Friday's Frosty Mug: The "Much Ado About Corey Hart" Edition

Some things to read while lighting the cookie symbol. (h/t @craigcalcaterra)

The Brewers are coming off a quiet off day, but at least it gave a crew an opportunity to paint portions of the Miller Park roof.

The Crew returns to action tonight and if this week's BCB Tracking Poll is any indication, a fair number of you may consider skipping the Mike Fiers/Wandy Rodriguez matchup on TV. The poll shows that a majority of you are still excited to watch the games in person, though, and this season's struggles haven't dampened your excitement for 2013.

With that said, there's a slight chance what's left of the 2012 season could be your last opportunity to see Corey Hart in a Brewer uniform. Hart has expressed interest in working out a long term deal to stay in Milwaukee, but Ryan Topp of Disciples of Uecker wonders if that's a move the Brewers can afford to/should make. If the Brewers decide that a long term deal for Hart isn't in their best interest they may consider trading him this winter.

If we see Francisco Rodriguez tonight, odds are we'll see him without his usual goggles. K-Rod told Tom Haudricourt (linked via Twitter) he's been wearing contacts instead since breaking the goggles when he slammed his glove down following a rough outing a couple of weeks ago. Rodriguez hasn't allowed a hit in his last five outings, but his 2012 ERA is still over five.

Brewer fans probably won't see Rodriguez next season, but if this report is correct then their goodbye to Houston may be premature: A player told Adam McCalvy that the team is scheduled for an interleague series with the Astros at Minute Maid Park in the current tentative 2013 schedule.

In the minors:

• It's possible the most underreported story in the Brewer minor leagues this season is Hunter Morris, who went 2-for-4 with an RBI last night to become the first Huntsville Star to reach the 100 RBI mark since 1997. Morris is chasing the Southern League triple crown while living in his childhood home, and Jeremy Warnemuende of MLB.com used the off day to write a profile of him.
• Meanwhile, the affiliates went 2-4 last night and 2012 tenth round pick Anthony Banda pitched five innings for the win in the AZL Brewers' 3-2 win over the Rangers. You can read about that and more in today's Minor League Notes.
• Rattler Radio has video highlights from Wisconsin's 6-3 win over Cedar Rapids. Nicole was there and has more in the Timber Rattlers Notebook.She also picked up quotes for a couple of feature stories that will run in the coming days.
  
• 2012 draft pick Brent Suter picked up a nine-out save in his Wisconsin debut last night and talked to Nicole about it afterwards. We'll have that story over the weekend.
• Nashville broadcaster Jeff Hem has an interview with Sounds pitcher Brian Baker.

If you weren't around yesterday you missed some pretty good off day feature stories here at BCB. Scroll down or follow these links for Nathan Petrashek's post-mortem on the Brewer career of Randy Wolf and JP's look at the Brewers' streak of non-complete games that is approaching an MLB record.

If you'd like more Brewer coverage but you're sick of reading and you like your audio options to not have me in them, then this week's View From Bernie's Chalet podcast might be exactly what you're looking for. This week's topics include Randy Wolf, Corey Hart, John Axford and more.

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

Megalomaniac will receive another entry into the Brew Crew Ball Sweepstakes, which has given away (but not yet shipped, sorry) five prizes this week. Today's action starts at 1:20, so as of this post you have three hours and 20 minutes to get your picks in and potentially win an entry today. And, of course, a new series means a new set of Prognostikeggers and another chance to win.

Around baseball:

Cubs: Claimed pitcher Miguel Socolovich from the Orioles and designated catcher Blake Lalli for assignment.
Giants: Placed outfielder Justin Christian on the DL with a sprained wrist.
Padres: Placed pitcher Jason Marquis on the DL with a broken wrist, claimed pitcher Thad Weber off waivers from the Tigers and designated pitcher Neil Wagner for assignment.
Pirates: Reliever Juan Cruz has refused an outright assignment to the minors and is now a free agent.
Yankees: Placed pitcher Ivan Nova on the DL with a rotator cuff injury.

Meanwhile, the big story around baseball may be three Rays minor leaguers being suspended after testing positive for meth. None of the three are top prospects, but to the best of my knowledge they're the first three minor leaguers suspended for this particular drug.

In former Brewers:

• Jeff Sullivan of FanGraphs has an interesting look at how switching teams (and catchers) may have impacted Zack Greinke's ability to get called strikes. He also has a reminder that Jonathan Lucroy is credited as being one of the best pitch framers in baseball.
• SABR has a new bio of original Brewer Skip Lockwood.
• Davey Lopes is featured (as a player, not a manager) in Graham Womack of Baseball Past and Present's "Any Player/Any Era" series.
  

As the Nationals play their first postseason-relevant August and September since moving to Washington, some transportation issues around the ballpark are drawing attention. Many Nationals fans use the city's Metro train system to get to and from the ballpark, but are forced to either leave early or find alternate transportation home if the game runs late. The Metro shuts down at midnight.

Today in baseball economics: The Seattle Times and Tacoma News Tribune have stopped sending beat reporters along on Mariner road trips, so for the rest of the 2012 season the only coverage of the team's games away from Safeco Field will come from MLB.com.

Now, if you'll excuse me, my curiosity is killing me.

Drink up.