Link Report for Sunday 4/17

[Mass Haas]

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

[Mass Haas]

Sky Sox Postpone Sunday's Game vs Redbirds

Game will be made up as part of double-header during the Redbirds' return trip to Security Service Field in June

 

Doubleheader Monday as well...

[Mass Haas]

Sunday's Daily Menu:

 

All times are Central

 

Biloxi: RHP Jorge Ortega at home vs. Pensacola (Reds), 12:50 PM pre-game, 1:10 gametime

 

Free Live Audio Link

 

Chris Harris is the play-by-play voice of the Shuckers. Follow Chris on Twitter @CHarris731. We'll be linking to his fantastic "Shuck Dynasty" blog. Thaddeus Krzus (@Shucks1stIntern) joins Chris often. All games, home and away, are scheduled to be radio broadcast.

 

MiLB.TV - Eight of the ten Southern League teams telecast their home games, and Biloxi is among them.

 

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Brevard County: RHP Brandon Woodruff at St. Lucie (Mets), 12:00 PM gametime

 

Free Live Audio Link (St. Lucie feed)

 

Unfortunately, the Manatees have dropped their broadcast coverage for 2016.

 

No Florida State League games are available via MiLB.TV. Ten of the 12 Florida State League teams provide audio (some only for home games), we'll do our best to let you know when an opponent's audio is going to be available.

 

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Wisconsin: LHP Jake Drossner at home vs. Peoria (Cardinals), 12:45 PM pre-game, 1:05 gametime

 

Free Live Audio Link

 

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.

 

MiLB.TV - Eight of the 16 Midwest League teams telecast their home games, and Wisconsin, once again, is among them.

 

NOTE: Thirty-nine (!) of the Rattlers' 70 home games will be broadcast on local TV this season. Time Warner Cable SportsChannel (10) and WACY-TV My NEW32 (29) 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.

[Mass Haas]

DVR ALERT!

 

Timber Rattlers Game

 

Monday, April 18th, 6:30 PM -- MyNew32 TV

[Mass Haas]

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

 

Biloxi

 

Brevard County

 

Wisconsin

 

MiLB.com feature -- organizational scoreboard, Brewers

[Mass Haas]

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

 

Biloxi Media Notes - Linked on the Shuck Dynasty blog

 

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:

 

Biloxi, MS

 

Port St. Lucie, FL

 

Grand Chute, WI

[gregmag]

Clint Coulter with maybe the ultimate small sample correction game -- four hits through six innings to raise his BA to a still-bad-but-tolerable-for-April .235.

[Eye Black]

Final: Brevard County 13, St. Lucie 0

 

Manatees offense explodes against St. Lucie in 13-0 win

Donald Rieber, Jr., Manatees Examiner

 

As mentioned in the linked game story above, every Manatees starter scored in today's rout. Enjoy the read!

 

*****

 

Brevard County Box Score

 

As gregmag points out, it's been a tough April for Clint Coulter. Things took a turn for the better on Sunday with a 4-for-5 effort including a double and three runs scored.

 

The Manatees drew eight walks in the game including four from their 1-2 punch at the top of the lineup in CF Johnny Davis (1-for-4, 2 walks, 3 runs) and SS Angel Ortega (3-for-4, 2 walks, 1 run).

 

As the Brevard County bats came alive, Manatees pitcher Brandon Woodruff shut down St. Lucie over five innings (2 hits, 0 runs, 1 walk, 8 strikeouts). Woodruff was working quickly between pitches and throwing a mid-90's fastball that touched 96 mph. He kept hitters guessing with an 87 mph changeup that was described as having lots of sink. The St. Lucie broadcaster and team staff member that joined him both noted that Woodruff's pitches had plenty of movement and that he had the "best stuff" St. Lucie has faced so far this year.

 

An interesting note mentioned during the broadcast, the Florida State League pitch clocks are currently operating just for mere reference. Beginning May 1st the pitch clocks will be strictly monitored and enforced to the point that if a batter is holding up an at-bat they can receive a called strike and a pitcher allowing the clock expire can be assessed a ball. They mentioned that so far the clock operators have been inconsistent across the league and mentioned the Brevard County clock operation on Saturday was incorrect because they were starting the 15-second countdown clock after foul balls which are considered "dead balls". The FSL was an easy pairing for the pitch clock trial due to the number of Spring Training facilities used.

 

Brevard County Game Log

 

Too much good stuff in the game log to link so check it out. Highlights include...

 

Manatees scored five runs in the 1st inning and six runs in the 3rd inning.

 

In the 2nd and 3rd innings Brandon Woodruff struck out the side and then punched out the first batter in the 4th inning to complete a stretch of seven consecutive outs recorded via strikeout.

