Minor League Transactions

[Mass Haas]

To make room for 1B Nick Ramirez on the Wisconsin roster, 1B Cody Hawn is placed on the DL retroactive to 7/21.

[Mass Haas]

News out of Helena --

Catcher Doug Elliot, the Brewers' 35th round pick in the 2011 draft out of UConn, has voluntarily retired. He only appeared in four games with Helena (stats). he had been featured.

 

Elliot is working towards his master’s degree in accounting -- he must have crunched the numbers. Good luck to him. His signing bonus was likely negligible, in the $1,000 range, so it's not as if he's hurting the Brewers in that regard.

[Never Outhustled]

I was prompted to go back and look at the draft day comments on Ramirez. Nearly all were negative based on some scout's commenting he was a product of metal bats.

 

No, I think the comments were negative because he didn't hit a lick his junior year.

 

[Mass Haas]

From Huntsville:

Catcher Martin Maldonado has been transferred to Triple-A Nashville. Additionally, catcher Dayton Buller has been activated from the seven-day disabled list.

 

Maldonado is batting .264 (55-208) in 64 games with Huntsville this season. He’s hit 13 doubles and knocked in 34 RBI. He started the season with the Sounds, hitting .267 (12-45) in 14 games.

 

Buller was placed on the DL back on May 6. He’s appeared in 10 games with the Stars this season, going 4-for-29 (.138) with two extra-base hits and five RBI.

 

With these moves, the Stars active roster stays at 24.

 

***

 

Maldonado (stats and splits) has had a brutal July after a torrid June.

 

Buller had been on the Patrick Arlis "reserve list -- wink, wink DL" since June 5th.

 

These moves were predicated by Wil Nieves' trade to the Braves, being discussed in this Major League Forum thread.

[Mass Haas]

Mark Rogers' latest comeback trail leads him to a familiar site, the Florida State League. He has been activated from the Brevard DL and assigned to the Manatees' roster, up from his rehab assignment in Maryvale, and actually, is scheduled to pitch as early as tonight (Wed. night) against Charlotte.

 

To make room on the Brevard roster, reliever Mark Willinsky (season and career stats), the Brewers' 15th round pick in 2008, has been released. Willinsky, out of Santa Clara University, bypassed low-A West Virginia in 2009 and had a solid season at Brevard. But his 2010 and 2011 struggles are notable in the numbers.

[Mass Haas]

Wow, unexpected mega-bump promotion here, courtesy of the Rattler Media Notes.

 

Timber Rattlers' RH reliever Eric Marzec (stats), with very impressive hit and strikeout peripherals, gets to join the Nashville Sounds. The Nashville bullpen has been strained as of late, and Marzec, the Brewers' 30th round pick in 2010 out of Youngstown State, is 23 years old (24 next January), so should be fine for the ride, even if it may be brief.

 

The Wisconsin roster sits one under the league limit, at 24.

 

News later on a correpsonding move to free up a AAA spot for Marzec.

[Mass Haas]

Because Nashville needs a backup catcher in uniform until Martin Maldonado arrives in Oklahoma City, Patrick Arlis has been activated.

[Mass Haas]

Wow, no word on the nature or severity of the injury, but RHP Mike Fiers has been placed on the Nashville DL retroactive to 7/25.

 

Fiers last pitched on the 19th -- a prior note indicated his turn was going to be skipped once. Perhaps this is just a cautious move only in terms of innings limit or such, we can hope.

[battlekow]

Per Adam McCalvy, Fiers has a bruised finger.

[Mass Haas]

News out of Helena --

Catcher Doug Elliot, the Brewers' 35th round pick in the 2011 draft out of UConn, has voluntarily retired. He only appeared in four games with Helena (stats). he had been featured.

 

Elliot is working towards his master’s degree in accounting -- he must have crunched the numbers. Good luck to him. His signing bonus was likely negligible, in the $1,000 range, so it's not as if he's hurting the Brewers in that regard.

