MassBrew

7th inning: Lancaster 8, High Desert 6 Reason for update here -- the Mavs' third pitcher of the evening, RHP Josh Alliston, signaled into the dugout for the trainer after throwing a pitch midway through his first inning of work. He's left the game.

Final: Huntsville 5, Montgomery (Devil Rays) 3 Not going to over-analyze the box or log -- we'll get detailed accounts from the Stars' site and David Weiser later on; no earned runs allowed; reason Brad Nelson left the game early? Huntsville Box Score: www.sportsnetwork.com/mer...MEID=11949 Huntsville Game Log: www.sportsnetwork.com/mer...MEID=11949

Thanks, Madbad -- never completely trust a box score; nothing like first-hand reports. Beloit Site Game Summary: www.snappersbaseball.com/...me_id=1252

Final: Indianapolis 4, Norfolk (Mets) 3, 13 innings Indians win on an unearned run; Corey Hart tied it with a HR in the 9th; David Krynzel and Hart each caught stealing; don't be confused by the box score order -- Ben Hendrickson did start; J.J. Hardy 0-for-10 to start his AAA career -- not to worry, folks... Indianapolis Box Score: www.sportsnetwork.com/mer...MEID=14042 Indianapolis Game Log: www.sportsnetwork.com/mer...MEID=14042

Final: Quad City 3 (Twins), Beloit 2 Six hits, all singles, for the Snappers. Unearned run hurt on a Josh Murray error. Snappers did draw seven walks. RHP Brian Montalbo allowed only one run (HR) and two hits in six innings, despite four walks. Manny Ramirez picked off third in the 4th -- ugh. The batting averages here are off... Beloit Box Score: www.sportsnetwork.com/mer...MEID=12462 Beloit Game Log: www.sportsnetwork.com/mer...MEID=12462

Talk about deflating -- LHP Eric Henderson just gave back the High Desert four-run lead and more as Lancaster scores five in the bottom of the third. Three scored on an infamous Cal League jetstream pop-up, I mean, home run. Regardless, Mavs now tied 5-5 (Travis Hinton HR, first Mavs' dinger of the year) in what figures to be a long one. Huge nights for Hart with Indy and Weeks in Huntsville, huh? Awesome. I did hear earlier that all three Montgomery runs were unearned against Huntsville starter Jeff Housman.

Anyway, the Brewers have 10 of 12 Mondays off prior to the All-Star Break. To truly skip the fifth pitcher (we'll say Obermueller) consistently, you'd still have to play around a bit with a four-man rotation during the six-day Tuesday - Sunday stretch. But there are no stretches of 20 straight days of action in the first half, that's for sure.

Listening to new Maverick broadcaster Roxy Bernstein, as the Mavs just batted around in the 3rd, plating their four runs. First impressions are good -- professional, enthusiastic, and easy on the ears. Welcome aboard, Roxy!

Deciding who to listen to? As of 9:15 Central, it's: Indy, 3, Norfolk 3, top of the 12th Montgomery 3, Huntsville 3, top of the 8th High Desert 4, Lancaster 0, top of the 3rd Quad City 1, Beloit 1, bottom of the 2nd (either a rain delay or a late reporting game)

The Huntsville DL includes RHP's Ben Diggins, Greg Bruso, and Jason Shelley. In the case of Shelley, his contract was transferred from Indianapolis, where it had been listed since being moved there for the Rule 5 draft last fall.

Ballouli Henderson Martin Hall Look for the Mavericks to work a four-man split start similar to what the A's and Rangers have done in the past at this high-A level. So will guys like Glenn Woolard and David Nolasco get their opportunities to start in future outings, or will they be perpetual piggy-backers? We'll see. Look for plenty of four and five inning starts and appearances. Given California League conditions in general, you're asking a lot from your starter to go beyond five successfully anyway. This seems like the ideal pitching staff to attempt this philosophy with...

Finally in: Huntsville Box: www.sportsnetwork.com/mer...MEID=11948 Huntsville Game Log: www.sportsnetwork.com/mer...MEID=11948

Your Indy starter tonight is RHP Ben Hendrickson. I'm having no luck again with the Indy feed, so Ben fans can use the alternate link provided above. There is a listen live button on the Norfolk home page that is working. It's six up, six down for Mr. Hendrickson, and the Tribe and Tides are scoreless after two innings.

Here's the link to the Spring Transactions thread should you need to review: pub123.ezboard.com/fbrewe...mp;stop=40 To kick off April's thread, LHP Manny Parra's contract was moved from the Huntsville roster to the High Desert roster, and Manny has been placed on the Mavericks' disabled list. A reminder that the minor league DL is a 7-day, not a 15-day DL. No word on the latest news on Manny's sore shoulder, but it's safe to say we won't see him active in seven days, I would think. It would be nice to see Manny pitching soon in his native California. It'd be a nice plus for Mavs' fans as well. Get well, Manny!

