Jim Goulart

Wisconsin Media Notes

The DSL Brewers open their summer schedule by hosting the fearsome DSL Braves Saturday AM! I have sent a private message to "Young Geezy", hope to have him on board for Link Report duty. No finalized roster on MiLB.com until tomorrow, although a couple of teams posted theirs today.

Brewers' Jed Bradley ready to move past groin injury

For the first time in at least a couple of years, the Brewers make an appearance in the "Not-So-Hot" portion of Baseball America's Prospect Hot Sheet. Personally, I think it's silly to place a starting pitcher there after one bad performance when he's been fine otherwise. Bad call, BA, bad call...

Nashville Media Notes

Congrats! Jimmy Nelson selected to 2012 FSL All-Star Game Niceville, Fla. native is second in league in ERA and K's

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 Friday's action as it happens with box score / game log links: Nashville Huntsville Brevard County Wisconsin

MiLB.TV note -- Reminder that in addition to the always-available Sounds feed, you're treated to Stars video for this series finale in Tennessee, so good time for friends and family of Huntsville players (and the rest of us) to invest in MiLB.TV if so inclined.

Friday's Daily Menu: TGIF! All times are Central Nashville: RHP Wily Peralta at Oklahoma City (Astros), 6:50 PM pre-game, 7:05 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 Hiram Burgos 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 I-Phone friendly audio link 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 Brooks Hall at home vs. Bradenton (Pirates), 5:35 PM gametime Free Live Audio Link -- Select the Bradenton 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 Will West at Cedar Rapids (Angels), 6:15 PM pre-game, 6:35 gametime; RHP Jacob Barnes will tandem 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).

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

I try not to respond to these right away in order to give Brian a chance to do so, but will today. We're aware of the home page's infrastructure deficiencies. Over time, as life changed for all our staff members, we found ourselves limited in what we could provide in original content. And to tell the truth, even back in the day, we were only providing one or two articles a month. Compare that now to the immense work you see daily at BrewCrewBall or Disciples of Uecker. I suppose we could have Brian look into having the "home page" URL for brewerfan.net lead right to the forum host page, but yes, we are 99.99% a forum-driven community now. People will find the forum, via Link Report tweets or otherwise. We're not worried, and Shea Vucinich keeps his royalties for now .

