Good morning, Brewer fans. Most of the NL had an off day yesterday, so the Brewers wake up again in second place by themselves, but in a good position to do something about it: They open up a series with the first place Cardinals tonight. It's time for a Frosty Mug.
With the off day, there's no Win Expectancy Graph or ESPN Video highlights to show you, but here are Baseball Digest Daily's recaps from yesterday.
Also, I have a new addition to the daily reads, Baseball Prospectus postseason odds. Today, they project the Brewers to win 82.1 games and give them a 17% shot of winning the NL Central.
Now, today's big news: Tom H. is reporting the Brewers may have signed Jeff Weaver. Tom thinks they'll likely send him to extended spring training and then AAA, but notes that Weaver is a Boras client, so it seems unlikely he cut a deal without some promise for a big league opportunity. It's probably still too early to speculate.
Ben Sheets won this week's Baseball Happenings Blogpoll for NL Cy Young. Albert Pujols won the vote for MVP, and Kosuke Fukudome won Rookie of the Year. Click the previous link for full voting results, and click here to see the BCB ballot.
The Junkball Blues is doing a nice job tracking an interesting stat, and so far it's paying dividends: The Brewers see an average of 3.91 pitches per plate appearance in their 8 wins, and only 3.61 in their 4 losses.
Bucs Dugout is starting some kind of tournament to crown the worst GM in baseball. Our very own Doug Melvin is one of the 14 GM's who won't make the field.
Brad Bortone at Bugs and Cranks is comparing Prince's new eating habits to the sudden change in Sid Fernandez's eating habits in 1985, which took 8-10 mph off his fastball. I disagree with the point, but it's an interesting one.
The Southpaw, a Jays blog, has the Brewers #5, the best in the NL Central, in their latest power rankings.
There's only three injury reports today, so I'll just put them in one paragraph: Reds SS Alex Gonzalez is not seeing improvement in the compression fracture in his knee and still won't be able to run for at least 2-4 more weeks. Pedro Martinez's rehab is going slower than expected and will keep him out well into May, maybe into June. Mariners OF Mike Morse has been moved onto the DL with a dislocated shoulder, opening the door for the big league return of R.A. Dickey.
Fish Chunks takes a look at some of the surprising numbers surrounding the 2008 Marlins, who lead the NL in home runs but are being outscored by seven NL teams. They have several more stats about homer-centric baseball that should sound familiar to fans of the 2007 Brewers.
This one doesn't appear to be paid, but No Bias Baseball is looking to add writers.
24 hours in, we've already got 96 votes in this week's Fan Opinion Poll. If you haven't cast your ballot yet, take a moment to do so. Thanks to everyone who's helped promote it, including Al's Ramblings.
Over the weekend I missed a comment asking how to submit links for inclusion in the Mug. The easiest way to grab my attention is to post links in the comments of the previous day's Mug, which I usually check right before I start writing. I'll start making a more conscious effort to re-post the best links I find that way.
That's all for today. Drink up.
Filed under: