Some things to read while picking more foam fingers.
The last ten days have been pretty awful, but they're over and one of the most awaited events in recent Brewer history is on the horizon: Zack Greinke is scheduled to make his Miller Park debut when the Brewers take on the Padres tonight. Danny Knobler of CBS Sports listed Greinke's debut as one of three things to watch this week. Adam McCalvy has a preview.
If you're thinking about coming out to tonight's game, there's still room for you. Rick Schlesinger told Adam McCalvy they're expecting around 30,000 fans at Miller Park tonight.
The Brewers and their fans could really use a pick-me-up tonight, because the just-concluded road trip did a lot to dampen their spirits. The Brewers were held to one run or less six times in the ten game trip, and Dale Sveum is looking for answers regarding the missing Brewer bats. Cory Provus called this week's games against the Padres and Pirates an "important homestand."
The lone highlight of the weekend was Yovani Gallardo's performance on Saturday. He carried a no-hitter into the eighth inning in the Brewers' 4-0 win over the Cardinals, preventing what could have been a disastrous sweep in St. Louis. Here's some reaction to his performance:
- Jack Moore of Disciples of Uecker noted that Gallardo remained effective by getting a lot of ground balls.
- Josh Wussow tweeted that it was encouraging to see Gallardo pitch well with Jonathan Lucroy behind the plate.
- Charlie Saponara of ESPN wasn't as impressed, and compared Gallardo's outing to Francisco Liriano's recent no-hitter.
- Randy Wolf and Shaun Marcum prevented Ron Roenicke from talking to Gallardo about coming out of the game between the seventh and eighth innings.
- Gallardo threw 118 pitches over eight innings, so maybe it's for the best that he didn't return to pitch the ninth.
- He also pitched the game while wearing high socks and Marco Estrada's pants.
- Sully Baseball has another reminder that 27 teams have thrown a no-hitter since Juan Nieves did it for the Brewers in 1987.
Looking back another day, Randy Wolf tied a Brewer record by hitting three Cardinals in Friday night's loss. Plunk Everyone stopped by with much more on the feat.
Other notes from the field:
- Matthew Leach, who covers the Cardinals for MLB.com, wasn't impressed with the Brewer lineup. He said they have "three or four guys who scare you, especially with Hart out. Not the same offense as last year."
- Leach also has an in-depth look at Tony La Russa's decision to remove starter Kyle McClellan from the game after he faced one batter in the ninth.
- Ron Roenicke told reporters after the game that he feels like his hitters could have put up a better fight against McClellan.
- McClellan, Colby Rasmus and Rickie Weeks are leading FanGraphs' Star of the Game voting.
- Sergio Mitre was one of several players around baseball to wear pink cleats yesterday for breast cancer awareness.
Most fans are probably pretty happy to see the Brewers return home today, but Carson Cistulli of NotGraphs might not be among them: He says Miller Park has baseball's fifth worst center field camera.
I'm sure Kotsay could find a way to make it worse: Ron Roenicke told reporters he could play the living statue veteran in center field to get Carlos Gomez a day off at some point (FanShot). Kotsay hasn't played center since 2009, when he was out there for five games. He started back-to-back games in right over the weekend and went 1-for-8 to drop his season line to .250/.342/.281. Meanwhile, I'm sure Brandon Boggs would like to know what he has to do to get half that playing time.
While Mark Kotsay played right this weekend, Corey Hart got back-to-back days off. The Brewers are saying they don't think Hart was rushed back too soon.
Once the second day of Greinkemas is over tonight, we can all look ahead to Shaun Marcum's next start: He received 81% of the vote to win our Brewer of the Week balloting.
In the minors:
- Wily Peralta has been placed on the 7-day DL in Huntsville for unspecified reasons. Commence holding breath.
- Baseball Intellect recently named Peralta the Brewers' #1 prospect.
- Jim Breen of Bernie's Crew has quotes from an unnamed scout regarding Peralta, Khris Davis, Mike Walker, Logan Schafer and Austin Ross.
- The affiliates went 1-1 yesterday, with Tyler Thornburg pitching six scoreless innings in Wisconsin's 3-0 win over Quad Cities. You can read about that and more in today's Minor League Notes.
- Nashville's loss last night dropped them to 9-20 on the season. On Friday they were only 9-17 and it was still the minor leagues' tenth worst record.
- Brewerfan.net is reporting the organization has released pitcher Chad Robinson. He was a 12th round pick in 2006, and split 2010 between Wisconsin and Helena.
Around baseball:
Astros: Placed outfielder Jason Bourgeois on the DL with an oblique strain.
Cubs: Released catcher Max Ramirez and announced the retirement of pitcher Todd Wellemeyer.
Dodgers: Placed reliever Jonathan Broxton on the DL with elbow soreness.
Marlins: Placed reliever Clay Hensley on the DL with a rib injury.
Mets: Placed pitcher Chris Young on the DL with shoulder tightness.
Nationals: Placed outfielder Rick Ankiel on the DL with a sprained wrist and acquired outfielder Gregor Blanco from the Royals for a PTBNL.
Padres: Placed catcher Nick Hundley on the DL with an oblique injury.
Phillies: Placed pitcher Roy Oswalt (lower back inflammation) and catcher Carlos Ruiz (back) on the DL.
Rangers: Placed outfielder Nelson Cruz on the DL with a quad strain.
Red Sox: Placed shortstop Marco Scutaro on the DL with an oblique strain.
Rockies: Placed pitcher Esmil Rogers on the DL with a lat injury.
Yankees: Claimed reliever Jess Todd off waivers from the Indians and designated infielder Kevin Russo for assignment.
You already knew about Bourgeois and much more if you read this morning's edition of Around the NL Central. If you haven't yet, go read it now.
If you watched this weekend's games you probably heard a fair amount about Tony La Russa's lingering eye infection, which was diagnosed as pink eye weeks ago but still hasn't gone away. La Russa is going to be examined at the Mayo Clinic today.
The Brewers have certainly contributed to this epidemic: Cyril Morong notes that offense was down in April this season, and is even further down in May.
Today in former Brewers:
- Dave Bush made another spot start for the Rangers over the weekend, allowing three runs (two earned) on five hits over four innings in yesterday's loss to the Yankees. He has a 2.20 ERA through his first 16.1 innings of work.
- One of this weekend's Nationals-Phillies games was delayed when Todd Coffey got a bloody nose.
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Jayson Stark says Wes Helms has the fewest ABs (2633) of any active non-catcher with at least 10 seasons of major league service time.
This morning's edition of Today in Brewer History deals with 1984's 25 inning game against the White Sox, but here's an addendum to it: Chris Jaffe of The Hardball Times notes that on this day in 1979 Robin Yount ended a game by striking out with the bases loaded. It was the only time in his career that happened.
This was going to be a great statistical note, before fate got in the way: Matthew Carruth of FanGraphs noted on Friday that the Mariners were MLB's only team that hadn't gone to extra innings in 2011. Then the White Sox beat them 5-2 in ten innings yesterday. Never mind.
This note, however, is still relevant: Jacob Peterson of Beyond the Box Score notes that Greg Maddux has over 12000 "pitches saved" since the start of the 1988 season, which is over three times as many as anyone else.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to make some corrections.
Drink up.