While I will fill in the remaining years in posts yet to come today and this weekend, we must acknowledge the one that will ultimately be, barring injury, truly THE ONE that got away. So much so, that this player, unsigned from last year, would be, in many minds, the consensus number one overall pick in this year's draft if he were eligible!. *** N.C. State pitcher Carlos Rodon making the most of his choice to put MLB dream on hold By Bret Strelow, Fayetteville (NC) Observer Staff Writer RALEIGH - It was moving day. Carlos Rodon's bags were packed, but he wasn't sure where he'd ultimately go. Rodon faced a life-changing decision last August, on a Monday that served as the signing deadline for young MLB draft picks. His phone buzzed with calls from the Milwaukee Brewers, who had selected Rodon in the 16th round, but attending N.C. State remained an appealing option to the hard-throwing, left-handed pitcher from nearby Holly Springs. Rodon hauled his belongings into a Raleigh apartment that day. When he took a seat and looked around, he realized he had it pretty good. "I had a nice room, nice bed, nice new roommates and new friends," Rodon said. "I thought to myself, 'Maybe I should stay here a couple years and maybe it will work out.' "It was a great decision. It was the best decision of my life." Rodon, a 6-foot-3, 234-pound freshman, is 9-0 with a 1.46 ERA and 126 strikeouts, the nation's third-highest total entering this weekend's NCAA regionals. He is scheduled to start Saturday for the Wolfpack, a regional host that hasn't reached the College World Series since 1968. Recently named the ACC Pitcher of the Year and a Louisville Slugger first-team All-American, the fiery, ultra-competitive Rodon can dominate college hitters with his mix of mid-90s fastballs, power sliders, cutters, curveballs and changeups. Baseball America national writer Aaron Fitt says Rodon would be the first pick in Monday's draft if he were eligible again this year rather than 2014, at the end of his junior season. "He's how you draw them up," Fitt said. "Physical and left-handed, he has a really nice delivery and electric stuff. He's a lot like (Tampa Bay Rays star) David Price, with the same kind of demeanor." Greener days Last weekend, in front of 10,229 fans at Greensboro's NewBridge Bank Park, the largest crowd for a college baseball game in state history, Rodon shut out rival North Carolina for nine innings. The Tar Heels broke through against the Wolfpack bullpen in the 12th, winning 4-0 in an ACC tournament thriller. Thirty-nine years earlier, before a paltry crowd of 175 in Chapel Hill, a left-handed N.C. State freshman named Tom Hayes began the first-ever league tournament with a nine-inning, two-hit masterpiece in a win against Duke. The Wolfpack's past is partly responsible for Rodon's present-day success. Holly Springs High School head coach Rod Whitesell and pitching coach Sebastian Nazabal played important roles in Rodon's development. So did Hayes, the pitching coach for Tri-Nine Conference rival Fuquay-Varina, where Whitesell was previously an assistant. "Carlos and Tom have such a great bond," said Rodon's father, Carlos Sr. "They hit it off from day one." Hayes started working with Rodon during his freshman year at Holly Springs, seven years after Rodon arrived from the Miami area. Rodon's father was born in Cuba and relocated to Miami with his family as a 5-year-old in 1967, during the famed Freedom Flights, a U.S.-sponsored resettlement program for political refugees. Carlos Sr. loved watching the Baltimore Orioles' spring training games at Miami Stadium, and his son began playing baseball before he turned four. They attended University of Miami games together a decade ago, shortly before the family moved to North Carolina. As a ninth-grader pitching against varsity juniors and seniors, Rodon was struggling with his confidence when Whitesell recommended that he visit Hayes. Rodon's mother, Julie, took her son to Hayes' Hit and Run baseball facility in Fuquay-Varina, and Hayes stressed to Rodon that he shouldn't be afraid to throw strikes because his stuff was good enough to beat upperclassmen. "We'll help out whoever comes in, not turn anybody away because they were playing with someone else," Hayes said. "I don't think as a freshman he realized how good he was." Rodon capped that season with two lights-out performances and continued to put in extra side sessions with Hayes to improve as a pitcher and batter, notably working on a cutter after his junior year. It came back to bite Fuquay-Varina's Bengals, with Rodon closing his prep career on a 5-0 run against them. As a senior, he tossed the first no-hitter ever recorded against veteran Fuquay-Varina head coach Milton Senter. Rodon later pitched a complete game in a 3-2 victory over the Bengals in the second round of the 4-A playoffs, a walkoff win that continued Holly Springs' march to a state title. "It's tough when (Hayes) coaches at Fuquay," Rodon said. "But he was nice enough to help me out, and I really appreciate it." Path to Raleigh It's possible that Rodon is in the pros right now if March 24, 2011 had transpired differently. Pitching against Green Hope as a prep senior, with plenty of cross-checking scouts observing, Rodon dealt with a back issue that caused his velocity to drop dramatically. That performance, albeit in a win, affected Rodon's draft stock. Some scouts also wanted to see fewer emotional outbursts and more signs of maturity from Rodon when he was on the mound. Rodon expected to have his name called in the first few rounds of the June draft. The Brewers reportedly inquired about taking him in Round 4 if he'd sign for slot money, and they eventually selected him 12 rounds later, with the 491st overall pick. Rodon could head to N.C. State or sign with Milwaukee. A bonus commensurate to what a player taken after Round 1, as a sandwich pick, or in Round 2 might have been enough to sway Rodon to turn pro. That figure is normally in the neighborhood of $800,000. The Brewers approached the Rodons' number but didn't reach it, a factor in his decision to join the Wolfpack. "Him going to college was a win-win situation, not only because of the exposure and how everything has turned out, which is way beyond what we've expected, but the fact it gave him a little bit of a chance to grow up and come into his own, even though he's still protected and is only 25 minutes away," Rodon's father said. Rodon came out of the bullpen in N.C. State's first game and picked up the win, striking out seven batters and allowing one unearned run in four innings. A day later, he pinch-hit in the eighth inning and drilled a double into the right-center gap. Rodon stumbled as he rounded first but reached second standing up, and the coaches promptly replaced him with 241-pound pinch-runner Danny Canela. Rodon doubled the next time he batted, but he has only seven plate appearances this season. He's too valuable as a pitcher. He throws from a high arm slot and is particularly effective at elevating his four-seam fastball for swing-and-miss strikes. "It explodes out of his hand," Whitesell said. "You see 94 that's hittable, and you see 94 that's, 'Holy cow.' He's got that 'it' factor when it leaves his hand." Rodon's ability to throw power pitches with movement to either side of the plate is another key. Hayes compares it to a skilled driver in golf. "I can hook it, hit it straight or slice it," he said. "I just can't do it when I want to. But he can do those three things." Moving forward, one concern is Rodon's pitch count. In 11 ACC starts, he averaged 119.6 pitches, totaling at least 124 in seven of those games. He has issued 36 walks in 105 innings this season, far better than most people anticipated, but strikeouts take their toll on efficiency. Rodon skipped his scheduled start against non-conference foe CSU Bakersfield in early May, and he fired 257 pitches in less than 14 innings during his next two starts, including a nine-walk outing against Florida State. The next time out, against UNC in Greensboro, he was nearly flawless while fanning a dozen Tar Heels. "Carlos is so different than everybody else," N.C. State head coach Elliott Avent said. "He throws better at the end of the game. He's pretty good at the beginning of the game, too, and the middle, and he's pretty good at the end. His innings creep up on you, and at that point during (early May) he just had so many innings, we could foresee maybe some good things were going to happen down the stretch, we wanted to manage his innings." The individual accolades continue to roll in for Rodon. Now it's time to see if he and his teammates can make a postseason run, perhaps all the way to Omaha. When Rodon picked N.C. State last August, the College World Series became the next destination of note.

