Joseph Zarr

Bennett calms the nerves and manages to get out of the frame without further damage stranding men on 2nd and 3rd. Kudos for avoiding further damage. Those moments are not easy. It was a situation where he dug that hole with his shoddy defensive work. He was credited with one error - it should have been two errors. Toss in the HB...just an inning he's going to want to quickly forget.

Bennett has yet to record an out. He just gave up a two-run single into CF. Four runs already. 14-11. He is not ready for this moment whatsoever. Hard to watch, honestly. He's essentially fodder for the sharks given his jitters, lack of accuracy, and no ability to attack the zone. If a change has to be made the Sounds staff will be forced to go to position players again.

Well, Bennett is not making it easy on himself. 3-0 count to the lead-off. He gives up a liner to RF. He then rushes the gather of a sacrifice bunt to flip it to 1B with his glove but leaves the ball int he grass. He had no need to rush that play. Now he has two men aboard. Nobody down. He has to calm down there and make the play at 1B. AND, now he's hit the third batter who was squaring to bunt. Ugly stuff. Bennett then rushes a basic come backer. Has a chance to save himself from this quagmire and rushes the throw to home plate and throws it into the dirt. He is charged an E1. What happens next? A liner to LF. 12-11 Clippers. Bennett looks entirely overmatched. Tough tough sledding. And he's IN it with nobody up in the bullpen.

Wild pitch! After three consecutive sliders, Romero throws a change-up about 3' short of home plate. 11-10. How about a save opportunity, Mr. Bennett?!? LOL. Toro's count is now full. He rips a screamer just shy of the LF warning track and it's run down. Whoa boy.

Talk about a wild situation to see your first Triple-A action of 2023: LHP Nick Bennett is going to be thrust into this pinball baseball game no matter what here in the top of the 9th. Bolt looks outmatched striking out on four pitches. Urias is in a 3-1 count walks on a high inside heater. Toro will have the bases dripping. Come on, Abraham!

Holy hyeck this game is BONKERS. 10-10. Men on 2nd and 3rd. One down. Two utterly karmic super bloops into shallow RF. Van Meter sprinkled in an oppo single. This is a crazy late-inning baseball affair. Hats off to Hiura with a two strike battle. He fought an 0-2 heater inner half into the uber shallow grass. Wild. Skye Bolt will try to atone for his earlier throwing error.

Clippers send 11 to the plate. They grab 8 hits. They score 7 runs. 10-9 Sounds are down. What a cruddy inning! 😂

9-8 now. Every ball is finding the gap beyond Devanney at SS. One liner after the next squeaking through . He was shaded middle given the runner at first base. It's now suddenly 9-8. Runners at the corners 1 down. Yikes. A total unraveling (albeit, some quite unlucky) between Claudio and Megill. A high chopper to 3B, not hit all that hard, has only one play to 1B. The Sounds now risk falling behind. 9-9. Two down. Runner at 2B. Whewwww.

Boy the Sounds are suddenly doing everything in their power to let the Clippers make a serious charge at this deficit. A 1-2 hanging breaking ball is hit to LF. OF Skye Bolt skyes the throw attempting to nail the runner at 3B (he would not have gotten that runner given his arm). Another runner scores. All runners advance. 9-6 Sounds suddenly. Tying run at the plate. Nobody out. Megill nearly gives up a liner off the wall in far LF but it goes just foul. This is an ugly ugly inning.

Meanwhile, LHP Alex Claudio is getting knocked all around the outfield grass here in the top of the 8th. He has yet to record an out. He's already allowed a run. The bases are still juiced. And, that's it. 0 IP, 4 H, 1 ER. Yikes. Sounds lead 9-4 but Claudio certainly isn't helping that cause.

C Jose Sibrian missed the tying knock down the RF line as it fell just foullll. He then ripped a 102 mph rocket toward the LF wall...that was just run down. Two are stranded. Mudcats lose 7-5. Wehrle will take the loss.

C Payton Henry gapper to left center high off the wall. 9-3 Sounds baby. Lets get that run differential back, men!

This is not how you endear yourself to a young pitcher's inaugural Double-A outing. Come on fellas, help Brady out here with some clean defense. This runner then scored on a single after a Brady wild pitch sent him to 3B. Boooo!

OF Jace Avina long ball. 8th of the year. A two out three-run shot helps make this a game (Mudcats trail 5-3) in the 4th frame. Now in the bottom of the 5th, the Mudcats have runners on 1st and 2nd base with two down. RHP Will Rudy's final line: 5 IP, 10 H (yikes), 5 ER, 1 HR, 1 K. Not a pretty outing.

Ahhhh yes, the bases loaded no out for the Shuckers bats. Fly out to foul territory in LF off of Carlos D. Rodriguez's bat. Sparks K. Fly out to deep CF off the bat of INF Isaac Collins. No runs plate. That is a scenario that can come back to haunt you.

