Joseph Zarr

Bitonti flies out to LF. Corniel throws 31 pitches in his 1st. The Augusta starter throws 6.

Yophery hits a 1-0 chopper up the middle for a single. Baez swings first pitch (I know, shocker) and hits into a 3-6-3 DP. Sigh.

Morris Austin is already getting loose. Corniel's erratic season continues. He's at 28 pitches. 2-1 count. Two down. AND now Diaz misplays an inside pitch and it goes to the back stop advancing both runners. Ugly ugly Mudcats baseball in the first half inning. Diaz's sixth passed ball of his season. Mercifully, Cornielle gets a check swing for the swinging K on an outside off-speed pitch. Woof.

AND, just like that it's 2-0. Corniel hangs one belt high inside and it is ripped over a leaping Baez into LF for an RBI single. He is not sharp. 25 pitches thrown already. Again, this is one of the worst offenses in all of Minor League baseball.

AND, Corniel gives up an oppo RBI single on an 0-2 pitch. Men on 1st and 2nd. 1-0 Augusta. Didn't particularly like that pitch or location. That was a pretty weak pitch.

Swinging four-pitch K. Ground out force out at 2B in a failed 3-6-1 DP. Two outs now. Runners on the corners.

Corniel struggling to find the zone early. 3-1 counts to his first two batters brought to full counts. The lead-off hit a grounder right on the 3B line for an infield single. He stole 2B. AND, he just walked his next batter. 13 pitches. Zero outs. This is certainly a flavor Corniel has cooked with throughout his up-and-down season. Augusta's team BA is 0.196 and a team OBP of 0.297.

That's right. Forgot about that. AND, he's missed a game and a half. That point still stands. But, if it goes anything like things have been going...they'll give him the time he needs before declaring a possible IL stint. If they do indeed need that. Could just be rest? Unfortunately, we don't have a Home post-game pod to get an update this week.

He did start Saturday's game and was ultimately PH'd and replaced by Acosta (who in a very very Jose Acosta as a Brewer move was just sent down to Carolina to help fill the Adamczewski bum ankle void). SO, not that long overall - Chirinos played 1B on Sunday...he's missed 1 game and 2 AB. BUT, to your point, yeah I do wonder if something is going on there. IF I get a moment tonight, I may go back and watch that sequence of events before he was pulled.

I am in the midst of writing my very last DSL game summary of the summer. It is both extremely bittersweet and extremely relieving. The amount of work Jim, Daniel, and I do on a week-by-week basis from late March into September (given we all live lives outside our devout love for the Brewers) is remarkable. I continue to be extremely grateful I get to put these reports together with such incredible men.

Precisely. It is entirely unacceptable for a 2024 NFL team. IF the Packers are serious about their chances this season they really can't explain keeping any of these kickers. There will be plenty of qualified pick-ups waiting after their third pre-season game. This being said, the Packers rolled with Mason Crosby as their primary kicker and I'm fairly sure (off the top of my noggin) he kicked in the high 70's %-wise his first 4-or-5 seasons with the Packers? This wouldn't be uncharacteristic of the franchise.

C Luis Corobo ends his DSL season catching 45.5% of base runners. That is an astoundingly good mark. Pair that with a very palatable 0.241 BA, 4 long balls, a 0.715 OPS, and 11 SB in 112 AB and I am very very much intrigued.

We have updated Kicker Totals from Andy Herman today: Camp totals: Anders Carlson: 53/66 - 80.3% Greg Joseph: 53/68 - 77.9% Alex Hale: 14/20 - 70.0% What a nightmare.

