Jim Goulart

Shuffling papers -- Josh Wahpepah on, Donovan Hand off the Huntsville roster (the Helena hidden-player trick)

Wet grounds? Yeah, we'd say so. Space Coast Stadium saw over three inches of rain in less than one hour this afternoon. Blimey! Manatee GM Kyle Smith passed these on to us -- a Brewerfan exclusive http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

http://images.yuku.com/image/pjpeg/0fd35a39982f8ea05200537a2472c9ba1d76458.pjpg http://images.yuku.com/image/pjpeg/c1035a1598d7878756cf554423d55156b614c79.pjpg http://images.yuku.com/image/pjpeg/b0b355ff989688965daf53fc23ca5bb072ed31c.pjpg

Nashville sweps, Huntsville and Wisconsin split -- details over the next while...

Manatees-Stone Crabs Postponed By Tyler Stover / Brevard County Manatees (Viera, FL) Tonight's game between the Brevard County Manatees and Charlotte Stone Crabs has been postponed due to heavy rain and wet field conditions. It has been rescheduled as part of a doubleheader Monday evening. Game 1 begins at 5:00 Pm (4:00 Central), and each game will be a seven-inning contest.

David Weiser's starsboxscore.com Like a good neighbor, Melillo is there 2-run single for insurance caps important 4-run 8th It was nearly a week ago that Kevin Melillo's home run just clearing the near wall in right-center gave the Stars the insurance run that turned out to be necessary in a 3-2 victory over Birmingham....... The good-hands man has done it again. Donovan Hand, easily the most improved player from last year, beat the Diamond Jaxx in his 2nd start of the season, scattering five hits over six innings after giving up a two-run HR to Thomas Hubbard in the 1st inning. The home run was only the second allowed by Hand, who had a streak of 18 1/3 consecutive innings without giving up an earned run...... It put him in an early 2-0 hole, but the Stars scratched back. In the 8th, after a wild pitch and a passed ball gave the Stars two more runs, Melillo capped off the inning with a bases-loaded single that scored two more runs, which turned out, again, to be the margin of victory. Chuckie Caufield homered in the 3rd, then sent a long fly to left in the 6th to give the Stars a 3-2 lead...... Juan Sandoval got through the 7th, leaving two runners on, then got a larger lead to work with the next inning against reliever Joey Newby, who had a 0.93 ERA in May. With Taylor Green on first after a leadoff walk, Caufield, who got his first start today since May 29, then doubled Green to third. A passed ball and a wild pitch made it 5-2. Walks to Logan Schafer, called up two days ago from Brevard County, and Jonathan Lucroy filled the bases for Melillo...... Facing Matthew Renfree, Melillo ripped his first pitch to right to score Adam Stern and Schafer to make it 7-2. But no lead is ever too big enough for Sandoval, who the league has feasted on in nearly every kind of situation: .297 with the bases empty, .353 with the leadoff hitter, .308 with runners on base, .296 with runners in scoring position...... Former Stars outfielder Mel Stocker swung at a third strike to open the D'Jaxx 8th, but the pitch was wild, and Stocker ended up on base and advanced to second on defensive indifference. After all, the Stars had a five-run lead in the 8th...... Then Sandoval went to pieces, hitting Ossie Navarro and Hubbard with pitches to load the bases....... Casey Baron, a reliable 8th inning reliever entered to put out the fire, but two ground balls scored two more runs, and the Stars found themselves with a two-run lead -- the margin provided by Melillo with two out in the top half of the inning....... Robert Hinton, who now seems to be the closer for this team, came in to pick up his team-leading 7th save with a 1-2-3 9th. It was his 4th save in as many appearances from someone who hadn't in the past been very effective in the 9th, either (5.40 ERA in the 9th inning), but with the bases empty, the league is hitting just .179 off him. Donovan Hand, with barely enough innings to qualify, is now 2nd among Southern League ERA leaders (1.84)...... He's much more effective this year in lefty-righty situations. Last year, this is how it looked: AVG AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO SB CS OBP SLG OPS SF SAC HBP GIDP vs Left .341 132 30 45 8 1 6 27 15 2 16 4 3 .397 .553 .950 4 1 0 3 vs Right .292 192 26 56 12 2 5 25 11 0 25 7 2 .327 .453 .780 4 0 1 7 Hand this year: AVG AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO SB CS OBP SLG OPS SF SAC HBP GIDP vs Left .242 66 6 16 2 0 1 6 6 0 12 1 2 .306 .318 .624 0 0 0 2 vs Right .230 100 6 23 2 0 1 6 4 0 16 2 2 .264 .280 .544 1 0 1 3 Kevin Melillo stretched his hitting streak to 10 games with a 2nd inning leadoff single, one shy of the longest streak of the season -- an 11-game streak by Adam Stern that ran from April into May...... Stern was 6-for-35 (.171) in his last 10 games before getting two hits in this game. He's 8th among Southern League hitting leaders with a .316 average....... Melillo is 16-for-35 (.457) with five doubles, two HRs, and seven RBIs on his hitting streak...... Here's a bit of a statistical oddity: Freddy Parejo is hitting .200 with runners on base, but with runners in scoring position, his average improves to .289...... The Stars are hitting .296 with runners in scoring position -- best in the league. The Diamond Jaxx are hitting .217 in the same situation -- 9th in the SL and 5-for-49 (.102) this month......... No word on Drew Anderson, who went home and has been put on the temporary inactive list. The departure forced the promotion of Logan Schafer, who was hitting .318 for the Manatees and was leading the club with 14 doubles. Mike Jones and Mike McClendon will start Sunday's double-header. Luis Munoz (1-2, 5.52) and Kyle Parker (2-2, 3.20) will start for the Diamond Jaxx. Brendan Katin hit .310 with nine HRs and 26 RBIs in May for the Nashville Sounds....... Adam Heether went 2-for-4 and drove in the only run for the Sounds in Saturday's 7-1 loss at Omaha...... Chris Cody went 6 1/3 innings in his first start for Nashville, Friday, giving up an earned run on eight hits, but Cody and the Sounds lost to the Iowa Cubs, 2-1. The Braves traded two former Southern Leaguers to get outfielder Nate McLouth from Pittsburgh. Mississippi left fielder Gorkys Hernandez was assigned to the Pirates' Altoona (Eastern) Curve and pitcher Charlie Morton was assigned to Class AAA-Indianapolis (IL)....... The White Sox called up their top prospect, 3rd baseman Gordon Beckham, who started the year with Birmingham and was promoted to Charlotte just days before the Stars entertained the Barons at the Joe. The Stars could see Nic Ungs when Jacksonville comes to town. The Suns sent him up from Class A-Jupiter (Fla. St.).

