While reading this morning's Mug, be sure to reload this page every few minutes to see if the Large Hadron Supercollider has destroyed the Earth yet.

Win Probability Graph
BR Box Score

So apparently Corey Hart doesn't like the fan interaction at home. I'll admit there's been a lot of booing lately. But realistically, I think the problem can be limited to one source. Here's the full list of things I've booed at Miller Park in 2008. I think there's a notable pattern:

A) Milwaukee Brewers manager Ned Yost.
B) Bad decisions made by Milwaukee Brewers manager Ned Yost.
C) Negative outcomes immediately stemming from bad decisions made by Milwaukee Brewers manager Ned Yost.

The pattern is subtle, but I think the solution to the problem is pretty obvious.

Adam Charles from Bugs & Cranks has some advice for Corey.

Getting back to Yost for a moment: I think I've figured out what we're doing wrong. When it became clear that management of the Milwaukee Brewers was headed in the wrong direction, one of us created Fire Ned Yost, but didn't specify a timetable. As an example of a better solution, behold one of my new favorite Dodger blogs: Fire Ned Coletti Now.

As I write this, you've got about an hour and 15 minutes (before 10 am) to go vote for the Brewers call of the coin flip to determine home-field advantage in tiebreaker games. Baseball Musings says if the vote ends up tied, Doug Melvin should just flip a coin. (Also noted in the Fanshots)

So Prince finally hit a home run yesterday. Unfortunately, with the Brewer loss the 5-way tie scenario for the NL Wild Card is still in play.

Gabe Kapler is likely done for the season. I guess this means Tony Gwynn is our last option in center, but I'm hoping Joe Dillon would get the AB's if a corner OF was needed.

Mike Greenberg wants to give the NL MVP to CC Sabathia. His second choice? Manny Ramirez. Mike Greenberg should not be allowed to vote for MVP.

It's a day late, but since there's still 3 games left in the series, here's Brewerfan.net's Brewers-Phillies series preview.

On injuries:

A's 2B Mark Ellis will require surgery to repair cartilage damage in his shoulder, but should be ready for spring training 2009.
Braves SP Charlie Morton is done for the year with pain in his shoulder blade.
Tigers OF Clete Thomas is out for the season and some of 2009 after undergoing Tommy John surgery.

The Angels backed into a save situation last night, leading 7-0 in the 8th but allowing the Mariners back into it. That save situation, though, allowed Francisco Rodriguez to tie the single season saves record. Congratulations to him.

Yesterday I mentioned that Dusty Baker doesn't want to play the Reds' September call ups. Today, Redlegs Rundown asks if it's possible Dusty's long track record with pitchers has a new victim: Aaron Harang.

Oddly enough, one of baseball's younger managers doesn't want to play one of his September callups either: Royals rookie manager Trey Hillman isn't finding any playing time for fan favorite Kila Ka'aihue.

Drink up.

Finally, we're back to regular season baseball...if this break had gone on much longer, I might have started building things out of cardboard.

I've gotten so used to scrolling past JS articles without reading them that I almost missed this Anthony Witrado piece on the trials and tribulations of Prince Fielder, which isn't half bad.

If I asked you to guess which Brewer swings at the most pitches that aren't strikes, would Ryan Braun have been one of your first five guesses? Me either. But Beyond the Box Score has him swinging at 35.28% of balls, which is in the top 10 in all of baseball.

UPDATE: Turns out the stat actually means 35.28% of the pitches he swings at are outside the strike zone. Thanks to Battlekow for correcting my work but ignoring our Scrabble game.

I'm guilty of complaining about it myself, but do the Brewers really struggle to hit bad pitching? Turns out the answer is no.

Would an interview with a sideline reporter normally be interesting enough to make the Mug? No. But Trenni...well, Trenni's a lot smarter than your average sideline reporter.

On injuries:

Aaron Harang's "forearm strain" diagnosis could be a sign of worse things to come.
Orlando Hernandez was pulled from his rehab start with a sore foot after just one inning of throwing the banana.
Scott Kazmir isn't injured, but his next start is being pushed back a couple of days after his unexpected All-Star Game outing.
Tim Lincecum's flulike symptoms turned out to be dehydration, and he should be fine.
Pedro Martinez has been scratched from his start Sunday and received a cortisone shot on his sore groin. Ouch.
Edgar Renteria left last night's game with a sore left hamstring (again).

