Some things to read while waiting for lunch.
If all had gone according to plan, the Brewers would be enjoying an off day on the road today and getting ready to open a series with the Astros tomorrow. Instead, they're in St. Louis waiting for tonight's makeup game, and probably won't get to Houston until early tomorrow morning. Some notes on tonight's game:
- Kyle Lohse, who pitched the first couple of innings of Friday's rainout, will start for the Cardinals.
- He'll face Braden Looper, who has something to prove to a Cardinal organization that decided not to pursue him after the 2008 season.
- Tonight's game will be televised in HD.
Rickie Weeks will not be with the team tonight. He left last night's game in the first inning with a sore left wrist and will travel to Phoenix to get it checked out by the specialist that performed the previous surgeries on his right wrist (Also noted in FanShot). Barring something unforeseen, Weeks is expected to rejoin the team tomorrow but doesn't know when he'll be ready to play.
Jason Kendall enters today's game with 1999 career hits. If he picks up a hit in the next couple of days, he may reach 2000 before Todd Helton.
Saturday's game was the Brewers' third 1-0 contest of the season, and they're now 2-1 in those games. Trevor Hoffman picked up the save in that game: UmpBump has a look at his early success and Adam McCalvy reports on a prank Hoffman pulled on Ken Macha over the weekend.
Of course, a fair amount of the credit for Saturday's shutout goes to Jeff Suppan, who pitched seven innings and allowed just eight baserunners. The Bucky Channel says Jeff Suppan is making them like him.
How much credit for the Brewers' early success belongs to Ken Macha? Jeff Fletcher of MLB FanHouse sees Macha's fingerprints in some of the changes in the team's philosophy, and also offers some insight into the role of third base coach Brad Fischer.
When will we get to see Mat Gamel? No one seems to know. FanGraphs was excited to see him come up, but he has just one plate appearance in three games as a Brewer, and none since Thursday. Ken Macha has said Gamel wasn't just brought up to ride the bench, but Saturday's game saw Craig Counsell pinch hitting instead in a key situation, and Todd Coffey was allowed to hit for himself in the late innings yesterday.
David Riske threw 30 pitches in the bullpen before Saturday's game and could be headed out for a minor league rehab assignment in the near future. With the strength of the current bullpen, that could be a very long rehab assignment.
Elsewhere in the minors:
- Cody Scarpetta threw five hitless innings for Wisconsin yesterday, and sat down with The Official Site's Mason Kelley to talk about his philosophy.
- Mike Burns, who wasn't expected to start the season in the rotation for Nashville in the first place, improved his record to 6-0 with a win yesterday.
- Cutter Dykstra, #11 in our prospect rankings, was demoted from Wisconsin to Helena over the weekend, and will learn to play second base at that level (h/t Rattler Radio). Helena's season doesn't open until late June, so Dykstra will spend some time in extended spring training breaking in an infielder's glove.
Balking Traditionalism reports the Brewers are second in the NL in Wins Above Replacement, and Summer Loving moved them up to fifth in their power rankings.
Here's a nice note on the fan-friendliness of the Brewer organization: The Brewers charge a $2 "convenience fee" for the right to purchase tickets online, the lowest in all of baseball.
Nearly a week has passed, but blogs continue to pile on The Happy Youngster, as they should. The Biz of Baseball, Miller Park Drunk and True Blue Brew are just three of the dozens of sites that have taken note.
Around the league:
Marlins: Designated John Koronka for assignment.
Mets: Signed catcher Javier Valentin and reliever Tom Martin to minor league deals, and placed Carlos Delgado on the DL with a hip impingement.
Nationals: Designated reliever Logan Kensing for assignment, placed catcher Jesus Flores on the DL with a bruised shoulder and DL'ed starter Scott Olsen with shoulder tendinitis.
Orioles: Placed Luke Scott on the DL with a sore left shoulder.
Padres: Claimed infielder Josh Wilson off the DL from the D-Backs and designated reliever Duaner Sanchez for assignment.
Pirates: Acquired starter Eric Hacker from the Yankees for AAA reliever Romulo Sanchez and placed Tyler Yates on the DL.
Phillies: Designated Miguel Cairo for assignment.
Rangers: Are expected to sign reliever Mike Hinckley, who opted for free agency after being DFA'd by the Nationals last week, to a minor league deal. They also placed closer Frank Francisco on the DL with biceps tendinitis.
Rays: Placed Pat Burrell on the DL with stiffness in his neck.
Rockies: Reliever Matt Daley has been placed on the DL after tripping on a bat home plate umpire Bill Welke attempted to kick out of the way.
Tigers: Reliever Juan Rincon has declined a minor league assignment and is now a free agent.
By now, you've probably heard about yesterday's Rays-Indians game, where pitcher Andy Sonnanstine ended up batting third due to a scorecard mistake. Marc Lancaster has a list of Sonnanstine's feats.
Remember months ago, when we wanted the Brewers to sign Odalis Perez? After he refused to report to Nationals camp on a minor league deal this spring, he remains unsigned, and Jorge Says No! wants to know why.
Will Odalis Perez find a job before Cecil Cooper loses his? Cooper is having his decisions second-guessed in Houston, and it doesn't sound like his team is behind him at all.
Ben Sheets hasn't started throwing yet and says he hasn't started thinking about who he'll pitch for once he's healthy, but he was in Arlington over the weekend, paying a visit to Rangers' pitching coach Mike Maddux.
When you're as small at Tim Lincecum, as young as Tim Lincecum, you throw as hard as Tim Lincecum and you rack up as many innings as Tim Lincecum, I guess you shouldn't be surprised when your velocity falls like Tim Lincecum's.
This year, maybe you'll actually get some sleep in October: Major League Baseball is changing World Series start times to get the games going earlier.
Oh, and it's probably pretty difficult to bring a harp on the road.
Drink up.