Link while active, text follows: Sounds' Brendan Katin has knack for powerful home runs By Maurice Patton THE TENNESSEAN A Florida native, Brendan Katin is an avid fisherman. When he talks about the ones that got away these days, though, the Nashville Sounds outfielder is referring to home runs. He's hit 10 homers over 14 games after Saturday's loss, a tear that's pushed him to 12 for the season - giving him the team lead and ranking him among the Pacific Coast League leaders in that category. But he could easily have as many as five more, he said. "In Tacoma, I hit two balls off the top of the 30-foot wall," he recalled of the Sounds' last road trip. "I hit three balls into the (center-field) corner where it's 425 feet. "I could have come out of there with even more. But I'm definitely happy." So is Nashville Manager Don Money, who along with Sounds hitting coach Sandy Guerrero was in Huntsville two seasons ago when Katin put together the best offensive season of his professional career. The 6-feet, 1-inch, 235-pounder hit 24 homers and drove in 94 runs - leading the Southern League in both categories - along with a .258 batting average. "He can carry a team when he's hot," Money said. Before this recent surge, though, Katin hadn't been hot. His first two home runs came more than a month apart, on April 15 and May 17. But he hit three in three days to close the Portland series in late May, added a fourth in Tacoma and had two-homer games on consecutive days against visiting Omaha. He also leads the Sounds with 44 RBIs. "Hopefully it's not another month before he hits one," Money said earlier this week. It wasn't. Thursday, Katin went deep twice for his third multi-homer game in his last five starts. As long as Katin doesn't get homer-happy, Guerrero expects the slugger to continue to ride the wave. "He's already so strong and got so much power, when he doesn't try to do too much is when he does a lot," Guerrero said. "He's so strong that he's going to hit the ball out of the park if he hits it in the air." That strength became legendary over Katin's first Triple-A season a year ago, when he hit 19 homers and drove in 72 runs - both the second-best season totals for the Sounds - with a .271 batting average. Although home run distances aren't tracked at the minor league level, he hit homers last year that have been recognized among the longest ever at Oklahoma City's Bricktown Ballpark (onto the eighth level of a nine-level parking garage), at Omaha's Rosenblatt Stadium (the first off the facility's newly installed scoreboard) and at Tucson's Electric Park. That reputation, though, can also be Katin's downfall. "Being a big guy, a strong guy, I have a tendency to want to hit the ball far instead of just hitting and making contact," he said. "As long as I make solid contact, the ball flies off my bat." Contact wasn't rewarded earlier in the season, as witnessed by just two homers in his first 31 games. "I was hitting some balls hard, but we were playing in Memphis where the gaps are huge, or in New Orleans where the wind's blowing in from right field," he said. "I've been seeing the ball really well, taking advantage of mistakes and not trying to do too much." Brendan Katin shows his powerful hitting form against Iowa in a recent game. He leads the Sounds in homers and ranks among PCL leaders. (Photo by DIPTI VAIDYA / THE TENNESSEAN) http://cmsimg.tennessean.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=DN&Date=20090607&Category=SPORTS0401&ArtNo=906070376&Ref=AR&Profile=1031&MaxW=550&MaxH=650&title=0

