A four-game sweep would be almost as delicious as the Corn Dogs at the Iowa State Fair. I missed most of yesterday's game waiting in line for one.

Sunday's Win Expectancy Graph
Sunday's BR Box Score

Saturday's Win Expectancy Graph
Saturday's BR Box Score

Friday's Win Expectancy Graph
Friday's BR Box Score

How back-and-forth was yesterday's game? Check out the front page at BR and scroll down. Three of the five biggest plays in all of baseball yesterday happened in the last six innings of yesterday's game.

Tom H. gives a lot of credit, as we all should, to Mike Rivera, who started for just the 12th time all year, but still got on base 5 times yesterday.

Of course, after the game the Brewers continued to commit the most heinous atrocity in the history of organized sport: they untucked their shirts.

Ryan Braun isn't feeling any better. I'm just hoping his sore back doesn't have anything to do with the time he's been spending with Marisa Miller.

CC Sabathia has already thrown 57 innings as a Brewer, but has allowed just 40 hits. I thought that was worth noting.

So apparently Catfish Stew tracks the Heavyweight Champion of Baseball. The process seems pretty simple: 2008 started with the Red Sox as champions, and anyone who beats the champions takes over the crown. During interleague play the title passed over to the NL via the Mets, and now the Brewers have it. I don't think a parade is planned.

The Brewers rank 8th in Phil Rogers' weekly power rankings, just ahead of the World Baseball Classic. They're 15th in Skyking162's rankings.

On injuries:

Mariners utilityman Willie Bloomquist has been placed on the DL with a strained hamstring.
Chris Carpenter left last night's game after 66 pitches with a triceps strain.
Carl Crawford has been placed on the DL with a "right middle finger tendon subluxation." That's a new one for me.
Jose Contreras will miss the rest of 2008 and some of 2009 with a ruptured Achilles tendon.
Twins OF Michael Cuddyer was hit in the foot with a line drive last night in a AAA rehab game and suffered a broken bone.
Orlando Hudson broke his wrist Saturday and will miss the rest of the season.
Carlos Lee has a broken finger and is out for the season, ending any playoff hopes he thought the Astros had.
Brad Lidge was unavailable for the second straight day Sunday with biceps tendinitis.
Scott Rolen has been placed on the DL with a sore shoulder.
Tim Wakefield is on the DL with a stiff shoulder.

Baseball Musings notes that the Cubs just finished a 13 game run played entirely within the NL Central, and went 10-3. He says they may have put the NL Central away during that stretch. BP Postseason Odds have them at 96.7% to make the playoffs. These guys realize there's 44 games left and we're talking about the Cubs, right?

Oh, and the Gwinnett Braves would like some help naming a burrowing rodent.

Drink up.

So I spent 12 innings sitting in the heat at the Iowa Cubs-Colorado Springs Sky Sox game last night. I nearly sweated myself to death and sat way too close to a throng of screaming 10-year-olds...but it sounds like I had more fun than I would have watching the Brewer game.

Win Expectancy Graph
BR Box Score

So, while I attempt to recover from my short night of sleep, the trade deadline is about 6 hours away. The Official Website says the Brewers are done making moves, but here are some other moves that have been made, should be made or could be made:

DONE:

The Yankees sent LaTroy Hawkins to the Astros for a low-level prospect.
The Tigers traded Ivan Rodriguez to the Yankees for Kyle Farnsworth.

"DONE," BUT NOT CONFIRMED:

The Reds traded Ken Griffer, Jr. to the White Sox for an undisclosed return.
The Red Sox send Manny Ramirez to Florida in a three-team deal involving the Pirates and Jason Bay.

OTHER RUMORS:

The Cubs are unwilling to give up Felix Pie to get Raul Ibanez.
The Twins may be willing to give up Boof Bonser to get Rich Aurilia from the Giants.
The Marlins may send 1B Mike Jacobs to the Giants for Bengie Molina.
The Rays are working on a deal for Adam Dunn.

Ok, with that out of the way, what else is out there?

Yovani Gallardo's rehab is going well and he's still hoping to start games in September.

Right Field Bleachers compares 2008 Mike Cameron to 2005 Geoff Jenkins, who produced similarly before finishing the season smoking hot. Cameron, of course, has 25 fewer games to work with, but I'd be ok with it if he finished the season with Jenkins' 2005 numbers.

The most recent Bugs and Cranks and Riding the Pine power rankings have the Brewers 7th.

On injuries:
Tim Hudson will likely need Tommy John surgery and will be out until around this time in 2009.
Rangers SP Eric Hurley was removed from yesterday's start after 2 innings and will miss his next start with biceps tendinitis.
Tigers RP Todd Jones "felt something" while pitching Wednesday. That's specific.
Scott Rolen's surgically repaired shoulder is bothering him again. He missed yesterday's game.
Kerry Wood missed his scheduled simulated game yesterday with the blister that never ends.

That's all for today. Drink up.

