Jim Goulart

Jimmy Nelson making most of baseball experience Prospect making impact in Brevard County

Jungmann earns first win in a month Brewers No. 3 prospect fans career-high eight in 7 2/3 innings By Robert Emrich / Special to MLB.com One finger made all the difference for Taylor Jungmann on Tuesday. The Brewers' No. 3 prospect recorded a career-high eight strikeouts and allowed a run on six hits over 7 2/3 innings as Class A Advanced Brevard County cruised past Charlotte, 9-1. Jungmann's only mistake came in the second inning when he allowed a solo homer to Phil Wunderlich. The 12th overall pick in last year's Draft walked two in his longest outing as a pro. The win was his first since April 10. "I had a good feel for all three pitches," Jungmann said. "I've been working on my breaking ball the last three outings. It's totally different, a different grip. I used my pointer finger as my spin finger, so I got rid of that and moved to a more traditional grip. Today was the best I've thrown it." The 22-year-old right-hander has pitched well in his debut season, going 3-3 with a 2.90 ERA and 44 strikeouts over 62 innings. While establishing a couple of career highs, he was happier with the effectiveness of the new pitch. "The stats are nice, but that's not what I'm looking for," Jungmann said. "The progress on the breaking ball is what I'm looking for. I've been trying to throw it the past three weeks, it just hasn't been very good. Today was the first time in a game it really showed up." As for recording his first win in eight starts, the Texas native, said, "Well, that's not something I can worry about. It's about progressing every day, it's about getting the changeup and breaking ball going. Wins are nice, but it's about getting better every day." Eric Arnett, a 2009 first-round pick, retired the final four batters as the Manatees won for the third time in four games. Reggie Keen homered, doubled twice and drove in four runs, while Mike Walker was 2-for-4 with three RBIs for Brevard County. Taylor Jungmann leads the Florida State League with 62 innings pitched. (Mark LoMoglio/MiLB.com) http://www.milb.com/images/2012/05/22/cBmkc5tW.jpg

Sounds Fall To Las Vegas, 10-3 Nashville Sounds LAS VEGAS, Nev. - The Nashville Sounds' road woes continued with a 10-3 loss to the Las Vegas 51s on Tuesday evening at Cashman Field. Brooks Conrad drove in all three Nashville runs. Las Vegas led the entire way in notching its fourth consecutive victory and handing the Sounds (16-28) their third defeat in the last four nights. Nashville fell to just 6-18 when playing away from Greer Stadium. Eight of the nine 51s hitters drove in at least one run as Las Vegas plated 10 runs against the Sounds for the second time in two nights. Nashville out-hit the 51s for the second straight contest but left 12 men on base and went just 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position on the night. Las Vegas took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning against Sounds starter Wily Peralta. The 51s opened the frame with four consecutive singles, plating runs on a Moises Sierra knock and a pair of groundouts. Conrad continued his exceptional season for the Sounds with another solid evening, including putting the visitors on the board in the top of the third inning when he crushed an opposite-field, two-run double off 51s starter Jesse Chavez. The two-bagger plated Paul Phillips and Logan Schafer to pull Nashville back within a run at 3-2. Conrad extended his team-best hitting streak to 12 games with his 3-for-5 evening and has also recorded an extra-base hit in each of his last six contests. His three RBIs in the game gave him 19 in 17 games played for Nashville. The 51s extended their lead to 5-2 in the fifth with two more runs against Peralta, who struggled for the second straight outing. Jonathan Diaz singled with one out, then moved up a pair of bases with Anthony Gose at the plate when first baseman Erick Almonte dropped Peralta's pickoff attempt and Phillips was charged with a passed ball later in the at-bat. Gose followed with an RBI double to right to plate Diaz. After Gose advanced to third on a Peralta wild pitch, he raced home on a sacrifice fly off the bat of David Cooper. Nashvile squandered a chance to put a dent into the deficit in the seventh, loading the bases with only one out but failing to push a run across the plate in the frame. After the Sounds filled the bags against 51s reliever Bill Murphy, skipper Marty Brown summoned Jim Hoey from the bullpen and the right-hander escaped the jam by popping up Almonte and striking out Corey Patterson. Las Vegas blew the game open in the home half of the seventh against Johnnie Lowe, who had his season-opening streak of 15 1/3 innings without allowing an earned run come to a close. The 51s sent 10 batters to the dish and plated five runs in the inning to up their lead to 10-2. Lowe, who was charged with all five runs in the frame, created his own jam as the right-hander issued a pair of walks sandwiched around his own throwing error on a sacrifice bunt attempt. With the bags jammed and no outs, Adeiny Hechavarria hit grounder to deep short, where Eric Farris misfired to first for an error and a pair of runs scored on the play. After a Travis d'Arnard grounder resulted in a forceout at the plate for the inning's first out and Cooper was intentionally walked to re-load the bases, Lind dumped a line-drive single to center to drive in Hechavarria and chase Lowe from the contest. Jim Henderson took over on the hill for Nashville and promptly walked his first batter faced, Sierra, which forced in another 51s run to make it a 9-2 contest. Ricardo Nanita followed with a sacrifice fly to deep left that brought in the tenth Las Vegas run of the night. The Sounds closed out the evening's scoring in the top of the ninth when Caleb Gindl continued his big series against the 51s with a leadoff triple against Chad Beck then scored on a Conrad grounder to third which was booted by shortstop Mike McCoy. In two games against Las Vegas, Gindl is 5-for-6 and has drawn four walks. Chavez (6-2) earned the win for Las Vegas after holding the Sounds to two runs in five innings of work. Peralta (1-5) took a loss for the third straight start after giving up five runs on seven hits in six innings of action. The right-hander fell to 0-4 with a 7.14 ERA (23 ER / 29.0 IP) in five road starts this season. Andy Gonzalez singled in the sixth inning to extend his longest hit streak of the year to seven games for the Sounds. The teams continue the series with another 9:05 p.m. CT contest on Wednesday. Right-hander Claudio Vargas (0-0, 9.00) makes his second start of the year for the Sounds. Las Vegas will counter with right-hander Robert Coello (2-1, 3.76).

