Jim Goulart

Rattler Radio Blog with more on the tandems

Wonderful write-up from Kyle at BrewCrewBall.com includes: (2012 4th rounder Tyler) Wagner will be followed in the rotation by 2012 fifth round pick Damien Magnifico, (Brent) Suter, 2011 second round pick Jorge Lopez and 2012 11th round pick Preston Gainey. Several other pitchers, including 2012 Timber Rattler Eric Semmelhack, will also be groomed to start through the tandem process. Read the entire piece.

Sorry about the contribution to the thread hijack, was just providing the background detail to TC07's reference. If we can steer any future discussion back to Carlos' actual plate discipline going forward, great, thanks.

Lucroy discusses it in his WSSP interview Tuesday AM (audio).

As Voice of the Huntsville Stars Alex Cohen just tweeted: You'll be able to hear his call of the Stars tuneup game vs. the Alabama A&M Bulldogs at 5:45 PM Central Tuesday night. Listen here

Here's Chris account which includes video of the HR, the admiration, and even the dugout dance.

Carlos George extended the inning to the major leaguer and Gomez wasted no time putting the Rattlers in front. Gomez jumped on the first pitch from Murphy and hit a no-doubt home run to left field to give the Rattlers a 5-3 lead. The game took an interesting turn as Drew Tyson relieved Murphy after the home run and hit Max Walla with the first pitch of his appearance. Tyson was immediately ejected from the game by plate umpire Fernando Rodriguez. *** What TC07 wrote at the time: A little bit about Gomez... he looked horrible until his HR. He struck out in his first AB, skyed a pop-up to shallow left field in his second, and nubbed a grounder to short in his 3rd AB. The pitch he hit for a homer was some kind of hanging off speed pitch that was belly button high on the outer half and he just crushed it, the announced distance was 412 ft. However, he cadillaced the home run trot (really, in A ball) horribly and didn't pick up the pace until he was halfway between 2nd and 3rd. Obviously Burlington was pissed about Gomez showing up an A ball pitcher so they actually threw at Max Walla, the ball rode up and behind Max's head skipping off his shoulders in the area where one would hold a squat bar when doing squats. Ben McMahan was on-deck absolutely livid and started jawing at the pitcher. The home plate umpire immediately tossed the pitcher, warned both benches, then he went for straight for McMahan to stop him before another Rattler came out of the dugout to calm him down. The base ump also raced in to settle things down and of course the Burlington manager came out for his token ejection. After the game Gomez ended up having words with one of the Burlington coaches over by the T-Rats dugout and then literally gave the guy the blow off good-bye wave and went down into the dugout. Horrible pitch, great hit, and a bonehead move, but that's kind of Carlos in a nutshell. *** Photo array of Carlos Gomez' A-Ball home run admiration *** Unfortunately, the Post Crescent link below is "dead" (pay only): The Post-Cresent Rattler game story includes another Carlos Gomez video interview, Gomez' thoughts on the HBP post-HR theatrics, and more. “That’s bull,” said Gomez. “I’ve been in the big leagues for six years and no one’s ever hit me yet for something like that. That’s not the way you teach young players. If they’re mad, then hit me, not someone else.” My comment that night: Tough for the Bees to do when you're dancing in the dugout, dude...

Via Adam McCalvy: (Gord) Ash also provided updates on two Minor Leaguers. Hector Gomez, pegged as the shortstop for Double-A Huntsville, suffered a rib-cage strain in his first Cactus League at-bat with the Brewers and remained in Arizona for 7-10 days to get healthy. And outfielder Victor Roache, one of Milwaukee's two first-round picks in last year's First-Year Player Draft, remains sidelined by a hamstring strain but will report soon to Class A Wisconsin.

The Sounds are the best online presence in MiLB. Among other things, they make their entire media guide available in PDF format. The Sounds wrapped up spring training games Saturday, Tyler Thornburg looked very good: Right-hander Tyler Thornburg picked up the victory after striking out seven batters and allowing only one run on five hits over five innings of work.

RHP Taylor Mangum (2012 stats) is the 25th Rattler (24 players had been announced previously). His tweet Mangum was featured on the Wisconsin Sports Blog recently. Earlier this week he thanked a couple of big league Brewers for their insights.

