Link Report for Monday 5/29

[Mass Haas]

http://www.brewerfan.net/images/store/dailylinkreport.jpg

[Mass Haas]

Monday's Daily Menu:

 

All times are Central

 

Colorado Springs: LHP Josh Hader at Nashville (Athletics), 11:35 AM pre-game, 12:05 PM gametime

 

Free Live Audio Link

 

Dan Karcher, the longtime play-by-play voice of the Sky Sox is on Twitter @SkySoxKarch; joining him again this season is Dan Acheson (@Dan_Acheson)

 

MiLB.TV -- for subscribers; all Colorado Springs games, home and away, will be available to watch via MiLB.TV's $49.99 season-long package ($12.99 to pay for a single month). The audio feed is from the home team. The video of each game is archived online, which is a nice feature. All MiLB.TV details available at the link.

 

NOTE: Notice that on MiLB.TV's page, you can click on "Filter", then "Milwaukee Brewers", and you'll see just the Crew's organizational TV lineup.

 

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Biloxi: Idle

 

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Carolina: RHP Cody Ponce at home vs. Myrtle Beach (Cubs), 12:45 PM pre-game, 1:00 gametime

 

Free Live Audio Link

 

We look forward to Mudcats audio with Greg Young (@gregyoungjr), especially after going without gameday audio for much of the Brewers' stay in Brevard County.

 

MiLB.TV - Yes, Carolina home games will be on MiLB.TV, sweet. It appears three other Carolina League teams (Salem, Myrtle Beach, and Winston-Salem) broadcast as well.

 

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Wisconsin: RHP Braden Webb at Clinton (Mariners), 1:40 PM pre-game, 2:00 gametime

 

Free Live Audio Link

 

Chris Mehring is back to do his customary fantastic work as the Voice of the Rattlers. Follow him on Twitter @CMehring; we'll link to Chris' infamous blog often -- Rattler Radio.

 

MiLB.TV - Eight of the 16 Midwest League teams telecast their home games, and Wisconsin, once again, is among them. We'll let you know when a road TV feed is available.

 

In 2017, fifteen games will be broadcast on Spectrum Sports in Wisconsin, available on channel 32 and in HD on channel 1332. We'll keep you posted with our "DVR Alerts" days in advance.

[Mass Haas]

Follow Monday's action as it happens with box score / game log links:

 

Colorado Springs

 

Carolina

 

Wisconsin

 

MiLB.com feature -- organizational scoreboard, Brewers

[Mass Haas]

Look for these just prior to the respective game times --

 

Colorado Springs Media Notes - Linked on the Sky Sox official blog

 

Carolina Media Notes - Linked on the Mudcats official blog

 

Wisconsin Media Notes - Linked on the Rattler Radio blog

 

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STANDINGS:

 

AAA - Pacific Coast League American Northern Division

 

AA - Southern League South Division

 

High-A - Carolina League Southern Division

 

A - Midwest League Western Division

 

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Sortable individual stat pages:

 

Colorado Springs

 

Biloxi

 

Carolina

 

Wisconsin

 

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Weather.com:

 

Nashville, TN

 

Zebulon, NC

 

Clinton, IA

[Mass Haas]

No MiLB.TV for Wisconsin for this series in Clinton, nor the next in Peoria.

[Mass Haas]

AUDIO via Matt Pauley's Brewers Extra Innings Podcast Sun. 5/28: "The Brewers begin the week on a 5-game losing streak but bounce back to win back-to-back games over the weekend and get back in 1st place in the NL Central. Matt looks back at an eventful week that includes Ryan Braun going back on the DL, replay not working and hurting the Brewers and great starting pitching over the weekend. Kyle Lobner joins Matt to also look back at the week that was. The Brewers also promote two of their top prospects to the next level of the Minor League system. Matt is joined by Brad Ford to break down these two individuals and assess their potential for success at the next level."

 

Definitely give the entire podcast a listen, but for the focus of this Minor League Forum, farmhand talk with Matt, Kyle, and Brad begins at the 34:45 minute mark.

[Mass Haas]

Well, the Brewers have seen enough of 19-year-old Gilbert Lara in a Timber Rattlers uniform, at least for now, and they've sent him back to extended spring training in Maryvale, technically on the Helena paper roster. Helena opens its season on June 19th, we'll see if Lara is in the lineup there on that date.

 

As you can see at the link above, it's been an absolute mess of a go from an offensive perspective in 2017 for Lara. Overmatched to the point of a .435 OPS (.154/.187/.248 line), with 45 K's in 117 AB's. He did run into three pitches for home runs.

