TheCrew07

I'm not sure "cheap" is fair or proper, how did the Greinke trade workout for the Angels? It's not like the prospect they gave to the Cubs for Dempster was a nobody, Christian Villanueva was the #100 prospect in BA's preseason 2013 top 100. 2 months of Greinke wasn't worth Olt, and certainly wasn't worth Segura. Daniels was absolutely correct in refusing to part with players of that caliber for a rental. You may not like the way he values players but I think his evaluation was spot on. Didn't you also compare Profar to Royce Clayton last year? You must really have despised him since he's your default negative comparison for every SS in the Rangers organization. TX is 42-32 this season and in 1st place in the AL west by percentage points but even if Andrus doesn't ever ascend and is a low .700ish player, they have still have Profar waiting and they are still winning with Andrus having the worst 3 months of his career. I highly doubt a 24 year old with Andrus' talent is already on the downside of his career. TX has already been to 2 more WS in the last 5 years than the Brewers have, and has Olt, Profar, Perez, and Martin (who's already up). That's a corner IF prospect, a middle IF prospect, a potential impact LHP, and a CF prospect... not only has their window been open wider, it's not closing anytime soon.

IP (Interest Piece) given the deadline discussions about the Tigers in the transaction forum. 'Caps' Thompson fans career-high 10

*a sarcastic cheer for another high divisional draft pick hitting the ground running* This time 27th overall from this year's draft Phillip Ervin of the Reds. Garrett Cooper managed a single sentence for his fine work to start the season. Reds' top pick Ervin hits first pro homer

Matt Szcur drawing comparisons to Joc Pederson is not comforting. Szczur stays hot in Smokies' loss

Please Gian, please have great stuff so you are worth getting really excited about.

