TooLiveBrew

Well a couple of nights ago, the FSN-WI 'farm report' graphic used the T-Rats logo for every level they highlighted in said graphic... so I guess what I'm saying is I don't doubt that you may have seen it spelled "Maldanado"

Huntsville 3, @Pensacola 2 Huntsville Box The Stars scratched out a one-run win tonight, and have now taken the first three of a five-game set in Pensacola. Starter Josh Stinson turned in a solid outing despite some control issues: 6 IP, 6 H, 2 R/1 ER, 5 BB, 2 K, 7:3 GO:AO, 95 TP (50 strikes). The only Pensacola runs came on a Stinson throwing error on a pickoff attempt in the 4th that allowed his 'unearned' run to score, and a solo HR to lead off the 2nd. Stinson was able to pitch around a pair of BBs in the 1st, including walking Billy Hamilton (no SBs tonight) to start the outing. He also got some help from a pair of outfield assists... more on that later. Pensacola-born Darren Byrd threw two perfect innings of relief -- 4 groundouts, a flyout, and one K. Brandon Kintzler worked a perfect 9th for the save (flyout, groundout, groundout). Tommy Manzella and Hainley Statia each singled twice. Leadoff man Josh Prince had a productive game, finishing 1-3 with a 2B, BB, and a successful squeeze bunt sacrifice in the 7th. Hunter Morris went 1-4 with a single; he's had a hit in 9 of his last 10 games. I mentioned above that the Davises extended their hitting streaks, and both "Ke" & "Kh" added big-time outfield assists as well. Khris Davis homered and was 1-3 on the game with a BB. Kentrail Davis went 1-4 with a single. Kentrail's OF assist came as part of an outstanding F9 --> 9-2 double play to end the 4th... right on the heels of Stinson's throwing error on a pickoff attempt that allowed a run to score & Pensacola to tie the game at 2-2. Big time play from Kentrail. Later on, Khris threw out Blue Wahoos leadoff hitter Beau Mills in the 6th, when he tried to extend a single into a double. Two batters later Pensacola got a double, which would have likely plated the run had Mills not gotten greedy. Had Mills scored on the double, Pensacola would've jumped ahead at 3-2. Instead, the Stars kept the tie intact, and Prince's successful squeeze bunt in the next half-inning put them ahead for good. Huntsville faced a pretty good young pitcher in Daniel Corcino tonight (6 IP, 5 H, 2 R/ER, 1 BB, 5 K). Corcino was ranked the Reds #4 prospect pre-2012 by Perfect Game, and their write-up on him notes he was signed for just $25,000 as a teenager out of the D.R. They also note: "He’ll move up to High-A Bakersfield in 2012 where he’ll have a chance to prove he is a legitimate prospect. The transition from the Midwest League to the California League has traditionally been a difficult one, and another strong campaign would prove very encouraging." Well apparently the Reds are pretty high on Corcino -- and he's proving them right to be -- since they skipped him past high-A entirely & sent him straight to Pensacola this season. He sports a 3.25 ERA on the campaign, and although his BB rate has climbed a bit & his K rate has dropped compared to 2011, there's still a lot to like about this young (21) pitcher. Of note is that he appears to be more of a flyball pitcher, which might not play well should he make it all the way to Great American Ballpark... but the Kh. Davis HR tonight was only the 7th he's allowed this year, over 105.1 IP. Man, do the Reds have some good talent in their farm system. Huntsville PbP The 4th inning saw Pensacola tie the game on Stinson's error, but "Ke" put their rally to bed: Pensacola Bottom of the 4th -Beau Mills grounds out to first baseman Hunter Morris. -David Vidal doubles (13) on a fly ball to center fielder Josh Prince. -Donald Lutz singles on a line drive to right fielder Kentrail Davis. David Vidal to 3rd. -With Tucker Barnhart batting, throwing error by Josh Stinson on the pickoff attempt, David Vidal scores. Donald Lutz to 3rd. -Tucker Barnhart walks. -Miguel Rojas flies into a double play, right fielder Kentrail Davis to catcher Adam Weisenburger. Donald Lutz out at home on the throw. And, not to be outdone by his near-namesake, "Kh" cut a rally down before it could get started in the 6th: Pensacola Bottom of the 6th -Beau Mills singles on a line drive to right fielder Kentrail Davis. Beau Mills out at 2nd, left fielder Khris Davis to second baseman Scooter Gennett. -David Vidal strikes out swinging. -Donald Lutz doubles (2) on a line drive to center fielder Josh Prince. -Tucker Barnhart walks. -Miguel Rojas grounds out, pitcher Josh Stinson to first baseman Hunter Morris. Since the box score credits Khris with an OF assist at 2B, I'm just assuming that whoever was the stringer for the game tonight simply got his K. Davises mixed up at that spot in the game log. Huntsville Gameday

Yep, Melvin certainly hasn't looked very good this season imo.

Both Davis boys extended their hitting streaks tonight. Kentrail's is up to 7 games, while Khris reached 10 games with a 4th inning HR. Good outing from Josh Stinson, and obviously hometown boy Darren Byrd is plenty comfortable pitching in Pensacola (2 scoreless frames). Brandon Kintzler is on to try for the save in a 3-2 game as I type this.

Friers, LuCroY, Kotteris... who else are we missing Maldanado?

Looks like that'd be Up Cubed at this point

Wow, what's one more than getting one-upped? Two-upped? Whatever it is, it just happened to me.

