TheCrew07

Late rally pushes Rattlers past Beloit By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers http://www.milb.com/assets/images/6/8/8/127606688/cuts/5_30_Leal_WEB_u6vaf3th_qod7kh2m.jpg Carlos Leal went 2-for-5 with a double, an RBI, and two runs scored for the Rattlers on Friday night at Beloit. (Wisconsin Timber Rattlers/Ann Mollica) BELOIT, WI - The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers scored seven runs in the eighth inning to bust open a close game against the Beloit Snappers Friday night at Pohlman Field. The late outburst gave the Rattlers a 9-1 victory over their in-state rivals and allowed them to snap a three-game losing streak. Beloit starting pitcher Daniel Gossett didn't allow a hit through the first five innings. He retired the first thirteen batters he faced before Elvis Rubio reached on a throwing error after a routine grounder to short. Wisconsin starter David Burkhalter also kept putting zeroes on the scoreboard as he allowed three hits and struck out six over his first five innings. The Rattlers (29-57 overall, 6-10 second half) broke through in the top of the sixth. Mitch Meyer singled into right to start the inning and was moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Gregory Munoz. Brandon Diaz followed with a bunt single to put runners on the corners. Blake Allemand was next and his grounder to second turned into a force at second on Diaz, but Allemand beat the throw to first. By beating out the potential inning-ending double play, Allemand allowed Meyer to score the go-ahead run. The Snappers (32-54, 6-10) answered in the bottom of the sixth. Yairo Munoz hit a solo homer to left with one out to tie the game. Luke Curtis relieved Burkhalter after the homer, retired the next two batters on two pitches and kept the game tied. Wisconsin came right back in the top of the seventh against Gossett. Carlos Leal doubled and went to third on a single by Rubio. Then, Alan Sharkey lined out to left deep enough for Leal to score the go-ahead run. Cody Ponce, the second round pick of the Milwaukee Brewers in the 2015 draft, took over on the hill in the bottom of the seventh and gave up a pair of singles, but ended the inning on a grounder to third that stranded runners at the corners. In the eighth, the Wisconsin offense erupted for seven runs on six hits as they pulled away from the Snappers. Meyer started the inning by drawing a walk from reliever Cody Stull. Munoz dropped a bunt up the third base line and beat the throw for a single. Diaz also bunted up the third base line for a hit. The throw to first was wild and that allowed Meyer to score for a 3-1 lead. Stull hit Allemand to load the bases and gave up an RBI single to Dustin DeMuth before leaving the game with Wisconsin up 4-1. Stull faced five Rattlers in the eighth inning and didn't retire any of them. Mike Fagan came in for Stull and Leal greeted him with an RBI single. A wild pitch would let another run home before Rubio walked to load the bases. Alan Sharkey made it 7-1 with an slow grounder to second that allowed a run to score. Sthervin Matos and Munoz capped the scoring in the inning with RBI singles and Wisconsin was up 9-1. Ponce retired the last six Beloit batters in order to close out the game and earn his first professional save. Wisconsin's offense had ten hits and went 7-for-11 with runners in scoring positon on the evening. Curtis is now 6-1 on the season. Game two of the series is scheduled for Saturday night at Pohlman Field. Milwaukee Brewers starter Wily Peralta is scheduled to make the start for the Timber Rattlers as part of his rehabilitation assignment. Beloit has named Junior Mendez (2-6, 4.76) as their starting pitcher. Game time is 7:00pm. Catch the radio broadcast of the game on AM1280, WNAM starting with the Miller Lite Pregame Show at 6:40pm. The broadcast may also be heard on Tune In Radio and IHeartRadio. HOME RUN: BEL Yairo Munoz (8th, 0 on in 6th inning off David Burkhalter, 1 out) WP: Luke Curtis (6-1) LP: Daniel Gossett (3-9) SAVE: Cody Ponce (1) TIME: 2:40 ATTN: 1,564 Wisconsin Boxscore Off topic... I know next to nothing about photography but you look around at all the excellent photographs from our own Brad and of course Ann Mollica who's been doing such great work for the T-Rats and I wonder... how many pictures do they shoot per game and how many pics per excellent photo? These are the types of random thoughts that pop into my head when I admire but don't quite understand something. Anyway the pitching was awesome... finally, I swear I say good things about these guys and then they bury me. David Burkhalter's curve is a slower version of the pitch Jungmann featured in college... it's in the upper 60s and breaks from head to feet. It's not a MLB pitch, but it's been effective and has potential if he can tighten it up and put some zip on it. Cody Ponce is still sporting a 0.00 ERA through 2 appearances and 7 innings. Brandon Diaz (2-5), Carlos Leal (2-5,2B), and Gregory Munoz (2-3) had the multi-hit efforts for the T-Rats. Wisconsin Recap

