Jim Goulart

Link Report Bonus: Interesting Post-Crescent feature article on Rattler GM Rob Zerjaz, includes this: Every once in a while, Zerjav will field a call from the Brewers asking his opinion on a player. It happened recently regarding minor-league pitcher Tony Butler, a 6-foot-7 left-hander who was released by the Baltimore Orioles last month. Butler was drafted by the Seattle Mariners and spent time with the Rattlers in 2007 when the team was an affiliate of Seattle. Doug Melvin didn't ask Zerjav about Butler's arm or talent, but instead wanted to know what kind of character he displayed. "I just gave him my feedback," Zerjav said. "The fact that he looks for that type of thing when he's looking at players, it's not always about their physical attributes. It's how they are made up mentally and are they a good person. I think that's where we help a little bit in giving feedback." *** Full article at the link.

Huntsville starter Josh Butler is interviewed

After last night's Huntsville's report was posted, audio became available which have since been inserted here, so go back to the Stars' post above and check out the various calls from Aaron Morse, including the odd pitch in which Drew Anderson scored from second base on a passed ball (assist to a helpful ricochet off the umpire).

The Brewers' chain has had a lot more games like this fall in the loss column than the good way -- must be demoralizing... ***Jays win wild one in 11, 3-2 By Tim Livingston / Dunedin Blue Jays Even on a night where he wasn't at his best, Mike McDade found a way to give Dunedin a puncher's chance in the end. Down to their last strike in the ninth inning, McDade hit a game-tying two-run homer to send the game to extra innings, where a wild pitch brought home Tyler Pastornicky with the winning run in the 11th inning for Dunedin in their 3-2 victory over Brevard County. During a week where the offense had struggled to the tune of nine runs and 23 hits over their previous five games, it was more of the same on Friday night, with Dunedin having only one hit through the first seven innings of the ball game. Falling behind 2-0 to Brevard County (31-47, 4-5 2nd half), Dunedin had seen their bullpen keep them in the game to give them a chance to come back. Pastornicky led off the inning with a walk to bring the tying run to the plate. Against Andre Lamontagne, Bradley McElroy struck out. Then, after Pastornicky stole second base, Brian Van Kirk did the same, bringing McDade to the plate as the last hope with two outs. To this point, McDade had struck out three times on the evening, one of three Dunedin (45-34, 4-5) players to do that in the game, but the fact that he led the Florida State League with 14 home runs gave the Blue Jays some hope that the slugging first baseman would come through. After falling behind 1-2, McDade fouled off three straight pitches before he found one he could handle. He parked a high fastball from Lamontagne deep and out to right field for the game-tying home run, his league-high 15th blast on the season that brought him into a tie for second place in the Blue Jays organization with Triple-A Las Vegas outfielder Adam Calderone. The game went into extra innings and stayed tied until the 11th inning, where Pastornicky led off with a single and was sacrificed to second by McElroy. After Van Kirk flew out to center field, McDade came to the plate and was intentionally walked with first base open. That brought Jon Talley to the plate. He was having a night to forget, having struck out in all four of his at-bats, and was now in a position to redeem himself like McDade did. Instead, Talley struck out for the fifth time against Corey Frerichs (4-3), but Frerichs' third strike was a wild pitch that got away from catcher Michael Roberts, allowing Talley to reach and extend the inning when it should have been over. With Mark Sobolewski at the plate, Frerichs and his wild slider once again found the dirt in front of Roberts and scooted away, allowing Pastornicky to fly home with the winning run and end the game in the most peculiar of fashions. Dunedin's offense is still trying to find its rhythm. They had only four base hits in the game, giving them a total of 27 over their last six games. Miraculously, they have won three of those games on a total of 13 hits. Talley's five strikeouts were a team high, but McDade and Van Kirk each struck out three times themselves, as the Blue Jays had 16 strikeouts in all. Brevard County had 14, including three from Brock Kjeldgaard, who now leads the FSL with 102 whiffs on the season. Kjeldgaard drove in a run with an RBI double in the sixth and Scott Krieger had a solo home run in the fifth for Brevard's offensive output. Erik Komatsu went 2-for-5 with a double, as well. The win went to Matt Daly (1-1), who pitched a perfect 11th inning for his first win of the season. Dunedin and Brevard County will play the finale of their three game series at 4:15 p.m. on Saturday

