I have to be on the road in a little more than an hour. I have so much to do. Yet here I sit, compiling Brewer links. Yup, I need this shirt.

Win Expectancy Graph
BR Box Score

Apparently Mark Attanasio was at last night's game. If he, or you, need a list of reasons to be worried after the Brewers dropped a game at home to a bad last place team, Tom H. has you covered.

Manny Parra is already 23 2/3 innings over what he threw last season. This is about the time when you start limiting innings on a young pitcher, right? Wrong. There is no plan to keep Parra's arm from falling off, and MLB FanHouse thinks the Brewers should go ahead and schedule a visit to Dr. James Andrews in advance.

Brewed Sports caught CC Sabathia on Pardon the Interruption yesterday, and (potentially mis)quoted Sabathia as saying he'd like to stay if the Brewers win the World Series. While we wait to see how that plays out, we can add Geoff Baker to the list of bloggers considering CC for NL MVP.

The most recent Bugs and Cranks Power Rankings have the Brewers holding steady at 7. The (once again) reworked Whisnant Rankings have the Brewers at 11.

On injuries:

Ronnie Belliard might be done for the season with a right groin strain.
Ian Kinsler will have surgery to repair a sports hernia and is done for the season.
Rays CF B.J. Upton continues to play with a torn labrum that is affecting his ability to hit for power.

A revelation occurred in the office of CBS Sportsline's Scott Miller, who suddenly realized that six teams not from Chicago will make the playoffs this season, and one of them could prevent the Cubs and White Sox from playing a World Series no one outside of Chicago would care about.

Could the manager of the year come from the fourth best team in a division? Jose de Jesus Ortiz makes the case for Cecil Cooper. Granted, the Astros have turned their season around in impressive fashion, but Cooper was also the manager when they were awful in April and May.

Oh, and the New York Sun may cease publication at the end of September.

Drink up. See you Monday.

A lot has been made over the course of the season about Rickie Weeks and whether or not he's qualified to lead off and play every day for the Brewers. Today, in a quick glance at his numbers, I discovered the following:

Before May 20: .193/.323/.331
Since May 20: .254/.344/.422

So my question is this: If Weeks can continue to produce at his since May 20 clip as a middle infielder, is that good enough? Or does the position still need to be upgraded?

This was supposed to be a short week. So why am I looking at my calendar and saying "Really? It's only Thursday?"

Win Expectancy Graph
BR Box Score

Apparently all it took was a Dave Bush meatball for Ryan Church to get his stroke back.

Also yesterday, Angel Salome, Alcides Escobar and Mat Gamel got their first major league at bats. The kids grow up so fast. The Official Site notes that Brad Nelson has the ball from his first big league hit, but not a house to keep it in. Maybe he can borrow Bob Hamelin's house.

CC Sabathia is NL Pitcher of the Month for the second time in two months, but he won't get a belated no-hitter.

Jeremy Jeffress has a new agent, the same guy who represents Taylor Green, Mickey Brantley and a handful of other Brewers. I just spent 5 minutes reading the agent's blog for the first time. Professional isn't the first word that came to mind. But he does claim to know who the PTBNL in the Sabathia trade is, giving him the opportunity to be completely wrong on something he claimed as fact for the third time this season.

Speaking of Brewer minor leaguers, MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo is all over the minor league playoffs, so much so that he blogged about the first six innings of West Virginia's game last night but didn't bother to mention how the game ended. The Power lost game 1 of their series, here's the box score.

Also, Jeff was on the radio last night discussing the Brewers. I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, but it's Jeff, so at the very least he might introduce you to a hot tennis player you hadn't heard of before.

Only one injury today: Jered Weaver cut his hand on the visiting dugout this week and will have to have his next start pushed back.

Remember when the Brewers dumped Grant Balfour on the Rays for Seth McClung, and the general consensus was happiness to be rid of a guy who was more or less done? Turns out Balfour is pitching pretty well for the Rays, so perhaps the deal worked out for both teams.

