Link Report for Mon. 4/9

[Tedaldtada]

Is anyone else surprised that David Goforth is in the WI rotation and Tommy Toledo isn't?

[TheCrew07]

Is anyone else surprised that David Goforth is in the WI rotation and Tommy Toledo isn't?

 

Yes and no, they are doing the piggy back thing with Goforth and Pierce.

[TheCrew07]

Final: Wisconsin 6, Burlington (A's) 2

 

Wisconsin wins second straight

By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers

 

BURLINGTON, IA - The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers put together a four run rally in the top of the fifth inning to back up solid pitching for a 6-2 win over the Burlington Bees Monday night at Community Field. David Goforth allowed one earned run over five innings for his first professional win. Parker Berberet and Carlos George each drove in two runs to help the Rattlers to their second consecutive win.

 

The Rattlers (2-2) jumped out to an early lead with two runs in the first inning. Wisconsin loaded the bases when the first three batters of the game reached base on two singles and a walk. Ben McMahan grounded into a force out at second base that scored a run. Berberet followed with an RBI single for a 2-0 lead.

 

The Bees would score single runs in the first and second innings against Goforth with help from a couple of errors.

 

In the first inning, the Bees had Sean Jamieson at first and Chad Oberacker at third with no outs. Jamieson stole second and the throw from Rafael Neda deflected off the glove of George at second. That allowed Oberacker to score.

 

In the third, Bobby Crocker singled with one out. Goforth threw wildly to first on a pickoff attempt to let Crocker go around to third base. Chad Lewis got Crocker home with a grounder to first.

 

Wisconsin had opportunities to retake the lead in the third and fourth inning, but could not break the tie until the fifth.

 

Greg Hopkins and Jason Rogers singled to start the fifth against Bees reliever Max Perlman. Rogers had two hits on the night. He is 7-for-15 on the young season and has at least one hit in each of the first four games of 2012.

 

McMahan was next and he was asked to drop a sacrifice bunt. He did. But, Perlman threw the ball into right field to let Hopkins score the go ahead run from second. Rogers took third and McMahan wound up on second base on the play.

 

Berberet followed with an RBI single to score Rogers and put McMahan at third base. Later in the inning, Carlos George singled in both Berberet and McMahan for a 6-2 lead.

 

Goforth pitched five innings with a walk and a strikeout to put himself in position for the win. His bullpen backed him up on Monday night.

 

Fond du Lac native Chad Pierce came out of the bullpen to strike out five over three scoreless innings. Then, Tommy Toledo worked a perfect ninth inning with a pair of strikeouts to close out the Bees.

 

Game two of the series is Tuesday night at Burlington. Andy Moye makes his Midwest League debut as the starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. Burlington has Sean Murphy as their scheduled starter. Game time is 6:30pm. Tune in for the broadcast on AM1280, WNAM or timberrattlers.com starting with the Miller Lite Pregame Show starting at 6:10pm.

 

WP: David Goforth (1-0)

LP: Max Perlman (0-1)

 

TIME: 2:39

ATTN: 989

Wisconsin Box Score

David Goforth was solid yet unspectacular in his Midwest League debut. I would like to see more strike outs but it's hard to argue with 5IP, 6H, 2R, 1ER, 1BB, and 1SO. If numbers like that continue he might join Brooks Hall in my "I have no idea how to project this young man" category. Chad Pierce also pitched pretty well though 2 BBs in 3IP isn't great, the 1H allowed and 5SOs were fantastic. The only time Chad was threatened was in the 7th when a live drive was hit at Hopkins who made a nice play to stab it but then threw it off the baserunner's helmet trying to double him up and put a runner on 3rd with 1 out. As Chris mentioned above Tommy Toledo came in to seal the deal and made quick work of the Bees to close it out.

 

Offensively the Rattlers did nothing after the 5th inning, at one point I was just hoping for another base runner. Chadwin Stang, who by the way is the only Chad I've ever heard that prefers his whole name, finally obliged me in the 9th with a walk. Gregory Hopkins was 2-5, Jason Rogers was 2-3 with a BB, Carlos George was 2-4 with a 2B, and Yadiel Rivera added a double.

 

 

Wisconsin Game Log

Chris covered everything of note here.

 

 

No idea why but the "Chadwin" vs "Chad" thing

[Mass Haas]

Nashville Mon. 4/9 audio pre-game interview with Manager Mike Guerrero

[Mass Haas]

Four road games, and a real lack of any newspaper coverage at all Tuesday AM, although Burlington's paper doesn't update until mid-day.

 

No day action on Tuesday, so Tuesday's Link Report will also be out at mid-day with Peralta, Merklinger, and Jungmann on the mound, along with the Rattlers' Andy Moye making his season debut.

[CheezWizHed]

It doesn't seem that long ago when R.J. Seidel was the Brewers 16th round pick in the 2006 draft does it?

 

I've been following the young man since his prep days at La Crosse-area Central HS. So maybe it seems longer to me. Hope he can finally stay healthy and make some hay this year.

[Tedaldtada]

Top 3B prospect Nick Castellanos homered off Medlen in the 9th. He should be joining Prince and Miggy in Detroit within a few years. At 20, he has got to be one of the youngest players in A+.

 

@AlfredAugust

No #Brewers on the list. “@BaseballAmerica: As promised, here are the youngest players in each full-season league. http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/prospects/2012/04/the-youngest-players-in-each-full-season-league/”

 

Is this a philosophical thing or a lack of talent thing?

[TheCrew07]

Well Scooter just missed the list, he was born in May and the cutoff in the Southern League was September. I honestly thought he was 21 but he must have started school a year late.

[TooLiveBrew]

I'd guess a little of both, Tedaldtada, but mainly lack of young impact bats. The young bats the Brewers do have that look good are still so young & inexperienced/without-stateside-track-records (Arcia & Ozuna come to mind) that they aren't considered top prospects yet.

[Tedaldtada]

I'd guess a little of both, Tedaldtada, but mainly lack of young impact bats. The young bats the Brewers do have that look good are still so young & inexperienced/without-stateside-track-records (Arcia & Ozuna come to mind) that they aren't considered top prospects yet.

 

I guess it is a little disheartening to see all the big names on the lists, but no Brewers. Those lists are littered with big time players. A few promotions could change things. It seems like we have a lot of talented young guys, just not quite as talented as the young guys on other teams. Lopez and Arcia in Helena would open some eyes. Same with Michael Reed making it to Appleton this year or Hall getting bumped to Huntsville mid-season. Here's hoping.

[TooLiveBrew]

Yeah, I think the sort of extreme youth of the bulk of the good hitting prospects could simply mean that they just need to open some eyes this season, as you said.

 

Cameron Garfield is another guy who's still pretty young, and obviously thought pretty highly of by the Brewers. And it's not like all these guys will open anyone's eyes this season, but there's a decent group of players who have a chance this season to break down that door to being recognized, nationwide, as prospects to watch.