Jake McKibbin

@Terrywas ahead of the game on this!

As Wiguy said, Zamora's underlying numbers and surface level numbers don't come even remotely close to what Seigler is producing at present. He's unlikely to get a call up barring injury desperation I'd say Monasterio isn't an ideal SS to begin with, however in the situation I'm proposing it would be very late in games, more on the comeback trail than anything. My idea would be to use Turang ideally for the next inning at short but if it increases their chances of staying in the game when behind late (8th at a push, more often the 9th inning), I'd be happy with literally anyone fielding the following inning because at least you're still playing. For starting games, he would get to spell Durbin on occasion vs right handed starters

Image courtesy of © Dave Kallmann / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images Looking at the third base market, there are several clubs in borderline must-win scenarios looking for big third base upgrades. The New York Yankees would ideally move Jazz Chisholm Jr. to second base and find a bigger bat to occupy third base. They currently have DJ LeMahieu and his .640 On Base plus Slugging (OPS) holding down second base while Chisholm covers the hot corner, and Oswaldo Cabrera on the 60-day injured list (and having recorded a .630 OPS of his own this season). Then you have the Chicago Cubs, who have Matt Shaw holding their third base roster spot, but despite some fantastic defensive acumen, his bat hasn't translated to the big leagues, posting a .593 OPS across 191 plate appearances. Both teams are looking heavily into the third base market and have the prospect capital and demand to make a big splash. The competition raises prices of assets across the board to the point where rental acquisitions are costing significantly above their actual value. Eugenio Suarez, Ryan McMahon, and even Nolan Arenado could all be moved, but all would require sizeable packages to get the job done. Instead, the Brewers have been granted a boon. In June, Joey Ortiz and Caleb Durbin have been the Brewers' third and fourth-best hitters by WRC+. Both are capable of being above-average defenders on the left side of the infield, with Durbin looking surprisingly smooth of late, while Ortiz is making more of the "highlight plays" the Brewers have been looking for. # Name Team G PA HR R RBI SB BB% K% ISO BABIP AVG OBP SLG wOBA xwOBA wRC+ BsR Off Def WAR 1 Christian Yelich MIL 20 82 3 8 18 2 9.8% 26.8% .192 .479 .356 .427 .548 .421 172 0.1 7.0 -2.7 0.7 2 Brice Turang MIL 22 92 1 12 8 2 9.8% 20.7% .099 .381 .309 .370 .407 .342 119 -0.9 1.1 0.4 0.5 3 Caleb Durbin MIL 20 78 3 16 8 1 7.7% 14.1% .147 .273 .265 .346 .412 .336 115 -0.1 1.2 0.3 0.4 4 Joey Ortiz MIL 22 78 2 11 11 3 3.8% 15.4% .123 .339 .301 .338 .425 .335 114 0.3 1.6 1.7 0.6 5 Jackson Chourio MIL 22 98 3 15 12 4 5.1% 17.3% .185 .274 .250 .286 .435 .310 96 0.3 -0.1 0.1 0.3 6 Sal Frelick MIL 22 97 1 13 12 4 5.2% 15.5% .070 .338 .291 .333 .360 .309 96 1.2 0.7 0.5 0.4 7 William Contreras MIL 20 87 1 5 8 0 14.9% 20.7% .097 .255 .208 .322 .306 .283 78 -0.4 -2.7 1.4 0.2 8 Rhys Hoskins MIL 21 82 3 8 5 0 7.3% 29.3% .153 .170 .153 .232 .306 .240 49 -0.2 -5.2 -1.4 -0.4 The real issue instead is how little depth and time off each of these two is able to get. Caleb Durbin, in particular, has some quite aggressive splits, recording an .838 OPS against lefties and just a .615 OPS against right-handed pitching. Ortiz has also performed better against left-handers this season with a .661 OPS compared to a .526 mark against right-handers. What they could use is a left-handed bat to pinch hit, and occasionally start against right-handers, and for that, the Brewers have the perfect player in the minor leagues. Anthony Seigler entered the organization as a switch-hitter, playing either catcher or second base for the New York Yankees. Intriguingly, he has quite a large gap in terms of his exit velocities and quality of contact when hitting right-handed compared to when he is a left-handed hitter. The majority of his damage has come as a left-handed hitter, to the point he's now experimenting with ditching the switch-hitting altogether. Still, the important thing is that Seigler is CRUSHING right-handed pitching in Class Triple AAA to the tune of a 1.013 OPS in 207 plate appearances. All 22 of his extra-base hits have come against right-handed pitching, with seven home runs and more walks (38) than strikeouts (37). The graph above shows data from both sides of the plate, but it accurately represents the hitter Seigler is. He doesn't boast supreme, high-end exit velocities, but what he does have is elite barrel control in the strike zone. His swing decisions are fantastic, resulting in a phenomenal walk rate without being overly passive in the strike zone. When he makes contact, he elevates the ball at an elite level and consistently squares it up, boasting a 48.4% hard hit rate and 45.2% sweet spot launch angle rate. In short, while he won't hit the ball 115 mph, he'll quite regularly hit it between 95-100 mph and elevate the ball on a line to the outfield. As a pinch hitter, that provides a lot of value in a variety of circumstances whether you need to get a runner on base to start a rally, push in a runner from third with less than two outs, or just keep the line moving, Seigler's quality of at bats suggests a more than capable utility bench option capable of replacing either Durbin or Ortiz in late game situations, as well as starting games at third base against right handers. The Brewers have had the same thought, giving Seigler experience over the last three weeks at the hot corner. He's started 10 games there and is looking smoother with each passing week. He has a solid arm and decent range to the point the Brewers should feel comfortable with him defensively, and his bat profiles a whole lot better than Andruw Monasterio's off the bench. The other role Monasterio has occasionally been used in is to pinch run for Rhys Hoskins, and Seigler brings some value here as well. He has 19 stolen bases in Triple-A so far this year. All in all, Seigler is the complement that should add some nuance and variety to the Brewers' offense. He gives them added variety off the bench and a high-quality at-bat that can be used in tight situations, something the Brewers are not comfortable doing with Monasterio right now. It shouldn't be long before Anthony Seigler is up with the Milwaukee Brewers. He won't provide the type of boom that you may get from Eugenio Suarez, but he does round out the offense with some consistent high-quality contact and high-class pitch recognition, giving an advantage in tight games when the Brewers want to mix and match. In what's shaping up to be a closely fought season, these fine margins can make all the difference. What would you think of adding Anthony Seigler to the Brewers roster in short order? How much of a boost do you think he can bring? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below! View full article

