Link Report for Games of Tuesday, May 12th

[Mass Haas]

http://www.brewerfan.net/images/store/dailylinkreport.jpg

[Mass Haas]

Tuesday's Daily Menu:

 

All times Central; pitchers subject to change --

 

Link here for the live audio choices - audio will no longer archive.

 

Sorry, no audio for this Brevard County series.

 

Nashville: RHP Mike Burns at home vs. Reno (Diamondbacks), 6:35 PM pre-game; 7:00 gametime

 

Huntsville: RHP Jeremy Jeffress at home vs. Chattanooga (Dodgers), 6:45 PM pre-game; 7:00 PM gametime

 

Brevard County: RHP Mark Rogers at home vs. Clearwater (Phillies), 6:05 PM gametime

 

Wisconsin: LHP Efrain Nieves at Cedar Rapids (Angels), 6:20 PM pre-game, 6:35 gametime; RHP Cody Scarpetta will also pitch

[Mass Haas]

Follow Tuesday's action as it happens:

Here's what you do, right click on each of the links below and choose "Open in New Tab or New Window". Choose "Recap". While you're listening to your minor league game of choice (or watching/listening to the big league Crew when they are playing), simply refresh your game log browsers every so often.

 

MiLB.com now has Gameday available for AA as well as AAA this season.

 

Nashville:

 

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&t=g_box&gid=2009_05_12_renaaa_nasaaa_1

 

Huntsville:

 

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=t559&t=g_box&gid=2009_05_12_cngaax_hunaax_1

 

Brevard County:

 

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=t503&t=g_box&gid=2009_05_12_clrafa_breafa_1

 

Wisconsin:

 

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?t=g_box&gid=2009_05_12_wisafx_cedafx_1&did=t572&sid=t572

[Mass Haas]

This link will be included in each daily report when the Nashville Sounds are scheduled to play. Normally it is updated a few hours prior to gametime.

 

Nashville Media Notes (Adobe .pdf format):

 

[Mass Haas]

Rattler Radio Blog:

 

Probable Pitchers (@Cedar Rapids) -- four-game series through Friday

 

May 12, 2009 Game Notes --

 

SCORER'S DECISION: After Sunday's game, an error on a hard hit ball off the bat of Corey Kemp in the top of the ninth inning was changed to a hit. Kemp's day went from 0-for-3 to 1-for-3. That switch allowed Kemp to extend his hitting streak to eight games. Kemp is 10-for-29 (.345) during the streak.

 

May 12, 2009 Timber Rattler Pitchers -- Nieves / Scarpetta

[Mass Haas]

Midwest League Standings

[Mass Haas]

 Pacific Coast League (AAA) - PCL American North Division Standings ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Team W L PCT GB HOME ROAD STREAK ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Memphis 17 12 .586 - 9-4 8-8 L2 Iowa 17 13 .567 0.5 10-6 7-7 W2 Omaha 17 14 .548 1.0 8-8 9-6 L2 Nashville 17 15 .531 1.5 6-9 11-6 W2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

 Southern League (AA) - SOU North Division Standings ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Team W L PCT GB HOME ROAD STREAK ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Huntsville 15 12 .556 - 6-7 9-5 W5 Tennessee 14 13 .519 1.0 5-5 9-8 L1 West Tenn 11 17 .393 4.5 5-8 6-9 W1 Carolina 12 19 .387 5.0 6-9 6-10 L2 Chattanooga 12 19 .387 5.0 7-8 5-11 L2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

 Florida State League (A+) - FSL North Division Standings ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Team W L PCT GB HOME ROAD STREAK ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brevard County 22 9 .710 - 10-4 12-5 L2 Clearwater 17 14 .548 5.0 7-9 10-5 W4 Daytona 13 17 .433 8.5 6-9 7-8 L3 Dunedin 13 17 .433 8.5 4-10 9-7 L3 Lakeland 13 17 .433 8.5 9-8 4-9 W1 Tampa 13 17 .433 8.5 5-10 8-7 W3 

[Mass Haas]

From Monday:

 

Nashville Pre-Game Audio Chat with Reliever R.J. Swindle

Discussed the Bugs Bunny curveball, and find out that the Phillies stiffed him on some jewelry -- cheap buggers; Chuck Valenches with a nice job as usual, but Swindle wasn't a waiver claim, they signed him as a minor league free agent, helping to seal the deal with a 40-man roster spot...

[Mass Haas]

As long as we're linking to R.J. Swindle audio, here's a link that was just posted today, although it comes from Swindle's brief stay with the big club a couple of weeks ago.

[PlayerHader]

Jeffress and Rogers... Yay! Always more excited about the link report when the "big names" are throwing.

 

Edit to add Scarpetta. He's another dude I look forward to each time.

[SheetsCyYoung04]

I turned around on my way down to Cedar Rapids tonight. It looks like rain for awhile here.

[wibadgers23]

To say Jeffress had a terrible first inning is an understatement. 3 walks, 5 runs, a homerun, and the inning isn't even over yet. Extremely frustrating.

[battlekow]

Nice of Jeffress to get the implosion out of the way early on.

[Mass Haas]

From Chris Mehring:

 

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA - Tuesday's game between the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers and the Cedar Rapids Kernels at Perfect Game Field was rained out. The tarp was placed on the field about 30 minutes before game time and the rain did not start falling until 20 minutes after the scheduled 6:30 PM start time. The decision was made to postpone the game due to the prospect of a long delay before the game could start.

The teams will play a doubleheader on Wednesday evening. The first seven inning game will begin at 5:35 PM. There will be a 30 minute break at the conclusion of game one before the start of game two.

The tentative pitching match up in game one will be Efrain Nieves (1-2, 6.10) for the Timber Rattlers against Ryan Chaffee (0-1, 3.60) for the Kernels. Game two is scheduled to be Trey Watten (1-4, 5.76) for Wisconsin against Will Smith (0-1, 8.00) for Cedar Rapids.

 

You wonder how they will handle the piggy-back situation with seven-inning games, as Cody Scarpetta needs to get his work in.

[Mass Haas]

Tony Gwynn a leadoff triple tonight, and Brevard's Lee Haydel is insanely hot, with multiple hit games in seven of his last eight (15-for-36, I believe -- all singles but for a lone triple, but still).

 

Between Gwynn, Adam Stern in Huntsville, and Haydel, there's some impressive work out of the leadoff spot going on. Haydel does need to pick up the walk pace.

 

Jeremy Jeffress -- *sigh*

[TheCrew07]

Jeffress... Well at least Braddock looks to be back to his pre injury ways. A long time ago I posted that I paired up starters and was happy if 1 guy made it to the show. My pair was Jeffress/Braddock... at least young JJ isn't hurt that we know of and that pairing is working out better than Bryson/Tyson.

 

At any rate Rogers was a tad wild tonight giving up runs on 2B and WPs... Gindl and Haydel both with 2 hits. BC down 2 latish as Luetge continues to give up runs. I'm rather surprised by that to be honest, I thought he'd be better. Brewer is officially at the Mendoza line as of this posting.

 

Lucroy is only batting .219 over his last 10, and man do I wish Green and Cain were there so I had more position players to follow. Hopefully Green is getting close to his return to action.

 

Gamel is only batting .229 over his last 10... I hope the time off for Salome does him some good, though he was showing signs of breaking out of it before Rivera's 3 game rehab assignment.

 

edit. The Hurricane just keeps on getting hits, 2 again thus far tonight, gotta give the young man some love.

 

edit 2. For all my frustrations with him previously Mercedes has been spectacular out of the pen so far this season as well.

 

edit 3. Gillespie has 2 2B tonight, somehow I missed that earlier, good for him, maybe he'll start to settle in.

[battlekow]

Rough end of the game for BC. The final Clearwater pitcher faced 11 Manatees and struck out 7 of them.

[LouisEly]

Hopefully Mercedes has found his niche - maybe he isn't cut out to start, but if he can turn into a Ramiro Mendoza type who is good in long relief that would be a success. His ERA wasn't great last year, but 112 hits with only 27 walks and 111 Ks in 113 innings isn't bad at all.