Kernels batter Rattlers 8-3 Cedar Rapids collect 18 hits to top Rattlers By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers GRAND CHUTE, WI - The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers fell behind the Cedar Rapids Kernels early and could not make up the difference on Saturday night. The Kernels beat Wisconsin 8-3 at Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium. Cedar Rapids is 6-1 in seven games with the Timber Rattlers this season. The Kernels (43-28 overall, 3-0) jumped on the Timber Rattlers for three runs in the top of the first inning. Byron Buxton singled, stole second, and moved to third base on a grounder to the right side. The Timber Rattlers brought the infield in to keep Buxton at third on a ground ball. Jorge Polanco hit a grounder, but the throw to first was high and Polanco reached as Buxton held at third. Dalton Hicks followed with an RBI single to right. Travis Harrison made it 3-0 with a two-run double. Victor Roache got Wisconsin (29-39, 0-3) on the scoreboard in the bottom of the first with a triple to right-center that scored Alfredo Rodriguez. But, the Kernels scored single runs in the second and fourth innings to take a 5-1 lead. Jorge Polanco singled in the run in the second. Hicks singled in the run in the fourth. The Rattlers clawed their way back into the game with single runs in the fourth and fifth innings. Tyrone Taylor doubled and took third on an error to start the fourth inning. Adam Giacalone drove in Taylor with a sacrifice fly. Orlando Arcia and Parker Berberet started the Timber Rattlers half of the fifth inning with singles. Chris McFarland bunted both runners up a base. Michael Reed got Arcia home with an infield single. Reed made the score 5-3 and extended his current on base streak to 38 games with that hit. Cedar Rapids responded in the seventh inning. Buxton tripled with two on and two out to put the Kernels up 7-3. Adam Brett Walker added a sacrifice fly in the top of the eighth and the Kernels pushed their lead to five runs. Kernels reliever Alex Muren retired all nine Rattlers hitters he faced from the sixth through the eighth. Tyler Jones worked a scoreless ninth to close out Wisconsin. The Timber Rattlers fell to a season low ten games under .500 for the first time season with this loss. The final game of the four game series is scheduled for Sunday afternoon. Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Marco Estrada will make a rehabilitation start for the Timber Rattlers. Cedar Rapids has Hudson Boyd (1-4, 6.56) as their scheduled starting pitcher. Game time is 1:05pm. Sunday is a Brewers Sunday presented by 107.5, The Fan. Timber Rattlers players and coaches will be wearing Brewers-themed jerseys during the game. The jerseys will be up for auction after the final Brewers Sunday of the 2013 season on Sunday, August 25. The first in a series of four player magnets sponsored by Lamers Bus Lines will go to the first 500 fans to attend this game. The first player to be featured will be 2013 Midwest League All-Star Pitcher Damien Magnifico. Ed Randall's Fans for the Cure Baseball Road Trip makes its stop at the stadium to educate men and their loved ones about prostate cancer. Time Warner Cable customers may receive up to four half-priced reserved bleacher tickets when showing their TWC bill at time of ticket purchase. Plus, fans may play catch on-field before the game and get autographs from the players in a post-game autograph session. If you can't make it out to the ballpark, tune in for the broadcast on AM1280, WNAM or timberrattlers.com starting with the Miller Lite Pregame Show at 12:45pm. Sunday's game is also available to subscribers of MiLB.TV. WP: Brett Lee (5-4) LP: Jorge Lopez (3-6) TIME: 2:54 ATTN: 3,396 Chris' blog post loaded with extras as usual. Words have no power to impress – Postgame post – June 22, 2013 Wisconsin Boxscore I've watched quite a bit of A ball since the T-Rats became a Brewer affiliate, and I've never seen a team square up every mistake the way this Cedar Rapids club does. Literally every FB up in the zone was drilled some place, this is far and away the most advanced approach I've witnessed from a whole team. Normally you'll have 2-4 guys which stand out in that way, but not most of a line-up, not in A ball. To add insult to injury Chris mentioned the JSO was in town interviewing the Twins' prospects from the Milwaukee area who are all having pretty good years, look for that article in the next couple of days. I've been trying to think of how to put this about Jorge Lopez since he left the game, and I'm still not coming up with the proper adjective so I'll try to describe it. When the camera is behind him you can pretty much tell exactly where the pitch is going by Jorge's release point. While that might sound intuitive and you're thinking to yourself, "of course", what I mean is that nothing about his delivery was consistent, although his arm slot was much better than last time. Sometimes he opens up to far which drags his body down to the side enough that it's noticeable and he's going to be low and away to a RH batter. Other times he doesn't open up enough and he's too tall and the ball is going to be up or up and inside, and so on. When he's going well he's driving to the plate and coming almost over the top. He was working 90-92 today and didn't appear to have his good curve, he hung quite a few. Taylor Mangum looked good until the 7th when he started leaving the ball up, someone either radio or TV mentioned he was working low 90s. I didn't watch much of Leonard Lorenzo's inning, he's a 90-91 guy and nothing has jumped out about him in the past. Jonathan Armold also was working low 90s, the Brewers have at least done a nice job identifying relief candidates out of the last couple of drafts and UDFA signings, hopefully the trend continues with our 2013 crop. Orlando Arcia would be hitting much better if he'd not get so defensive. It's almost like he's so worried about striking out at times that he'll take swings that just look like he's trying to make contact. Kind of 1/2 to 3/4 speed all arm, "I need to make contact" swing which predictably leads to pop ups and rolled over grounders. When he's selective and aggressive Orlando squares up the ball nicely as he did with his line drive hit between SS and 3rd late in the game. Victor Roache stumbled not once but twice on his triple between 2nd and 3rd, thankfully the ball died on the hop and Buxton overran it badly or Victor would have dead. I'm still not sure how he stayed on his feet enough to get there but he managed to beat the throw with a head first slide. Tyrone Taylor had the other XBH for the T-Rats... he's the man. Wisconsin Recap Not much fun from the Brewer perspective. Wisconsin Gameday

