Joseph Zarr

Carolina having the top 3 youngest players and 4 of the top 10 of the Carolina League is certainly something.

These annual Carolina vs. Down East series are becoming significant in the past several years no matter what time of the season they occur. Let's hope the Mudcats keep it rolling.

AND we are on the verge of another 3-of-4 Minor League afternoon. I could get very used to a 0.750 Win %😁

Nashville leads 8-1 late as their lockdown bullpen continues dominancing. Very impressive group - I've been saying it all week but it is worth mentioning again. Also, Wiemer HR number 1! You love to see it! Keep grinding young fella. My goodness:

This just in: There's a lil bit of talent on that Mudcats roster. OF Yophery Rodriguez 3-for-4 as he notches 2 dubs. Baez w a triple. Nicasia went yard. Mudcats lead 10-2 as they near a three game sweep at Salem. I'll have to check in on 1B Tayden Hall who appears to have left the game after one AB. Noticeably absent after yesterday's inside heater to the hand area is C Satchell Norman.

This just in: Australia? Biloxi? RHP Sam Gardner can still cook. You just love to see it.

It has been this way the entire Saints series so far. Poor video and audio game 1. Bad audio throughout the rest. The highlight clips are a reflection of this (IF you crank those clips up full blast you can barely hear the call).In-game we've had to crank it up full blast to barely hear Jeff Hem's call. Sometimes it is completely staticky. And, the radio call is two pitches ahead😅. Not good for an opening home series!

The Yeison Perez (as a Brewer) era has ended. I pour one out digitally to commemorate the great joy he gave us all during the 2022 DSL season. It was near daily doses of wow he gave us with those XBH's and OPS points. Baseball can certainly be a cruel game. These new roster reductions are going to take some serious tolls on some seriously talented young mens' baseball journeys. Sigh.

First thing that stands out with RHP Ryan Birchard is his size. He's a very formidable presence on the mound. I should mention it was clearly cold in Salem - nearly every player was wearing long sleeves and several had face coverage. Birchard was wearing solely the jersey with bare arms. Clearly a man beast. He was throwing all heat early and missing - five consecutive balls to start things off. Not wild but definitely just missing the zone. After his sixth consecutive ball he dialed it in - tailing away (arm side) from a lefty bat he gets strike one on heat and then gets a strike looking on an inside breaking ball and swinging on what might have been a change-up. Really nice work. Absolutely overpowered and worked Garcia for another K (who was 3-for-4 in the opening game - dominant work from Birchard who appears to have a very tight curveball in his mix). After one inning: lot of life on the heat - batters were well behind - and a very effective breaking ball. Inning 2 he opens with a pitch clock violation. Next pitch, an oppo single to LF. Runner advances and, well, C Satchell Norman shows that arm explaining his CS % rate - let me say, a work very much in progress. He gets a Sac fly after another free pass given. INF Juan Baez shows his continually improving and impressive work at 3B by collecting a tricky two hop grounder and firing confidently to 1B while looking the runner back to 2B. He closes the inning with another K on high heat - the batters continually to be behind his heat when it is in the zone. Following this inning, btw, Pratt walked. Stole 2B and then 1B Tayden Hall ripped a 107 mph EV double down the RF line. The ball was absolutely smoked. Just a really impressive inning at the dish (aside from Yophery and Luis) - Norman and Garcia with nice knocks. Norman smoked a ball deep off the base of the LF wall. Clearly his bat carried into Low-A so far (his calling card). Three up and three down in the 3rd frame for Birchard. He K'd Garcia again to end the frame after a pop up to Norman behind home plate and a weak chopper to Birchard down the first base line. So far, it looks to me as though he is primarily working with a heater and a breaking ball mix but it's hard to tell as I'm unsure if the announcers are seeing. I 'think' he threw one or two change ups but was mainly working his heater (that was giving batters all sorts of problems) and a curveball with a slider thrown in. They didn't call it a slider but I saw two off speed movements that were distinctly different. Perhaps @Smichaelis9can chime in here as I know Birchard was one of his favorites. Side note: Rodriguez has 2 BB and 4 K. He actually has 3 BB and 3 K. The home plate ump in game 2 absolutely blew his full count call 2nd K in the 4th. Just a bad bad call. He looks to have a feel for the zone. Not getting the ball up at all in the couple of ball to bats I've seen. Mainly pulling balls on the ground down 1B foul territory. He did hit a deep fly to dead Center at the base of the 401 mark to straightaway CF. He legged it into a 3-Bagger but 'should' have been thrown out if they get a better relay mark and a better throw to 3B. As such, who cares? The young man got his first triple of Low-A ball on his first hit! Pratt followed with an absolute muscle job jam shot bloop single to shallow Left CF to score Rodriguez and it was suddenly 6-1 in the top of the 8th. All runs came with 2-down. The 1-through-4 of the Mudcats lineup with Baez, Rodriguez, Pratt, and Hall looks so dang good right now. Very tasty. 4th frame, I think I've seen Brichard's 3rd change-up of his day. Might have been a slider but I watched it a few times and still feel it was a change-up. His curve ball is just filthy so far. @damuelle: Norman was called out somehow as a K on a pitch that sailed high and in and either slammed into his throwing hand or hit the base of his bat just above his right hand. He was clearly in intense pain. I don't know how the heck you call that a strikeout. In the very least it's a foul ball OR he check swung and it smashed his fingers. 2:28:31 on the replay goes to a slo mo of the play. I think it smashed the heft of the bat above his hands but, again, it certainly could have been high heat into his fingers. In that image you can see the ball laser shooting directly toward the Mudcats dugout. You also see he has already dropped his right hand due to the impact. I think it was a bang bang massive vibration stinger but if that pitch hit his hand there could definitely be broken fingers. Hopefully it isn't akin to Wiemer's injuries previously. Anyhow, fwiw. Didn't look great. Hopefully, he dodged a bullet. Birchard left after 4 complete IP to give way to Rivero. All told, fantastic first outing. 4 IP, 1 H, 2 BB, 6 K, 0 ER? Ummm, yeah. BTW, KC Hunt has some nasty in him. He's got some really tasty off-speed breaking stuff. Throws them hard and they have late break. He struck out the side in the 9th and looked quite good doing it.

