And That

Orf has a career 125 wRC+ in AAA at Colorado Springs. Meaning he's been 25% better than average in terms of offensive production adjusted for park and league factors. He's a good hitter.

Miguel Sanchez is interesting. He can generate late movement on all three of his pitches - fastball, curveball, changeup. He also throws a slower curveball that has more of a traditional hump on the way to the plate. For some reason he likes to work his fastball high despite late dip, and he tends to spike his curveball. I think his changeup might be his best pitch with its good late armside fade. If he can get FB and CB command ironed out, he's a pretty decent relief prospect.

Final: Lake County 5, Wisconsin 2 Captains Stop Rattlers Streak Lake County collects a 5-2 win over Wisconsin By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers *** Wisconsin Box Score Haven't talked about Demi Orimoloye much, but he's slashing a cool .293/.362/.488. Just 6 for 9 in stolen bases though, and since that's a big part of his value let's hope he gets on a roll with those as well. Wisconsin Game Log

I have confirmed that Nate Orf wishes to free Nate Orf.

I made the same mistake last night - 2012 seems like a long time ago for Drake to be DFA'd.

drake has never been outrighted to the minors before, so if he clears waivers, he'd be forced to accept the minor league assignment and would stay in the organization. Drake was outrighted by the Orioles in November 2012. He has the ability to refuse assignment and elect free agency if he wishes.

Final: Wisconsin 10, Lake County 5 Henry & Rattlers Hammer Lake County Wisconsin catcher goes 4-for-5 to pace Wisconsin to 10-5 win By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers *** Wisconsin Box Score All I had to do was complain the other day, and the offense has come alive. As mentioned above, Payton Henry lead the offensive resurgence with a 4-5 day including a double and his 2nd long ball of the year. Henry is a hit-first catcher (though he's extremely animated behind the dish), so when he was hitting .186 this time last week, it was cause for alarm. A few days later, he owns a 775 OPS and a 112 wRC+. Gabriel Garcia was on base 5 times, going 2-2 with 2 walks and earning a HBP. Garcia, who has played mostly third this year after playing mostly first during his initial two pro campaigns, desperately needed hits to start falling. After posting unsustainably high BABIPs of .394 and .391 in 2016 and 2017, Garcia has an unsustainably low .256 BABIP this year. Despite taking too many strikes and having a propensity to swing at bad 2 strike pitches, Garcia has an idea at the plate and a nice swing. I do believe the batting average will come around sooner or later. I'm not sold on him at third base, though. He certainly has enough of an arm for the position, but at this point he's lacking in instincts and I'm not sure he's an athletic fit there. We'll see. Devin Hairston and Zach Clark added 2 hits apiece as well. Meanwhile, Dylan File and Rodrigo Benoit combined to allow no earned runs, though File did cough up 5 unearned runs in the 5th caused in part by a Gabriel Garcia error. File gets good movement on most of what he throws and is a popular under the radar starting prospect, maybe similar to where Tom Jankins was at this point last year. Benoit is kind of tough to peg - he strikes guys out and barely walks anyone but allows a bunch of hits. I mean, A BUNCH. He has a career BABIP-against approaching .400, which is insane for a cat with 220+ pro innings under his belt. You'd expect some regression from that, but he's at .410 again this year and maybe just filling up the zone with so-so stuff will keep the BABIP sky high. Wisconsin Game Log Here's how you allow 5 unearned runs: Lake County Bottom of the 5th Jose Vicente reaches on a fielding error by third baseman Gabriel Garcia. Todd Isaacs grounds out, third baseman Gabriel Garcia to first baseman Pat McInerney. Jose Vicente to 2nd. Ernie Clement singles on a line drive to left fielder Tristen Lutz. Jose Vicente to 3rd. With Austen Wade batting, wild pitch by Dylan File, Jose Vicente scores. Ernie Clement to 2nd. Austen Wade strikes out swinging. Jorma Rodriguez singles on a line drive to center fielder Zach Clark. Ernie Clement scores. With Nolan Jones batting, wild pitch by Dylan File, Jorma Rodriguez to 2nd. Nolan Jones walks. Will Benson homers (5) on a fly ball to center field. Jorma Rodriguez scores. Nolan Jones scores. Jonathan Laureano grounds out, shortstop Devin Hairston to first baseman Pat McInerney.

The LI scores can be misleading a little because a setup/closer type who has gotten lit up will still have a high LI - JJ Hoover leads the Brewers for instance. I like WPA/LI because it provides some resulting context to the situational leverage. Hader is 12th in baseball in WPA/LI, though he is first among relievers. MLB relief leaders in WPA/LI: https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=rel&lg=all&qual=0&type=3&season=2018&month=0&season1=2018&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&sort=13,d Brewers relievers ranked by WPA/LI: https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=rel&lg=all&qual=0&type=3&season=2018&month=0&season1=2018&ind=0&team=23&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&sort=12,d

This is exactly what I was going to say. WPA is an event-level stat that is super useful to look at for relievers, and as the Brewers move towards using relievers more often, might be the best way to differentiate them. Hader is immediately behind Edwin Diaz in WPA, who has had an unbelievable season as well. Though the Mariners use Diaz in more of a traditional closer's role. Here are the Brewers' pitchers sorted by WPA: https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=pit&lg=all&qual=0&type=3&season=2018&month=0&season1=2018&ind=0&team=23&rost=0&age=0

Mr. Diaz makes the second Wilber on the DSL squad, joining Wilber Perez, another RHP.

