Link Report for Mon. 7/13 -- Anundsen Keeps On Rolling; Late Addition -- Wisconsin Photos

[Mass Haas]

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

[Mass Haas]

Monday's Menu:

Times Central; pitchers subject to change --

 

Nashville: Idle for the All-Star Break; game is Wednesday

 

Huntsville: Idle -- All-Star Game is Monday evening, more details can be found here

 

Brevard County: RHP Evan Anundsen at home vs. Lakeland (Tigers), 6:05 PM gametime

Sorry, no audio for this series

Wisconsin: LHP Efrain Nieves at home vs. South Bend (Diamondbacks), 11:50 AM pre-game, 12:05 PM gametime; RHP Cody Scarpetta will also see mound action

Live Audio Link

 

Helena: TBD at home vs. Casper (Rockies), 7:50 PM pre-game; 8:05 gametime

Live Audio Link

 

Arizona Summer League: Idle

 

Dominican Summer League Brewers / Orioles: at the DSL Mets (see this thread for some roster background) -- all games are 10:30 local time in the Dominican, and no need to ask about web audio; we usually won't see updated box scores until the overnight...

[Mass Haas]

Follow Monday'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.

 

Brevard County:

 

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=t503&t=g_box&gid=2009_07_13_lakafa_breafa_1

 

Wisconsin:

 

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?t=g_box&gid=2009_07_13_souafx_wisafx_1&did=t572&sid=t572

 

Helena:

 

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?t=g_box&gid=2009_07_13_casrok_helrok_1&did=t433&sid=t433

 

Dominican Summer League Brewers / Orioles:

 

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&t=g_box&gid=2009_07_13_dobrok_dmerok_1

[Mass Haas]

Kraig McNutt's Nashville blog has plenty of interesting Brendan Katin updates and photos today. The AAA Home Run Derby includes Katin.

[Mass Haas]

Rattler Radio Blog:

July 13, 2009: Starting Lineup

 

July 13, 2009: Today's Pitchers

 

July 13, 2009: Game Notes

[Mass Haas]

Midwest League Standings

 

Arizona League Standings

 

Dominican Summer League Standings

[Mass Haas]

 Pacific Coast League (AAA) - PCL American North Division Standings ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Team W L PCT GB HOME ROAD STREAK ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nashville 51 39 .567 - 30-20 21-19 W2 Iowa 46 44 .511 5.0 25-17 21-27 L2 Memphis 44 45 .494 6.5 29-18 15-27 W1 Omaha 36 53 .404 14.5 15-23 21-30 W2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

 Southern League (AA) - SOU North Division Standings ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Team W L PCT GB HOME ROAD STREAK ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- West Tenn 14 6 .700 - 7-3 7-3 W1 Chattanooga 9 10 .474 4.5 6-4 3-6 W1 Huntsville 9 11 .450 5.0 4-6 5-5 L1 Tennessee 9 11 .450 5.0 4-6 5-5 W1 Carolina 7 13 .350 7.0 3-7 4-6 L1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

 Florida State League (A+) - FSL North Division Standings ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Team W L PCT GB HOME ROAD STREAK ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tampa 9 5 .643 - 4-4 5-1 W3 Brevard County 9 6 .600 0.5 5-5 4-1 L2 Clearwater 9 7 .563 1.0 1-2 8-5 L1 Dunedin 9 7 .563 1.0 6-6 3-1 L2 Lakeland 8 8 .500 2.0 1-3 7-5 W2 Daytona 8 9 .471 2.5 3-6 5-3 W1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

 Pioneer League (R+) - PIO North Division Standings ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Team W L PCT GB HOME ROAD STREAK ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Great Falls 11 8 .579 - 5-2 6-6 L1 Missoula 11 8 .579 - 8-4 3-4 L1 Helena 10 9 .526 1.0 5-6 5-3 W1 Billings 5 14 .263 6.0 2-6 3-8 L2 

[Mass Haas]

Apparently for you locals, this afternoon's Timber Rattler game is one of those televised on Time Warner.

