Welcome back to the Minor League Roundup!
As a reminder, you can find this roundup — covering everything you need to know about each of the Brewers’ minor league affiliates — every Tuesday morning right here on Brew Crew Ball. For consistency, all organizational prospect rankings will reference MLB Pipeline unless otherwise noted.
Triple-A Nashville Sounds
Current record: 65-53
Record this week: 3-3
This week’s opponent: vs. Indianapolis Indians
Next week’s opponent: @ Norfolk Tides
Standout performances:
Bo Naylor: 5-for-17, 3 HR, 7 RBI, 2 BB, 2 K
Luis Matos: 5-for-18, 1 3B, 1 HR, 6 RBI, 3 BB, 4 K
Akil Baddoo: 5-for-21, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 3 BB, 7 K
Sal Frelick: 5-for-22, 2 2B, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 5 BB, 3 K
Eduardo Garcia: 4-for-17, 3 RBI, 3 BB, 3 K
Coleman Crow: 6.2 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K
Brandon Sproat: 5.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 8 K
Tyson Hardin: 8.0 IP, 13 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 10 K
Colton Gordon: 6.1 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 7 K
Double-A Biloxi Shuckers
Current record: 55-55
Record this week: 0-6
This week’s opponent: vs. Pensacola Blue Wahoos
Next week’s opponent: @ Rocket City Trash Pandas
Standout performances:
Daniel Guilarte: 7-for-19, 1 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 2 BB, 3 K
Mike Boeve: 7-for-20, 1 3B, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 4 K
Matthew Wood: 5-for-16, 1 2B, 1 HR, 4 RBI, 1 BB, 3 K
Damon Keith: 6-for-22, 1 2B, 2 HR, 6 RBI, 3 BB, 6 K
Jesús Made: 5-for-22, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 4 BB, 7 K
Jack Seppings: 4.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K
Manuel Rodriguez: 5.0 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 4 BB, 3 K
Jaron DeBerry: 9.0 IP, 15 H, 8 ER, 3 BB, 13 K
Jesús Broca: 4.0 IP, 8 H, 5 ER, 2 BB, 5 K
High-A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers
Current record: 58-48
Record this week: 3-3
This week’s opponent: @ Cedar Rapids Kernels
Next week’s opponent: vs. Lake County Captains
Standout performances:
Yannic Walther: 4-for-10, 1 RBI, 2 BB, 2 K
Sawyer Strosnider: 8-for-22, 1 2B, 1 3B, 4 RBI, 3 BB, 6 K
Daniel Dickinson: 8-for-25, 4 2B, 2 HR, 7 RBI, 3 BB, 6 K
Luis Castillo: 7-for-22, 1 HR, 5 RBI, 5 BB, 8 K
Tayden Hall: 6-for-24, 2 2B, 3 RBI, 4 BB, 4 K
Ethan Dorchies: 6.2 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 K
Jacob Morrison: 5.0 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K
Daniel Corniel: 4.0 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K
Josh Knoth: 5.2 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 K
Andrew Healy: 5.0 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K
Single-A Wilson Warbirds
Current record: 60-50
Record this week: 5-1
This week’s opponent: vs. Columbia Fireflies
Next week’s opponent: @ Salem RidgeYaks
Standout performances:
Carsten Sabathia III: 9-for-20, 1 2B, 1 HR, 5 RBI, 2 BB, 2 K
Kyle Jones: 9-for-24, 1 HR, 7 RBI, 2 BB, 5 K
Brailyn Antunez: 7-for-19, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 3 BB, 3 K
Pedro Ibarguen: 4-for-12, 1 2B, 3 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K
Juan Ortuno: 7-for-23, 1 2B, 1 HR, 5 RBI, 4 BB, 1 K
Joey Broughton: 4.0 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K
Hayden Robinson: 5.1 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 3 K
Tyler Renz: 4.0 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K
Carlos Carra: 11.1 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 6 BB, 5 K
Enderson Mercado: 4.0 IP, 1 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 5 K
News:
— RHP Brandon Sproat went five one-hit innings in his second rehab start in Triple-A, although he walked three batters.
— OF Sal Frelick is 5-for-22 with a home run and five walks during his rehab assignment with Nashville.
