Ro Mueller

- C Eric Haase outrighted from MLB Brewers to AAA Nashville - C Brian Navarreto placed on AAA Nashville’s 7-day injured list - C Blayberg Diaz assigned to AAA Nashville from Low-A Carolina

Old friend RHP Jake Cousins gets a chance to see his first big league action since June 3, 2023 with the Brewers.

Terrific outcome for the Crew. God are the Marlins cheap! Their catchers are a combined 0-for-13 with Zero walks. Swept 4 straight by the Pirates at home and they can’t even be bothered to claim a bat-first catcher. Hilarious! Our gain!

There’s a youth movement afoot, as four 18-year olds start the season on Low-A Carolina’s Opening Day roster: OF Yophery Rodriguez, RHP Josh Knoth (a 2023 draft pick), RHP Manuel Rodriguez and 3B/2B Juan Baez. Oh yeah, and they’ve also got five other 2023 draftees: RHP Ryan Birchard, SS Cooper Pratt, RHP Morris Austin, RHP Bishop Letson and RHP Josh Timmerman.

If I'm counting correctly, we've got 5 draft picks from last season on Wisconsin's Opening Day roster: Boeve, Wichrowski, Kuehner, Manfredi and Yoho...but no Ryan Birchard (well, he's still 20 years old). Luke Adams and Jadher Areinamo make the step up as expected, with Dylan O'Rae and Gregory Barrios joining them to add some exciting offense and defense. Adding Aquino, Rudy and Yerlin Rodriguez brings some serious talent to the pitching staff and I see Alexander Cornielle is returning. I wonder if Stiven Cruz is moving to the bullpen after not seeing his name listed as a starter in spring training. Let's hope they all thrive in the new season that's upon us.

The AA Biloxi Shuckers have rolled out a formidable 29-man Opening Day roster, including RHP Jacob Misiorowski, Brock Wilken, Wes Clarke and many other studs. Never mind that the player cap (I believe) is 28(!?):

Should we expect 2023 draftee Ryan Birchard to report to High-A Wisconsin?:

Hopefully Bradley Blalock has a terrific season ahead of him:

5’8” sparkplugs Vinny Capra and Isaac Collins led Nashville’s run-scoring barrage while starting pitcher Tobias Myers danced through four shutout innings. The pair of middle infielders reached base eight times, scored five runs, collected three RBIs and teamed up on a critical double play early in the contest. Despite the convincing Easter Sunday victory, the Sounds came up on the short end of the 3-game series, so will look for their first series win of 2024 back home in Nashville next week. Transactions: N/A Whether the Sounds officially or unofficially add a catcher before Tuesday’s home opener (e.g. Ramon Rodriguez is perhaps the logical promotion candidate, with 16 AAA games at catcher under his belt), the more important news we’re waiting to hear is the result of Jeferson Quero’s MRI: Game Action: Nashville Pre-Game Media Notes Final: Nashville 12, Toledo 0 Box Score / Game Log Via the Sounds’ website, game details, and we encourage readers to review affiliate write-ups as part of their Link Report routine: Sounds Shutout Mud Hens For First Win of Season Score first, score often and don’t let the other team score. Each of these strategies is quite effective in most sporting contests, but it’s when they all come together at once that domination ensues. Facing their first left-handed starting pitcher of the year, Manager Rick Sweet went with a change at the top of the order and SS Vinny Capra (2-for-3, double, 3 walks, RBI, SB) delivered with flying colors. Capra walked, stole a base and scored on a ground ball out in the first inning, giving Nashville its first lead in three days in Toledo. He ultimately reached base five times. As we closed the books on 2023, we weren’t certain whether RHP Tobias Myers would remain a starting pitcher (5.07 ERA in 136 2/3 IP as a starter in AA) or shift to relief (0.00 ERA with 8 Ks in 4 IP in AA/AAA), but there’s oftentimes value (and better job security) in sticking as a starter if you can. Myers (4 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 3 singles, 4 walks, 4 Ks) faced a good amount of traffic, but consistently got the ground balls (6 of his 12 outs) or strikeouts he needed to escape. His fastball reached as high as 95mph. All nine Sounds reached base via hit or walk in this romp, with eight players driving in RBIs, seven drawing walks and six collecting hits. That, coupled with a 6-for-17 day with runners in scoring position, is how you score 12 runs without mashing any homers. After striking out his in first at-bat, 2B Isaac Collins (2-for-4, 2 doubles, 2 RBIs) made the most of his 2024 debut by contributing RBI doubles in each of the 4th and 6th innings to help blow the contest open. Take another gander at the box score to see how every Sound player contributed (e.g. batters 5 through 9 producing 8 RBIs on 8 hits). Big kudos to the Sounds’ bullpen for not even yielding a hit in five innings of work, as mentioned in the affiliate write-up link above. That includes recently-signed 29-year old RHP Nolan Blackwood (1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 Ks) who made his Brewers’ organizational debut with a 1-2-3 fifth inning, stranding Myers’ last baserunner and earning a Win for his efforts. Sounds’ Extras: Myers particularly bore down with a 2-0 lead, two-on and nobody out in the bottom of the second inning, getting the two ground outs and one strikeout he needed. The four walks may not look great, but Myers’ command was quite solid until he started waning with 2 outs in the 4th inning. The new Joey Wiemer (0-for-5, walk, but just one K) swing is evidently still a work in progress. While Nashville pounded out 28 hits over three days, Wiemer only managed to go 1-for-14 with a single. Tyler Black (0-for-2, 2 walks, RBI) was the designated hitter for the third straight game and I’m not going to pretend that this is a normal occurrence in the minor leagues. But let’s take it as a positive sign that he was healthy enough to attempt to steal a base, albeit unsuccessfully. RHP JB Bukauskas (1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 BB, 1 K) made his season debut by closing out the 12-0 victory, thus answering the question of whether the Brewers’ final camp pitching cut (technically optioned) had joined the AAA affiliate directly or was part of a “taxi squad” accompanying the MLB club to New York. Next week’s outlook: The Sounds (1-2) return home to take on Twins’ affiliate St. Paul (2-0) for a 6-game set, with LHP Aaron Ashby expected to start the series opener on Tuesday. The Brewers’ other full season affiliates (AA Biloxi, High-A Wisconsin, Low-A Carolina) are scheduled to commence their 2024 campaigns on Friday, April 5. We hope that you enjoy the Minor League Link Report. Both the Brewers and Sounds are off on Monday before returning to action the following day. Organizational Scoreboard including starting pitcher info, game times, MiLB TV links, and box scores Current Milwaukee Brewers Organization Batting Stats and Depth Current Milwaukee Brewers Organization Pitching Stats and Depth View full article

