Notebook: 5/27/12

WEEK IN REVIEW

The Rattlers finished the past week with a 5-1 record and are now three games in front of Beloit for the lead in the Western Division.  On Sunday they topped Kane County 7-6 on a walk-off single by Nick Ramirez.  On Monday they completed the series sweep of the Cougars with a 7-4 victory behind Ben McMahan‘s 2-3 with a home run performance.  The T-Rats were off Tuesday before embarking on a long road trip, starting with a series at Quad Cities on Wednesday.  The Rattlers took the first two games of the series, winning 5-4 on Wednesday and 9-6 on Thursday before falling in the finale 4-5 on Friday night.  Wisconsin bounced right back though with an offensive explosion in Peoria on Saturday night, rolling over the Chiefs 11-3 thanks to big nights from Greg Hopkins (3 for 5 with 2 home runs and 6 RBI) and Jason Rogers (4-5 with his team leading 6th home run).

Jason Rogers

THREE UP, THREE DOWN

3 Up

Mike Walker: Walker is batting .341 over his last 10 games and has raised his season average to .264.  He has 4 home runs and 27 RBI for Brevard.

Josh Prince:  Prince has hit in nine of his last ten games going .359 with a home run over that stretch.  He is at .251 with two home runs, 19 RBI and 13 stolen bases for AA Huntsville.

Brian Garman:  In 11 appearances for Brevard County, Garman has a 1-1 record with a 2.37 ERA in 19 innings.

3 Down

Orlando Arcia:  Tom Haudricort of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported yesterday that Arcia would be done for the 2012 season after suffering an ankle fracture during a game in Extended Spring Training.

Seth Lintz:  Lintz was released after struggling earlier this season with the Timber Rattlers.

Erik Komatsu:  Komatsu was designated for assignment for the second time this year.  After the Cardinals had previously DFA’d him, the Twins claimed Komatsu.  He played in 15 games for them before being designated again.

Mike Walker

AROUND THE WEB

Some of the stories from the past week that have been featured on the many Brewers/Rattlers/Baseball related sites around the internet. Many may be old news to die hard fans, but just in case you missed them I will feature them here in this section.

- Bob Brainerd continued with his excellent series of Rattler profiles, with this piece on Chadwin Stang.

- Mark Williams was named Midwest League Pitcher of the Week for the week of 5/14-5/20.

- MiLB.com had this story on 2011 Timber Rattler Jimmy Nelson.

- Former Rattlers shortstop and current Orioles center fielder Adam Jones agreed to a hefty new contract with Baltimore.

Chadwin Stang

NOTES

Just some random news, notes and stats regarding the Rattlers and Rattler alumni. Greg Hopkins is fourth in the Midwest League with a .320 batting average.  Jason Rogers is right behind him in sixth place at .316….. Rogers is tied with Miguel Sano of Beloit for the league lead in RBI with 35….. Tommy Toledo‘s six wins has him currently tied for the MWL lead….. Seth Harvey has nine saves for Wisconsin, second to only Ajay Meyer of Lansing…..  The Rattlers made a hand full of roster moves this week. Catcher Parker Berberet was promoted to Brevard County.  Cameron Garfield was called up to take his place.  Jacob Barnes, John Dishon and Adrian Williams were all activated off the disabled list, with Tyler Roberts and Ben McMahan going on the DL.

Mark Williams

GOING FORWARD

The T-Rats continue on their lengthy road trip with three more games at Peoria, followed by three in Cedar Rapids and a big three game series with Beloit before finally returning home.  Also if you are looking for something to do over the holiday weekend, the D3 World Series is in town until Tuesday.  It’s a fun atmosphere with some good baseball being played.  And you never know who you might see play.  Last year current Rattlers pitcher Mark Williams was tossing for eventual champion Marietta.

