Jim Goulart

VIDEO: Nathan Orf's accomplishment was featured in postgame interview video form by ESPN, and this video has been retweeted nearly 500 times, good for him, and also good for Andrew Luftglass, conducting this interview, who along with Justin Rocke, and the Voice of the Manatees, Dave Walkovic, have really treated us the past two seasons with their on-air talents and interviewing skills.

AUDIO via Jeff Hem's blog -- "Tonight’s interview is with Sounds first baseman Hunter Morris, who is hitting .314 in his 11 games since rejoining the Sounds from arm injury. Morris describes the team’s disappointment in finishing second in the division, what he went through missing several weeks with the injury and how he’s felt since returning."

The initial post has been verified by the Brewers - one glaring mistake, we overlooked former 40-man roster member Sean Halton (apologies, Sean), and the list of restricted players has been added to the bottom of the post.

Pena was on the Angels' 40-man as of his acquisition.

Couple of quick notes -- we have asked the Brewers to verify the accuracy of the list in the initial post above, we'll adjust as necessary, although we believe we're very close if not 100%. Until the Brewers do, if you believe something is listed in error, let us know, thanks. Also, we'll obtain the list of those who are still technically Brewers' rights, but are on some sort of restricted status for not filing retirement paperwork and such. We added that to the list last year and will do so again for you later this week.

(Originally posted in August, now amended later in this thread...) More thoughts than predictions, but please add your own: Automatic 100% - RHP Taylor Jungmann, SS Yadiel Rivera, RHP David Goforth Bypassed last year, unlikely to be left unprotected again - RHP Tyler Cravy Don't be surprised if -- C Adam Weisenburger, LHP Jed Bradley So I'm going with six additions this year. *** Here's a link to my 2013 predictions, along with all of yours who posted. I did nail this part : Don't be surprised if -- RHP Brooks Hall, RHP Kevin Shackelford *** So please add your own now.

Barring a re-sign with the Brewers, players who will be major league free agents -- LHP Zach Duke LHP Tom Gorzelanny 1B Lyle Overbay 1B/3B Mark Reynolds RHP Francisco Rodriguez 2B Rickie Weeks

November 20th is the date by which players must be added to the 40-man for Rule 5 protection. This year, the roster is at 36 (as of November 5th). And who knows the status of LHP Miguel De Los Santos, the waiver claim from the Rangers who is still apparently in the midst of visa-related restricted list purgatory, and is still listed on the Brewers' official roster page. *** Since we're always asked, here's info from two years ago, the numbers may have bumped up since then -- "Players in the minor leagues make $32,500 in their first year on the 40-man roster, $67,300 in their second year, and $97,500 in their third year. Any player with major league service time makes at least $67,300, regardless of how many years of service."

RHP Tyler Wagner tweets he's been bumped from Brevard to Huntsville.

