Jim Goulart

Timber Rattlers struggle to recover their momentum from the first half by Tim Froberg, Post-Crescent staff writer GRAND CHUTE — The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers are discovering that reboots can be a bit tricky. The Rattlers tore it up during a highly successful first half of the Midwest League season, but haven’t been able to get started in the second half. Wisconsin, the first-half champion of the Western Division, has dropped all four of its second-half games and lost its sixth straight Monday night with a 4-1 loss to the Quad Cities River Bandits. It was Wisconsin’s first home game in two weeks, but the return to Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium didn’t change the Rattlers’ fortunes. The Rattlers were held hitless for 4 1/3 innings by Quad Cities left-hander Dail Villanueva and finished with just five hits. “If you look at our numbers the last six games, we’re not getting it done,” Wisconsin manager Matt Erickson said. “But at the same time, we’re playing some competitive games, so there’s no need to panic.” Rosters shift constantly at the minor league level, particularly at midseason, and it’s difficult to maintain momentum with new faces checking in and familiar ones exiting. The Rattlers have experienced considerable change in the past week. Three Wisconsin players, outfielders Jason Rogers and John Dishon and pitcher Seth Harvey, were promoted to Brevard County, while two new players, outfielders Mitch Haniger and Lance Roenicke, have been added to the roster. “We’ll be OK,” Erickson said. “We’ve had some key players move and have a couple new players, but that’s part of the development process. It’s understood. The overall make-up of our team is still pretty much the same and the new guys are all good-character guys.” Cameron Garfield was the lone Timber Rattler to collect two hits and the former second-round draft pick in 2009 helped Wisconsin avoid a shutout by drilling an RBI single in the ninth inning. The 21-year-old Garfield has been hampered with knee injuries the past 1½ seasons and had just 53 at-bats last season. He missed most of the first half of this season while rehabbing a dislocated knee cap, which required surgery, but has swung the bat well upon his return. In 50 at-bats this season, the right-handed-hitting Garfield is hitting .300, with a home run, six RBI and a .435 slugging percentage. “I’m just happy to be healthy again and eager to help this team win,” Garfield said. “The body is feeling good and my knee is feeling good. I’m a little lighter right now, so that shouldn’t put as much pressure on my knee.” Garfield’s position is catcher, but he filled the designated hitter’s role Monday night. “It’s a little different when you’re not in there defensively and are hitting every three innings,” Garfield said. “You have to stay loose and keep your mind in the game. You just have to have a little different approach to things.” “I got a couple of good pitches to hit tonight and made some good contact.” A bright spot on the mound for the Rattlers was the effective relief work of right-hander Kevin Shackelford, who threw 3 2/3 innings of hitless relief. Shackelford struck out three and didn’t allow a walk. Wisconsin starter Mark Williams exited in the fifth after surrendering a three-run homer to the River Bandits’ Matt Williams. The Timber Rattlers might have put a couple more runs on the board had it not been for the defensive expertise of River Bandits center fielder Virgil Hill. Hill made a couple of outstanding catches, including a leaping grab against the fence that robbed the Rattlers’ Ben McMahan of an extra-base hit in the sixth inning. “Their centerfielder made a couple of great plays,” said Erickson. “Those were two big plays.” Article includes a photo gallery

Quad Cities 4, Wisconsin 1: The Timber Rattlers Notebook Detailed report and interviews via Kyle's press credentials for BrewCrewBall...

