Jim Goulart

4 (116). Troy Stokes, CF, Calvert Hall College HS, MD Maryvale, as indicated in this feature article

Signed, as indicated earlier -- Baltimore’s Troy Stokes Selected by Milwaukee Brewers in Fourth Round of MLB Draft by Talibah Chikwendu and Zakiya Chikwendu, Afro.com When Troy Stokes started playing baseball at the age of five, it may have been more about his father’s love of the game. But by the time he was eight or nine that love was his, along with rapidly advancing skill. Somewhere in the intervening years, his love of the game turned into the dream of becoming a professional major league baseball player. That dream became a reality June 6 when the Milwaukee Brewers made Stokes, a Woodlawn native, the 116th selection overall in the fourth round of the 2014 MLB draft. Describing the moment of his selection, Stokes said, "My family was with me. They just started screaming and hollering. Then my cell phone was ringing off the hook." Stokes is the youngest of Troy and Lawanya Stokes' three children, part of a nuclear and extended family that has been supportive and encouraging from his first at-bat. His father, Troy Stokes Sr., led the charge and his pride was almost tangible. “I’m happy. I’m proud,” said Stokes Sr. “It’s somewhat mind-boggling.” Stokes has been an unsung hero at Calvert Hall High School, graduating June 1, and during his senior season claimed the school record for runs scored and with 34 steals, breaking the school’s single-season steal record and falling just short of breaking the all-time bases stolen record. Despite his hard work for the team, it was his play in other venues that brought him to the attention of major league scouts. He participated on the travel team EvoShield Canes, which won two championships in 2013: the Perfect Game WWBA World Championship and the WWBA 17-under World Series. Stokes also made the USA Team and traveled with them in 2010 to a tournament in Nicaragua. That exposure in venues across the country, along with playing and training year-round, gave Stokes the exposure needed for a scholarship to the University of Maryland College Park (UMCP) and the interest of MLB scouts. “I definitely want to thank God, my parents—they definitely sacrificed a lot,” Stokes Jr. said. “Without them, I wouldn’t be here. They did the right things to get me here.” His father partially agreed, explaining that his son’s play across the country made him visible to the right people. However, according to Stokes Sr., his son’s abilities are just a small part of it all. “Beyond the skill, it’s got a lot to do with attitude,” Stokes Sr. said. “How he dealt with striking out. How he dealt with losing.” “His signature, since he was nine or 10 years old, is to remove his hat when he lines up to shake hands [with the other team at the end of the game],” Stokes Sr. said. “His character is where it needs to be. He’s awesome.” Signing a contract with the Brewers on June 6, halted Stokes' UMCP college plans and kicked everything else into high gear. By June 10 he will be on the way to Milwaukee for a team physical, and the next day he will be off to Arizona, where he will spend the summer playing rookie ball. Stokes Sr. said he was ready to see his son start his future as an adult. “I think this is something we’ve been preparing for a while,” said Stokes Sr. “The scary part is the unknown. Most people know what college has in store. I know that route. This route is unknown.” Stokes Jr. seemed ready to embrace the journey. “It’s going to be all baseball all the time,” he said. “I’m definitely ready.” Understanding that reaching this goal is just the beginning of his journey, Stokes has already begun to consider what comes next. “My main goal is to make it to the major leagues,” he said, explaining that he doesn't just want a place on the roster, but wants to play and make a difference for his team. “I want to be an All-Star.”