[Mass Haas]

Final: Wisconsin 5, South Bend (Diamondbacks) 2

Wisconsin Site Game Summary

 

NIEVES AND RATTLERS HAVE A NICE DAY

 

GRAND CHUTE, WI -- Wisconsin Timber Rattlers starter Efrain Nieves struck out seven over five innings and picked up his third win of the season in a 5-2 win over the South Bend Silver Hawks Monday afternoon at Time Warner Cable Field. Brock Kjeldgaard homered and Juan Sanchez drove in two runs for some of the offensive support.

 

The top two draft picks of the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 2009 draft combined to give the Silver Hawks (35-51 overall, 8-10 second half) a 1-0 lead in the first inning. A.J. Pollock, the #1 pick of Arizona out of the University of Notre Dame, singled with two outs. Marc Krauss, the second round pick of out of Ohio University, doubled to right-center and Pollock scored easily. But, that was all Nieves would allow on the afternoon.

 

Wisconsin (45-42, 11-6) tied the game right away in the bottom of the first. Sanchez walked to start the inning. Peter Fatse doubled off the wall in left and Sanchez, who was running on the pitch, scored without a play to even the score 1-1.

 

The Rattlers broke the tie with a run in the bottom of the fifth. Michael Marseco reached on a fielder's choice with two outs as the Hawks could not complete a double play. He stole second to get into scoring position. Sanchez singled off the glove of shortstop Victor Estevez and Marseco scored the go ahead run.

 

Nieves turned the game over to the bullpen at this point in the game. He allowed four hits and walked three in his five innings. The seven strikeouts was a season high for the lefty.

 

After Brandon Ritchie pitched a scoreless top of the sixth, Kjeldgaard lined a two-out solo home run in the bottom of the sixth to put Wisconsin up 3-1. The homer was Kjeldgaard's fourteenth of the season.

 

Marseco padded the Rattlers lead in the seventh inning. He drove in a run with an RBI triple and scored on a sacrifice fly by Sanchez.

 

Cody Scarpetta pitched two scoreless innings out of the bullpen, but needed help to close down the Silver Hawks in the ninth. South Bend loaded the bases with no outs and Scarpetta allowed a sacrifice fly to Isaias Asencio to make the score 5-2.

 

That run was the first allowed by Scarpetta in 16-1/3 innings. Asencio was also the final batter he faced. Nick Tyson relieved and got the final two outs for his fifth save in five chances this season.

 

The Timber Rattlers are off on Tuesday. They return to action on Wednesday against the Great Lakes Loons at Dow Diamond in Midland, Michigan. Wisconsin has Trey Watten (4-7, 3.98) as their scheduled starting pitcher. The Loons have Nathan Eovaldi (1-4, 3.80) as their scheduled starter. Game time is 6:05 PM CDT.

 

Wisconsin Box Score

LHP Efrain Nieves has had an insane split as a starter / reliever in his piggyback role with Cody Scarpetta this season, entering the game with an ERA over 9.00 as a starter in his nine previous starts, but with an ERA of 1.25 in 21.2 relief innings pitched, so this starting effort was big...

 

Wisconsin Game Log

[TheCrew07]

Could it be that split is due to following Scarpetta as a reliever, his stuff is so different from Scarpetta that he's a change of pace as reliever, but as a starter they have a chance to zero in on him? When I saw him in relief he featured his 2 seam fastball (almost exclusively) which does have nice movement. I wonder if he pitches differently as a starter?

[Boy Jeenius]

Nick Tyson - again - for one inning - seems unhittable. Closer some day?

[battlekow]

Weird line for Anundsen, with ten flyouts against only three groundouts, but whatever--it worked (six shutout innings with just a hit and two walks against five strikeouts). Great to see a couple XBH from Steffan Wilson and a homer from Logan Schafer, but best of all is Caleb Gindl's 1-2 with three walks. Like Taylor Green last year, he's having a better season at A+ than he did at A-ball, but it's being masked by the pitching-friendly FSL.

[TheCrew07]

both players you mentioned are LH, the wind at space coast blows in about 20 miles per hour almost straight in from left field if I remember correctly.

[MTBrew]

Absolute "miserable" game in Helena tonight.

It started off with Gonzales letting a player bring the line-up card to the umps and got worse from there.

The line-up had Dhanani, who is a great athlete with a great arm playing 1B and Paciorek who has time at 1B starting at 3B. Not surprisingly they both committed multiple errors.

