Tuesday's Frosty Mug

KLSnow — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:18:15 -0000

More photos » by Duane Burleson - AP

6 months ago: Milwaukee Brewers starting pitcher Dave Bush waits for Detroit Tigers' Miguel Cabrera to round the bases after giving up a two-run home run in the third inning of a baseball game Saturday, June 20, 2009 in Detroit. The Tigers beat the Brewers 9-5. (AP Photo/Duane Burleson)

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Some things to read while wearing unnecessarily dangerous hats and vests.

Well, I'm married, honeymooned and moved, and I think I'm finally ready to be back. Thanks to Jordan for filling in on the Mug in my absence, and to all the site's contributors and mods who posted in my absence. It doesn't look like the site missed a beat while I was gone, which is great to see.

Unfortunately, the Brewers are 4-9 since I left on my honeymoon, and 0-3 since I've moved into my new house. I've started putting things back in boxes.

As I'm sure you know, the Brewers' starting pitchers haven't been very good lately. FanGraphs notes that Brewer pitchers posted a 6.08 FIP last week, and five different pitchers posted ERAs over 10. Meanwhile, Dave Bush will likely be pushed back a few days, or could skip a start entirely to recover from arm fatigue.

Who will take Dave Bush's spot in the rotation? Tyler Mass handicaps the favorites over at Right Field Bleachers. Seth McClung appears to be the early favorite. I doubt consideration will be given to Manny Parra (who has only made one start in AAA) or Carlos Villanueva (don't mess with a good thing in the bullpen), but Mike Burns is already lined up to start Thursday, so he could also be an option.

At least Yovani Gallardo looked pretty good on Sunday. He also ranks eleventh in Baseball Analysts' list of pitchers ranked by strikeouts per 100 pitches. Jeff Suppan ranks 90th out of 98 pitchers listed.

The Brewers close out interleague play with a three game series against the Twins starting tonight, but don't expect it to be the end of the line for Mat Gamel. Anthony Witrado says Gamel is getting comfortable in the big leagues and the team appears committed to keeping him around.

Prince Fielder, meanwhile, simply continues to produce. Adam McCalvy has a look at Fielder's consistency, and notices that Fielder has not gone more than three games without an RBI this season.

It seems increasingly likely that the Brewers will make a move to strengthen their playoff chances, but how much money can they spend? Jon Heyman lists them among ten teams that could add payroll, but I'm not sure they could add much, as they were already claiming they were out of money before giving $5 million to Braden Looper months ago.

I still think it's too early to start discussing the Wild Card, but MLB FanHouse notices that the Brewers are tied with the Giants for the lead in the race for the final playoff spot, and five teams are within 2.5 games of it.

Meanwhile, in power rankings:

WhatifSports dropped the Brewers six spots to fourteenth.
Richard Griffin of the Toronto Star dropped the Brewers from seventh to twelfth.

Around the league:

Angels: Placed Ervin Santana on the DL with triceps inflammation.
Mets: Placed Carlos Beltran on the DL with a bone bruise on his right knee, designated infielder Wilson Valdez and minor league pitcher Connor Robertson for assignment and released Javier Valentin, Wily Mo Pena and Bobby Kielty from minor league deals.
Phillies: Will place Clay Condrey on the DL with an oblique strain.
Pirates: Designated Craig Monroe for assignment after he showed a lack of hustle.
Rays: Akinori Iwamura's knee injury was not as bad as previously thought, and he could be back in 6-8 weeks following an arthroscopic procedure.
Yankees: CC Sabathia is expected to make his next start after being pulled in the second inning of his last start with arm soreness.

This is how you know your infield situation is pretty bad: Lookout Landing crunched the numbers and discovered that the Mariners may actually be better off starting veteran journeyman Chris Woodward at shortstop. Woodward spent 2008 in Nashville.

Where would the Mariners be without Russell Branyan? The USA Today has a profile of Branyan and his breakout season, and Larry Stone of the Seattle Times notes that Branyan is on past to collect the least RBI ever accumulated by a 40 home run hitter.

On top of making all the roster moves listed above, the Mets had another reason to panic yesterday, as Jose Reyes and a team trainer were rear ended by a fire truck on their way to an appointment with Reyes' doctor. Everyone is ok, thankfully.

Oh, and today is a Woot-off day.

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.

SB Nation - Bobby Kielty

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