h/t to BrewCrewBall: 7 (206). Mitch Meyer, RF, Kansas State Three Wildcats Selected in MLB Draft By K-State Athletics Mitch Meyer, a native of Stillwell, Kansas, is the first active Wildcat to be drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers franchise in K-State history. In his 121 career games, Meyer batted .277 (85-for-307) with 30 extra-base hits and a .466 slugging percentage. "I don't even know if I can describe it, it was just awesome," Meyer said about getting his draft call. "I wasn't really expecting a phone call that early, but some other things worked out in the draft room and the Brewers thought I fit into a spot where they needed me. It was exciting, I was shocked and it's just awesome." Meyer, who said it has been a busy few days since he was drafted on Friday afternoon, said he will leave today for Helena, Montana, where he will begin competing with the Helena Brewers, the team's rookie-level team in the Pioneer League. "I'm really excited to get there, get settled in and not have to worry about the draft anymore," Meyer laughed. "I'm just ready to get there and start playing baseball again." On what he learned at K-State that he hopes to carry with him the rest of his career Meyer said, "At K-State we pride ourselves on being one of the hardest working teams and we do things that not everyone else is doing. So being able to take that work ethic that I've learned from K-State and transition that work ethic into the professional level, that will help a ton." http://www.kstatesports.com/blog/assets_c/2014/03/7774170-thumb-250x377-44466.jpeg

Final, Game Two: @Huntsville 4, Mobile 2, six innings (rain) Huntsville & Mobile Split Doubleheader Steve Jarnicki, Huntsville Stars Huntsville, AL - The Huntsville Stars avoided a five game seires sweep from the Mobile BayBears Monday by ending a four game losing streak with a 4-2 win in the second game of a doubleheader. Mobile defeated the Stars in game one, 8-0. In game one, Mobile received an outstanding start from RHP Charles Brewer (2-1). Brewer carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning and struck out thirteen hitters. The only base runners allowed by Brewer up until the sixth were a pair of walks to Josh Prince. The Stars who were held to just two hits in the game, got one from Shea Vucinich in the sixth which broke up the no-hitter. In that same inning with the Stars trailing 4-0, they loaded the bases with nobody out. Brewer buckled down to strike out Prince, Nick Ramierz and Jason Rogers all in a row to end the inning. Mobile scored a second inning run against Stars starter Brent Suter (6-5). Evan Marzilli singled into right field giving the BayBears a 1-0 lead. In the sixth inning Mobile added to their lead. Sean Jamieson doubled to start the inning. Tom Belza bunted to third base. Rogers, the Stars third baseman made a high throw to first base. The throw sailed over Ramirez's head allowing Belza to score. Jake Lamb followed with an RBI triple to deep center. Dustin Martin delivered the final blow in the three run inning on an RBI single increasing their lead to 4-0. Suter, who suffered the loss, worked 5.1 innings. He allowed seven hits on four runs. He also struck out seven. Mobile sent nine batters to the plate in the seventh inning and added four runs against Stars reliever Tommy Toledo. *** In game two, the Stars took a 1-0 lead in the third inning on an RBI triple by Greg Hopkins. The BayBears took a short lived lead in the fourth when Gerson Montilla launched a two-run homer to left against Tim Dillard. The Stars recaptured the lead in the bottom of the fourth. With a pair of runners on base, D'Vontrey Richardson blooped a two-run single down the right field line scoring Mitch Haniger and Shawn Zarraga giving the Stars a 3-2 lead. The next batter, Hopkins, grounded one back towards the mound. Mobile's pitcher Blake Cooper threw Hopkins out at first base. Prince was able to score on the groundout giving the Stars a 4-2 lead. In the top of the seventh inning with Mobile at bat for their last chance against the Stars a heavy downpour came down forcing a rain delay. The rain delay lasted an hour and twenty one minutes before the game was finally called giving the Stars the win. Mobile claimed four out of five from the Stars. The Stars continue their ten game homestand Tuesday night with the first of five against the Chattanooga Lookouts, the Double-A Affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers. RHP Andy Moye (2-0,3.24) will start for the Stars. Chattanooga will send RHP Nick Struck (1-4, 7.71) to the mound. Tuesday night's game can be heard starting at 6:15 pm CDT on 92.9 FM, 1450 AM and wtkiradio.com. Huntsville Game Two Box Score Catcher Shawn Zarraga reached in all three trips (of course) with a double, single, and walk (.362/.470/.362). But don't run, big man, 0-for-4 in SB attempts. Kentrail Davis also was thrown out, he's only 5-for-10 on the basepaths (26-for-37 in 2013). Huntsville Game Two Game Log

