parkside21

Did anyone catch what happened with the Riske to Coffey move? We were at the game and couldn't tell what was going on. We decided the ump thought Riske took too many warm up pitches or something and the ump tossed him? It was confusing from where we were sitting........anyone know what happened for sure?

Game is at 6:35, gates will open at 5:05, parking lot "should" open at 4:05. I'd say if you get there by 4-ish you should be fine. Especially with school back in session now.

I saw a guy a couple of years ago that was wearing an authentic Marcus Hanel jersey. That takes commitment. Turbo, shoot me a private message with your size if you want. I know you live just down the road from me and we've traded bobbles in the past. I have a couple games left in my package, I'll keep my eyes open for a $5 Kapler if you want.

I used to do this as a kid about 15 years ago. Handwritten letters and postage stamps were a small price to pay for getting that package in the mail a month later on a random day after school with a professional team's logo on it and goodies inside. E-mailing seems to take the fun out of it. If you have kids, try this with them, but I recommend the old fashion way.

I have two FIELD LEVEL DIAMOND BOX tickets for Friday (8/28) that I can't use. They are in Section 110, Row 4. You can have the PAIR for 40 dollars. Game time is coming up quick though, so you'll have to be in the Appleton area, or willing to pick up Thursday or Friday. I've put these on craigslist as well, so let me know ASAP! Please email or call as I might not have a chance to check the message board and/or PMs tomorrow. Josh 920-277-3481 diddynas@yahoo.com EDIT: 40 dollars for the pair? Anyone? Anyone?

Logan, thanks for the link. I think I'm maybe leaning towards those Xmods Evo things that they sell at Radio Shack (50) and the link you provided (55), specifically the Nissan GT-R. I suppose for that price it's a decent starting package that won't set me back too much if I decide I'm really not into it, and can just pass it off to my nephews. Though, it looks like as you start buying extra parts/mods/batteries, the prices can escalate quickly. I still wish there was more "assembly" that had to be done though, but I suppose I'll roll with it for the time being, and can always go back to the old model car kits if I'm looking for something more time consuming. Anyone else have any other ideas/suggestions on how to get into this hobby?

So, I'm looking for a hobby to do this summer while watching Brewers games and movies on TV. I've been leaning towards model cars, as they've always sort of intrigued me. I have absolutely no experience with them though, other than I know they sell kits for 10-15 dollars at Hobby Lobby and such, and then I assume I'd have to buy paints, knives, glue, cement and everything else seperately. So, any tips or recommendations on how or where to go to get started? If it helps, I live in the Appleton area, and work near Oshkosh. Also, while model cars interest me, I think it'd be much more fun to assemble a car that I can actually make move, hence an RC car. I was looking online and see that Radio Shack sells "mod" RC cars that you can put together, the kits seem to run about 50 dollars. I don't want to just buy an RC car that is ready to drive, I want to actually build something that I have to put time into and will occupy me for several hours/days/weeks whatever. Like I said, I'd prefer to keep it somewhat cheap though if possible in the beginning, and I know this hobby can get pretty expensive. Any suggestions? Do they sell RC kits that I can assemble, like they do with model cars? I assume there are at least a couple of people that are still into this hobby? I'm sure I can order from some sort of catalog, but if possible, I'd rather buy from a store at first, so I can see what I'm getting. Anyone have suggestions?

That's what it appears to be, jeffy. Thanks for clearing it up. Obviously, hopefully it's nothing major with Hardy and he'll stay hot.

I think those of us not watching on tv were just confused because Hardy was in the starting lineup, so it is unlikely it was a scheduled day off. Also, add to the confusion that on the box score (Yahoo) at first it said Counsell came in for Hart, because they still listed Hart as hitting 2nd. Mega confusing for those of us that can't catch tonight's game on WMLW.

