Jim Goulart

Via Jeff Hem's blog -- Audio from Nashville — Brewers Pitching Coordinator Rick Tomlin Today’s interview is with Brewers minor league pitching coordinator Rick Tomlin, who shares his thoughts about Tyler Thornburg’s outing last night, the Sounds’ pitching staff so far this season, the development of Johnny Hellweg and what he and the Brewers are looking for in Francisco Rodriguez, who has joined the Sounds as the Brewers evaluate whether or not to call him up to the big leagues later this week.

Via Jeff Hem's blog -- Audio from Nashville — Brewers Pitching Coordinator Rick Tomlin Today’s interview is with Brewers minor league pitching coordinator Rick Tomlin, who shares his thoughts about Tyler Thornburg’s outing last night, the Sounds’ pitching staff so far this season, the development of Johnny Hellweg and what he and the Brewers are looking for in Francisco Rodriguez, who has joined the Sounds as the Brewers evaluate whether or not to call him up to the big leagues later this week.

Brevard roster at only 23 on their off-day, losing Mike Fiers (Milwaukee) and K-Rod (Nashville). They get OF Ben McMahan (broken thumb in spring training) back, which should be a boost. McMahan, Lance Roenicke, Chadwin Stang, and IF/OF T.J. Mittelstaedt on the Brevard roster, as we continue the Mitch Haniger promotion watch. 42nd round 2010 draft pick OF John Dishon out of LSU has been released. Didn't take advantage of extended playing time this spring.