7 errors in this game, 45 total errors in the first 20.

Hitting? 2 hits this game, 3 in the game on Sat. This is against a Casper team that is 5 and 13 with a 5.90 era.

Josh Prince is completely out of control on the base paths. I don't know if he has a total "green light" from Gonzales or if he ignores the signs but either way its totally unacceptable. He "benefited" from an error and a bad call or would have been out twice and made at least 2 other base running blunders.

His "fielding" gaff, blowing a double play, in the 7th inning led to 4 runs and completely took the Brewers out of the game.

I don't understand why at this level these players are not getting the very best coaching the organization has. Gonzales ran a very sloppy undisciplined under achieving team last year and was brought back??

Ned Yost who 2 years ago was struggling to hit his weight at Brevard is the hitting coach?? They are last in the league in hitting at .249!

I will give credit to the pitchers and pitching coach Nina as I think they are doing a good job.

After tonight's "performance" they all ought to donate their pay to charity. Better yet, ship the whole bunch, except for the pitching staff, down to Maryvale. Except for Brownstein, Ellington, Roberts and Garfield anybody in Arizona could play better than this group is playing.

[Mass Haas]

Final: Casper (Rockies) 7, Helena 1

 

Helena Site Game Summary

 

Brewers Lose Series to Ghosts

By Dan Douts / Helena Brewers

HELENA, MT-- The Brewers are probably ready for the off-day after tonight's game. Helena committed seven errors, had only two hits as they lost 7-1 to the Casper Ghosts in the rubber match on Monday night.

 

Jon Pokorny gave up one earned run on two hits in three innings and was given his first loss of the season. The Brewers used five pitchers on the night. The staff gave up seven runs, five of which were earned.

 

Josh Prince and Mike Brownstein had the two hits for the Brewers with Brownstein picking up his lone RBI, his ninth of the season.

 

The entire Pioneer League will have a day off tomorrow as play will return on the 15th. The Brewers will open up a seven game road trip against the Idaho Falls Chukars on July 15th.

 

Helena Box Score

Surprisingly, the Helena Independent Record did not provide their usual complete coverage of this game, so we look to the comments above of our Montana friend tonight; I've always appreciated MTBrew's insights (I did have to edit out one acronym that isn't allowed here), but I like the fact he's looking for the old-school fundamentals and watches everything closely from pre-game warm-up routines to the nuances of the game itself; it is odd how every player speaks so highly of "Gonzo", maybe that's not how rookie ballers should be referring to their manager; from afar, it does seem that some reigns need to be placed on Josh Prince, but the .429 OBP shines -- 19 singles and three doubles make up his first 22 hits; 20-year-old LHP Kristian Bueno has been limited to mid-game very brief appearances, none of his seven outings lasting more than 1.2 innings -- he's been very effective, allowing only one hit and four walks in 6.1 innings (last season he walked 32 in 39 Maryvale innings)...

 

Helena Game Log

[Mass Haas]

Final: Brevard County 7, Lakeland (Tigers) 0

 

Manatees' Anundsen tosses another gem

Brewers prospect gives up one hit over six innings

By Mason Kelley / Special to MLB.com

 

Most pitchers have an off night every now and then. With so many games and a myriad of potential scenarios, even the best arms meet their match from time to time.

 

But through 15 starts this season, Evan Anundsen has yet to give up more than three earned runs in any outing.

 

When asked to explain his consistency after his latest appearance -- one hit and five strikeouts over six scoreless innings during the Manatees' 7-0 victory over the Lakeland Flying Tigers -- the 21-year-old couldn't come up with an explanation.

 

"Honestly, I'm not 100 percent sure," he said. "The only overall change I've had from last year is focus, concentration in between each pitch and during each throw. Just knowing that, at any time, one pitch can get you out of a jam."

 

On Monday, Anundsen said he felt good, but gave most of the credit to his defense, especially the outfield, for tracking down several long fly balls. The only hit he surrendered was a leadoff single by Christopher White in the third.

 

"Fastball command was probably my biggest strength," he said. "I kept the ball away from the middle of the plate. I didn't get the ball down as much as I usually do. To be honest, I got a lot of fly balls -- there were some well-hit fly balls, so I've got to give props to my defense."

