Link Report for Tuesday 5/26 -- Predictable: Long Night with Shuckers Idle

[Mass Haas]

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

[Mass Haas]

Tuesday's Daily Menu:

 

All times are Central

 

Colorado Springs: RHP Drew Gagnon at Las Vegas (Mets), 8:35 PM pre-game, 9:05 gametime

 

Free Live Audio Link

 

We welcome Dan Karcher, who is the longtime play-by-play voice of the Sky Sox; follow him on Twitter @SkySoxKarch

 

MiLB.TV -- for subscribers; all Colorado Springs games, home and away, will be available to watch via MiLB.TV's $49.99 season-long package ($12.99 to pay for a single month). The audio feed is from the home team. The video of each game is archived online, which is a nice feature. All MiLB.TV details available at the link.

 

NOTE: Notice that on MiLB.TV's page, you can click on "Filter", then "Milwaukee Brewers", and you'll see just the Crew's organizational TV lineup.

 

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Biloxi: Idle

 

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Brevard County: LHP Wei-Chung Wang at home vs. Charlotte (Rays), 5:05 PM pre-game, 5:35 gametime

 

Free Live Audio Link

 

Dave Walkovic returns as the play-by-play voice of the 'Tees; follow the Brevard broadcast booth staff on Twitter @BCManateesRadio, as all home games and the "commuter" road games are scheduled to be broadcast in 2015.

 

No Florida State League games are available via MiLB.TV.

 

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Wisconsin: RHP Devin Williams at Cedar Rapids (Twins), 6:15 PM pre-game, 6:35 gametime; expect to see RHP Angel Ventura pitch in a tandem role

 

Free Live Audio Link - WNAM

 

Chris Mehring is back to do his customary fantastic work as the Voice of the Rattlers. Follow him on Twitter @CMehring; we'll link to Chris' infamous blog often -- Rattler Radio.

 

NOTE: Forty-two (!) of the Rattlers' 70 home games will be broadcast on TV this season. Time Warner Cable SportsChannel (9) and WACY-TV My NEW32 (34) will split duties. We'll let you know when and who, and remember to refer to the Rattlers' full TV schedule (scroll to bottom of link) so you can coordinate your DVR activity.

 

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So, for the $49.95 season-long package, fans in Brewer Nation can watch all Sky Sox games, most Shuckers games, and all Timber Rattlers home games and some road games.

[Mass Haas]

Follow Tuesday's action as it happens with box score / game log links:

 

Colorado Springs

 

Brevard County

 

Wisconsin

 

MiLB.com feature -- organizational scoreboard, Brewers

[Mass Haas]

Look for these just prior to the respective game times --

 

Brevard County Media Notes - It's a unique link each day, but look for it under the "Multimedia" banner on the Manatees' site.

 

Wisconsin Media Notes - Linked on the Rattler Radio blog

 

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STANDINGS:

 

AAA - Pacific Coast League American Northern Division

 

AA - Southern League South Division

 

High-A - Florida State League North Division

 

A - Midwest League Western Division

 

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Sortable individual stat pages:

 

Colorado Springs

 

Biloxi

 

Brevard County

 

Wisconsin

 

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Weather.com:

 

Las Vegas, NV

 

Viera, FL

 

Cedar Rapids, IA

[Mass Haas]

LogoMania FINALS -- Shuckers vs. Flying Squirrels, do your part!

[Mass Haas]

ICYMI:

 

Revisiting the Raul Mondesi Jr. Helena "Missed Home Plate' HR-Turned-GameEnding-Triple

[Mass Haas]

In miscellaneous but important news from the beat guy twitterverse this afternoon --

 

Jonathan Lucroy will rehab (likely four games) with Brevard County this week. All home games, so good for the Manatees' front office. Stay away, rain...

 

The Wily Peralta replacement will come from the minor leagues (AAA), and will most likely pitch Sunday.

[WV Brew]

Lucroy will be the 4th catcher on the Manatees unless a roster move is made elsewhere. Manatees really struggling with hitting lately. Coulter all the way down to .837 OPS and Roache .846. Still they are 5th out of 12 teams in team OPS so other teams are also struggling as the weather gets hotter.

