Jim Goulart

Nashville infielder Adam Heether at the May 21st audio link Nashville starter Chris Capuano at the May 22nd audio link

Yeah, lots to digest in that Manatee game. Switch-hitting Sergio Miranda's hit streak is now up to 16 games.

Stone Crabs Win in 15th Inning By Jonathan Gantt, Charlotte Stone Crabs PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. -- It took more than four hours and 35 minutes, but the Charlotte Stone Crabs finally put away the Brevard County Manatees 5-4 in the 15th inning in front of the largest crowd of the season at Charlotte Sports Park on Saturday night. Charlotte blew a one-run lead in the top of the eighth inning, and the teams traded six scoreless innings before the Stone Crabs finally broke through with the game-winning run in the 15th inning. The teams combined to leave 33 men on base before Isaias Velasquez hit a hard groundball back to the pitcher with one out that scored Greg Sexton from third. Sexton had previously tied Henry Wrigley with his franchise-high fifth hit of the game. The epic game set franchise records for longest game time and innings played, and the Stone Crabs pitchers also struck out a franchise-high 20 batters. Stone Crabs starter Matt Moore gave up three runs in five innings and struck out eight, but he also walked five and gave up five hits. He threw 104 pitches with 65 for strikes. Beckham energized the sellout crowd with a two-run homer to left field on a 2-1 pitch from Brevard starter Daniel Merklinger. The longball was Beckham's fifth of the season and third in his last seven games. The Manatees then took the lead with three runs in the top of the fifth inning. Moore threw 25 pitches and gave up two walks (both scored) and two hits in the inning. Wrigley evened things back up in the bottom of the sixth inning with a solo shot that bounced off the left field boardwalk. The Charlotte outfielder has battered Brevard pitching through the first three games of the series, going 7-for-12 with two home runs and seven RBIs. The Stone Crabs then took the lead with some help from the Manatees battery on what appeared to be an inning-ending strikeout. Brevard reliever Daniel Meadows struck out Kyeong Kang with two outs, but the wild pitch knocked off Shawn Zarraga's pads at the plate and before he could recover the ball, Sexton had scampered home and Kyeong had reached first base safely. A late-inning lead usually translates to a sure win for Charlotte, but the Stone Crabs bullpen blew just their second save of the season when standout closer Zach Quate gave up a two-out, RBI-single to Josh Prince that tied the game in the top of the eighth. The teams conclude the series tomorrow with a 5:35 PM (4:35 Central) matinee at Charlotte Sports Park. Right-hander Shane Dyer (0-1, 1.50) will man the bump for Charlotte against fellow righty Cody Scarpetta (2-3, 4.30) for Brevard.

Josh Prince was 2-7 but left the bottom of the 13th; I'm not sure why. Ejections: Brevard County Manatees Manager Bob Miscik ejected by 1B umpire Luke Hamilton (12th); Brevard County Manatees shortstop Josh Prince ejected by HP umpire Allen Alvarez (13th). Brevard County Top 13th Pitcher Change: Neil Schenk replaces Sergio Espinosa. Josh Prince called out on strikes. Brevard County Manatees shortstop Josh Prince ejected by HP umpire Allen Alvarez.

Rattler Radio: May 22, 2010: Game Notes May 22, 2010: Tonight's Pitchers May 22, 2010: Lineup

PDF document: Huntsville Media Notes

PDF document: Nashville Media Notes

Temporarily inactive list- Players not able to render active service due to: (1) necessary temporary absence due to family member’s illness; (2) absence excused for personal obligations; or (3) awaiting release for the purpose of allowing the player to sign with a foreign league. Minimum placement is 3 days. Players on the TIA count towards the Reserve List limit but not the Active List limit. Restricted list - Players who fail to report within 10 days of the season, or who fail to come to a contract with the team prior to that time. Players on this list do not count towards the Reserved List or Active List limits. A player may remain on this list for two consecutive years before he is removed. Often, placing a player on the Restricted List is akin to releasing him without fully relinquishing his rights. *** Big difference. Brewer certainly isn't with Huntsville at this time based on this placement. He may be done with baseball. We'll see.

X, you're a valued poster here, so you deserve a direct response from me, because the thread title (not changing it, just so the discussion is valid) is out of charcater from me and doesn't reflect the usual respect on which we try to present the system and its individual players. The words "can't step up", in hindsight, aren't fair. The words initially were part of the pre-game thread title in which it was indicated that Arnett needed to "step up" to save a tired staff. I have no idea why they kept putting him back out there to get rocked. -- jason21nl in prior post Jason, there had been a 15-inning game the night before, and Arnett is not part of a scheduled tandem. Anyway, back to X, by going back for 5.2 innings, you could say that indeed Arnett did step up. He could have cowered and asked out. He obviously didn't. It was actually his longest outing of the season. He did man up. In terms of actual game ERA and such, it wasn't the worst performance we've ever seen, the double-digit hit count makes it scarier than it actually was. It obviously wasn't a good outing, but the "step up" comment seems to reflect me speaking more about his character and fortitude than his current results, and agreed, is not fair. That said, his results thus far don't bode well for an apparently healthy 22-year-old college first round pick in the Midwest League. My frustration in pointing out some of the things I did last night are the combined pointed words towards the overall process involving Arnett -- was there a reason he slid to 26 after all? What is Pitching Coordinator Lee Tunnell's role with Arnett at this time? Does Pitching Coach Chris Hook have current thoughts on Arnett's lack of progress? Does all this involve the still developing work on the change-up he must eventually master? Of course it's early, and the whole Arnett clan is probably just itching now to have Eric show this get-a-life Link Report guy what's really going to happen down the road. That's fine, of course I hope he does very well going forward. A couple times a year some editorializing sneaks into the daily updates. Guess it's tough to keep it fairly vanilla 140+ times a year. Consider last night a Baskin-Robbins special.