After three innings of scoreless baseball, Nashville broke out to the initial 1-0 lead courtesy of Pete Orr's base-knock into left field. The single scored first baseman Hunter Morris, who led off the frame with a single to right. AUDIO: Pete Orr gets a base-knock to left field for an RBI in the Sounds' 2-1 victory over Reno AUDIO: Nashville's Jeff Bianchi gets a walk-off single in the bottom of the 9th in the Sounds' 2-1 victory over Reno

Mobile's Brewer mows down Huntsville BayBears righty notches career-high 13 K's over six shutout frames By Mark Emery / MiLB.com Includes -- In his latest outing, he issued walks to Josh Prince in the first and fourth innings, but yielded nothing else until the sixth. That inning began with a leadoff single by Shea Vucinich, which was followed by free passes to Kentrail Davis and Nick Shaw. Brewer responded by striking out Prince, Nick Ramirez and Jason Rogers in succession. That's how his outing ended, giving him plenty of reason to be pumped up. "I really was," he said. "With the bases loaded and no outs, seeing that they were going to give me a chance to get out of it, that really kind of lifted me up. It really kind of gave me the confidence that I just needed to make pitches, and I did that. "I was throwing some changeups with the bases loaded to some lefties and I was pitching in a lot. I got a couple strikeouts with my curveball, which was pretty much my strikeout pitch all day."

Brevard County - AUDIO: RHP Chad Pierce joins Andrew Luftglass on the Manatees Pregame Show to talk about Pierce's dominance as a starter AUDIO, Game Highlights: Cameron Garfield has three hits, including a home run, in a 3-0 'Tees victory over Tampa AUDIO: Andrew Luftglass is joined on the Manatees Radio Network by Cameron Garfield after his three-hit performance against Tampa

Wagner, Garfield show star power in Manatees' win Michael Parsons, FLORIDA TODAY Tyler Wagner and Cameron Garfield showed Monday night why they will be representing the Brevard County Manatees in the Florida State League All-Star Game next weekend. The pair teamed up to lead the Manatees to a 3-0 victory over Tampa at Space Coast Stadium. "Both did a great job," Brevard County manager Joe Ayrault said after the win, the 33rd of the season for the Manatees. Wagner tossed seven shutout innings, allowing four hits and striking out four to improve to 5-4. "Wagner has been so consistent all year, he deserves the All-Star nod," Ayrault said. He lived up to that billing Monday night, inducing 12 groundball outs. While Wagner was putting up zeroes, Tampa starting pitcher Daniel Camarena was matching him pitch for pitch early on. But in the fifth inning, Garfield got things going fast, hitting the first pitch he saw from Camarena over the left-field wall for a home run. It was Garfield's second home run of the season. But the All-Star catcher was not done as he singled and scored the second run of the game in the seventh inning and then ripped an RBI double in the eighth to drive in the third run. "It was definitely a highlight for him; hopefully, he can keep that going into the second half," Ayrault said. Stephen Peterson took over for Wagner in the eighth inning and after a quick eighth inning, struggled a bit in the ninth inning as Cito Culver and Dante Bichette Jr. each singled. But Peterson finished the game by getting Cody Grice to ground out. It was Peterson's first save of the season. Tyrone Taylor had two hits for the Manatees, who hit the road for three games before taking a break for the All-Star Game. Then they will wrap up the first half with three games at home against Dunedin next week. Tonight, Austin Ross looks to improve to 6-0 against the Flying Tigers. Yorfrank Lopez will start for Lakeland.

