Joseph Zarr

Welp, RHP Will Childers and the Sounds just got walked off in the bottom of the 10th. 2 Run bomb. 9-8 Bats 'W'.

Nate Peterson was absolutely developing on his recent Development List stint. 3 2/3 scoreless innings so far. Still tied 7-7 in the, you guessed it, 7th.

Well, they are sitting at 28 Active players. By my eyes, however, they do potentially have room for two more players on the Development List? I guess that 'could' happen. I don't know how likely that is with only two games remaining but that is an option I do believe.

The corresponding move on Nashville's end (as Payamps will spend time clearing Waivers et al for the next week - being the second time Payamps has DFA'd in 2025 I imagine he is going opt into FA to explore his next steps) is C Nick Kahle was reinstated from the Development List.

Back to the Sounds, then, what are we thinking? Zimmerman and Maciejewski in some type of tandem? McGee last pitched on this short of rest (2 days as of today) back in late August when he pitched back-to-back outings as a Brewer. Now, this being said, they did just bring Cy 'Babe' Kahle back off the Development List.

Well, hey now! Zimmerman's contract was just selected by the Milwaukee Brewers. Epic. I absolutely love this for Zimmerman. A real Lindblom lefty-type with everything but the kitchen sink in his bag of tricks. Low velo, yes. But, he has been really solid for the vast majority of the season.

Can Zimmerman wow us again with another Quality Start? I've truly enjoyed watching the savvy lefty vet sling it in 2025. Here's hoping he has one last brilliant outing left in the Tank.

This thread will be utilized for any minor league news Saturday. Organizational Scoreboard Audio Links MiLB TV (Subscribers)

It certainly appears as though we will not be seeing the fairy tale Brewers ending many of us had hoped for with the long-tenured EMJ. This will actually make me legitimately sad if it is indeed the last we see of EMJ in the Brewers org. He is an extremely likable player who has massively entertained over the past two plus seasons.

The better team in Montgomery won that series. It's as simple as that. Had they played at the end of the first half (before Wilken's calamitous celebration), I think we all know this is very very likely a flipped script. But, that's not how it works in Minor League baseball. It's why you look at a team like the Michigan Whitecaps and marvel: they lost their three top prospects to promotion - McGonigle, Briceño, and Clark - at the start of the second half and still won the Midwest League post-season title. Now, that's organizational depth. These same three helped Eerie win 15-of-18 to get into the Double-A post-season as well where they are knotted 1-1 in their DLS. I've grown quite accustomed to the late season fade amongst the Brewers full-season affiliates. Injuries and promotions have very obviously played their part in recent years. BUT, it sure would be nice to see one of the teams capitalize when it matters most. It will all be moot if the Brewers can continue defying all the odds and all the naysayers this post-season. We turn our collective hopes and dreams and, honestly, baseball prayers in that well-deserving direction. This one was a long Minor League season with very different halves of Brewers Minor League baseball. The second half was a grind and it was filled with many many losses. I'm quite glad it's over after Sunday.😅 Thankfully, the Sounds are playing good ball. They really showed resolve and grit as they turned their second half around. It's easy to forget they had losing streaks of 7 and 4 games in August. Sitting here as the season comes to a close at 6 games over is a win for the club. Proud of that team and the coaching staff given what they've dealt with all season along in the roster shuffling department. Here's hoping they can give us a pleasant taste in our mouths to close this season out officially on Sunday.

Highly unlikely, imho.

AND, with that loss, I have endured the second half of Brewers Minor League Link reports. I will see you all in the reports next season. I will gladly take this break as I dig deeper into my Fall Farm work.

Unsurprisingly, the Shuckers lose. Two consecutive seasons. Two consecutive series losses to Montgomery in the Divisional round. They lost 8 straight games to the Biscuits in the final month of ball. Yikes.

International League update: With SWB losing 2-0 at Buffalo today, Syracuse has a massive opportunity to pull within 2.0 G tonight. They trail the first place Railriders by 2.5 G heading into tonight's tilt vs Lehigh Valley. 4.0 G remain. 2.5 G deficit. This is a must have opportunity should the Mets want to do the unlikely.

