TheCrew07

He's below average defensively as a 3B, he's been much better at 2B. I know many of us don't really believe in 2B prospects, but I think that's where Tucker belongs defensively. He seems to do better having more time to react, though he doesn't have the range of any of the SS in the system who could also slide over to 2B, range wise he's more of Gennett. Could he be MLB average at 3B? Maybe? As a 3B he's 2, maybe 3 notches below Matos right now who's been pretty outstanding defensively. Neuhaus is interesting in that I was getting ready to write him off before getting a chance to watch him and now that I can see him play I've found quite a bit to like. He's the one guy with "eye issues" who seems to have really improved since his diagnosis, I've grown to be skeptical of that "excuse" over years (Bill Hall anyone?). I just really like how fundamentally sound and quiet his swing is for this level of play. Where he fits defensively, well that's tough. He's not a SS, that much I can tell you, with more time at 3B could he be average? I'm not sure, he didn't demonstrate that quick twitch side to side ability most MLB 3B have which is necessary playing closer to the plate. It doesn't necessarily mean that's not in his repertoire, that just means I hadn't witnessed him demonstrate it before he was transferred across the diamond. I think Erickson is in a tough spot, the pitching is so spotty he can't really afford to give away outs on defense, but many of his better hitters are playing the same position; Castillo and Neuhaus at 2B, and McCall and Leal at C. Minor League Baseball isn't really about winning games, but yet Matt is still trying to juggle development and winning, winning is really the only reward the players get for their hard work during the season. There aren't many candidates worthy of a mid season bump, but that doesn't mean the guys aren't working hard. Offensively Neuhaus is far and away the better prospect which means he's the better MLB prospect, but I think Matos has better all around tools. I hope that made sense, it feels like I typed in a big circle.

