TheCrew07

The Reds super SS prospect Billy Hamilton is the only divisional mention from the BA weekend positional prospect summary. Billy was a 2nd round pick in 2009 and BA currently has him ranked as the #2 player in the Reds system. Scooter Gennett was mentioned in the rough stretch section.

Final: Wisconsin 7, Bowling Green (Rays) 2 Big seventh gets Rattlers past Bowling Green By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers GRAND CHUTE, WI - The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers scored five times in the seventh inning to rally for a 7-2 win over the Bowling Green Hot Rods Monday afternoon at Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium. Tyler Roberts put the Rattlers in front with a two-run single and Chadwin Stang delivered a three-run double in the frame to send Wisconsin to their second straight win. Wisconsin (14-11) scored an unearned run in the bottom of the third to take a 1-0 lead. Roberts was at second and John Dishon was at first with one out. Stang sent a grounder to third. Dishon was out at second by Ryan Brett mishandled the exchange from his glove make the throw and the ball trickled away from him to allow Roberts to come around and score. Rattlers starting pitcher Andy Moye was cruising through four innings, but Todd Glaesmann tripled to start the fifth. Jeff Malm was next and his single plated Glaesmann with the tying run. Alejandro Segovia was next and his single put runners on first and second with no outs. Joel Caminero attempted a sacrifice bunt up the third base line, but Moye fielded the ball and had time to get Malm at third, but he threw the ball wildly and Malm scored to put Bowling Green (14-11) up 2-1. Moye settled down after that play and did not allow another run. The Rattlers started their seventh inning rally on a one out single by Greg Hopkins. Hot Rods reliever Andrew Bellatti walked Yadiel Rivera and Ben McMahan to load the bases and he was replaced by Charlie Cononie. Roberts greeted Cononie by grounding a 2-0 pitch through the left side of the infield. Hopkins scored the tying run and Rivera beat the throw home to put the Rattlers up 3-2. A walk to John Dishon loaded the bases and brought Stang up with a chance to pad the lead. The Hot Rods brought the infield in and Stang took advantage by flaring a hit to shallow right for a three-run double and a 6-0 lead. McMahan concluded the scoring with an RBI single in the bottom of eighth. Jacob Barnes pitched a pair of scoreless innings and struck out two to pick up his first Midwest League win. Wisconsin took two of three from Bowling Green in the series. The Rattlers finished their six-game homestand 4-2. The Timber Rattlers are off on Tuesday. The team returns to action on Wednesday night in Clinton, Iowa to start a series with the Clinton LumberKings. Matt Miller (0-3, 4.91) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Rattlers. Clinton has Ambioris Hidalgo (1-2, 5.40) set to start. Game time is 6:30pm. Tune in for the broadcast on AM1280, WNAM or timberrattlers.com starting with the Miller Lite Pregame Show at 6:10pm. WP: Jacob Barnes (1-1) LP: Andrew Bellatti (0-1) TIME: 2:40 ATTN: 965 Chris Mehring's always entertaining and extremely informative 9 After 9 for today. Wisconsin Box Score Chris is making my job pretty easy these days and as much as I like following prospects, it's even more fun when the teams are playing well. Andrew Moye didn't walk a batter in his 6 innings and allowed 4 hits while striking out 4 as well. Seth Harvey slammed the door in the 9th with a strike out, ground out, and a pop up. The Rattler pitching in this series was outstanding and check out the season pitching stats here. Of the 4 pitchers who have struggled, I still believe 3 of 4 can turn things around in hurry. Chadwin Stang has hit in 7 of his last 8 games going 2-5 today with that huge double but outside of him the top of the order struggled, the next 3 hitters had a rough day going 0-12. Gregory Hopkins went 3-4, Ben McMahan 2-3 with a walk, and Tyler Roberts has done well since the JSO article going 1-2 with 2 walks. Moye had the only error and John Dishon picked up an OF assist. Wisconsin Play By Play Chris covered it all.

Baseball America has a new feature story up International Changes Begin With Registration System The story is free to read and is very informative regarding various changes coming to the draft.

Chris has quite a bit of additional information on the game, including some very kind words about Goforth, video highlight's of the Stang HR, and more in today's 9 After 9.

