Joseph Zarr

Very happy for the player. Shane Smith has always been willing to sit down with Seth for some very open and earnest interviews. Very happy he is getting a streamlined opportunity to enter an MLB clubhouse and pitching staff. AND, I'm not going to lie at the present time this one stings. I will never understand why an org like the Crew would leave him unprotected. He is a pitcher that profiles as essentially capable in any role. And, he's a guy who just felt like was only tapping into what he could become. Today is a bittersweet day for this Minor League Link reporter.

Like Duplantier above, closing this loop for the time being: RHP Deivi García was officially assigned to the Nashville Sounds today (as was to be expected)

Closing of the current loop here for now: RHP Jon Duplantier was officially assigned to the Nashville Sounds (as was to be expected)

I'm from up Nort! I say everything wrong. 😘

He can handle it in a pinch. It's not a super natural fit. He won't hurt you there because he's just a very good athlete but he really doesn't have the ideal arm to make it work over the long term. I think we have to be realistic here: Collins has played well over 400 games in the Minors. He has 13 starts at 3B. He could fill in for a game here and there, no doubt. But, is he a serious 3B candidate in the ongoing contemplations and lineup prognostications? I don't think so. The topic being overlooked in general, however, is Collins can absolutely step in and play 2B should they move Turang to SS. It's his best position, defensively, by a pretty good amount. Throughout his Minor League career 2B and LF were near equals in terms of exposure and innings. In my humble opinion, 2B is his best position by a significant stretch. His athletic traits play well there. Is he Turang? Absolutely not. But, he's also not Tyler Black. Collins has been my guy on this board since the summer of 2023. AND, this being said, I might be crazy, but I still live in a world where I allow myself to see Cooper Pratt surprise us all and make it to the Bigs by mid-summer. Obviously, this all depends on how the hands are dealt and what 'The River' card is when that deadline nears BUT that young man is 100% a manager's dream. He is 100% every inch of the 'steal of the draft' he was touted on draft day and by the organization's top development peeps. I'll continue to be comfortable envisioning a possibly more aggressive path than I originally did if I continue seeing what I did all of last year in his first full-season as a Brewer.

Many interesting nuggets in the interview. I also found this new development and new responsibility under his new title quite fascinating: SO, it seems like he'll have direct input in 'lower-level roster construction and playing time grids.' I also found this particular nugget on the mental approach and just overal hitting acumen Mike Boeve possesses: Obviously, as someone who has been touting Pratt's game above and beyond perhaps any player in the organization other than Made, I absolutely loved reading this: I'll close with the one thing I was disappointed with in the interview is they didn't expressly discuss Eric Brown Jr.'s 2024 season and the multiple swing alterations we've seen since he was drafted. That's a pretty interesting topic from my vantage point and it would have been really nice to hear from Chiaro on that.

I would politely opine, in addition to absolutely blowing the CS% of any DSL competition out of the water, he also flashed some enticing untapped offensive potential. It was one of my more under the radar "...if you are and obsessive Minor League Link report writer paying attention to DSL Game Logs game-by-game..." storylines. It seemed pretty clear: the reports we read during last years Int'l Signing period and then Baseball America's write ups were spot on. The defense appears to be absolutely elite. The pleasant surprise were the random outbursts of offense and, perhaps, a little bit of line drive power in that bat.

The 2 year Josh Rojas Brewers deal with a player opt-out in year 2 is going to hit like crack.

Closing this loop for now: RHP Johandry Ramirez has officially been assigned to the DSL Brewers #1

Realllllly good thinking, amigo. I have a likely BTC High this cycle at $174-200K. We shall see. I have $100 K becoming the 'new floor', so to speak. We both know there is wild n wooly action around these new zones anytime these new zones are being carved out of the greater psyche. Last time, we had a plain as day Ascending Wedge pattern on the higher time frames with BTC so the exit was being messaged to us. I wish I could say I nailed it. I was successful in some ways and ate my proverbial you know what in other ways. Regardless, in retrospect, It was a massive tell that fit the TA probabilities to a Capital 'T'. My current approach is I am cost-averaging into BTC in all these dips below $100k. Then, once She really breaks $100k I'm going to sit back and watch and see how the market reacts. This current price action is still very very much a byulllllish accumulation pattern. Essentially a glorified flag/pole. Beyond that, I got my original ATOM stake to the place I wanted it many many months ago and have simply been flipping my weekly yileds into things like Hedera, XRP, and Solana. Going to be a fascinating cycle, tho. Heck, BTC was sitting at the doorstep of $100K for weeks and the Google Search data showed it wasn't even really registering on the minds of the greater public. Some of my earliest cues of exiting are when my family and long-time friends start asking me about crypto out of the blue. 😅

Interesting. I didn't really track him after he went to the NPB last season. He's a guy who has had absolutely electric stretches in Double-A with Pensacola. He has consistently had issues putting men on base via free passes, however. If the Brewers could help him dial that in he could be a very interesting wild card lefty. Had one cup of coffee in Triple-A in the middle of his 2023 season with Jacksonville and got absolutely shellacked. Extremely small sample. I only remember this because his last Triple-A outing was vs the Sounds and Devanney ripped an RBI double to take the lead. That was his last dance in the International League. Really cool to see he's coming back to affiliated ball tho!

