The Weekend Mug

Some things to read while realizing the dark side of the force of facebook.

It's been a wonderful weekend so far for the Brewers.  Milwaukee is on a nice little three game winning streak and has been riding the hot hands of Yovani Gallardo and Corey Hart to victories on Friday and Saturday night.  On Friday, Gallardo pitched a complete game shutout and outdueled Johan Santana as Hart hit a walkoff homerun. Gallardo's complete game was the first for the Brewers since he had done it April 23, 2009, the longest CG drought in the majors at the time according to Tom H.

Hart kept hitting Saturday, hitting a homerun in his first two at-bats (including a grand slam), and was the difference in the game as the Brewers beat the Mets 8-6.  So in two consecutive at-bats, Corey Hart hit his first career walk off HR and his first career grand slam Jordan Schelling also notes that Hart is the first Brewer to homer in three consecutive at-bats since May 21, 2003 when Geoff Jenkins did it.

Corey has, of course, been a pretty popular guy to talk about lately, as he now leads the team in home runs with 12, three more than Casey McGehee.  Miller Park Drunk has a theory that Jim Edmonds signing with the Brewers has helped Hart focus and try to up his play as Edmonds is the first true threat to steal Hart's starting role.

Then there are the always-present Corey Hart trade rumors.  This time courtesy of Ken Rosenthal via MLB Trade Rumors:

The Brewers are once again drawing interest in outfielder Corey Hart.  The Giants, Padres, and A's are among the teams that could use a boost in the outfield and Milwaukee will seek starting pitching in return.  Rosenthal doesn't see the Giants as a fit because they won't part with any of their starters and their outfield situation has recently improved.  Meanwhile, the A's and Padres want to be comfortable with their overall health and chances before they make any moves.  If Jim Edmonds and Jody Gerut get healthy, Hart could be dealt.  Hart is under team control through 2011, should his team choose to tender him a contract.

The other big news for the Brewers is them calling up Chris Capuano (fanshot), who has not been in the majors for thirty months due to his second career Tommy John surgery.  The corresponding move to get Capuano on the roster was the DFAing of Claudio Vargas (fanshot).  Disciples of Uecker cautions against being too optimistic, but the former 18 game winner is just happy to be in the majors again.

Other notes:

• For the first time this season, George Kottaras batted in the second spot in the order, going 1-4 with a walk and a HR. 
  
• Kottaras entered yesterdays game leading all players with at least 70 AB in walk rate, at 25.6%.  Disciples of Uecker have decided to track Kottaras' walk rate this season.
• Todd Jones, via Baseball Think Factory, claims that Ryan Howard's new contract won't affect a potential Prince Fielder deal and gives pretty poor reasoning to back that up.
• And Jon Heyman compares Manny Parra to Oliver Perez. 

Meanwhile, in the Minors:

• Battlekow has some notes on the games the past couple days.  Kentrail Davis was taken out of the game with an apparent injury last night as he ran the bases, international signee Jose Pena made his debut and went 1-5, and Angel Salome might be heading to Huntsville today.
• Keith Law says that pitching prospect Jake Odorizzi has the potential to at least be a #2 starter.
• Rattler Radio had some notes on Maverick Lasker prior to him taking the mound Saturday night.

Around the Majors:
Angels:  Kendry Morales has a broken leg from celebrating his walkoff grand slam and will probably be out for several months
Athletics: Activated Brett Anderson from the DL
Giants: Signed Pat Burrell to a minor league deal and called up top prospect Buster Posey.
Reds:  Placed Ryan Hanigan on the DL and called up C Corky Miller.
Red Sox: Jacoby Ellsbury was put on the DL with four cracked ribs.
Royals:  Placed Gil Meche on the DL due to his ineffectiveness
Tigers: DFA'd Dontrelle Willis and will recall Max Scherzer to take his place

There was a scary moment during the Indians-Yankees game last night as an Alex Rodriguez line drive struck Cleveland pitcher David Huff in the head.  Thankfully, Huff should be all right and a CT scan found no damage.

I know that most teams try to get their fans to vote for their players to start the all-star game.  The Brewers have, in the dirt behind home plate, the message to "Vote Brewers" and give out ballots during the game that are to be collected by ushers.  At some point, though, I think a team can take it too far and the Marlins are an example of this.  In an attempt to get their players voted in to the ASG, Florida is giving away two tickets to every fan that fills out 200 all-star ballots.  The caveat being that every vote must be for a Marlins player.  In addition, they have other bribes prizes for those who fill out 50 or 100 ballots. 

Joe Posnanski has an interesting trivia question, asking who is the only Hall of Famer that Red Sox manager Terry Francona has managed.  The answer is here.

The Rangers financial woes have gotten so bad that they almost missed making Payroll on Friday.  Yikes.  As bad as the Brewers season had felt until the last few days, at least they don't have any deep fiscal problems like this.

I wasn't aware that the MLB draft needed to be fixed so badly, but Tom Verducci has three tweaks that he would make in order to improve it.  They are:  Allow teams to trade draft picks, develop a flexible slotting system or soft cap for total signings, and to shorten it.  The only fix that I, personally, would really agree with is the second.

That's all I've got this weekend, unless you need to find your escape.