Cruz looking ahead to 2011
September 7, 2010Infielder Luis Cruz was promoted to the big league Brewers on Tuesday, partly as a reward for his solid season at Triple-A Nashville. He's hoping to use September as a springboard to 2011.
Callup caps ‘crazy’ year for Kintzler
September 7, 2010Four years ago, right-hander Brandon Kintzler was out of baseball, rehabbing from shoulder surgery. On Tuesday, he arrived in the Major Leagues as part of the Brewers' latest round of September callups.
Gamethread #138: Cardinals (72-63) at Brewers (63-74)
September 7, 2010
Current Series
Cardinals lead the series 1-0
| Mon 09/06 | WP: Mitchell Boggs (2 - 2) LP: Zach Braddock (1 - 2) |
6 - 8 loss |
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St. Louis Cardinals Tuesday, Sep 7, 2010, 7:10 PM CDT Partly cloudy. Winds blowing from right to left field at 25-30 m.p.h. Game time temperature around 65.
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| Wed 09/08 | 7:10 PM CDT | |
Chris Narveson (10-7, 5.33 ERA) has been pretty darn good lately. In six starts in August and September the Narv-Dog has a 3.55 ERA, an ERA which has continued to drop since the his high water mark of 6.02 on July 7th. His last start was one of his better ones this year. He held the powerful Reds to just 2 hits in 6.1 innings. But then he gave up a walk and Ken Macha decided he's done for the night. Enter Todd Coffey, a 3-run homer, and a Brewers loss. Anyhoo... No conversation about Narveson would be complete without talking about his bat. He's now batting a ridiculous-for-a-pitcher .341 and has 7 RBIs. The last run he drove in was the only Brewers run in the finale against the Reds. In his career against the Cardinals Narveson is 0-1 with a 4.30 ERA. Two Cardinals have faced Narveson at least 10 times.
| PA | Slash line | |
| Albert Pujols | 12 | .429/.583/1.286 |
| Colby Rasmus | 13 | .364/.417/.545 |
Jeff Suppan was suppsoed to pitch today, but instead, we get to face Kyle Lohse (2-6, 7.12 ERA). The Cardinal righty has spent a good chunk of the season on the DL and is making just his 13th start of the season. He's looked particularly bad since his return from the DL; in those three starts he's 1-2 with a 11.48 ERA. One reason for his lack of success might be his lack of luck; he's carrying a hefty .365 BABIP this season. Lohse's last turn in the rotation was skipped and he'll be pitching on nine days rest tonight. In his career against the Brewers Lohse is 3-5 with a 5.24 ERA. Four Brewers have faced Lohse at least 10 times.
| PA | Slash line | |
| Craig Counsell | 23 | .455/.478/.727 |
| Prince Fielder | 21 | .278/.281/.278 |
| Rickie Weeks | 19 | .318/.316/.333 |
| Ryan Braun | 18 | .412/.444/.715 |
Tonight's Lineup
Weeks 2B
Hart RF
Braun LF
Fielder 1B
McGehee 3B
Dickerson CF
Lucroy C
Counsell SS
Narveson LHP
In the bullpen...
Zach Braddock pitched .1 inning (8 pitches) yesterda, .1 inning Sunday, and 1 inning Saturday.
Jeremy Jeffress pitched (14 pitches) yesterday.
Todd Coffey pitched .2 innings (9 pitches) yesterday.
Mike McClendon pitched 1 inning (15 pitches) yesterday.
John Axford pitched 2 innings (35 pitches) Sunday.
Kameron Loe pitched (11 pitches) Saturday.
Carlos Villanueva pitched 1 inning (26 pitches) Saturday.
Brandon Kintzler pitched 1 scoreless inning Friday for AAA Nashville.
Go Brewers!
Weeks nominated for Clemente Award
September 7, 2010Rickie Weeks is the Brewers' nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award presented by Chevy, a prestigious honor bestowed each year on a Major Leaguer who makes a positive impact off the baseball diamond.
