TooLiveBrew

Alright! Keep raking, Khrush!

*Channeling Maxwell Smart* Beat me by *that* much!

@Huntsville 3, Chattanooga 1 Huntsville Box Back-to-back doubles in the top of the 2nd resulted in a run for the Lookouts, but after that, the four Huntsville pitchers combined to shut out Chattanooga en route to the win. Starter Dan Meadows got good results, making his second straight start on three days' rest: 3 IP, 3 H, 1 R/ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 2:4 GO:AO. As I mentioned earlier in today's L.R., Dan Merklinger came on in relief of Meadows and tossed a strong 3.2 IP. However, he went K--single--K--HBP in the 7th inning, and when he was pulled, not only was his shutout stat line in jeopardy -- the game was up in the air as well. Darren Byrd came on and got a backwards K to end the top half of the 7th against Lookouts SS Luis Nunez, who obviously disagreed with the call, as he was ejected for arguing. Byrd worked an unconventional 1-2-3 inning in the 8th: he struck out the leadoff batter, but the batter reached 1B on a throwing error by catcher Adam Weisenburger on his attempt to secure the K at 1B. Byrd then got a called strike three for out #1, followed by a groundball double play. Brandon Kintzler tossed a perfect 9th for the save; Kintzler has a filthy 1.45 ERA in 16 second-half appearances (18.2 IP). Apparently the new SS in town didn't feel much like waiting around to make an impact -- as noted already by BrewersST920, in the 4th, Jean Segura blasted a double off the CF wall in his second plate appearance as Brewers property. Khris "Khrush" Davis singled back up the middle to drive him home and tie the game at 1-1. Then, in the 6th, Segura singled back up the middle to lead off the frame. He promptly stole second base during the next PA, and the Stars got back-to-back doubles of their own -- one from "Khrush", one from Hunter Morris -- and scored two runs in the inning. Khris Davis added another single to his tally, and finished 3-4 with two RBI... and extended his hitting streak to 13 games! Red-hot... white-hot... pick your flame color, and tack "-hot" on the end -- that's what he is right now. Morris finished 1-4 with one RBI, and pushed his Southern League-leading 2B tally to 33. Segura went 2-4 with one SB, his 34th of the campaign (34/47, 72%). Scooter Gennett was 1-4. The catcher Weisenburger was the only other Star with a hit; he went 1-3, and threw out 1 of 2 attempted basestealers. Josh Prince went 0-3, but drew a BB in the 7th, and subsequently stole 2B with Segura at the plate; Prince added one more to his organizational leading tally, 38, and is still (barely) holding off BC's Reggie Keen (36, with two swipes today). Kentrail Davis and T.J. Mittelstaedt both finished 0-3. Huntsville PbP Two run-scoring innings were enough tonight, or: How Jean Segura Won Over Any Brewers Fan Who Wasn't Already Excited About Him: Huntsville Bottom of the 4th -Jean Segura doubles (1) on a fly ball to center fielder Anthony Jackson. -Scooter Gennett grounds out, third baseman C. J. Retherford to first baseman J. T. Wise. -Khris Davis singles on a ground ball to center fielder Anthony Jackson. Jean Segura scores. -Hunter Morris lines out to second baseman Rafael Ynoa. -T. J. Mittelstaedt strikes out swinging. And the even more entertaining 6th: Huntsville Bottom of the 6th -Jean Segura singles on a ground ball to center fielder Anthony Jackson. -With Scooter Gennett batting, Jean Segura steals (1) 2nd base. -Scooter Gennett strikes out swinging. -Khris Davis doubles (9) on a fly ball to center fielder Anthony Jackson. Jean Segura scores. -Hunter Morris doubles (33) on a fly ball to center fielder Anthony Jackson. Khris Davis scores. -T. J. Mittelstaedt grounds out to first baseman J. Wise. Hunter Morris to 3rd. -Kentrail Davis lines out to shortstop Jake Lemmerman. Huntsville Gameday

Nope, you just called for him to be traded for anything so we could play Scooter Gennett... he of the .585 second-half OPS in AA. If cutting guys actually saved the Brewers any money, it might be a good aggressive strategy to use. But it doesn't, & I already laid out in another thread why I think the Brewers did (& were justified in doing so) keep running K-Rod out there.