I don't think Spencer 'butchered' it, per se, if I recall correctly. It came across casual and unimportant if I remember correctly. I think he didn't know how to pronounce it in the flow of a live recording and deferred to 'Finn'. SO, your given name was repped twice 😀 I, on the other hand, a player who obsesses over these players throughout the years had two rare brain farts in the flow of 'off the top of my head' - which is how I roll (not the brain farts - tehe - I spend so much time watching these guys and arranging my own spreadsheets I don't really refer to them when we do these. I go from my memory bank). LOL. I couldn't find 'Luis Contreras' in my brain (lonnnnng farm day) and was left hanging with "Luis...oh goodness...the young man who signed with the Astros last season..." 😅 Which is absolutely hilarious as I was a huge outspoken fan and supporter of Contreras and his stuff while with Biloxi and Nashville and kept tracking and sharing his progress in our Alumni thread. AND, then I completely forgot how I have RHP's Chase Costello, Will Childers, and Aidan Maldonado in kind of a trio of 'Guys with stuff that plays in different ways and for different reasons but are often overlooked'. Completely forgot their names (and later finished the thought when I remembered them all). Two pretty funny moments. Thankfully, I don't think I got too hung up in the flabber jabber stutter silence realm for too long. 😅

These are good problems to have when you have two more than adequate solutions to fill the need with adequate defense. Grateful the Brewers have both Ortiz and Turang to add meaningful value on the infield dirt. For me, what this really does is tacitly open a pathway for one Cooper Pratt to make a serious push for a full-time job at SS in 2026. Heck, he may even push for a full-time or platoon case by the middle of 2025. I'm extremely bullish on Pratt's skillset. If we're going to take the Gunnar Henderson comps as seriously as many do...Pratt 'should' be in line for consideration by the end of the 2025 season. I don't count this out in the least. I, for one, continue to believe he'll start 2025 at Double-A Biloxi (prayer hands the Biloxi curse doesn't nip him in the heels!). I have zero reasons, at this point in time, to think he doesn't have the make up to attack that possibility of an earlier than anticipated arrival.

Extremely happy for Willy. A consummate team guy - loved by all within the organization. The writing was on the wall throughout last season and he gave us his best offensive output of his time as a Brewer. I have zero complaints in the end and ultimately am just excited for Willy and his family. I look at this from a few different angles with the overarching theme I absolutely love this for the player and the person: (1) The Brewers can't afford contracts like this (2) I personally don't want to pay a very possibly declining SS (defensively) $27 Milly/year (3) I worry about a career year in a contract year (4) Given the Brewers can't sign players to these types of deals, I love that the Brewers traded for a player who played many years for the org and who then got this deal. This means the Brewers had a stud on their hands and that means very good opportunities to get into the post-season. More lotto tickets means possibly winning the post-season lotto one day. It also gives potential future players traded for a carrot at the end of the stick, so to speak. (5) Because of the type of fan I am, my interest now transitions to contemplating the various ways this impacts future roster construction(s) - into next season and beyond. (6) Jesus Made plays full-season affiliated ball in less than 6 months

That's above my pay grade. Some time early next week, tho, I imagine.

I mean, holy heck this throw...I might have watched this absolute excellence 10 x since the final whistle blew?

Oh fear not, Finn, we gave you flowers right at the top. First 10 minutes.

Folks we tried so hard to keep it sub 2 hours. We failed. Alas, Spencer and I are Brewers Minor League Gossip Lords. 2 hours 8 minutes. We improved. BUT, we must get back to the drawing board; regroup; fine tune our flaws. @wiguy94: You were right. Again. Sighs.

I was hinting at this Bull Breakout many many moons ago. Well, we are very much obviously in the Bull cycle. Here's the thing: It's very very early. This thing is only just getting started. Compare where we currently are to the last cycle's break of BTC at $20K... Anywho, all this is to say the Crypto Bulls are unlike many other markets: Here are our Ledger Live One Month 'Losers' - 3 Stable Coins hovering in their 1% scheduled windows: Here our our One Month 'Gainers': Needless to say, I am quite happy with my HBar and XRP slow accumulations over the past four years. Best of luck to all of you playing in this realm. It could be a very very good run if we play our cards right.

For those of you who made it all the way through our episode One Opus (3 Hours?!? Sheeeesh, who hired these guys?!?) I can avow: We will not record a full-season episode longer than an hour and a half. I think we can get these in at 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes. And, as I prepare more fully for this episode I am so so fondly looking back on the past two seasons of Mudcats baseball. A true testament to the depth of talent throughout the youngest ages of Brewers prospects.

Yanni also turns 30 on Friday. Who's the child now, J Brown?!? WHO'S THE CHILD NOW?!?

Just a friendly reminder that Khash is indeed still Khing:

It truly is a beautiful thing. Goodness, I love Giannis. What an athlete. What a human.