— SS Cooper Pratt will begin his rehab assignment with High-A Wisconsin on Tuesday.
— This week, Pipeline released another updated version of its list of the Brewers’ top 30 prospects. For those of you saying, “Wait, but didn’t you just do a roundup about this?” Yes, I did. This is a different update because, as you’re about to see, enough has changed around the organization to warrant a new list. There are fewer changes overall this time, but there are a couple of big ones, including:
Josh Adamczewski, who had already soared all the way up to No. 6 in last month’s update, is now the No. 3 prospect in the Brewers’ system behind Jesús Made and Luis Peña. Adamczewski broke into the top 10 earlier this season while he was raking in High-A, then immediately earned a promotion to Double-A, where he’s hit .289 with an .883 OPS and seven home runs in 44 games. Concerns remain about his defensive ability, particularly his arm, but he’s hit well enough at every level — those Double-A numbers are actually career worsts pretty much across the board — that it hasn’t stopped him from rising to top-prospect status.
With the graduation of Cooper Pratt, Luis Lara remains the Brewers’ No. 4 prospect. Their new No. 5 is Brady Ebel, now ranked as the No. 99 prospect in baseball, who’s had himself a bit of a power breakout down in Single-A this season. Ebel, drafted out of high school last year, didn’t hit a home run in 78 at-bats last year and had just two through the end of May. Since June, he’s hit eight, even with only one coming this month.
After Ebel and Andrew Fischer (No. 6) is Braylon Payne, who’s also put up some impressive power numbers this season. The speedy outfielder just turned 20 this week and was drafted with the hope that his power would develop. It looks like it has: Payne had a .930 OPS with 23 home runs in 318 at-bats with High-A Wisconsin before earning a promotion to Double-A (more on that later).
Jett Williams, who started the season at No. 3, is down to No. 11. Williams has had a rough season in his first year with the Brewers organization. Not only has he not hit all that well (.233, .724 OPS), but Cooper Pratt — who started the year in Nashville with Williams — was called up ahead of him. Then, when David Hamilton got hurt, it was a Luis Lara + Greg Jones combination that was selected to fill the vacant roster spots. Now, with Pratt and Ortiz banged up, Williams is also hurt himself. He made it just one at-bat before reaggravating his left wrist injury and going back on the IL.
Prior to this year’s trade deadline, back on August 3, Milwaukee sent prospects Alexander Frias and Josiah Ragsdale to St. Louis in the trade that brought back Dustin May and JoJo Romero. Frias and Ragsdale were two of the biggest risers in the last update, ranking as the Brewers’ No. 12 and No. 13 prospects at the time of the trade while putting up great numbers in the lower minors.
While those guys aren’t with the organization anymore, replacing them in the top 20 of Pipeline’s latest rankings are three young prospects who we could be talking about next year the way we were talking about Frias and Ragsdale this year. Trey Ebel and Sawyer Strosnider, the Brewers’ first two picks in this year’s draft, come in at Nos. 18 and 17, respectively.
Trey Ebel, Brady’s younger brother, grades out extremely similarly to his brother according to Pipeline, and some scouts considered him the better prospect coming out of high school despite standing three inches shorter (6-foot) and ranking as Pipeline’s No. 107 draft prospect. Strosnider, Baseball America’s No. 13 prospect prior to the draft, is a toolsy athlete with power, speed, and a propensity to chase pitches. He was widely projected to be a first-round pick before slumping in the second half of the year and falling to the Brewers at No. 66. In his first week of professional baseball with High-A Wisconsin, Strosnider went 8-for-22.
One spot above Strosnider at No. 16 is Ricki Moneys, the Brewers’ highest-ranked international signing this year (just ahead of Diego Frontado, who’s No. 20). Moneys’ power is his calling card; he has a .901 OPS in the Dominican Summer League, where, as of June 3, his 90th-percentile exit velocity was 106.3 mph. He’s 17 years old.
Other notable risers: J.D. Thompson (No. 26 —> No. 19), Kyle Jones (unranked —> No. 26)
Notable fallers: Ethan Dorchies and Brock Wilken, who are both now unranked.
The full list can be found here.
Promotions:
INF Luis Peña (High-A —> Double-A)
OF Braylon Payne (High-A —> Double-A)
SS Brady Ebel (Single-A —> High-A)