Lovely to see RHP Yerlin Rodriguez kick off his High-A campaign with a 2 K Save. Big time if he can find last year's dominant first half in a higher level of play. He can be downright filthy when he's in control. You love to see it.

The pitching has generally been solid in Nashville. The bullpen is once again fantastic. The offense? Very very much a work in progress. Lots of RISP deficiency issues at present. Not a lot of pop in the lineup to date. It's early but these trends will need to shift regardless of how early it is. Speaking of bullpen efforts - heck of a job by the Shuckers bullpen to hold the 1-0 lead. Muh man RHP Justin Yeager pitches a scoreless 9th to grab the save after LHP's Russ Smith and Justin King did the same. Heck of an effort all the way around. Surely, the Biscuits fans feel their pitching staff accumulating 15 K's while allowing a mere run deserved better.

I am just getting in from 10 hours of forestry work. About to sit down and sip a cold one and <gasps> watch the Mudcats baby. I'll let you know what I see.

I was wondering about this as well. And, then the Guilarte assigned to the ACL news? I can't help but wonder if he is still essentially working through the same set of injuries that popped up last year. I think it's quite clear, to anyone who watches the games regularly, he has quite a bit more tools and innate 'danger' to his game than some of the infielders at higher levels. But, so far, he's struggled to maintain health in his limited time in affiliated ball.

Stat heads will get giddy over the 2 XBH's for Pratt. It's obviously nice to see that line drive power. But, I'll simply share what I was most excited about with Pratt at the dish was that reach single poke to shallow left CF. That was a professional, man is in scoring position, knock on a very tough pitch. It was at that moment where I officially submitted my work slip in to the Prospect Station for the Cooper Pratt Hype Train. He is such a fun player.

Really nice bounce back game for Wiems tonight. Let's hope he can keep that rolling. That lineup absolutely needs his bat and his best self.

14 K's for the T-Rats bats is officially not what the doctor prescribed. That's some ugly opening game medicine right there.

The Cooper Pratt Hype Train has officially arrived. Let's go!

Sheeeesh: Knoth Wichrowski Misiorowski

The evening we've all been waiting for. I am hoping to have my farm equipment spring maintenances done by game times. Going to be tight!

Small Sample Alert (?): Through 6 Games, 25 AB's, Joey Wiems has a 0.374 OPS. Whewwww. If we go back to Big League ST, he has one single XBH from then through the first six contests. The adjustment and the makeover is clearly going to need some time. Gotta stay in the grind. Gotta keep that work ethic, faith, and resolute 'never too high, never too low' mind set. This is a tough period in this young man's career. I sincerely hope he can pull through.

(I see they still haven't fixed the audio issues? Amazing. No sound in this clip). Kahle looks svelte this season. He definitely worked his physical in the off-season.

🤭

No kidding eh? I mean we can still fondly recall those days of yore and admirably fill the role of the old man speaking to the clouds while rocking back and forth on the front porch. Heck, with the Sounds Home MiLB.TV broadcast quality to start this young season, we can even envision this scene with a static filled radio station calling the game in the background. Times have certainly changed. BUT, they haven't changed so much and so successfully to delete our romanticization and fondness for the past.

Oh, and this just in: Brock Wilken smashed...

