TheCrew07

Ha, well that didn't take long considering I just wondered about him the other day... Healthy Soler shines in return to Smokies Cubs' No. 5 prospect hits two-run double, reaches base four times

FOUR! Rattlers crack four home runs in 11-7 win over Cedar Rapids Wisconsin opens homestand with second straight win By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers http://www.milb.com/assets/images/5/8/2/74843582/cuts/Coulter_Homer_May_8_2014_WEB_5x15v7pd_3axwferk.jpg Clint Coulter homers in the third inning of Thursday's game against Cedar Rapids. (Ann Mollica/Wisconsin Timber Rattlers) GRAND CHUTE, WI - Jose Pena, Clint Coulter, David Denson, and Chris McFarland all homered as the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers opened their homestand with an 11-7 win over the Cedar Rapids Kernels Thursday night at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium. Cedar Rapids (18-15) scored twice off Barrett Astin in the top of the second inning. Jason Kanzler singled and Bo Altobelli walked with one out. Joel Licon singled to score Kanzler. A single by JD Williams loaded the bases. Engleb Vielma's sacrifice fly to right was deep enough to drive in Altobelli and the Kernels were up 2-0. Wisconsin (15-18) answered in the bottom of the second. Denson drew a walk and moved to second on a wild pitch. Taylor Brennan knocked in Denson with a single. Pena followed with a two-run homer and the Rattlers led 3-2. Jason Kanzler hit a two-run homer with two outs in the top of the third inning off Wisconsin starter Barrett Astin to put the Kernels back up at 4-3. Coulter stepped up in the bottom of the third inning after McFarland hit a leadoff double. Coulter hit a ball that left a vapor trail behind it as it cleared the left field wall for a two-run homer and the Rattlers were back in front 5-4. Coulter's home run was his seventh of the season. The two RBI gave him 26 in 2014. Coulter is tied with Eric Haase of Lake County for the Midwest League lead in homers. Coulter leads the lead in RBI. Angel Ortega used his feet to score Wisconsin's sixth run. He was on third and McFarland was on first with Coulter at the plate in the fourth inning. Ball four to Coulter bounced a short distance away from Kernels catcher Bo Altobelli, who could not locate the ball. Ortega raced for home and just beat Altobelli to the plate. That run scoring wild pitch chased Cedar Rapids starting pitcher Felix Jorge from the game. Denson greeted the left-handed Brandon Bixler with a home run to left-center. The three-run shot gave Wisconsin a 9-4 lead. Brennan kept the offense rolling with a leadoff triple in the bottom of the fifth. Pena singled through the drawn-in infield to knock in Brennan for a 10-4 lead. The Kernels came back against reliever Chris Razo in the top of the seventh. A single and a hit batsman put the first two runners on base. Razo got the next two outs. Vielma singled with two outs to knock in the first run of the inning for Cedar Rapids. Razo hit the next batter to load the bases. Chad Christensen followed with a two-run single and the Kernels were within 10-7. Trevor Seidenberger relieved Razo, but walked Ivory Thomas to load the bases to bring the go ahead run to the plate. Seidenberger got the final out of the seventh by getting Bryan Haar to pop out to left. McFarland hit the fourth and final home run of the night for the Timber Rattlers when he went deep with a one out solo shot in the bottom of the sixth. Wisconsin has hit 28 home runs this season, the most by any team in the Midwest League. Seidenberger tossed a perfect seventh and a perfect eighth to maintain the Wisconsin lead and extend his current scoreless streak to 9-2/3 innings. Mark Williams closed out the game with a scoreless ninth. A quartet of Wisconsin pitchers combined for thirteen strikeouts on Thursday. The Timber Rattlers have won two straight games for the first time since their four-game winning streak of April 12 through April 16. Game two of the series is Friday night. Zach Quintana (0-2, 6.14) is the scheduled starting pitcher for Wisconsin. Cedar Rapids has named Aaron Slegers (3-0, 2.52) as their starting pitcher. Game time is 6:35pm. There will be Trick-or-Treating, costumes, thrills, and chills for all during Halloween in May on Friday night. It's also a North Shore Bank Family night. Children 12 and under receive a free hot dog and soda. Plus, those 14 and under may participate in Kids Run the Bases thanks to Molina Healthcare after the game. If you