Brew Crew Ball: An SB Nation Community

Navigation: Jump to content areas:


Sports blogs for fans, by fans.
New Blog: Sounder At Heart for Seattle Sounders Fans!

Monday's Frosty Mug

Good morning and welcome to year two of the Frosty Mug. Thanks to everyone for all the comments on Saturday's Mugiversary post. It's always good to feel loved.

The Brewers added a little more depth to the rotation over the weekend, signing Matt Ginter to a minor league deal. Ginter started four games for the Indians in 2008 after the Sabathia trade, and posted an ERA over 5. He's almost certainly ticketed for AAA, and didn't even receive an invitation to spring training.

If you're looking to learn more about the backup plans for the rotation, Tom H. has quick profiles of Mark DiFelice, Ginter, Sam Narron, Lindsay Gulin, Chris Narveson and Chase Wright. Assuming none of them make the roster, the Brewers could have four lefty starters (Narron, Gulin, Narveson and Wright) in Nashville to open the season.

As part of the JS Spring Training preview, Tom H. has ten questions for the Brewers to answer this spring. There's nothing groundbreaking there, but it's a nice recap.

Jonathan Mayo of MiLB.com has scouting reports up for players 6-10 in MiLB.com's top 50 prospect rankings. #8 is Alcides Escobar.

Rich Lederer of Baseball Analysts has a cool graph up classifying starting pitchers by K and ground ball rates. Both Dave Bush and Jeff Suppan are on the wrong side of the graph, but he does mention Manny Parra as someone who could have a breakout season in 2009.

The hot stove didn't even get warm for some players this winter: As noted in this FanShot, Ray Durham has not received a single offer this offseason and is considering retirement. My guess is a spring training injury will leave someone an opening at second base, and his phone will ring.

Maybe Durham should hold a public workout, those seem to draw interest: The Brewers are reportedly one of eleven teams that may attend Chad Cordero's workout on February 19.

Elsewhere on the hot stove:

Braves: Have offered Tom Glavine a contract worth $1-2 million for 2009. Glavine made $9 million in 2008.
D-Backs: Signed Tom Gordon to a one year deal worth $500,000.
Dodgers: Signed Randy Wolf to a one year deal worth $5 million, which is $1 million less than the Brewers will pay Trevor Hoffman.
Giants: Have a minor league offer on the table for Rich Aurilia.
Phillies: Signed Ryan Howard to a three year deal worth $54 million. They've also reportedly offered minor league deals to Joe Borowski and Rudy Seanez.
Rangers: Signed Andruw Jones to a minor league deal, meaning Jon Heyman was right when he mentioned it last week. They also signed Brendan Donnelly to a minor league deal.
Rays: Signed reliever Winston Abreu to a minor league deal.
Twins: Signed Luis Ayala to a one year deal for $1.3 million.

The first arbitration hearing has been held, with Shawn Hill of the Nationals winning his case. He'll make $775,000 in 2009. The Nationals offered $500,000. The $275,000 difference was the second smallest figure among the 19 remaining arbitration cases.

How many players would you guess played major and minor league baseball in 2008? The correct answer is 8833, significantly more than I would have guessed. Tangotiger has a csv file of all of them, if you want it.

Last week we discussed the financial value of Bug Selig, who made over $18 million between October of 2006 and 2007. Scott Van Pelt of ESPN took that debate to the next level, making personal remarks about Selig that have led to his suspension from his ESPN Radio show.

Oh, and I missed Friday's 30th birthday of Big League Chew.

Drink up.

0 recs  |  Comment 9 comments |

Story-email Email Printer Print

More from Brew Crew Ball

Monday's Frosty Mug

Nov 2009 by KLSnow - 41 comments

Thursday's Frosty Mug

Feb 2009 by KLSnow - 50 comments

Wednesday's Frosty Mug

Feb 2009 by KLSnow - 18 comments

Around SB Nation

Marlins file for free agency

Nov 2009 from FishStripes - 1 comment

Twins acquire J.J. Hardy

Nov 2009 from MLB Daily Dish - 1 comment

Twins Acquire J.J. Hardy

Nov 2009 from Over the Monster - 45 comments

How Did They Do That?

Nov 2009 from The Good Phight - 7 comments

Comments

Display:

5 Lefty Starters...

Wouldn’t N’ville have 5 LHP SPs? If Capuano makes his return but starts the year in AAA?

I could be wrong.

Frank Kremblas for Crew Manager.

by CATALYST on Feb 9, 2009 9:09 AM CST reply actions   0 recs

wow

cant believe the mug has already been around for an entire year…keep it up! I also just got home from vegas and ive been reading a fantasy baseball magazine on the plane and i noticed that dave bush had an era lower than johan santana, tim lincecum, brandon webb, jake peavy, and josh beckett last year. this, i was unaware of

by BrewerBlue87 on Feb 9, 2009 10:05 AM CST reply actions   0 recs

sorry

sorry, i mean a WHIP lower than all of thems guys

by BrewerBlue87 on Feb 9, 2009 10:06 AM CST up reply actions   0 recs

Bush was v.v. lucky in 2008

Very low batting average on balls in play. This won’t last.

by morineko on Feb 9, 2009 10:54 AM CST up reply actions   0 recs

but, but, but...

you don’t have faith in the historically great Milwaukee Brewers defense?

