Jim Goulart

Final: @Wisconsin 6, Bowling Green 3 Wisconsin sprints past Hot Rods for 6-3 win Coulter homers, Pitchers combine for 14 Ks By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers http://www.milb.com/assets/images/0/3/2/84979032/cuts/Alexander_July_16_0n4xbqv0_q83q032w.jpg Tyler Alexander struck out nine Bowling Green Hot Rods in five innings on Wednesday night at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium. (Ann Mollica photo / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers) GRAND CHUTE, WI - The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers rallied from a 3-2 deficit to defeat the Bowling Green Hot Rods 6-3 on Wednesday night at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium. Clint Coulter homered and drove in three runs for the Rattlers, who won their fourth straight game. The Timber Rattlers (50-44 overall, 14-11 second half) grabbed the lead with a first inning run. Chris McFarland singled - the first of his four singles on the night - with one out. He went to second on an errant pickoff throw and stole third. Coulter drove McFarland in with a two-out single to left for a 1-0 lead. Jose Pena launched a two-out, solo home run in the bottom of the second inning to give the Rattlers a 2-0 lead. The homer was the sixth of the season for Pena, but his first since May 28. Timber Rattlers starting pitcher Tyler Alexander retired the first nine batters he faced. But, he ran into trouble in the top of the fourth. Julian Ridings and Juniel Querrecuto started the Bowling Green fourth with consecutive singles. Alexander got the first out of the inning with a strikeout, but gave up a single to Ty Young the drove in a run. Armando Araiza drew a walk to load the bases, but Alexander got the second out with another strikeout. Alexander got ahead of Daryl George 0-2. George fouled off four straight pitches from Alexander before dumping a single into right that scored two runs to put the Hot Rods (42-52, 10-15) up 3-2. A walk and a pair of Wisconsin errors in the top of the fifth inning loaded the bases for Bowling Green, but Alexander escaped with three strikeouts. The Wisconsin starter set a new professional single-game high for strikeouts with nine. But he trailed 3-2. Coulter evened the game and got Alexander off the hook for the loss with a solo home run to start the bottom of the sixth. Coulter, who also homered in Monday's game, has fifteen home runs this season for Wisconsin. Taylor Brennan was next and his fly ball to center was misjudged and dropped in for a double. Omar Garcia bunted Brennan over to third. Dustin DeMuth lined a single to left over the drawn-in infield to send Brennan home with the run that put the Rattlers up 4-3. Wisconsin loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the seventh inning on singles by Johnny Davis and McFarland and an intentional walk to Michael Ratterree. That brought Coulter to the plate and he drew a walk on a 3-2 pitch to force in Davis for a 5-3 lead. Coulter's three RBI on the night gives him 61 RBI for the season. The Timber Rattlers tacked on one more run in the eighth for a 6-3 lead. Garcia reached on a bunt single and went to second on a sacrifice bunt by DeMuth. Garcia stole third, his 34th stolen base of the season, and scored when the throw to get him went into left field. Taylor Williams came on to relieve Alexander in the top of the sixth and tossed four scoreless innings without issuing a walk. Williams pitched around five hits and struck out five to earn his seventh win of the season. Williams is 6-0 with two saves and a no decision in his last nine appearances. Wisconsin's offense matched their season high for hits in a game with fourteen. The Timber Rattlers have reached double digits in hits four times in the first five games of this ten-game homestand. Game two of the series is Thursday night. Preston Gainey (2-5, 3.79) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. Chris Kirsch (4-6, 3.04) is set to start for the Hot Rods. Game time is 7:05 PM. Avenue Jewelers and the Timber Rattlers present Ladies Night with lots of special samples of cheese, chocolate, and Barefoot Wine for the ladies on Thursday. A special auction to Win a Date with a Timber Rattler will be held during the game with the proceeds to benefit Christine Ann Domestic Abuse Services. One lucky fan will walk away from a Diamond Dig during the game with a diamond from Avenue Jewelers. Thirsty Thursday presented by Arty's Old Fashioned and 95.9 KISS FM means 21-oz Pepsi products, 16-oz Miller products, or Arty's Old Fashioned drinks for just $2. If you can't make it out to the ballpark, tune in for the broadcast on television, radio, or the internet. Time Warner Cable SportsChannel will have the television broadcast starting at 7:00 PM. The radio call may be heard on AM1280, WNAM or IHeartRadio starting at 6:45 PM. Subscribers to MiLB.TV can catch the action, too. HOME RUNS: WIS: Jose Pena (6th, 0 on in 2nd inning off Ben Griset, 2 out) Clint Coulter (15th, 0 on in 6th inning off William Gabay, 0 out) WP: Taylor Williams (7-1) LP: William Gabay (1-1) TIME: 3:02 ATTN: 5,419 Wisconsin Box Score 22-year-old southpaw Tyler Alexander threw 64 strikes among his 83 pitches. Last year's 4th round pick, RHP Taylor Williams, turns 23 later this week. He's been able to handle the tandem system swimmingly -- it'd hurt the Rattler's playoff chances, but he's deserving of a chance to test his wares in Brevard County before season's end, as all his peripherals have been stellar. This is Chris McFarland's age 21 season, and the second baseman has posted a .296/.343/.451 line. Truly an exciting season, and McFarland should start to prominently appear on Brewer prospect lists heading in 2015. Well done, young man... Wisconsin Game Log