5/21/12 Kane County 4 Wisconsin 7

The Rattlers completed a series sweep of the Kane County Cougars on Monday afternoon with a 7-4 vicotry.  Wisconsin got on the board first with three runs in the first inning and never looked back.  Jason Rogers knocked in Max Walla with a one out triple.  Nick Ramirez followed with a double to score Rogers, and Ramirez scored on a Ben McMahan sacrifice fly.  Kane County scored a run in the second and another in the third to pull to within a run, but the Rattlers went up 4-2 on a two out RBI by McMahan in the bottom of the third.  The Cougars made it 4-3 in the 5th but the T-Rats stretched their lead with a run in the seventh and two more in the eighth.  Kane County scored one in the ninth and brought the tying run to the plate but Justin Trapp grounded out to Brandon Macias to end the game.

Ben McMahan, Max Walla, Chadwin Stang

Will West made the start for the Rattlers and worked five innings, allowing two earned runs for his first win.  Jacob Barnes worked three scoreless innings of relief, surrendering just one hit and Stephen Peterson pitched the ninth to preserve the win.  Ben McMahan led the Wisconsin offense with two hits, including a home run and 3 RBI.  Jason Rogers also contributed two hits, a double and a triple and scored two runs.  Nick Ramirez had a double as well and drew a walk in four trips to the plate.

Chadwin Stang

Notes:  West did a solid job for his first start.  He was in and out of trouble but managed to give up just two earned runs in his five innings.  His fastball was around 85-86mph on the stadium gun.  Barnes had a couple of long fly ball outs upon entering the game, but only allowed one base runner in his three innings.  Greg Hopkins had one hit, but easily could have had a second if not for Orlando Calixte, who ranged deep behind second base, spun and threw to first to nip Hopkins in the sixth inning.  Former Brewer Don Money was in town along with several of the Brewers other roving instructors.  I also found it interesting that when the game turned in to a save situation in the ninth inning that it was Tommy Toledo who got up in the bullpen.  Seth Harvey has had the bulk of the team’s save chances, but had already pitched three games on this homestand.  Toledo has been fantastic when I have seen him pitch, and hasn’t given up a run in over a month.

Nick Ramirez

Here are the rest of my photos from Monday afternoon’s game.  The Rattlers are off on Tuesday and then start an extended road trip on Wednesday.  They won’t be back at Fox Cities Stadium until June 6th.  I’ll be heading out on the road myself in early June, so I won’t get to see the Rattlers for quite some time. Don’t feel too bad for me though, I’ll get to see some former Rattlers along the way like Brett Lawrie, Erik Komatsu, Wily Peralta, Mike Fiers and Taylor Green, as well as some of baseball’s top prospects like Miguel Sano, Anthony Rizzo and Kaleb Cowart.  My next chance to see any of the T-Rats play will likely be at the Midwest League All-Star game on June 19th.  Let’s hope there are a lot of Rattlers in that game.  The way they have been playing, there are plenty who deserve to be.  I’ll be turning the keys to the site over to Chris and Marcus while I’m gone, but will try to chime in from time to time as the T-Rats race towards a playoff spot.  Let’s Go Rattlers!

5/18/12 Burlington 3 Wisconsin 5

The Timber Rattlers got back on the winning track Friday night, thanks to a big three run home run in the eighth inning from rehabbing Milwaukee Brewer Carlos Gomez.  Burlington jumped out to a 1-0 lead on the very first pitch of the game on a leadoff home run by Sean Jamieson.  The Bees scored two more in the top of the sixth inning, but Carlos George hit a two run line drive homer to left to pull the Rattlers back within a run.  With two out in the eighth and two runners on, Gomez bashed a no doubt bomb to left for the 5-3 lead.  The Rattlers would shut down Burlington in the ninth to take the series from the Bees.

Carlos Gomez

Drew Gagnon started for Wisconsin.  He allowed three runs in 5 1/3 innings of work before giving way to Tommy Toledo.  Toledo worked the next 2 2/3 innings, allowing just one hit and no runs.  He would get the win after Gomez’s blast.  Seth Harvey came on in the ninth and worked a 1-2-3 inning for his eighth save.  The T-Rats offense was led by Carlos George and Parker Berberet who each had two hits.  Yadiel Rivera and Greg Hopkins had the other Rattlers hits, along with Gomez three run home run.

