Kyle is off celebrating his anniversary, so this morning's Mug comes with a bit of lingering jet lag from me.
Frankly, living through last night's game was bad enough the first time, so I'm going to go ahead and leave that where it is.
Except to point you to this wonderful tidbit from Plunk Everyone in last night's game thread.
The other big thing that happened yesterday was the second day of the amateur draft. Noah had a post this morning breaking down the Brewers picks from the first 15 rounds.
In case that wasn't enough, here are recaps from FSWisconsin and Adam McCalvy.
Brewerfan.net always does a great job of keeping up with prospects and the draft is no exception. Check out the official thread on it here.
One of the biggest question marks from day one of the draft came with the pick of injured Victor Roache. McCalvy has quotes from within the organization calling the pick a "calculated risk."
Zach Greinke's presence in the draft room made waves. McCalvy wrote about it, but so did the Washington Post
We all know that the new CBA changed the draft and The Outside Corner wonders if MLB is ruining the amateur draft?
The first round of All-Star Game voting numbers came out yesterday and the supposed league-wide hatred of Ryan Braun doesn't appear to be as wide-spread as we would have thought. He's in third place among NL outfielders with approximately 1.1 million votes, which is just behind Carlos Beltran's 1.2 million, but rather far behind first-place vote-getter Matt Kemp's 1.9 million votes. Braun received the most votes among NL outfielders in each of the previous four seasons.
In addition, it was announced that Matt Kemp would be the NL Home Run Derby Captain and Robinson Cano would captain the AL team. Apparently Josh Hamilton was offered the job, but turned it down, saying he won't participate at all.
Additionally, MLB is going to allow players to use social media during both the Home Run Derby and All-Star Game. They won't be allowed to do it until after they've been removed from the game, but there were plenty of jokes around the interwebs shortly after the announcement about the game counting.
In other interesting reading:
Starlin Castro hasn't had the best week, PR and concentration-wise, but he's still one of the best hitters in the majors over the last year. That doesn't stop this paper from calling for him to be traded, saying "he must go."
Tommy Lasorda suffered a minor heart attack Monday night while at the draft. Apparently he thought it was food poisoning but Bud Selig insisted he head to the hospital. Lasorda appears to be doing fine and had a very Lasorda-esque quip about the whole thing: "The doctors confirmed I do bleed Dodger Blue. I'm looking forward to being back at the stadium to cheer on the Dodgers."
Jimmie Lee Solomon, MLB's executive vice president of business development was fired on Monday. He was once in charge of on-field operations, including umpiring, but was reassigned in 2010 amid complaints about the umpiring.
Beyond the Box Score takes a look at WAR (using B-Ref, Fangraphs and Baseball Prospectus) and determines who the worst position players in baseball are. Rickie Weeks makes the B-Ref list at -1.5 WAR, but not the other two and apparently didn't merit a mention in the rest of the article. Met Ike Davis is the consensus worst.
Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick went public yesterday to slam Stephen Drew, saying he's taking entirely too long to return from the broken ankle and torn ligaments he suffered last July. Drew is headed to AAA this week to begin a rehab stint. Kendrick told a radio show that he's disappointed in Drew and accused Drew (and his agent Scott Boras) of being more concerned with his impending free agency than playing this season.
The new CBA also severely limited the ability of players using chew tobacco. Two former minor-leaguers have come up with something of a solution - chewable coffee. Called Grinds, its now in 20 major league clubhouses and used at some level by all 30 clubs. It has apparently helped multiple folks stop chewing
The guy who ran onto the field after Santana's no-hitter has been banned from CitiField for life.
Speaking of the no-hitter - the foul ball that wasn't has lead to a renewed discussion of instant replay and this article looks at how technology like that used in tennis could be used in the MLB to quickly determine whether balls are fair or foul. FIFA, the governing body of soccer, is exploring using the same technology along goal lines and could decide next month. Of course the discussion isn't that simple and Bud Selig still seems reluctant to move forward. The article does a good job of discussing the positives and negatives.
This interactive map that pegs the cities where every major leaguer was born is pretty cool. (h/t BBTF)
You've probably never heard of Hal Keller, the baseball executive who passed yesterday. But you should be thankful to him for a pretty awesome innovation in scouting - he was the first to use a radar gun to evaluate talent.
While everyone's douchey fan meter has been on the lady who wrestled a kid for Donald Driver's cleat at his charity softball game over the weekend, apparently folks are still harassing Jonathan Lucroy's wife, sending her hate messages on Facebook.
Father's Day is coming up next weekend, so Yahoo! has compiled a list of Brewers gifts for you.
In transaction news:
Angels: Put Bobby Wilson on the 7-day concussion DL and called up Hank Conger.
Braves: Demoted struggling third baseman Joey Terdoslavich from Triple-A Gwinnett to Double-A Mississippi and traded for Ruben Gotay.
Dodgers: Javy Guerra was placed on the DL and it was announced he underwent knee surgery and will be out 4-6 weeks.
Indians: Activated Carlos Santana from the 7-day concussion DL and designated Juan Diaz for assignment
Mariners: Starter Felix Hernandez will miss his next start due to back discomfort.
Mets: After announcing Monday that Jon Niese would undergo minor heart surgery over the All-Star Break, the Mets said yesterday that Niese will now wait until after the season. Also placed Ramon Ramirez on the 15-day DL with a strained hamstring and activated Miguel Batista in his place. They selected the contract of RHP Chris Young and designated RHP Jack Egbert for assignment.
Orioles: Signed Nate McClouth to a minor league contract.
Padres: Signed Ross Ohlendorf to a major league contract and designated Matt Palmer for assignment. Also activated Huston Street from the DL.Pirates: Alex Presley has been recalled from Indianapolis and Gorkys Hernandez was sent down.
Rays: Activated LF Desmond Jennings from the DL and optioned Rich Thompson to AAA Durham
Red Sox: Demoted Daniel Bard to AAA
The Lakeshore Chinnoks - the new Northwoods League team playing in Mequon that's owned by Robin Yount, among others - won their home opener last night.