Tuesday's Frosty Mug

Some things to read while using every weapon available to you.

So how'd you spend your off day? Doug Melvin must have spent most of his filing paperwork, as the Brewers made a boatload of roster moves.

First, Mat Gamel and Zach Braddock are back (FanShot). Gamel had just made MLB Depth Charts' list of position players knocking down the door. Apparently he blew the door right off the hinges.

One of these players claimed the roster spot vacated when Mark DiFelice was sent to Nashville yesterday, while Sergio Mitre was designated for assignment to make room for the other. Mitre had a 3.27 ERA over 22 appearances but was striking out just 3.8 batters per nine innings, and Jaymes Langrehr of The Brewers Bar says it shouldn't be a shock to see him go. MLB Trade Rumors is reporting that the Brewers are already getting calls from teams interested in acquiring him.

Finally, the organization outrighted reliever Justin James off the 40 man roster. James was a candidate to make the team this spring but has a 4.68 ERA for Nashville and is walking nearly six batters per nine innings. He'll remain with the Sounds.

With James and Mitre removed from the 40 man roster and no one added yesterday, the Brewers now have five open spots. Takashi Saito will take one when he returns, but there's an still awful lot of room for the Brewers to scour the waiver wires or trade market to add talent.

One player the Brewers could consider picking up is shortstop Adam Everett, who was designated for assignment by the Indians yesterday. Everett is a career .242/.294/.346 hitter and a plus defender at shortstop, but Jack Moore and I both lost a little interest after noticing that he hit .217/.277/.233 in 34 games for Cleveland this season. Now I'm wondering if this robot is available.

Even after an off day, we still have a couple of choice Yuni Notes:

• Ron Roenicke Stole My Baseball has a great Yuni parable.
• Yuni's recent hot streak has pushed his OPS above Casey McGehee's. Ryan Topp of Bernie's Crew has a look at what's going on with the Brewer third baseman.

Larry Granillo of Baseball Prospectus reports that Betancourt's inside-the-park home run was Saturday's fastest trot, and Ryan Braun set the pace on Sunday by circling the bases in 18.28 seconds.

The Brewers and Yankees open a three game set in New York tonight, but how important is the series? Greg Giesen of the Racine Journal Times says the Brewers need a good run into the All Star Break. Here's what Howie Magner of Milwaukee Magazine had to say:

Yes, #Brewers v Yankees is just three games for the players. I wonder, does it mean anything more to Brew Crew fans?

And here's Miller Park Drunk:

While the sweep over the Twins was nice, this series against the Yankees is probably the most important of the season to date.

Whether you believe this series is a critical road test or just another three games, you should check out Adam McCalvy's look back at the rivalry and stop back for our series preview this afternoon.

Major League Baseball announced the All Star voting standings once again yesterday, and Rickie Weeks has gained over 270,000 votes on Brandon Phillips to surge into first place among NL second basemen (FanShot). With Prince Fielder likely to start in place of Albert Pujols, there's a good chance that the Brewers could have three All Star starters for the first time in franchise history.

Elsewhere in honors and accolades, Jonathan Lucroy was the recipient of this week's El Super at Hang with 'em Brewers.

Each passing day brings us 24 hours closer to Prince Fielder's impending free agency. Jon Heyman asked around for predictions on Fielder's next contract and the responses ranged from 5 years, $105 million to seven years, $175 million.

In the minors:

• Rattler Radio has video highlights of Wisconsin's 16-7 loss to Peoria.
• Huntsville pitcher Cody Scarpetta was named Southern League Pitcher of the Week for June 13-19.
• Lehigh Valley Live has a profile of 21st round pick Mike Nemeth, who is currently playing in Helena.

The good folks on the Platoon Advantage are working on a fun project this week, staging a mock expansion draft for two fictional MLB teams that would open play in 2012. Mat Gamel was selected with the 16th pick in the first round and Tim Dillard was chosen in the second.

I guess I should've expected this, but it surprised me: Dave Allen of FanGraphs crunched the numbers and found that the Brewers have averaged 25,341 miles of travel per season since 2005, the lowest number in the majors.

In power rankings:

• Craig Calcaterra has the Brewers at 4, up one spot.
• Beyond the Box Score has the Brewers fourth.
• The New York Daily News has the Brewers holding steady at 4.
• FanGraphs has the Brewers holding steady at 5.
• So does Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune.
• ESPN has the Brewers sixth, down one spot.

If you took the day off yesterday, you missed a huge day of content here at BCB. Scroll down or click these links for first half review posts from Rubie Q, Noah, TheJay, Roguejim, Hangwith'em Rach, -JP-, Morineko, Nicole Haase and Jordan.

Also, if you haven't yet please take a moment this morning to vote in this week's BCB Tracking Poll. Results will be posted tomorrow.

If you'd like more on the Brewers today but you're sick of reading, I have two options for you: my interview yesterday from The Pulse Network is archived here, and the View From Bernie's Chalet Podcast is up. This week's topics include yesterday's roster moves, Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun and John Axford.

Aside from the Everett note mentioned above, I don't have any transactions today. I never know how to respond to that.

Don't look now, but the Cardinals are starting to get healthy: They activated infielders David Freese and Nick Punto off the DL yesterday. You already know that and much more if you've read this morning's Around the NL Central, delivered with a smile.

Today in former Brewers:

• Satchel Price of Beyond the Box Score says J.J. Hardy was half of baseball's best SS/3B combination in June.
• Jack Moore of NotGraphs took some Gregg Zaun tweets out of context.
• The Dodgers still owe money to Marquis Grissom.
• The B-Ref Blog listed a Brewers-Twins game from 2001 as one of 12 games since 2000 where three players had two home runs. Torii Hunter, Jacque Jones and Corey Koskie all went deep twice in a 13-5 Twins victory.

While I really should have been working on the Mug this morning, I spent roughly 16 minutes naming 77 of Sporcle's home run leaders from the 2000's. (h/t Lone Star Ball)

If you consistently read the Mug you're probably familiar with the work of Craig Robinson of Flip Flop Fly Ball, one of the web's most talented graphical baseball minds. If you're as big a fan of his work as I am then you'll probably want to go pre-order his book, like I did last night.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to take this call.

Drink up.