April / May / June Transaction Thread

[brewpitch]

Brewpitch, just curious, do you know who any of the seven other names in the hat were?

Lintz, Orodizzi, and Billings are the only other three I know for sure.

[Mass Haas]

RHP's Mark Holliman and Mike Jones swap places on the Huntsville / Helena rosters so that Holliman can pitch tonight.

 

I haven't bothered to review if this is the new rage among organizations, or if it's mainly just the Brewers taking advantage of a roster loophole situation to effectively have rosters over the league limits at a level or two. Holliman is brought back just three days after going to Helena in this blatant paper move.

 

The Pioneer League definitely has roster rules about player ages and experience, so it will be interesting to see if this game continues to play out after mid-late June.

 

So 18-year-old RHP Nick Bucci lives another day on the Huntsville roster -- hopefully the Stars can take a big lead in one of the two seven-inning contests tonight and let Nick see some action.

[Mass Haas]

To make room for outfielder Chris Duffy on the Nashville roster, RHP Nick Green has been placed on the 7-day DL with an undisclosed injury, retroactive to Wednesday, May 27th.

 

The Sounds already have LH starter Sam Narron on the DL, but without specific injury news, you'd think both Green and Narron will be back soon.

 

Nashville hosts a doubleheader on Saturday, with RHP Matt Ginter set to start Game One and "TBD" in Game Two.

[Mass Haas]

To make room for RHP Josh Butler in Nashville (how about that?), LHP Chase Wright was placed on the Helena roster in a paper move.

[Mass Haas]

The Helana shuffle continues as LHP's swap out -- David Welch back on the AA roster, Bobby Bramhall temporarily off.

[Mass Haas]

The Nick Bucci era has ended in Huntsville (at least until minimum 2012) as the 18-year-old RHP has been returned to Maryvale, with RHP Mike Jones being transferred back onto the AA roster from Helena's roster, in time for Monday's night scheduled start.

 

At least we assume Nick is on his way back to Maryvale and isn't hanging around Huntsville waiting to be re-activated-- although, this year, nothing would surprise us in terms of the "Helena roster".

[Mass Haas]

Adam McCalvy of MLB.com:

 

Doug Melvin said that pitching prospect Josh Butler, promoted from Class A Brevard County all the way to Nashville last week, would make one more Triple-A start before an assignment to Double-A Huntsville. Butler, 24, is 6-1 with a 2.53 ERA this season including a tough-luck loss for Nashville on Saturday in which he allowed two earned runs in six innings. The Brewers acquired Butler from the Rays last season for outfielder Gabe Gross

[Mass Haas]

Congratulations to Nashville's Mike Burns, added to the 40-man and 25-man rosters, replacing the released Jorge Julio (being discussed in the major league forum here).

 

Remember this recently linked article?

 

But as well as he's pitching, even Burns admits he's a longshot to put on a Brewers uniform this season. "Realistically, as far as me getting a shot, something would have to go wrong," Burns says. As in a slew of pitching-related injuries in the organization.

 

You never know, folks. Burns must be psyched.

 

News from Huntsville:

The Milwaukee Brewers and the Huntsville Stars announced today that LHP Chris Cody has been promoted to Triple-A Nashville. Also, RHP Mike Jones has been assigned to Helena.

 

Taking Cody and Jones' spots on Huntsville's roster (from Helena's roster) are LHP Bobby Bramhall and RHP Nick Bucci (the Bucci era lives on -- good for the kid...).

 

All moves are effective immediately and Bramhall and Bucci will be in uniform tonight as the Stars host the Birmingham Barons.

 

I'm sure we're all excited to see Cody work his way through AAA lineups. That is one soft-tossing southpaw-laden Nashville rotation (Lindsay Gulin, Sam Narron, Chase Wright, Cody).

[brewmann04]

what does that mean for Mike Jones?

[clancyphile]

The Stars had a BUNCH of rainouts earlier - this probably relates to the pitching two-step they have to do just to have enough starters.

[Mass Haas]

what does that mean for Mike Jones?

brewmann04, if you've been following along, you'll know that the Brewers have made liberal use of the Helena roster in a slew of paper transactions to give them temporary space on the various rosters, particularly Huntsville's. Jones will be back in time for his next start.

[Mass Haas]

LHP Chase Wright has been shifted from the Helena roster to the Brevard County roster.

 

This is simply a technical shift of a paper move made when Wright was placed on the Helena roster on May 30th. Look for Wright to be activated at AAA in time for his next start.

[Mass Haas]

One of our readers (Minigoon) recently asked about LHP Dan Merklinger.

 

Merklinger has been activated back on to the Wisconsin roster off the disabled list. To make room, RHP Liam Ohlmann was placed on the Helena roster. We're also working on determining Ohlmann's status (awaiting re-activation or actually heading back to Maryvale for now).

 

EDIT: Early indications are Ohlmann reamins with the Wisconsin squad for now, if not actually on the team's 25-man roster at this moment.

[brewmann04]

thanks Mass did not total Grasp the Concept of Paper transactions.But appreciate your help

[LouisEly]

I'm guessing that Bucci never left Huntsville either, just the "paper" move back to Helena but physically stayed there knowing he would be needed later on.

