Saturday's Extra Mug: Brewer News, Links And Notes From The Greinke Trade

Some things to read while acquiring more talent.

After months of speculation, counter-speculation, rumors and hype, the Zack Greinke situation was suddenly resolved about an hour before gametime last night. Doug Melvin and company traded Greinke to the Angels for shortstop Jean (pronounced "Gene") Segura and AA pitchers John Hellweg and Ariel Pena.

Segura is a 22-year-old shortstop who had recently been called up to the Angels to fill in due to injuries, but had appeared in 94 games for AA Arkansas and hit .294/.346/.404 this season. Segura was Baseball America's #43 prospect in their mid-season rankings, and one executive told Peter Gammons "he's so strong it's like watching Raul Mondesi play shortstop."

Hellweg is 23, 6'9" and was also playing in AA for the Angels. He's posted a 3.38 ERA in 119.2 innings this season, striking out 6.6 per nine and walking 4.5. As his walk numbers would indicate he's got some control issues, but his stuff appears to be very good. Ben Badler of Baseball America says "Ingredients are there to start if things click," and labeled him as the wild card in this deal.

Ariel Pena is also 23 and has a 2.99 ERA over 114.1 AA innings, walking 3.3 and striking out 8.7 per nine innings.

All three players are expected to be assigned to AA Huntsville, but don't be surprised if any or all of them end up as September callups. Segura could probably help this team right now, but the Brewers are probably making the right decision by starting him in the minors instead of putting pressure on him immediately to be "the guy they got for Zack Greinke."

Here's more from around the web:

• We've got transcripts of Doug Melvin and Zack Greinke's comments on FS Wisconsin.
• Jim Callis of Baseball America says the Brewers did well.
• Rany Jazayerli of Grantland says the Brewers got "a heck of a nice haul."
• Dave Cameron of FanGraphs says the Angels paid a ton for a rental.
• Ryan Smith of Cream City Cables says Doug Melvin did what he had to do and brought back players that could help the team in the long run.
• Jon Heyman of CBS says the Angels got a great deal.
• Scott Miller of CBS Sports says this trade is the Angels' biggest win over the Rangers this season.
• Todd Rosiak says he'll miss interviewing Greinke.
• John Sickels of Minor League Ball, Marc Hulet of FanGraphs and Baseball America all have scouting reports on the players the Brewers acquired.
• Segura, Hellweg and Pena were all Cedar Rapids Kernels in 2010, and Chris Mehring remembers all three.
• Segura and Pena also both appeared in this year's Futures Game.
• @Mass_Haas notes that all three players acquired have two options remaining.
• Greinke will wear #23 with the Angels.
• John Axford tweeted a picture several starting pitchers, Ryan Braun and George Kottaras took with Greinke.
• Bob Nightengale of USA Today says Greinke could have been a Ranger if Texas had been willing to offer third base prospect Mike Olt.

The Brewers added all three of their new acquisitions to the 40 man roster and cleared two spots by designating Edwin Maysonet and Brock Kjeldgaard for assignment. Maysonet was hitting .215/.276/.331 in 54 games for Nashville and .250/.297/.350 in 30 games as a Brewer. Kjeldgaard had a breakout year in 2011 but has missed much of 2012 with injury and is hitting .181/.298/.343 for Brevard County.

Both players will almost certainly clear waivers. Maysonet will likely have the option of refusing an outright assignment if he chooses, but I don't believe Kjeldgaard will.

Finally, the Brewers will call up former top prospect Mark Rogers to fill Greinke's spot on the roster, and for Sunday at least his spot in the rotation. Rogers has been much better lately but has a 4.72 ERA over 95.1 innings for Nashville this season with 4.6 walks per nine innings. He pitched for the Brewers in September of 2010, so this won't be his MLB debut.

There's still a lot of time left before Tuesday's non-waiver trade deadline, so it's possible more moves could be made between now and then. Doug Melvin says nothing is imminent, though.

Meanwhile, the Brewers also played a game last night and beat the Nationals 6-0 to snap a seven game losing streak. We've got the recap, if you missed it.

Mike Fiers had another great outing last night, allowing just four hits and three walks over 6.1 shutout innings. Keith Law says Fiers is better than frequent comparison partner Josh Collmenter of the Diamondbacks, and projects him as a #4-5 starter in the long term. Fiers has a 0.77 ERA over his last seven starts.

Other notes from the field:

• Norichika Aoki, Ryan Braun and Carlos Gomez all stole bases last night. The Brewers are on pace to have three players with 20 steals for the first time since 1992.
• Aramis Ramirez and Corey Hart hit their respective home runs 427 (third longest of the day) and 368 feet, according to Hit Tracker.
• We've got a look back at the game's turning points and a transcript of Ron Roenicke's postgame comments.
• The Chorizo won the sausage race.
  

The Italian, by the way, won the sausage division of this morning's Brewer 5K Sausage Run/Walk.

The two teams meet again in the third of their four game series tonight, with Wisconsin native Jordan Zimmermann taking on Randy Wolf (pitching without George Kottaras for the first time) at 6:10. Mike Flammetta of MLB.com has the preview.

Looking back a day, Carlos Gomez pulled off a rare combination of feats by having baseball's longest home run (439 feet according to Hit Tracker) and fastest home run trot (16.44 seconds, according to Larry Granillo) on Thursday night. His trot was the second-fastest on a non-inside the parker this season. He's also currently leading the voting for Brewer of the Week.

The Brewers have more bad news regarding Shaun Marcum, who couldn't get his shoulder to loosen up and cut a bullpen session short yesterday. It's tough to tell how far this new issue will set him back, but it's reasonably clear he won't be pitching again in the short term future.

Meanwhile, the news is better for Tyler Thornburg: A further inspection shows that he's just dealing with arm fatigue. He'll be shut down for a couple of days but could pitch as soon as Sunday.

In the minors:

• 2009 6th round pick Hiram Burgos is having a meteoric rise this season: The 24-year-old Puerto Rican native started the season with Brevard County but has been promoted to Nashville after posting a 1.59 ERA in 20 appearances between the Manatees and Huntsville.
• Wisconsin picked up a 4-1 win last night and outfielder Chadwin Stang extended his hitting streak to 11 games, the longest by a Timber Rattler in 2012.
• Nashville broadcaster Jeff Hem has an interview with Sounds pitcher Donovan Hand.

Finally, congratulations are due out this morning to brewman70, yesterday's winner in our SB Nation Pick 6 contest. Here's the full leaderboard:

Today's action starts at 12:05, so you're running out of time to make your picks for today.

Around baseball:

Astros: Claimed pitcher Chuckie Fick off waivers from the Cardinals.
Braves: Signed pitcher Miguel Batista to a minor league deal.
Dodgers: Placed pitcher Scott Elbert on the DL with shoulder soreness.
Giants: Acquired infielder Marco Scutaro from the Rockies for infielder Charlie Culberson.
Nationals: Released outfielder Rick Ankiel.
Orioles: Designated pitcher Dana Eveland for assignment.
Twins: Placed infielder Trevor Plouffe on the DL with a bruised thumb.

Today in former Brewers:

• Todd Coffey posted a picture of his scar from his recent Tommy John surgery.
• Matt Stairs is leading the voting at NotGraphs for the nickname "A Garbage Truck That Runs On Lightning."

Now, if you'll excuse me, my Saturday is waiting.

Drink up.