Jim Goulart

Manatees' Moye makes most of break After layoff, Brewers prospect pitches seven one-hit innings By Jonathan Raymond / Special to MLB.com Andy Moye was given 12 days off since his last start. Apparently, he made good use of that time. The Brewers prospect fired seven one-hit innings, striking out five batters and walking one, on Saturday as Class A Advanced Brevard County blanked Fort Myers, 3-0. Moye (5-2) was afforded the extra rest when the Manatees switched to a modified six-man rotation. The extra rest and mental reset did the trick for the 24-year-old right-hander after he surrendered 11 runs -- 10 earned -- on 15 hits over 9 1/3 innings in his previous two starts. "It feels great. I had given up some runs and I took that little break, so I was able to get a mental break and rest my arm and get back to the way I was throwing earlier in the year," Moye said. "I was trusting my stuff to work, with all three of my pitches. You think you'd be a little rusty, but I was able to get around the zone with all of them." Moye began the year with Class A Wisconsin and earned a swift promotion after going 3-0 with a 1.45 ERA in eight Midwest League appearances. He struck out 33 and walked eight across 37 1/3 innings with the Timber Rattlers. That form initially carried over into the Florida State League, where he limited opponents to three earned runs or fewer in seven of his first eight starts. Moye struggled in back-to-back outings earlier this month as his ERA climbed from 4.35 to 5.36. The 12-day respite, he said, helped him right the ship. "I took a few days off from throwing, didn't pick up a ball. I did exercises and worked out and threw a couple bullpens and live [batting practice sessions] to stay fresh," the Georgia Southern product said. "I kind of got away from why I was so successful earlier in the year, tried to bump up the speed a little bit and left the ball up. When it's up, guys will hit it in this league." The 2011 15th-round Draft pick said he'd been trying too hard to blow the ball by hitters and had to go back to focusing on hitting his spots. "You get caught up trying to throw the ball hard, and I knew I didn't have that in me. The way I was feeling just wasn't as sharp as the beginning [of the season]," Moye explained. "I had to get back to trusting myself, locating down in the zone, rather than throwing hard. After I got over that hump, I was able to locate." Saturday's outing dropped Moye's ERA down to 4.69, and he has 42 strikeouts against 19 walks over 55 2/3 innings for Brevard County. "That was one of my better outings of the year," he said. "I definitely want to build off this start. You always have to get better, can't be satisfied." Greg Holle worked through the eighth and Casey Medlen pitched the ninth for his 16th save, closing out the Manatees' eighth shutout. Shea Vucinich and Jason Rogers both had two hits and an RBI for Brevard County. Andy Moye is 7-2 with a 3.66 ERA across two levels. (Dennis Greenblatt/Hawk-Eye Sports Photography) http://www.milb.com/images/2012/07/28/lrPyYG7L.jpg

Maryvale 1st rounder Clint Coulter's had an interesting season -- on base all four times Saturday, now with more walks than K's, OBP .392; for such a strapping kid, 20 of his 22 hits are just singles (SLG .314); fine athlete, yet caught stealing in four of five attempts by Arizona League catchers; and then, of course, feeling his way about the plate defensively. Certainly a learning expereince...

The new Stars players are not yet officially on any roster. The organization wasn't going to fly them to Pensacola regardless. Definitely a transition day for all. If not formally on the Stars' roster on Sunday, then Monday for sure. Long bus ride home (350 miles, about six hours in good conditions) tonight for a late afternoon game Sunday. Likely the toughest travel day of the season for the Huntsville squad.

Nashville Media Notes QUINTERO JOINS SOUNDS: Veteran catcher Humberto Quintero joins the Sounds today after signing with the Brewers as a minor league free agent. The 32-year-old backstop was most recently with New Orleans in the PCL but was released by the Marlins on Wednesday after appearing in only five games for the Z’s (2-for-15, .133). He opened the season with Kansas City and played in 43 games for the Royals, batting .232 (32-for-138) with 12 doubles, one home run, and 19 RBIs. He fills the roster spot of Edwin Maysonet, who is currently inactive after being designated for assignment by Milwaukee last night following the Zack Greinke trade. *** This was first mentioned here in the George Kottaras thread in the Major League Forum...

