Jim Goulart

Don't forget our In-Game Chat Room (link)! *** The Angels' TV broadcast is available for LA-based fans on Fox Sports West. The rest of us can watch with our MLB.com subscriptions, or listen to Brian and Bill's webcast via MLB.com. Box score here Gameday can be found here. For the drive home, the Angels' radio broadcast is on XM Radio 186. ON THE MOUND: Also scheduled to pitch this afternoon (subject to change) is RHP Takashi Saito, RHP Brandon Kintzler and LHP Mitch Stetter. MINOR DETAILS: Joining the team today from minor-league camp is OF Brett Carroll, 1B Sean Halton, OF Reggie Keen and INF Sergio Miranda. Carlos Gomez CF Craig Counsell 2B Ryan Braun LF Casey McGehee 3B Yuniesky Betancourt SS Erick Almonte 1B Jeremy Reed RF Chris Dickerson DH Wil Nieves C

We have no knowledge about any of the absences, just saying we're waiting for box score appearances, that's all. The pitchers could appear any moment, you'd think the position players are idle for a reason, though. (If I missed their names, let us know.) SS Yancarlos Ortiz, the recently signed minor league free agent C Sean McCraw SS Michael Marseco C Michael Melillo RHP Corey Frerichs LHP Evan Frederickson RHP Jose Oviedo RHP Tyler Thornburg (yes, let's please see him in the next 48 hours or so...) While many 2010 Maryvale Brewers have made appearances (18 of them at last count), several have not, but we won't mention them for a couple of weeks. There are rookie-level preseason games at some point in camp, but we can't always promise access to those boxes. Just a note that three DSL players have made appearances thus far -- 1B Hitaniel Aras, OF Jose Garcia, and RHP Rolando Pascual. I'm hoping 19-year-old OF Ruben Sanchez makes his way state-side this calendar year, but we'll see. He certainly was last year's most impressive statistical DSL'er.

FYI -- RHP Tim Dillard has been re-assigned to minor league camp.

Five days of box scores, and just about everyone has seen action -- among those who have not: RHP Alex Periard missed three months of last season with vertigo (dizziness). We believe that's the first time that's been reported online. Barely 17 years old when drafted in the 16th round 2004, the former 40-man roster member had been sidelined for two months in 2009 with a shoulder impingement, and a lot of us assumed his downtime in 2010 was arm-related. Periard was able to make four appearances in rookie ball at the tail end of last season as part of his fight back. Of course, baseball's most serious vertigo story was that of Nick Esasky (Wikipedia now, People Magazine in 1991). See you soon, hopefully, Alex -- we have no word on how Periard is currently. He's eligible for minor league free agency this fall if not re-added to the 40-man roster in October -- he'll be just 24 years, four months old. Apparently LHP Casey Baron had Tommy John surgery this winter, as this Montana Gazette tweet indicates. That's a shame -- Baron was sidelined after mid-June last season. The 2007 34th round pick was on a Mitch Stetter-like track heading into the 2010 campaign. Another LHP, Bobby Bramhall (18th round, 2007), missed most of 2010 with his own Tommy John surgery, but did make three appearances in rookie ball rehab late in the year, so we hope to see his name soon. Two more? LHP Brae Wright, the 2006 6th rounder, is still in the system after missing all of 2009 and 2010 (yes, Tommy John). It'd be great to see Wright's name in a box score soon. LHP Mike Ramlow had two stints on the DL while at Brevard last season (shoulder tendinitis), but was seemingly healthy at year-end. Those are the names of the missing that have had some recent mediacal issues. In a separate post, we'll list some names we'll hopefully see in upcoming boxes, hopefully as early as this evening.

