Brewers Minor League Link Report (9/23): Biloxi Falls One Game Short of a Championship

The Shuckers fell victim to the RISP gods Wednesday, scoring just one run despite placing 12 runners on. The team scored its only run thanks to a balk. Thus concludes a prospect-packed but oddly sequenced Biloxi campaign. We say goodbye to the Link Report (in its current format) after 25+ years. 

Catch up with the latest Biloxi pre-game audio interview archives - Manager Mike Guerrero and RHP's Bishop Letson and Travis Smith are the latest guests

Biloxi Pre-Game Media Notes
Final: Rocket City (Angels) 3, Biloxi 1
Box Score and Game Log

Shuckers Fall in Game Three of Southern League Championship Series - Season ends after reaching SLCS for fourth time in franchise history

Why did we choose to highlight this sequence to kick things off?

Go the 03:19:15 hour/minute mark of the free game archive here.

You'll see the Damon Keith deep fly to the wall that had me jump out of my chair in anticipation as I watched live. Alas, the potential go-ahead three-run home run was corralled at the wall.

Yes, that was Rocket City's 28-year-old closer in his 4th season appearing at the AA level making that pitch. The advanced age of the Angels' affiliate players vs. the youthful Shuckers was a topic in our daily forum thread.

LHP Jesus Broca and RHP Stiven Cruz each stranded a runner upon entering. 

We suggest you visit this game log page and you'll see the events (including video) of the single runs allowed by talented southpaw J.D. Thompson in the 3rd and 4th innings.

Angels top prospect SS Arjun Nimmala (Jose Soriano trade to the Blue Jays) provided the insurance run on this Ryan Birchard pitch -

Regarding the earlier "oddly sequenced Biloxi campaign" comment, let's remember that Biloxi squeezed by Pensacola by one game in the first half to qualify for the postseason. Biloxi played four fewer games than the Blue Wahoos as weather wreaked havoc with the schedule at midseason. Then the Shuckers posted a last place second half record of 31-38 that included an unfathomable 13-game losing streak.

But overall, Brewers fans had reason to be enamored with the youthful star-laden roster. First baseman Blake Burke, OF Josiah Ragsdale, current big-league Colorado Rockie LHP Mark Manfredi, fireballing RH reliever Cameron Wagoner and starting RHP Tyson Hardin (though he struggled in seven early season starts) are among the players who moved up and/or elsewhere are not even on the current talented roster.

That current active roster doesn't include injured players like INF Luis Pena, RHP's Tanner Gillis and Braylon Owens, and catcher Marco Dinges. Have we overloaded your prospect senses yet? And we haven't even discussed this Wednesday lineup:

My goodness. Thanks for those individual efforts, gentlemen.

Thanks to the Voice of the Shuckers Javik Blake and his 2026 assistant Max Gifford for providing the color to the season that was, to say the least, fascinating, exciting and perplexing all at once!

One note, and not to make too big a deal of it, but this report concludes what we will call the "Link Report" era, which began halfway through the 2001 season at our old Brewerfan.com home. We're going to retire the term "Link Report" as of this entry. It's been an amazing ride, and thanks so much to @Ro Mueller @Ben Lepak @Telemachus Rafaelidys and for prior years' efforts @Joseph Zarr. Thanks to you readers and posters for supporting us and adding to the Link Report legacy.

For me personally, I'll absolutely be around and will continue to contribute to our Minor League Forum by keeping our thread topics chock-full, organized and informative with links and connections to all the available news on the Brewers prospect front. 

But the daily commitment to the Link Report in its current format, especially on those days with seven games on a regular basis, led us to be at our keyboards for upwards of three hours on overnights and early mornings in order to maintain the quality level we sought. It simply wasn't sustainable.

I'm sure our site owner Brock, who has been a strong supporter of our work, has plans for the future. There may be some automation involved, but even if there is, we are hopeful our very helpful readers and posters will keep the community vibrant with personal interactions and comments on those reports and on our forum.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your support of the Link Report over the years.

One last thing as we enter what should be the most exciting few weeks - I was 19 years old in 1982. I'm ready.

Go Brewers!!

Interested in learning more about the Milwaukee Brewers' top prospects? Check out our comprehensive top prospects list that includes up-to-date stats, articles and videos about every prospect, scouting reports, and more!