Mehring in Arizona: Day 2
The Rattlers rallied from a 2–0 deficit to “win” 3–2 on a three-run homer in the top of the tenth inning…..I will explain that….and more…after today’s podcast.
The guest today is Milwaukee Brewers Farm Director Tom Flanagan. We talk about the buzzword “Competition”, get a few injury updates on a few former Timber Rattlers, more hints about possible Timber Rattlers, and a few more things.
There were a few familiar faces during the morning practice session. Tony Diggs, who will be coming up during the season as a roving instructor this year, was there. Also, Corey Hart threw batting practice to the last group of Timber Rattlers this morning.
The game on Tuesday was over in Glendale on the White Sox side of Camelback Ranch (they share with the Dodgers).
It was a Wisconsin reunion between the managers. Rattlers manager Matt Erickson, as you may have heard, is from Appleton. Justin Jirschele, the manager of the Kannapolis Intimidators, is a native of Clintonville. Jirschele is also the son of former Appleton Foxes coach and current Kansas City Royals third base coach, Mike Jirschele.
The Timber Rattlers had a few surprises waiting for them on the back diamond in the first two innings. Major Leaguers Nate Jones and David Robertson each worked an inning at the start of the game to get in work.
Reports on Jones were high 90s, but Joantgel Segovia and Mario Feliciano each had singles off Jones. Jones struck out the other three batters he faced.
Robertson was on the mound a week ago for the final out when the US team clinched the World Baseball Classic. He walked Jonathan Oquendo with two outs, but gave up nothing else against the Rattlers on Tuesday.
The Timber Rattlers starting pitcher was Braden Webb, who was the 3rd round pick of the Brewers in last year’s draft. Webb was the National Pitcher of the Year as voted on by the National Collegiate Baseball Writer’s Association. He was also a draft-eligible Freshman after his outstanding season at the University of South Carolina.
Bob Glover of Minor League Ball explains:
Webb has been on scouts’ radars since his high school days as the top prep pitcher in Oklahoma’s class of 2014. Webb injured his elbow early in his senior season requiring Tommy John surgery. He went undrafted following the injury in 2014. Instead of enrolling at South Carolina, Webb took time off to rehab his injury. The Cleveland Indians saw enough during his rehab to roll the dice on Webb in the 38th round in 2015, but he elected to pitch for the Gamecocks in 2016.
Already old for the class of 2014, Webb turned 21 in April. His lost 2015 season leaves him with the unusual distinction of being a draft-eligible freshman. Most of the major media sources have Webb as a top-100 talent in this season’s draft class with our own cookiedabookie slotting him in at 84.
Webb has taken the SEC by storm in his freshman season. Prior to Tuesday’s Regional Championship game, Webb is 10–5 with a 3.39 ERA over 16 starts. In 93.1 innings, he has 122 strikeouts against 46 walks. The stats alone provide a quick and dirty understanding of Webb’s profile as a college arm with great stuff, but control issues.
More on Webb at the link.
Webb pitched 3–2/3 innings on Tuesday. He allowed a first inning run on an infield single, a stolen base, a wild pitch, and a sacrifice fly to the first two batters. After that, he struck out five, walked one, and didn’t allow another run.
The Intimidators did score again in the sixth inning against Nattino Diplan. He gave up three straight singles to allow one run to score. A hit batsman loaded the bases, but he worked through the inning with two strikeouts and a flyout to right.
Wisconsin was shutout through nine innings. Then, something happened that can only happen in a Minor League Spring Training game.
Bernardo Flores was scheduled for four innings, but with the big leaguers coming in for two, Flores couldn’t get in the game until the seventh. That meant — by prior arrangement between the managers — the tenth inning would be played no matter the score after nine innings.
The Rattlers didn’t have anybody that needed to pitch the bottom of the ninth. So after Flores got the final out of the top of the ninth. The Intimidators cleared the field for a brief rest before sending Flores back out to the mound.
In the tenth, Monte Harrison singled, Jose Cuas walked, and Demi Orimoloye grounded into a force play at second. Tucker Neuhaus was next and he lined a three-run homer to right to put the Rattlers up 3–2.
Flores got the second out, but gave up two more singles (Trever Morrison and Segovia). That was enough. Game over. Kannapolis didn’t bat in the bottom of the tenth.
Here are a few highlights via Twitter:
An opposite field single for Harrison. He had two hits on Tuesday. Both were to right and both were with two strikes.
A strike out by Jake Drossner, who tossed two scoreless innings with two strikeouts.
Final day of camp is tomorrow. Practice starts at 11am CDT and the game is in Goodyear, AZ against the Lake County Captains.
Almost forgot. Here is the lineup card from Tuesday.
