TheCrew07

Pirates' Taillon hurt in Curve loss

I've posted this name twice in the last week, this will be the third but Orlando Castro

Subscriber piece. Not that I really wanted the Pirates to have Appel in the fold, but his refusal to sign ticks me off the same way it does in other sports when players are drafted and try to hold that team hostage for a trade or what have you. Turning Down Pirates Will Likely Pay Off For Mark Appel

No divisional mentions today Tuesday Prospect Notebook: Matt Davidson Gets Back On Track

Another day, another Pirates prospect, this time RHP James Taillon featured. EL notes: Taillon on track with Curve

Yep because all those national and repected prospect sites are conspiring against the Brewers by artificially inflating the talent of the other prospects in the division. Shame on them and shame on those that are realistic about our farm system. What? That's a such a gross misrepresentation of what happened, and aren't you actually the one who continually claimed Parra was just "unlucky" because of his FIP? Would I champion Inman now the way I did then? No, Inman/Hendrickson/Eveland were a good learning process for me as a minor league fan. How do we really know what Gamel is or isn't? Who ever said Ford would be anything? People championed his speed and he was the fastest player in the minor leagues, the Brewers were much higher on him than this site's prospect watchers. Iribarren hit a ton at the lower levels and never developed any power, see the current discussions on the MiLB forum regarding Gennett, except he's a plus defender. Who ever said Gindl or Green were going to be studs? Cain has been hurt but he outperformed Gomez his last year in Milwaukee and did you even look at the year he's putting up now that he's healthy before dropping his name in your list? Jeffress had the best arm in the system and that was it, no one said he would be a stud, people said he had the potential to be a stud, 2 different concepts. The debate regarding Brantley was similar to the debate regarding Iribarren and Gennett, no one ever thought he'd be a stud, just that he'd be productive, which he is. Laporta is tough to figure out, he's gotten the AAAA label, he was never a favorite of mine. I'm not sure how any of us would have known about Salome's mental issues, it was never in print or an audio interview until his suspension, that issue basically blindsided everyone and killed his career, he just basically quit. Finally having watched a ton of MWL games over the last handful of years Lawrie had the quickest bat of anyone not named Trout that I had personally witnessed. He may not hit enough, that's the primary concern of anyone who follows prospects and the jump to MLB, but he has all of the tools to be an impact offensive player, and writing him off at 23 years old seems premature. Once again there is a difference between talking about potential and actually coming out and saying a guy will be a stud. I haven't been able to say that about a Brewer's prospect in some time. I was sure Braun and Fielder would hit and I was positive Gallardo would be a top of the rotation pitcher. I do believe that Gamel will hit MLB pitching, but he's likely lost his opportunity with his plethora of injury issues. I personally haven't made any definitive claims about any of our current prospects, they've all had too many warts for that. Yep once again it's a national conspiracy against the Brewers... maybe the reality of the situation just doesn't fit your "truth model"? I'll say this one final time, you cannot continually replace 3-4 WAR players with 2 WAR players and maintain success. Either you need to upgrade at a different position or you are losing wins and losing ground. I like the young men in WI as much as anyone, but outside of Haniger all of those guys are probably years away from helping, they will need time to develop. I like the upper crust of pitchers in the system, but they all profile about the same and have the same issues, how many of those guys will actually end up as starters I don't know. I wouldn't venture a guess regarding how many would possibly be a top of the rotation types either. I only maintain that they have potential should be given the opportunity to sink or swim at some point in the near future. The only way for the Brewers to compete over the long-term is to field a rotation like the Rays have done. That's the only way to beat the big markets at their own game... to have young, impact, cost controlled pitching which you can cycle to keep the talent train moving forward. The Brewers are locked into another bad TV contract in comparison to the majority of the league, we aren't able to compete buying wins dollar for dollar or even at market rates. We have to buy wins at a discounted rate and that means having a significant youthful presence on the roster. Our depth is great, but having players who profile best case as league average isn't a recipe for success because how many players actually reach their maximum potential? We did well with the first wave of position prospects, what's left of the second wave doesn't have that kind of the ceiling, and the 3rd wave is years away and very difficult to project. There is simply no way that the farm system is underrated at this time, we have 1 legit power power prospect, a couple of guys with nice hit tools, and a bunch of quesiton marks after that. Pitching wise there's no Gallardo... Thornburg is still leaving the ball up, Hellweg is walking too many, Pena has had a rough start, but at least Nelson has pitched well so one of the guys with a bigger arm is doing good things. None of the rest of the guys have big enough arms to make any claims about, sure we could have the next Marcum on our hands, or they could all be Dave Bush types which aren't good enough to realistically match up with the best playoff teams. Those guys are valuable at the back of the rotation, but they aren't going to win you championships.

