Nothing doing in Brewers Nation, though a few non-trivial items have passed over the baseball wires:
- Wade Miller signs with the Cubs. Seems like a good choice for him: the Cubs staff has been notoriously injury prone, so given that he'll sign as a 6th starter just about anywhere, why not the place that'll give the 6th starter the most starts? I still wish we'd got him, and it doesn't help any that he'll be just down the road.
- Shigetoshi Hasegawa has announced his retirement. It would appear he won't be signing with Milwaukee either.
- Mets traded Kris Benson to the Orioles for Jorge Julio and John Maine. It could the first step of an elaborate ploy that ends in a trade for Zito; it could mean the Mets are now the front-runners for Jeff Weaver; or, it could mean that Kris Benson won't be pitching for New York this year and somebody else will be in the rotation instead.
- The Reds, under new ownership, fired GM Dan O'Brien. Gosh darn it, the Reds might turn competitive again someday. Now that the Brewers may be in the thick of it for a few years, I was perfectly happy to allow the Reds and Pirates to fight it out for 70 wins every year. If the Reds hire someone smart, like Indians assistant GM Chris Antonetti, they could be back in the mix in a couple of years.
- Yeah, Coco Crisp is probably a Red Sox. I'll wait to make much of a judgement until it's official, but the core deal of Crisp for prospect Andy Marte looks ideal for both clubs: Crisp is more valuable in center, and Marte is more valuable on a team that doesn't already have a young, quality third baseman.
- David Pinto has posted several things about his Probabilistic Model of Range. Check it out; David's a smart guy, PMR is a heck of a tool, and he's clearly covering all the bases in developing it.
- Astros file an insurance claim on Jeff Bagwell's 2006 salary: if Bagwell doesn't play and Houston gets the money, they could make a splash--they could re-sign Clemens on May 1st; they could put together some deal (and take on salary) for Bobby Abreu or Manny Ramirez ...or they could just have $15m and throw a big party.
- And in case you missed it, here's a feature on Frank Kremblas, who will once again be managing the Crew's AAA affiliate.
I've officially designated this an open thread, so go crazy.