Not working out: the 2008 Reds, who were eliminated from postseason contention last night.

The Cubs aren't exactly eliminated, but you might guess they were from the tone of this all caps diatribe re-posted on The Junkball Blues.

More signs pointing to a AAA shakeup: Hot Foot notes that the Indians' decision to leave Buffalo will likely open the door for the Blue Jays to move from Syracuse to Buffalo, leaving the Mets free to move from New Orleans to Syracuse and have their AAA team closer to home. Where this leaves the Zephyrs is unsure, but the music hasn't even started playing yet so the game of musical chairs is far from over.

Oh, and apparently players become more aggressive when wearing black.

Drink up.

Some things to read while I work on training Gorman to accurately predict the weather.

Win Expectancy Graph
BR Box Score

Ok, let's start with the positive from last night: Manny Parra picked up a couple of doubles, meaning he's only a little more than 500 hits away from the all-time pitcher record.

Ok, done being positive. Brewed Sports noted that Eric Gagne has the highest HR/9 of any major league pitcher that hasn't been released. So why is he still pitching in high leverage, or really any, situation? The Official Site says Ned is trying so hard to get himself fired Gagne is staying in the eighth inning role.

Jayson Stark listed CC Sabathia as a top-three candidate for NL Cy Young, but decided Tim Lincecum deserves it more. Via The Hardball Times, I found Tim Marchman of the NY Sun, who argues that the sleeper candidate may be Ryan Dempster. That's probably a reach.

Others are still weighing in on Sabathia's near no-hitter. Hal McCoy thinks it was a hit. UmpBump doesn't like Doug Melvin's idea for a new official scoring system.

Manny Ramirez, Mark Teixeira, Adam Dunn...and Ray Durham? MLB Trade Rumors has a list of top upcoming free agents sorted by OBP. Ray Durham makes the top ten.

On injuries:

White Sox 3B Joe Crede left last night's game after 5 innings with tightness in his back.
Nats C Jesus Flores left last night's game on a stretcher, but preliminary reports say it was just an ankle sprain.
Ken Griffey missed his second straight game with a sore back.
Cards OF Joe Mather is done for the year with a broken hand.
White Sox OF Carlos Quentin was scratched from last night's game with forearm soreness.
Rangers C Jarrod Saltalamacchia is done for the year with a strained muscle in his forearm.
Carlos Zambrano left last night's game after five innings with arm trouble. He'll be re-examined today.

We're getting close to the window for teams to negotiate with potential minor league affiliates, and two stories today imply their could be some significant movement in AAA: The Indians are leaving Buffalo and will likely sign a deal with Columbus. Meanwhile, the Dodgers are reportedly moving from Las Vegas to Albuquerque.

Drink up.

So I've got a ton of links this morning. There were over 1300 unread in my reader this morning, plus a dozen or so I found before I decided to observe the holiday yesterday. So why did I spend 15 minutes reading Joe Posnanski's thoughts on candy bars?

Monday's Win Expectancy Graph
Monday's BR Box Score

Sunday's Win Expectancy Graph
Sunday's BR Box Score

Saturday's Win Expectancy Graph
Saturday's BR Box Score

Friday's Win Expectancy Graph
Friday's Box Score

Ok, 3 1/2 days of links. Where does one start?

Everyone wants to talk about the game that was or wasn't a no-hitter on Sunday. This seems like a good time to bust out the bullet points:

• Tom H. has the official scorer's explanation.
• Chuckie Hacks says it wasn't a hit, but will settle for a 20-win month.
• In-Between Hops thinks we all have bigger things to worry about.
• The Brew Town Beat thinks MLB should reverse the call.
• Two Fisted Slopper also thinks it was the wrong call.
• Jim Powell says, and I quote: "We wuz robbed."
• Baseball Musings asked another official scorer for their opinion, and said it should be a hit.
• Bugs and Cranks wants to know what you think. Right now about 52% of voters are voting "error."
• Murray Chass wants his prune juice NOW!
• Peter Schmuck says MLB shouldn't change the call after the fact.