Mavs management tells us that LHP Eric Henderson gets the starting nod tonight at Lancaster. RHP Forrest Martin, who we're told had an outstanding camp, and RHP Bo Hall, get the starting nods Saturday and Sunday, respectively. While Hall appeared solely in late relief for Beloit last year, he did make nine starts for Helena in 2002. For now, a fifth starter has not been named. In fact, RHP Khalid Ballouli is penciled in for Monday and Henderson again for Tuesday, each on three days' rest. Obviously, as always, pitching assignments are suspect to change.

As mentioned in another recent thread: Released - LHP Mike Kusiewicz (off-season six-year free agent signee) RHP J.M. Gold (the 13th overall pick in '98) LHP Ricky Stover (29th round pick from '03) Retired - RHP Tony Stavros This will close out the Spring Training transaction thread, with an April thread to commence with the next moves (thread locked).

Another opportunity to partake in the Good Friday version of the Daily Menu -- crabcakes, soyburgers, you get the idea -- without the distraction of an actual Brewer game... For this evening, we've listed alternatives to the audio links as it seems there were issues Thursday; hopefully all will be squared away for tonight. All times Central; pitchers subject to change; pre-game audio begins approx. 15 minutes prior to game time listed... INDIANAPOLIS: TBD at Norfolk (Mets), 6:15 PM; we may get game notes from Indy later today with pitcher info Audio link: www.newstalk1430.com/ Backup audio link (Norfolk feed): www.norfolktides.com/ HUNTSVILE: LHP Jeff Housman at home vs. Montgomery (Devil Rays), 7:05 PM; it's Fireworks Night! Audio link: www.espn1450.com/ Backup audio link (Biscuits' feed): www.biscuitsbaseball.com/ HIGH DESERT: TBD at Lancaster (Diamondbacks), 8:30 PM Audio link: www.hdmavs.com/listen_live.htm Backup audio link (Jethawks' feed): www.jethawks.com/listenlive.ram BELOIT: RHP Brian Montalbo at home vs. Quad City (Twins), 6:30 PM Audio link (Swing's feed): www.swingbaseball.com/live/

Mark McCarter's Column from the Huntsville Times: Knox's knock biggest hit on night of firsts One baseball may still there right now, sitting in the high grass or swimming in the concrete ditch behind the outfield fence, unless some silly scavenger managed to pick it out from among the batting practice balls socked out there. Meanwhile, several baseballs are flying off to history, bearing a shiny space-age sticker. Somewhere, some day, some collector of obscure baseball memorabilia will have those on a mantel or in a case or between the beer taps and margarita machine in a sports bar. One baseball in a ditch. One baseball on a mantel. Guess which one's worth most? Nobody's collecting Ryan Knox souvenirs. But the one he deposited beyond the left field fence proved the most valuable of the night. It was a three-run homer that propelled the Stars to an opening night win over the Montgomery Biscuits. Get it out of the way quickly: The Stars baked the Biscuits. The Biscuits pitcher was in a jam when he gave up the homer to Knox. For Stars pitcher Matt Ford, he was smooth as butter against the Biscuits. OK. Enough already. Considering the historic nature of the event, this inaugural Biscuits game - they were right out of the oven - Major League Baseball had a representative on hand to snatch some souvenirs. Rebecca Horn works in the Birmingham office of the accounting firm Deloitte Touche. Her company has been enlisted by MLB to attend games across the country and be the authenticator of various pieces of memorabilia. She sat in the front row, near the Stars dugout, a sheaf of papers in her lap, a roll of hologram stickers in hand. For instance, the first pitch ever in a Biscuits game, the ball was immediately removed from play and labeled with a sticker. Horn also had a list of players for whom various "firsts" were to be collected. She didn't feel right revealing the list. Ryan Knox, the 26-year-old who was the odd man out when Triple-A Indianapolis ended up with a surplus of outfielders, was pretty sure he wasn't on it. "I'm a happy role player right now,'' he said. But his was the biggest hit of the night. "I felt we were a little nervous and I think that jump-started us,'' Knox said. "It let some guys take some more aggressive hacks. It was like, 'OK, we can start hitting now.' '' You can't help steal from the credit card commercial now: First pitch thrown to a Biscuit: $750 Ball from Rickie Weeks' first Double-A hit: $500 Tony Gwynn Jr. game-worn cap: $300 Knox home run ball: Priceless. For the record, Rickie Weeks did have two hits, but Tony Gwynn Jr. went 0-for-3, Prince Fielder 0-for-4 and Biscuits megaprospect B.J. Upton 0-for-2. Knox is undergoing radical surgery in his swing under the direction of manager Frank Kremblas. "From the ground up,'' Kremblas said. Literally. They're working to get Knox's lower body more into his swing, which in turn increases bat speed. Which in turn provided an invaluable home run. "Skipper had been changing my swing around the last couple of weeks with zero success,'' Knox said. "It was good to finally almost vindicate him and what he's trying to change. It came all together on that one swing. I said, 'Wow, it kinda works.' '' Knox would disagree a tad with those who might find his home run ball with less value than ardent collectors might place on, say, Upton's protective cup from his first Double-A game or a wad of Fielder game-chewed bubble gum. "First home run against the Montgomery Biscuits. Heck yeah,'' Knox said. "The first home run against them. The first runs scored against them. The first RBI. "It's an infamous keepsake.'' Contact Mark McCarter at markcolumn@aol.com

