The Brewers bring up Bradley Blalock from Class AA Biloxi, saying, “I wasn’t anticipating it at all.”
Miami: At the start of their three-game series against the Miami Marlins at loanDepot Park on Monday, the Milwaukee Brewers made an unexpected decision to add a new pitcher.
Participant included.
A day before Bradley Blalock, 23, was supposed to make his eighth start of the season for the Shuckers, he was called up from Class AA Biloxi. Blalock has only made seven starts above the advanced Class A level.
Thyago Vieira, a right-hander, was sent to make room on the 26-man roster for Blalock. Additionally, outfielder Chris Roller was optioned to Class AAA Nashville, and outfielder Joey Wiemer was reinstated from the injured list.
“It was very unexpected,” the right-hander remarked. Nashville would have been the next stop. However, I’m eager to travel directly from Biloxi and provide whatever support I can to the team’s victory.”
Brewers acquired Bradley Blalock from Red Sox in August of last year.
After being selected by the Boston Red Sox in the 32nd round in 2019 out of Loganville, Georgia’s Grayson High School, Blalock has only made 49 appearances (48 starts) in his professional career. This is because the pandemic closed down the minor leagues in 2020, and he had Tommy John surgery that prevented him from playing in 2022 or the first part of 2023.
He was obtained on August 1st of last year in return for infielder Luis UriÁas…
Blalock was thought of at the time as a bit of a lottery ticket—a lower-tier talent who, with luck, may one day make it to the major leagues.
Though he was healthy throughout spring training and pitched effectively enough at Biloxi (3-1, 2.27 ERA, 1.04 WHIP with 29 strikeouts in 35 ⅔ innings) to warrant a chance over a few other candidates, he was signed to Milwaukee’s 40-man roster in the summer.
Manager Pat Murphy remarked, “He hasn’t pitched above Double-A, but we’ve had a bunch of players this year that haven’t played above Double-A (much).” It offers us some distance. The fact that we had to utilize to length players yesterday offers us some security going forward.
“We believe in him. He’s going to be totally focused. He’s fired up about it. increasing his length and achieving some excellent results at a very high caliber.
Pitching in Double-A is a really excellent sign, if you can do it.
Blalock throws curveballs, sliders, split-finger changeups, and four-seam fastballs.
In his most recent start on May 15, Blaclock went six innings, tying a season high. He didn’t give up a walk, gave up four hits and one run, and struck out five.
It’s gone rather nicely, according to Blalock. Had a few unpleasant experiences at the start of May. However, we fine-tuned it a little bit more in the past two starts. We devised a novel grip for my slider, which has shown to be quite effective. Hopefully, this will translate to the mound.”
