Brewers Minor League Link Report (7/16): RHP Ryan Birchard Begins Rehab with ACL Brewers; DSL Brewers #2 Win Second Straight

Transactions:

• RHP Ryan Birchard was sent to the ACL Brewers to begin his Rehab assignment (more below)
• RHP Jesael Cabrera retired - we wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors

Final: DSL Brewers #2 11, DSL Padres Gold 4
Box Score/Game Log

This box score is a fun one so you'll certainly want to give it a look over. Every DSL Crew #2 batter tallied at least one knock. Four players tallied two hits. RF Pedro Tovar, who I discussed yesterday briefly, tallied three hits moving his season BA to 0.341 and his OPS to 0.900 in 88 official AB. The subtle box score storyline within, despite some damage done by some usual suspects (CF Jose Anderson; the aforementioned Tovar; Lafond et al), the Crew Dos managed to plate six two-out runs. Two out runs are like compounded interest: we all want it but it isn't necessarily easy to come by. Congrats are due, then, to 3B Frederi Montero; LF Angel Gonzalez; C Yoneiker Lugo and 1B Eduardo Charles for doing their parts in this crucial department. Speaking of the usual suspects and OF Frandy Lafond, the young outfielder managed another respectable 1-for-4 line with 2 BB and 0 K. That's now 38 official AB for Lafond with a 10:5 BB:K advantage. Fantastic work for the young man - let's see if he can start to elevate that 20% XBH rate. Another statistical advantage for the Crew Dos in this blow out victory: 8-of-16 with RISP. that will play in the Win column pretty much any day of the week. In a game where the pitching staff allowed seven walks to four strikeouts in a previously scheduled seven inning affair, it certainly helped the staff as a whole was able to limit the Padres Gold to just four hits. Of the four young men who took the hill for the Cerveceros Dos, 18-year-old Dominican RHP Johan Zapata sticks out for his 1 1/3 scoreless IP - 0 H, 0 BB, and 2 K. He picked up the win and moved to 2-0 on his season. The DSL Brewers #2 moved to 16-14 overall. They reside in third place in their division 5.5 GB the DSL Pirates Gold.

Final: ACL Brewers 10, ACL Athletics 9
Box Score/Game Log

RHP Ryan Birchard was sent to the Complex League to begin his rehab assignment with the ACL Brewers and begin his rehab assignment he did. Birchard opened the Brewers evening on the hill pitching his first inning of professional baseball since way back on April 6th of this year. Welcome back, young man! What a sight for sore eyes to begin the post-All Star Break hype train. All told, Birchard managed 1 IP of 2 H, 2 K, 1 ER ball. All we hope for now is good recovery and stacked healthy outings from here. We also saw RHP Easton McGee stretch his rehab stint to his longest outing yet - 3 IP of 4 H, 5 K, 2 ER ball. We followed these intriguing storylines with more intriguing ACL Brewers pitching storylines - in an ACL season rife with young hurlers struggling aplenty in the southwest we'll take this intrigue any time we can get it. LHP Anthony Flores, who I and others have discussed on more than one occasion (specifically, his insanely bad luck with BABIP in 2024), gave us a fantastic outing: 2 2/3 IP, 1 H, 4 K, 0 R. The strikeout rate continues to be extremely eye-opening for Flores: 54 K-to-17 BB in 37 1/3 IP in the ACL overall. The theme of the Brewers recently completed MLB draft was quite clearly pitching, so, let's continue with pleasant ACL Brewers pitching storylines. RHP Sam Gardner came aboard and had a flashback to his Aussie Winter League season: he mowed down four consecutive batters all by way of strikeout. Sizzlin' Sam! Finally, let's end this feel good pitching with the ongoing ACL outings of LHP Jesus Broca. He came aboard a bases loaded jam and nobody out in the ninth frame. He did walk in a batter, but he also induced a Sac Fly and two punch outs to prevent a late collapse. All told, he did some decent work over his 2 2/3 IP. I continue to see a lefty who is capable of striking people out in any AB. His final overall box in the 2 2/3 frames included 1 H, 2 BB, 5 K, 2 ER. In the greater context of what was going on in the game, I consider his outing fairly impressive and he now sports an overall line of 7 IP, 10 K, 3 BB, Since arriving stateside, ACL batters are only hitting him to a very pedestrian 0.136 BA and he is carrying a 0.86 WHIP. Keep an eye on Flores and Broca. I'll leave it at that.

Offensively, the Brewers were largely carried by 3B Eric Bitonti and his 2-for-4, 1 R, 5 RBI, 1 BB, 2 2B evening. It certainly helped Bitonti that he was hitting behind rehabbing Juan Baez and his 3-for-5, 3 R, 1 K outing. LF Tyler Rodriguez managed a 2-for-6 evening with 1 K and 1 SB (though he did fail to capitalize on numerous opportunities with RISP) and C Yannic Walther went 2-for-4 with 1 R, 1 2B, 1 BB, and 1 K. Can we please get Mr. Bitonti to Low-A Carolina so we can all enjoy his sweet lefty stroke? The Brewers managed to score 10 runs total but they somehow managed a 3-for-16 mark with RISP. In the 10-9 victory were they really outdone by Oakland's 4-for-17 mark with RISP? It's hard to say. The Brewers did put the 'W' in the Win column and, in the end, that's all that matters. They get back to 5 games under 0.500 at 24-29 overall.

Tomorrow, once again, all rookie ball clubs will be back at it - the DSL Crew in the wee morning hours under a Caribbean sun and the ACL Crew in the desert air throughout the evening hours. At face value, all three contests look to be (record-wise) very competitive tilts. Let's hope for three victories. And, let's root these young men on regardless of the results.

As always, thanks for reading and thanks for supporting these young men chasing their professional baseball dreams.

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