A game story with quotes, plus a Huntsville Times photo gallery? Wow, mark this day down...

Stars return home from tough road trip to beat Barons By Bill Bryant, The Huntsville Times HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- When the team bus doesn't roll past the city limits until well past 3 a.m., the pre-homestand intinerary gets tweaked a bit. And when the team itself is coming off a stretch of playing three extra-inning road games in five days -- and is in the midst of losing six of seven to boot -- a change in the routine isn't such a bad idea, either. So, with his team beginning a five-game series with the Birmingham Barons on Tuesday at Joe Davis Stadium, Huntsville Stars manager Darnell Coles skipped the usual preliminaries before the scheduled 6:43 p.m. start. "(Wednesday) we'll come out at 2:45, then at 3 we'll run through fundamentals and then having batting practice," he said. "Today, the pitchers came out and stretched at 5, we hit some in the cage and then took a couple of ground balls. "You've got to adjust according to what happens. We're not trying to wear them out." The Stars saved that for Barons starter Simon Castro. They collected nine of their 10 hits, and all six of their runs, in the first three innings on their way to a 6-3 victory in front of an announced crowd of 1,506. Huntsville (24-21) not only took some of the sting out of its recent tough stretch in Chattanooga, Kentrail Davis showed signs of snapping out of a slump at the plate. The right fielder came into the game on a 2-for-23 slide over the past six outings, but got a pair of hits -- including a fence-rattling double -- and a pair of RBIs in his first two at-bats. "It helps, because it's no secret I've been struggling," said Davis, who's now hitting .238 on the season. "I've just been swinging at everything. I'm trying to remember to go out there and have some fun." Outside of the top of the third, it was all good for the Stars and starter Josh Stinson (5-2), who allowed only four hits in seven innings. In that half, Birmingham (22-24) scored its three runs, all of them unearned thanks to a Scooter Gennett nice-scoop-but-bad-throw decision sent the ball scurrying down the left-field foul line. That tied the game at 3-all. "That's a young player trying to do too much," Coles said. "But (shortstop) Tommy Manzella, who's been in the major leagues, walked over and asked what he was thinking. When he came in, I talked to him about it. "It was a teachable moment. The best part was he came back the next inning, led off with a hit and wound up scoring the game-winning run. He's a special player, and he gave himself an opportunity to put that mistake aside."

