TheCrew07

Instructs are different from the Fall League, many of the team's top prospects end up there for extra fundamental work on their game.

Jungmann stymies Braves in shutout victory Taylor Jungmann tossed eight shutout innings in Biloxi's second straight win Biloxi Shuckers http://www.milb.com/assets/images/4/4/4/197324444/cuts/2Q5A3831_ako6y2z0_cjfsuj0a.JPG Taylor Jungmann has a 1.13 ERA over his last six starts. (Michael Krebs) Biloxi Boxscore Well Taylor Jungmann was the most dominant he's been all year, what an excellent performance. Stephen Kohlscheen made the 9th interesting but pulled through to preserve the shutout. Just nine total hits between the 2 team but Biloxi got the better end with 5. Tyrone Taylor batted 3rd and collected 2 hits, it's been while since he's hit in a run producing spot in the order. Biloxi has won the last 2 games with 8 total hits, that's pretty impressive. Biloxi Recap

Peoria Rallies to Top Timber Rattlers Wisconsin can't hold an early 4-1 lead By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers http://www.milb.com/assets/images/3/8/8/197231388/cuts/8_23_PlayerOfTheGame_TrentClark_IMAGE_79r2v1km_qd85m8su.jpg Trent Clark went 1-for-4 with two RBI for the Timber Rattlers on Tuesday afternoon against the Peoria Chiefs. (Wisconsin Timber Rattlers/Ann Mollica) Wisconsin Boxscore Well this one stunk, unfortunately this has been a trend of late for this team. In the middle part of the season they would poor it on, here at the end if they score a bunch early then go on a cruise control a bit and the game tends to slip away. Corbin Burnes was outstanding, just the unearned run, on 1 hit, no walks, and 4 strike outs in his 3 innings. Only 6 hits for the T-Rats and no one posted a multi hit game. Wisconsin Recap ****** Postgame Post – August 23, 2016 Three interviews, Erickson always worth a listen. ******

Postgame Post – August 22, 2016

Ortiz Delivers Wisconsin Win In Tenth Rattlers beat Peoria 8-7 to stay in playoff chase By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers http://www.milb.com/assets/images/0/5/6/197152056/cuts/8_22_PlayerOfTheGame_JuanOrtiz_hck3gj0b_zpk0kbie.jpg Juan Ortiz went 3-for-5, scored two runs, and drove in the game-winner for the Rattlers on Monday night. (Wisconsin Timber Rattlers/Ann Mollica) Wisconsin Boxscore Walk off wins are always fun! Quite the interesting couple of days for Rattler fans. Rattler pitchers struck out 12 which was the only positive on that front this evening. Trent Clark (3-5,2B) and Juan Oritz (3-5) had very good days at the plate notching 3 hits a piece. Jake Gatewood (2-5,2B) and Lucas Erceg (2-4,HR,3B,BB) contributed 2 hits per, but Erceg's day was particularly impressive as well. Carlos Belonis was ejected by the home plate umpire for arguing his called strike 3 while I wasn't paying attention in the 6th. Look for Chris' description of Clark's CS of home to end the 2nd in the game story, while this instance wasn't his fault he hasn't been great on the bases by any stretch, after today he has nearly double the CS as he does SB, and that's not including his occasional mental error out there. Wisconsin Recap ******* Waited on the Rattler Radio postgame but it didn't drop. Will get it in the AM.

