At some point in the coming days, the Brewers are going to have to make a couple of moves to make things work on their 40 man roster. The roster is currently full, and space will have to be made to reinstate Manny Parra and Mitch Stetter, who finished the season on the 60-day DL.

Here's what The Biz of Baseball says on the subject:

Once the season ends, a player on the 60-day disabled list must be reinstated to the 40-man roster or designated for assignment.

Depending on how things go over the next few days, the season could be over as early as the middle of next week. Prince Fielder and others won't have filed for free agency yet, meaning the Brewers need to find another way to clear roster spots for Parra and Stetter or risk losing them on waivers or via minor league free agency. Here are a few players that could be let go to make room:

Mark DiFelice

After spending an entire season rehabbing following shoulder surgery, DiFelice made it all the way back to the big leagues in 2011 but his stay was brief: After three relief appearances in June he was sent back to the minors. Five days later he was placed on the DL and was done for the season. DiFelice would be eligible for minor league free agency this winter if taken off the roster.

Josh Wilson

Being left off the postseason roster has to be considered a pretty solid indication that the team doesn't have much planned for Wilson, who hit .227/.266/.360 in 54 games (but only 82 plate appearances) as a Brewer. Wilson's versatility is nice and you could certainly do worse with the 25th spot on a roster, but seeing him go wouldn't be heartbreaking.

Eric Farris

Farris entered the season as a relatively hot prospect in the Brewer organization (BCB Community Prospect #13), but had a disappointing campaign in his first full season in AAA. Farris hit .271/.317/.372 with 21 steals in 28 attempts for Nashville, putting up surprisingly low numbers in a hitter-friendly league. He was called up to the majors briefly when Rickie Weeks got hurt, but made just one plate appearance (which I missed because Cub fans couldn't sit down) before being replaced on the roster by Felipe Lopez.

Farris' only defensive position is second base (he played 25 games at short this season, but that's it), and the Brewers are covered at that position both short and long term.

Amaury Rivas

Rivas has been one of the top pitching prospects in the Brewer organization for some time now (he was BCB Community Prospect #8 this season), but he's coming off of a pretty rough year in his first season in AAA. He posted a 4.72 ERA in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, walking nearly five batters per nine innings.

With that said, he's only 25 and would be a minor league free agent if removed from the 40 man roster, so it's unlikely he'll be the one to go.

Craig Counsell

The 2011 season is most likely the end of the road for Counsell, as he hit .178/.280/.223 yet still appeared in 107 games in his 16th major league season. He turned 41 in August and will almost certainly retire this winter: He could do the Brewers a favor by announcing those plans early and freeing up his roster spot.

Mark Kotsay

Despite a rough start and finish, 2011 was actually one of Kotsay's best seasons in quite a while: He posted a 91 OPS+, his best in a full season since 2008. With that said, he's due to become a free agent and I'm not convinced he has any long term value to offer this team. The only reason he's not a top candidate to be released is because he's apparently a very nice guy.

Yuniesky Betancourt

This would be probably the most popular potential move on this list, but it's also probably the least likely to happen. The Brewers have a $6 million club option on Betancourt's deal for next season with a $2 million buyout. I'm going to be very angry but not necessarily surprised if the organization decries the lack of freely available talent and exercises that option.

With that said, if the Brewers have decided to part ways with one of their least valuable players they could cut him a check for $2 million and he could be gone today.

What do you think? How would you handle this situation? How do you expect the Brewers to do it?

Here's something to think about/discuss this morning while I work on the Mug.

The Brewers and Blue Jays are running out of time to resolve the PTBNL in the Carlos Villanueva trade. If I recall correctly, the player the Brewers are receiving needs to be named by Opening Day. Obviously this is pure speculation, but the timing has me wondering if the Brewers are hoping to acquire someone the Jays cut from major league camp in the final stages.

Tom Dakers runs Bluebird Banter, the Blue Jays blog on the SBN network. Over the weekend I emailed him to ask if the Jays had any players that meet the following criteria:

1) Out of options.
2) Possible candidate to not make the team.
3) Candidate to open the season as a starting pitcher.

