Minor league baseball is finally back, and can you believe that obstruction call?
A jam-packed newsletter is how we kick off the minor league season.
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Happy Tuesday, fellow rich people.
It is very late Monday night and I quite honestly don’t have any sort of witty intro. So…
….let’s converse.
Ice cream cake meter
Brewers: Yes, they handled the Dodgers, but they’re 4-4 in their last eight while the Cardinals are red-hot. Two cakes.
Twins: Things are starting to look up in Twins Territory. Dangerously close to three cakes, but still five games under .500.
For the explainer on the cake meter, go here.
ARE THE TWINS BACK?
~Jake
At the end of Sunday’s seven-run third inning against the Kansas City Royals, Curt sent a message to the world’s most exclusive group chat with a simple premise. It read: “I’d like to note that the Twins are now Officially Back.”
Twenty-one minutes later, sphincters began to tighten as the Royals cut the lead to a 7-4 game, eliciting another text from Curt, a cheeky HomerSimpsonRetreat.GIF.
It felt like another moment where Twins pitching was going to collapse, a moment we’ve become far too familiar with in the first month-plus of the season.
It didn’t happen, though. The Twins went on to win the game 13-4 in one of the more dominant performances of the season. A performance, actually, that wouldn’t have been a surprise if we thought of it February.
It’s just one game, of course. One game in a 27-game slog to this point that probably means nothing. This newsletter could very well be called Rich People Overreactions, though, so of course we’re going to read a lot into Sunday’s big win, which gave the Twins a series win over the AL Central leaders.
The series win was momentous for a number of reasons beyond the change in the standings. It gave the Twins three wins in four tries, something they hadn’t done since the very beginning of the season. They did so largely because of an offensive explosion that’s been eerily missing throughout most of the year. Minnesota started with a 10-2 win in the series finale against Cleveland, mercifully putting an end to one of my darkest stretches of fandom. The next night, they put up nine against Kansas City and added another 13 in Sunday’s series wrap-up, and added six in a 6-5 win against the Rangers Monday.
True, Minnesota dropped an 11-3 stinker on Saturday, too, but remember who pitched in that game? Alex Colome. Did he give up any runs? No. He just had his Alex Colome stink over the game.
Anyways, the point of this is the offense. Before that 10-2 win against Cleveland, the Twins had only scored more than five runs six times and ranked 21st in runs scored and 23rd in homers. This came after a 2020 in which the Twins ranked just 18th in runs scored. The Bomba Squad days were starting to feel like a blip, not the norm.
In the past few days, though, that offense that we’ve all been expecting has materialized. It took just four games for the Twins to score as many runs as they did in the previous 10 games (and those 10 games were largely buoyed by the 13-12 loss to Oakland that I need burned from my memory).
This could be a hot streak, life’s karmic scales rebalancing. The most promising part, though, is the balance throughout the offense. While Byron Buxton continues to burn like the sun and Nelson Cruz continues his excellence, we’re starting to see the bats heat up throughout the lineup. Alex Kirilloff spanked his first four big boy homers in the past five games, including this MAMMOTH shot Sunday that made me pee a little. Mitch Garver and Jorge Polanco appeared to start working out of their slumps, with two Garver dingers and four Polanco hits. If those guys continue to hit while Buxton, Cruz and Luis Arraez keep things up, too, this offense is devastating.
No matter how good the offense is, the Twins pitching is a problem. The bullpen looks horrible outside of Taylor Rogers and the Matt Shoemaker experiment is looking worse with every start. A great offense fixes a lot, though, and that’s exactly what the Twins can have. We’ve seen it these past few games and they’re going to need it if they are going to work their way back into playoff contention.
Brewers minor league Q&A with @BrewersFarm
Nolan Bratt runs the @BrewersFarm Twitter account, where he covers, well, the Brewers farm system. After more than 600 days without minor league baseball, Nolan is certainly celebrating today as the MiLB season officially begins.
