In Mexico: Jason Bourgeois went 2-for-4 with a solo home run in Mochis' 6-1 win over Mexicali Friday, then went 0-for-4 with a walk in Mochis' 5-4 loss on Saturday.

In Venezuela: Hernan Iribarren went 1-for-4 with an RBI single in Saturday's 9-6 Lara win over Zulia. Brendan Katin went 0-for-2 with two walks in Sunday's 4-3 Zulia win over Aragua.

In Puerto Rico:

• Carlos Corporan went 2-for-4 over the weekend with an RBI. He finished the regular season hitting .213/.275/.426 in 47 AB.
• Charlie Fermaint went 0-for-5 with three strikeouts, but still finished PWL regular season play hitting .303/.380/.348 in 89 AB.
• Mike Rivera went 0-for-2 with a strikeout. He finished the season with a .206/.295/.338 line in 68 ABs.
• Richie Gardner pitched a scoreless inning Friday, allowing a hit and a walk while striking out two.
• Eduardo Morlan pitched a scoreless inning Saturday, allowing a hit and striking out two. He has a 2.16 ERA in 16.2 IP.

In Mexico: Jason Bourgeois went 1-for-4. He has a hit in six straight games.

Today is the final day of the regular season. As the first-half division winner, Mochis (Bourgeois' team) will earn a spot in postseason play. Mazatlan has clinched the second half championship, but the only Brewer to appear in a game for them was Chris Duffy, and he hasn't appeared since October 14, so it seems unlikely he'll return for the playoffs.

In Venezuela: No Brewers appeared Monday. Today is the final day of the regular season, and Caracas (Jorge Julio) leads by six games.

In the Dominican Republic: Box scores aren't up yet from Monday's games, but Este (Joe Bateman) and Cibao (Rafael Lluberes) have qualified for postseason play.

In Puerto Rico: With six games to play, Ponce (Charlie Fermaint) leads by 4.5 games over Arecibo (Efrain Nieves). No Brewers appeared Monday.

All statistics are from 12/22 to present.

In Mexico: Jason Bourgeois went 4-for-15 with a walk and a home run. He's hitting .346/.404/.435 for Mochis.

The Mexican regular season ends on Tuesday.

In Venezuela:

• Alcides Escobar made another appearance as a defensive replacement on 12/23, but hasn't picked up a bat since December 18th.
• Hernan Iribarren went 5-for-19 with three walks, two doubles, a triple and a stolen base. He's hitting .298/.383/.447 in 141 VWL ABs for Lara.
• Brendan Katin went 4-for-16 with a double and a home run for Zulia, but also struck out seven times. He's hitting .257/.336/.556 in 187 VWL ABs, but has struck out 61 times compared to just 12 walks.

The VWL regular season ends on Tuesday.

In Puerto Rico:

• Carlos Corporan has started each of the last three games and gone 3-for-10 with a double, a home run, three runs scored and three RBI. He's hitting .195/.250/.439 in 41 ABs.
• Charlie Fermaint went 3-for-17 with two walks and three stolen bases. He's hitting .321/.400/.369 in PWL play with 10 stolen bases in 13 attempts.
• Martin Maldonado went 0-for-2 for Mayaguez yesterday.
• Mike Rivera went 0-for-2 for Santurce.
• Richie Gardner allowed a hit and two walks but no runs in .2 innings of work Friday.
• Eduardo Morlan pitched a scoreless inning Saturday, allowing only a walk. He has a 2.30 ERA in 15.2 innings.

The PWL season ends on January 4.

In Mexico: Jason Bourgeois went 3-for-6 over the weekend with five walks and a stolen base. He's hitting .353/.420/.432 for Mochis.

In Venezuela:

• Alcides Escobar entered the game as a defensive replacement Friday but did not make a plate appearance.
• Hernan Iribarren went 1-for-12 with a walk and three runs scored over the weekend in his first action since November 22.
• Brendan Katin went 4-for-14 with two doubles and a triple, driving in six runs for Zulia.
• Jorge Julio had a disastrous outing Friday, giving up six earned runs on three hits and two walks in .2 innings.
• Luis Pena gave up a run on two walks while failing to retire a batter Friday.
• Luis Ramirez retired the only two batters he faced in his debut Saturday. It's possible he hadn't pitched since playing in West Virginia in 2007.