 

Despite nine errors in 29 games at short (none in five games at third base), defensive reports have been generally positive.

 

Before folks panic too much about the $3 million Lara signing, remember the struggles of both Jake Gatewood and Monte Harrison in their initial full-season Timber Rattlers campaigns, and the progress and maturity each of those young men has attained in the season and a half since. At the same time, Lara is undoubtedly, more than ever, a work in progress.

 

In fact, unless Lara had surprised and absolutely shined this spring, perhaps this was the plan all along, to transition Lara back to Arizona a couple of weeks prior to the Pioneer League season, again, similar to what happened to Gatewood and Harrison.

 

Taking his place on the Wisconsin roster is 23-year-old infielder Trey York, the Crew's 9th round pick in 2016 out of East Tennessee State, up from extended spring training.

 

Re: Lara

 

Initial post was based on MiLB's transaction pages. While on Helena roster, still possible for Lara to remain with the Rattlers. Looks like Adam McCalvy is following up with an update later this afternoon, so we will await a more official note from him.

 

Adam's update is in the latter half of his notes column here.

[Mass Haas]

Sunday's game --

 

[trwi7]

Yikes. 6 errors by the Mudcats so far today. 5 runs allowed in 5 innings by Ponce but only 1 run was earned. 0 walks, 8 strikeouts.

[adambr2]

Isan Diaz is really scuttling. 11 Ks today just between Diaz, Ray, Erceg, Gatewood and Clark. Yuck. That team should be better than it is

[Austin Tatious]

Isan Diaz is really scuttling. 11 Ks today just between Diaz, Ray, Erceg, Gatewood and Clark. Yuck. That team should be better than it is

 

Couldn't agree more. At least Ray has been showing signs of life, although I'd like to see more pop from him.

[WV Brew]

Mudcats commit six errors in series finale loss

Carolina fell into a series split with the Pelicans with the loss

By Carolina Mudcats | May 29, 2017 6:28 PM ET

 

http://www.milb.com/assets/images/8/9/0/231791890/cuts/16x9_CodyPonce2_xux4wdy5_199yc42r.jpg

Cody Ponce pitching for the 2017 Carolina Mudcats at Five County Stadium. (NIKOLAUS - Carolina Mudcats)

 

6 errors and another 14 strike outs today. Cody Ponce (5 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 8 K) could only go 5 innings today, taking 84 pitches to get through those innings. Yes, 4 of the runs were unearned but really, he was hit pretty hard today. Eric Hanhold then followed, entering the game with a .339 BAA. He gave up 3 hits and a run. Wuilder Rodriguez finished the last two innings flawlessly lowering his ERA to 1.17.

 

Corey Ray and Jake Gatewood each struck out 3 times in 4 at bats. It was Ray's turn to bicker with the umpire today. Gatewood's batting average is now down to .293 and his OPS is now below .900. Luis Aviles and Carlos Belonis each had 2 hits in 4 at bats. Aviles homered and had one error in the field. Belonis had two errors and a double. Trent Clark threw out a runner at home.

 

Carolina Box Score

 

Carolina Game Log

 

Isan Diaz vs Scooter Gennett A+ (same age):

 

BA: Isan .250, Scooter .300, OBP Isan .333, Scooter .334, SLG Isan .444, Scooter .406, OPS Isan .778, Scooter .740

 

Obviously not league/park adjusted which would probably make Scooter's numbers look better. At Wisconsin, Diaz was .010 higher in OPS.

[Brewerswillsurprise]

I have sat back watching and always knew Maverick was the #1 prospect in the Brewers Org and the numbers prove it to this point.

[And That]

Rattlers Fall Hard to LumberKings

Clinton beats Wisconsin 11-3 in Memorial Day Matinee

By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers

 

(Photo: Wisconsin Timber Rattlers)

 

Wisconsin Boxscore

 

Quoth me yesterday:

 

Lately when the Rattlers have lost, they have for the most part *really* lost. If you're going to do something, go all the way with it, right? Their prior loss was 15-2, and two losses before that they capitulated 12-2. They also were bested twice by Clinton a few weeks ago at home, 15-3 and 10-3.

 

For reals.

 

I know I keep harping on this, but the Rattlers' offense has so much trouble making contact. With Feliciano sitting this one out, they had exactly one player finish the game with a batting average over .250, and that is Monte Harrison's .253. I don't place a lot of weight on batting average, but I place more weight on it at the extremes, and this is extremely bad.

