Friday's Frosty Mug

Some things to read while ducking for cover.

Coming in to the day, I would not have predicted yesterday would be the day Trevor Hoffman recorded his 594th career save, but baseball can be a funny game sometimes. At that link, Adam McCalvy has quotes from Hoffman, who was forced to get five outs after Corey Hart lost two ninth inning fly balls in the sun.

As expected, Jeff Suppan and the wind blowing out were a dangerous combination yesterday. Suppan allowed two home runs (four earned runs total) in his five innings of work. One of those home runs was hit by Derrek Lee, who has taken Suppan deep six times in his career. Suppan retired Lee in the fourth to bring their career head-to-head stats down to .426/.533/.829. Lee joins Alex Rodriguez as the only players to homer six times off Suppan.

For the second straight day it was a pretty good day to be Gregg Zaun. He had hits in his first three at bats yesterday, meaning he followed up his 0-for-21 start with a 4-for-4 streak.

Other notes from on the field (and in the series):

• Prince Fielder was hit by two pitches yesterday, bringing his career total to 51. As you might expect, Plunk Everyone has everything you'd ever want to know about it.
• Plunk Everyone also has notes on Dave Bush's hit batsman from Wednesday.
• Wezen-Ball listed Geovany Soto's home run from Wednesday as the day's slowest home run trot.
• Yesterday's win brought the Brewer playoff chances up to 16.6%, according to Cool Standings.
• Ryan Braun, Casey McGehee and Carlos Villanueva lead the Star of the Game voting.
• Brian Anderson posted a photo from the booth at Wrigley.

With the win yesterday, the Brewers leave Chicago with a 4-5 record. They leave, though, with the opportunity to put together a nice run going forward. As Miller Park Drunk noted before yesterday's game, the Brewers' next five series are against the Nationals, Pirates, Cubs (at home), Pirates (again) and Padres.

But, with every reason for optimism there's also a reason for pessimism: In-Between Hops noted that Brewer pitchers allowed at least four runs for the nineteenth consecutive game yesterday, setting a new franchise record.

If you were hoping to watch the two Pirates series in their entirety, I might have bad news for you: FS Wisconsin has moved Tuesday and April 26th's games (both against the Pirates) over to WMLW to make room for Bucks playoff games (FanShot).

If the Brewers need a situational lefty during the upcoming stretch, it looks like it'll be Manny Parra. Parra, who I think most of us expected to mop up for Suppan, sat unused in the bullpen once again yesterday.

In the minors:

• John Sickels of Minor League Ball is hosting an All Questions Answered thread this morning. You have until noon to get your question in.
• Caleb Gindl remains a pretty polarizing prospect: Battlekow noted a tweet from Kevin Goldstein with two differing opinions on him. Gindl has been nothing but productive in the minors (batting .309/.385/.493 over four levels), but doesn't quite look the part (5'9", 185), so he'll likely always be underrated by scouts more interested in "body type" and "projectability" than results.
• Mitch Stetter is expected to join Nashville tomorrow, after heading home to pick up some things in Milwaukee and driving his car down. There hasn't been an official announcement on who's spot he will take, but the Sounds bullpen already has two lefties (Zach Braddock and A.J. Murray).
• Stephen C. Smith of Space Coast Baseball covered last night's 3-2, ten inning win for Brevard County, and has the audio archived if you missed it the first time.
• Speaking of the Manatees, they've placed Kentrail Davis on the 7-day DL with a twisted ankle.
• Minor League Baseball Prospects has a mock draft up, and they have the Brewers selecting Miami catcher Yasmani Grandal. I'm on board, just for the possibility of a Yovani-Yasmani battery.

Thanks to Wezen-Ball for directing my attention to Rogues Baseball Index and their definition of an obscure baseball term, the Old Milwaukee. Wezen-Ball followed up by creating a franchise history of players to hold the position.

In Power Rankings:

• Yahoo moved the Brewers down from 17 to 22.
  

One last reminder: If you're in Milwaukee tonight and looking for something to do, we're having a Brew Crew Ball Meetup at AJ Bombers.

Around baseball:

Blue Jays: Acquired outfielder Fred Lewis from the Giants for cash or a PTBNL.
Nationals: Designated pitcher Jason Bergmann for assignment and placed pitcher Garrett Mock on the DL with a cervical spine injury.

Today in former Brewers:

• Mike Cameron was a late scratch from yesterday's lineup for the Red Sox, and was taken to the hospital to be checked for appendicitis. He was replaced in the lineup by Bill Hall.
• Dave Trembley hasn't been fired yet as manager of the Orioles, but Ken Rosenthal is suggesting Phil Garner as his eventual replacement.
• Dana Eveland started his Blue Jays career with 11.1 scoreless innings, setting a new franchise record for starting pitchers.

We had a relatively extended conversation in the comments yesterday about Jackie Robinson Day and the practice of having all players wear #42 for the day. I'm not sure if this was the impetus for it, but Jay Jaffe directed me to this New York Times story about former Robinson teammate Gene Hermanski, who suggested the Dodgers all wear #42 to confuse a potential sniper in Cincinnati.

There was good news and bad news for the Astros yesterday: They picked up their first win of the season, but this Crawfish Boxes post shows that their lineup still wouldn't be all that special even if Babe Ruth and Barry Bonds were added to it.

I'm seeing largely positive reviews from the first few games at Target Field. If you're planning on making a trip this summer and want to get the full experience, you might want to see Twinkie Town's list of Rejected Displays.

Happy birthday today to:

• 1995-99 Brewer Fernando Vina, who turns 41.
• 1972 Brewer Jim Lonborg, who turns 68.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to make Brewer logo toast.

Drink up.