Joseph Zarr

I gotta say, in all my years...in all my random iterations...this the first 'douche nozzle' I've witnessed. This is the kind of cutting edge witticism we need.

Hey the Javelinas won last night! Feels like a Harvest Moon! 3-2 over the (also not all that good early) Scottsdale Scorpions. RHP Ryan Birchard did ongoing AFL Birchard things - strikeout and walk at a near 1:1 clip while keeping damage at a bare minimum. 3.0 IP, 1 H, 4 BB, 4 K, 1 WP, 0 R. ERA is down to 3.75. However, it is absolutely worth sharing: the results are acceptable but the in-game process remains unsound. 1.83 WHIP on the season. Leads the AFL in walks. Has 16 BB to 15 K in just 12.0 IP. His saving grace at present is despite those peripherals his raw stuff is evolving. He is holding hitters to a 0.162 BAA. Ingredients absolutely there. Still very much a raw ball of clay at this stage of his development path. RF Luis Lara grabbed another OF assist (he has several) in an 0-for-3 day at the plate. Despite the lack of eye-popping results of any kind at the plate he is still managing a 12:10 K:BB ratio. He is staying relevant, if unimpressive, while adding very very good defense as per usual. 3B Brock Wilken continues to get #3 and #4 chances in the batters box. He continues to struggle producing anything of consistent substance. 0-for-3, 1 BB, 2 K. His AFL output is now a 0.138 BA with a paltry 0.493 OPS. He leads all 3B in the AFL in strikeouts (26). He is second last (of 11 players consistently manning the hot corner) in BA and OPS. He continues to be given each and every opportunity despite a three month long super slump. Sigh. 2B Juan Baez continues to shine brightest for the Brewers in the desert. He essentially is nipping at the heels of the Cardinals' highly-touted Thomas Saggese in nearly every important offensive category for 2B in Arizona. He went 1-for-4 with 1 2B (his 3rd overall) and 1 RBI (his 13th overall). The Javelinas 'improve' to 6-16 on the season. They will face the 15-7 Surprise Saguaros today.

Because these transactions were also technically processed on the Minor League side: RHP Bryse Wilson was sent outright to the Nashville Sounds where he elected Free Agency 1B/OF Jake Bauers was sent outright to the Nashville Sounds where he elected Free Agency

Chourio...Quero...and now one SS Cooper Pratt. Well deserved! The future is bright!

AND on the Minor League side we have one SS Cooper Pratt bringing home the golden hardware.

That pitching play-by-play from Jim absolutely encapsulates the 2024 AFL Javelinas experience. A literal pitching staff roller coaster. You don't have to look far - just check those pitching staff peripherals. Lottttttta elevated everythings. But, I'm choosing to give the benefit of the doubt many of these young men are devoutly working on distinct aspects of their skillsets - a cumulative up and down affair. It's the journey not the destination here. I do believe Manfredi's last two outings have had a balk apiece? Not a good trend.

Which brings me to: I was left wanting much more of the young and intriguing Adamczewski who flashed consistently before season ending injuries. I imagine, however, as he ages and progresses he is going to need to develop a modicum of positional flexibility. He didn't appear to have the lateral agility and range to handle a spot SS assignment at this level but I certainly could be wrong. We didn't get a chance to see it in Carolina which probably tells us where he is in that greater organizational SS depth chart. Can he handle a 3B assignment? Is he going to get any reps in the corner OF spots? The bat absolutely looked advanced which is a massive plus. Serious potential in that lumber. And, boy, it was hard to leave the season feeling confident about Di Turi. Nearly everything he was doing at Carolina felt a step too slow. His second season will be crucial for his standing in the organization.

Yes and he was always hired on as an easy walk-over. From Day 1 from my POV. I mean that original hire was such a literal quagmire. As bad as he has been in key areas, I think it is very very safe to say he is a consummate 'Yes man'. It is said, for instance, he was very clearly a Nick Nurse and then a Kenny Atkinson guy but he was easily overrode in the final decision-making process. First by Giannis and then by ownership. For me, the entire draft complex and decision-making around those picks and the general disregard of picks (especially considering their ridiculous salary cap situation) is where he and his staff have repeatedly dropped the ball. I just don't know how much final say influence he really has anywhere else. But, yeah, to your point I just don't think he does anything especially well other than play the point man for others' decisions. And, where he does have more agency I don't think he is very good at all.

The reverse jinx worked with aplomb: A two out grand salami ties the game at 6 apiece. There is now a bases empty rain delay with 3B Brock Wilken scheduled to bat next.

I am now officially on "Will the Peoria Javelinas win another game in the 2024 AFL season watch?". They trail 6-2 in the eighth frame to Surprise. They are on the verge of falling to 5-17. It's a beautiful ugly in the desert. Here's our moment of Zen: It's reasonable to say 3B Brock Wilken has had decent outcomes in three of his past four games. He is 1-for-2 with 1 RBI, 2 BB, and 1 K tonight. We have to start somewhere. I'll gladly find a needle in a haystack.