In the Dominican Republic:

• Joe Bateman pitched 1.1 scoreless innings for Este, allowing one hit and striking out one. He's only allowed one earned run in his last eight innings.
• Rafael Lluberes retired the only batter he faced Saturday and picked up his first DWL win.

In Puerto Rico:

• Charlie Fermaint went 7-for-10 over the weekend with a double and a stolen base. He's hitting .358/.434/.418 in 67 PWL at bats.
• Eduardo Morlan walked a man but allowed nothing else in .2 innings of work Friday to pick up his third PWL save.
• Efrain Nieves picked up his first PWL win Friday, pitching two scoreless innings with two hits, a walk and two strikeouts. He has a 2.61 ERA despite allowing 16 baserunners in 10.1 innings.

In Venezuela:

• Brendan Katin went 1-for-5 with a single and three strikeouts for Zulia.
• Jorge Julio allowed just one hit in a scoreless inning for Caracas.

In the Dominican Republic:

• Joe Bateman pitched a scoreless inning with a strikeout Tuesday for Este.
• Juan Sandoval allowed a walk and a hit while striking out one in a scoreless inning for Oriente.

In Puerto Rico:

• Charlie Fermaint went 0-for-3 but scored a run for Ponce.
• Martin Maldonado singled in his only at bat for Mayaguez.
• Mike Rivera went 0-for-2 with a stolen base for Santurce.

Some things to read while wondering how much rice one could get for Mike Cameron.

Obviously, the Cameron trade is still a hot topic around here: As of this writing, we've already had 344 comments on an astonishing nine posts since Thursday discussing the topic. (UPDATE: It's actually more like 425 and eleven posts, as I missed two FanShots.)With that said, Jeff brought a new point to the table last night, and even if you're completely sick of the conversation, you should go read it for the insight on the unique economic plight caused by a $200 million payroll.

View From Bernie's Chalet notes that the financial flexibility gained from a Cameron trade would allow the Brewers to continue to pursue Brian Fuentes. That argument works if all of the following is true:

1) The savings on Cameron won't be immediately handed to Kei Igawa.
2) The improvement created by adding Fuentes to the bullpen is greater than the loss created by replacing Cameron with Cabrera in center field.
3) Fuentes won't sign with any of a half dozen other teams that are reportedly interested in him, including the Yankees.

Meanwhile, it's possible the Yankees are pursuing Manny Ramirez, which might force them to move Johnny Damon or Hideki Matsui back to center and leave them without a place to play Cameron. It is about the money, stupid isn't thrilled with that premise.

Also, rumor has it Mark Teixiera is getting close to making a decision. If he signs with the Red Sox, Brewed Sports thinks it will set off a series of moves ending with J.J. Hardy in Boston and Mike Lowell and Manny Delcarmen in Milwaukee.

Three minor league notes to pass along today:

• The Baseball America Prospect Blog has started a project to evaluate catcher defense. Click the link to see how close Jonathan Lucroy is to the top and how close Angel Salome is to the bottom in caught stealing percentage.
• Project Prospect has Alcides Escobar #1 over Mat Gamel on their list of top five Brewer prospects.
• 2008 Brevard County Manatees Stephen Chapman, Taylor Green, Brent Brewer and Charlie Fermaint were all among the leaders in errors in high A ball.

Gabe Kapler's play in Los Angeles was voted This Year in Baseball's top play for 2008, with over 12 million voters weighing in. There's video of the play at the link.

On the hot stove:

Cardinals: The team is one of several talking to Brian Fuentes, and may also be interested in Takashi Saito, Kenshin Kawakami and Koji Uehara.
D-Backs: CEO Jeff Moorad chatted with fans Tuesday and made it sound like the team is still in the market for a fourth starter.
Mets: Are treating newly acquired reliever J.J. Putz as a one-year acquisition, despite his $9.3 million club option for 2010.
Pirates: Signed reliever Chris Bootcheck to a minor league deal.
Tigers: May be getting ready to sign Matt Treanor, who has a history with Dontrelle Willis.

Also, this isn't team specific, but does relate to a free agent: Rocco Baldelli's diagnosis with a mitochondrial disorder may have been incorrect, and his condition may actually be treatable. That could raise his value a fair amount.

In an era where baseball seems to be spreading across the globe, it's weird to have two stories on the same day going in the other direction: the Astros are closing their academy in Venezuela (h/t Crawfish Boxes) and Major League Baseball is ending its affiliation with Hawaii Winter Baseball.

