So on Friday I saw a friend, who greeted me with a hug. We had the following exchange:

"Hey, how are you?"
"Good. I'm finally getting over my cold."
"Oh...thanks for the hug, then."

I'm guessing you can about imagine how that turned out.

Win Expectancy Graph
BR Box Score

So CC Sabathia threw 130 pitches last night to finish his fifth complete game with the Brewers, giving him the outright NL lead in CG. Ben Sheets has 4. Only five other NL pitchers have more than one. Only 29 NL pitchers, given a full season to work on it, have accumulated more than 8 wins. Sabathia's done that since July.

But the fact remains that he threw 130 pitches last night in a situation where it almost certainly wasn't necessary. Baseball Musings and Defensive Indifference came down hard on Ned Yost for letting Sabathia finish the game.

In the meantime, Chop-n-Change notes that 7 of Sabathia's top ten most comparable pitchers were done by age 31, which is why they're hoping the Braves won't sign him.

Even if no one else in the bullpen was ready, Salomon Torres was available to pitch last night. Also in that story: Rickie Weeks is feeling better and may not hit the DL after all.

Ryan Braun left last night's game after aggravating his intercostal strain swinging and missing. After the game, Braun downplayed the severity of the injury...I guess we'll see. In-Between Hops correctly predicted the development.

A lot was made of Cecil Cooper's prediction that the Astros would sweep the Brewers this week. There weren't very many people on the bandwagon with him, though. A poll at Crawfish Boxes showed that 38% of fans thought the Astros would win one game out of 3, and Astros beat writer Brian McTaggart thinks they'll get swept.

One note got buried in today's The Official Site's Game Preview: Jason Kendall needs seven more starts to tie the record for the most starts by a catcher in a single season in franchise history. Even if Mike Rivera starts 3 times in the next 10 games, Jason Kendall will have caught more games than any catcher in Brewer history before September 1st.

On injuries:

A's SP Justin Duchsherer left last night's game in the 3rd inning with inflammation in his hip.
Twins SS Adam Everett was hit in the hand by a foul ball last night, but X-rays were negative. He's day-to-day, just like the rest of us.
Nats C Jesus Flores hasn't played since Saturday with a sprained knee.
Ian Kinsler is likely done for the year after being diagnosed with a sports hernia.
Twins OF Delmon Young jammed his ankle last night and may miss some time.

Has there ever been a post-deadline trading period that was this active? The Dodgers reportedly acquired Greg Maddux yesterday.

This is why teams don't want their top prospects playing in the Olympics: Matt LaPorta is day-to-day (and lucky to not be much worse) after being hit in the head with a pitch during Monday's game against China.

Al Reyes is not one of TheJay's active pitchers who faced the AL Brewers, but he did spend 3 seasons as a member of the AL Brewers. Today, he's looking for work after refusing an outright assignment and being released by the Rays.

Oh, and Sabathia's win last night may not have looked that surprising, but according to NBC Olympic announcer Al Trautwig, winning when everyone expects it is one of the most difficult things in sports. Click the link to read Keith Law's reply.

Drink up.

Major League Baseball doesn't care about me, so for a day I didn't care about Major League Baseball.

Living in Iowa, I don't get to see the Brewers on TV very often. So I was pretty excited for yesterday's game on TBS. I planned my day around it. At 3, my commitments were done, the dog had been walked and I was on the couch waiting to catch game 3 of the Brewers-Dodgers series. Except I couldn't.

You see, I live in Iowa. And even though I'm hundreds of miles from Milwaukee, Iowa is technically part of the Brewers' "home market." So yesterday's game on TBS? Blacked out. Major League Baseball does this to encourage me to watch the game on FSN Wisconsin. But I don't live in Wisconsin.

All I wanted yesterday was to see a rare national television broadcast involving a team I listen to everyday but have only actually seen about a dozen times in 2008. Major League Baseball took the possibility away from me. So I skipped the game. I didn't watch it, obviously. I didn't listen to it. I didn't watch the highlights. This morning while preparing the Mug I heard it was an exciting game. I would've liked to see it.