Jacksonville.com In the Jacksonville Suns' five-game series with Mobile BayBears in the first week of May, the Suns drew a total of 31,669. Two weeks later, the Suns attracted 31,130 fans for a five-game set against the Mississippi Braves. On the other hand, the Huntsville Stars have drawn a similar total - 31,632 fans. But that's not for a five-game series. That's for the entire season. That's how many fans have come out for the Stars' 25 home games this year, an average of 1,265. Is Huntsville - the Double-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers - a bad team? Hardly. The Stars are in first place in the Southern League's North Division with 31-22 record and have won eight of 10. Huntsville, which is 12-13 at home, has a league-best road record of 19-9. Blame Mother Nature for Huntsville's attendance woes, general manager Buck Rogers said. "It's the worst weather I've experienced in my 13 years of minor-league baseball," Rogers said. "We've had games where the temperature was 39 degrees one day and 42 degrees another. Easter Sunday, when we were looking for a big turnout, we had such a bad storm here it blew out the windows in some of the skyboxes. "We had one home game where there were tornado sirens going off in town. In a game earlier this week, there was hail coming down three or four miles down the road. It wasn't doing it here, but it was close enough to keep people from coming out to the game. And to top it off, they shut down schools here in Huntsville for a week last month when there was a swine-flu scare. "I had a Friday, Saturday, Sunday series rained out. We've had nothing but [bad] weather. Mother Nature, the swine-flu threat, the recession - take your pick. They've all contributed to our low attendance." The Stars have lost five home games to the weather, matching West Tenn for the most rainouts in the league this season. Every team but Jacksonville and Mobile has had at least one game canceled because of weather. The league has had a total of 20 games postponed by weather this season, compared to a total of 28 games for all of the 2008 season.