That's probably the crux of the entire debate over the last 9 years. Those who believe in the window strategy are generally slow to accept that it's closed until it's too late, every year is a year to go for it, unless they are unlucky, then it's hold course and repeat the following season. This is the perpetual "inevitable" rise and fall of professional sports franchises, they play for a window. The problem is that playing for the window does nothing but actually shorten the time frame the team can actually be competitive in since the team becomes old, expensive, and unproductive. The Brewers window was closing by 2008 (never enough young pitching) and closed in 2012 but many fans and management still believed the team could compete for a playoff spot with a little luck and veteran roster shuffling. It was the same for the Cubs before their collapse and the Reds now. I haven't prescribed to the window strategy for a very long time, seems like forever, though in truth I didn't abandon that philosophy until 2008. I think there is a better way where you are constantly building the foundation of your organization, which isn't attendance, or "veteranness", but talent. I'm not looking to squeeze every possible good year from a player before letting him go, I'm looking to get his peak and that's it, then move on. I believe in a robust talent base because while prospects do fail, there's no other foundation for Milwaukee to build a WS team on. Since we need young players, and young players are unpredictable, we need greater numbers. It's ridiculous to blame the Brewer's pitching issues on Manny Parra, Mark Rogers, and Mike Jones. When you only have 1 or 2 legitimate pitching prospects at a time the fault isn't with the players, it's with the strategy. All 3 of those guys required surgery, and I was surprised as anyone that Parra was ultimately a dud, but when we only get 2 guys with talent through the system to MLB we shouldn't be surprised when 1 fails and we shouldn't be surprised when young pitchers get injured, that's part of the game. The organization never accounted for either, we've always just had 1 guy at a time spaced years apart... Sheets, Neugy, Jones, Gallardo, Parra, Peralta... We've never had the numbers to sustain a rotation from the pitching side, and we still don't have a good number of legitimate impact pitching prospects in the minors. We had a fair number of positional prospects but blew through them all acquiring short term MLB solutions. I'm not comfortable being 1 deep at a position, I'd like to be at least 2 deep throughout the organization but the Brewers are basically 0 deep at many positions, that's the problem. Right now SS is the only position with true depth, and it's one of the best positions to have depth at because SS can become 3B, 2B, or CF, but we lack C, corner IF and OF, and pitching. We can't just have a capable MLB roster with nothing behind it, we need options to cover unexpected injuries, and by unexpected I mean that we don't know when injuries are going to occur and to whom, the only certainty is that we know injuries will occur over the course of a season and players become more brittle as they age. All these injuries and ineffectiveness isn't bad luck, nor it is random, it's a reflection of the roster construction, the same as it was when the Brewers won that silly award for having the least DL time, they also had one of the youngest teams in the majors at that time. However causality was assigned to the training staff when in truth they hadn't changed or done anything other than the usual, they just had a young, healthy roster, which was approaching it's prime. I think the most overlooked strategy in sports is when to cycle old talent away. For some reason veteran production is considered to be "proven" when the truth is as players age their stats are as a volatile as prospects, they are just getting paid a heck of a lot more to be inconsistent: I give you Aramis Ramirez: [pre]Year Age Tm G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ 2012 34 MIL 149 630 570 92 171 50 3 27 105 44 82 .300 .360 .540 .901 136 2013 35 MIL 92 351 304 43 86 18 0 12 49 36 55 .283 .370 .461 .831 127 2014 36 MIL 133 531 494 47 141 23 1 15 66 21 75 .285 .330 .427 .757 107 2015 37 MIL 54 199 188 14 40 12 0 7 24 8 31 .213 .251 .388 .640 71 18 Yrs 2111 8669 7849 1069 2226 476 23 376 1366 610 1201 .284 .342 .494 .835 115[/pre] Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table Generated 6/17/2015. His OPS+ has done exactly what we should expect an aging players' to do, regress a little bit each year, that's how we end up playing players for what they did in the past, rather than what they are actually going to do for us. His games played have varied with his health, which was also to be expected. He was an above average player for a long time, had a great season in Milwaukee, but the end is nigh. It's not that the Brewers had someone to replace him, or that they picked up his option this year, it's not really even the money. It's that they had a real chance to unload him in 2012 as the window was truly closed to get a replacement plus extras and instead chose to pay him to decline and have spent the last 3 years trying to put square pegs into round holes to fill the organizational black hole at 3B. That's the systemic issue with the organization... Signing Lohse and giving up a 1st round pick to achieve what? Hanging onto Ramirez why? Why offer a clearly declining Garza a 4 year contract? The pessimism comes from the fact that these same patterns have kept repeating themselves over and over through the years. The Brewers said after last season there would be changes, but what really changed other than Reynolds and some of the coaches were scapegoated? Is the team significantly better off in 2015? What has ever changed? The Brewers work in terms of absolutes... they are either buyers or sellers, but nothing in between, and every off season is about fixing the glaring weakness from the year before by acquiring players from outside the organization. Simply put it's linear thinking, it's playing checkers when they've always needed to be playing chess instead. That's why Friedman was the best GM in baseball, he made very few linear moves. People can say the market dictated and forced him to be that way, there's probably some truth to that, but it doesn't change that he won more games, more consistently, than most everyone else, with a much lower payroll. It's not about spending money, it's about talent, and he's understood that better than most. edit. Fixed an autocorrect typo and missed words.

Top Venezuelan Prospects To Watch June 17, 2015 by Ben Badler

I would think so yes.

I have never liked Luke Hochevar because of this: So I find myself somewhat amused with how his career has gone, sometimes people get exactly what they deserve. Though I guess since he's had a long MLB career the joke is actually on me.

Seriously? Pot/kettle much? Going to the straw man card simply because you don't agree with the other posters opinion is actually the epitome of straw man.

I'd absolutely take Wheeler back in a trade, he's the kind of guy you can flip before FA and bring back some serious prospects or try to extend into his early 30s. We need to start with top of the rotation talent that we control for more than 2 years some place, why not with him? He has 4 years of team control remaining, once you have pitching, you can keep cycling it back on itself if you play your cards right, somewhat taking the farm system out of the mix. However, we have to get there first... The only home grown player in the Rays rotation is Alex Colome. In fact every pitcher that's started a game for them this season other than Colome was acquired via trade. I understand the years of control argument.. but any of the top Mets' pitchers are better than our best. If Melvin was offered Wheeler and walked away from whatever deal that may be I'd be so lived I'd actually drive down to Miller Park, find him, and punch him square in the face, maybe Mark A. too. Someone would have to cover my LR duties for me while I was in jail but it would be worth it.