Final: Huntsville 7, Mississippi (Braves) 3 Huntsville Downs M-Braves in Series Finale By Miranda Black / Mississippi Braves PEARL, MS-The Huntsville Stars plated three runs in the fourth and four runs in the fifth to defeat the Mississippi Braves 7-3 in Sunday afternoon's series finale at Trustmark Park. The two teams combined for 27 hits on the day. Andrelton Simmons led the M-Braves (9-16) offense with a perfect 4-for-4 day at the plate. While walking in his only other plate appearance, Simmons had two stolen bases on the afternoon. Adam Milligan also had two hits on the day, including a two-run home run in the fourth. Huntsville (14-11) took a 3-0 lead in the fourth inning. Andy Gonzalez led off the with a single to left field before Hunter Morris launched his second homer of the season to give the Stars a 2-0 lead. A couple of outs later Josh Stinson doubled in Anderson De La Rosa from second to make it a 3-0 game. Christian Bethancourt singled with two-outs in the bottom of the fourth, but exited the game with an undisclosed injury. Adam Milligan followed with a two-run homer into the visitor's bullpen to cut the Stars lead to 3-2. Mycal Jones then blooped a single into left center and Gary Moran walked before Todd Cunningham delivered a RBI-double to left, tying the game at 3-3. Huntsville responded in the top of the fifth. Gonzalez singled and scored on a Hunter Morris double. Khris Davis followed with a double to plate Morris and extend the Stars' lead to 5-3. Anderson De La Rosa then blasted a two-run home run to make it a 7-3 contest. Simmons and Keenan Wiley led off the bottom of the ninth with a single and double, respectively. However, a fly out, strike out, and a ground out ended the late threat. Josh Stinson started for the Stars but did not factor in the decision. He went four frames for Huntsville, allowing three earned runs on seven hits, a home run, and three walks. He struck out one batter. Roque Mercedes (1-0) picked up the win, limiting the Braves to just three hits and striking out three in two innings of work. Gary Moran (0-1) started and worked four and one-third innings for the M-Braves. He gave up five earned runs on eight hits and a homer while fanning two. After an off day Monday, the M-Braves start a five-game series against the Mobile BayBears at Hank Aaron Stadium in Mobile. Lefty Jose Lugo (1-0, 1.80) will take on Mobile lefty Tyler Skaggs (0-2, 4.24) in game one of the series Tuesday night. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 PM. Huntsville Stars (14-11): 7 R 15 H 0 E Mississippi Braves (9-16): 3 R 12 H 1 E W: Roque Mercedes (1-0) L: Gary Moran (0-1) Time: 3:14 Attendance: 2,022 Huntsville Box Score Josh Stinson's afternoon was detailed above, and I love this Roque Mercedes quote from the Mississippi summary: "Roque Mercedes picked up the win, limiting the Braves to just three hits and striking out three in two innings of work". He did strike out 3, but when is giving up more hits than innings pitched limiting anything but damage? He did pitch better today but his reputation preceded him? Darren Byrd followed Roque and put up 2 nice innings allowing 1BB with 1SO and Rob Wooten pitched the final frame which is detailed above. The Stars pummeled Braves pitching for 15 hits, opposing pitching Gary Morgan is extremely old for the league but he's been relatively successful up to this point in his MiLB career. As if on queue from Sessile Hunter Morris says "take that" and goes yard, he finished 2-5 with his other hit being a double. Josh Prince went 2-4 with a double, Andy Gonzalez went 3-5, Khris Davis went 1-2 with a double and was double switched out. Anderson De La Rosa went 3-5 and also added a double in addition to the big HR mentioned above. Finally starting pitcher Josh Stinson appears to be able to swing the bat a little bit he now has 3 hits on the season including a 2-3 effort with a double today. Prince got caught stealing a base, the Stars committed no errors, and Stinson picked off a runner on 1st. Unfortunately De La Rosa didn't get any of the 3 runners who stole bases in the game. Scooter Gennett is just 3 for his last 30 which has dropped his season line to .278/.288/.398 for a season OPS of .686 Huntsville Play By Play Stinson had a shakey first. Mississippi Bottom of the 1st Todd Cunningham flies out to center fielder Josh Prince. Andrelton Simmons singles on a line drive to center fielder Josh Prince. With Philip Gosselin batting, Andrelton Simmons steals (5) 2nd base. Philip Gosselin singles on a ground ball to third baseman Andy Gonzalez. Ian Gac flies out to center fielder Josh Prince. Joe Leonard grounds into a force out, fielded by shortstop Matt Cline. Philip Gosselin out at 2nd This was the fun part of the game! Huntsville Top of the 4th Andy Gonzalez singles on a fly ball to left fielder Adam Milligan. Hunter Morris homers (2) on a fly ball to right field. Andy Gonzalez scores. Khris Davis hit by pitch. Anderson De La Rosa grounds into a force out, third baseman Joe Leonard to second baseman Philip Gosselin. Khris Davis out at 2nd. Anderson De La Rosa to 1st. Matt Cline grounds out, shortstop Andrelton Simmons to first baseman Ian Gac. Anderson De La Rosa to 2nd. Josh Stinson doubles (1) on a fly ball to left fielder Adam Milligan. Anderson De La Rosa scores. Kentrail Davis reaches on fielding error by third baseman Joe Leonard. Josh Stinson to 3rd. Josh Prince grounds into a force out, shortstop Andrelton Simmons to second baseman Philip Gosselin. Kentrail Davis out at 2nd. Huntsville Top of the 5th Mathew Kennelly remains in the game as the catcher. Scooter Gennett pops out to second baseman Philip Gosselin. Andy Gonzalez singles on a line drive to center fielder Todd Cunningham. Hunter Morris doubles (12) on a fly ball to center fielder Todd Cunningham. Andy Gonzalez scores. Pitcher Change: Andrew Russell replaces Gary Moran, batting 9th. Khris Davis doubles (4) on a fly ball to right fielder Mycal Jones. Hunter Morris scores. Anderson De La Rosa homers (1) on a fly ball to left field. Khris Davis scores. Matt Cline grounds out, third baseman Joe Leonard to first baseman Ian Gac. Josh Stinson singles on a line drive to right fielder Mycal Jones. Kentrail Davis called out on strikes.

Mike Montgomery is Kansas City's #1 overall prospect, Odorizzi was listed at #4 though this week's hot sheet noted that a dominant AA campaign from Odorizzi and Montgomery's season continuing as it has means Jake would likely supplant Montgomery as the organization's best pitching prospect.

