After your quick summary of yesterday's games and minor league storylines, on to the Brewers and baseball news of Wednesday, June 17th, 2009.
Dave Bush thinks he has a problem with his mechanics and will work on fixing it before his next start. The article also provides an encouraging line from Ken Macha-- he doesn't consider Casey McGehee an everyday player just yet. I've been as thrilled as anyone with McGehee's performance, but it's not a good idea to fully commit to a hot-hitting bench player with 70 at-bats and little track record. McGehee will likely not play today, he has a sore right knee and a sore left ankle.
Eric Gagne was roughed up in his first Canadian League start. 4 2/3 innings, 9 hits, 4 walks, and 5 runs, and no fastballs above 89 mph.
In "News that doesn't really surprise anybody", Sammy Sosa tested positive for a steroid in 2003. The ShysterBall take is an interesting one. Also in the steroid category, Selig points out that the NFL had or has just as big of a problem with steroids and the media mostly ignores it.
Here's even more from Beyond the Boxscore on the Disabled List, with leaderboards for individual careers and team days on the disabled list. Meanwhile, Furman Bisher is on the loose again, and he wants to do away with pitch counts. He referes to Javier Vazquez as "Valdez" at one point in the paragraph, so I am skeptical of his credibility at this point. Bill James and Joe Posnaski go back and forth about pitch counts at SI.
No one could have ever predicted that Russell Branyan would be a highly effective everyday corner infielder. No one.
I don't think you can compare a decent-hitting college catcher to a player who is on track to be one of the greatest catchers of all time just because they were both picked ahead of where they were supposed to go in the draft. Like the Chipper Jones chart last year, Musings has a .400 probability chart for Joe Mauer. Mauer is so good he could win the batting title right now even though he is 21 plate appearances short of qualifying-- being credited with an 0 for 21 would still keep his average in first.
Interesting that Brian Giles went from being "extremely underrated" to "the worst regular in baseball" within a year. It doesn't take long in baseball.
Here's something interesting-- a major national writer citing defensive statistics to support an argument that Derek Jeter has been a better fielder than usual this season.
The similarities between Manny Parra and Jonathan Sanchez were pretty striking in the first place, and now their struggles are following similar tracks-- both had 8ish k rates in each of the past two years and saw their walk rates jump from 4 to about 6. Parra is in AAA, and Sanchez's trade value is dropping.
On the trade market, Erik Bedard is healthy again. Why do I get the feeling that he will be a Brewer at some point this year?
Tango's blog has some batted ball velocity linear weights. Basically, hit the ball harder and you have a better chance at getting a hit or doing something productive.
Quevedo at the Buffet thinks that Gamel should be the everyday third basemen after the interleague trip is over. I'd start Hall sometimes versus lefties and use him as an 8th inning defensive replacement and let Gamel ride in all the other situations, with no playing time at third for McGehee. I'm curious as to which direction Melvin goes in. I can't see Gamel being sent down at this point.
Tonight's game is at 6:05 central in Cleveland, and the Brewer starting pitcher is Jeff Suppan.