Holle adjusting nicely to Class AA By Ed Weaver, Troy (NY) Record TROY — Greg Holle is 6-foot-8. The Milwaukee Brewers, his employer, like tall pitchers. The former Christian Brothers Academy star is pitching in the bullpen with the Brewers Class AA Southern League team in Huntsville, Ala., the Huntsville Stars. He’d rather be starting, which makes him like 90 percent of pro baseball’s relievers. And being paid to play a game he loves never gets old. One poor outing about one month ago shot Holle’s earned run average to 6.79 but several strong performances since – including his first win at the AA level – have lowered it to 5.40. In 17 innings, he’s allowed 15 hits, nine earned runs, walked eight and struck out 12. “It’s different,” Holle said while comparing AA ball with Class A and the college game. “Everybody here can hurt you.” At Texas Christian University, Holle was used as a starter and a reliever in his third and final season but overall, 41 of his 50 appearances for the Horned Frogs were starts. And adjusting to relief pitching has been – an adjustment – to be sure. “I’ve always started, most of my career,” he said. “(Relieving) is a totally different mindset. You have to be ready every night and you have to have real short-term memory.” When a starter has a poor outing, he has four-five days to get the bad thoughts out of his mind. A reliever gives up four-five hits and runs in less than one inning of work, he may be called upon the next night. “You really have to convince yourself that (the poor outing) has no bearing whatsoever the next night,” Holle said. “It’s easier said than done.” Holle noted that the Stars had a string or rainouts and played several doubleheaders in one week. “There was a stretch where I pitched or warmed up in 16 games in 13 days,” he said. “I was throwing in the bullpen basically every night. “It goes in cycles,” he said, “you just have to keep yourself healthy and always be ready.” The 220-pound, lanky right-hander thought back to his poor outing, back on April 26 against the Mississippi (Jackson) Braves. “Tie game,” he said. “I come in, guy gets a bloop single. Next guys bunts and beats it out. Then I hit a guy and they had four runs before I could get of it.” He was charged with his first Class AA loss. Three nights earlier, also against the Braves, Holle had allowed two earned runs on three hits and was charged with a blown save. In the outing previous to that, at Birmingham (White Sox farm team), he walked two and allowed one hit and two earned runs in just one-third of an inning. As mentioned, his ERA had jumped to an unattractive 6.79. “This (early) part of the season,” he said, “any sort of slip up, any shaky outing and your numbers really go through the roof. coaches tell you, ‘it’s so early, don’t worry’ but nobody wants to hear that. You want it (continued success) now.” Discounting those three consecutive outings in which he was scored upon, Holle has totaled 13 2/3 innings, allowed seven hits, no run, four walks and has struck out 11. Holle’s win came at Mobile (Diamondbacks farm team) on May 3. He allowed one hit in two innings, no run, one walk and fanned three. He got the win, 5-2, when the Brewers’ outstanding prospect Kentrail Davis stoked a two-run single to highlight Huntsville’s three-run seventh inning in the game scheduled for seven innings. “Real good feeling,” Holle said of his thoughts when he walked off the mound after the final out, a strikeout. “As a whole, I’ve been throwing pretty well,” he said. “The walks are a little more than I’d like. In Double-A, the strike zone has gotten tighter. In his pro rookie season in the (2010) Arizona Fall League, posted a 3-1 record and 0.79 ERA, allowing just two earned runs in 22 2/3 innings with 16 strikeouts and nine walks. He pitched 61 innings the low-Class A Midwest League in 2011, posting a 1-4 record and 4.57 ERA and 45 strikeouts. Last season in the high-Class A Florida State League, he went 3-7 on a weak team, allowing 56 hits and just 13 walks in 61 2/3 innings, striking out 37 and pitching to a 3.94 earned run average. “I struck out more guys when I was younger,” he said. “But I’ve been making them swing and getting a lot of groundball outs.” The Brewers are one of several National League teams who require their pitchers – starters and relievers – to bat when their slot comes around since the NL still does not use a designated hitter for the pitcher. He’s been pinch-hit for several times this season but did have one at-bat early in the season. “We made a double-switch (Holle was the new pitcher, batted in the batting order spot of the replaced position player) and all of a sudden, I’m up,” he recalled. “(Class) AA fastballs, after not seeing any live pitching for so long, they looked like 1000 miles an hour,” he said. “I took the first one. I fouled one off and then the guy threw me a big sweeping breaking ball; I had no chance.” It was the only at-bat of his pro career, as relievers are usually pinch-hit for anyway. “Yeah, if I could have seen some pitching, I could have done better,” he said. Holle, a big run producer in high school and college, misses hitting greatly. “Oh, I miss it a lot,” he said. “I’ve always taken pride in my hitting.” The Huntsville ballpark, Joe Davis Stadium, is one of Class AA’s nicest. It also shares a nickname with Troy’s Joe Bruno Stadium. “The Joe, yeah,” Holle said. “It was weird, being out of Troy for a few years. I just came up from (spring training last month), go out to the ballpark and it says, ‘Welcome to The Joe.’ I thought of Joe Bruno (Stadium). Are there a lot of minor league parks called The Joe?” There is no timetable for Holle to reach the majors or even the Class AAA level. Holle is not listed among those considered to be the Brewers’ top 30 prospects – and pitchers are among 14 of those who are. Still, the Brewers are mindful of him, to be sure. “Obviously, they like me, that’s pretty (clear),” Holle said of Brewers farm system personnel. “I just have to keep communicating with my pitching coach (Chris Hook) and manager (Darnell Coles). They don’t want to see pitchers just sitting around.” “Greg has a strong arm, throws hard (low 90s mph) and has a high work ethic,” Rick Tomlin, the Brewers’ Roving Pitching Instructor said of Holle. “Obviously, whenever you start a year, you hope to get promoted from there,” Holle said. “I just need to continue to throw the ball well and it’ll force their hand. I have to take advantage when get into a game.” Outside of Huntsville, the closest Southern League town to this area is Jackson, Tenn., near Knoxville (110 miles east of Nashville), home of the Cubs’ Double-A farm team, the Tennessee Smokies. So, his parents, Gary Sr. and Paula, will have some distance to cover to see him play. Gary Holle Sr. was a Brewers prospect in the 1970s and played five big league games with the Texas Rangers in 1979. “It’s still an honor and a thrill to put on the uniform, every day,” Greg Holle said.