VIDEO: Huntsville's Lee Haydel steals second base in the Stars' 6-4 Wednesday win over the Tennessee Smokies

Despite the 1-2-3 line, this is how close the Manatees came to threatening in the 9th: Brevard County Top of the 9th Defensive switch from third base to first base for Greg Rohan. Defensive Substitution: Dustin Harrington replaces Taylor Davis, batting 7th, playing third base. Pitcher Change: Jeffrey Lorick replaces A. Morris. Nick Shaw lines out to third baseman Dustin Harrington. Reggie Keen grounds out, first baseman Greg Rohan to pitcher Jeffrey Lorick. T. J. Mittelstaedt pops out to third baseman Dustin Harrington in foul territory. "After the Cubs' Taylor Davis pinch hit for 1B Richard Jones in the eighth, Dustin Harrington was inserted into the game in the top of the ninth to play third while Rohan moved to first. SS Nick Shaw led off the ninth for the Manatees and lined a ball down the third base line in fair territory, and with Harrington playing in on the infield grass, the third baseman made an absolutely unbelievable diving catch to his right to rob the speedy Shaw of at least a leadoff double in a 6-6 ballgame."

Rattler Radio Blog: Nine after 9 Read, and you'll realize just how prevalent the 'shift' is within the organization's thought process, and getting their infielders used to playing it.

Stars Two-Hit By Smokies in Loss KODAK, Tenn- A night after cranking out 12 hits, the Huntsville Stars were limited to just two by a collection of Tennessee Smokies pitchers, losing game four of a five-game series by a score of 4-1 on Thursday Night at Smokies Park. The game began as a pitchers duel between Stars RHP Kyle Heckathorn and Smokies LHP Eric Jokisch as both teams were only able to manage a run and a hit apiece through the first six innings of the game. In the third inning, the Smokies got the scoring started with a solo homerun by right fielder Mike Burgess to take a 1-0 lead. However, that lead would not last for long. In the fifth inning, Stars center fielder Josh Prince drew a walk with two outs and then stole his third base of the game. Shortstop Tommy Manzella broke Jokisch’s no-hit bid with an RBI single to score Prince and tie up the game at 1-1. Following the departures of both starting pitchers and a 45-minute rain and lightning delay, the Smokies took control of the game. With Stars reliever Darren Byrd in the game, the Smokies took the lead for good in the seventh inning. Tennessee center fielder Jim Adduci doubled to begin the inning. After advancing to third on a groundout, Adduci scored on a wild pitch from Byrd to put the Smokies up 2-1. Tennessee put the icing on the cake in the eighth inning when Elliot Soto tripled to begin the frame. He scored on a RBI double by shortstop Junior Lake to give the Smokies an insurance run. Lake then scored on a sacrifice fly by left fielder Rebel Ridling to make the score 4-1. Smokies reliever Brian Schlitter earned the win in relief, pitching 0.2 scoreless innings to improve to 1-2 on the year. Tennessee RHP Frank Batista notched his seventh save of the season by striking out the Stars in order in the ninth inning. For Huntsville, Byrd fell to 0-2 on the year with the loss. As a team, the two hits were the fewest the Stars have had in a game this season. With both teams splitting the first four games of the series, the deciding game of this set will begin on Friday as the Stars will send RHP Hiram Burgos (1-1, 5.16 ERA) to the mound to square off against RHP Trey McNutt (2-3, 2.67 ERA). First pitch is at 6:15 CT.

Audio from Bricktown — “Seth (McClung) Says” Jeff Hem's note: Tonight’s interview is with Sounds veteran right-hander Seth McClung, who is in his 14th professional season and second stint with the Brewers organization. He pitched for them a few years ago, including in ’08 when The Crew reached the post-season for the first time since ’82. McClung originally came up through the Tampa Bay system and made his major league debut as a Devil Rays hurler in ’03. In addition to playing professional baseball (since ’99), Seth also coaches high school girls basketball in Florida

NBA making the Sounds - Redhawks game not quite the headline event in OKC tonight

Nashville Media Notes Wisconsin Media Notes

John Sickels takes a "Prospect of the Day" look at Mike Fiers

Mike Fiers' Wednesday WTMJ Pre-Game Brewers Interview with Joe Block

Thanks, the first-hand accounts are always welcome!

From the Cedar Rapids Gazette, details on the amazing catch Chris referred to and that you saw from his linked "Nine after 9" video.