SB Nation - Valerio De Los Santos

Thursday's Frosty Mug

KLSnow — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:59:41 -0000

Some things to read while making a list of things to do before having a baby.

Ryan Braun's intercostal muscle continues to be the big story today. Braun left yesterday's game after two at bats (and zero swings) due to stiffness in his side. The team is reportedly considering sending him to the doctor. At this point, I share a question with Chuckie Hacks: Why wasn't a doctor Braun's first stop when he got back to Arizona? Meanwhile, The Disabled List Informer still thinks Braun has been misdiagnosed and it could be a spinal issue.

The team made a bunch of roster moves yesterday, releasing Trot Nixon, optioning Mat Gamel and Angel Salome to Nashville, outrighting Wes Littleton to the minors and sending Jason Bourgeois and Chris Narveson to minor league camp. The Journal Sentinel has a bigger story on Nixon's release, which was especially hard on Ken Macha, who managed Nixon for four seasons in the minors (noted in this FanShot).

So the Brewers were briefly rumored to be interested in Jake Peavy, then the rumor was refuted and everyone went on with their lives. That's life in a big league front office, right? Maybe not. Doug Melvin called the rumor "disrputive" to 2009 preparations. I find it hard to believe that major league general managers aren't used to hearing unfounded rumors about players. That's the kind of thing that happens every day and if it's actually bothering Melvin while he's trying to work, he's not the GM we think he is.

The Peavy rumor was just part of Tom Haudricourt's bad day. First, he called out a commenter for posting a quote about Peavy, then he called covering Wednesday's game, a job most of us would take in a heartbeat, an exercise in tedium. Let me just go ahead and throw this out there: If Tom H. decides he doesn't want to cover baseball anymore, I'll gladly take over for him.

Visual evidence from yesterday's exercise in tedium:

A disembodied arm stopped by to congratulate Casey McGehee on his fifth home run of the spring.
Corey Hart attempted a sliding catch in foul territory.
According to the caption, Prince Fielder celebrated his home run with Prince Fielder, but one of those Princes weighs about 100 lbs more than the other one.

There will be lots of visual evidence of the final game of the Brewers' opening series with the Giants. Thursday night's game will be the first regular season game broadcast in MLB Network history.

How long is your attention span? Depending on how much time you have, Jeff Sackmann has five+ questions regarding the 2009 Brewers, or Dayn Perry has one sentence on how they could win the World Series.

If you read both and still have more time on your hands, head over to The Book Blog and help project playing time for Brewers in 2009. I weighed in this morning and was the first vote.

Two prospect notes today:

Minor League Notebook compared Alcides Escobar and Rangers prospect Elvis Andrus, and gives Escobar the advantage.
Brett Lawrie has started a blog, so stop by and say hi. (h/t Rattler Radio)

Meanwhile, FanGraphs ranked the Brewers sixth in their organizational rankings, one spot ahead of the Cubs, first in the NL Central and ahead of all but several major market teams.

There's only one prediction/projection to cover today: The Wheelhouse picked the Brewers to finish fourth in the Central.

We've been debating/complaining about Jeff Suppan's projected Opening Day start for several days now, so I guess it's about time someone came along to play the other side: Two Fisted Slopper suggests the decision could pay off with improved matchups in other games.

Also, Miller Park Drunk is excited about Bison Blonde, the new beer at Friday's Front Row designed specifically for eating with buffalo wings. If only the Brewers had a deal like this one: a place named Claim Jumper gives away free wings when the Angels score ten or more runs. The Angels have done that in four straight games.

In other camps:

Angels: John Lackey has been shut down with elbow tightness and may not be ready for Opening Day.
Astros: Miguel Tejada will spend today's off day in Washington being sentenced for lying to Congress. He's expected to receive probation.
Marlins: Traded pitcher Eulogio De La Cruz to the Padres for a PTBNL.
Mets: Released Valerio de los Santos.
Padres: The sale of the team could be finalized as soon as today, and CEO Sandy Alderson is expected to resign when it is.
Rockies: The team is looking to move catcher Yorvit Torrealba and infielder Jeff Baker.
Tigers: Season ticket sales are currently at 15,000, down from 27,000 a year ago.

