I'm calling this an appropriate time for the untucking of shirts.

Brewers 5, Pirates 1
Win Probability Graph
BR Box Score

Mets 7, Micah Hoffpauir 6
Win Probability Graph
BR Box Score

It appears Ryan Braun still has a little power left. After the game, he talked to Tom H. about his intercostal strain and the difficulties it's created as he tries to hit down the stretch. I'm sure it hurts less after an extra-inning grand slam.

Of course, even if you weren't watching it, you had to know last night's game was close because a certain someone complained relentlessly about umpiring.

My faith in humanity was both restored and destroyed at the same time yesterday. Eric Gagne, who I'll wholly admit I've said some nasty things about this season, stepped up to the plate and gave away 5000 free tickets last night. Combine that with his $200,000 donation to Brewer charities and now he's only making about $9 million more than he's worth this season. At any rate, that's the good part, and kudos to him for doing it.

Of course, there will always be those among us who will take advantage of someone else's generosity. There's only 4 comments on this post at Chuckie Hacks, but one of them is someone who sold their original tickets so they could get free ones, and another is someone who took 4 seats even though they only needed 2. Way to abuse a nice gesture, douchebags.

As noted in the Fanshots, ESPN the Magazine has created a jukebox with every major leaguer's walkup music. This might be the last chance you get in 2008 to hear Mike Rivera's walk-up music: Daddy Yankee's "Bring It On," even though Rivera is hitting .306/.377/.435.

The Brewers are ranked 9th in this weeks Bugs and Cranks Power Rankings.

Only two injuries today:

John Maine has been medically cleared to pitch, and supposedly couldn't do any more damage to his injured elbow, but Mets manager Jerry Manuel says he's done for the year.
Astros RP Chris Sampson has been pitching much of the season with a torn tendon in his elbow, and will undergo surgery once the Astros' postseason hopes are finished.

So the Mets close their season with a 3 game series with the Marlins, but when it will be played is anyone's guess. The weather forecast has rain more or less non-stop for the next several days. But at least they talked Mr. Met off the ledge.

Ichiro is pretty much the last guy I'd expect to write a paragraph like this about: Apparently there are some in the Mariners clubhouse who see Ichiro as selfish and a bad teammate, to the point where there have been concerns about his safety. Reports like this won't exactly make Mariner fans feel better about being the first team ever with a $100 million payroll and 100 losses.

If this picture didn't have a caption, you'd think some teammates had a problem with Ryan Braun, as well.

Diamondbacks 3B Mark Reynolds is hitting .240/.320/.463 (OPS+ of 98) as a corner infielder, which makes it all the more impressive that he got enough plate appearances to set a new major league record with 200 strikeouts. He also struck out for the 201st time. Before this season, no player had ever struck out 200 times, but this year two players might do it, as Ryan Howard has 196 with 3 games to play. A's DH/OF Jack Cust also has 192, meaning 3 of the top 6 strikeout seasons of all time will happen in 2008. All of the top six and eight of the top ten seasons have occured since 2000.

Oh, and Paul DePodesta used the flex offense to explain why Wally Joyner resigned as hitting coach of the Padres.

Drink up.

Finally.

Fangraphs is still showing Monday's Win Probability Graph. That made me wonder for a second if I'd only imagined yesterday's win.
BR Box Score

So, obviously the biggest news from yesterday is this: Ben Sheets left the game after 2 innings with what was at the time called "forearm tightness," but has now been renamed an elbow injury. Sheets says he's had lingering pain, but there's no structural damage. All of this has been cleverly hidden from the fans enemy until now, when it may end Sheets' season and Brewers career.

Tyler Maas of Bugs & Cranks is trying to put Sheets' Brewer career into perspective.

Jim Powell's blog from after last night's game discussed the Yost firing, last night's win and his usual collection of links to other stuff he's done.

Speaking of the Yost firing, news on it continues to trickle in. Jon Heyman is confirming what many have suspected: the order to fire Yost came from Mark Attanasio himself. Also, Sabernomics HAS NO CONCEPT.