Well said. I think that is holding us back. Developing young hitters is a good thing. Trading them to get pitchers that won't stay long term doesn't lead to long term success. Look at the other teams in our division from a Minor League/young talent standpoint. Obviously there's no guarantee any of these guys will become huge stars, but we're at a distinct disadvantage here: Very recent Minor Leaguers (some of whom are now in the Majors) St. Louis: Oscar Taveras, Shelby Miller, Kolten Wong, Trevor Rosenthall, Carlos Martinez, Michael Wacha (#1 system in baseball) Cincinnati: Devin Mesoraco (watch out for this kid once he puts it together), Todd Frazier, Billy Hamilton, Robert Stephenson, Tony Cingrani Pittsburgh: Starling Marte, Jameson Taillon, Gerrit Cole, Josh Bell, Luis Heredia, Alen Henson, Gregory Polanco Chicago: Anthony Rizzo (via trade), Jorge Baez, Jorge Soler, Albert Almora, Arodys Vizcaino, Brett Jackson We got an absolute steal in Jean Segura, and Hellweg will contribute. I like Hunter Morris. I think Scooter Gennett can be a piece, at least from a depth standpoint. But I think the young talent drafted by the other teams in our division is way ahead of our own. It looks like you pulled those lists straight from BA? I think that both Nick Kingham who's in Bradenton and Orlando Castro who's in WV are going to make some noise and I'd add them to the Pirates' list, both have been extremely impressive thus far this season. Kingham seems to profile as a mid rotation guy and I don't know anything about Castro other than he's a LHP and his stats caught my attention a couple of weeks ago when I was browsing WV's stat page looking at Stetson Allie's numbers. Castro was just named the SAL pitcher of the week and if Allie keeps it going he'll be a top 50 prospect by next year. I think the Pirate's system is every bit as good as the Cardinals.

Ask BA: How Do Draft’s Top Bats Stack Up?