Here's Tom's response:

The one Jay pitching name that is out of options and is on the bubble to make the team is Jo-Jo Reyes. Reyes has a 3.46 ERA so far this spring and still is in the battle for the forth or fifth starter job with the Jays, but I gotta think that Kyle Drabek and Jesse Litsch have a step up on him. Reyes, if he doesn't make the Jays rotation does have a shot at being a situational lefty in the bullpen, but he has competition there too. I don't think he would make it through waivers if the Jays tried to send him down to the minors.

Reyes is not a bad pitcher, he was the Braves second round draft pick in 2003 and he didn't do well when the Braves called him up. The Jays think he would be a decent 5th starter and are giving him every chance this spring, but we are up to our armpits in possible starters. Reyes might win out, if the Jays decide they would like to put off starting the arbitration clock for Drabek. Maybe they will want to see what Reyes can do before they get get rid of him.

As a side note, here are Tom's thoughts on Carlos Villanueva:

As for how Carlos is doing, a couple of weeks ago I figured Villanueva's chances of making the team were slim and none but Frank Francisco is on his way to Alabama to have his shoulder looked at by Dr. He Who Shouldn't Be Named and Octavo Dotel has been having his own problems too. Going into camp Carlos looked to be at the back end of a list of about 10 possible right handed relievers. But a couple of injuries later and some very good pitching, he has a good shot to be on the team. He has an 0.93 ERA in 9.2 spring innings. I just got back from Florida and saw him pitch a couple of times, he looked very good. The team is trying to stretch him out a bit so that he could pitch 2 or 3 innings in a game if needed. I'd be surprised if he doesn't make the team out of spring.

It's a beautiful time of the year--we're in the last weekend before spring training officially opens!  The Brewers are one of the more set rosters in the league and it would be surprising to see any major changes, barring injury (knock on wood), but there are a few positions where players will be fighting for a spot.  Let's take a look-see at what battles will be going on in Maryvale, starting with the position players today and pitchers at a later time.

Back-up Catcher

Jonathon LuCroy is the starter at catcher, and almost certainly will stay in that role opening day.  George Kottaras, however, might lose the backup role he filled in 2010, despite hitting nine home runs in just 68 games (250 at bats) and having a .701 OPS.  Even with an awful .203 batting average, the Grecian Sensation had the seventeenth highest wOBA amongst catchers with at least 250 at bats--ahead of Russell Martin, Chris Snyder, AJ Pierzynski, Matt Wieters, Yadier Molina, and Ronny Paulino amongst others.  He was about as good as you could hope for from a backup catcher offensively.  Kottaras's defense, on the other hand, has been widely panned and tradition is that teams usually look for defense first from their backup.  The competition is primarily going to come from Wil Nieves, with Martin Maldonado being the only other catcher on the 40 man roster.  Nieves comes over to the Brewers from the Washington Nationals, where he put up the exact same batting average as Kottaras in 2010.  Despite that, Nieves is clearly the inferior hitter with a .227/.273/.297 career slash line, an OPS that is .128 lower than what Kottaras has managed to put up over his career.  Nieves, though, has often been praised as a very good (or at least above average) defensive backstop.  Maldonado has been in the Brewers minor leagues since 2008, splitting last year between Brevard County, Huntsville and Nashville with a .239/.310/.374  slash line.  He has a career line of .225/.300/.303.  Personally, I would prefer Kottaras to reprise his 2010 role.  I like his bat off the bench and feel his clear offensive value makes him more valuable than Nieves, despite his poor defense.

Shortstop/Backup Infield

Craig Counsell is going to be on the team, so we don't really have to worry about him.  It's the other infield bench spot that is in a bit of a flux.  Doug Melvin has publicly stated that Yuniesky Betancourt is the de facto starting shortstop, though I'm not sure I believe him.  If Luis Cruz and Betancourt play similarly during spring, than I think Yuni will be the starter out of spring training.  Of course, Counsell could always commandeer plenty of starts over the season, or there could be a platoon.  By now, we are all pretty well versed in each players talents.  Yuni might actually be the best offensive player of the bunch, depending on what kind of year the Deity has.  Last year, Betancourt had a .009 higher wOBA due to his power surge, though Counsell had a much better 2009 in what was a resurgence year for him.  Luis Cruz is the best defensive player out of the three, but is also the worst hitter.  Cruz has a career .242 wOBA in just 169 major league plate appearances and hasn't done much better in the minors.  Last year in Nashville, he had a .281/.309/.414.  Both Cruz and Counsell can play 2B/3B/SS, but Betancourt has played just nine games at a position other than shortstop when he played second for the Mariners in 2005.  Of course, there is always Mat Gamel waiting in the wings, too, but he can't even play his natural third base so his only value on the bench would be as a pinch hitter.  With Mark Kotsay already being touted as the primary pinch hitter, it seems likely Gamel will head to Nashville yet again.

