SB Nation - Esteban German

Monday's Frosty Mug

KLSnow — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:18:55 -0000

by Jim Prisching - AP

Craig Counsell is expected to re-sign today.

Some things to read while John Tesh rocks the NBA on NBC theme (h/t Amy K. Nelson).

Randy Wolf is expected to undergo a physical this morning and once he does, expect his contract to become official sometime later today. That might not be today's only announcement, though: the Brewers are also expected to finalize a deal with Craig Counsell today. With Counsell, Prince Fielder, Rickie Weeks, Alcides Escobar, Mat Gamel and Casey McGehee all on the roster, the Brewers' Opening Day infield is probably set, barring injury or trade.

Meanwhile, Mike Rivera is surprised to be looking for work after being non-tendered over the weekend. He thought the decision not to retain Jason Kendall would give him an edge as the only returning catcher familiar with the Brewer pitching staff.

As of this writing, roughly 4% of voters in the poll on your right listed the decision to offer Dave bush a 2010 contract as the one Brewer move from this weekend they would change. That's not exactly a large chunk of the fanbase, but In-Between Hops is taking on that vocal minority, making the case that the Brewers made the right move by giving Bush another shot.

If you missed Morineko's Weekend Mug, follow the link over to it for full coverage of the Brewers' arbitration decisions, and a link to this list of all the non-tenders leaguewide.

Looking back at last week, Jon Heyman ranked the Brewers among the Winter Meeting winners. Meanwhile, Marc Hulet of The Baseball Analysts listed Rule 5 selection Chuck Lofgren in the "Why Bother?" category.

The more I think about it, the more I think Lofgren will have a tough task ahead of him if he's going to make the team out of spring training. With Trevor Hoffman, LaTroy Hawkins, Todd Coffey, Claudio Vargas and Mitch Stetter back, there's only two bullpen spots left that are potentially available (barring injury), and Chris Smith, John Axford, Chris Narveson, Zach Braddock and now Lofgren fighting for them. I like Lofgren's potential and hope the Brewers will get an opportunity to realize it, but right now he might be the third or fourth best lefty in the bullpen competition.

If you have a vague interest in Brewer baseball, but wish there was less analysis and more profanity on this site, then Miller Park Drunk's RUNNING series might be just the ticket for you. Follow these links for bad Prince Fielder jokes, some fan fiction involving Ryan Braun trying to rap, and a vague musical reference to Rickie Weeks.

In the minors: Baseball Intellect has video footage of some at bats featuring Cameron Garfield, Cutter Dykstra and Josh Prince from a Pioneer League game back in July. They're pay-only, but there are worse ways to spend $2.95.

If you were gone this weekend, you didn't miss the opportunity to help select a center fielder and catcher for the BCB All Decade Team. Voting closes at 4 pm today for center fielders and 4 pm tomorrow for catchers. We'll open the voting for the final starting outfield spot later today.

Around baseball:

Blue Jays: Signed catcher John Buck to a one-year deal worth $2 million, signed Joey Gathright to a minor league deal,
Braves: Signed Matt Diaz to a one year, $2.55 million deal, avoiding arbitration.
D-Backs: Re-signed infielder Augie Ojeda to a one year deal, and avoided arbitration with Blaine Boyer.
Dodgers: Signed pitcher Josh Towers to a minor league deal.
Giants: Signed shortstop-turned-pitcher Tony Pena Jr. to a minor league deal.
Indians: Re-signed pitchers Adam Miller and Anthony Reyes to minor league deals.
Marlins: Signed catcher Ronny Paulino to a one-year deal, avoiding arbitration.
Nationals: Re-signed Scott Olsen to a one year deal. Also signed pitcher Ryan Speier to a minor league deal.
Padres: Signed pitcher Kevin Correia to a one year deal, avoiding arbitration.
Pirates: Signed Ronny Cedeno to a one year, $1.125 million deal, avoiding arbitration.
Rangers: Signed infielder Esteban German to a one year deal, avoiding arbitration.
Rays: Avoided arbitration with catcher Dioner Navarro and pitchers Grant Balfour, Rafael Soriano, Lance Cormier and Randy Choate.
Royals: Avoided arbitration with pitchers Brian Bannister and Kyle Davies. They also signed pitcher Bruce Chen and catcher Vance Wilson to minor league deals.
White Sox: Signed J.J. Putz to a one year deal.

Meanwhile, the market heated up immediately for Yankees non-tender Chien-Ming Wang, with Ken Rosenthal reporting that six teams have already expressed interest. He doesn't list the teams, but I wouldn't be surprised to discover the Brewers are one of them.

I promise, I'm not going to mention it every time someone says something new about Jason Kendall. In fact, I might try to go the rest of the week without mentioning him at all. With that said, I thought these three links about him were interesting:

Joe Posnanski has a look at the potential Opening Day lineup for the 2010 Royals, now including Kendall.
He also compares Kendall to a superball on the field at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.
Reminding us all how far and how fast Kendall has fallen, Where Have You Gone, Andy Van Slyke? named Kendall the Pirate Catcher of the Decade.

Weeks ago I linked to a post from minor league veteran Garrett Broshuis, mentioning the challenges in finding quality, healthy food in minor league clubhouses. It looks like that problem may be on its way to being resolved: After discussing it at the Winter Meetings, several teams are making an effort to provide healthier options, and remove the constant flow of junk.

If you're a fan of sabermetrics, or just want to learn more about them, I've got two links for you today:

TangoTiger has a look at OPS+, and some minor adjustments that could be made to it to make it more useful than some other advanced metrics.
That post links to this one, Big League Stew's beginner's guide to wOBA. I learned a fair amount by reading that one.

Gorman Thomas celebrated a birthday over the weekend, and while this probably isn't what he had in mind for a gift, David Chalk of Seventh Inning 'Stache has inducted him into the MLB Mustache Hall of Fame.

On this day in 1998, the Brewers acquired Alex Ochoa from the Twins for a minor leaguer named Darrell Nicholas. Ochoa spent one season as a Brewer, hitting .300/.404/.466 before being traded to the Reds for Mark Sweeney after the season.

Happy birthday today to:

Former Seattle Pilot and 1970 Brewer Greg Goossen, who turns 64.
Dave Nilsson, who appeared in 837 games as a Brewer and turns 40.
Marcus Jensen, who appeared in 18 games over two tours as a Brewer and turns 37.

Sean Forman, founder of Baseball Reference, is also celebrating his birthday today. You can help him celebrate by sponsoring a page. I know someone around here will want this one.

Drink up.

Rangers sign Esteban German to a one year deal

Adam J. Morris — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 00:44:45 -0000

The Rangers have signed Esteban German to a one year contract for 2010.

German was the only Ranger who was a non-tender candidate -- every other Ranger who is arbitration eligible was going to be tendered.

German will apparently go into camp vying for a bench job, and it may be that him re-signing means that Joe Inglett and his nearly-identical-to-German skill-set will be dropped from the 40 man roster when another spot is needed.

The Weekend Mug, now with more Australians! And another Canadian!

NoahJ — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 06:12:07 -0000

After trading J.J. Hardy, Doug Melvin realized he had to win back the hearts of Wisconsin women everywhere. Enter Oeltjen.

View full size photo »

Some things to read while on a social networking site far, far away.

So far this is my second week doing the weekend post. My first weekend was immediately after the Carlos Gomez trade, and this weekend comes after the Brewers announce signing Gregg Zaun. It's my turn again the weekend following Christmas, so maybe Brewers fans can be expecting a Christmas present from Doug Melvin and the gang.

About the Zaun signing:

Adam McCalvy tells us that Zaun was assured the starting catching spot. Zaun has played more than 110 games only once in his career and more than 100 games four times, and he's not getting any younger. There should be plenty of opportunities for whoever the backup catcher should be.
Right Field Bleachers thinks that backup will be either Mike Rivera or George Kottaras, with the idea being another year of minor league polishing for Angel Salome and Jonathon Lucroy.
In Between Hops likens Zaun to a cheaper Jason Kendall. Neither is very good at hitting (some would claim they are atrocious), but over the last three years, Zaun has been Kendalls slight superior in OBP and has been significantly better slugging. Zaun did this in close to half of the plate appearances of Kendall.
I think that View From Bernie's Chalet is more excited about the end of the Jason Kendall era than for the signing of Zaun.
Brewers! Brewers! Keep Turning Up the Heat! finds the signing to be strange and suggests that Milwaukee had enough readily available options. Personally, I prefer having someone like Zaun around. I don't think that Rivera would be a viable option to start the whole season, and the other options (Kottaras, Lucroy and Salome) are all younger and could really struggle, particularly Lucroy who would be skipping triple-A. I think that I would like Lucroy to either back up Zaun for the first couple months of the season (like I said, there should be plenty of opportunities) or for him to be called up sometime in June provided he isn't massively struggling in Nashville. Gradually working in what appears to be the heir apparent to the Catchers position seems like a much better idea than throwing him straight into the fire.
And the Grand National Championships thinks this is the most logical move in the history of sports.
Oh, and if I ever met Gregg Zaun, he does not look like a guy I would want to piss off.

Also from the Grand National Championships, they believe that re-signing Craig Counsell--who Doug Melvin has made an offer to--would be a bad idea and suggests signing someone like Esteban German instead. If we were to go with someone else, I think that going with someone in house (like Adam Heether) would be just as good as signing someone from outside the organization. I also think that a player like Craig Counsell is a boon to any team, though, and would serve as a very very good mentor to Alcides Escobar.

The Brewers also signed former Diamondback and full-time Australian Trent ~~Durrington~~ Oltjean...whichever. Brew City Sports tried to reach him for comment, but unfortunately, Oltjean was too busy doing Australian type activities. Oltjean is expected to provide protection for Ryan Braun in the cuteness batting order after the departure of J.J. Hardy.

For those hoping that the Brewers decide to pursue Brad Penny, the bad news is that he rejected a one year offer to stay with the GIants. So it looks like any team that wants to sign him would either have to offer multiple years or a pretty significant--and guarenteed--amount of money for one year.

In Between Hops reminds us again of the comparison that can be made between Casey McGehee and Bill Hall.

Around the Majors:
Atlanta Braves: Rafael Soriano is considering accepting their offer of arbitration.
Chicago Cubs: Could announce a signing of Mike Cameron as soon as Monday.
Houston Astros: Signed former Giant Ryan Sadowski
Kansas City Royals: Signed Cuban lefty Noel Arguelles
Minnesota Twins: Signed 16 year old Dominican Shortstop Miguel Sano.
Seattle Mariners and Jack Z: Signed Chone Figgins to a $36MM, 4 year deal.

If you were disappointed when they announced they were shutting down production, good news! A movie adaptation of Moneyball is going to be back underway!

Oh, and potentially the most exciting news of the day, Metsblog cites Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus as saying that there will be two big announcements at the winter meetings that will be way bigger than "any player signing or news made during". I don't have any idea what it could be, so feel free to speculate.

Rangers designate Thomas Diamond for assignment

Adam J. Morris — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 19:00:07 -0000

Per the S-T blog, Thomas Diamond has been designated for assignment, and Brandon Boggs has been recalled and transferred to the 60 day disabled list, moves necessitated by the activation of Brandon McCarthy from the 60 day disabled list and purchasing the contracts of Kevin Richardson and Craig Gentry.

Esteban German and Eddie Guardado have been activated from the disabled list, and Guillermo Moscoso and Warner Madrigal have been recalled. Willie Eyre will likely be recalled, as well, as soon as his 10 days run.

The Diamond move is a bit of a shocker, as I figured Joaquin Arias would be the one to get the axe, but Diamond has disappointed this season after being considered a dark-horse candidate to make the team out of spring training in the bullpen. Diamond has missed a lot of time the past three seasons due to injury, and I suspect the Rangers are going to look to move him for a fringe prospect in the next 10 days.

Wednesday's Frosty Mug

KLSnow — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:32:35 -0000

More photos » by Gene J. Puskar - AP

Ken Macha talks with Willie Randolph during a loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates Tuesday. If the Brewers don't improve soon, Macha and Randolph may have something else in common.

Browse more photos »

Some things to read while your arteries are clogging.

So, the Brewers have lost back to back games to the Pirates, who were 4-18 since taking two of three from the Brewers in their last meeting. The Grand National Championship says the Brewers are done and should look to sell off spare parts. Casa de Machado has a similar sentiment with significantly more NSFW language.

The Brewers allowed two more home runs last night to raise their NL leading total to 161, 17 more than the second place Reds. They're now on pace to allow 219 on the season, up from 175 a year ago. The Reds (201) were the only NL team to allow more than 200 last season. Ken Macha called the situation out of control.

So, it seems logical that the Brewers are still looking for answers to their pitching woes. Perhaps one of the answers will come from Dave Bush, who pitched three hitless innings last night on 37 pitches in front of a sold out crowd in Appleton. Cody Scarpetta relieved him and pitched six more shutout innings as the Rattlers beat Beloit, 1-0. Bush is expected to make one more rehab start in Huntsville before returning to the big leagues.

By then, the Brewers may also have worked out a trade. Doug Melvin says he's working on a deal involving Bill Hall, who needs to be traded or released by Friday. (Also noted in FanShot.) The Reds are rumored to be interested in Hall, and looking to deal one of two bad contracts they're stuck with: Aaron Harang and Bronson Arroyo. Scott Jensen of Dugout Central thinks a Hall-for-Arroyo swap makes sense for the Brewers, but Brewers Daily would rather have Harang.

Prince Fielder has a second post up on his blog with thoughts on roster moves, Alcides Escobar and Usain Bolt.

Brewer Paradise Lost is looking ahead to the center field situation in 2010. He doesn't expect the Brewers to offer arbitration to Mike Cameron, and thinks they should try a Jody Gerut/Jason Bourgeois platoon in center. I think the Brewers will offer Cam arbitration, but he'll likely reject it and head off to seek a multi-year deal in free agency. If that happens, the Brewers could do much worse than this platoon.

In the minors:

The Brewers promoted Brett Lawrie to Huntsville yesterday (FanShot), skipping over High-A entirely with last year's #1 pick. Doug Melvin told Tom H. that he expects Lawrie to DH in AA for ten days before leaving to play for Canada in the Baseball World Cup.
Jim Callis of Baseball America had some high praise for the Brewers' 2009 draft in his most recent chat, and especially seems to like Max Walla, Brooks Hall and 15th and 16th round picks Del Howell and Scooter Gennett. (FanShot)
For whatever it's worth, two Brewer draft picks (OF Scott Krieger and P Mike Fiers) appeared in John Sickels' shadow draft for the Twins.
The Brewers spent just over $6 million signing their 13 picks in the first ten rounds. That's the sixth highest total in baseball, but would rank much lower if the rankings were calculated by dollars per player.

At least this 2009 slide could net the Brewers a better player next June: Andy Seiler has updated his projected 2010 draft order, and has the Brewers picking 14th.

Could this slide cost Ken Macha his job? Ken Rosenthal lists Macha among 15 managers whose contracts expire by the end of the 2010 season, and notes that Mark Attanasio may not be patient with him.

On power rankings and playoff odds:

Inside the Majors moved the Brewers up one spot to 17th.
CoolStandings gives the Brewers a 1.3% shot at the playoffs.

Around baseball:

Astros: Placed Mike Hampton on the DL with a shoulder issue.
Cardinals: Are expected to sign John Smoltz when he becomes a free agent today.
Dodgers: Are expected to place Hiroki Kuroda on the DL with a concussion.
Rangers: Acquired Ivan Rodriguez from the Astros for two minor leaguers (three if the Rangers make the playoffs), and placed infielder Esteban German on the DL with a groin strain.
White Sox: Placed DeWayne Wise on the DL with a shoulder strain.

Felipe Lopez has been pretty good as a Brewer, but how much will the Crew miss Cole Gillespie? AZ Snakepit reports that the former Brewer farmhand is hitting .325/.448/.542 for AAA Reno, and could compete for a job with the D-Backs next spring.

A lot of money was handed out this week to draftees, but a fair amount is going overseas as well: The Twins signed German 16-year-old Max Kepler Rozycki this week, and his $800,000 bonus was the largest ever given to an amateur player outside of the US and Latin America.

On this day in 1985, Danny Darwin pitched a complete game one-hitter as the Brewers beat the Twins 4-1. And on this day in 1987, Rob Deer hit the first of his two grand slams in two days as the Brewers beat the Indians 13-2. Paul Molitor also picked up four hits in the game to extend his streak to 34 games.

Happy birthday today to J.J. Hardy, who turns 27, Chris Capuano, who turns 31, Ned Yost, who turns 54, and Paul Mitchell, who pitched in 35 games for the Brewers in 1979 and 1980 and turns 60.

Oh, and I know we've all spent a day inundated with news updates about a Wisconsin sports icon getting ready to return, but take a deep breath, everyone: Gorman Thomas isn't going to play for the Cubs.

Drink up.

Arias down, German up, Bannister DFA'd

Adam J. Morris — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 22:22:28 -0000

Per Jeff Wilson, Joaquin Arias has been optioned to AAA, Esteban German has had his contract purchased, and John Bannister has been designated for assignment to make room for German on the 40 man roster.

Saturday a.m. Rangers things

Adam J. Morris — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 15:00:42 -0000

More photos » by LM Otero - AP

5 months ago: Texas Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus, top, jumps over Minnesota Twins' Justin Morneau while turning the double play in the eighth inning of the baseball game in Arlington, Texas, Friday, July 17, 2009. Twins' Jason Kubel was out at first. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Browse more photos »

At least the Angels lost...

Evan Grant says that Vicente Padilla got squeezed by the home plate umpire last night, and in particular, had strike three to Jason Kubel called a ball before leaving a pitch up in the zone that Kubel hammered for the three-run homer than won the game for the Twins.

Anthony Andro says that Josh Hamilton was the only offense last night.

Matt Harrison is going to head out on a rehab assignment next week, assuming his bullpen session tomorrow goes well. Meanwhile, the Rangers are going to drop a reliever after this series with Minnesota, potentially in favor of Esteban German, whose addition would require a 40 man roster move.

Jennifer Floyd Engel says the Rangers need Hamilton and Ian Kinsler to hit if they want to stay in the race.

And the Rangers have the biggest percentage increase in their TV ratings of any of the 30 major league clubs this year. Amazing what winning some games will do...

Favors Granted: Cubs 5, Indians 7

Al — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 00:15:34 -0000

MESA, Arizona -- The thing I was most reminded of as Mark DeRosa kept hitting 450-foot drives off Ted Lilly was a story that's been told about Greg Maddux and Jeff Bagwell, related in Jessica's BCB top 100 profile of Maddux:

Maddux was pitching a shutout with a large lead late in a game early in the season when Bagwell came to bat. He repeatedly shook off catcher Eddie Perez's signs and threw Bagwell an inside fastball which they both knew was his favorite pitch. Bagwell clocked it for a home run and angry Perez confronted Maddux in the clubhouse asking him why he would throw that pitch. Maddux explained that sometime later that season he would face Bagwell in a more important situation and he would be expecting that pitch. Perez was still annoyed that he had "blown" a shutout. Towards the end of that season, the Braves did indeed play an important game against the Astros and Maddux struck Bagwell out late in the game with the bases loaded. Maddux asked Perez if he remembered the game months ago when he deliberately gave Bagwell the pitch he wanted. Perez had forgotten, but Maddux hadn't.

Incidentally, this apparently really did happen, even though there's no such homer in the Bagwell vs. Maddux game logs. I think the homer they're talking about was in a spring training game, and the strikeout was in this 1997 NLDS game between the Astros and Braves; the bases weren't loaded but the tying run was in scoring position. In any case, the point stands. (Jessica said that today's score was really "Cubs 5, DeRosa 4, Indians 3".)

Could Lilly have been setting DeRosa up for when the Tribe comes to Wrigley Field in June? Or was he doing an old buddy a favor? DeRo would have hit three homers today off Lilly if not for the 30+ foot high hitters' background; his fifth-inning double hit about 3/4 of the way up the background, a blast of at least 450 feet, and the two homers both cleared the scoreboard. Apart from those three hits, Lilly gave up only four singles to other Indians, walked two and struck out eight. It wasn't a bad performance, but Chad Gaudin got pounded, allowing ex-Braves farmhand George Lombard to hit a two-run homer in the seventh, and that was the difference in the Indians' 7-5 win over the Cubs. (And for whatever it's worth, in regular season action DeRosa is 2-for-10 vs. Lilly, with one of the hits being a homer.)

DeRo and Kerry Wood both received warm welcomes from Cubs fans; I hope those of you who subscribe to the BCB Twitter feed saw the photo of them being greeted by former teammates on the field just before the game, that I sent via TwitPic (granted, all I had was my cellphone camera, so it was a little far away). Wood threw a scoreless inning and got Milton Bradley on a called third strike to end it.

Gaudin, as I noted, was awful today (the Cubs even had Mike Stanton, who isn't going to make the final roster, warming up in his bad seventh inning) and I hope some scout saw something that the rest of us didn't, because he'll hurt the team if he's in the bullpen to start the year. Maybe there's some undiagnosed injury and they can put him on the DL and keep David Patton, who was very impressive today (granted, retiring Tony Graffanino, Andy Marte and John Drennen isn't exactly getting the heart of Cleveland's lineup). I know Lou likes Patton and would like to give him a shot if there's any space available.

Reed Johnson smashed a pinch-hit, two-run homer in the 8th that landed just next to us off the scoreboard and rolled down the berm into a scrum, making the score 7-5. It wasn't so much that, that surprised me about that particular at-bat; what was surprising was that Johnson was sent up to pinch-hit against a right-handed relief pitcher. That would, one might have thought, been a perfect situation for Kosuke Fukudome to bat... but Dome was nowhere to be seen on the major league field this afternoon. Does this portend changes? Will Johnson get more playing time vs. RHP than we think this year?

The Cubs had their seventh sellout (of 17 games so far), with an announced crowd of 13.097, though for some reason it didn't seem nearly as crowded as Friday either on the berm or in the stands; there were empty seats even as the game was beginning in the corners of the grandstand sections down the foul lines. The total attendance thus rose to 186,007 and the single-season spring training record, set by the 2005 Cubs, will fall on Tuesday when the Angels visit. Obviously, that's due to the larger number of dates (19 this year); the average attendance record of 12,125 is safe. (Average so far this year: 10,942.)

Lou Piniella named Kevin Gregg his closer today (I'm with Lou on this one; Gregg hasn't thrown in a major league game since last Tuesday), and the spring roster was cut to 30, with pitchers Kevin Hart and Randy Wells optioned to Iowa and catcher Mark Johnson, infielders Andres Blanco and Esteban German and outfielders Brad Snyder and So Taguchi assigned to minor league camp. (Blanco, German and Taguchi played in today's game anyway, probably a farewell present from Lou.)

Tomorrow, Rich Harden returns to major league mound action when the Cubs travel to Surprise to face the Royals. KC will counter with their #3 starter, Kyle Davies, and we should also see the Royals' closer, Joakim Soria, make an appearance. Perhaps we'll get a chance to see the Cubs' newly anointed closer tomorrow as well. The game will be on CSN Chicago; this will be the last Cub TV or radio broadcast from Arizona (the next Cub broadcast will be the NYC games).

Poll

How many games will Kosuke Fukudome play for the Cubs this year?

0

14 votes

1-50

150 votes

51-100

410 votes

101-150

411 votes

151 or more

32 votes

1017 votes | Poll has closed

Monday's Frosty Mug

KLSnow — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:26:46 -0000

Some things to read while getting your clothes out of the dryer.

Easily the biggest Brewer news of the day happened far from Arizona. Ryan Braun, playing for Team USA in the WBC, left yesterday's game with soreness in his side. (h/t FanShot) It doesn't sound like it's expected to be serious.

Meanwhile, Braden Looper is expected to throw a simulated game this morning, his last one before pitching a minor league game and then a Cactus League game sometime around March 24.

While Looper works his way in, Tim Dillard, Nick Green and Omar Aguilar are among six pitchers on their way out, having been optioned back to minor league camp. Dillard, who will apparently work as a starter this season, made the most of his last day in camp, entertaining teammates with his Harry Caray and Ed Sedar impressions.

Also in minor league camp, Chris Capuano continues to work on his recovery from his second Tommy John surgery. Sounds like things are going well, but he won't be stretched out enough to start games until mid-May.

Some visual evidence from this weekend's action:

Bill Hall's calf is better. Now, why is he sliding head first in spring training?
Lorenzo Cain shows off his home run trot.
You may not have heard of Brent Krause, but he left an imprint in the wall for you to remember him by.

J.J. Hardy and Ryan Braun each took first place in Crawfish Boxes' NL Central positional rankings at shortstop and left field, respectively. Largely because of contributions from Hardy and Braun, David Pinto of Baseball Musings thinks the Brewers' probable lineup is good for 4.71 runs per game this season, up from 4.63 last season.

Dale Sveum is hoping to get even more production out of his hitters by cutting down on strikeouts.

Speaking of projections and predictions, Baseball Analysts has their NL Central Preview up. All three participants think the Cubs will win the division by 10 games or more.

Lisa Winston of MiLB.com has been spending some time around Brewer camp, and has ten Brewer prospects to watch, along with an overview of the system that's worth a read.

Notes from other camps:

Cubs: Signed Esteban German to a minor league deal.
Giants: May be interested in ~~derailing their youth movement~~ signing Ivan Rodriguez to compete for a job at third base.
Mariners: Claimed Jesus Delgado off waivers from the Marlins.
Marlins: Released Jay Gibbons.
Mets: Claimed Fernando Nieve off waivers from the Astros.
Nationals: Signed Julian Tavarez to a minor league deal.
Padres: Signed Chris Snelling to a minor league deal, and also Duaner Sanchez.
Red Sox: Julio Lugo will have arthroscopic knee surgery and will likely not be ready for Opening Day.
Rockies: Signed Lew Ford to a minor league deal.

Some day we might look back at the players of today in a similar light, but this seems like an extreme example: Hal McCoy has the story of former Red Buddy Gilbert, who left baseball in 1959 over a contract dispute. He and the Reds were $200 apart.

Baseball Musings also previewed the offense of the 2009 Pirates, and projects them for .3 runs per game less than 2008, or almost 50 fewer runs this season.

The Cardinals organization checked in at #21 in FanGraphs organizational rankings joining the Pirates, Reds and Astros to give the NL Central four of the bottom nine teams.

If you're out in Arizona this spring and want to make sure you're not healthy enough to leave, check out Mariner beat writer Larry Stone's review of The Heart Attack Grill.

Oh, and according to Tim Kurkijian, David Eckstein's wife, Ashley Eckstein, is the voice of Darth Vader.

Drink up.

The Marshall Plan: Cubs 8, Mariners 1 and Cubs 2, Angels 8

Al — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 23:02:35 -0000

photo via yahoo.com by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

While I was trying to keep track of both of these games this afternoon, I was going through my email inbox, and either filed or deleted over 1000 emails that were cluttering it up.

Like you care.

Anyway, the Cubs won and lost today, defeating the Mariners at Mesa 8-1, and losing to the Angels 8-2 at Tempe. Neither the Yahoo standings nor the standings at mlb.com seem to have counted yesterday's loss to Japan's WBC team in the overall numbers, so that makes the spring record 8-9, after the final split squad game of the spring (pretty early in the spring for that to happen, but given the longer spring schedule this year, maybe teams felt they didn't need as many of them).

The home team looked great and the visitors looked bad. As well as Sean Marshall threw at Mesa, that's as bad as Chad Gaudin looked in Tempe. In 1.2 innings, Gaudin allowed five hits and four walks, and Kendry Morales hit a grand slam in the six-run second inning, making it 6-0. One more hit later, Gaudin was finally pulled.

Gaudin has no options left and is slated to make $2 million this year. Next Wednesday, March 18, is the deadline for releasing players and owe them only 30 days' pay (I believe this comes to 1/6 of the annual salary). It would not surprise me if the Cubs did this -- if the numbers are right, the Cubs would owe Gaudin $333,333.33, less than the minimum annual salary. At this point, he really doesn't seem to have anything -- maybe that bizarre dumpster injury he suffered last year is still bothering him. Plus, this would assure Luis Vizcaino, whose contract might make him untradeable, and who threw a little better today, of a spot in the bullpen. Gaudin's deal might make him dealable, but pitching as poorly as he has (10.38 spring ERA, and while spring stats don't necessarily mean anything, that's pretty bad), who would want him?

That's the message from the Tempe game. In Mesa, Sean Marshall was again dominant, throwing into the fifth inning and probably being pulled because of a pitch count; he allowed three hits (all singles), one walk and an unearned run that was helped by Sean's own throwing error. His 0.38 ERA so far this spring may have nailed down the fifth starter's spot for him.

Danger, Will Robinson! Marshall also threw extremely well in 2006 spring training -- I wrote this post at the time on one of his good outings and of course, he made the Opening Day roster that year even though he had barely pitched above A ball. So spring performances can fool you, but in this case, Marshall now has three more years of experience and at age 26, appears to be ready to take his place as a solid major league starter. Here's a guy who wasn't highly touted -- a sixth-round pick in 2003 -- and instead of rocketing through the organization, he made slow, steady progress. I've always liked him and he seems to have not only the physical talent, but the right makeup. Good for the Cub organization for developing another major league starting pitcher.

Sam Fuld, who will likely spend the year at Iowa again, homered for the Cubs, as did Andy White (Andres Blanco). Just-acquired Esteban German got to Mesa in time to make an appearance in the game, probably making most of the people in attendance say, "Who?" In Tempe, no one did much except Bobby Scales, who drove in the only Cub runs with a double. He also made two errors at 3B that helped lead to the last two Angels runs; still, I like Scales and hope that he'll eventually get a September callup, if only just to reward him for the eleven (including this year) seasons he's put in, in the minors.

Attendance at Mesa today was 10,910, bringing the total to 94,245 for ten dates (9,425 average, which should go up tomorrow, as tomorrow's game vs. the Angels is indicated as a sellout. And at last, we get Pat & Ron and Len & Bob back tomorrow -- the game will be on both WGN radio and TV. Having listened to other teams' announcers all week, I think you'll agree -- we've got it pretty good here on both radio and television.