Hiram's forum buddy posts here and sneaks his way as an extra Burgos into the top ten!

Actually, Huntsville's done a fine job in 2012, up a pretty incredible 40% over 2011. Kudos to the staff (and Hunter Morris!) 2011 attendance figures 2012 attendance figures

I'll be very interested in seeing what affiliate roster shakeups take place today (or Sunday) to make room on the AA roster for the new guys, or who Nashville gets for backup catcher. Moves should abound this weekend. But it's a great summer New England day, and I'm playing hero dad at the amusement park for the full-day trip, so I'll be offline until the overnight. Link Reporters, posters, etc. -- keep an eye on that kind of news and keep everybody posted, thanks -- Jim

Look for Nashville and Wisconsin media notes at the links just prior to their game times. Huntsville is posting theirs more consistently (and did so Friday). Rest your pointer under the "Roster" banner on the Stars' home page to see the link.

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 Rookie Advanced - Pioneer League North Division Rookie - Arizona Summer League DSL - Dominican Summer League San Pedro de Macoris Division *** NOTE: AAA Nashville does not play a split schedule. The other leagues, including the rookie leagues, do. When you click on a standings link for Huntsville, Brevard County or Wisconsin, you'll then be able to choose 1st half and/or overall standings in addition to the current 2nd half standings.

Follow Saturday's action as it happens with box score / game log links: Nashville Huntsville Brevard County Wisconsin Helena Maryvale DSL Brewers

Saturday's Daily Menu: All times are Central Nashville: RHP Brian Baker at home vs. Albuquerque (Dodgers), 6:20 PM pre-game, 6:35 gametime Free Live Audio Link Jeff Hem is the new 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). We imagine the audio feed is from the home team. All MiLB.TV details available at the link. ********** Huntsville: TBD at Pensacola (Reds), 6:15 PM pre-game, 6:30 gametime Free Live Audio Link -- Select the Huntsville feed from the MiLB main audio page Alex Cohen is the new play-by-play voice of the Stars; follow him on Twitter @alexmcohen. It's fantastic that Huntsville is returning to what will be a traditional broadcast format this year. All games, home and away, are scheduled to be broadcast. MiLB.TV subsciption note: Huntsville road games in four locales (Mississippi, Tennessee, Jacksonville and Pensacola) will be broadcast. ********** Brevard County: RHP Andy Moye at Fort Myers (Twins), 6:05 PM gametime Free Live Audio Link -- Select the Fort Myers feed from the MiLB main audio page Once again this season, Brevard does not have its own audio coverage. It appears two teams in the Manatees North Division (within which the majority of games are played) have audio, and all six teams in the South Division have audio (at least for their home games), so there will be opportunities to listen to approx. 70% or Brevard's games this season, just all from the opponent's perspective. There are no Florida State League games on MiLB.TV this year. ********** Wisconsin: RHP Eric Semmelhack at Clinton (Mariners), 5:40 PM pre-game, 6:00 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. MiLB.TV -- for subscribers; Wisconsin is one of only two (Great Lakes) Midwest League clubs that have all their home games available via MiLB.TV; Chris' call provides the audio. So for the $39.95 season-long package, fans in Brewer Nation can watch all Sounds games, all Timber Rattlers home games, and Stars' road games from four Southern League locales, plus one July Helena series (11th-13th). ********** Helena: LHP Taylor Wall at Billings (Reds), 7:50 PM pre-game, 8:05 gametime Free Live Audio Link -- Select the Helena feed from the MiLB main audio page We're lucky to have Steve Wendt back on board for another H-Crew season. ********** Arizona Rookie (Maryvale): at home vs. the Angels' kids (ironically); 9:00 PM gametime; never audio for games in this league ********** DSL Brewers: at home vs. the DSL Angels, 9:30 AM, although game data won't be available until late afternoon at the earliest

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

John Sickels minorleagueball.com thread -- good discussion as well (scroll down at link)

The Kane County Chronicle game story includes complimentary quotes about the Rattlers from Cougars players and staff.