Instead of putting together any sort of minor league preview myself, I got lazy and decided to ask some questions to Nolan and let him do the work!
Rich People Conversations: We'll start with a nice, broad question. Now that the rosters have all been released, which Brewers affiliate is the most interesting to you?
Nolan Bratt: After careful examination, it appears the most interesting team in the Brewers system currently resides in Zebulon, NC in the Carolina Mudcats. The current Brewers system as it stands appears dry with top-tier talent that has proven themselves in the upper rungs of the minors and is near-ready for a 2021 cup of coffee in the Bigs. The bulk of the intrigue in the system right now is found in the lower levels where, with no 2020 MiLB season, much of the roster is making their full-season debuts. Pitchers Caden Lemons, Justin Bullock, Cam Robinson, and Brendan Murphy were all 2017/2018 draftees out of high school that had starter pitcher projections but needed plenty of development to get to that point. Now, given a few injuries and a lost 2020 season, the majority of folks have yet to see any of these dudes pitch for a solid 3 years now. Throw in two 20-year old international stud pitchers in Abner Uribe and the Italian Michele Vassalotti, and you have my attention. On the hitting side, the Mudcats boast an outfield with enough tools to rival my dad’s garage. Joe Gray Jr., Micah Bello, & Joey Wiemer are all high round draft picks with higher ceilings but notable contact concerns. Bello received some high raves from his 2020 fall instructs performance. Wiemer is 6’4, 215 and boasts a 70 grade arm. And how can you fault a man with this level of flow?
To top it off, we’ll see recent 2nd/3rd round picks Freddy Zamora and Zavier Warren for this first time. Zamora missed almost all of his 2020 college season with a knee injury, though he has the glove to stick at SS. I’ll be watching to see if he’s able to tap into some power. Warren is a bat-first catching prospect, who by all accounts, is happy to be in an organization that breeds good defensive catchers.
RPC: Did any player placements catch you by surprise?
NB: The biggest surprise by far was seeing an 18-year old catching prospect named Jhonnys Cabrera make the jump from the Dominican Summer League all the way to Double-A. I’ll be honest, this may or may not have been only the 2nd time I have seen this kid’s name, so I won’t pretend I that much background on the guy, but I did notice this: when Cabrera signed with the Brewers as a 16-year old in 2018, he was listed at 150 pounds. Less than 2 years later, he is listed on AA Biloxi Shuckers website at a whopping 210 pounds. Now, I’m not totally sure how it’s physically possible for a professional athlete to put on 60 pounds in less than 2 years, but I am #here for it.
Aside from Cabrera, I was pleasantly surprised to see 2020 5th-round pick Hayden Cantrelle will start his professional career on the High-A Timber Rattlers roster. Cantrelle was seen as a steal of a pick at the time. He’s a plus defender at SS, though his arm will probably play more at 2nd base long-term. Reports on Cantrelle is that he’s an explosively athletic dude, who has good strike-zone recognition and a knack for finding barrels, albeit it’s mostly gap-to-gap power at the moment.
RPC: Give me three names that you're going to plant your flag in as being Your Guys. It could be highly-rated guys you're sold will be good big leaguers, sleepers or just some guys you're higher on than consensus.
NB: I may or may not have spent a solid 40 minutes trying to narrow it down to 3, but I think the guys I’m most bullish on at the moment are Micah Bello, Jeferson Quero, and Victor Castaneda.
Bello, a native of Hawaii, was a very athletic 2018 2nd round draft pick out of HS who was initially pretty raw with the bat. Bello is one of the guys that made the most of the MiLB season being cancelled. He supposedly has made significant strides getting the ball in the air more consistently, along with improvement defensively in CF. All that to say, I think 2021 is the Year of the Bello. I think he puts it all together and becomes a top 5 prospect in the system.