 

One of the harder lessons for young players to learn is finding their focus against struggling opponents. It's something Anundsen figured out early this season.

 

"It's kind of tough to go into every game with the same mental approach and attitude," he said. "It's one of those things that I've been working with some of our coaches and treating every game the same."

 

Last season, the fourth-round pick in the 2006 First-Year Player Draft went 12-8 with a 4.28 ERA over 28 starts for Class A West Virginia. This year he is already 8-4 and his 1.85 ERA leads all active Class A Advanced starters.

 

But he still isn't quite sure why he's been so successful this season. Maybe it's focus. Maybe it's his newly acquired slider.

 

"Overall everything has gotten a little bit better, a little bit sharper from last year," Andunsen. "I'm not sure. Maybe I'm getting lucky a lot."

 

With his three-quarters arm slot, the 6-foot-3, 200-pound right-hander has always been told a slider would come naturally. But his coaches insisted he work on his curveball and changeup. Master those and then move onto the slider.

 

It worked. He added the slider a few months ago and it's already his second-best pitch.

 

"Really, now I've pretty much picked up my fourth pitch," he said. "I don't know if I'm going to be picking up another one."

 

The next step for Anundsen is to find a way to stay physically and mentally sharp later in the season. Last season, right about this time, fatigue became an issue. The Englewood, Colo. native faces and even tougher challenge this year in Florida's summer swelter.

 

Like every season in the Minors, it is something to learn from.

 

"This definitely will be a huge advantage later on," he said. "That's one of the biggest things I picked up from last year, just the experience of going through my first complete full season and getting up to 150 innings, knowing what I feel like.

 

"I'm just waiting to see how my body reacts."

 

Brevard County Box Score

Evan Anundsen echoes some of the sentiments he shared with our friend battlekow in his excellent BrewCrewBall interview here; RHP Omar Aguilar and LHP Rafael Lluberes finished up for the shutout; Baseball America reported this week that the Brewers released Lluberes and then re-signed him, probably some contract technicality; all nine men in the lineup reached base at least once, and all but catcher Martin Maldonado had at least one base hit, and six Manatees reached at least twice...

 

Brevard County Game Log

Brevard scored in five separate innings, see how here...

 

Evan Anundsen's 1.85 ERA leads all active Class A Advanced starters. (Photo by Jerry Hale/MiLB.com)

 

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/images/2009/07/13/pHcEI3eX.jpg

[Mass Haas]

Final: DSL Mets 7, DSL Brewers / Orioles 6

DSL Brewers / Orioles Box Score

Brewers / Orioles scored six runs in the 6th to tie the game, lost it in the 7th; just-turned 20-year-old 6'5" LHP Jose Ramos has appeared in 17 of the club's 38 games, averaging nearly two innings per appearance -- he was a very-tough luck loser here, allowing only an unearned run over 2.2 innings, stranding two inherited runners while striking out four and walking none; Joan Abreu, Andres Martinez, and Jhonatan Javier participated on offense, you'll see their lines among the first four in the box score...

 

DSL Brewers / Orioles Game Log

[Mass Haas]

Nashville's Brendan Katin came into the AAA Home Run Derby leading the PCL participants with 19 homers on the season, but only sent three balls out and did not advance to the second round.

 

Full account of the AAA derby, including a local high schooler who put a scare into the competitors with his prowess, here.

[Mass Haas]

Link Report Bonus:

The Huntsville Times' Mark McCarter, once a staple of Stars' coverage, chimes in on this-and-that

[JohnBriggs12]

How much longer can they keep Anundsen in A ball? Experts say the Brewers don't have young pitching to get a deal done for Halladay. Having both Anundsen who's barely 21 and Braddock who won't turn 22 until August already having success at AA could change that perception in a hurry.

[Mass Haas]

Post-Crescent Timber Rattler Photo Gallery from Monday's game -- some nice shots

[DHonks]

JohnBriggs12, I'm with you. I like that Mercedes is now--at least it seems--closing. But Anundsen needs to hit AA soon. Get him 1+ month there before he gets the offseason off, then he returns to AA in 2010, hopefully with that re-discovered velocity