Brewers Minor League Link Report (5/11): Five in the 9th to Tie; Walk-off Loss for AZ Rookies Moments Later

[Jim Goulart]

Image courtesy of BrewerFanatic

Linescores are underrated. You know, the top part of those box scores we scour listing the inning-by-inning tallies. Alone, linescores let our imaginations picture the flow of a contest, and depending on our rooting interest, the unmitigated highs and deflating lows. We glance at the hit and error totals on the far right and determine if those figures make sense. Linescores allow us to ever so briefly ask questions like "what?", "how?", and "really?" before we lower our eyes and dig into all the minutia within the actual box. 

Here's to you, Mr. Linescore. Thanks for all your daily contributions to our baseball fandom. 

 

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Transaction:

• SS Tyler Rodriguez assigned to Wilson Warbirds from ACL Brewers.

Rodriguez, now in his age 20 season, is a Dominican native who was part of the January 2023 international class. So, he's already in his 4th season. This isn't the RH-hitting utilityman's first Carolina League rodeo. Rodriguez, who has seen action at every position but the pitcher-catcher battery and has managed a .400 OBP in his career despite light batting average and slugging figures, is a bit of a manager's secret weapon.

Rodriguez spent all of 2025 with the Mudcats and had to exit the September 3rd game at the season's tail end. He left after grounding out in the 2nd inning and was placed on the 60-day injured list the very next day. To open 2026, Rodriguez was placed on the seven-day IL and has appeared in three rehab games with Maryvale. He's ready for a return to action in Wilson despite an 0-for-10 mark (one BB, five K's).

Thanks to the magic of what yours truly saw and then typed last September, well, you'll see:

"19-year-old Tyler Rodriguez, in an attempt to reach for the first base bag on an infield grounder, went tumbling in the worst way. He was lifted onto a cart and taken off the field in what would be a miracle if it's not a devastating long-term lower body injury."

Thus, in some ways, Rodriguez playing eight months later should be deemed very much a positive. Best wishes, Tyler!

NOTE: Many of us picture an overflowing, even bloated roster at the rookie level. Heck, you have two Dominican Summer League teams feeding graduates each spring, plus prior year's high school draft picks yet to debut, and players repeating the level needing to show more before entering full-season ball. But to be honest, on the position player side, the current Maryvale squad is relatively lean at 14 active players (15 if you count catcher Luis Corobo, who was sent to Maryvale from Wilson after his own early exit from a game on April 24th and has yet to play since).

You may wish to bookmark this sortable page for position players for the Maryvale club, this one for pitchers; the pages will give you a sense of who is getting the most action on a daily basis, and of course, their bottom-line stats.

 

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Final: ACL Reds 8, ACL Brewers 7
Box Score and Game Log

Well, lo and behold, it's an actual nine-inning game, it's been over a week since we could say that. That being said, we've seen rather moderate and reasonable temperatures at first pitch during these early-season Arizona contests, while on Monday night we read:

• Weather: 105 degrees, Clear.
• Wind: 6 mph, Varies.

So sure, let's now decide to play nine!

Five of the seven Arizona Complex League games Monday were scheduled for nine innings, the most we've seen in a while. It's a guess that the two organizations facing off have discussions earlier in the day to determine the status of their squads, the need to have pitchers work innings (or not), etc.

If this had been a seven-inning game, as our afore-mentioned friend Mr. Linescore tells us, this affair would have been much less exciting.

As the game was about to begin, my Link Report co-worker Daniel provided these insights:

"19-year-old RHP Ma’Kale Holden gets the start for the ACL Brewers (3-3), who play at the ACL Reds (3-2). Holden was dominant in his professional debut a week ago (5 IP, 0 R, 6 Ks).

The position player pattern has the squad prioritizing 8 players (Acosta, Antunez, Fenelon, Frias, Mills, Hughes, Martinez, Rangel), 1 of whom rests per game (Martinez tonight), thus allowing 2 other players to get periodic starts (C Malachai Halterman, 2B Moises Polanco tonight)."