Huntsville Times Game Story: Homers lift Stars in debut By PAUL GATTIS Times Sports Staff pgattis@htimes.com Sometimes, it helps to be a little anonymous. That's sort of the way Ryan Knox felt just before swatting a three-run home run Thursday night that sent the Huntsville Stars rolling to a 5-4 season-opening win over Montgomery. With two outs, two runners on base and Knox having worked his way to a 3-1 count, he knew what was coming next from Biscuits pitcher Jamie Shields. Fastball over the plate. And then Knox put it over the left field fence for a 3-0 lead in the third inning. "I was sitting on a fastball," Knox said. "I knew with the best hitter in the minor leagues behind me, that he was coming at me." Yes, sometimes it helps to be a little anonymous with Prince Fielder - the Milwaukee Brewers' No. 1 prospect, according to Baseball America - standing in the on-deck circle. And even if the Stars opened their 20th season in Huntsville loaded with baseball's household names of the future, the opening night crowd of 2,517 at Joe Davis Stadium saw that you don't have to have a big name to swing a big bat in handing the Biscuits a loss in their inaugural game. Knox spent much of last season at Triple-A Indianapolis, but found his way back to the Double-A Stars this year because of overcrowding in the outfield at the next level. But even with the disappointment, he still produced. "That's a credit to him," Stars manager Frank Kremblas said. "He's been around long enough that he knows how to deal with it. He's a professional." Indeed, even as Fielder's much-anticipated arrival in Huntsville resulted in three strikeouts, his less-heralded teammates provided their own spark. Catcher Kade Johnson was 2-for-3 with a home, double and two runs scored. And Matt Ford pitched five no-hit innings before reaching his pitch count and leaving the game. "And it's my birthday today, which makes it even better," said Ford, who turned 23 on Thursday. For Johnson, he started this season at Joe Davis Stadium much like he ended last season. His 12th-inning, walk-off home run gave the Stars a win in Game 2 of the Southern League championship series. Then Johnson doubled in his first at-bat this season and homered in his second. "I'm a different hitter this year," Johnson said. "I've worked hard to quiet down my swings a little." That doesn't mean a softer approach to hitting, just a more calm and confident approach. Meanwhile, Ford appeared intent on quickly returning to the major leagues - which is where he spent last year as a Rule 5 draft selection by Milwaukee. That required his presence with the Brewers all season even though he needed a little more seasoning in the minors. His right elbow, which ended his season last July because of a sprain, also appeared fit and was declared "100 percent" by Ford. "It was like pretty much everything was on," said Ford, who struck out four, walked two and allowed an unearned run. "I was keeping everything down in the strike zone. "It's always better to get off to a good start and build your confidence up." And that goes for everyone: The supposed anonymous and the supposed not-so-anonymous.

Montgomery second baseman Fernando Cortez waits for the throw as Huntsville's Rickie Weeks dives into second base during the season opener on Thursday. http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/images/news_daily/040904/SPORTS_biscuits409_1.jpg

Rodney Nye of the Tides slides into Indianapolis second baseman Matt Erickson in a failed attempt to break up a double play in the fourth inning Thursday night at Harbor Park. http://media.hamptonroads.com/images/sports/tides04opener.jpg

Fine account here with quotes and news from the Beloit Daily News: www.beloitdailynews.com/404/snap9.htm

Thanks for the box score clarification, futurefan. We should remember that they're not guaranteed 100%. That being said, still a tough night for Mr. Krynzel. That's not projecting anything beynd that, just saying it was a tough night. Here's the Daily Press High Desert Game Story: www.vvdailypress.com/cgi-...991,82222, High Desert and Beloit newspaper articles retain good linkage for over a year, so no need to cut and paste the text here...

Beloit's Box: www.sportsnetwork.com/mer...MEID=12461 Beloit Game Log: www.sportsnetwork.com/mer...MEID=12461

High Desert' s Box: www.sportsnetwork.com/mer...MEID=19005 High Desert Game Log: www.sportsnetwork.com/mer...MEID=18025