Whole lotta frosty, not so much mug.

KLSnow's open thread about internet troubles getting in the way of today's Frosty Mug is below. Head over there to talk about Rickie Weeks, the AFL, puppies, the dearth of overtime rules knowledge (it's on the Espin, it's gotta be important) or whatever else is on your mind. I wouldn't want you to feel uninformed, though, so here are some quick-hit, blog-less, easily-found links from around the baseball world:

• Phillies All-Star second baseman Chase Utley will have hip surgery sometime next week. He should be allowed to resume baseball activities in three or four months, but it might take until May for him to totally recover. From the same link, Philly third baseman Pedro Feliz will undergo back surgery but should be ready for spring training.
  
• After winning 20 games in a season for the first time in his career, Mike Mussina announced his retirement. The 270-game winner is 19th all-time in strikeouts, 32nd in games started, 38th in W-L%, and has 7 Gold Gloves. You've got five years to make or break his Hall of Fame case.
• Add another name to the list of potential starters available: Aaron Heilman. The New York Daily News reports the 30-year-old Mets righty would rather be traded than remain a reliever. Apparently at least six teams are interested in making him a starter. He's eligible for arbitration through the 2010 season.
• The Nationals have been mentioned in Mark Teixeira rumors since the slugger filed for free agency. Despite no shortage of fans wondering why Teixeira would want to sign with the lowly Nats, the ever-present "person familiar with [player]'s thinking" says Teixeira is interested in playing for Washington.
• Do you speak Spanish? ol Pete found an interview in Spanish with dismissed Nashville skipper Frank Kremblas. While it doesn't seem like there's much mentioned about the Brewers, a human translation couldn't hurt.
• Unless he comes out of nowhere to pitch today in the AFL, Jeremy Jeffress successfully lasted a month on the Peoria Javelinas roster despite a shoulder injury. On one hand, he didn't pitch and make it worse. On the other hand, there's no one else the team wanted to get experience? Hopefully Jeffress picked up some useful information about pitching to top players while sidelined in Arizona.
• Speaking of the AFL, Phillies infielder Jason Donald took home this year's Darnell Stenson Sportsmanship Award. Stenson was a Reds prospect who was killed in an apparent carjacking while a player in the 2003 AFL. Since 2004 the award is given to the player "who best exemplifies unselfishness, hard work and leadership." No Brewers have won the award, but this is the fourth season in a row it's gone to an NL prospect.
  
• The Yankees are still interested in acquiring Mike Cameron. The Brewers are still waiting to hear from CC Sabathia's agents. Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.
• Finally, because I think I'm contractually obligated to mention trivia somewhere in every post, only thirteen Brewers have ever reached 502 plate appearances in a season (aka qualified for the batting title) with an OBP of .300 or lower. See if you can find the most recent example:
  

  Name	Year	PA	OBP
  Tim Johnson	1973	510	.259
  Ted Simmons	1984	532	.269
  Dave May	1974	515	.273
  Rick Auerbach	1972	605	.277
  Gerald Williams	1997	601	.282
  Von Joshua	1977	566	.286
  Marquis Grissom	2000	640	.288
  Robin Yount	1976	690	.292
  B.J. Surhoff	1988	541	.292
  Pedro Garcia	1973	635	.296
  Jim Gantner	1985	573	.300
  Jose Hernandez	2001	592	.300
  Corey Hart	2008	657	.300

By the time you finish reading this article, you might just know more about the Phillies than you do about the Brewers.  At least you'll be ready to make fun of Brian Anderson when he says silly things on national TV.

To finish off our three-part Phillies q&a, we're going to turn to Peter Baker (WholeCamels) of The Good Phight, our sister blog in the SBN network.  Scroll down for the other parts: We covered the Phils offense with Tim Malcom, the pitching staff with Tom Goyne, and now it's time for...well, everything else.

BCB: Who's your Phillies MVP for the 2008 season?

Peter Baker: Normally I'm loathe to drink the Cult of the Closer Kool-Aid, but I'm going to go with Brad Lidge.