MID Western (click column headers to sort) Club W L PCT GB Home Away L 10 Streak Beloit 25 17 .595 - 13-10 12-7 6-4 L1 Cedar Rapids 24 17 .585 0.5 14-4 10-13 7-3 W4 Peoria 24 18 .571 1.0 14-5 10-13 5-5 L1 Quad Cities 23 18 .561 1.5 13-6 10-12 4-6 W1 Clinton 21 20 .512 3.5 11-9 10-11 8-2 W1 Kane County 20 22 .476 5.0 12-7 8-15 4-6 L3 Burlington 15 25 .375 9.0 8-13 7-12 4-6 W2 Wisconsin 13 28 .317 11.5 9-17 4-11 4-6 L3

Despite continuing to play well enough, the division is heating up on Nashville. It'd be great to see Huntsville come through with another first-half title despite all the injuries, call-ups, etc. Remember, there are split seasons in all but AAA, that's especially good news for Brevard and Wisconsin. Pacific Coast League (AAA) - PCL American North Division Standings ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Team W L PCT GB HOME ROAD STREAK ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nashville 24 16 .600 - 9-9 15-7 W1 Iowa 22 18 .550 2.0 9-10 13-8 W4 Memphis 22 18 .550 2.0 13-7 9-11 W6 Omaha 19 20 .487 4.5 7-13 12-7 W1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Southern League (AA) - SOU North Division Standings ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Team W L PCT GB HOME ROAD STREAK ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tennessee 25 17 .595 - 10-12 15-5 L1 West Tenn 23 19 .548 2.0 9-13 14-6 W2 Huntsville 22 20 .524 3.0 8-12 14-8 W4 Carolina 20 22 .476 5.0 9-11 11-11 W2 Chattanooga 17 25 .405 8.0 10-12 7-13 L4 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Florida State League (A+) - FSL North Division Standings ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Team W L PCT GB HOME ROAD STREAK ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Clearwater 26 16 .619 - 14-8 12-8 L2 Dunedin 25 17 .595 1.0 9-11 16-6 W3 Lakeland 24 17 .585 1.5 12-9 12-8 W6 Tampa 22 20 .524 4.0 11-11 11-9 W2 Daytona 17 25 .405 9.0 6-13 11-12 L1 Brevard County 16 25 .390 9.5 9-14 7-11 L2

Follow Saturday'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

Saturday's Daily Menu: Times Central; pitchers subject to change -- Nashville: RHP Kameron Loe at Fresno (Giants), 8:50 PM pre-game; 9:05 gametime Live Audio Link Huntsville: RHP Mark Rogers at Mississippi (Braves), 6:50 PM pre-game; 7:05 gametime Live Audio Link Brevard County: LHP Dan Merklinger at Charlotte (Rays), 6:05 PM gametime Live Audio Link (Stone Crabs' Feed) Wisconsin: RHP Kyle Heckathorn at home vs. Burlington (Royals), 6:20 PM pre-game; 6:35 gametime Live Audio Link

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

And Lorenzo Cain gives the world a new active streak leader -- congratulatuons! The longest streak thus far this season is 22 (no longer active, non-Brewer fan). A reminder that one of "us" could win MiLB's grand prize (which admittledly is just a tick less than the $3 million major league prize) by being tops at the end of the minor league season. Grand Prize The eligible participant with the longest hitting streak greater than or equal to twenty (20) will win (a) one (1) 2011 MiLB Courtesy pass (the "Courtesy Pass"), and (b) one (1) Minor League Baseball Prize Pack that will include items determined in the sole and absolute discretion of NAPBL (the "Prize Pack") (the Courtesy Pass and Prize Pack collectively, the "Grand Prize") (Estimated retail price value of Grand Prize: US $850.00). The Courtesy Pass will admit the Grand Prize winner and one (1) guest, through the gate at any 2011 regular season MiLB game except any scheduled MiLB Opening Day game(s). It is not to be used for admission to any League or Classification All-Star Games or any MiLB postseason championship playoff games. Admission with the Courtesy Pass is at the sole discretion of the Minor League Baseball club and subject to the applicable admission policies, and guidelines of the Minor League Baseball club, and/or Minor League Baseball. It is subject to government tax, is not transferable, and is not an admission pass to Major League Baseball ballparks or ballgames.