I know you'll all be very disappointed, but today's Trash Day was uneventful, so I don't have an anecdote to lead off the Mug.

Win Expectancy Graph
BR Box Score

So, if you've been watching the games, you probably realize that Rickie Weeks is hitting .273/.467/.636 in the three games since the Durham trade. This one, however, snuck up on me: Bill Hall is hitting .405/.444/.833 with 4 home runs in his last 12 games. Adam Charles of Bugs & Cranks has a theory to explain it: Magic Skoal.

It's going to take more than chewing tobacco to get him back to the big leagues, but the Brewers signed Jay Gibbons to a minor league deal yesterday, ending his 27-game career with the Long Island Ducks.

After I complained in yesterday's Mug about the Whisnant rankings and suggested their ranking system could use a little work, I got an email from Paul Kuo of Whatifsports.com, who wanted to make sure I had seen their most recent power rankings. On the strength of the Sabathia trade the Brewers skyrocketed up the charts to fourth this week, so obviously the WIS rankings are better.

Also, CBSSports.com ranks the Brewers sixth, and second best in the NL.

TheJay is working to quantify Vulture Wins, and discovered that both Salomon Torres and Brian Shouse are among the league leaders. Reall,y, if you just start checking Recondite Baseball every day, you'll be one step ahead of everyone else when the Mug comes out.

On injuries:

White Sox 3B Joe Crede was scratched from last night's lineup with back stiffness.
Cards OF Chris Duncan has been placed on the DL with a bulging disc in his neck.
Reds SP Josh Fogg needed 30 stitches to repair damage done to his upper lip after being hit by a ball in batting practice.

Certainly, yesterday's most puzzling transaction was the Astros' decision to trade for Randy Wolf. The Astros are 12 games back of the Cubs and BP Postseason Odds gives them a .08% chance at making the playoffs, roughly 1 in 1220. R.J. Anderson of Beyond the Box Score is one of thousands who didn't like the move, but Astros beat writer Brian McTaggart defended it.

In other transactions, the Diamondbacks traded a prospect to the Nationals for Jon Rauch, meaning two of the tallest players in MLB history (along with Randy Johnson) are now on the same roster.

Here's a puzzling decision: Skyking162 has ranked the top 25 position players of right now. Well, really he's ranked the top 23 and given 18 more honorable mentions to get to 41. Here are some names on the list so far:

Evan Longoria, who has yet to finish his first big league season.
Brian Roberts
B.J. Upton
Mark Ellis
Rick Ankiel
Scott Rolen
David DeJesus
Aaron Rowand
Adrian Beltre

Yet somehow, Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder are nowhere to be found. With the possible exception of Longoria, there's not a single guy on that list who deserves to be ahead of Braun and Fielder. And Mark Ellis? That's a joke.

Francisco Rodriguez is threatening to become the first closer ever to reach 60 saves in a season. 6-4-2 has the math on what it will take for him to get there.

These seem to tie together nicely: In-Between Hops has a list of the greatest living players in the history of 29 franchises. Joe Posnanski takes a look at players who posted more than three "great" seasons in their careers.

If you're looking for a lesson on somewhat advanced statistics, this debate between Tangotiger and Geoff Baker is pretty instructive on the strengths, weaknesses and correct uses of ERA+.

Oh, and here's a hurricane prediction that's as accurate as any you'll see today.

Drink up.

The Brewers begin a three-game set (the first of five this season) against the Cardinals tonight.  I don't think anybody expected that we'd be in second place behind St. Louis, but that team has a lot going on that the pundits didn't anticipate. 

I enlisted the help of Larry Borowsky (lboros) to get us up to speed.  Larry runs Viva El Birdos, one of the best team-specific blogs out there.

We're two weeks into the season, and much to my surprise, the Cardinals are sitting atop the division. What's been the key to St. Louis's success so far?

Starting pitching, mostly. The rotation has a 3.42 ERA, and their peripherals are pretty solid -- 55-19 k/bb ratio (nearly 3 to 1), 3.82 FIP, .303 BABIP. Of course, as I noted at VEB on Monday, the Cardinal rotation pitched just as well in the early going last year, and it was merely a blip; they fell apart in May. The same thing might happen this year --- but the 2008 peripherals look a lot better, so maybe the crash won’t be as steep. It’s very hard to predict anything, because there are so many guys coming back from injuries that the Cardinal rotation is almost destined to be a hash all year long. Joel Pineiro returned to duty Sunday and looked awful; Mark Mulder is due back in a couple of weeks, and he’ll probably be worse than whoever he bumps aside.

The other major thing the Cardinals have done well in the early going is show some decent secondary offensive skills. They’re second in the league in walks, second in OBP, and they have some extra-base pop (first in doubles and triples, middle-of-pack in homers) ---- again, it’s too early to draw any conclusions from these figures, but the short-term returns are pleasantly surprising to Cardinal fans.

