Brewers Minor League Link Report (8/22): DSL Gold with the Only Win, but Tiebreaker Fate Ends Its Season

RHP's Jaron DeBerry and Jayden Dubanewicz shined, but their respective Biloxi and Wisconsin offensive teammates had quiet nights. Ironically, Wilson plated plenty of runs but lost big regardless. This specific note from Thursday's first pool play game defines the end of the Dominican Summer League season for the Crew.

Transaction:

• DSL Brewers Blue released RHP Lonell Downs.

Downs, 19, spent three summers in the Dominican League, as his linked stats page will detail. The native of Nicaragua appeared in 30 professional games and ten of his 22 appearances in his first two seasons were starts, an indication the Brewers were initially high on his arsenal. Shifted to bullpen-only work in 2026, Downs never did make it stateside in the Brewers system. We wish him well.

Nashville Press Release:

Sounds, Tides Suspended Saturday Night
Doubleheader Pushed to Sunday, August 23

NASHVILLE - Due to inclement weather in the top of the first inning, tonight's (Saturday, August 22) doubleheader against the Norfolk Tides at Harbor Park has been postponed and will resume on Sunday, August 23 beginning at 11:05 AM (10:05 AM Central). The Sounds and Tides will wrap up their series with two seven-inning games on Sunday. The Friday, August 21 game that was originally postponed has been cancelled and will not be made up. 

The game was four pitches old before being called with rehabbing Sal Frelick at the plate:

We get it, it was fireworks night, the last Saturday night August gate for Norfolk, but this was at least the third time a Brewers affiliate (perhaps twice for Wilson?) had a game postponed in "we just got underway" manner. Either the local forecasters are wildly ineffective, of they were accurate and just weren't heeded by club officials. Mother Nature is undefeated and makes the call, unless you're the Chicago Cubs circa 2017.

Will LHP Cade Povich be back on the mound at all for the Tides on Sunday? RHP Brandon Sproat was set to go for the Sounds, remains to be seen if he'll still start Game One Sunday. Y'know, routines and all...

Biloxi Pre-Game Media Notes
Final: Rocket City (Angels) 2, Biloxi 0
Box Score and Game Log

DeBerry Strikes Out Eight, Shuckers Fall to Trash Pandas - Brewers No. 27 prospect extends lead for Southern League strikeout crown, allows one earned run over 6.0 innings

We really shouldn't dismiss the 23 instances, each time when called upon, that RHP Jaron DeBerry has taken the ball for a Biloxi start this season. The 2025 3rd round senior sign out of Dallas Baptist ($25,000 bonus), DeBerry's .230 batting average against is 4th in the Southern League among inning-qualifiers, and as noted in the game summary headline, is the league strikeout leader.

DeBerry's game log will reveal that there's been about one start per month that's been clunky enough to skew his ERA and other counting stats, but few pitchers avoid those games altogether in their development years. DeBerry turns 24 years old in five days and should be a key member of Nashville's 2027 rotation.

DeBerry should have been credited with shutout ball in this game. A rare misplay by Braylon Payne (must have been the stadium lighting) led to this "triple", and catcher David Garcia threw away a pickoff attempt on the next play. There are your two runs, Trash Pandas.

Jesus Made singled in the 4th and stole second base, his 33rd theft in 44 tries. That's as close to an offensive highlight as we can muster, and not a stitch of Biloxi video goodness at the plate in this one is available as RHP Tyler Bremner, the 2nd overall pick in the 2025 draft out of UC-Santa Barbara by the Angels, dominated the Shuckers through six innings.