Sometimes a quote just jumps out at you. Consider, for example, this note from Ken Rosenthal:

Several of (Pedro) Martinez's friends, including the Dodgers' Manny Ramirez, have told him that he needs to be more realistic with his salary desires, sources say.

When Manny Ramirez says you need to be more realistic, you know you're asking for too much.

While I would gladly take a job as an MLB beat writer, there is one high profile job in baseball I definitely don't want: umpiring. Bob Timmerman of Baseball Analysts reviews a new book on the training and lives of umpires.

Oh, and today is a Woot-off day.

Drink up.

Friday's Frosty Mug

KLSnow — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 13:59:32 -0000

Some things to read while preparing for Pi Day.

On the field yesterday it was more of the same for Jeff Suppan, who gave up eight baserunners and five runs in three innings of work, raising his spring ERA over 7 and his spring WHIP to ~~1.64~~ 1.73. There's a new poll on the sidebar asking if this performance has changed your mind at all about expectations for 2009. Meanwhile, Brewed Sports is ready to add Seth McClung to the rotation and The Brew Town Beat wonders how many times we'll see the headline "Tough Day for Suppan" in 2009.

Eduardo Morlan pitched two scoreless innings yesterday, keeping the Brewers in the game. That performance wasn't enough to help Ken Macha learn his name, though, as demonstrated in Adam McCalvy's profile:

Brewers manager Ken Macha is speaking purely in the baseball sense when he says that, "the Rule 5 guy is an interesting guy."

Padre hitters certainly had a good day yesterday, but not everyone enjoys coming to Maryvale. Before the game, MLB.com Padres beat reporter Corey Brock called the Brewers' spring training home his least favorite ballpark in Arizona.

I've got several minor league notes today:

Victor Wang of The Hardball Times ranks the Brewers' farm system tenth in baseball.
John Sickels of Minor League Ball lists Cody Scarpetta as a player who could have a breakout season in the minors in 2009.
I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere else, but Joshua Kusnick, agent for several Brewer minor leaguers (including Jeremy Jeffress), reports Jeffress retired all six batters he faced in a minor league intrasquad game yesterday, including breaking a bat wielded by Bill Hall.

How under appreciated is the career of Mike Cameron? Eric Seidman of FanGraphs is inducting him on the first ballot into the Reggie Sanders Club of Boring Stars along with Ellis Burks, Luis Gonzalez, Shawn Green and Ray Lankford.

If you're used to using the guardrails on the staircases at Miller Park, do a quick check to make sure they're still there before you fall on your face in 2009: this Newsday article says the Brewers are removing some railings to eliminate some obstructed view seats at the ballpark.

I think some fans would deal with an obstructed view if they could have The Chalet back: Viva Cerveceros tells the sentimental tale of a crazy man who sat on top of the scoreboard at County Stadium, how it led to Bernie's Chalet and where you can find the Chalet now.

Rankings/projections/predictions:

The Junkball Blues thinks Mike Cameron will hit .240/.337/.470 in 2008.
All World All Sports Blog has the Brewers fifth in the NL Central.
The Ted Lilly Fan Club thinks the Brewers can compete for the Wild Card if their pitching holds up.

A quick reminder of how far the Brewers have come: There have been years when we would have been pretty excited to report that Dugout Central's voting for the worst team in baseball came out yesterday and the Brewers didn't appear on a single ballot.

Meanwhile, in other camps:

Mariners: Signed Chad Cordero to a minor league deal.
Mets: Reliever Tom Martin broke his wrist falling down a flight of stairs at home.

Sometimes life has a strange symmetry to it. Jorge De La Rosa and Valerio De Los Santos probably appear right next to each other on a list of historical Brewers, and today I have stories about De La Rosa getting hit by a line drive and De Los Santos being sent to Mets minor league camp on the same day.

The NL Central continues to take a beating over at FanGraphs. Today, the Reds check in at #24 in their organizational rankings, putting three NL Central teams in the bottom 6.