Osprey edge Brewers 2-1 in 10 innings on controversy By CURT SYNNESS, Helena Independent Record On a night featuring pitching mastery for nine innings at Kindrick Legion Field, culminating with a pair of home runs in the 10th frame, the Pioneer League game’s final outcome was decided by an appeal play. Trailing the Missoula Osprey 2-0 in the bottom of the 10th, with one on and two out, Helena Brewer Raul Mondesi Jr. cranked what would have been a game-tying homer over the left field fence. After Mondesi crossed home plate — or did he — and was greeted by celebratory teammates, Osprey pitcher Dexter Price flipped the ball to catcher Michael Perez, who stepped on home for an appeal. The home plate umpire raised and pumped his right fist, signifying that Mondesi had missed the plate and was out, ending the game in a 2-1 win for Missoula. Mondesi was officially credited with a triple. “Did he miss home plate? You tell me, because I don’t know, I didn’t see it,” said Helena manager Jeff Isom, on his way back to the clubhouse, after a long discussion with the umpire. “On any home run, the umpire has one job, and that’s to watch the plate and make sure the runners touch it. He said he (Mondesi) missed it by eight inches.” Isom said it was one of the craziest endings to a game he’s been a part of, and the first time in his 13 years of managing that’s he’s seen a home run taken away from a batter. “It’s a terrible way to lose a ballgame, but the guys learned a good lesson. From now on, make sure you jump on the plate on a homer,” he added. The majority of the game belonged to the pitchers, who were hotter than the 93 degree temperature at first pitch and the fire that was burning in the Scratchgravels. Fans at Kindrick Legion Field watch the Helena Brewers play the Missoula Osprey on Monday night as smoke from a fire in the Scratchgravel Hills fills the sky. The Osprey beat the Brewers 2-1 in extra innings. Photo by Dylan Brown Independent Record http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/helenair.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/c/22/c2247d36-bf36-11e1-af63-001a4bcf887a/4fe91e8a66a98.image.jpg Missoula starter Andrew Barbosa took a no-hitter into the fifth inning, which was broken up by Emmanuel Quiles’ single on the first pitch of the inning. The 6-foot-8, 205-pound Barbosa, a lefthander who hails from Riverview, Fla., went six innings and allowed one hit, with five strikeouts and one walk. His counterpart, the hosts’ Eric Semmelhack, matched him pitch-for-pitch. Semmelhack worked seven scoreless frames, giving up two hits — both to Pedro Ruiz — while striking out five and walking none. Osprey relievers Michael Rivera and Dexter Price combined for four innings, permitting four hits and fanning five. Yonki Hernandez had the Brewers’ lone multi-hit game, with a pair of singles. He was the man on base ahead of Mondesi’s non-homer. Brewer reliever Manuel Ruiz, who sustained the loss, went 2.1 innings, striking out five and giving up just one hit. But it was a big one — a two-run bomb by Tyler Linton that cleared the left-field fence by about 25 feet. “Our pitchers were throwing brilliantly,” Isom said. “Semmelhack was keeping the ball down, he has three pitches he can throw for strikes. “And Ruiz just made one mistake. He left the pitch in the strike zone, and that’s what happens when you do that against a good hitter.” The game included several defensive gems, markedly by the Osprey’s Ruiz at shortstop, and Helena second sacker Adrian Williams. There was also a near-brawl in the top of the 10th, ironically after the sun went down and a slight breeze actually cooled down the playing field. After Linton’s long ball, Ruiz plunked Daniel Pulfer with a pitch, and when the Osprey batter took several steps towards the mound, the benches and bullpens from both sides charged out on the field. But peace was restored shortly afterwards without any punches being thrown. “We two managers got together with the umpires, and we made it clear that neither of us desired any ill-will; that we wanted to put the incident behind us and get back to the game,” Isom explained. “It was a great comeback by us, to tie it up like that. But then not to get it is a shame. I’m headed for the clubhouse right now, and am going to watch the replay (of the home plate call), and see for myself.” NOTE: Helena has stolen eight bases in the last two games.

Walks Plague Stars in Rubber Match JACKSON, Tenn. – Giving up a season-high 11 walks, the Huntsville Stars fell to the Jackson Generals by a score of 6-5 in the rubber match of a five-game series at Pringles Park on Monday afternoon. Breaking a streak of four consecutive games that the Stars scored the first run, the Generals knocked around Huntsville starting pitcher Jimmy Nelson in the first inning. Following a leadoff walk by third baseman Leury Bonilla, second baseman Stefan Romero knocked a RBI double to put Jackson up 1-0. Left fielder Kalian Sams walked to set it up for right fielder Chih-Hsien Chiang to hit a two-run double and give the Generals a 3-0 lead. The lead would stay that way until the third inning when the Stars offense returned the favor and knocked around Generals RHP Tijuan Walker. The Mariners prospect walked shortstop Juan Sanchez, gave up a single to left fielder Lee Haydel, and walked center fielder Josh Prince to load the bases with nobody out. Then, a two-run double by second baseman Scooter Gennett scored Sanchez and Haydel to cut the Jackson lead to one. With Prince and Gennett on base, first baseman Hunter Morris crushed a three-run home run over the right field wall during the following at-bat to give the Stars a 5-3 lead. Unfortunately for Huntsville, they would not score a run the rest of the ballgame. In the bottom half of the third, three more walks by Nelson led to a sacrifice fly by Chiang to cut the Huntsville lead to one. Then, with Nelson already out of the game in the fifth inning, Stars reliever Dan Merklinger gave up a solo home run to first baseman Eric Campbell to tie up the game. Later in the inning, Merklinger walked Bonilla with the bases loaded to score catcher Ralph Henriquez, giving Jackson the lead for good. With four innings of scoreless relief, Jackson pitcher Taylor Stanton earned the victory to improve to 2-2 on the season. Generals closer Carter Capps recorded the last four outs of the game for his 11 th save of the season. For the Stars, Merklinger fell to 1-7 on the season with the loss in 1.2 innings of relief. Nelson got a no-decision in his second Double-A start, giving up four runs on two hits in 3.1 innings while walking seven batters. As a team, the 11 walks were the most issued by the Stars pitching staff in a single game all season. The Stars return home to begin a five-game series at Joe Davis Stadium against the Mobile BayBears on Tuesday. First pitch is at 6:43 PM.

Getting To Know The 2012 Sounds: Pitching Coach Fred Dabney

Florida State League teams recovering from Tropical Storm Debby Dramatic photo (not Space Coast Stadium, thankfully, although they're plenty wet...)

Casey Medlen tells us the Manatees doubleheader is washed out. Don't lose that undefeated momentum! The games will be made up as part of two single-admission doubleheaders on Tuesday, June 26 beginning at 4:05 PM Central and Wednesday, June 27 at 11:00 AM Central. Brevard County and Charlotte will play two seven-inning games both days. So we're down to Nashville, Wisconsin, Helena, and the DSL tonight.

Wisconsin Media Notes

Nashville Media Notes McClung, Vargas, Peralta, Rogers, Thornburg -- the 25th thru the 29th Got to think it's a chance to limit Tyler's year-long innings, AAA debut now set for Friday.

Nashville Media Notes: PEREZ REJOINS SOUNDS; CHULK TO D.L.: Left-handed reliever Juan Perez rejoins the Sounds today after after being designated for assignment on Friday and assigned outright to Nashville yesterday. The Brewers signed Livan Hernandez and needed to create room on the 40-man roster. Perez spent a month with the Brewers, going 0-1 with a 5.14 ERA (4 ER / 7.0 IP) and 10 strikeouts in 10 appearances. To make room for Perez on the Nashville roster, reliever Vinnie Chulk was placed on the disabled list, retroactive to 6/21. *** No word on whether this is a phantom DL, or whether Chulk is actually hurting. With the backdate, Chulk could return as soon as Thursday. He actually has been very solid, especially this month (stats).

Box score is messed up, it's Jimmy Nelson on the mound....

AA Huntsville and 40-man OF Brock Kjeldgaard activated from the DL, but transferred to high-A Brevard for now; had torn thumb ligament on 4/23. To make room, catcher Brent Dean is placed on the Manatee DL (probably the phantom DL, the bain of 3rd catchers everywhere).

More Logan Schafer respect.

Plenty of good stuff in the Huntsville Media Notes today.

Mitch Stetter is on a Twitter roll, this time at Jimmy Nelson's expense...

It's Drew Gagnon's 22nd birthday Tuesday, that's a sweet gift with the promotion to Brevard, as mentioned in the transaction thread. And suddenly, the rejuvenated Manatees are quite the interesting affiliate to follow. Let's see if Matt Erickson can get creative once again for the Rattlers, that first half success may be hard to duplicate.

Rattler Radio Blog -- VIDEO: First Half Champs

As we told you all weekend, the Rattlers game is a Time Warner cable Sports 32 broadcast tonight.