Well I still like Thornburg, Nelson, and Hellweg but I'd be lying if I said I was positive any of those guys would be top of the rotation starters for the Brewers. I won't even make that claim about Peralta and the only Brewer's pitching prospect I've ever said that about was Gallardo. As far as the Cards go, please don't get hung up on the draft. I included them because within the last 5 years there has been an obvious shift in tact from that franchise. They haven't picked up more players than the Brewers in Latin America, they've just picked up better players in both Martinez and Taveras, and they've changed their draft strategy somewhat. I was looking at teams that have been or will be able to field an entire or close to homegrown rotation. Perhaps the Cards weren't the best example of long-term success, but like I said that was off the top of my head and I'd wager I've read about an article about a Cards' prospect everyday this season someplace so they immediately come to mind whenever I'm talking prospects. While they haven't been at it as long from a pitching standpoint, they've been doing a tremendous job recently. As I said I don't think there's just one way to get home on this topic but given the relative lack of success the Brewers have had identifying impact pitching I'm not sure just trying to target a couple of guys is in our wheelhouse. In the past I've been more concerned with draft position and taking the proper type of player for the draft slot but I'm gradually moving towards a different tact. Of all the teams I listed I think I'd rather try to beat the Rays to the punch and sprinkle in as many high upside HS kids as possible in the first 10 rounds. We've kind of been going at it the San Fran way and only have Gallardo to show for it. The idea would be that maybe we could make up for in sheer volume what we lack in precision from a scouting standpoint. It doesn't even matter if the Brewers fall apart and we tank this season, we don't have a 1st round pick anyway so an impact college pitcher at the top of draft isn't a possibility. As for Nate's suggestion, X brought that theory up in 2007 or 2008 when it was still possible to trade for young pitching and I was on board with the idea at that time. However the market has swung away from OBP and SLG and back towards pitching, I'm not sure it's possible to overvalue pitching, but we're pretty thin on any trading chips that would net young impact pitching at this time. Furthermore, Melvin had every opportunity to try and trade for high ceiling pitching in the Lee in and Overbay deals and went with high floor players instead. I don't see him being interested (or motivated to use his word) to attempt to make prospect for prospect trades, regardless of how good of an idea I believe it to be. I've firmly believe that if you aren't developing pitching and can't afford impact pitching in FA then you need to trade for it, but in 2007-2008 I never imagined Melvin would continually trade for short term solutions instead of prospects. I thought when Ash was talking about the organization being sure it could trade for pitching that they were looking at long-term solutions given the market we're in, but I misread their intent horribly and was bitter about the true organizational strategy for a long time. The Brewers have somewhat changed their draft strategy towards more college pitching but unfortunately it hasn't yielded better results than what Jack Z's staff was doing and we've actually been signing less players out of Latin America the last few years. Since the organization really isn't doing any better developing pitching the net effect is that we're still hoping and relying on just a couple of guys to work out perfectly to change our pitching fortunes. We're due for some good luck on that front, I feel like the pitching gods owe us a couple, but with the current regime in place I honestly don't see things changing much which is disappointing. The Brewers have the worst organization building strategy in the division and it's finally beginning to catch up with us, only the Cubs are in as a bad a place as we are from a pitching standpoint but they have bats with impact potential from AA on down and can afford to buy pitching if their hitting develops. The Pirates have an impact pitching prospect at every level of the minor leagues and we've already discussed the Cards and Reds in detail.

As MH noted earlier Drew Gagnon did us proud. Tyrell Jenkins of the Cards and Orlando Castro of the Pirates are the other divisional winners. Castro has been putting up video game numbers all season, he currently sports a 29:1 K:BB ratio... Pitchers of the Week

Cards 1B prospect Xavier Scrubbs is the only divisional winner this week. Offensive Players of the Week

Mehring's post game for today, including a Bull Durham quote. Five in a row – Postgame post for May 6

Yes but is it better to waste 3 million total on 4-5 players in a single year or repeatedly waste 9 million every year on worthless MLB talent? The better organizations in baseball load up with talent on the front end and if they have pay someone on the back end they do. Milwaukee has never operated in said fashion, I don't think we've ever eclipsed 2 mil in Latin American bonuses for a single year. Would Rondon have been worth the extra 500K it would have taken to pry him away from his college commitment? Absolutely. Did they know that then? Of course not, but again what's a better risk, Rondon's 500K or 8+ mil per year of Randy Wolf? A young and inexpensive LHP with the potential to be a #1 or an aging/declining LHP #3? That's a pretty easy question to answer my from my perspective. At some point the philosophy has to change from "what's best for this season" to "what's best for the organization" because if it doesn't and our draft picks don't pan out, then nothing changes and we'll always be pitching deficient. The worst part is that the Brewers have gotten horrible value out of the starting pitchers they've signed in FA, the strategy hasn't been working at all yet for some reason there is still optimism that the next player we sign is going to work out wonderfully. Even if he does, that doesn't make the theory sound, it just means we finally had a break go our way. I've said it before but would you have rather the Brewers spent 30+ million on 3 years of Wolf or 36 million for at least 6 years of Chapman? Who's the better value even with Chapman being wasted as a closer? I understand that many posters just don't like unproven talent of any kind but what I struggle with is the willingness to carry so much dead money every year on the MLB roster? There's no value in that and it makes no sense from any reasonable business standpoint, it is simply money that's being wasted. Nor do I understand the circular justification which is continually used... the "well he was good for 2 years so that last year is a wash" argument. How can you really ever justify that much dead money? I'd rather make mistakes on high upside youngsters that cost me less than 1.5 million total than continually waste 6+ mil per year paying underperforming aging veteran players for the starting rotation or bullpen. Surely not every one of those young players will fail and if they do is the theory is still sound, it's the people that are identifying the talent which are the problem. If the young pitchers fail as starters most of them if healthy would still be legitimate bullpen options and provide cost savings there as well. I would much rather be trying to feed the MLB team with a larger talent pool than have to rely on being perfect with every signed draft pick to replenish the MLB roster because that method hasn't worked for us at all. I literally wanted to punch Melvin when he kept using the injuries to Jones and Rogers as an excuse for the organization's pitching issues in 2009 and '10... of course a large percentange of young pitchers are going to get hurt, and they were injured years before, that's not an excuse to sit around and do nothing about the situation. Melvin's MLB roster building technique hasn't ever worked, we had 2 good years trading a ton of assets for about 2.5 top notch seasons from 3 different pitchers. The same pitching problems continually keep coming back around, I would much rather go in a different direction and acquire pieces with longevity, players with at least 3 seasons team control remaining if we're going to trade our prospects rather than have 1 year in the sun and back to the status quo. I want to permanently solve the problem, not continually patch it year to year because pitching is king in baseball and without it we're never going to win a World Series.