Final: Wisconsin 5, Bowling Green (Rays) 2 Three-run eighth gives Wisconsin a victory By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers GRAND CHUTE, WI - The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers broke a 2-2 tie with three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning and went on to defeat the Bowling Green Hot Rods 5-2 Sunday afternoon at Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium. Ben McMahan knocked in the go ahead run with a single and Jason Rogers provided insurance with a two run double to hand Fond du Lac native Chad Pierce his first win as a Rattler. Wisconsin (13-11) grabbed a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. Brandon Macias doubled with one out and Max Walla drove him in with a single to center. Bowling Green (14-10) tied the game in the top of the second. Taylor Motter singled and stole second with one out. Motter stole third with two outs. An infield single by Matt Rice let Motter score to even the game 1-1. The Hot Rods took the lead with an unearned run in the top of the sixth. Ryan Brett singled, stole second, and went to third on a grounder. The Rattlers brought the infield in and Rattlers starting pitcher David Goforth got Todd Glaesmann to send a ground ball to third. Macias came home and the throw beat Brett. However, Brett crashed into Rattlers catcher Rafael Neda and jarred the ball loose to score the go ahead run. But, the lead did not last. Chadwin Stang led off the Rattlers half of the sixth inning and cracked his third home run of the season. Stang's line drive cleared the left field wall to tie the game 2-2. Pierce came on in the top of the seventh in relief of Goforth to retire the side in order in that frame and again in the eighth. That set the stage for Neda to get a little revenge. The Rattlers catcher started the Timber Rattlers eighth inning with a line drive double off the wall in left to put the go ahead run in scoring position for the Rattlers. John Dishon came on to pinch run for Neda after the two bagger. McMahan was next and he could not get down a sacrifice bunt in two attempts. He stepped back into the back with a 1-2 count and grounded a single through the middle of the diamond. Dishon just beat the tag at the plate with a headfirst dive and the Rattlers lead 3-2. Rogers tacked on two more runs with a double later in the inning for a 5-2 lead. Pierce would allow a leadoff single in the top of the ninth, but he got a strikeout and a 6-4-3 double play to end the game. He struck out four over three scoreless innings and picked up the win. The Timber Rattlers and the Hot Rods conclude their three game series on Monday afternoon. Andy Moye (1-0, 2.35) is the scheduled starting pitcher for Wisconsin. Bowling Green has Roberto Gomez (1-0, 4.95) as their scheduled starter. Game time is 12:05pm. Monday is a Baker Tilly Business Persons Special. Show your business card when you purchase a ticket and receive a box seat ticket, a beverage and your choice of brat or hot dog for $11.50. The offer is also available to senior citizens. It is also a Qdoba Q*Monday with B104.7. Fans receive a free ticket to any Monday home game on the 2012 schedule when they purchase a lunch entrée at the Qdoba by the Fox River Mall on a Monday. If you can't make it out to the game, tune in for the broadcast on AM1280, WNAM or timberrattlers.com starting with the Miller Lite Pregame Show at 11:45am. Monday's game is also available to subscribers of MiLB.TV. HOME RUN: WIS: Chadwin Stang (3rd, 0 on in 6th inning off Ryan Carpenter, 0 out) WP: Chad Pierce (1-0) LP: Stayton Thomas (0-3) TIME: 2:10 ATTN: 4,833 Wisconsin Box Score Any of you that read TH's Brewer's Pitching Unclear in 2013 were probably surprised that instead of mentioning Drew Gagnon's continuing dominance in Wisconsin, he chose instead to highlight to rough the starts that Tyler Robers and Rafael Neda are having. I'm not sure what catchers have to do with the premise of the story or why either player's struggles are noteworthy, but that's why I don't write for the JSO. He did mention Tommy Toledo's ERA and AVE against which I guess is something. I'm always torn for the Bowling Green series because I want the top prospects from each team to do well but I want the T-Rats to win. Complicated I know, but I'm sure I don't have to remind anyone of my affinity for the Rays organization. Speaking of which the Hot Rods have 3 first round picks from the last 2 drafts playing on this year's team; Tyler Goeddel, Jake Hager, and Drew Vettleson. Keep an eye on the pitching lines from this season series because the Bowling Green line-up is awfully talented. The pitching today was very good, David Goforth's final line 6IP allowing 5H, 0BB, 2R, 1ER and curiously no strike outs. The end result was easily David's best of the season as he threw 68 pitches and 50 for strikes. Chris detailed every part of Chad Pierce's day above so no need to cover again it down here. Brandon Macias and Rafael Neda paced the Rattlers with 2 hits and a double a piece, Jason Rogers also chipped in a double of his own. Macias got caught trying to steal, Goforth committed an error on a pickoff attempt, Carlos George committed a field error his 5th, and Neda committed his 2nd error on the missed catch. Goforth did pickoff Hager at 1st but the Neda and the pitchers failed to get any of the 3 runners who tried to steal. Wisconsin Play By Play Pretty quiet recap overall, Chris didn't mention it was an IF single to the pitcher in his story. Bowling Green Top of the 2nd Jeff Malm pops out to second baseman Carlos George. Taylor Motter singles on a line drive to right fielder Max Walla. With Cameron Seitzer batting, Taylor Motter steals (5) 2nd base. Cameron Seitzer grounds out, shortstop Yadiel Rivera to first baseman Gregory Hopkins. With Matt Rice batting, Taylor Motter steals (6) 3rd base. Matt Rice singles on a ground ball to pitcher David Goforth. Taylor Motter scores. With Jake Hager batting, throwing error by David Goforth on the pickoff attempt, Matt Rice to 2nd. Jake Hager grounds out, pitcher David Goforth to shortstop Yadiel Rivera to first baseman Gregory Hopkins. edit. Fixed season series, I know this was the last game of a 3 game set, poorly worded on my part.