River Cats' Gray wows in homecoming A's prospect returns to Nashville, pitches six shutout innings

STARS DROP SERIES FINALE WITH GENERALS Alex Cohen, Huntsville Stars To finish off a five-game set at Joe Davis Stadium, the Huntsville Stars lost a series-deciding contest to the Jackson Generals by a score of 12-8 on Saturday night. Unfortunately for the Stars, one of the better offensive outputs of the season was wasted with the lost. Trailing 2-0 in the first inning, the first three Huntsville hitters reached base against Jackson starting pitcher Anthony Fernandez. With the bases loaded, first baseman Jason Rogers launched a fastball over the right-field wall for the Stars first grand slam of 2013 to give them a 4-2 lead (audio). Two batters later, a RBI double from catcher Robinzon Diaz put Huntsville up by three (audio). However, that lead for the Stars would be short-lived. In the span of two innings, the Generals offense was able to reclaim the lead off of Stars starting pitcher Arcenio Leon (L, 0-3). A bases-clearing double from Generals shortstop Brad Miller in the second highlighted the offensive explosion while left fielder Leon Landry and third baseman Vinnie Catricala each added a RBI double in the third. In the bottom half of the frame, the Stars got one back on another homer from Rogers, this one a solo shot to begin the inning off of Fernandez as well (audio). For Rogers, the multi-homer game was his first of the season and only the second for the Stars as a team, as Brock Kjeldgaard had the only other one in April. That was the closest the Stars would get to take their initial lead back. Jackson scored four more runs in the fifth inning off of Huntsville righty Mark Williams, led by a two-run double from designated hitter Abraham Almonte and another RBI single from Morban. Catricala added an RBI single in the eighth inning off of Stars lefty Brian Garman to give the Generals their final run of the game. On offense, the Stars also got an RBI single from shortstop Ozzie Chavez in the sixth inning and an RBI groundout from Diaz in the seventh. Huntsville also had four players with two or more hits on the game, as infielder Nick Shaw led the way with a 3-for-5 night at the dish. Rogers, Kjeldgaard and Chavez each had two hits. The loss for the Stars marked their sixth consecutive series defeat. Huntsville has not won a five-game set since their opening series of the year against Chattanooga. They are now 5-15 at Joe Davis Stadium this season. With an early morning bus ride on Sunday, the Stars will travel to Trustmark Park to open up a five-game series against the Southern League South-leading Mississippi Braves. The Stars will send RHP Jimmy Nelson (3-2, 2.75 ERA) to the bump to square off against M-Braves RHP Cody Martin (1-1, 3.38 ERA). First pitch is at 5:00 PM.

Weather.com: Nashville Pearl, MS Grand Chute (Appleton)

Look for Nashville and Wisconsin media notes at the links just prior to their game times.

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.

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

Programming note: Mississippi has MiLB.TV coverage, so if you're a subscriber, you can watch the Stars and Jimmy Nelson this evening.

Sunday's Daily Menu: All times are Central Nashville: LHP Zach Kroenke at home vs. Sacramento (Athletics), 1:45 PM pre-game, 2:05 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 Jimmy Nelson at Mississippi (Braves), 4:45 PM pre-game, 5:00 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: Idle ********** Wisconsin: RHP Jorge Lopez at home vs. Burlington (Angels), 12:45 PM pre-game, 1:05 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. MiLB.TV -- for subscribers; Wisconsin is one of four Midwest League clubs that have all their home games available via MiLB.TV. 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).

http://www.brewerfan.net/images/store/dailylinkreport.jpg

Via Brad - Photos from last night's doubleheader between Wisconsin and Clinton

Weather.com: Nashville Huntsville Viera (Melbourne) Grand Chute (Appleton)

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.