Ha, it's a good thing I scrolled down because I was about to quote that exact part of your post to piss and moan. He might have been on an inning limit or pitch limit, but come on, 68 pitches? Why would a pitch count be 70 after getting skipped 1 time mid season? I'd pissed if that was a young man just starting out in A ball, let alone someone we're trying to develop for a MLB starter role this year or next. He's 24, not 21, he's nearing or at physical maturity. Regardless how about we start pushing our pitchers in AA and AAA out to 100 pitches and plant the seed that starting pitchers should aim higher for getting through more than 6 innings? You want an 85 pitch in count in ball... fine... although how come Lopez went 92 pitches then today? Further up the chain starters should expect their pitch counts and innings to escalate. I'm not looking for anything crazy like 120 pitches, but let them hit 100 and go past to 110 or so if they are really going well. Obviously I realize we have a problem developing pitchers but going ultra conservative doesn't prepare them for the rigors of a full MLB season either. I also appreciate the Brewers pushing pitch efficiency but I can't help think that's partly to blame for our pitching issues. Right now it's all about keeping the ball down and ground balls, which is fine, but what happened to pitching 101? Simple stuff that's always worked like moving the ball around all quadrants of the strike zone? The elevated FB just out of the zone that hitters have always had a hard time catching up with? Efficiently pitching to contact shouldn't be about piddling around trying to get hitters to chase and inducing ground balls in 2-2 or 3-2 counts, pitching to contact should be about attacking the hitter through the strike zone getting him to make bad contact on pitchers' pitches. Certainly you can attack out of the zone and look to get a hitter to chase from time to time, but that shouldn't be the approach for every hitter our pitchers get ahead of. In this era of baseball that's just unnecessarily wasting too many pitches, all our guys need to do is waste 1 less pitch per AB and instead of going 6 innings they are going 7 and we're all doing a happy dance.

Apparently we should be looking for a couple of articles coming out of WI on MilLB and/or MLB.com. Ben Hill (Ben's Biz Blog) is town looking at the food and T-Rat promotions. Jonathan Mayo will be in town tomorrow to watch the top prospects from both teams.

The answer to that is pretty obvious. Who of us had a chance to watch him play above A ball? And when he was in A ball he was completely overshadowed by Trout, I didn't remember he was on that team until Mehring said something during a T-Rats broadcast, in fact I couldn't name another player on that team besides those 2. At the time of the trade posters did the prudent thing and went digging for scouting reports which questioned his ability to stay at SS. That notion wasn't created by anyone on this board, simply passed along. He's been nothing short of fantastic this year. I sincerely hope he gets locked up this off-season.

Pirates' OF prospect Barrett Barnes Barnes brings lumber in Power win

9 of Lopez' first 11 pitches have been for balls to start 2nd and ball 4 to Buxton went behind him to the screen. edit. And for the second time in 2 innings the T-Rats get jobbed by the 1st base ump. The first was on McFarland's error in the 1st inning and now in the 2nd the Rattlers should have turned 2 as Lopez beat the runner to first base and Arcia's throw was perfect. As I'm typing this another runner gets hit by a batted ball, this time a Kernel player gets hit by a line drive between 1st and 2nd and saves Lopez a run. That's twice in 2 nights, and I don't remember the last time I saw a runner get hit by a batted ball.