My favorite "quick-n-dirty" MVP stat - WPA - shows Brad Lidge with a 5.43 WPA, higher than any NL pitcher (starter or reliever) and behind only Cliff Lee in the majors.  And seventh overall among hitters and pitchers.  Although I hate the Save stat as a be-all, end-all in reliever evaluation, 41-for-41 is awfully damned good.  And the trickledown effect of 9th inning stability on the rest of the pitching staff played a huge part in making this bullpen one of the very best in baseball.

Chase Utley is a close second, but the absolute disappearance of his home run power over the season's second half was disappointing and troublesome.  His terrific defense is underrated, and is a huge consideration in ranking him above the next guy...

Ryan Howard's incredibly sexy HR and RBI totals, and brilliant September, don't make up for the fact that he was an absolute anchor for the season's first six weeks, and that he's a butcher in the field.

BCB: If you had to pick one guy to have a monster series, who would you choose?  (Let's make things harder and take Hamels, Howard, and Utley out of contention.)

PB: Pat Burrell.  If Burrell is raking, then he's probably hitting Sabathia pretty well, and as their best right-handed hitter, they're going to need Burrell to get some good swings if they hope to knock off CC.  Burrell's been terrible since the start of August; hopefully a couple days off will do him good.

BCB: I haven't paid a whole lot of attention lately, but last time I checked, Phillies fans felt about Charlie Manuel about the same way that Brewers fans felt about Yost.  But now, for the second year in a row, you've charged into the postseason, so it's seems like Manuel can't be all bad.  What's your take on having Manuel at the helm?

PB: It's gone from utter contempt in many circles to an acceptance of him, warts and all.  He still struggles with in-game decisions (and what manager is blameless here?), but it's pretty well confirmed that he runs a loose clubhouse that has contributed in no small part to two consecutive teams rallying from fairly deep September deficits to claim the division on the season's last weekend.

Personally, I like him.  He always has his players' backs and resists any and all urges to throw his guys under the bus.  Which can be difficult here -- Philly fans want blood and they want blame.  And I think his past experience as a hitting instructor/guru has only done good things for players like Howard and Utley.

I do find it funny, however, that some of his more vocal critics, who tend to harp on his West Virginia heritage and the associated accent, don't exactly sound like Sir Laurence Olivier themselves.  "Yo, dis guy sounds like some redneck or sumthin', whaddanidiot!!"

BCB: The two "defensive" spots in your lineup are third base and catcher, for Pedro Feliz and Carlos Ruiz (hey, they rhyme...kind of) respectively.  Both of them have good defensive reputations--are they deserved?  Is it worth having Feliz manning a typically offensive position despite his ~300 OBP?  Or maybe, at this point, anything would feel like an upgrade on Wes Helms?

PB: It's probably wrong to answer this question based on emotion, but for the first time since Scott Rolen left Philadelphia, I don't tense up the instant a ball is hit hard toward the third baseman when Pedro Feliz is playing.  Whether that presents any real value vis-a-vis wins and losses is unlikely, but it's made the game-viewing experience that much more enjoyable for me.  He also had a (probably unmaintainable) knack for close-and-late hitting, compiling a .943 OPS in those situations.

As for Carlos Ruiz... well, he has a decent walk rate and doesn't strike out too much.  His defense is fine, but I think everyone pretty much recognizes that he's a placeholder until the Lou Marson Era begins in Philly.

BCB: CBP has always had a rep as a hitter's paradise, but it looks like it played closer to neutral this year.  Any ideas why that happened? Any Phillies players who seem to benefit (or suffer) at home?

PB: I think moving the left field fence back before the 2006 season helped a bit.  I also think that, while home runs remain inflated, the shorter fences shrink the outfield, leading to more flyball outs and fewer doubles and triples, which mitigates damage done by high home run totals.

There is also some speculation that the weather -- it was a relatively mild summer in the Delaware Valley -- suppressed home run totals in contrast with a normally hot, humid Philadelphia summer.

I also think a lot of the reputation comes from the introduction of the somewhat deserved meme into the league and media consciousness ("In that bandbox, NO lead is safe!") that just spiralled out of control until it became incontrovertible fact.  And I have to love the soundbites from opposing pitchers who get bombed there: "That's not a home run in any other park."  Hey, Genius, your guys get the same field and same dimensions.  Deal with it.  John Smoltz is the worst at this.