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

The biggest weekend news is injury related. As noted in the fanshots, Rickie Weeks sprained his (surgically repaired) left thumb yesterday. I'm assuming an MRI is in the not-so-distant future, but he hasn't been DL'ed yet, so there must be a possibility it's a minor problem. Of course, there are some that would suggest that keeping Weeks from playing isn't a problem at all.

Furthermore, Salomon Torres was pulled from Saturday night's extra-inning extravaganza after one inning of work due to stiffness in his groin. If it lasts more than 4 hours, he should call a doctor.

All of these injuries are, of course, retribution for the Brewers' consistence on continuing to commit baseball's greatest atrocity: the untucking of shirts. Go ahead and click that link, if for no other reason than to look at the look on Ned's face while he's "congratulating" Prince.

I'm a few days behind on this one, but In-Between Hops was upset over Ned's decision to bat Laynce Nix third in Thursday's lineup. I was upset over how dumb it made me look for predicting Nix wouldn't get a single at-bat as a Brewer just hours before the lineup was announced.

The Hopster also took a moment to point out that if Mike Rivera kept up his current production and had been given Jason Kendall's playing time, he'd have 35 more hits and 65 more RBI.

Over the weekend, John Sickels reviewed his preseason Top 20 Prospects for the Brewers. Turns out he hit the nail on the head on most position players, but there's still pretty much no pitching in the pipeline.

After watching Saturday night's back and forth exchange during the final few innings, Adam Charles of Bugs and Cranks thinks the Brewers are showing signs of bipolar disorder. Also at Bugs and Cranks, Tyler Maas commemorates the one-millionth article on Prince Fielder's vegetarianism.

Worth noting: Of all 30 Major League Baseball franchises, the Brewers charge the lowest "convenience fees" for ordering advance tickets. They're still too high.

The Brewers rank 8th in Phil Rogers' most recent Power Rankings, seven spots behind the Cubs and five spots behind Scott Boras.

Jon Heyman has predicted the contracts some upcoming free agents will receive this winter. For Sabathia: six years, $150 million. For Sheets: three years, $51 million.

Apparently Ted Simmons likes art, but doesn't want to talk about it.

Marc Hulet of Fangraphs compares Jeremy Jeffress' drug situation to that of Josh Hamilton. Maybe I'm missing something, but last I heard Jeffress likes pot and has been suspended one time, right? That's a bit different from having to go back to living with your grandmother while recovering from cocaine addiction.

On injuries:

Chris Carpenter is back on the DL with a posterior shoulder strain.
Tom Glavine is on the DL with a strained elbow.
Angels SS Maicer Izturis is done for the season with a torn ligament in his thumb.
Jeff Kent is going to get hurt if he keeps talking trash about Vin Scully. (h/t Jim Powell)
Kazuo Matsui is on the DL with an irritated disc in his back.
Carlos Silva is on the DL with triceps tendinitis.

The Mets pulled off a trade over the weekend, acquiring reliver Luis Ayala from the Nationals. Just when you think the trades are over, there's another one. And the Nats, never one to miss an opportunity to make things worse, followed up the trade by failing to sign their first-round pick.

Three former Brewers in the news today: the Yankees DFA'd Richie Sexson after he hit .250/.371/.393 in 35 plate appearances. Gary Glover is back in the big leagues with the Tigers, and R.A. Dickey tied a major league record with 4 wild pitches in one inning.

Oh, and do you need a new tailgating grill? go win one here.

Drink up.

It's a quick one today, coming off the off day.

While the team has been hot and cold with runners in scoring position lately, The Junkball Blues notes that all but three Brewer position players are outperforming their expected RBI's. Weeks, Kendall and Counsell are the three underperformers.

Speaking of Weeks, Tyler Maas of Bugs and Cranks says no one was more surprised by his four hits on Wednesday more than Weeks himself.

Dayn Perry waited until after the Brewers had won back to back games to tell us the Fielder-Parra incident won't matter.

Now that they've played a similar number of games, Fangraphs compared Ryan Braun 2007 to Ryan Braun 2008.

Beyond the Box Score lists Angel Salome as one of eight prospects that could contribute in 2009. I doubt he'll fill the "play once a month" role Mike Rivera is filling now, and Jason Kendall will be back, so 2010 seems like a more viable option.

