Link Report for Saturday 8/20 - AZ Box Now Available

[huntsvillefan]

If you look at the Huntsville game log, Carlos was a victim of some bad luck... He could have been out of the inning with no harm done... Stephen Drew reached on a WP strikeout to start the inning...

 

Rottino & Crabbe also fail to make the double play in the same inning before anyone scores.

Doing a rough check, apart from last night, every Stars' starter has had at least 4 scored off them in the last 12 starts. This includes Bradley & Sarfate who had been economy personified, and Ty and Carlos who had been superb in the lower league. You can believe all these pitchers went bad at the same time. Or you might consider the possibility that they are getting no help from the guys around them, who can't wait for a bad season in a bad team to be over.

[Past Member]

Any word on Braun? Anyone?

[Mass Haas]

Any word on Braun? Anyone?

 

Pohlman, love your enthusiasm, but you don't have to follow up more than once -- on stuff like this, you'll know when we know. Believe me, we're not holding back info...

[Mass Haas]

Link while active, text follows:

 

www.al.com/stars/huntsvil...amp;coll=1

 

Stars notebook (through Friday's game)

Mark McCarter and Paul Gattis

Huntsville Times

 

Covering the bases

 

The Nashville Sounds are cruising toward a playoff spot in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League. The Brevard County Manatees are fighting for a playoff spot in the Single-A Florida State League. And the Huntsville Stars will be paying for it. They may continue to surrender players to Triple-A, or get no help from below.

 

The Stars are two men short on their roster, and likely won't get any immediate help. Pitcher Carlos Villaneuva, who was to have started Saturday at Tennessee, was promoted this week from Single-A, something that probably didn't sit well in Brevard County. However, as Stars manager Don Money said, "It was a necessity.'' ... Dennis Sarfate's sore elbow left the roster spot vacant. His return this season is questionable.

 

The Stars have only one pitcher remaining from the rotation who started the season, Glenn Woolard. ... Between being short-handed, having some aborted starts because of weather and having pitchers even now with limited pitch counts, it's been tough to find enough arms. "I don't know who'll I start next. You, him, maybe that guy right there,'' Money said, pointing to a tourist walking through the Stars' hotel lobby behind a luggage cart. ... The Stars' "emergency'' pitcher is infielder Nelson Castro, who threw two innings last week and allowed four hits and three earned runs, though he did strike out three in 1 1/3 innings.

 

Nic Slack, a pitcher at Brevard County, was suspended 15 games for violating baseball's drug policy and is out for the season. Major League Baseball confirmed to Florida Today that he tested positive for steroids. Asked how organizations will react to such players, Money said, "I don't know. This is all right now still in its infancy. I don't know if they'll be putting the hammer down or not.'' ...

 

One thing Milwaukee does put the hammer down about: Its players are prohibited from sliding headfirst.

 

Around the league

 

Two of the hottest teams in the Southern League have finally cooled off ever so slightly. Birmingham had its 10-game winning streak snapped Friday in a 3-2 loss to Mobile. The BayBears scored the winning run on a wild pitch by Barons pitcher Paulino Reynoso in the seventh inning.

 

Meanwhile, Jacksonville had its 12-game winning streak end Thursday in a 7-6 loss to Mississippi. But the Suns rebounded Friday with a 6-2 win over the Braves. The Barons lead the Suns by 1 1/2 games entering Saturday's games. ... Birmingham has a tough break in this pennant race. The Barons are in the midst of a six-game series in three days at Mobile, forced by the July postponements in the wake of Hurricane Dennis. ...

 

Tennessee committed five errors in one inning in a Thursday loss to Montgomery. ... Birmingham's Chris Young (.444, three homers, seven runs scored) and Jacksonville's Edwin Jackson (no earned runs in 15 innings) are the most recent Southern League player and pitcher of the week, respectively. ... Jackson was on the fast track in the Los Angeles organization and even made his big league debut in 2003 on his 20th birthday, beating Randy Johnson. However, he was 3-7 with an 8.62 ERA at Triple-A Las Vegas this season before his demotion. ...

 

West Tenn shortstop Buck Coats ended a string of 369 at-bats without a homer when he went deep Wednesday. ... Ex-Star Johnny Raburn got a shock this week when he got to his truck after a game. According to The Montgomery Advertiser, some playful off-duty Montgomery police knew it was a player's vehicle that was parked ostensibly illegally atop a sewage drain. So they blocked the truck off with police tape and a placed a biohazard sign on it.

 

Brewings

 

Triple-A Nashville Sounds (69-58, first place in Pacific Coast League American Division): INF Tony Zuniga, who began the season with the Stars, is hitting .337 with seven homers, 38 RBIs.