Quero is a dude that popped up with his performance at fall instructs. He has yet to take a professional at-bat, but the man has been long seen as a sure-fire catcher, with a plus arm and solid receiving skills. His bat reportedly had the “loudest overall performance” at fall instructs, with exit velocities north of 100 mph. Even though he’s 18, his plus glove gives him a pretty high floor. If he puts on a good offensive showing in 2021, he should be among the top teenage catching prospects in all of baseball going into 2022.
Victor Castaneda has never been a heralded prospect, but is someone who has transformed his body and his repertoire over the last year or so. I tend to be attracted to dudes who can boast a pitch that stands out in its ability to generate whiffs. Castaneda throws a split-finger that does just that. During fall instructs and spring training, his fastball sat 95-96, up from 91-93 prior to 2020. The fastball/splitter combo gives him the floor of a major league pen arm, but I think there could be a little more there if the command tightens up. I’m staking my claim that 2021 is the year where Castaneda shows the world that he belongs in the Bigs.
RPC: In 50 words or less, tell me why Aaron Ashby is going to be a star but also tell me why he won't work out.
NB:
Why he will:
One of the best breaking balls in the minors. Improved velocity (94-97). Distinct 3rd pitch in a changeup.
Why he won’t:
Spotty command at best. Gets in a lot of high pitch counts, partly due to his delivery that he’s struggled to repeat.
I will say that if you enjoy the Fred Peralta Experience™ then you will enjoy Aaron Ashby.
RPC: Who are some players that absolutely need good 2021 seasons to get their careers back on track?
NB: The first name that came to mind is Lucas Erceg. Once a 2nd round pick and a top 10 prospect, Erceg failed to hit in the upper levels of the minors in 2018 and 2019. He still possesses above-average raw power, but he needs to make some significant adjustments to his swing if he’s going to be a major league bat. Fortunately for Erceg, it helps to have a 70 arm. Once a closer in college, it appears Erceg is experimenting with a return to the mound. The clock is ticking though, so I will be quite intrigued to see how he looks early on in Biloxi with the bat and on the mound.
Corey Ray is another obvious candidate here. Now 26 and needing to produce in AAA to avoid being DFA’d, he’s going to have to find a swing where he can both generate enough contact to utilize his speed and get into his plus raw power, which has yet to be seen. He’s also a LF only outfielder right now, which doesn’t help the equation and limits his ceiling. There’s also the unfortunate reality where there are 7 outfielders on the 40-man ahead of him right now. If Ray can come out swinging at Nashville however, that could change.
Tom, sadly, did not write this while drinking margs at the Denver airport
~Tom
This week, I’m here to talk about the number zero.
Iykyk.
On Saturday, the Brewers placed catcher Omar Narvaez on the 10-day injured list (a rite of passage, apparently, for this first-place Milwaukee club). At the time, the Brewers only had one other catcher on the 40-man roster in 22-year-old catcher Mario Feliciano.
Feliciano was called up to make his MLB debut in the Brewers’ wild 6-5 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday, and he entered as a pinch hitter in the 11th inning. With two runners on base, Feliciano drew a seven-pitch walk and loaded the bases for the Crew. He eventually came around to score the winning run on Travis Shaw’s walk-off single, and Milwaukee clinched a series win over the once-feared-but-now-just-the-Brewers-play-toy Dodgers.
One plate appearance, one walk, one run scored, 1.000 on-base percentage. But those aren’t the numbers that I remember from Feliciano’s debut.
It’s the beautiful digit on the back of his jersey, 0, which is the swaggiest (is this a word?) number in all of baseball. Nay, in all of sports.
Feliciano is just the second Brewers player to wear No. 0 in team history, joining Franklin “Cadillac” Stubbs (that’s actually his nickname listed on B-ref, must be nice) from 1991-92. Two players wore double zeros -- No. 00 -- for the Crew, outfielder Jeffrey Leonard (1988) and right-hander Curt Leskanic (2000-01).