Kernels hold off Rattlers for 5-3 win Wisconsin loads bases in bottom of 9th but cannot complete the comeback By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers GRAND CHUTE, WI - The Cedar Rapids Kernels scored in each of the first four innings to take a 5-3 lead against the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers Friday night at Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium. They held on to defeat the Rattlers by that same score despite a late scare thrown into them by Wisconsin. Chris McFarland had three hits and Tyrone Taylor homered for Wisconsin to lead Wisconsin's ten-hit attack. The Kernels (42-28 overall, 2-0 second half) took the lead in the first inning on a two-out RBI double by Dalton Hicks. Rattlers starting pitcher Tyler Wagner retired the first two batters he faced, but hit Travis Harrison on an 0-2 pitch to extend the inning. Hicks smacked his double off the wall by the Rattlers bullpen in right-center to drive in his league-leading 64th run of the season. Taylor tied the game for the Timber Rattlers (29-38, 0-2) with a line drive homer to left with two outs in the bottom of the first inning. The homer was his fifth of the season. Wagner ran into control issues in the top of the second inning. He gave up a one out single and walked the next three batters. The third walk was a bases loaded free pass to Niko Goodrum to force in the run that made it 2-1. Harrison followed with a sacrifice fly to drive in the second run of the inning and put the Kernels up 3-1. McFarland brought the Timber Rattlers back to even in the bottom of the second inning. His two-out triple off the middle of the wall in center drove in a pair of runs. There were two outs and none on in the inning when Alfredo Rodriguez singled and Tyler Roberts was hit by a pitch. A wild pitch by Kernels starter Josue Montanez moved both runners into scoring position. McFarland was next and his triple knocked in both runners. But, the game did not remained tied for long. Tyler Grimes led off the top of the third inning with a home run. The Kernels added to their lead in the top of the fourth when Hicks drove in Byron Buxton with a two-out single. Mike Strong, a lefty out of the Rattlers bullpen, came on in the top of the fifth inning and struck out four over two scoreless innings. Martin Viramontes allowed two hits and struck out seven over three scoreless innings to keep the game close. But, the Rattlers struggled against Tim Atherton, who entered the game in the bottom of the fourth. The right-hander out of Australia retired the first ten batters he faced. Rodriguez singled with one out in the seventh and McFarland singled with two outs to bring the lead run to the plated. But, Atherton escaped the inning with a strikeout. Kaleb Merck entered the game in the eighth and pitched around a hit batsman for a scoreless frame. He upped his degree of difficulty in the bottom of the ninth. Mike Garza singled to start the inning. Roberts reached when the Cedar Rapids right fielder missed catching a fly ball. Adrian Williams took over at first base as the pinch runner for Roberts. Then, McFarland loaded the bases with an infield single. That brought Michael Reed to the plate with the winning runs on base. Reed, who had drawn a walk in the first inning to extend his on base streak to 38 consecutive games, struck out on a 2-2 pitch from Merck. Orlando Arcia stepped up and sent a grounder to short. The ball hit Williams before it reached the shortstop. Arcia would be credited with a hit, but the game ended when the ball hit Williams. The Timber Rattlers are 12-22 at home and 1-5 in six games against the Kernels this season. Game three of the series is set for Saturday night. Jorge Lopez (3-5, 6.44) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. Brett Lee (4-4, 4.45) is set to go for the Kernels. Game time is 6:35pm. Saturday night is Outdoors Night at the ballpark. The Timber Rattlers will wear woodland camouflage jerseys as part of Outdoors Night. Fans may bid on the jerseys as part of a silent auction during the game. Plus, Ducks Unlimited is giving away duck calls to the first 500 fans into the ballpark and All Things Jerky will have samples of their jerky. One lucky fan will win airfare for two from Funjet Vacations and Fox World Travel at this game as part of Fly Away Saturday and make sure to stick around after the game for a FOX 11 fireworks display. If you can't make it out to the game, tune in for the television broadcast on My NEW32's Sports Showdown starting with their pregame show at 6:00pm. The radio broadcast will be on AM1280, WNAM and timberrattlers.com starting with the Miller Lite Pregame Show at 6:15pm. Subscribers to MiLB.TV may also catch the action. HOME RUNS: CR: Tyler Grimes (5th, 0 on in 3rd inning off Tyler Wagner, 0 out) WIS: Tyrone Taylor (5th, 0 on in 1st inning off Josue Montanez, 2 out) WP: Tim Atherton (4-2) LP: Tyler Wagner (6-6) SAVE: Kaleb Merck (1) TIME: 2:53 ATTN: 4,046 Infinite Striving – Postgame post for June 21 Wisconsin Boxscore Tyler Wagner was exactly what you would have expected from his line. The camera work was pretty awful, they were actually changing camera angles mid pitch which made it very difficult to see what Tyler was throwing. It looked like he threw a nice change away to a LH batter as it faded away, but it also looked like he was throwing a curve at times? Or does the slider just get slurvy? It was just too hard to tell because of the a fore mentioned camera work. He worked in the low 90s from what Chris was saying, he works from a 3/4 arm slot, though he doesn't maintain it well which caused most of his control problems. He was downright filthy at times, and then he'd just go off the air. The HR he gave up was belt high right down the middle. I have no idea why the Rattlers struggled so bad with Tim Atherton, but at one point 4 of the first 6 batters had popped up and the ground outs were weakly hit, they just couldn't square him up. Martin Viramontes works in the mid 90s and when he throws strikes he's pretty tough, today the very good Martin showed up. This home losing thing is getting old, the T-Rats actually have a winning record on the road this year but have just been awful at home. Wisconsin Recap Bases loaded, 1 out, a comeback rally in the works, but it wasn't meant to be. I'm not sure why Williams wasn't looking at the ball but Arcia would have been out regardless, too bad. Wisconsin Bottom of the 9th Mike Garza singles on a line drive to center fielder Byron Buxton. Alfredo Rodriguez flies out to left fielder J. D. Williams. Tyler Roberts reaches on a fielding error by right fielder Jeremias Pineda. Mike Garza to 2nd. Offensive Substitution: Pinch-runner Adrian Williams replaces Tyler Roberts. Christopher McFarland singles on a ground ball to third baseman Travis Harrison. Mike Garza to 3rd. Adrian Williams to 2nd. Michael Reed strikes out swinging. Orlando Arcia singles on a ground ball. Adrian Williams out at 3rd, hit by batted ball, shortstop Niko Goodrum unassisted, Christopher McFarland to 2nd. Wisconsin Gameday