Excellent choice!

Why do we want 3 years of a backup OF? We have plenty of those already in house. That's going out and acquiring a closer for a team who's 20 games out of 1st place, it's filling out the roster backwards and rather pointless.

Rattlers fall hard in Kane County By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers http://www.milb.com/assets/images/5/9/0/123941590/cuts/5_May12_DustinMeMuth_5cy0j5xb_z920zg9p.jpg Dustin DeMuth had a double and an RBI for the Timber Rattlers Thursday night at Kane County. (Wisconsin Timber Rattlers/Ann Mollica) GENEVA, IL - The Kane County Cougars defeated the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers 13-2 Thursday night at Fifth Third Bank Ballpark. Kane County collected nineteen hits in the game and erased an early two-run deficit to go on to their third straight win over the Rattlers. Wisconsin (28-57 overall, 5-10 second half) grabbed the early lead with two runs in the top of the first against Cougars starting pitcher Chris Oliver. Brandon Diaz started the game with a walk and a single by Blake Allemand sent Diaz around to third base. Dustin DeMuth knocked in Diaz with a sacrifice fly. An errant pickoff throw by Oliver allowed Allemand to take third base. Carlos Leal drove in Allemand and the Rattlers were up 2-0. Kane County (49-34, 13-2) responded with four runs in the bottom of the first and four more in the bottom of the second. In the first, Marty Herum cracked a two-run double to tie the game. Henry Castillo hit a two-out, two-run homer and the Cougars were up 4-2. The hit was the first of four on the night for Castillo. In the second, Rattlers starting pitcher Angel Ventura gave up a leadoff single to Victor Reyes, who stole second and went to third on a passed ball. Wisconsin brought the infield in and a grounder was hit to second baseman Gregory Munoz, but the throw home was just late and Reyes scored to make it 5-2. Later in the inning, Herum drove in a run with a sacrifice fly and Castillo knocked in two more with a double to give him four RBI on the night and the Cougars were up 8-2. The Rattlers tried to put a rally together in the fourth inning against Oliver. Natanael Mejia reached on an infield single. Gregory Munoz and Diaz followed with bunt singles to load the bases, but Oliver escaped without allowing a run. Oliver, who just arrived with Kane County from Lakewood in the South Atlantic League after a trade between the Philadelphia Phillies and Arizona Diamondback, tossed six innings in his Cougars debut. He allowed two runs on eight hits over six innings, struck out five with one walk, and picked up the win. Kane County poured on the offense with another run in the fifth off Ventura, three more in the seventh off Tyler Linehan, and one last run in the eighth off Scott Lieser. In the two game series at Fifth Third Bank Ballpark, Kane County outscored the Rattlers 28-7 and outhit the Rattlers 36-18. The Timber Rattlers continue their road trip with game one of a four-game series against the Beloit Snappers at Pohlman Field on Friday night. David Burkhalter (2-5, 4.75) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. Beloit sends Daniel Gossett (3-8, 5.42) to the mound. Game time is 7:00pm. Catch the radio broadcast of the game on AM1280, WNAM starting with the Miller Lite Pregame Show at 6:40pm. The broadcast may also be heard on Tune In Radio and IHeartRadio. HOME RUN: KC: Henry Castillo (1st, 1 on in 1st off Angel Ventura, 2 out) WP: Chris Oliver (1-0) LP: Angel Ventura (3-3) TIME: 2:37 ATTN: 4,893 Wisconsin Boxscore Someone stop the bleeding! Kane County has destroyed the T-Rats so far this season. Angel Ventura got upset about the strike zone early and it all went