Vote in This Week’s BCB Tracking Poll
September 7, 2010This week's poll focuses on the Brewer broadcast teams, along with the usual topics.
Voting will be open until Wednesday afternoon, with results posted Thursday morning.
Follow the jump to vote in the poll.
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Vote in This Week’s BCB Tracking Poll
September 7, 2010This week's poll focuses on the Brewer broadcast teams, along with the usual topics.
Voting will be open until Wednesday afternoon, with results posted Thursday morning.
Follow the jump to vote in the poll.
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Tuesday’s Frosty Mug
September 7, 2010
Some things to read while checking the time.
The Brewers dropped to 4-10 in their last 14 games with an 8-6 loss to the Cardinals yesterday, and there were no shortage of people to share the blame for some disastrous late-inning mistakes. Tom Haudricourt singled out three guilty parties: Casey McGehee, who committed an error on a key grounder and was thrown out at the plate, Todd Coffey, who allowed a grand slam, and third base coach Brad Fischer, who essentially ended the Brewers' eighth inning rally by sending McGehee home.
When the two teams take the field tonight, there will be three new Brewers: With the minor league season concluded, the Brewers called up shortstop Luis Cruz and reliever Brandon Kintzler (FanShot), along with Nashville coach Sandy Guerrero. Cruz had a career year in Nashville in 2010, hitting .281/.309/.414 in his tenth professional season. Kintzler was very impressive in his first full season in the Brewer organization, posting a 1.47 ERA in 42 relief appearances betweeen Huntsville and Nashville, and recording 16 saves.
Speaking of saves, Trevor Hoffman enters tonight's game sitting on 599 for his career. J.R. Radcliffe has a story on the approaching milestone for Cardinals.com.
Other notes from the field:
- As will likely become normal during sunny day games, yesterday's game was played with the right field roof panels partially closed to eliminate some of the shadows and glare.
- Albert Pujols, Yovani Gallardo and Yadier Molina are leading FanGraphs' Star of the Game voting.
- Here are the MLB.com video highlights.
For some, what happened yesterday isn't as important as what didn't happen. Plunk Everyone notes that the Brewers have gone a season-high seven straight games without being hit by a pitch, their longest streak of the season. But they still lead baseball with 69 HBP.
Yesterday I mentioned a post at Disciples of Uecker discussing Yovani Gallardo's offensive value. Today, Jack Moore has another post expanding on his findings: He says Gallardo has added an extra 1.3 wins to his value at the plate, putting him at 5.3 WAR overall. That's on pace with the likes of Adam Wainwright and Ubaldo Jimenez.
Carlos Gomez sat out again yesterday and still has just nine plate appearances since being activated off the DL on August 24. Ken Macha, Doug Melvin and Gomez sat down recently to discuss why he's not playing, and now it sounds like he's finally starting to get it:
"I'm not out of the lineup because I'm a bad center fielder or because I'm slow," Gomez said. "It's because I don't get on base consistent. If I get on base more consistent, there's no question about whether I'm going to play every day."
Gomez will spend the winter playing for Escogido in the Dominican Republic and working with Sandy Guerrero to fix the problem.
Maybe Gomez will get to face Doug Davis this winter: Davis hopes to be activated before next week's Giants series and pitch in a few games in relief, then plans to play winter ball to prove he's healthy while he looks for a contract for 2011.
In the minors:
- The affiliates went 1-3 last night and Nick Bucci pitched seven scoreless innings, allowing two hits, three walks and striking out four in Wisconsin's 7-0 win over Kane County in their season finale. You can read about that and more in today's Minor League Notes.
- Yesterday's games were also the last of 2010 for Huntsville and Nashville, and Battlekow says it sounds like this will be their final season as Brewer affiliates.
- Taylor Green had a pretty nice bounce-back season for Huntsville, hitting .260/.336/.438 as a 23 year old in the Southern League. At Brewerfan.net, Green's agent says he'll be spending some time at catcher in instructional ball this fall. (h/t Battlekow)
On power rankings:
- Beyond the Box Score has the Brewers holding steady at 20.
