Jim Goulart

Friday's Daily Menu: TGIF! All times are Central Nashville: RHP Frankie De La Cruz at home vs. Albuquerque (Dodgers), 6:45 PM pre-game, 7:05 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 $39.99 season-long package ($9.99 to pay for a single month). The audio feed is from the home team. All MiLB.TV details available at the link. ********** Huntsville: RHP Ariel Pena at Tennessee (Cubs), 6:00 PM pre-game, 6:15 gametime Free Live Audio Link -- Select the Huntsville feed from the MiLB main audio page Alex Cohen is the play-by-play voice of the Stars; follow him on Twitter @alexmcohen. All games, home and away, are scheduled to be broadcast. It appears four Southern League teams air their home games on MiLB.TV, and we'll let you know when those dates pop up on the schedule ********** Brevard County: RHP Drew Gagnon at home vs. Clearwater (Phillies), 5:05 PM pre-game, 5:35 gametime Free Live Audio Link -- Select the link based on listed schedule Manatees audio, hooray! Dave Walkovic is the first play-by-play voice of the 'Tees since 2007, he's joined by Andy Towne; follow the Brevard broadcast booth staff on Twitter @BCManateesRadio. All home games and many road games are scheduled to be broadcast. When road games are only available via the opponents' audio feed, we'll let you know that. ********** Wisconsin: RHP Preston Gainey at Quad Cities (Astros), 6:40 PM pre-game, 7:00 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. So for the $39.95 season-long package, fans in Brewer Nation can watch all Sounds games, Stars' road games from four Southern League locales, and all Timber Rattlers home games and some road games. NOTE: 32 of the Rattlers' 70 home games will be broadcast on TV this season. Time Warner Cable SportsChannel has seventeen games scheduled and WACY-TV My NEW32 plans to show fifteen games. We'll let you know when, but won't be providing day-before DVR reminders, so regularly check for proper channel and time planning (scroll to the bottom of this link).

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Per the J-S' Todd Rosiak at the time: "Asst Brewers GM Gord Ash says Taylor Jungmann on the DL in Huntsville with a nerve issue affecting fingers on his right hand. Team is being proactive prescribing rest and treatment in the hopes of nipping Jungmann's issue in the bud."

Quad Cities photo gallery includes several Timber Rattlers Game story from Quad Cities Online On Jorge Lopez -- "He was really mixing up his pitches and keeping us off balance"

Brevard County Audio: Pre-Game Interview with 1B/DH Cody Hawn Game Highlights / Lowlights

Huntsville Audio Clip: Brock Kjeldgaard Leaping Catch Stars OF Brock Kjeldgaard robs Smokies Ty Wright of a solo homer in the 7th inning

Stars Shutout By Hendricks, Smokies By Alex Cohen / Huntsville Stars To open up a five-game series at Smokies Park and a ten-game road trip overall, the Huntsville Stars were shut out by the Tennessee Smokies by a score of 2-0 on Thursday night. Despite outhitting the Smokies by a 6-to-4 margin, the Stars offense was blanked by three Smokies hurlers, headlined by starting pitcher Kyle Hendricks. The 23-year-old righty improved to 4-2 on the season by blanking the Huntsville bats through seven innings, giving up just four hits while striking out seven batters. With Hendricks out of the game in the eighth inning, relievers Brian Schlitter and Marcus Hatley shut out the Stars through the final six outs of the game. The save for Hatley was his second of the season. Unfortunately, starting pitcher Jimmy Nelson took the hard-pressed loss. The Brewers 8th ranked prospect (per MLB.com) gave up just two runs in a season-high seven innings pitched while also striking out seven batters in the process. Nelson's ERA dropped back under 3.00 (2.98) with the start. For Nelson, his only blemish of the evening came in the fourth inning. The Stars ace gave up a solo homer to Smokies shortstop Arismendy Alcantara to begin the inning and then a two-out RBI double to right fielder Tim Torres to take the loss. The quality start for Nelson was the Stars sixth in a row for their starting rotation. Aside from Nelson, the Stars got a scoreless inning of relief from righty Santo Manzanillo. On offense, Huntsville got a pair of hits from catcher Robinzon Diaz, who now has 10 hits in his last 18 at-bats. First baseman Jason Rogers also added his team-leading 13th double of the year while outfielder Rene Tosoni, third baseman Mike Walker and pinch-hitter Shawn Zarraga each added a single. En route to their series-opening defeat, the Stars were shut out for the fifth time this season and second time in their last four games. The Stars and Smokies will play game two of their five-game series at Smokies Park on Friday. Huntsville will send RHP Ariel Pena (3-3, 2.95 ERA) to the bump to square off against Tennessee RHP Yeiper Castillo (NR). First pitch is at 7:15 PM (6:15 Central).

