What we learned: October 3, 2014

Ryan Braun had his thumb surgery yesterday.

Ryan Braun's surgery day finally came yesterday, and the procedure was carried out on Thursday in Los Angeles. It was very minimally invasive, as all it involved was inserting a needle into the thumb to freeze the damaged nerve. It won't take long before we will get an early indication of the success of the surgery. If everything looks good on Monday, Braun will take some test swings with a bat. While the feeling in Braun's hand will not be the same again, dulling the pain should provide some relief and help him swing in games. Right now, there's no plan B for Braun, so our hope is that the procedure worked.

The Brewers lost Alfredo Figaro on waivers and sent Matt Pagnozzi to the minors.

The other big news of the day yesterday was a pair of roster moves that the Brewers made. They cleared some space on the 40 man roster by placing Alfredo Figaro on waivers (presumably to try to return him the minors), and he was claimed by the Texas Rangers. Figaro was out of options following the 2014 season, so he had to clear waivers to be sent to Colorado Springs. He would also have been a long shot to make the team out of spring training next year, so his loss isn't too bad. Meanwhile, Matt Pagnozzi was outrighted to Colorado Springs. This is also not a surprise, as he only made 1 appearance for the Brewers in September and wasn't seen as much more than emergency backup. The Brewers may try to keep him around next season in the minors, once again in that role of an emergency backup should something happen to one of the Brewers catchers.

Cram Session

More from BCB

• How many of the 2014 Brewers do you remember? Take this quiz and see how well you remember the 2014 Brewers.
• Plunk Everyone makes an appearance in the FanPosts and gives you a historical look at the last Brewers lineup that had no players from 2014 who got hit by a pitch.
• The Brewers-Sky Sox relationship was officially finalized yesterday with the signing of the player development contract. Doug Melvin was in Colorado Springs to make it official.
• What impact did Wei-Chung Wang have on the 2014 Brewers? I looked back at how his presence on the team may have affected the Brewers season.
• Did Ryan Braun receive bad strike three calls during the season? Noah looks back at the season to see if Braun was the victim of bad calls.

Other Notes

• The Brewers have made some big trades in the last several years, and some of those players have performed well on other teams. Nicholas Zettel of Disciples of Uecker looks at some of the players the Brewers traded away that are now performing well for other teams.
• Steven Jewell of Reviewing the Brew revealed their site's choice for the comeback player of the year, which was Mike Fiers. Meanwhile, Rickie Weeks was their second choice in the category.
• Ryan P. Morrison of Beyond the Box Score reviews the year in catcher's interference, which includes one from each of the Brewers' catchers.
• On Reviewing the Brew, David S. Grant looks back at how the 2014 seaosn was the worst case scenario for the Brewers.
• Have you ever just wanted to watch a bunch of MLB players get ejected? Carson Cistulli of NotGraphs has found a YouTube channel for you.
• Meanwhile, Jeremy Blachman of NotGraphs has 10 bold predictions about the 2014 season (after looking back at it).
• Brad Krause of Miller Park Prospects has a review of the 2014 Nashville Sounds season.
• Michael Trzinski of Reviewing the Brew looks back at one of the best farm teams in Brewers history, the 1980 Stockton Ports.

NL Central Update

• This isn't something most of you would want to hear, but the Cardinals enter today's game against the Dodgers with confidence because of past success against Clayton Kershaw.
• Why did Edinson Volquez struggle in the NL Wild Card Game? Dan Weigel of Beyond the Box Score breaks down Volquez's performance in that game.

Postseason Update

Yesterday's Games

• AL Division Series, Game 1
  Orioles 12, Tigers 3
  Orioles lead series 1-0
• AL Division Series, Game 1
  Royals 3, Angels 2 (11 Innings)
  Royals Lead Series 1-0

Today's Games

• AL Division Series, Game 2 - 11:00 am, TBS
  Tigers (Justin Verlander) @ Orioles (Wei-Yin Chen)
  Orioles Lead Series 1-0
• NL Division Series, Game 1 - 2:00 pm, Fox Sports 1
  Giants (Jake Peavy) @ Nationals (Stephen Strasburg)
  Series Tied 0-0
• NL Division Series, Game 1 - 5:30 pm, Fox Sports 1
  Cardinals (Adam Wainwright) @ Dodgers (Clayton Kershaw)
  Series Tied 0-0
• AL Division Series, Game 2 - 8:30 pm, TBS
  Royals (Yordano Ventura) @ Angels (Matt Shoemaker)
  Royals Lead Series 1-0

News & Notes

• I missed writing about this when it was originally written, but it you haven't seen it yet, Ted Simmons Speed Camp has a hater's guide to the 2014 playoffs.
• In the Tigers-Orioles game, the Orioles win came on the backs of former Brewers Nelson Cruz and J.J. Hardy, who each homered in the game.
• Meanwhile, in the Royals-Angels game, former Brewers Lorenzo Cain and Nori Aoki combined to make four great catches to help the Royals win in 11 innings.
• Jeff Sullivan of FanGraphs looks back at the wild card games and how much different the two games were by win probability.
• Meanwhile on FanGraphs, Dave Cameron looks at the strengths and weaknesses of each playoff team.
• As both NL Division Series are set to begin today, MLB.com has previews of both the Cardinals-Dodgers series and the Giants-Nationals series.