Some things to read while planning ahead.

The Brewers came up just short in their efforts for their third straight road win, as Andrelton Simmons' double in the ninth gave the Braves a 3-2 walkoff victory. Eric has the recap, if you missed it.

The Brewers lost last night despite another solid outing from Tyler Thornburg, who allowed two runs on seven hits over seven innings and recorded a career-high eight strikeouts (h/t @joe_block). Thornburg's season is likely over with a 2.03 ERA, and a 1.47 mark in seven starts.

Jeff Bianchi needed the whole year to do it but finally hit his first home run of 2013 last night. It was a sufficiently remarkable event to appear in You Can't Predict Baseball's daily roundup.

Other notes from the field:

• This was the Braves' 24th final at-bat win of 2013, as compared to 12 for the Brewers. (h/t @AdamMcCalvy)
• Despite losing last night, the Brewers clinched fourth place in the NL Central when the Cubs also lost. (h/t @Haudricourt)

The series wraps up tonight at 6:10 when Kyle Lohse takes on Paul Maholm. Kevin Massoth has the MLB.com preview.

Meanwhile, the Brewers have made an expected change to this weekend's scheduled starters for the Mets series. Wily Peralta is continuing to deal with blister issues so the team has opted to shut him down and will give Jimmy Nelson his first major league start on Saturday.

Marco Estrada is still expected to start the season's final game on Sunday, giving him one last chance to put an exclamation point on a great second half. Nicholas Zettel of Disciples of Uecker has a look at his strong outing from Monday.

The news is not as good for Jean Segura or Tom Gorzelanny. Segura experienced more discomfort while trying to run on Tuesday and the team is now saying he won't play again until he's back at 100%. Meanwhile, Gorzelanny's 2013 comeback attempt is over as he's still experiencing issues with his shoulder.

While the performance of several young players has given us something to look forward to, not everyone is excited about the 2014 Brewers. SI.com's 2013 post-mortem on the Brewers says they "don't seem likely to be a contender" a year from now.

Of course, a lot can happen between now and Opening Day. Norichika Aoki's name is consistently coming up as a player that could be moved this winter, and Benjamin Orr of Reviewing the Brew has a look at the possibility.

In the minors:

• John Sickels of Minor League Ball has a recap of the first professional seasons of players selected in the supplemental portion of the 2013 second round. He says Tucker Neuhaus "looks more like a long-term project than a quick riser."
• If we discuss Neuhaus, it follows that we'll also mention fellow 2013 top pick Devin Williams. MLB Prospect Guide listed him as the #2 pitcher in the Arizona League this season.
• Both Neuhaus and Williams have a chance to pitch in Appleton next season. Rattler Radio has a list of the top five home crowds at Wisconsin games this year.

Closer to home, fallout continues after the Ryan Braun suspension. His image has been removed from the cover of a new "Jewish Sports Stars" book.

If you'd like more Brewer coverage today but you're sick of reading, my Tuesday appearance on The Home Stretch with Justin Hull on 95.3 FM WSCO in Appleton has been archived. This week we talked a lot about attendance, context for attendance discussions and more.

No transaction notes today, so today we'll fill the gap with some classic They Might Be Giants:

Let's go around the NL Central:

• Michael Wacha came an out away from history in the Cardinals' 2-0 win over the Nationals, losing a no-hitter on an infield single with two outs in the final inning. Matt Carpenter doubled and scored a run and continues to lead the NL in hits, runs and doubles.
• The Pirates kept pace with an 8-2 win over the Cubs. Pedro Alvarez went 2-for-5 with a pair of doubles and drove in three runs.
• The Reds fell off the pace a bit with a 4-2 loss to the Mets. All four New York runs scored in the second inning, including three on Daniel Murphy's 13th home run.
• The Brewers, you likely know, lost to the Braves.

You can read more about those games and all of yesterday's action in Noah's Wednesday edition of Around the Bases at SBNation.com.

Here are today's updated standings and probables:

Today in former Brewers:

• Dante Bichette served as the Rockies hitting coach in 2013 but will not return in that role next season.
• Chris Mehring of Rattler Radio has a brief note on each of George Scott's AL-leading 36 home runs in 1975.
• Rattler Radio also has baseball cards for Ken Sanders and four other former Brewers from their time as Mets.

Last night's game was only a single out away from extra innings, which would have added to a record-breaking season. 239 games have gone to extra innings already in 2013, setting a new MLB record.

If I had to guess, I'd say this is why the Brewers do "all fan" giveaways instead of limited numbers: SBNation.com has a story on the chaos that ensued when Mariano Rivera Bobblehead Night at Yankee Stadium hit a series of snags.

Today In Brewer History was off this morning, but Plunk Everyone notes that today is 1998-2000 and 2009 Brewer David Weathers' 44th birthday and his 57 career plunkings lead all pitchers born on September 25. Today is also 2011 Brewer Wil Nieves' 36th birthday, and his four career HBP lead all active players born on this day.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm making progress.

Drink up.

2013 hasn't been an easy year for the Milwaukee Brewers, but one bright spot is the performance of rookie second baseman Scooter Gennett. Since being promoted to the majors in June, Gennett is hitting .325/.359/.495 in 210 plate appearances, with 11 doubles and six homers. Among major league rookies with significant playing time, his wRC+ ranks second at 136, exceeded only by Los Angeles Dodgers phenom Yasiel Puig.

Scooter Gennett? He got some attention as a prospect pre-season, but I don't think anyone expected this. Let's take a look.

Gennett was drafted by the Brewers in the 16th round in 2009, from high school in Sarasota, Florida. He was considered a fifth-round talent but a Florida State scholarship hurt his draft stock. The Brewers were able to sign him for $260,000, which immediately looked like a bargain after he hit a strong .309/.354/.463 in his 2010 professional debut, with a 126 wRC+ in the difficult Midwest League. He drew comparisons to Chase Utley and Todd Walker for his strong left-side hitting, but needed to polish his defense after making 21 errors.

Moved up to Brevard County in the Florida State League for 2011, he continued hitting well with a .300/.334/.406, not showing as much power in the big FSL parks but maintaining his batting average. He followed up by hitting .411 in 22 games in the Arizona Fall League. Rough defense was still an issue, but it was hard to knock the hitting.

Promoted to Double-A Huntsville for 2012, Gennett hit .293/.330/.385. He hit just five homers and there was some disappointment about his home run power, but he did hit 30 doubles. He improved his footwork at second base and showed better range, although he still led the league in errors for the third season in a row.

Sent to Triple-A Nashville for '13, Gennett hit .280/.327/.371 in 321 at-bats, playing regularly in April and May, up to the majors for a brief trial in June, back to the minors in early July, then back to Milwaukee on July 28th. As noted earlier, he's been excellent in the Show thus far.

Gennett is  a 5-10, 180 pound left-handed hitter, born May 1, 1990. He's grown two inches and gained 20 pounds since entering pro ball (he was originally listed at 5-8, 160 when he signed) and has usually shown good pop for his size. His swing is tailored for the line drive and he is generally an all-field hitter, but he'll show pull power on occasion.

He is an aggressive hitter and while he doesn't draw many walks, he makes contact and keeps his strikeout rates down. The downside to his approach is that his OBP is very dependent on his batting average. If he's in a slump and the hits aren't falling, his OBP suffers because there are few walks to buffer it.