NOTE: The initial post in this thread is up-to-date. Posts have been made since this thread's August inception, you are free to read those below. Additional comments starting on November 19th, the eve before these decisions must be made, begin here. *** Not to be confused with our Brewer Minor League Free Agency Eligibles After the 2014 Season Thread, this thread focuses on those players who will be eligible to be selected in December 11th's Rule 5 Draft, and considers who Milwaukee should add to the 40-man roster to protect. (We earlier anticipated that SS Hector Gomez would be the only player listed in the free-agent eligible thread to be added. C Shawn Zarraga signed a minor league extension, as did RHP's Tim Dillard and Manny Barreda and IF Taylor Green) Last year the Brewers added the following four players: RHP Brooks Hall 1B Hunter Morris 1B Jason Rogers (since converted to 3B/1B) RHP Kevin Shackelford (since removed from the 40-man and subsequently traded to Reds) Unlike 2013, when the Brewers added five players to the 40-man roster during the season, only Hector Gomez was added during the course of the 2014 season. Remember -- Players who signed when 18 or younger are eligible for the draft after five years. Players who signed when 19 or older are eligible after four years. According to the rules, it's how old a player was on the June 5th immediately preceeding his signing. Below are the players not eligible for free agency, but who would be Rule 5 eligible if not placed on the 40-man roster. If a player is italicized, it's the first year the Brewers have to consider the player. The others, not italicized, were eligible to be plucked last year but weren't. Players listed alphabetically within level: Current AAA Players -- LHP Nick Additon RHP Jaye Chapman RHP Tyler Cravy RHP Tim Dillard RHP John Ely OF/1B Sean Halton OF Jeremy Hermida RHP Kyle Heckathorn RHP Taylor Jungmann - Added to 40-man roster LHP Brent Leach RHP Eric Marzec RHP Wirfin Obispo IF Pete Orr RHP Ariel Pena C Adam Weisenburger Current AA Players -- RHP Jacob Barnes RHP Manny Barreda LHP Jed Bradley OF Kentrail Davis OF Josh Fellhauer RHP Drew Gagnon RHP David Goforth - Added to 40-man roster IF Taylor Green RHP Greg Holle RHP Casey Medlen RHP Andy Moye OF/IF Josh Prince (release announced on 11/12) 1B Nick Ramirez OF D'Vontrey Richardson SS Yadiel Rivera - Added to 40-man roster RHP Austin Ross 2B Nick Shaw IF Hainley Statia LHP Mike Strong - Added to 40-man roster RHP Tommy Toledo IF/OF Shea Vucinich (release announced on 11/12) C Shawn Zarraga Current A-Level (or below) players -- C Parker Berberet C Cameron Garfield RHP Milton Gomez RHP Seth Harvey OF Dionis Hinojosa (release announced on 11/12) 2B Greg Hopkins (release announced on 11/12) 3B Brandon Macias C Connor Narron C Rafael Neda C Leudi Otano OF Jose Pena LHP Stephen Peterson RHP Chad Pierce (retired in October) RHP Junior Rincon RHP Chad Thompson LHP Max Walla (release announced on 11/12) RHP Mark Williams UPDATED: The following players never filed retirement papers formally and remain Brewers property. Technically, they will appear on the Brewers' Rule 5 eligible list to other clubs, although the Brewers may be releasing some of these players shortly. If so, those releases would appear on Baseball America's weekly summary list. LHP Brandol Perez, RHP's Jameson Dunn, Osmel Perez, Matt Miller, Rolando Pascual, INF's Andres Martinez, Michael Marseco, Brent Brewer, OF Ronny Puello, C Carlos Pena

Via Huntsville GM Buck Rogers -- Stars fans, today’s doubleheader is scheduled to begin at 4:00 PM. Gates will open at 3:00 PM. Both games will be seven innings in length. We have three regular season games to complete in the next 32 hours , give or take. When this 30th season concludes tomorrow afternoon there will have been 4,210 regular season games played in 30 seasons. Just because you were wondering, the Stars have posted a 2111-2096 record, or a .5018 winning percentage. That’s 15 games over .500 after 30 seasons. Who knew? Tomorrow’s game will begin at 1:00 PM, gates will open at noon. The weather gurus assure us that all the nasty stuff that has passed thru the area yesterday should be out of here by game time today. The playoff picture is still undecided, but not complicated. In the North Division the Chattanooga Lookouts and Tennessee Smokies play a DH today and single game tomorrow. Whichever team wins two of those three games will be declared the 2nd half champion and make the trip to Huntsville for Thursday and Friday’s opening playoff games. In the South Division Jacksonville has a ½ game lead on Mississippi. The Suns have single games today and tomorrow. The M-Braves have a DH today and a single game tomorrow here in Huntsville. Jacksonville must win the division outright as the Braves own the tie-breaker (Braves defeated the Suns four of the five games that they played this half). So, the Suns (43-25) need to stay one game ahead of the Braves and that means at least one loss by the Braves to the Stars today. For the Braves (42-25) to clinch they simply need to remain tied with the Suns. The Braves are going to have to win at least one of the three remianing games to knot it back up, but then they only need to keep pace with Jacksonville. Our guys will factor in determining who will win the South Division. Looking ahead to the playoffs…the Stars are 40-27 at home and 36-34 on the road, so these two home playoff games are critical. Our home record against both the Chattanooga Lookouts and Tennessee Smokies is 8-2 & 8-2. Our road record against the Chattanooga Lookouts and Tennessee Smokies is 6-4 & 4-6 respectively. The home games are extremely important for the playoffs for all parties involved, so we’re going to need to spread the word for this Thursday and Friday’s playoff games and get some extra bodies out to the ballpark. Come on out and join the excitement of the Southern League’s pennant race which could be decided today here (if the Braves win two games and the Suns lose, or vice versa). And if either Chattanooga or Tennessee wins their DH today, they would clinch as well. Whatever happens, there’ll be a lot of people checking their phones fopr league scores today and two teams making travel plans for Thursday. Have a great day, everybody. See you at the yard this afternoon. Rock On!

Via Tom Haudricourt (Link for entire weekly notes column): The Brewers have been affiliated with the Class AAA Nashville Sounds since the 2006 season, and stayed there despite the team playing in outdated Greer Stadium, a 37-year-old fossil that will be put out of its misery after this season. The Sounds' new ownership finally succeeded in putting together a public-private financing plan to build a new ballpark in time for the 2015 season. The Sounds played their final game at Greer on Wednesday night, losing to Sacramento, 8-5. After sticking with the Sounds all that time as they fought to get a new facility, the Brewers now face the possibility of being kicked to the curb with their player development contract expiring after the 2014 season. One popular rumor had the Brewers moving their Class AAA affiliate all the way out to Fresno, Calif. "Fresno is not a place we are looking to go to," Doug Melvin said. Melvin is still awaiting word from Nashville owner Frank Ward as to his intentions for a new contract. "It's up to that ballclub, not us," Melvin said. "We don't make that decision. We've made every indication we want to stay there. We've been there a number of years now and played under certain conditions that weren't the best. "We like the city; the city has treated us well. We love the new ownership.... We've had good conversations. I talked to the owner three weeks ago and he said he just wants to wait. He's busy building the new ballpark." Minor-league teams with expiring player development contracts have between the end of their season and Sept. 11 to notify their commissioner of their intent to terminate their relationship with a big-league club. Those notifications are not made public, but teams without contracts are notified between Sept. 12-15 of the pool of available open affiliations. Beginning on Sept. 16 and continuing through the end of the month, major-league and minor-league teams can negotiate new deals with each other. If all agreements are not in place by Oct. 7, MLB and Minor League Baseball combine to pair affiliates to franchises without a contract. "I think we have a good relationship with (the Sounds), but that doesn't mean they won't look somewhere else," Melvin said.

From Wednesday -- Baseball America's Matt Eddy pointed out to me that Torres won the Arizona Rookie League ERA crown (1.92, ERA 1.18 in final ten appearances).

Brevard County -- AUDIO: LHP Stephen Peterson joins Justin Rocke on the Manatees Radio Network about his strong finish to the season and wearing specialty jerseys. AUDIO, Game One Highlights: Tyler Wagner and Stephen Peterson finish four outs short of a no-hitter, but the 'Tees win over the Blue Jays, 2-0. AUDIO, Game Two Highlights: Brevard County completes the sweep of the doubleheader with a 1-0 victory. AUDIO: After the 'Tees threw shutouts in both games of the doubleheader, starters Tyler Wagner and Hobbs Johnson joined the 'Tees Radio Network.