It very much is. And, it very much spell checked me to 'Cameron'. Incredible. Thanks for the heads up - I'll go ahead and re-edit that post. As you can see given me several posts above, I very clearly know what his name is - I've been watching him pitch throughout his AFL stint. 😅

The RHP Chad Patrick era begins... I have to think, at this point (especially given the Rea news), it's a near certainty he is added to the 40-Man. Otherwise they near certainly lose their best 'ready now' end of rotation starter. I don't think the Brewers would overlook how absolutely dominant Patrick was in his last month of work for Nashville after an already fantastic season. 39 K over 25 IP in his last six starts. 5 ER allowed over that span. This includes an abbreviated 3.0 IP, 4 BB snafu vs Gwinnett. His second to last start at Home vs Memphis was a 12 K masterpiece. The cutter was filthy. It reminded me of that last week of bullpen work we saw from RHP Tobias Myers to close the 2023 season - a guy who had really pitched admirably all year somehow found an entirely different level.

Having watched some or all of each of RHP Coleman Crow's last three outings I've seen a bit of everything early in what are essentially his rehab innings. He has a massive and classic 12-6 curve. It has a seriously large arc with quite a bit of vertical break. And, it has me wondering if he can't reduce some of that movement and develop a gyro slider or death ball type set of movements in his arsenal. I mean he sits low 90's and his heat has some ability for late movement. Is he going to strictly be that traditional swooping curve guy and target that larger velo discrepancy? Or can he sacrifice some of that vertical movement for a higher velo version that can get more strikes? My early Friday AFL ponderings. To that end, and for any of you pitching nerds...this is a really fun 6 minutes of your time. ** For those of you who haven't seen Crow pitch, he has a roughly 3/4 arm slot approach and I would gather - albeit it in extremely limited viewings, obviously - he has a distinct pronation bias in his tool kit **

My personal opinion on the jam-packed treasure trove of talent inherent in Madé's complete package of a game is we will collectively look back at this next season and ponder how he wasn't the unanimous number one prospect on this list. Yes, he appears to absolutely be that good. You just do not see the type of peripherals and industry-wide sentiments and write-ups on players like this all that often. By every stretch of the imagination, he is a Unicorn. And, it turns out, and I can't believe I'm typing this, he may be an even better player than OF Jackson Chourio was at this stage of his career. I had heard some of the early rumblings from down in the Dominican before the season started. Hence, it is why I got out at the very onset of the summer with this presumptive headline in our Minor League daily Game Thread back on June 8th...it's also why I bought each and every one of his Dominican League rookie cards and grabbed several autographed cards. Dream Big, I say! 😅

Between this and the repeated clips of Bobby absolutely blowing his defensive rotation assignments...these Bucks are just really really bad in their current form. And, now, they have two upcoming versus the red hot and young and talented Cavs. Who, it turns out, are coached by none other than Kenny Atkinson - who plays a movement heavy diverse array of offensive sets. Another qualified coach turned away in the Bucks interview process. I find it absolutely amazing the Bucks fired Bud to hire Adrian Griffin. To fire Griffin. To pay double digit annual Million dollar contracts to one Doc Rivers. The ongoing level of incompetence within the Bucks organization is reverting to a sort of B-Side to the Kohl years. They have money to spend and, boy, are they spending it. Yet, the incompetence is so rich they can't help but get in their own collective ways. In a vaccum, trading Jrue and moving on from Bud can certainly be rationalized. Maybe they had reached the peak of that iteration. BUT, the consequent decisions have been nothing short of devastating for the organization. And, as others are pointing to above, the collective failures in the draft process (not to mention the glaring disrespect of draft picks in general when trading away nearly every one) play major major parts as well. This is an organization in shambles. It really is. Can they turn it around? Maybe? But, I think this type of reversion was always in the cards when you consider the overwhelming history of personnel decisions; coaching decisions; and organizational mistakes. It looked rosy after game one. They looked motivated and organized. They look absolutely nothing close to that resemblance since. They look old. Slow. Uninspired. Lazy. And disorganized. It's a total mess.

Absolutely devastating. All the best to his family and friends. Prayers his legacy, tho entirely too short, can live on with lasting impact. Thank you for sharing.

Boy that Bucks championship window closed FAST. 😅 Looking back, preventing the Pistons from interviewing Horst is mildly comical. On the other hand, I do believe Griffin's Buckaroos lost by 50 to Memphis just last season? Down 29 after three might be 'progress'.

Definitely not meant to be condescending. Very accurate in that respect. I apologize if it comes across that way. Sincerely. I also, very much self-admittedly, have my own ongoing battles with Top 20, top anything rankings really 😅. And, well, that is entirely my very own set of issues. And, perhaps indicative of my own shortcomings as a man, I let those issues wheeze out in the public forum where I may come across like a whiny petulant teen. Sigh. Every individual is most definitely entitled to their votes and for their very own reasons. And, I also think the discourse at large is generally fun and the disagreements very healthy. The baseball discourse here is absolutely top notch. At the end of the day, all any of us truly want (I hope) is for these players to achieve the very best versions of themselves - in baseball and in life.

