Jump to content
Brewer Fanatic

Your 2017 Helena and Maryvale Brewers

Mass Haas

By Mass Haas,
in Brewers Minor League Talk

Mass Haas GOAT

Mass Haas

Brewer Fanatic Staff
Posted
  • Author
Posted
Add one more to the UDFA pile - catcher Kyle Beam from Old Dominion.

 

How awesome is this story!

 

***

 

Beam signs with Milwaukee Brewers

By Ben Mitchell, Hood River (Oregon) News

 

PHOTO at the link

 

Monday morning, Kyle Beam woke up and reported to his first day of work at Beam Excavating and A-1 Septic Tank Service.

 

By the end of the day, Beam had a new job: professional baseball player.

 

***

 

Posted July 8th --

 

C/1B KJ Harrison is active on Helena's roster for tonight's game.

 

30th round LHP Cody Beckman, and NDFAs C/1B Kyle Beam & RHP Matt Hardy have all three been transferred from the AZL roster to the Helena roster.

 

***

 

July 16th update --

 

C/1B Kyle Beam has been placed on the Restricted List.

 

Beam had yet to appear in a game for Helena. While in Maryvale, he appeared in four games, and his lone hit in five AB's was a home run.

 

Here's MILB.com's current definition of the "Restricted List":

 

RESTRICTED LIST- The Restricted List is used for many resons. A team can request that a player be placed on the restricted list if that player has left the team without a valid reason, or has announced his intention to retire but is still of an age or level of skill that could allow him to return to professional baseball in the future. In effect, the team states that it retains rights to the player if and when he becomes active again.

 

A player on the restricted list cannot be signed by another team unless compensation is paid to the team who placed him on the list. The list is honored throughout organized baseball and in leagues that have working agreements to respect the contracts of organized baseball, such as Nippon Pro Baseball. The list is most often used today when a player retires at a young age without receiving his unconditional release. If he decides to return to playing, he must do so with his last team, unless a trade or other deal can be worked out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Mass Haas GOAT

Mass Haas

Brewer Fanatic Staff
Posted
  • Author
Posted

Darn, wish we knew who is shorter than 5'3" in MiLB. I'll shoot a line to Erick.

 

One of pro baseball's shortest hitters, Helena Brewers' Jose Gomez has knack for going deep

Erik C. Anderson, Helena Independent Record

 

596fec1141f82.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C957

 

The Helena Brewers' Jose Gomez makes contact during a game earlier this month against the Billings Mustangs at Kindrick Legion Stadium. (Troy Shockley photo)

 

He’s the second shortest player in minor league baseball, but he’s come up the biggest for the Helena Brewers this season.

 

Outfielder Jose Gomez, all 5-foot-3 of him, has a knack for the deep ball, and it’s paid dividends for the Brewers this season. Tied three ways for the club lead, Gomez has four home runs this season, all of which came in a three-game span.

 

The Brewers have known Gomez can hit. The 23-year old from Pinar Del Rio, Cuba, drew raves from fans and people around the organization before he ever played a game for Helena. Gomez showed early on the walls at Kindrick Legion Field wouldn’t contain his stroke.

 

Once the season began, however, Gomez had some trouble.

 

“I was coming into the game struggling a little bit,” Gomez said, a hint of his Cuban accent underscoring his strong English. “I wasn’t hitting when I wanted to be hitting.”

 

Early on this season, Gomez was batting .115, recording three hits. He looked to be an easy out for opposing pitchers. Part of that could have been a residual effect from his teammate, Harold Chirino.

 

The Brewers played an exhibition game against the Helena Senators prior to Opening Day. The game, by and large, was a fun, light-hearted atmosphere for both clubs. Each team pitched to their own hitters. The Brewers got a chance to get acclimated and take a tougher batting practice. The Senators had a chance to share the field with professionals.

 

Chirino couldn’t find his control during Gomez’s at-bat, and dealt a ball off the side of Gomez’s head.

 

“I was like, 'It’s not a good start, man,'” Gomez said. “You don’t want to get hit in the head. I was a little pissed off. We spent five days (prior to that) without doing anything. I was taking those at-bats really serious to get ready for the season. But whatever. Everything happens for a reason. Maybe something worse could have happened.”