Apparently Owens is getting a lot of hype and might be a first rounder, so I'm not sure if he'll be available at this point. Some reports that scouts saw him showcase a lot more pop than expected with a fairly simple swing and that's really boosting his stock

It's interesting. I think sometimes that because the sweeper and changeup move so much in opposite directions you can't actually have the same starting point for both offerings. For example, to land the sweeper in zone he'd have to start it at the front hip of a right hander, but if that was a changeup it could go two feet behind his legs. The cutter holds the key as to whether it can tunnel just long enough to sequence with the sweeper for my money, but he's not there just yet. MLB hitters are just too patient, but I'm hopeful he'll have a shot by August/September despite having no evidence to prove that right now

Yoho is also fascinating. His changeup and sinker/four seam (called as such because they seem to consider the big horizontal break come from his arm angle rather than his grip) have found the zone much more consistently but he's really struggling for command of the big moving sweeper. Yes he's getting chases and whiffs at Triple A, but 19.2% in zone just won't cut it in the majors and he'll need that opposite moving pitch to be true back end reliever. Even 35-40% and he'll look a lot more consistent overall. There might be tunnelling issues here too given the big horizontal spread between the changeup and his sweeper, but fascinating to watch from afar

Just a quick look and you can really see Henderson giving the slider more runway, to quite effective results vs his 2024 iteration

Awesome spot Jim! the sheer violence in the swings of Both Quintana and Fielder is something to behold. If Quintana especially can find a more consistent quality of contact, and get the ball in the air, there's real damage in that profile. Corobo by contrast looks so smooth and simple in the box