Nashville outfielder Trent Oeltjen at the May 20th audio link Even as Aussie accents go, Trent's is first-rate, as the ladies swoon...

Thanks a lot for capturing the Michael Marseco audio, TheCrew07 -- I really enjoyed his conversation with Chris.

ESPN Milwaukee spoke with John Axford, well-spoken and a nice seven minutes Of course, a big leaguer now, but we nurtured him along in this forum, so we'll place it here http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif The link isn't a permanent link, unlike some of our others, but should be available for a week or so...

Grizzlies come up empty, have winning streak snapped at 5 By Marek Warszawski / The Fresno Bee On fireworks night at Chukchansi Park, the home team turned in a rare dud. Leaving 11 men on base, issuing seven walks and playing sluggish defense -- it added up to a 3-1 victory for the Nashville Sounds over the Fresno Grizzlies on Friday night. Fresno had its five-game winning streak snapped and saw its lead in the Pacific Coast League Pacific South shrink to 8 1/2 games. It's the fourth time this season the Grizzlies (28-13) failed to stretch a streak to six games. "It really comes down to not taking advantage of situations that presented themselves," Fresno manager Steve Decker said. For a microcosm, look no further than the ninth inning. Eugenio Velez, who joined the club only a couple hours before the game, led off with a booming triple against Sounds closer Chris Smith. But Smith came back to strike out Brock Bond on a 3-2 changeup. Tyler Graham worked a walk, then got picked off trying to steal. Decker argued that Smith had committed a balk, but the umps weren't buying it. Smith then ended the game by striking out Buster Posey on a low outside pitch. Before that, the buzzard's luck belonged to Angel Berroa. After having a deep fly caught at the wall by right fielder John Raburn, Berroa was robbed by shortstop Luis Cruz in the eighth when Cruz made a diving stop of Berroa's hard grounder up the middle with the bases loaded. If Berroa's ball gets past Cruz, it's probably a tie score. But it didn't. And that's kind of how the night went for Fresno. Not so for Nashville, which took an early 1-0 lead and then loaded the bases with no outs in the fifth against Grizzlies starter Matt Yourkin (2-1) without hitting the ball out of the infield. After Raburn drew a leadoff walk, pitcher Chase Wright pushed a bunt in front of the plate. Posey pounced on it quickly, but Raburn beat Posey's throw to second base. Norris Hopper followed with a bunt back to Yourkin, who glanced at third and second before throwing to first too late to get the speedy Hopper. "[Yourkin] took way too much time, and that cost him," Decker said. Yourkin exited, and Ray Olmedo greeted reliever Steve Edlefsen with an RBI single. Adam Heether made it 3-0 on a run-scoring double play. Fresno got its only run when Bond led off the fifth with a double, advanced to third on Graham's fly ball and scored on a Posey sacrifice fly.

Gotta love the duel of shortstops in the Huntsville series, both former big leaguers. The Stars have Anderson Machado, while the Braves just signed Alejandro Machado (who is also a former Brewer farmhand).

You know we're almost 100% about accentuating the positive in the system here in Link Report-land, but the top round guys (we'll say rounds 1 and 2) have that bonus cash in their pockets and are a bit exempt from that, so thanks for letting me vent a bit this evening, both on them and the Brewers' selection process. It's one thing to have these top selections toil in mediocrity for five years before fading away, but we can almost write off immediately Evan Frederickson, Cody Adams, Seth Lintz, and please not, but I fear, Arnett. That is just insane. Top two rounds! OK, back in the AM. G'night, folks, you're in capable Link Report hands as usual...

Stars up, 2-0 after four. Chris Cody amazingly has allowed eight baserunners in four innings, but no runs. A Lee Haydel outfield assist at the plate in the 3rd -- and escaping a bases loaded, no out jam in the 4th.

It'd be one thing if Arnett were some 19-year-old a year out of high school. I've asked the guys over at Baseball America to try and identify for us a high college draft pick pitcher who got off to an equally unimpressive start, who then went on to blossom into a true big league starting rotation keeper. I found it hard to buy into the Brewers' whole "we're holding back the reins on his repertoire" while at Helena last season. The fact was that he never came close to impressing against Pioneer League hitters, either.

Just another hideous line for Eric Arnett -- 5.2 innings, 13 hits, five for extra bases, three walks, two wild pitches, seven runs, all earned. Jon Pokorny stranded two Arnett baserunners or it could have been worse. The "kid" turned 22 back in January and can't fool a single Midwest League team. Burlington scored in every full Arnett inning tonight. Not having him start the season in Brevard was a huge red flag for me when rosters were announced. The Brewers didn't think he should coming out of spring training. I'm now officially sick over this draft pick. Hello, Prospect Hot Sheet, who's not, next week.

Ouch. And thus goes a taboo, not mentioning the big league game, which I've got on DVR, while the daughter wraps up a movie. Figured this forum was a safe haven. Oh well, thanks for sparing me the pain, anyway....