To see tweets as to when the Link Report has been technically "completed" with available links, as well as to know when the new day's Report has been posted, please follow @Mass_Haas on Twitter. *** Look for these just prior to the respective game times -- Nashville Media Notes - it's a unique link each day, but look for it under the "Roster" banner on the Sounds' site. Brevard County Media Notes - again, 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 *** STANDINGS: (For split-season leagues, 2nd half standings are shown as the default, although overall standings are also available at the link.) AAA - Pacific Coast League American Southern Division AA - Southern League North Division High-A - Florida State League North Division A - Midwest League Western Division Rookie Advanced - Pioneer League North Division Rookie - Arizona Summer League Central Division DSL - Dominican Summer League San Pedro de Macoris *** Sortable individual stat pages: Nashville Huntsville Brevard County Wisconsin Helena Maryvale Dominican Summer League Brewers *** Weather.com: Round Rock, TX Huntsville, AL Viera, FL (Melbourne) Beloit, WI Helena, MT

Follow Sunday's action as it happens with box score / game log links: Nashville Huntsville Game One Huntsville Game Two Brevard County Wisconsin Helena MiLB.com feature -- organizational scoreboard, Brewers

Definitely a down year, but happy 26th birthday to Caleb Gindl...

Sunday's Daily Menu: All times are Central Nashville: RHP Taylor Jungmann at Round Rock (Rangers), 5:45 PM pre-game, 6:05 gametime Free Live Audio Link Jeff Hem is the play-by-play voice of the Sounds; follow him on Twitter @jeffhempbp; we'll link to his blog updates at On the Air…and Off MiLB.TV -- for subscribers; all Nashville 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. All MiLB.TV details available at the link. ********** Huntsville: RHP Austin Ross and LHP Jed Bradley in a doubleheader at home vs. Mississippi (Braves), 3:40 PM pre-game, 4:00 gametime; each contest slated for seven innings Free Live Audio Link Steve Jarnicki is the new play-by-play voice of the Stars - welcome aboard! Follow Steve on Twitter @SteveJarnicki. All games, home and away, are scheduled to be broadcast. MiLB.TV - It appears seven of the ten Southern League teams telecast their home games (not the Stars). ********** Brevard County: RHP Jorge Lopez at home vs. Dunedin (Blue Jays), 1:35 PM pre-game, 2:05 gametime Free Live Audio Link -- Select the proper link based on listed schedule Dave Walkovic returns as the play-by-play voice of the 'Tees; follow the Brevard broadcast booth staff on Twitter @BCManateesRadio, as all games are scheduled to be broadcast in 2014. No Florida State League games are available via MiLB.TV. ********** Wisconsin: RHP Tristan Archer at Beloit (Athletics), 1:40 PM pre-game, 2:00 gametime Free Live Audio Link - 1280 AM 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. For the $49.95 season-long package, fans in Brewer Nation can watch all Sounds games, Stars' road games from seven Southern League locales, and all Timber Rattlers home games and some road games. NOTE: Thirty-nine (!) of the Rattlers' 70 home games will be broadcast on TV this season. Time Warner Cable SportsChannel (9) and WACY-TV My NEW32 (30) will split duties. We'll let you know when and who, and remember to refer to the Rattlers' full TV schedule so you can coordinate your DVR activity. ********** Helena: LHP Luis Ortega at home vs. Great Falls (White Sox), 1:45 PM pre-game, 2:05 gametime Free Live Audio Link There's a new Voice of the Helena Brewers in 2014, as Dustin Daniel (@dustin__daniel on Twitter) takes over for legendary Steve Wendt. We look forward to Dustin building his own legacy moving forward. ********** Arizona Rookie (Maryvale): Season complete - Finished 24-31, out of the postseason ********** DSL Brewers: Season complete - summary post here

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Dustin Demuth the early exit in Game Two, although he wasn't pinch-run for immediately: Helena Bottom of the 1st Gregory Munoz grounds out, second baseman John Ziznewski to first baseman Jackson Laumann. Brandon Diaz grounds out, shortstop Ethan Gross to first baseman Jackson Laumann. Dustin DeMuth doubles (5) on a fly ball to left fielder Zach Fish. Natanael Mejia flies out to center fielder Hunter Jones. Great Falls Top of the 2nd Defensive Substitution: Tucker Neuhaus replaces third baseman Dustin DeMuth, batting 3rd, playing third base.

