Article: Brewers Minor League Link Report (10/1): It was Nashville's Season, But Not Their Night

[Mass Haas]

Having provided followers of the Brewers' minor league system six full months of wonderful efficiency and success in terms of talent and teamwork, the AAA Nashville Sounds unfortunately had a night to forget in Las Vegas, dropping a 13-0 decision to the Tamps Rays' Durham club. The Bulls, the victor in the single game winner-take-all contest for the International League Championship, now move on to a Sunday game vs, the Reno Aces (Diamondbacks) for the crown of 2022 AAA Champion.

Final: Durham (Rays) 13, Nashville 0
Via the Sounds' site - Sounds Fall in International League Championship Game - Nashville’s season comes to an end in loss to Durham
Box Score / Game Log

anticlimactic - causing disappointment at the end of an exciting or impressive series of events

"What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas"

There are a number of ways we could put the postscript of this game together. After a scoreless first inning produced the Sounds' lone highlight:

Brice Turang would make his way to second base with two outs in the bottom of the opening inning (single, wild pitch), but cleanup hitter Jon Singleton grounded out to end the frame.

Durham would break through on a one-out RBI triple in the 2nd inning, but the Sounds limited the damage by next thwarting the contact play, cutting down the runner at home. Then, Joey Wiemer singled and Pablo Reyes walked to open the Sounds portion of the stanza, but things quickly fizzled. That sequence of 0-for-3 with RISP was part of an 0-for-9 evening in that category for Nashville.

Birthday boy RHP Caleb Boushley (29 years old) struggled to open the 4th, failing to retire a batter: infield single, walk, walk, line drive double. Veteran RHP Marcus Walden would allow both inherited runners to score, Later in the game, RHP's Lucas Erceg and J.C. Mejia would each allow two inherited to score as well. Six of eight inherited runners came in on the night, so brief kudos to Hobie Harris and Zack Brown, who each stranded one runner without allowing a run of their own. Overall, however, Nashville hurlers walked eight and fanned only five.

With the score already out of hand entering the 7th, LHP Ethan Small entered and perhaps the biggest "what the heck happened to him?" of Milwaukee's entire minor league campaign walked the first man he faced, and then three subsequent singles mixed with a couple of ground ball outs led to four runs being charged to Small's ledger. The big-league club really needed Small on numerous occasions this season, but in nearly all instances, couldn't dare turn to him. Small is #1 among the salvage projects assigned to the organization this winter.

All eight Nashville hits were singles. They at least came from promising sources - Turang with two knocks, as had Wiemer. Sal Frelick and Esteury Ruiz both had one.

As is the case with AAA players across the baseball landscape, many of these Sounds will be minor league free agents shortly - 

• RHP Zack Brown
• RHP Lucas Erceg
• RHP Hobie Harris
• RHP Tyler Herb
• RHP Josh Lindblom
• RHP J.C. Mejia
• C Pedro Severino
• 1B Jon Singleton
• INF Andruw Monasterio
• OF Matt Lipka
• OF Jonathan Davis
• UT Weston Wilson

Several 2022 Sounds who finished the season in Biloxi also make up the detailed list of Milwaukee farmhands who are on the cusp of minor league free agency.

Then, you've got "fringy" 40-man roster members, and it remains to be seen if they will remain as such through the offseason:

• RHP Jason Alexander
• RHP Jandel Gustave
• RHP Miguel Sanchez
• INF Pablo Reyes
• C Alex Jackson

Perhaps the 2nd biggest salvage project this offseason will be catcher Mario Feliciano's defense -

You can place LHP Robert Gasser and RHP Victor Castaneda in the promising but still-much-to-prove category, otherwise the true gems of this squad are the "Nashville Five" as they were dubbed on our forum back in early August - Turang, Ruiz, Frelick, Wiemer and Garrett Mitchell. That's a huge swath of position player talent to hang our collective fan hats on.

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Thank you to our faithful readers on joining myself, @Joseph Zarr and @damuelle on our daily journeys throughout the Brewers minor league system. We hope to put our postseason naps to good use and join you again next spring as the legacy of the Minor League Link Report (b. 2001) grows. Be sure to keep up with our Minor League Forum throughout the upcoming offseason.

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