Ironically, his hometown paper must have interviewed Elliot recently and did this profile Q&A. It did include this --

 

The one tough adjustment has been getting used to the lack of playing time, but a lot of my teammates have to deal with that too. I realize I need to work hard every day and get better if I want to play at all.

and later --

 

I have a good job lined up back home if baseball doesn’t work out.

 

[And That]

The Felipe Lopez trade was technically a minor league transaction, for those keeping track at home. Being discussed here.

[Mass Haas]

It's not often we see the Brewers formally place young players on the disabled list at the rookie league levels, because the 35-man roster limit doesn't require freeing up spots, but Baseball America indicates that RHP R.J. Johnson, the 36th round high schooler from the 2010 draft, has been placed on the 7-day DL, and Dustin Houle, the 17-year-old 8th round catcher out of British Columbia, has been placed on the 60-day DL.

[Mass Haas]

Eric Farris back to Nashville, Felipe Lopez to Milwaukee (Major League Forum)

[mrpackersfan1]

Why has Houle been placed on the 60-day DL?

[Mass Haas]

Why has Houle been placed on the 60-day DL?

We don't have that information. Because of HIPPA laws (link), the Brewers, their affiliate staffs, broadcasters, etc., will rarely provide direct information regarding a player's health matter. Normally we do get updates if a specific injury occurred in a game situation, or in the case of 40-man roster players. In general, we share with you readers what we know, so when we don't include specific information, it's because we simply forgot to type "the nature of and severity of the injury is unknown". Sometimes we find out down the road from players' hometown newspaper articles. In some cases, we learn from players' twitter accounts these days. Each spring, the Brewers media guide details the injury for every minor league player who missed significant time. So the conformance to the HIPPA laws is extremely frustrating, because it's so inconsistent. If you can't tell us "so-and-so" underwent labrum surgery in July, what makes it OK to disclose it the following spring?

 

[battlekow]

Actually, I do know why Houle is out. He broke his hamate and had surgery a couple days ago to remove it. He'll be out 4-6 weeks; presumably the DL stint can be backdated to when he signed (over a month ago) since he hasn't played, so he should be eligible to be activated if he is indeed healthy in a month.

[And That]

Of course, "healthy in a month" from hamate surgery might be closer to healthy in the next few years, so good luck, Dustin Houle.

 

Malcolm Dowell is out with a concussion for a few weeks. May or may not be back by the end of the AZL season.

[Mass Haas]

Good luck to Erik Komatsu, traded to the Nationals for Jerry Hairston (Major League Forum discussion).

We've had fun following your career thus far and wish you well.

Erik would have been # 9 on the Power 50 that will be posted before the weekend's out.

[battlekow]

Anderson Machado off the DL at Huntsville to take Komatsu's spot.

[battlekow]

OF Ruben Ozuna sent back to the AZL after hitting just .227/.277/.295 in 12 games for Helena.

[Mass Haas]

To make room for Eric Farris back in Nashville, C Patrick Arlis is once again placed on the DL.

[CheezWizHed]

C Patrick Arlis is once again placed on the DL.

Boy,what could have been if Arlis could just stay healthy! http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

[And That]

RHP Dan Britt has been activated from the Timber Rattlers' DL. He fills a vacant roster spot. The T-Rats' roster is now at the Midwest League maximum.

[Mass Haas]

27-year-old LHP Brae Wright's Brewer career is over as he was released from the organization on Monday (career stats).

 

Wright appeared in five Maryvale Brewer games in July on rehab.

 

Wright missed all of 2009 and all of 2010 due to Tommy John surgery. In 2008, Wright was a Top Ten Southern League pitcher in ERA (7th), strikeouts (5th) and games started (3rd), and let the league in innings pitched.

 

Here's wishing the 2006 6th round pick well.

[CheezWizHed]

27-year-old LHP Brae Wright's Brewer career is over as he was released from the organization on Monday

 

Ok, I'll finally admit you guys were right to remove him from the P50 two years ago... Seriously, its too bad. He was one I enjoyed following back then. I thought maybe he would finally get back to pitching this year. Best of luck to you Mr. Wright.