I can see where you inferred that implication from the examples I used, but I was just choosing 2 organizations that worked on different sides of the same coin. I was trying to illustrate that there was more than one approach to the same type of player and apparently failed miserably. The Reds have Leake and Cingrani in their rotation who were college draftees, traded for Latos and Arroyo, Bailey who was a HS kid, Cueto who was international FA, and signed Chapman as an International FA but then stopped his development to make him the closer. They've done a little bit of everything, as have the Cards and Braves. There are many different ways to build a rotation internally and no team has had the late round success that the Cards have had. What they've done past the 10th round is pretty amazing. Mostly I don't think it matters where you find your pitching, you just have to be able to target and develop the correct players, ideally arriving at 3 pitchers of the 1/2 variety in the rotation at any one time. My point on the college pitchers was supposed to be that they aren't necessary more advanced than HS pitchers given the lack of pitching development happening in many college programs. I don't get too worked about where a guy was drafted if he performs, however drafting in the middle to end of the 1st round it is historically difficult to find impact college pitching in those positions, which is why I've argued against drafting higher floor college players in those draft slots like Jungmann in the past. I honestly don't mind swinging and missing on a Jeffress or Rogers, I'd much rather take a chance on a player with upside than play it safe and build to be mediocre. We desperately need to infuse some impact pitching potential in the lower minors and an impact LHP of any kind anywhere. Jorge Lopez did have his best appearance since the AZ rookie league yesterday so there's still hope for him. Unfortunately the bottom line is that the Brewers haven't done well in any respect... HS, college, FA, or younger international free agents (Latin America) so it's not just the type of the player which is the problem, the issues run deeper than that.

Most of your relievers are failed starting pitchers who's stuff plays up in the bullpen, if you aren't developing starting pitching, you aren't developing relievers either. More than that, off the top of my head in the last 10 years or so... Atlanta, Oakland, San Francisco, Cincy, St. Louis, and Tampa Bay have historically done very well with differing styles. For example in recent times TB has gotten there mostly through volume, scattering projectable HS pitchers throughout the first ten rounds of the draft where as San Fran takes the opposite approach keying in on a specific player and they rarely seem to miss on HS kids which is impressive given how difficult it is to project players so young. Some of those teams have done it through the draft, some through international signings, some a mix of everything. I'm more of an everything guy looking to acquire as much talent as possible from as many different avenues as possible so the Brewers relative lack of activity in Latin America has gotten under my skin. I'd still rather drop 2-3 million per year on prospects out of LA than spend that money recycling aging pitchers, starters or relievers... spend more upfront and save significant costs on the backend. The problem with LA is that the system is so corrupt, but I don't think that's a legitimate excuse to ignore the talent base.

That was easily one of the better prospect interviews I've read so far this season. I haven't given Jenkins much consideration because he's sort of stuck behind McFarland but he certainly was a toolsy draft pick and is a prospect to keep an eye on.