Not to hijack the thread further but I think is an important concept to explore further. While the injuries didn't help Weeks' career, he still had phenomenal bat speed, no Brewer hit tape measure HRs like he did, even after both wrist issues. I find that to be a convenient excuse and once again a very superficial assessment of Weeks as a hitter. He wasn't selective as I stated earlier, he was predictable and let pitchers get ahead by taking pitches for the sake of taking pitches. Strike 1 was 1st pitch get me over FB, strike 2 was an off speed, and strike 3 could be gotten any number of ways. If you're predictable, you're easy to game against, it doesn't matter if you are a hitter or pitcher, which is why we had to watch Jenkins and Hart (early) flail away at breaking stuff off the outside corner continuously. Weeks just wasn't a good enough hitter to work from behind in the count, and in the Brewers line-up he should have batted 3 or 5 and he would have been much better as a run producer. He was just a good enough dude to do what was asked of him. Instead of forcing pitchers to come to him, too often he'd let them get away with a thigh to waist high FB over the heart of the plate for strike 1. A selective hitter offers at that pitch, he may swing through it or hit it poorly, but that's a pitch that every MLB hitter is capable of crushing someplace, and should offer at. Gomez made a living off that pitch and was predictable the other way, why would you ever give Gomez a 1st pitch FB to swing at? It's the same argument we'd have in the game threads at that time when people would complain about taking pitches for the sake of pushing the SP out of the game (batter X just walked on 4 pitches and you're going to swing at the first pitch?)... that's fine in theory, but even if all of the hitters walk in front of you, it's still absolutely proper to offer at a grooved FB if you get one, and as a hitter that's exactly what you should be looking for, so you can cause some damage. If you hit into a double play so be it, but there's no good reason for letting a pitch like that go by for the sake of taking a pitch. What are the odds of getting another pitch that fat to hit during the same AB? The object isn't to force your way into a walk, you take a walk if it comes, but you're also looking for a pitch you can drive someplace. That's being selective, attacking the proper pitches and letting the rest go by. Certainly a batter will have to protect and swing at some pitcher's pitches on the corner, but I'm saying in general hitting is not about patience, it's about selecting the proper pitch to attack. Which can be a "patient" approach, but that's often confused with taking pitches for the sake of taking pitches, which is not a good strategy to follow.

Ortiz, Phillips help Shuckers past Braves, 2-1 Shuckers open 10-game homestand with win over M-Braves Biloxi Shuckers http://www.milb.com/assets/images/8/4/6/197135846/cuts/2Q5A3449_frav9yms_0ne7klat.JPG Luis Ortiz has not allowed an earned run in his four Biloxi starts and 17.1 innings pitched. (Michael Krebs) Biloxi Boxscore I agree with the previous assessment in the thread that Luis Ortiz will need to start improving his peripherals, if not this year, next year for certain. He's given up an alarming number of XBHs, especially today, and though he got a pick off which was awesome, his only clean inning was the 4th. He's been living dangerously and while it's been working out this far he's giving up too many baserunners to sustain it. Stephen Kohlscheen finished it off but made it interesting allowing that triple in the 9th, which ultimately led to a run. Biloxi managed 2 runs on just 3 hits, Brett Phillips (1-2,2 BB) had a really nice day, his OPS is .706 with just a .228 AVE. Biloxi Recap

Just to clarify because I'm curious what you mean. Do you mean control? As in the ability to throw strikes (general ability to hit the strike zone). Or command? As in the ability to hit specific spots with pitches.

Weeks is excellent example of the difference between patience and selectivity, people will use the words interchangeably, but the concepts have a wide gulf between them. Weeks was patient to a fault as a hitter, often letting the best pitch to hit in his AB go by without offering at all. He didn't reach his ceiling as a hitter because he became obsessed with being a good table setter, fitting into that traditional lead off role. The problem of course was that his natural skill set didn't fit that role, the Brewers forced a square peg into a round hole. The Brewers really didn't care about defensive development at that time but regardless Weeks was never going to spend much time in the minors because he was signed to a MLB contract right out of college. Thankfully those contracts can longer be offered to draft choices but there was added incentive to get Weeks to MLB as fast as possible to maximize his contract value.