Stars Return Home With a Win HUNTSVILLE, Ala.- The Huntsville Stars (24-21) snapped a three-game losing streak with a 6-3 victory over the Birmingham Barons (22-24) in the series opener between the two teams at Joe Davis Stadium on Tuesday night. The Stars broke out offensively early, scoring all six runs in the first three innings. In the first inning, leadoff hitter Josh Prince singled and advanced to third on a groundout by shortstop Tommy Manzella and a throwing error by Barons starting pitcher Simon Castro. First baseman Hunter Morris brought him home on a groundout to make the score 1-0. A leadoff single by designated hitter Jay Gibbons kept the offense rolling in the second. Right fielder Kentrail Davis plated him with an RBI double. Davis would then score two batters later on an RBI single by Prince to give Huntsville a 3-0 lead. Stars starting pitcher Josh Stinson had a rough go of it in the third inning, walking the leadoff batter, Birmingham’s Damso Espinosa. Second baseman Jose Castro got on base on a throwing error by second baseman Scooter Gennett, advancing Espinosa to third. A ground-out scored Espinosa, putting the Barons on the board for the first time. Stinson followed that up with a walk to Jose Martinez and a wild pitch to let Castro score from third. Seth Lowman singled down the line to score Martinez and tie the game at three. The Stars bats answered back in the bottom half of the inning. With consecutive singles by Gennett and Morris to begin the inning, an RBI double by catcher Jason Jaramillo knocked in Gennett. A wild pitch by Castro allowed Morris to score. Jaramillo would then be plated by an RBI single by Davis to give the Stars all the run support they needed, putting them up 6-3. Leading the way for the Stars on the mound was Stinson , who improved to 5-2 on the season. He gave up three runs and just four hits in seven innings of work. For Stinson, it was his longest outing of the season. Reliever Brandon Kintzler threw a scoreless eighth inning and RHP Darren Byrd shut down the door in the ninth for his second save of the season. Byrd now hasn’t given up a run in his last five appearances. Game two of a five-game series will begin on Wednesday as the Stars will send RHP Evan Anundsen (2-1, 2.89 ERA) to the mound to face off against Barons RHP Cameron Bayne (4-2, 4.78 ERA). First pitch is at 6:43 CT.

Nashville Media Notes

Following up from earlier, #Brewers AAA SS Jeff Bianchi is sidelined with a left forearm injury, according to the Sounds. Hopefully minor.

Afternoon tweet: #Brewers AAA SS Jeff Bianchi (.346) idle for a week, lands on 7-day DL retro to 5/17. Hopeful @AdamMcCalvy or @Haudricourt talks to Gord Ash

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

Tuesday's Daily Menu: All times are Central Nashville: RHP Wily Peralta at Las Vegas (Blue Jays), 8:50 PM pre-game, 9:05 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 Josh Stinson at home vs. Birmingham (White Sox), 6:28 PM pre-game, 6:43 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: A total of 24 Stars' games (in Jacksonville and Tennessee) will be broadcast. ********** Brevard County: RHP Taylor Jungmann at Charlotte (Rays), 5:30 PM gametime 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: Idle

