Link Report for Sat. 7/12 -- Stars Brawl; Turnbow Still Turnbow; Power Roll On; DiFelice Hurt

[Mass Haas]

Helena Pre-Game Audio Interview with Head Groundskeeper Jonathan "Button" Garrett

Click on the KCAP archive of July 12th, then browse to the 12:45 minute mark; because we know there are aspiring groundskeepers out there, and there are some interesting topics touched on; we know Kindrick Field has improved overall...

 

Final: Helena 10, Casper (Rockies) 4

 

Link while active, text follows:

 

Brewers power past Casper Ghosts

By JEFF WINDMUELLER - Helena Independent Record

 

The Helena Brewers rolled over Friday night's high-hitting performance onto Saturday as they outslugged the Casper Ghosts 10-4 at Kindrick Legion Field.

 

It was the first of a three-game series between the Pioneer League Northern Division Brewers (12-13) and Southern Division Ghosts (16-8).

 

Helena racked up 14 hits while their pitchers gave up 11 one night after losing to Idaho Falls 14-13. The Brewers had 18 hits in that game, combining for 29 since being one-hit by the Chukars on Thursday.

 

Helena took a big lead in the bottom of the fourth when Michael Vass hit a two-run homer and the Brewers batted through the order to the delight of most of the 937 in attendance.

 

Mike Roberts started the inning off with a flair to left field before Erik Miller walked. John Delaney cracked a double down the left field line, and after fouling off numerous times, Michael Marseco battled from an 0-2 count to stroke a single to left, scoring Miller.

 

Erik Komatsu struck out, but clean-up hitter Brock Kjeldgaard launched a two-run double off the left field wall.

 

Vass followed right up with his homer, which cleared the fielders' heads in left-center. The homer, Vass' fourth on the year, brought the score to 7-1 and sent starting pitcher Ethan Hollingsworth packing.

 

Casper's Alan Deratt came in to relieve, walking Jose Duran to start but getting the next two outs on a strike out and groundout to end the inning.

 

Casper pitchers struggled all night and Deratt's stay was certainly a short one. He was able to battle his way out of a bases-loaded fifth inning to escape 1 2/3 innings without a run.

 

Andres Marrero came in to start the sixth and the Brewers proved that if they couldn't get the hits, they'd take advantage of every mistake to make it home.

 

Marrero walked Duran - who ended up 1-for-2 with three walks and two runs - then threw three wild pitches, each one advancing the Brewers second baseman until he reached home.

 

After giving up a double to Kjeldgaard then walking the next three batters, giving Brett Whiteside an RBI on the fourth ball, Roberts batted into a double play. Still, with no outs to begin, Vass was able to cross the plate as the Brewers scored their final run of the game.

 

Wilin Rosario went 3-for-5 for the Ghosts, collecting an RBI, the first of the game. He brought in Angelys Rosario in the third with a two-out single off Helena starting pitcher Trey Watten.

 

Watten (2-0) finished five innings giving up all four runs on seven hits while striking out three and walking one.

 

Watten began to falter in the fifth when, with a man on base, he beaned Carlos Martinez in the back of the head. Martinez went down and stayed down for a number of minutes before stumbling back to the dugout with an obvious concussion.

 

Alex Feinberg took his place at first - and for the rest of the game - and Kane Simmons ripped a two-run double off the left field wall.

 

Watten hit Nick Valdez in the middle of his torso and then gave up an RBI single to Eliezer Mesa. But, Andy Goff flew out on a payoff pitch to end the inning on the next at-bat and Casper's scoring was finished for the night.

 

Garrett Sherrill would relieve Watten to pitch just one inning, and Rob Wooten closed the final three innings, giving up four hits but striking out six. He walked one.

 

Roberts, playing in his fifth game with the Brewers, led the team with a 3-for-5 performance, scoring a run. Kjeldgaard (2-for-3) and Vass (2-for-4) each brought in two runs while scoring two of their own.

 

The Brewers host Casper again today at 4:05 PM (5:05 Central). Efrain Nieves (3-1) is listed to start for Helena while Matt Baugh (1-0) should be on the mound for Casper.

 

Helena Box Score

A lot of those batting averages are climbing to much more respectable levels; at least Trey Watten is a starter and Rob Wooten is a closer, which will help us differentiate those two names...

 

Helena Game Log

[Mass Haas]

Huntsville Pre-Game Audio Interview with Brewers' Organizational Field Coordinator and Roving Catching Instructor Charlie Greene

Click on the WUMP archive of July 12th, then browse to the 27:00 minute mark; consistently one of the more informative guests we hear...