Pacific Coast League (AAA) - PCL American North Division Standings ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Team W L PCT GB HOME ROAD STREAK ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nashville 31 26 .544 - 17-14 14-12 L2 Memphis 29 27 .518 1.5 17-11 12-16 W1 Iowa 28 29 .491 3.0 13-12 15-17 W2 Omaha 24 32 .429 6.5 11-18 13-14 W1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Southern League (AA) - SOU North Division Standings ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Team W L PCT GB HOME ROAD STREAK ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Huntsville 32 22 .593 - 12-13 20-9 W3 Carolina 31 25 .554 2.0 18-12 13-13 W1 Chattanooga 23 33 .411 10.0 13-17 10-16 L2 Tennessee 23 34 .404 10.5 12-18 11-16 W2 West Tenn 22 34 .393 11.0 11-15 11-19 L4 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Florida State League (A+) - FSL North Division Standings ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Team W L PCT GB HOME ROAD STREAK ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brevard County 34 15 .694 - 14-8 20-7 W1 Clearwater 25 26 .490 10.0 11-12 14-14 L3 Daytona 24 26 .480 10.5 11-10 13-16 L1 Lakeland 22 26 .458 11.5 12-16 10-10 L2 Tampa 23 29 .442 12.5 12-16 11-13 W2 Dunedin 22 30 .423 13.5 10-19 12-11 L1

Midwest League Standings Dominican Summer League Standings

Catch the latest media notes and more an hour or two prior to Wisconsin's game time at Chris Mehring's Rattler Radio Blog.

This link will be included in each daily report when the Nashville Sounds are scheduled to play. Normally it is updated a few hours prior to gametime. Nashville Media Notes (Adobe .pdf format): *** We're going to include the link to Kraig McNutt's Nashville blog in the same post as the Nashville media notes link going forward. *** AAA All-Star voting is here with your MiLB.com online account.

Follow Sunday'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. MiLB.com now has Gameday available for AA as well as AAA this season. Nashville Game One: http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&t=g_box&gid=2009_06_07_nasaaa_omaaaa_1 Nashville Game Two: http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&t=g_box&gid=2009_06_07_nasaaa_omaaaa_2 Huntsville Game One: http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=t559&t=g_box&gid=2009_06_07_hunaax_wtdaax_1 Huntsville Game Two: http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=t559&t=g_box&gid=2009_06_07_hunaax_wtdaax_2 Brevard County: http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=t503&t=g_box&gid=2009_06_07_chaafa_breafa_1 Wisconsin Game One: http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?t=g_box&gid=2009_06_07_belafx_wisafx_1&did=t572&sid=t572 Wisconsin Game Two: http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?t=g_box&gid=2009_06_07_belafx_wisafx_2&did=t572&sid=t572

Nice photo of Amaury Rivas and another here No mistaking Zelous Wheeler in the field and at the plate Eric Farris followed by Steffan Wilson Sergio Miranda at the plate Brent Brewer

Sunday's Daily Menu -- now this is a full plate... All times Central; pitchers subject to change -- Link here for the live audio choices - audio will no longer archive. For this Brevard County series, you can pick up the Stone Crabs' audio via this link. Nashville: RHP Matt Ginter and LHP Lindsey Gulin in a doubleheader at Omaha (Royals), 1:20 PM pre-game; 1:35 gametime; each contest slated for seven innings Huntsville: RHP's Mike Jones and Mike McClendon in a doubleheader at West Tenn (Mariners), 1:50 PM pre-game; 2:05 gametime; each contest slated for seven innings Brevard County: TBD (most likely RHP Evan Anundsen) at home vs. Charlotte (Rays), 5:05 PM gametime Wisconsin: LHP's Daniel Meadows and Efrain Nieves in a doubleheader at home vs. Beloit (Twins), 12:50 PM pre-game, 1:05 gametime; each contest slated for seven innings Dominican Summer League Brewers / Orioles: Idle