can't make it out to the ballpark, there are several ways to catch the action. MyNEW32's Sports Showdown will have the television broadcast beginning with their pregame show at 6:00pm. The radio broadcast will be available on AM1280, WNAM and IHeartRadio starting with the pregame show at 6:15pm. Subscribers to MiLB.TV may also watch the game. HOME RUNS: CR: Jason Kanzler (2nd, 1 on in 3rd inning off Barrett Astin, 2 out) WIS: Jose Pena (4th, 1 on in 2nd inning off Felix Jorge, 1 out) Clint Coulter (7th, 1 on in 3rd inning off Felix Jorge, 1 out) David Denson (3rd, 2 on in 4th inning off Alex Muren, 2 out) Chris McFarland (5th, 0 on in 6th inning off Alex Muren, 1 out) WP: Trevor Seidenberger (2-0) LP: Felix Jorge (2-3) TIME: 3:16 ATTN: 2,944 Wisconsin Boxscore You know me, I'm going to start with the pitching. This was my first extended look at Barrett Astin and unfortunately I'm not seeing it, at least in this outing. He slings the ball from a 3/4 arm slot, his velocity is nothing special, and he didn't locate well at all. The FBs he actually threw for strikes caught a ton of home plate, most were right down the middle and up. His slider was effective, he dropped a couple for strikes, and I believe all of his K's came on sliders away. I don't think he was within a foot of Neda's target on any pitch in the 1st inning, but somehow was effectively wild enough to get out of the inning unscathed. He started the 2nd inning a little better location wise, but it ultimately fell apart and he escaped having given up 2 runs, ditto for the 3rd. In the 4th he didn't locate any better but the batters weren't patient and swung at garbage out of the zone for strike outs. Chris Razo was little bit more impressive than Astin, but not by much. I was really surprised at the K totals given the quality of the pitching so I went and looked at the leaderboards after the top of the 5th and sure enough Cedar Rapids just isn't a disciplined team. Lake County is awful with 370 strike outs already, almost 100 more than the rest of the pack, but Cedar Rapids came into the game with the 4th highest total at 271. Trevor Seidenberger located much better than either of the 2 previous pitchers, but had the least amount of strike outs. He reminded a little bit of Dan Meadows when he was with the T-Rats. Nothing flashy, over the top delivery, throws strikes. I didn't watch Mark Williams' return to action because I was watching the Packers' draft pick. So remember when Matt Erickson said this team wouldn't hit for much power and would have to win with speed and stringing hits together? I was confused at the time, wondering if that was your typical coach speak trying to psych out the competition in the press or if he really meant it because I expected Coulter, Ratterree, Brennan, and Denson to hit a fair amount of HRs. I thought they'd be much better from a power perspective than the were in 2013. I didn't say anything for 2 reasons, the first being I really like Erickson and the second was that it's really no fun running counter to the organization as much as I do. This team has certainly met my expectations to this point, even exceeding them as I didn't see the power outburst from Chris McFarland or Jose Pena coming. In Pena's case I definitely should have, he hit 10 HRs last year in short season ball, that was a serious oversight. Right now they have league's leading HR hitter in Clint Coulter and are leading the league in HRs, I'm a pretty happy camper. So I promised myself I wasn't going to post about David Denson again for awhile, but tonight he gave me more talk about. His opposite field 3R HR to left center was as easy a HR swing as you will see. All the rest of the guys really ripped through and smoked line drive HRs, Coulter's almost made it to the woods beyond the stadium, but Denson's swing looked like he was just trying to make contact. David did strike out 3 times but all were on check/half swings, I think as his confidence continues to grow you'll see that SO total start to come down. He recognized they were bad pitches and just couldn't hold up. The TWC broadcast crew discussed the fact that they haven't had a chance to see Clint Coulter catch yet and were somewhat disappointed but they also understood Erickson trying to keep him healthy. They also talked about a possible position change for Clint but it wasn't anything we haven't already said on this forum. Wisconsin Recap This post is already way too long, it's a fun game log if you are so inclined. Wisconsin Gameday