- MLB FanHouse moved the Brewers down one spot to 21.
- Craig Calcaterra has the Brewers at 23, down two spots.
Around baseball:
Angels: Released pitcher Brian Stokes.
Padres: Designated pitcher Steve Garrison for assignment.
Pirates: Designated infielder Akinori Iwamura and catcher Erik Kratz for assignment.
Rangers: Designated infielder Alex Cora for assignment.
This is a new one for me: As part of today's Aroldis Chapman update, Craig Calcaterra notes that Chapman's AAA pitching coach said the Cuban defector can't throw an effective changeup because his hands are too big.
Actually, this story is stranger yet: Blue Jays outfielder Jose Bautista leads the AL with 43 HR, and yesterday one of his foul balls knocked a letter off a sign at the Rogers Centre, causing it to fall and hit a fan.
It looks like the season is over for Jim Edmonds, who played in just nine games after being sent to the Reds in August. Edmonds is struggling to recover from an oblique strain.
While many AAA teams might be looking for a new parent club this offseason, one will also be looking for a new home: With their ballpark being made into a soccer-only facility, the Portland Beavers played their final home game yesterday. They're not sure where they'll play in 2011 at this point.
On this day two years ago, the Brewers were one-hit by Chris Young and the Padres, losing 10-1. On this day last year, they were one hit by Chris Carpenter and the Cardinals, losing 3-0. This probably doesn't bode well for today.
If you're looking for more Brewer History, check out the team's new Twitter feed devoted to that topic.
Happy birthday today to 1983-88 Brewer and longtime Brewer broadcaster Bill Schroeder, who turns 52.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get this box off my head.
Drink up.
Gallardo sharp, but Crew falls after error
September 6, 2010Yovani Gallardo resembled an ace again and Corey Hart hit a pair of home runs, but the Cardinals scored six runs off three Brewers relievers in the eighth inning and sent Milwaukee to an 8-6 loss at Miller Park on Monday afternoon.
SS Luis Cruz and RHP Brandon Kintzler called up
September 6, 2010SS Luis Cruz and RHP Brandon Kintzler called up
Cardinals 8, Brewers 6
September 6, 2010W: Mitchell Boggs (2-2)
L: Zach Braddock (1-3)
HR: Rickie Weeks (26), Corey Hart 2 (27), Yadier Molina (6)
MVP: Yovani Gallardo (+.182)
LVP: Jeremy Jeffress (-.331)
Honorary LVPs: Casey McGehee (1-for-4 with an error, thrown out at the plate) and Todd Coffey (allowed an eighth inning grand slam)
Win Expectancy Graph and Star of the Game Voting
SB Nation Coverage
Well, that wasn't the first impression Jeremy Jeffress was likely hoping for.
Jeffress made his Miller Park debut in the eighth inning and it's hard to imagine him being thrown more directly into the fire: With a runner on first and one out in a tie game, he was brought in to face Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday. Jeffress got Pujols to ground to third, and might have had a double play if Casey McGehee had fielded it cleanly. Instead Pujols reached and with runners on first and second, Matt Holliday got a ground ball through the right side and the winning run came home.
From there, the meltdown was on in full force. Brought in to get out of a bases loaded jam, Todd Coffey allowed a single and a Yadier Molina grand slam to remove all doubt.
Yovani Gallardo bounced back nicely from some recent rough performances, pitching seven innings today and allowing two runs on four hits in seven innings. He likely would have been the winning pitcher if not for a wild pitch that allowed Albert Pujols to score the tying run in the sixth. He kept his pitch count down, walking just two, striking out four and getting through seven innings on 97 pitches.
At the plate, the Brewers got solo home runs from Rickie Weeks and Corey Hart, each setting new career highs with their 26th on the season. Hart added a two run shot in the ninth to bring the Brewers back within two. He's now hit four home runs in his last three games. Despite trailing 8-2 in the bottom of the eighth the Brewers brought the tying run to the plate with two outs in the ninth, but Prince Fielder grounded out to end it.