Gotta love statistical oddities -- In the DSL game, the Cardinals stole six bases in a 1-0 loss; they were 6-for-7 on the basepaths (the out coming at home); Pascual and Ruiz combined to walk six and hit three, but bore down when it counted (pitching under stress) as the Cardinals were 0-for-16 with RISP!

Thank you, Cubbies! Oh wait, guess not -- no team looks as dead and whipped as that Cub team right now. Currently 12-0 Reds with a nine-run 7th, and the Reds announcers are commenting that they were handed this four-game trip to Wrigley at the perfect time. At least the Crew and Cincinnati still meet 14 times yet, I believe.

Final: Arizona Reds 8, Arizona Brewers 4 Arizona Box Score 21-year-old LHP Kristian Bueno made a one-inning start, his first action since 2009 -- Bueno was selected in the 9th round of the 2007 draft out of a Texas high school -- he appeared in 28 games for Helena last season; just-turned 20-year-old RHP Brooks Hall followed with three scoreless innings, walking none while fanning three -- no earned runs (three unearned) in six innings for Hall thus far this summer; Marshall University draft pick Kevin Shackelford (21st round) allowed four runs on five hits in the 5th to watch a 2-2 game become a 6-2 game, a deficit the Crew never overcame; Brewers outhit, 14-9... Offensively, 22-year-old catcher Jhonatan Javier, the unquestioned MVP of last season's DSL team, remains an intriguing farmhand -- he tripled, singled twice, and was HBP in this one; catching the whole game and throwing out both baserunners who attempted to steal second base, although he was charged with two errors, both on catcher's interference calls; Javier has at least one base hit in each of his six games thus far -- welcome to the USA, Jhonatan! Rehabbing Joey Paciorek reached twice in four trips; CF Robbie Garvey singled twice and walked; it's not working for 1B Demetrius McKelvie right now -- a super-golden sombrero here, 0-for-5, five K's, McKelvie has struck out 20 times in his first 37 AB's, but the former high school football star does have five extra-base hits as well... Arizona Game Log No line drives mentioned in Kevin Shackelford's rough inning, four runs is four runs... AZL Reds Top 5th Pitcher Change: Kevin Shackelford replaces Brooks Hall. Adam Muenster grounds out to pitcher Kevin Shackelford. Juan Silva singles on a ground ball to center fielder Robert Garvey. Junior Arias doubles (4) on a fly ball to right fielder Maxwell Walla. Juan Silva to 3rd. Dominic D'Anna singles on a ground ball to center fielder Robert Garvey. Juan Silva scores. Junior Arias to 3rd. Danny Hernandez reaches on a fielder's choice out, third baseman Joseph Paciorek to catcher Jhonatan Javier. Junior Arias out at home. Dominic D'Anna to 2nd. Sean Conner singles on a ground ball to right fielder Maxwell Walla. Dominic D'Anna scores. Danny Hernandez to 2nd. Robert Maddox doubles (3) on a fly ball to right fielder Maxwell Walla. Danny Hernandez scores. Sean Conner scores. Danny Vicioso grounds out, third baseman Joseph Paciorek to first baseman Demetrius McKelvie.