Without going into great detail I think you're drawing conclusions and parallels because that's what you want to see. The injury rate has more to do with the type of pitchers the Brewers are targeting than anything special they are doing from a development or treatment standpoint. You want them to be progressive when they just aren't, they are an extremely conservative organization not on the cutting edge of basically any aspect of professional baseball. They aren't the worst at anything, but they certainly aren't the best at anything either. Many of the pitchers they've targeted haven't even made it as far as AA, others had significant injuries, you arbitrarily limited your focus to TJ surgery because it's a hot topic, but shoulder injuries are actually the pitcher killers. Frederickson, Lintz, Adams, and Lasker never made it out of A ball from 2008, Lasker dealt with a plethora of injuries, Adams was suspended for a drug of abuse. Arnett, Heckathorn, and Hall were the "upside" picks from 2009. Arnett hurt himself outside of baseball but it didn't matter by that point, Heckathorn is a poor reliever, and it turned out that like Anundsen before him Hall didn't have projection left. 2010 was the Dylan Covey debacle, Jimmy Nelson, and Tyler Thornburg. Obviously Covey didn't sign and wouldn't have been a great pick regardless, I'm happy with Nelson and Thornburg, 5th rounder Matt Miller never made it out of A ball. In 2011 they picked Jungmann, Bradley, Lopez, and Gagnon. Bradley has yet to make it through a full season, Lopez is finally out of the tandem system for the first time, Jungmann is what he is repeating AA, and Gagnon is pitching well in AA. 2012 was Zach Quintana who hasn't been all that impressive in A ball so far but is still in a tandem system and Tyler Wagner whom I really like. From last year's draft you have a bunch of guys that haven't even really had a chance to be injured. Devin Williams who is at least 2 years removed from being out of the tandem system, Barret Astin who is nothing special, Taylor Williams whom I like the most on the current T-Rat staff, and Josh Uhen who was already hurt in college. Astin and Williams are in the tandem system in WI. If you look at that list of pitchers what you don't have is is a ton of big arms like Peralta, you have a bunch of above average to average arms. Relievers won't get injured as much as starting pitchers to start with, nor will pitchers in a tandem, which is the whole point of the tandem. If you are so ineffective you don't make AA then you aren't really throwing enough to be injured in the first place. The commonality for the most part from those drafts is body type; The Brewers are targeting big bodied guys early and going with less prototypical guys later. Eventually I think many of those guys will get injured, that's the nature of the beast with pitching, it's not an ergonomic motion and most pitchers apply additional unnecessary stress with problems in their deliveries which will have an effect over time. Pitchers like CC Sabathia are rare, and that has more to do with genetics than anything special Cleveland did when developing him, and the same is true of the Brewers. They've been targeting big bodied workhorse types because statistically those guys have a better track record of health. If they had drafted Taylor Guerrieri instead of Jungmann we'd have a pitcher with more upside but who has already needed TJ surgery. It's almost entirely about the player, little of this has anything to do with the Brewers' development system. Finally including position players show the overall approach to injuries that the organization takes, I'm not sure when we're talking about possible treatment methods the Brewers are using we'd arbitrarily limit the discussion to pitchers. They've treated the pitchers in the organization exactly the same as the position players when it comes to injury diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation. If you want a true sense of what the organization is doing you need to look at all of the available data, regardless of position or injury type, to see if there is something unique going on. The organization just isn't that good at injury prevention or treatment, regardless of the organizational spin you'll get out of the TV & radio broadcasts or JSO. Even when they won that silly award for the least amount of DL time it had more to do with having a roster full of ascending young players than anything the training staff was doing at the big league level at that time. The lack of impact talent could be a developmental issue, but I think it's more of a draft philosophy issue. They focusing on a body type for injury prevention rather than attempting anything progressive from the developmental side.