Wisconsin Pre-Game Media Notes (download link)
Final: Lake County (Guardians) 6, Wisconsin 1
Box Score and Game Log

Captains Sink Rattlers with One Big Inning - Lake County scores five runs with two outs in sixth inning to take control

Direct from the game summary you just read -

"The Lake County Captains took advantage of a break in the top of the sixth inning to score five runs with two outs to blow open a close game against the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers Saturday night at Neuroscience Group Field.  In the top of the sixth, Dubanewicz gave up a lead-off double and recorded his fifth strikeout of the game before he gave way to reliever Chandler Welch. Welch walked the first two batters he faced to load the bases.  He rebounded to get the second out of the inning with a strikeout and get ahead of Howard 0-2.  Wisconsin thought Welch had struck out Howard on a check swing, but Howard was ruled not to have gone around to keep his at bat alive.  Two pitches later, Howard blooped a single to left to score two runs. José Pirela was next to face Welch, and they battled for ten pitches.  Welch again got ahead 0-2.  Pirela fouled of a pair of 1-2 pitches and three 2-2 pitches before hitting a three-run home run to right for a 6-0 lead."

Voice of the Rattlers Chris Mehring is an absolute master at providing context when necessary to his game summaries. The Media team then picks up the theme by including MLB Grade A video evidence of the poor check swing call (only two umpires at the A-Ball level, so making that decision from second base).

Would it have been easy to gloss over the events of that inning? Is it better for us to understand Welch's line while reviewing the video in full below? You bet.

Did you catch Jayden Dubanewicz' facial fun fifteen seconds into the highlights? Just 20 years old, Dubanewicz clearly read yesterday's Link Report discussing aggressive pitching placements and said, "see this". Actually, the 2024 16th round pick out of a Florida high school has been very effective all season save for two outings (game log) and is right to call me out.

This game had many parallels offensively to the Biloxi game Saturday, which is to say there's not much to cling on to. The lone run driven in was by Eric Bitonti, his 70th and 7th in the league this season. Be sure to check out who is 3rd in the league in RBI.

Wilson Pre-Game Media Notes
Final: Salem (Red Sox) 15, Wilson 9
Box Score and Game Log

Warbirds Fall in Saturday Night Shootout - Encarnacion Leads the Way with Four Hits

Salem doesn't post video to their 'X' feed, and Wilson was unable to pick up video for their own. As usual, our Spencer was hard at work:

Here's Handelfry Encarnacion driving in the first run of the game with a long double.

One place you can catch eight or so videos is via the RidgeYaks' video collection page, though the Wilson pitching coaches may not want you to visit.

Every name in the Wilson lineup but one reached base at least twice, and the one who didn't, catcher Rylan Mills, did have a base hit. So, production throughout, enjoy your box score review (at least on the non-pitching side of the ledger).

That being said, starting RHP Carlos Carra was OK through two innings before the lengthy rain delay ended his night. Recently called-up RHP Luke Roupe was effective in his August 11th Warbirds debut but has struggled in his two follow-up outings, though four of the nine runs he allowed here were unearned. That box score review also showed you rough defensive nights for Mills and third baseman Frederi Montero (in only his 5th game at the hot corner this season).

18-year-old Antunez is up to a .405/.510/.734 line (1.244 OPS) through his first 97 Wilson plate appearances. We'd say video game numbers, but no video game could envision and calculate those figures.

Final: DSL Brewers Gold 5, DSL Mariners 2
Box Score and Game Log

The bulk of our daily forum thread was made up of posts discussing the status of the Gold squad in pool play and whether the convoluted tiebreakers of unknown definition would allow Gold to move on to the league semifinals. Alas, we learned that despite being one of three teams in the initial four-team pool to go 2-1, the Brewers club will not be advancing.

The Mariners did not score until the 9th inning Saturday as RHP Raymond Sarmiento followed up his fine regular season with six no-hit innings, walking two and fanning five. The 18-year-old Venezuelan native will turn 19 in February and has seemingly punched a ticket to Maryvale (maybe Wilson?) to begin 2027.

17-year-old 3B Leander Matos singled twice and drove in two runs. 19-year-old RF Frandy Lafond doubled and singled. Both players stole a base. Like Sarmiento, they will be in Maryvale come spring.

So, we say goodbye to the DSL season, you'll find all the individual sortable player stats on these pages: Blue and Gold. 

Follow five games Sunday prior to settling into the Little League showcase game tonight. Thanks for reading, have a fine day!

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