PDF Document: Nashville Media Notes

The DSL Brewers only play the three teams in their division all season -- that must get old, with some posssible bad blood boiling just based on familiarity. Anyway, here's how the D-Crew has fared thus far: vs. Mariners: 3-7 vs. Athletics 5-4 vs. Cardinals 4-5

PCL American North Club W L PCT GB *ELIM # Home Away L 10 Streak Nashville 44 36 .550 - - 23-16 21-20 6-4 W4 Omaha 42 36 .538 1.0 65 19-19 23-17 5-5 W2 Memphis 43 37 .538 1.0 64 22-16 21-21 6-4 W1 Iowa 42 37 .532 1.5 64 22-21 20-16 4-6 L2 SOU North Club W L PCT GB *ELIM # Home Away L 10 Streak Chattanooga 7 3 .700 - - 5-1 2-2 7-3 W1 Carolina 5 5 .500 2.0 59 3-1 2-4 5-5 W3 * Tennessee 5 5 .500 2.0 59 4-2 1-3 5-5 L1 West Tenn 5 5 .500 2.0 59 3-1 2-4 5-5 W1 Huntsville 4 6 .400 3.0 58 2-2 2-4 4-6 L1 FSL North Club W L PCT GB *ELIM # Home Away L 10 Streak Tampa 4 1 .800 - - 0-0 0-0 0-0 W3 Daytona 5 2 .714 - - 2-0 3-2 5-2 L1 Brevard County 4 4 .500 1.5 62 3-2 1-2 4-4 W2 Clearwater 4 4 .500 1.5 62 3-1 1-3 4-4 W2 * Dunedin 3 5 .375 2.5 61 2-3 1-2 3-5 L2 Lakeland 1 5 .167 3.5 61 0-2 1-3 1-5 L5 MID Western Club W L PCT GB *ELIM # Home Away L 10 Streak Clinton 5 2 .714 - - 0-0 0-0 0-0 W3 Quad Cities 5 2 .714 - - 2-1 3-1 5-2 W1 Wisconsin 4 3 .571 1.0 63 0-0 0-0 0-0 L1 Beloit 3 4 .429 2.0 62 0-0 0-0 0-0 L2 Burlington 3 4 .429 2.0 62 3-1 0-3 3-4 W3 * Cedar Rapids 3 4 .429 2.0 62 0-1 3-3 3-4 L1 Peoria 3 4 .429 2.0 62 1-2 2-2 3-4 W1 Kane County 2 5 .286 3.0 61 0-0 0-0 0-0 L3 PIO North Club W L PCT GB *ELIM # Home Away L 10 Streak Helena 8 3 .727 - - 6-1 2-2 7-3 L2 Great Falls 6 5 .545 2.0 26 1-3 5-2 6-4 L1 Billings 4 7 .364 4.0 24 2-3 2-4 3-7 W2 Missoula 4 7 .364 4.0 24 3-3 1-4 4-6 W1 AZL Central Club W L PCT GB *ELIM # Home Away L 10 Streak AZL Brewers 8 1 .889 - - 0-0 0-0 0-0 L1 AZL Dodgers 5 4 .556 3.0 45 0-0 0-0 0-0 W1 AZL Reds 4 5 .444 4.0 44 0-0 0-0 0-0 L3 AZL Indians 3 6 .333 5.0 43 0-0 0-0 0-0 W2 DSL S.D. North Club W L PCT GB *ELIM # Home Away L 10 Streak DSL Cardinals 17 12 .586 - - 13-2 4-10 5-5 W3 DSL Athletics 14 14 .500 2.5 42 8-6 6-8 5-5 L2 DSL Mariners 14 15 .483 3.0 41 9-5 5-10 4-6 L3 DSL Brewers 12 16 .429 4.5 40 9-5 3-11 5-5 W2

Follow Friday's action as it happens: Here's what you do, right click on each of the links below and choose "Open in New Tab or New Window". Choose "Recap". While you're listening to your minor league game of choice (or watching/listening to the big league Crew when they are playing), simply refresh your game log browsers every so often. Nashville (Gameday also available) Huntsville (Gameday also available) Brevard County Wisconsin Helena Arizona Rookie (Maryvale) DSL Brewers