Yuppers. And he's just swinging the bat the best he's swung it all season. It was a low bar, yes, but it's nice to see flashes of his old prowess with the bat in his hands. He's also played a calmer acceptable version of defense of late. It has greatly colored my thinking in much more positive ways. To me, this potentially carries more weight because he's coming off a decent August - not jaw-dropping, no, but definitely a decent month. AND, he's also fared well at the MLB level this year. He's my darkhorse late call-up candidate.

With his last start of his season completed and in the literal books, RHP Garrett Stallings does his new partner a solid. Stallings is transferred to the Development List. LHP Nate Peterson is transferred to the active Sounds roster from the Development List. Everybuddy gets a late-season participation trophy. Good luck, Nate!

What about Tyler Black? Just sayin'. Lotta options.

This is why the games are indeed played.

Much like game One, if the Shuckers bats can't get going until the ninth inning in any run producing fashion, you can likely kiss their season good bye. Coming into the series I gave the edge to the Biscuits - a team simply playing much better baseball as a whole over the latter portion of the second half including a 20-6 mark to close their season. Unless the play on the field suddenly proves otherwise, and it certainly could happen, the Shuckers best stretch of baseball was many months ago in that coveted first half. After the untimely injuries to Adams and Wilken, and the loss of key pitching arms in Crow/Yeager/Kuehner/Childers/Fitzpatrick they just haven't reclaimed their first half glory in any consistent fashion. DeBerry is coming off his worst two game stretch in Double-A: 9 1/3 IP, 17 H, 1 HR, 1 HB, 2 BB, 5 K, 10 ER. That's good for a 0.378 BAA and 2.04 WHIP. Yikes. Let me say the obvious: I sure hope he bounces back.

The Browns defense has actually been very good early this season. It will be interesting to see the offensive game-plan and how it plays out.

The Magic Number is Six, no? Why does Brewer Fanatic's front page have it at 8?I find this annoying.😅

Is the internet wrong? I've read in multiple locations the Brewers Magic Number is 7 Games. I'm also a middle-aged man prone to forgetting things. I take no responsibility for this post. My dog typed this.