Drew Gagnon

Notes: Gagnon struggled a bit, but still only allowed three runs.  He was between 90-92 on the stadium gun from what I saw.  Tommy Toledo was outstanding in relief.  His ability to hold the Bees at bay through the sixth, seventh and eighth innings set the stage for the late game heroics of Gomez.  Speaking of Gomez, his first couple at bats looked like he was swinging for the fences, but he connected when it mattered most.  His home run was crushed and you knew it was gone as soon as he hit it.  So did he of course, and he took his time getting around the bases.  Honestly, if the shoe was on the other foot, I’d have had no problems with plunking the next guy.  The problem however was that the pitch that hit Max Walla was high and towards his head.  It got him in the shoulder but could have been much worse.  Ben McMahan was very upset and had some words for the Burlington pitcher.  I saw McMahan take one off the helmet earlier this year in Spring Training so it’s easy to understand why he was upset about the location of the pitch to Walla.  I’ll add McMahan to my list of Rattlers I’d want on my side in a fight.  For what it’s worth, that list also  includes Chad Sheffer (1996), Duan Johnson (1998) and D’Vontrey Richardson (2010).  I love seeing players stick up for their teammates like that.  I also loved seeing Matt Erickson and Dusty Rhodes be leaders and calm their guys down, showing that getting the “W” is the ultimate middle finger, rather than starting a bean ball war.  Payback may come somewhere down the road.  A two run game in the ninth inning was not the time for it.  No need to bring the tying run to the plate, just to prove a point.

Nick Ramirez

Here are my photos from Friday night’s game.  The Rattlers have three with the Kane County Cougars starting tomorrow.  I’m planning on heading out to either Sunday or Monday’s game depending on the weather these next few days.

Notebook: 5/13/12

WEEK IN REVIEW

Wisconsin has been on a roll lately and went 5-2 this past week to improve their lead in the Midwest League’s Western Division to two games over Beloit and four games over third place Quad Cities.  They swept a doubleheader from Cedar Rapids on Monday before dropping a one run game to the Kernels on Tuesday.  The Rattlers then took two out of three from Quad Cities before embarking on a four game road trip to Kane County.  They got off on the right foot last night with a 2-1 win in eleven innings.

THREE UP, THREE DOWN

The three up portion will take a look at three Rattler alumni each week who have advanced to a higher level and how they are performing. In the three down section I will feature players from the Brewers lower levels who could be future Rattlers. It might be a little slow going for the three down early on until the Rookie Leagues get going in June so I’ll include some injury updates here for the time being.

3 Up

Kyle Heckathorn:  Heckathorn has had a solid start to his 2012 season at AA Huntsville.  He has started seven games for the Stars going 2-1 with a 3.54 ERA.  He has issued just seven walks while striking out 37.

Carlos Triunfel:  Triunfel has gotten hot recently for AAA Tacoma, batting .357 with three home runs in his last 10 games.  For the season he is hitting .277 with 5 homers and 16 RBI.

Hiram Burgos:  Burgos received a promotion to AA Huntsville this past week after an impressive start to the season at Brevard County.  Burgos pitched in seven games, starting six, and had just an 0.87 ERA for the Manatees before his call-up.

3 Down

Carlos Gomez:  Gomez will be returning to Appleton once again for a rehab assignment when the Rattlers return home on May 16th.  He will join the Timber Rattlers for four games before hopefully coming off the DL in Milwaukee.

Jacob Barnes:  Barnes was placed on the 7-day DL.  I haven’t heard a report of any injury, so this may be just a housekeeping move as the Rattlers continue to shuffle pitchers on the roster.  Tyler Cravy re-joined the team from Helena (though he never actually left).

Adrian Williams:  Williams also landed on the DL this week.  Again, no word of any injury, as it appears to be a move to free up a roster spot for newly healthy Nick Ramirez.