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

Final: Omaha (Royals) 7, Nashville 1 The Sounds' site has been down all day, no official recap for now, maybe just as well -- by the way, Tony Gwynn, Jr has reached base five times for the Padres tonight, good for him... Nashville Box Score Tim Dillard found just way too much of the plate tonight -- 12 hits allowed, three walks, zero K's in 7.1 innings -- Dillard has only struck out 22 in 66 innings, yikes, but if he's going to help the Crew down the road, it'd be out of the pen, this year or next. Don't you think Dillard's pysche may have been hurt this past week -- only the calendar (he had just tossed seven innings on Sunday) brought Mike Burns up instead of Tim, and then he sees another non 40-man roster pitcher, Chris Smith, added to the 25-man roster. Hang in there, Tim. Sounds hit into four double plays and Nashville's middle infield tandem of Alcides Escobar and Michael Garciaparra turned three of their own; Angel Salome slumping again, and he committed his 4th error and had his 4th passed ball; the first three Sounds singled to start the game, but it was all downhill from there, as the very hittable lefty Heath Phillips tossed a complete game for the Royals... Nashville Game Log

Final: Huntsville 7, West Tenn (Mariners) 5 Huntsville Site Game Summary Stars Continue Winning Ways on Road Huntsville Hands Diamond Jaxx Another Defeat By Brett Pollock / Huntsville Stars Donovan Hand tossed six solid innings in his second start of the season and Huntsville survived a late rally to hold on for a 7-5 victory over West Tenn Saturday night in the second of a six-game set at Pringles Park. The Stars improved to 32-22 and maintained their two-game lead in the North Division over Carolina, which won at Jacksonville. The Diamond Jaxx fell to 22-34 on the season after losing to the Stars for a tenth time in eleven tries. Huntsville lifted its road record to 20-9 with a ninth straight victory away from home. Marshall Hubbard's two-run home run in the first inning staked the struggling Jaxx to a 2-0 lead and ended a 29 1/3 inning drought without a run. The home run was only the second allowed by Hand, who had a personal 18 1/3 innings streak without giving up an earned run snapped. Hand gave up only two singles over the next five innings and departed having allowed five hits, while walking two and striking out two. He grabbed the win to improve to 4-1 by earning his third win on the road. Chuck Caufield's leadoff long ball, his third of the season, in the third inning got the visitors on the board. West Tenn starter and former Brewer farmhand and Huntsville Star Steve Bray worked out of further trouble in the inning when he caught a Jonathan Lucroy line drive and doubled Adam Stern off of second base. Caufield led off the fifth with a walk, moved to second base on a Logan Schafer single and scored to tie the game on a two-out hit by Lucroy, who knocked in his 26th run of the season. Bray was lifted after five frames, giving up two runs on seven hits, walking two and fanning one in his fifth start of the season. Vinny Rottino led off the sixth inning against Mumba Rivera with a walk, moved to third base on a fielding error and scored the go-ahead run on a line drive sacrifice fly by Caufield, his first of the season. Huntsville tacked on four runs in the eighth against Joe Newby to move out to a seemingly comfortable 7-2 lead. The right-hander gave up a run on a passed ball and another on a wild pitch and was lifted after his fourth walk of the frame loaded the bases with two outs. Kevin Melillo ripped Matt Renfree's first pitch for a two-run single to cap off the rally but Lucroy was thrown out at the plate for the final out of the inning. Juan Sandoval worked out of a runners at first and second one-out jam in the seventh inning but wasn't so fortunate in the eighth. He hit Marshall Hubbard to load the bases and then plunked Brent Johnson to force in a run that cut the lead to 7-3 and ended his night on the hill. Casey Baron entered with the bases loaded and nobody out and recorded three consecutive ground ball outs to end the inning, though two of them chased home runs to trim the visitors' lead to two. Robert Hinton worked a perfect ninth inning to record a save for a fourth straight outing and his seventh on the season. The series continues with a doubleheader Sunday, as right-handers Mike Jones and Mike McClendon will be the Huntsville starters, while West Tenn right-handers Luis Munoz and Kyle Parker will be the home team's starters. Coverage of the games begins at 1:50 pm central time and can be heard through the internet at www.huntsvillestars.com. Huntsville Box Score Props to Chuckie Caufield on getting it done in a rare starting opportunity; Adam Stern, Logan Schafer, Jonathan Lucroy and Caufield each reached three times, with Caufield adding the sacrifice fly; nothing personal to the veteran Stern, but it was wise to push him to right field here to allow Schafer to patrol center field; Taylor Green singled and walked, and has hit safely in 6-of-7 games... Huntsville Game Log Lucroy out at third base trying to stretch a double with two out in the 1st -- that's a no-no; Jonathan made up for it with his two-out RBI single in the 5th; give the Stars credit for dominating the season series, but you get the sense the Mariners have a mess on their hands at the double-A level...