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 Monday's action as it happens with box score / game log links: Nashville Huntsville Brevard County Game One Brevard County Game Two Wisconsin Helena DSL Brewers

Monday's Daily Menu: All times are Central Nashville: RHP Seth McClung at Albuquerque (Dodgers), 7:50 PM pre-game, 8:05 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: RHP Jimmy Nelson at Jackson (Mariners), 11:50 AM pre-game, 12:05 PM 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 Taylor Jungmann and TBD (likely LHP Jed Bradley) in a doubleheader at home vs. Charlotte (Rays), 4:05 PM gametime; each contest slated for seven innings Free Live Audio Link -- Select the Charlotte 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 Mark Williams at home vs. Quad Cities (Cardinals), 6:45 PM pre-game, 7:05 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 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 24 Stars' road games (one Helena series this summer, too). ********** Helena: RHP Eric Semmelhack at home vs. Missoula (Diamondbacks), 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): Idle (a chance to regroup and/or lick their wounds) ********** DSL Brewers: at the DSL Blue Jays, 9:30 AM, although game data won't be available until late afternoon at the earliest

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

I'll get the Monday Link Report up in time, but at noon today, you've got a sweet Huntsville matinee with Alex Cohen on the call -- Jimmy Nelson vs. the Mariners' Tajuan Walker, hoping several of you will be able to tune in.

Final: DSL Brewers 5, DSL Angels 2 Box Score One thing the Brewers have done right in the Dominican the past couple of years is identify their 'horse" pitchers, placing them in the starting rotation, and then riding them all summer long. Yes it's early, but take a look at those pitchers with games started in the YTD stats. In this one, it was 3rd year RHP Eduard Reyes mowing them down, he'll be 22 in August, so older than most. 19-year-old 2nd year RHP Angel Ventura had his strongest outing of the young season to notch the three-inning save. The two hurlers combined for a 14-to-2 GB ratio. Three Brewer errors (IF, OF, C) were partially offset by three DP's. The Cerveceritos were 4-for-6 on the basepaths, opponents were 3-for-3. Game Log All seven good guy base knocks were singles, but were well-bunched to grab a 5-0 lead through five innings: DSL Brewers Top of the 3rd Carlos Pena singles on a line drive to center fielder Angel Montilla. With Yunior De La Cruz batting, wild pitch by Alfonso Alcantara, Carlos Pena to 2nd. Yunior De La Cruz grounds out, second baseman Ismael Dionicio to first baseman Gabriel Villavicencio. Carlos Pena to 3rd. Alejandro Mendoza singles on a ground ball to left fielder Ayendy Perez. Carlos Pena scores. With Francisco Castillo batting, Alejandro Mendoza steals (2) 2nd base. With Francisco Castillo batting, Alejandro Mendoza steals (3) 3rd base. Francisco Castillo strikes out swinging. Raphachel Colatosti singles on a line drive to left fielder Ayendy Perez. Alejandro Mendoza scores. With Carlos Belonis batting, Raphachel Colatosti steals (6) 2nd base. Carlos Belonis walks. Elvis Rubio grounds into a force out, fielded by third baseman Jose Herrera. Raphachel Colatosti out at 3rd. DSL Brewers Top of the 5th Yunior De La Cruz singles on a line drive to center fielder Angel Montilla. Alejandro Mendoza singles on a ground ball to left fielder Ayendy Perez. Yunior De La Cruz to 2nd. Francisco Castillo grounds into a force out, third baseman Jose Herrera to second baseman Ismael Dionicio. Yunior De La Cruz to 3rd. Alejandro Mendoza out at 2nd. Francisco Castillo to 1st. With Raphachel Colatosti batting, Francisco Castillo steals (14) 2nd base. Raphachel Colatosti walks. Pitcher Change: Eduardo Paredes replaces Alfonso Alcantara. Carlos Belonis reaches on fielding error by third baseman Jose Herrera. Yunior De La Cruz scores. Francisco Castillo to 3rd. Raphachel Colatosti to 2nd. Elvis Rubio walks. Francisco Castillo scores. Raphachel Colatosti to 3rd. Carlos Belonis to 2nd. Juan Ortiz flies out to left fielder Ayendy Perez. Jose Dicent hit by pitch. Raphachel Colatosti scores. Carlos Belonis to 3rd. Elvis Rubio to 2nd. Carlos Pena strikes out swinging.