Thursday's Frosty Mug: Narveson nails down a spot

Some things to add while learning from your mistakes.

Pitching is the story as we open day 38 of spring training 2013. Chris Narveson had easily the best outing by a Brewer pitcher this spring yesterday, throwing six scoreless innings and allowing just one baserunner in what was eventually a ten inning scoreless tie with the Giants. Noah has the recap, if you missed it.

Narveson needed just 62 pitches to work through six innings yesterday, so he actually went out to the bullpen and threw 15 more to finish off his outing. He's likely to still get two more starts before Opening Day, but it looks like he's ready.

Martin Maldonado's fourth inning infield single was the first time either team had a baserunner yesterday. Maldonado batted third and went 1-for-3 in his first game since returning from the World Baseball Classic. The Brewers now finally have all their players back for the first time in March.

The Brewers didn't cut any players from camp yesterday, but they did make a paper transaction: Mat Gamel, who is out for the season with a torn ACL, has been placed on the 60-day DL to free up a spot on the 40-man roster.

The Brewers failed to score and managed just five hits yesterday, but it's worth noting that the lineup they sent to Scottsdale didn't look much like the one they'll probably trot out on Opening Day. Ron Roenicke told Adam McCalvy he'll likely go with Norichika Aoki, Rickie Weeks, Ryan Braun, Aramis Ramirez, Jonathan Lucroy and Alex Gonzalez 1-6 when he faces the Rockies on April 1, and hasn't decided if Jean Segura or Carlos Gomez will bat seventh.

Other notes from camp:

• ASU student Justin Marshall of the JS has pictures from Wednesday's game.
• ASU student Jason Galvin of the JS talked to Jonathan Lucroy about his breakout performance in 2012 and his efforts to repeat it in 2013.
• Adam McCalvy caught some trash talk between Martin Maldonado and Norichika Aoki regarding Puerto Rico's WBC win over Japan.
• John Steinmiller has a photo of Brewers Visiting Clubhouse Manager Phil Rosewicz, who served as the Dominican Republic's clubhouse manager for the Classic, with the WBC trophy.
• J.P. Breen of Disciples of Uecker is the latest to consider Blake Lalli and his out-of-nowhere bid to make the Opening Day roster.
• ASU student John De Groote of the JS talked to Robin Yount about his role as a guest in Brewer camp.
• BrewGIFs captured Logan Schafer's Tuesday catch at the wall to rob Albert Pujols for posterity.

Cactus League play continues today as the Brewers travel to Glendale to visit the White Sox. Mike Fiers will face Chris Sale at 3.

Meanwhile under the surface, the Ryan Braun/Biogenesis issue continues to bubble. MLB Executive Vice President Rob Manfred issued a statement yesterday denying that they're specifically targeting Ryan Braun in the investigation, but Craig Calcaterra says that denial "rings hollow."

In the end, I think Nathan nailed it with our Tweet of the Day:

The whole MLB-Braun feud has taken on a kind of Moby Dick quality.Captain Ahab has to hunt his white whale.

— Nate Petrashek (@NPetrashek) March 20, 2013

LOLBrewers also has a look inside the investigation.

Despite all of this, though, Bovada still assigned Ryan Braun the second-best odds to win the 2013 NL MVP. He's at 9:1, behind Joey Votto's 15:2.

In non-Braun news, ESPN has started their annual project to rank baseball's top 500 players for the season ahead and four Brewers were named in the first portion of the list, which spans players #401-500. Jean Segura leads the way at #410 while Wily Peralta (#450), Chris Narveson (#465) and Tom Gorzelanny (#498) follow him.

In the minors:

• The Brewers pulled off a minor trade yesterday, sending reliever Darren Byrd to the A's for third baseman Stephen Parker. Parker is 25, was Oakland's fifth round pick in 2009 and hit .256/.327/.390 in 99 games for AAA Sacramento last season.
• Parker was thrown right into the action: The @BrewersPD Twitter account has a picture of him playing third base for Nashville just hours after the trade.
• Hiram Burgos is back in minor league camp, but his work in the WBC did not go unnoticed by the big league club. Todd Rosiak talked to Martin Maldonado and Carlos Gomez about him.
• Chris Mehring of Rattler Radio has one of the final renovation updates from Fox Cities Stadium, where Opening Day is less than three weeks away.

Today in season previews, predictions, power rankings and stuff:

• FanGraphs has a summary of their positional power rankings, which have the Brewers projected to get around 26 wins above replacement from their position players. That ranks them 12th in all of baseball.
• Team Wisconsin is picking the Brewers to finish third in the NL Central.
• Diane Firstman of ESPN's SweetSpot blog has haikus about the Brewers and every other team.
  

Around baseball:

Marlins: Released infielder Chone Figgins.
Pirates: Acquired infielder John McDonald from the Diamondbacks for a PTBNL.

Today in former Brewers: Mike Oz of Big League Stew has a look at Shaun Marcum's awesome/terrifying new bowling ball. Hopefully Marcum bowls with his left hand, because he's still having issues with his right shoulder.

It's possible we've learned more about concussions in the last few years than we did in the 50 before, but we still have a long way to go. The next time you find yourself criticizing a player for taking too long to bounce back from head trauma or think professional sports are overdoing it in their efforts to protect injured players, consider this Minda Haas post on the aftermath of her concussion and remember that there's a lot at stake here.

This morning's edition of Today In Brewer History marks the 35th anniversary of the Brewers releasing utilityman Ed Kirkpatrick, ending his long major league career. Today is also Seattle Pilot Tommy Davis' 74th birthday, and Plunk Everyone notes that his 32 career HBP are the fourth most ever for a player born on March 21.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've been downgraded.

Drink up.