It works the other way, there is a minimum number of days a player has to stay down after being optioned. I believe a player must stay in the minors for 10 days after being optioned but the rule may have changed.

Wagner looks great striking out Buxton. Goes 0-2 to Goodrum and gets a weak grounder, goes 0-2 to Harrison but runs his 2 seam up and in and hits him. Then he goes 0-2 to Hicks before giving up a double off the wall to the deepest part of the park in RCF to score Harrison from first. After the double he walks Grimes on 4 straight pitches. He was way ahead and down to the last strike twice in the inning and still gave up a run. As I finish typing this Reed walks to extend his on-base streak. edit. And then T squared goes ya-ya! Tie game.

Brother you might be only the person on the forum with more misspellings and missed words than I have in my posts. I haven't come up with a good way of avoiding the skipped words, even though I usually proof read every post before I drop it, but a simple browser alternative like Mozilla Firefox has a built in spell check feature. Just click the free download link. Google Chrome and Apple Safari also have built in spell check features. If you prefer using Internet Explorer there are a couple of well known browser extensions that will add a spell check feature as well: Iespell and IE7Pro. As to your question, yes I think Rodon will be in consideration for the first pick, it will depend on how dominant he is next year but I'd peg him as the early favorite.

Prospect Hot Sheet Chat With Matt Eddy

Wow shutout this week, though not entirely surprising with so many of the division's prospects off the for the all-star break. Prospect Hot Sheet (June 21): Taijuan Walker Cruises Through The Southern League IN THE TEAM PHOTO NOT HOT

132 pitches, mostly FBs... gotta love college coaches.

