battlekow

Another nice appearance from Zach Braddock. Hopefully he stays healthy and keeps his feet under him and we see what he can do at Huntsville in the second half. Two doubles from Escobar is also great to see; one was just a grounder, but the other one was a ground-rule fly ball, so unless it was one of those weird down-the-line popups with English on it, he got ahold of one.

Hacker to the Pirates.

Intrigue! As Josh said, Taylor Green to Wisconsin, but Cutter Dykstra demoted to Helena. The rest of the moves: Michael Bowman activated, Kris Dabrowiecki and Garrett Sherrill transferred to Helena.

Hey, at least Nick Tyson had a successful season debut.

According to Paul DePodesta, Joe Thatcher recalled:

Jeffress made this week's Hot Sheet for a bad reason: Ben Badler touched on Lawrie during the Hot Sheet chat:

He throws really hard and is there already.

This is incorrect. Outrighting is the only way (well, other than a rehab assignment) to send a player without options to the minors. Nelson has not yet been outrighted; he would have to clear waivers first, which takes three days. He also has the right to refuse the assignment.

It would be really nice if Haudricourt could be bothered to get the facts of the transaction right. Nelson was not outrighted and indeed cannot be until he clears waivers, which would be three days from now if they Brewers put him on tonight.

Three hits? All by Marseco? What is going on in Grand Chute?

It's unlikely that Hall will be traded, but it's worth pointing out that "no trade has been made" is not the same thing as "no trade will be made".

I called him "Mat the Batt" the other day. I think it makes the obvious a little more interesting by riffing on the odd spelling of his first name.

Sounds like they waited exactly long enough to delay his FA by a year and then called him up. I guess they believed in him more than most of us suspected. I wonder if he'll be going back down; the timing would seem to suggest not.

None of Housman's ratios were ever as good as what Cody has done consistently. Not saying Cody is really anything, but he's certainly put up more interesting numbers than Housman did.

Rough end of the game for BC. The final Clearwater pitcher faced 11 Manatees and struck out 7 of them.

Nice of Jeffress to get the implosion out of the way early on.

