Thursday's Frosty Mug

Some things to read while finding more uses for rhubarb.

Randy Wolf kept the Brewers in the game through four innings last night, but allowed five runs in the fifth and torpedoed the Brewers' chances of victory. After the game, Wolf compared this season to a bad dream. Even including a seven inning shutout performance two weeks ago, Wolf has posted a 6.70 ERA since May 1. His five home runs allowed last night tied a Brewer franchise record.

In one small silver lining from last night, Chris Smith and David Riske both made successful 2010 debuts, combining to pitch 2.1 scoreless innings while facing the minimum (Smith allowed one hit, but erased it with a double play). Riske shared a fist bump with Brewer trainer Roger Caplinger afterwards, while Smith sat down with Anthony Witrado.

Other notes from the field:

• Rickie Weeks was hit with a pitch again last night, tying Prince Fielder for the major league lead. Before Tuesday, no pitcher had ever hit Weeks three times - now Carlos Marmol and Carlos Zambrano have both done it. Plunk Everyone has much more.
• Weeks was batting second, as Craig Counsell started at short and batted leadoff for the first time this season. Counsell went 2-for-4 with a walk in the game and scored two runs.
• Here are last night's video highlights, if you want to call them that.
• Marlon Byrd, Geovany Soto and Andrew Cashner are leading FanGraphs' Star of the Game voting.
• Derrek Lee's home run was his first in 47 plate appearances, and the 300th of his career.
• George Kottaras allowed a stolen base to Ryan Theriot and was charged with a throwing error last night. Brew City Sports is starting a scatter chart of his throws.

Kottaras will likely be the Brewers' primary catcher for the remainder of the season, as Gregg Zaun announced yesterday that he's decided to have surgery to repair his torn labrum (FanShot). He wasn't seeing the kind of results he was hoping for in rehab, and having the surgery now gives him the opportunity to be ready for spring training 2011, if a team wants to take a chance on him. In the link above he mentioned that he expects the Brewers to decline his option.

Meanwhile, Casey McGehee and Corey Hart continue to surprise people with their 2010 performances. Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com has them #1 on his list of unexpected leaders.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have Chris Capuano. The Brewers lost his 2010 debut last week and are now 0-23 in his last 23 appearances, dating back to 2007. Disciples of Uecker has more on the unprecedented streak.

In the minors:

• The Brewers have one less catcher in the organization: Adam McCalvy reports that Angel Salome has informed the team that he's no longer comfortable behind the plate, and has asked to be moved to the outfield. He sat out last night, but has played right field once and DH'ed three times since returning to action with Brevard County.
• The affiliates went 1-3 on the day yesterday, with the lone bright spot being Wisconsin's win in game two of a doubleheader (after losing 17-5 in game one). Jonathan Pokorny pitched 2.1 hitless innings for the win. You can read about that and more in today's Minor League Notes.
• Jeremy Jeffress has been assigned to the Timber Rattlers, and will pitch in relief. He's expected to debut on Sunday.
• The Appleton Post-Crescent has thoughts from Khris Davis, Scooter Gennett and Jake Odorizzi, three of Wisconsin's four Midwest League All stars.
  

The MLB Draft wrapped up yesterday with rounds 31-50, but you can probably be forgiven if you missed it - even Doug Melvin skipped it, attending the Timber Rattlers doubleheader instead. The last 20 rounds of the draft are generally of low significance: The Brewers only signed four players drafted after the 30th round last season, and have since released one of them. With that said, here are yesterday's notes:

• Jim Callis of Baseball America says the Brewers had a "pretty bland draft."
• Jordan Schelling of Brewers.com continues to lead the way with his coverage: He notes that the Brewers only drafted one player shorter than 5'10", and got a quote from assistant director of amateur scouting Ray Montgomery about "wanting to bring in some big, physical guys."
• The Windsor Star has a profile of Brewer seventh round pick Joel Pierce. Pierce was the second youngest player selected this year.
• Elsewhere in Canada, the Toronto Sun has a profile of Brewers Canadian scout Jay Lapp.
• In a story of local note, the Brewers selected Grafton pitcher Conor Fisk in the 34th round. Fisk was rated Wisconsin's #1 prospect by Baseball America.
• The Brewers drafted LSU safety Chad Jones with their final selection. 
• Baseball Daily Digest gave the Brewers a B+ for their 2000-2009 first round selections.

On power rankings: Beyond the Box Score dropped the Brewers five spots to #19.

It's a surprisingly quiet day on the transaction front:

Tigers: Placed reliever Ryan Perry on the DL with biceps tendinitis.

The MLB Draft is much longer than it needs to be, leaving teams room to do things like select the son of one of their broadcasters or assistant coaches (like Bill Schroeder's son Billy, drafted in the 47th round or Stan Kyles' son Marques in the 48th round). The Royals used their 50th round pick to select the great, great, great nephew of Shoeless Joe Jackson.

Of course, you can waste your picks in other rounds too: The Dodgers used their first round selection to pick high school pitcher Zach Lee, who has already enrolled in summer classes at LSU and appears to have a very low chance of signing. It's starting to sound like the Dodgers knew that was the case and just selected him so they could punt and take a compensation pick next season.

Cortisone shots are becoming one of those medical procedures that we hear about all the time but don't actually know that much about. If you've ever wondered what they are and what they actually do, Twinkie Town has you covered.

Yesterday I mentioned that former Brewer farmhand Freddy Parejo hit for the cycle in the California League. Last night, Lancaster teammate Brandon Barnes duplicated the feat.

Happy birthday today to 2004 Brewer and 2010 Nashville Sound Jeff Bennett, who turns 30.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I still have more rhubarb to use.

Drink up.