 

No comments about my Mike McClendon post yesterday... another great outing today. Not sure why he fell off the radar, or why he is in the bullpen and Holliman is starting. Casey Baron is showing that he may have a future in the bullpen; I seem to recall when he was drafted that people commented that he had "future LOOGY" written all over him. I'm curious as to what his L/R splits were last year in Brevard.

 

Not only a triple for Gwynn, but another BB too.

[Mass Haas]

Final: Nashville 5, Reno (Diamondbacks) 0

 

Nashville Site Game Summary:

Link for new Mike Burns photo, text follows --

 

Sounds Open Homestand With 5-0 Victory

NASHVILLE - Right-hander Mike Burns turned in his sixth consecutive quality start and combined with reliever Chris Narveson on a three-hit shutout in the Nashville Sounds' 5-0 victory over the Reno Aces on Tuesday evening at historic Greer Stadium in the opener of a four-game series.

 

The shutout victory was the third of the season for Nashville (18-15), which has won its last three contests overall.

 

Burns (5-0) picked up a win for the third straight outing and pulled into a tie for the Pacific Coast League lead with his fifth win overall after fanning seven batters over six scoreless frames. His ERA dropped to 2.27 on the year with the effort.

 

Narveson earned his fourth save of the year by working the final three innings in hitless fashion for the Sounds.

 

The Sounds grabbed a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning against Reno starter Billy Buckner. Tony Gwynn led off with a triple and scored one batter later on Alcides Escobar's RBI single to left.

 

Nashville increased the lead to 4-0 in the sixth. Mat Gamel drew an inning-opening walk from Buckner and Hernan Iribarren reached on a two-out single before both scored on Jason Bourgeois' two-out, two-run triple to left-center off Aces reliever Jon Coutlangus. Bourgeois scored the third run of the inning for the Sounds when Reno second baseman Ruben Gotay mishandled Cole Gillespie's grounder.

 

Gillespie wrapped up the evening's scoring in the bottom of the eighth when his RBI double to left off Aces reliever Jose Marte plated Iribarren, who had walked, to bring the score to its final 5-0.

 

AUDIO: Cole Gillespie RBI Double

 

Buckner (1-2) took the loss for the Aces after giving up two runs on five hits over five innings.

 

The teams continue the series with an 11:00 AM matinee on Wednesday morning. Left-hander Chase Wright (1-4, 5.34) will man the bump for the Sounds to face Reno right-hander Hector Ambriz (0-1, 10.13).

 

Nashville Box Score

Find a desperate big league team and see if there's interest in a hot hand in 30-year-old Mike Burns; Hernan Iribarren with an .853 OPS and only one error at second base...

 

Nashville Game Log

Four more cleanly handled ground balls for Mat Gamel; Alcides Escobar needlessly thrown out trying to steal third base with two outs in the 1st; doesn't get much more exciting than a two-out, two-run triple (Jason Bourgeois)...

[Mass Haas]

Final: Chattanooga (Dodgers) 6, Huntsville 3

 

Huntsville Site Game Summary

 

Looks End Stars' Win Streak

Bullpen Stellar Behind Jeffress

By Brett Pollock / Huntsville Stars

 

Chattanooga posted five runs in the first inning and the early offense stood up in a 6-3 win over Huntsville Tuesday night in the second of a five-game set at Joe Davis Stadium. The Lookouts improved to 13-19 on the season, while the Stars dipped to 15-13 and saw their season-high five-game win streak snapped. Huntsville maintained its' one-game lead in the North Division over Tennessee, which fell 1-0 at home to West Tenn.

 

James Tomlin belted the third pitch of the game from Jeremy Jeffress for his first home run of the season to stake the visitors to a very quick lead. Andrew Lambo then walked with one out, moved to second base on a walk to Josh Bell and scored on a base hit by Gaby Martinez to make it 2-0. Bell scored on a Russ Mitchell sacrifice fly to make it 3-0 before Juan Gonzalez, after a walk to J.D. Closser, doubled in Martinez and Closser to finish off the rally. Jeffress has been scored on in the first inning in all four of his starts at home, while not allowing a run in the first inning in any of his three road turns.

