5.31.2005

There's No Trip Too Remote From Which You Can't Come Back
I will be in So Cal for the next two weeks, so again I apologize for my infrequent blogging. Against the Grain shall return regularly on June 13th...Sorry for the inconvenience.

11:49 PM 0 comments
5.28.2005

Helling Injured
Nashville Sounds pitcher Rick Helling was impaled in the left arm by shards from a broken bat last night. The injury is non-life threatening, but very few details were released about his condition.

As players continue to use lighter bats that are more prone to snapping in half, this is a possible concern. Personally, I'm surprised that more people aren't injured by broken bats. MLB should come up with some regulation as to the weight distribution of the bat. The way wood bats are made now, any ball not hit on the barrel results in a snapped bat.

It's similar to the situation in college baseball with aluminum bats. What will it take for MLB to make a chance with the wood bat situation or college baseball to stop using aluminum bats? Probably having a player killed.

11:02 AM 0 comments

Brewers Win Again, Adams to the Minors (?)
Despite obviously not having his best stuff, Doug Davis managed to throw seven shutout innings in the Brew Crew's 3-0 victory over the Astros last night. The Houston Astros have been shut out eight times all ready in 2005.

Jeff Cirillo continues to be a surprise. I'll admit that I wasn't even sure that he'd make the Opening Day squad, let alone become the everyday man at 3B. He deserves it, as Branyan has struggled with injuries and ineffectiveness as of late.

Ben Sheets will make his return from the Disabled List tonight. In order to make room for Sheets, the Brewers in a surprising move, sent RHP Mike Adams to AAA Nashville. Rather than DFA Tommy Phelps or Julio Santana, they chose to send Adams down to AAA. He obviously isn't the weakest link in that bullpen, it's completely a business decision. It's not often that you see a pitcher with a 2.70 ERA sent to the minors. A situation like this happened a few years back with the Reds and Austin Kearns. He was hitting about .295 and was the only guy with options left, so they sent him down.

10:51 AM 0 comments
5.27.2005

Brewers Take Three-Game Winning Streak Into Tonight
The Brewers did what they had to do against the Rockies--they mopped the field with them. It was nice to see the Brewers play against a team that didn't even belong on the same field with them. An equally horrible road team comes into Miller Park tonight as the Brewers play three against Houston this weekend.

Carlos Zambrano has "computer elbow". Mike Remlinger now has "recliner finger". The Cubs are hilarious.

With Ben Sheets coming off the DL Saturday, it looks like either Tommy Phelps or Julio Santana will be sent down to AAA. There is also a chance that Gary Glover could be optioned out, but my gut instinct is with Phelps.

10:33 AM 0 comments
5.24.2005

Brewers Win A Thriller
Well, anytime Colorado and Milwaukee get together and you don't fall asleep watching the game, I guess that's a plus.

Chris Capuano continues to pitch like he's reaching his potential. His last three starts have seen him allow 4 earned runs in 24 2/3 innings.

Last night provided some incredible de je voux. Just like Capuano's last start, he entered the ninth inning tossing a shutout. He hit a batter and then Yost came out and got him. Although I was caught up in wanting Capuano to go the distance last night, I did agree with the decision to take him out. There were a few differences in last night's game in comparison to his start against Washington...

1) The runner was on first with 0 out as opposed to a runner on second with 1 out
2) Ricky Bottalico was up in the pen instead of Mike Adams
3) There were two righties coming up as opposed to against Washington, when it was possible to walk Vinny Castilla (or pitch around him) and go after a lefty.

Bill Hall continues to swing the bat well. I would try to work him into the lineup as much as possible right now. I'm not going only off of the statistics (yeah small sample blah blah blah), but if you watch Hall's approach you can just tell he's much more confident and seems to have a much better approach at the plate. Whereas last season he would hit a ball hard once every five at-bats, he seems to be doing it about 40% of the time right now. Everybody and their sister knew the way to get hall out was to get some sort of off-speed pitch over the plate early in the count and then show him a fastball out of the zone and comeback with a slider away. Now it's not so simple to get him out. With Junior Spivey and JJ Hardy both struggling, I would try to work Hall into the lineup anywhere in the infield.

It's always difficult to "expect" a sweep in a series, but really if the Brewers want to make a run at .500 you'd like to see the Crew sweep teams like Colorado. Especially when the Rockies have three wins on the road all season.

11:15 AM 0 comments
5.20.2005

Kolb No Longer Closer for Braves
Normally when an All-Star closer loses his job in mid-May, some people might be surprised...This isn't one of those cases. Most people aren't surprised at all about the fall of Dan Kolb in Atlanta. Brewers fans (and SABRmetricians alike) were all concerned about his incredibly low K/9 rate last season.

More than his K/9 rate (which actually is 5.94/9 so far this season), it has been his inability to throw strikes (16 walks in 16.2 IP) that has been his downfall. Kolb has also allowed 18 hits as well, and his ERA is now at 6.48.

Could it be that Mike Maddux is a better pitching coach than Leo Mazzone? Well, it's possible that Maddux knew how to work with Kolb better than Mazzone, but I think any comparisons of Maddux to Mazzone might be a little premature.

I remember last season near the All-Star break marveling at how Kolb had allowed something like one extrabase hit and very few walks. That is OPS at it's finest. Low OBP and no Power against Kolb allowed him to dominate. If a guy who has problems striking hitters out like Kolb, the more walks he gives up and the more extrabase hits he yields will spell disaster.