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

Huntsville Media Notes

Stars Drop 12-Inning Marathon to Lookouts CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – It was a wild pitch that would end a wild game between the Huntsville Stars and Chattanooga Lookouts early Tuesday morning at AT&T Field. After five and a half hours and 12 innings of play, Stars reliever Bradley Blanks threw a wild pitch to score Pedro Baez and give the Lookouts a 3-2 victory. The Stars had their chances early in the game, but just couldn’t capitalize. They put a runner in scoring position in the first inning thanks to a double from Scooter Gennett. First baseman Hunter Morris grounded out to end the inning and strand Gennett. In the second, Huntsville again had a chance to get on the board with a lead-off double from Jay Gibbons. He advanced to third on a groundout from catcher Anderson De La Rosa. Unfortunately, a fly out and ground out would strand Gibbons and leave the Stars scoreless. Chattanooga left fielder Luis Nunez recorded the first Lookouts’ hit of the game, a double, in the third inning. J.T. Wise followed up with a double of his own on the next at bat to score Nunez and put the first run up for Chattanooga. Outfielder Josh Prince was hot on the base paths in the fifth after drawing a walk. With Gennett at the plate, Prince swiped second. Gennett drew a walk to set the stage for Morris. The double steal was on as both Prince and Gennett stole third and second, respectively. For Prince, those were his 12th and 13th steals on the season, putting him third in the Southern League for stolen bases. Morris grounded out to again end the Stars chances at putting up a run. Lookouts starter Javier Solano replaced starter Ethan Martin in the sixth. Martin went five innings, allowing just two hits. He walked four and struck out five in the no-decision. Gibbons welcomed Solano to the game with his second double of the night, but was again left on base after a ground out from Kentrail Davis and a strikeout by starting pitcher Hiram Burgos. Chattanooga tacked on a second run in the sixth inning thanks to a lead-off double and a RBI-single. For Burgos, his night ended after that second run and an hour rain delay in the bottom of the sixth. He went five and a third innings, giving up two runs on six hits. He walked three and struck out eight before being replaced by Dan Meadows. With two outs in the eighth, the Stars brought in pinch hitter Lee Haydel to hit for reliever Meadows. Haydel singled to center and came around to score on a Tommy Manzella single to finally put the Stars on the board. Never a team to give up on a good comeback, Morris hit his Southern League-leading 19 th double to start things off. De La Rosa grounded out to advance Morris. Davis hit a triple to right-center to score Morris and tie the game up. Domnit Bolivar struck out to leave another runner stranded in scoring position. The bats remained quiet on both sides of the field, even in the bottom of the 12th. The Lookouts’ Baez drew a one-out walk off Stars reliever Blanks. Travis Denker was hit by a pitch to advance Baez to second. A fly out put runners on the corners followed by a walk to load up the bases. It was the wild pitch by Blanks, however, that would allow Baez to score and the Lookouts to walk away with the victory. With this loss, the Stars have lost four of their last five games and seven of the last ten. The Stars return home to open a five-game series against the Birmingham Barons starting Tuesday night at 6:43 p.m.