[Mass Haas]

Final: Chattanooga (Reds) 13, Huntsville 3

 

Huntsville Site Game Summary:

 

Loookouts Take Out Some Frustration in Fight-Filled Win Over Stars

Huntsville Heads into All-Star Break in Second Place

By Brett Pollock / Huntsville Stars

Danny Dorn hit two home runs and Robert Manuel tossed three scoreless innings in relief in Chattanooga's 13-3 win over Huntsville Saturday night in the last of a five-game set at AT&T Field that was marred by an on-field brawl in the top half of the fifth inning. The Stars lost a five-game win streak to fall to 14-11 in the second and also lost a chance to gain ground on first place Tennessee, which lost to West Tenn, while the Lookouts moved to 11-14 and within five games of the Smokies. The Stars bid for a fourth series sweep of the season and a second six-game road win streak was brought to an end.

 

Danny Dorn hit a home run to lead off the fourth inning to give Chattanooga a 9-3 lead and Stars' pitcher Patrick Ryan responded by plunking Tonys Gutierrez, the next hitter. Ryan got out of the inning and led off the fifth and took a couple of pitches with a purpose from Lookouts' starter Sam LeCure, prompting a warning to both benches. Michael Brantley then took two more pitches with a purpose and charged the mound, was pushed from behind by catcher Craig Tatum and that ignited the melee. Play and calm were finally restored 30 minutes later and after all was settled, Mike Bell, Angel Salome, Brantley and David Welch from the Stars were tossed out of the game. Chattanooga lost Justin Turner, Sean Henry, Sam LeCure and Craig Tatum along with skipper Mike Goff.

 

Needless to say, you'll want to listen in --

Audio -- use the same link as the Charlie Greene interview link above, then browse to the 02:13:00 hour/minute mark, starting with Patrick Ryan's plate appearance, Michael Brantley's at-bat then follows -- "This is ugly, I mean real ugly, punches being thrown all over the place!"

Manuel allowed three singles and struck out five to earn his fourth win of the season and Carlos Fisher finished up with two scoreless frames to finish off the Stars second 10-run loss of the season. David Johnson tossed three shutout innings in relief for the Stars to extend his scoreless streak to 14 1/3 innings before Omar Aguilar gave up four unearned runs in the eighth, including two on Dorn's second long ball of the night.

 

Chattanooga scored in the first inning for a fourth straight night to mark the eighth time in the last nine games the Stars' opponent has tallied first. The Lookouts took advantage of two errors to score on a pair of sacrifice flies, then added a run-scoring triple by Eric Eymann before a throwing error by third baseman Michael Garciaparra allowed Eymann to cross the plate with the fourth run of the inning.

 

Bell's two-out, two-run home run in the second inning got the Stars to within two but was quickly nullified when Tony Gutierrez slugged a grand slam in the home half of the inning. It was the first baseman's fourth home run of the season and gave him eight runs batted in during the five-game set. Stars' starter Donovan Hand was lifted after two frames, giving up eight runs, five earned, on six hits, while walking one. He took the loss to drop to 1-3 since his promotion from high-A ball in late May.

 

The Stars are off for the Southern League All-Star break and will resume play Wednesday night at home against Tennessee with left-hander Brae Wright taking the hill. Coverage of the game begins at 6:50 pm central time and can be heard locally on SportsRadio 730 WUMP and through the internet at www.huntsvillestars.com and www.730ump.com.

 

Huntsville Box Score

Mat Gamel not here -- in New York for the Futures Game; prior to the brouhaha, starter Donovan Hand continues to find the jump to AA is a significant one...

 

Huntsville Game Log

[Mass Haas]

Link from the Chattanooga press coverage, text follows:

 

Chattanooga's 13-3 win over Huntsville was overshadowed Saturday night by a dugout-clearing brawl that resulted in a 30-minute delay, eight player ejections and the dismissal of Lookouts manager Mike Goff.

 

The melee was the first in the nine-year history of AT&T Field and the first Frank Burke has witnessed in 14 seasons as Lookouts owner.

 

"It's brutal, it's scary and it's horrible," Burke said. "A baseball is a dangerous weapon, and people shouldn't throw baseballs at each other. We have a lot of kids here, and they don't need to see this kind of thing."

 

Trouble was imminent in the bottom of the fourth inning when Huntsville relief pitcher Patrick Ryan hit Tonys Gutierrez in the knee. Gutierrez had launched a grand slam off Stars starter Donovan Hand in the second inning to give the Lookouts an 8-2 lead, and Ryan had just allowed a solo shot to Danny Dorn before throwing at Gutierrez.