Meanwhile, Rudy finally surrenders a long ball after flirting with a couple very hard hit doubles. That's now 6 consecutive outings with 3 runs or more allowed. Like I said: rut. It was a no doubter over the wall in LF.

OF Tyrone Taylor 102 mph off the bat. 420 some foot two-run shot to open the 1st frame. It was a center cut slider. That's two HR in two games for Taylor. 2-0 Sounds. Alexander with a pretty sharp 1st frame.

Rudy has allowed 5 hits through 2 IP already. Lots of loud contact. Way too many hangers. Rudy is definitely in a rut and he'll just have to continue working through it. He just gave off a lead-off deep double (his 2nd of the game) to the wall in right CF. 6 Hits now. 2-0 Woodpeckers. Another hit on an 0-2 count. Oppo liner through the left infield gap.

Two singles to RF and a fairly pedestrian effort by the slow-moving 1B Jesus Chrinos does Rudy no favors. That's a quick 1-0 Fayetteville lead. Rudy has given up at least 3 runs in each of his past 5 outings as he looks to discover his early season stuff. And, just like that, he hangs an off-speed delivery center cut and it's ripped deep off the RF wall. 6.17 ERA over his last 5 outings. He is in a rough patch.

DH Quinton Low is back. AB's have been extremely sparse for Low but it is worth pointing out he hit 0.294 with a 0.958 OPS in just 17 registered AB's (21 PA's) in June.

So what I wrote down (and it's hilarious as I was mistaken - we only got one speed reported on a change-up!😅): First wild pitch was a beauty - off speed classic down and in to a lefty. I put it on Cabrera or just his massive movement (he was credited with 3 WP, mind you). More a testament to his stuff than being 'wild'. Cabrera mistakenly tried to backhand catch a sinking inner off-speed headed to the dirt. He needs to move and block it. Would have loved to see the first pitch of his fourth batter on an accurate Gamecast - dropped a dime of a curve/slurve right on the outer stripe called a ball. Gorgeous pitch. 1-0 felt unfair. 2nd WP was indeed wild. High and outside went off-speed low and in. Runners advanced. 3rd WP - all 3 came in his first frame - and this one was also an off-speed pitch that ran away. Appears to have a sinker as well as possibly two types of heat? Would love to hear it from Rivero himself or the pitching coaches. Also has a slider. A curve/slurve. And, maybe even a change-up. Lots of tools. He can go straight four-seam riser OR he can go sink OR he can go tailing two-seam by my eyes. Robbed of another K second batter of 7th - beautiful outer half heater. It was a K. Eye test matters. He's been wild, yes, but in these lower levels the stats often lie. Change-up drops to 81 mph - so, yes, definitely a change-up I am seeing in addition... Slider appears to be a notch higher - I'd bargain 85-86. He opened up the 8th with a slider K. Back-to-back K's via the slider. Clearly a strikeout pitch. Final out on another pop-up. Lotta pop-ups induced. Hardest hit ball was an oppo liner run-scoring line drive single. So given that change-up and what appeared to be a low to mid 80's slider I'm going 93-95 mph on the heat when he dials back. But, not verified.

YES! Greg Young is fantastic in that way. When I get back to the farm I'll share from my notes - we have such great announcers I'm always logging player comments in a designated folder. I'll be back by 4 PM PST to get watching so will share here then.

Absolutely agreed there. I mean, I write these obssessive Daily reports 2 and sometimes 3 times per week and I'm still discovering new players surfing through the DSL/ACL game logs and box scores. There's no way a small staff can keep up with 30 teams in that manner. I won't hear it! NO SIR!

I see the Brewers are now playing Organizational lack of 1B Depth Jenga at the MLB level as well? I've seen Dorrian, Toro, Hiura, and Devanney all play 1B for the Sounds in the past several weeks. Toss height out the window. It is now a 'Break Glass in Case of Emergency' depth chart. Hot take: Toro is the best of this bunch. 😂

I must say: seeing the litany of 'Unranked by All Publications' coming into this June monthly award cycle simply reinforces my general sentiment that the MLB Pipeline lists et al (Those coveted Top 20 and Top 100 lists) just don't actually mean all that much. They're essentially a very broad and faint brushstroke in a massively more detailed organizational picture. They don't account for Independent League FA's, Minor League Free Agents etc. They are very myopic and hype driven but they inherently lack in-season adaptability and the ability to implement the minutiae of what these Minor League players are actually doing. Anywho... The thing you have to love about RHP Shane Smith is he is cut from the Old School cloth of: "Here it is. Try and hit this!" He is absolutely unafraid to try and blow it by hitters. He mostly succeeds here. Like last night when he lost the shutout, however, he is prone to the long ball from time-to-time. But, those solo shots in a 3-0 game don't mean all that much. Fun pitcher to watch.