Thursday's Frosty Mug

Well, last night wasn't much fun. The Brewers wake up this morning half a game back of the 7-2 Cardinals, in second place for the first time after nine straight days with a share of first. In a few hours they'll take on the Reds in the finale of their three game series, and we might see the big league debut of The Hurricane. It's time for a Frosty Mug.

Yesterday's win probability graph.
Baseball Digest Daily recaps of yesterday's games.
ESPN Video Highlights

Today, for the first time, we're starting to see real doubts about Derrick Turnbow's spot in the future of the Brewers. Tom H. mentions in his blog today that Turnbow doesn't really look like part of the plan in the pen.

Turnbow pitched poorly last night in a style we've seen before, where he walks the first guy, Ned leaves him in despite the fact that even he must know what's coming, Turnbow proceeds to give up more walks and a long ball. Obviously, seeing him pitch like this is disappointing, but it's hardly surprising given the fact that he had only pitched once since the end of spring training. If this is how they're planning on using him for the rest of the season they probably should get rid of him, because I can't imagine a hard-thrower with control issues getting into any kind of rhythm when he only pitches once a week. The same can be said for McClung. The Junkball Blues has a post from before yesterday's game noting that Riske and Torres accounted for half the bullpen's innings so far in '08.

Two more bullpen links, both about Gagne: Between the Green Pillars notes that Gagne shook off Kendall's call for a change-up before throwing the fastball that Patterson used to tie Tuesday's game. Hopefully he learned his lesson. In-Between Hops notes that 17% of Gagne's career blown saves and 10% of his career home runs allowed have come in 2008, in just 3 appearances.

The Hardball Times lists Mat Gamel as one of their hitting prospects to watch in 2008.

Brief Alphabetical Morning (BAM) Injury Reports:

Mets 2B Luis Castillo sat out last night's game with a sore and swollen knee.
Rays OF Cliff Floyd is going to need knee surgery and will be out indefinitely.
Rich Harden doesn't think he's going to be ready to pitch Saturday, either. A's Nation thinks he's done for 2008.
Orlando Hernandez is back in a walking boot and still can't throw the banana.
Mike Lowell injured the thumb on his glove hand diving for a ball last night. Severity is unknown.
Braves P Rafael Soriano has been DL'ed with elbow tendinitis.

The Yankees had some fun with injury reports yesterday, complete with phantom injuries, miraculous recoveries, surprise roster moves and trickery. That's not shady at all.

Via the other BCB, we finally have a comprehensive map of MLB.tv blackouts. All of Iowa is declared a local market for 6 teams. That's why they don't get my money.

This game looks simple and seems like you'd tire of it quickly, but I blew an hour on it yesterday. Sometimes simple is good.

That's all for today. See you back here in a couple of hours for the game at noon. Drink up.