Jim Goulart

Nashville Media Notes -- BUCKNER ADDED; HECKATHORN TO D.L.: Right-handed pitcher Billy Buckner (career stats) was signed by the Brewers today as a minor league free agent and was added to the Sounds roster. Buckner carried a 4-5 record with a 5.80 ERA in 15 appearances (14 starts) for El Paso this season and made his Padres’ debut and only start on May 24, where he took the loss after allowing three runs in 5.2 innings. The Sounds will be the 11-year-pro’s 6th PCL club (he also played for OMA in 2007, TUC in 2008, REN in 2009-10, CSP in 2011, and ELP in 2014). He fills the spot left by reliever Kyle Heckathorn, who was placed on the disabled list (retro to August 13) yesterday.

To make room (via the Rattlers): RHP Victor Diaz placed on DL retroactive to 8/15

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 Wisconsin Helena Maryvale Dominican Summer League Brewers *** Weather.com: Albuquerque, NM Kodak, TN Dunedin, FL Grand Chute, WI (Appleton) Helena, MT Glendale, AZ Boca Chica, DR

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

Saturday's Daily Menu: All times are Central Nashville: RHP Taylor Jungmann at Albuquerque (Dodgers), 7:45 PM pre-game, 8:05 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: LHP Brent Suter at Tennessee (Cubs), 4:55 PM pre-game, 5:15 gametime 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). NOTE: Tennessee is among the Southern League squads to offer MiLB.TV broadcasts. ********** Brevard County: RHP Jorge Lopez at Dunedin (Blue Jays), 5:00 PM pre-game, 5:30 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: LHP Wei-Chung Wang in a rehab start at home vs. Kane County (Cubs), 6:15 PM pre-game, 6:35 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 David Carver at home vs. Ogden (Dodgers), 7:45 PM pre-game, 8:05 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): at the White Sox' complex in Glendale, 9:00 PM gametime; never audio for games in this league Miller Park Prospects - Arizona League Primer ********** DSL Brewers: at the DSL Mets' #2 Squad, 9:30 AM, although game data won't be available until later in the day We're also going to lock in the link to Brad Krause's fantastic Miller Park Prospects - Dominican Summer League primer right here, at least for the first couple of months of the DSL campaign, for your easy review. Brad will also be adding DSL Link Report duties to his Brevard coverage for us here. Thanks, Brad!

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Out indefinitely with some sort of hand injury, unclear if his season is over, sorry we don't have more for you.

From Dustin in Helena -- RHP Brandon Moore was promoted this morning to the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers of the Midwest League. Moore won Pioneer League Pitcher of the Week honors in the last week of July continuing his solid play in the second half of the season. He is the only Helena Brewer this year to pick up a weekly League award. No official word at this moment on if there will be a call up from the AZL to replace him.

That's one way of putting it. The nature and/or severity of his injury, as is often the case for non-40 man roster players (unless injured in a specific play on the field), has not been released, at least online or in print. He's been sidelined since July 12th, and recently turned 26. This was to be his year to shine, and although July was going well, 2014 certainly hadn't been overall. We'll see if we can learn more, we often don't like to put those who may be in the know, in the position to comment, as they often must abide by privacy policies as well.

VIDEO: Tennessee right fielder Jae-Hoon Ha leaps to rob Huntsville's Nick Ramirez at the wall in the eighth inning

Brevard County -- AUDIO, Thursday: After throwing his first career complete game, LHP Mike Strong joins Andrew Luftglass on the Manatees Radio Network. *** AUDIO: OF Michael Reed joins Andrew Luftglass of the Manatees Radio Network to talk about his terrific defense and base stealing prowess. AUDIO, Game Highlights: The Manatees drop the opening game of the series in Dunedin, 4-1.

17 years old! (18 in November) Venezuelan native, OF Joantgel Segovia, leads all the Dominican Summer League with his .387 average. He is second in OBP at .460, with more walks (23) than strikeouts (18), in 217 at-bats. 74 of Segovia's 84 hits have been singles (thus only 7th in league OPS at .911), but his listed 6'1", 175 pound frame should be projectable for growth there. Early-season baserunning adventures have subsided, leaving him at 6-for-14 in stolen base attempts.

Rattler Radio Blog - Postgame entry Audio, photos, video, Taiwanese media... *** Here's a second look at the game's highlights, including the lowlights, from the MyNew32 TV broadcast.