No divisional mentions but Odorizzi is discussed Monday Prospect Notebook

Another Cards RHP prospect Tyrell Jenkins, could their prospects at least stink when their big league team is sweeping us? It would be nice if the baseball gods gave us something... Chiefs' Jenkins goes the distance

Cards RHP Scott McGregor McGregor showing surgery a success

Michael Wacha again... PCL notes: Wacha gonna do for Cards?

Wisconsin edges Loons 3-1 to earn sweep Timber Rattlers end road trip on five-game winning streak By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers MIDLAND, MI - The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers got the key hits they needed to defeat the Great Lakes Loons 3-1 on Monday at Dow Diamond. Tyrone Taylor and Michael Reed drove in the Wisconsin runs in the top of the eighth inning to send the Rattlers to their fifth straight win. The contest was a pitchers' duel for most of the day. Wisconsin (13-14) got their first base runner of the game against Loons starting pitcher Angel Sanchez in the top of the fourth inning. Michael Reed drew a one out walk and stole second. But, Sanchez struck out the next two batters to end the inning. Great Lakes (12-18) had a one out double by Jesmuel Sanchez in the fourth and a leadoff single by Paul Hoenecke in the fifth inning against Rattlers starter Eric Semmelhack. Those were the only hits the Loons got off Semmelhack, who went six scoreless frames with a walk and four strikeouts. Reed broke up the no-hit bid with a leadoff double in the top of the seventh inning, but Sanchez worked through the next three batters and stranded Reed at third base to keep the game scoreless. Sanchez allowed one hit, walked one, and struck out eight over seven innings before turning the game over to the Great Lakes bullpen for the top of the eighth. That was when the Timber Rattlers broke the scoreless tie. Parker Berberet walked with one out and went to third on a two-out single by Orlando Arcia. Tyrone Taylor beat out a bunt single to score Berberet with the first run of the game. A wild pitch by Loons reliever Jonathan Martinez moved Arcia to third and Taylor to second. Reed smacked a single to center to drive in both runners and Wisconsin was up 3-0. The Loons rallied against Preston Gainey in the bottom of the eighth. Jesus Valdez singled and Pat Stover doubled to give Great Lakes runners on second and third with no outs. Valentin got Valdez home and sent Stover to third. But, Gainey struck out James Baldwin and got Kevin Taylor to line out to left to end the inning and maintain a 3-1 lead. Gainey would go on to work a scoreless ninth to finish off the sweep. Gainey picked up his first professional victory with his three innings of work. The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers are off on Tuesday. They return to action on Wednesday to begin a ten-game, nine-day homestand with a doubleheader against the Clinton LumberKings. The Timber Rattlers have Tyler Wagner (2-1, 3.13) and Mike Strong (0-0, 1.89) as their scheduled starting pitchers. Clinton has named Tyler Pike (1-2, 2.74) and Rusty Shellhorn (0-0, 3.00) as their scheduled starters. A pair of 7-inning games are planned for the twinbill with game one scheduled to begin at 5:05pm. Wednesday is a Bang for Your Buck Night presented by WIXX. Fans may enjoy soda, hotdogs, and beer for $1. If you can't make it out to the stadium, My NEW32's Sports Showdown will telecast the second game of the doubleheader. Both games will be broadcast on AM1280, WNAM and timberrattlers.com starting with the Miller Lite Pregame Show at 4:45pm. Both games will also be available to subscribers of MiLB.TV. WP: Preston Gainey (1-3) LP: Jonathan Martinez (0-2) TIME: 2:16 ATTN: 4,762 Wisconsin Boxscore Have a day Eric Semmelhack! This is exactly what I wanted to see when I sat down for lunch. Last week I discussed a between game interview that Chris had done with Matt Erickson and one of the parts I skipped was some talk about how last year's team came together on a long road trip and played much better after that point. Here's hoping that same scenario plays out after this road trip, a 5 game winning streak and back within 1 game of .500. Wisconsin Recap It's rally time! The boys did a great job picking up McFarland. Wisconsin Top of the 8th Pitching Change: Jonathan Martinez replaces Angel Sanchez. Christopher McFarland singles on a ground ball to center fielder James Baldwin. With Parker Berberet batting, Jonathan Martinez picks off Christopher McFarland at 1st on throw to Jesus Valdez. Parker Berberet walks. Alfredo Rodriguez pops out to first baseman Jesus Valdez in foul territory. Orlando Arcia singles on a line drive to right fielder Jeremy Rathjen. Parker Berberet to 3rd. Tyrone Taylor singles on a bunt pop to pitcher Jonathan Martinez. Parker Berberet scores. Orlando Arcia to 2nd. With Michael Reed batting, wild pitch by Jonathan Martinez, Orlando Arcia to 3rd. Tyrone Taylor to 2nd. Michael Reed singles on a ground ball to center fielder James Baldwin. Orlando Arcia scores. Tyrone Taylor scores. Michael Reed advances to 2nd, on a fielding error by center fielder James Baldwin. Mitch Haniger strikes out swinging.