Sounds manager Rick Sweet on sending runners Mack Burke, The Tennessean A look at baseball strategy and current events from the viewpoint of Sounds manager Rick Sweet Topic: Explain your philosophy or strategy behind sending certain runners home based on what any given scoring situation calls for. Sweet says: "You look at a variety of things. No. 1, how many outs are there? With two outs, you send a guy almost every time; you take your chance. Before that, you need to know the speed of your runner, and also, how good of a base runner the guy is, because some guys are much better at reading (the path of) the ball more than others. "Once a ball is hit, my first instinct is to look at the runner to see if he reacted one way or the other. If he has to stop and look at the ball then he's not going to score, so then I realize (the odds) may be against us scoring. Then, I look to see how the outfielder approaches the ball. Some outfielders are very good at (charging in on the ball) hard. ... "So, you look at the speed of the base runner, the intelligence of the base runner, the jump the runner got, and then, you go to the outfielder and (take into account) the strength of his arm and what type of jump he had, if he got after the ball good. "For me, it comes right down to trying to get as far down the (third base) line as I can towards home plate, because the deeper you go, the more time you have to make a (base-running call) decision. "The number of outs has a lot to do with (my base running call decisions). You never want a guy thrown out with no outs and very seldom thrown out with one out. With two outs, you send a guy home most of the time and take your chance and hope the other team messes up."

Final: @Huntsville 6, Tennessee 4 http://www.milb.com/assets/images/5/6/6/84970566/cuts/Gagnon_Drew_8p7ikjql_kwujzfky.jpg Gagnon Pitches Stars To Victory Steve Jarnicki, Huntsville Stars Huntsville, AL - The Huntsville Stars climbed out of an early 2-0 hole, and defeated the Tennessee Smokies 6-4 Wednesday night at Joe Davis Stadium in Huntsville. The Smokies took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second against Huntsville starter Drew Gagnon (6-4, photo above). Jae-Hoon Ha lined a two-run, two-out single to left field. The Stars responded with a run in their second. With runners at first and third base, Adam Weisenburger hit into a double play scoring Hainley Statia. The Stars tied the game in the bottom of the third. Josh Prince walked and stole second base. Prince scored on Nick Ramirez's two-out single into centerfied knotting the game at 2-2. Weisenburger gave the Stars a 3-2 lead in the fourth. He hit a two-out solo home run to left. It was Weisenburger's first home run of the season. The Stars extended their lead when they scored a run in their fourth consecutive inning in the bottom of the fifth. Ramirez blooped an RBI single to shallow centerfield scoring Gagnon. However, two runs scored on the play. Second baseman Stephen Bruno fielded the ball in the outfield and made an errant throw to shortstop Addison Russell at second enabling Prince to score as well. Statia bunted a ball up the first baseline scoring Nick Shaw making it 6-2. The Smokies drew two runs closer to the Stars by posting a pair of runs in the seventh against Gagnon. Ha grounded out to shortstop scoring Charlie Cutler making it 6-3. Jorge Soler pinch hit and clubbed an RBI single to left cutting the lead to 6-4. Gagnon, who earned his sixth win of the season, turned in his ninth quality start. He pitched seven strong innings allowing four runs (two earned) on five hits. The Stars bullpen did the rest. Big leaguer Jim Henderson, on an MLB rehab assignment for the Brewers, pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning. Henderson struck out a pair on a total of eighteen pitches, thirteen landing for strikes. David Goforth entered in the ninth. After allowing a leadoff single to Cutler, Goforth induced a double play off Luis Flores's bat to erase the leadoff man. Goforth nailed down his 19th save of the year after he got Pin-Chieh Chen to ground out to shortstop Yaidel Rivera. The Stars (13-13, 59-37) lead the Tennessee Smokies (13-13, 46-49) 1-0 in their five game series. Game two will be Thursday. The Stars will have RHP Jacob Barnes (2-3, 4.63) on the mound. Tennessee will feature RHP Corey Black (4-6, 2.71). The game can be heard starting at 6:15 pm CDT on 92.9 FM, 1450 AM and wtkiradio.com. Huntsville Box Score 2011 3rd round RHP Drew Gagnon, not necessarily a ground ball pitcher, etched 13 of them in his seven-inning outing. Gagnon's double lifted his average to .261, as Stars' pitchers continue to produce at the plate. Josh Prince drew three walks, scored two runs, and stole his 29th base in 37 attempts. Nick Ramirez was 3-for-4 (double, two RBI, OPS now at .799). Adam Weisenburger's on-base skills are strong, but the slugging is down from 2013, so the home run here was welcome. Huntsville Game Log Milwaukee needs you, Jim Henderson -- Tennessee Top of the 8th Pitching Change: Jim Henderson replaces Drew Gagnon, batting 5th, replacing third baseman Hainley Statia. Defensive Substitution: Greg Hopkins replaces pitcher Drew Gagnon, batting 9th, playing third base. Stephen Bruno strikes out swinging. Addison Russell flies out to right fielder Kentrail Davis. Christian Villanueva called out on strikes.

