Spencer Michaelis

This is definitely an overreaction considering I've just been watching him for a few innings, but at the same time I can't believe how impressive Moises Salazar looks behind the plate. He has defensive tools that will give you a big-league career even if you can't hit much, and he's a 16-year-old switch-hitting catcher with legitimate offensive tools too.

Orioles Orange vs Brewers Gold stream for those interested :)

Image courtesy of © Dave Kallmann / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images Bishop Letson (11th round), Tyson Hardin (12th), Luke Adams (12th), and Josh Adamczewski (15th) are the most highly-touted post-10th round picks in the Milwaukee Brewers' vaunted farm system right now. However, as the club's 16th-round selection in 2024, Jayden Dubanewicz is looking to put himself in their company with his strong start to 2026. Dubanewicz's signing came as a bit of a surprise, as he'd already moved into his dorm at the University of Florida by the time the Brewers picked him. The $665,000 signing bonus likely played a big role in convincing him, and it's looking like a smart investment for the Brewers. At 6-foot-3, Dubanewicz still has significant physical projection left, with plenty of room to continue adding strength to his frame. However, he already looks to be bigger than his listed 160 pounds this season. He got off to a late start this season, after leaving a minor-league spring training game with a minor injury. He didn't ramp back up until mid-April, but made his first start for the newly minted Wilson Warbirds (Low-A) on May 13. After sitting 92-94 mph last season, Dubanewicz has operated more consistently around 95 mph early this year and has touched 97.8. The velocity jump has also come with improved fastball characteristics, as he has reached up to 20 inches of induced vertical break on some of his four-seamers. With nearly seven feet of extension, the pitch has the potential to become a legitimate weapon for him if he can get the movement a bit more consistently in that 18-20 IVB range. Because Dubanewicz made a couple of appearances in the Arizona Complex League as part of his rehab, we can compare his 2025 velocity, spin, and movement to where they are early in 2026, courtesy of Pitch Profiler. A few things pop out immediately on that chart. First of all, Dubanewicz's arm angle has gone from 34° overall (39° on his four-seam) to 49° overall and 53° on his four-seam. It's easy to see the difference in the pictures below (2026 on the left; 2025 on the right). A higher arm angle does usually coincide with more IVB, and Dubanewicz has gone from an average of 15.2" to 17.8". Neither of those are out of the ordinary for their arm slot, though, so the bigger jumps to pay attention to are in his extension and velocity. He has made some other changes to his delivery as well, including making his glove tap at the top of his leg lift much smaller, and also sitting back into his back leg a bit better. He stays a bit taller up top as well, helping him rotate more efficiently. iq0ml8.mp4 In the 67 pitches that were tracked in 2025, Dubanewicz's max velocity was 94.7 MPH, and he averaged 93 MPH. In his 2026 appearance, he threw six pitches harder than that, including the aforementioned 97.8 MPH pitch, averaging 95. With the MLB average for release extension being 6.3 feet, Dubanewicz already generated slightly above-average extension last season at 6.65 feet, but it has jumped to 7.01 feet this year. The thought is that one foot of extension above average adds about 1.7 MPH to the perceived velocity of a pitch. This means that Dubanewicz's 2-MPH jump in velocity is a bit closer to a 3 MPH jump in perceived velocity. Typically, guys also achieve less extension when they work from a higher arm angle, so his extension increasing this way despite raising his slot bespeaks a player getting down the mound much, much better than in the past. Something else that appears to have improved from 2025 to 2026 is the spin rate. The RPMs are up on all of the pitches you would want them to be up on, and he's actually killing spin on the changeup a bit better, as well. He also appears to be separating the slider and curveball shapes a bit better. There's not a cluster on the 2026 side of the above graphic, like there was in 2025. It should be noted that while the velocity was in the 94-97 range early in his start on Wednesday, it had dropped down to 92-95 in the third inning. As he continues to build up, showing that he can hold that velocity later in starts will be important for Dubanewicz. All three secondaries show flashes of being average or better offerings, with the breaking balls being used mainly against righties and the changeup being used mainly against lefties. The shapes of all three pitches should allow them all to be used in a platoon-neutral manner, though, which gives him a particularly deep mix. He's still using his "sinker" in Low-A games, but it was not used during his time in the ACL, so there's no data to look at there. It plays more like a two-seamer than a true sinker, as it's used more for its run than its sink. That's truer than ever from the higher slot. These changes and improvements have led to a very strong start to his season, including his two ACL appearances and three starts with Wilson. His 42% whiff rate would be in the 98th percentile for qualified pitchers at the Low-A level—though he is, of course, not currently close to qualified, due to his late start. ERA FIP IP G GS HR/9 K% BB% K-BB% Whiff% WHIP BABIP LD% GB% FB% IFFB% 1.98 3.24 13.2 5 4 0.0 30.91% 12.73% 18.18% 42.0% 1.39 0.400 20.7% 41.4% 37.9% 36.4% If there is one thing to keep an eye on, it's the walks. He only walked 5.6% of batters faced last season, but he is currently at 12.7% early this year. It's too small a sample to draw any real conclusions from right now, especially because four of his seven walks came on Wednesday, in a game that began in a weather delay and was dealing with intermittent rain throughout the early innings. Still, it's something to track moving forward. Dubanewicz turned 20 in early March and has a long developmental road ahead of him. If he can continue to add strength and see the velocity bump up even further, this is the type of arm that could start to push its way toward top-10 prospect consideration in the system. It's too early in the season to project that, but he has that type of talent and (given the strides he's already made) seems to have the work ethic to get there. View full article

Milwaukee Brewers signed free agent RHP Manuel Davila to a minor league contract.

Not sure where else to put this, but it seems like Peña is on his way back to Appleton from this person who is currently at the ACL Brewers game tonight

This seems like good news on Luis Peña from a source who is at the ACL Brewers game tonight

If anyone’s interested in watching the ACL game tonight

Not on the main (Statcast) field against the Cubs today (apparently there’s a HS game on it lol) but a little birdie told me there were EV’s of 109 on the double and 112 on the single for Antunez’s two hits so far tonight.

I suppose that could be tied to the slugging, but I'm not sure I get how that would be connected to walks going up significantly as well? If you're encouraging more in-zone attacking vs trying to get chase, I'd think walks would be going down or at least holding pretty steady. My educated guess is that we're going to find out the baseballs are slicker, with less drag this year.

I've heard Baseball America is working on an article of some sort on this that should be out soon. It definitely feels like something has changed with walks and homers both up quite a bit across the board for non-AAA levels (the one level that they use MLB baseballs)

I am coming away from this extremely impressed with Frontado. This was an awesome AB from him. Covered all different areas of the zone, laid off of some well-placed breaking balls, hit a foul ball at 101 MPH, and then was able to reach out and poke one 93 MPH for an RBI single. hw52ne.mp4

I am the sicko. Here's a nice turn from Frontado and Rodriguez with a quasi-shift on. Very fluid looking for a couple of teenagers on the same side of the infield. Frontado, Rodrigeuz DP Turn.mp4

For the truest sickos... Here's a live link to the Brewers Blue DSL extended spring game against the Cubs DSL team and the lineup the Brewers are running out to start this one, which includes two of their top three signing bonuses from this past class in Jose Rodriguez and Diego Frontado.