Al Oliver, a seven-time All-Star who played for seven different teams from 1968-85, was the first player in MLB history to wear No. 0. He donned Nos. 29 and 16 for the first 10 seasons of his career but switched to the goose egg after joining the Texas Rangers in 1978. According to the New York Times, Oliver chose the digit to represent a fresh start in his career.
He went on to play in four All-Star games and won the 1982 batting title while wearing No. 0, so it worked out ok for our good pal Al.
The number is growing in popularity in baseball, possibly due to its growth in the NBA with superstars Russell Westbrook and Damien Lillard rocking it on a nightly basis. Feliciano is one of eight players to wear No. 0 this season, most notably Marcus Stroman, who switched his jersey from No. 7 ahead of the 2020 season.
Unfortunately for Feliciano as well as the Great Hambinos, my dynasty fantasy baseball team (no one cares, Thomas) he was optioned back to the alternate training site on Sunday, so the No. 0 won’t be seen at American Family Field for some time.
That means we’ll have time to give Feliciano a proper zero-based nickname. “Zero Hero,” “Agent Zero” (although the Brewers have a strict no-guns policy in the clubhouse) and “Zilch” are a few of my favorites.
Hmmm ...
Hey, remember minor league baseball? It’s back.
We have some good news for you.
Minor-league baseball returns TONIGHT.
To celebrate MiLB opening day, we’ll give our readers a refresh of our team affiliates, beginning with Bill Murray’s beloved baseball club.
St. Paul Saints, Triple-A, Twins
Fun fact: On May 8, 2005, the Saints started a baseball game at 5 a.m., just because. The first pitch was thrown at 5:35 a.m.
Nashville Sounds, Triple-A, Brewers
Fun fact: The scoreboard at First Horizon Park is shaped like a guitar and the size of 860 32-inch televisions. Wow.
Wichita Wind Surge, Double-A, Twins
Fun fact: Your eyes aren’t deceiving you. That is, in fact, Pegasus -- the winged horse from Greek mythology -- as Wichita’s primary mascot.
Biloxi Shuckers, Double-A, Brewers
Fun fact: A rallying cry for the minor-league club on Twitter is the hashtag #ShuckIt or #ShuckYeah.
Cedar Rapids Kernels, High-A, Twins
Fun fact: The Kernels’ mascot is named Mr. Shucks. I’d expect a lawsuit from Biloxi any day now.
Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, High-A, Brewers
Fun fact: On June 20, 2019, the Timber Rattlers rebranded to the Wisconsin Udder Tuggers for one night, a great tribute to our beefy mammal friends.
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels, Low-A, Twins
Fun fact: The Fort Myers club was named the “Miracle” before rebranding to the Mighty Mussels in 2020. It’s truly a Miracle I haven’t gone broke purchasing Mighty Mussels merchandise.
Carolina Mudcats, Low-A, Brewers
Fun fact: There was a little, uh, influence in Steve Bryant purchasing the team in 1989. In an interview with SportsLogos.net, he said “I bought it from four doctors in Columbus, Georgia, on a Saturday night. They pulled out a fifth of Jack Daniels on the negotiating table, and at the end of the night, I bought a baseball team.”
Curt’s Curiosities
~Curt
One of the most overused phrases in sports is “that’s the worst call I’ve ever seen.” Whenever there’s an egregious missed call in a game, you can bet your bottom dollar that someone will hop onto Twitter dot com and announce it as “the worst call I’ve ever seen.”
Obviously, it's an overuse of hyperbole in nearly every single instance; there can only be one “worst call you’ve ever seen” and you’ve honestly probably forgotten all about it (unless you root for the Packers, in which case you don’t need Lance Easley or his books to remind you what it is).
Why am I bringing this up?
Because just last week we had a candidate for “worst baseball call I’ve ever seen.” And while the call itself almost certainly isn’t actually the worst call ever, oh boy, is it up there.