Track the top 2013 MLB Draft picks

Again. No he's not. He was hit in the head by a pitch playing winter league ball, suffered a concussion and damage to the tear duct in his eye. He was having vision problems, he's been hitting the hell out of the ball since the specialists figured out what was going on with his eye as TLB noted. Statistical analysis of prospects is only going to get you so far which is why I don't care for metrics like MLEs. In the case of Olt, looking at his season on the whole tells you about 1/3 of what you really to know which is why Melvin sounded like a dolt when talking about Olt's batting average in his radio interview. He didn't provide any context because he probably didn't know what was really going on, instead he just cracked on 2 of their prospects and the Texas organization in general. He may well harbor some bitterness, but at least they've been to 2 WS, we aren't in a position to throw stones at anyone. A 20 year old SS in AAA putting up an .807 OPS is "so-so"? We're lucky to have to 20 year olds playing a full season at BC, this is a 20 year old playing in AAA. If you're waiting for Profar to dominate before being willing to trade for him then you're going to end up waiting too long, because at that point he's untradable, he's probably untradable anyway. I'm sorry fellas but there is no such thing as can't miss, unless you're Michael Hunt and then Scooter Gennett is can't miss. Finally, Oscar Taveras only has a .784 OPS in AAA right now as a 21 year old in AAA and he may have just broken out of a bad slump last night, but don't think for a minute that if the Cardinals had room for him in the MLB OF he'd still be in AAA... I'm not interested in Martin Perez in a deal for Gallardo, he's got all the stuff and might finally be putting it together, but I don't want to give up our only top of the rotation starter for a toolsy guy who's never performed to his tools. I'd take that kind of upside when trading a rental, but not someone like Gallardo. Nor am I interested in chasing position players for the most part. I could be swayed for a young 3B like Olt, Rendon, or Castellanos (who might actually end up being an OF) but I'd want some sort of impact pitching potential back in those deals as well. Unless we're just trading something like a reliever, then take what we can get, any position player or starting pitcher would be an upgrade value wise. However if we're moving our only impact pitcher in Gallardo then we'd better be trading him in a package deal with a position player or 2 to teams like the D-Backs (Skaggs/Bradley) or Seattle (Walker/Hultzen), a team with multiple top of the rotation prospect starting pitchers between AA and AAA, and yes that's a very short list of teams. Trading 1 for 1 doesn't really help us get ahead. We'd get some instant cost savings and would extend team control the 1 guy we have but long-term we still have a need for 2 other guys to go with the 1 we just acquired. That's more of a treading water rather than get us over the hump type of move. If I trusted Melvin to make more moves for young pitching I could be sold and on a quick cycle of pitching 1 for 1, but I'd rather package Gomez/Gallardo and shoot for something big than make a 1 for 1 trade right now. Next year Melvin might be back to buying and then this pitching cycle of 1 good pitcher with a bunch of leftovers would just end up repeating itself. I haven't written off Peralta, but those that follow the minor league forum know I've never been super high on him, he's always made me nervous. Hell I'm nervous about all our young pitchers, I'd much rather be breaking them in as the 4/5 then counting on them to be the 2 or 3.

Actually, according to Ben Badler, there are two that are linked to the Brewers. I just read it a third time, I always double check, and somehow I did miss this: I still don't see the other and I only see 1 connected to the Rockies... maybe I'm just going crazy. He didn't connect all of the players to teams though. These are the 2 not connected:

Steve comparing Angel Ortega to Alcides Escobar defensively is intriguing.

