So, fresh off a four game sweep of the Nats, the Brewers are headed out to the West Coast. Get ready to adjust your sleep cycle to Pacific time.

Win Expectancy Graph
BR Box Score

No matter how hard I try, I can't seem to forget last year's San Diego-Los Angeles road trip, where the Brewers dropped five straight on their way to a season-high six game losing streak. So in my mind three wins on this six game trip would be a real victory. Here's the Official site's series preview.

The Padres will play tonight's game without bench coach Craig Colbert, who was suspended for a game for arguing with the umpires. The circumstances of the argument seem a little odd: Any Padres fans out there, or anyone who saw the game for that matter, who can explain what happened that caused the umpires to refuse a double switch?

While the Padres are playing without their bench coach, the Brewers will continue to play without Ryan Braun, who still isn't sure when he'll be ready to return. Here's a thought: if he's having back problems and you're not sure when he'll be able to play again, why are you putting him on a plane to San Diego today? I'm sure a cross-country flight is just what he needs right now.

On the plus side, Statistically Speaking accidentally discovered that Braun has the highest career OPS in history among players who have never led their team in the stat.

There are two things worth noting in this Nationals Journal post on the sweep: First, Garrett Mock is only the second pitcher all season to record 9 strikeouts in a game where he failed to pitch 5 full innings. Second, he also had this to say after the game: Whatifsports new MLB Power Rankings have the Brewers at third, and the reconfigured (again) Whisnant rankings have them 9th.

On injuries:

Evan Longoria has been placed on the DL with a fractured wrist and should miss around 3 weeks.
Marlins SP Scott Olsen rolled his ankle in his last start and could miss a start Thursday.
Marlins RP Doug Waechter hasn't pitched since Wednesday with shoulder stiffness.
Rangers closer C.J. Wilson is having arthroscopic surgery on his elbow and is done for the year.

In easily the biggest non-Brewer news of the day, the Diamondbacks traded a minor leaguer and two players to be named to the Reds for Adam Dunn. Redleg Nation reports one of those players to be named later could be Micah Owings or Max Scherzer. Getting one of them for a six-week rental of Adam Dunn would be a pretty good deal.

Baseball Digest Daily takes a look at the declining numbers of Kosuke Fukudome. I hadn't noticed, but the trends are certainly there. Also declining: the spirits of two Cubs fans who faced a judge yesterday for a parking lot assault at Miller Park. Anyone heard how that turned out?

The Pacific Coast League is kind of a strange case, as the league now includes teams on the coast, as the name would imply, but also in Iowa, Nashville, New Orleans and Omaha. As a result, when the price of airfare goes up, their travel budgets become a concern. They're supposedly considering an extreme unbalanced schedule next season, because spending a full season playing most of your games against 3 other teams is exactly what big league clubs want their top prospects to do.

Recondite Baseball explores the history of the single baseball rule that even the smartest baseball fans frequently can't explain.

Oh, and if you were about to finish construction on a brand new ballpark, would you want a second-rate summer football league to come in and tear up your grass in July and August? Me either, but apparently Fred Wilpon does.

Drink up.

Did the Brewers have a game yesterday? Hmm, must not have noticed.

The biggest news this morning, courtesy of Ken Rosenthal, is that Matt LaPorta is officially on the trading block, and that Alcides Escobar might be packaged with him to acquire C.C. Sabathia. That price sounds a little steep to me, but Tom Haudricourt reports that the Indians have also been scouting Taylor Green. LaPorta and Green sounds about right, which would free the Brewers to trade Escobar or J.J. Hardy (who is confirmed to be available, along with Rickie Weeks) for A.J. Burnett, because the Blue Jays need a shortstop. Haudricourt doubts the Brewers are really offering LaPorta and/or Escobar, but given recent history, I think I'd believe Robothal first.

The Yost Infection takes umbrage with BA & Rock's fellating of Hardy's defense, citing his terrible zone rating, but fails to note the fact that Hardy leads all of baseball in out-of-zone plays; in other words, the Brewers' defensive shifting is messing up his zone rating. He's still not as good as Escobar, though.

LaPorta, Escobar, and Mat Gamel all made what I guess is best called Baseball America's Midseason Prospect All-Star Team, which roughly means they're near the top of their positions in all of prospectdom, but the corrosponding chat casts doubt on whether Gamel and Angel Salome can stick at their current defensive positions.

At FanGraphs, Marc Hulet (who I'm beginning to suspect is a big Brewers fan) points out that there are other interesting prospects in the system beyond the big names, namely Michael Brantley and Cole Gillespie. The point is especially well-taken about Gillespie, who's hitting like a mini-LaPorta, putting up a .273/.374/.498 line. Hulet also put Brad Nelson on his AAA non-prospect All-Star team; I think Nelson would make an excellent throw-in in whatever trade the Brewers end up executing, as he's never going to get a shot in Milwaukee.

Speaking of trades, Scott Linebrink Cutter Dykstra hit his first professional home run for Helena.

Dykstra's fellow draftee, 41st-round Cal State Fullerton SS Joe Scott, is playing summer ball in Alaska and "there's a chance he might sign a professional contract if he plays well this summer." He previously spurned the Brewers last year when they drafted him in the 39th round.

Tired of reading about prospects? Michael Garciaparra probably is too, though he doesn't regret choosing minor league baseball over a two-sport college career at the University of Tennessee.

Back in the big leagues, Tim Lincecum dropped the hammer on the Cubs while Mike Pelfrey dominated the Cardinals, keeping the Brewers from losing any ground after the game I don't remember. David Pinto notes that Lincecum exhibited unusually good control.

Speaking of which, having nightmares about the bullpen after yesterday? This should help.

At Recondite Baseball, TheJay takes a look at players who achieved the Alex Sanchez Special, having a lower on-base percentage than batting average. He ran down the Brewers' leaders in an earlier post.

Before today, all I know about Max Scherzer was that he threw really hard and had heterochromia. Now, thanks to Eric Seidman's interview, I know that Scherzer's a pretty sharp guy with an interest in cutting edge baseball research. I'm amazed that he's able to get anyone out pitching from his mother's basement.

That'll do it. What's that? You wanted another song? If you don't got Mojo Nixon then your store could use some fixin'!