Final: Brevard County 6, Sarasota (Reds) 3 Brevard County Box Score RHP's Michael Bowman and Damon Krestalude make their Manatee debuts, combined four ground balls and 13 flyouts, but you can do that in the Florida State League's heavy air, although the wind was blowing out to left at 9 MPH -- Bowman did surrender one two-run HR; how about Bowman not wallking a batter, now with a 47-to-14 K-to-BB ratio in 50 innings; hey, how hot is Steffan Wilson? Six multi-hit games in his last eight -- double, single, two walks, three RBI, and a run scored in a perfect night at the plate -- he was in right field and hitting third in the lineup, now batting.320; Wilson just turned 23, he's hardly ancient; Eric Farris stole his 25th base, but was also caught stealing (for just the second time); Caleb Gindl with his 5th HR, Martin Maldonado with his 1st this year, and the 6th of his pro career... Brevard County Game Log Brent Brewer's double finally got the offense rolling in the 6th; nine passed balls for Maldonado -- he had been noted as a pretty solid defensive backstop; Roque Mercedes allowed the tying run to come to the plate while closing it out, but did the job...

Final: DSL Rangers (#2 squad) 7, DSL Brewers / Orioles 1 DSL Brewers / Orioles Box Score No Brewers pitched; 19-year-old 6'6" right fielder Ronny Puello yanked a home run, his first as a pro, for the good guys' only run; 17-year-old shortstop Andres Martinez 0-for-4 in the # 3 spot in the lineup; 17-year-old left fielder Juan Barrini was hit by a pitch but is now 0-for-16 with six K's on the young season; catcher Jhonatan Javier a well-earned day off... DSL Brewers / Orioles Game Log

RAINOUT SATURDAY MEANS DOUBLEHEADER SUNDAY GRAND CHUTE, WI - Saturday night's Midwest League game between the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers and the Beloit Snappers was rained out. The teams will make up the game as part of a doubleheader on Sunday afternoon at Time Warner Cable Field. The Timber Rattlers were supposed to wear their Star Wars themed jerseys on Saturday night. Then, the jerseys were to be auctioned off in a silent auction to benefit Make-A-Wish Foundation of Wisconsin. But the weather prevented that from happening. The Rattlers will wear the Star Wars jerseys on Sunday afternoon in game one of the doubleheader. The auction will occur on-line through the Timber Rattlers web site. The date for the start of the auction will be available later. In game two, as part of Brewers Sunday at Time Warner Cable Field, the Rattlers will be wearing their Brewers themed jerseys. Ken Sanders, the first closer in Milwaukee Brewers history, will be on hand to sign autographs and throw out a first pitch before game one. The game one scheduled starting pitchers are Daniel Meadows (8-1, 3.62) for Wisconsin and Daniel Berlind for the Snappers. In game two, Efrain Nieves (2-3, 5.86) will pitch for the Rattlers. Beloit will counter with Daniel Osterbrock. Game one will start at 1:05pm with game two beginning thirty minutes after the conclusion of game one. Both games are scheduled for seven innings.

Please head over to Chris Mehring's Rattler Radio Blog and go through all today's posts, including the headings for all the game notes -- nice to see the sense of humor and creativity intact even when wet.

