sveumrules

He’s played a handful of 2B too, seven starts on the dirt versus seventeen in the grass. Not a perfect comp, but the guy I’ve kinda had in my head as a physical point of reference since we signed Fielder is Willie Calhoun who was a Top 100 guy with the Dodgers/Rangers circa 2017/18. Fielder’s not quite as short as Calhoun, but they’re both in that stocky LF/borderline 2B sort of bucket. Willie was also more of a high average/low K guy in the low minors where Jadyn has been more 3TO. Looking through recent-ish stateside complex hitters similar to Jadyn’s 267/432/475 (145 wRC+) 17.4 BB% | 24.2 K% line maybe gives a couple more cloudy crystal balls… 2022 Carlos Jorge (5’9” 160 2B/OF) hit 261/409/525 (146 wRC+) 16.2 BB% | 26.2 K%. Little more power, not quite as many walks and lower listed weight, but pretty close. Was also two years younger. Currently on second go around in A+. 2021 Edgar Quero (5’10 200 C) hit 253/440/505 (148 wRC+). Two years younger again and playing at the top of the defensive spectrum instead of teetering near the bottom. Jadyn will need to hit like Edgar did (131 wRC+ in the minors post-2021) to keep moving up. Going back to the pre-Covid rookie leagues found one more that’s pretty close, 2016 Khalil Lee (5’10 170 OF) hit 269/396/484 (144 wRC+) 14.9 BB% | 25.7 K%. Again two years younger and was playing some CF so starting from a higher athletic floor. Continued to hit (127 wRC+ from 2017-21) and got a couple cups of MLB coffee.

Bravo couldn’t hold the lead bottom seven, but limited the damage to one run to keep things tied at three each. Jorge Quintana walked to lead off the eighth, went to third on a Demetrio Nadal double, then a Jadyn Fielder HBP loaded the bases for Kevin Ereu. The same Kevin Ereu with ten singles, one double, one home run and 37 strikeouts in 125 plate appearances. But, no matter. Not only did Ereu walk for the 22nd time, the pitcher uncorked a wild pitch in doing so allowing two runs to score for a 5-3 ACL Crew lead.

Mercado retired the first two batters of the sixth before Ayendy Bravo came on for the third out. Kevin Garcia single (wild pitch) and an Engel Paulino single put runners on the corners for an RBI groundout from Handelfry to give the Zona Crew a 3-2 advantage top seven.

Zona Crew tied up at two top six. Demetrio Nadal walked, went to second on a wild pitch, stole third then scored on a Kevin Ereu groundout. Kevin Garcia followed with a two out single before Engel Paulino tripled him home. Enderson Mercado has gone 5 IP | 2 R | 5 H | 1 BB | 7 K so far.

Yeah, looks like he caught eight of his first ten games in Nashville, last game behind the dish on June 18 before DHing for his last six games now. Went back to the GameDay for the 18th to see if maybe he was HBP or something but the only bread crumb was he came out in the 7th inning when the game resumed following a rain delay.

NL Rookie WAR Leaders (position players) Baldwin ATL (2.0) Collins MIL (1.4) Kim LAD (1.0) Hicks MIA (0.8) Durbin MIL (0.6) NL Rookie rWAR Leaders (pitchers) Patrick MIL (1.9) Lord WAS (1.0) Henderson MIL (1.0) Casparius LAD (1.0) Misio MIL (0.9) Pretty good stuff from Brewers rookies this year. But it’s not just this year. Going back to Arnold’s first year at the helm in 2023, Brewers rookie position players have put up 12.5 WAR, best in MLB. Brewers rookie pitchers have posted 8.9 rWAR since 2023, fourth in MLB.

FanGraphs uses FIP for their default pitcher WAR and Freeland has been much better in that regard with a 3.63 FIP entering today. BRef (-0.1 WAR) and FanGraphs runs allowed WAR (-0.2 rWAR) are more representative of that 5.13 ERA which is around 10% worse than average after accounting for Coors.

Sure, that would be a true but so far this year Bohm has a .280 average and .319 on base percentage. Durbin only has a .236 average, but since he will take a walk his .318 on base percentage is right in line with Bohm's. Since they reach base at around the same clip, then it comes down to if Bohm's not that great power (96 ISO+ is below MLB average) and extra $7M in salary is more valuable than Durbin's speed and defense.

Burke (#20 on latest BF Top 20) and Areinamo (unranked) are nice prospects, but I think catcher Marco Dinges (#9 on latest BF Top 20) has passed them up in the estimation of most of the farm watchers.

