Mumble mumble...Wednesday. Stayed up too late after listening to Brewer game last night. Something about being in first place all alone for second straight day, share of first for ninth straight. Playing Reds again tonight. Time for Mug. Coffee first.

That's better. Once again, here's a Win Expectancy graph that slopes in the right direction when Gagne's not involved, Baseball Digest Daily's recaps of yesterday's game, and ESPN Video highlights.

Also, I've gotten away from linking photos in the Mug, but these three shots all seemed worth noting.

And while I'm working on pictures, The Yost Infection has a photo essay on the Brewers closer situation.

On expensive pitchers, though, here's a couple of links to make you feel better. First, Jose Valverde, the NL leader in saves last season, blew a save last night too. Also, while at least one member of my family texted me during the game last night to call Gagne a "$10 MILLION WASTE OF SKIN," it doesn't compare to the wastefulness of spending $95.45 million on Carl Pavano and Mike Hampton.

Jim Powell has a new blog up on Miller Park, Johnny Cueto and Jeff Suppan.

Billy Hall is wearing contacts again. Maybe the move back to the infield isn't the key factor in his hot start.

Some quick power ranking notes:

The Brewers moved up from 15th to 6th in the Bugs and Cranks poll.

Hire Jim Essian, inspired by Phil Rogers' train wreck of a power poll earlier this week, has issued one of their own. The Brewers are 4th, behind the girl who was attacked by a hawk at Fenway, the Baltimore Orioles and Brett Favre.

No Bias Baseball's two voters have the Brewers third and first, respectively.

Bird Land notes that the #9 spot in the Brewers order, currently occupied by Jason Kendall (and the pitchers spot when Mike Rivera catches), is the third most productive lineup spot in all of baseball.

The Futility Infielder picked the Brewers to win the NL Central.

Brief Alphabetical Morning (BAM) Injury Reports:

Doug Davis will miss 4-6 weeks while undergoing surgery for thyroid cancer.
Rays P Matt Garza has inflammation in his radial nerve and could be shut down.
Rich Harden has a subscapularis strain. That's a new one for me too.
Jorge Posada says his arm is dead.
Jimmy Rollins rolled his ankle last night and is day-to-day.
Reds C David Ross' rehab has been set bet for a few days with a minor muscle strain in his leg.
Matt Wise has been moved to the DL with right forearm soreness.

The Cardinals are still only half a game back, but Dayn Perry says not to get too excited.

Fungoes has a nice read with graphs, etc., on the decision of when to pull a starting pitcher. We seem to have this conversation every time Dave Bush pitches, so today seems like the perfect day for it.

Dave Pinto over at Baseball Musings is calling for a severe re-evaluation of the (now 0-7) Tigers.

Every now and then, I put a read in here about the Rule 5 Draft and its side effects. Today, Bucs Dugout has a nice roundup of the successes and failures of the draft, and asks if the loss to players it hurts is worse than the gain.

That's all for today. Drink up.