A couple of other notes on Sabathia: Beyond the Box Score is comparing Sabathia and...Ricky Nolasco? Also, MLB FanHouse thinks Sabathia is "flying under the radar" as a Cy Young candidate. How is that possible?

This is almost certainly bigger news: Ben Sheets left yesterday's game with tightness in his left groin. I haven't seen any updates on his condition yet, but obviously we'll be watching.

The rosters also expanded over the weekend. The JS has a quick profile of the ten players the Brewers have called up.

Looking ahead, The Brew Town Beat takes a look at today's Mets starter, Jon Niese, who will make his big league debut. TheJay has a FanPost on him too.

Could the Brewers play low-A ball in the Midwest League again next season? Via Al, I found this story that would suggest the Brewers and Wisconsin Timber Rattlers are waiting for the MLB-sanctioned window to open negotiations.

On Power Rankings:

WhatifSports has the Brewers 4th.
Phil Rogers has the Brewers 5th.
The Whisnant Rankings have the Brewers 8th.

Two Brewer voices are up for consideration for the Ford Frick Award, getting them a place alongside Bob Uecker in the Hall of Fame. I'm not sure Jim Powell is quite ready for enshrinement yet. And Bill Schroeder? Really?

On injuries:

Padres OF Scott Hairston has a torn ligament in his thumb.
Jeff Kent will have surgery to repair a torn medial meniscus and is out for the season.
Rangers P Vicente Padilla is on the DL with a strained hamstring.

And, instead of linking it 3 times, I'll just tell you that The Disabled List Informer has injury news on Carlos Zambrano (shoulder fatigue), Kevin Gregg (left knee inflammation) and Wandy Rodriguez (oblique).

MLB Trade Rumors has sorted likely free agent pitchers by strikeout rate, giving us the first list of likely free agent pitchers that doesn't have CC Sabathia at the top. At the same time The Junkball Blues asks if free agent pitchers are worth it.

Cliff Lee won his 20th game yesterday, making him 20-2 for the 66-win Cleveland Indians. Baseball Musings is calling it the best pitching performance in the AL since Pedro Martinez in 1999.

Brandon Webb couldn't pick up his 20th win again yesterday. But the organization has stepped up behind him and acquired some grit.

I was looking for something offbeat and unrelated to post here in the close, then I realized I used the candy bar thing in the open. Please do not protest.

Drink up.

No Brewer game yesterday, but there were 8 others: Win Expectancy Graphed.

Today is the last time I intend to write about whining Cardinals beat reporters in 2008. With that said, if you read anyone else's blog you've probably seen what Bernie (not worth looking twice to spell his last name right) had to say about the Brewers, which was factually inaccurate, slanted, whiny, and didn't have a beat I could dance to. Thankfully, I don't have to waste much breath on Bernie, because everything I would or could say in reply has been said by the following:

• Chuckie Hacks
• The Yost Infection
• The Brew Town Beat
• Brewed Sports
• View From Bernie's Chalet

But alas, despite Cardinal complaints that the Brewers are mean and stupid and steal their cupcakes, the Brewers must be doing something right, because they sold their 3-millionth ticket yesterday.

Obviously, after 26 years outside of playoff contention, the Brewers' run this season has caught some people off guard. As a result, already stretched-too-thin writers like CBS Sportsline's Larry Dobrow have been forced to resort to stealing content from blogs.

MLB Trade Rumors is reporting that the Angels are in the market for a backup shortstop, given their recent rash of injuries. That got me thinking: What's fair-market value for a 5-week rental of Craig Counsell? I'm guessing one of the minor league affiliates could use a bag of baseballs.

On injuries:

Josh Beckett won't start on Friday after all and is hearing the three most dreaded words in sports: Dr. James Andrews.
Angels 2B Howie Kendrick has been placed on the DL with a tight hamstring.

