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Monday's Frosty Mug

By Kyle Lobner

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Some things to read while protecting your beeramid.

In the majors' sixth extra inning game of the day, the Brewers managed to find a way to avoid the sweep in St. Louis last night. A fair amount of the credit for keeping the game close belongs to Manny Parra, who allowed two earned runs on four hits and four walks while striking out a career-high ten in 5.1 innings. Here are some notes on the performance:

  • Parra recorded four strikeouts in the fourth inning, becoming the first Brewer ever to do so.
  • He also struck out the side in the third, becoming just the second pitcher on record ever to record seven strikeouts in two innings. TheJay reports that Darren Dreifort was the other.
  • Parra entered the game averaging 7.8 strikeouts per nine innings, and is now averaging 9.2.

Both of Parra's runs allowed came via solo home runs, including one hit by Albert Pujols that hit a young boy in the chest and caused him to burst into tears. Pujols saw the replay and sent the boy an autographed bat. The Happy Youngster is probably working that into his repertoire as we speak.

John Axford picked up his fourth save in the tenth inning, allowing a hit but nothing else and improving to 5-for-5 in lifetime save opportunities. Tom Haudricourt has a look at Axford's somewhat unusual path to the majors, which included a brief stint in the Western Major Baseball League in Saskatchewan.

Trevor Hoffman wasn't used in a save situation again last night as the team tries to figure out what to do with the All Time Saves Leader. At least one NL scout says Hoffman has lost some arm speed this season, which has affected the effectiveness of his changeup.

Other notes from the field:

After the game, the Brewers clarified their rotation a bit for the week to come: Randy Wolf will start on normal rest on Wednesday, followed by Dave Bush on Thursday and Chris Narveson Friday.

Sometime in the next 24-36 hours the Brewers will be making another roster move: Todd Coffey was placed on the DL yesterday with a lingering right thumb contusion (FanShot), and a corresponding move is expected to be made before Tuesday's game. It's possible David Riske could get the call: His rehab assignment expires at the end of the week.

Elsewhere in roster moves, Marco Estrada complained of shoulder fatigue after being optioned to the minors, so his option was voided and he's been placed on the DL instead. Back in May, Estrada became the first Brewer in over 25 years to start a game on zero days rest.

Another day, another story on a potential Prince Fielder trade...except this one is a bit different: Peter Barzilai of USA Today thinks the Brewers should hold off on trading Fielder and wait to see if his value improves.

Meanwhile, Beyond the Box Score notes that Fielder is one of just twelve players ever to account for at least 100 Batting Runs while being below average defensively and running the bases.

The Brewers are off tonight as they get ready to open a homestand against the Cubs tomorrow, so tonight all eyes will be on the first round of the 2010 Draft, which will be televised live on MLB Network. Here's one last roundup of draft notes from around the web:

Elsewhere in the minors:

  • FanGraphs has a look back at their top ten prospects for the Brewers before the season and a progress report. With the exception of Eric Arnett (and possibly Mat Gamel), all of them are having pretty strong seasons.
  • The Brevard County Manatees have just seven home runs as a team on the season, but Sean Halton hit two of them yesterday. You can read about that and more in today's Minor League Notes.
  • Former prospect Brent Brewer, who quit baseball last week, will play safety at Tennessee this fall. (FanShot)
  • Brewerfan.net is reporting the Brewers have signed pitcher Sam Narron to a minor league deal. Narron was a Brewer farmhand from 2006-2009, but had been playing for the Camden Riversharks of the Atlantic League this season.
  • Lets Go Rattlers has a look at several Wisconsin players that could be bumped up to Brevard County before long.
  • The Appleton Post-Crescent has a profile of Wisconsin center fielder D'Vontrey Richardson.
  • Brevard County made some headlines this weekend by renaming batting practice: Instead of BP, they're now taking "hitting rehearsal." (FanShot)

If you missed the weekend, then you missed Fatter than Joey's look at some of the worst pitching in Brewer history, and where the 2010 Brewers stand among it. @notkenmacha, if he'd been reached for comment, might have given it "two poppycocks up."

Around baseball:

Athletics: Placed starter Brett Anderson on the DL with elbow tendinitis.
Blue Jays: Signed outfielder DeWayne Wise to a minor league deal.
Braves: Placed pitcher Takashi Saito on the DL with a hamstring strain.
Cardinals: Signed outfielder Randy Winn.
Indians: Designated reliever Jamey Wright for assignment.
Mariners: Placed pitcher Doug Fister on the DL with shoulder fatigue.
Marlins: Designated infielder Mike Lamb for assignment.
Mets: Designated outfielder Gary Matthews Jr. for assignment and placed pitcher Oliver Perez on the DL with knee tendinitis,
Tigers: Are expected to designate shortstop Adam Everett for assignment today.

The Mets' decision to DL Perez is dubious at best, as Perez hasn't been showing any signs of injury and rejected the Mets' request to go get straightened out in the minor leagues last week. MLB is investigating the situation.

In the classic case of the unstoppable force meeting the immovable breakable object, Dusty Baker has rookie sensation Mike Leake, in his first professional season, on pace to throw 211 innings this season. It'll be interesting to see how they handle it: They're clearly in contention and Leake has been their best pitcher so far, but there's no way they can let him pitch the whole season at this pace.

Tomorrow is Stephen Strasburg's widely anticipated major league debut for the Nationals, but Sully Baseball cautions against getting too excited: They have a look at one "can't miss" pitching prospect that missed for every major league team including Tyrone Hill, the Brewers #1 pick in the 1991 draft.

I'm surprised we don't see stories like this more often: 2007 Brewer Elmer Dessens, who is 39 years old and playing in his 14th major league season for his ninth major league team, finally reached ten years of service time over the weekend, qualifying him for a major league pension. Congrats to him. He's also taken over Oliver Perez's locker.

After watching last night's ESPN telecast featuring Joe Morgan, I think a fair number of us can relate to this Craig Calcaterra tweet, which I'm crowning Quote of the Weekend:

Observed: when a writer says sabermetrics "have ruined the game" he really means they have made it harder for him to pass off BS as analysis.

On this day in 1977, the Brewers selected Paul Molitor from the University of Minnesota with the third overall pick in the draft.

And on this day in 1993, Cal Eldred picked up his 20th career win in his 30th game, becoming the fourth pitcher ever to do so.

A weekend worth of happy birthdays:

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to put on my disguise.

Drink up.

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