Taylor's four RBI night not enough in loss to BayBears Shuckers drop series finale at Mobile on Sunday, 11-6 Biloxi Shuckers http://www.milb.com/assets/images/4/6/2/196998462/cuts/2Q5A3522_brjnvjz1_8dk48nrb.JPG Tyrone Taylor collected a season-high four RBIs in the 11-6 loss at Mobile. (Michael Krebs) Biloxi Boxscore Angel Ventura gave up 2 3R HRs, a solo shot, and the other run scored on a wild pitch and a double. Obviously extra base hits are killing Ventura, but he's another guy I thought was promoted too early. After watching him last season I felt he was a year at a level guy, his control needed to be improved and both off speed pitches needed refinement before he hit AA. Even his curve which is his best pitches needs to be plus all the time, not just occasionally flash plus. He was basically run out 100 pitches come hell or high water, I sincerely hope all this aggressive promoting works out in the end. Woodruff has been the pitcher with the most success, but even he's been up and down. Tyler Spurlin had been pretty solid all year but gave up 3 runs himself in the 8th. For the 2nd straight day the offense got off but unfortunately Angel Ortega and Jacob Nottingham didn't participate as they both went 0-fer. Nottingham also committed his 14th error, it just wasn't a good day for him. Nick Ramirez has 13 homers batting just .201. Biloxi Recap

Gatewood Takes One For the Team in Walkoff HBP Rattlers beat Beloit 3-2 in 10 innings to keep pace in playoff chase By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers http://www.milb.com/assets/images/6/6/6/196941666/cuts/8_21_PlayerOfTheGame_JakeGatewood1_IMAGE_z5eeczvv_n3iag07e.jpg Jake Gatewood is mobbed by his teammates after getting hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the 10th inning to knock in the winning run. (Wisconsin Timber Rattlers/Ann Mollica) Wisconsin Boxscore A walk off HBP is probably the least sexy way for it to go down, but I'll take it. I hope people are taking the time to read Chris' incredibly detailed game stories each day? Matt Smith has given up runs in both of his appearances so far, though his start today was an improvement over what he did out of the gate. Jordan Yamamoto was fantastic with the exception of a grooved triple in the 10th, I'm sure Chris will cover Jordan's day in detail once the game story drops. Lucas Erceg (2-3,BB) had the only multi hit game for the Rattlers and he continues to float around the .300 mark (.298). Wisconsin Recap ****** Postgame Post – August 21, 2016 A multitude of interviews today. ******

A couple of reasons. Rankings are subjective and are based on ceiling, not production, we have a bunch of prospects who haven't been consistently productive so for example instead of WI being 20 games over .500, they sit just under .500. It doesn't mean the players on that team are overrated prospects, it just means that every prospect has a unique career path, and consistency in baseball is hard to come by. BC is terrible bringing the whole system down and that's not so much a reflection of the talent, but rather how aggressive they've been promoted on the pitching side. On the hitting side, everyone has been terrible with the exception of Angel Ortega, Johnny Davis, and Dustin DeMuth who were promoted to Biloxi. Frankly I expected more from Coulter, Diaz, Houle, and Allemand. I have no idea how the organization justifies Malik Collymore playing in BC because they overcrowded the WI OF moving Denson there, he's struggled all year.. BC has the 2nd worst pitching (despite the Uber pitchers home park), and and the worst offense by .022 of OPS. Talent doesn't directly correlate to winning, production does and as an organization the Brewers have just done okay in that regard. Most of our teams have been stronger in one regard than the other which doesn't lend itself to winning either. As an FYI... The Rattlers are 3rd in OPS in a 16 team league and 12th in runs allowed, so despite having talented pitchers they've pitched just okay on the whole and the defense has been suspect enough at times for the Rattlers to be 3 games under .500. Biloxi is a game over .500 despite having the worst offense in the 10 team SL and the pitchers currently sit in 6th place for runs allowed. Colorado Springs has the 5th best OPS but sits 14th in runs allowed, they sit a game under .500.

