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Melvin says the Red Sox have not contacted the Brewers about Capuano, but admitted calling teams about the pitching the Brewers will have available:

Eli at MLB Rumors speculates it could be a match: Capuano to Red Sox? Crisp is obviously not a match. What would the Brewers ask for?

Here's the LINK. And the text:

I believe they send the ballots to all Wisconsin newspaper sports editors. I previously worked for a newspaper and the sports editor was uninterested in filling out the ballot so I took it just to see who was on the ballot. I never mailed it in. I would guess that other Wisconsin sports media types (radio and TV) would also get votes.

No problem. Glad you enjoyed it.

http://www.rightfieldbleachers.com/uploaded_images/Trenni-Kusnierek4-740954.jpg Hey guys, we have a brand new interview with the newest member of the FSN Brewers broadcast team up on our blog: Trenni Kusnierek Interview. I think she's a great addition to the crew and I'm looking forward to seeing what the new team can do. What does everyone else think?

Cameron is a stolen base threat too. That's part of what they said made him attractive. Why would they move Braun behind Fielder so Braun gets more stolen base opportunities and then put Cameron, who is a much more proven stolen base threat, in the spot in front of Prince? I thought they'd put Hardy in the #2 spot because he had pretty good success there last year and it falls in line with the stolen base thinking.

Brewers Invite Abraham Nunez to Camp By Tom Haudricourt Wednesday, Jan 23 2008, 09:55 AM All winter, I've been wondering if the Brewers needed another utility infielder to go with Craig Counsell, particularly up the middle in the event something happens to shortstop J.J. Hardy or second baseman Rickie Weeks. The Brewers apparently have been concerned about the same thing. Today, they signed veteran utility infielder Abraham Nunez to a minor league contract and invited him to spring training. Nunez, 31, played for Philadelphia the past two seasons. Last year, he batted .234 with 16 RBI in 136 games. Nunez played mostly at third base for the Phillies but also can play second base and shortstop. He played for Pittsburgh from 1997-2004 and was a member of the 2005 St. Louis club that won the NL pennant. During his major league career, Nunez has played 293 games at third bae, 261 games at shortstop and 258 games at second base. He is a career .242 hitter. At the start of last season, Craig Counsell and Tony Graffanino were the Brewers' backup infielders. But Graffanino blew out a knee early in the second half in a game in Colorado and missed the rest of the season. He had two surgeries on the knee and will not be ready to play at the outset of the 2008 season, the major reason the free agent remains unsigned. The Brewers have another candidate as a backup infielder in Joe Dillon but he is a corner infielder. Along with Counsell, Nunez could give the team some coverage up the middle should Hardy or Weeks be sidelined for any reason. It's not a major move in the grand scheme of things but one that makes a lot of sense considering the current composition of the Brewers' roster.

If Hall and Villanueva could get Bedard, I'd do that in a heartbeat. They're two good players, but Bedard is a legitimate ace. You'd have to worry about how the Brewers would fill two position spots (OF/OF or OF/3B depending on how you look at it), but they would still have some trade bait in Capuano and Vargas. That said, I don't think Hall and Villanueva is enough to get Bedard. It seems like the Orioles are thinking along the lines of something closer to Hall, Villanueva and Gallardo to me...which, of course, I wouldn't do.

I think people here are vastly under-rating Dye. He was an AL MVP candidate last year. Yes, he's having a down year, but a change of scenery could be exactly what he needs. I wouldn't be happy to have to give up Parra or Turnbow, but there is no question in my mind that Dye would be an offensive upgrade over Jenkins. That said, if I remember right, Dye wouldn't even visit Milwaukee when he was a free agent a few years ago after the Brewers were showing interest in him. He doesn't want to be here. So, I don't want him here either, especially if it means giving up Major League-ready pitching.

Not necessarily. If Yost believes Estrada can be effective with a sore leg, than he should be in there. But Estrada was so slow to first on that ball that the right fielder would have had a shot at getting him out if the ball was hit off the wall. If you're hurt so bad you can't "run" to first at a speed quicker than a brisk walk, you shouldn't be playing. But I don't believe he had a serious injury anyway. If Estrada had a sore leg and Yost knew he had absolutely no chance of running out a ground ball, he simply wouldn't be in the game with the bases loaded in extra innings with no outs and an available catcher on the bench. As much as I question some of Yost's decisions, I can't believe he would purposely all but assure a rally-crippling double play.

As others have said, if Estrada was injured before this, why was he in the game catching 12 innings of baseball and then allowed to hit in a key situation where the Brewers needed absolutely anything but a double-play? It just doesn't add up.

God, I wish it was just ONE play like you say... Estrada is lackadaisical on offense and defense, slow as molasses, has poor at-bats, never takes pitches, never runs out ground balls, misses easy pop ups, does not run towards pop ups between him and first or third, cannot throw out a runner to save his life and generally seems to have a poor attitude all the time (i.e. sulking back to the dugout after executing a sac bunt). This isn't the first time he didn't run out a ground ball. He NEVER runs out ground balls. It was just the first time the game was on the line when he did it. I don't buy the injury for a second. He's been playing this way all year. I was trying to give the guy a break because a catcher who can hit close to .300 is obviously a valuable asset. But last night was the last straw. There's no arguing it anymore. He's just lazy.

Estrada makes me sick... It bugs the hell out of me when he doesn't run out a ground ball when nobody is on and it's an obvious out, but what he did tonight was ***** unbelievable. I nearly lost it. I dreamed of having a catcher that could hit close to .300 and loved the trade over the offseason, but Estrada has now become my least favorite Brewer, easily. His lackadaisical play on offense and defense is a burden to the team and makes it impossible for me to cheer for him. I'd rather have a guy with half his talent who tried twice as hard. Estrada is a bum. I really hope management isn't considering extending him (which I believe was rumored earlier this season). Now I can see why he's been on four teams in his short career.

Ha, yeah, we had a pretty aggressive MySpace promotion campaign early on and I think our MySpace page is pretty cool still. We put updated Brewers news on their every day (as well as on our site) and send out breaking Brewer news and things like that in bulletins. Stuff like Right Field Bleachers and MySpace pages of groups like the Brew Crew, Hardy's Hotties, the Brewers Bandwagon, etc. and band's that are out promoting themselves (without being annoying) are what's great about MySpace. The porn and spam is definitely the downside...

Hey, happy it was appreciated. I'm pretty much just a huge Brewer/music dork so I actually had a lot of fun making it too. Hopefully the 2007 season will turn out as good. Any background music suggestions (it usually has to be music without words so it doesn't distract from the highlights)? And, of course, I'll have to do a favorite moments in 2007 recap post later on too to get everyone's choices for the highlights.

Right Field Bleachers is always looking for MySpace friends: Right Field Bleachers MySpace Page. That said... I didn't really go into MySpace on that first wave either. I saw it as kind of a tool for bands to promote themselves (circa-early 2000s) and didn't see a need for it (though I was in a bad band in the early 2000s). Now, people act like if you're not on MySpace, you're a grandparent. I can go either way on it I guess... I find out a lot of useful information on MySpace like when my favorite local bands or playing at the local pub, but I haven't signed into my personal account in weeks either. It is what it is I guess... Take it or leave it.

Yeah, I have never been able to find that Terry Cashman song online. If you know where I could get it, I'd be forever in debt. Even if it's not online, if you could mail me a CD or something, that'd be great. It's definitely a missing piece in my history of Brewers music collection. I was actually the one that made the highlights song from the 2005 season. I wish I had the energy/time to make one for the 2006 season, but I was really busy getting things up and running for my new Brewer-related pastime this offseason: RightFieldBleachers.com. I'm sure there will be a 2007 version of the song though, hopefully with a very happy ending. I'll probably work on it over the offseason and make it available some time in February at the height of anticipation for the new season. Who knows? Maybe I'll even feel really nerdy and go back and make the 2006 one anyway. There were some pretty good moments last year, despite it being a bit of a disappointing season.

The topic of Brewers' music seems to come up every few months around here and I've got a lot of (if not most of) my Brewer-related MP3s through links on this very site so I thought this might be of interest to other people here. I found a really funny Brewer rap song on MySpace that I haven't seen talked about anywhere on here. Here's a link to the group's site: Osmosis Gintronic. The song, "Somethin' Brewin'," should play as soon as the site loads. After downloading it, I decided to make a blog playlist (with audio) of all the Brewer-related songs I have. Let me know if there's any I'm missing: Right Field Bleachers Blog. (added tag --1992)

Well, he replied to the e-mail/letter to the editor that I sent him and the paper (and posted above earlier). It was pretty predictable, but he completely ignored the huge holes in his argument and my beef with what he was saying. Here's his response:

I know there was some discussion about Eugene Kane's 2004 column about diversity on the Brewers' roster on here recently. Well, he's come out with a sequel of sorts and I haven't seen anything posted about it here yet (surprisingly). Brewers' new diversity could pay off at gate I'm sure everyone will have their own opinions, but the new column ticked me off as much as the first one. I'm happy the Brewers are attracting more African-American fans and I love how diverse Milwaukee's roster is, but how can Kane basically make claims that Brewers' management avoided bringing in African-American players without providing any evidence at all? Anyways, I was ticked off so I already wrote a letter to the editor. Here's what I said: I could have gone on longer (and poked even more holes in his argument), but I tried to at least keep it close to the Journal-Sentinel's word limit. We'll see if they print it... Either way, I feel a little better after venting...

We actually talked about that scenario (throwing back a Cubs' players home run in Wrigley). Do you think they'd kick us out? I know at Miller when anybody throws any ball back onto the field security usually at least threatens to kick the person out even if it is a non-Brewer home run ball. At Wrigley, it's a "tradition" to throw back home run balls from the away team, but I've never seen/heard of an opposing team's fan throwing one back. Either way, it'd probably be worth it even if we did get kicked out. The crowd reaction would be priceless. We'd probably get showered in beer, obscenities, spit, etc., but it'd still be worth it. On a side note, I hate it when Brewer fans throw baseballs back on the field at Miller. That's what CUBS FANS do. The last thing I want to imitate is a Cubs fan or a lame Cubs tradition. Even when people don't throw the ball back right away, the crowd usually harasses them enough that they do throw it back eventually. How can we get the message out to stop that crap?

I didn't want to be too greedy. I thought I'd let my buddies catch a couple too. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

I'll be there Sunday in the front row of the right field bleachers. I'll be the one catching Fielder's home run. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

I think a Capellan for Cantu trade makes sense for both sides. Both have huge upsides and are young. The biggest difference is Cantu proved he can be a good player (28 HRs, 117 RBI in 2005) before an injury-riddled 2006 and Capellan hasn't proven anything (at least in my mind). Cantu could step in at 3B and the Brewers would have great back-up depth in the infield with Counsell and Graffanino (though someone would have to get sent down, Gwynn?). The downside, of course, would be that injuries and poor performance are sure to strike the pitching staff at some time in 2006 and it'd be nice to have Capellan waiting in the wings (and hopefully pitching better), while Cantu would be more of a stop-gap player for the Crew.