Kyle Heckathorn

AROUND THE WEB

Some of the stories from the past week that have been featured on the many Brewers/Rattlers/Baseball related sites around the internet. Many may be old news to die hard fans, but just in case you missed them I will feature them here in this section.

-  Bad news for former Timber Rattlers pitcher Austin Ross, who underwent Tommy John surgery after suffering an injury at High A Brevard.  Hat tip to Seissle Fielder over at Brewerfan.net for linking to the article.

-  The Post Crescent’s latest Sunday profile is on Rattlers pitcher and Wisconsin native Chad Pierce.  Found out he loves football, County Stadium and Ken Griffey Jr.  Now that’s a list I can get behind.  I also was not aware that he started out at the University of Arkansas, which is apparently a popular school for local talent as Eric Hinske and Matt Erickson both attended school there as well.

- Kevin Kimmes of Cream City Cables posted an interview with Timber Rattlers pitcher Tommy Toledo.  Lots of Toledo stories recently, and rightfully so.  Anybody who can bounce back from a line drive to the face is a tough tough dude.

-  Reviewing The Brew has an interview with TRats outfielder Max Walla.  They discuss playing at Miller Park, Twitter, and Walla’s future goals.

Chad Pierce

NOTES

Just some random news, notes and stats regarding the Rattlers and Rattler alumni.  Jason Rogers is currently tied for fifth in the Midwest League with 25 RBI…..  Drew Gagnon is leading the league with a 1.02 ERA through six starts…..  Seth Harvey‘s seven saves are tied for second in the Midwest League…..  The T-Rats pitching staff has the lowest WHIP of any MWL team at 1.16 and the fifth lowest ERA at 3.20…..  Wisconsin ranks seventh in the league in total attendance with 52,466 for the season thus far.

Jason Rogers

GOING FORWARD

The Rattlers are in Kane County for the next three games, then come back to Fox Cities Stadium for three games with Burlington, followed by three home games with Kane County.  After that they head out on a 13 game road trip while the D3 College World Series comes to town.

5/8/12 Cedar Rapids 5 Wisconsin 4

Wisconsin saw their eight game win streak snapped on Tuesday afternoon as they fell to Cedar Rapids 5-4.  The Kernels took the lead with a three run second inning, but the Rattlers got a run in their half of the second and then two more in the third on a Brandon Macias home run to tie the game.  Cedar Rapids took the lead back with two more runs in the fourth.  Wisconsin got to within a run on a two out triple by Ben McMahan in the sixth inning.  They had runners in scoring position in the seventh, eighth and ninth but could not push across the tying run as they dropped the series finale.

Brandon Macias

The Rattlers racked up 12 hits in the game, including multi-hit games from Chadwin Stang, Brandon Macias, Ben McMahan and Greg Hopkins.  Stang also drew three walks to reach base in all five of his plate appearances.  The home run Macias hit was his second in as many days.  Kevin Shackelford made the start for the T-Rats in place of Drew Gagnon who was a late scratch.  After Shackelford worked the first four innings, Michael Strong made his season debut in the fifth.  Strong worked three innings, allowing just one hit.  Stephen Peterson pitched the final two innings and did not allow a run.

Michael Strong

Notes: Yadiel Rivera had a nice double to the opposite field in the second inning.  He didn’t miss a home run by much and showed surprising power the other way.  The home run that Macias hit in the third was a no doubter.  He made solid contact and crushed it over the left field wall.  Today was Michael Strong‘s first appearance of the year and he looked pretty good in relief.  He was between 87-89 on the stadium gun when it was working and I saw a high fastball register at 91.  There were a couple of bang bang plays at first base on double plays that went against the Rattlers.  It appeared on the second one that the ump was already making his out call before the ball even got to first base.  The Rattlers coaches seemed to have a few problems with the umpiring today as Matt Erickson came over to argue the second double play, and then hitting coach Dusty Rhodes was tossed in the ninth for arguing balls and strikes after a couple of very questionable pitches went against the T-Rats.  One final note I wanted to make.  After watching the lifeless, uninterested performances of the big league club over the past few games, it was really nice to see the fire and intensity coming out of the Timber Rattlers dugout today.  Even in a loss, you could see everyone was really in to the game.  I’m not sure how many of these guys will ever play in the Major Leagues, but if you want to see guys who truly care and play the game the right way with passion, come on out to Fox Cities Stadium.

