Jim Goulart

Link while active, text follows: Stars fail to shine vs. Suns By Brad Shepard, for The Huntsville Times Throughout the first game of the series against the Huntsville Stars, Tom Koehler watched and devised a game plan. When the Jacksonville starting pitcher took the mound in Thursday night's 7-2 win over the Stars, he executed that blueprint - with a whole lot of help from the home team, which was just like he'd drawn it up. "Definitely I saw last night they're an aggressive team, and I tried to use that against them," Koehler said. "They helped me in a lot of situations where I got the ball up, and they fouled it off or something, which allowed me to get ahead in the count. "If you know they're a team that's going to chase balls, it allows you to expand the zone a little more often." Every time Koehler needed to make a big pitch, he did. Every time the Stars had a prime opportunity, they failed to capitalize. After Huntsville scored 30 runs in its four-game winning streak, there was little for the 1,959 fans at Joe Davis Stadium to celebrate. The Stars loaded the bases with only one out in the first inning, but Koehler struck Taylor Green out looking and got Steffan Wilson to fly out to end the threat. In the second inning, Koehler - perfectly imperfect throughout his five innings of work - hit Lee Haydel, who was promptly caught stealing. Then he walked Zelous Wheeler before picking him off first. "(Koehler) located well tonight, and we just weren't as patient as we should have been and swung at some bad pitches," Stars leadoff hitter Lorenzo Cain said, "and we just ran ourselves out of innings." Suns catcher Chris Hatcher made sure Jacksonville didn't. With two outs in the second, he knocked home Jason Delaney and Ryan Curry with a single to break through off Stars starter Alex Periard. They padded that lead in the fifth when an RBI single by Osvaldo Martinez and a two-run hit by Matt Dominguez made it 5-1 and chased Periard (0-2). The Stars finished with five hits.

Big leaguers, take note -- Umpire Joe West kind of series... The Nashville-Omaha time of game was 2 hours, 4 minutes, one night after a brief 2:15 game. The average time of games during the four-game series was 2:17. -- Omaha.com