Cougars beat Rattlers 10-2 By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers http://www.milb.com/assets/images/5/7/8/125012578/cuts/5_May17_Nehaus_WEB_9qi3l7gu_l07kdy83.jpg Tucker Neuhaus had a pair of hits and scored a run for the Rattlers on Tuesday at Kane County. He exteneded his hitting streak to nine games with his two hits. (Wisconsin Timber Rattlers/Ann Mollica) GENEVA, IL - The Kane County Cougars pulled away from the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers with a six-run eighth inning on Tuesday night at Fifth Third Bank Ballpark. The Cougars defeated Wisconsin 10-2. Kane County (32-32) scored in the first inning. Ildemaro Vargas reached on a bunt single with one out. Marty Herum doubled to left with two outs and Vargas scored on the play for a 1-0 lead. The Cougars added to their lead in the bottom of the third. Wisconsin starting pitcher Devin Williams walked Vargas and Herum. They were are first and second base with two outs when Chuck Taylor singled to right to drive in Vargas. Williams would walk the next batter to load the bases. The next pitch was a ball and catcher Greg McCall tried to pick the runner off first base. However, the throw sailed into right field to allow Herum to score the third run of the game for Kane County. Wisconsin (21-44) got to Cougars starting pitcher Brad Keller in the sixth inning. Tucker Neuhaus reached on a bunt single to start the inning. Gregory Munoz followed with another bunt single. Dustin DeMuth's grounder to second was misplayed and Neuhaus raced home with the Rattlers first run. Francisco Castillo came through with a two-out single to knock in Munoz and the Rattlers were down a run. Williams pitched five innings, allowed three runs - two earned - on four hits and four walks with six strikeouts. Josh Uhen took over for Williams in the bottom of the sixth inning and walked Joe Munoz to start the inning. Uhen got a grounder to third off the bat of Ryan Gebhardt, but the throw to second was missed and instead of a double play, Munoz was on third and Gebhardt was on first. Victor Reyes grounded into a force out at second to score Munoz with an insurance run for Kane County. The Cougars bullpen took over for Keller in the seventh and retired the final nine Timber Rattlers hitters in a row. That made the six-run bottom of the eighth inning for the Cougars academic. The frame started with Joshua Torres walking Joe Munoz and a dropped throw at second on another potential double play. Reyes singled in the first run of the inning. Cody Regis grounded into a force play at second for the first out. The next four Cougars hitters reached base. Vargas hit a two-run double to make the score 7-2. Michael Perez walked. Herum, who now has nine RBI in eight games against Wisconsin, hit an RBI double. Colin Bray singled to drive in Perez. Taylor capped the inning with a sacrifice fly to make it 10-2. Neuhaus went 2-for-4 in the game and extended his current hitting streak to nine games. He is 11-for-34 during the streak for Wisconsin. Game two of the series is Wednesday afternoon at Fifth Third Bank Ballpark. Cy Sneed (3-7, 2.62) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. Markus Solbach (6-2, 2.76) is set to start for the Cougars. Game time is noon. Catch the broadcast on AM1280, WNAM starting with the Miller Lite Pregame Show at 11:40am. The broadcast may also be heard on Tune In Radio and IHeartRadio. Subscribers to MiLB.TV can follow the action that way. WP: Brad Keller (3-7) LP: Devin Williams (2-4) TIME: 2:40 ATTN: 5,352 Wisconsin Boxscore Remember the whole 3 steps forward, 2 steps back thing I was talking about pitching wise the other day? Well same/same for Devin Williams here matching his season high BB total for the 3rd time. Joshua Torrez... I believe I ranted about his mechanics earlier this season, he's been similar to now demoted Milton Gomez in that they will both go for extended periods of time without being able to find the plate at all. To quickly summarize imagine lots of walks and if a pitch happens to be over the plate it's up and very hittable. With most guys it's a couple of batters, with those guys when it goes bad it seems to span an entire inning. Tucker Neuhaus' night was mentioned above but joining him with multi-efforts were Gregory Munoz (2-4) and Francisco Castillo (2-4). I actually jinxed McCall by complimenting his defense the other day, the same thing happens every time I say Leal is doing a nice job as well. The strike outs have fallen off somewhat with Denson, Harrison, and Gatewood demoted but this team still continues to put up alarming strike out numbers on a near nightly basis. Wisconsin Recap