Lawrie just crushed a homerun to dead center over the big green wall. According to Rattlers radio man Chris Mehring, what wind there is also blowing in from straight center. How about that for your first professional hit? Go get yourself some, Brett! T-Rats lead Quad Cities 6-1 early going in the bottom of the 2nd inning. Wisconsin has 7 hits already, Kjeldgard has 2 of them for himself. In addition, the fielding for Quad Cities in the past two games has been....below average, to put it nicely.

I guess he's not technically a minor leaguer anymore, or won't be soon, but if you didn't catch it, Jordan Zimmermann won the 5th rotation spot with the Nationals this season. This Auburndale, WI native attended UWSP and is rated as the #1 prospect in the Washington system by BA. He's going to begin the season on the AAA roster as the Nationals don't need a 5th starter for a couple weeks. (I apologize if this has already popped up in a thread somewhere else, but I don't recall seeing it)

Another poster brought up this question over on a T-rats blog/message board. But, why exactly is Jim Henderson starting the season with the T-Rats? Is it just part of the positioning shuffle still going on to start the season? Does he end up in AA/AAA soon? Or is he just roster filler for the time being until the Brewers release him? I know some were surprised to see he's opening in Appleton, but any thoughts as to why he is exactly? I doubt it's the case, but I noticed he's part of the Canadian connection...is he just another body there to help mentor Lawrie in the beginning?

I hear ya, Battlekow. I find my remote in the refrigerator, or on the back of the toilet from time to time. Go figure.

Juan Sanchez is on the T-Rats opening day roster.