Friday's Daily Menu: TGIF -- 4th of July Weekend! Times Central; pitchers subject to change -- Nashville: LHP Chuck Lofgren at home vs. New Orleans (Marlins), 6:50 PM pre-game; 7:05 gametime Live Audio Link Huntsville: LHP Chris Cody at home vs. Chattanooga (Dodgers), 6:45 PM pre-game; 7:00 gametime Live Audio Link Brevard County: TBD at Dunedin (Blue Jays), 6:00 PM gametime Live Audio Link (Blue Jays' feed) Wisconsin: LHP Del Howell at Burlington (Royals), 6:15 PM pre-game; 6:30 gametime Live Audio Link Helena: RHP Hiram Burgos at Billings (Reds), 7:50 PM pre-game; 8:05 gametime Live Audio Link Arizona Rookie (Maryvale): at home vs. the baby Reds; 10:30 AM local time; never audio for games in this league -- Surprise! This is the only scheduled early day game on the Arizona schedule all season... DSL Brewers: at home vs. the DSL Cardinals, 9:30 AM

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

The activation on the Brevard roster of RHP Darren Byrd discussed earlier in this thread in this post is now official. Byed takes the roster spot that was occupied by IF/OF Juan Sanchez.

Box Score On Thursday night in the second game of a doubleheader, LHP Josh Romanski (2-2) picked up his first career road victory striking out a career-high tying eight batters and giving up six hits and two walks in five innings. The former University of San Diego Torero also stranded the bases loaded in the third and fourth innings. His only run allowed came on a home run. *** We can't subscribe to everything here at Brewerfan, so I'm not aware of a Scout.com subscriber, although admittedly I haven't double-checked with the rest of our staff. There is a June 20th article at Scout.com titled "Romanski Focused On His Health". We're hopeful someone can summarize it for us, not copy and paste except for maybe a single quote or two, to see if we can learn more about his release from and brief time with the Brewers. We do realize Romanski will be 24 in October, and right now he's facing low-A ball hitters, but he could move quickly. At some point the Brewers came to a consensus decision to release him this spring. Hard to believe...

In order to make room on Nashville's roster for Lorenzo Cain, the Brewers released OF Trent Oeltjen (stats), .851 OPS. Oeltjen had an out-clause for July 1st if not in the big leagues -- at this moment, it's unclear whether Oeltjen asked for his release and it was granted or the Brewers saw this as the logical move to ensure Cain's playing time. Certainly won't be a surprise to see the former Arizona Diamondback Oeltjen, the 27-year-old Aussie, in a big league uniform again at some point. So much for that Southern League All-Star game for Cain -- don't think he'll mind...

Pioneer League notebook By Gordon Buchanan / Special to MLB.com The Pioneer League team in the smallest market is the one making the biggest splash to start the 2010 season. The Helena Brewers, Milwaukee's short-season Rookie-league affiliate, are red hot at 8-2 after taking two of three games from the Billing Mustangs earlier this week, including yet another come-from-behind victory Monday. Despite their success, the team understands that it needs to stay focused and motivated. "We can't get too full of ourselves," said second baseman Shea Vucinich, who delivered a decisive two-run double in the eighth inning Monday. "Right now we've got to keep working." The team seems to have rallied behind manager Joe Ayrault, who is in his first year with the Brewers after coming over from the Florida State League. Helena general manager Paul Fetz believes Ayrault's enthusiasm is a large part of the club's recent success. "We have always had good managers in the past," Fetz said. "But Joe loves what he is doing, and he is enthusiastic, and the young players really seem to have gotten behind him." Fetz said he thinks the group of players the team has right now is one that the community of Helena, with its modest population of about 25,000, can embrace and enjoy. "These guys are confident in what they're doing," he said. "A lot of people seem to think we are headed in the right direction and are excited about it." Ayrault believes the most important factors leading to the team's success is the chemistry of the players and the support of the coaching staff, not only in baseball but also in being a professional. "From day one of Spring Training, we knew these guys were ready to play," Ayrault said. "We want to support them and let them know we are in their corner. They're fired up right now, and really have some great team chemistry." The team now has the challenge of continuing its brilliant play over the long haul. Vucinich, a 20th-round pick who played at Washington State last year, said the transition from college to the pros is one that he is getting used to by the day. "In college, you would have weekend series and have the whole week to prepare for it," he said. "Now, it's a grind. You're playing almost everyday." Vucinich, who is batting .382 with two homers and nine RBIs in nine games, said that pro ball is different than what he expected, that the team is playing a very unselfish brand of baseball. "I talked to a lot of guys who had been through it in years past," he said. "But it is better than I expected. They made it sound like it was all an individual game, but this team is playing together as one right now." The team is putting a product on the field that it's fans are quite pleased with. Mike Morris, who recently moved to Helena from Great Falls, said he sees Major League talent in some of the players. "Carlos George reminds me of Ichiro when he runs the bases," he said. "He looks like a gazelle out there. These guys have a pretty good team so far, and they don't let themselves get down."