I'll always maintain it didn't have to get this point, that's the disappointing part, just making 2 different moves along the way could have made all the difference... I'd really like ownership/GM that is willing to cycle a roster and keeping turning over the older players; name players, "Brewer for Life", those things are relics of the past. In way it sucks because that's the model in which most of us grew up with... Yount... how many of us were livid about Molitor walking? We loved to be attached to the players, they were "our" guys. However the game is completely different now and the dead money on the back end of those deals doesn't work well in the small market model. Maybe the economics of the game will change, but how many players in any sport are "team X for life?", it's pretty rare these days. I was fine moving on from Favre and Driver in football, I was fine moving on from Fielder and Gallardo, I'll be fine moving on Braun. Players in their 30s should not be the "core" of your team, professional sports is a young man's game, when players reach that age it's time to move on.

The whole thing is a basically a "what not to do" from a computer security standpoint... it's laughable... but then again it's Baseball so we shouldn't be surprised.

If he clears waivers no he would not need to be added to the 40 man, but then he'd be eligible to be taken in the Rule 5 draft. Wang was one 1 of 2 left handed starting pitchers currently in the system that can work in the low 90s with regularity, it's way too early for people to be giving up on him considering his lack of experience. Yes we have Kirby coming, but he likely won't work as a starter until next season and has control issues himself.

I was going to post this yesterday but I have a hard time watching Escobar and Cain play against the Brewers, I was so into those guys as prospects that it really bothers me. Normally I'm more of an "eh" when ex-Brewers come to town but I still check in on both players on a weekly basis to see how they are doing. I rooted hard for both guys in the play-offs last year, they were the only reason I was watching the AL side at all. At the time of the Greinke trade Odorizzi was my favorite pitching prospect in the Brewer system and it wasn't really close. The Rays aren't on the schedule this year that I saw, but I wonder if I'll have the same feelings if Jake is on the mound opposing the Crew? When I got the notification on my phone that Cain hit the HR yesterday I was happy for him and pissed at the same time, and I didn't turn on the game because of that fact, what a weird place to be in. I find this all very strange because I was a huge supporter of both Bryson and Brantley from the Sabathia trade, but I might check in on Brantley a couple of times a year if his name comes up in conversation just to see how he's doing. Until today I hadn't checked in on LaPorta since last summer and didn't even realize he had retired. I was regularly checking on Bryson until he fell apart a while ago and last I saw he was in independent ball.

I mentioned it quite a bit last year when Gainey was hitting 94-95, but his off season training has been tremendous if he jumped up to 97-98... he's gaining 3 MPH per off season (maybe less because guys usually throw 1-2 MPH harder in relief). He never had enough control as a starter but he's very intriguing as a reliever. He might become my new Viramontes...

This has been bothering me since yesterday but in the draft recap they mentioned Reid Nichols was the Scouting Director. This shocked me as I, like everyone else, thought Ray Montgomery was going to run with that role. So did Teddy just get that part wrong and no one at BA has caught the error, or has everyone else had it wrong all along? I was never a fan of Nichols in the player development role and I don't care to beat that drum again in this post, but the Brewers had a decent enough draft that I was very surprised to read that. The Brewers are not officially listing a SD on their Front Office Page, everyone has fancy titles and I assumed that had more to do with Montgomery not being able to make a lateral move while under contract, but maybe I was wrong?

I don't have a problem acquiring Dominguez as future corner utility guy (3B,1B), though I doubt he'll ever hit enough and outside of 1 season hasn't tapped into his power... The reviews on his swing have never been good. I also laughed when I got the Team Stream notification, I see no good reason to risk losing Wang to pick up a Ramirez placeholder, and I'll be doubly pissed if we trade Ramirez for more back of the rotation fodder. None of those moves would be moving the organization forward in any capacity. Hopefully Wang sneaks through waivers, I really wish I would have been able to see him pitch some this year to see what's different. If we lose him then we're back to Kirby and Medeiros for mid rotation or better lefties.

