Some things to read while feeling old.
There's not much out there in Brewer news today, which leaves us plenty of time to join Miller Park Drunk in looking ahead to the Journal Sentinal's grades for the 2009 Crew. I particularly enjoyed the notes on Jason Kendall, Felipe Lopez and Corey Hart.
Meanwhile, on the rumor front, the Tigers could be considering trading Curtis Granderson, and the Brewers are one team that could have some interest. Granderson has three years and $23.75 million left on his current deal, (plus an option for a fourth at $13 million or more) but those salaries are backloaded: he'll make just $5.5 million in 2010.
Granderson hit a career high 30 home runs in 2009, but his doubles, triples and all three numbers in his slash line declined. He posted a .913 OPS in 2007, but dropped to .858 last season and .790 this season, which was actually worse than Mike Cameron's .795. The Braves and Cubs also have possible interest.
In the minors:
Meanwhile, the playoffs have created a grand stage on which Major League Baseball can show off the failings of some of its "elite" umpires. C.B. Bucknor's performance in last night's Angels-Red Sox game led to a poem, Jon Heyman speculating that C.B. may stand for "consistently bad," and an editing war that led to the locking of his Wikipedia page.
The playoffs also always seem to give us some strange conversations to look in on. For example, here's one on the clutchiness of Ronnie Belliard.
The TBS broadcasts this week have occasionally been difficult to watch, but in a couple of cases they've been downright impossible. TBS is blaming the angle of the sun for some technical difficulties that interrupted satellite feeds during the afternoon Wednesday. There were also some audio issues Wednesday, but they only interrupted Bob Brenly. That's an improvement, not a difficulty.
How much of a pitcher's value is tied to his hitting? Jeremy Greenhouse of The Hardball Times attempts to tackle that question by looking at value added or removed at the plate. Dan Haren was actually worth seven runs at the plate this season, which was roughly 15% of his overall value. This could be an important fact to consider when pondering the value of a pitcher like Ben Sheets, who pitches very well but likely costs himself runs both at the plate and in the field.
Happy birthday today to Randy Lerch, who won 15 games for the Brewers between 1981 and 1982 and turns 55 today, and to Bill Pulsipher, who spent parts of the 1998 and 1999 seasons as a Brewer and turns 36.
I know that's not much but it's all I have for you today, unless you're interested in a Dutch sausage.
Drink up.
There's not much out there in Brewer news today, which leaves us plenty of time to join Miller Park Drunk in looking ahead to the Journal Sentinal's grades for the 2009 Crew. I particularly enjoyed the notes on Jason Kendall, Felipe Lopez and Corey Hart.
Meanwhile, on the rumor front, the Tigers could be considering trading Curtis Granderson, and the Brewers are one team that could have some interest. Granderson has three years and $23.75 million left on his current deal, (plus an option for a fourth at $13 million or more) but those salaries are backloaded: he'll make just $5.5 million in 2010.
Granderson hit a career high 30 home runs in 2009, but his doubles, triples and all three numbers in his slash line declined. He posted a .913 OPS in 2007, but dropped to .858 last season and .790 this season, which was actually worse than Mike Cameron's .795. The Braves and Cubs also have possible interest.
In the minors:
- Jonathan Lucroy (13th) was the only Brewer to appear in Baseball America's ranking of the top 20 prospects in the Southern League. Lucroy hit .267/.380/.418 for Huntsville, and set career highs in doubles and walks.
- Wisconsin Sports Tap's website is down at the moment, but they've got a nice review of Brevard County's 2009 season and the successes and disappointments that came with it.
Meanwhile, the playoffs have created a grand stage on which Major League Baseball can show off the failings of some of its "elite" umpires. C.B. Bucknor's performance in last night's Angels-Red Sox game led to a poem, Jon Heyman speculating that C.B. may stand for "consistently bad," and an editing war that led to the locking of his Wikipedia page.
The playoffs also always seem to give us some strange conversations to look in on. For example, here's one on the clutchiness of Ronnie Belliard.
The TBS broadcasts this week have occasionally been difficult to watch, but in a couple of cases they've been downright impossible. TBS is blaming the angle of the sun for some technical difficulties that interrupted satellite feeds during the afternoon Wednesday. There were also some audio issues Wednesday, but they only interrupted Bob Brenly. That's an improvement, not a difficulty.
How much of a pitcher's value is tied to his hitting? Jeremy Greenhouse of The Hardball Times attempts to tackle that question by looking at value added or removed at the plate. Dan Haren was actually worth seven runs at the plate this season, which was roughly 15% of his overall value. This could be an important fact to consider when pondering the value of a pitcher like Ben Sheets, who pitches very well but likely costs himself runs both at the plate and in the field.
Happy birthday today to Randy Lerch, who won 15 games for the Brewers between 1981 and 1982 and turns 55 today, and to Bill Pulsipher, who spent parts of the 1998 and 1999 seasons as a Brewer and turns 36.
I know that's not much but it's all I have for you today, unless you're interested in a Dutch sausage.
Drink up.