Without a doubt if he stays up all year.

Thanks for catching that, somehow I missed it even though I was looking for him.

I realize this is extremely late notice but if someone could cover Huntsville and Wisconsin tomorrow (Saturday) I would greatly appreciate it. Once again I asked 2 different posters earlier in the week and didn't receive a PM back. I have a double header starting at 11 AM and then a family get together at my brother's restaurant after the games so I have no idea when I'll be getting home. Sometimes these family things go pretty quick, sometimes they get rather boisterous... If no one is available I'll certainly get the recaps in, but they might not get posted until early Sunday morning which isn't a problem for me, I just wanted everyone to know that I didn't forget if they aren't posted by midnight.

Gagnon pitches + Walla homer = Rattlers win By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers MILWAUKEE, WI - Drew Gagnon tossed eight scoreless innings and Max Walla hit a three run homer for the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers Friday night at Miller Park. That was all the Rattlers needed to defeat the Dayton Dragons 3-0. The Timber Rattlers (12-10) started quickly against Dragons starting pitcher Radhames Quezada. Chadwin Stang singled past Quezada's glove to get the first inning going. Brandon Macias followed with a line drive single off the chest of Quezada. Walla drove the next pitch from Quezada over the wall in right field for a three-run homer. The home run was the second for Walla at Miller Park. He also homered in the Rising Stars game, an All-Star Game for prospects in the Milwaukee Brewers system, on April 2, 2011. Gagnon didn't need anything else. The third round pick of the Brewers in the 2011 draft allowed four hits, walked one and struck out four. He extended his current scoreless streak to 19-2/3 innings with his eight scoreless frames on Friday night. The only real threat that the Dragons (11-11) had came in the fourth inning. Juan Perez doubled and went to third on a deep fly ball to right. Gagnon hit Sean Buckley to put runners on the corners. But, Gagnon induced Juan Silva to ground into an inning ending 1-6-3 double play. The Rattlers offense wouldn't cross the plate after the first, but Walla would a double in the fifth inning. Greg Hopkins moved his hitting streak to a team high eight games with a double in the sixth and a single in the eighth. Tommy Toledo worked a perfect ninth. The Timber Rattlers return to Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium to face the Bowling Green Hot Rods Saturday night. Mark Williams (0-2, 4.24) is the scheduled starting pitcher for Wisconsin. Bowling Green has Trevor Shull (0-0, 6.30) as their scheduled starter. Game time is 6:35pm. Saturday night is a Fly Away Saturday and one lucky fan will win airfare for two from Funjet Vacations and Fox World Travel at this game! Also, the first 1,000 fans will receive a poster of Timber Rattlers shortstop Yadiel Rivera, the #15 prospect in the Milwaukee Brewers system. If you can't make it to the ballpark, tune in for the broadcast on AM1280,WNAM or timberrattlers.com starting with the Miller Lite Pregame Show at 6:15pm. The game is also available on MiLB.TV. HOME RUN: WIS: Max Walla (1st, 2 on in 1st inning off Radhames Quezada, 0 out) WP: Drew Gagnon (2-0) LP: Radahmes Quezada (0-3) SAVE: Tommy Toledo (1) TIME: 2:10 ATTN: 6,616

Final: Huntsville 7, Mississippi (Braves) 4 Hunstville Box Score In exciting news the Stars actually out hit the opposition and broke double digits again! Evan Anundsen was your starting pitcher tonight and he went 6 erratic though very effective innings allowing 4 hits, 3 walks, and 1 earned run, against only 1 strike out. Evan threw 70 pitches, but only 37 were strikes, and yes I did a double take myself before typing it. Mitch Stetter came on and had his best outing since he returned striking out the side, all swinging. Eric Marzec came on to finish the game working a solid 8th inning but then caught the "we give up runs in the 9th inning" bug that seems to be making the rounds of our entire minor league relief core this season. Having already given up 3 runs and with runners on 1st and 2nd and 2 out he was removed in favor of Jesus Sanchez who got the final out of the game to pick up his first save of the season. Sean Gilmartin was the opposing pitcher, he's the #5 prospect in the Braves organization, so we should feel pretty good about the results here. Offensively the Stars pounded out 11 hits, led by Josh Prince who went 2-4 with a HR and a walk. Andy Gonzalez, Hunter Morris, and Jason Jarmillo each had 2 hits plus a double while Jay Gibbons added a 2 bagger of his own. Matt Cline had the only Huntsville error (throwing), it was his 4th of the season. As Mass noted Khris Davis was absent from the line-up yet again. Huntsville Play By Play The Stars jump started the offense in the 4th. Huntsville Top of the 4th Josh Prince homers (1) on a fly ball to left field. Scooter Gennett grounds out, shortstop Andrelton Simmons to first baseman Ian Gac. Andy Gonzalez reaches on fielding error by shortstop Andrelton Simmons. Hunter Morris singles on a ground ball to left fielder Adam Milligan. Andy Gonzalez to 2nd. Jay Gibbons grounds into a force out, second baseman Philip Gosselin to shortstop Andrelton Simmons. Andy Gonzalez to 3rd. Hunter Morris out at 2nd. Jay Gibbons to 1st. Jason Jaramillo doubles (5) on a line drive to center fielder Mycal Jones. Andy Gonzalez scores. Jay Gibbons scores. Matt Cline singles on a ground ball to shortstop Andrelton Simmons. Jason Jaramillo to 3rd. Evan Anundsen grounds out, third baseman Joe Leonard to first baseman Ian Gac. After scoring 1 in the 6th adding another crooked number in the 7th would be all the offense the Stars would need, though they thankfully tacked on an insurance run in the 9th. Huntsville Top of the 7th Pitcher Change: Chris Jones replaces Sean Gilmartin, batting 9th. Evan Anundsen grounds out, second baseman Philip Gosselin to first baseman Ian Gac. Kentrail Davis walks. Josh Prince singles on a line drive to right fielder Todd Cunningham. Kentrail Davis to 2nd. With Scooter Gennett batting, wild pitch by Chris Jones, Kentrail Davis to 3rd. Josh Prince to 2nd. Scooter Gennett strikes out swinging. Andy Gonzalez singles on a ground ball to right fielder Todd Cunningham. Kentrail Davis scores. Josh Prince scores. Andy Gonzalez to 2nd on the throw. Hunter Morris grounds out, second baseman Philip Gosselin to first baseman Ian Gac.