Historically the Brewers have done well in Venezuela so we'll have to see if there's any impact. The Growing Challenges Of Scouting Venezuela June 16, 2015 by Ben Badler

It's one my favorite 1/2 hour shows.

A quick blurb on every team with a table of the key players. Wrapping Up The 2015 Draft: Central June 15, 2015 by Teddy Cahill

Why The International Market Is So Messed Up June 15, 2015 by Ben Badler

I have not had the gun on him, I'd guess he's 88-92 from watching on TV. His secondary stuff is second only to Medeiros on this squad, but he's able to pitch down in the zone more than Kodi, though both have lots of work to do control wise. I just got the gun back 2 weeks ago (the HS baseball team and I went halves 3 years ago on it) and it didn't work out for me to get to a game before this extended road trip. I'll have velocity charts for all of the interesting T-Rat pitchers later in the summer and post them in the LRs. I mentioned this in another thread but pretty much all of the T-Rat Latin pitchers have the same complications in their delivery, Gian Rizzo is really the only one who approaches "clean", but he doesn't have much stuff. I'd put the odds on Ventura sticking the rotation about the same as Peralta when he was in WI, 50/50, though if I had to guess Ventura will be a reliever if he makes it. Actually now that I think about it his delivery is very similar to Peralta's at the same point... As to the age question, baseball-reference gives that as part of the standard MiLB stat package: [pre]Year Age AgeDif Tm Lg Lev Aff ERA IP H R ER HR BB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 SO/W 2011 18 -0.9 Brewers DOSL FRk MIL 6.00 24.0 25 19 16 3 16 16 1.708 9.4 1.1 6.0 6.0 1.00 2012 19 0.1 Brewers DOSL FRk MIL 7.12 30.1 46 32 24 2 13 27 1.945 13.6 0.6 3.9 8.0 2.08 2013 20 1.2 Brewers DOSL FRk MIL 2.70 60.0 47 29 18 1 22 65 1.150 7.0 0.2 3.3 9.8 2.95 2014 21 0.6 Brewers ARIZ Rk MIL 5.19 50.1 56 33 29 2 9 46 1.291 10.0 0.4 1.6 8.2 5.11 2015 22 0.1 Wisconsin MIDW A 2.47 43.2 36 15 12 1 20 42 1.282 7.4 0.2 4.1 8.7 2.10[/pre] Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table He's right on track now.

I think you're missing the larger points... 1) The paperwork is already in place, the scouting bureau has to assign every player likely to be drafted a draft ID. if you've ever listened to the conference call you're familiar with those draft IDs because that's how players are actually picked. 2) This is about removing the BS leverage that HS players and college Juniors have in the draft. No other professional sport lets amateurs have as much leverage out of the gate except maybe soccer, it's ridiculous. If you want to play professional baseball then opt in, if you aren't taken in the top 10 rounds (or top 15) then you can choose to go back to school. 3) Having players opt in actually reduces the number of players scouts have to see in a calendar year, which in theory should allow for more thorough scouting. 4) Having players opt in is good for college baseball because it removes all of the grey from signing/commitment process. I'd like to combine the international and domestic drafts into 1 event, the NBA can draft players from around the world in a single draft, why not MLB? I realize the NBA draft is about filling 2 or 3 roster spots in a year, but the MLB system is already massive, an international draft could easily be rolled into the annual event. That way all of the players in a certain class are getting assigned proper value relative to their peers, and there's no more signing and trying to project 16 year old Latin kids. Let them all finish high school before worrying about professional baseball. The slotting should be hard, as in none of this over or under slot garbage, do away with the lame pools. That way the best players get picked in the order they should be picked in. The system shouldn't be drafting 4-5 guys you really like, then 4-5 guys with low ceilings no leverage just to be able to go and draft 1 more kid you really like. I'd like the draft to be 20-25 rounds (with international) and then after that it's about undrafted free agent signings to fill out rosters.

The taxi squad guys travel with the teams, those are just paper moves. Denson hasn't been in the dugout with the T-Rats, he was demoted.