His running speed is average but he could steal 10-12 bases a year. On defense, his tools fit best at second base. He has gradually improved his footwork, helping his range, and this year he dramatically improved his reliability, cutting down sharply on his errors. He will never be a Gold Glove, but he can be at least decent.

Gennett was extremely hot for the Brewers in August, hitting .423/.452/.654, obviously an unsustainable pace. His September numbers are .286/.315/.414, which is much more in line with his minor league record. My thinking is that Gennett will stabilize as a .280/.320/.400 type hitter, which isn't spectacular, but with continued defensive progress he should have a long career.

As I mentioned in Monday's Mug, Baseball America has started releasing their lists of the top 20 prospects in each professional league for 2013. The Pioneer League list was released today and features three recent Brewer draftees: Outfielder Michael Ratterree, pitcher Barrett Astin and catcher Dustin Houle.

Ratterree, ranked #16, is a name many Brewer fans are probably familiar with at this point: He recently won the Pioneer League MVP award after hitting .314/.391/.585 with 12 home runs in 65 games. He was a tenth round pick in the 2013 draft as a college senior.

Astin, ranked #17, was the Brewers' third round pick in the 2013 draft. He pitched in 12 games for Helena this season (including eight starts) and posted a 4.30 ERA over 37.2 innings, walking 2.6 batters per nine innings and striking out 7.4. Astin also pitched 90.2 innings this season in college for Arkansas, posting a 1.79 ERA.

Houle, ranked #19, is still only 19 years old but was already playing in his second professional season behind the plate in 2013. He hit .250/.290/.311 in 46 games for Helena before moving up to Wisconsin and hitting .261/.370/.435 in seven games there.

These three players were part of a Helena team that came within a game of the Pioneer League championship. The Helena Brewers were the only Brewer affiliate to post a winning record this season.

There's a chance tonight could be Kyle Lohse's final start as a Brewer.

Before we get to him, though, at 6:10 tonight the Brewers will face Braves lefty Paul Maholm (4.44 ERA, 4.30 FIP) in his final audition for a spot on the playoff roster. Maholm made his 26th start of the season on Friday, allowing four runs on eight hits over 5.1 innings against the Cubs. He only threw 79 pitches in that outing in his first appearance in almost two weeks.

Maholm has been having injury issues this season that have limited him to just eight starts since July 1. He went on the DL with a wrist injury in July and skipped a start with an elbow issue earlier this month. His average velocity is at a career-low 87 mph on his fastball this season, although he was closer to 90 against the Cubs in his last start.

The Brewers are quite familiar with Maholm, who spent parts of eight seasons as a Pirate and Cub before joining the Braves in 2012. They also faced him in June and scored four runs on eight hits over five innings, walking one and striking out three. Four active Brewers have faced him ten times or more:

He'll face veteran righty Kyle Lohse (3.51 ERA, 4.18 FIP), who will be wrapping up the first season of his three-year contract. Lohse struggled through five innings against the Cubs on Thursday, allowing three runs on seven hits with a walk and four strikeouts. He allowed two home runs in that game and is fourth in the NL with 26.

Lohse turns 35 in October and the Brewers still have two years and $22 million left on his contract, plus $7 million in deferred salary from this season. If he continues to pitch like he did this year he could be a key part of the next two Brewer teams, but his age and salary also make him an interesting candidate to trade this winter.

Lohse has seen the Braves ten times in his career but this is the first time he's facing them as a Brewer. Six active Braves have faced him ten times or more:

As of this writing I haven't seen tonight's lineup. If you have, please drop it in the comments.

And in the bullpen:

• Donovan Hand pitched .2 innings (12 pitches) last night.
• Brandon Kintzler pitched one inning (nine pitches) last night.
• Rob Wooten pitched one inning (nine pitches) on Monday.
• Michael Blazek pitched one inning (six pitches) on Monday.
• Jim Henderson last pitched on Sunday.
• Alfredo Figaro last pitched on Saturday.
• Michael Gonzalez last pitched on Friday.
• Burke Badenhop last pitched on Thursday.
• Jimmy Nelson and Tom Gorzelanny are technically still on the active roster but Nelson is expected to start on Saturday and Gorzelanny is done for the season with shoulder soreness.

It rained this afternoon in Atlanta but that's expected to clear out before game time. Expect a temperature around 67 at the start of the game under partly cloudy skies.

The fireworks began early in Wednesday night's game between the Braves and Brewers, as a brawl erupted after just the second at-bat of the game.

With Braves' pitcher Paul Maholm on the mound in the top of the first, Carlos Gomez took a huge swing on strike one, which bothered Maholm because baseball is weird. Gomez then crushed Maholm's second pitch, and took his sweet time around the bases, jawing with Maholm and first baseman Freddie Freeman on his long trot to home. Braves' catcher Brian McCann intercepted Gomez before he touched home plate, and things got a bit crazy.

Here's another angle of the altercation.

Gomez, Freeman and Atlanta first base coach Terry Pendleton were all ejected.

Gomez has been very successful against Maholm in his career, entering the game sporting a .421/.476/.684 line with two doubles and a home run in 19 at-bats. The two also faced each other on June 23, and Maholm hit Gomez in the first inning before forcing a groundout in the third. It was the second time Maholm hit Gomez in his career.

More from SB Nation MLB:

Follow @SBNationMLB

• Which managers are on the hot seat?

• Neyer: Satchel Paige's last stand

• Mariano Rivera bobblehead night causes chaos

• Cardinals’ Wacha loses no-hitter in the ninth

• Dodgers’ lack of control in D-backs’ pool No. 1 problem

W: Kyle Lohse (11-10)
L: Paul Maholm (10-11)

HR: Carlos Gomez (23)

MVP: Kyle Lohse (+.464 WPA)
LVP: Khris Davis (-.060 WPA)

win expectancy graph | box score

Kyle Lohse pitched a complete game shutout, but most people are going to forget that because Carlos Gomez got into it with several Braves in the first inning after hitting a home run. The coverage of that is all over the place on SBN and everywhere else (and besides that I was listening to the game on the radio at the time, I suppose I could go back and look but I can't be bothered) but the short story is that Gomez got ejected, Brian McCann, despite blocking Gomez's progress to home, was not, and the solo home run was the only run the Brewers really needed despite tacking on a few more. The drama in the 1st seemed to last longer than the rest of the game.

Norichika Aoki, Yuniesky Betancourt and Scooter Gennett had multiple hits in this game. Aoki drove in two runs tonight.

This was Lohse's second complete game of the season and the fourth for the Brewers in 2013. Wily Peralta pitched the other two. That's four more than last year.

I hear there's a game tomorrow evening at 6:10 against the same lotMets, thank goodness. Johnny Hellweg vs Dillon Gee. Get excited!!!!!!

Amidst the fracas that started the game was Atlanta getting shut out by Milwaukee for the fourth time, and 17th time overall; Kyle Lohse performed the honors, hurling a complete game 4-0 win. The loss dropped the Braves one-half game behind St. Louis for the NL's best record.

The trouble started once Carlos Gomez hit a long first-inning home run. Instead of simply putting his head down and jogging around the bases, Gomez decided to take the low road. He flipped the bat and started jawing at Paul Maholm all around the basepath, presumably regarding the series in Milwaukee when Maholm hit Gomez with a pitch. Freddie Freeman yelled at Gomez rounding first base and when he arrived at home plate, Gomez met an incensed Brian McCann, and that's when the scrum ensued. Both benches emptied with Gomez's teammates trying to keep him as far away from the white jerseys as possible; had they not, the situation would've certainly escalated. As a result, Gomez was ejected, as were Freeman and Gerald Laird. Freeman's ejection was puzzling, as he did nothing to merit it, but it left the Braves without their most reliable bat in the lineup.

Freeman or no, Atlanta's offense was anemic, managing all of two hits against Lohse, who needed only 89 pitches to finish the Braves off.

Milwaukee increased its lead to 2-0 on Sean Halton's sacrifice fly in the fourth. Lohse retired 20 straight Braves following Andrelton Simmons' bunt single in the first inning.

Norichika Aoki added RBI hits in the seventh and ninth. Maholm struck out seven in seven innings.

Here's video of the first-inning incident.

Win Expectancy Chart

Brewers center fielder Carlos Gomez caused quite a stir with his home run against Paul Maholm of the Braves on Wednesday night, followed by his jawing at Maholm while slowly rounding the bases.

Gomez, who was ejected for his actions in the first inning of Milwaukee's 4-0 win, issued an apology after the game in the form of several tweets.

I would like to apologize first to the fans, MLB, my teammates and the Brewers organization as well as the Braves organization.

— Carlos Gomez (@C_Gomez27) September 26, 2013

The way I carried myself on the field is unacceptable, I should have done better to control myself and set a good example.

— Carlos Gomez (@C_Gomez27) September 26, 2013

In the heat of the moment I let my emotions get the best of me. As a professional athlete I have to respect the game.

— Carlos Gomez (@C_Gomez27) September 26, 2013

I should have not let the situation escalate. I would like to put this behind and do what I love, and that is play baseball at 110%.

— Carlos Gomez (@C_Gomez27) September 26, 2013

Again my apologies to everyone that I may have offended I truly regret it. Thank you and have a good night God Bless. #CG27

— Carlos Gomez (@C_Gomez27) September 26, 2013

More from SB Nation MLB:

Follow @SBNationMLB

• Closing Time: A Mariano Rivera retrospective

• Braves, Brewers brawl over Carlos Gomez HR | Top 10 Gomez faces

• Which managers are on the hot seat?

• Grant Brisbee: The unlikeliness of Jason Giambi

• MLB tiebreakers rules change without notice

Some things to read while remembering where you came from.

The Brewers took the lead early, retained their focus through a bench-clearing brawl and emerged from Atlanta with a 4-0 victory last night. morineko has the recap, if you missed it.

Things got ugly in the first inning last night as Carlos Gomez crushed a home run off Paul Maholm, pimped his home run while yelling at Maholm (who hit him in the knee with a pitch earlier this season) and sparked a bench-clearing incident that led to himself, Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman and catcher Gerald Laird getting ejected. Baseball Nation has more on the event and the various faces Gomez made afterwards.

Surprisingly enough, Braves catcher Brian McCann was not ejected for blocking Gomez from reaching home plate and causing the benches to clear (h/t @Haudricourt). Gomez, for what it's worth, took to Twitter to apologize for letting things escalate.

The worst news out of the whole mess is almost certainly this: Aramis Ramirez tweaked his injured knee in the melee and may miss the season's four remaining games (h/t @Todd_Rosiak). If his season is over, Ramirez will have hit .281/.370/.460 in 2013 but also missed 72 of the team's 162 games.

Unfortunately, the incident drew some attention away from one of the best outings by a starting pitcher this season. Kyle Lohse, who @AdamMcCalvy reports was only expecting to pitch about five innings, instead threw a complete game shutout in his final 2013 outing and allowed just two hits, retiring 20 consecutive batters at one point. He's the first Brewer to throw a complete game shutout in under 100 pitches since Chris Capuano in 2006, and the first to do it in under 90 pitches since Chris Bosio in 1992 (h/t @AndrewGruman).

Other notes from the field:

• Last night's win was Ron Roenicke's 250th with the Brewers. (h/t @AndrewGruman)
• Here are the MLB.com highlights.

Let's wrap up the Braves series with a look at this week's home runs, with help from Hit Tracker:

Adding another bizarre layer to last night's events, yesterday was the Brewers' annual "rookie dress-up" day. Jonathan Lucroy has a picture of everyone in their costumes. The costume budget must've gone through the roof this year.

The rookies got to wear their costumes to New York as the Brewers flew into town to open a four-game series with the Mets tonight. Johnny Hellweg will take on Dillon Gee in the opener, and Adam Berry has the MLB.com preview.

We probably won't see Jean Segura tonight, but he'd still like to play at some point this weekend. He told Adam McCalvy he wants to get back into a game before the end of the year. A majority of voters in this week's BCB Tracking Poll said the Brewers should shut Segura down and look ahead to 2014.

Meanwhile, the season is over for Wily Peralta and he's ok with that. He talked to Adam McCalvy about his up-and-down year.

Scooter Gennett had a couple of hits last night, an especially encouraging development when you consider the Braves had a lefty on the mound. John Sickels of Minor League Ball made Scooter his Prospect of the Day for Wednesday.

In the minors: Congratulations are due out this morning to Helena outfielder Michael Ratterree, pitcher Barrett Astin and catcher Dustin Houle for making Baseball America's list of the top 20 prospects in the Pioneer League.

Let's go around the NL Central:

• The Cardinals are one step closer to clinching the division following a 4-1 win over the Nationals. Matt Adams doubled and homered in the game, scoring two runs.
• The Pirates dropped another game back following a 4-2 loss to the Cubs. Starling Marte went 2-for-4 with three stolen bases to get to 40 on the season. Pittsburgh is now just 40-36 since July 1.
• The Reds failed to take advantage of the opportunity, losing 1-0 to the Mets. Daisuke Matsuzaka pitched 7.2 scoreless innings for New York.
• The Brewers, as you've been told, beat the Braves.

Here are today's updated standings and probables:

Today in former Brewers:

• Royals GM Dayton Moore told the media he'd like to bring back Ned Yost as manager next season.
• Richard Barbieri of The Hardball Times has Robin Yount in center field on his all-decade team for the 1980s.
• Baseball Card Vandals had some fun with a B.J. Surhoff card.

Today in baseball economics:

• The Reds set a new Great American Ball Park record by selling 2.37 million tickets this season. The Brewers have drawn at least that many fans in each of the last seven seasons.
• Tom Tango of The Book Blog asks why MLB doesn't have more billionaire owners.

Today In Brewer History was off this morning, but nullacct is back with a look at Mike Caldwell as the face of the 1984 Brewers.

Now, if you'll excuse me, this is going to take longer than I expected.

Drink up.

Well, that didn't go the way we had hoped.

It seems Atlanta's offense has yet to rediscover its rhythm one week before the playoffs. The Braves are 10-13 in September and have fallen behind the Cardinals for the NL's best record with four games left to play.

GOOD
Starting pitching: All three starters pitched into the seventh inning and performed well enough to win, combining for 20 strikeouts compared to just one walk. Mike Minor and Paul Maholm each allowed three runs in seven innings while Freddy Garcia allowed just two runs in 6.2 innings. Normally, three runs is no problem for this offense.