You've got an outfield full of names--Ludwick, Ankiel, Barton, Schumaker, Duncan--that many fans haven't even heard of. What kind of production are you expecting from the group, and without a true center fielder in the bunch, how well do you expect them to fare with the glove?

Ankiel has been a revelation with the glove in center. He consistently gets good jumps and has made a couple of highlight-reel catches; he’s a big upgrade over last year’s slow-motion version of Jim Edmonds. He’s been good enough that some have whispered Colby Rasmus might slide over to right field whenever he is called up.

As far as production, these no-names might surprise us. Through 13 games (a ridiculously small sample, but it’s all we’ve got) the Cardinal outfielders have an aggregate OPS of .986 --- best in the National League. I wouldn’t expect them to rank 1st all year, but I think they can finish in the top half --- high enough that they won’t put a drag on the lineup, as they did for much of last year. Duncan, Ankiel, and Ludwick are all probably capable of .800+ OPS over a full season, and Schumaker is a much-improved hitter who can probably hit at about a league-average level. Barton, a Rule 5 pick who spent most of last year in A ball, is super-fast and fun to watch; he hasn’t looked overmatched so far. At some point they’ll add Rasmus to the mix; I think they’ll be able to get sufficient production out of this group.

After 37 starts in the last two years, Anthony Reyes is now a member of the bullpen. What's going on with this guy? Is he going to have to be wearing a different uniform to be successful?

Hah. There is no more passionately debated subject at VEB than Anthony Reyes. It’s been going on for two years and shows no signs of slowing down. There’s a large contingent of fans (including me) that thinks La Russa and Duncan screwed the kid up by trying to cram their pitch-to-contact philosophy down his throat. But there’s another large contingent that thinks Reyes was overhyped as a prospect and was never as good as advertised. Here is one fact that’s beyond dispute: The Cardinals changed Reyes’ mechanics in 2006 in an attempt to get him to pitch to the lower half of the strike zone and induce more groundballs. During those two years, Reyes lost a few mph and considerable movement off his 4-seam fastball, which had been his primary weapon. Did the change in mechanics cause the loss of life on the 4-seamer? It seems obvious to me -- but some people think I’m just making excuses for the kid, or that I can’t admit I was wrong about him.

Reyes is even a hotly debated subject within the Cards’ decision-making corps. He didn’t make the starting rotation despite a very good spring, and La Russa and Duncan didn’t want him on the team at all, but the front office intervened and pretty much ordered them to keep Reyes on the club as a relief pitcher. The team’s hope is that Reyes can re-establish enough trade value to be dealt on acceptable terms --- that’s the exit strategy. He’s pitched well in relief so far ---- back to throwing the 4-seamer in the mid-90s and missing bats. There’s almost no chance he’ll start for the Cardinals as long as Tony and Dave are calling the shots on the field.

What are your early impressions of the Glaus-for-Rolen deal?

I always liked the deal from a payroll standpoint, and Rolen’s spring-training injury (admittedly a freakish one) reinforced my feelings on that score. I’m really glad we don’t have to worry about Rolen as a declining, injury-prone ex-star in his mid-30s making $15 million a year all the way through 2010. Glaus ain’t no Rolen in the field, and he still hasn’t homered and isn’t hitting for average, but he’s drawing some walks and showing a smidgen of extra-base power (5 doubles); he’ll come around. I’ve seen no evidence so far that last year’s foot injury is still haunting him. He earned lotsa points among the Cardinal fan base last weekend by plowing into J.R. Towles on a 2-out, 9th-inning play at the plate --- the ball bounced free and Glaus scored the tying run.

Many prospect-watchers don't have nice things to say about the Cardinals system, especially beyond Colby Rasmus. Aside from Rasmus, who I'd imagine we'll see long before September, is there anyone else on the farm who might make an impact in 2008?

The system’s reputation is improving ---- Baseball America ranked the St. Louis farm system 13th out of 30, and Kevin Goldstein had it 15th. Rasmus has a lot to do with that, of course. Two other guys to keep an eye on are AAA relief pitchers --- Chris Perez, a first-round supp pick in 2006 who struck out 13 guys per 9 in AA/AAA last year and was the closer on Team USA last fall; and Jason Motte, a recently converted catcher who throws 97 and struck out 12 per 9 last year (at double A). Another Memphis pitcher who will get a look at some point --- maybe this year, you never know --- is Mitchell Boggs, a starting pitcher who turned some heads in the AZ Fall League last year. And the farm system already has produced a potentially important member of this year’s bullpen, Kyle McClellan --- La Russa’s using him in late-game situations against meat-of-order hitters, and so far the kid has survived. He clearly has big-league stuff, but it’s a long season --- we’ll have to see how well he holds up.

As for everyday players, aside from Rasmus there isn’t anybody at Triple A who I would expect to make an impact this year. Joe Mather his 30 homers last year in the high minors and almost made the club out of spring training; he could see some time in St. Louis this summer, but if so he’ll be strictly a bench player.

Thanks Larry!