Some things to read as you get incredibly frustrated.
Another day, another round of news and speculation about new Brewers manager Ron Roenicke and his as of yet undetermined coaching staff, much of which stems from his Thursday press conference. I have several links relevant to that, so let's get straight into bulletpoints.
- Brewers! Brewers! Keep Turning Up the Heat doesn't appear to be a fan of Roenicke's stated aggressive base-stealing philosophy and has dubbed him "Runnin' Ron Roenicke".
- Casa de Machado points out the difference between how Roenicke and Ken Macha identified with players (Roenicke has shown that he takes the time to really get to know the players whereas Macha seemed to "manage from the sidelines") and goes down on record as liking the hiring.
- Adam McCalvy has another story on the quest to fill out the rest of the Brewers coaching staff. Included is a quote from Roenicke saying how "the pitching coach job is really important to [him]." Tom H tweeted Friday afternoon that Roenicke had just met with Rick Peterson and we should be hearing news about the situation soon.
- As you might know by now, Brian Anderson and Roenicke know each other from their days together with the San Antonio Missions. Anderson has updated his blog with a story about him, his brother, and Roenicke
We received a couple other tidbits of news on Friday. The Brewers re-signed Tim Dillard to a minor league contract with an invite to spring training (fanshot) and Luis Cruz made claims that Ken Macha was at least a little bit racist (fanshot). Surprisingly, I haven't read pretty much any responses to Cruz's comments on any Brewers blog which is kind of nice because boy did I get sick of that quickly.
Dave Bush is officially a free agent for the first time in his career, and it seems as though the Brewers might not even be entertaining the notion of re-signing him. Doug Melvin reportedly told Bush that it would be best for him to test the market. Melvin has already made calls to the agents for Craig Counsell and Chris Capuano, though, so it seems like he's looking to bring them back.
In the minors:
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John Steinmiller and Caitlin Moyer profile OF Logan Schafer, who missed nearly the entire 2010 season with several injuries. The post includes plenty of quotes from Schafer himself.
- The Wisconsin TimberRattlers twitter account shared a link to a six minute video of every out from the Jake Odorizzi/Adrian Rosario August no-hitter. Here's a direct link to the video.
- The AFL Rising Stars showcase was Saturday night with OF Caleb Gindl, P Jeremy Jeffress and Manager Mike Guerrero representing the Brewers organization. Keith Law reported Jeffress throwing in the 96-101 MPH range
As Mykenk noted in the comments of Fridays Frosty Mug, John Axford is officially on twitter. It's been confirmed by several credible sources, so it's safe to say this is actually him. He's the only current Brewer on twitter and, I believe, the second ever (the first being Seth McClung).
As I write this, bidding is up to $805, but if you have money burning a hole in your pocket, check out this auction: You can win four seats in the owners box at Miller Park along with two nights and dinner at the Pfister hotel. Proceeds go to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric Aids Foundation.
Around the League:
Mariners: Hired Ted Simmons as adviser.
If you're like me and can never remember when things happen in the offseason, MLB Trade Rumors has a list of the key dates you should be looking out for.
The Internet Baseball Writers Association of America voted Ron Gardenhire as AL Manager of the Year.
The World Series ratings may have been the worst ever in 2010, but at least you can't blame it on the pace of the games. The games this year were 25 minutes shorter than those played by the Yankees and Phillies in 2010.
As far as amount of links I saw about the topic, the biggest baseball story this week is that of a group of nuns in Baltimore who were bequeathed a Honus Wagner baseball card--probably the most sought after baseball card in history. The nuns have sold the card for a cool $262,000.
That's all for this weekend unless you like hearing a pretty amazing guitar solo.