It's possible the pitching market may dry up well before the trading deadline. Yesterday, the Phillies traded three prospects to the A's for Joe Blanton. Phillies Nation thinks it was the wrong move. In the meantime, does this mean the best pitcher still available is Erik Bedard?

Maybe it's actually Francisco Liriano. He's 7-0 with a 2.73 ERA in his last nine starts in AAA, and he's filed a grievance with the Twins, since his extended stay in AAA will keep him from being arbitration eligible this winter. Ron Gardenhire is not at all happy about the union trying to dictate his roster management.

This would be an even bigger dictation: Major League Baseball is considering taking a break for the Olympics, if baseball returns as an Olympic sport in 2016.

For once, the Yankees were frugal: They've signed Richie Sexson, but only for a pro-rated share of the $390,000 league minimum salary.

The All-Star Game pulled in a bit more than $390,000 in ad revenue. Marketwatch takes a look at the relationship between television and baseball, and how the All-Star Game coverage has changed over the years.

Royals beat writer Sam Mellinger has hardly slept for days and just got done sitting in a really uncomfortable seat at Yankee Stadium for several days, but wanted to take a moment to tell us all about the stresses of being a writer. I've emailed him and offered to trade jobs, if he's interested.

Oh, and if you're not sure what you're eating today, try out the Wheel of Lunch.

Drink up.

This one is short, partly because there's not much good stuff out there today, partly because I'm in a hurry, and partly because my caffeine level has reached a dangerous low.

Win Expectancy Graph
BR Box Score

So Corey Hart is an All Star. Make no mistake, I'm thrilled, but now that we know that Ryan Braun was almost the NL's leading vote-getter, and Corey Hart managed to beat out players from some of baseball's biggest markets for the final spot, does anyone else smell a rat? I'm not going to go all-out and make an accusation, but if someday years from now we discover that the vote might have been artificially impacted, I wouldn't be shocked.

Also, Guillermo Mota is still a Brewer, despite Tom H.'s projection that he'd be designated for assignment. I'm guessing Tom won't be sitting near Mota on a team plane anytime soon.

Apparently batting .211 is bad, but batting .211 with poor body language was what it took to get Richie Sexson released. The Brew Town Beat thinks it couldn't hurt to bring Sexson back. The Transaction Oracle projects him at .230/.323/.419 for the rest of 2008 with one of his top comps being my dog's namesake, Gorman Thomas. In the meantime, in an "unrelated" move, the Mariners traded for Craig Wilson.

On injuries:

Aaron Harang has been diagnosed with a forearm strain and DL'ed.
Vernon Wells is out 4-6 weeks with a Grade 2 strain of his hamstring.

I don't have any non-Brewer related stuff today (except the Sexson stuff). So instead, I'll point you to this: If you like my daily notes about non-Brewer stuff, but would prefer it mainly focused on linking you to pictures of scantily clad celebrities and comments about my beard, consider checking out Aaron Gleeman's Link-O-Rama.

Oh, and not only can lefties pitch in the big leagues until they're 50, they're also more qualified to be President. I'm still not interested in running.

Drink up.

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.

Now this, my friends, is a good matchup.  Yovani Gallardo makes his season debut for the Brewers, while Aaron Harang goes for the Reds.  Joe Dillon was sent to Nashville to make room for Yo, leaving the Brewers with a truly remarkable 14 pitchers.

Anthony W has the Brewers lineup, which contains no surprises.  Here's the Baseball-Reference Game Preview. 

The project-a-tron is baffled by the evenness of it all, as it was yesterday.  The only difference today is one percentage point and lower run totals:

• Brewers 4.7
• Reds 4.3
• Brewers WinExp: 50%

Let's go Crew!

I'll be watching two things today: the Brewers game, and the weather in Queens.  If a rainstorm or two gets in the way of me seeing Johan Santana vs. Ben Sheets, I will be one furious Brewers fan.

Anyway, getaway day today, and the rubber game of the series, all starting at noon.  Aaron Harang takes on Carlos Villanueva.  Ned is sticking to his lineup, notwithstanding protests from Tom H.  (No, there's not a law, but unless you think Gabe Gross's true talent level is that of an .091 hitter and Gabe Kapler's is that of a .438 hitter, it's not a bad idea.) 

Dusty keeps juggling, with Keppinger back in the 2 slot and Encarnacion and Bako back in the lineup.  Last night aside, the conventional wisdom is wrong: Cinci doesn't have all that great of an offense. 

Project-a-tron says:

• Brewers 4.43
• Reds 4.33
• Brewers WinExp: 55%

Go Brewers!