Final: Wisconsin 3, Dayton (Reds) 0 Wisconsin Box Score Drew Gagnon was pretty darn good, though he pitched differently than the last time I saw him. In the home opener he was moving the ball vertically to get strike outs, which I'm really into. Given that his FB moves in on RHBs that's just an extremely tough pitch to catch up with. Tonight my impression was that he was working on corner location (I was multitasking the draft so I didn't see every pitch, I did DVR the game though) and I saw him miss back over the plate grooving about a dozen pitches, half of which ended up getting hit pretty hard. Drew did keep his pitch count down and went 8 innings allowing 4 hits, a HBP, and 1 walk against 4 strike outs throwing 87 pitches, 62 for strikes. The strike outs are way down in the last 2 outings, but put me in the unconcerned category because as I said it appears he's working on something specific rather than challenging every hitter. Tommy Toledo came in and pitched a perfect 9th and punctuated the game by getting the last batter looking. Once again the Rattler bats did a bunch early and then not much after. Max Walla's first WI HR will be a lasting memory as it came at Miller Park, he went 2-3 adding a double and a walk later in the game. His season line is starting to look very respectable and I really liked his approach at the plate. He looks primed to put up some big numbers and get me excited about him again. Gregory Hopkins had the other multi-hit game as he went 2-4 with a double. Rafeal Neda nailed 1 of 2 runners trying to steal and the Rattlers played clean defense. The opposing pitcher Radhames Quezada has an interesting career progression and looks to be a player on the rise for the Reds, he seemed to have pretty good velocity and after the first inning he pitched pretty well. He wasn't hitting his spots, but the Rattlers only managed 2 walks against him after the 1st. Wisconsin Play By Play This was the only time Gagnon was threatened all game so he hit a batter to give himself an easy way out of the inning! Dayton Top of the 4th Juan Perez doubles (5) on a line drive to center fielder Chadwin Stang. Ryan Wright flies out to right fielder Max Walla. Juan Perez to 3rd. Sean Buckley hit by pitch. Juan Silva grounds into double play, pitcher Drew Gagnon to shortstop Yadiel Rivera to first baseman Gregory Hopkins. Sean Buckley out at 2nd. One note on the Ryan Wright F9, Perez cadillaced it pretty bad moving to 3rd and Max came up firing making it a relatively close play, he has a pretty good arm and a looks to be a good fit for RF.

Well he didn't really start hitting until July 17th, JB12 cherry picked a larger sample based on HR totals which wasn't representative of the actual hitting results. Going 1-4 or 1-5 and hitting a HR every 3rd day around some 0-fers doesn't mean you're actually hitting. McGehee entered July with a .221 AVE and still had a .221 AVE on 16th. His AVE peaked at .243 on Aug 20 and after that it was a slow and relatively steady fall back to .226 to end the year. It's nice that his only hits were HRs, but he was pretty much done with multiple hit games by Aug 20th. In fact he only had 2 multi hit games the rest of the season after that point. So I stand by my "hot month" comment and regardless what does the timing of that month have to do with the conversation? He should have been on the bench no later than the middle of June, not the middle of July, the talk only got louder on the forum through mid summer because Casey is a likeable dude and people were slow to jump off his bandwagon. Those of us that never trusted the guy would have made the switch much sooner. Furthermore how do we know that Green wouldn't have outhit McGehee regardless? He likely wouldn't have had the 3 HR game to skew his power numbers, but who's to say he wouldn't have been more productive overall? Taylor's confidence was at an all time high, he was absolutely raking in AAA. I'd put the odds at slightly over 50% in Taylor's favor that he would have outproduced McGehee's best month, and I'm certain he would have outproduced his June-September.

Chris Mehring's 9 After 9 for 4/26/2012, as usual it's a must read.