We were back in Nashville for game number two of a six game series versus the St. Paul Saints. The weather obliged and there was even live video albeit with highly suspect static-filled audio. Lets just hope they get this resolved in the days ahead! All in all, we had another entertaining Triple-A baseball game. The Sounds fell in the end but they gave it another good comeback effort in the late innings. Let's get into the report! Image courtesy of Brewer Fanatic Transactions: RHP J.B. Bukauskas was recalled from Triple-A Nashville to the Milwaukee Brewers (and acquitted himself quite well in his relief work) 18-year-old Dominican RHP Justin Lugo was signed and assigned to the DSL Cerveceros Uno Final: St. Paul (Twins) 6, Nashville 5 Via the Sounds' site, please be sure to click and read each of the affiliate write-ups as part of your season-long Link Report routine (believe me, it's worth it): Sounds Late Rally Not Enough as Saints Even Series - Nashville unable to get tying run across in ninth, fall 6-5 to St. Paul Pre-Game Media Notes Box Score / Game Log RHP Janson Junk took to the hill for his inaugural start of his 2024 season. With the MiLB.TV audio giving off wicked static as alluded to above - Jeff Hem sounded as though he was announcing from behind a waterfall - Junk was equally out of tune early (and 'late', it turned out). Opening with two walks, a hit batter, a line drive single to right field and 28 pitches were not what the doctor ordered when they healed Junk's illness back in Toledo. Thankfully, he calmed down in the ensuing two frames. It pretty much all fell apart for the young righty in his fourth and final frame. Simply put: Junk was hanging everything and getting ripped hard in his final 2/3 inning of work. The four walks were indicative of his rust: Junk only walked 44 batters in all of last season in over 140 IP. It was quite nice to see the Sounds recognize and salute RHP Caleb Boushley - a fan favorite; a clubhouse favorite; and a workhorse for the Sounds over the past two seasons. He was an easy pitcher to root for. Afterall, Boushley was a born and raised Wisconsin boy and thankfully he has that storybook MLB debut versus the Cubs to keep its place in Brewers lore. In a perfect world, Boushley would have stayed in the Brewers system for the remainder of his career. As such, in an imperfect MLB universe, we simply have this tribute to share: Three Quick Strikes: 1) I am here to tell you, despite the onslaught of DH appearances for INF/OF Tyler Black to start the 2024 season he looks fantastic at first base. He's been very sure with the glove. He's catching everything. He's stretching high and making outs. He's stabbing grounders and errant throws low. He picked up tonight where he left off last night - making plays and stating his case as a worthwhile player at this perennially underrated position. There are no highlights to share, unfortunately, but take my word for it: he made several fine plays and continues to settle in quite nicely. 2) OF Joey Wiemer very much looks like a guy pressing to get back into contention as a prospect. He doesn't look in control of his bat despite the modified and new fangled approach - I might see less pre-swing movement overall but I still just don't see consistency in the swing. Despite the very unfortunate 106 mph come backer in the bottom of the eighth that ultimately caromed for an unfortunate ground out, I still don't see consistency at bat-to-at bat...yet. It's fair to say it: he is in a prolonged struggle. He struggled as last year's season progressed; he struggled in spring training; he is struggling now. Misplaying a deep fly to the wall in the middle inning Saints rally certainly doesn't do anything to help Wiemer's cause. Dropping a routine foul ball out in the ninth frame when trailing by only one leading to a next pitch unearned run absolutely doesn't do your team or yourself any favors either. Of course, the caveat here is it's a long season with a lot of ball games left. I only ring this alarm bell quietly because, if we're being honest, I think it's fair to say he's almost searching for himself while playing ball games. That's a tough place to be as an athlete. Regardless, Wiemer has work to do to declare and own his identity with a bat in his hands and re-establish himself in the overall pecking order. 3) I continue to really like what I see from OF Brewer Hinklen on a nightly basis. His bat plays. His hands and wrists turn with speed and with purpose. He's compact. No wasted movement. I really like his overall game (Pat Murphy wasn't lying in spring training, after all. Who knew?) Down two in the ninth inning after a lead-off Tyler Black strikeout, Hicklen calmly took a four pitch walk. That's just winning baseball despite the loss. Extra Innings: Hey, we only have one game to zero in on and after last weekend's no-highlight road weary affair so I am unabashedly sharing the goods. Last night it was INF Yonny Hernandez's three-run long ball heroics., tonight it was 2B Isaac Collins hitting a line drive oppo squeaker over the 330 foot mark on the wall in left field. It was a beautiful easy swing resulting in a pivotal and key run-producing knock. Take a look: Sadly, this proved all for naught but it was a great moment in an entertaining game. On the other side of the diamond, I really liked what I saw from promising young RHP Harold Chirino. The sinker was moving and sitting 95-96 mph and he fine-tuned his off-speed offerings within his inning plus of work - he executed a gorgeous change-up K to a lefty and came back and executed a gorgeous curve to a righty bat. I continue to have high hopes for his long-term outlook. Finally, special shoutout to LHP Jared Koenig who looked absolutely fantastic in my first live look at his toolkit in the 2024 season. He struck out the side in the eighth frame sitting 93-95 mph on his heat (that appeared to cause all sorts of problems as the ball entered the zone) with very intriguing movement on his off-speed arsenal. Early in the Sounds 2024 season, it certainly looks like pitching coach Jeremy Accardo has once again sharpened the bullpen tools and has plenty to work with moving forward. It's Game three of the opening six game home stand tomorrow. They'll be looking to get things going, once again, at around 6:35 PM CST. Keep in mind, in just two day's time LHP Wade Miley will be making his first rehab outing as he looks to get back to the Brewers pitching staff in short order - a dependable and savvy arm they desperately need lest they exhaust their bullpen entirely. As always, thanks for reading and thanks for supporting Milwaukee Brewers Minor League baseball and the many players deserving of our time and recognition. I'll be back next week reporting on all four affiliates. 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