CBS Sportsline's Scott Miller says we should save time by just putting the Cubs in the World Series. I think we should save time by not reading Scott Miller.

Actual video evidence that sometimes hustle and grittiness pays off: Via Walkoff Walk, I found this video of Rangers C Jarrod Saltalamacchia scoring from second on a dropped pop up to the pitcher. The video is at about 1:55.

Remember when Don Cheadle made those commercials about the playoffs for the NFL? This list of TV personalities making baseball's playoff promos ensures MLB will get more or less the opposite.

Oh, and the Rays game recap thread from Wednesday night had a rather interesting drop-in commenter: team owner Stu Sternberg.

Drink up.

I read 246 baseball blogs and websites this morning, and all I got was this lousy collection of links.

Win Expectancy Graph
BR Box Score

So apparently, for seven innings last night, the game wasn't big enough for the Cardinals. A home win and moving up in the Wild Card standings. Then Carlos Villanueva wiggled off the hook and got excited. Does anyone really believe that's what "woke up" the Cardinals? Tom H., Jim Powell and Big League Stew seem to think so. Defensive Indifference says the Brewers went 10-5 against the Cards this season because they waited until the final game to wake Pujols up.

Maybe before next season, we can all purchase t-shirts designed specifically for untucking so we can further perpetuate this inconceivable slight to all great things in the history of baseball and mankind. Or the people who complain about such things will get a life.

Moving on. Jon Heyman weighs in on how teams will handle players with options for next season. He predicts the Brewers will exercise their option on Mike Cameron. The fact that he's hitting .431/.491/.824 over his last 14 games has moved that option from a question mark to a lock.

Mat Gamel hit his first AAA home run yesterday, but amazingly enough, it wasn't the game's biggest story: Tony Gwynn Jr. hit a walk-off home run to win it.

The Brewers held steady at 7th in the most recent Bugs and Cranks power rankings.

Finally, Viva Cerveceros wrote a touching coming-of-age tale about friendship, sacrifice...and bobbleheads.

On injuries:

Mets IF Ramon Castro has been placed on the DL with a quad injury.
Josh Hamilton was scratched from Wednesday's lineup with an abscessed tooth that will require a root canal.

Today, once again, we have reason to rejoice in the fact that the Brewers didn't draft a Scott Boras client in the first round. Hyzdu Headquarters has a pretty good summary of the situation involving the Pirates and their first round pick, Pedro Alvarez, and his agent, (who else?) Scott Boras. Alvarez has yet to report to the Pirates, and Boras is claiming his contract was approved too late to be valid. Under baseball's rules, this should mean Alvarez didn't sign and sits out a year...but Boras is trying to wiggle into getting the Pirates to offer more money. Baseball Digest Daily has a message for Pedro Alvarez, but I think the broader message needs to be sent out to every prospective draftee for 2009: If you want to play baseball, find a different agent.

Four former Brewers are on the move, all covered within this link:

• The Braves signed Elmer Dessens.
• The Orioles activated Greg Aquino off the DL yesterday and designated him for assignment.
• The Mets recalled Robinson Cancel and Nelson Figueroa.

Oh, and the Rays won their 80th game last night, in front of a home crowd of 12,678.

Drink up.

Gorman graduated from puppy class yesterday. We're all so proud.

Oh, and the Brewers won big, too.

Win Expectancy Graph
BR Box Score

And of course, after the game the Brewers continued to commit the most dastardly crime against humanity ever recorded in the book of "Are You Really Still Complaining About This?": the untucking of shirts. Please consult the proper authorities.

Bird Land has a post up on, you guessed it, untucked shirts. He actually explains the reasons, though. Maybe people will read it and learn something. Probably not, though.

According to Tyler Maas at Bugs and Cranks, Ryan Braun wore a different kind of uniform yesterday. Not sure if he kept it tucked in.