On injuries:

Mets C Ramon Castro left last night's game in the 4th inning with a sore ankle.
Evan Longoria is ok after being hit on the wrist by a pitch last night. Hey, it's a slow news day.
Nats SP Tim Redding was hit with a line drive during BP and suffered a contusion on his quad.

There were two trades yesterday, with the Rays getting Chad Bradford and the Phillies getting Scott Eyre.

With the pending launch of the MLB Network, Biz of Baseball is reporting that MLB is considering lifting some of the blackout restrictions currently in place on MLB.TV and Extra Innings. Finally, fans in Iowa might be able to watch the occasional Brewer, Twin, White Sox, Cub, Royal or Cardinal game.

Dinosaurs invaded US Cellular Field Wednesday. Thankfully, there was no sign of THE SPAZZOSAURUS!

Oh, and Sam Mellinger wants to make sure you know not to be that guy.

Drink up.

So Gorman and I were out for a walk last night, and came across some ducks. Gorman loves ducks. So we chased the ducks around for a bit, until an old man sitting on his porch yelled at us to stop. I immediately thought of Murray Chass.

Also, the Brewers won their second straight road series.

Win Expectancy Graph
BR Box Score

Rickie Weeks was the unlikely hero yesterday, going 4-for-5 with 2 RBI and 11 assists in the field. After the game, though, he dramatically and unforgivably insulted the game of baseball by untucking his shirt. Note the veteran grittiness of Craig Counsell, who refused to participate in such an egregious affront to the game and left his shirt stuffed firmly in his pants.

With the loss yesterday, the Reds have lost each of Homer Bailey's first eight major league starts. In fact, he hasn't participated in a win at any level since April 30. It's gotten so bad he's quoting Nietzsche.

The Brew Town Beat has joined me and Tom H. in wondering if Ned Yost is trying to kill Jason Kendall.

Apparently Twins backup catcher Mike Redmond takes ground balls at third everyday, even though he's only played there one game in his career. If Mike Rivera had devoted his spare time this year to learning new positions, could he play everywhere by now?

Mike Cameron narrowly missed robbing a home run yesterday. I feel like I've seen this picture, where he swings and misses at what would've been a great catch, 15-20 times this season. Has anyone done the numbers to figure out if/how much Cameron has actually helped in the field this season?

The latest Bugs and Cranks power rankings have the Brewers 8th.

There might have been more, but Robinson Cancel, Raul Casanova and Claudio Vargas are all Mets this year: Of the 99 former big leaguers playing independent ball this season, I was only able to find two former Brewers, Wayne Franklin and Will Cunnane.

On injuries:

Joba Chamberlain has rotator cuff tendinitis, less serious than previously expected.
Nats OF Elijah Dukes' calf strain is worse than expected and could end his 2008 season.
A's SP Sean Gallagher will have his next start pushed back at least 6 days to recover from shoulder inflammation.
Indians reliever Matt Ginter has been placed on the DL with a forearm strain.
Rangers RP David Murphy strained a ligament in his knee in a collision at home plate yesterday and should miss 2-4 weeks.

This is when you know you're having a tough season: Jeff Francoeur is slugging .357 in 2008, which is the same as the career slugging percentage of a pitcher (Mike Hampton) on his team.

I think we'd all like to see all 30 big league parks, but 30 parks in 26 days with overnight drives like Kansas City to Detroit and Minneapolis to Arlington seems a little extreme.

Drink up.

Now I know why they call them the Dog Days of Summer. Yesterday: 95 degrees, heat index over 110. Today's forecast: 96, heat index over 110. If it stays like this I might die, but Gorman can't wait to go outside and lay in the driveway. (UPDATE: New pics of Gorman are up.)

Oh yeah, and the Brewers took 2 of 3 on the road.

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

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

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

Well, the road winning streak is over, stopped at 9 games, but Jim Powell notes that if not for the 9th inning collapse in Arizona a month ago, it would've been a franchise record 12 games coming into yesterday. You can also click that link for his thoughts on Rickie Weeks, Brett Favre and...Roger Federer? Really?