Not an official transaction, but we believe that Huntsville third baseman Taylor Green may have left Wednesday's game one of a doubleheader when he was somehow hit in the face by a foul pop up as the 4th inning began. No error was charged on the play, so it must have been a tough, odd circumstance, if indeed that's why he's been out since. Green's had tough injury luck in the past, including a broken nose via a bad ground ball hop, but thankfully you wouldn't think that this should be a serious setback. That's not an official report, but thanks to our "fan in the stands" for the update. There's a small chance it was something else alltogether, we'll see...

Huntsville Manager Mike Guerrero

Stephen C. Smith's site has a full audio game archive of Wednesday's Manatees victory and he makes this notation -- FUN FACT: The Manatees are 6-1 in 2010 in the games webcast by SpaceCoastBaseball.com. *** Reminder as a favor and a thanks to Stephen -- this means you, Manatee player families http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif SpaceCoastBaseball.com relies on the financial support of its visitors to operate. If you enjoy the webcasts, video highlights and articles on SpaceCoastBaseball.com, please consider a one-time donation or $5/month voluntary subscription to help defray costs. Click here to learn how you can help.

VIDEO: Billings highlights (Helena lowlights), including the tough-to-turn double play described above, are found in the video here. *** Photos by PAUL RUHTER/Billings Gazette Staff John Bivens of Helana steals second base past Billy Hamilton during the eighth inning on Thursday, July 1, 2010 at Dehler Park. The Mustangs won the game 4-0. http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/billingsgazette.com/content/tncms/assets/editorial/0/0e/b37/00eb37cb-3225-526d-8dba-7d800e9eed4e-revisions/4c2d7e217d841.image.jpg Theo Bowe of the Mustangs is tagged by Carlos George while trying to steal second base during the first inning. http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/billingsgazette.com/content/tncms/assets/editorial/2/1f/fd7/21ffd701-ef88-5503-ac61-c3f8463bd825-revisions/4c2d7e0e587db.image.jpg Billy Hamilton makes a throw to first base for a double-play after tagging out Carlos George of Helena near second base to end the top of the eighth inning. http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/billingsgazette.com/content/tncms/assets/editorial/7/68/c1c/768c1c2b-9e6d-5fc7-8510-7e9b765f234e-revisions/4c2d7e2440399.image.jpg