Outfield/Center Field

After trading Lorenzo Cain, it looks like Carlos Gomez is going to get another shot at starting in a major league outfield.  If only he could figure out how to take a few walks, that would be a lot more appealing.  As it stands, Gomez's defense will keep him a fairly valuable player though I could see a strong spring from Chris Dickerson paired with an awful spring from Gomez causing the Brewers to change their plans.  Dickerson has been a favorite of mine since the Brewers traded Jim Edmonds for him last year.  He doesn't have a lot of pop in his bat, but he gets on base at a fairly high rate (.356 career OBP).  In addition, in a small sample size Dickerson has had an incredible UZR/150 (41.5 career UZR/150 in CF).  He's probably not as good as UZR indicates, but I think it's safe to say that he is likely an above average defensive player.  Personally, I would like to see Dickerson in center field to start the year but I doubt the Brewers go that route.  Dickerson might not even make the team at this point as there is only one bench spot available in the outfield if we assume that Kotsay and Gomez make the team, which I think is a safe assumption.  That leaves Dickerson, Brandon Boggs, and Jeremy Reed to fight for that one spot.  Reed, being a non-roster invite, likely has the biggest disadvantage though if the Brewers prefer him they could always release Boggs or Dickerson and put Reed on the 40 man roster.  Reed has not been a good hitter in his career but has been above average defensively whereas Boggs has hit very well in the minor leagues but has been well below average defensively in an extremely small major league sample size.  I'm hoping that Dickerson takes the final bench spot and is the first outfielder off the bench and I hope that the Brewers can manage to keep Boggs as an outfielder in Nashville.  One mustn't discount that Boggs has spent his entire career in the Rangers organization, which we all know Doug Melvin loves.

It's nice that the few position battles the Brewers have are likely for bench roles.  That's a good sign of a stable team.  Personally, I'm most interested in seeing how the shortstops play, particularly Yuni and Cruz. 

Scratch that, personally, I'm just most interested in seeing the Brewers doing baseball things again.

One week left, cats and kittens, and the writing is clearly on the wall for the beleaguered manager of YOUR Milwaukee Brewers.  It's impressive* that Ken Macha's lasted this long -- and, in my humble opinion, it's equally impressive that we've conned @notkenmacha into answering our hare-brained questions for almost three months.  How'd we do it?  I'll never tell.**

* Or it's an indictment of Willie Randolph and Dale Sveum, depending on your point of view: the fact that Macha's still around isn't good news for those who want to see Willie or Dale hired as manager next year.

** It involved pancakes, a Parcheesi set, and a copy of the January 18, 1983 episode of "The Price Is Right," but you probably knew that already.

Sadly, @notkenmacha's busy packing up his meager belongings right now, and he sent me a two-sentence missive on Monday letting me know that he'd "finally figured out what you've been trying to do all this time" and accusing me of being "a Hungarian operative, and a shitty Hungarian operative, at that."  And, with 11 games left in the year, there's not much use in looking forward anymore, so I've decided to look back at Ken Macha's brief tenure at the helm.

As I reviewed the schedule and results for the last two seasons, it dawned on me that each of the last two years can be broken down into four parts, which I've dubbed "Macha Epochs" -- or, if you like, "MACHAPOCHS!"  Once I'd broken out those MachaPochs, I ran the splits to see if my grossly-oversimplified belief about the last two years -- we're OK when the pitching is OK, and we're crap when the pitching is crap -- holds any water.