BAD
Offense: Tuesday's win notwithstanding, Atlanta's offense might be plastered on the side of a milk carton. 10 hits on Tuesday, but three hits Monday and two hits Wednesday aren't going to win many ballgames. In each of their four losses to Milwaukee this year, Atlanta has been shutout. The team is hitting just .218 in September with one series left to play before the playoffs begin.

UGLY
Carlos Gomez: He homered twice in the series, but it was the second home run Wednesday that got everyone's blood boiling. He hit it and then posed briefly before he started flapping his lips at Maholm over a game back in June; he did that all the way around the bases. Freddie Freeman took exception to it as well as Brian McCann who acted as a roadblock when Gomez arrived at home plate. Freeman was unnecessarily ejected in the ensuing scuffle.

The thing about upsetting the internet is that they can totally edit your Wikipedia page and make you look like a doofus, and then screencap their editing before Wikipedia has time to change things back to the truth of the matter. Brian McCann now knows this after getting in the way of Brewers outfielder Carlos Gomez on the basepaths following a homer (and lengthy home run trot) in Wednesday night's action:

via @adamsmoot

The Braves are unlikely to stop their Baseball Played The Right Way crusade anytime soon, and Carlos Gomez has already apologized for jawing at Braves' hurler Paul Maholm and the aforementioned trot -- which led to the McCann intervention on the basepaths -- so even a little thing like this where we get to laugh at McCann's expense helps us all cope with the seriousness of it all.

Except for Braves fans, I mean. They're probably organizing a rally on Twitter as we speak.

Carlos Gomez hit a home run last night, but he never touched home. Fifteen or so feet from reaching the plate, Gomez met up with an angry Brian McCann. Their jawing quickly led to the benches clearing. Eventually, the parties were separated and Gomez was escorted into the dugout. He still never touched home.

So why did the run count?

The baseball rule book is very clear that a runner abandoning the basepaths or skipping a base is out, even on a game-winning home run. This comment from Rule 7.08(a):

Rule 7.08(a) Comment: Any runner after reaching first base who leaves the base path heading for his dugout or his position believing that there is no further play, may be declared out if the umpire judges the act of the runner to be considered abandoning his efforts to run the bases. Even though an out is called, the ball remains in play in regard to any other runner.

This rule also covers the following and similar plays: Less than two out, score tied last of ninth inning, runner on first, batter hits a ball out of park for winning run, the runner on first passes second and thinking the home run automatically wins the game, cuts across diamond toward his bench as batter- runner circles bases. In this case, the base runner would be called out "for abandoning his effort to touch the next base" and batter-runner permitted to continue around bases to make his home run valid. If there are two out, home run would not count (see Rule 7.12). This is not an appeal play.

It's a big deal to make sure you touch home plate on a home run.

At first, I thought Gomez would be called safe thanks to the "Chris Chambliss Rule":

Rule 4.09(b) Comment: An exception will be if fans rush onto the field and physically prevent the runner from touching home plate or the batter from touching first base. In such cases, the umpires shall award the runner the base because of the obstruction by the fans.

As you can see, though, that rule is clearly and only about fans preventing a run from scoring. So why was Gomez awarded the run even without touching home plate? It turns out to be a very simple answer.

Rule 7.06: When obstruction occurs, the umpire shall call or signal "Obstruction."

NOTE: The catcher, without the ball in his possession, has no right to block the pathway of the runner attempting to score. The base line belongs to the runner and the catcher should be there only when he is fielding a ball or when he already has the ball in his hand.

Gomez did not touch home plate because Brian McCann prevented him from doing so. As with any other obstruction call, Gomez, who had already touched third base, would be awarded home. The run therefore counts.

In case you missed it, Carlos Gomez and the Atlanta Braves had some fun last night.

Still steaming over Paul Maholm hitting him in the knee a few months ago, Gomez hit a home run in the first inning of Wednesday night's game and took some time to admire it. Braves catcher Brian McCann did not take kindly to that, yelling "Fucking move, (inaudible)" [EDIT: @BrewerNation sent me a Tout he made showing the inaudible part to be "God dammit"]. From what I could tell, Paul Maholm started to yell at Gomez, too. Then Freddie Freeman. Only after rounding first base did Gomez start running his mouth back at those three.

The coup de grace, Brian McCann blocked Gomez's path home about ten feet up the third base line leading to the two going nose-to-nose and the dugouts to clear, which resulted in Aramis Ramirez sustaining an injury that will probably keep him out for the last few games of the season.

After the game, people had strong opinions. Many of those opinions were that Gomez was at fault because he should have just tucked his head and run the bases immediately and in silence.

Here is my rule:

If you get upset over a celebration or call a player classless for celebrating an achievement or feel the need to point out when you think someone is breaking some stupid "unspoken rule", you are the worst kind of fan. Same goes for certain players and teams. You are not the keepers of some book of sacred rules. Knock it off.

Was Gomez's home run so important or glorious that it required staring down for as long as he did? Nah, of course not. Does it matter that Gomez stared down that home run? Absolutely 100 percent no. No. It doesn't matter. Gomez didn't slow down the game by more than five seconds. He didn't cause a natural disaster. He watched a ball he hit really hard fly over the outfield wall.

Why on earth shouldn't an athlete, whose main goal is to do things like hit home runs, celebrate his achievements for a brief period? Sure it may be slightly annoying if he does it all the time, but oh my god it is not a big deal. If some architect walked by a building he designed and lingered for a bit to admire his work, would you begrudge him that? Stop thinking that baseball is so far above everything that no player should show emotion ever.

When was it decided that baseball can't be fun anymore? It's not just baseball, of course. Every sport is taken to seriously by at least some people. But baseball in particular has this pervasive sense of self-righteousness that can't be ignored.

This is a Brewers fan blog, I'm a Brewers fan, here are some Brewers examples that are cited as being "against the spirit of the game": Prince Fielder's explosion walk-off celebration, "beast mode", untucking. Oh god, the untucking. Who would have known that a player pulling his shirt out from his pants post-game would incite such a reaction. Not one of those three celebrations caused any harm. None were done maliciously. None caused any changes to the game being played. They were fun, light hearted, and, in part, meaningful. And a subset of baseball fans (and baseball players and management) ruined that. Teams and players should be allowed to have personality without fear of being told that's wrong.

Classlessness is Ty Cobb. Classlessness is if Matt Kemp actually raped that girl ten years ago. Classlessness is Francisco Rodriguez's domestic violence. Classlessness is Cap Anson keeping African-Americans out of baseball. Classlessness is fixing games. Those are extreme examples, of course, and go a step behind just being "classless". You get the point.

But classlessness is not: Throwing Up The T, untucking your shirt, celebrating a win in a less-than-reserved fashion, watching a home run, making a fist pump after a great play of big strikeout, or doing anything to have any fun ever. I've seen people criticize teams who celebrate clinching a playoff spot with champagne in the clubhouse, because apparently even that isn't an appropriate time to be happy. It's getting absolutely ridiculous.

There's a massive amount of glorifying the past in America's pastime, but back in the "good ol' days", there was Eddie Gaedel, there were people like Yogi Berra giving interviews that were actually interesting, there was Billy Loes saying his team would lose in the 1952 World Series. There were stories that would make a subset of today's fans shudder in disgust if they occurred today.

And you know what, I'm not just saying this because I'm a Brewers fan. I was absolutely perfectly 100 percent OK with the Diamondbacks doing their version of beast mode. I think it's great that the Dodgers took a dip in the D-Backs' outfield pool.

I don't mind passion. I think passion is good. Last night, I think the Braves' passion was misplaced. I think there are other things a team vying for the best record in the NL should be worrying about this close to the playoffs. Like maybe getting more than 19,558 people to attend a baseball game for a playoff-bound team. I'm not convinced that official number isn't exaggerated, either.

Again, it's not that I think Gomez was necessarily in the right during last night's game. It's that I think it shouldn't be a big deal. Yeah, he watched a home run a little longer than normal and apparently holds a grudge for a really long time. Whatever.

Just stop taking players enjoying themselves so seriously, people. It's good to be passionate about the game and to want your team to win so badly. It's not healthy to get up-in-arms about perceived showboating or small celebrations. I promise, you'd enjoy the game a lot more if you actually allowed yourself to see it as fun. That's why the best article on this whole thing is making fun of Gomez's goofy angry faces.

Sidenote: The people saying Gomez needs to be tested because of 'roid rage and the Ryan Braun connection are on a whole 'nother level of awful.

What's going on with the Brewers?

There wasn't much going on with the Brewers until an incident occurred last night in Atlanta. Milwaukee was just playing out the stretch like the Mets and trying to stay optimistic about 2014. If Carlos Gomez hadn't clubbed a home run off of Paul Maholm on Wednesday night, I might have had to write about something dull in this space. Ryan Braun's suspension has been a pretty big national story this year, so that was a possibility. PEDs are bad, lying is bad, and Braun is going to be underrated heading into next season. There are certainly worse players for the Brewers to be locked into a contract with.

Anyway, what makes the Gomez story interesting ins't just that he has a history of conflict with Maholm or that Atlanta catcher Brian McCann absurdly incited a bench-clearing situation by standing in front of home plate. It's that the Braves just got done whining about a similar confrontation with Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez. Baseball analysts are going to be talking today about how Gomez doesn't respect the game, but what they should be talking about is why McCann and the Braves are so darn sensitive opponents not rushing to first base after they hit home runs. In a world where Manny Machado just tore a ligament by barely running to first base, let's just allow these players to take their time around the bases. Baseball can be fun sometimes, but I suppose the Braves would prefer if it wasn't.

Who are these guys?

Scooter Gennett is a 23-year-old, left-handed second base prospect who has been a bright spot in Milwaukee's otherwise dismal season. He was called up in early June to help out at the keystone while Rickie Weeks was scuffling, but he really didn't start crushing the ball since his second call-up in late July. Although he hasn't been allowed to hit lefties very often this season, his .328/.362/.495 line is nevertheless impressive. John Sickels has more on Gennett in a recent profile over at Minor League Ball. Just in case he turns into the future version of Chipper Jones, Gennett's real first name is "Ryan."

Khris Davis is another Brewers prospect who as acquitted himself quite well in the majors this season. Although Davis actually started the 2013 season with the big league club, he didn't start to see serious playing time until after the Braun suspension opened up a position in Milwaukee's outfield. Once Davis became a regular, he really took off, and has only needed 129 at-bat to hit 10 home runs this season. Plus, the unusual spelling of his first name is finally starting to pay off, as it is a lot harder than it could have been to confuse Davis with the Orioles slugger Chris Davis.

Who's on the mound?

Thursday: Johnny Hellweg vs. Dillon Gee

Hellweg has only thrown 26.1 innings this season in the majors, but the Mets have seen him before. Back on July 5, Hellweg was a spot starter for the Brewers in the teams' first meeting of 2013. In that outing, the 24-year-old right-handed pitcher allowed three earned runs in 3.2 innings while walking five batters and striking out none. Unfortunately that outing was not an outlier for Hellweg, who has struggled to keep batters off the basepaths since coming to Milwaukee in the Zack Greinke trade last season. The youngster can throw heat and reportedly has a good curveball, but his 81 walks in 125.2 Triple-A innings this season is something that desperately calls for improvement.

Friday: Yovani Gallardo vs. Carlos Torres

Brewers General manager Doug Melvin is probably glad that he has one year left on Gallardo's contract before the 27-year-old Mexican hits free agency. That's because Gallardo hasn't exactly made it clear this season whether or not he's a valuable cog in Milwaukee's future. Once considered the team's staff ace, Gallardo has looked ordinary and even bad at times this season, and his strikeouts-per-nine rate has shrunk from 9.00 in 2012 to just 7.11 this year. Gallardo's 1.5 fWAR in 2013 is the lowest in his big league career, but he's looked like his old self for over a month now. Brewers fans will hope that Gallardo can carry his solid play forward and either earn a long-term contract or be used as trade bait in 2014.

Saturday: Jimmy Nelson vs. Aaron Harang

Nelson just turned 24 years old and will be making his first major league start against the Mets this weekend. The right-handed pitcher is a little more highly regarded than Hellweg, and rightfully so. With Nashville of the Pacific Coast League this season, Nelson has 91 strikeouts and 50 walks in 83.1 innings. That walk rate is only a little better than what Hellweg was doing in the minors, but Nelson also pitched 69 innings in Double-A this year with 15 walks and 72 strikeouts. That's a great sign for the young starter, whose high walk rate in Double-A in 2012 is an indication of his ability to adapt his pitching to match more advanced hitting.

Sunday: Marco Estrada vs. ???

Like Gallardo, Estrada has pitched much more effectively since the trade deadline passed. In 51.2 innings in August and September, he has 49 walks and 11 strikeouts, which is a good enough ratio for any team to have at the back end of the rotation. That's not where Estrada is on the depth chart right now, but he could be there sometime in the near future. He has two years of team control left, and the Brewers would just love it if Hellweg, Nelson, and Wily Peralta took over the top three spots in the rotation by the time Estrada is up for free agency.

How about some GIFs?

Wilfredo Tovar made a nice diving catch on Tuesday night to rob New Jersey native Todd Frazier of a base hit.

Former Met Gomez robbed former Met Marlon Byrd of a home run in New York's first meeting with the Brewers this season.

Norichika Aoki sent the Mets scurrying to a corner of the dugout with a flurry of foul balls on July 7.

It's time to say farewell to an old friend: earned run average.

As far as pitching statistics go, it's hard to think of one that has as much acceptance on both sides of the traditional / sabermetric coin as ERA. Maybe strikeouts have a little more grip, but whether you're a writer for Beyond the Box Score, or a beat reporter for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, you probably use ERA in some form to talk about how effective a pitcher has been.

And even as DIPS theory has gained traction in the analytics world, writers and analysts still use ERA as part of the discussion surrounding pitchers. The idea is to balance the stuff we know a pitcher can control (as evidenced by things like walks, strikeouts, homers, and FIP) with the stuff that we still can't separate from defense, etc. (runs scored, hits, etc.). ERA, for many, helps tell us what really happened and gets to the heart of actual results.

Except, in quite a few cases, it doesn't. And that's why it needs to go away.

