Tuesday's Winning Season Frosty Mug: Brewer News, Links And Notes

Some things to read while getting Rubie elected.

It's not exactly what we were hoping for in March, but the fact that the Brewers were able to go from 12 games under .500 in August to (at least) 82 wins in October is a decent consolation prize. They clinched their second consecutive winning season by beating the Padres 5-3 last night and -JP- has the recap, if you missed it.

Win #82 and a strong finish to the 2012 season are apparently top priorities for the regulars on this team. Ron Roenicke held a team meeting and offered his regulars a chance to rest this week, but all declined. Mark Attanasio also addressed the team yesterday.

With that said, Corey Hart is expected to get a day off today anyway. He tweaked his sore foot while attempting to make a diving catch at first base and left last night's game early.

The Brewers got another strong, if unspectacular performance from Shaun Marcum last night in what's likely to be his final outing as a Brewer. He struggled at times but pitched six solid innings, allowing two runs on six hits and four walks. Nick Prill of The Brewers Bar is trying to remember Marcum objectively, while Nate Petrashek of Cream City Cables is listing him as a viable option to return to Milwaukee in 2013.

Marcum, by the way, refused to talk to the media following last night's game. He also would only talk to media before games when he was rehabbing with Wisconsin earlier this season.

Other notes from the field:

• Brewer pitchers struck out eight batters last night (two for Marcum, two for Jim Henderson, one for Francisco Rodriguez and three for John Axford), and need 18 in their final two games to tie the 2003 Cubs for the most ever.
• The team estimated Rickie Weeks' home run from last night at 453 feet, but Hit Tracker Online has it at 441. That shorter distance would still make it the second longest homer in all of baseball yesterday.
• Weeks' home run was also the Brewers' 200th of the season. It's the fifth time they've reached that mark as a team and the first since 2007.
• Padres pitcher Clayton Richard's home run last night was the first of his career and the second time in as many days a Brewer pitcher gave up an opposing pitcher's first career home run.
• Brewer pitchers have allowed three home runs to opposing pitchers this season and 49 all time. The franchise record for the most given up in a season is five, set in 2009.
• We've got a look at the game's turning points and video from Ron Roenicke's postgame press conference.
• The Polish won the sausage race.
  

The series continues at Miller Park tonight, but the Padres have scratched scheduled starter Casey Kelly and will instead send righthander Anthony Bass. Teddy Cahill has the MLB.com preview and noted leisured gentleman Carson Cistulli of FanGraphs gave tonight's Bass/Tyler Thornburg matchup a five out of ten on his NERD scale.

Ryan Braun had a single and a double last night, has an eleven game hitting streak and still leads all qualified NL batters with a .601 slugging percentage. Ben Badler of Baseball America says he'd vote Braun for NL MVP, while Keith Law lists Braun as a "good, rational choice" but picks Buster Posey.

Norichika Aoki had three hits last night and two of them were of the infield variety. Reviewing the Brew has a look at the various ground balls Aoki has been able to turn into hits this season.

Braun and Aoki, by the way, combined for six of the Brewers' eight hitting streaks of eleven or more games this season.

Carlos Gomez, meanwhile, has an eight game hitting streak and homered last night for the third time in five games. Jaymes Langrehr of Disciples of Uecker touched on Gomez's recent performance in our Tweet of the Day:

Remember when Melvin was getting blasted for the Carlos Gomez trade? Gomez this year: .262/.305/.467. J.J. Hardy: .239/.283/.390.

— Jaymes Langrehr (@JaymesL) October 2, 2012

In the minors: Mike Newman of FanGraphs listed Huntsville Star and Southern League MVP Hunter Morris as the third best first baseman he's seen in person this season.

If you'd like more Brewer coverage today but you're sick of reading, here's my packed media schedule:

• I'll be live in studio on The Home Stretch with Justin Hull on 95.3 FM/AM 1570 The Score in Appleton at 4 today, taking your calls, tweets and emails and reminding him that he owes me lunch.
• I'll also be appearing on The Watercooler with Jimmie Kaska on Sports Radio 1400 in Eau Claire at 5:15 today.
• From there, I'll jump straight over to The Sports Den with Downtown Ollie Burrows on SportsFan 100.5 in Wausau at 5:30.

Finally, congratulations are due out this morning to Jahiegel, yesterday's winner in our SB Nation Pick 6 contest. Here's the full leaderboard:

Tonight's action starts at 6:05, so there's still time to get your picks in today for one of your final chances to win an entry into the BCB Prize Pool.

Elsewhere in the Central last night, the Astros beat the Cubs with their second consecutive shutout, clinching a 100 loss season for Chicago. The two teams play again tonight and tomorrow and Jayson Stark notes that they'll be the first 100 loss teams to meet since 1962.

Today in baseball economics: The Marlins drew 2.14 million fans in their first season at Marlins Park, the smallest crowd to attend the opening season in any of baseball's last eleven new parks. The Brewers drew 2.81 million to Miller Park in 2001.

This morning's edition of Today In Brewer History marks the 52nd birthday of Ernie Riles, the Brewers' first shortstop after Robin Yount. Chris Jaffe of The Hardball Times also notes the following milestones:

• It's been 15,000 days since Cecil Cooper's major league debut.
• 43 years ago today the Seattle Pilots played their final game.
• It's been 24 years since Ted Simmons' final major league game.
• Seven years ago today B.J. Surhoff played his final major league game.

Now, if you'll excuse me, my pants are too tight.

Drink up.