The Junkball Blues takes a look at Prince Fielder, and his climb back from disappointing to stellar in 2008.

Seamheads puts the Brewers at 20-1 odds to win the NL Central. BP Postseason Odds have the Brewers at 13.3%, which is slightly less than 3-in-20, so I guess that's close to fair. Spitting Seeds predicts the three NL division leaders will win their divisions and the Wild Card leader will win the Wild Card. Gutsy.

Phil Rogers ranks the Brewers 9th in his most recent power rankings, but that's actually 8th if you only count MLB teams. The Whisnant rankings at Dugout Central have been revamped and now list the Brewers 10th.

Dayn Perry says the Wild Card is hurting, not helping, baseball in 2008. One could say the same thing about Dayn Perry.

Jon Heyman lists the Brewers among the trade deadline winners. They must have won pretty big, because before the Sabathia trade Heyman hardly noticed their existence.

On injuries:

Mets OF Marlon Anderson has been placed on the DL with a hamstring strain.
A's RP Andrew Brown has been placed on the DL with biceps tendinitis.
Cards OF Chris Duncan will miss the rest of the season following surgery to replace a disc in his neck.
Nomar Garciaparra has been placed on the DL with a strained roster spot.
Ken Griffey, Jr. left Saturday's game with "heat-related cramping."
Royals 2B Mark Grudzielanek left Friday's game after colliding with 1B Russ Gload.
Reds IF/OF Jerry Hairston, Jr. will miss a couple of days at the very least with a sore hamstring.
Orlando Hernandez still needs a special shoe to throw the banana.
Mets SP John Maine won't be able to pitch through a strained rotator cuff after all. He's on the DL.
Phillies RP Rudy Seanez has been placed on the DL with shoulder and back soreness.
Braves RP Rafael Soriano has been placed on the DL for the third time in 2008 with elbow inflammation.

The first trade deadline has come and passed, of course, but trades are still available for those willing to wander through the obscure and byzantine procedures of post-deadline waiver trading. MLB Trade Rumors has a nice roundup of posts explaining the rules.

I'm a little disappointed in myself today. I just realized that Khalil Greene injured himself punching a storage chest and I completely failed to mention that he'd been attacked by THE SPAZZOSAURUS!

Drink up. Drink two, in fact. It's hot out there.

The last tidbit from my trip to Huntsville is the interview with Stars manager Don Money.  I got over an hour of time with Coach Money so this transcript is only a partial transcript. Part Two will be coming shortly.

BCB: When did you decide that coaching was something you were interested in?

Don Money: After I finished my career in '83 I went to Japan for a few months, and then in '84 I completely got out, and starting in '87 I coached a high school team for five years and also a semi-pro team.  This was a full time job then because the high school was during the week, and the semi-pro team was during the weekends.  Once my kids got out of high school my wife said that I should get a job back, so I got a job for three years working in a shipping and receiving department part-time, and then I saw that Cecil Cooper got the minor league director's job in 1997, so I gave him a call during spring training to see if there were any openings for next year.  Coop said that there would be, but he wasn't sure where and he would call back during the summer.  So he ended up getting offered the job in Helena [Rookie ball], so then two weeks later Cooper called back and said he changed his mind and offered me the position in Beloit.  So I was in Beloit for seven years.  I had an opportunity to go to California a couple of times, as the Brewers had a team in High Desert, but it was a move from A to A, and my family was on the East Coast, so I decided to stay in Beloit.  Then four years ago when Cecil got a job in Houston, Frank Kremblas, who was the manger at Huntsville, moved up to AAA, and I moved up here.

BCB: Can you compare this team you currently have to the Beloit team you had in 2003 with [Prince] Fielder, [Rickie] Weeks, [Tony] Gwynn, [Manny] Parra, [Dennis] Sarfate, [Callix] Crabbe, and so on?

