Brewers Minor League Roundup Week #12

Each week, I’ll be bringing you a roundup of the Brewers minor league affiliates, including score updates, key players and more. Here is the week 12 roundup.

AAA Nashville

The Sounds took four of six against the Gwinnett Stripers to improve to 43-28 on the season, taking a 2.5-game lead over Columbus (41-31) and Memphis (41-31) in the International League West standings.

Former top prospect Corey Ray led the way offensively for the Sounds, slashing .421/.450/.947 with two homers and six RBIs on the week. Catcher Mario Feliciano also slashed .353/.353/.705 with two homers and five RBIs himself. As a team, the Sounds slashed .263/.314/.421 with seven homers and 26 runs scored.

On the mound, Ethan Small had a strong bounceback start, going seven innings and striking out 10 while giving up just one run on three hits and a walk. Caleb Boushley also turned in a strong start, going five innings and allowing one run with 10 strikeouts. While Josh Lindblom made two starts, his first start was especially strong as he went six innings and allowed two hits and one walk to go with five strikeouts. As a team, Nashville compiled a 3.86 ERA with 53 strikeouts over 56 innings.

The Sounds stay home for the second straight week as they welcome the Indianapolis Indians (35-35) to town for six games.

AA Biloxi

The Shuckers took four of six from Pensacola to move within 2.5 games of the Blue Wahoos (35-29) in the Southern League South standings at 34-33.

The offense continues to perform well for Biloxi, as catcher Jakson Reetz led the way with a .391/.481/.783 slash line to go with two homers and eight RBIs. Infielder Cam Devanney had another nice week, slashing .364/.462/.545 with two RBIs himself. In his lone at-bat on the week, top prospect Sal Frelick tripled but was then removed with what Adam McCalvy reports is a hamstring injury. The specifics of the injury remain unclear. As a team, Biloxi led the league with a .309/.401/.466 slash line with five homers and 37 runs scored.

On the mound, Brandon Knarr had a nice bounceback start himself, going five innings and giving up one run on one hit and five walks to go with five strikeouts. While Noah Zavolas got blown up with seven runs in Sunday’s start, he earned the win on Tuesday going 6 ⅔ innings with three runs (none earned) with seven strikeouts. Biloxi pitched to a 5.33 ERA on the week, striking out 58 batters over 54 innings.

Like Nashville, the Shuckers will stay home for the second straight week as they take on the Mississippi Braves (29-40) who sit in last place, having lost seven of their last 10. Biloxi is 7-5 against the Braves in two previous series this season.

High-A Wisconsin

The Rattlers wrapped up the first half of their season, finishing at 36-29 after taking two of three from the Quad Cities River Bandits (26-40). Their final record left them 6.5 games back of Cedar Rapids (43-23) who took the first half division crown. They finished up the six-game set with the Bandits, winning all three to take five of six in the series and put the Rattlers in a three-way tie for first place with Beloit (3-0) and South Bend (3-0) to kick off the second half of the season.

Outfielder Joe Gray Jr. led the way for the Rattlers, slashing .286/320/.667 with two homers and seven RBIs on the week. Second baseman Jose Acosta slashed .222/.300/.667 with one homer and one RBI, while Kolten Wong slashed .167/.286/.667 with one homer and one RBI in six at-bats during his rehab assignment. As a team, the Rattlers slashed .240/.324/.437 with six homers and 27 runs scored.

On the mound, Antoine Kelly had the strongest start, going seven innings and allowing two runs with nine strikeouts en route to a win. Zach Mort also went five innings, allowing no runs and striking out three in his start. Brandon Woodruff also had a strong start during his rehab assignment, lasting five innings and allowing one run with seven strikeouts. As a team, Wisconsin finished with a 4.50 ERA, striking out 50 over 54 innings.

The Rattlers now welcome the Cedar Rapids Kernels (1-2), who have gotten off to a rough start in the second half after winning the division in the first half. The Rattlers split their six games with the Kernels earlier this season.

A Carolina

Carolina had a rough week, losing six straight games to the Down East Wood Ducks (33-33) to lose their one-game lead in the division, ending the first half of the season one game back of both Lynchburg (35-31) and Salem (35-31) at 34-32. The six straight losses also put them at 0-3 to open the second half of the season.

After a strong offensive week, the Mudcats had nothing going offensively against the Ducks. Their top offensive performer was shortstop Jheremy Vargas, who slashed just .083/.313/.333 with one homer and two RBIs. As a team, the Mudcats managed just nine runs over the six games, slashing .136/.230/.243 with four homers and just 24 hits to go with 19 walks compared to 56 strikeouts.

The pitching staff performed slightly better than the offense, but their best start came from Alexander Cornielle who went 5 ⅔ innings and gave up two runs with 11 strikeouts. As a staff, the Mudcats finished with a 4.47 ERA, striking out 58 over 48 ⅓ innings.

The Mudcats will look to bounce back against the Fayetteville Woodpeckers (1-2) at home this week. In their lone matchup against Fayetteville back in May, the Mudcats went 3-3.

Performances by Top 10 Brewers Prospects (Weekly Performance; Season Totals)

1. OF Sal Frelick (AA): 1.000/1.000/3.000 (1 at-bat), 0 HR, 0 RBI; .291/.367/.436 (220 at-bats), 4 HR, 22 RBI
2. OF Joey Wiemer (AA): .250/.375/.400 (20 at-bats), 1 HR, 4 RBI; .274/.353/.524 (248 at-bats), 15 HR, 45 RBI
3. OF Garrett Mitchell (AA): On 7-day injured list (5/14); .224/.331/.346 (107 at-bats), 2 HR, 11 RBI
4. SS Brice Turang (AAA): .346/.370/.346 (26 at-bats), 0 HR, 1 RBI; .280/.330/.354 (271 at-bats), 3 HR, 29 RBI
5. C Jeferson Quero (A): .118/.250/.353 (17 at-bats), 1 HR, 2 RBI; .251/.325/.394 (203 at-bats), 5 HR, 30 RBI
6. 2B Tyler Black (High-A): .333/.400/.476 (21 at-bats), 0 HR, 2 RBI; .291/.406/.455 (189 at-bats), 4 HR, 31 RBI
7. P Ethan Small (AAA): 7 IP, 3 H, 1 R (1 ER), 1 BB, 10 SO (1.29 ERA); 56 ⅔ IP, 38 H, 26 R (20 ER), 32 BB, 68 SO (3.18 ERA)
8. OF Hedbert Perez (A): .158/.158/.368 (19 at-bats), 1 HR, 2 RBI; .220/.268/.413 (223 at-bats), 10 HR, 32 RBI
9. OF Jackson Chourio (A): .167/.250/.333 (18 at-bats), 1 HR, 2 RBI; .337/.389/.597 (181 at-bats), 8 HR, 36 RBI
10. SS Freddy Zamora (AA): On 7-day injured list (5/13); .209/.270/.286 (91 at-bats), 1 HR, 5 RBI