Yadiel Rivera

Here are the rest of my images from this afternoon’s game.  The Rattlers have three more games on this homestand as Quad Cities comes in to town tomorrow night.  They will be home Wednesday, Thursday and Friday night, with all three games starting at 6:35 against the St. Louis Cardinals affiliate.

Notebook: 5/7/12

I’m pinch hitting for BK with this week’s notebook.  Between his two jobs and finals he’s been a pretty busy dude lately so I’m going to do my best to fill in.

WEEK IN REVIEW

The Timber Rattlers have ripped off a six game win streak over the past week.  They took the final two games from Bowling Green.  Then swept Clinton before coming home to take game one of their series with Cedar Rapids on Saturday night.  Sunday’s game was rained out and the two teams are set to play a doubleheader tonight.  The obvious highlite of the week was the combined no-hitter on Friday night as Chad Thompson and Mark Williams took down Clinton.

Taylor Green

THREE UP, THREE DOWN

The three up portion will take a look at three Rattler alumni each week who have advanced to a higher level and how they are performing. In the three down section I will feature players from the Brewers lower levels who could be future Rattlers. It might be a little slow going for the three down early on until the Rookie Leagues get going in June so I’ll include some injury updates here for the time being.

3 Up

Taylor Green:  Due to a rash of injuries in Milwaukee, Green was promoted to the Big Leagues and got the start at first base on Sunday against the Giants.

Khris Davis:  Despite dealing with some minor injuries problems, Davis has still posted a .328 average in 25 games with AA Huntsville

Jim Henderson:  Henderson has yet to give up an earned run for AAA Nashville in 15.2 innings of work

3 Down

Yeah I got nothin here

Khris Davis

AROUND THE WEB

Some of the stories from the past week that have been featured on the many Brewers/Rattlers/Baseball related sites around the internet. Many may be old news to die hard fans, but just in case you missed them I will feature them here in this section.

-  MiLB.com had this story on Rattlers pitcher Tommy Toledo.  They also had this piece on former Rattler Scooter Gennett.

-  The Appleton Post Crescent had a feature on T-Rats pitcher Drew Gagnon.

- Sam Dykstra had this article on the previously mentioned no-hiiter.

- And finally one more Post Crescent piece on Wily Peralta and the Brewers pipeline.

Drew Gagnon

GOING FORWARD

The schedule for the upcoming week has the Rattlers playing seven games in six days.  Two tonight and then right back it it tomorrow afternoon against Cedar Rapids.  Then a 3 game set with Quad Cities before heading to Kane County.

4/30/12 Bowling Green 2 Wisconsin 7

The Rattlers used a five run seventh inning to defeat the Bowling Green Hot Rods on Monday afternoon and win their season series, two games to one.  Wisconsin got a run in the third but Bowling Green answered with two in the fifth.  The Timber Rattlers then rallied for five runs in the seventh with a two run single from Tyler Roberts and a three run double by Chad Stang.

Yadiel Rivera

Wisconsin was led offensively by Greg Hopkins who went 3 for 4.  Chad Stang and Ben McMahan each had a pair of hits with Stang knocking in three runs.  Tyler Roberts was also on base three times with a single, a pair of walks and two RBI.  Andy Moye started the game for the Rattlers and went six innings, allowing two runs, one earned and striking out four.  Jacob Barnes followed and worked two scoreless innings.  Seth Harvey came on to close the game and finished off the Hot Rods with a 1-2-3 ninth inning.

