Gross for Butler

In a move so earth shattering that it’s hard to find it on the Rays front page, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays acquired Greg Gross from Brewers.

The Tampa Bay Rays addressed a need for help in the outfield Tuesday, when they acquired Gabe Gross from the Milwaukee Brewers in exchange for minor league pitcher Josh Butler.

Gross was batting .209 with no homers and two RBI’s in 16 games this season. He went 2-for-4 and scored three runs, including the game-winner, in Milwaukee’s 9-8 victory over St. Louis earlier Tuesday.

Butler was 0-2 with a 6.35 ERA in three starts for Class A Vero Beach this season.

A mediocre position player for a mediocre minor leaguer. Boy I hope both teams are improved with this move.

See more at “the Bar.”

NL CENTRAL

The last in a series picking the finishes of the major league baseball divisions. Coming soon will be the playoffs.

In spite of the Brewers’ (and their fans) optimism, I see the Chicago Cubs winning the division. Basically the same pieces are there from last year’s club. Hitting is still good. Pitching will be the question mark. Dempsey to starter, Wood to the closer role.

Because of the weakness of the division, the Milwaukee Brewers will finish second, but again miss the playoffs. This club is no better and may in fact be worse than last year’s 83-79 team. It remains to be seen if Gagne will even regain his form much less be better than Cordero. Does Braun have a sophomore season approaching last year’s rookie year while moving to left field? Does Bill Hall regain his team MVP season of two years ago? Will Sheets remain healthy? Do all those bullpen changes work?

The rest of the division is harder to pick.

The left side of the St. Louis Cardinals infield is gone. And perhaps one of the finest defensive centerfielders, or if not, the hardest playing has been traded. What will the rotation will be until Carpenter and Mulder return from injuries.

The Cincinnati Reds have a lot of kids. They did get Cordero. They have Harang and Arroyo. After that? Who knows. Will Griffey still be around by the All-Star break?

Houston Astros have several questions. Don’t they all? A new middle infield combo is one of them. A new centerfielder too. Will Tejada return to MVP form? No.

The Pittsburgh Pirates are the only sure thing. They will finish last. Just not enough money for the pieces they need.

More on the Mitchell Report

How much do steroids help? While this columnist from the Spartanburg paper uses Eric Gagne as an example to say not much, this professor in the San Diego Union Tribune gives a differing opinion.

“Basic mechanics and physiology, combined with simple but reasonable models, show that steroid use by a player who is already highly skilled could produce such dramatic increases in home run production,” writes Roger Tobin in the January issue of the American Journal of Physics. “Even modest changes in bat speed can increase the proportion of batted balls that result in home runs.”

And for pitchers,

Tobin says pitchers can increase their fastball velocity by 4 to 5 mph and decrease their ERA by about .5 runs per game. “That,” Tobin writes, “is enough to have a meaningful effect on the success of a pitcher, but it is not nearly as dramatic as the effects on home run production.”

Which brings us again to Gagne, a recent acquistion by the Brewers. Under “Viewpoint” in the Sidelines of Saturday’s Waukesha Freeman, Tony Mooren, like me, wonders what Gagne will be capable of,

Eric Gagne, practically the world’s best reliever in 2002, 2003 and 2004, suddenly saw his game go south.

Uh, let’s see now, that southern turn would have been in 2005.

And that just so happened to coincide with the year Major League Baseball got its anti-performance-enhancing drug thing going.

And now Gagne’s taken his game north – to the Milwaukee Brewers for a mere $10 million for one year.

This is not a good thing for Brewers fans who might be hoping he regains the form that earned him 152 saves with 365 strikeouts in 247 innings those three good years but only 25 saves and 127 whiffs in 117 innings in the three seasons since.

Gagne will be 32 years old in January – and should be in his prime – and should have been in his prime the past three seasons.

But he allegedly had help those three seasons. And it’s not the kind of help he likely can get again. It would be nice to see him do well on his own. But don’t count on it.

Which Eric Gagne did the Brewers get? The unbeatable closer of the LA Dodgers? Or the guy who could barely get an out toward the end of the year with the Red Sox?

Unfair? Sure. One writer calls the report “The Radomski Report” because,

Without [Kirk] Radomski, the Mitchell Report is largely a recitation of doping charges that the public already knew and a list of recommendations with little punch. With Radomski, Mitchell had access to one of the primary sources of performance-enhancing drugs for dozens of players – backed by checks, money orders, mailing receipts, address books and telephone records.

In all, 53 of the 85 major league players cited for drug use in Mitchell’s 311-page report are directly or indirectly linked to the 37-year-old from Lindenhurst, N.Y. [emphasis mine]

A couple of more for this post. First from Dan LeBatard at th Miami Herald, also in Saturday’s Freeman, albeit the electronic version,

Thursday’s big winners? Jose Canseco, telling the truth even as his entire sport turned into a lie. Imagine that. The guy dancing around in a Speedo on The Surreal Life was the most credible guy in the room. And Barry Bonds, who is less alone today even after being named in Mitchell’s pages. Now we know that just about everyone throwing toward Bonds was evidently on steroids, too. And that a whole mess of hitters were using steroids, but only one of them was breaking the home-run records.

And from Rick Morrissey of the Chicago Tribune, also in Saturday’s Freeman,

Everybody involved with Major League Baseball wants to move forward, from steroids investigator George Mitchell to the guys in charge of washing uniforms. Of course they do. Moving forward connotes action. It means rolledup sleeves. Getting things done. Solutions.

But must there be the squealing of tires as they drive away?

…Allow us to turn and behold the damage that was done. Tainted records. Widespread fraud. Lost faith. Dangerous examples.

More than a few high school kids now believe steroids aren’t such a bad route to fame and fortune. It is estimated that at least 3 percent of high school athletes use steroids. Ah, but that’s probably somebody else’s high school team, you say. Not your kid’s teammates. Or your kid. Couldn’t be.

Right, let’s move forward.

Glavine didn’t get his 300th win

He left with the lead, but the Mets bullpen allowed the Brewers to tie and eventually win.

I must admit I was rooting for the Mets until Glavine was gone and the Brewers tied the game. Geoff Jenkins, of course, won the game with a 2-run homer in the bottom of the 13th inning.

Even though not many runs were scored, you couldn’t say either starter was “on his game.” They just kept pitching out of jams.

Tailgating means brats!

This is blurry, I know, but I like the fact I caught the ball leaving Glavine’s hand.

Jenkins is mobbed.

More pictures here.

Wow, this team is in trouble

I didn’t think so earlier, but this latest road trip has shown what the challenge of a pennant race can do to a young team. They are still a half game ahead, but they are now one game behind in the more important loss column. You can make up wins, but you can’t get rid of losses.

After racing to another good lead, the Brewers let another one slip away.

On the MLB front page there’s a poll asking “Who most needs to step up for the Brewers to be successful in the second half?” They have five choices, but I wouldn’t vote for any of them.

The whole team needs to step up. Someone needs to start making timely hits (including the far and away best hitter this season, Ryan Braun). A pitcher needs to make a clutch pitch. This includes the starters who, IMHO, are having to leave games way to soon. The manager and the coaching staff needs to motivate these guys and make the right decisions.

I would have given Pujols an intentional pass both last night and this afternoon in the 8th even with the bases loaded. Would it have helped? Who knows?

With fourteen singles today, you can’t say the Brewers are swinging for the fences.

They need to be more consistent, every pitch, every play, every at bat.

And that’s a young team’s biggest hurdle.

Devil Ray Trades

The Devil Rays are attempting to shore up the major leagues worst pitching staff. Tampa Bay is ninth in the AL in hitting, but last in pitching with a team ERA over 6, 7.18 in the last 30 days! They are 10-32 since June 10.

First, they traded Seth McClung to the Brewers for Grant Balfour. I’m not sure this will be a good trade for Brewer’s fans, as McClung’s career ERA with the Rays is 6.38. He just never lived up to the Rays expectations. Shawn Camp was sent down to make room for Balfour.

Balfour, proving that a change of leagues has not helped (at least not yet). As far as the D-Rays go, how can they get worse?

Then, they sent Jorge Cantu to the Reds with OF Shaun Cumberland and cash. In return they got left-handed pitcher Brian Shackelford, right-hander Calvin Medlock and the much-traveled player to be named. They will report to Durham, the Rays AAA team

Cantu, the team’s 2005 MVP, was not happy at Tampa Bay with his reduced playing time.

Lastly, they shipped fan favorite Ty Wiggington, familiar to Brewer fans, to Houston for right-handed reliever Dan Wheeler. To replace Wiggington, the Rays recalled shortstop Ben Zobrist from Triple-A Durham. Wheeler is 1-4 with a 5.07 ERA and 11 saves in 45 appearances.

Wiggington’s flexibility should come in handy in Houston.

Brewers on Tuesday

Tuesday will find me tailgating at the Mets-Brewers match-up. This will more than likely preclude me attending the Americans for Prosperity tailgating event at the park.

Tom Glavine is scheduled to start for the Mets. He’s seeking his 300th win. I’m sorry I have to root against the Brewers that day.

In Nashville

Just a couple of observations.

Traffic is terrific. Think Chicago without toll booths and 70mph speed limits. Avoid freeways like the plague at rush hours. And accidents like this one can back up traffic at any time.

Of interest to many Wisconsinites, Nashville is also home to the Sounds, the Brewers AAA farm team. I went to the Saturday night game. Pictures are here.

 Today’s Tennessean had an article on the Brewers farm system. The Sounds are currently ahead of the Iowa Cubs (!!) in their division and have the best record in AAA baseball.

Two years ago, the opening day lineup for the Sounds’ first game as a member of the Brewers farm system featured Rickie Weeks, Prince Fielder and Corey Hart as the Nos. 2, 3 and 4 hitters, respectively, in the batting order. That team went on to win the 2005 Pacific Coast League championship.

In fact, the Brewers farm system has the best winning percentage of all major league farm systems.

The Brewer farmhands have won and won big. Nashville is on pace for an 87-win season after winning 75 and 76 games the past two years. The Sounds haven’t posted three straight 70-win campaigns since the 1988-90 seasons, when they were Cincinnati’s Triple-A affiliate.

Meanwhile, Huntsville won the first-half Southern League Northern Division title. At the Class A level, Brevard County (Florida State) and West Virginia (South Atlantic) wrapped up first-half division crowns as well.