Being discussed here.

That's because the Brewers' homegrown pitchers who've had TJ surgery had it before they got to MLB like Peralta. We have a long history of TJ surgeries in the organization, most have just happened before the prospects were solidly on the radar of the majority of Brewer fans. Like all things statistical the end result depends entirely on how the data set was initially framed. As far players returning from debilitating injuries... not really. Rogers likely will never have a MLB career, he was just released by Seattle, and there is a much longer list of guys like Mike Jones and Chris Saenz who never pitched a big league inning post injury. Capuano's 2nd surgery came with Milwaukee, not his first. I would actually suggest the opposite conclusion, that the Brewers push their players with injuries too hard to get back on the field, which actually makes the entire situation worse. Not only for the athlete himself, but for the organization as well. See Rickie Weeks, Matt Gamel, Lorenzo Cain, Ryan Braun, Taylor Green, Alexandre Periard, and so on through the years. I still think they were very fortunate that Yovani Gallardo didn't hurt himself coming back from the ACL injury so quickly.

Sounds Edged 1-0 In Extended Pitchers' Duel Nashville's Brad Mills Extends Streak with Seven Scoreless Innings Nashville Sounds http://www.milb.com/assets/images/4/3/4/74803434/cuts/Brad_Mills_418_57_Large_dy9o1ywu_6nofp1j2.jpg (MIKE STRASINGER ) NASHVILLE, Tenn. - After 12 1/2 scoreless innings, the Nashville Sounds allowed an RBI ground-rule double to Kyle Parker to give the Colorado Springs Sky Sox the 1-0 victory Thursday afternoon at Security Service Field. With two outs in the home half of the 13th inning, Sounds reliever Jeremy Jeffress (0-1) surrendered a double to Sky Sox outfielder Jason Pridie before Parker's game-winner. It is the Sounds' first extra-innings loss of the season, after winning their first two. Sounds starting pitcher Brad Mills cruised through the team's first seven innings of scoreless baseball, holding the Sky Sox to four hits. He fanned three batters and walked none in his second consecutive no-decision quality start. The 29-year-old tossed 63 of his 87 pitches for strikes. Mills' seven scoreless innings, combined with his six from his last start on May 1 vs. New Orleans, gives him 13 consecutive - which is 2/3 innings shy of the team's season-best, set by Mike Fiers from April 8-19. Christian Bergman matched Mills blow for blow on the hill for the Sky Sox, holding Nashville to a pair of runs over eight innings of work. He struck out seven Sounds and walked one before giving way to his bullpen in the ninth. Reliever Michael Blazek turned in a season-best three scoreless innings for the Sounds. He worked his way out of a no-outs bases-loaded situation in the bottom of the 10th inning by getting Sky Sox second baseman Paul Janish to ground into a big 1-2-3 double-play before closing out the frame with groundout. Jeffress entered after Blazek and picked up two scoreless frames before the 13th. He too left the bases loaded for the Sky Sox in the 11th inning, as Angelys Nina hit a groundout back to the mound. The Sounds recorded four hits in the contest: two from Jeremy Hermida, one from Pete Orr and another from Irving Falu. Falu's infield single in the 12th inning extended his hit streak to nine games, which matches his season-best and the team's longest of the year. Sky Sox reliever Dan Houston (2-2) picked up the win with a scoreless inning in the 13th. The Sounds look to avoid the series sweep against the Sky Sox on Friday night at Security Service Field. Right-handed pitcher Ariel Pena (1-2, 4.30) will make the start for Nashville, opposite Colorado Springs' lefty Christian Friedrick (1-3, 6.61). Broadcaster Jeff Hem has the call on 102.5 The Game. Nashville Boxscore So what Jeff was kind enough not to put in the game story was that a botched defensive play turned the game. Eugenio Velez misplayed a ball which should have been a fairly routine catch but got knocked down by the wind. He ended up having to making a diving attempt at what would have been the 3rd out, but the ball got through him for a double. Nashville Recap Blazek and Jeffress came up with pitches when they had to in major jams, well prior to the double in the 13th. Col. Springs Bottom of the 10th Ben Paulsen singles on a ground ball to right fielder Jeremy Hermida. Angelys Nina walks. Ben Paulsen to 2nd. Dustin Garneau hits a sacrifice bunt. Ben Paulsen to 3rd. Angelys Nina to 2nd. Dustin Garneau to 1st. Paul Janish grounds into a double play, pitcher Michael Blazek to catcher Lucas May to first baseman Hunter Morris. Ben Paulsen out at home. Angelys Nina to 3rd. Dustin Garneau to 2nd. Offensive Substitution: Pinch-hitter Evan Frey replaces Rob Scahill. Evan Frey grounds out, pitcher Michael Blazek to first baseman Hunter Morris. Col. Springs Bottom of the 11th Pitching Change: Jeremy Jeffress replaces Michael Blazek, batting 7th, replacing Elian Herrera. Rafael Ynoa strikes out swinging. Tim Wheeler singles on a ground ball to center fielder Kevin Mattison. Jason Pridie singles on a ground ball to center fielder Kevin Mattison. Tim Wheeler to 3rd. Kyle Parker grounds out, second baseman Pete Orr to first baseman Hunter Morris. Jason Pridie to 2nd. Jeremy Jeffress intentionally walks Ben Paulsen. Angelys Nina grounds out, pitcher Jeremy Jeffress to first baseman Hunter Morris. Nashville Gameday

