Ro Mueller

The Mudcats have won 3 games in a row and have RHP Stiven Cruz (4.87 ERA, 1.36 WHIP, 11.2 K/9 in 68 1/3 innings) on the mound to try to extend their series lead to 2-0 in Delmarva. In some organizational musical chairs, 3B Branlyn Jaraba and C Alex Hall make their first starts this year in Low-A:

The AAA Sounds and Gwinnett Stripers make a 2nd attempt to start their series in Nashville, after last night's rainout. RHP Tyler Herb (3.74 season ERA in AA/AAA) gets the start and SS Brice Turang brings his 16-game hitting streak into the contest:

AA Biloxi has RHP TJ Shook (3.69 ERA, 1.31 WHIP, 10.1 K/9 in 92 2/3 High-A/AA innings) starting tonight, as the team needs to avenge last night's loss to tie up their series 1-1 at home against Rocket City. 25-year old SS Andruw Monasterio remains "The Man" in this Shucker offense (1.000 OPS in 150 AA plate appearances):

The High-A Timber Rattlers lost a close series opener at home against South Bend, but has 22-year old RHP Justin Jarvis (3.96 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, 10.4 K/9 in 104 2/3 innings) on the hill tonight to even things up. 1B/3B Zavier Warren comes in with a 10-game hitting streak and 17-game on-base streak:

1B Yeison Perez reached base 3 times in 4 innings for DSL-2. Unfortunately, that was via a walk and two hit-by-pitches, so he exited the game. Ugh. Rough day!

Biloxi and Carolina are both in 1-run games in the bottom of the 8th inning. Biloxi needs runs, trailing 5-4 at home. Carolina needs to lock it down, leading 6-5 on the road. Wisconsin is in some sort of delay at home, down 7-2 in the bottom of the 6th inning.

OF Arbert Cipion has an extra-base hit in each of his last 4 games. Great to see him adjusting to the High-A level.

Well, after the first 4 batters reached base in the 5th inning, giving Rocket City a 5-4 lead with 2-on and nobody out, Bennett was able to hunker down and retire the next 3 batters. Well done sir. On to the bottom of the 5th inning, Shuckers have work to do.

Jeez, 2 more homers (that’s 3 through 5 innings) off Nick Bennett have knotted the Biloxi-Rocket City game 4-4.

RHP Michele Vassalotti enters in the bottom of the 6th inning for the Mudcats, only his 3rd appearance in the last 33 days. Carolina still trails 5-4.

Biloxi suddenly has a Veteran lineup, other than Felix Valerio. Valerio doubled, Corey Ray walked, uber-productive Andruw Monsaterio singled in a run, Garrett Whitley hit a 3-run homer. And just like that, the game goes from down 2-0, to up 4-2. They’re poised to win a lot in these final weeks, assuming the pitching can hold up reasonably well.

Mudcats’ pitching coach Drew Thomas ejected in the 4th inning, with team trailing 5-2. I hope he got his money’s worth. Wisconsin trails South Bend 4-0 in the third inning, with the Cubs homering twice of Puello. Biloxi trails 2-0 in the 3rd inning on a Trash Panda 2-run shot. Nashville’s game was rained out.

The Carolina Mudcats welcome a new leadoff duo in 2nd round pick 20-year old 2B Robert Moore and 1st round pick 21-year old SS Eric Brown Jr. They're on the road in Delmarva this week, with RHP Jeferson Figueroa (6 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 7 Ks last time out) on the mound to start Game One:

AAA Nashville won their series last week, but the Columbus Clippers are even hotter, closing the Sounds' first place lead to just one game. ? RHP Tyler Herb (2.57 ERA over last 28 innings) gets the start in their series opener at home against Gwinnett. 22-year old SS Brice Turang is carrying a 16-game hitting streak and 23-game on-base streak:

My placement of Rodriguez that high is largely based on his production. He only debuted this year and if I exempt his understandably nervous initial outings, he's done the following since everything "clicked" on May 7th: 2.28 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 11.1 K/9, .540 OPS against, 83 K / 28 BB in 67 innings pitched. He's still just 20 years old, so he's easily the youngest pitcher that we have in High-A. I believe the main knocks on him coming out of junior college were his height (6'0") and control. FanGraphs' Eric Longenhagen had mentioned that Rodriguez was "wild, but has more upside than (Logan) Henderson." Well, his control hasn't been too bad (knock on wood), so let's believe in that upside! I'm unfortunately not able to dig into the quality of his arsenal (93mph fastball, curve, slider, changeup), but the man is getting the job done.

The Shuckers host a strong Rocket City Trash Pandas side (Angels' AA affiliate), with red-hot LHP Nick Bennett (1.50 ERA in last 18 innings) starting the opener. SS Andruw Monasterio comes in with an 11-game on-base streak:

- RHP Tyler Woessner (6th round draft pick) assigned to ACL Brewers Gold - RHP Logan Adams (undrafted free agent) assigned to ACL Brewers Blue - C Jason Ollarve assigned to ACL Brewers Blue from ACL Brewers Gold

The Timber Rattlers welcome 19-year old C Jeferson Quero (.757 OPS at Low-A Carolina) and 23-year old 3B Ben Metzinger (7th round draft pick in 2022) into the squad, as they face the South Bend Cubs at home this week. RHP Israel Puello (5.05 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, 9.7 K/9 in 82 innings) starts tonight's series opener:

- SS Dylan O'Rae (3rd round draft pick) assigned to ACL Brewers Gold - RHP Rosmel Reyes transferred to ACL Brewers Blue's 60-day injured list from 7-day injured list (he's not played this season) - RHP Edrian Robinson transferred to ACL Brewers Blue's full season injured list from 60-day injured list (he pitched in two games in June)

Oops. We were on the wrong end of this play on Sunday. But don’t worry: Carolina won the game and series anyway:

21-year old Venezuelan INF Luis Silva was signed as an international free agent in July 2017, debuting with a ho-hum 2018 DSL season (.558 OPS, 5 of 10 stolen base attempts) before putting up interesting numbers as a 17/18 year old in Arizona ball in 2019 (.295 AVG and .683 OPS, though boosted by a .361 BABIP). After the lost Covid 2020, Silva repeated in Arizona ball in 2021, struggling to replicate his 2019 effort (dipping to a .517 OPS) in limited playing time (71 plate appearances). Moving up to Low-A Carolina in 2022, he was listed as a catcher in the initial roster, which was perhaps indicative of a grand transition plan, though only 3 of his 405+ innings this year have been behind the plate. Unfortunately, his .445 OPS this year couldn’t help him to stick around longer. We wish him success in his upcoming ventures. 23-year old RHP Junior Montero from the Dominican Republic was signed as an international free agent in August 2018 and had a solid 2019 debut season (2.88 ERA in 18 DSL games; 2.25 ERA in 4 Arizona games; though with a WHIP of 1.79 that year). He was even better in the first half of 2021 (2.11 ERA, 1.27 WHIP and 13.1 K/9 in 12 Arizona games), earning a promotion to Low-A Carolina (1.93 ERA, 1.71 WHIP, 6.4 K/9 in 5 games). Montero has had an up-and-down 2022 in Low-A Carolina (4.78 ERA, 1.41 WHIP), but his 11.0 K/9 ratio and 6-1 record suggested he might get a longer leash. Releases are very difficult this time of year, but I guess the 29 walks in 32 innings pitched was a possible sticking point. With his lively arm, don’t be surprised if Montero keeps at the baseball dream, but either way we wish him tremendous success in his next opportunity inside or outside of baseball. 27-year old Virginian RHP Alec Bettinger was selected in the 10th round of the 2017 draft. Borrowing from @Mass_Haas: “It was a fantastic showing at AA Biloxi in 2019 (1.07 WHIP, 157 K in 146.1 IP) that netted Bettinger a late summer 2020 invite to the alternate training site and a 40-man roster spot that fall. Four 2021 MLB appearances, including a difficult debut start at the Dodgers, is what Bettinger can look back on at this time from a big-league perspective. His diminished role in the system came pretty abruptly this year. Hoping Alec can hook on quickly with another organization and flash his potential again, as he just turned 27 years old last month.” I will add that Bettinger put up respectable numbers in AAA Nashville in 2021, considering that it was his first year at that level (4.75 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, 9.1 K/9 in 96 2/3 innings), though something has unfortunately been off all season in 2022, best exemplified by his 6.49 ERA and surprisingly low 5.5 K/9 ratio in 34 2/3 frustrating innings. Thank you for your contributions, Mr. Bettinger, and good luck in your future activities!

I think we'd have seen such theoretical moves (e.g. Raabe, Warren) announced today, so I'm not expecting more position player announcements tomorrow. Ditto on anyone coming up from DSL to ACL - such moves grow our total stateside roster, forcing us to release players, so it appears the team (understandably) wants to postpone these. Looking back, this probably affected Chourio, Areinamo, Vallecillo and Cruz last year, as none were promoted to ACL in 2021. This year, it's likely to keep Yeison Perez, Osbriel Mogollon, Anfernny Reyes and Jerel Vizcaino down in the DSL, it seems, though the players can take comfort in the possible fast-track to Low-A Carolina in 2023. So I think that tomorrow's moves will be on the pitching side - e.g. filling Russell Smith's injury gap; possible placements of recently drafted pitchers (though they like to postpone most of these placements to next year as well).

- 3B Luke Adams (12th round draft pick) assigned to ACL Brewers Gold - C Matthew Wood placed on ACL Brewers Blue's 7-day injured list

- INF Luis Silva released from Low-A Carolina - RHP Junior Montero released from Low-A Carolina - C Darlin Lora placed on ACL Brewers Blue’s 60-day injured list - C Felipe Valderrama placed on ACL Brewers Blue’s 60-day injured list https://mailchi.mp/f7fda0a3b5ac/rosterupdate-1542845

This promotion of C Jeferson Quero to High-A Wisconsin from Low-A Carolina is confirmed on the transaction pages. Also, C Alex Hall is moving down to Low-A Carolina from High-A Wisconsin to back-fill Quero's spot.