 

Pitching is another item. It seems that with Ortega and Salas off to good starts and some of the bullpen stellar, that they are okay. Manatees though are 9th out of 12 in team ERA. 11 out of 12 in strikeouts and 8th in WHIP. So the pitching is really struggling more than the hitting relative to the league.

[Mass Haas]

Jeff Levering's latest minor-league focused blog post

[Mass Haas]

With twitter buzz that Biloxi OF Josh Fellhauer is close to returning after the tragic passing of his mom, just a reminder that fellow Shucker, RHP Tanner Poppe, also went on the Temp Inactive List, back on May 1st.

 

We know nothing about Poppe's absence, but we hope all is as well as can be.

[Mass Haas]

The Sky Sox are going with a 24-man roster for the time being, upon reliever David Goforth's callup (12 pitchers, 12 position players).

[MrTPlush]

I feel like it was just yesterday everyone was excited by Clint Coulter's hot start...Now I hear a slow sad violin playing.

[Mass Haas]

Biloxi leaders still not on board with June 6th opener

 

Eleven days away? Not so fast, and this actually looks to be very messy...

[Mass Haas]

LINK: Cameron Kmen is a Cubs blogger, but he provides us with some sweet scouting-style video and analysis from Saturday's Timber Rattlers game (Monte Harrison, Jake Gatewood, and Kodi Medeiros).

 

Also posted in our season-long Wisconsin feature thread...

[Mass Haas]

Miller Park Prospects -- Minor League Mailbag: 5/26/15

[phnxcrew]

I keep thinking of a quote from ground hog's day for the brewers future; "It's gonna be cold, it's gonna be grey, and it's gonna last you the rest of your life"

[WV Brew]

Charlotte 7, Brevard County 3

 

I haven't seen a story on this game yet. Wei-Chung Wang had another rough outing giving up 6 runs on 8 hits and 2 walks in 5 innings. His ERA is now up to 6.39. Clint Coulter and Victor Roache were collectively 0-8 and were the only 2 players in the lineup who failed to reach base. Chris McFarland, Jose Pena and Angel Ortega had 2 hit games.

 

The 3 run Manatee 7th was marred by another baserunning blunder:

 

 

Brevard County Bottom of the 7th

 

Pitching Change: Jordan Harrison replaces Chris Kirsch.

Jose Pena singles on a line drive to center fielder Dayron Varona.

Cameron Garfield grounds out, third baseman Pat Blair to first baseman Jake Bauers. Jose Pena to 2nd.

Angel Ortega singles on a ground ball to second baseman Kean Wong. Jose Pena to 3rd.

Omar Garcia singles on a line drive to right fielder Yoel Araujo. Jose Pena scores. Angel Ortega to 3rd.

With Christopher McFarland batting, Angel Ortega scores on a balk. Omar Garcia advances to 2nd on a balk.

Christopher McFarland singles on a line drive to center fielder Dayron Varona. Omar Garcia scores. Christopher McFarland out at 2nd on the throw, center fielder Dayron Varona to first baseman Jake Bauers to shortstop Willy Adames.

Clint Coulter flies out to center fielder Dayron Varona.

 

Brevard County Box Score

 

Brevard County Game Log

[TheCrew07]

Rattlers can't solve Gonsalves

Cedar Rapids starter Ks 12 over six innings in 4-1 win

By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers

 

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Carlos Leal went 1-for-3 with an RBI for the Timber Rattlers on Tuesday night at Cedar Rapids.

 

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA - The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers fell behind early and could not dig their way out of the hole at Perfect Game Field on Tuesday night. Then, Stephen Gonsalves struck out twelve over six innings as the Kernels beat Wisconsin 4-1.

