Joseph Zarr

Dorrian has made two fantastic plays at 1B tonight. Such an underrated defender. Considering how hot he is at the dish of late, I'd love to see him get consistent playing time for the foreseeable future.

Sounds pitchers are not sharp in game one. McKendry gives up an RBI double down the RF line. He's extremly lucky Roller made that insane catch. AND, in Delmarva Cornielle just threw wildly on a pick-off to 2B and the base runner advances to 3B. Zero outs. 0-0 game. Lotta ugly baseball going on in the system early tonight. Sigh.

That's funny. I saw that out of the corner of my eye on screen 3. Saw it late and it looked like an improbable perfect bunt (considering the size of the base runner). That makes way more sense.

Man, this is just a tough luck inning for Birchard. His second run crosses on a slider in the dirt Wood can't gather. 2-0 Chiefs. He ends it with a 1-2 line out to RF.

Chris Roller: Extremely good defender. My goodness he just gave it all and sold out his body and is cruchnced on the ground after an incredible catch leaping and crashing into the CF wall. He saved McKendry some damage there with a one out deep fly with Peters on 1B. What a catch. Hope he's OK. That's a digital wall so clearly there is some type of screen there.

AND, a weakly hit grounder to LF is misplayed by Hedbert Perez. E7 on Perez. None of these singles have been hard hit. Perez botched the gather on a very routine scoop rushing to throw the bal in. The rust is very real. Men on 2nd and 3rd now. One down. 1-0 Peoria. That was an 0-2 pitch send into LF.

Birchard's High-A game 1 started with a K. He has given up an oppo single to LF past the diving 3B Luke Adams. This was followed by a perfectly placed bunt single up the 3B line. Men on 1st and 2nd. One down. 0-0.

Well, that 3 pitch start has now ended at 18 pitches with a final batter strikeout on a low slider. On to the bottom half of the first. 0-0.

Corniel can thank the Shorebirds for making 2 of their 3 outs in the bottom of the third on the basepaths. They end it with a CS. They started it with a Yoshwar Garcia OF assist at 2B with the lead batter trying to stretch a single.

After retiring his first two batters on 3 pitches, Wichrowski has now walked a batter and given up a hard grounder for a single past the diving EBJ into LF. Men on 1st and 2nd. Two down.

Mejía got just under one dead center and flew out to the LF warning track. Hicklen (BB) was left stranded on 2nd base. On to the Bulls half of the 4th - the continue to lead 4-2.

I continue to like Clarke's off-speed offerings quite a bit. They have some really sneaky movement and are deceptive. He just hasn't really been sharp his entire season, unfortunately. This third inning a case and point. Absolutely dialed in facing his first two batters. Then a five pitch walk. A stolen base. And an oppo line drive single over a leaping Zamora. He hasn't executed consistently all year. But, he has tools that make it obvious why the Brewers targeted him. He just hasn't put it together in 2024. Edit to add: I know he settled arbitration with KC last year so he came already contractually under wraps. I am pretty 'sure' (?) he is signed through 2025 - at least I remember reading and recording that in muh noggin when the trade first occurred.

Clark snake bitten by a two out walk. The base runner steals 2nd easily on a breaker in the dirt. And one pitch later, he gives up a belt high oppo liner single into left CF. Can't walk that speedster on 5 pitches there after looking really good facing the first two batters of the inning. Sounds trail 4-2. Man on 1st. Two down.

RHP Taylor Clarke gave up a solo jack in the bottom of the 2nd following the game-tying Dorrian two run bomb. It's now a 3-2 Bulls lead as they head to the bottom of the 3rd - a Zamora weak end-of-batt dribbler to 2B, a weak dribbler to 2B by Cargo, and a pop up to 2B by Capra was the output of the Sounds 3-up and 3-down 2nd.

I see we have the homeplate cam in Delmarva. Sigh. Never gets new. 0-0 as they head to the 2nd.

And we have a T-Rats line-up card: LF Hedbert Perez? Yes Sir! Let's go. 1B Blake Burke keeps on trucking as Tayden Hall gets the nod in the DH slot. As alluded to in the Transactions page, RHP Ryan Birchard will get the nod in his first High-A start.