I can’t help but feel like Mark Attanasio would need to sell the team before we’d take on 4 years of a good-sized position player contract, but yeah I’d love to have as a cornerstone infielder for several more productive years.

Should we claim/trade for him and retain on 26-man active MLB roster OR hope he scales through unclaimed so we can sign him to a minor league deal? Or maybe we claim, then re-DFA and hope he scales through, so we could then outright him to the minors. The games we play…

RHP JB Bukauskaus couldn't quite earn a save, but he did deliver a 1-2-3 ninth inning to seal the 12-0 shutout victory. That 7-hour bus-ride (or maybe they grab a flight from Detroit?) back to Nashville will be loads more fun than if the Sounds had been on the other side of this shellacking.

Make it 10! Make it 12! Watch Blackwood retire all 3 batters in an inning. Then Holub. Then LHP Nick Bennett. It's 12-0 going into the bottom of the 8th inning, all Sounds.

For the second time in the game, a batter challenged a low strike 3 call and was incorrect - once for each team. Will MLB implement a similar system in 2025? 2026? 2060?

The Sounds pour it on in the top of the 5th inning, adding 3 runs on 2 doubles (Collins' second of the game, Vinny Capra's first extra-base hit of the season). It's 9-0 and RHP Blake Holub comes in for his 2nd appearance of the season.

Myers' control started to escape him in that 4th inning, then he issued a walk to Ryan Vilade to open the bottom of the 5th after getting ahead with an 0-2 count. So that's all for Myers today (4 innings, 0 runs but responsible for Vilade), yielding to newcomer 29-year old RHP Nolan Blackwood, who produced a 4.75 ERA, 1.44 WHIP and 6.7 K/9 for Seattle's AAA squad last year in the hitter-friendly PCL and was Mexican League bound this offseason before inking a minor league contract with the Crew in late February.

After Myers works around a walk and 2 singles to put up another Zero in the 3rd inning (aided by a GIDP and another ground ball out), the Sounds post a 4-run 4th inning, chasing Mud Hens' starter Brant Hurter via 2 walks and an RBI single (Patrick Dorrian), then greeting the reliever with consecutive RBI doubles (Isaac Collins and Nick Kahle). 6-0 Sounds, still in the 4th inning.

Myers worked himself out of 2-on, nobody out trouble in the 2nd inning: ground out, K on fastball up in the zone, ground out. Touched 95mph on the radar gun.

Tobias Myers off to a nice 3-up, 3-down start, needing only 12 pitches in the 1st inning.

Nashville grabs 2 runs in the top of the 1st inning; the first without needing a hit (2 walks, 2 groundouts), then RF Brewer Hicklen smashes a triple to center for the second run. Go Sounds!

Sometimes we just want to throw a minor thought out here - imaginary trade, waiver claim, etc. Here’s one: assuming we lose C Eric Haase in the coming days and C Jeferson Quero for an extended period of time, we may wish to pick up C Ali Sanchez (now a free agent) on a minor league deal or claim switch-hitting OF/C Cooper Hummel off DFA waivers (with one option year remaining) for high minors catching depth.

The manager is sitting one game, today.

25-year old RHP Tobias Myers makes his first AAA start since September 2022 after spending most of last season back in AA ball. He leads a Sounds team seeking to avoid a 3-game road sweep in Toledo. 2B Isaac Collins and C Nick Kahle make their first starts of 2024, while Tyler Black continues to mysteriously only DH.