 

The Kernels (29-17) sent eight men to the plate in the first inning against Wisconsin starting pitcher Devin Williams. Tanner English drew a leadoff walk and went to third on a hit and run single to left by Nick Gordon. The duo pulled a double steal with Gordon taking second and English racing home when the throw went to get Gordon. The return throw to the plate was late and English scored the first run. Trey Vavra continued his hot hitting with a double to left to drive in English. Jorge Fernandez capped the inning with a two-out RBI single for a 3-0 lead.

 

Wisconsin (13-33) had issues with Gonsalves early. The lefty retired the first nine Rattlers he faced in the game, including eight via strikeout. Dustin DeMuth and Francisco Castillo had back-to-back singles in the top of the fourth inning and when Gonsalves hit Carlos Leal with a pitch Wisconsin had the bases loaded with two outs. But, Gonsalves recorded his tenth strikeout of the game to get out of the fourth inning.

 

Williams walked the first two Kernels he saw on eight pitches in the bottom of the fourth inning and he was replaced by Luke Curtis. Curtis would walk Gordon to load the bases before Zach Larson's sacrifice fly drove in a run. Curtis got out of the inning without another run scoring.

 

The Timber Rattlers got on the scoreboard in the sixth inning with help from the Kernels defense. Sthervin Matos drew a one out walk from Gonsalves. Then, Elvis Rubio sent a slow roller towards right, but second baseman Pat Kelly cut the ball off and made a good throw to first. However, first baseman Tyler Kuresa missed the ball to allow Rubio to reach. Then, Matos rounded second base too far and was caught in a rundown. But, the throw to second was wild and Matos wound up on third after the second error on the play.

 

Carlos Leal cashed in Matos with a bloop single to right field, but that was all Wisconsin would get against Gonsalves. The lefty got a force play at second and his twelfth strikeout of the game to complete his night. He walked one, hit one, and the run charged to him was unearned. In two starts against the Rattlers this season, Gonsalves is 2-0 with 23 strikeouts, four hits, two walks, and no earned runs allowed in 13 innings.

 

Wisconsin reliever Angel Ventura pitched well over the final three inning as he kept the Kernels off the scoreboard and struck out six while doing it.

 

But, the Kernels got two perfect innings - with three strikeouts - from Michael Cederoth and a 1-2-3 ninth - with one strikeout - from Cam Booser to keep the Rattlers from mounting a comeback.

 

Wisconsin is 0-7 against the Kernels this season.

 

Game two of the series is scheduled for Wednesday night at Perfect Game Field. Cy Sneed (2-5, 1.81) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. Felix Jorge (2-2, 2.13) is set to start for the Kernels. Game time is 6:35pm.

 

Catch all the action on AM1280, WNAM starting with the Miller Lite Pregame Show at 6:15pm. The broadcast may also be heard on Tune In Radio and IHeartRadio.

 

WP: Stephen Gonsalves (5-1)

LP: Devin Williams (0-3)

SAVE: Cam Booser (5)

 

TIME: 2:40 (1:07 delay)

ATTN: 1,081

 

Wisconsin Boxscore

 

Well I meant to post some thoughts earlier but accidentally posted them in the "in game thread here".

 

In addition Cedar Rapids has just owned the Rattlers this year, Chris was talking about it during the game and the Kernels have only lost 1 game to a WI team all year (1 to Beloit) and the T-Rats are averaging way over 10 SOs per game against this pitching staff this season, with 16(!) tonight.

 

Add Devin Williams to the ever expanding list of T-Rat players who will need to grow into their role, there were no impressive velocity readings relayed from him tonight, I remember Chris mentioning 90 a couple of times and obviously the early results on the mound haven't been stellar for him. On the other hand Angel Ventura continues to impress, I meant it when I said I thought he had the best secondary stuff on this team behind Medeiros, only he controls it better.

 

This WI team just doesn't have an identity because there's no consistency... we've had offensive clubs, a few real strong pitching clubs, some teams that were a good mix including the MWL championship season, but with the lack of consistency this team loses a different way every night, there's nothing Erickson can hang his hat on.

 

WI is now far and away worst offensive club with a .217 BA, the next worst is Peoria at .234. OPS wise the Rattlers are 40 points worse than Peoria hitting a paltry .597, it's not pretty.