John Dishon

Notes: Moye cruised along through the first four innings before getting in a little trouble in the fifth. He gave up three straight hits to start the inning and then committed an error but John Dishon gunned down a runner at third and Moye got right back on track, retiring the next five batters in order.  Speaking of Dishon.  I’ve seen some home plate collisions, but his ranks right up there.  He absolutely leveled the Bowling Green catcher in the seventh inning.  I was half expecting to see Chris Tucker come running in to tell the Hot Rods catcher he got knocked out.  After the big Rattlers 7th inning, Jacob Barnes started the 8th by walking the first two batters, but he quickly regained his control and was able to hold the 6-2 lead.

Seth Harvey

Here are my photos from Monday afternoon’s game.  The Rattlers have an off day tomorrow then head to Clinton for 3 games before returning home on Saturday to take on Kaleb Cowart and the Cedar Rapids Kernels.

4/29/12 Bowling Green 2 Wisconsin 5

The Timber Rattlers evened up their series with Bowling Green at a game a piece with a 5-2 win over the Hot Rods on Sunday afternoon.  Wisconsin got on the board first when Max Walla knocked in Brandon Macias with a first inning single. Bowling Green tied it up in the top of the 2nd.  The Hot Rods briefly took the lead in the top of the 6th, but Chadwin Stang answered with a solo home run to lead off the bottom of the inning.  The score stayed tied until the bottom of the 8th when Ben McMahan‘s single to center knocked in John Dishon with the go-ahead run.  The T-Rats tacked on a pair of insurance runs on an RBI double by Jason Rogers for the 5-2 final score.

John Dishon

David Goforth started the game for the Rattlers.  He went six innings, allowing two runs, one earned, before giving way to reliever Chad Pierce.  Pierce pitched the final three innings, allowing just one hit and striking out four to earn his first win.  Offensively Wisconsin was led by Rafael Neda and Brandon Macias who each had two hits.  Jason Rogers was 1 for 3 with a pair of RBI and Max Walla was on base twice with a single and a walk.

David Goforth

Notes:  Greg Hopkins saw his hitting streak snapped, but he hit the ball hard a couple of times.  His first inning double play ball was a smash to third where the third baseman made a sliding stop, and in the seventh inning he flew out to deep left field.  I thought Goforth pitched very well.  His fastball was around 93-94 on the stadium gun.   The run he gave up in the first was on a ball back up the middle.  He got a glove on it, but couldn’t come up with it.  Had he not touched it, it may have been fielded by Rivera for out number three.  Chad Pierce looked good in relief as well.  He was around 91-92 and allowed just one base runner.  The Rattlers struggled to get down a couple of bunts, but both times it paid off for them in runs.  Chad Stang followed up his failed bunt attempt with a solo home run to left and Ben McMahan knocked in the go-ahead run in the 8th after being unable to get a sacrifice bunt down.  Max Walla had a couple of nice hustle plays that didn’t show up in the box score.  In the second he quickly got to a ball blooped down the line to hold Taylor Motter to a single.  Motter stole second and third anyway but it was a good play at the time.  He also came up just short on a foul ball that he laid out for down the right field line later in the game.  On the negative side he did get called for interference to end the 8th inning. I don’t think it was intentional but it was interference.  It was kind of one of those things where you are walking at someone and you move to one side and they move the same way at the same time and you run in to them.  Still Walla has been fun to watch since he joined the team. (Plus he has an awesome walk-up song.)

Yadiel Rivera

Here are my photos from Sunday’s Rattlers victory.  They wrap up their series with the Hot Rods tomorrow afternoon and then head off to Clinton for a brief three game road trip.