AAA All-Star Game Box Score / Game Log Both Mike Fiers and Donovan Hand stranded one inherited runner and were unscored upon in their relief stints in the PCL's 7-3 loss to the International League. Fiers retired all four men he faced (three K's), and Hand got two groundouts after a double placed men on 2nd and 3rd. Each was pitching with his club already down by a big margin. INT All-Stars Bottom of the 6th Pitching Change: Paul Smyth replaces Heath Hembree. Philip Gosselin strikes out swinging. Josh Phegley singles on a line drive to left fielder Stephen Piscotty. Ivan De Jesus singles on a ground ball to center fielder Jared Hoying. Josh Phegley to 2nd. Felix Perez triples (1) on a line drive to right fielder Joc Pederson. Josh Phegley scores. Ivan De Jesus scores. Ruben Gotay flies out to right fielder Joc Pederson. Steven Souza doubles (1) on a line drive to center fielder Jared Hoying. Felix Perez scores. Pitching Change: Mike Fiers replaces Paul Smyth. Jesus Aguilar strikes out swinging. INT All-Stars Bottom of the 7th Wilson Betemit strikes out swinging. Mikie Mahtook strikes out swinging. Philip Gosselin pops out to first baseman Ben Paulsen in foul territory. INT All-Stars Bottom of the 8th Pitching Change: Angel Castro replaces Mike Fiers. Josh Phegley strikes out swinging. Ivan De Jesus singles on a ground ball to shortstop Chris Taylor. Pitching Change: Donovan Hand replaces Angel Castro. Felix Perez doubles (1) on a line drive to center fielder Jared Hoying. Ivan De Jesus to 3rd. Ruben Gotay grounds out, second baseman Nick Franklin to first baseman Ben Paulsen. Steven Souza grounds out, shortstop Chris Taylor to first baseman Ben Paulsen.

The link from the Baseball Cube includes data back to the beginning of Gimenez' career, and Rotoworld updates go all the back to 2004 for the 31-year-old switch-hitter. Last night in Huntsville marked Gimenez' 6th outfield appearance as a professional (1,008 games). Not sure why the Brewers abandoned the independent leagues, you can find athletic 24-26 year-olds you may be able to develop into a helpful OF bench piece.

Look for Jim Henderson to pitch for the Stars on both Wednesday and Thursday evenings this week.

Latest from Tim Dillard: “Same Seats, Same Thoughts” Enjoy...

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 -- 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: Durham, NC Huntsville, AL Grand Chute, WI (Appleton) Helena, MT Goodyear, AZ Santo Domingo, DR

Follow Wednesday's action as it happens with box score / game log links: AAA All-Star Game Huntsville Wisconsin Helena Maryvale DSL Brewers MiLB.com feature -- organizational scoreboard, Brewers

DVR ALERT! Starting tonight (Wednesday), three consecutive Timber Rattlers games will be televised -- in order MyNew32 TV, TWC SportsChannel, and MyNew32 TV again. Broadcast time 7:00 PM each evening.

