The Monday Mug

Yesterday's link report and game summaries. For two quick minor league notes, your Hunstville Stars are first-half champions, and BRRROK! is back.

There are a couple of stories this morning about Dave Bush's rotation spot. It's almost certain he will be skipped and that the Brewers will need a starter on Thursday. JSOnline looks at the options, and lists McClung, Burns, Dillard, and Gulin as options. McCalvy wrote a very similar article earlier and mentioned the exact same names. I'd rank them in the order I wrote them, and I wouldn't mind seeing Chris Cody make the start, either. They acknowledge the possibility of a trade, but suggest that nothing could get done in time. Parra is also mentioned in the article, and though it wouldn't be a bad move, I find it unlikely. 

There's a note in the bottom of that article that I'm not a big fan of, though:

The reason was to get Catalanotto some at-bats more than it was to rest the hot-hitting Hart. Catalanotto, acquired via free agency May 12, hadn't appeared in a game on the trip until Sunday.

We've discussed this before, and I personally feel it's not a great idea to pull superior players just to keep bench players "sharp".

There's a new SBNation blog on the landscape this morning. It's called MLB Daily Dish, and plans to collect all the MLB rumors out there. I love the concept and will frequent it often. Hopefully they keep to actual baseball, though, and steer away from tabloid news about A-Rod staying up past midnight, as I see one post on the front page is about. The tone seems somewhat analytical and informative, so that's good.

Eric Arnett's Twitter says that he will be pitching on Wednesday in Helena. He's wearing number 95.

Alfredo Figaro's MLB debut went pretty well for the Tigers, and Fire Jim Leyland checked out his stuff using pitch f/x.

Sky pointed out that Harold Reynolds was not wrong about point that OPS is a flawed stat in his blog post last week. I actually disagree with his point that Reynolds was right with a strange argument-- I think he was right on the major premise (OPS isn't great) while being totally wrong on why.

Andrew McClutchen's first week in the majors went exceptionally well. He's their top prospect and is probably already a better player than Nate McClouth because he excels at defense in center field.

An interesting interview with a very interesting baseball player, C.J. Wilson. He was a regular commenter on the Rangers' SBNation site, Lone Star Ball, back in the day.

Goat Riders was wrong about Mark DeRosa. Mike Fontenot is not cutting it against lefties, which doesn't seem like a very big surprise to me.

The Moneyball movie has been dropped. I really hope another studio picks it up, because that would be awesome.

Why do people do this. It's a baseball, for goodness's sake.

I think he's on the AAA DL.

I think all of this stuff should be second nature to BCB readers by now, but if it's not, you might want to read it. A quick summary: the Brewers do put the ball in play less than other teams, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

The Gabe platoon is working out well in right field for the Rays. Ned Yost could learn something from Joe Maddon about platoon management.

CC Sabathia left yesterday's Yankee game early with tightness in his bicep. Best of luck to him, and that's just a shame for the Yankees.

ESPN reporters are not particularly good at remembering things like which team a baseball player plays for.

Willy Taveras 2009 is starting to look an awful lot like Corey Patterson 2008. Beyond the Boxscore looks at just how bad of a decision it is to let Taveras continue to play.

Today's an off day, so no game. Today is also probably my final day as your primary muggist-- KL will be back to supplant me from the fill-in role. That will mean longer, more interesting mugs, and longer mid-day analysis posts from me. Thanks for not being too hard on me, except for the day I didn't realize there was no game.