Mittelstaedt's path back up to Double A may be a shorts story for Manatees Outfielder/third baseman seeks quick fix for his smooth swing by Michael Parsons, FLORIDA TODAY T.J. Mittelstaedt is working hard to get back home. After all, 25 days with three shirts and a couple of shorts is a tough road for anybody. But Mittelstaedt knows it is just a matter of time. He just needs to be patient and put in the work. The 25-year-old from California has been doing a lot of that lately, working hard with hitting coach Ned Yost IV every afternoon on his swing since being demoted from Double A. “I am trying to get a consistent path towards the ball,” Mittelstaedt said of his swing. He does have a track record of being a good hitter. Last season was the first time he did not hit at least .280 as a pro — he hit .258 with nine home runs with the Brevard County Manatees before getting called up to Double A. This season, he started in Double A, but struggled with consistency and was sent back to Brevard to work on things. “Once I get my head still again, my path (to the ball) will definitely come back,” Mittelstaedt said. “Once I keep my posture and my head stays still, I can get hot real quick.” And he has shown signs of doing just that. In the past seven games with the Manatees, Mittelstaedt has at least one hit in six of them. He is showing off that power as well with two home runs in the past four games. “Probably 10 days ago, I was at a point where I thought I was close, but looked at the video and my head was moving a lot, so we have polished that up and got my head to be more still,” said Mittelstaedt, who has played third base and the outfield this season. But more than that, he is working on becoming a more consistent hitter. As he is quick to point out, it is a process. “There is nothing you are going to do that is going to be so extraordinary that you are going to automatically move up. You can have a 3-for-4 game and have three home runs ... you are not going up because of that,” Mittelstaedt said. “It is the consistency, and I have struggled with going up and down. I have to keep my swing consistent.” That is where he hopes his hard work comes in. And Mittelstaedt is putting in the time. He is hoping it leads to “good days.” Mittelstaedt is focused on one thing — getting better every day. He knows if he gets better every day, then the results will happen. “You just need to keep having good days,” Mittelstaedt said. “It is the consistency of not worrying about what happened, just get better every day.” And that will lead him back home, where he has more than a couple of pairs of shorts. T.J. Mittelstaedt hopes to get back to Double A soon, on his way to the majors. / Michael Parsons/FLORIDA TODAY http://cmsimg.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=A9&Date=20130524&Category=SPORTS&ArtNo=305240037&Ref=AR&MaxW=300&Border=0&Mittelstaedt-s-path-back-up-Double-may-shorts-story-Manatees

This Link Report polecat has to run for now, know there will be more formal links from around the system posted by mid-morning, including more audio, so keep an eye out for those, thanks.

Yes, we're linking to a story on "Mascot Boot Camp" with Huntsville's Homer the Polecat (skunk). Watch the video.

Really nice tribute and collection of links on Epy Guerrero here.

Via Jeff Hem's blog -- Audio from Tacoma — “An Untangled (Travis) Webb” A chat with the Sounds’ lone lefty reliever and lone Washingtonian, Travis Webb. The southpaw, who was on several losing teams during his seven years in the Reds system, provides a very detailed, honest analysis of how the Sounds are dealing with their rough first month and a half of the season. He also discusses his transition the last couple of years to being a reliever, the importance for a lefty reliever in being able to get out left-handed batters and his return “home” to Washington (he’s a Spokane native). *** Travis seems like a nice guy, but is certainly low-key. For pure entertainment value, you're invited to re-visit this week's earlier interview with fellow southpaw and tonight's star Zach Kroenke.