Wednesday's Daily Menu: All times are Central Nashville: RHP's Mike Fiers and Donovan Hand represent the Sounds and the Pacific Coast League in the AAA All-Star Game in Durham, NC, 6:00 gametime; RHP Jimmy Nelson was to start the game but was called up by the Brewers. Free Live Audio Link ********** Huntsville: RHP Drew Gagnon at home vs. Tennessee (Cubs), 6:15 PM pre-game, 6:30 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). ********** Brevard County: RHP Tyler Wagner at St. Lucie (Mets) NOTE: This game has been POSTPONED. It will be made up as a part of a doubleheader Thursday at 3:00 PM Central Time. ********** Wisconsin: LHP Tyler Alexander at home vs. Bowling Green (Rays), 6:45 PM pre-game, 7:05 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: RHP Jorge Ortega at home vs. Orem (Angels), 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 Indians complex in Goodyear, 9:00 PM gametime; never audio for games in this league Miller Park Prospects - Arizona League Primer ********** DSL Brewers: at the DSL Tigers, 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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Josh, recently saw stat analysis that favorably compared Michael Brantley to Mike Trout in many categories. Congratulations on having a bona fide superstar talent in your stable, and from all indications, just a fantastic person, role model, etc. If you could, can you let us know just how different and demanding it is handling things for Michael? He must be in super-demand, and of course, his opportnities off the field must be without limits right now. So yes, of course, all your clients are special and receive your attention, but I guess what I'm asking is what things are you involved with for Michael now that even you say to yourself, wow, we've really got a brand name here and it's taking you to places, events, and people even you might not have imagined when you entered the business. Thanks.

So it appears that Milwaukee may end up as the odd team out in an Athletics - Giants - Brewers swap of AAA affiliations, which means the Brewers won't benefit from Nashville's new ballpark, and it'll be late-night, ERA-inflated West Coast baseball for the Crew's squad. Beek’s Blog: Affilation moves coming for Sacramento and Fresno It'll hardly be awful, as Fresno's Chukchansi Park is only 12 years old. It will make for less convenient player movement between AAA and the big leagues, and less convenient for roving coaches who used to benefit from Nashville's and Huntsville's only 90-mile separation. Nashville and the Brewers' planned new AA home in Biloxi, MS would have been 500 miles apart...

Southern League schedules first game in new Biloxi stadium for April 20, 2015 Will new stadium be ready for Biloxi's home opener on April 20?

Via Miller Park Prospects -- Scouting Snapshot: Victor Roache

Well thought out Top 25 via Alec Dopp at BrewCrewBall.

All things Jorge Lopez and the Futures Game via the Manatees Blog.

Thank you MLB and MiLB! Outside of the Dominican Summer League (sorry, Brad), all of us get to catch our breath and catch up on all things (including those outside of Brewers minor league baseball, believe it or not!), even if it's just for one day. *** We were going to set up a poll asking our readers to what extent they follow the Link Report. But many of our readers aren't formal Brewerfan Forum members, so we wouldn't get a true cross-section of votes/comments. So as I thank my fellow Link Reporters for their diligence and all their efforts (Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!), I'll ask you, our posters, to instead comment in this thread if you wish - we realize you'll only be able to comment if you're a forum member. If you're not a forum member, feel free to drop me an email -- good, bad, indifferent, to jgoulart "at" brewerfan.net. Allowing for the fact that several readers visit each day's report more than once, we can assume our approximate 650 page views daily is closer to a number around 400-450 as far as number of fans of the Brewers farm system checking in. Would you say you quickly peruse the game summaries, sometimes clicking on the box score and game log links? Do you make time to devour every inch of the report, including audio interviews, video highlights, etc.? Following up with audio/video links is an extra step we hope folks appreciate, but we're trying to get a sense of how often people take advantage of their linkage. Thanks to all who join us here each day. -- MH (Jim)

Eureka! Helena's (and former DSL prospect) Sthervin Matos makes his video debut -- VIDEO: Helena's Sthervin Matos hits a two-run home run in the seventh inning of a 13-5 loss at Grand Junction *** We'll help you enjoy the day via the Manatees staff, they've posted a fun video that includes the full two-run bottom of the 9th inning rally from Sunday's game.

VIDEO: Chattanooga TV Report includes Erik Komatsu's HR and a Yadiel Rivera base hit

Follow Tuesday's action: DSL Brewers *** 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. *** 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: Santo Domingo, DR

Monday's Daily Menu: All times are Central Nashville: Idle; AAA All-Star Game is Wednesday ********** Huntsville: Idle ********** Brevard County: Idle ********** Wisconsin: Idle DVR ALERT! Starting Wednesday, three consecutive Timber Rattlers games will be televised -- in order MyNew32 TV, TWC SportsChannel, and MyNew32 TV again. Broadcast time 7:00 PM each evening. ********** Helena: Idle ********** Arizona Rookie (Maryvale): Idle ********** DSL Brewers: at home vs. the DSL Tigers, 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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It'll be covered, we're good, thanks!