Final: Cedar Rapids (Twins) 3 - Wisconsin 1 Kernels quiet Wisconsin in second half opener Cedar Rapids pitchers hold Rattlers to a run By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers GRAND CHUTE, WI - Christian Powell pitched seven strong innings and Travis Harrison had a hand in all the runs the Cedar Rapids Kernels scored in a 3-1 win over the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers Thursday night at Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium. The game was the second half opener for both teams. Timber Rattlers starting pitcher Eric Semmelhack retired the first five Kernels batters he faced in the game. Then, he walked Max Kepler on four pitches with two out in the top of the second. Harrison followed with a two-run home run to left on the first pitch of his at bat and the Kernels were up 2-0. Harrison figured into a Cedar Rapids two-out rally in the top of the fourth. He doubled with two outs and none on base and went to third on a wild pitch. Michael Quesada drew a walk. Then, JD Williams drove in Harrison with a single to center and Cedar Rapids (41-28 overall, 1-0 second half) was up 3-0. *LR note* Semmelhack deflected the single but couldn't get good glove on it. Wisconsin (29-37, 0-1) got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the fifth inning. They had the bases loaded with one out and Orlando Arcia at the plate. Arcia sent a slow chopper to second. The Kernels got the runner at second, but had no chance to get Arcia at first for the inning ending double play. Mike Garza, the runner at third, crossed home plate to tally the run on the play. But, that was the only run the Timber Rattlers would get off Powell, who worked seven innings, allowed four hits, walked two, and struck out five. The Timber Rattlers tried to stage a comeback in the bottom of the ninth against reliever Caleb Brewer. Victor Roache singled, his second hit of the night, to start the inning. Adam Giacalone followed with a single and Adrian Williams was sent to pinch run for Giacalone as he represented the tying run. But, Brewer rebounded to get a 6-4-3 double play and a strikeout against the next two hitters to end the game. Wisconsin outfielder Michael Reed singled in the fourth inning to extend his on base streak to 37 games. That is the longest active on base streak in minor league baseball - and the third longest in MiLB - this season. Game two is set for Friday night. Tyler Wagner (6-5, 3.32) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. Cedar Rapids sends Josue Montanez (1-1, 4.66) to the hill. Game time is 7:05pm. Friday night is North Shore Bank Family night. Children 12 and under receive a free hot dog and soda as part of family night. Plus, kids 14 and under may participate in Kids Run the Bases thanks to Molina Healthcare after the postgame fireworks display. The Timber Rattlers will hold a Salute to Paper on Friday night with lots of paper-themed promotions and games. Plus, there is a Kimberly Clark Kleenex giveaway to the first 1,000 fans to attend this game. If you can't make it out to the game, tune in for the television broadcast on My NEW32's Sports Showdown starting with their pregame show at 6:30pm. The radio broadcast is on AM1280, WNAM and timberrattlers.com starting with the Miller Lite Pregame Show at 6:45pm. The game is also available to subscribers of MiLB.TV. HOME RUN: CR: Travis Harrison (12th, 1 on in 2nd inning off Eric Semmelhack, 2 out) WP: Christian Powell (1-1) LP: Eric Semmelhack (1-3) SAVE: Caleb Brewer (1) TIME: 2:17 ATTN: 3,966 Wisconsin Boxscore This start kind of sums up Eric Semmelhack in a nutshell, he pitches just well enough but then gives up runs in the most unnecessary ways. A 4 pitch walk and then a grooved FB for a HR, A runner on 2nd and then a WP. As I mentioned above Max Walla made an outstanding defensive play, Bob and Brad were very complimentary of Max's tools talking about how injuries have held his development back. I'm not sure I agree, but it was nice to hear some high praise anyway. Michael Garza and Adam Giacalone also flashed the leather during the game, hopefully this team has turned the corner defensively and will start playing more sound baseball in the second half. Victor Roache was really the only story offensively, he went 2-4 and once again his extra work with hitting coach Dusty Rhodes in the cage was thoroughly discussed. Tyrone Taylor was robbed of a bunt base hit and ended up 1-3, he beat throw but it was a bang bang play and the ump called him out. Wisconsin Recap Prior to this double play Garza fouled a sac bunt attempt. I wasn't thrilled with the sacrifice attempt given the situation and how well Garza had been hitting, but this outcome was even worse. Wisconsin Bottom of the 9th Victor Roache singles on a ground ball to shortstop Niko Goodrum. Adam Giacalone singles on a line drive to left fielder Max Kepler. Victor Roache to 2nd. Offensive Substitution: Pinch-runner Adrian Williams replaces Adam Giacalone. Mike Garza grounds into a double play, shortstop Niko Goodrum to second baseman Jorge Polanco to first baseman Dalton Hicks. Victor Roache to 3rd. Adrian Williams out at 2nd. Alfredo Rodriguez called out on strikes. Wisconsin Gameday

This might make me a nerd as I still listen to Chris when I'm watching the T-Rat games on TV even though he's on about a 1 minute delay from the from TV broadcast. That's not a reflection on the TimeWarner Sports 32 broadcast, I actually like Bob and Brad. In fact Brad just did a nice analysis of Semmelhack's mechanics, Eric is one of those pitchers who falls off hard towards 1B and it affects his control and velocity. I'm just unwilling to give up Chris' tidbits even when I'm watching on TV. I will say that when MyNew32 broadcasts the game I do turn off the TV sound and just listen to Chris, I'm not a fan of that broadcast team at all.

I'm soo glad that RHP Frankie De La Cruz is back in Nashville's rotation... even if it's only for a couple of starts while the younger pitchers get skipped for innings limits there's no way this is a good move, it's a waste of opportunity for someone that might actually be part of Milwaukee's rotation future. I realize he had a nice year for Nashville in 2011 but for whatever reason that was his high water mark for K/9 since 2005. A 6.2 BB/9 against a 5.5 SO/9 is not going to get it done.