battlekow

John Sickels from this afternoon: "[Gennett]'s made only one error on defense, a far cry from last year when he led the Florida State League in errors, and reports indicate he's done quite a bit to improve his range and footwork."

Sounds play-by-play man Jeff Hem provides some context for Schafer's and Gindl's homers: "wind blowing toward right at 25 mph for 2nd day in row...good to be a LHB".

Probably out trying to score on a wild pitch or passed ball, yeah?

The James Paxton-Tyler Thornburg showdown isn't exactly going as expected--it's 4-4 after 2.5 innings. Thornburg gave up a big three-run homer to Joe Dunigan in the top of the 3rd, but Brock Kjeldgaard picked him up with a two-run blast in the bottom half.

Not a transaction yet, but Cameron Garfield reports that he'll begin rehabbing in extended spring training on Monday.

Final: Wisconsin 3, @West Michigan 2 (12 innings) Rattlers take their fifth Chris Mehring/Wisconsin Timber Rattlers COMSTOCK PARK, MI – It took a little longer than the previous four, but the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers defeated the West Michigan Whitecaps 3-2 on Saturday afternoon for their fifth consecutive victory. John Dishon made sure outstanding performances by the Wisconsin bullpen did not go to waste by driving in the go ahead run in the top of the twelfth inning. West Michigan (7-9) struck for two runs after two outs in the bottom of the third. Matt Perry, the number nine hitter in the Whitecaps lineup, singled with two out and none on to start the rally. Chad Wright followed with a single. Then, Eugenio Suarez blooped in a double just out of the reach of right fielder Max Walla. The hit drove in Perry and moved Wright to third. An infield single by Aaron Westlake plated Wright and the Caps were up 2-0. Wisconsin (10-6) rallied for a run in the fourth. Jason Rogers started the inning with a double. One out later, Brandon Macias doubled to get Rogers home and cut the score to 2-1. Walla broke an 0-for-13 string with a double to start the top of the sixth. The hit was the first for the outfielder since joining the Timber Rattlers on April 17. Parker Berberet knocked in Walla with a double to tie the game 2-2. Rattlers relievers Tyler Cravy and Tommy Toledo combined to pitch seven scoreless innings and kept the game tied until the twelfth. The duo allowed two hits and struck out five without allowing a walk. Wisconsin took advantage of a break in the twelfth to set up their winning rally. Rafael Neda was up with one out and sent a high pop foul into foul territory down the right field line. Suarez got there after a long run from his second base position, but the ball popped out of his glove. Neda was hit by the next pitch to put the go ahead run on base. Chadwin Stang came on to pinch run for Neda and picked a spot to successfully steal second base. After the go ahead run was on second, Dishon delivered a sharp single to center to score Stang and the Rattlers led 3-2. Seth Harvey relieved for the bottom of the twelfth and got the first two out, but gave up a fluky double to Danry Vasquez to allow the Whitecaps a chance to tie the game. But, Harvey fired strike three past Curt Casali to end the game. The Timber Rattlers continue their road trip with the first game of a three game series at South Bend on Sunday afternoon. Drew Gagnon (1-0, 1.26) is the scheduled starting pitcher for Wisconsin. The Silver Hawks have Jeff Shields (0-2, 1.42) on the docket as their starting pitcher. Game time at Stanley Coveleski Regional Stadium is 1:05pm CDT. Tune in for the broadcast on AM1280, WNAM or timberrattlers.com starting with the Miller Lite Pregame Show at 12:45pm. Box score Nice to Walla get off the schneid with two hits. Yadiel Rivera had a tough day, 0-6 with a golden sombrero. Chris mentioned the fine relief work of Cravy, Toledo, and Harvey, and combined with starter Kevin Shackelford, the pitching staff posted a pretty 9/0 K/BB today. With Cameron Garfield getting healthy, I wonder what's going to happen with the catching situation in the low minors. With Garfield, Tyler Roberts, and Rafael Neda all arguably deserving to play regularly, something's going to change, despite none of them really meriting a promotion. Play-by-play Chris mentioned the "fluky" double in the bottom of the 12th, and I'd sure like to see video of it. The PBP records it as "Danry Vasquez doubles (2) on a fly ball to right fielder Max Walla," but as Chris described it it was a weird knuckling grounder that got past Harvey on the mound and then somehow eluded Carlos George at second base as well. "The weirdest double you're ever going to see."

Chris Mehring reports that David Goforth hit 97 tonight, though that's presumably on the stadium gun and thus high by a few notches.