 

Ronnie Gideon and Joantgel Segovia each had two singles. Trever Morrison hit his third long ball. Morrison has a sneaky 662 OPS. If the batting average can ever sneak north a ways past .200...

 

Braden Webb blew up and the game was put out of reach relatively early. After his 4 innings on the 18th when his ERA sat at 3.86, his last two appearances have boosted it all the way up to 6.40. It's mostly related to his all-of-the-sudden inability to throw strikes. Hope it's just a mechanical thing that they can tweak. Cam Roegner limited damage over the last 4 2/3 innings of the game after Webb got the hook.

 

Wisconsin Game Log

 

I didn't even look. It seemed to be not good.

[Mass Haas]

Final: Colorado Springs 6, Nashville 0

 

Sox Shut Out Sounds For Second Time, 6-0

Wren drives in three runs in Memorial Day victory

By Robby Veronesi / Colorado Springs Sky Sox

 

Kyle Wren drove in three runs and four pitchers combined to shut out the Sounds as the Colorado Springs Sky Sox defeated Nashville, 6-0, in front of 9,018 at First Tennessee Park Monday afternoon.

 

For the second time in as many days, the Sox pitching staff turned in a shutdown performance, as Josh Hader, Wei-Chung Wang (3-0, 2.22), Tristan Archer and Tim Dillard held the potent Nashville offense to six singles. The zero-spot on the scoreboard marks the third shutout of the season for the Sky Sox, with the one not in Tennessee coming in late April against Iowa in Des Moines.

 

Rest of the recap at the link above...

 

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Colorado Springs Box Score

 

Lewis Brinson, after missing a day with a twisted ankle, 0-for-5 as the DH...

 

Colorado Springs Game Log

[Mass Haas]

VIDEO TWEET: Luis Aviles HR for Carolina

[ZBTMP]

I have sat back watching and always knew Maverick was the #1 prospect in the Brewers Org and the numbers prove it to this point.

I'll bite. While hitting well in Colorado Springs is far better than not hitting well in Colorado Springs, making meaningful statistical evaluations on less than 200 PAs half of which are 6000 ft above sea level is dangerous. Even more dangerous when they come with a 30%+ K rate.

[Mudville9]

Is it just me or has Dillard had a great year so far? It seems like he's putting up zeros every time he goes out there. I think a lot of us, me included, don't give him enough credit for his baseball skills and maybe too much for his dubsmash skills....well, ok maybe at least the former is true. Go Tim!

[pogokat]

Is it just me or has Dillard had a great year so far? It seems like he's putting up zeros every time he goes out there. I think a lot of us, me included, don't give him enough credit for his baseball skills and maybe too much for his dubsmash skills....well, ok maybe at least the former is true. Go Tim!

 

I'm with you---I'm rooting for Tim in both Baseball and Media ways.

[Brewerswillsurprise]

I would not say "dangerous" simply the facts of the stats. Brinson and Cordell are playing at the same place. Also keep in mind that half of the games have been away not at CS. Phillips was 6 for 10 in This last at bats all away. I will agree 200 plate appearances is not a lot but you still have to compare what everyone else is doing. .615 SLG, just under a 1.00 OPS leading the minor brewers system in triples, HR's and who know what else right now is still pretty impressive whether taking CS into consideration or not. Let's hope he keeps it up and as always everything is subject to keep changing.

[And That]

Phillips' road OPS is 942. Still a pitcher friendly league generally speaking outside of Colorado Springs, but a 942 OPS is still really good. To put it more clearly, before Monday's 3-3 game, he had a 148 wRC+. That's the same wRC+ that Joey Votto has at the MLB level. (Just for reference - obviously not comparing the two. Avi Garcia has a 148 wRC+ as well.)

 

The strikeouts are troubling, though FWIW the K rate has been steadily dropping, more than 5 percentage points now, over the past month. He even went 13 PAs without a K a week or so ago. If he can get it down another 5%ish, I think that gets to the point where bat to ball is workable at the big league level.

 

I do say all of this as true believer in Brett. He hasn't dropped out of my top 5 prospects despite having the "down" year last year. Which upon further review, wasn't even that bad of a year.

[CheezWizHed]

Five years ago, Brett would've easily been our best prospect. Now that its debatable isn't a indictment of Maverick, but a testimony to our system. He had a so-so performance last year, which hurt him a bit. But he is up there with a lot of the others.

 

It will be interesting to see which of the AAA OFers are called up first. They are all playing well.