I don't think there is a single thing being overblown about LVN at present. He has no pass rush plan. It's quite obvious. He doesn't have that. BUT, that may not matter in the end as his brute strength and primary impact may indeed come in run defense and the interior rush. I don't think a single thing is being overblown when anyone makes the observation that it is power and bull rush and that's pretty much it. And, don't take it from me. Take it from the guy who edits ALL the college clips for Daniel Jeremiah's segments and co-produces the NFL Draft film feeds. It was just more obvious to my eyes this past Sunday night. Again, I don't think a single person is overblowing anything. These are real flaws. And that's OK. He'll be fine and he has other strengths. And, the OL. I personally continue to believe the general sentiment of the current OL is overblown. Yours included, my friend. I can go back at least 20 years of pre-season mental archives of watching pre-season Packers football. This O-Line iteration is just fine. They are holding up quite well in Pass Protect overall. They have depth. Maybe they pick up a guy to fill out a swing tackle piece? Maybe. But, really, the majority of their issues are coming from blown assignments like this - which is entirely fixable. You may think Ross is overcompensating for a poor off-season take. I just agree with him. I am entirely unworried about the 9th or 10th OL spot:

Boeve was indeed added to the 7-Day IL (retroactive to Monday 8/19) today. He has had multiple stints on the IL in 2024. He finished last season unofficially on the IL. This is a massive loss for a struggling Shuckers line-up.

Indeedly do. I brought it up in yesterday's DSL Game Thread. Needless to say, it's quite nice to see the notoriety and discovery being brought to wider eyes. Just imagine what that pitch looked like back in April when he was slinging it to High-A hitters averaging nearly 2 K/ IP. There's a reason Statcast calls it a LH curve - they've never seen a pitch like it.

The Cardinals?

Edgerrin Cooper returned to Individual Drills at practice today. Small step but a big one. He needs to get reps. He and Hopper have missed valuable time. Lloyd remains out - not shockingly but disappointingly.

He went 1-for-3 today with 1 2B (his 14th), 1 R, and 1 K in the 7-1 DSL Cerveceros Dos loss. He finished his season OPS at a respectable 0.741 in 200 official AB. He hit to the tune of a 0.250 BA while punching out 51 times to 33 walks. AND, he played his best ball over the last month of baseball:

3 hrs from my Farmstead. Big year down yonder for the Whitman Blues. Along with the Walla Walla Sweets (West Coast League), the Blues enjoyed the grand opening of a new baseball clubhouse (parent 'gifts' and Alumni donations! Epic!) for Borleske Stadium. Has to be awesome for both programs.

I mean, my friend: 47 1/3 IP of 90 K-to-14 BB baseball across four levels of affiliated baseball is...bananas. I hear, and this may just be a rumor I've crafted in my own head, the five players who were bean balled by Yoho this season are getting over $5,000 per bean, well, ball on Ebay. May be a rumor I've crafted right here in this post. Can't confirm.

Backing up what I saw throughout the contest, unfortunately, Andy Herman gave Lukas Van Ness his second lowest grade of any Packer. He just was not good last night. No pass rush plan (I continue to believe he just doesn't have a pass rush toolkit beyond the bull rush - Ben Fennel isn't lying here). Completely lost the edge on more than one occasion opening up large lanes. Just a poor performance. Likely a guy who needs better players down the D-Line to make an impact. BUT, it speaks to how raw he continues to be. He's going to have moments in 2024/2025 but he has a long way to go. Thankfully, it's very early - in the season and his career.

Let's briefly move to Triple-A Nashville for a moment and everyone's darling of 2024, RHP Craig Yoho. Glad the hype train finally caught up to several of us - cough. This is from Yoho's headliner write-up from BA's most recent 'Statcast Standouts' (8/19). It's behind a Paywall so I'm not going to share much but suffice to say it validates what I've been saying since mid-April (for crying out loud what a run he has been on!). There aint a pitcher in all of baseball who throws a pitch like him. Not. A. Single. One. At any level: He truly is a Unicorn. @wiguy94: We may indeed get our wish of a Yoho-Miz September call-up power tandem. We just may yet!

It's a Monday DSL Brewers Sweep. Oh, it's a shoutout to the early days of summer! DSL Brewers #1 12-5 'W' DSL Brewers #2 9-3 'W' What a way to get this week headed in the right direction. May it be a premonition of the series ahead!

Just a friendly reminder that although Encarnacion has only truly come on over the past couple of weeks consistently, he was one of the select players highlighted by Baseball America post-International Class signings earlier this year: