Friday's Frosty Mug

Some things to read while coming out ahead.

The Brewers are in St. Louis tonight to open a three game set against the Cardinals, and have made a minor tweak to their rotation for tonight's game: Yovani Gallardo will move up a day and start on normal rest tonight, with Marco Estrada taking his place tomorrow with two extra days of rest (FanShot). Zack Greinke will still take the mound Sunday as planned.

Of course, a change in the weather could reshuffle all these plans. The forecast in St. Louis calls for game time temperatures in the low 60's and a 30-40% chance of showers or thunderstorms during the game tonight.

If it's the end of April, then it's almost certainly time for our annual debate on Carlos Gomez. Adam McCalvy has a look at Gomez's hot start and wonders if he might finally be putting it together, but Jordan has a rebuttal. Gomez is hitting .371/.389/.657 through 37 plate appearances.

Yesterday's off day gave the bullpen a much-needed opportunity to catch their breath before tonight's game. This week's BCB Tracking Poll showed that voters are concerned by the bullpen's early workload and performance, but opinions on Ron Roenicke have more or less held steady since last week.

Looking back a day, Larry Granillo of Baseball Prospectus has tater trot times for the three Brewers who homered on Wednesday. Travis Ishikawa, Corey Hart and Ryan Braun circled the bases in 20.28, 20.97 and 21.84 seconds, respectively.

The Brewers made a minor transaction yesterday, signing left-handed reliever Phillipe Valiquette to a minor league deal. Valiquette is 25 and has spent six seasons in the Reds organization before missing all of 2011. He appeared in 54 games between AA and AAA in 2010 and has a career 4.50 ERA.

Elsewhere in the minors:

• The affiliates went 2-2 last night, and Huntsville pitcher Tyler Thornburg hit a three run home run to power the Stars to a 5-4 win over Mississippi. You can read about that and big nights for Matt Miller, Taylor Green and Taylor Jungmann in today's Minor League Notes.
• Jungmann pitched 6.2 scoreless innings in Brevard County's extra inning win last night. Sam Dykstra of MiLB.com has more on his outing.
• I was in the press box for Wisconsin's 3-1, 10 inning loss to Dayton last night and have a game recap, stories on 2009 second round pick Max Walla, 2011 third round pick Drew Gagnon and tonight's game at Miller Park and archived audio from my interviews in the Timber Rattlers Notebook.
• Rattler Radio also has video highlights from that game.

If you'd like more Brewer coverage today but you're sick of reading, you've got a couple of options:

• I'll be making my weekly appearance on The Home Stretch with Justin Hull on AM 1570 The Score in Appleton at 3 today. I'll be live in studio taking your calls and questions via Twitter (send them to @JH1570).
• This week's View From Bernie's Chalet Podcast is up and features a recap of the homestand, some thoughts on Carlos Gomez and an interview with Jaymes Langrehr of Disciples of Uecker.

Around baseball:

Padres: Placed pitcher Micah Owings on the DL with a forearm strain.
Tigers: Released infielder Brandon Inge.

This isn't exactly a transaction, but it may lead to one: Tigers outfielder Delmon Young was reportedly arrested and charged with assault around 3 am this morning outside a hotel in New York. The Tigers are scheduled to open a series with the Yankees tonight.

It was a rough night for closers last night and the worst outing might have belonged to Heath Bell, who threw 47 pitches and recorded just two outs in the Marlins' 3-2 loss to the Mets. That's the highest number of pitches any reliever has thrown in a one inning appearance this season, but four less than Rick Porcello of the Tigers threw in a one inning start on April 21.

Today in former Brewers: Chad Evely of The Hardball Times has a list of the most lopsided batter/pitcher matchups in major league history, and it includes a look at Hank Aaron's matchup against Bob Gibson. Longtime Milwaukee Brave Eddie Mathews is also featured against Don Drysdale.

This morning's edition of Today In Brewer History marks the anniversary of Dickie Thon's 13th consecutive game with a hit to open the 1993 season, the last game in his franchise record streak. Chris Jaffe of The Hardball Times notes that it's also the 41st anniversary of Hank Aaron's 600th home run. Today is also Frank Catalanotto's 38th birthday, and Plunk Everyone notes that his 78 career HBP are first all time for a player born on April 27.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm on the clock.

Drink up.