.444 for a 113 wRC+

Virtually identical production between the two and McCabe was 42 percent better than league average while Made is only 13 percent better than league average.

[Ro Mueller]

The AAA Sounds shoot for a 3rd straight win at Louisville, this time behind 25-year old LHP Tate Kuehner (4.15 ERA, 1.38 WHIP, 8.9 K/9 in 30.1 IP). 1B Brock Wilken’s on-base streak has reached 25 games (.183 AVG / .322 OBP / .322 SLG).

[Ro Mueller]

Birthday celebrant SS Jesus Made (now 19) and AA Biloxi can even their home series against Columbus with a win tonight. RHP Brett Wichrowski (6.83 ERA, 1.55 WHIP, 9.8 K/9 in 27.2 IP) aims to get his 2026 season on the right track. I guarantee you that someone is playing first base. 

[Ro Mueller]

RHP Jacob Morrison makes his 2nd career start (3 IP, 0 R, 4 Ks last week) as Low-A Wilson strives to even their series at Fayetteville. SS Juan Ortuno has a 4-game hitting streak, while of course DH Handelfry Encarnacion has homered 4 times in 6 games.

[Ro Mueller]

LHP JD Thompson is also making his 2nd career start (3 IP, 0 R, 3 Ks last week), as the High-A Timber Rattlers seek a series-tying victory at Peoria. The team lead the Midwest League with 37 dingers (Adamczewski 7, Fischer 7, Payne 6).

[Jim French Stepstool]

Jose Anderson with another dinger tonight.

They're both so young & raw that it seems likely they'll both stay in low-A this year, but it'll be fun to see what kind of HR totals Anderson & Encarnacion can put up in Wilson.

[Terry]

Underling stats were slightly better than peripherals back in 2024.

Arsenals consist of cut-fastball, gyro slider and high spin curveball, likely some sinker as well. Did not throw changeup today. If I remembered correctly, he sits around 93-95 two years ago, so good to see him averaged 96.5 today even though it's short outing.

[Ro Mueller]

That’s a jam-packed box score for the ACL Brewers in their 6-5 victory over the ACL Cubs, all in just 7 innings.

In his first opportunity in the leadoff spot, OF Kenny Fenelon ambushed the first pitch of the game for a solo homer (99mph exit velocity, 394 feet).

RHP Josh Knoth made his second start (2 IP, 1 R, 1 H, 2 BB, 1 K), as he builds up strength after missing the 2025 campaign. His velocity peaked at 97.8mph, tossing 33 pitches (22 strikes).

2B Juan Martinez (1-for-2, walk, 2 SB) singled and scored on an error to grab a 2-1 lead in the top of the 5th inning, followed by DH Malachai Halterman’s 105.7mph RBI single to center. 1B Jonathan Rangel (1-for-2, HR, walk, 3 RBIs) clubbed a 2-out, 3-run shot the next inning to extend the advantage to 6-1.

The game featured a professional debut (and Win) for 2025 eighth round pick, 18-year old RHP Hayden Vucinovich, who didn’t allow a hit against 11 batters faced (2 2/3 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 3 BB, 3 Ks), as well as stateside debuts for RHPs Jhosep Ospino (1/3 IP, 1 K) and Bryan Regalado (2/3 IP, 4 R, 4 H, 1 BB, 2 Ks).

Regalado’s struggles allowed the Cubs to cut the deficit to 6-5 with 2 baserunners on in the penultimate frame, but Manager Rafael Neda called on RHP Cesar Espinal to escape the inning (ground out) and ultimately deliver a 4-out Save (3 straight Ks). The 20-year old Espinal is already on his 3rd MLB team in his 5th MILB season, so Promotion Watch definitely applies to him.

As with life, the team balanced the good (4 stolen bases, 2-for-5 with RISP) with the not-so-good (2 errors, 12 strikeouts). C Freider Rojas (1-for-2, walk) made his 2026 debut and is the fourth catcher the squad has used in 5 games played. The team (3-2) is right back in action at 1:00pm CST on Saturday, hosting the ACL Guardians (3-2).

[Jim Goulart]

 

[SF70]

To see Josh Knoth’s stuff this good, this soon after his TJ rehab is really something. Looking forward to seeing what he can do once he gets built-up.

[sveumrules]

From 2023 to 2025 Leonard had 947 PA in AAA with the following numbers...

257/323/458 (104 wRC+)
7.4 BB% | 21.8 K%
.200 ISO | .292 BABIP

So far over 125 PA this year he is at...

343/419/602 (166 wRC+)
8.8 BB% | 18.4 K%
.259 ISO | .388 BABIP

Obviously the BABIP is unsustainably high, but a nice improvement in plate discipline stats with his BB/K ratio increasing from 0.34 to 0.48. Looks like the big drivers for his strong start are an increased line drive rate (23.3% up to 31.7%) which likely ties into the elevated BABIP and an uptick in his HR to fly ball ratio (16.5% to 21.4%) that explains some of the ISO gains.

All of that stuff outside of the plate discipline stats is pretty prone to wild fluctuation over small samples, and looking at the limited StatCast info available on his FanGraphs page it doesn't look like he's seen any meaningful improvement in his contact quality. I don't doubt that Eddys has seen some improvement in his true talent level, but also am pretty sure it's not as big a jump as the numbers imply.

All that said, I'd be more than fine with giving him a shot and seeing what he's got since we already know what Perkins is all about. Then again the out of options part complicates things with Yelich looking pretty close to returning.

Guess once Christian is back they could option Black back down and keep Eddys as the 13th man then?