Offense explodes in 7-1 win over BayBears to clinch series Jorge Lopez earned his first win since May 20 on Saturday night Biloxi Shuckers http://www.milb.com/assets/images/4/3/6/196803436/cuts/_BRP5785_0p8g20zu_vespvwbc.jpg Jorge Lopez picked up his first quality start with the Shuckers by tossing seven innings of one-run baseball (Benton Reed Photography) Bilxoi Boxscore Jorge Lopez! I'm sure this start will move people towards jumping back on his bandwagon but regardless he really needed it. Josh Uhen had a nice debut, I found his promotion curious but have no complaint with the initial result. The offense was awesome, every position player recorded a hit and most had multiple hits, though amazingly with 15 hits Clint Coulter recorded a double for the only XBH. The Shuckers are now 1 game over .500. Biloxi Recap

Rattlers Edge Beloit 3-2 Erceg homers; Griep Saves; Wisconsin picks up ground in playoff race By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers http://www.milb.com/assets/images/2/5/8/196807258/cuts/Conor_Harber_Player_of_the_Game_8_20_16_IMAGE_e6fmyrnr_qbvma8qg.jpg Conor Harber pitched four scoreless, hitless innings and picked up the win for the Timber Rattlers on Saturday night. (Wisconsin Timber Rattlers/Ann Mollica) Wisconsin Boxscore I'm still struggling to understand where all of Lucas Erceg's power comes from, both his in his arm and his bat. He turned on a pitch up in the zone for the 3R HR, it was long gone, so even though the wind was gusting to right it wasn't wind aided. He made a couple of very nice defensive plays, one barehanded, during the contest. The funny thing is that apparently between innings a ball got away from him and he either pegged Fang or just missed him, I caught the tail end of the TV guys talking about it and I instantly thought of . Hopefully he figures out his arm because the physical tools he projects are impressive. In other happenings everyone who came out of the pen was fantastic as the Rattler pitchers combined to strike out 13 while walking just 1. As noted in the caption Conor Harber was fantastic in the middle of the game and I find Nate Griep to be hilarious, the dude makes me laugh out loud every time he does an interview, what a character he is. Quintin Torres-Costa hasn't given up a run in 10 appearances and is closing in on an ERA under 4. With just 5 hits there wasn't much to talk offensively so I thought I would mention that T-Rats President Rob Zerjav was in the booth talking about the Rattlers buying into the Northwoods League team in Fond Du Lac and then an extended discussion about how everyone involved with the Rattlers thinks that they have far and away the best talent in the MWL. Pitching wise that's debatable, and I won't get into that here, but position player wise there's no doubt. This team just hasn't come close to fulfilling it's potential this season, if they get into the post season they could win it all or get swept in the first series, the performances have just been so sporadic it's difficult to quantify their chances with any certainty. Wisconsin Recap ****** Postgame Post – August 20, 2016 The usual assortment of audio interviews, please take the time to listen, especially the Gary Lucas interview. ******

I completely understand why many people are huge fans of Gomez, but what I have a very hard time with is that why when every ex-Brewer who had some success for the franchise is available, there is instantly a thread about acquiring him? Why is it so hard to move on? In Gomez the Brewers finally traded a player at the perfect time, there's no compelling reason to acquire him to try and make lightening strike twice. Braun is in LF, Santana will be back shortly for RF, and l would like to see Broxton get regular playing time the rest of the way. I'm asking people to let go of the emotional attachment to their favorite Brewer players and view the situation(s) objectively, Gomez isn't part of the future and what's the likely hood he can even net us a prospect of the caliber of Broxton who'd he be replacing? There's plenty of young talent which needs to be evaluated as part of the future, why delay that for the infinitesimal chance that Gomez would play well enough that some other team will take a chance on him? Starting next season there will likely be a compelling reason to bring up a young prospect and evaluate him in the OF on a yearly basis, that's where most of the organization position depth is. The start of this process is seeing if Santana and Broxton will be part of the future, they are already in Milwaukee, let the young men play and let's see what they have. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXhFcKCcozE

Winning streak snapped as Shuckers fall to BayBears, 10-3 Dustin DeMuth led the offense by going 2-for-3 with a double and two RBI Biloxi Shuckers http://www.milb.com/assets/images/1/0/8/196621108/cuts/2Q5A3568_9m5nh9v6_pkx0vpuv.JPG Dustin DeMuth doubled and drove in two runs on Friday. (Michael Krebs) Biloxi Boxscore Winning streak over... damn. As well as Brandon Woodruff was pitching through July the last 2 starts have been that bad. Tristan Archer also blew up and didn't make it out of the 7th. Brett Phillips was caught stealing today and his name shows up in that part of the box so rarely that I had to look and see how he was doing, he's 11 for 16 on the season. Biloxi Recap