 

I'm guessing that with all of the rainouts that every team is doing this.

[Mass Haas]

Just-turned 22-year-old RHP Michael Bowman (stats link) gets a much-deserved bump from Wisconsin to Brevard County. The 2008 9th round draft pick out of VMI made eight starts for the TimberRattlers, and only once allowed more than two earned runs. Well done, young man...

 

RHP Liam Ohlmann gets transferred back on to the Wisconsin roster to fill that spot.

 

Unless we tell you otherwise, the Manatees made room by sending LHP Chase Wright back to the Nashville roster (backing out the earlier paper move).

[Mass Haas]

To make room for Chase Wright at Nashville (from Brevard, paper transaction), OF Chris Duffy has been placed on the Temporary Inactive List.

[Mass Haas]

First, in the somewhat tedious Helena paper transaction update portion of the post, we'll tell you that Huntsville RHP and new dad Josh Wahpepah "goes" to Helena, while Mike Jones returns from his hunting, fishing, and hiking getaway in Big Sky country to the Stars.

 

In a meatier transaction, it seemed innocent at the time when Wisconsin outfielder Erik Miller was hit by a pitch in the 5th inning of the May 31st game, because he remained in the game and actually singled in his next at-bat, but he has not played since and was placed on the disabled list with a hand injury. It's too bad, he's been productive, especially in 76 at-bats out of the leadoff spot (.794 OPS). We're hearing through the grapevine that he'll likely be out for 2-3 weeks, hopefully nothing more.

 

To take Miller's spot, the Brewers have moved newcomer OF Derrick McPhearson up from extended spring training. From Chris Mehring's blog:

 

MEET THE NEW GUY: McPhearson was signed as a non-drafted free agent on January 29, 2009. He played football at the University of Illinois and at Hampton University. McPhearson did not play professional baseball last season. He was an All-Metro and an All-Conference selection as a high school baseball player for DeMatha High School in Hyattsville, Maryland.

 

There is a back story with McPhearson we referred to last winter in among other posts, this one from me and this one from colbyjack. For me, I'm done referring to that part of his life, it won't be included as a note after each mention in the Link Report. It wouldn't surprise me if Brett Christopherson and the folks in Appleton do a human interest piece on McPhearson at some point, and I'm sure the kid has prepared himself for answering a few questions on his background, both football-wise and off-the-field wise. Here's wishing him great success.

[TheCrew07]

Sweet I hope he plays tonight, he should be a very good athlete!

 

edit. Bah I just saw the lineups were posted... I've been intrigued with him since the signing, maybe they'll need him to pinch run or something. Sanchez didn't appear to have blazing CF type speed by any stretch.

[Mass Haas]

News from Huntsville:

The Milwaukee Brewers and the Huntsville Stars announced today that Stars OF Drew Anderson has been placed on the Temporarily Inactive list. Taking his place on Huntsville's roster is OF Logan Schafer who has been promoted from Brevard County.

The moves are effective immediately and Schafer will be in uniform for the Stars game tonight against the West Tenn Diamond Jaxx.

22-year-old Logan Schafer has posted fantastic numbers for a CF in the Florida State League. We hope everthing is OK off-the-field for Drew Anderson, but this is a fantastic progession and opportunity for Schafer.

21-year-old catcher Mike Roberts joins the Manatees from extended spring training to take Schafer's spot at Brevard. His numbers were very reasonable at Helena last season. Roberts will be re-joining his Virginia Military Institue batterymate, Michael Bowman, with the Manatees.

We'll have more updates from Brevard later this afternoon.

[battlekow]

Wow, Schafer is really trucking through the system. At this rate, he might beat Lorenzo Cain to Milwaukee, seeing it sometime next year--assuming he keeps hitting this well, which with his walk rate might be tough.

 

EDIT: Also, does this mean Lorenzo Cain to Nashville when he returns from his knee injury?

[Mass Haas]

At Brevard, 24-year-old LHP Rafael Lluberes has landed on the disabled list with an undisclosed injury. This is Lluberes' 8th year in the system, having signed as a 17-year-old in 2002. This is the first disabled list stint in his career. Lluberes had thrived in a short relief role this season (numbers), and last pitched on Monday.

 

Taking his spot on the roster is native Floridian (Port St. Lucie) RHP Damon Krestalude, up from extended spring training in Maryvale. Krestalude turns 20 years old today, so that's a heck of a birthday gift for him. Drafted in the 17th round last season out of high school, Krestalude posted these numbers in 14 games (five starts) in the Maryvale heat last summer. It remains to be seen if there's a time frame on his stay, but like Nick Bucci to Huntsville before him, it has to be a big thrill to bypass both Helena and Wisconsin for now.

[Mass Haas]

One note on LHP Rafael Lluberes, who was mentioned in the prior post -- when we built his Brewerfan Player Index page in 2002, he was listed at 155 pounds. I just updated that, as the 2009 Brewer media guide now lists the Dominican native at 215.

[pogokat]

Here's to Logan Schafer, the Brewers starting CF in 2010!

[nate82]

Here's to Logan Schafer, the Brewers starting CF in 2010!

As much as I love Schafer and Cain I don't see either being the starting CF in 2010 that job will probably belong to Cameron for one more year.