Oh my, hasn't the guaranteed Statcast data at all complex league level games created quite the buzz. If you didn't already know, you can click on the game log "event oval" via the link above for any batted ball in play, and get info on exit velocity, launch angle and more. For a BrewerFanatic Link Reporter, it's valuable but just adds to the analysis workload to get these reports to you, with most nights featuring five games (soon to be seven with the Dominican League in a few weeks). A series of social media posts led to this summary via our own @Spencer Michaelis (by the way, consider membership options at his "Backfield Brew" Patreon):

Incredible, but accurate? I was also monitoring early in this game, and it all just seemed to be too off-the-charts. I was tempted to dig into other games played by Reds and Guardians teams in that ballpark this spring, but that can be tasked to others for now. 

Later in the evening we learn that yes indeed, we can be skeptical, thanks to our dedicated Brewers fan in Taiwan, Terry. For that matter, was it really 105 degrees outside? C'mon, Goodyear.

There's no reason to believe that these top two power prospects in Frias and Antunez didn't hit the ball hard Monday, very hard, in fact. Let's just be careful to read too much into those figures. 

Mr. Linescore told us each team made three errors (throw in a passed ball for the Crew). Ms. Box Score (yes, Ms., as she's more thorough) indicates that Cleveland arms did a better job at working around those miscues:

• Guardians - Zero unearned runs allowed
• Brewers - Seven unearned runs allowed

The Maryvale five-run 9th inning rally was:

• Walk
• Cristopher Acosta double (he really needed that)
• Antunez HBP
• Kenny Fenelon double
• Frias double
• Ryan Mills groundout (an unusually quiet 0-for-5 evening)
• CJ Hughes strikeout (oh no, one out left and still one run short)
• Walk
• Walk
• Balk (tie game, thank you, Guardians!)
• Walk to reload the bases
• Acosta strikeout (on to the fateful bottom of the frame)

The game ended unceremoniously with no outs after RHP Argenis Aparicio, who has been in a bit of a closer's role, walked the leadoff man. An error by first baseman Jonathan Rangel followed, then a wild pitch, and subsequently a game-ending single.

With it being the lone game of the evening, I'll allow you to dig any deeper into Ma'Kale Holden's start, LHP Joey Broughton's second appearance of the young season, and more via your box score review.

Tuesday the 3-4 A-Crew continues a road trip to Mesa (thankfully not Goodyear) to face the 2-4 Athletics' youngsters.

 

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As for the full-season clubs, Nashville, Wisconsin and Wilson all return to their home ballparks (with the Warbirds beginning a sweet two-week homestand), while Biloxi hits the road, all in evening starts. Have a fine Tuesday, everyone!

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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[Spencer Michaelis]

My final "verdict" is that the Statcast at Goodyear probably isn't reliable. However, odds are those five batted balls were still all smoked. I had a source confirm Frias had popped 115 MPH on internal data 3 or 4 times in spring, so you can't totally rule out 117, but I would guess it was a bit lower. I know Antunez had broken 110 multiple times as well, so I'm guessing his were also a bit lower (but still very well hit).

Had some other people confirm a lot of Reds prospects and players had their highest EV's ever at Goodyear in spring too, so it just seems to be hot somehow.

[MilwaukeeBeers]

Some footage of Frias and Antuñez from last night 

 

[snoogans8056]

I believe there were 21 balls in play at 100+ EV yesterday. My guess would be that you take ~10mph off of each one.

[Joseph Zarr]

Everyone needs the equivalent of a Goodyear Ballpark in their life. Just a lil false data pick me up to get you feeling better about your skillsets.

[Spencer Michaelis]

Antunez and Frias (likely going off Brewers internal data) have weighed in, and... It has not helped clarify anything 😂

 

[Joseph Zarr]

2 hours ago, Spencer Michaelis said:

Antunez and Frias (likely going off Brewers internal data) have weighed in, and... It has not helped clarify anything 😂