Bohm would offer more power than Durbin, sure, but he is still below average overall with a 96 ISO+ since 2023 which ranks 117th out of 173 hitters with at least 1,000 PA over that stretch. Despite his imposing stature Alec is more of a singles/doubles hitter with a 112 AVG+ that ranks 33rd out of those same 173 hitters with at least 1,000 PA since 2023. His 262 singles over that stretch are tied for 13th, his 86 doubles are 10th, his 42 home runs are only 92nd.

Rumors were the Phillies asked for Mason Miller from the A's, or one of George Kirby/Logan Gilbert from the Mariners. If those were indeed their asks, Bohm was never realistically available. His -49 DRS at 3B is also the worst of the 2020's (Devers is 2nd worst at -41 DRS), so I'd guess that precludes him from consideration for the Brewers too. Especially considering his bat is more good (108 wRC+ from 2023-25) than anything special or difference making.

At home, yes, Freeland has a 7.11 ERA | 4.05 FIP. Get him down at sea level and he has a much better 3.64 ERA | 3.31 FIP.

Love to see it. Fun coincidence that Tobias has 1 walk out of 137 batters faced so far and 1/137 is apparently known as the Fine-Structure Constant in physics, quantifying the strength of electromagnetic interaction between elementary charged particles....so he's got that going for him.

Island Updates... DSL Gold trailing 8-4 top nine. Francis Sosa has provided most of the offense with a single and three run homer. Matthew Moses has also doubled. Christopher Peralta went 4 IP | 2 R | 3 H | 1 BB | 7 K. DSL Blue tied 2-2 bottom seven. Diustin Mayorquin started things off with 5 IP | 1 ER | 5 H | 1 BB | 6 K and Steve Duran has followed with 1.2 scoreless IP of 1 H | 3 K work. Frandy Lafond has a double and RBI while three batters (Brailyn Antunez, Jefer Lista, and Joan Gutierrez) have each walked twice with Gutierrez stealing a pair of bags too.

Couple two tree should do 'er. But all jokes aside, it beats working at the submarine screen door factory.

I'd vote Chourio. He looked like he was turning it around going off for a 313/358/548 (150 wRC+) triple slash over 123 PA from 05/21 to 06/20 but has been brutal the last five games with 23 PA of 095/130/095 (-42 wRC+).

What's the argument for him being mishandled? His minor league numbers backed up across the board in 2024 (both surface level and underlying) while looking overmatched in his brief MLB sample. He started this year injured and has been working his way back.

He doesn’t have enough time in MLB to really be considered in the initial voting, but if he keeps this up twixt now and then I could see him named as a replacement pitcher for one of the guys that inevitably won’t be able to pitch in the game.

Bucks have Bird Rights on Portis. Wouldn't blame him if he wants to get out of town after having his house robbed, his grandma dying, and then getting a ticky tack drug suspension to round out the trifecta of a bummer year, but unless someone offers a truly insane deal I think he'll be back in Milwaukee. He's also got a clear line to the starting spot if Brook isn't retained, or is brought back on a lesser salary in more of a situational role. Also not sure if there is anyone out there that can offer KPJ a better gig to continue rebuilding his value than the Bucks can starting next to Giannis for the year with Dame out. If it comes down to GTJ or KPJ for the mid level exception give me Trent, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if Porter is back with the Bucks after they made a concerted effort to acquire him at the deadline.

Got a little interesting with a two out walk to Victor Mesa Jr. and a wild pitch, but Yoho came back to strike out the last batter and seal the 7-6 Sounds win.

Only times he has thrown 4 IP or fewer in MLB were his first career start (4.0 IP) and his last start of last year (2.0). Has only had three games with fewer than 6.0 IP this year before today.

Or when they complain that teams only score on dingerzz nowadays

Misio and Skenes squaring off and we're over here talking about Hendry Mendez and Isaac Collins...true junkies that we are.

Even Skenes fears Isaac Collins.

Mendez is having a nice year, no doubt (& I'd rather have him than Dunn) but I'm not sure he'd do anything about our lack of premium OF prospects. He's still a corner only guy lacking in athleticism, defensive chops and power production. Plenty of time for that last one to come around still, but without it his hit tool and strike zone judgement can only carry him so far with the other limitations. I'd still have him easily behind Lara (who is outside my personal Top 20) among upper level OF prospects. Pulling Isaac Collins out of thin air gives us 4.5 outfielders still under long term control at the MLB level so it's not like things are too dire in the near or long term.