Do you live in the Melbourne area and want to see every Manatee game without buying a season ticket? Audition to be Manny this Saturday! OK, on to the box scores from Tuesday vs. the Dodger kids. A few posts above was the recap of the Sounds game --nice to see Rob Wooten again, it was more fun the other day when Wooten and Watten (Trey) pitched back-to-back. Hopefully for their sake, Bob Uecker can enjoy that in the future. R H E Nashville 3 9 0 Albuquerque 6 12 0 NASHVILLE AB R H BI Haydel 2 0 0 0 Wheeler 3 0 1 0 Gindl 4 1 2 0 Katin 3 0 0 0 Riggans 0 0 0 0 Nowak 4 1 3 2 Caufield 4 1 2 0 Wilson 4 0 0 0 Maldonado 3 0 1 1 Miranda 3 0 0 0 Green 1 0 0 0 2B: Wheeler, Caufield, Nowak HR: Nowak Bitmap Bitmap Bitmap IP H R ER BB SO TP Peralta 4 4 2 2 2 5 73 Dillard 2 5 4 4 1 1 41 McClendon 2 3 0 0 0 3 26 Wooten 1 0 0 0 1 2 19 Chattanooga rallied past Huntsville in the bottom of the ninth, pulling out a 6-5 victory over the Stars. Eulogio De La Cruz started for the Stars and was roughed up in his four innings, allowing five runs on seven hits and five walks. Juan Sanchez continued his hot hitting with two doubles and three RBI. Hunter Morris had two hits, including an RBI triple. R H E Huntsville 5 6 3 Chattanooga 6 10 1 HUNTSVILLE AB R H BI SanchezJu 5 0 2 3 Komatsu 4 0 1 0 Kjeldgaard 3 1 0 0 Morris 4 0 2 1

Oh, and please discuss Peralta and Dillard's big league rotation chances in this thread, not the one you're reading now, thnaks.

Update on latest efforts by Wily Peralta and Tim Dillard. Marco Estrada looking more prominent...

Sounds Doubled Up By Isotopes On Tuesday, 6-3 Nashville Sounds GLENDALE, Ariz. -- The Albuquerque Isotopes (AAA-Dodgers) doubled up Nashville, 6-3, on Tuesday afternoon at Camelback Sports Complex. Wily Peralta started and allowed six hits and two runs in four innings. Tim Dillard was touched up for four runs on five hits and a walk in two innings of work. Mike McClendon offered two scoreless frames and Rob Wooten closed out with a scoreless inning of his own. On the offensive side, infielder Chris Nowak powered the Sounds offense with three hits, including a double and home run. Outfielders Chuckie Caufield and Caleb Gindl each collected two knocks. Catcher Martin Maldonado drove in the Sounds' other run on the afternoon. The Sounds (0-5) -- who are still without many of their regular players as they compete in Major League camp -- continued their spring slate on Wednesday with a home contest against the Columbus Clippers (AAA-Indians) at Maryvale Baseball Park.

Everyone associated with the organization will be thrilled about this -- from GM Buck Rogers: The stadium lights have been re-aimed and measured and Joe Davis Stadium hasn't been this lit up since, well, maybe ever. The city of Huntsville worked hand-in-hand with Musco, the best stadium-lighting company the world over, and got the lion's share of the work done last week. They'll make one final adjustment later this week, but you'll be amazed by what you can now see at the stadium if you come out here this weekend for the high school games. Some of the light readings were two to three times better than previous measurements made in 2008. It's like night and day. The staff is humming "I wear my sunglasses at night..."

Earlier this spring, Casey McGehee was interviewed by XM radio (not available via archive) and could not have gushed more about Kotsay's fun and influential presence in the clubhouse. This was pretty early in camp. Just saying, I'm sure management sees it as a factor.

The latest Bernie's Crew podcast is up, and they talk with Jake Odorizzi at the 83:00 minute mark. Yes, the whole thing is just under 100 minutes. I did laugh because at several points the guys discuss how things run so long, almost wondering why, and at the 32:00 minute mark, the quote is "OK, let's get into what we're going to talk about today". That's a clue, guys. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif Nice job, but the length is just really, really tough...

Sorry about the thread jump, but for archiving purposes, this best fits here. This week's Washington Post features have been the talk of MLB Network Radio and the like: Desire to win now kept Greinke from joining Nationals How the Brewers landed Greinke

More with Doug Melvin, this time with ESPN Radio (the national version) -- thanks to Kyle at BCB for listing the link.

USA Today story -- text is new, the associated video was posted at the beginning of spring training

3/22/11 - WTMJ's Bill Michael's interviews Doug Melvin 3/22/11 -- WSSP with Adam McCalvy

Let's count how many times the picture changes for the 31st over the ten days. One,...

The Brewers' 40-man roster is full, so the organization would have to make a corresponding transaction to create an opening for Carroll. That's just bad reporting by Jim Street of MLB.com. Carroll was in Royals' camp on a minor league deal as a non-roster player before he was assigned to their minor league camp last week. There are no 40-man roster implications here at all. Carroll will be in a Nashville uniform to begin the minor league season. FYI -- Brett Carroll's career statistics "Don’t think there’s a better throwing arm in the game right now." -- LINK

Agreed on De La Cruz, but he does have big league exposure with three teams, it's just not good exposure.

Monday's Box Scores vs the Reds' farmhands -- Nashville fell 5-4, as the Sounds site indicated three posts above. Wil Nieves came down to catch Yovani Gallardo, and hey, Shawn Riggans survived his bout with pneumonia and tripled in his first AB, way to test those lungs right away. R H E Louisville 5 7 0 Nashville 4 8 1 NASHVILLE AB R H BI Haydel 3 0 1 0 Wheeler 4 0 1 1 Gindl 4 0 1 0 Katin 2 0 0 0 Riggans 1 0 1 0 Nowak 3 1 1 0 Wilson 3 2 2 1 Nieves 3 1 1 0 Buller 0 0 0 0 Caufield 3 0 1 1 Green 3 0 0 0 2B: Nowak, Wilson 3B: Riggans Bitmap Bitmap Bitmap IP H R ER BB SO TP Gallardo 7 6 4 4 2 7 92 Hand 1 1 1 0 0 1 22 Henderson 1 0 0 0 1 0 14 Huntsville dropped Carolina, 8-3, in eight innings. Matt Cline enjoyed a three-hit day. Sean Halton and Jose Garcia each chipped in with two hits and two runs scored. The Stars pitching was buoyed by appearances from four relievers from the Major League side. Tyler Cravy gave up a run in his two innings of work. Efrain Nieves and Santo Manzanillo both had scoreless innings. Brandon Kintzler has been lights out this spring, fans two in a perfect inning, only needs 12 pitches. R H E Carolina 3 10 2 Huntsville 8 10 2 HUNTSVILLE AB R H BI SanchezJu 2 0 0 0 Komatsu 4 0 0 0 Kjeldgaard 3 0 0 0 Halton 3 2 2 0 Maldonado 1 1 1 0

Brewers 7, Padres 0 (box) You won't see first baseman Sean Halton's name when we eventually see Tuesday's minor league box scores, but that's because he was in today's big league game (0-for-1, K). Also some dude named Estrada, you know, the guy the Brewers told to "go home" last year when his never-ending DL stint for arm fatigue kept him on the big-league payroll a few extra months. Would love to hear about what that formal diagnosis was (it was called right shoulder tendinitis). In the meantime, nice job by Tyler of the ASU staff getting the interview video with Marco. Dude had to head back to the minor league camp clubhouse to change.

Kottaras and Almonte just continue to impress. How about Marco Estrada? Rickie is such a stud, that contract is gold as long as he stays healthy.

Don't forget our In-Game Chat Room (link)! *** Bob and Cory with the WTMJ call. Here's your audio page via MLB.com. Box score here Gameday can be found here. XM Radio 184. TODAY’S GAME: Is the first of three games against the San Diego Padres this spring.....the teams also meet next Monday in Maryvale and Tuesday in Peoria. ON THE MOUND: Also scheduled to pitch this afternoon (subject to change) is RHP John Axford, RHP Kameron Loe, LHP Zach Braddock and LHP Mitch Stetter. MINOR DETAILS: Joining the team today from minor-league camp is 1B Sean Halton (22), OF Brandon Jones (5), INF Anderson Machado (2), RHP Marco Estrada (15), LHP Lucas Luetge (47) and LHP Dan Meadows (51).

We should have one later Tuesday in the Minor League Forum. But Adam McCalvy did report: Hawkins was very sharp in his Double-A "start," allowing one hit and no runs in a 16-pitch inning. Saito followed and allowed two runs on three hits, including a two-run double that bounced over third base. He struck out one batter and threw 18 pitches.

From Adam McCalvy: Outfield prospect Logan Schafer produced his iPhone and showed a reporter an X-ray image of his fractured right thumb, complete with three metal pins. One ran lengthwise, and two crosswise. The injury, suffered against the Giants last week, will keep him sidelined for 4-6 weeks. "I'll be honest with you," Schafer said. "It hurts."

If you're like me, you've already scheduled your day off for the home opener in Miller Park on April 4th, when weather is no factor. The season opener in Cincinnati on Thursday, March 31st is a bit trickier, because there is a built-in rain make-up day on Friday, April 1st. You want to be off for that first game afternoon as well. With that in mind, we'll pin this link to Cincinnati's ten-day forecast here until just before Opening Day. So far, so good, but it's still ten days away as of this post.