The following is what I went through and did today. Okay, so this is the updated list of prospects that made their team's opening day roster. Obviously, some prospects that BA had originally predicted were either held in XST, or bumped up to start in A+. Players that BA (and I) incorrectly predicted have a strike through them, while players that BA (and in one or two cases, me) correctly predicted are marked with red. An asterisk means that player didn't appear on the original projection list, but is indeed going to start with their respective MWL team to begin the season. Keep in mind, these are only opening day rosters. They'll likely change a lot in the next few weeks as the weather warms up (hopefully), but I figured it's a good starting reference to have. Let me know if you notice any errors. I'm sure I missed something. South Bend (Arizona) Wade Miley, P, #5 Kevin Eichhorn, P, #6 Reynaldo Navarro, SS, #10 Trevor Harden, P, #13 Rossmel Perez, C, #15 Bryan Shaw, P, #17 *Isaias Asencio, OF, #24 Tyrell Worthington, OF, #30 Peoria (Chicago Cubs) Josh Vitters, 3B, #1 Andrew Cashner, P, #3 *Ryan Flaherty, SS, #8 *Junior Lake, SS, #14 Chris Carpenter, P, #18 Matt Cerda, C, #27 Dayton (Cincinnati) Kyle Lotzkar, P, #6 Neftali Soto, 3B, #7 Devin Mesoraco, C, #10 Juan Carlos Sulbaran, P, #20 Alex Bucholz, 2B, #30 West Michigan (Detroit) Casey Crosby, P, #4 *Brandon Douglas, SS, #23 Mauricio Robles, P, #24 Brandon Hamilton, P, #26 Burlington (Kansas City) Eric Hosmer, 1B, #2 Mike Montgomery, P, #4 Tim Melville, P, #5 Kelvin Herrera, P, #12 *Jason Taylor, 3B/1B, #17 Salvado Perez, C, #19 *Jose Bonilla, C, #26 *Kyle Martin, SS/3B, #27 Sam Runion, P, #28 Yowill Espinal, 2B/SS, #29 Keaton Hayenga, P, #30 Cedar Rapids (LA Angels) *Will Smith, P, #12 Manuarys Correa, P, #19 Luis Jimenez, 3B, #26 Great Lakes (LA Dodgers) Ethan Martin, P, #3 Devaris Gordon, SS, #7 Chris Withrow, P, #9 Nathan Eovaldi, P, #10 *Austin Gallagher, 3B, #11 Pedro Baez, 3B, #13 Kyle Russell, OF, #17 Jon Michael Redding, P, #18 Tony Delmonico, C/2B, #19 *Justin Miller, P, #20 Daigoro Rondon, P, #23 *Javy Guerra, P, #25 *Alfredo Silverio, OF, #27 *Jordan Pratt, P, #30 Wisconsin (Milwaukee) Brett Lawrie, C/2B, #3 Cutter Dykstra, OF, #7 Jake Odorizzi, P, #11 Cody Scarpetta, P, #15 *R.J. Seidel, P, #18 (DL, out for the year?) Wily Peralta, P, #22 Efrain Nieves, P, #23 Evan Fredrickson, P, #24 Cody Adams, P, #28 Logan Schafer, OF, #29 Beloit (Minnesota) Aaron Hicks, OF, #1 Shooter Hunt, P, #7 Angel Morales, OF, #10 Joe Benson, OF, #15 Michael Tonkin, P, #30 Kane County (Oakland) Brett Hunter, P, #19 Rashun Dixon, OF, #21 Dusty Coleman, SS, #22 Grant Desme, OF, #30 Quad Cities (St. Louis) Lance Lynn, P, #15 Niko Vasquez, SS, #18 Richard Castillo, P, #24 Fort Wayne (San Diego) Jaff Decker, OF, #3 *Allan Dykstra, 1B, #8 *James Darnell, 3B, #10 Simon Castro, P, #14 *Drew Cumberland, SS, #15 *Blake Tekotte, OF, #19 *Nick Schmidt, P, #21 Clinton (Seattle) Mario Martinez, 3B, #7 Jharmidy DeJesus, 3B, #8 Maikel Cleto, P, #16 Gabriel Noriega, SS, #19 Tyson Gillies, OF, #20 Denny Almonte, OF, #22 Aaron Pribanic, P, #27 *Brett Lorin, P, #28 Danny Carroll, OF, #29 *Nolan Gallagher, P, #30 Lansing (Toronto) John Tolisano, 2B, #13 Eric Eiland, OF, #16 Mark Sobolewski, 3B, #19 *Kenny Wilson, OF, #21 Tyler Pastornicky, SS, #23 *Markus Brisker, OF, #26 Balbino Fuenmayor, 3B, #28 *Henderson Alvarez, P, #29 Edit: keep in mind, the #'s are their rankings within their affiliated team's system, NOT their uniform numbers. You'll have to look those up on your own if you need them, as they tend to fluctuate from time to time.