 

Those early season batting woes subsided when the Brewers took a trip to Missoula. Gomez broke out.

 

Against the Osprey on July 1, Gomez blasted a grand slam and a home run as the Brewers rolled to an 11-1 victory. The grand slam came in the seventh inning at Ogren Park. Gomez had a good idea how deep the left-center field wall laid. Gomez had hit a one-run shot over the left wall, which down the left-field line measures 309 feet. His grand slam split the difference between left and center field, which is 398 feet deep.

 

Gomez remembers his 2-1 count.

 

“Our hitting coach is always talking about finding your pitch, and those counts you get the pitch the you want and the pitch you’re looking for. I had a good approach that day and I was just looking for that one pitch.”

 

Jeff Bain took the mound for the Osprey in the seventh inning, and he hurled a 2-1 fastball right down the middle for Gomez. Gomez sent it back over his head, and over the wall.

 

“I put a good short swing on the ball and it went pretty far,” Gomez said.

 

One night later, Gomez blasted another grand slam against Missoula. The night after that, another home run. The Brewers returned back to Helena. Fans expected to see Gomez jack more bombs. A few nights later, he almost did.

 

The Brewers and Billings Mustangs played deep into a 13-inning game. Gomez, at the game’s start, served as the first base coach, a spot he prefers to work when he’s not in the lineup. Sitting in the dugout doesn’t keep him engaged enough, Gomez said. He feels like he’s a part of the game when he’s coaching first. He entered late in the contest, and then, in the bottom of the 13th with bases loaded, Gomez took the plate.

 

He swears he didn’t know he had bases loaded. Most of the time Gomez goes to bat, he doesn’t check the bases beyond third base, a subtle reminder that he needs to bring a run in, and a pressure alleviating exercise, so he doesn’t lose the mental battle in the box.

 

“The last two times I hit the grand slams I come into the dugout and I ask there were bases loaded?” he said.

 

Gomez took two balls and ate a strike, before nearly sending the Kindrick Legion faithful into a frenzy, blasting a foul ball that threatened to become grand slam No. 3.

 

“I thought when I hit the first foul, 'Crap, that might have went!'” he said with a laugh.

 

Two pitches later, Gomez singled to right field, walking off with a win.

 

Now with 18 games and 68 at-bats under his belt, Gomez sits at a .206 average, still below where he would like. Though he hasn’t homered since those games in Missoula, he’s still a threat any time he steps into the box.

 

Clearly, size doesn’t matter.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...
Mass Haas GOAT

Mass Haas

Brewer Fanatic Staff
Posted
  • Author
Posted

Via Adam McCalvy --

 

The Brewers' Minor League complex is a bit less crowded than usual this spring. A group of about 14 players, mostly 2017 Draft picks who came out of high school, were en route to the Dominican Republic on Wednesday to join some of Milwaukee's Latin American prospects for workouts at the team's academy there.

 

The players include Caden Lemons, the Brewers' No. 17 prospect per MLB Pipeline, and Je'Von Ward (No. 28).

 

"Basically, they'll be able to do the same thing they would do here," Brewers farm director Tom Flanagan said. "This way, you expose them to the culture, and they can get their work in."

 

Why send them so far from home? In part because space is so tight, pending the Maryvale Baseball Park reconstruction scheduled to begin in two weeks. But also because those players are ticketed for short-season affiliates, which don't begin play until June.

 

They will return on March 26 for the final week of Minor League camp.

 

One high-school pick from last year's Draft, Milwaukee's No. 9 prospect Tristen Lutz, was not sent to the Dominican because he has a chance to open the regular season at Class A Wisconsin.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
The Twins Daily Caretaker Fund
The Brewer Fanatic Caretaker Fund

You all care about this site. The next step is caring for it. We’re asking you to caretake this site so it can remain the premier Brewers community on the internet. Included with caretaking is ad-free browsing of Brewer Fanatic.

Become a Caretaker
×
×
  • Create New...