Both Blazek and Jeffress have gotten out of bases loaded jams in the last 2 innings. Nashville has just 3 hits in the game, to the 12th we go. edit. This is uncharted territory in Colorado Springs, no game has ever gone 0-0 to extra innings before so each successive inning extends the record.

No I don't think so, I think those writers are making somewhat of a statistical analysis based on his stolen base numbers and hitting profile. I didn't like him in CF, not that he was bad, he made all the plays he should, but he didn't make any plays you would think he shouldn't off the bat in either gap, not like a legitimate MLB CF would. And That and I had a discussion about him in the LRs last year and it was difficult for me to put my finger on any one thing that's a smoking gun, he just didn't look the part out there. He was like a much more athletic version of Brady Clark (and I don't mean that in a bad way), just that he was just more solid than he was spectacular. At the time I thought Haniger was a better CF and obviously having not seen either player in CF this year I still hold that opinion (Erickson went to Haniger first in CF as well when Taylor wasn't available for whatever that's worth). The Midwest League had a bunch of excellent CFs last year which may have skewed my perspective some but Reed looked pretty average for an A ball CF. Even with Taylor taking some bad routes there was an obvious separation between him and either Haniger or Reed in CF. Both Reed and Haniger didn't play many games in CF so admittedly the sample size was small, I probably saw Haniger in CF 6 times before he was bumped up and Reed 4 times over the course of the season. Michael is a smart player, has above average speed (though not as good as his SB totals would suggest), takes good routes in the OF, has a good arm, is great on the bases, and has a very good approach at the plate. The only thing he doesn't really have is power and I agree that if he could get in that 15HR/season range he'd be very exciting. Right now offensively he profiles as CF but defensively he profiles as corner OF. Could he be serviceable in CF? Absolutely, but I doubt any defensive metric would even rate him as average at the major league level. With good defenders on the corners who cover more ground than your typical LF/RF types it could work defensively. I guess the other way of looking at it is would the Brewers even care and just go for more offense (assuming of course Richardson & Taylor bomb out)? I don't know but Reed does provide some CF insurance in that respect.

