Friday's Frosty Mug: A late night of sighs

Some things to read while losing the privilege.

My evening last night is roughly summed up in Nathan Petrashek's Tweet of the Day:

It's really 10:30? I'm not going to make the end of this game.

— Nate Petrashek (@NPetrashek) July 12, 2013

I fell asleep sometime during the eighth inning last night and woke up this morning to learn the Brewers had lost 5-3 to the Diamondbacks. Morineko has the recap, if you missed it.

The Brewers played yet another game last night without Ryan Braun, but this was for a new reason: He was placed on the bereavement list yesterday to deal with a family matter and will likely be out until the All Star break. Khris Davis was recalled from Nashville and will fill his roster spot starting today. Davis hit .188/.278/.313 in 14 games as a Brewer earlier this season and is batting .250.346/.455 with eleven home runs in 64 AAA games.

Davis joins Caleb Gindl in the "outfielders recently rejoining the team" club. Gindl was recalled yesterday when Johnny Hellweg was optioned out. Hellweg was sent all the way down to Wisconsin to allow him to pitch on normal rest in his next appearance: Both Huntsville and Nashville were scheduled to be off on Monday. Gindl, meanwhile, lined out as a pinch hitter in the ninth inning last night. He told Tyler Emerick of MLB.com he's more prepared for his second chance in the big leagues.

Other notes from the field:

• Jonathan Lucroy's home run last night traveled 445 feet, making it both the longest of his career and the longest hit by a Brewer this season.
• Norichika Aoki had a pair of hits last night and now has at least one in nine consecutive games.
• Carlos Gomez's home run last night was his 98th hit. He needs two more to give the Brewers three 100-hit players at the All Star break for the first time in franchise history.
• Rickie Weeks was hit by a pitch last night for the 114th time. Plunk Everyone has more on the event.
• Tyler Thornburg took a picture of an enormous bug.

The series continues in Arizona tonight where Tom Gorzelanny will face Patrick Corbin at 8:40. Andrew Simon has the MLB.com preview.

While Ryan Braun is away from the team this weekend, the BioGenesis saga is something we'll always have with us. Here's the latest:

• Wendy Thurm of FanGraphs suggests that Bud Selig may be preparing to use what she's calling the "nuclear option" and suspend Braun and others based on the "best interest of baseball" clause, which would significantly reduce the possibility of appeal.
• Baseball union chief Michael Weiner issued a statement yesterday saying the various leaks in what is supposed to be a confidential process threaten the integrity of the league and union's drug agreement. He later issued a second statement to back down from an implied suggestion that MLB is behind the leaks.
• Ronald Blum of the Associated Press notes that any suspensions levied at this point would likely be served at least partially in 2014 following an appeals process, and notes that the MLBPA will likely encourage MLB to wait until after that process to make announcements. (h/t T.J. Quinn, via @Haudricourt)
• Gwen Knapp of Sports on Earth also notes that this process is likely to drag out for quite some time.

Elsewhere in ongoing stories, here are today's trade deadline updates:

• Jon Morosi is reporting that the Rangers have expressed interest in both Yovani Gallardo and Norichika Aoki.
• Ken Rosenthal and Morosi are reporting that the Tigers and Orioles have "preliminary interest" in working out a deal with the Brewers.

Another day, another bad out on the bases: Norichika Aoki was caught trying to steal last night and now leads all major leaguers with ten caught stealings in 20 attempts. Even before last night, TOOTBLAN Tracker noted that the Brewers are on pace to make 90 bad outs on the basepaths this season.

Meanwhile, Carlos Gomez's career year continues. Bill Baer of ESPN has a look at Gomez's long road to stardom, and says "the moral of the story is not to give up on players with a surfeit of talent but a deficit of results."

Marco Estrada, on the other hand, can only watch at this point. He was scheduled to throw a live BP session on Saturday but that has been scrapped after his back locked up on him yesterday morning. There is no updated timetable for his return.

In the minors:

• The Brewers have signed pitcher Aaron Laffey to a minor league deal. Laffey is 28 and a veteran of seven MLB seasons, including cups of coffee with the Mets and Blue Jays this season. He has a 4.45 career ERA over 153 appearances, including 68 starts.
• The affiliates went 3-2 yesterday and Victor Roache had a big day, going 3-for-4 with a triple and a walk in Wisconsin's 6-3 win over Fort Wayne. You can read about that and more in today's Minor League Notes.
• Chris Mehring of Rattler Radio has more from Wisconsin's win.

The Brewers will only have two players in New York for next week's All Star Game, but they will also have a truck. John Steinmiller and Caitlin Moyer have details on the Brewer-themed food truck heading east for the festivities.

Around baseball:

Pirates: Acquired infielder Brian Bocock from the Nationals for past considerations.
Rangers: Placed pitcher Yu Darvish on the DL with a shoulder strain.
Reds: Placed catcher Ryan Hanigan on the DL with a wrist sprain.
Tigers: Pitcher Rick Porcello had his suspension for throwing at Rays infielder Ben Zobrist reduced to five games and began serving it Thursday.
Yankees: Designated first baseman Travis Ishikawa for assignment.

Let's go around the NL Central:

• The Cubs held the Cardinals to just four hits in a 3-0 win at Wrigley Field. Edwin Jackson pitched seven shutout innings for the win and Starlin Castro scored two of the three runs.
• The Reds failed to gain ground, losing 6-5 to the Braves in Atlanta. Shin-Soo Choo was on base three times and scored three runs but it wasn't enough.
• The Brewers, of course, lost to the Diamondbacks.
• The Pirates were off Thursday.

Here are today's updated standings and probables:

The Brewers don't exactly have a long and storied All Star Game history, but they do have two of these: Uni Watch notes that Carlton Fisk (in 1972) and Frank White (in 1981) are among players who batted in the All Star Game wearing helmets from teams they've never played for.

If you've ever wanted to own a piece of Milwaukee baseball history, next week may be your chance: Warren Spahn's 1957 Cy Young Award is one of dozens of pieces of memorabilia going up for auction.

If you're not on Twitter, you might have missed an interesting moment last night. Diamondbacks pitcher Brandon McCarthy took to social media to criticize MLB Network analyst Mitch Williams for using footage of him being hit in the head by a line drive as part of an argument that pitchers need to work inside more. (h/t BBTF)

Today In Brewer History is off today but Plunk Everyone notes that today is Tom Gorzelanny's 31st birthday, and his 29 career HBP are the third most ever for a pitcher born on July 12.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to find a pen.

Drink up.