Some things to read while getting a little too festive.
Yovani Gallardo was the story for the Brewers once again last night, holding the Marlins to one earned run over seven innings and hitting a solo home run to tie the game in the seventh. Gallardo now has six career home runs, and is 6-0 in those games.
Gallardo also batted eighth last night, as Ken Macha moved Ryan Braun into the #2 spot and batted Alcides Escobar ninth for the second time this season. Braun and Escobar each went 1-for-5 with a single.
Other notes from the field:
- Here's the video of George Kottaras' broken bat home run.
- Yovani Gallardo, Carlos Gomez and George Kottaras are leading FanGraphs' Star of the Game voting.
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CoolStandings has the Brewers' playoff chances at 1.4%.
We're just a few hours away from the 2010 debut of Chris Capuano, who's been waiting for this moment since September 28, 2007. Miller Park Drunk tells the story of his long road back to the majors.
On the other end of the spectrum, we're likely more than a few hours away from Trevor Hoffman's return to the ninth inning. Following his outing on Tuesday, Ken Macha said he doesn't know when he'll use Hoffman again, and ruled out a return to the closer's role anytime soon. John Axford recorded the final five outs en route to his third save last night.
Capuano will be the ninth starting pitcher to take the mound for the Brewers this season, and a tenth may be needed soon: Dave Bush might not be able to start on Sunday against the Cardinals as he continues to undergo treatment for a blister that forced him to leave Tuesday's game early. Kameron Loe is being mentioned as a possible fill in.
Corey Hart didn't hit a home run last night but did draw two free passes, giving him 14 homers and 16 walks on the season. Disciples of Uecker uses Hit Tracker's data to take a look at Hart's power surge, and concludes that he has a "very good chance" of hitting 30 home runs for the first time in his career.
It's more of the same for Doug Melvin, Ken Macha and Rick Peterson in this week's BCB Tracking Poll: Their approval ratings remained steady or near-steady at 43%, 15% and 10%, respectively.
Also noted in that poll: 47% of voters think the Brewers should attempt to trade Hart. It remains to be seen if Hart will be on the move, but Big League Stew listed Prince Fielder among ten players who also could be dealt in the next two months.
And speaking of voting: Ryan Braun is still the leading votegetter among NL outfielders in All Star balloting. Casey McGehee is third at third base.
In the minors:
- Mat Gamel hit his first home run of the season last night for Huntsville, and Adam Heether hit two for Nashville. You can read about that and more in today's Minor League Notes.
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TimberRattlers.com has named Khris Davis, Scooter Gennett and Nick Bucci Wisconsin's Players of the Month for May.
On the draft:
- Jonathan Mayo is predicting the Brewers will select Florida high school third baseman Nick Castellanos.
- Jon Heyman has them selecting Ohio St right hander Alex Wimmers.
- Continuing our Draft Week coverage, Fatter than Joey has a year-by-year look at the Brewers' first round picks from 1969-1999, highlighting some great selections and also remembering some poor decisions.
- Along a similar vein, FanGraphs has a team-by-team look at players that have been drafted but not signed over the years, and notes that the Brewers could have had Jason Giambi and Andrew Bailey.
On power rankings: SBNation has the Brewers at 24, up from 26.
Around baseball:
Mariners: Ken Griffey Jr. has decided to retire.
Nationals: Released infielder Eric Bruntlett.
Phillies: Outfielder DeWayne Wise has opted out of his minor league deal, becoming a free agent.
If you've been near a TV or the internet in the last 12 hours, you've probably heard everything you ever wanted to hear and then some about umpire Jim Joyce's missed call on what would have been the 27th out of Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga's perfect game last night. As such, I'll limit my thoughts to bullet points.
- If you somehow missed it, SBNation.com has wall-to-wall, every-angle-considered coverage.
- Walk Like A Sabermetrician notes that the outcome of the game was not changed, and says "Baseball fans have an unhealthy obsession with feats, sometimes elevating them above the objective of the game itself, which is to win."
- Bob Nightengale cautions against comparing this call to Don Denkinger's 1985 World Series call, which changed the direction of the series.
- Tom Haudricourt lumped this call in with umpiring's other issues (fight instigation, aggressiveness, arrogance). I don't think that's fair.
- Pat Lackey of Where Have You Gone, Andy Van Slyke? has the perspective of a former umpire.
- Lost in all the Jim Joyce-bashing out there is this note, which Joe Posnanski captured as only he can: Armando Galarraga would have been given a free pass across the board if he'd spent ten minutes screaming in Joyce's face until he turned blue. Instead, he simply smiled, returned to the mound and recorded a 28th out.
While everyone else's attention was turned away, another of baseball's issues nearly became a tragedy last night: At Dodger Stadium a woman was injured when the barrel of a shattered bat flew into the stands. Thankfully her injuries don't appear to be serious, but clearly they could have been much worse. As Jason from IIATMS reminds us at the link, there is an available solution to this problem, but it's not being used.
Maybe it's Beat A Dead Horse Day? Dayn Perry of Fox Sports says win-loss records for pitchers are meaningless and we should stop using them. If it'll make him happy, I'll stop using them in game threads.
On Monday the Nationals will announce they're choosing Bryce Harper with the first pick in the draft but I still think, in the long run, they'll end up wishing they'd never heard of him: Harper's amateur career is likely over after he was ejected from an NJCAA Tournament contest and suspended for two games.
Here's an interesting scheduling quirk that I'd guess some aren't too happy about: The Pirates and Cubs were rained out yesterday in what was supposed to be the final game of a three game series in Pittsburgh, and the Cubs' final visit to PNC Park this season. Both teams are off today, but the Pirates, who had played for 20 consecutive days, rescheduled the game for Monday instead. The Cubs were scheduled to be off before playing the Brewers on Tuesday, but will now travel from Houston to Pittsburgh to Milwaukee in roughly 48 hours.
Happy birthday today to 2002 Brewer Robert Machado, who turns 37.
It's good to know that if this whole baseball writing thing doesn't work out, there are still jobs available for gong players. (h/t Ben Badler)
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go correct someone.
Drink up.