Final: Huntsville 5, Mississippi (Braves) 4 Huntsville Box Score Tyler Thornburg was rolling along until the 6th when he shot himself in the foot with a walk and the defense let him down, then Darren Byrd entered the game and gave up a double to his first batter. Unfortunately Darren is beginning to make a habit of allowing his inherited runners to score. Tyler's final line 5.2IP, 4H, 4R, 1ER, 3BB, and 7SO. My only gripe would be the 3 walks gave up, he threw 83 pitches with 53 being strikes. After the 6th Byrd went 2 more scoreless innings with a walk and a strike out and finally Robert Wooten slammed the door shut with 2 strike outs in the 9th for his 4th save. The Stars scored their 5 runs on only 6 hits, the bats have been quiet now for almost a week. No Stars had multiple hits but Kentrail Davis and Jay Gibbons both doubled. I absolutely love pitchers who can swing the stick, and Thornburg's HR is just another facet of his limited to relief and nonathletic game to appreciate. Gibbons did get picked off later in the game and both Hunter Morris and Matt Cline each had a fielding error in the contest. Huntsville Play by Play Shoddy defense helped the Stars in the 3rd Huntsville Top of the 3rd Jason Jaramillo walks. Matt Cline singles on a line drive to left fielder Adam Milligan. Jason Jaramillo to 2nd. Tyler Thornburg reaches on fielding error by pitcher Zeke Spruill. Jason Jaramillo to 3rd. Matt Cline to 2nd. Kentrail Davis doubles (2) on a fly ball to left fielder Adam Milligan. Jason Jaramillo scores. Matt Cline scores. Tyler Thornburg to 3rd. Josh Prince grounds out, third baseman Joe Leonard to first baseman Ian Gac. Scooter Gennett grounds out to first baseman Ian Gac. Andy Gonzalez flies out to center fielder Keenan Wiley. The legitimate run Thornburg gave up... Mississippi Bottom of the 3rd Zeke Spruill called out on strikes. Keenan Wiley triples (1) on a fly ball to right fielder Kentrail Davis. Andrelton Simmons out on a sacrifice fly to left fielder Jay Gibbons. Keenan Wiley scores. Philip Gosselin grounds out, second baseman Scooter Gennett to first baseman Hunter Morris. Tyler busts out the whuppin stick! That will be the last time they IBB the hitter in front of Tyler. Huntsville Top of the 4th Hunter Morris lines out to shortstop Andrelton Simmons. Jay Gibbons doubles (1) on a fly ball to left fielder Adam Milligan. Jason Jaramillo grounds out, pitcher Zeke Spruill to first baseman Ian Gac. Jay Gibbons to 3rd. Zeke Spruill intentionally walks Matt Cline. Tyler Thornburg homers (1) on a fly ball to left field. Jay Gibbons scores. Matt Cline scores. Kentrail Davis flies out to center fielder Keenan Wiley. Mississippi climbed back into the game in the 6th. Mississippi Bottom of the 6th Philip Gosselin lines out to center fielder Josh Prince. Ian Gac walks. Joe Leonard called out on strikes. Adam Milligan reaches on fielding error by first baseman Hunter Morris. Ian Gac to 2nd. Christian Bethancourt singles on a ground ball to shortstop Matt Cline. Ian Gac to 3rd. Adam Milligan to 2nd. Pitcher Change: Darren Byrd replaces Tyler Thornburg, batting 9th. Cory Harrilchak doubles (6) on a fly ball to right fielder Kentrail Davis. Ian Gac scores. Adam Milligan scores. Christian Bethancourt scores. Offensive Substitution: Pinch hitter Todd Cunningham replaces Zeke Spruill. Todd Cunningham grounds out to first baseman Hunter Morris.