A friend of mine was recently working on compiling a list of things that are completely unnecessary to say. For example, he'll walk into a store, pick something up off the shelf and exclaim, "Oh, I wonder if they have these?!" Tom H. has apparently picked up the trend. This morning he's letting us all know that the Brewers, who won game 1 of a series last night, are also hoping to win game 2 to complete the sweep.

He did include this note in today's game story, though: Should CC Sabathia win the NL Cy Young? Steve Aschburner of SI.com makes a case for him.

One other awards note: Fungoes has Ryan Braun 12th in their rankings for NL MVP, behind, among others: two pitchers, an outfielder who's out for the season and an outfielder that no longer plays in the NL.

There have been times in the not-so-distant past when stuff like this would have been the only Brewer news in September: The Brewers announced their contributions to the Arizona Fall League yesterday.

Three members of the West Virginia Power (low-A) were named to the South Atlantic League's post-season All Star Team.

Also, here are some photos from Nashville including (relatively) rare photographs of Mat Gamel in a Sounds uniform.

Book your vacation days now, the postseason schedule has been announced.

On injuries:

J.D. Drew's herniated disc landed him on the DL after all.
Nats OF Austin Kearns has a stress fracture in his foot and will miss 2-4 weeks.
Rangers SP Vicente Padilla is still having issues with his neck and may not pitch Friday.
Marlins RP Renyel Pinto has been placed on the DL with a "sore hamstring" that couldn't possibly be related to this.
Rays C Dioner Navarro had to leave yesterday's game with cramping in his hamstrings and may not play today.
Nick Swisher left last night's game in the 4th inning after fouling a pitch off of his foot.

Again, this is the kind of stuff that used to be the biggest Brewer news in September: MLB Trade Rumors has projected free agent compensation for players likely to be on the move this winter.

Also likely to be on the move: most, if not all of your favorite Florida Marlins, as it seems unlikely the team will come to terms with all 18 arbitration eligible players they'll have this winter.

So let's say you're an MLB general manager and you're looking to upgrade your pitching this offseason. If CC Sabathia is out of your reach, who's the second best free-agent pitcher? Dave Cameron at Fangraphs suggests it's Derek Lowe.

I guess now that J.D. Drew has been DL'ed this move is mildly relevant, but it still feels like a yawner: The Red Sox acquired Mark Kotsay yesterday.

The race to 20 wins got a little closer yesterday: Cliff Lee picked up his 19th win last night, while Brandon Webb took the loss in his first shot at 20. If Cliff Lee reaches 20 wins, and all the signs would suggest he will, will it be the quietest 20 wins ever?

Oh, and do you hate love poems? Would you like them more if they were about Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame Catcher Carlton Fisk? I thought you would.

Drink up.

Some days witty opening lines just don't write themselves. The Brewers were off yesterday, but there were 10 other MLB games, and you can see their Win Expectancy Graphs here.

The Brewers start a quick 2-game series with the Cardinals tonight, the two teams' last scheduled meeting in 2008. So what are our expectations? Tom H. says a split is good enough. Screw that. The Brewers can't bury the Cardinals this week, but going into Thursday's off day 5.5 games up would feel a lot better than 3.5.

MLB Fanhouse notes that the Cardinals still play several contending teams down the stretch, while the Brewers have 2 series each against the Reds and Pirates.

Adam McCalvy over at The Official Site has a mailbag up, and the first question is about Jason Kendall wearing down. Yes, it is a slow news day.

So the Brewers have sold out 21 straight games, and will likely (if they haven't already) sell out both games in the Cardinals series (or at least they would have, if the series was in Milwaukee. Oops). So what exactly is a sellout? Don Walker says the Brewers call a game a sellout if only individual tickets are available. I'm not sure where I got the impression that "sold out" meant no more tickets are available. Why would the Brewers want to advertise that all of their games are sold out if there are individual tickets left?