Tom Haudricourt is fond of calling the 2010 Brewers "Team Freak" -- and he's doing his damndest to get that moniker to stick, mentioning it (and getting li'l buddy Tony to mention it, too) whenever he can -- based on their erratic play and the up-and-down nature of the season.  Really, though, the roller coaster ride in 2010 hasn't been that different than the high-and-low 2009 season: in both years, the team played .500 ball over the first month, and then things got a little haywire.

Don't believe me?  Then let's jump.

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After last week's abbreviated MACHAWATCH!, there was some talk of shutting this baby down for the season, icing down the arm, and saving our bullets for next year.  We've never thrown this many innings, after all, and the life on our fastball is fading quickly.

Then we remembered that there isn't going to be a MACHAWATCH! next year.  So we'll Dibble this thing, doctor the ball with some Crisco, and pitch through the pain.

If you're not hanging around the game threads because the season's gone down the crapper, you're missing out, people.  nullacct is like a Bizarro version of the Cohen Brothers, consistently cranking out comedy gold.  Last night was no exception, and MACHAWATCH! HQ found it especially funny:

After the jump: why the NarvDog should be barkin' mad at his skipper; some self-congratulation; and, after a one-week hiatus, @notkenmacha.

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We're coming into the home stretch, Friends of the Show: soon the calendar will turn to September, rosters will be expanded, and a bevy of precocious youngsters will have the chance to put their skills on display* ...

Assuming they're not fools, of course. 

Ken Macha does not suffer fools.

But more on that in a second.  First, it's show and tell time!  I didn't want to bore you with another picture of the stagnant nullacct Managerometer, and I didn't have time to send him this picture yet, but I'm hoping he works his magic on this tasty treat that I spotted in the store this morning:

POPPYCOCK: it's not just for not cursing anymore!  And it's 100% natural, just like your man Ken Macha!

Alright, let's get down to business, after the jump: I'm sick of talking about the 'pen, so we'll do a brief MACHAWATCH! on CarGo, and a pinch hitter for @notkenmacha.

* Quevedo Day also falls in there somewhere.  Mark your calendars (if you remember what day it is), loosen your belt buckles, and help me inhale a bacon-stuffed meat cake or two.

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So, if the Brewers had blown that 3-0 lead in the bottom of the ninth yesterday, after Randy Wolf was yanked after giving out a one-out, Braun-aided "double" (cough, cough) and John Axford was inserted into the game a day after throwing 26 pitches in a 1.2 inning save ... would today have been a more interesting off-day for manager Ken Macha and MACHAWATCH!?

I'm not saying it's a given, not at all -- but had the Brewers blown that game, I could see cranky owner calling up his beleaguered GM, saying: "What in the HELL was that all about?" and demanding a change.

The world will never know.

There's no change in the nullacct Managerometer again, so I won't post the picture.  Instead, I want to share with you something that nullacct was nice enough to share with me a few weeks ago; I think you'll know when it's appropriate to summon this particular weapon from the arsenal.  May it be a light for you in dark places:

After the jump: we're talkin' bullpen (again) and bean balls (again) and @notkenmacha (as always).  Won't you join us?

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Author's note: The original plan this week was to run MACHAWATCH! on Wednesday afternoon, but that plan was scuttled when @notkenmacha told me that he was too busy "teaching these slapnuts the proper technique for using a bayonet in close quarters." Anyway, because MW! was going to run a day early, I had this Robo-Looper awesome intro all ready to go -- complete with a tortured, elaborate comparison of an Early MW! to Al Escobar playing right field and batting lead-off.

Alas, it was all for naught.  I know you're as devastated as I am.

Moving on: I've run out of ways to say that the 2010 Brewers take one step forward and two steps back: after sweeping the white-flag wavin' Houston Astros, the Crew dropped three of four to the tent-foldin' Arizona Diamondbacks.  So, consider this the Choose Your Own Adventure portion of MACHAWATCH!: this week, the Brewers continued to (tread water / march in place / dick around / etc, etc, etc) in their wasted 2010 season, and the nullacct Managerometer^TM didn't budge:

After the jump: the cynic's take on why a struggling team fires its manager; Ken's concerned about the 'pen; and, of course, @notkenmacha.

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