Via the Sounds: OF Cole Garner has been activated from the D.L. for Thursday's game; OF Sean Halton placed on D.L., retro to 5/21

Since the Manatees are the organization's true sole playoff hopeful in the first half (yes, others still exist mathematically), Brevard's Dave Walkovic responded to our query: The 1st half ends following the game on June 19th against Lakeland. The 1st tie breaker is win percentage and the 2nd is head-to-head, so it looks like either way we would lose the tiebreaker scenario against Dunedin. (Dunedin will be playing two games less than the Manatees thanks to weather cancellations.) So while Brevard is two games out in the standings, technically it's three, since Dunedin won the first-half season series, 5-4. The Sea Cows need to finish a game up on Dunedin to win the first-half division title. Not forgetting Daytona or Clearwater...

Epy Guerrero has passed away. During his Brewers tenure, the legendary scout signed Alcides Escobar. More on his background - pretty amazing.

Nashville Giraffe Jerseys -- Sweet!

VIDEO: Caleb Gindl's HR in Tuesday's excrutiating 8-7 loss Speaking of which, the walk-off (Kyle Heckathorn, who had been on quite a roll, on the mound) *** Video from Wednesday: Nashville's Tyler Thornburg strikes out Nate Tenbrink to end the fourth inning in a 5-4 loss to Tacoma That was Thornburg's 4th K in the inning, as we highlighted in yesterday's Report.

Weather.com: Tacoma Kodak, TN Viera (Melbourne) Davenport, IA

Look for Nashville and Wisconsin media notes at the links just prior to their game times. New this season: Brevard County has media notes; as of now, it's a unique link each day, but look for it just prior to game time each day within the "Stats and Scores" banner here.

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: AAA - Pacific Coast League American Northern Division AA - Southern League North Division High-A - Florida State League North Division A - Midwest League Western Division

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

Programming note: Tennessee has MiLB.TV coverage, so if you're a subscriber, you can watch this Stars' series (live and/or archived).

Thursday's Daily Menu: All times are Central Nashville: LHP Zach Kroenke at Tacoma (Mariners), 8:40 PM pre-game, 9:00 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 $39.99 season-long package ($9.99 to pay for a single month). The audio feed is from the home team. All MiLB.TV details available at the link. ********** Huntsville: RHP Jimmy Nelson at Tennessee (Cubs), 6:00 PM pre-game, 6:15 gametime Free Live Audio Link -- Select the Huntsville feed from the MiLB main audio page Alex Cohen is the play-by-play voice of the Stars; follow him on Twitter @alexmcohen. All games, home and away, are scheduled to be broadcast. It appears four Southern League teams air their home games on MiLB.TV, and we'll let you know when those dates pop up on the schedule ********** Brevard County: LHP Jed Bradley at home vs. Palm Beach (Cardinals), 5:05 PM pre-game, 5:35 gametime Free Live Audio Link -- Select the link based on listed schedule Manatees audio, hooray! Dave Walkovic is the first play-by-play voice of the 'Tees since 2007, he's joined by Andy Towne; follow the Brevard broadcast booth staff on Twitter @BCManateesRadio. All home games and many road games are scheduled to be broadcast. When road games are only available via the opponents' audio feed, we'll let you know that. ********** Wisconsin: RHP Jorge Lopez at Quad Cities (Astros), 6:40 PM pre-game, 7:00 gametime; expect to see RHP Ryan Gibbard in the tandem arrangement 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. So for the $39.95 season-long package, fans in Brewer Nation can watch all Sounds games, Stars' road games from four Southern League locales, and all Timber Rattlers home games and some road games. NOTE: 32 of the Rattlers' 70 home games will be broadcast on TV this season. Time Warner Cable SportsChannel has seventeen games scheduled and WACY-TV My NEW32 plans to show fifteen games. We'll let you know when, but won't be providing day-before DVR reminders, so regularly check for proper channel and time planning (scroll to the bottom of this link).

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