Final: @AZL Brewers 4, AZL White Sox 1 Maryvale Box Score Was this a planned early exit? RHP Bubba Blau has gone as many as four innings this season -- AZL White Sox Top of the 1st Tim Anderson strikes out swinging. Antonio Rodriguez strikes out swinging. Michael Suiter called out on strikes. AZL White Sox Top of the 2nd Pitching Change: Milton Gomez replaces Bubba Blau. RHP's Milton Gomez and Gian Rizzo backed up their most recent strong outings, as the final score indicates. Maryvale Game Log LF Troy Stokes singled twice and walked. With Yunior Santana batting, Troy Stokes picked off and caught stealing 2nd base, pitcher Mike Gomez to first baseman Cody Yount to shortstop Johan Cruz. Not a fan of MiLB's box scores including both the pickoff and the caught stealing. If he's out going back to the bag, it's a pickoff. If he takes off for 2nd base, it's a caught stealing. The little-mentioned bottom of the Maryvale order doing some damage with doubles, be sure to review.

Via Adam McCalvy -- Brewers assistant general manager Gord Ash joined the Brewers at Dodger Stadium on Friday after spending time this week in Helena, Mont., where he helped announce a four-year extension of a player-development contract with the Rookie League affiliate there. The Brewers have similarly expiring agreements with the Triple-A Nashville Sounds and Double-A Huntsville Stars, who are each moving to new stadiums as soon as 2015. The Sounds are getting a new ballpark in Nashville; the Stars are moving to Biloxi, Miss. "In Huntsville, we pretty much have an understanding that we will go with the move of the team, but that's up in the air at the moment because of stadium considerations," Ash said. "We just don't know when it will be finalized." With Nashville, "No news," Ash said. "Conversations to be continued. Nothing of any substance."

Via Adam McCalvy -- The Brewers placed Kyle Heckathorn on the disabled list at Nashville and Damien Magnifico on the disabled list at advanced Class A Advanced Brevard County while both players deal with fatigue. Heckathorn could pitch again but the Brewers have decided to call it a season for Magnifico, 23, who had a 3.74 ERA in a career-high 120 1/3 innings. "We don't want to push him over the edge," Ash said. Another pitching prospect, right-hander Tyler Cravy, probably needs a "couple more weeks" of rehab for a serious left oblique injury, Ash said. That means Cravy, 25, probably won't pitch again this season. He is 8-1 with a 1.76 ERA in 15 games, 13 starts for the Stars and Sounds this season.

Final: @Tennessee 2, Huntsville 0 Smokies Blank Stars Again Steve Jarnicki, Huntsville Stars Kodak, TN - The Tennessee Smokies shutout the Huntsville Stars for a second straight night. Friday, the Smokies handed the Stars a 2-0 loss at Smokies Park. With the win, Tennessee has officially won the series with the Stars going into the series finale Saturday night. Tennessee scored both of their runs against Huntsville starter Austin Ross (0-2). In the bottom of the first, with Pin-Chieh Chen at third base, Addison Russell hit a weak grounder in front of home plate. Ross charged the ball but couldn't come up with it cleanly. Chen scampered home giving the Smokies a 1-0 lead. In the bottom of the second, the Smokies recorded three straight hits off Ross including an RBI single by Stephen Bruno. Ross pitched well but still took the defeat. Ross pitched five innings and allowed two runs on four hits while striking out seven. The Stars nearly took the lead on one swing of the bat in the eighth. With two runners on base, pinch hitter Nick Ramirez hit a deep fly ball to right field. Jae-Hoon Ha leaped up and took away a home run from Ramirez. Matt Loosen (5-5) got the win out of the Smokies bullpen after tossing three scoreless innings. Frank Batista collected his tenth save as got the Stars to go 1-2-3 in the ninth. The Stars (25-29, 71-53) and the Smokies (28-26, 61-62) conclude their series Saturday night with the Smokies leading 3-1. The Stars will feature LHP Brent Suter (10-8, 4.07) on the mound. Tennessee will have RHP Ivan Pineyro (0-2, 4.30) on the hill. The game can be heard starting at 5:00 CDT on 92.9 FM, 1450 AM and wtkiradio.com. Huntsville Box Score RHP's Austin Ross, Eric Marzec, and Kevin Shackelford combined to fan ten without walking a batter. Fourteen errors in 44 AA games for SS Yadiel Rivera. Huntsville Game Log

Via Tom Haudricourt-- For those wondering about Brewers pitching prospect Damien Magnifico at Brevard, it was decided he had pitched enough this year. *** 80.2 innings in 2013, 120.1 in 2014 (Career Stats)

RHP Kyle Heckathorn on to Nashville's DL, retro to 8/13 - no word on any injury (or non-injury) status.