south, both teams were unhappy with the plate umpire so at least he was consistently bad. Just keep pitching Angel... this stinker bumped his ERA a full run from 2.84 all the way to 3.84 and set the tone for another night to forget from the pitching staff as a whole. So lets talk a little theory because Marty Harem, while unfortunately from St Paul and likely a Vikings' fan, played baseball at UW Whitewater and had a successful career there. The last time the Brewers dipped into the D3 ranks that I recall was for Austin Blaski, who just kind of faded away after an injury. The WIAC is one of the better D3 conferences in the nation, and I know it's not the same competition as D1 and all that, but there have been successful big league players to come from the conference. Now this may sound like criticism, but it's not, it's more curiosity because Harem wasn't drafted by anyone, signed as a NDFA with AZ, and has gotten better every year. Now he's not going to set the world on fire from a SLG or OBP standpoint, but he's pretty decent at 1B and has room to fill out yet. The Brewers have taken some players with much higher ceilings: In 2012 they took Alan Sharkey and Adam Giacalone, neither one of those guys performed better at the plate than Herum, though Sharkey is an excellent defensive 1B. in 2013 it was Garrett Cooper and David Denson, both with much higher ceilings than Herum, but in 2014 they didn't take a single 1B, and this year came back with Tyrone Perry and Steven Karkenny. Just looking around at where the Brewers are it seems like they could have had room for a guy like Herum as Cooper is the only player who's outperformed Herum to this point but is repeating at BC. So all this got me thinking, do the Brewers scout the best players in the WIAC or is it just UWM? Every year it seems like a player or 2 gets drafted or signed from the WIAC but not by the Brewers. Every once in a while there are pop-up players that are nationally recognized like Jordan Zimmermann, Bob Wickman, or Jarrod Washburn so every team is on them, and of course this a cold weather state, the quality of baseball is just D3, and every other negative someone can think of. However, I just find myself curious if the only show in town is spending time scouting the only college baseball conference in the state or is it not worth the time? At any rate the Rattlers put 9 hits on the board which would normally be cause for celebration but ended up on the wrong side of another drubbing. The unfortunate Sthervin Matos was the only player not to record a hit and Natanael Mejia (2-4) recorded the only multi-hit game. Mejia isn't the best defender, tonight he forgot there was a runner on 2nd when there was a wild pitch, but he's got some talent with the stick. Kane County continues to challenge Dustin DeMuth with bunts up the 3rd base line, he's made most but not all of the plays. I for one will be glad when the season series with Kane County is over because they have a Munoz and Castillo as well, so if I get distracted I have no idea what's exactly happening when Chris is describing the action when I re-focus my attention back on the game. On the bright side at least Mehring was entertaining, he really does make my summers. Wisconsin Recap

Wow, freaking Chase Wright, "a move that had to be made"... some of those comments are pretty funny now. Just more bargain bin trash, too bad we didn't put a package together for a real pitcher like Niemann. Yes I know a shoulder injury ended his career, but 3 good years of Niemann would have been better than Wright's run of futility with the Brewers in the minor leagues. At least the Brewers would have had another legitimately talented pitcher besides Yo for a while.

I don't agree with you on the point you made, as I believe that is true, once a young impact pitcher is established his is in truth the most valuable commodity in baseball. There are however other ways to make to trades, such as prospect for prospect swaps or selling a young established MLB hitter for the pitching we needed. If the options are limited to only buying established MLB pitching with prospects, then yes the Brewers did the right thing. However, there were other avenues to get the pitching talent we so desperately needed and the organization chose to go a different way. It can be done, TB has continually done it, ATL has done it over the last 14 months, there are deals out there. The problem those deals are few and far between so if you don't take advantage of the opportunity when it presents itself then you're left out in the cold. It's not that the Brewers didn't have other opportunities to mold the team, it's that the Front Office used strict and arbitrary criteria to determine what moves should be made, thus limiting the opportunities that were available. This organization has been very good at limiting it's own options and boxing itself into corners. The organization knew even when Weeks, Fielder, and Braun were prospects that they didn't have enough pitching, it was a regular topic in Gord Ash interviews with the minor league broadcasters. He repeatedly said they thought they could trade for the pitching they needed so I had great hope for the future. I was thinking they'd give up a hitter or 2 to get pitchers to go with Gallardo. When the strategy turned out to be trading an entire wave of prospects for 3 short duration solutions I was crushed, lost faith in management, and have remained as such to this day. Holes were not permanently addressed so the same issues kept back around and eventually the prospect well ran dry so the Brewers ended up with a paper thin MLB roster with literally nothing behind it, and here we are. It's wasn't preordained, it's not fate, and contrary to what has been posted making those moves for Sabathia, Greinke, and Marcum were not "necessary", they only feel that way from a selfish point of view. Lucroy wanted to win, he knew the Brewers needed pitching, so he approved of the trades, just like the majority of fans. However just because the solution chosen was obvious doesn't make it the best possible course of action in the long or short term. There are always other options.

Kane County scores big to beat Wisconsin By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers http://www.milb.com/assets/images/7/0/2/135638702/cuts/Allemand_WEB_aiiwjghs_vm2hsfqr.jpg Blake Allemand had three hits, scored two runs, and drove in one run for the Rattlers on Wednesday night at Kane County. GENEVA, IL - The Kane County Cougars scored eight runs in the bottom of the second inning and rolled to a 15-5 win over the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers Wednesday night at Fifth Third Bank Ballpark. Wisconsin did get to within four runs late, but the Cougars added to their lead with six runs in the bottom of the eighth. The first ten Kane County hitters to bat in the bottom of the second inning reached base. Eight of them scored. The inning started with a single by Marty Herum. Next, Timber Rattlers starting pitcher Jon Perrin and Kane County's Colin Bray battled for eleven pitches as Bray fouled off six different two-strike pitches and worked the count to 3-2. Bray belted pitch number twelve of the at bat over the wall in right for a two-run homer. The next two batters reached on a walk and a single. Joe Munoz would come through with an RBI single and the Cougars (48-34 overall, 12-2 second half) were up 3-0. The next hitter would single to load the bases. Chuck Taylor and Ildemaro Vargas connected on back-to-back RBI singles to make it 5-0 and chase Perrin from the game. Luke Curtis took over for Perrin and issued a bases loaded walk to Cody Regis to force in a run. Herum, in his second at bat of the inning, lined a single to center to drive in two more runs and the Cougars were up 8-0. Wisconsin (28-56, 5-9) loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the fourth inning against Kane County starter Josh Taylor. The Rattlers scored a run when Alan Sharkey grounded into a 4-6-3 double play. The Rattlers added two more runs in the top of the fifth. Elvis Rubio and Greg McCall singled to start the inning and a wild pitch moved both runners into scoring position. Tucker Neuhaus drove in Rubio with a sacrifice fly. Blake Allemand knocked in McCall with a two out single. Wisconsin threatened again in the sixth inning when Sthervin Matos and Dustin DeMuth started the inning with singles. Sharkey was robbed of a hit when his line drive was snared at third by Munoz. Then, Yency Solis took over for Taylor and retired the next two batters on routine flyouts. Luis Ortega, Wisconsin's third pitcher in the game, worked 2-2/3 scoreless innings until he gave up a run in the bottom of the sixth on a two-out RBI single by Regis to make the score 9-3. The Rattlers rallied again in the eighth inning against reliever Luis Ramirez. Allemand picked up his third hit of the night with a single. A two-out single by Alan Sharkey put runners on the corners. A balk by Ramirez allowed Allemand to score and Sharkey to take second base. Carlos Leal singled to left to drive in Sharkey and the Rattlers were within four runs. Kane County put any thoughts of a ninth inning comeback by the Rattlers away with six runs in the bottom of the eighth to go up by ten runs. Ortega got the first out, but the next seven batters reached base against him. Vargas had an RBI single. Herum added a two-run double. Bray singled home a run. Michael Perez added an RBI when his grounder was misplayed and that knocked Ortega out of the game. Reliever Zach Cooper gave up an RBI double to Quinnton Mack and hit the next batter to load the bases before getting an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play. But, the Cougars were up 15-5 when the smoke cleared. Wisconsin got a walk to start the ninth, but Zac Curtis retired the next three batters to finish the game. The Timber Rattlers and Cougars conclude their series on Thursday night. Angel Ventura (3-2, 2.47) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. Chris Oliver, who had a 4-5 record with a 4.04 ERA with the Lakewood BlueClaws in the South Atlantic League, will make his Midwest League debut with the Cougars after joining them in a trade between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Philadelphia Phillies. Game time is 6:30pm. There are several ways to catch the action from Kane County. The radio broadcast is on AM1280, WNAM starting with the Miller Lite Pregame Show at 6:10pm. The broadcast may also be heard on Tune In Radio and IHeartRadio. Subscribers to MiLB.TV may watch the game on that platform with the Kane County announcers. HOME RUN: KC: Colin Bray (2nd, 1 on in 2nd inning off Jon Perrin, 0 out) WP: Josh Curtis (1-0) LP: Jon Perrin (0-1) TIME: 3:09 ATTN: 3,228 Wisconsin Boxscore Well on the pitching side there's nothing positive to say. This team doesn't have a single reliever who can stop an inning before it gets out of hand. A couple have decent ERAs but that is mostly because they are giving up runs charged to other pitchers. I really like the starting pitching but if those guys lay an egg it's pretty much a done deal as far as that game goes. At least the bats showed up, everyone but Diaz and Neuhaus recorded a hit. Blake Allemand's best day since joining the T-Rats was highlighted above. Wisconsin Recap

Very slim, the Brewers haven't made that kind of mistake in the past.

Well the whole draft pick as PTBNL thing has only been done once as far as I know, and last year to boot, so I doubt it. However for Gomez + I would want 2 lower level arms that have #2 upside, a middling prospect who profiles like a #3, and a position player with upside. I just picked the players whom I like or could live with and fit those profiles. Cody is a player I don't particularly like, but I could live with as I think he'd be a hit in a trade with the fans. As to Berrios as a 3? Well he has 2nd tier velocity (which is good), he sits 92-94. However he's never really had an out pitch, he started using a change last year in that capacity but his breaking ball was VERY average when I saw him. If his off speed stuff improves he could be a #2, if stays where it's at he's a #4, I took the middle ground at a #3. I saw him in 2013 and wished the Brewers had him, but he wasn't a guy who'd you fall in love with because he was filthy. He's kind of the reverse version of Medeiros whom you see the filth and hope he learns how to control it, Berrios is a guy you look at and hope he develops some filth. I've just grown weary of the mid to upper 80s control type pitchers the Brewers have been bringing in to round out the T-Rat staff, so it's easy for me to be jealous. edit. Obviously from the draft discussions I highly covet Jay, so he'd be the 1 guy from the Twins that I really wanted.

Starting pitching - 60% Position Players - 30% Bullpen - 10% The problem is that good bullpen arms are paid like starting pitchers, but instead of getting 200+ innings you get 60, so having a very good homegrown bullpen is huge from a payroll perspective.

He skipped WI so I'll be honest in that I know very little about him. He didn't even make the Brewers' top 30 from BA so there's literally no scouting information out there on him that I could find.

The 2 guys everyone are going to want is Buxton and Sano, I don't think either are realistic. The Twins don't really have any potential top of the rotation talent on the horizon, Kohl Stewart is about it but he doesn't strike out anyone, I'm not convinced he'll miss enough bats. I hate to say it but there are really only 2 guys in their top 10 that I like: Jose Berrios is probably a 3. I really liked what I saw from Nick Gordon when he played against the T-Rats. He's a better current defender than our Jake Gatewood, though his swing can get similarly long as does Jake's. He's been on the uptick recently, he had hit in all 3 games against the Rattlers. As for the rest Nick Burdi is a reliever which doesn't excite me and Meyer, Polanco, May, and Rosario are already up and/or aren't exciting, then Sano and Buxton are untouchable. I just don't see the talent from MN to pull off a trade unless they wanted to go the Trea Turner route and use a 2015 pick or 2 as PTBNLs? I would be extremely interested in Tyler Jay who I wanted to draft this year and Kyle Cody who hasn't signed. Bundle either of those 2 guys (or both) with Berrios and Gordon and I'd be happy. I know we don't "need" another SS, but you can never have too many SS, and if they all pan out we'd have plenty of trade ammunition to go after a position of greater need. If we're talking current top 10 players then we're going to need a 3rd team to make it work. Outside of the top 10 I find both Alexis Tapia and Stephen Gonsalves intriguing. BA doesn't like Gonsalves as much as I do but he pitched twice against the T-Rats and was impressive both times. I'm also intrigued by Randy Rosario. BA is kicking out their midseason top 10 lists here to deal with graduations but they started with the NL West.

I'm also waiting for Kirby to sign before posting anything, I'm never one to count my chickens early.

+1. Hopefully these comments go a long way towards encouraging a trade sooner than later. It leaves a black hole in the organization but if it brings back a possible future ace its worth it. Yes, a possible future ace that many on this site will want the Brewers to trade when/if he hits his prime. We don't want any proven players, we want guys that may some day become proven players so that we might be able to someday trade them for more guys that someday may also become tradable. I'm sorry baseball has changed.

No it stems from building a winning franchise, the Brewers haven't come close to being consistent, just 2 blips on the radar, and 2008 was gifted by the Mets.

If only the Brewers could play the Phillies and Reds every series we'd have something...

I still hope this is a phantom injury just to shut him down for a while since he was in the dugout last night. A legit shoulder injury is very worrisome.

Davis had shoulder surgery in college and his arm just didn't come back, it's always been below average as a professional.

Nah nothing like that, later on they figured it out in the dugout because the pitching coach came out and had a long and animated discussion with the pitcher and catcher. The guys were pissed that no one in the dugout was picking up on it... had it been me I just would have walked right over and said something but as it was helping the team I wanted to win in a big inning I didn't state the obvious. The guy who noticed was working the gun and passing along the velocity to the other 2, so maybe he felt the need to stand his post, and Wei-Chieh Huang didn't appear to grasp what was going on due to the language barrier, but they had a big lead at the time and it was slipping away which would have been my personal motivating factor. It was also mentioned it that this wasn't the first time a team had picked up on it.

Getting swept as an organization stinks...