Today's Sabathia rumor comes from Jon Heyman, who heard from an unnamed source that Sabathia would prefer to play for the Giants. El Lefty Malo sees it as unlikely. Is playing close to home so important to CC that he'd spend the next 2-3 years playing on terrible rebuilding teams? Even with Sabathia and Lincecum, does anyone think the Giants would contend anytime before 2011?

Jayson Stark dropped the ball. Even with CC Sabathia, Ben Sheets and a choice between Parra, Bush or Suppan, he doesn't think the Brewers rank within the top five postseason rotations.

Maybe starting pitching is overrated. Recondite Baseball discovered that two former Brewers are among the pitchers with the worst game score ever to record a win.

The latest WhatIfSports Power Rankings have the Brewers 3rd, behind the Cubs and Rays. The Whisnant Rankings have them 9th.

I'm not usually one to self-promote, but again, slow news day: I'm enjoying the debate in this FanPost about how to select an MVP and Ryan Braun's qualifications.

Only two injuries to report:

Johnny Cueto is only expected to miss one start with his recent elbow trouble.
Carlos Guillen left last night's game with lower back spasms and is day to day.

I'm sure the Pirates thought only scoring 3 runs on 16 hits Sunday was bad, but the Dodgers now have a feat to compare: Last night they became just the 13th team ever to collect 13 hits without scoring any runs. So now the 2008 Dodgers have won a game where they didn't pick up a single hit, and been shut out on 13 hits.

In the meantime, their manager is blogging about carrying around tiny dogs.

Drink up.

No.

Wow, that could've been the most boring Fanpost ever.

Several months ago, a group of bloggers came together to create a weekly blogpoll for MVP, Cy Young and Rookie of the Year. I'm pretty sure that's defunct now (haven't heard about it in a while, at least), but it forced me to really think about how to pick an MVP. As a result, I have a spreadsheet sitting on my desktop. I put in the raw numbers and it gives me the following output:

The Snow Index:(TB+(BB*.864)+(SB-(2*CS)))/(AB+BB)

If you're curious about how I developed that or want to see what people at Baseball Think Factory said about it years ago, here's the explanation from back when I thought I knew everything. Certainly, people who are smarter than me have come up with better stats. But this one is mine, which means it's the one I use when I've got time to kill and no one is here to attempt to publicly tear it to shreds.

From there, I tinker with the numbers a bit by adding bonuses or penalties for the following:

Playing for a winning team, or a playoff team: I added .0075 to a hitter's Snow Index for teams at or above .500, and .015 for playing on a team that would make the playoffs if the season ended today.

Playing a premium defensive position: For this purpose, I give catchers a .02 bonus and second basemen, shortstops and center fielders a .01 bonus. In the AL, I subtract .02 from the score of designated hitters.

Plate appearances per game: This doesn't always get thrown into the MVP conversation, but a guy who plays enough to rack up 4.5 PA/G is more valuable than a guy who produces at the same rate but only comes up 3.5 times per game. For these purposes, I give .02 points to batters who hit more than 4.2 times per game, +.01 for over 4, -.01 for under 3.6 and -.02 for under 3.2.

Since I'm usually drawn to a spreadsheet when I've got time to kill, today I dumped 50 top NL players into the spreadsheet to see how close Ryan Braun is to being MVP:

1. Albert Pujols, STL .689
2. Lance Berkman, HOU .673
3. Matt Holliday, COL .664
4. Ryan Ludwick, STL .635
5. Ryan Braun, MIL .630
6. Chase Utley, PHI .628
7. Hanley Ramirez, FLA .622
8. Pat Burrell, PHI .616
9. David Wright, NYM .612
10. Chipper Jones, ATL .610

Other Brewers making the top 50:
15. Mike Cameron, .582
20. Prince Fielder, .573
26. Corey Hart, .551
32. J.J. Hardy, .533

So what do you think? Where does Ryan Braun belong on this list? Are you bored enough on this off day to make a better list?