X just won the NFC Defensive Player of the Month award. The last Packer safety to do that? S Atari Bigby. My goodness. That stings a little. Like, really?!? Man, the Savage years were lean in that defensive center field.

This is where I struggle with the HBP storyline. Those were the three consecutive months (ending in July, his very best month) immediately after returning from the HBP. Is there some sort of strange delayed PTSD? I personally see a player in a very prolonged slump who is swinging at pitches out of the zone and not barreling enough hittable balls. Unlike EBJ, I can't point to a glaringly discombobulated pre-swing set up - who, btw, by season's end had ended up in a traditional stance for the very very brief period to end his season. A fairly stunning and welcome development. In current form Wilken, I see a player fighting himself and possibly forcing the issue. He had the HBP to the face and he had his firstborn child this year. Those are monumental events. The thing is, in professional sports the majority of the athletes are dealing with injury and challenges. I don't see Wilken's context inside and outside of the diamond all that remarkable. Is it unique? Yes, unique to Brock Wilken's life and I certainly have compassion for him. I certainly want to see him succeed. But, it's also OK to say he hasn't been playing at a top 10 level for quite awhile.

^^ This

This write-up is absolutely spot-on. The home runs really seemed to take off in Nashville - stiffer veteran competition and tougher AB's and game-in game-out by season's end (regardless of what Statcast would tell us) it felt like Henderson had become a pigeon-holed two pitch guy for the Sounds. BUT, he lacked enough control of his best tools (let alone peripherals) to make a dominant mark to close his season. His heater was sitting 91-93 mph and his change-up just lost some of its luster by the season's end. Location struggles. Hanging pitches. With his velocity at that level and at that point in time, he really needed to find finer-tuned control. This is a massive off-season for Henderson who, like Carlos F. Rodriguez, really hit a speed bump at Triple-A. I watched his outings. He hit a development speed bump due to the level of competition and it is firmly his next test. All the attention was on Henderson and his draft and system pedigree to fill a 2025 spot on the Brewers pitching staff. The Sounds pitcher who was trending in that direction, however, is and was Chad Patrick. We can only hope Henderson, at just over three years younger than Patrick, can trend in that direction. That would be a fantastic off-season development.

I like the way young Mr. Wilken has come across in his interviews since he first became a Brewer. Seems like a young man with his head and heart in the right place. I'll just say that off the bat. I'm rooting for this young man as I would any young man chasing their dreams. We were all riding high off the 2024 season and spring training where we saw legitimate signs of a hot corner stud. Anyone who watched the games throughout this period likely felt the same. And, well, at the current juncture that's where the feel good ends for me - that version of Brock Wilken is very very much in the past. Brock went 2-for-5 last night and hit a double. Any XBH at this time is a brief moral victory - it is a glimmer of hope. I mean it was in yet another loss for Peoria (5-14 on the season - yeesh). He also struck out again. He is 4th in the AFL with 20 K's amongst his 55 official AB. He is 2nd in lowest BA amongst regulars with a whopping 0.145 BA. He has the 4th lowest OPS. This for a young man in an epic continued ongoing struggle getting every opportunity in the 3, 4, and 5 spots of the line-up. Oh, to be a highly touted 1st round draft choice. And, this isn't an anomaly of the AFL - Wilken hit just like this in his opening weeks pre-injury and just like this over his final two months of the regular season and into the playoffs. In other words, this is now officially a trend. Let's put it this way: If Brock Wilken wasn't a first round draft pick with a first round pedigree is he even considered for a spot in the AFL? Maybe (?) but likely not. I can't help but believe Wilken is suffering from an ongoing fall out of the mental injury suffered when that HBP broke his face (I mean, this isn't a stretch: he's said so himself). Yet, there's also a part of me who can't compute how exactly that works out given his three best OPS months of his 2024 season came in successive months immediately after being HBP. Regardless, well, he continues to get the late-2023 all of 2024 Aaron Ashby treatment - ie thrown to the wolves nearly every game of the week. The Fast Track to the MLB (as Baseball America proposed in 2023) has certainly hit a prolonged pit stop. How long will it last? Hard to tell. It certainly has continued. This 2024 Wilken season, as a general whole, is pretty much a train wreck from our POV's. We absolutely have no idea what we have here in terms of a prospect. Everything is now muddied. The only thing we can hope for is it is an extreme anomaly due to the fall-out from the HBP. But, if we're being honest, that line of thinking also kind of feels like a stretch if we look at the greater context of his season. That's really what we're left with here. A lot of uncertainty. I leave this article thinking one last thing: INF Jadher Areinamo not in the Top 20. 3B Brock Wilken snug in the Top 10 at #7. Amazing. Absolutely amazing. Hard times for players who produce at All-League levels amongst the Brewers voting fanbase.😅

Indeed. Flores, especially, played literally everywhere. He had a fantastic month of August. Neither he nor Polanco flashed any long ball power but they certainly demonstrated uncanny plate discipline and recognition. Both absurdly good K:BB ratios. Certainly have the make-up (from afar, as we know) for potential utility guys all over the infield (Flores played all over the OF too in spots).