Anecdotally, Pat Burrell is always the guy who gets pegged as a CBP beneficiary; however, his home/road splits this season do not bear this out (.786 OPS at home, .964 OPS on the road).  Ryan Howard certainly seems to poke a lot of his opposite field shots into the first couple of rows in left; he hit 26 homers at home this year, against 22 on the road, so it's not like it was a monumental difference.

BCB: One more. True or Super-True: The gritty veteran presence of Geoff Jenkins, even when injured, played a huge part in propelling the Phillies to the playoffs.

PB: Geoff Jenkins and Brett Favre both left Wisconsin in the same year. COINCIDENCE?!

Geoff needed his lookalike closer to him.  The Jets are just 70 miles up the Turnpike from Philly.  That's all it is.

BCB: Thanks, Peter!  I think we can all agree that whoever wins this series should go the World Series.  Especially if it's the Brewers.

Well, this weekend was a nice step back into tradition. First, on Friday, the Brewers came home with an 8 game winning streak. They'd just finished what Jim Powell was calling the greatest Brewer road trip of all time. So they put on the retro uniforms and lost.

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

The Brewers are 4-5 in retro uniform home games this season, and 28-14 in all other home games. The Brew Town Beat has joined me in calling for the end of Retro Fridays. We don't need to use 1982 to generate excitement anymore, the team on the field right now is pretty good.

Then, on Saturday, a come from behind victory and high fives all around:

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

Finally, on Sunday, we took a trip through more recent history, and had a good old fashioned Yosting.

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

This should come as a surprise to no one: Ned Yost says Suppan was one pitch away from getting out of the 5th, which is why Ned left him in to surrender 7 runs. Al says most of Suppan's problems can be traced to bad luck. That doesn't change the fact that he walked the leadoff man, gave up hits to 5 of the next 6 batters he faced, and came within about 20 feet of giving up back-to-back-to-back home runs to Carlos Lee, Geoff Blum and Hunter Pence. And he was allowed to do all of this in a pennant race game while an extra starter, Seth McClung, was sitting in the bullpen.

In-Between Hops wants Suppan pulled from the rotation. I still think he can be effective if managed properly. Yesterday was the textbook definition of improper management.

All of this plus the tight races in the AL and NL East have combined to create the closest pennant races in decades. Baseball Musings looks at just how close they are.

Phil Rogers ranked the Brewers 5th in his most recent power rankings. This week, there's only real teams in front of them.

Tom H. ranked the top remaining Brewer prospects by position. I'm curious to hear what people with a better grasp of the minors think of that list. I immediately noticed that Hernan Iribarren is nowhere to be found.

Skyking162 gives Prince Fielder a 3.5 and Ryan Braun a 3.0 in his rating system for hitters. I think Braun belongs on the same level as Fielder, but aside from that I can live with it.

On injuries:

Rick Ankiel was scratched yesterday with an abdominal strain.
White Sox 3B Joe Crede was DL'ed Friday with back stiffness.
Phillies 3B Pedro Feliz missed the weekend series with a stiff lower back but should play Tuesday.
Twins OF Carlos Gomez had to be taken off the field on a cart Friday night after colliding with the wall while making a catch.
Scott Linebrink has been placed on the DL with shoulder inflammation.
Brian McCann left yesterday's game with a mild concussion after a collision at home plate.
Kevin Millwood has been placed on the DL with a right groin strain.
Tigers RP Joel Zumaya left yesterday's game with tightness in his tricep.

Obviously the Sheets-Sabathia 1-2 punch is pretty good, but could a Sheets-Oswalt combination be similar? Astros beat writer Brian McTaggart thinks the Astros should make a run at Ben Sheets this winter.

If that doesn't work out, Gary Glover will likely also be on the market, as the Rays may be getting ready to DFA him.

Major League Baseball has kicked the issue around long enough. Bats are breaking at an alarming rate, and they're calling in...The US Forest Service? What?

Oh, and if you have to postpone a game because of a stabbing a block from the ballpark, maybe you're playing baseball in the wrong neighborhood.

Drink up.