Tuesday's Frosty Mug

Some things to read while waiting for the pain to stop.

Last night's ugly loss got a little uglier in the ninth inning when Casey McGehee sprained his thumb during a collision at first base on the game's final play (FanShot). McGehee is expected to be reevaluated today but I'd be surprised if he doesn't get at least day or two off to recover.

Also noted in the above link: Corey Hart is expected to rejoin the team today but may not be activated off the DL for another day or two. Hart went 0-for-3 for Nashville last night and 2-for-15 overall on the assignment.

The Brewers fell into an early hole last night when the Reds scored seven runs in 2.1 innings off of Chris Narveson, who has been battling a head cold this week. Narveson's seven outs were the shortest outing for a Brewer starting pitcher this season, and just the third time in 22 games a Brewer starter has failed to complete five innings.

Actually, Narveson's rough outing is a nice opportunity to draw this distinction between the 2010 and 2011 starting staffs:

Other notes from the field:

• The Reds changed up their lineup a bit before last night's game, moving Jay Bruce into the #2 spot and batting Brandon Phillips fourth. The two combined to go 4-for-8, walk twice, score four runs and drive in five.
• Bruce, Phillips and Bronson Arroyo are leading FanGraphs' Star of the Game Voting.
• Here's a transcript of Ron Roenicke's postgame comments.
• 35,794 fans paid to see last night's game, which is actually more fans than the Brewers drew to Friday and Sunday's games. I'll have more on attendance later today.
  

Ryan Braun went 2-for-5 with a late home run last night, extending his streaks to ten straight games with a hit and 22 reaching base safely. His efforts have not gone unnoticed: Yesterday he was named NL Player of the Week (FanShot), received this week's El Super and was listed among the hot players on The Outside Corner's Weekly Thermometer.

Carlos Gomez and Yuniesky Betancourt both went 1-for-4 last night. Nick Petakas of The Brewers Bar wants to know which one you would keep if the Brewers were allowed to get rid of the other.

The Reds and Brewers face off again tonight, and Greg Schimmel of The Washington Post listed it as today's game of the day. Doug Miller of MLB.com has the game preview.

Anyone else noticing a sudden jump in Prince Fielder feature stories lately? Today Ken Rosenthal has one, and I think it's the fourth with roughly the same theme ("Prince is more athletic than you think," etc) in the last week. I'm starting to wonder if Scott Boras is involved somehow.

Meanwhile, Ron Roenicke stories continue to drift in at their usual pace. Dennis Punzel of Madison.com has a note on the Brewers' new manager and the successes he's had moving the team past the Macha era.

Zack Greinke is still expected to make one more rehab start before joining the rotation. He told Charles F. Gardner of the JS that he's been happy with his velocity but not his control during his stint in the minors.

Meanwhile, Takashi Saito pitched a simulated game yesterday and told the team he's ready to return. He hasn't pitched in a game in several weeks but apparently he won't be sent on a rehab assignment. Saito will probably join LaTroy Hawkins in the "mop-up" section of the pen until he proves he's ready for more significant work.

In the minors:

• @SessileFielder is reporting the Brewers have signed shortstop Hainley Statia to a minor league deal. Statia is 25 and a native of Curacao, and hit .278/.371/.343 in 34 games between AA and AAA for the Angels last season.
• The affiliates went 0-4 last night, dropping to a combined 32-37 on the season. You can read about that and more in today's Minor League Notes.
• Rattler Radio has video highlights from last night's Wisconsin game.
• Two of the four affiliates will get a chance to bounce back early today: Brevard County plays at 9:30 this morning, and Nashville has an 11:05 first pitch against Omaha. There's audio coverage available for the Nashville game: Follow this link to the BF.net Link Report to access it.
• Brewersprospects.com has named their players of the week.
• Looking ahead to the draft, Baseball America is predicting the Brewers will select UConn center fielder George Springer and high school catcher Blake Swihart with the #12 and 15 picks.
• Minor League Baseball Prospects rated Springer and Swihart as the 17th and 26th best players available, respectively.

Speaking of the draft: Satchel Price of Beyond The Box Score has a look at the team the Brewers could construct with only players they've selected. The team would hit about as much as you'd expect, but the rotation would be pretty shudder-worthy.

Ever wonder what life is like in the Brewer PR department? OnMilwaukee.com has an interview with Brewer Media Relations Manager John Steinmiller.

In power rankings:

• Daniel Moroz of Beyond The Box Score has the Brewers eighth.
• Craig Calcaterra of Hardball Talk has the Brewers 10th, up two spots.
• ESPN has the Brewers 12th, up five spots.

If you haven't yet, please take a moment today to vote in this week's BCB Tracking Poll. The poll will close at game time tonight and results will be posted tomorrow.

Around baseball:

Diamondbacks: Placed infielder Willie Bloomquist on the DL with a hamstring strain.

This is the point in the Mug where I usually share the news of the day from the NL Central. We're trying out an experiment this week, though, and making that into its own post. You really should go check out the inaugural edition: Rubie did a fantastic job on it.

In former Brewers:

• Gabe Gross, who had agreed to a minor league deal with the Marlins, has instead decided to retire.
• Chris Mehring of Rattler Radio spotted an interview with Ben Oglivie, who is spending the 2011 season as the West Michigan Whitecaps' hitting coach.

Today in baseball economics: Attendance is down around baseball for the fourth consecutive season, and Jeff Passan of Yahoo has a look at some of the concerns that trend creates and the ways teams are dealing with the issues.

You can read Today in Brewer History here (it deals with former Pilot pitching coach Sal Maglie), but consider this an addendum to it: Chris Jaffe of The Hardball Times notes that it's been 15,000 days since Bud Selig bought the Pilots out of bankruptcy and moved them to Milwaukee.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to keep my bats warm.

Drink up.