Why exactly do we need to free up 40 man roster spots? To what end? If we're talking about trading for better minor league talent I'm very skeptical that given the pieces the organization actually wants to move that we'd get better talent than Wang back. I posted a couple of weeks ago that I was concerned with Wang's 2015, but the truth is right now all we have are him, Hobbs Johnson, Zach Hirsch, and Kodi Medeiros. Johnson and Hirsch are back of the rotation types or relievers, Wang's ceiling is probably that of a #3, and Mederios' is that of a #2. I'm certainly not going to sit here and claim that any one of those guys is going to reach their ceilings, and as always I believe that we need to have a greater talent base because prospects will fail. I'm not into cutting lefties until the bitter end, as the Brewers have already let 2 MLB lefties get away in Caleb Thielbar and Lucas Luetge. Nathan Kirby will join the fold once the CWS is complete but his control is so erratic it's hard to consider him more than #3, and he won't do anything more than relieve in 2015 so we'll have to wait until next year to see him as a starter. I have a hard time believing that the player who pitched in minors last year isn't at least a capable MLB reliever, and plenty of prospects have had a horrible 2 month stretch. Victor Roache has only had 3 good months in his entire career yet every time he gets hot people get excited... My point is that I think there are personal biases coming into play here which cloud the big picture. Wang was worth keeping last year and he's definitely worth keep this year, if he shows no improvement we can revisit this thread in September but from my point of view calls to DFA him are way too premature. There's a ton of dead weight on the 40 man which could be cut before Wang, and after this season much of the MLB dead weight will fall off as well, unless players like Ramirez and Lohse are traded previous. Players that I would remove before Wang: Cotts Kintzler Centono Perez Schafer

Big sixth inning helps Rattlers past Bowling Green By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers http://www.milb.com/assets/images/0/8/8/118574088/cuts/Angel_Ventura_Article_Photo_zqt03vc9_xuiy982s.jpg Angel Ventura pitched five shutout innings to earn the win for the Timber Rattlers on Monday afternoon. (Wisconsin Timber Rattlers/Ann Mollica) BOWLING GREEN, KY - The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers had their biggest offensive inning of the season and it helped them defeat the Bowling Green Hot Rods 7-3 at Bowling Green Ballpark on Monday afternoon. Dustin DeMuth gave the Timber Rattlers (21-43) a 3-0 lead in the sixth inning. Carlos Leal and Jose Pena singled with one out against Bowling Green starting pitcher Henry Centeno. DeMuth followed with a home run to right-center. The homer, DeMuth's fourth of the season, was just the start of Wisconsin's offense in the sixth. Brandon Diaz and Alan Sharkey both singled with two outs and drove Centeno from the game. Tucker Neuhaus doubled off the wall in right-center against Bowling Green reliever Kyle Bird to drive in Diaz. Francisco Castillo was next and he singled to center to drive in both Sharkey and Neuhaus. The Rattlers scored six runs on seven hits in the sixth inning to take a 6-0 lead. Wisconsin starting pitcher Angel Ventura pitched five scoreless innings, allowed three hits, walked one and struck out five. That put him in line for his second win of the season. The Hot Rods (37-27) rallied against reliever Luis Ortega in the bottom of the sixth. A pair of singles and a walk loaded the bases with one out. Nick Ciuffo's sacrifice fly drove in Bowling Green's first run. Cristian Toribio followed with a two-run double and Wisconsin's lead was down to three. Diaz and Sharkey combined to pad the lead in the top of the eighth inning. Diaz doubled to start the frame. Sharkey followed with a single to center to make it 7-3 Wisconsin. Scott Lieser pitched a scoreless eighth and a scoreless ninth to close out the win. Wisconsin finished their twelve game stretch against teams from the Eastern Division of the Midwest League 6-6. The Timber Rattlers continue their road trip with three games against the Kane County Cougars in Geneva, Illinois. Game one of the series is Tuesday night at Fifth Third Bank Ballpark. Devin Williams (2-3, 3.95) is the scheduled starting pitcher for Wisconsin. The Cougars will send Markus Solbach (6-2, 2.76) to the mound. Game time is 6:30pm. Catch the broadcast 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 can follow the action that way. HOME RUN: WIS: Dustin DeMuth (4th, 2 on in 6th inning off Henry Centeno, 1 out) WP: Angel Ventura (2-2) LP: Henry Centeno (4-3) TIME: 2:43 ATTN: 2,189 Wisconsin Boxscore Angel Ventura people! Offensive outbursts have been somewhat rare for the Rattlers this season so this game was a much needed boost in that department as Jose Pena (2-5,2B), Dustin DeMuth (2-5,HR), Brandon Diaz (2-4,2B), Alan Sharkey (2-3,BB), and Tucker Neuhaus(2-4) all contributed multi-hit efforts. This was by far the most even offensive contribution from this year's squad. Sharkey has been pretty good defensively since taking over for Denson. Wisconsin Recap