Also, cheese.

by Jeff Sackmann on Feb 9, 2009 12:58 PM CST up reply actions   0 recs

Braden Looper may sign with Milwaukee?

according to the JS blog, that is

Yay, more pitching? (Too bad he didn’t sign with the Royals, because having Looper and Coco Crisp on the same team would be hilarious.)

by morineko on Feb 9, 2009 10:59 AM CST reply actions   0 recs

It'd be better

if Looper and CoCo Crisp were on the Os, cereal name-wise.

"I will agree that the attitude [at BCB] is ridiculous and they have done so much to instigate animosity and then block us from responding. Real mature!"

by roguejim on Feb 9, 2009 12:24 PM CST up reply actions   0 recs

True.

But then they’d have to trade for Melky Cabrera, because one cannot have cereal without milk….

by morineko on Feb 9, 2009 12:54 PM CST up reply actions   0 recs

further work on the K and groundball thing...

Not that this may be particularly relevant now that the Brewers have presumably signed some cereal for the rotation—

McClung started 12 out of 37 games, just squeaking below the cutoff for the starter half of the study. His K/batters faced rate was 19.07% and his groundball rate was 44.3%, which would have stuck him in the NE quadrant of starters (probably, unless sticking him in as pitcher #136 would hose the average—I didn’t have time to go through all that XD)

by morineko on Feb 9, 2009 11:43 AM CST reply actions   0 recs

Comments For This Post Are Closed


User Tools

Brew Crew Ball is dedicated to providing a friendly atmosphere for intelligent Brewer conversation. Click here to view our Posting Guide and Community Guidelines.
Start posting about the Brewers »

Join SB Nation and dive into communities focused on all your favorite teams.

FanPosts

Community blog posts and discussion.

Recent FanPosts

Barrelman_small
Updated 2010 Brewers Roster/Salary Predictions
U8xcikxxuei8lvi_small
2009 Offseason Free Agency Dates
U8xcikxxuei8lvi_small
Speculationville: Glen Perkins
U8xcikxxuei8lvi_small
Somebody Get Me My Cardboard: Bob Wolfley Breaks It Down
Small
Brewers Minor League Leaders thru the 00's - Strikeouts
U8xcikxxuei8lvi_small
JJ Hardy's Trade Value
U8xcikxxuei8lvi_small
Tangentially related Brewers news
Rubie_edited-1_small
Yosty! A Retrospective
Small
Brewers Minor League Leaders thru the 00's - Saves
U8xcikxxuei8lvi_small
MLBTR's Bad Contract Swap Meet

+ New FanPost All FanPosts >

Featured Poll

Poll
Who won the J.J. Hardy/Carlos Gomez trade?

  52 votes | Results

79 - 82

11

Won 3

1

NL Central Standings

W L PCT GB STRK
St. Louis 91 71 .561 0 Lost 6
Chicago 83 78 .515 7.5 Lost 1
Milwaukee 80 82 .493 11 Won 3
Cincinnati 78 84 .481 13 Won 2
Houston 74 88 .456 17 Lost 3
Pittsburgh 62 99 .385 28.5 Lost 2

(updated 11.7.2009 at 10:17 AM CST)

FanShots

Quick hits of video, photos, quotes, chats, links and lists that you find around the web.

Recent FanShots

The Pilots/Brewers First Home Game
You think you know the Brewers Farm System? You've got nothing on this guy.
Red Sox offered Bowden for Hardy?
Melvin: "We are going to consider [Lucroy] as a candidate
Hot Stove: Garland's option declined, will be a FA
Post on Minor League Ball asking for top 5 Brewers prospects
Alcides Escobar "abandoned his daughter before she was born"
Cain, Lucroy, Green in the lineup in the AFL tonight.
Why I haven't watched an inning of playoff baseball this year
Committing 10% of your payroll to a non-premium guy who'll throw under 4%...

+ New FanShot All FanShots >


Moderators

U8xcikxxuei8lvi_small roguejim

Mordecai_brown_small Jeff Sackmann

Newavatar_small KLSnow

Box_small TheJay

Communist_party_small Jordan M

Contributors

Dsci0355_small kirbir

Picture_069_small tristarscoop

Dsc01174_small BrewHaHeather

Rubie_edited-1_small Rubie Q

Hikaru_50_small morineko

X1pxoywqu4sjf73f7drxq2lmqys7mzsyx7pa9necepiffk_ewcuwmuazb-o17ukmbriclcdkn4lk-4xposaawiq4j8hzdsccpjwatqpz2o2p-i0nnqjlyt7pmytaycsaknszvaktpshtcu9sjle1qchlw_1__small NoahJ

Hulk_buddy-icon_small Fatter than Joey