Brewers Get K Rod

"Brewers had acquired Francisco Rodriguez and cash considerations from the New York Mets in exchange for two players to be named later. By rule, the two players must be agreed upon within six months of the transaction." ESPN

Hey, you got to give it to the Mets for getting something for K Rod. K Rod hasn't been bad for the Mets by any means, he has a 3.16 era and 23 saves, but he gets paid too much and has a player option for 17 million next year. Also, he has been quite a headache and I don't trust him to keep being dominant with his velocity going down every year.

He is most likely going to close for the Brewers, even though they have John Axford, who has a 2.83 ERA while converting 23 of 25 save opportunities. But the Brewers as a team have blown 14 saves this year.

12 Sox, 3 Brewers

The Sox had another great game and continued their dominance. This was a great win for a couple reasons, four members of the Red Sox -- Ellsbury, Pedroia, Gonzalez, and Drew -- had multi-hit games, while three Sox homered (Ells, Scutaro, and Youk). The got out to a quick start, putting up six runs in the first inning, and never looked back.

Also Adrian Gonzalez got his 100th hit of the season and 1000th of his career while getting a triple. Adrian now has 3 times as many triples as Jacoby Ellsbury.

With Clay Buchholz on the DL we needed to get more confidence with the Wake and he did just that. He gave up 3 runs over 8 IP, but again gave us a long outing.

Another great win, San Diego is next.

Brewers @ Red Sox Preview

Boston is coming off an 8-1 road trip, which is the franchise's best record when playing at least 9 road games since 1977. That's damn impressive with some of the great teams the Red Sox have had over the past 10 years. Now they come home fro a little interleague play against the Brewers.

I have always liked the Brewers. I mean their team is named after beer, how can you hate that? Plus, it was the first baseball stadium I went to that wasn't Fenway.

Tonight we get John Lackey vs Shaun Marcum. Marcum has had a hell of a year for the Brewers (7-2 2.68 ERA), and if his name sounds familiar it's because he was with the Blue Jays last year. Marcum went 1-3 with a 5.34 ERA in five starts against the Red Sox last season. I think the Sox can handle him, and a lot of the guys have familiarity with him, which is rare when playing an NL team.

John Lackey has posted a 5.40 ERA while winning both of his starts since a 3 his DL stint (right elbow strain/mental health). Basically when he is on the mound we are just looking for him not to be epically bad. He has been good in interleague play in his career (14-5 with a 2.96 ERA), but wasn't very good last year (2-1 5.11 ERA).

I bet Lackey gets crushed tonight, but the Sox win anyways.

Red Sox win 8-6
Player of the Game: Gonzalez
Game starts at 7:10pm

Prince Fielder To Nationals?

Buster Onley pointed out today that there is growing speculation around the MLB that the Nationals will be the front runners for Prince Fielder this offseason. He says the main reason is the Nationals recent ties to Scott Boras (Fielder's agent). The Nationals have signed Anthony Rendon, Stephen Strasburg, Bryce Harper, along with Jayson Werth.

While I understand why people would think this I have to question if the Nationals would have the money. We listed the other day the teams that are in debt, and the Nationals were on that list. From a baseball perspective it makes a lot of sense, I just question if they can swing the money to do it. Plus, if Werth was worth $126 million what the hell is Boras going to try to get from the Nationals.

Fielder's price tag has been going down over the last couple years. Not because of his play, but because a lot of the major markets have their first baseman signed up long term (Yankees, Red Sox). I wonder if the Cardinals can't sign Pujols if they could swoop in and have Fielder be a very nice replacement.

Grienke Close To Comeback

"Greinke threw three scoreless innings for Class-A Brevard County Tuesday, striking out four and allowing just one hit. He's expected to make another start or two in the minors, perhaps with Triple-A Nashville, before being activated from the disabled list. That puts the right-hander's timetable for his 2011 big-league debut sometime in the first week of May (ESPN)."

Milwaukee has been able to hang in their without Grienke (9-8 tied for 1st place in NL Central), but if they are going to stay in this race they are going to need Grienke to come back and be an "Ace". Marcum has been good for them going 2-1 with a 1.90 ERA, but I question if he is going to be able to keep it up since he has had injury problems in the past and there are some reports that say his velocity is down from last year. Grienke is the key to this team. They already have a good enough lineup to make a run at this division, and if Grienke can be "their guy" I think they have a good chance to get it.