Well, that trip to New York turned out better than I expected. This morning, the Brewers wake up half a game behind the St. Louis Cardinals, in second place all by themselves and enjoying a day off before opening a series with said Cardinals tomorrow. It's time for a Frosty Mug.
Yesterday's Win Expectancy Graph
Baseball Digest Daily recaps
ESPN Video Highlights
Gabe Kapler is all over the web this morning:
Bugs and Cranks chronicles his transition from roster-filler to contributor.
Dave Cameron's first post at Fangraphs was also about Kapler.
Luft on Deck forgot he was still around.
Jim Powell blogged from New York about Sunday's game, Sheets, Gallardo and the lineup switch.
In-Between Hops notes that the Brewers are having moderate success even with all of their top expected run producers hitting under .300, and most hitting under .250.
Brief Alphabetical Morning (BAM) Injury Reports:
Erik Bedard was scratched with hip problems again yesterday.
Adrian Beltre was held out of yesterday's M's game with a sore hamstring.
Tom Glavine left yesterday's game in the first inning with a strained hamstring.
Yankees C Jose Molina injured his hamstring last night and had to leave the game. Jorge Posada came in as the emergency backup but still can't throw.
Dayn Perry, whose last column warned us not to get too excited about the Cardinals, wants to make sure we're not too excited about the Orioles, either.
This post at Rowland's Office should make the 29 teams that didn't sign Andruw Jones feel pretty good about themselves.
The Biz of Baseball caught me off guard this morning: They have a list of quotes from Buck Martinez yesterday that provide actual insight into the game of baseball. Color commentators can be more than just a stream of cliches? What a novel concept.
So it turns out that, when the Phillies traded Wes Helms to the Marlins for cash considerations, the "cash" turned out to be a dollar. Then the Phillies paid part of his contract. That seems illogical, but I read it on the internet so it must be true. If it is true, the money wasted would be about the same as the money wasted to tear up the concrete at the new Yankee Stadium to remove a Red Sox jersey.
On a serious note, thoughts and well wishes go out to Maury Brown of The Biz of Baseball, whose son was recently diagnosed with autism. He's asked bloggers from around the web in this post to help promote autism awareness. Read it if you've got a moment and are so inclined.
Now, it's Monday, so I've got polls. First, the BCB ballot for NL Awards in BaseballHappenings.com's webpoll is due at the end of the day today, so go here to vote on the ballot.
The second weekly fan opinion poll has been posted as well, go here to vote. Last week 87 voters participated, I'd like to get it over 100 this week. If you can help promote the poll in any way, please do so.
Here are the results from last week's poll:
- 52% of voters said they are concerned with Bill Hall's strikeout rate.
- 65% of voters were not concerned by David Riske's 4 2/3 IP in the team's first 6 games.
- 55% of voters thought Gabe Kapler should remain on the roster in place of Gabe Gross when Mike Cameron returns, although it's possible a problem with the wording in the question skewed the results. 16% thought Kapler should replace Joe Dillon, and 12% thought he should replace Tony Gwynn.
- 77% of voters thought Yovani Gallardo should replace Dave bush in the rotation when he returns from the DL.
- 93% of voters thought the Brewers made the right move keeping Mike Rivera over Eric Munson and Vinny Rottino.
- Ned Yost's approval rating is at 77%, with 17% unsure and 5% disapproval.
- Doug Melvin's approval rating is at 91%, with 5% unsure and 2% disapproval.
- 95% of voters approve of the decision to sign Cameron and move Hall and Braun.
- 49% of voters approve of the decision to sign Eric Gagne, with 25% unsure and 25% disapproving.
- 37% of voters think the Brewers should wait until after the season to make a contract offer to Ben Sheets. 29% think they should offer him an extension now, 21% think they should not and 10% are unsure.
The full results are here. This week's poll features five new questions but continues to track the approval rating of Yost and Melvin, the fan opinion on the Cameron and Gagne signings and the fan opinion on Sheets' contract situation.
That's all for today. Drink up.