I'll get Huntsville's LR post up a little later. Gotta make dinner... I lost track of the time!

@Fort Myers 11, Brevard County 3 'Tees crushed by Miracle in series finale Bradley drops ninth decision in 11-3 loss By Frank Longobardo / Brevard County Manatees FORT MYERS, Fla. - The Brevard County Manatees were throttled 11-3 by the Fort Myers Miracle on Sunday afternoon at Hammond Stadium to close out a four-game series between the two teams. The struggles continued for Brevard starting pitcher Jed Bradley (5-9, 5.23) as he went just 4.2 innings and allowed six earned runs on ten hits, while walking three and striking out two. The southpaw is now 1-5 with a 9.97 ERA in eight road starts and is 0-3 with a 6.67 ERA in five July starts. The Manatees (20-17 second half, 49-56 overall) did get on the board first in the second inning as Shea Vucinich and Joey Paciorek led off the inning with back-to-back singles and two batters later Vucinich would score on a RBI single from John Dishon. Fort Myers (19-19, 47-58) took the lead in the bottom of the inning and it all started with two outs in the frame. Andy Leer singled and then Angel Morales walked to put two on. Back-to-back RBI singles from Levi Michael and Steven Liddle would put the Miracle on the board and give them a 2-1 lead. The Miracle would do more damage against Bradley and the 'Tees with two outs in the fourth inning as Josmil Pinto hit a two-run homer to make it a 4-1 game. Bradley would get two outs in the fifth and walk two batters before being lifted for Thomas Keeling. Keeling walked the first batter he faced to load the bases and then Levi Michael singled to give the Miracle a 5-1 lead. Michael Gonzales would then break the game wide open as he hit a grand slam to right to make it a 9-1 game. It was the fourth grand slam that Brevard County has allowed this season. A RBI single by Reggie Keen and a RBI double by Mike Walker in the seventh would cut it to a 9-3 Miracle lead, but Fort Myers scored two runs off of Alan Williams in the eighth to make it an 11-3 game. Keen led the way at the plate for the 'Tees as he went 3-for-5 and stole two bases to raise his total to 36 for the season. Brevard County will return home to Space Coast Stadium to open up a four-game series with the Jupiter Hammerheads on Monday at 6:35 p.m. Brevard and Jupiter split its four-game series at Roger Dean Stadium back in early June. Brevard County Box Dishon finished 2-4 with a SB out of the 9-hole. Keen was also picked off once, in addition to his otherwise fine performance. Walker went 1-4 with the 2B & a BB. Vucinich was 1-4. Paciorek and Jason Rogers each went 1-3 with a single & BB. Seth Harvey pitched two perfect innings in relief of Keeling with 4 Ks; he was just outstanding today. I remember consistently being impressed with his performances while covering Helena in the L.R. last summer, and I'd love to see any kind of scouting report on his repertoire. Brevard County PbP Hey, if you want to look through this bad boy, be my guest. Nothing pretty in there, though. You've been warned.

Just wanted to bump this thread because I'm going to enjoy watching player development the rest of the way this season. Fiers, Rogers, & Gomez are the main candidates on the big-league club, but come September we might be talking about any number of Segura--Thornburg--Hellweg--Pena--Burgos--Peralta--Gindl--Morris--Khris Davis--Schafer being up with the Brewers. In the meantime, there's plenty of player development to track in the minors. I've become more & more of a Brewers' MiLB geek, and this season has been really fun to follow in that aspect. This still isn't an upper-echelon farm system, but there's a lot of talent in it at this point, and much of that is pretty well advanced. 2013 might not be a contending season, but I see no reason to think that the Brewers couldn't be right back in the thick of things by 2014.

Same here. Maybe they're the most painful to watch bullpen ever?

TJ surgery, hip flexor injury mid-2011, then he really looked injured down the stretch... which I think may have carried over into this season. He may not have been "oft-injured" per se, but he's certainly a big injury question mark.

Someone needs to start tracking all the people JBriggs calls to be fired or cut. That would be a pretty long list at this point.