A fun little tidbit: It seems like Jesus Made has improved steadily over the season to now make elite in zone contact over the last while, almost at 90%. He's also chasing at just a 24% clip on the season according to this model while also swinging at a more reasonable rate from his passive early season numbs, now sitting at 40-45% over his last 300 pitches faced. All good signs in terms of batted ball data

Tobias Myers again with just five changeups used in all. As @Ro Mueller said, the velocity spiked mid game and the stuff graded out exceptionally well although I would point out he averaged89-91 mph to start the game and didn't finish strongly either. That being said, a lot of fastball whiffs in the middle portion of the game, but he's missing that changeup to add the wrinkle that completes his profile.

I'm by no means a draft guru, but I have been doing some research lately and have come up with some ideas: The Brewers know that they can't afford big power bats on the open market with any regularity They also know the value of such bats out of college, when paired with a passable hit tool, are at more of a premium Finally, rafting multi-sport athletes allows them to take advantage of the increased all around athletic profile they possess while then, when taken out of high school, moulding that athleticism under their watchful eye more effectively. They also like to save money with their top two picks as this is predominantly where you can save the most for later rounds, even given the 75% minimum slot value if players attended the MLB Draft combine. They love loud tools they can mould and save money on and especially if they feel there's untapped power. As such, Josh Owens is really, really interesting to me as I mentioned on twitter (X). He's receiving a lot of hype with surprising power production for his frame and compared to recent seasons as well as having that highly athletic mould the brewers just love. All that with what appears to be a really strong hit tool, comfortable spraying the ball to all fields and with good zone coverage and he might make a lot of sense for them, even as high as #20. Current scouts are unsure, but estimate him anywhere between picks 25-50 depending how much teams like his profile

All in the Twitter post!

That's up to 20 K's in 14 innings pitched and just two runs allowed and a WHIP below 1 , three walks and two hit batters overall 👀

This is such an awesome read, thanks Jim!

Agreed. It was something (I can;t find the exact clip) he was working on developing pre-draft with a kick changeup that graded out exceptionally well from a movement standpoint although they can be difficult to command. Regardless, if the movement has signs of being a plus pitch I'd love to see it in action more often even if it is t the detriment of immediate results. The best way to get better

Okay Joseph, I'll do it for you! Cooper Pratt, after a rough month of May in which his chase rates really soared, is now slashing .326/.429/.435 in June (159 WRC+) and looks an altogether different proposition in the batters box. We'd love to see some more home run power coming out to see him truly take off. I really hope its in there, as its the final piece to the puzzle. I defer to Longehagen's blurb from FanGraphs:

Griffin Tobias Fastballs (Statcast will have trouble at this level splitting sinkers and four seamers) Some of the lower grades above came later in the game and it seemed like Tobias did tire as the game went on, understandable given his age. That being said, the fastball showed some flashes of true excellence. Featuring up to almost 18" of ride, and a "sinker" with 172 of rise and 15" of run is a pretty electric offering as fastballs go, and the grades support that. From a low release height and arm slot, Tobias will naturally gain more horizontal break (and less IVB) than most. As such the rise he got here is truly outlier, although the inconsistent shape is something to watch. I'm assuming it's quite common at his age and at this level to be working through mechanical efficiencies so I'm more enamoured with the top end of the scale rather than the bottom and an eye on future potential, meaning I like what Tobias' heater might become whether he cuts it a little or let's that ride really play up. Tobias also has a true cutter (with one extreme outlier being the 0 IVB, -10" HB offering) that sits around the 0" HB line and around 86 mph. It looks a nice offering and hints at three distinct fastball shapes for the Brewers to toy with. The velocity isn't anything to shout out about yet, but it's solid for a pitcher at 19 years old. Breaking Pitches The slider was Tobias most used offering yesterday and doesn't grade out too well because of the lower velocity and the fact tit has a bit of a riding shape. Some of the above should maybe be called cutters as the slider appears to sit south of 80 mph but with positive IVB of around 6" and solid Horizontal break of around 10". Its an interesting pitch, almost sweeper like but doesn't get the horizontal break one would expect from that pitch. Likely a product of the lower arm slot, he may be more effective moving towards a true sweeper shape and embracing that East/West profile as he does seem to struggle getting balls to "drop" We see a similar story with the curveball, sitting 78 mph but I would suggest that only one of these is an actual curve, while the rest are more in that slider/sweeper shape above being mislabelled as a result of the more outlier release point. It doesn't generate much true drop either, more of a gyro slider shape than anything and stuff+ models weren't a fan. Finally is the changeup, again an inconsistent shape as should maybe be expected at this point in his career although the velocity stayed largely on point. He can get a little too firm with it at times and kill the horizontal movement, back spinning more tan he would like, but we'll see how the pitch develops. NB: Take the grades with some pinch of salt for Tobias especially. He's 19 being compared with big league stuff and as such there's a lot of development both velocity wise and consistency wise to come from him to hopefully harness and command some distinct shapes with all his pitches. There's certainly some potential there with the fastball