Notebook: 4/29/12

WEEK IN REVIEW

The Timber Rattlers finished the week with a 2-5 record but still remain just a half game out of first place in the Midwest League’s Western Division with a 12-11 record for the season.  They were swept in a three game series at South Bend, falling 2-1 on Sunday, 8-1 on Monday and 10-4 on Tuesday to the Silver Hawks.  They returned home on Wednesday for three games against the Dayton Dragons.  The T-Rats got back on the winning track thanks to Greg Hopkins walk-off home run on Wednesday night.  They dropped game two to Dayton by a score of 3-1.  On Friday night the two teams wrapped up the series with a game at Miller Park.  Behind a dominant pitching performance from Drew Gagnon and a three run home run by Max Walla, Wisconsin took the series with a 3-0 victory.  Last night Bowling Green came in to Fox Cities Stadium and defeated the Rattlers 6-0.

Greg Hopkins

THREE UP, THREE DOWN

The three up portion will take a look at three Rattler alumni each week who have advanced to a higher level and how they are performing. In the three down section I will feature players from the Brewers lower levels who could be future Rattlers. It might be a little slow going for the three down early on until the Rookie Leagues get going in June so I’ll include some injury updates here for the time being.

3 Up

Wily Peralta: Peralta made his Major League debut last Sunday, pitching the ninth inning for the Brewers.  He was then sent back to Nashville to continue working as a starter and would be the likely next man up if Milwaukee needs another starting pitcher this season.  In four starts at Nashville he has pitched 22 innings with a 3.68 ERA.

Denny Almonte: Almonte has gotten off to a hot start with the AA Jackson Generals.  Through 22 games he is batting .341 with six home runs and 15 RBI.  He also has added five doubles and has an OPS of 1.003.

Caleb Thielbar: Thielbar has worked 12 1/3 innings in seven appearances for the Twins High A affiliate in Fort Myers.  He has allowed just four hits and has struck out 16 batters while walking just two.

3 Down

Brock Kjeldgaard:  Kjeldgaard landed on the disabled list at AA Huntsville after tearing ligaments in his thumb.

Austin Ross:  Ross landed on the DL at High A Brevard with an arm injury.

Adam Moore:  Moore also will spend some time on the DL at AAA Tacoma after undergoing knee surgery.  He will be out about 4-6 weeks.

Caleb Thielbar

AROUND THE WEB

Some of the stories from the past week that have been featured on the many Brewers/Rattlers/Baseball related sites around the internet. Many may be old news to die hard fans, but just in case you missed them I will feature them here in this section.

- Former Rattler Hiram Burgos took a no-hitter in to the ninth inning of his start for Brevard County on Tuesday night.  He actually had a perfect game going through six before walking the first batter of the seventh inning.  Burgos lost the no-hit bid as well as the game in the ninth inning but it still was an excellent pitching performance.

- Scooter Gennett was named the Southern League’s Offensive Player of the Week and Mike McCarter from the Huntsville Times had this story on him.

- Bob Brainerd continued his fine series of Timber Rattler profiles with this one on Greg Hopkins.

- The Post Crescent also has their series of weekly T-Rats profiles.  This week’s is on pitcher Mark Williams, who pitched at Fox Cities Stadium last year for the D3 World Series Champions from Marietta.

- The Baseball America Prospect Hot Sheet has former Rattler Jake Odorizzi checking in at #5 this week after an 11 strikeout performance.

- The Rattlers played their annual Miller Park game on Friday night.  The Post Crescent and MiLB.com both have stories on the game.

Scooter Gennett

NOTES

Just some random news, notes and stats regarding the Rattlers and Rattler alumni. Greg Hopkins is currently in the middle of a 9 game hitting streak.  He is hitting .314 during that streak with 5 extra base hits….. Newcomer Max Walla has 11 hits in his last 8 games including his first home run of the season on Friday night….. Drew Gagnon has not allowed a run in his last three outings.  Gagnon has tossed 19.2 consecutive scoreless innings and leads the Midwest League with a 0.64 ERA….. Former Timber Rattler Joe Dunigan is leading the Southern League with seven home runs.  His home run last night moved him one in front of teammate Denny Almonte who has six…. At AA Huntsville, Pitcher Tyler Thornburg hit his first professional home run on Thursday night.