Tweet from Brewers on RHP Jameson Dunn: ...decided to pursue a career other than baseball and failed to file the proper retirement paperwork.

Chuck Caufield in extended spring training now, in June he'll be either with Helena or Maryvale, with the other spot still yet to be announced.

2011 stats for the undrafted free agent out of Oral Roberts (his age 24 rookie season) Dunn was in the 2012 media guide, but not 2013. He missed 2012 still rehabbing a shoulder injury. You are correct, there was no official word on a departure from the organization, but he'd be 26 now. I did drop him from the Player Index. On a related note, there is no player too obscure to mention on this forum. You diehards keep us on our toes, no doubt.

Tweet from Brewers Player Dev: All those players (in this thread) are still with the organization. Some may start the season on the DL.

Still so young (just turned 20), but was hoping for a Wisconsin placement. But with that OF, who sits? Yes, there's a DH, but we want to see Pena's RF gun regularly. They'll get him plenty of AB's in extended spring, and we all know injuries and player movement always happens. There's guys on the Helena roster deserving of being on full-season teams, and you'll see some of them get their chance before rookie league play starts in June.

RHP Chad Thompson (Rattlers ' 12) indicated he'd open the season on the DL but was looking to bounce back quickly in order to join a full-season team. I didn't pry on the nature of his injury, not sure what the Brewers have told guys to discuss in terms of that, although obviously some have in the past.

It was thought Gomez was going to miss much of this season with a re-occurance of his groin injury history. Yet he appeared in three big league camp games as an invite from the minor league side (went 0-for-5).

One guy I can't believe did not get a bump is LHP Mike Strong, back with the Rattlers. Lefty (stats) struck out 60 in 42.1 IP last season, while allowing only 30 hits (yes, walk rate high, but gee...). Wonder if he'll get closing opportunities to begin the season.

Our annual look at the "missing" on the day when rosters are released -- Although our Brewerfan Player Index is hanging on by a thread and is currently updated, it appears to be no longer sortable and is on its last legs. You can also still click on any of the team pages via the "locked-in-time" home page here and those are up-to-date also. But the best view tonight of all the rosters in one place is via Adam and his Brewer Nation blog - here you go all on one page. Nashville: Chuck Caufield -- we learned this spring that he's getting into the coaching side of things with the Brewers, imagine he'll be based in Maryvale, but we'll see. No word on the status of shortstop Hector Gomez. *** Huntsville: While we don't have it formally, we imagine RHP's Nick Bucci (shoulder strain this spring) and Cody Scarpetta (Tommy John surgery last June and no longer on the 40-man roster) are on the Stars' DL. LHP Daniel Meadows -- I have a message into Dan, if he is injured, we haven't caught wind of the nature or severity. *** Brevard County: We know RHP Eric Arnett (knee) is out for 2013, and RHP Austin Ross had Tommy John surgery last May. No word on the status of catcher Joey Paciorek and RHP Matt Miller. *** Wisconsin: We know that OF Max Walla recently broke his left hand. Catcher Tyler Roberts sprained his throwing wrist last July and missed the rest of the season. We don't know about his current status. We don't know the status of RHP's Chad Thompson and Tyler Cravy, although I have messages in to each. *** Unless we hear otherwise, all these players are waiting for full-season opportunities. Without movement, some of these players might get squeezed out, particularly the older guys. Helena Maryvale

Another intriguing aspect of this roster is the mystery man from Cuba, RHP Rodolfo Fernandez, about to make his pro debut.

Jeff Hem ‏@JeffHemPBP The @nashvillesounds rotation order is currently set up like this: Thornburg, Burgos, Hellweg, Kroenke, and De La Cruz.

Thanks, prior link was the preview article, here's the actual full roster. Just-turned 27-year-old RHP Andre Lamontagne is a cool name to see, several of us were on that bandwagon once. He's missed most of the past two seasons which included shoulder surgery.

C Clint Coulter - Wisconsin (tweet)

One option remaining, as per media guide...

Just-turned 20-year-old 2011 2nd round pick RHP Jorge Lopez will begin in Wisconsin (tweet); that's noteworthy after his 2012 Maryvale struggles, which was followed by an unexpected detour to the Dominican Summer League (stats).