Article: Brewers Minor League Link Report (4/22): First-Rounders Clicking

[Mass Haas]

Minor league coaches always remind players that as long as they have a uniform on, they have their chance to contribute at the big-league level for their organization. That is true, but clubs need to hit on their premier draft picks in order to maximize their talent base at the game's highest plateau. While Mother Nature slowed down red-hot 2021 1st round OF Sal Frelick Friday night, the Brewers other most recent top picks (OF Garrett Mitchell. LHP Ethan Small, and SS Brice Turang) had tremendous evenings.

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Nashville Pre-Game Media Notes

Final: Nashville 12, Charlotte (White Sox) 2
Box Score / Game Log

Via the Sounds' site, game details, and we encourage readers to review each of the affiliate write-ups as part of their Link Report routine:

Alex Jackson's Inside-The-Park Grand Slam Leads Sounds Past Knights - Brice Turang Ties Franchise Record with Five Hits in Win

(And yes, there is video of the odd grand slam within the summary.)

It's always a good sign when MiLB tasks an overnight assignment editor to get some quotes and put together a feature on your favorite club. That was the case Friday.

'It just clicked': Turang finds rhythm during 5-hit night
by Manny Randhawa, MiLB.com

My goodness, we spend enough time in April parsing over batting and pitching lines, because let's face it, it's in our nature as fans and in particular, prospect watchers. Brice Turang's batting average jumped 71 points in one night, and his OPS vaulted from .591 to .750. Just a tremendous reminder to consider early-season patience when diving into stat line analyses.

As for prime southpaw Ethan Small and all his other eye-popping numbers, he can't expect to walk just under six per nine innings (as he has through four starts here, it was 4.9 per nine for all of 2021), and find big league success, no matter what all the other raw figures say. Still some work to do, but my goodness, still so impressive.

And now for the videos that weren't embedded in the articles linked above --

Weston Wilson > Mike Brosseau

For his minors career, Mario Feliciano gets hit by a pitch once every 53 plate appearances, but it seems like more.

Hello to 3rd string catcher Brian Navarreto, who made a cameo appearance and first since April 7th.

Season (and AAA debut) for 26-year-old Matt Hardy, sixth year in the system (lost 2020 season counts for service time).

All that Sounds offense, and hot players Mark Mathias, Tyler White and Garrett Whitley were idle.

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Biloxi Pre-Game Media Notes via the Shuckers' Virtual Press Box

Final: Biloxi 6, Birmingham (White Sox) 5
Box Score / Game Log

Via the Shuckers' site, game details, please review:

Mitchell Hits Go-Ahead Homer In Ninth To Send Biloxi To 6-5 Victory - Castaneda Tosses Five One-Run Innings

Garrett Greene with his usual banner write-up - Freddy Zamora, Joey Wiemer, Gabe Holt, and Felix Valerio all featured prominently.

In video form, nice job in capturing this much for us from the home Birmingham feed (hence not quite the announcer excitement one might expect) -

RHP Victor Castaneda was just 18 years old in 2017 when he appeared in nine games (four starts) in the Mexican League, close to AAA-equivalent, just prior to Milwaukee signing him. This marks just his second season dedicated to a starter's role.

Still no sign of reliever Taylor Floyd, bummer.

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Friday’s Rattlers Home Game with Quad Cities Rained Out - Teams will play a doubleheader on Saturday with game one starting at 1:10pm

It's going to be a banger of a Saturday in Grand Chute with expected glorious weather.

Southpaws Antoine Kelly and Brandon Knarr slated to toe the slab.

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Carolina Pre-Game Media Notes

Final: Lynchburg (Guardians) 10, Carolina 3
Box Score / Game Log

Via the Mudcats' site, game details, please review:

Carolina Wastes Early Lead in 10-3 Loss - The Carolina bullpen combined to allow nine runs and 11 hits over the final four innings in Friday’s loss

So apparently a "Hillcat" is a fictitious cousin of the bobcat, with some lynx mixed in. This Hillcats - Mudcats matchup doesn't feature any actual cats, then.

We haven't made much mention of 2021 8th round second baseman Zack Raabe, who had a nice night here, on base three times via base on balls, now sporting a .483 OBP through the seven games in which he's appeared. Raabe's dad Brian appeared briefly in "the Show" with three organizations between 1995 and 1997. One can imagine how much Spanish Zack Raabe is picking up this year given the Latin-heavy makeup of the Carolina roster.

Hendry Mendez must be part super-hero as he appeared as the designated hitter (and in the cleanup spot, no less) within 48 hours of a violent collision while sliding into second base. Good news to be sure.

