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Thursday morning reads

Some things grabbed my attention during my pre-work baseball news cruise this morning. But no, Adam McCalvy's preview of the bullpen wasn't one of them. I'm thinking of writing a book. All it's going to have is everything printed about the bullpen from the last day of the season to the day Cameron signed. You'll need to rent a forklift to pick up your copy.

Sports Weekly unveiled 100 names you need to know for '08. The list is full of players who haven't spent much (if any) time in the bigs but could contribute in 2008. Two Brewers make the list: Manny Parra at 14 and Mitch Stetter at 81. Two former Brewers are also on the list: Callix Crabbe at 60 and Joe Thatcher at 71. I'll try to make my thoughts quick:

A: I think Stetter's chances of making the opening day roster are better than Parra's. If Parra doesn't make the rotation, (and right now he's about 8th in line), he goes back to AAA and we only see him if injury opens the door for him to start consistently. If a spot start is needed, a guy like Claudio Vargas will just get dusted off in the bullpen.

B: I'm sure I'm not the first person to make this comparison, and I'm sorry to pile on, but I've never seen these numbers side by side before:

Scott Linebrink as a Brewer: 25.1 IP, 3.55 ERA, 1.500 WHIP
Joe Thatcher as a Padre: 21 IP, 1.29 ERA, 0.905 WHIP

And the Padres got to keep him after the season, too.

I'm starting to feel bad for continuing to bring up things like this, but Jason Kendall also made The Hardball Times' Worst Infield Money Can Buy. Just saying.

Finally, non-Brewer related, David Cone is taking some responsibility for the steroid era. Kudos to him for admitting it. I've always felt he was a class act, ever since I read Roger Angell's A Pitcher's Story. It's available cheap on Amazon, if you haven't read it.

In the Cone story, though, I noticed this tidbit:

Cone joins a crew of analysts (on the YES Network) that includes John Flaherty, Al Leiter, Bobby Murcer, Paul O'Neill, Ken Singleton and John Flaherty.

John Flaherty made his big league debut in 1992, and in the 16 years since, that's definitely the first time he's ever been relevant enough to be mentioned twice in the same sentence.