David Weiser's starsboxscore.com Who's on first?... Heck, who's at the plate? Taylor Green, bases-loaded double... Gindl homers again Good turnout for the Stars home opener, hours after owner Miles Prentice signed a new five-year lease with the city on Joe Davis Stadium......... Over 4,300 were ready for baseball from the reception they received tonight. The weather was a real friend this year -- one of the warmest openers (clear and 83³) I've seen in many years. The Stars were ready for baseball, too. They didn't leave their awesome, albeit modest-sounding 3-2 start in Chattanooga. Coming in to play, they were 1st in the Southern League in ERA (1.88), 1st in batting (.276), and 2nd in runs scored. Combining 13 hits and four-hit pitching, the Stars won their 4th straight game, beating Jacksonville, 7-1......... The Stars have an all-time winning record against six of the nine teams in the league, but the Suns are not one of them (149-168). The Stars are 13-32 against the Suns over the last four seasons (not counting tonight.).......... Only one hit came off the bullpen, working four innings in relief of Amaury Rivas, who allowed just three hits in five IP, and they managed to hold top minor league prospect Mike Stanton (#3 on Baseball America's Top 100) hitless. Rivas, in fact, held Jacksonville hitless until the 4th, when Osvaldo Martinez hit a sharp grounder under a diving Taylor Green into left for a single on a 1-1 pitch to lead off the inning. After striking out Stanton, Mark Saccomanno tripled to the gap in right-center, putting the Suns on the scoreboard. But by this time, Amaury already had a 4-0 lead, anyway......... Lorenzo Cain had led things off in the 1st with a single up the middle. In six games this season, Cain has led off the 1st with a single three times.......... He then successfully took a tour of the bases. He went to second when unranked prospect Eli Villanueva walked Brett Lawrie on five pitches, then third when Jonathan Lucroy hit a broken-bat single to Matt Dominguez, who couldn't find the handle on the ball as he looked to avoid the splinters. Lucroy was generously given the single, and the bases were full for Green (now leading the team in RBIs and 2nd in average)....... Green connected on a 1-2 pitch, sending it to the base of the center field wall near the 405 mark. Cain and Lawrie scored easily and Lucroy held up at third, giving the Stars a 2-0 lead......... Chris Errecart's fly ball to right scored Lucroy to make it 3-0. In the 3rd, Lucroy took Lorenzo Scott to the wall, where the ball tipped off his glove for a double. He eventually scored on Green's fly ball to right and Errecart's single through the left side. That made it 4-0........ If you came to the Joe this night looking for drama, you didn't get it, but if it was a solid Stars victory you came to see, it was stamped from the start. Caleb Gindl hit the first home run of the year before a home crowd. It came in the 6th on a 2-0 pitch from reliever Jeff Allison, who took the loss in a 16-8 pounding by West Tennessee last Thursday. The ball went to deepest center field, hitting the top of the first fence just above the yellow line, and then bouncing back onto the field.......... Seeing Gindl at the plate for the first time, my friends remarked that he looked like a midget up there (he's 5'9" on paper), especially when he goes into his crouch. But I had them convinced that he could hit -- and so far, he hasn't disproved that at all. Gindl is hitting .360 (4-for-11 in the early innings), and is one of seven in the league with two HRs so far. Rivas threw 50 of his 84 pitches for strikes (59.5%) and worked the count full four times -- twice facing the last two batters in the 5th. He labored that inning, throwing 29 pitches, 17 for strikes. With Rivas due to bat in the bottom of the 5th, pitcher Jim Henderson hit for him and stayed in the game. Usually that's just giving away an out, but Henderson doubled to left on an 0-1 pitch from Allison. It was a scoreless inning, but Henderson stayed in to pitch three scoreless innings, giving up just one hit........... The Stars bullpen, as I've noticed for the last three years, has gotten off to a terrific start. Adding four more scoreless inning to the record book, the Stars' pen has thrown 21 1/3 innings and given up just three earned runs -- a 1.27 ERA -- after six games. There's been a proclivity to score early, too it seems. 17 of the 34 runs the Stars have scored have come in the first four innings, seven of them in the 1st. The staff of the Huntsville Stars did a grand job in preparing this opener. The field was in excellent shape and the stands, grounds, and concourse were spotless. The concession stands were inviting, even if the prices did make you think twice. For the first time, you can get a shake or a malt -- if you want to part with $6.50...... Baskin-Robbins, one of the great places to get ice cream, especially if you're looking for variety, is operating for the first time, and Oscar Meyer has replaced Sabretts, which from fans I talked to, weren't too popular...... The soft drinks, the dogs, pretzels, most everything has gone up in price, but there are still specials at the park. Dogs, today, were two for a buck, as they will always be on Wednesdays, and Thirsty Thursdays will be around to the end of the season....... In all, there's more to choose from this season, if your wallet's loaded......... Unfortunately, despite all hope and promises, the scoreboard wasn't ready. It was impossible to know who on the opposing team was at the plate, because Jacksonville's numbers weren't on the roster insert. The scoreboard is still being worked on, and has not been neglected, but it's disappointing to see such an integral element of the baseball experience missing. Every park in the league has a fully-functioning scoreboard. We haven't had one in two years.......... Anyway, preparing for opening day is an awesome job and if you just think about what has to make it all work, the Stars have handled it in a most professional manner. The Stars home opener marked the first of 25 straight games for the Stars. They don't have another off day until May 9 (Mother's Day). Fifteen of those 25 will be at the friendly confines.

Link while active, text follows: Sounds strike fast behind pitching Team's 2.14 ERA is tops in PCL By Maurice Patton, THE TENNESSEAN The Nashville Sounds could not have gotten off to a much better start. And with the team returning to Nashville for their home opener Friday night (7:05), the excitement of a new season is running at a fever pitch. "For me it means not just seeing the team for the first time, but all the fans and ushers at Greer Stadium," said Molly Reed, a season-ticket holder for nearly 10 years. "It's like a reunion. I'm also looking forward to seeing what the new owners have done, and are doing, as they go into Year 2." Entering Thursday's Pacific Coast League games, only five other teams in affiliated minor league baseball had won as many games as the Sounds through their first seven, and no Class AAA team could match Nashville's 7-1 start. Over the previous 10 seasons, only once have the Sounds — who take on Iowa for the first four games of an eight-game homestand — had more success through mid-April. The 2003 team started with eight straight victories and 14 wins in its first 15 games, en route to a berth in the Pacific Coast League championship series. The formula, by veteran Manager Don Money's assessment, has been a proven one: pitching, defense and timely hitting. Nashville's 2.14 earned run average through seven games was the PCL's best, as were the Sounds' six saves. And while the team's batting average was a paltry .217 and its 25 runs scored were fourth-worst in the league, the Sounds were the first team in the league to hit 10 home runs. "We're not getting a lot of hits," Money said. "We're not stinging the ball like we're capable. We haven't had double-digit hits but once (in the season opener at Iowa). But we're getting the big hit. I don't think anybody would have expected us to have 10 homers this early. "Our pitching has been exceptional. The starters have been pretty solid for the most part, and the relievers have been very solid. The defense has been solid. That's a nice little combination right now, but it's a 144-game season." A couple of returnees have helped lead the way for Nashville. Outfielder Brendan Katin's two-run homer in Wednesday's victory at Omaha was his league-leading fourth of the year — a total matched by only one other player at the minor league level — and no other reliever in the minors has as many saves as Chris Smith, who notched his fifth in Thursday's 1-0 victory at Omaha. "Being out in the field, the feeling is that if we have a lead in the seventh, eighth, ninth inning, the game's over," Katin said. "The bullpen's been lights out, and the starters have been putting us in position to give the lead to the bullpen, which has been really nice. "Offensively, we've been lucky. We've been scoring just enough. We're still waiting for that offensive outburst, that high-scoring game that we haven't had yet."