Snappers stop Rattlers 5-1 Gatewood homers for Wisconsin's run By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers http://www.milb.com/assets/images/0/7/4/196615074/cuts/8_19_PlayerOfTheGame_JakeGatewood_ufp2jmba_15igs8gy.jpg Jake Gatewood homered for the Timber Rattlers on Friday night against the Beloit Snappers. (Wisconsin Timber Rattlers/Ann Mollica) Wisconsin Boxscore The Rattlers worked over by a guy named Boomer Biegalski, what an interesting name. Miguel Diaz and Trey Supak struck out plenty of batters fanning 11 total hitters between them, but the over all result left something to be desired. T-Rat hitters collected just 6 hits and Carlos Belonis (2-3) had the only multi hit game. Wisconsin Recap ****** Postgame Post – August 19, 2016 The audio interviews are back, worth your time. ******

Well this is the downside of aggressively promoting pitchers before their stuff is ready for the next level. Starting with Ventura in AA and then working on down there have been plenty of pitchers promoted early and the results on the whole have been pretty poor. It's one thing to promote someone like Perrin who can throw strikes consistently and it's another to push pitchers and make them learn on the fly like the traditional "trial by fire" method of prospect development. Hopefully these guys can hit the ground running next year.

Rattlers Record a Stunning 7-6 Victory Sharkey homers twice & Griep sets Rattlers record for saves in a season By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers Wisconsin Boxscore I took a night off from baseball (well sort of) to watch some football, but I imagine that Zack Brown didn't come back out after the first because all of the college guys are on pretty strict pitch counts and after 44 pitches that was about it. That's an avalanche of pitches for an inning, I'm actually surprised that he was allowed to finish it. Miguel Sanchez has had an interesting season and pitched alright today, for whatever reason walks get under my skin and that's the first thing I look at in every box... how many walks in how many innings. It's actually kind of odd, because I fully expect young pitchers in the Brewer's organization to have a BB/9 between 3 and 5, but I digress. So of course I think Corbin Burnes walked too many, but he did SO 5 batters in 3 scoreless innings. Nate Griep, the "Grim Grieper" set the franchise record for saves with 3 strike outs in the 9th, I'm sure Chris will likely have more on that in the game story. Take Isan Diaz (3-4,HR), add some Alan Sharkey (2-3,2 HR,BB), and you have instant offense, at least for 1 day, as between them they knocked in all 7 runs. Diaz has been great for the majority of the second half, but Sharkey really needed this game. I admit that I really like Alan, he's one of those guys who does so many of the little things right, it's too bad he's had such a tough season at the plate. Natanael Mejia hasn't seen much action this season, but he had a nice game at the plate going 2-4. Wisconsin Recap

Shuckers roll past BayBears, 7-1 Angel Ortega homers and drives in four runs Thursday as Shuckers win third straight Biloxi Shuckers http://www.milb.com/assets/images/2/2/2/196412222/cuts/2Q5A3972_aieqktgr_8zcjbrm6.JPG Angel Ortega was 3-for-4 with a homer and four RBI on Thursday night (Michael Krebs) Biloxi Boxscore Ladies and Gentlemen, a winning streak! Taylor Jungmann walked 7(!) in just 4.2 innings, allowed 4 hits, and struck out 5 but somehow only gave up 1 run. 3 relievers combined to finish off the game in scoreless fashion, both Tayler Scott and Junior Rincon need to finish on a high note so this game was good for both. Angel Ortega had a nice little run last week, then went hitless 4 straight games, and now has 4 hits over his last 2 games. Ortega was doing alright until July when he slumped along with the rest of the offense, though Tyrone Taylor was hot for a while there. Biloxi Recap

Sometimes throwing strikes is a mental thing but it's mostly a mechanical thing. You keep pitchers, even ones the organization sees as relievers, in the rotation as long as possible so they get regular bullpen sessions and have as many innings as possible to work on their craft. It's fine if you don't subscribe to it but regardless from a development standpoint that's what makes the most sense.