 

On the pitching side somehow Beloit and Fort Wayne are exceedingly terrible so the Ratters are 3rd worst in terms of Runs, Earned Runs, WHIP, and ERA. They are 5th worst in Walks, and finally next to last in Strike Outs.

 

There is plenty of talent on this team, it's maybe the most physically gifted team the Rattlers have fielded, but it is also the most raw team, there's very little polish anywhere. Or put another way there is just a ton of growing that needs to happen as these guys progress through the rest of this season and up the chain towards MLB. We knew this coming in, many of us thought the placements of Gatewood and Medeiros were reaches from the start, I'm honestly surprised by the struggles of Harrison and Denson. It will be interesting to see what happens with this group after the draft.

 

Wisconsin Recap

[Mass Haas]

Final: Las Vegas 9, Colorado Springs 1

 

Five-Run First, Sluggish Offense Doom Sox

Colorado Springs Collects Just Five Hits In 9-1 Loss

By Ed Pearsall / Colorado Springs Sky Sox

 

http://www.milb.com/assets/images/2/3/4/118613234/cuts/04_10_043_pk_78vyjupe_4pd1s2yc.jpg

 

Shane Peterson's eighth inning RBI single gave the Sox their lone run in Tuesday night's 9-1 loss in Las Vegas. (File Photo from prior game by Paat Kelly)

 

Colorado Springs could not overcome an early five-run deficit as the Sox offense mustered only five hits in their 9-1 loss to the 51s before a Tuesday night crowd of 2,067 at Cashman Field in Las Vegas.

 

Following up teammate Duane Below's complete game on Monday, 51s left-hander Steven Matz (6-2, 1.99) would not disappoint the home crowd. Matz tossed seven scoreless frames, allowing just three hits and a walk while striking out seven Sky Sox batters.

 

Sox starter Drew Gagnon (1-6, 7.78) would not fare nearly as well, giving up five runs on three hits, a walk and hit-by-pitch in the first before settling down a bit. In his 4.2 innings of work, Gagnon would allow a total of seven runs on eight hits and four walks and a strikeout.

 

Colorado Springs tallied their lone run of the ballgame in the top of the eighth against Las Vegas reliever Logan Verrett. The right-hander would allow a base-hit to pinch-hitter Pete Orr, allowing him to reach second on a wild pitch to Scooter Gennett. Chris Nelson followed Gennett's strikeout with a walk before Shane Peterson drove Orr home with an RBI single.

 

Ariel Pena and Michael Kirkman combined for 2.1 perfect innings of relief following Gagnon's shaky start before giving way to Jim Henderson in the eighth. The former Brewers closer wound allow two runs in his lone frame, giving up two hits and a walk in the process.

 

The 51s took a 9-1 lead into the top of the ninth with righty Jon Velasquez taking over on the mound. Velasquez would retire the Sox side in order to nail down the Las Vegas win, sending Colorado Springs to their third-consecutive loss in which they allowed nine runs.

 

With the loss, the Sky Sox fall to 16-28 on the season as the 51s improve to 29-17.

 

Colorado Springs will look to get back in the series in game three on this four-game set with the 51s on Wednesday night. Tyler Cravy (4-4, 4.61) is set to face off with fellow right-hander Tyler Pill (1-1, 6.21) at 8:05 PM MDT (9:05 Central) from Cashman Field in Las Vegas.

 

Colorado Springs Box Score

 

Give Biloxi the night off and this is the Link Report you get; with subpar career peripherals, hopes by most were at best cautious for RHP Drew Gagnon heading into the year; Scooter Gennett's three K's were actually his first three with the Sky Sox (24 AB's); I pointed out on Twitter last night that this was Matt Clark's first outfield stint in 2015 (left field); Yadiel Rivera had the club's lone XBH, a double...