 

Ryan was up first against Lookouts starter Sam LeCure in the top of the fifth, and LeCure threw inside several times before allowing a walk.

 

Michael Brantley was up next and, after dodging two inside pitches, lifted his bat at LeCure and walked toward the mound.

 

Lookouts catcher Craig Tatum pounced on Brantley, and the dugouts emptied. Sean Henry raced from center field to mix it up with Ryan at first base, while Lookouts second baseman Justin Turner and closer Carlos Fisher found themselves outnumbered after positioning themselves in front of Huntsville's dugout.

 

Goff was ejected for arguing after the players were separated and joined Henry, LeCure, Tatum and Turner in heading for the clubhouse.

 

Brantley was ejected for the Stars, as were second baseman Mike Bell, catcher Angel Salome and pitcher David Welch, who made a pinch-hit appearance in the third inning.

 

The Lookouts improved to 11-14 entering the three-day break for Southern League all-star festivities, snapping a five-game losing streak in the process. Huntsville pounded out 39 runs in the first four games of the series, becoming the first team this season to win four straight against the Lookouts.

 

"We've been streaky all year, but this is really the first series in which our pitching staff has gotten beat up the way they have," Goff said before the fight-marred contest that followed a 43-minute rain delay. "We were due to go through a spell like this. We ran into a pretty hot Huntsville club, and you just can't make mistakes against these guys."

 

The league's all-star game takes place Monday night in Zebulon, N.C.

[aintbize]

Mass Haas wrote:

Brevard County Box Score

Heck of a day for the organization so far -- don't worry, we can count on the Power these days; actually some highlights here, as Darren Ford reached three times (OBP. 315, though) as did Taylor Green; John Axford with four shutout relief innings; with the exception of ERA, walks per nine innings, and no ground ball outs (OK, that's three exceptions, granted), Zach Braddock's peripherals are decent, but that's still a bad line for this offensively-challenged league -- we'll ask again, where are the breakout or high-level pitchers in the Brewers' organization this year? It's just not happening..

 

Mass, as ususal, a very intuitive observation...do we need to look at upgrading the pitching instructors in our org. Look what Mazzone has done year after year with Atlanta. Are we providing a consistent message top to bottom with these kids or are at each level they getting a different message? What techniques and frame of mind are we building with these kids? How abouth the psychological aspect of pitching? I commend you on such a thought provoking statement. It really makes me wonder. You can look at other teams to that struggle or succeed in the same fashion. Thoughts?

[dadofandrew]

Kremblas is such a whiner...he knows his job is to manage a team that exists for player development, right? And, those are 7 inning games, the starters might eat up all but a couple frames.

 

Considering Turnbow is by far the most likely guy on the staff to pitch in the big leagues, I hope he is on a schedule. They'd never use him otherwise.

 

EDIT: I should mention it is very unlikely Derrick pitches in the bigs this year, and he'll certainly be gone next year, seeking a fresh start. That said, DT is getting paid, so he's going to keep pitching. It might come back as soon as it left.

[BrewCrewWS2008]

not going to lie i'd be pretty scared if Salome came after me in a brawl! That whole thing is pretty funny, but rough game for hand, of course it comes the start after i say im really starting to like this guy! ughh let me down Donovan. Oh and Garciaparra shows use that we are lucky to have a defensive 3rd baseman like Gamel after he had 3 errors to help give yup 7 unearned runs in the game.

[recte44]

Considering Turnbow is by far the most likely guy on the staff to pitch in the big leagues

Pena, ahem?

[And That]

Kremblas is such a whiner...he knows his job is to manage a team that exists for player development, right?

He's a managerial prospect in his own right. His current job is to manage a AAA team, but he no doubt has designs on a big league position... to get the part, you have to act the part, yes?

 

[gregmag]

Wow -- the Stars' radio guy really lit into Lookouts' manager Goff. I wish big league announcers, at least the knowledgeable ones and especially on TV, would speak that candidly at times.

 

Kremblas is a whiner because the umps needlessly (in his view) extended the game, causing him to burn a pitcher? I'm familiar with Al's mantra that minor league games matter only for player development, but I honestly don't see how he gets from the mantra to the name-calling. As for debating the substance of the mantra, that deserves its own thread. Hmmm . . .

 

Greg.

[BrewersNation]

Considering Turnbow is by far the most likely guy on the staff to pitch in the big leagues

Pena, ahem?

Pena and his 1.54 WHIP probably will not translate well to the big leagues. I agree he'll probably be called up, but I'm not sure how he will fare...