I'm hardly breaking new ground here, as very smart people have been looking for alternatives and commenting against the use of ERA for years. And it makes sense as to why: ERA is a statistic that is fundamentally flawed, and that flaw sits at the beginning of it's acronym. The flaw is "E.' When we talk about earned run average, we talk about what makes a run "earned" versus what makes a run "unearned". And this simple distinction turns this statistic away from the thing that would make it most useful.

ERA is best used at its most descriptive. This is what happened. Yet when we focus on earned runs allowed rather than all runs allowed, we shoehorn in an element of judgement. This is what happened, except we're removing a subset of those runs, which probably aren't the pitcher's fault. If it were a perfect way to eliminate that which does not belong to the pitcher, then it'd have value. But it's not perfect. It's based, in large part, on errors.

Think about it: the analytics community has already distanced itself from the error as an appropriate way to judge defense. The error only judges certain obvious mistakes, not the more subtle aspects of poor defense that come from shoddy positioning or a slow first step defined simply as "the play not made." And even then, errors are subject to scorer bias, and not always reflective of whether or not a fielder botched a play. I'm not exactly sure what percentage of "bad" defense that shouldn't be credited to the pitcher come from errors, but I'd be surprised if it was more than half knowing some of the things we know about range and positioning.

If we, as an analytics community, don't hold up errors as the end-all-be-all of defensive analysis, then why should that be the primary factor in judging whether or not a pitcher's runs were influenced by poor defense?

Photo credit: USA TODAY Sports

The Low-Cost Alternative

The simple beauty of a shift away from ERA is that unlike many of the movements to eliminate the use of a flawed stat -- such as #killthewin or #murderthesave or #maimrbi -- we've already have a perfectly reasonable, easy-to-calculate replacement. It's locked and loaded and ready to fire. It's RA9.

RA9 is just ERA without the "E", and with a "9" tacked on at the end to remind everyone that it's spread over nine innings. Instead of using earned runs as the run component in the ERA formula, it uses all runs allowed. It's simpler to calculate than ERA, because we don't have to go through the trouble to discriminate between earned runs and runs. Did C.J. Wilson give up two runs over six innings? Excellent! That's an RA9 of 3.00 for the game. We don't have to focus on which runs were earned, and which were perhaps the result of a bad or borderline error. Just the facts, ma'am.

Switching over to RA9 might require us to shade our baselines for "good performance" down a little bit from where we stood using ERA, due to the fact that a pitcher's RA9 will always be greater than, or equal to his ERA. As far as I can determine, the league RA9 for 2013 was about 4.18, where the ERA was 3.87. That's about a 0.31 difference between the two metrics. So instead of positing league-average performance as slightly under four runs per nine, we may need to imagine it as slightly over four runs per nine.

In truth, this isn't really a bad thing, to have to make a small shift in how we look at a "good" or "bad" statistic relative to league-average. After all, the run environment is constantly shifting, and to be accurate in our mental models, we have to make small shifts like these consistently. It's all part of the process.

But by using RA9 in our short-form, quick-twitch analysis of pitcher skill -- instead of ERA -- we in some ways take the discussion of defense out of the equation entirely. We probably definitely shouldn't be using a single stat to tell us everything about pitching performance, and RA9 answers more clearly the question of "what happened" than ERA does.

Photo credit: Doug Pensinger

More on the RA9 / ERA Difference

What would it mean for analysis of particular pitcher seasons if we moved over to RA9 instead of ERA? RA9 is already pretty accessible over at Baseball-Reference, so it's not like we have to hand-craft an artisan stat to get the information we want. But how about what it tells us about pitchers whose ERAs are most different from their RA9s, at least for last year.

For fun, I've taken every pitcher with over 40 IP in 2013, and found the delta (difference) between their ERAs and their RA9s. Among those pitchers, there's an average difference between ERA (always lower) and RA9 (always higher), of almost exactly 0.30 runs per nine innings. So that's a reasonable baseline for your expectations. Here's a tiny table of the pitchers with the largest swings between their RA9 and their ERA:

And here's another table that just focuses on starting pitchers with 120+ IP.

This is just a way to look at the numbers and say to ourselves maybe the data doesn't tell us what we think it does. And we can see some pretty decent-sized differences here. When playing fantasy baseball this year, I looked at Wily Peralta's ERA of 4.37 and saw an unimpressive, but not painful ERA. His FIP of 4.30 told me that his peripherals were relatively in-line with that seasonal performance. But his RA9 is almost a full run higher than his ERA, which tells me that a *lot* of runs were scored when Peralta was on the hill. Those unearned runs still happened, and if you're a proponent of looking at the "actual" results of runs scored when a pitcher's on the mound, I'd say that matters.

Does it mean that Peralta was "lucky" in that his defense took responsibility for the runs that could have been charged to him? Perhaps. While PADE gives Milwaukee credit for a better-than average defense holistically, Peralta was a ground-ball pitcher playing in front of poor defensive players like Rickie Weeks, Yuniesky Betancourt and Juan Francisco. Does it mean that other pitchers on the Milwaukee staff like, say, Brandon Kintzler, who were also grounder-heavy didn't "luck out" in the same way, since their RA9-ERA gap wasn't as large as Peralta's?

Here's a quick look at some other Brewers, for fun:

That's a pretty wide range of differences between ERA and RA.

All I'm trying to say here is that things aren't always what they seem when you're working with ERA. That's especially true for starting pitchers ... except in the curious cases of Francisco Liriano and Wei-Yin Chen, who gave up no unearned runs in 2013, and their ERAs and RA9s match up perfectly. Does that make what these pitchers did somehow less impressive, given that they "lucked out" when it came to important errors behind them?

The Arguments Against Conversion

I can understand why some people might say that converting our way of thinking from ERA to RA9 is a mistake, or a waste of time. ERA and RA9 are very close, most of the time. The difference between a pitcher's RA9 and ERA is relatively small. This is true in most cases, but the areas where we see outlier performance are probably importantt enough to note. ERA takes an imperfect grasp at removing a pitcher's accountability for events outside of his control, true, but we have other metrics (such as FIP) that do that in a more rigorous way.

The biggest argument against will always be the widespread acceptance of ERA -- how deeply ingrained it already is into the familiar baseball discussion. Why try to teach a wide audience this new statistic when there are literally dozens of others jockeying for position in the hearts and minds of baseball fans?

Because it's better, and because it's more accurate, is why. And even if it doesn't immediately gain traction, using RA9 in analysis provides for a clearer, less biased picture than ERA does. That's worth something, even if it represents just another "battle" in the world of statistic acceptance.

ERA gives us a skewed view of how defense affected a pitcher's runs allowed, and a biased view like that just doesn't have the same value as the raw data of RA9. Calling a run earned because Rickie Weeks doesn't have the range to get to a ball most second basemen turn into an out, and calling another unearned because Brendan Ryan got to it, but threw it away, doesn't make sense.

We have the ability to easily replace ERA with RA9 in the popular lexicon. And it's about time we do it.

. . .

All statistics courtesy of FanGraphs, Baseball-Reference and Baseball Prospectus.

Bryan Grosnick is the Managing Editor of Beyond the Box Score. You can follow him on Twitter at @bgrosnick.