[TheCrew07]

Rattlers drop series finale to Chiefs

Peoria beats Wisconsin 9-2 on Sunday

By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers

 

http://www.milb.com/assets/images/9/5/0/172919950/cuts/4_17_PlayerOfTheGame_e2g5mfc4_raa651tw.png

Max McDowell had two doubles, a walk, an RBI, and threw out a runner on the bases for the Timber Rattlers on Sunday afternoon. (Wisconsin Timber Rattlers/Ann Mollica)

 

Wisconsin Boxscore

A day after posting nice things about the pitching staff as a whole they put up a clunker. Unfortunately of Jake Drossner's 3 outings, only the first and shortest went well, he's had a rough start to season. Conor Harber was no better today, he's been alternating dominant and poor outings thus far.

 

In case you missed it in the game story Max McDowell (2-4,2 2B) had a nice game at the plate as did Elvis Rubio (2-4) and Luis Aviles (2-4).

 

Wisconsin Recap

[TheCrew07]

Shuckers shutout by Pensacola in opener

Jorge Ortega suffers the loss despite allowing one run in 5.2 innings

Biloxi Shuckers

 

http://www.milb.com/assets/images/3/8/2/172900382/cuts/IMG_8696_1tzfzb7p_xaz3bp95.JPG

Jorge Ortega has not walked a batter in 11.2 innings this season (MK KREBS)

 

Biloxi Boxscore

I get why people are intrigued by Jorge Ortega, I still find his lack of SOs over the course of his career concerning long term. Stephen Peterson and Drew Gagnon pitched clean outings, Hobbs Johnson's inning didn't go very well.

 

With just 2 hits for the offense there isn't much to talk about.

 

Biloxi Recap

[Eye Black]

The Biloxi Sun-Herald has a Photo Gallery from Sunday's game.

 

Arguably the best photo of the day was shared via Maverick Phillips' Twitter account (@Brett_Phillips8)

 

[ZBTMP]

As the Brevard County bats came alive, Manatees pitcher Brandon Woodruff shut down St. Lucie over five innings (2 hits, 0 runs, 1 walk, 8 strikeouts). Woodruff was working quickly between pitches and throwing a mid-90's fastball that touched 96 mph. He kept hitters guessing with an 87 mph changeup that was described as having lots of sink. The St. Lucie broadcaster and team staff member that joined him both noted that Woodruff's pitches had plenty of movement and that he had the "best stuff" St. Lucie has faced so far this year.

I'll continue to push the Woodruff bandwagon...going back to last season, his last 8 starts: 1.16 ERA .96 WHIP 9.06 K/9 1.92 BB/9.

[Mass Haas]

VIDEO via WLOX: Biloxi high/lowlights

 

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PHOTO GALLERY: Via the Biloxi Sun-Herald

[Jenkins5]

I was shocked when he was held back from Bilixi but hopefully Hader is moved up soon to open up a spot for him

[Mass Haas]

AUDIO interviews via the Rattler Radio Blog's Postgame Entry

 

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[And That]

I got to see a few innings out of Ortega yesterday... he's interesting to watch work. To go with his low-90's fastball, he has both a curveball and slider, and both of them seem to be decent pitches. I think the reason he gets so few strikeouts is that he's so relentless throwing strikes, if you're standing in the batter's box you know you're going to get caught looking if you take anything with two strikes. So there's little incentive to not swing, and Ortega's stuff isn't quite good enough to generate swings and misses where he throws it (almost always in the strike zone).

 

His curve is 12-6 without a huge drop and his slider is more slurvy than not, so there's not always enough sideways break to start it in the zone and have it wind up outside. And I don't know that he wants it to wind up outside anyway. All in all, fascinating to watch for his almost-myopic strike zone management. I have no idea how it'll play in the big leagues and I've been struggling to find an MLB comp who was similar to Ortega at his current age, experience, with his peripherals. But hopefully we get to find out how it works in Milwaukee pretty soon.

[FVBrewerFan]

Interesting, thanks. Always wondered how he could have so much success with a k rate so low.

[battlekow]

I've been struggling to find an MLB comp who was similar to Ortega at his current age, experience, with his peripherals. But hopefully we get to find out how it works in Milwaukee pretty soon.

Carlos Silva? I was thinking his MLB results, but FWIW at 21 and 22 in A+/AA Silva struck out 12.0% of batters and walked 3.5%; at 22 last year in A+ Ortega struck out 12.7% of hitters and walked 1.9%. Silva didn't throw particularly hard but he definitely wasn't a soft-tosser, either.

 

Clearly that means Ortega is gonna be even better than Silva! In actuality Silva's gotta be Ortega's 99th percentile outcome. Usually those types of results do not scale.