The Brew Town Beat wonders if the Yost firing might have been a turning point for Prince Fielder.

Major League Baseball released the schedules for 2009 yesterday. You can read Tom H.'s highlights here or see the whole thing here.

Sky Kalkman has a post over at Beyond the Box Score taking a look at candidates for NL MVP. No Brewer ranked above #15 (Ryan Braun), but Gabe Kapler managed to make it all the way up to #65 with just 245 plate appearances.

The new Bugs & Cranks new power rankings have the Brewers at 11.

I haven't seen it noted anywhere else, but Al is reporting that the West Virginia Power have signed a player development deal with the Pirates for next season, making it all the more likely that the Brewers will have their low-A team in Appleton next season.

On injuries:

Orioles SP Daniel Cabrera was scratched from his scheduled start Friday after experiencing tingling in his elbow during a bullpen session.
Nomar Garciaparra left last night's game in the fourth inning after reinjuring his knee running the bases.
Torii Hunter was hit in the face during BP last night, and while the injuries aren't believed to be serious, he sat out last night's game.
Hanley Ramirez left last night's game with a sore shoulder after hitting two home runs.
Jarrod Washburn's disappointing season with the Mariners is ending early due to a strained abdominal muscle.

Also, the Nats have shut down Ronnie Belliard, Jesus Flores, Austin Kearns and Dmitri Young for the rest of 2008.

One record was broken quietly last night: Ichiro Suzuki reached 200 hits for the 8th consecutive season last night. No AL player has ever done that (Ty Cobb never did it more than 3 straight), and the last player to do it in either league was Willie Keeler, 107 years ago.

In other monumental feats, twice in three days a Red Sox hitter has hit a home run ball at Tropicana Field that will never come down.

The wheels continue to spin as MLB teams work to figure out where their AAA affiliates will play next season. Walkoff Walk has a map for you, if you haven't been keeping up.

Did you realize it's been 74 years since a left-handed thrower played shortstop in the major leagues? I had no idea. Tangotiger looks at the reasons and asks if a superior fielder could still handle the position throwing left-handed.

Oh, and I got Rickrolled by John Hodgman yesterday.

Drink up.

So, if the Brewers don't manage to win the next two and salvage a split of this series, will this be the most disappointing home series in Brewer history?

Win Expectancy Graph
BR Box Score

So Ben Sheets didn't have it last night. It happens. I was about ready to give Sheets and Yost the benefit of the doubt before Brewers Bar made me realize that Sheets' entire 6th inning meltdown last night took place without a single mound visit. This is your ace we're talking about, in the 6th inning. I can understand not wanting to pull him, since it is only the 6th with no outs, but he gave up 7 straight hits...don't you at least want to go calm him down?

Complaining about Cubs fans seems to be en vogue today, and they probably deserve it. Viva Cerveceros recounts a post-arrest story, and The Brew Town Beat missed an opportunity to prevent a moron from reproducing last night as well.

On the flip side, The View From the Bleachers doesn't like Ryan Braun, because he's smug and cocky. I was going to retaliate here by calling Carlos Zambrano a hotheaded dick, especially after he stared down Ray Durham going back to the dugout last night after a strikeout in an at-bat where Durham was injured on a foul ball. Classy.

But I've decided not to go that route, since Cub fans have been tortured enough. They've gone 100 years since they won a World Series, and there will be a World Series banner hanging in "Wrigley Field North" before there's one in the real thing.

Ray Durham left the game in the seventh and is day-to-day, by the way.

On to other things: CC Sabathia took out an ad in the Cleveland Plain Dealer to thank Indians fans for their support. If you click the link, you can see the full ad. It's a classy move.

And if you're sick of Brewer-Cub nonsense and would like to take a break for a few minutes before it resumes again tonight (or in the comments of this post momentarily), go read Battlekow's post ranking Brewer prospects. I routinely defeat Battlekow at Boggle, but he knows a lot more about prospects than I do, so it evens out.