9:17 AM 0 comments
5.18.2005

Obermueller Rules
Well, at least he did last night. Wes Obermueller put it together last night, like he has been known to do on occasion, and threw eight shutout innings against the Nationals in the Brewers 8-2 victory.

Obermueller has filthy stuff, and if he could throw the ball over the plate with some consistency he could be a very serviceable middle-to-back of the rotation guy. Obermueller has way more upside than Glover, but I still think that Glover can provide more stability--which is usually what a team will settle for at the end of the rotation.

Geoff Jenkins has been on a mini-hot streak. Ned Yost has placed Jenkins in the third spot ahead of Carlos Lee, with the idea that he'll get more to hit with a legitimate power-threat hitting behind him. There is a school of thought that wherever a hitter bats in the lineup doesn't make much of a difference. If you're running a simulation it probably won't change much, but if you think about the aspects of the game that can't be quantified, who knows how much of an effect it can really have. I don't think it would turn a average hitter into an All-Star, but it can make a difference--especially for a guy like Jenkins. With Lee behind him he should see more fastballs and pitchers will go after him more. The last thing you want is Jenkins getting pitched around, since I'm pretty sure I saw him swing at a pickoff throw once last season.

Little things that can change based on a batting lineup.
-base stealer ahead of you--could see more fastballs in running situations
-power hitter behind you--pitchers will come after you more often
-batting 8th--pitchers go right after you with nobody on base, pitch around with RISP
-righty sandwiched between lefties or vice versa -- favorable lefty/righty matchups
-hitting leadoff--usually more fastballs or pitcher will go after a guy, especially to lead off an inning

9:16 AM 0 comments
5.16.2005

Review of the Javon Walker Celebrity Softball Slam
I'd like to start this post out by clearly stating that I was working at this event, I did not decide to waste my free time and attend this thing as a spectator.

First off, this has to be the loosest interpretation of the word "celebrity" in the history of the English language. By my count there was one celebrity (Tara Reid) and one good football player (Javon Walker). The rest were local radio personalities, practice squad quality football players and in some cases just random dudes. Really, Javon Walker and Tara Reid were the two people who kept this game from being legally stripped of its "Celebrity" softball game status. They were one actress/skank and one Pro-Bowl wide receiver over the "regular" versus "celebrity" softball game divide. With headliners like Walker and Reid, you definitely wouldn't expect to draw THIRTEEN THOUSAND PEOPLE!!!

That's right. There were thirteen thousand people in the greater Milwaukee area this past Saturday that had nothing better to do than to watch Green Bay Packers' longsnapper Rob Davis hit grounders to Milwaukee Wave head coach Keith Tozer. Actually, that last statement isn't entirely true...Rob Davis K'd twice in his only two plate-appearances.

Milwaukee Rapper Coo Coo Cal hit a sacrifice fly.

Like every "celebrity" themed event in America today, it would not have been complete without its share of reality-TV rejects...This game featured Kwame Jackson from "The Apprentice" and Ethan Zohn, the winner of Survivor: Africa...I guess we're supposed to know who these people are.

Najeh Davenport was a no-show for the event. The rumors that he was busy making a mess in the Brewers Clubhouse have not been confirmed

The award for "dude who took the game way too seriously" went to Brad Kitt, who won the WKLH Try-out. Each time he came to the plate he took a ton of practice cuts and I'm pretty sure he drew a walk...Yes, he drew a walk in a softball game.

Sam Cassell threw a CG three-hitter.

I was lucky enough to have a conversation with Tara Reid, and it went something like this...

Me: So Tara, how do you like Milwaukee?
Tara: It's nice. They don't put WD-40 on the sinks and toilet seats in bars here so it's a lot easier to do lines of coke in the bars.

The after that Tara went and fired her manager for having her somehow end up in a softball game in Milwaukee...Okay, I may have made that last conversation up.

Tara Reid was asked how she ended up being in this event. She said she met Javon Walker at the Super Bowl in San Diego. I was hoping that the person doing the interview would ask her to define her meaning of the word "met". Translation: Javon is on a long list of NFLers that Tara has partied with. And, well Javon is on a much longer list of guys who have partied with Tara. I think most of you reading can see through my definition of "partied".

One positive from the experience was that I found out that there is something more annoying than local morning radio personalities...Local morning radio personalities hosting a celebrity softball game. That's all that needs to be said about that.

I just don't understand the concept of a "celebrity softball game". I don't know why these things are necessary. At least this one was to benefit a charity, but still...Thirteen thousand people showed up. That's more than the Brewers drew last Monday against Philadelphia. I'm not sure if the sports world has contributed anything lamer to our society than a celebrity softball game.

It boils down to America's obsession with celebrities. Watch VH1 or MTV and see all the reality shows about the private lives of B-listers. Well, I better finish this post, "Gridiron Challenge" is on ESPN now. I better catch this episode or before you know it I'll miss the next six hours of it.

3:29 PM 0 comments
5.15.2005

Against the Grain Ready for the Summer
Well, school is done for the summer which means that Against the Grain will be re-launched after a brief hiatus.

Check in tomorrow for my review of the Javon Walker Celebrity Softball Slam (I think you can guess how I feel about such events). I will also have something about pitch counts and the recent success of the Milwaukee Brewers.


10:43 AM 0 comments
5.03.2005

Brewers on 5-Game Winning Streak, I'm in Over My Head
Hey everybody. Just wanted you all to know that this website still exists, I've just been incredibly busy with my last two weeks of school and every thing else that's been going on. Sorry for the inconvenience.

10:02 PM 0 comments