So as the Nashville game goes to the top of the 9th tied at 0s (now bottom of the 9th as I'm typing), I'd like to give Jeff Hem some love. Many will remember me regularly pimping Chris Mehring and Steve Wendt (I will miss Steve tremendously) over the years, but Hem has really grown on me the last 2 seasons. The only reason I don't listen to Hem more is the simple fact that we haven't had hardly any prospects in AAA for a while now, and I go where the prospects are, but that doesn't diminish Jeff's excellent interview and play-by-play by capabilities. I even installed the tunein radio app so I could listen to the Nashville games on my smart phone this season. Ooh, an interesting tidbit from Jeff, this is only the 3rd time the Sky Sox have gone to the bottom of the 9th in a tie 0-0 game in the history of the franchise. Colorado Springs' ballpark is actually a higher elevation than Denver and is very much a hitter's park.

You summed up the Theilbar situation in a much nice manner than I would have MH.

BIG GAME HUNTER: First baseman Hunter Morris has recorded a hit in 16 of his last 20 games (.302, 23-for-76) with extra-base hits in nine of those tilts (seven doubles, four home runs), including two doubles on Monday.

I just wanted to address my thoughts on this to clarify that my problem isn't with Toussaint's talent or ceiling, rather the Brewers have never demonstrated the ability to get the most of out of a player like that. The players the Brewers have done well with are pitchers like Gallardo who already had relatively decent command and a plus pitch, I'm extremely wary of the Crew drafting a project such as Toussaint. There are 3-4 organizations that he would probably flourish in such as the Giants or Rangers, but that's why I place such a high premium on command and why I was originally very interested in the pre-velocity spike Aiken and am very into Freeland. If the Brewers were adept at developing pitching I'd be willing to cast a much wider net but that's why my focus is as narrow as it is. There's always a chance they will turn the corner with developing pitching, and some player has to be the first "project" to become a successful big leaguer for this organization, but I just have a hard time pulling that trigger with the same people in charge of development that we've basically always had. It's not like Reid Nichols and company are leaders or visionaries on the cutting edge of talent development, we're talking about the people that mostly played Michael Brantley as a 1B/DH for 2 years to get his bat in the line-up instead of having some logical OF rotation.

Baseball America Prospect Report (May 8) May 8, 2014 by Staff Report

Lara not mentioned nor are the Brewers linked to any of the 5. July 2 Notebook: Five Top Names To Watch May 8, 2014 by Ben Badler

That would be an interesting haul for sure.

Nola... yuck. I just don't see the upside in Finnegan, Fedde, or Nola that others do. To me they are all more higher floor players than they are high ceiling. 2014 Draft Preview: Track Record Lands Rodon Atop First Mock May 8, 2014 by John Manuel

Lively tosses seven more shutout innings Reds' right-hander scatters four hits, strikes out six in no-decision

Bryant homers twice, plates six runs Cubs' No. 2 prospect continues to raise bar on his own expectations

Rusin tosses first PCL no-hitter since '09 I-Cubs left-hander keeps New Orleans at bay in historic outing

Geez.

He's just so wild yet and I don't have any confidence in the Brewers' ability to develop command. We've been down that road with Jeffress and Rogers already.

David has been working hard on his defense, unlike what the Brewers did with Fielder they are making it a priority with him. There have been a handful of audio interviews about the work he's been putting in so far.

