What we learned: April 14, 2015

Yesterday's Results

Brewers 5, Cardinals 4

It didn't feel like a win yesterday, but the Brewers managed to spoil the Cardinals home opener and collect their first road win of the season. Matt Garza had a rough day, allowing six hits and five walks in his 5 2/3 innings. However, he kept the damage limited to two runs. Jean Segura didn't have a good day, committing two throwing errors, along with a third bad throw that allowed a runner to reach. Meanwhile, on offense, the Brewers first three runs all came on groundouts, with two getting tacked on in the seventh thanks to RBI hits from Carlos Gomez and Jonathan Lucroy. The Cardinals cut the Brewers lead to 5-4 heading into the eighth, but Jonathan Broxton and Francisco Rodriguez each pitched scoreless innings to secure the win.

Brewers News & Notes

From BCB

• Are you expecting the Brewers to start selling everything at some point this season? You may want to temper those expectations a bit. Derek has a few reasons for why the Brewers may not be willing to sell everything even if it's a lost season.

Jimmy Nelson

• The development of Jimmy Nelson's curveball is catching some people's attention. Over on FanGraphs, Eno Sarris looks at Jimmy Nelson's performance from Saturday and analyzes how effective his curveball was.
• Meanwhile, while the curveball helped Nelson, Jordan also has a reminder that it wasn't just the curveball that Nelson changed this offseason.

Other Notes

• In his Tuesday morning notes, Nicholas Zettel of Disciples of Uecker looks at Matt Garza's performance, the pitches Carlos Gomez is swinging at, and the Brewers fielding so far this year.
• Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel notes that manager Ron Roenicke has been angrier about his team play so far this season more than the results themselves.
• If you were at the game on Sunday, you heard six-year old Liamani Segura sign the national anthem. Her performance earned a lot of attention, and Cait Covers the Bases has a round-up of some of the comments from the performance.

Minor League Update

Check out morineko's daily minor league notes for more details on last night's performances.

News & Notes

• In his newest video, Tim Dillard asks pitcher John Ely to name ten Hall of Fame pitchers.
• Over on Miller Park Prospects, Marcus Young has the complete roster of players participating in extended spring training. Also, Ryan Kaufman has profiles of Brewers prospects Corey Knebel and Luis Sardinas.
• Continuing in his series of the top hitters in Brewers minor-league history, Michael Trzinski of Reviewing the Brew looks at the 2011 season of Mat Gamel.

NL Central Update

• Pirates 5, Tigers 4
• Cubs 7, Reds 6 (10 Innings)

Today's Division Games

• Tigers (Shane Green) @ Pirates (AJ Burnett) - 6:05 pm
• Reds (Anthony DeSclafani) @ Cubs (Jake Arrieta) - 7:05 pm

Around Baseball

Roster News

• The Braves designated RHP Juan Jaime for assignment and selected the contract of RHP Sugar Ray Marimon.
• The Giants signed RHP Kevin Correia to a major-league contract. He will earn $850,000 with another $800,000 available in incentives.
• The Indians signed RHP Ryan Webb to a minor-league contract.
• The Reds designated RHP Daniel Corcino and LHP Ryan Dennick for assignment, and selected the contracts of catcher Kyle Skipworth and RHP Josh Smith.
• The Yankees designated RHP Kyle Davies for assignment and signed RHP Joel De La Cruz.

Other Notes

• Could Kris Bryant be coming up as soon as he hits the minimum threshold for days in the minors? Chris Schubert of MLB Daily Dish notes that injuries may force the Cubs to call up Bryant as soon as possible.
• It's early in the season, and the cautionary note of "small sample size" is attached to any baseball statistic you hear. However, Dave Cameron of FanGraphs wants you to realize that the difference between a small-sample size and one that can be trusted is not very big.
• The early results of baseball's rules to speed up play are in. Jayson Stark of ESPN.com reports that average game time is down almost eight minutes after the first week of the season.
• Following four positive tests for the performance-enhancing drug stanozolol, MLB is beginning an investigation to find out if the four cases are related.
• The Cardinals may claim to take the high road, but their new scorecard says otherwise. Chris Cwik of Big League Stew found a copy of the new scorecard, which has a front cover that trolls the rest of the NL Central.

Today's Action

The Brewers have their only off-day on a Tuesday this season today (with the exception of the All-Star Break). They will return to action tomorrow in game two of their series against the Cardinals.