Kane County's fast start stops Wisconsin By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers http://www.milb.com/assets/images/5/4/2/122147542/cuts/5_Apr3_Meyer_5ru3qk61_beg9fv2r.jpg Mitch Meyer went 2-for-2 with a walk and an RBI on Tuesday against Kane County. (Wisconsin Timber Rattlers/Ann Mollica) GRAND CHUTE, WI - The Kane County Cougars scored three runs in the top of the first inning and they used four pitchers to keep the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers in check for a 6-1 victory Tuesday afternoon at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium. Kane County (47-34 overall, 11-2 second half) had runners at second and third with no outs against Wisconsin starting pitcher Devin Williams in the first inning when Cody Regis sent a grounder to first. Wisconsin came home and got the runner trapped between third and home. The runner was tagged for the first out, but stayed in the rundown long enough to allow the runner at second to make third and Regis to reach second. Williams would throw two separate wild pitches to allow both runners on base to score with Marty Herum at bat. Herum would triple to get himself into scoring position. Colin Bray followed with a double to drive in Herum for a 3-0 lead. Chuck Taylor made it 4-0 with a two-out RBI single off reliever Gian Rizzo in the fourth inning. Wisconsin (28-55, 5-8) struggled to get anything going offensively against Cougars starter Wei-Chieh Huang. The right-hander out of Taiwan allowed two hits, but faced the minimum over his first four innings. That changed in the fifth. Carlos Leal drew a leadoff walk. Alan Sharkey and Sthervin Matos each singled to put a Rattler on every base. Mitch Meyer followed with a walk to force in Leal. Huang regrouped to retire the next two batters and leave the bases loaded. The Cougars padded their lead with single runs in the seventh and the eighth. Bray had a two-out RBI single off Tyler Linehan in the seventh. Regis had a two-out RBI single in the eighth. Wisconsin had runners at the corners in the bottom of the seventh with one out. Tucker Neuhaus appeared to give the Rattlers a run with a sacrifice fly to left, but it was ruled that Sthervin Matos left third for the plate early and Matos was retired on an appeal play to end the inning. Meyer went 2-for-2 with a walk and drove in the only Wisconsin run of the game. The series between the Rattlers and Cougars moves to Kane County, Illinois on Wednesday night. Jon Perrin (0-0, 5.79) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. Kane County has Ethan Elias (8-3, 2.61) as their scheduled starting pitcher. Game time is 6:30pm. There are several ways to catch the action from Kane County. The radio broadcast is on AM1280, WNAM starting with the Miller Lite Pregame Show at 6:10pm. The broadcast may also be heard on Tune In Radio and IHeartRadio. Subscribers to MiLB.TV may watch the game on that platform with the Kane County announcers. WP: Wei-Chieh Huang (4-1) LP: Devin Williams (2-5) TIME: 3:09 ATTN: 2,868 Rattler Radio Postgame Post: July 7, 2015 Hey no Khris Davis questions! Wisconsin Boxscore Kind of a stinker, every Rattler pitcher gave up at least 1 run. Sthervin Matos (2-4) has a 5 game hit streak going. Wisconsin Recap

I don't follow sabemetrics anywhere near as much as I used to, I just don't have the time. However I believe it's been proven multiple times that runs prevented are more important than runs created, which is something many of us felt was true all along. I could be wrong on that, maybe someone who's stayed more current on that stuff could weigh in?

BA takes a thinly veiled shot at AZ... Midseason Top 50 Prospects Chat Wrenzie Blogs Giants (Philippines): Does Tyler Beede deserve a spot in the top 51-100 prospects list if you could expand it to Top 100? I feel that he's good enough to be considered. John Manuel: He was strongly considered along with several other 2014 first-round pick pitchers such as Grant Holmes and Touki Toussaint (who definitely throws 96 ... don't get me started). Beede's breaking ball is the big question, as it was last year. It's better than it was last year but it's still not consistently an average pitch. That's going the big piece for him. I'm confident with his athleticism and strength, plus the Giants' coaching, that he'll throw enough strikes to have control to start.

Another Cuban who won't impact signing pools. MLB Declares Cuban Pitcher Vladimir Gutierrez A Free Agent July 7, 2015 by Ben Badler

I have quite a few friends who are convinced that being a bullpen catcher is the best regular job in baseball... no pressure to produce, travel with the team, get paid decently...