Did you mean Jed Bradley? Also, it's "Hellweg" Sorry to nitpick but spelling a new player's name wrong drives me nuts for some reason, like how people spell Rogers as Rodgers, even though I know why they do it. I don't think there's a simple answer to that question, it's a lot of things. I would think the most basic is simply they haven't hired and/or developed scouts that are good at identifying pitchers. They've made some efforts, like closing the Latin Academy to be able to spend more money on Latin kids but Peralta is the only pitcher to make it to MLB from that effort. The Brewers minimal presence in Latin America has largely been a failure with just Peralta and Escobar having made any MLB impact at all. Part of it is the players the Brewers have targeted in the draft, usually opting for a signability guy rather than the best talent available, like when they drafted Mark Rogers with other more polished high ceiling arms on the board. I liked the Rogers pick and still do because I like the idea of drafting multi-sport athletes, as a HS coach for many years I despise specialization for many reasons which I won't go into in this thread. However from the perspective of what's best for the organization Rogers probably wasn't the best choice given the players still available at the time. Recent drafts have focused more on college pitching, but the players targeted like Arnett, Heckathorn, Jungmann, Nelson, Jungmann, and Bradley haven't moved any faster than HS kids would have, but they are 3 years older. Jungmann is in AA and Bradley is repeating A+. There doesn't seem to be much quality coaching of pitchers in college either, the most successful players are basically just naturals. For example Jungmann pitched for one of the most storied programs in college baseball and they allowed him to pitch with a very short stride for his entire career... why? That's something which should be very easy to correct through years of college ball. The Brewers are doing some good things with pitching such as the tandems in A ball, I like the idea that anyone with legitimate relief potential to work as a starter as long possible. It gives them more opportunity to work on their craft during games and more bullpen sessions to work on their mechanics/pitches between outings. In regards to pitching the Brewers haven't drafted well, haven't signed good international players, haven't developed pitching well, and until Hellweg/Pena Melvin hadn't looked to acquire a young arm with impact potential since JDLR in the Sexson trade. Milwaukee isn't a progressive organization at all, the Brewers are slow to implement change, they've always waited for other organizations to prove concepts before they adopt them, and maybe that's the biggest problem of all. We're always about 3-4 years behind the cutting edge of player development because the Brewers steal their ideas from everyone else. The best organizations in baseball just continually beat the Brewers to the punch so we've never had enough young impact pitching in the minors at one time. I just don't think Melvin was a good GM choice given the Brewer's organizational needs on the pitching front, young pitching has never been in his wheelhouse as a GM going back to Texas. We don't really have any RHP or LHP that would profile as a #1 best case, but most organizations have 2-3 of those guys spread through their minor league system. When I say a #1 I mean that in the scouting sense, I'm talking about guy who works 95+ FB with at least 1 plus secondary offering and an improving league average 3rd pitch. There aren't many true #1's pitching in MLB for a variety of reasons and while Gallardo has been top 30 pitcher statistically and would be a #1 from a sabermetric standpoint, he's not a #1 from the scouting perspective, he is/was a #2. To put it simply the Brewers don't scout pitching well, don't sign young pitching well, haven't drafted pitched well, and haven't done a good job developing pitching. In simple terms we've just never had enough numbers from an impact pitching standpoint to cover injuries and the players like Manny Parra who just don't seem to be able to make the most of their skills at the MLB level. The idea should be to have as many as many impact prospects (hitting and pitching) as possible to cover those issues and historically the Brewers haven't been in that position, when Melvin started trading for proven MLB pitching with prospects it just wasn't going to be possible to have any legitimate depth of talent.