I posted this the other day on a T-Rats blog message board, but I figured I'd copy and paste it over here too as I'm sure there are some interested. This was from last week when I used the Baseball America Prospect Handbook to project who they thought might begin the season in the Midwest League, along with a few hunches of my own. I know a lot of these players are mentioned already on the front page and the message board here, but I figured I'd take the Baseball America Prospect Handbook and go through the top 30 prospects of each team and see who they expect to begin or at least see some time in the MWL this year, along with their BA rankings. Let's see what we have: South Bend (Arizona) Wade Miley, P, #5 (college arm, so he may skip the MWL and go A+ this year) Kevin Eichhorn, P, #6 Reynaldo Navarro, SS, #10 Trevor Harden, P, #13 (any relation to Rich?) Rossmel Perez, C, #15 Bryan Shaw, P, #17 Tyrell Worthington, OF, #30 Peoria (Chicago Cubs) Josh Vitters, 3B, #1 (Personally, I think he jumps to A+ to start) Andrew Cashner, P, #3 (Probably ready for A+) Chris Carpenter, P, #18 (Probably ready for A+) Matt Cerda, C, #27 Dayton (Cincinnati) Kyle Lotzkar, P, #6 Neftali Soto, 3B, #7 (Bat is beyond ready for A+) Devin Mesoraco, C, #10 Juan Carlos Sulbaran, P, #20 (No professional experience) Alex Bucholz, 2B, #30 West Michigan (Detroit) Casey Crosby, P, #4 Mauricio Robles, P, #24 Brandon Hamilton, P, #26 Burlington (Kansas City) Eric Hosmer, 1B, #2 Mike Montgomery, P, #4 (May stay in Arizona for a few weeks) Tim Melville, P, #5 Kelvin Herrera, P, #12 Salvado Perez, C, #19 Sam Runion, P, #28 Yowill Espinal, 2B/SS, #29 Keaton Hayenga, P, #30 Cedar Rapids (LA Angels) Manuarys Correa, P, #19 Luis Jimenez, 3B, #26 Great Lakes (LA Dodgers) Ethan Martin, P, #3 Devaris Gordon, SS, #7 Chris Withrow, P, #9 Nathan Eovaldi, P, #10 Pedro Baez, 3B, #13 Kyle Russell, OF, #17 Jon Michael Redding, P, #18 Tony Delmonico, C/2B, #19 Daigoro Rondon, P, #23 Wisconsin (Milwaukee) Brett Lawrie, C/2B, #3 Cutter Dykstra, OF, #7 Jake Odorizzi, P, #11 Cody Scarpetta, P, #15 Wily Peralta, P, #22 Efrain Nieves, P, #23 Evan Fredrickson, P, #24 Cody Adams, P, #28 Logan Schafer, OF, #29 Beloit (Minnesota) Aaron Hicks, OF, #1 Shooter Hunt, P, #7 Angel Morales, OF, #10 Joe Benson, OF, #15 (This would be his 3rd year in the MWL, I doub it, same goes for #14 Chris Parmelee, at some point you just have to move the guy up I think) Michael Tonkin, P, #30 (May start in XST) Kane County (Oakland) Brett Hunter, P, #19 Rashun Dixon, OF, #21 Dusty Coleman, SS, #22 Grant Desme, OF, #30 Quad Cities (St. Louis) Lance Lynn, P, #15 Niko Vasquez, SS, #18 Richard Castillo, P, #24 Fort Wayne (San Diego) Jaff Decker, OF, #3 Simon Castro, P, #14 Clinton (Seattle) Mario Martinez, 3B, #7 Jharmidy DeJesus, 3B, #8 Maikel Cleto, P, #16 (Could be ready for A+, but I see him in A- to start) Gabriel Noriega, SS, #19 (Young, but we all know Seattle likes to fast-track) Tyson Gillies, OF, #20 Denny Almonte, OF, #22 Aaron Pribanic, P, #27 Danny Carroll, OF, #28 Lansing (Toronto) John Tolisano, 2B, #13 Eric Eiland, OF, #16 Mark Sobolewski, 3B, #19 Tyler Pastornicky, SS, #23 Balbino Fuenmayor, 3B, #28 Obviously, they are only guesses, and there are many players that I didn't list that will begin in Extended Spring / Short Season, but see the MWL at some point this year. Also, there were a few players that are still rehabbing that should make it to the MWL when they are healthy. This list was taken mostly from BA's Prospect Handbook as I said, and their guesstimates, and a few of my own hunches as well.