Here's the game story from the Billings Gazette, which includes the following -- Guillon allowed the leadoff man to reach base in four of his six innings, but Helena couldn’t capitalize as they had three runners cut down on the basepaths. Following a single to open the game, Michael Reed stole second base and then failed to tag up on a deep fly ball to right-center field leaving him on second base with two down. As the ensuing pitch squirted away from Mustangs catcher Wagner Gomez, Reed attempted to advance to third but was gunned down by Gomez to end the inning. Chris McFarland was picked off first base in the fourth inning, just moments after singling to lead off the inning and Alfredo Rodriguez was thrown out trying to steal second base.

AUDIO: Jim Callis of Baseball America joined WSSP to discuss the three new Brewers

STARS WIN STREAK SNAPPED AT FIVE PENSACOLA, FL. – A five-game winning streak came to an end for the Huntsville Stars as they fell to the Pensacola BlueWahoos by a score of 7-5 on Friday night. The Stars trailed the entire game, beginning in the second inning. Pensacola left fielder Josh Fellhauer started off the rally with double off of Stars starting pitcher Evan Anundsen. After advancing to third on a sacrifice bunt, Fellhauer then scored on an RBI ground-rule double by third baseman David Vidal to give the BlueWahoos a 1-0 lead. Later in the inning, Vidal scored on an RBI single by pitcher J.C Sulbaran to make the score 2-0. In the top half of the fourth inning, the Stars were able to cut the BlueWahoos lead in half on one swing of the bat by Khris Davis. The left fielder belted his eighth home run of the season over the left field wall to put the score at 2-1. With the Stars deficit remaining at one in the bottom half of the fifth inning, the Pensacola offense came back with a surge of their own. Leading off the frame, shortstop Billy Hamilton tripled to deep right field and scored on an error from shortstop Tommy Manzella while handling the relay throw to put the BlueWahoos up by two. Later in the inning, an RBI double by first baseman Beau Mills gave Pensacola a 4-1 lead. After both teams scored a run apiece in the both the sixth and seventh innings, the Stars made one last push to keep their winning streak alive in the top of the eighth inning. With one out, right fielder Kentrail Davis and catcher Adam Weisenburger began the surge with a single and a walk respectively off of BlueWahoos reliever Josh Ravin. After a pitching change and another walk to pinch-hitter T.J Mittlestaedt, that loaded the bases for Josh Prince. The centerfielder came through with a two-run double off of Pensacola closer Justin Freeman to cut the Stars deficit back to a run. Unfortunately, that’s the closest the Stars got. Following an insurance run by Pensacola in the eighth inning, Freeman stranded the bases loaded in the ninth inning to notch his 11th save on the season. Sulbaran earned the win, improving to 7-7 on the year. For the Stars, Anundsen fell to 5-7 on the year with the loss, giving up four runs on seven hits through 4.2 innings. The loss snapped the Stars five-game winning streak overall. On offense, the fourth inning blast by Davis was his fifth homer in as many games. The Southern League record for most consecutive games with a home run is six, set by longtime big leaguer Derrek Lee in 1996. The final game of a five-game series and nine-game road trip for the Stars will take place on Friday. First pitch is at 6:35 PM.

AUDIO: Jim Henderson joined Joe Block on the Brewers' pre-game Friday night

Just for our wedding friend this AM, Jerry has this for you (these three videos will be up until Saturday midnight only): http://jerryseinfeld.com/

Each of the 3 new Brewers acquisitions were optioned for first time in 2012, and will have two option years remaining headed to 2013 camp.

MiLB.com writeup

Stars southpaw Daniel Meadows welcomes the new guys

14th round RHP Ryan Gibbard (Lynn University, FL) is the latest Helena pre-game audio guest.

It's really time to check out RHP Jesus Sanchez' AAA (and season-combined) numbers. And silly us, wondering who Jason Jaramillo's backup was tonight. Sanchez is a converted catcher (2009)!