DM: The year before Prince had come up from Rookie ball, then Gwynn and Weeks came in the draft, so that team wasn't together for the full season.  That team too had more prospects on the pitching side, and this team is more on the positional players.  You go back to the scouting department and Jack Zduriencik because when I first came here in '98 and '99 and 2000 the talent was kind of thin.  You have to give credit to the scouting department.  [Zduriencik] goes out there and busts stones, as we say, and you have to find these players.  You don't just take the word of a guy who is saying this is a ace pitcher who will be in the big leagues in a few years.  You have to follow up on these players.  If you go and then the game was canceled by rain you have to stick with them.  So he has done a really good job of bringing in the talent, and it isn't just the number-one picks and the number-two picks, it is the fifth-round picks and the tenth-round picks, all the way down.  You always expect the fourth or fifth pick to be guys who are ready to go, but if you find guys who are in the 11th round and the 12th round who are better than the guys who other teams are picking there, that is really important.  And that team in Beloit was loaded, with Prince and Rickie and Manny.  Manny was dealing that year.  Now, it looks like he has finally made the turn and, knock on wood, he has pretty much solidified his spot in the rotation and maybe is over the injury bug that seemed to get him every year for three or four years.  Sarfate was there and he always had a big-league arm; he just had to throw it over the plate.  He was always a starter and now he is a reliever.

BCB: That seemed to be the role that the Brewers were projecting him into down the road.

DM:  It is hard to set up a short man or a reliever in the minor leagues.  If you look at stats here and you look at a guy like Pena and he is earmarked to be a setup or closer, but I don't know how many innings he has got.  A guy like Sarfate, because of pitch counts, after five innings he was done.  He would have thrown 100 pitches because he had a lot of strikeouts and a lot of walks and that eats the pitches.  All guys are on pitch counts, even the guys in the big leagues, and what happened was he could never turn the corner to be a consistent pitcher, and now he has been traded and maybe a change of scenery has helped him.  The thing about him is he has never been injured and that was the thing with Manny.

This team here I am surprised on the hitting side, and you got guys like [Alcides] Escobar who are [ranked] like one or two in the organization, and guys like [Mat] Gamel who are two or three in the organization, and [Cole] Gillespie, who is seven or eight, and you got [Michael] Brantley in center, and it looks like he has finally turned the corner in center, and right now he is on suspension, and that is neither here or there.  You had guys one through eight in the lineup who were hitting.  We aren't quite that team right now.  We have [Lorenzo] Cain, who is a young kid, in center field taking Brantley's spot, actually taking [Matt] LaPorta's spot, technically.  He has been here a few games, and it is early to say, but he is playing well.  He is doing a good job in center and has shown a good arm and just needs to get his feet wet.  [Chris] Errecart was having a solid year until he sprained his wrist and had to go to Arizona.  [Angel] Salome is having a great year, he just needs to work a bit better on calling games.  It is a solid team.  Gamel is having a great year--now will he go to the majors and hit .370? I think no, but will he go there and hit .300? I think with his approach he will. He should be a .300 hitter, and you look at the charts and that should be a 60 or 70 [on the 20-80 scouting scale], and the big knock on him is his defense, but it getting better.

BCB: I had heard an interview you had done with Jim Powell, and you mentioned that Gamel's footwork was his biggest problem.  When [Ryan] Braun was here 90% of his errors were throwing errors, but Gamel has made about as many fielding errors as throwing errors, so is it footwork getting to the ball and getting to the good hop and then getting ready to throw?

DM: Footwork.  Footwork is involved with both sides of it.  You have to be light on your feet, and he isn't really light on his feet right now.  He is more of a plant guy than nimble, but it is better than it was, as I have been told, because I had never seen him before this year.  He had about 55 errors last year and they were about 50/50 throwing and fielding, but this year he had mostly fielding errors until about a week ago.  He had only one or two throwing errors, but it all reverts right to his footwork.  If his footwork gets out of sync, then this [points to his arm] gets out of sync.  You can ask him, and he feels much better about it, but it is still a work in progress.  Can he make the turn and become a consistent Major Leaguer? I think he can.  Derek Jeter made 30 to 40 errors in the minors, but once he got confidence he made the turn, and now look at him.

BCB: Footwork was considered Rickie Weeks' big problem at second as well--do you see some parallels with him?