 

Bell doubled in Tomlin in the second inning to make it 6-0 and Jeffress was removed after a two-out walk to Martinez. The right-hander suffered the loss to fall to 1-2 after giving up four hits, walking five and fanning one. Mike McClendon tossed 3 1/3 shutout innings before Casey Baron threw two shutout frames and Derrick Ellison and Juan Sandoval each worked a scoreless inning. The four bullpen pitchers combined to allow two hits and strike out six while not issuing a walk.

 

Lookout's starter Travis Chick worked out of a runners at first and third and one out jam in the second and got Drew Anderson to fly out with the bases loaded to end the third. The Stars broke through in the fifth when Adam Stern doubled, stole third and scored on an Adam Heether fly ball. Chick grabbed the win after allowing that lone run on four hits over five innings during which he walked three and struck out three.

 

Josh Lindblom took over in the sixth and gave up three singles that loaded the bases with one out before J.R. Hopf's pinch-hit sacrifice fly plated Anderson to make it 6-2. Stern singled in Vinny Rottino to cut the lead to three before Lindblom was replaced by Carmen Cali, who got Heether to ground out to end the frame. Cali tossed a scoreless seventh inning and was followed by Travis Schlichting, who worked a shutout eighth inning, and J.D. Durbin, who threw a scoreless ninth to record his first save.

 

The series continues Wednesday night with southpaw Bobby Bramhall taking the hill for Huntsville against Lookouts' left-hander Scott Elbert. Coverage of the game begins at 6:45 PM central time and can be heard through the internet at www.huntsvillestars.com.

 

Huntsville Box Score

Lots of guys with initials for names in that summary; Adam Stern continues to toy with AA -- 4-for-5 with two doubles, he's basically Chris Duffy only with Tony Gwynn also blocking him; Drew Anderson sure is enjoying his time back with the Stars...

 

Huntsville Game Log

[Mass Haas]

Final: Clearwater (Phillies) 7, Brevard County 3

 

Brevard County Box Score

Reliever Brandon Rapoza strands Mark Rogers' baserunner, then tosses two more scoreless innings, and maintains his spotless ERA -- the Brewers were wise to bump him past low-A this spring; Rigo Almonte has now walked ten in ten innings; Brent Brewer isn't hitting (0-for-4, three K's) or fielding (ten errors)...

 

Brevard County Game Log

Rapoza actually earned his "inherited runner stranded" on a caught stealing -- that was easy; Zelous Wheeler thrown out at home for the 2nd out of the 6th -- that hurt...

[Mass Haas]

SportsBubbler has some Sounds photos from Omaha.

[biedergb]

Hopefully Mercedes has found his niche - maybe he isn't cut out to start, but if he can turn into a Ramiro Mendoza type who is good in long relief that would be a success. His ERA wasn't great last year, but 112 hits with only 27 walks and 111 Ks in 113 innings isn't bad at all.

I don't know where to look it up, but Mercedes had an amazing split last year when you compared his #s as a starter v reliever. Does anyone remember his stuff/scouting report? Agreed -- if he can develop into a home grown reliever it can obviously help the team long term.

[mls4]

biedergb wrote:

I don't know where to look it up, but Mercedes had an amazing split last year when you compared his #s as a starter v reliever. Does anyone remember his stuff/scouting report? Agreed -- if he can develop into a home grown reliever it can obviously help the team long term.

From minorleaguesplits.com, Mercedes' 2008 stats:

 

		IP	FIP		BF	H	2B	HR	W	IW	K	GDP		AVG	BABIP	WHIP	W/9	K/9	HR/9		GB%	LD%	FB%	IF/F	HR/F
as Starter		63.0	4.72		279	75	15	8	21	0	51	2		0.292	0.338	1.52	3.00	7.29	1.14		51.2%	13.7%	33.6%	17.0%	11.3%
as Reliever		53.0	3.24		201	38	5	6	6	0	60	1		0.200	0.258	0.83	1.02	10.19	1.02		45.5%	12.7%	39.6%	14.3%	11.3%