 

Single-A Brevard County Manatees (29-25, third in Florida State East Division this half): P Tim Dillard 11-9, 2.39 ERA.

 

Single-A West Virginia Power (26-25, third in South Atlantic League Northern Division this half): INF Hernan Iribarren .300, 46 RBIs

 

Rookie League Helena Brewers (14-4, first in second half in Pioneer League): P William Inman 5-0, 2.10 ERA.

 

On deck

 

The Stars end a three-game series at Tennessee this afternoon, then return for an eight-game series against Mobile and Tennessee, beginning Monday. The first game is Family Fun Night, with four tickets, four hot dogs and four drinks for $40.

[Mass Haas]

From Scott Brown at Florida Today:

 

No rest for Fielder

 

Prince Fielder won't get much time to reflect on a season in which he made his big-league debut.

 

Fielder, the former Florida Air Academy and Eau Gallie High star, is one of six players the Brewers will send to the Arizona Fall League.

 

The six teams that make up the league are flush with the game's top prospects, though Fielder may soon shed that label.

 

The first baseman currently is in his second stint this season with the Brewers, and he figures to stay with the big club the rest of the season since Milwaukee is not in the wild-card hunt (Scott's opinion http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif )

 

Fielder has hit at every level he's played in the Brewers' organization.

 

He had 28 homers and 86 RBI in just 378 at-bats for Milwaukee's Triple-A team in Nashville.

 

Going into Saturday, he had batted 29 times for Milwaukee, hitting .300 with a homer and seven RBI.

 

"We're real happy where he is," said Reid Nichols, Milwaukee's special assistant to the general manager for player development. "He's a breath away from being an everyday big-league player."

[Mass Haas]

Link while active, text follows:

 

tennessean.com/apps/pbcs....328/SPORTS

 

Sounds' magic number is now at 11

By MAURICE PATTON

Tennessean Staff Writer

 

The Nashville Sounds finally managed to cut into their magic number again, defeating visiting Oklahoma 4-0 last night.

 

With the victory and Omaha's 9-1 loss to New Orleans, the Sounds reduced their magic number ? any combination of Nashville wins and Omaha losses ? for clinching the Pacific Coast League American North division title to 11.

 

The win also stopped a three-game losing streak for the Sounds.

 

Nashville starter Gary Glover recorded his longest outing of the season, scattering four hits ? including a two-out triple by Gerald Laird in the second inning ?over seven shutout innings.

 

"The first couple of innings were tough, but I got through that and I was a little more relaxed," said Glover, who has won his last three decisions. "Hopefully this gets us back on a roll. We were really hot for the majority of the road trip, but now we've got Omaha and Memphis breathing on our necks."

 

The Sounds' offense gave Glover all the support he'd ultimately need when Ryan Knox doubled with two out in the second inning to score Warren Morris. Nashville added runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings to improve to 9-4 against the RedHawks this season.

 

Knox, Dave Krynzel and Mike Rivera each had multi-hit games in Nashville's 12-hit attack.

 

No knuckling under: Former Montgomery Bell Academy and UT standout R.A. Dickey has converted to the knuckleball and came into last night with a 4-1 record and a 6.61 ERA in five starts for Oklahoma since making the switch.

 

"I had always thrown one, but it had been a hard one," Dickey said after allowing all four runs in 6+ innings last night and taking the loss. "I only threw it eight or 10 times a game, but I had some success with it. Now, instead of eight or 10 times I'll throw it 80 times out of 100. I'm learning about it."

 

Spinning turnstiles: With the season-high announced crowd of 12,644 last night, the Sounds have drawn 384,941 for 62 dates ? an average of 6,209.

 

What they said: "That (statistic) can be deceiving at times. If you win 4-0, you're doing something right." ? Nashville Manager Frank Kremblas, after his team went 1-for-14 with runners in scoring position to drop to .187 (14-for-75) over last nine games.

 

Maurice Patton covers the Nashville Sounds for The Tennessean. Reach him at mopatton@tennessean.com.

[Mass Haas]

Nothing on Arizona yet...

[Mass Haas]

Final: Arizona Athletics 3, Arizona Brewers 2

No linescore or game log, otherwise box score is intact...

 

Arizona Box Score:

Lorenzo Cain and Michael Brantley uncharacteristically go 0-for-8 at the top of the lineup, thus the reason for the low output; best outing of the year for 19-year-old RHP Amaury Rivas, who followed up southpaw Steve Garrison; the A-Crew has lost four in a row to drop from postseason contention...

 

www.minorleaguebaseball.c...k_athrok_1