Carolina has announced the following line-up for tonight's game one versus Delmarva: We see young and talented 2B Josh Adamczewski (as expected) remains sidelined as he works to heal that nagging back injury. Most importantly, can RHP Daniel Corniel bounce back from his 7-run fifth inning last week at Fredericksburg. He was smooth sailing until that mini-meltdown. Let's hope he has put it in the rearview mirror.

We have our second line-up card for our week of action. Biloxi (with their 'King Cakes' theme - already missing the 'Beach Chickens'. Sigh) will be rolling out the following: Can 3B Brock Wilken break out of his prolonged slump at the dish? Will CF Casey Martin play the unlikely hero once again? The First place Shuckers will look to take down the Mississippi Braves in game 1.

Hey, it's just nice to see both Yoho and Miz get serious mention from a reputable pod. You don't even have to know what any of these peripherals mean. If you've watched any amount of professional baseball in your life you can tell in one or two Yoho outings: he's different. He was and is an MLB pitcher in April. It was absurdly apparent. IF (and this is a huge IF) RHP Yerlin Rodriguez could ever consistently stack location and mix with his raw toolkit we'd have a third. BUT, man, he's fallen off hard since his best outing of his career. It makes me all kinds of Emo. 😂

We have our first line-up card for our week of action. Nashville is rolling out the following: Isaac Collins is back at 3B. Newly returned Wes Clarke is back in his comfy DH slot batting fifth protecting RF Brewer Hicklen. 1B Patrick Dorrian is back experimenting at a spot on the infield dirt he was extremely uncomfortable in 2023 post-Jon Singleton exodus. Let's hope he's practiced some in the off-season! RHP Taylor Clarke is indeed toeing the rubber to start this one at arch nemesis Durham. The Sounds are 4.0 GB, alone in 2nd place in the International League, of first place Columbus.

Let's take a quick trip down Memory Lane from just this past week in Fredericksburg. RHP Bryan Rivera was absolutely dealing some off-speed mastery reaching heights few have reached this year in Low-A:

Clearly, I'm just sad I don't get to watch Mr. Yoho pitch in the near-term. 😂 Thanks for pointing that back out to me! I adjusted my commentary.

Would be wild and would be very <sad face>. The Dos are just in a very tough division. They haven't pulled past the 5.0 GB in some time no matter what they do. The DSL Cleveland Goryl are no joke - they've beaten the DSL Brewers Uno the two times they've played that I can recall. It's a credit to the Dos they've moved up (they were just 7.5 GB a week or so ago) and have got back to winning. The Uno, however, man they've just hit the wall and are ending their season with a colossal dud. Injuries are obviously playing a part here but they are still just fizzling. And, this all being said, it's important (for levity sake here) to remember: The Uno y Dos were essentially in a dead heat offensively the entire season - yes, even with Made and Pena consistently producing massive outputs. The issues the Dos faced were largely due to their pitching staff conceding so many runs. IF that pitching were to resolve itself, their tides were bound to change. Over their winning streak they've allowed 2,3, and 4 runs. They lost two before that allowing 5 and 6 runs. And, before losing those two, to start last week they won a double header allowing 2 and 4 runs. Given their season average of runs allowed per contest is 5.14...you can see the obvious trend here: allow less than 5 runs? Likely to win. They score 5.72 runs per game. They've now scored more runs than the DSL Brewers Uno while playing one fewer games. The DSL Crew Uno have only allowed 4.16 runs/game through 49 contests.

The close to the DSL Brewers Uno season is some serious 'Ouch'. They've now lost 5 straight and are 4.5 GB with one week left in the regular season. This losing streak comes after being in a dead heat with the Orioles Orange for the majority of the season - just last week they had pulled within 1.5 G. Meanwhile, the DSL Cerveceros Dos keep winning. They won their third straight today and have moved to 27-21 overall.

1B/DH Wes Clarke was activated from the Temporarily Inactive List RHP Craig Yoho was placed on the Temporarily Inactive List RHP Aidan Maldonado was placed on the 7-Day IL by the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers (retroactive to 8/12) Yes, this RHP Craig Yoho: Hopefully, he comes healthy and strong from whatever reasons he is temporarily inactive for...