Image courtesy of Brewer Fanatic Transactions: - UTL Jheremy Vargas was re-instated from the Development List by the Biloxi Shuckers (I have no idea how this will impact the remaining game(s) in the SLDS but we do know SS Cooper Pratt has not played a game since his HBP on his right thumb - including game one at Montgomery) Final: Nashville 4, Louisville (Reds) 1 Sounds Even Series in Louisville - Black Leads the Way with Three Hits Game Notes Box Score/Game Notes RHP Garrett Stallings managed to keep it all together despite being knocked around for eight base hits over his five plus innings of work. The thing is, Stallings did not allow a single XBH and he did not walk a single batter. Take note, young pitchers: free passes are not your friends. In what is likely his last competitive work for the 2025 season, it's truly awesome to see Stallings sneak his ERA just below 4.00 at 3.99 on his season. He finished with a yeoman's line of 5 1/3 IP of 8 H, 0 BB, 3 K, 1 ER after 82 pitches thrown with 56 landing for strikes. Despite allowing a whopping 0.353 BAA in three starts in September, Stallings held the damage to a minimum with a 'manageable' 1.47 WHIP. It was a "Here, hit this!" kind of month whereby he allowed 21 knocks over 16 1/3 IP but only walked three batters while striking out six. Stallings is a sinker baller, first and foremost - he invites the ground ball en lieu of overwhelming stuff. Six groundouts induced in today's outing to just two flyouts, for example. I think, when all is said and done, the Brewers will look back at that 2024 Thyago Vieira and Aneuris Rodriguez swap with Baltimore for Stallings and feel quite good about their return. He's eaten innings at Nashville and he's been an adequate if not slightly above-average stabilizing force. After some choppy waters in 2024, Stallings kept it together and improved his numbers and results across the board as a full-time Sound for manager Rick Sweet in 2025. To that end, we salute the 28-year-old veteran who will reach Minor League free agency this fall where he'll consider his options. Three Quick Strikes: 1) He may be mired in a prolonged bad luck slump, but OF Jared Oliva has been a net positive for the vast majority of his time as a Sound in 2025. Before he missed a stretch of games due to injury, you'd be hard pressed to find a more impactful everyday player in that first half of the season. A plus defender on the outfield grass covering large swaths of grass with his blazing speed - speed that also wreaks havoc on the base paths - I want to be sure to mention Oliva here despite his absence from the line-up in today's game. Like former Sounds fan favorite INF Patrick Dorrian in seasons past, Oliva did much more in 2025 than simply offer his services on the field and in the clubhouse. Oliva was meaningfully active in the community of Nashville - all the more impressive, in my humble opinion, as a new arrival to the Brewers organization. He is very clearly more than a professional athlete: It's extremely important we fans remember: these players are much more than the product they put on the field. Like Stallings, Oliva is also headed to Minor League free agency this fall. He didn't get his call-up opportunity in 2025 but if he keeps putting forth the collective good works like this, the karmic wheel of fates should honor his play on the field and give him that next opportunity he deserves. Mr. Oliva, thank you for all you've done in 2025 - on the field and beyond. 2) After leading the Sounds offense with a three hit day, UTL Tyler Black is suddenly hitting 0.311 in September with an 0.848 OPS. Well, how about that? Let's honor this sudden turnaround with some gratitude and recognition. Black has six XBH's in the month (all doubles) while swiping eight bags and not getting caught once. Everything has looked just a notch more dialed in in his 52 September PA's - that inside out swing a bit more meaningful. And, as this season comes to its close Black is salvaging a bit of the shine of his once illustrious prospect status. The season BA is up to 0.238 with the season OPS just north of 0.700 points at 0.709. These overall numbers are a far cry from his best seasons when he was on the come up in the organization, but, as we all know, if he continues to close out this series the way he's approached all of September to date Black will close his 2025 season on a high note. As I sit here today, as a fan writing about the Brewers Minor League system, I can definitely take a bit of solace knowing Black fought back through an unfortunate injury; he's fought back through many doubts of his place on the baseball diamond defensively; and he's actually salvaged much of his value as a 40-Man Brewers player. When Tyler is right in the baseball world, when he is his best baseball self, swings like this and results like this are fairly commonplace: I've seen this swing and this near exact same result twice through two games of this current Louisville series. Black is closing his season on top. 3) OF Brandon Lockridge continues to show his value as a Sound hitting safely for the 8th time in 10 games since being optioned. Today, his lone poke was an insurance run adding double high off the left field wall: Lockridge's current Nashville OPS is a smidge below 0.700 at 0.695 because he only has two XBH's (both doubles) despite hitting a very palatable 0.286 after 47 PA's. On the other side of the diamond, it is obviously time for LHP Robert Gasser to provide more meaningful upside depth for the Brewers bullpen. Those of us who have watched the majority (or all, in my case) of his ongoing outings with the Sounds, know this was likely true when he was first optioned. Now that the Brewers have seen his multi-inning bullpen wares for a longer stretch - including today's 2 2/3 IP of 0 H, 1 BB, 3 K, 0 R work - surely they know his call-up back to the MLB pitching staff where he belongs is imminent. It would also appear @Jim Goulartand I are both on the exact same page here: What's that you say? The Brewers are reading my reports and heeding my words? Oh stop. You just stop that now. The Shuckers will be back at it with game two of their SLDS tomorrow night. Down 0-1, they'll need a win back home at Keesler Federal Park to avoid elimination while forcing the deciding game three (also at Keesler Federal Park). They will turn to RHP Jaron DeBerry who will look for a quick and potent bounce back after his last outing's struggles. And, Nashville will turn once again to newly acquired LHP Tucker Davidson who is coming off two consecutive solid efforts. The Sounds will attempt to jump to a 2-1 series lead at Louisville. With that, in what could very well be my last Minor League Link Report of 2025, I thank you readers for joining me in this journey. It certainly hasn't always been easy in 2025. We saw many players suffer unfortunate injuries abound as well as a fairly disappointing second half as a whole. Regardless, and as always, thanks for reading and thanks for supporting Brewers Minor League baseball. If I don't see you here again in 2025, perhaps you'll see me on the forums and even recapping the season with @Spencer Michaelisin the off-season for our second annual Brewers Minor League system review. Organizational Scoreboard including starting pitcher info, game times, MiLB TV links, and box scores MiLB Audio Links Current Milwaukee Brewers Organization Batting Stats and Depth Current Milwaukee Brewers Organization Pitching Stats and Depth View full article