@Joseph Zarrjust for you! Hayden Robinson Can't quite get the modelling from TJ Stats but here's some of the backing data sorted by Stuff+ on the fastball. The shape is really quite inconsistent, perhaps to be expected on his return and may have contributed to the wildness but some of those grades on the stuff+ (or 20-80 scale beside it if you prefer) are electric, even at 92 mph. It actually appears as though he has two different shapes (and some of the sinkers maybe play into this) with a cut-ride shape complemented by a true four seam with more run. The changeup looks nasty, 10+ mph speed differential from his fastballs at least and solid vert with great horizontal movement. It was his most consistent pitch shape yesterday and grades out well on the 60-80 scale The slider was more of a sweeper shape, doesn't grade out all that well due to the comparisons often having ~ 17" horizontal break but it does hover around 0" IVB and okay horizontal movement. Again showed flashes of more break but not consistent at this point. Finally is the curveball, again not quite a true curveball and more of a slurve with some trade-off of horizontal break on the sweeper for a littler more depth on the pitch. Doesn't grade out all that well, but with the rehab situation at present after elbow surgery these things will likely tick up somewhat as we continue and do bear watching.

Yeah and I don't remember seeing it quite so often last season on his off speed pitches.. If it is mechanical, there's hope he could come back better than ever with a fastball velo of 95+, but perhaps that's the optimist in me

I'm really wondering if Myers is working on some mechanical tweaks in Nashville. Even more so than usual his fastball velocity is swinging around from 88.9 to 96.6 last night. The slider and changeup both showed some significant disparity with the slider ranging from 82.1 to 87.4 and the changeup 76.4 to 82.9 mph A side-by-side of the two pitches could be fascinating

After fully healing, there is a possibility to remove screws of they're causing issues, but they're unlikely to be the main problem so much as the complete re-attachment of the tendons will force his shoulder to operate in a mechanically different way. Must be git wrenching for the young man in some ways

Yeah I've watched a few of his starts and it's been really feast or famine. You'll get six/seven shutout and total dominance, or he'll leave offerings over the heart of the plate and get absolutely crushed. He's almost entirely fastball/curveball, and the curve lives quite often out of the zone. If you can spit on it, the fastball is definitely something that's damageable

Ernesto Martinez Jr was averaging a swing rate in and around 50% in the last two seasons (2023/24) but its dropped alarmingly to a very passive level of 37.6% so far in 2025. Is he not seeing the ball as well? Is it a change in approach to find balls he can elevate more effectively? Who knows at this point, but it is something to monitor His eye has been far better at the plate over the last two seasons than it has any right to be with his frame/swing length, so I'm not sure it's related to taking more walks. Looking at his rolling swing rate (per 100 swings) it did drop as low as this once last year, admittedly during his hot second half, however he did recover to the more above average swing rates he's boasted throughout his career, and lay there for most of his hot run. His chart for 2025 is below, and he's only sat above average for a short period this season. His current mark is in the Luke Adams realm