Sounds Commit Six Errors, Blow Late Lead In 9-5 Loss Sloppy Defensive Play Overshadows Another Strong Start By Jimmy Nelson Nashville Sounds http://www.milb.com/assets/images/2/2/6/74138226/cuts/NELSON502_3lnavu1v_pyokprdb.jpg (Mike Strasinger / Nashville Sounds) COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The Nashville Sounds allowed six runs in the bottom of the eighth inning en route to a 9-5 defeat at the hands of the Colorado Springs Sky Sox on Wednesday afternoon at Security Service Field. Nashville (18-15), which committed a season-high six errors in the game that resulted in seven unearned Sky Sox runs, has dropped three straight games for the first time since early April. Seven of the nine Colorado Springs runs scored with two outs in an inning, including four of the six in the decision eighth frame against the Sounds' bullpen. The late Sky Sox rally spoiled another outstanding outing by Nashville right-hander Jimmy Nelson, who tossed his seventh consecutive quality start to open the season (VIDEO: High Heat K, 93 MPH). The Brewers' top prospect allowed three runs (one earned) on six hits over six innings of action, striking out eight batters while walking two. Nelson, who left in line for his fourth straight winning start but was left with a no-decision, lowered his seasonal ERA to 2.00 with the effort. The right-hander was backed by a 13-hit offensive attack that was led by 3-for-4 afternoons by Elian Herrera and Hunter Morris. Herrera's effort extended the second baseman's season-best hitting streak to seven games (12-for-30, .400). Colorado Springs grabbed a first-inning lead with a pair unearned runs against Nelson. Ben Paulsen's two-out single brought in a pair of Sky Sox following throwing errors by Herrera and third baseman Pete Orr earlier in the frame. Right-hander Leurys Gomez worked three scoreless innings in a start for the Sky Sox. The Sounds took advantage of his departure in the fourth, plating a run against reliever Manny Corpas. Herrera and Morris opened the frame with consecutive singles and Herrera later stole third before scoring Nashville's first run of the afternoon on a Jeremy Hermida groundout. The following inning, Nashville rallied to score four two-out runs to take a 5-2 lead. Pete Orr knotted the contest when he delivered a clutch two-out RBI double to right (audio) off Corpas to bring home Kevin Mattison, who had led off the frame with a two-bagger of his own. Herrera and Hunter Morris (audio) followed Orr with consecutive singles, the second of which plated Orr to propel the visitors in front, before Sean Halton ripped a two-run double to chase Corpas and extend the Sounds' advantage to 5-2 (audio). Colorado Springs got a run back in the home half of the fifth when a leadoff walk came back to burn Nelson. Tim Wheeler drew the inning-opening free pass and later scored on a two-out Kyle Parker single to reduce the Sounds' lead to 5-3. In the decisive eighth, the Sky Sox capitalized on three Nashville fielding errors to plate six runs (five of which were unearned) to erase the deficit and claim a 9-5 advantage. The damage was done against Dustin Molleken and Donovan Hand, who suffered the Sounds' first blown save of the year in 12 tries. Colorado Springs sent 11 men to the plate in the frame and scored the tying run when Hand hit Tim Wheeler with a pitch with the bases loaded. Later in the inning, Ryan Wheeler and Parker delivered back-to-back two-out, two-run knocks against Hand to spot the home team its four-run advantage. Greg Burke worked around a Hector Gomez single in the top of the ninth to close out the win for Colorado Springs. The teams play another 12:05 p.m. CT contest on Thursday. Left-hander Brad Mills (2-0, 2.22) will make the start for the Sounds to face Colorado Springs right-hander Christian Bergman (3-1, 4.95). Nashville Boxscore It's always nice when the AAA team plays defense like a R team, it usually works out well... or something... Jimmy Nelson... man did I hate that pick on draft day because his college results were poor, X and I went rounds with Colby on that one, but he's certainly blossomed into something worth being excited about, he now has 44 SOs in 45 IP. I would very much like to put the litany of soft tossers we've had in the rotation for years to bed permanently. Peralta, Thornbug, and Nelson could potentially be a nice start to achieving that end. Donovan Hand has one of these blow-up innings every so often but I still think he could be a useful addition to the big league pen at some point. Nashville Recap Nashville Gameday

Things really got bad for Nashville in the bottom of the 8th and it's not over yet.

It's more than that, a healthy and productive Ramirez is just as important as Braun. The team was bound to come back down to earth some, they played over their heads in April, the pitchers just weren't going to be *that* good all year. I'm not too depressed about going 2-5 over the last 7 games, not unless this turns into another May to forget about, but we won't know that for another week or so. The Brewers didn't look good in the STL series but managed to pull out 2 wins in extras so I understand people starting to panic some, but I'm not there yet.