More photos » by John Amis - AP

"You think Paxton's a good call at 26, dude?" (AP Photo/John Amis)

Browse more photos »

Today is draft day! (well, at least rounds 1-3). The best way to start off your draft-related coverage today is with an interview between Sky Kalkman and John Sickels at Beyond the Boxscore. Here's the Draft Day Discussion thread at Minor League Ball, and we'll have plenty of coverage tonight here at BCB. The Washington Post has a little overview of the whole Strasburg situation, and the Nats fans want him. 

I am utterly shocked that there is a group of people that would opt to not pick Strasburg. Sure, there's a risk involved, but you just cannot pass on him. And mechanics analyzation is not yet to the point where it can be used to predict injury. The first link in that sequence is the most confusing-- the author contends that he's not a better prospect than Prior or Lincecum was, because they were all ranked #1 in their class. He suggests taking a position player. I don't think it's a good argument.

The Journal-Sentinel has a list of players the Brewers might target at +26, some of which match up with those we've been discussing here. The draft-day Bruce Seid quote story can be found here. It will be interesting to see how his draft strategy differs from the strategy of his predecessor. McCalvy's preview is better than the JS ones.

More draft notes: Dave Cameron says drafting pitchers in the first round is not a good gamble, and Lookout Landing has an excellent (and of course humorous) overview. Another post, also from Graham at LL, is why you should care as much as we do. Fire Jim Bowden (which has an excellent writer) has a cool breakdown of draft economics.

Rich Harden and Aaron Miles made rehab starts last night, and The Cub Reporter has a good breakdown of Harden's velocity and stuff. He will probably be returning soon.

Two good FJM-Style bashings of Jeff Gordon's article about the Brewers, Tom Glavine, and Pedro Martinez, from Chuckie Hacks and Brewed Sports. Jeff Gordon had his own FJM tag, my foolproof way of determining whether a writer sucks or not. On the subject of FJM, I found this from Baseball Primer: Ken Tremendous Twitter, and it appears to actually be Michael Schur. Also from Brewed Sports, Joe Sheehan continues to confuse me and everyone else.

NBC Sports Circling the Bases Blog caught a rare invocation of Rule 6.08 in the Red Sox/Rangers game on Sunday-- an umpire called Kevin Youkilis out for failing to avoid a pitch. Terry Francona came out of the dugout to argue, and then later admitted he was wrong and tried to apologize.

Today's Joe Posnaski link is a discussion column at SI.com with Bill James, about the value of a walk. Walks have gone past the "undervalued" stage now, but those two know what they're talking about.

Murray Chass, who does not have a blog, has a blog entry about the A's young rotation, Strasburg, and other things.

This is a bit of a problem in the baseball blogging section of the Internet-- somebody has a hot start, and immediately gets accused of using steroids. Besides the fact that we have no proof that using a magic drug is going to make a hitter hit a few more homers early in a year(or play better defense, or draw more walks, or have a higher BABIP-- all things Ibanez has done), it's just irresponsible and annoying. I think the author rightfully gets called out for it by this Philly Enquirer writer. Over a half of a season, players are capable of major flukes. Every time somebody gets hot, are we going to throw out a steroid allegation? I understand David Pinto's point here at Musings, transparency would be cool, but... I really think there's this misconception that steroids are a magic potion that allows bloops to fall in and a hitter to strike the ball more solidly. They're not.

Three Fangraphs links today-- how did Cristian Guzman go from being one of the worst players in baseball to a decent player, a look at Jamie Moyer and other good-hitting pitchers-- Gallardo gets a mention, and a little Hit f/x data from April: the Brewers had the sixth highest average speed of ball off the bat in the majors. I have permission to access the April Hit f/x database, so you'll be getting a post soon about the top hitters by contact and the hardest hit balls. There's more general Hit f/x stuff in this Harry Pavlidis article at THT.

From Driveline Mechanics, here's an interesting way to look at Hall of Fame credentials based on the "winning player" theory.

I think these can be put to good use. The group of Brewers blogs on the internet is so awesome.

Vote for the Brewers in the all-star game balloting if you get the chance.

Tonight the Brewers do actually play a baseball game. Braden Looper and the super splitter face Jason Hammel and the Rockies. Game time is 7:05 in Milwaukee.

The draft begins tonight at 5pm central on MLB network and live on MLB.com. Besides our draft coverage here at BCB, check out the Brewerfan.net Draft forum-- they'll keep you up to date with the best scouting reports you can find anywhere, and fantastic discussion about the picks. We'll hope to see everyone around tonight for both big events, even if I won't be around (high school baseball sectionals take precedence).