Just a few impressions from the scrimmage. -It was cold, but at least not as cold as the last 2 Fan Fests, in which I remember snow. Wind was the problem more so than the cold. While sunny, Temp was in the mid to upper 40's, but the wind was 20mph, with gusts in the 30s. -I know he's an uber prospect, and I'm sure he'll rake in his short time in Appleton...but Lawrie's batting stance worries me a little. He has a little wag of his bat, and as the pitcher is halfway through his windup, Brett takes one more wag. It seems like that takes perfect timing, and if he doesn't time it right, he seems to be behind the pitch. Obviously, this is a super small sample and I only saw 3 at bats, but it reminds me of how Weeks struggled with his wag and getting his timing down. His wag is in no way close to as violent as Weeks' is, but I wonder if it will still be something he'll have to work out in pro ball. That said, he does seem to get very good wood on it when he squares it up, and I noticed Randy Winn had similar bat movement in today's Brewers game, and that didn't stop him from hitting a home run. Sigh. -I really, really liked Brock Kjeldgaard's approach at the plate. He's 23, and after his dominate performance in Helena last year, I suspect he'll be one of the first call-ups to Brevard. -The guy I think took the best swings today was Michael Vass. It was a tough day to drive the ball, between the cold and the wind, but Vass had some good swings and I believe he was the one that doubled off the wall in left center, which was the best hit ball of the game. -Got a chance to talk to Lawrie, only for like a minute, but he seemed like a nice enough kid, and seemed to have a good rapport with his new teammates. He's not a very tall kid, so unless he really bulks up and slows down, I don't see him "outgrowing" second base anytime soon. He actually made a very nice play on a slow chopper that he charged and flipped to first in time to get the bang/bang out. If he doesn't make that play, a run would have scored. -Tough to judge the pitchers on a day like today. I also missed when some of the changes were made, so I forgot to keep track of who was giving up what, but obviously the Oshkosh hitters didn't do much, and I think only managed one hit (I think it was technically 2, but one was by the T-Rat catcher who was hitting as the 10th hitter in the Titans lineup.). That said, I don't remember T-Rat pitchers walking an excessive amount or getting into a ton of jams, so I don't think there were any concerns today. Peralta worked pretty quick. As Chris Mehring noted in his blog/game log, the radar gun was turned off, which I didn't have a problem with. Last thing you want is a guy trying to impress by lighting up the radar gun in a scrimmage when it's 30 degrees out. -Lastly, they ended the autograph session much too early. It was winding down, but they pulled all the players back into the clubhouse at 5:15. It was supposed to run until 6. When I was pulling out of the parking lot at 5:15, I saw a few cars still pulling in, presumably people that had to work until 5 and hoped to catch the last hour of autographs. I felt bad for them, as the event was advertised to run for another 45 minutes. Anyways, I can't wait for Thursday!

I'll be there as well. Actually, I'll be there at Tuesday's fan fest, then Thursday's game, Saturday's game and Monday's game. After looking at the temperature "highs" for Tuesday and Thursday, I guess it's not quite time yet to put away the cold weather clothes for the season. Blahfargus.

The guy that left the AA/AAA comment. If you click on his own blog, you'll see that he talks about his little league team or something. So, at first I laughed at him too when I first saw that comment, but it appears he's just a kid, so I'll cut him some slack.

Cheez, all the seats at TWCF@FCS are great. It's obviously a very intimate atmosphere, so it's not like you'll have anything blocking your view, save for maybe a big guy selling peanuts. Personally, the only thing I've noticed over the last few years is that during some games, the sun seems to get on you a bit more if you're sitting on the 1st base side, as opposed to the 3rd base side which seems to see a bit more shade. Get your tickets and enjoy!

I have a few games from my season ticket pack that I can't make. At the same time though, I'm trying to save up money for an engagement ring for the little lady this summer. I have four tickets in Terrace Box, Section 420, Row 2, Seats 11, 12, 13, and 14. I also am including a PREFERRED parking pass for each game. Face value for all four tickets and preferred parking pass is $95. I'm asking $80 per game for tickets and parking, or all three games for $225. I'd much rather sell them on here before I go the ebay/stubhub route. Help me make the future Mrs. happy! Monday, April 27th, 7:05pm, vs. Pittsburgh Pirates Friday, August 28th, 7:05pm, vs. Pittsburgh Pirates Friday, September 18th, 7:05pm, vs. Houston Astros Shoot me a yuku message, or email me at my username @yahoo.com We thank you in advance! Josh

Parkside - be careful...once you start the online play on Call of Duty 4 you will quickly forget about everything else in life. It is like crack...you just can't get away from it. Haha, thanks for the warning. Luckily though, I rarely play games online. Like a couple others said, I'm just an off-line single player campaign type of person. I know, I'm maybe not getting my money's worth, especially since PS3's online is free, but I just can't bring myself to going online just so I can get destroyed by 10 year-olds. I'm happy with just playing offline and worrying about my own guy. I'm much more casual that way. That said though, I understand the single player on CoD 4 is crazy short. So, I'll just wait until I can get it for 20 or less used, or just rent it sometime. Still though, I have a hard time paying 8 bucks to rent a game from Blockbuster. I think that's what it was the last time I was there. Yikes.