Somebody appears to be heating up...

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It's a 1:10 PM Central start for the Timber Rattlers twinbill as you plan your Saturday on the farm:

Organizational Scoreboard including starting pitcher info, game times, MiLB TV links, and box scores

Links for affiliate audio

Standings and sortable stat pages

Current Milwaukee Brewers Organization Batting Stats and Depth

Current Milwaukee Brewers Organization Pitching Stats and Depth

View full article

[Joseph Zarr]

I Heart Weston. I really do. I sincerely hope he gets a call up this season. He does anything and everything. His glove and his arm are truly fantastic and he does enough at the plate to merit spot duty with the Big Club. Agreed on the Brosseau sentiments.

[Joseph Zarr]

I Heart Weston. I really do. I sincerely hope he gets a call up this season. He does anything and everything. His glove and his arm are truly fantastic and he does enough at the plate to merit spot duty with the Big Club. Agreed on the Brosseau sentiments.

[Joseph Zarr]

I Heart Weston. I really do. I sincerely hope he gets a call up this season. He does anything and everything. His glove and his arm are truly fantastic and he does enough at the plate to merit spot duty with the Big Club. Agreed on the Brosseau sentiments.

[Joseph Zarr]

I Heart Weston. I really do. I sincerely hope he gets a call up this season. He does anything and everything. His glove and his arm are truly fantastic and he does enough at the plate to merit spot duty with the Big Club. Agreed on the Brosseau sentiments.

[Joseph Zarr]

Lost in the shuffle of that Carolina Puello induced blow-out is the fine work of Venezuelan starter Edwin Jimenez. The Puello outing was fairly disappointing given what we saw in his first outing of the year but, on the other side of things Jimenez was equally impressive. I made this comparison in the Game Thread last night: he has a lot of Mike Fiers to his approach. He doesn't have a lot of velo (probably touching a high of 90-91 on his heat), but his breaking stuff and off-speed stuff were really dialed making that heater look more formidable than it was and is (at present). He was working fast in the new pitch clock implementation with a really smooth delivery. And, perhaps most fun to watch, was how confident and 'gamer' he looked on the mound. I'm excited to track his progress into the season. It was a really good outing. He is 20 yo until late December of this year.

[Joseph Zarr]

Lost in the shuffle of that Carolina Puello induced blow-out is the fine work of Venezuelan starter Edwin Jimenez. The Puello outing was fairly disappointing given what we saw in his first outing of the year but, on the other side of things Jimenez was equally impressive. I made this comparison in the Game Thread last night: he has a lot of Mike Fiers to his approach. He doesn't have a lot of velo (probably touching a high of 90-91 on his heat), but his breaking stuff and off-speed stuff were really dialed making that heater look more formidable than it was and is (at present). He was working fast in the new pitch clock implementation with a really smooth delivery. And, perhaps most fun to watch, was how confident and 'gamer' he looked on the mound. I'm excited to track his progress into the season. It was a really good outing. He is 20 yo until late December of this year.

[Joseph Zarr]

Lost in the shuffle of that Carolina Puello induced blow-out is the fine work of Venezuelan starter Edwin Jimenez. The Puello outing was fairly disappointing given what we saw in his first outing of the year but, on the other side of things Jimenez was equally impressive. I made this comparison in the Game Thread last night: he has a lot of Mike Fiers to his approach. He doesn't have a lot of velo (probably touching a high of 90-91 on his heat), but his breaking stuff and off-speed stuff were really dialed making that heater look more formidable than it was and is (at present). He was working fast in the new pitch clock implementation with a really smooth delivery. And, perhaps most fun to watch, was how confident and 'gamer' he looked on the mound. I'm excited to track his progress into the season. It was a really good outing. He is 20 yo until late December of this year.

[Joseph Zarr]

Lost in the shuffle of that Carolina Puello induced blow-out is the fine work of Venezuelan starter Edwin Jimenez. The Puello outing was fairly disappointing given what we saw in his first outing of the year but, on the other side of things Jimenez was equally impressive. I made this comparison in the Game Thread last night: he has a lot of Mike Fiers to his approach. He doesn't have a lot of velo (probably touching a high of 90-91 on his heat), but his breaking stuff and off-speed stuff were really dialed making that heater look more formidable than it was and is (at present). He was working fast in the new pitch clock implementation with a really smooth delivery. And, perhaps most fun to watch, was how confident and 'gamer' he looked on the mound. I'm excited to track his progress into the season. It was a really good outing. He is 20 yo until late December of this year.