Hope springs eternal...except in Seattle. Washington is the only state in a recent ESPN poll voting that their favorite MLB team won't compete in 2009.

Oh, and what if this whole oil thing had gone the other way?

Drink up.

In Mexico: Jason Bourgeois went 2-for-3 with a double and a stolen base for Mochis.

In Venezuela:

• Alcides Escobar went 1-for-3 and stole a base for Lara.
• Brendan Katin went 0-for-4 with a strikeout for Zulia.
• Freddy Parejo did not reach base in his first at-bat for Lara.
• R.J. Swindle struck out the only batter he faced for Magallanes.

In Puerto Rico:

• Charlie Fermaint went 1-for-3 with a walk and a stolen base for Ponce.
• Mike Rivera went 0-for-3 with a strikeout for Santurce. He now has 62 PWL ABs to match the 62 NL ABs he accumulated in 2008.
• Richie Gardner pitched two scoreless innings for Caguas, allowing two hits and striking out one in his first appearance since changing teams.

In Mexico: Jason Bourgeois went 3-for-14 over the weekend with two walks, stole a base and scored three times. He's hitting .338/.394/.408 in 130 LMP at bats for Mochis.

In Venezuela:

• Alcides Escobar went 3-for-13 over the weekend with a double, a walk and three runs scored. He's hitting .229/.298/.312 in 109 at bats for Lara.
• Brendan Katin went 2-for-6 over the weekend with two doubles and two walks for Zulia. He's hitting .255/.348/.562 in 137 at bats.
• Freddy Parejo made his VWL debut in Lara's 7-6 16-inning loss on Sunday, entering the game as a pinch runner and staying in to play left field. He didn't score and did not get a plate appearance.
• Jorge Julio gave up two runs on three hits and a walk in one third of an inning Sunday and picked up his second VWL loss. He now has a 4.00 ERA with six saves in nine innings for Caracas.
• R.J. Swindle allowed a walk but nothing else in an inning of work Saturday, and retired the only batter he faced Sunday. He's 3-0 with a 2.82 ERA in 22.1 innings in Venezuela.

In the Dominican Republic:

• Joe Bateman pitched a scoreless inning Saturday, allowing a hit and striking out one. He's posted a 3.18 ERA in 22.2 innings for Este.
• Rafael Lluberes retired the only batter he faced Saturday. He hasn't allowed a run in his last seven appearances, spanning four innings.
• Juan Sandoval allowed two runs on two hits and a walk without recording an out Saturday. He has a 9.00 ERA through 14 DWL appearances.

In Puerto Rico:

• Carlos Corporan went 1-for-5 with a double and a run scored Saturday. He's hitting .161/.161/.355 in his first 31 at bats.
• Charlie Fermaint went 5-for-13 over the weekend with a double, two walks, a stolen base and a caught stealing. He's hitting .314/.397/.373 in 51 at bats.
• Mike Rivera went 2-for-6 with a double, a home run and a walk for Santurce. He's hitting .237/.324/.390 in 59 at bats.
• Steve Bray gave up a hit but nothing else in .2 innings of work Sunday. He has a 1.62 ERA in 16.2 innings of work for Carolina.
• Eduardo Morlan pitched a scoreless inning with a strikeout Sunday, lowering his PWL ERA to 2.57 in 14 innings.
• Efrain Nieves pitched four innings in relief Sunday, allowing a run on three hits and two walks while striking out four. His PWL ERA stands at 3.24 through 8.1 innings.

In Mexico: Jason Bourgeois went 2-for-3 with a walk. He's hitting .343/.398/.407 for Mochis.

In Puerto Rico:

• Charlie Fermaint entered the game as a defensive replacement and did not bat.
• Mike Rivera went 1-for-4 for Santurce. He's hitting .240/.316/.340 in PWL play.
• Efrain Nieves allowed one run on three hits and a walk in 2.1 innings for Arecibo. He's got a 4.15 ERA in 4.1 innings in Puerto Rico, not bad for a guy who had never pitched above Helena.

No Brewers played yesterday, but a few did slip through the cracks in yesterday's update:

In Venezuela:

• Alcides Escobar went 2-for-5 with a double Sunday in his third appearance since November 22.
• Brendan Katin went 0-for-4 Sunday for Zulia.

In Puerto Rico: Charlie Fermaint went 1-for-4 with a single and a strikeout Saturday.