Well-stated, TLB, as my implication was that Gomez would benefit from the AAA time, that the Brewers had CF/RF well-covered, and that Katin's bench role as a RH power stick would fill a hole on the big league roster. No one has suggested that Katin be brought up to make significant starts, so that shouldn't be part of the discussion.

I should also say that Chris did mention that he didn't know if it was even an injury at all that had Gennett leaving the game. So I don't want to imply it was. Chris' postgame mention was that he just didn't know at any point in the broadcast -- no update from the dugout on this at all for him, as he indicated.

Chris Mehring just mentioned on his post-game that he does not have an update on Scooter Gennett, and while he hoped to give an update on Friday, he reminded his listeners that he and the Rattlers can only release so much info with the HIPPA rules and such.

Huntsville Media Notes: Tidbits include news on the "alternate" jerseys bringing luck...

Marco Estrada through two starts for Nashville -- 13 IP, 4 H, 2 BB, 9 K, 0 R -- 0.00 ERA

Twisted left ankle for Kentrail Davis -- doesn't sound like it's going to be very serious at all, maybe could linger if it's one of those high ankle sprains (pure conjecture on my part), but then again, a twist isn't really a sprain, is it? Be smart and safe for a week on the 7-day DL.

That last post is probably the first post you've seen in a while on the Minor League Forum mentioning Braun and Prince http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

At Brevard, OF Kentrail Davis has been placed on the seven-day DL with an undisclosed injury, retroactive to April 14th. The Manatees have activated two players from Helena (extended spring training), as SS Josh Prince and INF Steve Braun join the club. Brevard had an extra roster spot to work with. The two Erik's (Komatsu and Miller) are the only true outfielders on the squad, although Brock Kjeldgaard will see time in left field. The infield is a mix-and-matchfest of Braun, Prince, Brent Brewer, Matt Cline, Sergio Miranda, and Juan Sanchez. When we know more about Kentrail Davis, we'll be sure to let you know.

What did Uecker drink during his 3rd and 4th innings off? No concept of the score (as noted above), the outs, Zambrano's pitch count, just sad. He's slipping so badly...he's really only at his best in blowouts with the story-telling, although his game-ending calls continue to be effective.

Stu from the Sounds on coming home Friday

Whoo-hoo! No-hitter must be coming! Efrain's namesake is now the bullpen coach for the big league White Sox, don't ya know....

PDF documents: Nashville Media Notes Left-handed relief specialist Mitch Stetter has been optioned from Milwaukee and is expected to join the Sounds for their game on Saturday. A roster move will be necessary to activate the southpaw. Stetter has made two appearances for the Brewers this season and retired both hitters he faced. The 29-year old made 71 appearances in 2009 for Milwaukee and limited lefties to a .178 batting average. Stetter ranks 7th in Sounds history with 130 appearances from 2005-08 and led Nashville with 51 appearances in 2006.

Pacific Coast League (AAA) - PCL American North Division Standings ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Team W L PCT GB HOME ROAD STREAK ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nashville 6 1 .857 - 0-0 6-1 W1 Memphis 4 3 .571 2.0 0-0 4-3 L1 Iowa 2 5 .286 4.0 2-5 0-0 W1 Omaha 2 5 .286 4.0 2-5 0-0 L1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Southern League (AA) - SOU North Division Standings ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Team W L PCT GB HOME ROAD STREAK ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tennessee 5 1 .833 - 1-0 4-1 W1 Carolina 4 2 .667 1.0 0-1 4-1 L2 Huntsville 4 2 .667 1.0 1-0 3-2 W4 West Tenn 3 3 .500 2.0 0-1 3-2 L2 Chattanooga 2 4 .333 3.0 2-3 0-1 L4 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Florida State League (A+) - FSL North Division Standings ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Team W L PCT GB HOME ROAD STREAK ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Clearwater 5 2 .714 - 4-1 1-1 W1 Dunedin 4 3 .571 1.0 1-1 3-2 W3 Lakeland 4 3 .571 1.0 1-1 3-2 W3 Tampa 4 3 .571 1.0 2-0 2-3 L1 Brevard County 2 5 .286 3.0 1-4 1-1 L5 Daytona 2 5 .286 3.0 1-4 1-1 L3