More from Beyond the Box Score:

Follow @btbscoreFollow @SBNationMLB

• The Cy Young case for Koji Uehara
• Clayton Kershaw named Beyond The Box Score 2013 National League Cy Young Award Winner
• AL East offseason preview
• Beyond The Box Score's 2013 American and National League Rookies of the Year
• The hidden(?) cost of Joe Mauer's move to first

A strange series of events leads to a playoff contender in Queens.

Sandy Anderson is tired. He's tired of all the name-calling, the SABR-bashing, and the facetious punny WAR headlines (what IS it good for, anyway?). He's tired of being a cheap nerd in New York. But most of all he's tired of the Wilpons. This offseason will be different. The future be damned! Sandy is building a winner and going out with a bang.

MLB Rotation: $50M and 5 moves

Your team has been given $50M extra per year and exactly 5 moves to spend it. How will you best improve your club?

We asked each of SB Nation's MLB blogs to imagine that. Here's what they said.

Ever since he co-wroteMoneyball with Billy Beane, Sandy has been looking for the next great market inefficiency. This year he's found it: PEDs... or at least PED users.

This offseason the Mets' GM has a cool $50 million—that he stole from the Wilpons when they weren't looking—and a deadly five moves of doom to work with. Here's his plan:

Move #1

To really annoy the fans that have never supported him, Alderson calls up the Brewers and gets this trade done:

Brewers get Travis d'Arnaud, Noah Syndergaard and Ike Davis. The Mets get Ryan Braun and $15 million a year. Braun will only make $10 million in 2014. Sandy strays from his all-steroid plan for one acquisition, and receives Kyle Lohse as well.

Move #2

The fan base cries over the loss of Syndergaard and d'Arnaud, but rages over Sandy's next move: Using $5 million from the Brewers he signs Carlos Ruiz to replace d'Arnaud.

Moves #3 and #4

The PED plan continues with two signings: Jhonny Peralta (two years, $20 million) and Nelson Cruz (three years, $39 million).

Move #5

The back pages call for blood, but New York literally implodes upon hearing the next move:

The Mets trade Juan Lagares, Daniel Murphy, and Brandon Nimmo to the Yankees for Alex Rodriguez (who will play first base), a recently signed Bartolo Colon, and $10 million a year. The Yankees are so happy to get rid of A-Rod that they offer the recently signed Colon, a player Sandy just can't help but say yes to, for free.

A-Rod’s pending suspension is overturned when Sandy convinces Bud Selig that Major League Baseball will make a ton of money off of a Mets World Series victory. The soon-to-be-retired Selig later admits that he stopped caring about his job in 2005.

To complete the offseason Alderson announces he's starting Cesar Puello in center field and—in another shocking turn of events—claims that Jordany Valdespin is his second baseman. Alderson drops the mic, flips the (Marlon) bird, and goes on to be MLB commissioner for the rest of his life after the Mets win their first World Series since 1986.

Lineup:

1. Jordany Valdespin, 2B*
2. David Wright, 3B
3. Ryan Braun, LF*
4. Nelson Cruz, RF*
5. Alex Rodriguez, 1B*
6. Jhonny Peralta, SS*
7. Cesar Puello, CF*
8. Carlos Ruiz, C*

Rotation:

1. Jonathon Niese
2. Bartolo Colon*
3. Zack Wheeler
4. Kyle Lohse
5. Dillon Gee/Jenrry Mejia/Rafael Montero

More from Amazin' Avenue:

• Jeff Wilpon says Mets may be busy working on a deal
• International Free Agent Profile 2014: Matt Murton
• Mets Rumors: Ike Davis market is heating up
• Mets Offseason: $50 million and 5 moves

We're looking at a couple of conversations about Wily Peralta in today's roundup of all things Brewers.

Some things to read while showing your good side.

We are 93 days away from pitchers and catchers reporting to Maryvale, and today we're looking at the challenges of evaluating Wily Peralta's first full season in the majors. Nicholas Zettel of Disciples of Uecker highlights the Brewers' lack of replacement options for Peralta when he struggled in the season's early months, giving him some credit for continuing to battle when he perhaps should have been replaced in the rotation.

Meanwhile, Peralta's 2013 performance plays a key role in Bryan Grosnick of Beyond the Box Score's argument that we should replace ERA as a pitching stat with RA9, which is simply runs allowed per nine innings and includes "unearned" runs. Peralta allowed a lot of unearned runs in 2013.

Today in free agency: The Brewer Nation has a video of one of Corey Hart's offseason workouts. Hart continues to work to prove he's healthy as he searches for a new contract.

Meanwhile on the trade market, we've got some good news for the portion of the fanbase that wants Rickie Weeks out of town by any available means. Benjamin Chase of Tomahawk Take says the Braves would "have to think about it" if Weeks was available cheaply.

Trading Weeks, by the way, is one of six moves The Book of Gorman says they'd make to rebuild the 2014 Brewers.

Here are some quick and sundry notes about three of Weeks' teammates on the 2013 team:

• John Steinmiller and Caitlin Moyer have a look at the t-shirt the Brewers are selling to commemorate Carlos Gomez's Gold Glove Award.
• Matt Klaasen of FanGraphs credited Logan Schafer with 2013's best sacrifice bunt for his walkoff squeeze on September 17.
• Cards Conclave has a look at reliever Michael Blazek's time with the Cardinals and says there's "no obvious reason why he can't be a serviceable bullpen arm for Milwaukee in years to come."
• Yesterday we discussed Martin Maldonado as part of our player-by-player look at the 2013 season. Stop by this afternoon to see who we're profiling today.

The Brewers aren't likely to receive any BBWAA awards this week, but one longtime Brewers minor league coach is receiving a pretty significant honor. Former Nashville manager Mike Guerrero, who was added to the Brewers' MLB staff earlier this offseason, will receive the sixth annual Mike Coolbaugh Award at baseball's winter meetings in December. The award is given to "an individual who has shown an outstanding baseball work ethic, knowledge of the game and skill in mentoring young players on the field."

Elsewhere in the minors:

• Taylor Jungmann's Arizona Fall League season wrapped up with a whimper yesterday, as he started for Surprise and allowed four runs on two hits and four walks over two innings. Mitch Haniger went 2-for-4 with two runs scored, though, as Surprise overcame the rough start to beat Scottsdale 9-7 (box score). Adam Weisenberger went 1-for-5 in the game, and Jason Rogers went 0-for-3 with a walk.
• Adam McCalvy has more on Jungmann's rough outing.
• Bernie Pleskoff of MLB.com (via Twitter) suggested Jungmann was struggling with his rhythm.
• Speaking of the AFL, Eno Sarris of FanGraphs has a look at MLB success rates for AFL All Stars and says that 31% of them have experienced success in the majors. Reliever David Goforth represented the Brewers in the game this year.
• The AFL season wraps up this weekend but Jason Rogers' offseason work will continue. Yesterday he announced that he'll be in the Dominican Republic in five days.
• In the Dominican, by the way, Juan Francisco went 0-for-3 with a walk in Licey's 3-1 loss to Escogido last night (box score).
• And in Puerto Rico, Jose De La Torre pitched .2 scoreless innings in Caguas' 6-3 win over Santurce (box score).

Meanwhile, back in Milwaukee, the Miller Park Stadium District has approved their budget for 2014. Debt service on the stadium's construction is going up from $1.9 million to $3.4 million next year, and the team and district will combine to spend $675,000 on roof maintenance.