SS Hector Gomez activated from the DL at Nashville. RHP Billy Buckner pitched well in Game One Saturday, then transferred to Maryvale in a paper move, making room for RHP Eric Marzec, up from Huntsville to start Game Two.

SS Hector Gomez activated from the DL at Nashville. RHP Billy Buckner pitched well in Game One Saturday, then transferred to Maryvale in a paper move, making room for RHP Eric Marzec, up from Huntsville to start Game Two.

Huntsville wanted in on the doubleheader fun, so they got rained out tonight, twinbill Sunday at 4:00.

From Friday (Wisconsin): OF Omar Garcia activated from DL RHP Chad Thompson placed on DL From Saturday: RHP Jimmy Nelson optioned to Brevard County (He'll be back Sept. 1st, has already burned his 2014 option) RHP Alfredo Figaro recalled from Nashville to aid a tired bullpen

Opinion: It only makes sense to bring Stars back for 2015 after Biloxi's problems Mark McCarter, Huntsville Times This was to be a column awash in nostalgia. It was to be a melancholy farewell to professional baseball in Huntsville after its 30-year existence. It was to regurgitate some of my memories and to evoke some memories of yours. Jose Canseco's massive home runs. Rocky Coyle's heroics. Tim Belcher's pitching. Terry Steinbach's steady play. Rob Nelson's prodigious numbers. Miguel Tejada's hustle at shortstop. Tony Gwynn Jr.'s elegance in centerfield. Hunter Morris' storybook season. This week was to bring the final chapter for the Huntsville Stars. Monday is the last regular season game in the franchise's last season here, with playoff games scheduled for Thursday and Friday at Joe Davis Stadium. That column, that goodbye to baseball, we may put on hold.I truly believe the Stars will open 2015 in Huntsville, playing at least half a season here. The Stars have been sold to majority partner Ken Young and a group of others who are moving the franchise to Biloxi, Miss. But Biloxi's stadium will not be ready in time for the 2015 season. The Stars have a lease with the city of Huntsville for Joe Davis Stadium through 2015 and Young acknowledged to AL.com this week he is "pondering" the possibility of having the team begin next year in Huntsville. General manager Buck Rogers has acknowledged that in an email to fans. It only makes sense. It's going to be depressing and it could well set back what is a promising future for a reboot of pro baseball here. But it's the most logical thing to do. A baseball team needs a home; more importantly, its players and staff need a home. Players live out of a suitcase enough as it is. They need and deserve some bit of stability, an apartment to come home to where they can be with wives or girlfriends, to see their kids or have their families come visit. Budget hotels at freeway exits don't provide that. So if the Stars need to return, so be it. Though my inclination, were I the landlord, would be to say, "Have your stuff cleaned out and the U-Haul packed at midseason." If it means a nomadic second half in southern Mississippi across to the Florida panhandle to find a place to play, sorry. Ken Young should not be the villain here. I submit that had he owned this team the past dozen years rather than Miles Prentice, who remains a minority partner in the organization, all this discussion would be moot. The Stars would have been a vibrant organization and likely already in a new stadium. Biloxi wanted baseball, Young is well-connected, he owns some other teams, he made the sale materialize in conjunction with interested parties in Biloxi. But Biloxi's city fathers and the local baseball leaders bit off more than they could chew. They didn't foresee the political hassles and they were stunned back to square one on by sticker shock when construction estimates arrived. Truth be told, I don't want baseball here next year. It's painful to watch a franchise waiting to be euthanized. I think attendance will be even worse in and you'd more likely sell quiche at a NASCAR race before you could sell a billboard to a business in this city. My biggest fear is that one more full year of life-support baseball here would mean one more year's delay before there is a hunger and a significant demand to build a much-needed new ballpark and land a new team. I was going to be writing about a rich past of Huntsville baseball. Instead, the story flip-flopped this week and my thoughts turn to what could be a rich future with a fresh start. I hope Biloxi's many mistakes don't put that in jeopardy. Online reader comments are always entertaining.