Jim Goulart

The links for this wonderful resource have been updated for 2012.

TRatsBaseball.com (Brad Krause) with a hugely informative Rattlers collection of links, news, notes, and opinions. Brad reminds us of Chris Dennis' early-spring concussion, apparently not the final factor in Chris' release this past week. Hopefully he's feeling no after-effects.

Timber Rattlers glad to be playing games that count Timber Rattlers Lineup & Game Notes for April 9, 2012

Stars Struggle in Series Finale Huntsville Stars JACKSONVILLE, FL- Another potential Huntsville comeback fell a bit short on Monday afternoon, as the Stars fell to the Jacksonville Suns by a score of 7-4 in the rubber match of a five-game, season-opening series. Jacksonville got the scoring started in the third inning, as shortstop Jeff Dominguez snapped an 0-for-12 slump to start the season with a 3-run home run off of Huntsville starting pitcher R.J. Seidel to give the Suns an early lead. After the Suns plated two more runs in the fifth to make the score 5-0, the Stars offense finally woke up. In the sixth inning, catcher Anderson De La Rosa and center fielder Lee Haydel singled to start off the frame. They were eventually brought home by back-to-back RBI singles by left fielder Khris Davis and right fielder Kentrail Davis to cut the Suns lead to three. In the seventh, the Stars diminished the Suns’ lead to one as De La Rosa and Haydel struck again with an RBI single and an RBI triple respectively. Unfortunately, that is as close as Huntsville would get though. An RBI single by Suns catcher Kyle Skipworth in the seventh inning and then a solo home run from first basemen Curt Smith in the eighth inning would add needed insurance runs for the Suns to roll to their second consecutive victory. For Jacksonville, Omar Poveda earned his first win of the year after giving up just two runs over 5.2 innings. Evan Reed notched his second save of the season with a final two scoreless innings. Huntsville starter Seidel fell to 0-1 on the season after giving up three runs in 2.2 innings pitched. In terms of offense, the Stars pounded out 14 hits, including three apiece from De La Rosa and Haydel. Kentrail Davis, second basemen Scooter Gennett, and shortstop Jeff Bianchi each added two hits. Huntsville also left 11 runners on base. The Stars will travel to Birmingham to start a five-game series with the Barons, AA-Affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, on Tuesday starting at 7:05 CT. Huntsville will look to LHP Dan Merklinger (0-1, 3.38 ERA) while the Barons counter with RHP Nestor Molina (0-1, 4.50 ERA). *** Molina is the prized prospect the ChiSox netted from the Jays in the Sergio Santos deal. With the Southern League's all five-game series set-up, Merklinger will face nothing but aces for these first few series, eventually circumstances among clubs will alter their rotations. -- Jim

24-year-old (25 next month) RHP Michael Bowman (career stats) has voluntarily retired. He made 26 starts for AA Huntsville each of the past two seasons.

Nashville Media Notes Today's tidbit: SOLID DEBUT: First baseman Sean Halton, who made his Triple-A debut on Thursday with a 4-for-4 effort that included a homer, has reached base in nine of his 17 plate appearances this year. Halton was responsible for Nashville’s only hit yesterday.

Huntsville Media Notes

Catching up on weekend video: 4/6/12: Nashville's Caleb Gindl knocks a 10th-inning double, one of his three hits in the Sounds' 2-1 loss to New Orleans. 4/7/12: Nashville's Taylor Green connects on a two-run homer in the Sounds' 4-2 loss to the New Orleans Zephyrs 4/6/12: Domnit Bolivar pulls Huntsville even with a ninth-inning double in the Stars' eventual 5-4, comeback win over Jacksonville -- Crushed it! 4/7/12: Huntsville's Scooter Gennett singles in a run in the Stars' 3-1 win over Jacksonville Chris Mehring's audio accompanies the action: 4/6/12: Jason Rogers's first-inning home run gives the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers an early 1-0 lead over the Cedar Rapids Kernels Cedar Rapids' Kaleb Cowart steals home in the Kernels' 7-6 loss to Wisconsin on Saturday Wisconsin's Chad Stang hits a solo homer in the Timber Rattlers' 7-6 win over Cedar Rapids on Saturday

Seth McClung profiled in-depth by his hometown West Virginia paper before tonight's start.

RHP Brian Baker, who pitched so well for the Sounds this weekend, was interviewed about a nice honor he's receiving this week at Columbus (GA) State -- but he'll have a good excuse for missing the event.

Media notes from Lakeland provide an all-enompassing preview of the Brevard series

Top Pitching Performances By MLB Prospects Over The Weekend - Brevard's LHP Jed Bradley made the BA list

Guys are discovering the joys of days off in the Florida State League: C Adam Weisenburger A very fit RHP Eric Marzec

"Reviewing the Brew" interviews 2B Eric Farris

From Sunday, photos from New Orleans -- Taylor Green Edwin Maysonet Scooter Gennett and Kentrail Davis among the recognizable in these uncaptioned AA photos from Jacksonville.

Link Report Tidbit: LHP Bobby Bramhall, released by the Brewers in spring 2011 and who did not pitch professionally last season, was signed by the Marlins in January, pitched for their Jupiter High-A club earlier this week, and will join AA Jacksonville for the Stars-Suns game today.

To get 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 Florida State League North Division Midwest League Western Division

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

Monday's Daily Menu: All times are Central Nashville: RHP Seth McClung formally returns to the Brewers organization 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 R.J. Seidel at Jacksonville (Marlins), 10:50 AM pre-game, 11:05 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 Austin Ross at Lakeland (Tigers), 5:30 PM gametime Sorry, no audio for this series. 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 David Goforth at Burlington (Athletics), 6:10 PM pre-game, 6:30 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).

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

Office dwellers can plan on listening to Alex Cohen and the Stars' call starting with the pre-game at 10:50 AM Central today. Monday's Link Report will kick off by mid-morning.

Released: C Kevin Moscatel, 2B Gant Elmore, 3B Kyle Dhanani, OF Chuck Caufield, OF Chris Dennis, OF Jay Gibbons Confirmations above on releases by Baseball America -- we'll briefly note more about each player later today; too bad Chris Dennis' power bat potential was never maximized, fun to follow back when he was "on"...

Pretty complete story from NOLA.com considering a 1-0 game -- New Orleans Picayune

Huntsville site game summary Jacksonville.com game story