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

Saturday's Daily Menu: All times are Central Nashville: RHP Tyler Thornburg at home vs. Sacramento (Athletics), 6:15 PM pre-game, 6:35 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 Arcenio Leon at home vs. Jackson (Mariners), 6:28 PM pre-game, 6:43 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. Tampa (Yankees), 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 Austin Blaski at home vs. Burlington (Angels), 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. MiLB.TV -- for subscribers; Wisconsin is one of four Midwest League clubs that have all their home games available via MiLB.TV. 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).

http://www.brewerfan.net/images/store/dailylinkreport.jpg

Chris indicated there were no Rattlers highlights from the Game Two 7-0 loss, but that was the televised game, and there are LOTS of Clinton Lumberkings highlights collected on video here. Enjoy, at least the picture quality is very good. *** There is also a post-game televised interview with Manager Matt Erickson at this link, and it includes the ejections of catcher Parker Berberet and Erickson, as mentioned earlier in the report. As Chris noted on the blog post linked earlier: Erickson was fine until he went to the plate to point out by how much the throw to the plate beat Villasuso. Walking to the plate and holding his arms out while saying BY THIS MUCH is going to get you run. The runner looked out. Berberet doesn’t react that way if he didn’t tag him. The manager doesn’t react that way if he didn’t think Berberet didn’t tag him. Unfortunately, it looked like Berberet bumped the umpire. We’ll have to wait and see what happens with that.

Brad's site -- neat look at organizational leaders, just the basics

Audio - Brevard County Player Interviews RHP Chad Pierce RHP Seth Harvey *** Audio Highlights / lowlights from the Manatees loss Friday night

Huntsville Pre-Game Interview with Taylor Jungmann Huntsville Game Audio Highlight: Rene Tosoni singles in two runs *** Big Inning Dooms Stars By Alex Cohen / Huntsville Stars On Friday night, a seven-run third inning for the Jackson Generals sent the Stars to an 8-5 loss at Joe Davis Stadium. Jackson scored their only other run early, as Generals catcher John Hicks sent the third pitch of the game over the left-field wall for his second homer of the season to make the score 1-0. After a two-run single from Stars outfielder Rene Tosoni gave Huntsville a 2-1 lead in the second inning, the Generals mounted their big inning in the third by sending 10 batters to the plate. First, following back-to-back singles by third baseman Leury Bonilla and second baseman Jack Marder and Moye hitting Hicks with a pitch, Generals shortstop Brad Miller hit a towering homer over the right-field wall for a grand slam to make the score 5-2. Then, after back-to-back singles from outfielders James Jones and Julio Morban, a three-run blast from Jackson designated hitter Abraham Almonte put the Generals up by six. On a bright note, the Stars pitching staff blanked the Generals offense over the last five innings of the game. Despite throwing two scoreless frames after that third inning, Andy Moye fell to 1-4 on the year with the loss. The 25-year-old righty gave up eight runs and nine hits in five innings while striking out five batters. Besides Moye, the Stars got two scoreless innings from righty Santo Manzanillo, and an inning of scoreless relief each from relievers Thomas Keeling and Eric Marzec. The strong outing from the Huntsville bullpen allowed the Stars to get back into the game. After a run-scoring groundout from first baseman Jason Rogers in the third, another RBI groundout from outfielder Kentrail Davis in the fifth inning made the score 8-4. Then, in the eighth inning, a solo homer from outfielder Brock Kjeldgaard cut the Stars deficit to three. For Kjeldgaard, the homer was his second in as many games and his fifth of the season. In the ninth inning, the Stars were able to load the bases and send the potential game-winning run to the plate. However, Generals reliever Jonathan Arias was able to strike out Rogers to end the game and ruin any potential comeback for Huntsville. The win for Jackson evened up this series at two apiece, setting the stage for a rubber match of the five-game set on Saturday. Game five of the five-game series between the Stars and Generals will begin at 6:43 PM at Joe Davis Stadium. Huntsville will send RHP Arcenio Leon (0-2, 5.28 ERA) to the bump to square off against Jackson LHP Anthony Fernandez (0-0, 8.64 ERA). Following the series finale against the Generals, the Stars will hit the road and head west to start a five-game set against the Mississippi Braves on Sunday.

Nashville Sports Talk Radio Interview with Hunter Morris