DM: Rickie, when you look at him, I only had him for a month, and he was raw.  He was oriented around hitting, but he had a great arm, and at times it looked like he relied on the strength of his arm instead of getting his footwork under him.  And if you need it the arm should be there, but you shouldn't rely on it.  Take Escobar for example: very good arm but he doesn't have to throw it at 110% until he needs to, but Rickie was doing that all the time, and that is why he was throwing it off-line and in the dirt, and that is where a lot of his errors were coming.  And now he is doing a lot better but now has to pick up his offense a little bit.

BCB: I'd like to believe that offense won't be a problem with Rickie long-term--he is still walking and showing some power.

DM: You hope it comes around at some point, because he has been there now for a few years and I think he is still working at it.  Then he hurt his wrist sitting in the dugout twirling his bat, and that has been a real nagging thing for him.  He stands there holding his bat like this [imitates Rickie's bat wiggle], and that is how he hurt it in the first place, and it is just one of those instances where he has to start getting a little better, and I think he is, but the season is a long season.

BCB: The other thing about Gamel that people haven't really touched on is how good he hits against left-handed pitching.  Many young left-handed batter struggle against left-handed pitching but Gamel seems to do just fine.  What about his approach let's him do that?

DM: He doesn't try to pull.  That is the biggest thing.  He approach is [to] left-center and right-center, and right now he very rarely pulls the ball and hits to right field with some pop.  Once he learns to recognize the pitch and he can turn on the ball, he has a chance to increase his power numbers and still hit [for average] well.

Part Two coming soon.

From the JS: And everywhere else, for that matter.

Win Expectancy Graph
BR Box Score

I didn't get a chance to watch the game last night, but I could tell Rickie Weeks was struggling because my dad called twice to complain about him. After the game, Ned Yost said Weeks was rushing his throws. The Brew Town Beat took it to the next level and said he sucks at life. One thing is for sure: you know your defense is bad when people are seriously considering Ray Durham as a defensive replacement.

As noted in the Fanshots, Derrick Turnbow has a partial tear of his rotator cuff. Surgery may or may not be needed, but he's done for 2008, at any rate. In the grand scheme, this is likely good news for Turnbow, who can rehab, recover and attempt a fresh start in 2009, but it probably is the end of his time in a Brewer uniform.

ESPN has opened up the voting for the greatest Brewer of all time. I'm guessing the winner is more or less a foregone conclusion, but go check out the list of candidates anyway.

Robin Yount also made The Hardball Times' list of greatest slugging middle infielders of all time.

Today we have good, bad and bizarre power rankings:
THE GOOD: WhatifSports ranks the Brewers #1 by more than 2 full wins.
THE BAD: The Whisnant Rankings dropped the Brewers from 15th to 16th.
THE BIZARRE: Andrea Reiher of Bugs and Cranks ranks the Brewers 6th. At least I think the Alice Cooper quote represented the Brewers.

Batter's Box Interactive takes a look at players on every NL team with a shot at the Hall of Fame, and comes up with 5 Brewers: CC Sabathia, Ben Sheets, Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun...and Eric Gagne. Really? Eric Gagne?

Jonathan Mayo recently posted his notes from the AAA All-Star game, and says that Luis Pena created the biggest buzz with his three-digit fastball...and the home run Pawtucket's Chris Carter hit off of it.

On injuries:

Blue Jays IF Aaron Hill continues to miss time as he slowly recovers from a concussion.
Tim Hudson has been placed on the DL with ligament damage in his elbow.
Chipper Jones' hamstring has landed him back on the DL.
Mets P John Maine will have an MRI today after leaving last night's game with shoulder stiffness.
Jorge Posada will have shoulder surgery after all, and the time spent waiting to decide may mean he's not ready for spring training 2009.
Blue Jays RP Brian Tallet has been placed on the DL with a broken toe.
Michael Young fractured his right ring finger and should miss 5-7 days.

We'll never know how Dennis Sarfate could have fit into this year's Brewer bullpen, but he's sliding into the Orioles rotation on Wednesday.

Thanks to Dixieflatline, who mentioned this one in yesterday's comments: Over at the Hardball Times, John Walsh takes a look at the change-up, why it's not traditionally thrown inside, and how Ted Lilly has gotten away with throwing it inside anyway.