Final: Dayton (Reds) 3, Wisconsin 1 (10 innings) Dragons claw past Rattlers in ten By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers GRAND CHUTE, WI - For the second time in less than a week, the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers took a 1-0 lead to the ninth inning only to lose in extra innings. The latest heartbreaker came on Thursday night at Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium as the Dayton Dragons defeated the Rattlers 3-1 in ten innings. Wisconsin starting pitcher Matt Miller tossed six scoreless innings, but was not involved in the decision. The Rattlers (11-10) scored a run in the bottom of the second. Greg Hopkins, who hit the game winning home run on Wednesday night, singled to start the second on Thursday. The Rattlers third baseman stole second to get into scoring position. Brandon Macias drove in Hopkins with a single to left for the 1-0 lead. Miller, who has his turn skipped in the rotation the last time it came up, pitched very well. The tall righty allowed three hits and struck out four over his six scoreless frames before turning the game over to the bullpen. Stephen Peterson relieved Miller and pitched two scoreless innings. But, Seth Harvey had a couple of breaks go against him in the top of the ninth. Harvey just missed on a close 2-2 pitch to Ryan Wright, the Dragons leadoff batter in the ninth. Wright fouled a few two strike pitches off before he singled to get aboard as the tying run. Wright stole second as Harvey struck out Sean Buckley for out number one and took third when Juan Silva grounded out to first for the second out. Danny Vicioso was next and Harvey made a good pitch to jam the Dayton first baseman. But, Vicioso's blooper dropped in shallow right just out of the reach of Rattlers first baseman Jason Rogers and Wright scored the tying run. The Rattlers went down quietly in the bottom of the ninth and the Dragons (11-10) picked up in the tenth right where they left off in the ninth. Kevin Shackelford got Junior Arias to send a slow grounder to short, but the speedy Arias beat the throw to first. A sacrifice bunt moved the go ahead run into scoring position. Jefry Sierra trickled a single through the infield and into short right to score Arias with the run that made it 2-1 Dayton. An error let Juan Perez reach base. Then, Wright singled in Sierra for a 3-1 lead. Dayton loaded the bases in the inning and appeared to score another run on a sacrifice fly, but Perez was ruled out when the Rattlers successfully appealed that he had left third base too earlty. Kyle McMyne, who shut the Rattlers down the ninth, pitched a 1-2-3 tenth to secure the win for the Dragons. On Sunday, the Rattlers led South Bend 1-0 going to the bottom of the ninth inning on the road only to see the Silver Hawks tie the game in the ninth and win 2-1 in ten innings. The Timber Rattlers and Dragons play game three of the series Friday night at Miller Park, the home of the Milwaukee Brewers. Brewers prospect Drew Gagnon (1-0, 0.89) is the scheduled starter for the Timber Rattlers. Game time is 7:05pm. If you can't make it to Miller Park, there are plenty of ways to catch the game. Tune in on AM1280, WNAM or timberrattlers.com for the radio call starting with the Miller Lite Pregame Show at 6:45pm. Time Warner Cable subscribers can tune in to the telecast on Sports32. One other opportunity to catch the game will be on MiLB.com, which will be streaming the game as the Free Game of the Day. WP: Kyle McMyne (2-0),br> LP: Kevin Shackelford (1-1) TIME: 2:53 ATTN: 1,694 Wisconsin Box Score Wow the 2nd time within a week the bullpen gives up a lead in the 9th and the T-Rats lose, and across the organization this happened at least 3 times this week. To quote my almost 2 year old niece; "Relievers... are you?" A stolen base, dying quail, seeing eye single, and error was all it took. Props to Matt Miller for his best outing of the season even though he didn't get the win, he threw 89 pitches and 56 for strikes. Matt also gave up a WP and a HBP. The T-Rats managed just 5 hits in the contest so it's not surprising that no Rattlers had multiple hits and Yadiel Rivera had the only XBH, a double. The opposing pitcher Justice French was a 25th round pick in last year's draft. However the T-Rats did steal 3 bases with Gregory Hopkins, Brandon Macias, and Chadwin Stang each getting in on the action. Defensively there were 2 errors 1 by Stephen Peterson throwing on a bunt attempt and the other was the extremely costly fielding error in the 10 by Jason Rogers. The good news is that there were also 2 OF assists, Stang combined with Tyler Robers to get a runner at 3rd to end the 9th and Ben McMahan gunned a runner at 2nd. Roberts only got 1 of the 4 runners who tried to steal a base in the game, but that's as much on the pitchers as it is him. Wisconsin Play By Play This is probably the only sequence of note that Chris won't cover between the game story and his 9 After 9 feature on the blog. Dayton Top of the 5th Danny Vicioso singles on a line drive to left fielder Ben McMahan. Danny Vicioso out at 2nd, left fielder Ben McMahan to second baseman Adrian Williams. Kyle Waldrop called out on strikes. Junior Arias singles on a ground ball to shortstop Yadiel Rivera. With Nick O'Shea batting, Junior Arias steals (4) 2nd base. Nick O'Shea hit by pitch. Jefry Sierra lines out to right fielder Max Walla. edit. I lied, Chris covered the bounce off the wall on that play anyway, he's too thorough.

Wisconsin and Dayton to the 10th...

This one doesn't hurt my feelings for many reasons. Gerardo Concepcion Lit Up In Pro Debut For Cubs His scouting report is behind the pay wall but here are the highlights:

I'm going to make an effort to keep everyone up to date on not only our prospects here in the LR, but the top prospects of our division rivals as well. Oscar Taveras (Cards) gets some love in BA's Daliy Dish The Cards AA team plays in the Texas League so we won't see him this year, but Odorizzi will face off against him. Taveras was jumped past A+ or he would have faced Bradley, Jungmann, and Nelson in the FSL. He played in the MWL last year, his stats are linked in the blog post, they are awfully impressive.

Again, Hardy has legitimate talent, McGehee does not... the relative veteraness has nothing to do with it. There was simply no reason to believe McGehee's true talent was close to what he put up in his first 2 seasons, he simply overachieved. I think McGehee can put a league average OPS through out his prime, something in that .750 range, but he's a stop gap player, he's someone who's good enough when you don't have anyone better... only we did have someone who could have performed better. Just like Narveson, Estrada, Gonzalez, and so on down the line. These aren't guys you build around, these are guys you hope produce until you can upgrade the position. Hardy's worst OPS by month in 2008 was .603... he went .603, .701, .969, 1.031, .873, and .751. Hardy was certainly bad in April but a slow start to the season is a far cry from putting up a .422 or a .497 OPS. There's a bad month and then there's completely terrible, McGehee had 2 months with a sub .500 OPS, a month with a sub .600 OPS, and a month with a sub .700 OPS. If Hardy would have hit that bad you can bet I would have been clamoring for Escobar much earlier than I to give someone else a chance. A .422 OPS is so horrible it baffles the mind, and that was the end of a steady 3 month decline in production. JB12... seriously? You're going to take his best hot streak and extrapolate that out over a season as proof? Cripes you can do that for just about any player and they look All-Star if not HOF worthy.

