Friday's Frozen Margarita

It's Friday, the Crew's headed to Arizona, we just had Cinco de Mayo and I'm out of work - the time is now for hammocks, flip flops and drinks with tiny umbrellas.

 

In case you went to bed early, the Brewers tied the game in the top of the ninth and LaTroy Hawkins gave up a walk-off grand slam to Andre Ethier to lose the game. Check out the game recap here.

• Dodgers starter John Ely retired 16 straight from the 2nd to the 7th inning. Gregg Zaun had two of the 3 RBI.
• Hawkins "is puzzled" as to where his velocity went. He didn't top 91 mph in last night's outing.
  
• Dodger Thoughts thinks John Ely made his case to stay in the majors and in the Dodgers rotation.
• John Ely, Andre Ethier and Xavier Paul are leading the Fangraphs Star of the Game voting
• CoolStandings has the Brewer playoff chances at 13.8%.
• Adam McCalvy pointed out that Jim Edmonds tied his career high with 4 strikeouts and that Prince Fielder's first error of the season cost not just two runs, but 16 extra pitches on Dave Bush's arm.
  
• Brewed Sports wonders what the record for 9th inning Grand Slams is and points out the Brewers are on pace to give up 12 this season. 
• Bernie Brewer noted on Twitter that prior to last night's game, Ryan Braun and Casey McGehee ranked third among MLB teammates with 47 combined RBI this season
• The LA Times Dodgers blog thinks Andre Ethier is Mr. Clutch
  

Great news from the Brewers today as it was announced that Bob Uecker was released from Froedtert Hospital today. Projections were that he'd be hospitalized 5-7 days, so his recovery appears to be right on schedule.

 

Carlos Gomez will undergo an MRI today in Arizona to determine if there is any damage to his left shoulder.

 

More sad times around the baseball community as Hall of Famer Robin Roberts passed away yesterday. Roberts started 609 games, winning 286 and throwing 305 complete games. He won at least 20 games from 1950-1955 and pitched the Phillies to the 1950 NL Pennant. He was the winningest RHP in Phillies history and a seven-time All-Star. In 1952-53, he pitched 28 straight complete games.

Joe Posnanski has a great article about meeting Roberts that serves as a beautiful eulogy and is a great read. 

 

OnMilwaukee.com notes that Ryan Braun is 2nd in the league with 26 hits and is attempting to become the first National League player since Tony Gwynn in '94 and '95 to repeat

 

They also have an interview with Casey McGehee

 

Lots of info from the minor leagues:

• The Crawfish Boxes has a note about former Brewers farmhand Freddy Parejo.
• In the minors, Jonathon Lucroy hit his first AAA home run. 
• Chris Capuano will be making his final start with Brevard County before moving up the system. He "has started twice for the Manatees and is 1-0 with a 0.93 ERA. in 9 2/3 innings of work. He has allowed just one run and six hits. Capuano has not issued a walk and has struck out 12."
• Mat Gamel appears to be close to returning to the Brewers, says McCalvy at the bottom of this notebook. Though its been rumored he'd join the team to DH for the interleague series, Ken Macha is saying he'd rather wait until Mat is fully healed.
• The Appleton Post-Crescent has feature on Cutter Dysktra and Tom Haudricourt did a feature on Eric Arnett.
• Don't forget that the Wisconsin TimberRattlers will face the Cedar Rapids Kernels at Miller Park tonight and all tickets are $10.
• Baseball America has a look at how the flooding in Nashville is affecting the Sounds. 
• Minor League Baseball Prospects has a statistical post on Jake Odorizzi

• The TimberRattlers lost last night and it was their third straight one-run-deficit loss.

• The Baseball America Prospect blog has a look at teenagers in the minor leagues. Wisconsin's Cameron Garfield is #24 on the list of hitters. Mike Trout of tonight's opponent Cedar Rapids tops the list with a .356 batting average.As for pitchers. Tim Bucci of the Rattlers comes in at #14 with a 3.06 ERA. Cedar Rapids has the top spot here, too, as Tyler Scaggs has a 0.47 ERA.

FanGraphs has added a new stat having to do with Shutdown and Meltdowns. The new stat is based loosely on saves and blown saves. Go here to read more about it. It's relevant because Trevor Hoffman makes the list of  "the highest Meltdown % by pitchers with 30 or more saves the past three seasons" at #10.

 

If you didn't already love Goose Gossage, you will at least be afraid to meet him in a dark alley after reading this article that FtJ posted the link to in yesterday's Mug comments. It's a classic.

 

This article about Bobby Cox saying Jason Heyward is taking too many pitches has some commentors calling for the Braves to bring on Ned Yost as manager.

 

The Ant Farmer's Almanac has a tongue-in-cheek report about a Brewer being unable to play in the upcoming series in Arizona. And it's not anyone you'd think.

 

Baseball America's Ben Badler wondered on Twitter which MLB pitcher is the most excruciating to watch - the answer was apparently Doug Davis. Most Brewer fans would agree.

 

Taking the guesswork out of it, Lance Berkman suggests the Astros should trade him. (h/t Aaron Gleeman)

 

In more Astros news, Carlos Lee said he'll strongly consider retiring after 2012 - the end of his current contract.

 

With the MLB Draft coming up, MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo uses Tim Lincecum, Ryan Braun and  Mark Reynolds to explain Super Two arbitration status

 

From the strange, but true files:

• Former Mariner and D-Back Eric Byrnes was released and has said he's going to join a softball league. Arizona is still paying $11 million this year for his contract.
• Lastings Milledge was thrown out on the base paths last night when fireworks going off caused him to think he'd hit a home run.

 

Today's birthdays:

Mark Smith, who played 33 games for the Brewers in 2003

Steve Whitaker, who was a member of the 1969 Seattle Pilots

and Claude Raymond, who spend 1961-63 with the Milwaukee Braves

 

That's all I've got unless you want to read a review of a coloring book