Here are the Brewer-relevant portions of the Billings Gazette game story, full article at the link -- Jefry Sierra’s RBI single and Oliver Santos’ run-scoring groundout lifted the Mustangs to a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Sierra followed with his second RBI single for a 3-0 lead in the fifth and Kaskow capped the scoring with his blast in the sixth off of RHP Tyler Cravy, an opposite field shot to left that barely stayed fair and that just cleared the fence. “I couldn’t see real good because the sun was down there so I was just kind of running and someone said it was (a home run), so I was like, ‘Great,’ ” Kaskow said with a laugh. Great glove work by the Mustangs’ infield helped preserve the shutout in the eighth inning. With Brewers standing on first and third with one out, Billings third baseman Santos fielded a sharp grounder by John Dishon and fired the ball to second baseman Billy Hamilton. Hamilton made a quick pivot, and though his throw didn’t make it all the way to first, Kaskow made a swipe scoop of the long bounce to end the inning and the Brewers’ only real threat of the night. The three Mustangs pitchers struck out 12 Helena batters. “The last couple days the guys have really thrown the ball well,” Mustangs manager Delino DeShields said. “They’ve had a game plan, and they’ve executed it very well on the mound. That’s where it all starts for us, with the pitching. So those guys are really stepping it up right now.” NOTES: Helena reliever Chad Robinson appeared to injure his pitching shoulder after delivering a pitch in the eighth inning. He fell to the mound, and after a short time, walked to the dugout, trying not to move his arm. … The game was played in 1 hour, 59 minutes, already the second sub-two hour game of the season for the Mustangs. *** Robinson already missed significant chunks of his young career with prior shoulder surgery -- you have to feel for the young man.

Stars Fall in Fifteen It took five scoreless extra frames Thursday night before the Chattanooga Lookouts deemed themselves worthy of victory. Chattanooga ended a ten inning scoreless streak by plating three in the fifteenth in a 4-1 win over Huntsville. Neither starting pitcher figured in the decision, despite solid outings. Aaron Miller allowed only one Stars run, a fourth inning Zelous Wheeler home run (audio link), on five hits. He struck out five Huntsville batters. Josh Butler put together his second straight strong outing, working six complete innings. Butler struck out three while the opposition did not draw a single walk. The only run allowed was unearned. After four Huntsville pitchers, Nick Green entered his fourth inning in the fifteenth. Jessie Mier was the first to greet him with a double which was followed with a sac bunt. Mier scored on an errant pickoff attempt by Green (audio link) and the floodgates were open. Eddie Perez and Corey Smith (audio) followed with hits and scored before the inning came to a close. Green threw 59 pitches in his trip out of the pen. With the series tied at two games apiece, Huntsville hosts game five Friday at 7:00 CDT. All Stars games are streamed live at www.huntsvillestars.com.

Final: Arizona Mariners 15, Arizona Brewers 1 Maryvale kids fall to 8-1... Arizona Brewers Box ScoreWell, if you're finally going to lose, do so in a big way rather than the pull-your-hair-out methods of the Rattlers and Stars tonight; the three Brewer pitchers struck out 12 Mariners, but walked nine, hit two batters, and threw five wild pitches -- on the flip side, Seattle's hurlers fanned 13 and didn't issue any free passes; after two excellent long relief appearances, RHP Jose Oviedo made his first start of 2010, and allowed five runs in 3.2 innings; give credit to 28th round pick LHP Dane Amedee for stranding three of Oviedo's runners to end the 4th, but then Amedee was roughed up for six earned runs in 1.2 innings (four walks) and watched as his final two runs allowed came in after leaving the game for RHP Jose Sanchez, who was charged with three runs of his own but managed to use up the garbage time at the end (3.2 innings) -- all three pitchers had done well in Maryvale so far in their first one or two desert outings, although Sanchez was rocked in a brief two-game trial at Wisconsin earlier... Trailing 4-0 in the bottom of the 1st, the A-Team actually opened their offensive night with three singles, although Kenny Allison was out stretching his at second base; there would be 11 Brewer hits on the night -- Demetrius McKelvie's double would be the lone extra-base knock as the boys stranded ten; high schooler Kevin Berard got the start behind the plate and went half the game in the 110 degree heat -- his only other start was at second base; Allison was 3-for-4, as noted earlier in the thread; 2B Nick Shaw was 2-for-3 and the other Shaw, LF Derrick, was 2-for-4; T.J. Mittelstaedt with the golden sombrero, 0-for-4, four K's... Here's another one of those "he left the game early, let's keep an eye on him" situations -- 3B Justin Parker exited after just two innings -- related to the heat perhaps? Arizona Brewers Game Log

No details till morn, but suffice it to say the Maryvale Crew will no longer be undefeated when you read about it...until then., g'night.