We're only talking 2-3 weeks left in the season, and the Timber Rattlers are fighting for their own playoff spot. I doubt anyone in Appleton sees this as a slight. Every organization needs to think outside the box once in a while, and while this is way outside the box, I think it's fun and interesting. Enjoy it for what it's worth. Taylor Williams got his call up, Anthony Banda was traded - heck, if anything, the more fringe players in the system should be thankful the Brewers hardly ever dip their toes in the independent league waters anymore.

Nice defense from last night's Rattlers game --

This story may have the makings of a movie -- Back in June 2003, this happened: RHP Jon Huizinga, signed from the Kalamazoo Kings of the Frontier League to Beloit; Huizinga was the first indy signing of the Doug Melvin era who was given the opportunity to make his affiliated debut with the Brewers' organization, as he went undrafted. Twenty-three middling relief appearances for that Beloit squad followed, then Huizinga was released at the end of spring training 2004. But here's the cool thing -- it's hard to kill a dream. Huizinga, a product of Michigan State, would return to Kalamazoo briefly in 2004, but then missed most of that season and all the 2005 season with a serious arm injury. Pitching regularly in four independent leagues between 2006 and 2011, Huizinga continued to work in pro ball throughout those years without ever returning to affiliated ball. After 2011, there is no record of Huizinga pitching professionally (Baseball Cube page). He will turn 35 years old this October. EDIT/UPDATE: Huizinga was a pitcher/coach in the Freedom Independent Baseball League in 2012-13, but those stats aren't picked up online at Baseball Reference or Baseball Cube. But the Brewers have signed him to a minor league contract today, and he'll report to Brevard County to take the spot of RHP Damien Magnifico, who heads to the disabled list with an undisclosed (as of now) injury. Can't wait for the Manatees' excellent audio production staff to interview Huizinga, who gets another shot at affiliated ball with the same organization who gave him a chance more than 11 years ago. No idea if he was signed out of a open tryout or not, but there must be a very cool story behind this. Nice. Find Huizinga (and his equally unique look) on Twitter here. Huizinga's Pitching Coach website. From that website: Jonathan Huizinga grew up in small town in MI, the oldest of three children to Curt and Kristi Huizinga. Like many boys, he dreamed of one day playing under the bright lights. He played his college baseball at Michigan State University where he played for four years. Despite going undrafted, he has been playing professionally since 2002. In 2004, Jon suffered from what was said to be a career ending arm injury. Instead he came back better than before with an improved pitching nutrition plan for recovery and peak performance and performance enhancing workouts and conditioning. Jon Huizinga has been signed by the Milwaukee Brewers and Colorado Rockies, has played for multiple independent league teams (Kalamazoo Kings, Calgary Vipers, St Paul Saints, Winnipeg Goldeyes, Rockford Riverhawks, Schaumberg Flyers, Yuma Scorpions, San Angelo Colts, Peoria Explorers), and played Winterball in the Veracruz League in Mexico. This past season, 2013, Zinger was a pitching coach and pitcher in the Freedom Professional Baseball League in Arizona. Zinger throws from multiple arm slots (side arm, 3/4) and has been clocked as high as 97 MPH and has a reputation of being tough on right handed hitters. He throws a spiked curve, sinker, change up, cutter, and split finger. Throughout his career, Jon has pitched as a starter, reliever, and closer. *** Note: The Rockies did sign Huizinga (again out of indy ball) prior to the 2007 season, but he never appeared in a game for one of their affiliates prior to his spring training release.

Ten K's and zero walks last night, Anthony Banda? Wow. That's 22 K's and four walks over 17.1 innings in three starts since the trade. Combined with his Timber Rattlers work prior, Banda has allowed just three earned runs in his last 32.1 innings (MiLB.com Player Page). The southpaw turned 21 five days ago. Mitch who? Haniger remains on the D-Backs' AA DL with a leg injury.

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 Wisconsin Helena Maryvale Dominican Summer League Brewers *** Weather.com: El Paso, TX Kodak, TN Dunedin, FL Grand Chute, WI (Appleton) Helena, MT Maryvale, AZ Santo Domingo, DR

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