Hot Rods pull away from Wisconsin Bowling Green breaks 6-6 tie with 3-run homer in 7th 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-3 with a double, a walk, and three RBI on Sunday at Bowling Green. (Wisconsin Timber Rattlers/Ann Mollica) BOWLING GREEN, KY - Hunter Lockwood hurt the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers with a late, clutch hit for the second game in a row and the Bowling Green Hot Rods spoiled a Wisconsin rally with a 10-6 win at Bowling Green Ballpark on Sunday afternoon. Bowling Green (37-26) loaded the bases on Wisconsin starting pitcher Kodi Medeiros with one out in the bottom of the first. Bralin Jackson singled to center to drive in a run, but Brandon Diaz made a strong throw to the plate to cut down the runner trying to score from second on the play. Medeiros got the final out on a grounder back to the mound. Wisconsin (20-43) responded with two runs in the top of the second inning. Greg McCall started the inning with a walk. A balk by Hot Rods starter Hyrum Formo sent McCall to second. Later, an errant pickoff by Formo allowed McCall to take third. Dustin DeMuth doubled into the corner in right to score McCall with the tying run. Mitch Meyer singled to right with two outs and DeMuth scored with a good slide to avoid the tag on the throw to the plate to put the Rattlers up 2-1. But, the Hot Rods took advantage of an error to start the bottom of the second inning to score three runs for a 4-2 lead. Grant Kay reached on the error and went to second on a single by Lockwood. Alec Sole was unsuccessful in getting down a sacrifice bunt, but lined a 2-2 pitch to right-center for a two-run triple to put the Hot Rods up 3-2. Thomas Milone followed with an RBI single to drive in Sole. Bowling Green added to their lead in the third inning as Medeiros struggled with his control. Medeiros hit Jackson to start the inning and threw a wild pitch that allowed him to take second base. Jackson was on third with two outs when Medeiros hit Lockwood. That was the third hit batsman of the game by Medeiros. A wild pitch with Sole at the plate let Jackson score and Lockwood to take second. Sole capped the scoring in the inning with a single to knock in Lockwood for a 6-2 lead. Formo cruised until the sixth inning. Francisco Castillo singled to start the inning. One out singles by McCall and Sthervin Matos loaded the bases. Formo got the second out of the inning, but couldn't escape the inning. Jose Pena lined a double high off the wall in right-center to drive in Castillo and McCall. Meyer was next and he pulled a 3-2 pitch from Formo inside the first base line and into the corner in right for a two-run double to tie the game 6-6. Gian Rizzo came out of the Wisconsin bullpen to take over for Medeiros in the bottom of the fourth and pitched two scoreless innings to allow the Rattlers to get back in the game. David Burkhalter pitched a scoreless sixth inning in relief of Rizzo, but ran into trouble in the seventh. Jackson singled with one out and an errant pickoff throw by Burkhalter allowed Jackson to take third base. A walk to Mac James put runners on the corners. A safety squeeze attempt by Kay was popped back to the mound. Burkhalter made the catch for the second out, but his throw to third just missed doubling off Jackson. That allowed Lockwood to hit in the seventh. On Saturday night, Lockwood broke a 2-2 tie with an RBI triple that gave Bowling Green the lead on the way to a 5-2 win. On Sunday, Lockwood delivered for the Hot Rods again. The designated hitter hit a 1-1 pitch from Burkhalter over the wall in left for a three-run homer and a 9-6 lead. The Hot Rods scored again in the eighth on an RBI double by Jace Conrad. Meyer is 5-for-10 with four RBI in three games since returning from Wisconsin's disabled list on Friday night. Tucker Neuhaus doubled and Castillo singled, his third hit of the game, in the ninth inning, but the Rattlers could not get the tying run to the plate. The final game of the series is Monday afternoon. Angel Ventura (1-2, 2.47) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. Bowling Green has named Henry Centeno (4-2, 4.63) as their starter. Game time is 12:05pm. Catch the broadcast on AM1280, WNAM starting with the Miller Lite Pregame Show at 11:45am. The broadcast may also be