Sounds Outslugged By 51s In Series-Opening 10-8 Loss Conrad, Maldonado Homer As Nashville Suffers Another Close Defeat Nashville Sounds LAS VEGAS, Nev. - David Cooper legged out a go-ahead, three-run, inside-the-park homer and former Sound Chris Woodward contributed four RBIs to lead the Las Vegas 51s to a come-from-behind 10-8 victory over Nashville on Monday evening at Cashman Field in the opener of a four-game series. The teams combined for 18 runs and 27 hits on the evening in a three hour and thirty-seven minute slugfest, marking the most runs and hits recorded in a game involving the Sounds this season. Las Vegas failed to score in the first inning then plated runs in each of the following six frames en route to victory. Nashville (16-27) suffered its 15th loss of the year by two runs or less and fell to 0-7 in road series openers. The Sounds took a 1-0 lead with an unearned run in the top of the second inning against 51s starter Scott Richmond. Corey Patterson, who paced Nashville with a 3-for-5 evening, led off the frame with a single and came all the way around to score from first when Andy Gonzalez followed with a single to right, which was misplayed by Danny Perales. The single by Gonzalez extended the infielder's season-best hit streak to six games. Las Vegas evened the contest at 1-1 in the bottom of the second with a two-out rally against Mark Rogers. After the first two batters were retired, Perales doubled to left and scored the tying run when Woodward (3-for-4) ripped a run-scoring two-bagger off the left field wall that was nearly gloved by Caleb Gindl. The 51s grabbed the lead in the third when Adeiny Hechavarria singled off Rogers with one out, stole second, and later pushed the home team in front by a 2-1 margin when he raced home on Travis d'Arnaud's two-out single to left. Las Vegas upped the lead to 5-1 in the fourth with a three-run frame against Rogers, keyed by a two-run double off the bat of Woodward. The Sounds rallied for five runs in the top of the fifth inning, batting around to pull back in front by a 6-5 margin. Martin Maldonado and Logan Schafer opened the frame with consecutive doubles to make it a 5-2 contest. After Gindl drew a walk, Brooks Conrad knotted the game at 5-5 when he crushed an opposite-field, three-run homer to left (audio). The infielder's team-leading sixth longball of the season chased Richmond from the contest and extended Conrad's hitting streak to 11 games, dating back to his first stint with the Sounds. The Nashville rally continued as Bobby Korecky took over on the Vegas hill. After the right-hander retired Sean Halton on a groundout for the inning's first out, Patterson doubled off the right-center wall. Gonzalez followed by lifting a fly ball to center, which was dropped by Anthony Gose for a three-base error which allowed Patterson to easily score the go-ahead run (audio). Once again, the 51s had an immediate answer for a Nashville score with one of their own in the home half of the frame, tying the game at 6-6 in the bottom of the sixth on Adam Lind's two-out solo homer to right off Rogers. The roundtripper was the first Triple-A blast of the year for Lind, who was sent down by Toronto over the weekend. Rogers did not factor in the decision for Nashville after allowing season highs of six runs and 10 hits over five innings of work for the Sounds. He tossed a season-high 99 pitches in his fifth consecutive no-decision. Las Vegas pulled back in front in the sixth against Sounds reliever Amaury Rivas on a three-run, inside-the-park home run off the bat of David Cooper. After Mike McCoy and Hechavarria drew walks from Rivas during the inning, Cooper lifted a fly ball to deep right-center that was nearly caught by Logan Schafer at the fence. However, Schafer was unable to corral the baseball and landed awkwardly as the ball bounded away, allowing Cooper to race home without a play at the plate. Cooper's three-run roundtripper, which staked the 51s to a 9-6 lead, was the first baseman's sixth big fly of the year and the first inside-the-park homer against the Sounds since Albuquerque's Robert Stratton accomplished the feat during the 2003 PCL playoffs at Isotopes Park. Las Vegas stretched its lead to 10-6 in the seventh on Woodward's third run-scoring knock of the evening, a two-out infield single off Victor Garate. Maldonado crushed a 2-1 Jerry Gil fastball well over the wall in left field with two outs in the eighth inning to pull the Sounds back within 10-7 (audio). The blast was the backstop's fourth of the season. Nashville didn't go down without a fight in the ninth, pulling within a pair of runs at 10-8 and getting the potential tying run to the plate against 51s reliever Ryota Igarashi before falling short in their comeback attempt. Gindl led off the Sounds' ninth with a single, moved to second on a groundout and to third on a Halton single, and score on a Patterson groundout. With Halton on second and two outs, Gonzalez came to the dish representing the tying run but was struck out on an Igarashi curveball as the Japanese right-hander nailed down his fourth save of the year by squelching out the Nashville rally. Gil (4-0) was awarded the victory for Las Vegas after allowing one run in his 2 1/3 innings of relief work. Rivas (2-2) drew the loss after giving up three runs in his lone frame of action. The teams continue the series with another 9:05 p.m. CT contest on Tuesday night. Right-hander Wily Peralta (1-4, 5.36) will man the bump for the Sounds to face Las Vegas right-hander Jesse Chavez (5-2, 3.74).

Brad Krause's Rattlers commentary and photos *** You'll really enjoy the detailed report and audio Kyle from BrewCrewBall provides from the Wisconsin game today.

For those wondering, the Dominican Summer League opened last year on May 28th. This year, MiLB's statement recently has been that the DSL schedule has not been released because it had not been finalized. Still nothing yet online, but we imagine the Cerveceritos are about a week away from seeing action.

We can exhale now. RHP Vinnie Chulk cleared waivers, is expected to rejoin the Nashville roster Tuesday, at which time the Sounds will need to make a corresponding roster move.

Nashville Media Notes

RHP Mark Williams is the Midwest League Pitcher of the Week -- congrats!

Anybody, anywhere who tells you they know exactly what an option status is on every MLB ballplayer, including us here, is joshing you. Now, because we track all player movement within the organization here, we CAN tell you with certainty about players who have spent the entirety of their career within the Brewers system. But for those acquired from elsewhere, it can be tough. Even Baseball Prospectus was sure Conrad was out of options as of this February 2011 list. I just went through Rotoworld's transaction history on Conrad (not always infallible), and only counted options being used in 2008 and 2009, so this doesn't appear to be a phantom 4th option thing. It's like there's an option info vault MLB has locked up, and nobody has proper access to it.

Wisconsin Media Notes

Via the Timber Rattlers: RHP Jacob Barnes activated from the DL. RHP Kevin Shackelford placed on DL retroactive to 5/17.