So...1-2 in the Sabathia era.

Win Expectancy Graph
BR Box Score

For the first day since the Sabathia trade, he's not the big story today. Instead, everyone's talking about Guillermo Mota. Following another poor performance last night, In-Between Hops wondered if it was time to put him on the DL and see if he could figure it out with some time off. But, as noted in the Fanshots, Tom H. is taking the next step and calling for a head to roll. Yes, you read that right. The blogs are calling for a prolonged approach to preserve a potentially useful long-term part of the equation, and the mainstream media is providing the knee jerk reaction. I had to read it twice to be sure, too.

Ned Yost is concerned about Ryan Braun screwing up his approach in the Home Run Derby. Thankfully, I still have this link to use to show those concerns aren't backed up by much evidence.

Likely fueled by the Sabathia deal, the Brewers have moved up from 11th to 8th in the most recent Bugs and Cranks Power Rankings.

If you'd like to see video of the drunken frat boys that give all Brewer fans a bad name, check out Big League Stew's video review of tailgating at Miller Park.

On injuries:

Mets P Tony Armas Jr. has been placed on the DL with a pulled abdominal muscle.
Mariners SP Miguel Batista left yesterday's start after 23 pitches with a sore groin.
Aaron Harang has been scratched from his start Sunday, according to Jim Powell.
Blue Jays SP Dustin McGowan left his start early Tuesday and has been placed on the DL with a sore shoulder.
Mark Mulder's comeback only lasted one third of an inning last night.
Edgar Renteria was pulled from last night's game with a mild hamstring strain and is day-to-day.
Rockies OF Ryan Spilborghs has been placed on the DL with a strained oblique.

The other day I mentioned that Padres Assistant GM Paul DePodesta reached out to the fans for insight on how to handle the trading deadline. A couple of interesting follow-up notes: First, Tangotiger asks if DePodesta or Padres fans are delusional, leading to a conversation between he and I in the comments. Then, DePodesta gathered the responses and posted a follow-up note, clarifying some of the misconceptions commenters had about possibilities and taking a candid look at the situation at hand. I still think DePodesta is doing a good job of doing his due diligence with his fans before waving the white flag, and if all front offices did this when their teams were underperforming, they'd save themselves a fair amount of fan backlash.

Now without their ace, the Indians are free to go into all-out freefall, and have lost 10 straight.

For teams who lost out on the Sabathia and Harden sweepstakes, all hope is not lost: Apparently a new group of bidders is forming to vie for the services of Nelson Cruz. Is the market for AAAA outfielders really that thin?

Yesterday, I mentioned a post on Spitting Seeds about the Reds move to sync their radio broadcasts with TV, so fans watching the games can choose which announcers they'd like to listen to. Big League Stew picked up on the story and added this tidbit: syncing broadcasts may be great for fans at home, but creates a long delay for fans who brought headphones to the ballpark. I tend to favor enhancing the experience for fans at home, because a) there's more of them, and b) the fans who brought headphones to the park likely aren't missing much, they're already at the game.

Several years ago, I spent one season as the play-by-play voice of a high school basketball team. Every now and then, I'd see a handful of fans in the crowd wearing headphones, listening to my broadcast. I was happy to have the listeners, without question, but I still don't understand why watching the game wasn't enough, and they needed a 17-year-old to tell them about it.

A lot of people say baseball is too slow and boring. In response, Major League Baseball has found a way to show them what slow and boring really sounds like. They've invited Josh Groban to perform at the All Star Game. My fiancee insists he has the "voice of an angel." If my mental image of an angel had Josh Groban's voice, I'd be pretty weirded out.

Oh, and by the way, ummm...Italian Spiderman?

Drink up.

Ok, I think my hiatus is done. I've gone on vacation, I've moved, and last night I got home from 5 days in Denver. And somehow, I managed to schedule my return for the biggest Brewer news day of the season.

Win Expectancy Graph
BR Box Score

First, if you haven't seen them yet, the specifics of the trade: In exchange for a 3 month rental of C.C. Sabathia and the increased potential of a long playoff run, the Brewers are giving up Matt LaPorta, Zach Jackson and West Virginia reliever Rob Bryson. They will likely also add Brevard Co. 3B Taylor Green.

Of course, some people have written about this:

Baseball Intellect has a nice overview of the trade, complete with a review of Sabathia's stuff, if you're not familiar with him.
In-Between Hops likes the move.
Phil Rogers says it's time to take the Brewers seriously again...so he ranks them behind All-Star arguments in his most recent power poll.
Thomas Wayne of Dugout Central pulls out the smallest possible sample size and says the Sabathia move won't help the Brewers, based on his 7+ ERA in four career postseason starts.