Rattlers Take Down Cougars in 14 Innings Wisconsin wins 7-4 with three in the 14th By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers Wisconsin Boxscore I love extra inning wins, even though they aren't great for me on a personal level, and welcome back Monte Harrison! The bullpen was absolutely awesome behind Jordan Desguin who wasn't exceedingly sharp as Alex Farina, Scott Grist, and Quintin Torres-Costa all pitched 2 or more scoreless innings of relief, the bullpen pitched 9.1 innings of 1(!) hit ball in total. The Grim Grieper closed it out to tie the franchise record for saves on the back of Carlos Belonis' awesome diving catch to record the final out. Rattler pitchers struck out 17 batters in 14 innings, unfortunately the Rattler hitters struck out 20 times so Kane County had the upper hand there, but I'll take the win. Trent Clark (2-4,2B, and 3(!)BB) was on base all game, though he did make another out on the bases. He was joined by Luis Aviles (2-6,2B) and Jake Gatewood (3-7,2 2B) in posting multi hit efforts. I totally forget to mention a name to remember when Kane County was in WI last week because Aviles turned around one of his 96 MPH FBs for a HR, but Julio Perez hit 100 in that game, and was up to 99 tonight. Even though he's already 24 and just in A ball, that kind of gas is rare enough to make people notice. Jim Henderson was with Wisconsin as a 26 year old so it can work out for older relievers. Perez is actually an interesting story failing in Indy ball before taking a year off and coming back with a vengeance. Wisconsin Recap

Ortiz earns first win as Shuckers take opener over BayBears Tyrone Taylor blasted his ninth home run of the year Wednesday Biloxi Shuckers http://www.milb.com/assets/images/8/9/2/196239892/cuts/2Q5A3581_iamcehmy_9lsxia5s.JPG Luis Ortiz has not allowed an earned run in three games and 12.1 innings pitched (Michael Krebs) Biloxi Boxscore Back to .500! Luis Ortiz, as many walks as strike outs, but went 5.2 scoreless innings. Preston Gainey started slow but deserved a better fate as back to back errors chased him from the game with 1 out in the 8th, both runs came on his watch. All 8 starting position players tallied 1 hit a piece, that's not something you see very often in a box. Biloxi Recap

Exactly and if he doesn't work out as a starter he could flourish as a reliever. How many successful relievers post nearly as many walks and strike outs? Kodi certainly has time on his side so the end isn't nigh, but let's not bury our head in the sand and pretend everything is alright either. Beware of low arm slot pitchers, only the most athletic make it work enough to be starters and while they are filthy with that arm angle, they are most definitely the exception. I sincerely hope Kodi can turn it around, the system definitely needs some legit lefties.

I thought I was pretty clear, but I guess not. The only pitcher I've watched above A ball this season was Hader. Research=scouting reports, listening to games on the radio, audio and print interviews, video or gifs of the pitcher, and so on. The overwhelming majority of insightful information of this type is linked by MH, he's truly the best resource Brewer fans have for prospect information. Analysis=I'm looking at statistics and giving my best guess, I'll use phrases like "appears to be", "looks like", "I'm guessing", "seems to suggest", and so on in Link Reports. In Wang's case my early season analysis that he started nibbling around was confirmed later by audio and print interviews with pitching coach Chris Hook linked of course by MH. While every prospect has a somewhat unique career path, each different type of pitcher also has a unique ladder to climb. So when you get a certain type of pitcher, putting up certain kinds of stats, it's not hard to guess what's going on when we've been down that road already with another prospect. If I had to compare Wang to a previous Brewer prospect... looking at similar low 90s velocity, stuff, and control the best I can come up with Dana Eveland. I'm probably forgetting someone though.