Link while active, text follows: By Cory Jennerjohn Post-Crescent staff writer GRAND CHUTE - Wisconsin Timber Rattlers second baseman Brett Lawrie and catcher Corey Kemp were named to the Midwest League Western Division all-star team on Friday afternoon. They both proved why later that evening. Lawrie belted a two-run home run to right in the first, just to the left of the Miller High Life Home Run Porch, while Kemp laced a double that hugged the right field line in the fourth as the Timber Rattlers beat Cedar Rapids 5-2 at Fox Cities Stadium. "It's great," said Kemp after hitting his 12th double of the season. "You know the only thing that stinks about it is it's a midseason all-star not a postseason, so we still have another half to go." In addition to Lawrie and Kemp, the Timber Rattlers also had pitchers Jim Henderson, Daniel Meadows and Wily Peralta selected to the midsummer classic set for June 23 at Alliant Energy Field, home of the Clinton LumberKings. For Henderson, getting selected couldn't have come soon enough. "This is my sixth full season. I haven't been an all-star yet," said the Rattlers reliever who is 12-for-12 in save opportunities and owns a 1.47 ERA. "So, I've been waiting around more than most guys to be an all-star, so I'm happy." But Henderson will be coveting what his teammates will be enjoying when he's gone. "I'm not getting those three days off," he said with a laugh. Kemp is another guy who's fortunate to be representing the Timber Rattlers, mainly because he wasn't even on the team's opening day roster, after getting activated from the disabled list on April 16. "It's a credit to him and his work ethic," said manager Jeff Isom. "All the work that he's put in during the season and he continues to get better daily." That's exactly what Meadows has done, as the lefty owns an 8-1 mark with a 3.62 ERA in 14 games. He's 3-0 as a starter and was named Midwest League pitcher of the week on May 11. Peralta's record may only be 0-1, but there's another reason why he's off to Iowa at the end of the month. The righty owns an impressive strikeout-to-walk ratio of 49-14 and his 4.15 ERA is deceiving considering he allowed seven earned runs on May 9 to South Bend and six to Cedar Rapids on June 4. "Peralta, well-deserving. He's been throwing the ball well," Isom said. Lawrie is playing like a first-round draft choice, with eight home runs, which is tied for seventh in the league, is fourth in RBI (39) and is tied for 10th with four triples. He just wishes he didn't have to travel. "Obviously, it's going to be a fun time. I don't know if Clinton is the best place to have it," Lawrie said. With the Timber Rattlers trudging through a pair of four-game losing streaks and the season-high six game skid at the beginning of the season, getting individual accomplishment is a little tough to swallow for a team that's four games under .500. "We try to make it a team game as much as we can in a sport that's built around individual goals and moving up in the system as an individual," said Kemp, who owns a .304 batting average. "It's kind of bittersweet, you know. You wish all your team could go, but the way it is, it's an individual kind of thing."

ESPN video of brief discussion with Mandy in July of 2008

Pacific Coast League (AAA) - PCL American North Division Standings ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Team W L PCT GB HOME ROAD STREAK ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nashville 31 25 .554 - 17-14 14-11 L1 Memphis 28 27 .509 2.5 16-11 12-16 L3 Iowa 27 29 .482 4.0 12-12 15-17 W1 Omaha 23 32 .418 7.5 10-18 13-14 L5 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Southern League (AA) - SOU North Division Standings ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Team W L PCT GB HOME ROAD STREAK ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Huntsville 31 22 .585 - 12-13 19-9 W2 Carolina 30 25 .545 2.0 18-12 12-13 L1 Chattanooga 23 32 .418 9.0 13-17 10-15 L1 West Tenn 22 33 .400 10.0 11-14 11-19 L3 Tennessee 22 34 .393 10.5 11-18 11-16 W1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Florida State League (A+) - FSL North Division Standings ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Team W L PCT GB HOME ROAD STREAK ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brevard County 33 15 .688 - 14-8 19-7 L1 Clearwater 25 25 .500 9.0 11-12 14-13 L2 Daytona 24 25 .490 9.5 11-10 13-15 W2 Lakeland 22 25 .468 10.5 12-15 10-10 L1 Tampa 23 29 .442 12.0 12-16 11-13 W2 Dunedin 22 29 .431 12.5 10-18 12-11 W5