Final, Game One: Mobile 8, @Huntsville 0 Huntsville Game One Box Score It was a 1-0 game through five innings, but LHP Brent Suter and RHP Tommy Toledo combined to surrender seven late runs. Toledo hadn't allowed more than one run in an outing since May 19th, but for the starter Suter, this is a 3rd blow-up outing in his last four, and his ERA has "ballooned" to a still-competitive 3.49. The Stars fanned 15 times in the seven-inning game, so MiLB will likely feature things from a D-Backs perspective later tonight. Huntsville managed two singles (Mitch Haniger, Shea Vucinich) and four walks (0-for-6 with RISP). Learning-on-the-job Jason Rogers committed his 11th error at third base, he's in need of a trade to an American League organization that would allow him to play 1B/DH. Huntsville Game One Game Log

LHP Tyler Linehan, who made five relief appearances in Wisconsin earlier this spring -- Good ole Montana

AUDIO via Jeff Hem's blog -- "Here is this week’s installment of “Mondays with the Manager” with Sounds skipper Rick Sweet, who discusses the team’s four-game split in Memphis, the upcoming 16-game stretch against the Pacific Conference, the recent play of shortstop Hector Gomez and whether he’s concern by the low walks total from the Sounds’ offense."

Early in the game in Clinton, a Chris Mehring tweet -- For the Velocity Mavens: Radar Gun in Clinton recorded a 98 on the final pitch of the first inning by Rattlers pitcher Taylor Williams.

9 (266). Greg McCall, C, Texas-Arlington Tweet - The journey begins...off to Helena! #BrewCrew

40 (1196). Taylor Lane, SS, The Pendleton School, FL WILL NOT SIGN Tweet

Latest Manatees blog post -- Orf and other tidbits

Twitter photo: He's in the fold.

Huntsville Notes from Steve -- Stars are now 29-1 when they outhit their opponent… The Stars dropped a pair of 1-run games yesterday now giving them the 4th best record in 1 run games at 9-7. Out of the Stars' 23 losses this year, 15 have come by 3 runs or less or 65% of their losses have been by 3 runs or less…The Stars were held to just 1 run in each game yesterday now giving them a record of 1-8 this season when they score just one run….With the first three losses of the series to Mobile the Stars have now lost back to back series to Jackson and Mobile. Out of the first 13 series of the season, it’s the first time all year the Stars have lost back to back series. The Stars have still won 10 out of the first 13 series of the season…With their three game losing streak going into today, the Stars have never lost four games in a row all season. They were able to avoid four straight losses in their last series by winning the series finale in Jackson Wednesday 7-5… The Stars dropped to 1-6 in the month of June which is the worst record in the month in the Southern League. The Stars have the 2nd highest team ERA in June of any team in the league with a 5.67 team ERA… Nick Ramirez had his 12 game on base streak end when he went 0-3 in game two of the DH…Kentrail Davis has batted leadoff now for five straight games. In his five games as the leadoff man, he is 5-19(.263). This season Davis has batted first, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth. The only spot in the order that Davis has had a higher batting average than the leadoff spot is 7th (.333 BA 15 G)…Shawn Zarraga homered yesterday in game one for his first homerun of the season. It was Zarraga’s first homerun since July 5th of last year in Tennessee. He had gone 72 games combined from last year and this year in between home runs.

13 (386). Kaleb Earls, RHP, Limestone College, SC Tweet - Maryvale

Birthday twins

A fun distraction read -- On the Road: Catching up before the close A Q&A with Huntsville PA announcer 'Casio' before Stars leave in '15 By Benjamin Hill / MiLB.com

Weather.com: Nashville, TN Huntsville, AL Viera, FL (Melbourne) Clinton, IA Boca Chica, DR

Sortable individual stat pages: Nashville Huntsville Brevard County Wisconsin Dominican Summer League Brewers

STANDINGS: AAA - Pacific Coast League American Southern Division AA - Southern League North Division High-A - Florida State League North Division A - Midwest League Western Division DSL - Dominican Summer League San Pedro de Macoris

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

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.