heard on Tune In Radio and IHeartRadio. HOME RUN: BG: Hunter Lockwood (3rd, 2 on in 7th inning off David Burkhalter, 2 out) WP: Damion Carroll (2-2) LP: David Burkhalter (1-4) TIME: 2:54 ATTN: 2,421 Wisconsin Boxscore The Hot Rods are the best offensive team in the league so I thought this would be a good test for the Medeiros/Burkhalter duo, and as I had another baseball commitment this afternoon I didn't pick-up this game until the top of the 6th. Originally Medeiros was charged with 5 ER but apparently they revised the scoring decision because only the errant pickoff throw remains and now he's been charged with 6. I've been tip toeing around Kodi Medeiros most of the season because people that haven't seen him pitch keep posting statistical based articles about how effective he's been, and also because I was critical of the pick and I'd rather my comments not be taken out of context. Yes he's inducing a lot of ground balls, but he has very little control and I've repeatedly tried to point out that he's working mostly up in the zone. He's atypical in that his movement is almost 100% responsible for the ground-outs, he's not getting ground balls combining location with movement like we're accustomed to seeing. It's been relatively effective in A ball thus far, but I just don't know if it will play against better hitting competition. He has to make drastic improvements control wise to have success as he moves up, hitters in AA are not going to swing at all of his stuff out of the zone. To a certain extent Kodi highlights the folly of trying to predict prospects in the same manner as established MLB players utilizing advanced metrics... for the most part prospects are too fluid for that kind of analysis and in truth it doesn't work all that well with inexperienced MLB players either. When I've seen Kodi get stung it's been hitters taking advantage of FBs up and over the plate and of course walks. He's done a much better job over the last month limiting the free bases and the last time I saw him pitch he was pitching backwards off his off-speed pitch to get ahead in counts. Today I have no idea how he was attacking hitters but again I want to caution people that he's going to be a statistical darling because of his GBs and SOs, but those metrics don't represent where he's at as a pitcher. He's not unlucky, he just has quite a bit of work to do yet, even to get to average control for a pitcher at this level. I'm not bagging on him, rather I'm trying to give a realistic assessment of where he's at as a pitcher. He's a young man who's backed off his gas, pitching upper 80s and low 90s, with a fantastic slider, who's working hard to reign in his control. For the better part of the season he's been effective but not dominant, and without making drastic improvement in the 2nd half I'd advocate for him repeating WI since he can have a fair amount of success at this level without good control given the quality of his stuff. David Burkhalter is also in the midst of a backwards slide which has been pretty normal for young Brewer pitchers at this level (Odorizzi, Bucci, Lopez, Diaz, etc), there are going to be plenty of ups and downs through out the year, the 3 steps forward 2 steps back sort of thing. Chris said the pitch which Lockwood hit for the HR wasn't a bad pitch, it was down and Lockwood just went down and got it. Apparently he wasn't locating his curve as well as he had been which was hurting him again in today's game as he doesn't have a blazing FB and needs to establish his curve in the zone as well. Francisco Castillo (3-5) is having a nice run, batting .310 over his last 10 as he gets more regular playing time. I realize the T-Rats don't have a 3rd catcher but it sure would be nice if there was a way to get both Greg McCall and Carlos Leal in the line-up together. McCall is hitting .333 over his last 10 and Leal has steadily hit all season, given the Rattler's offensive woes it's too bad that 2 of their better hitters play the same position. McCall has quietly had a nice defensive season as well, he's throwing about 30% of would be thiefs even though the pitchers haven't helped him out much, as an FYI Leal has been even better throwing out 36% thus far. All in All it's been a good first half behind the dish for the T-Rats. Wisconsin Recap