And this year's Brewers are kinda like last year's Reds. Funny the way baseball goes from season to season.

8. SS Cesar Izturis I'm not sure how many more times I can stomach reading that name in the starting lineup. To quote C-3PO, "this is madness!"

The Mets released Miguel Batista today. I wonder if he might get picked up by the Crew.

Yep -- hey, I said quickly!

Yes he does. Andrus certainly isn't some bum, and he's obviously further along in his development, but what the Rangers believe they have in Profar is probably best quickly described as Hanley Ramirez part II.

Well if I'm an Orioles fan, I'm very glad to hear that. Imo there's no way that they're going to hang around much longer, with or without ZG, playing in that beast of a division. They are set up nicely to be a contender for the next few seasons; no reason to burn at least 6 seasons of Machado for a glimmer of a chance in 2012.

Well after the 2010 season, Tulowitzki re-signed with COL for appx. 10 years/$158M. That deal included buying out his last two arbitration seasons ('11 & '12). So a quick & dirty AAV for the seasons beyond that, plus the $4M buyout for the deal's final (& only) option season, would be about $16M ($144M, 9 seasons). If I'm free agent Elvis Andrus, and I've stayed healthy & played to my career norms through 2014, I'd be looking for something in the neighborhood of maybe (?) $12-15M AAV. My young age would be a huge factor in my expectations of contract length, and I certainly wouldn't be interested in like a 5 or 6 year deal, because 6 years seems to be the going minimum on the FA market lately for star players. I sincerely believe, with Boras as his agent, the expectations will be like a 10 year deal -- keep in mind all of this assumes Andrus stays healthy & productive. Oh, and if the Yankees are indeed interested suitors for the FA market, you'd better bet me as Elvis Andrus is confident that $150M isn't an impossible number. EDIT: Duh, good call on Reyes as a comp, nate82. His AAV is actually higher than Tulo's, at appx. $17.7M per year. So an 8 year contract (to borrow from nate's post) would be just over $140M.

I initially glossed over your post after the link, but you make a great point on Melvin. And I agree that it's an interesting read. Pretty candid stuff from DM.

The last sentence is the key part to me -- if you're Elvis Andrus, and will be coming off your age-25 season as a FA SS, and Cole Hamels just got north of $140M, how excited to sign a team-friendly contract would you be? He'll be gone by Saturday is my guess. That one extra start (iirc Sunday is his next turn in the rotation) will be huge to whichever team buys him, and I'm betting the Brewers don't want to take one more chance -- however small -- at risking an injury to ZG.

Talent-wise, obviously I'd love Andrus. But what scares me is that he'd be exactly the type of player I'd expect Melvin to want, and it fits with his patching from year-to-year m.o. Also, I think the over/under on this thread should be set at 100 pages.

Bianchi getting sent back to AAA (apparently ruining his career for whatever reason) As someone who this is clearly in response to, that's obnoxious. No one has said anything close to this, and no one will.

They may feel Profar is ready and just call him up. If they made the deal, they probably feel what they are getting will help them a lot and is worth any drop-off from Andrus to Profar. It's been rumored for awhile that they would look to deal Andrus once Profar was ready. They really want a World Series title this year before Hamilton hits free agency. Just wanted to add that, if this is actually the deal that winds up happening... that would be some pair of cojones on Jon Daniels. There really isn't much to dislike or not envy about that Rangers organization right now. Bold.

Everyone here needs to repeat the bolded part as mantra for the next few days -- at least, I know I will. There will probably be at least a couple more OMGOMGOMG type rumors before ZG is actually moved. Curse you, internets!

The other player response tweets to Mitch make me think that Stetter & Dillard in the same clubhouse would be must-see TV.

I quoted your post, as opposed to Invader's, because I wanted to address the 'accuracy' angle. All I wanted to say on that is how much I appreciated the author going out of his way to hammer home the message that this is not anything certain. I actually chuckled when I saw he maxed out, basically, what he could do to text with the words "rumored" and "implied". Nice to see a high level of caution & care from this guy, obviously just some schmo living in his parents' basement, like all Bloggers™. If this proves true -- IF -- I torn about the idea of getting two seasons of Andrus. On the one hand, nice -- two years of Andrus for a couple months of Greinke. On the other hand, that's a classic Melvin-the-patcher type of move, and I'd rather see a headline player that is a longer-term solution. However, I'm also not totally sold on Jean Segura (LAA), and it seems obvious that both Profar & Machado (BAL) aren't available for Greinke. So I might prefer Olt then over Andrus, but this is certainly exciting. Once I got over the bummer that was Greinke not re-signing with the Brewers, I've been waiting for this process. I'm excited about the Brewers again!

The Angels offere... what? I'm starting to believe that Bob Nightengale doesn't know what he's talking about, because that offer is just... wow. Bad.

Yeah, completely agree on FG's WAR being the one to use. It just always seems to pass the 'common sense test', if that's a test that is a thing. I go to BB-reference for almost everything, stats-wise. But not WAR.

It's not that Wolf loved Kotteras, it's that he didn't get a long with LucrOy in how he called the games or something. Wolf doesn't need Kotteras, he just couldn't get a long with LucRoy so Ron choose Wolf to be the pitcher in the rotation where LucroY got his day off. Dude -- I'm in. All I can say is it's too bad lUcroY is only six letters.