On injuries:

Hank Blalock has been placed on the DL for the 3rd time this season, this time with shoulder inflammation.
Twins 2B Alexi Casilla has been placed on the DL with torn ligaments in his thumb.
Pirates 1B Adam LaRoche has been placed on the DL with a rib injury.
Mets SP John Maine has a strained rotator cuff but may make his next start anyway.
Scott Podsednik has hit the DL with a broken pinky finger.

Ichiro singled to lead off last night's Mariners game and now has 3,000 hits between Japan and MLB, with 1722 coming on this side of the Pacific. Plus, the M's won to reach eight games over .300.

Blue Jays C Gregg Zaun isn't getting to play as much as he'd like and is asking to be traded. He's only gotten 211 plate appearances in 2008. That's 168 more plate appearances than Mike Rivera.

Three Cardinal minor leaguers have been busted for PED use. Maybe every system has 3 users in it, or more, but how many guys busted from one system at one time before it becomes an organizational problem?

Oh, and if you missed it yesterday, apparently there's still a woot-off today.

Drink up.

I don't think I've ever been this disappointed with a split of a road series.

Monday's Win Expectancy Graph
Monday's BR Box Score
Monday's BDD Recaps

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

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

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

Wow, after four days away, where do I even start? As reported in the fanposts, today the Brewers will announce they've signed Julian Tavarez. Also, while it won't be "announced," it will be strongly implied that the Brewer organization's desperation for reliable bullpen arms has reached a very dangerous stage.

Russell Branyan is back and sharing time at third with Bill Hall. Hall is unhappy, and understandably so, with the loss of playing time to the one guy in all of baseball who strikes out more than he does. Some guy named Eli completely destroyed his credibility by suggesting the Brewers may be ready to DFA Hall. Marty over at Fire Ned Yost is upset by the decision, and is now refusing to spend money on the team until Melvin is fired. Seriously? I was way more upset by the Tavarez move.

Jason Kendall batted eighth yesterday, in an attempt to "shake up the lineup." I know stat guys will say all lineup tinkering is relatively irrelevant, but this one seems especially small.

Remember that error thar J.J. Hardy committed on Friday? Apparently it attempted to destroy Washington.

Phil Rogers puts the Brewers at #22 in most recent power rankings, with the following comment:

In ESPN's most recent power rankings, the Brewers are also #22, with this comment:

It's close, but in this case I'm going to give the "one sentence or less analysis" challenge to Rogers, for actually analyzing something beyond home runs.

This makes his strategic decisions even more puzzling: Apparently Ned Yost has read The Book. I'm still going to guess he doesn't read blogs, but Mariners manager John McLaren does.

It's been five days, but I'm still confused and strangely fascinated by Babes Love Baseball's "sabermetric" analysis of Ryan Braun.

On injuries:

Rockies SS Clint Barmes is on the DL with a sprained MCL.
Fausto Carmona is out around 4 weeks with a strained hip.
Marlins OF Brett Carroll has a severely separated shoulder, partially torn ligaments and a swollen face. He'll be out a while.
Mets OF Ryan Church is still dizzy after getting his second concussion of the season last week.
Rockies OF Brad Hawpe is on the DL with a sore hamstring.
Felix Hernandez missed his start Saturday with soreness in his leg.
Matt Holliday was placed on the DL, also with a sore hamstring.
Andruw Jones will have the surgery he's been delaying on his knee and miss 4-6 weeks.
Padres P Chris Young, who suffered a broken nose via line drive, has other fractures in his face as well and will not be allowed to resume baseball activities for at least 2 weeks.

How do you react when your team is severely underperforming and is consistently painful to watch? Ichiro says you should try a beer from Papua New Guinea. U.S.S. Mariner is on the case.

When you find yourself complaining about the tough start Rickie Weeks is having, consider Reds leadoff hitter Corey Patterson, and his wafer-thin .242 OBP. In a move that has to be at least partially related, Jay Bruce will debut Tuesday.

On the flip side, Lyle Overbay set a Jays franchise record by reaching base in 12 straight plate appearances.

Oh, and Jamie Moyer has finally proven that all 30 MLB teams are capable of swinging and missing at 60 MPH pitches.

Drink up.