Lawrie's move to second working outDrafted as catcher, Crew prospect finding way at new position By Adam McCalvy / MLB.com MILWAUKEE -- Runners at second and third base, nobody out and your team is trying to hold a two-run lead. You're playing second base and a hard chopper is hit your way. The correct play is to first base, for the sure out. Brett Lawrie, the Brewers' second base prospect, pivoted and fired to third. "He threw the guy out at third base, and it was like, 'Holy mackerel!'" said Brewers farm director Reid Nichols, who was in the stands in Appleton, Wis., that April day for a game between Lawrie's Wisconsin Timber Rattlers and the Peoria Chiefs. "It was a bad decision," Nichols said, "but it was a good play." So continues the education of the 19-year-old Lawrie, who is hoping to be the next Prince Fielder or Rickie Weeks or Ryan Braun, all former first-rounders now drawing big league paychecks in Milwaukee. Lawrie was the 16th pick overall in last year's First-Year Player Draft, the top Canadian pick in history, and he was a catcher then. Over the offseason, he decided to switch to second. The Brewers approved, though the move has been mostly panned outside the organization. Nichols, not exactly known for throwing around unwarranted praise, has a radically different take. "I didn't think he could do it," said Nichols, who has overseen Milwaukee's Minor League affiliates since November 2002. "And I certainly didn't think he could do it this quickly. "But he has good range, good hands. I have been pleasantly surprised." Considering Nichols' usually low-key assessment of even the hottest of prospects, that qualifies as a ringing endorsement of Lawrie, who began his Brewers career last month about 100 miles up the road from Miller Park at the Brewers' new Class A affiliate. "I love it back there," Lawrie proclaimed on Draft day, professing his affinity for catching. So much for his excitement about being a backstop. Over the offseason, after Lawrie had played for Team Canada in the Junior World Championships and the Beijing Olympics, his outlook changed. "I've always liked second base," Lawrie said. "I like catching, too, but it wasn't a position I could see myself going to the park every day and playing. Catching just wasn't really there for me. It didn't feel proper to me. I think it's one of those things you have to pick up when you're young." Lawrie insists the decision to move to second base was his own. It had to be approved by club officials and went all the way up the ladder to general manager Doug Melvin. "When Brett was drafted, he was drafted for his bat," Melvin said. "It wasn't firm where he was going to play, and [second base] might not be his last position, either. He's athletic enough to play a couple of positions." In the Draft room, scouts debated a number of defensive projections for Lawrie. Catcher obviously came up, but so did first, second and third base and left field. The scouts mostly talked about his offensive potential, and so far Lawrie has not disappointed. He's hitting .298 with four home runs, 21 RBIs, eight stolen bases and a .350 on-base percentage. He's among the Midwest League's top 10 in homers and RBIs, and he went 3-for-5 in the Rattlers' April 24 "Border Battle" against Peoria in front of 17,880 fans at Miller Park. "For now, this is the position he's playing," Melvin said. "And he wants to play there. It's important that the player buys into it." Nichols had initial doubts about the switch and so did Lawrie's manager, Jeff Isom. One unnamed scout who watched Lawrie play a Spring Training game called his play there, "a joke." "No way, no how he's going to be able to stay there," the scout told the Web site Baseball Prospectus. Yes, Lawrie read that report. "They always say, 'You can't do this or that,'" Lawrie said. "But that doesn't bother me. I know what I can do and what I can't do. It just makes me strive harder to get it done." Lawrie did have some experience at second base for the Canadian junior national team. His switch to second could prove a savvy move. Brewers catcher Jason Kendall turns 35 next month and is in the final year of his contract, but the team has a pair of exciting catching prospects in Triple-A Nashville's Angel Salome and Double-A Huntsville's Jonathan Lucroy, both 22. Defense-first catcher Carlos Corporan projects as a backup, but he climbed so high on the depth chart in Spring Training that the Brewers currently have him in the big leagues while Mike Rivera rehabs an ankle injury. At second base, meanwhile, Weeks is a free agent after the 2011 season. The team's top infield prospects all play other positions. Mat Gamel and Taylor Green are third basemen, and Alcides Escobar and Brent Brewer are currently shortstops. Isom doesn't just think that Lawrie could pass in the Major Leagues as a second baseman, but that he could be a good one. "I saw him in Spring Training ... and I didn't know what to expect," Isom said. "There were some rough times, but you saw a lot of athleticism. We would see things in games and have to mention, 'You need to be doing this and that.' "The thing about Brett Lawrie is that you tell him once about game-situation stuff, and you don't have to tell him again. In Spring Training, it was daily that we talked about two or three things. As the season started, we haven't had to tell him a thing. He's a 'baseball guy.'"

More box score fail. Meadows only went five, it turns out.

I interviewed him last year shortly after he was drafted. He throws in the high 80s.

Wow, 7.2 innings for Dan Meadows. Awesome game for Braddock.

That's like the third time this year Escobar has sac bunted in the first inning. I wonder if that's coming from him or the dugout.

Trejo notches just his second multi-hit game of the year. Man, essentially skipping a level to jump to the MWL as a teenager in frigid April must be tough (if you're not Brett Lawrie). Hopefull Trejo can turn the corner as the weather warms up and he gets some more experience. Same goes for Zarraga, when he's healthy.

Lawrie reaches on an error but is out stretching it. Kid's aggressive, you have to give him that. EDIT: Chris Mehring was critical of Lawrie for being overly aggressive on the basepaths, citing in particular an instance where Lawrie was thrown out trying to steal third with two outs and Kjeldgaard up.

Two-run single for Trejo; that's really nice to see.

Rivera started at first on 7/1 at Arizona and 9/30 against the Mets. He also played first on 4/30 at Chicago. Prior to that, he'd played a little first for Nashville in the years he spent there and before that for Charlotte in 2004 and one inning for San Diego in 2003.