Some things to read while thinking about how good you have it.
As of today, we are only four days away from the start of spring training games! On Thursday, our beloved Brewers will be taking on the San Francisco Giants. Unless, of course, you count intrasquad games, in which case there are only three days left! Adam McCalvy has the spring training pitching rotation for the first few games. Jeff Suppan will be starting that first game against the Giants. I guess he's our ace again. Unless, of course, Ken Macha is doing this just to have Yovani Gallardo starting that crucial March 5 game against Ben Sheets and the A's.
The Brewers had their traditional Arctic Tailgate Fest at Miller Park Saturday as they began selling single-game tickets. This year they were able to sell 95,000 tickets, good for the third most on a single day in franchise history. In addition, four games are officially sold out of individual tickets, which is only the second time the team has had a game other than the home opener sell out on the first day of ticket sales.
There is plenty of news this weekend about any potential Prince Fielder contract, and the Brewers beat reporters have been all over it. McCalvy reports that owner Mark Attanasio is saying that there "is no deadline" for a contract to be agreed upon. Meanwhile Anthony Witrado has Attanasio saying any offer they make to Fielder "won't be for show", as many people claim the Brewers offer to CC Sabathia was. And Tom Haudricourt has been tweeting his heart out about the matter: Fielder says he'll have final call on any contract offer, even with Scott Boras as his agent; Attanasio and GM Doug Melvin had a meeting Saturday, with the "process" of putting together an offer to Prince being a part of it; and Attanasio says that he will be a part of any contract negotiations with the big guy. Nothing really ground-breaking, but it looks like we might be nearing the time that the Brewers finally do put out an offer to the star first baseman.
Meanwhile, the Brewers other superstar, Ryan Braun, has also been a popular subject lately. McCalvy sat down with the left fielder for a discussion on the upcoming season and Brauns "life theories." He also has a role in a new Dick's Sporting Goods commercial (h/t brewerfan). And as part of his spring training preview, Haudricourt profiles Braun's ability to mix his baseball career with his business career. The JS also has the depth chart for left field as well, with no real surprises.
They also have the depth chart for second base, again without any big shockers, along with a story about Rickie Weeks and how he has had to deal with his share of injuries. You know, in case you didn't notice that he hasn't been feeling too healthy in his career.
Rick Peterson and his biomechanics are in the news again as he has been using motion analysis to identify any areas of concern in regards to injuries. Jordan also has a great post up on the subject, along with a link to the same article. Included in that article are pictures of the tools he has been using that are worth checking out. Speaking of pictures, if you haven't already, be sure to check out kirbir's Pictures of the Week, which she has brought back for spring training.
The Brewers announced all 30 spring training games will be broadcast one way or another--either on FSN, through a webcast on Brewers.com, or on the radio.
Around the Majors:
Cardinals: Finally found a home for Felipe Lopez (fanshot)
Mariners: Signed former major Brewers prospect Tom Wilhelmsen
Several baseball scouting agencies are starting a scouting combine, which I would imagine is going to be similar to the NFL's combine, with the inaugural event being slated for August 18-21. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of information on it, but I have to say that I don't really understand the timing as that leaves a very long time before the next draft. Would it be because they don't want to hold it during the college season?
Ken Rosenthal throws his idea for divisional realignment out for consideration. In his scenario, the Brewers would be in a division with the Cubs, Cardinals, White Sox, and Royals. Does anyone think that divisional realignment will actually happen anytime soon?
And for those of you who aren't well versed in sabermetrics, Graham at Lookout Landing is putting out a series of articles on different sabermetric concepts which I have enjoyed reading. If you have time to kill or a thirst for knowledge, I recommend reading through them all.
If someone could please make sense of this Ozzie Guillen tweet, I would appreciate it.
For those of you interested in joining BrewCrewBall fantasy baseball, please be sure to e-mail me (include your username) saying you'd like to participate by next Friday. Even if you demonstrated interest in the comments of either thread, I would still like if you could email me please, thanks!
A big Happy Birthday to Yovani Gallardo, who turned 24 on Saturday.
That's all for me this weekend, unless you never noticed.