I know Greg Maddux has been around a long time and thrown a lot of pitches, but would you have guessed he's moved into tenth place on the all-time strikeout list? I would not have.

If you or someone in your family would like to win the opportunity to meet Derek Jeter and assess in person the possibility that he'll someday be baseball's least deserving Hall of Famer, weplay.com has a deal for you.

In the wake of last week's ugly minor league brawl in Peoria, the Dayton Dragons released the player whose hard slide started the altercation. The player who tried to throw a ball into the opposing team's dugout, missed and hit a fan faces felony charges. I hadn't heard anything about him being released, but he's not on Peoria's roster as of this morning.

Oh, and by the way, there's a Woot-off going on today, so if you were looking for an opportunity to go impulse buy electronics, here you go.

Drink up.

So...4-0 in Sabathia starts. 6-0 since the All-Star Break. BP Postseason Odds says the Brewers' postseason chances have gone up 35.7% in the last 7 days. Baseball Musings says the Cubs are collapsing. Drink your Frosty Mug with cautious optimism.

Win Expectancy Graph
BR Box Score

As The Brew Town Beat notes, Carsten Charles was (once again) in charge last night.

Mike Pagliarulo of Dugout Central is ready to crown Doug Melvin GM of the Year.

I'm a few days behind on this one, but over at Brewerfan.net Josh Flickinger compares the 2008 Brewers to the 1992 variety...and finds they have nothing in common.

The Derrick Turnbow saga continues. He's been sent back to Phoenix for tests and rehab after he didn't feel right coming back from the All-Star Break.

Everybody loves power rankings, right?
Bugs and Cranks has the Brewers at 8th (last week, also 8th) and offers some ridiculous advice.
Riding the Pine ranks the Brewers 5th (last week, 9th).

The Transaction Oracle is a few days behind the curve, and reviewed the Durham trade yesterday. They project him at .253/.342/.395 and offer the best description of his defense I've seen: Looking for a trip down bullpen memory lane? No less than 4 former Brewers (but no current ones) make Recondite Baseball's Top 20 in career Vulture Wins.

On injuries:

Nats 3B Aaron Boone is not recovering as expected from a calf strain and will undergo an MRI.
Tim Hudson left last night's game after 6 innings with elbow tightness.
Chipper Jones left last night's game in the fourth inning with a hamstring injury.

I can't decide if this is a drop in the bucket or an unprecedented reaction to violations involving the draft, but Major League Baseball fined the Cubs $500,000. It's also worth noting that I've never seen confirmation of what the Cubs actually did to merit the fine.

Rockin' the Red asks if Kyle Lohse will be a Type A free agent. He's gone 12-2 with a 3.35 ERA in 134.1 IP. If that's not a Type A free agent, there aren't many out there.

Here's a downer for your Thursday morning: Shin-Soo Choo is having the best year of his career in Cleveland, but still faces two years of military service in South Korea, starting in 2010 at the latest. Playing in the Olympics could have earned him an exemption, but he's ineligible because he's on a big league roster and out of options.

But, if it makes him (or you) feel any better, the Padres are like a busty redhead. I'm not sure I get it.

Remember last week, when I mentioned the Cardinals were hiring in their player development department, and jobs like that don't come along very often? The Nationals have proven my point by posting a much less interesting job.

Oh, and as promised, here's my Flickr page with pictures of Gorman's first two weeks at home.

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.

As you probably know by now, the Brewers sent the Giants lefty pitcher Steve Hammond and olympic sprinter Darren Ford in exchange for Ray Durham and about $1.5MM.  If you want to read some immediate opinions on both sides of the aisle, here you go.

In that thread, I made it pretty clear I was against the deal.  I want to also make it clear that while guys like me tend to get worked up about roster tweaks, I recognize that the overall impact here, whether good or bad, is likely to be small.

First off, I view Darren Ford as no more than a throw-in.  If he has a major-league future, it's not even as a fourth outfielder--he'd be a fifth-outfielder/pinch-runner/25th-man type guy.  That is probably his upside.  He's exactly the sort of player that should be included in a deal like this, since the Giants seem to like that sort of guy.

The debate in the thread I linked above was more about Steve Hammond.  Nobody thinks Hammond is likely to be a difference-maker in the bigs; it might even be optimistic to think he's likely to crack the Brewers starting rotation.  The question is: In a deal where we pay $1.5MM for very little return (more on that in a minute), should we be giving up anything of possible value?

As long-time readers know, I'm fixated on the importance of rotation depth.  The Brewers had it this year (though I didn't realize McClung would be it), and it paid off.  Mark Shapiro, the Indians GM, has said you need to go into a season 7 or 8 deep, and he's absolutely right.  We could've kept Hammond in the minors as insurance through 2010, and while he'd never be more than a 5th starter, he would make it that much less likely we'd need to turn to next year's Jeff Weaver, Sidney Ponson, or Nelson Figueroa.  Maybe we can replace him on the cheap; maybe he's not any better than guys like DiFelice and Lindsey Gulin; but I think there's a reasonable chance he's better than the other options.

Obviously, we're splitting hairs here.  But if we're measuring the value of acquiring 36-year-old Ray Durham...well, hairs need to be split.

We're bringing in Durham to replace Joe Dillon.  That certainly improves the team in terms of veteran savviness and name-recognition, but what does it do on the field?

Durham is a switch-hitter, which is nice for late-inning strategery.  However, I keep hearing that he's the "lefty bat" that we need off the bench.  Sorry--no.  He does stand on the correct side of the plate against right-handed pitchers, but that isn't what matters--I could do that, too.  This year is the first season since 2002 that Durham has hit better against righties.  Given the last three, or five, years of data, Durham's splits look a lot like those of a typical right-handed hitter.

You might also hear that Durham is a "proven on-base guy," and hence a good option to sub for Weeks in the leadoff spot.  This year, indeed, he has been, with a .385 OBP.  His career OBP is .352--worse than Rickie's second half Marcel projection. 

Further, all of this year's numbers are BABIP-inflated.  His batted balls have been dropping at a .349 rate compared to a .306 career average.  If anything, I'd expect him to be *below* career average, since he's older and slower than he used to be.  If you assume his BABIP should be at his career average level, he's gotten 9 extra hits this year.  Take those away, and his season line is 259/355/369.  The OBP is still hanging in there, but...we're spending money on this?

Turning all of this into a mini-projection, I can borrow battlekow's work and give you Dillon's and Durham's Marcel projections for the rest of the year:

• Durham: .259/.335/.412
  
• Dillon: .262/.338/.399

Dramatic, eh?  Durham has virtually no defensive value--he's a below-average second baseman in the field, and we have Counsell as a backup at that position.  Heck, *Counsell* is OPSing .705 against righties which, if you assume Durham has an even platoon split (that's generous) is only a bit less than what we can expect from our new acquisition.

In a nutshell, it looks to me like we got ourselves a left-handed pinch-hitter who isn't really a lefty and isn't much of a hitter.  Since we're just as well off plugging in Counsell two days a week (his defense more than makes up for a 30-50 point OPS advantage), we could take our pick of defensively-challenged lefties on the market.  In fact, we wouldn't have to turn to the market--Brad Nelson's MLE versus righties is 276/358/423.  I don't want Nelson playing second base, but I don't particularly want to see Durham out there when Counsell is on the bench, either.

And that brings me (blessedly) to my last thought.  When I was thinking through the various trade options at second base, I realized that I left out one possible replacement...yes, our very own Craig Counsell.  He's a lefty, he's a great fielder, and if we need to give Rickie a little extra motivation (that's been cited as a reason for the trade), giving Craig 3-4 starts per week would do that just as well as giving Durham 2.

Counsell isn't as good a hitter as Rickie, but his OPS against righties--705--is better than Rickie's this year, and it's pretty close to Rickie's career numbers vRHP.

In my view, then, we gave up a potentially useful player plus a decent chunk of change for a guy that isn't as good as players we already have.  As I said at the outset, it's not going to hurt us much even if it does turn out negative.  But it would be nice if our postseason-directed moves actually made the team better *now*.  I'm not at all sure we did that.