With Brent Suter in the rotation, the Brewers' pitching staff has the 3rd best ERA *in baseball*. The Brewers' move towards shorter starts and "bullpenning" in general has sort of curtailed the need/ability to rank the Brewers pitchers as "ace" or "3rd starter" or "5th starter" - they're all just guys who the Brewers are hoping give about 5-6 good-ish innings and then hand the game over to the bullpen. Suter has basically done that. Not saying his spot in the rotation couldn't be improved upon, but his starts haven't undercut the rotation or bullpen either.

Off topic now a bit, but because I was curious, here are the 2017 Colorado Springs Sky Sox players with at least 200 PAs ranked by wRC+: https://www.fangraphs.com/minorleaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=200&type=1&season=2017&team=24&players=0 7 above average, 6 below average. Yadi... ouch.

I get that, and agree using 51 PAs as an argument makes that argument a bit lacking. However, at least what I'm saying is that maybe he wasn't as far away from Mejia as most people think and that his strong start to the season is a reason to be optimistic about that viewpoint going forward.

Ivan De Jesus had a 136 wRC+ last year in AAA for Colorado Springs. His previous years in AAA, he had a wRC+ of: 2015: 125 2014: 109 2013: 134 2012: 145 Not out of line at all.

If he has a normal BABIP and normal double/triple distribution from those extra hits, Nottingham hits .264/.356/.443 last year. That would have been about a 130 wRC+. Mejia had a 127 wRC+. Nottingham threw out 40% of runners last year. Mejia threw out 30%. This year, Nottingham has thrown out... 40%. Mejia hasn't thrown out anyone in 7 attempts.

No, he didn't stink. You just brought up the BABIP argument, so I'll throw it back at you here. Nottingham had absolutely terrible luck last year, with a .255 BABIP to prove it. That's about 70 points off his career average. And despite that, he was still above average for the league, with a 103 wRC+. Not to mention the vast improvements on defense.

That's kind of a facile argument though. Many players do hit well in Colorado Springs, that's true, but at the same time, you can't dismiss performance out of hand without considering other factors. Nottingham's wRC+, which normalizes production for league and park factors, is 199 so far. In other words, he's been excellent and about twice as good as the average player. I don't think anyone expects Nottingham to maintain this, especially given his BABIP as you noted. But even depsite just throwing on a Sky Sox jersey, he's been lights out. Mejia's wRC+ so far this year is 40, which is awful. I'm not trying to argue Nottingham is a superior prospect to Mejia or anything - I don't think he is. However, context, and not just superficial context, is key.

No idea. The Brewers declined to let beat writers interview Bickford in camp this year so clearly, something is still up. Bickford has easily been the most enigmatic Brewers prospect I can remember.

Good news: the Shuckers scored 7 runs in the top of the first. Bad news: After 4.5 innings, they are losing 10-7.

OF Johnny Davis has been released from Colorado Springs. OF Tyrone Taylor activated off of the Sky Sox' DL.

Final: Wisconsin 9, Peoria 5 Clark & Hairston Push Rattlers Past Peoria Duo combines to drive in seven runs for 9-5 win By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers *** AUDIO via the Rattler Radio Soundcloud -- "The Timber Rattlers closed out the month of April with a 9–5 win over the Peoria Chiefs thanks to some big offense from Zach Clark & Devin Hairston. The Papa John’s Pizza Postgame Podcast features Mehring & Kyle talking about the Rattler victory and getting an update on Joantgel Segovia. Then, the postgame interviews are with Matt Erickson, Clark, & Hairston." *** Wisconsin Box Score Joantgel Segovia was hit in the side of the head with the first pitch of the game. He stayed in to run, was picked off from first, and was replaced by Jay Feliciano. Listen to the podcast linked above - sounds like Segovia will be ok. Michael Petersen ran his season opening unscored-upon streak to 14 2/3 innings to open the year. Wisconsin Game Log Wisconsin Bottom of the 2nd Gilbert Lara grounds out to pitcher Winston Nicacio. Zach Clark homers (2) on a fly ball to left center field. Devin Hairston pops out to second baseman Irving Lopez. Brent Diaz homers (1) on a fly ball to left field. Nick Roscetti flies out to left fielder Bryce Denton. 105 MPH exit velocity on that home run, by the way. Absolutely crushed.

Prior to today's game, newly-minted RHP Jose Cuas was placed on Wisconsin's temporary inactive list. OF Jay Feliciano was transferred from Helena to Wisconsin to take his place. The temp inactive list is used for non-baseball leaves of absence, which could be personal or family related. The minimum stay on the list is 3 days. Typically players don't stay on the list much longer than that. It often isn't announced why a player is on the list. However, Jose's absence is a happy one - he's away due to becoming a father for the first time.

I doubt this is a route they'd like to take unless they have to. They'd have to pay Wilkerson a big league salary and he'd start accruing service time. The service time piece probably isn't a big issue, but the difference between AAA and MLB pay is pretty substantial.

Final: Peoria 6, Wisconsin 2 Chiefs Stop Timber Rattlers 6-2 By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers *** Wisconsin Box Score Wisconsin Game Log

Final: Wisconsin 15, Peoria 5 Rattlers Bats Come Up Big Wisconsin collects 18 hits and beats Peoria 15-5 By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers *** Wisconsin Box Score Wisconsin Game Log