I see the original Half Life was ported to PS2 for a 2001 release. I bought my 80gb PS3 last November. I seem to be able to play most of my old PS2 games on it, except for SSX which crashes at random points. Anyone know if I'd have an issue with the PS2 version of Half Life? Also looks like Episode Three might come out sometime this year, that'd be great, but if it's as short as Episodes One and Two, I hope they don't expect us to pay 60 for it, after being spoiled with the great Orange Box value. Another pretty cool looking title by Valve is Left 4 Dead. The other teacher I work with loves it, and my students have said pretty good things about it. Too bad it's only available on Xbox for now.

First things first, I'm a strictly PS3 guy....so... I know I'm way behind the times on this compared to most of you, but I loved loved loved LOVED The Orange Box. It took me a good six months to play through all 3 of the episodes (HL2, E1 and E2). It's easily in my top 5 of games all time, if not #1. I haven't touched Portal yet, wanted to try some different games before I jump back into that. But, if you have never played Half Life (like myself), and want an amazing value, get it today. I bought it new for 60 almost a year ago, but I've seen it now used for 20-ish. Makes me wish they would release the original Half Life on PS3 somehow. I recently noticed that Bioshock (told you I was slow) got released on PS3, and after hearing how great that was on Xbox, I picked it up last weekend. It's pretty cool so far, but honestly I feel it's getting a little repititive. I'm probably 1/3 of the way in (the submarine just crashed and I'm supposed to go find Ryan now). Like I said, it's cool, just because it's something different, but it's nothing compared to Orange Box. I like the whole Little Sister edge to it....but I'm not gonna lie, it's a little creepy too. It also doesn't seem to have much replay value, so if anyone wants to buy it or wants to trade me something for it in a couple weeks when I'm done with it, let me know. A new Wolfenstein is coming out this summer on PS3, I'm pumped for that. I've always been a fan. Bioshock 2 is coming out in Q3 of this year, I guess that'd mean August/September-ish? I suppose it won't get released on PS3 right away either will it? Probably have to wait for a while like with the first one. Don't know if I'll pick it up anyways. On my waiting list of games to play when I beat Bioshock are CoD 4 / WaW, Assassin's Creed, and Killzone 2. I know there's already a thread dedicated to it, but I also plan on picking up The Show sometime this week or next. It feels so good to be back into video games. There just isn't enough time in the day!

Soundsfan, welcome to the "good side". I found myself in a little bit of a similar situation as you. I live in Appleton, WI which is home to the Wisconsin Timberattlers, which had served as the Seattle Mariners Low-A farm team for the last 15-years ish. During this time, the Brewers were terrible and for a while a little bit tough to find on TV outside of the immediate Milwaukee area, and while I always wanted to see them do well, I also found myself starting to follow the Mariners a little bit more and more each year, because I was rooting for their farm team ever since I could remember, and I just felt a connection to guys like Griffey, A-Rod, King Felix, Ibanez, Buhner, etc., because they were either players I saw play in Appleton growing up (for however brief), or just players I tried to emulate. Of course, now that the T-Rats are a Brewers farm team starting this year, it's a perfect storm. I'm beyond excited. If you ever make it up here to Wisconsin for a Brewers game and also want to check out our Low-A team an hour and a half to the north, tickets are on me. This site, and the people on it are a tremendous resource. Welcome to the Crew.