You know the play I’m referencing by now: Marty Foster’s invisible obstruction play.
What’s even more inane Foster’s call was that there were a select few on line (there always are) that attempted to counter the masses and say that, actually, the call was correct. That debate isn’t really worthwhile for me and here’s why.
Any iota of common sense tells you that isn’t obstruction and, even more so, it isn’t a call that you make.
It’s the baseball call equivalent of the kid in college who asks completely unrelated questions after lecture has already ended just to show the professor that he Knows Things. If you’ve ever played or watched the game, you just know when you see that play that it’s not remotely close to obstruction.
And if you want to get technical, sure, the running lane doesn’t apply here because it’s not a tag play, but you can see Isan Diaz physically take a step in toward the grass toward where Zack Godley is. That’s the reason that Diaz has to sort-of-sidestep Godley, who never actually leaves the grass, although this also takes place after Diaz was already out. The fielder can’t be hindering the batter if the batter makes an unnatural move toward the fielder.
Thankfully the play didn’t end up mattering, even though Miami did gain an extra run because of it, but it’s the perfect example of what fans’ qualms with umpires in baseball are. There remains an inability by many umpires to not interject themselves into the game. And, just as with Foster doubling down on the call after the game, they have a helluva time admitting when they’re wrong. We see this with replay travesties. How often is the sacred “call on the field” defaulted to by the replay umps, who (guess what?) are colleagues with the guys on the field, despite there being a ~90 percent confidence level from replay that the call was incorrect.
Um, Keston
The Brewers optioned Keston Hiura to AAA after his unbelievably-slow start to the season.
That’s the reason, but the reason behind the reason is just as apparent: he’s not doing any damage with hittable pitches.
Hiura has always been prone to some swing-and-miss, but it was okay because the tradeoff was him mashing balls over the plate.
Well, not so much this year. If you’ve watched the Brewers at all, you’ve seen Hiura missing meatballs. And it has been alarming. The numbers back this observation up. His wOBA on pitches down the middle (according to Statcast), is .210. That’s 128th out of 147 players (lol, Javy Baez has a .000 wOBA, meaning he has literally done nothing with the 25 swings he has taken on pitches right down the middle).
Hopefully this sort of issue can be worked out in the minors, because the offense is the team’s biggest question mark and they have gotten next to nothing from their first basemen in that regard.
Do the Brewers have something here?
The above headline is the question I found myself asking after looking over Patrick Weigel’s garbage time outing in Wednesday’s loss to Miami.
The short version of what makes Weigel, part of the return for Orlando Arcia from Atlanta, intriguing, is his sweeping slider. The movement on it catches your eye. It moves horizontally about 66 percent more than the average MLB slider and also has a bit more drop than average. Weigel adds some deception with a three-quarters arm slot and also pumps in a four-seam and a sinker with solid velocity.
My thinking, though, was that he should consider bucking conventional wisdom and throwing a ton of sliders and almost completely eschewing the four-seam.
In a very short sample with Atlanta last year, Weigel threw 21 four-seams and nine sliders. But when Weigel came out for his second outing with the Brewers on Sunday, he was slider-heavy. He’s now thrown 43 of them and only 32 combined four-seams, sinkers and changeups. He’s gotten whiffs on 44 percent of swings on the slider and plenty of other blank stares as it sweeps into the zone. He seems to have pretty good control of the pitch.
The four-seam, meanwhile, has been the pitch that has gotten him into the minor issues he has faced. It’s a low spin-rate pitch and I can’t help but wonder if he’s doing more harm than good by not pairing the slider with the sinker more regularly.
Anywho. This has been 280 words on the last guy in the Brewers bullpen...for now, at least.
Hello, Travis Shaw
The most aesthetically pleasing Brewers swing is Travis Shaw driving a pitch down in the zone. I will hear no counterarguments.
Here, watch some filth
~Curt