Anonymous scout on Tyler Thornburg: "I like him better than I did last year, as with a 91-94 mph fastball, good curve, and change, we're talking about three plus pitches."

Kevin Goldstein on Tyler Thornburg (free article):

Sounds like Max Walla's finger is healed up and he's on the way to Appleton.

Did I make up that the stadium gun at Time Warner is significantly inaccurate?

The Brewers drafted Nolin, too, in the 50th round in 2008. As for Marisnick, it's kind of interesting. He was the Jays' fifth pick that year, since they had a supplemental first rounder and two third-round picks. The one they used to take Marisnick they actually got from the Yankees as compensation for losing AJ Burnett. You'll of course remember that the Yankees also signed two other rather big-ticket free agents that offseason, Mark Teixeira and some guy named Carsten Charles; Teixeira famously outranked Sabathia in Elias's rather questionable ranking system, which meant the Angels got to draft Mike Trout (one pick ahead of the Brewers, who took Eric Arnett), while Milwaukee was stuck with the Yankees' second-rounder, which they used to take Max Walla. The other Brewers tie is that the Blue Jays' first-rounder that year was Chad Jenkins, who teamed up with Kyle Heckathorn, who went in the supplemental round to Milwaukee, to form a hellacious one-two punch at Kennesaw State University. To make you feel better after that gut-wrenching paragraph above, Jenkins hasn't done a whole hell of a lot in his pro career to date. He's been a lot better than the Blue Jays' next three picks, though--because they didn't sign any of them. James Paxton, Jake Elipoulous, and Jake Barrett (that's three Jakes in a row, counting Marisnick) all failed to sign. Paxton, of course, went on to sign with the Mariners the next year and has been carving up minor leaguers since, including, memorably, the Timber Rattlers last year. Eliopoulous, a Canadian citizen (though he was born in Ukraine--weird), was drafted by the Dodgers the next year and the Blue Jays again last year, but again refused to sign each time. Mini-Matt Harrington. Anyway, that doesn't have anything to do with anything, really, but I thought it was interesting.

This is a great idea; thanks for putting it up. Some more: Jungmann: Jim Breen (4/5): "...largely sat 91-93 MPH with his fastball, which features significant movement in toward right-handed batters...also featured a curveball at 75-78 MPH and a changeup that sat at 81 MPH." Bradley: Jim Breen (4/7): "His fastball sat 89-91 MPH but touched 92-93 MPH at times. Bradley also featured a solid curveball that had the Daytona Cubs’ hitters completely locked up at the plate. He induced several really bad swings and even showed an ability to freeze batters with the curveball for strikeouts looking." Gagnon: Tim Froberg/Post Crescent (4/6): "...fastball that was clocked in the low 90s and was able to throw his off-speed pitches for strikes...[Gagnon:] 'I was able to get the curveball over in certain situations'...[Matt Erickson:] 'I thought his change was really good. He was down in the zone and had good deception.'" ...is no longer with the Brewers

M's Rule 5 guy Luetge fits in

Via BA's Minor League Transactions, we learn the Brewers have signed 22-year-old catcher Emmanuel Quiles, who was a 6th-round pick in 2007 by San Diego but never made it above A-ball. He's a career .225/.270/.293 hitter and is from Puerto Rico, so he's obviously the next Martin Maldonado.

Lucas Luetge made his Major League debut tonight, striking out Josh Reddick on three pitches. Pretty cool.

I'm guessing, based on his strikeout rates pre- and post-surgery, along with the fact that he didn't throw hard to begin with, that his slider didn't come all the way back.

Turns out the pitch counts below AA are wrong--they're just 4*BB + 3*K + 1*[everything else].

The official scorer can assign the win to a pitcher other than the one of record when the winning team took the lead if that pitcher was ineffective; it's up to the scorer's discretion, though I can't remember ever seeing it exercised.

He likes it, too.

The Post Crescent has some heartening comments on Gagnon's secondary stuff:

I would also suggest that you guys could just drop a post into the thread saying "Nashville recap coming" or whatever and then edit that post and replace it with your write-up. That way anyone reading will know whether or not they should pitch in and contribute a recap of the game they just listened to if they want.

Mark Rogers was 90-91 today on the WGN gun, though he did have one clocked at 97. Jed Bradley was 88-91.

I think Raw Biz is right in that this actually hurts Green's chances. Hart was to spell Gamel at first against tough lefties, and Green is also left-handed.

Thanks for the link, colby. Rawnsley: Where would Bradley have been taken in 2008 had he not been (as) committed to Georgia Tech?