I think the most interesting Sabathia conversation has yet to start, though: Who does he replace in the rotation? Assuming Sheets and Suppan are safe, and Dave Bush is similarly safe based on his recent performances and Ned Yost's man-crush on him, then we're down to Seth McClung and Manny Parra. In the Fanposts, Badgermaniac suggests platooning them. What do you think?

A semi-related note: The Biz of Baseball has made a list of six GMs on the hot seat. If this move doesn't work out and Doug Melvin traded a large chunk of the future for a 3 month rental on a team that misses the playoffs, he'll likely be on lists like that next season.

Also, while I doubt he'll slide directly into Sabathia's spot in the rotation, the Indians signed Jeff Weaver yesterday.

Are the Brewers done dealing? Buster Olney, via The Brew Town Beat, says the answer may be no. They're reportedly still talking to the Padres about Randy Wolf and Greg Maddux.

Somehow overshadowed in all of this: The Brewers finished a 3-game sweep of the Pirates yesterday, and J.J. Hardy is hitting .468/.507/1.000 in his last 15 games with 9 doubles, 8 HR and 19 RBI.

All told, the last 24 hours have certainly been more interesting than sitting on the roof.

On injuries:

Braves reliever Manny Acosta injured his hamstring running out a sac bunt and has been DL'ed.
Braves P Jeff Bennett is on the DL after injuring himself throwing to first.
Lance Berkman missed yesterday's game with what sounds like a pretty nasty eye condition.
A's SS Bobby Crosby is on the DL with a strained hamstring.
D-Backs RP Juan Cruz is on the DL with a strained oblique.
Johnny Damon is on the DL for the first time in his career after injuring his shoulder colliding with the wall Friday.
Nats OF Elijah Dukes will be out 4-6 weeks after having arthroscopic surgery to repair damage to his patella.
Phillies reliever Tom Gordon is on the DL with elbow inflammation.
Orlando Hernandez pitched four rehab innings yesterday. It's unclear whether he threw the banana.
Reds OF Norris Hopper will miss the rest of the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery.
Braves IF Omar Infante is on the DL with a strained hamstring
Roy Oswalt's next start is being pushed back to give him time to recover from pain in his hip.
Troy Tulowitzki is on the DL after breaking a maple bat against the wall and slicing open his hand.

A quick maple bat story: Saturday night I attended my first game at Coors Field (worth seeing if you're in Denver, but don't go out of your way to get there). I was nearly reduced to tears by the inane conversation of two young women behind me, who showed incredible perseverance by hanging in there through 3 full hours and two rain showers despite the fact that they had almost no idea a game was going on. Some examples from their conversation, when they weren't too busy talking about drinks, hookups and drugs: The Rockies were up 8-0 at the time. The following quote came after a home run was inadvertently knocked back onto the field by a fan trying to make the catch: But, in the middle of all of that mess, they also said this: My point: Even the ditziest blonde in Denver recognizes the problems with maple bats. Major League Baseball, however, still says the matter needs more research.

Stories like this put our pitching conversations into perspective: Mark Mulder is starting for the Cardinals again.

The Phillies have taken an opportunity to drive up the price of closers, and rewarded Brad Lidge's half-season of effective bullpen work with a 3-year, $37.5 million extension.

Oh, and by the way, I hate the X-Games with the fire of a thousand suns, but I love Darkmane.

Drink up.

Suck suck, suckety suck sucked.  Sucks suck, sucking suck suck suck.  Suck.

• Win Expectancy Graph
• BR Box Score
• BDD Recaps

The J-S makes the brilliant observation that we're more likely to win in games where our best hitter hits well.  Marty then emerses himself in that logic and rips it to little pieces.

Jim Powell interviewed Corey Hart.  Listen here.

Injuries:

• John Patterson, who is rehabbing with the Rangers, experienced a setback and has no timetable for a return.
• Barry Zito isn't hurt, but he gave up only two runs last night, which indicates that something is amiss.
• Jack Wilson is behind schedule; he won't be back for two more weeks.
• Yet another setback: Mark Mulder is off his latest rehab assignment.  Cardinals fans rejoice.

Roger Clemens isn't going to have anything to do with the Olympic team.  Or, stated more properly, it isn't going to have anything to do with him.  It's a shame, because according to what turns up in my inbox, there are a lot of interesting drugs to be had in China.

Matt Wise may be about to rejoin the Mets, which might mean that New York will be going with 13 pitchers.

It's a short one, but that's all I've got for today.  Enjoy!

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!