Max Walla

GOING FORWARD

The schedule for the upcoming week has Wisconsin facing Bowling Green for two more games on Sunday and Monday.  They have Tuesday off then head out for a brief three game road trip to Clinton starting Wednesday.  The Timber Rattlers then return home on Saturday for a seven game homestand, starting with four against the Cedar Rapids Kernels.

Finally one quick note I wanted to mention.  For those who have been reading the blog for a while, you may remember when we started out there were actually three of us writing.  It was myself, along with Chris Collins and Marcus Young.  Well Chris became a father for the first time and Marcus moved to Illinois so you all got stuck with just me.  But good news, Chris and Marcus have agreed to once again help out with the blog.  Chris has adjusted to the role of fatherhood and is getting back out to more games and Marcus will actually be traveling to the eastern part of Florida on several occasions for work and has agreed to check out a few Manatees games and provide us with some reports on how some of the former Rattlers are doing.  Very glad to have you both back on board and looking forward to your contributions!

Walk ‘em off Greg Hopkins!

The Rattlers returned home on Wednesday night and got back to their winning ways with a 4-3 walk-off win against the Dayton Dragons.  It was T-Rats first baseman Greg Hopkins who provided the late game heroics, with a game winning home run to lead off the bottom of the 9th inning.  Wisconsin jumped out to an early lead in the first inning when Yadiel Rivera hit a smash back to the pitcher who knocked the ball down but then threw wildly to first, allowing Max Walla to score and make it 1-0.  They added two more in the third on RBI doubles by Jason Rogers and Brandon Macias.  Dayton tied up the game with two in the 4th and one in the 5th to make it 3-3.  The scored stayed that way until the bottom of the ninth when Hopkins belted his first home run of the season to give the Timber Rattlers the victory.

Greg Hopkins

Jason Rogers and Brandon Macias led the way for the Rattlers, each going 3 for 4 with a double and an RBI.  Max Walla was also on base three times, with a single, a double and a walk.  Andy Moye started the game for the Timber Rattlers and went 4 1/3 innings, allowing three runs while striking out five.  Jacob Barnes came on in relief of Moye and worked 3 1/3 innings.  Seth Harvey pitched the final inning and a third, allowing just one hit, while striking out three.  Harvey earned his second win of the season when Hopkins blast went sailing over the left field wall.

Andy Moye

Notes: Moye picked off Dayton left fielder Juan Silva in the second inning.  He picked over to first three straight times, and may have nailed Silva three straight times.  The first one was very close, the second one looked like Moye got him for sure but Silva was ruled safe, finally on the third try he easily got the runner.  Jason Rogers third inning double would have usually only been a base hit, but he alertly noticed nobody covering second base and cruised on in for the double.  Two batters later, Brandon Macias lined one in to the left field corner, Rogers scored easily and it looked like Yadiel Rivera would score from first as well but the ball rolled under the fence for a ground rule double.  Moye got in to some trouble in the fourth and fifth innings but managed to get out of it with the game still tied.  He walked the first two batters in the fourth inning and you could tell he was getting frustrated when he let out a (well let’s just say a yell that would have made Brett Lawrie proud).  Those two runs came around to score.  Then in the fifth he allowed a leadoff single, then back to back bunts to load the bases.  The first bunt by Theo Bowe was just well placed and there wasn’t much anyone could do, on the second one Moye fielded the ball quickly and turned to throw to third but there was nobody at the base as Macias was crashing hard on the bunt as well.  By the time Moye spun and threw to first base it was too late and the bases were loaded.   A sac fly tied the game and then Jacob Barnes came in to get the next two hitters to line out to Rivera and Macias.

Brandon Macias

Here are the rest of my photos from Wednesday night.  The Rattlers and Dragons go at it again tonight at Fox Cities Stadium, then the two teams head to Milwaukee for the big game at Miller Park on Friday.  Bowling Green comes to town on Saturday for a three game series with day games on Sunday and Monday!  After suffering through too many cold games already this year, I can’t tell you how excited I am for some sunny afternoon baseball.