Well I think Schafer profiles pretty similarly to the Morgan/Aoki mold as a hitter; for a different comp., his MiLB hitting career looks pretty similar to Segura's. Not a lot of power, but a good line drive swing with a good approach. Gomez definitely has more raw power, but Schafer's contact ability is probably better at this point. The sky is still the limit for Gomez if he can ever figure out how to refine his approach at the plate & make consistent contact... probably not likely, but certainly not implausible. If the Brewers' manager would stop trying to pretend Gomez has already done that, & just bat him 7th or 8th, I don't think there'd be much reason to complain about Gomez as the everyday CF. This season so far, Gomez has basically been Yuni Betancourt as a hitter, but unlike Yuni, Carlos plays elite defense (& obv. at a premium position). Defensively, Schafer is a guy whose instincts probably rate out higher than his physical ability, but he's a good athlete who certainly isn't slow. You're absolutely right to infer that Gomez is the best defensive OF in the organization; he's probably on the shortlist for all of MLB in that regard. So Schafer's D would be a downgrade, but it'd be like going from A+ defense to A defense. I'm not familiar with Schafer's arm, but I don't recall it ever being pointed out as a weakness. One last note on the (very interesting... good call JJ7) Gomez-Schafer discussion... Gomez is less than a year older than Schafer; they're basically the same age. Difference is that Gomez has spent what probably should've been MiLB developmental time in the big leagues. I do think Logan should get a long look in Milwaukee the next few months. Let's see what he can do at the MLB level. I don't disagree in general, but the problem is where would he play? Gomez is still not a good OBP guy, but honestly I'd rather see the Brewers opt to make him the guy they ensure gets tons of big-league playing time the rest of the way -- with no insult meant to Schafer, Gomez's ceiling is just SO much higher. This season has been, by far, Gomez's best as a big-league hitter. He's already a very valuable player almost exclusively due to his defense... the power has started to show quite a bit more... now it's time to see if he can ever slow the game down enough & be patient enough at the plate to make consistent contact. EDIT: The flip-side of Gomez's improvement as a hitter is possibly trying to deal him this offseason. He's a free agent after next season, & is yet another Scott Boras client. I think the Brewers should let him play fulltime the rest of the way, and then see if any other organization thinks the light has gone on for Gomez. I think he could net you a decent prospect with a full year's service time remaining. If he wasn't a Boras client, I'd be all about approaching him with a three to five year contract asap, but Boras clients seem to hit free agency about 99 times out of 100. EDIT2: Heck, if I'm a GM & I'm going to try to flip him, the time is now before the deadline. I didn't realize until writing up this post that Gomez will be a FA after next season, or that he's a Boras client (at least per BB-reference). You have plenty of options to man CF both this season & going forward, & if you find a GM that believes Gomez's progress is for real, he might be willing to pay a good price for 1.5 years of Gomez.

I absolutely don't want to see any decision based on fans. It's terrible rationale. I agree there are other RPs who deserve a shot, but it's not like there's zero reason to keep running Rodriguez out there. Even if there was a 1% chance he'd turn things around & allow the Brewers to flip him for a prospect, it was worth keeping him on the big club. The season is lost, there was no reason not to do it.

Wow, Meadows was good in his 3 IP as the starter, but today's piggyback partner Merklinger was flat-out dominant 3.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, 1 HBP

There's a reason the Angels had called him up. He's ready.

Is it even the worst bullpen in the league this season?

I get it, it's easier to dismiss every young MiLB player than try to analyze each guy individually. To each his own. I just prefer to not apply such a blanket policy.

Number of MLB plate appearances has nothing directly to do with whether or not someone is a good hitter.

Second half line: .264/.361/.472/.832 ^ That's Rickie Weeks. Glad to have him back.

1) Maybe. 2) No, no, no, no. EDIT: Wasn't Mauer moved after injury problems? If Lucroy winds up having injuries that inhibit his ability to catch, of course you explore moving him. But I don't view a broken pinkie & then this season's SuticaseGate as reasons to move him.

Don't worry, K-Rod's warming up!

I thought Gonzalez caught that bunt at first. Phew!

It's just what he does. Seriously. I understand why people are skeptical of prospects in general, & Mark specifically, but this guy is as legit a talent as you can get.

Not as much as productive outs

Exactly what I meant, & why I said "we're not looking to give him away on the cheap" in my hypothetical DM comment in my last post

He sure did -- he looked like a MLB vet, actually. No outward sign of nerves whatsoever. And he was a borderline call on the 2-2 FB to Bernadina away from completing the 6th.