Mehring's post game thoughts after the T-Rat victory today. Four in a row – Postgame post for May 5, 2013

A note of interest. Odorizzi, Bulls bullpen hurl no-no

Final: Wisconsin 5, Great Lakes (Dodgers) 0 Rattlers shut out Loons for fourth straight win Roache homers as Gibbard and Lopez combine on 5-hit shutout By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers MIDLAND, MI - The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers are rolling. Victor Roache hit a first inning home run to give the Timber Rattlers a lead at Dow Diamond on Sunday afternoon. Pitchers Ryan Gibbard and Jorge Lopez combined on a five-hit, 5-0 shutout as Wisconsin won their fourth straight game. Roache put the Timber Rattlers (12-14) in front in the top of the first inning. Mitch Haniger coaxed a two-out walk against Great Lakes starter Lindsey Caughel. That free pass was the first issued by Caughel in his first 21-2/3 innings pitched this season. Roache was next and he unleashed a line drive to right-center that easily cleared the wall for a two-run homer. The dinger was the second of the season for Roache. Wisconsin plated two more runs in the top of the second. Caughel walked Alfredo Rodriguez with two outs and Orlando Arcia singled to put runners on the corners. Arcia would steal second with Tyrone Taylor at the plate to get two runners into scoring position. Taylor sent a wicked line drive past the glove of third baseman Paul Hoenecke into left to score two runs. The play was originally ruled a two-run single for Taylor. But, was switched to an error on Hoenecke before the start of the bottom of the third. -If a ball that should have been easily caught by Gomez but bounces off his wrist is a 2B in MLB then give Taylor his hit! Gibbard worked five scoreless innings as the starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. He allowed three hits, walked two, and struck out three. The Wisconsin offense gave him one more run as a parting gift. In the top of the sixth inning, Haniger doubled to start the frame. Adam Giacalone drove in Haniger with a one out single for a 5-0 lead. Lopez took over for Gibbard in the bottom of the sixth inning and kept the Loons (12-17) off the scoreboard over the last four innings. Lopez allowed two hits, walked one, and struck out three to earn his first save of the season. The final game of the series at Dow Diamond is Monday morning. Eric Semmelhack (1-0, 5.40) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. Great Lakes has Angel Sanchez (1-3, 5.88) as their scheduled starter. Game time is 9:35am CDT. Tune in for the broadcast on AM1280, WNAM or timberrattlers.com starting with the Miller Lite Pregame Show at 9:15am. Monday's game is also available on MiLB.TV. HOME RUN: WIS: Victor Roache (2nd, 1 on in 1st inning off Lindsey Caughel, 2 out) WP: Ryan Gibbard (2-1) LP: Lindsey Caughel (0-3) SAVE: Jorge Lopez (1) Wisconsin Boxscore I'd take more of this from Jorge Lopez, that's for sure. Chris McFarland's hit streak came to an end today, he narrowly a missed a double (just foul) and then grounded out. Click McFarland's link to see his last 10 games, his more than half of his total strike outs have come in the last 10 games, 17 out of his 25, hopefully he turns it around soon. Victor Roache hasn't had a multi hit game since 4/27 but the HR today set a good tone. Clint Coulter has been really struggling with breaking stuff out of the zone, he's 6 for his last 33 hitting just .182 over that span. It's just about time to start a Free Mitch Haniger Campaign, he's had a really nice season thus far. Wisconsin Recap Jorge surprised everyone in the stadium by going to 3rd in a 2 out situation, the force out at 1st would have been the obvious choice. Great Lakes Bottom of the 8th Jesmuel Valentin bunt grounds out, pitcher Jorge Lopez to first baseman Adam Giacalone. James Baldwin called out on strikes. Jeremy Rathjen doubles (6) on a fly ball to left fielder Tyrone Taylor. Corey Seager reaches on a fielder's choice out, pitcher Jorge Lopez to third baseman Alfredo Rodriguez. Jeremy Rathjen out at 3rd.