Here's something you don't see everyday: Derrick Goold of Bird Land has a picture snapped at just the right moment to see a baseball bat slightly bent as it passes through the zone. Cool stuff.

Oh, and Charlie Brown would have been completely different if drawn by Frank Miller. (h/t 6-4-2)

Drink up.

Friday's Frosty Mug

KLSnow — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:53:46 -0000

Some things to read while waiting to see if it's a good mail day.

Is the Brewer front office the only group of people in baseball who don't realize their starting rotation has a depth problem? The team has stated for weeks now that they're not looking to spend big money on a starter, and that's fine, but now Ken Rosenthal reports they're also not interested in offering minor league deals to veteran starters like Mark Redman and Victor Zambrano or reclamation projects like Kris Benson and Jason Jennings. (h/t Al) Their interest in Mark Mulder is described as "lukewarm."

Since 2000, the Brewers have used 8, 13, 13, 12, 12, 8, 12, 8 and 8 starting pitchers, respectively. That's an average of about 10 and a half starting pitchers per season for the past nine seasons. Here's the current depth chart for starting pitchers, as I see it:

1. Yovani Gallardo
2. Manny Parra
3. Dave Bush
4. Jeff Suppan
5. Seth McClung
6. Chris Capuano (after May or so, if all goes well)
7. Mark DiFelice
8. Carlos Villanueva

After eight, it becomes anyone's guess, with names like Tim Dillard, Chris Narveson and Lindsay Gulin coming into play. I'm not sure why the front office seems to be in no hurry to add pitchers to this list.

The Brewers agreed to terms yesterday with seven players on their 40-man roster: Dillard, Mitch Stetter, Alcides Escobar, Mat Gamel, Casey McGehee, Brad Nelson and Angel Salome. In a related note, the Brewers recently sent Salome to the 2009 Rookie Career Development Program, and while he was there he was interviewed for MLB.com.

Speaking of interviews, The Sporting News took a few minutes to catch up with Mark Attanasio for a Q and A. They asked him about (what else?) the salary cap (three times), then they had a brief conversation about the Brewers. (h/t BBTF)

I guess there is one advantage to having a fair number of free swingers on your team: The Brewers were below league average in strikeouts looking in 2008.

On the hot stove:

A's: Signed Russ Springer to a deal reported to be worth more than $3 million.
Braves: The team has reportedly stopped pursuing Adam Dunn and will not offer more than a minor league deal to Andruw Jones.
Cubs: will reportedly trade Rich Hill to the Orioles once Baltimore has cleared some space on their 40-man roster to take him.
Dodgers: Spoke to the agents for both Braden Looper and Randy Wolf yesterday.
Giants: Signed Juan Uribe to a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training.
Mariners: Signed Mike Sweeney to a minor league deal. They may also be considering an 11-man pitching staff.
Marlins: Signed Kiko Calero and Jason Standridge to minor league deals.
Mets: Signed Bobby Kielty, Tony Armas Jr., Matt DeSalvo and Valerio de los Santos to minor league deals.
Orioles: Will not retain Kevin Millar.
Pirates: Signed Paul Maholm to a three-year deal, buying out his three arbitration seasons. The deal also has an option for a fourth year. They're also reportedly ready to sign Eric Hinske.
Red Sox: Jason Varitek, apparently unhappy with the offers he's received as a free agent, is threatening to sit out the 2009 season. (see update)
Reds: May sign Luis Gonzalez to help fill out their bench.
Yankees: We've had several conversations about how this works, but apparently we were all wrong and the Yankees have filled their quota of Type A/B free agents. (see update 2)

UPDATE: ESPN is reporting Varitek has accepted a one-year deal from the Red Sox.

UPDATE 2: Or not. The Yankees can still sign more free agents.

Do you have MLB Network? (I don't.) Are you losing your mind waiting for the first televised spring training games? (I am.) If so, perhaps Caribbean World Series games can help tide you over. The network will have 12 games between February 2 and 7. Odds are my cable company will continue to hold out and I won't see any of them.

Oh, and it appears Rays reliever J.P. Howell can't draw straight lines.

Drink up.