 

Colorado Springs Game Log

[Mass Haas]

Stone Crabs' Early Assault Sparks Rout

By Jerry Durney / Brevard County Manatees

 

http://www.milb.com/assets/images/1/8/0/126927180/cuts/McFarland_off_balance_947gwpxe_2bf2co37.JPG

 

2B Chris McFarland, pictured above, collected two hits and an RBI in Tuesday nights's loss. (Dennis Greenblatt/Hawk-Eye Sports Photography)

 

Viera, Fla. - Three runs in the third and fourth inning gave the Charlotte Stone Crabs (31-14) all the fuel they needed to add to their league-leading tally as they eased to a 7-3 series-opening victory over the Brevard County Manatees (18-26) on Tuesday night.

 

The first of the two deciding frames started with a double down the right field line by Pat Blair. He would come around to score on a base hit to center by Yoel Araujo. The wheels were kept in motion when Dayron Varona, who had just been added to the Stone Crabs roster earlier in the day, singled to left. Kean Wong then dropped a potential sacrifice bunt in front of the mound but Manatees pitcher Wei-Chung Wang didn't field the ball cleanly, allowing Wong to reach and loading the bases for Willy Adames. Adames roped a ball into center, plating Araujo and Varona as Omar Garcia's throw instead went to third base, cutting down Wong in the process. Wang recovered by striking out Bauers and coaxing out a groundout from Granden Goetzman.

 

Charlotte put the game out of sight the following inning, which started with a one-out base hit by Armando Araiza. Blair then followed suit and after an Araujo strikeout, Varona tripled to deep center to bring home both runners. Wong then hit a little dribbler in front of the plate, which Cameron Garfield was able to pick up and nearly threw Wong out at first from his knees but it was ruled that Garrett Cooper bobbled the ball as Varona scored for the final run of the inning.

 

After Jake Bauers led off the top of the seventh with a deep blast to right off of Stephen Peterson for his fifth home run of the season, the 'Tees were able to do some salvaging. The inning started with a Jose Pena single to center, who moved up to second when Garfield grounded out to short. Angel Ortega then legged out an infield single to put runners at the corners for Garcia. He slapped a single into right to bring home Pena for the first Manatee run. Brevard County would get a bit of fortune soon after that as Stone Crab reliever Jordan Harrison would be called for a balk, which scored Ortega and moved Garcia to second. Chris McFarland then singled to center, which scored Garcia but McFarland would be caught trying to stretch for a double, eventually being tagged out in a rundown by Adames.

 

Over the course of the final two innings, the Manatees managed just one baserunner.

 

The Stone Crabs were led by six shutout innings from Chris Kirsch, who gave up six hits, struck out five and walked none for his third victory of the year.

 

For Brevard County, Wang was unable to maintain momentum after picking up his second win of the season last Wednesday. Over five innings, Wang gave up six runs on eight hits while walking two and striking out three. At the plate, McFarland recorded his 14th multi-hit game of the month.

 

The Manatees will look to even the four-game series on Wednesday night at 6:35 PM (5:35 Central) as RHP Brandon Woodruff (1-1, 4.38 ERA) will get the start against RHP Jacob Faria (7-1, 1.55 ERA).

[Mass Haas]

VIDEO: Until the Bitter End -- David Weible is the Last Stars Fan to Leave Joe Davis Stadium

[Mass Haas]

Honest to goodness, the Brewer affiliates must have been on the wrong side of MiLB feature overnight stories by a 4-to-1 margin this year, and deservedly so.

 

Matz adds to PCL-leading strikeout total

Mets' No. 3 prospect hurls seven scoreless innings, drives in two runs

By Alex Kraft / MiLB.com

 

***

 

Gonsalves dominant again for Kernels

Twins' No. 11 prospect strikes out career-high 12 over six innings

By Robert Emrich / MiLB.com

[igor67]

I have this slight dream that the T-rats will start to have a few things click in the next couple of weeks, and the second half team will just tear into people as the talent develops. It's good to have dreams. Admittedly I'd settle for a couple of the young guys improving to closer to their talent levels.

[Boomer5]

Long night indeed. It might be time to admit the cupboard is really bare.

 

I tend to look forward to starts by Wang, Kodi, and Devin Williams but they all continue to disappoint.