The situation between Hardy's rookie season and McGehee's 3rd season are so dissimilar there's not even an adequate comparison to made there. Hardy was a 22 year old rookie coming off a major shoulder injury with 112 AAA PAs after a respectable but not stellar AA campaign. McGehee was 28 year old with limited athleticism and skill who had never performed in the minors near what his 2009 line was. His best MiLB OPS was .776 and he put up an .859... his decline was as predictable as every player with limited talent that had come before him and had a great season like Brady Clark. The difference between McGehee and every other player you mentioned is that they had/have legit talent and athleticism while Casey clearly did not. He can put the bat on the ball but that's all he brings to the table and if he loses that mental edge he's got nothing left to offer as his OBP is only +50-60 points higher than his BA, his range is terrible, and his glove and arm are average at best. It's a good thing Hairston came along when he did, in no way am I a huge Taylor Green guy, he's a slightly more athletic version of McGehee with the exception that he's a left handed bat. However I don't believe there's any way that Green would have done worse than McGehee's .626 OPS for the season, we had a very cheap internal option available all season but Melvin didn't make a move until Weeks went down. Fortunately when Weeks came back they had enough sense to move Hairston to 3rd which was only thing that saved us from McGehee starting in the playoffs. Edit. As for Green's performance this season in AAA, he's clearly dejected after his demotion and is trying to get back on track. It's not an excuse, he needs to pick it up and he knows he does, he just hasn't handled the demotion back to AAA well at all. He talked about it in an interview posted on the minor league forum last week and the Nashville team as a whole is looking historically bad.

What part makes you say this? Well St Louis has had less success than we have with international signings overall, yet because they spent a ton of money on 2 players who are currently in the BA top 100 they deserve mention? They were in the bottom 8 with us, with exact same number of players total, just seems weird that they were the only team in the bottom talked about. The Brewers have recently refocused efforts in Latin America and are taking on a noteworthy new tact such as the academy which actually incorporates a school and such. Don't get me wrong, I think the Brewers overall record is pretty poor with Latin America and I certainly wouldn't expect them to be highlighted, but I don't see spending money as a new or discussion worthy approach to getting players from overseas. Isn't that just what all of the big market teams have been doing all along? I don't know, it just struck me as arbitrary to highlight them because of the money spent on obvious talent. Unfortunately with most things in baseball it seems to come down to money, all they did was spend money and while they landed 2 really nice prospects, they aren't exceedingly active. The next lowest number of prospects for a team discussed was the Rockies who were tied with a bunch of teams at 7 prospects. Here's the bit about the Rockies, I think their success on a limited budget is noteworthy and deserving of discussion:

9 after 9 for 4/25

Final: Mississippi (Braves) 9, Huntsville 1 Stars Scorched By Braves in Series Opener Huntsville loses third consecutive game. PEARL, MS.- With eight runs in a span of two innings, the Mississippi Braves rolled to a 9-1 victory over the Huntsville Stars in the five-game series opener at Trustmark Park on Wednesday night. After the Stars tied up the game in the second inning at 1-1 with a solo home run by third basemen Andy Gonzalez, the Braves bats took over. Led by a pair of RBI singles by third baseman Joe Leonard and catcher Christian Bethancourt, Mississippi opened up a 4-1 lead after three innings. Then, in the fifth, a sacrifice fly by shortstop Andrelton Simmons, a pair of RBI singles by left fielder Adam Milligan and right fielder Todd Cunningham and a 2-run double by Leonard again gave the Braves their final lead that they did not relinquish. Overall, the Stars arms were unable to handle the bats for the opposition for second consecutive game, giving up a season-high 16 hits on the night. Five Braves players had multi-hit games, led by Leonard and Bethancourt with three apiece. For the Stars, LHP Dan Merklinger was tabbed with the loss after giving up eight runs in 3.1 innings, falling to 0-2 on the season. For the Braves, LHP Jose Lugo earned his first win of the season after giving up a run and two hits over 5.0 innings. Mississippi RHP Gary Moran also pitched 4.0 scoreless innings in relief. On offense, the Stars were limited to seven hits or less for the third game in row. Huntsville has also lost all three games. Game two of a five-game series between the two teams will begin tomorrow as Huntsville will send RHP Tyler Thornburg (1-0, 2.01 ERA) will square off against Mississippi RHP Zeke Spruill (2-1, 3.38 ERA). First pitch is at 7:00 PM. Huntsville Box Score Well hopefully Thornburg can help get things back on track tomorrow because this was pretty putrid. Merklinger's line isn't worth discussing, all you need to know is that his season ERA has ballooned over 9. R.J. Seidel relieved Dan giving up 5H and 1ER in his 2.2 innings, his ERA is exactly 6 after today's game. I understand that ERA isn't a good way to evaluate pitching, but in this case it tells you pretty much everything you need to know about the season both players have had thus far. Jesus Sanchez managed a clean 7th even though he gave up a hit and walked 2. Robert Wooten finished the game striking out 2 in his only inning of work. The Stars only managed 4 hits in the entire game, the opposing pitcher Jose Lugo is a 28 year old who still doesn't have a single MLB appearance in his career. Other than Gonzalez HR mentioned above Hunter Morris doubled for the only other noteworthy offensive performance. Unfortunately Lee Haydel's hit streak came to an end with an 0-fer. Stars also committed 2 errors, both fielding, one by Josh Prince and the other by Domnit Bolivar. Huntsville Play By Play Please move along, there's nothing to see here...