MID Western (click column headers to sort) Club W L PCT GB Home Away L 10 Streak Quad Cities 6 1 .857 - 3-0 3-1 6-1 W5 Clinton 4 3 .571 2.0 2-2 2-1 4-3 L1 Kane County 4 3 .571 2.0 3-1 1-2 4-3 L1 Beloit 3 4 .429 3.0 1-2 2-2 3-4 W1 Cedar Rapids 3 4 .429 3.0 3-1 0-3 3-4 W1 Peoria 3 4 .429 3.0 0-0 3-4 3-4 L1 Wisconsin 3 4 .429 3.0 3-3 0-1 3-4 L3 Burlington 2 5 .286 4.0 2-2 0-3 2-5 W1

Follow Thursday'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): http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=t556&gid=2010_04_15_nasaaa_omaaaa_1&cid=556&t=g_box Huntsville (Gameday also available): http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=t559&gid=2010_04_15_jaxaax_hunaax_1&cid=559&t=g_box Brevard County: http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=t503&gid=2010_04_15_dunafa_breafa_1&cid=503&t=g_box Wisconsin: http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=t572&gid=2010_04_15_wisafx_burafx_1&cid=420&t=g_box

Thursday's Daily Menu: Minor league games to celebrate a Brewer win or distract us from another Wrigley loss? Times Central; pitchers subject to change -- Nashville: RHP Marco Estrada at Omaha (Royals), 6:20 PM pre-game; 6:35 gametime Live Audio Link Huntsville: RHP Alex Periard at home vs. Jacksonville (Marlins), 6:45 PM pre-game; 7:00 gametime Live Audio Link Brevard County: LHP Dan Merklinger at home vs. Dunedin (Blue Jays), 6:05 PM gametime Live Audio Link Wisconsin: LHP Juan Nieves at Burlington (Royals), 6:15 PM pre-game; 6:30 gametime Live Audio Link

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You would think those updates on the Stars would be sufficient, and we apologize in advance if it seems we're a bit repetitive occasionally, but each game summary can include a tidbit or two, where you say to yourself, hey, that wasn't mentioned before. This summary is from Stars' broadcaster Chad Anderson's site, but it was written by Aaron Morse. It was the home opener, so waht the heck... Opening Night a great one as the Stars win easily over Jacksonville

Huntsville Site: Stars Take Home Opener By Jill Cacic / Huntsville StarsHuntsville, AL - Huntsville Stars fans packed Joe Davis Stadium for the 2010 home opener Wednesday night. The Stars put on quite a show, continuing their winning streak and moving to 4-2 on the season after a 7-1 victory over the Jacksonville Suns (2-4). Starter Amaury Rivas (1-0) threw a solid five innings, giving up only three hits and one run all in route of his first win of the season. The offense did their job for the fourth straight night as they compiled 13 hits and seven runs over eight innings. Manager Mike Guerrero said, "We played a really good ball game. The pitching was good and the offense just took over." Third baseman Taylor Green continued to be on fire at the plate, going 2-for-5 with one double and three RBIs. Center fielder Lorenzo Cain contributed to the strong offense as well, going 3-for-5 with two runs. He stole his second base of the season off of Suns' starter Elih Villanueva (0-1). Aggressive base running is going to be a trademark of the 2010 season, according to Guerrero. "We're going to take that extra base anyway we can," he said. The Suns stayed pretty quite on the offense, only mustering up four hits. Starter Villanueva lasted 3.2 innings, giving up ten hits and five runs. His ERA rocketed to 7.56. He walked two batters and struck out five. Their bullpen didn't offer much relief, with Jeff Allison giving up three hits and two runs over 3.1 innings. Todd Doolittle threw one complete inning, surrendering no runs on no hits. Overall, it was a night for the Stars with seven different players accounting for their 13 hits. The bullpen threw a near-perfect three innings of relief. Jim Henderson gave up one hit in three innings. Robert Hinton came in to close out the game with two strikeouts and a groundout. The Joe was in full-blown Opening Night mode tonight and the Stars on the field could feel the love from their fans. Guerrero said it was outstanding to have such a large crowd out at the game. "It's always nice to have a good game in front of a good crowd. The players took notice and loved it. They really felt the fan support," said Guerrero. The opening series continues Thursday, April 15 at 7:00 PM.

RHP Garrett Sherrill, released just prior to spring training this year, has found an independent ball home with the Lake County (Gurnee, IL) Fielders, the new expansion team of the independent Northern League. That team's claim to fame? It's co-owned by actor Kevin Costner.

RHP Garrett Sherrill, released just prior to spring training this year, has found an independent ball home with the Lake County (Gurnee, IL) Fielders, the new expansion team of the independent Northern League. That team's claim to fame? It's co-owned by actor Kevin Costner.