Around baseball:

Blue Jays: Infielder Mark DeRosa announced plans to retire yesterday.
Phillies: Signed outfielder Marlon Byrd to a two-year, $16 million deal.
Rangers: Hired former Cardinals assistant hitting coach Bengie Molina as first base coach.
Reds: Hired former Diamondbacks minor league coach Jeff Pico as their new pitching coach and former Pirates hitting coach Don Long as hitting coach.
Yankees: Signed outfielder Antoan Richardson to a minor league deal.

Meanwhile, one possible free agent import made headlines yesterday by announcing he's staying in Japan. Former MLB pitcher Randy Messenger, who has posted a sub-3.00 ERA over three seasons in Nippon Pro Baseball, re-signed with the Hanshin Tigers.

In former Brewers: Baseball Card Vandals had some borderline-nsfw fun with a Chris Bosio card.

It's been widely publicized that the 2014 MLB season will open overseas, with the Dodgers and Diamondbacks playing a two-game series in Australia. Before that, though, spring training will also extend outside the US: The Yankees and Marlins are expected to play a pair of exhibition games in Panama City.

Finally, with help from the B-Ref Play Index, happy 45th birthday today to 1993-97 Brewer Mark Kiefer.

Now, if you'll excuse me, it's time to change poses.

Drink up.

Hart missed all of 2013, leaving the Brewers without a first baseman for much of the season.

The Milwaukee Brewers are considering re-signing Corey Hart to fill the team's hole at first base, reports Jon Heyman of CBS Sports.

Hart, who stands at 6'6", did not play in 2013 after undergoing surgery on both of his knees. He also missed the first month of the 2012 season after having knee surgery in spring training of that year. From 2010-2012, he posted an 857 OPS and hit 87 home runs. He is one of the best power hitters on the free agent market this offseason.

Back in mid-September, Hart stated a willingness to return to Milwaukee and said he would be willing to take a discount for the opportunity to remain with the Brewers. At the time, Hart said he had not had any negotiations with the team. Hart knows the team would need to make sure he is healthy before offering a contract, but thought there was a good chance he would be in a Brewers uniform in 2014.

"[The Brewers have] kind of hinted (they have interest) but it’s early, and coming off two knee surgeries I’m sure they want to see me get out there and run first before they actually talk to me.They want to make sure I can do the stuff I need to do, which I’ll be able to do. It’s a process. Can I run and do the cuts I need to do. Hopefully, they’ll see enough and keep me," Hart said in September. "I’m pretty optimistic that I’ll be back"

The Brewers are thought to have about $10 million in salary room in the offseason, which is exactly what Hart made in 2013. The team's main focus is finding a first baseman, but they also have other holes to fill as well. Their interest likely depends on how much of a discount Hart is willing to take.

Milwaukee has explored other first base options early in the offseason, including talking to the Mets about Ike Davis. No deal appears imminent, however.

With Hart and backups Taylor Green and Mat Gamel all missing the 2013 season, the Brewers instead relied on a mishmash of players like Yuniesky Betancourt, Alex Gonzalez, Juan Francisco and Sean Halton at first base. Consequently, their production at the position was the worst in the major leagues.

The Mets are also known to have an interest in Hart, who could see a lot of attention on the free agent market.

More from SB Nation MLB:

• Spencer Hall: A desperate trip into the ruins of Turner Field

• Goldman: The next generation of MLB managers

• Presenting SB Nation's 2013 MLB Awards

• MLB Hot Stove | Brian McCann will 'end up with the Yankees'

• Death of a Ballplayer: Wrongly convicted prospect spends 27 years in prison

Hiram Burgos entered 2013 as the hot pitching prospect for the Brewers, but shoulder issues forced an early end to his season.

Entering the 2013 season, Hiram Burgos had become a hot prospect for the Brewers. He had been named the Brewers' minor league pitcher of the year in 2012, and followed that up with a stellar performance in the World Baseball Classic for Puerto Rico, ending with a championship for his home country. Considering how well he was pitching, it was only a matter of time before the right opportunity came up and he would be called to Milwaukee.

That time came a few weeks into the 2013 season. With Mike Fiers struggling through three appearances and Chris Narveson on the DL with a finger injury, the Brewers needed a fifth starter. With Burgos scheduled to start that day in Nashville, the Brewers decided to call him up to Milwaukee to make the start. On May 20, Burgos made his MLB debut for the Brewers against the Cubs.

The first three starts for Burgos went well. In his MLB debut, he pitched five innings, allowing five hits and a run with one strikeout. It was good enough to earn his first MLB win. He would follow that up with two quality starts, but it went downhill after that. In a start against the Reds on May 11, he had a bad start but had to absorb some innings, and ended up giving up 12 runs (10 earned) in three innings. His ERA shot up from 3.00 to 6.86 as a result. His next two starts weren't much better, and in the second, it took him 86 pitches to get through 3 1/3 innings.

Following that start, Burgos ended up on the disabled list with a right shoulder impingement on May 24. After a few weeks, he began a rehab assignment. He was activated from the DL on June 28, but was optioned right to Nashville. Burgos made two more starts for Nashville after coming off the DL, but went back on the DL in Nashville with another injury and was shut down for the season.

It's hard to say how well Burgos did in his first season because of how short it was. The first three starts show a lot of promise for him, as he put up an ERA of 3.00 over those starts and had two quality starts there, but also posted a FIP of 4.65 in those three starts. In the last three starts, his ERA was 11.91 and FIP was 6.10. With small sample sizes and an injury, there's a lot of uncertainty here, but also enough promise to stay positive about his chances in 2014.

Currently, Burgos is pitching in the Caribbean League for fall baseball in preparation for next season. He will most likely end up in Nashville to start the 2014 season. Since he was added to the 40-man roster following the 2012 season, he will have two options left. Burgos will need to work hard to get back to where he was before the injury, but if he does, he could work himself into the Brewers rotation plans sometime in 2014.

Best Game

Hiram Burgos only made six starts for the Brewers, but one of them does stand out above the rest. On May 1, he made his third start of the season, this time against the Pirates at home. He ended up having his longest start of the season, pitching seven solid innings with 101 pitches. He only allowed four hits and a walk, though two of those hits were solo home runs. He also had six strikeouts for the day and left with a 3-2 lead, but would end up with a no-decision after the Brewers gave up the lead.

Here are some highlights from that start:

Contract Status

HIram Burgos didn't accumulate even a half season of service time in 2013. If he made the 25-man roster to start the 2014 season and remained on the roster from then on, he would be arbitration-eligible following the 2016 season and a free agent after 2019.

Previous MVBrewers posts can be seen at the links below:

#1: Carlos Gomez
#2: Jonathan Lucroy
#3: Jean Segura
#4: Kyle Lohse
#5: Norichika Aoki
#6: Jim Henderson
#7: Brandon Kintzler
#8: Yovani Gallardo
#9: Wily Peralta
#10: Scooter Gennett

Honorable mentions: Marco Estrada, Ryan Braun, Khris Davis, Tyler Thornburg,Aramis Ramirez, Tom Gorzelanny, Jeff Bianchi, Caleb Gindl, Logan Schafer, Rob Wooten

Lesser Brewers: Burke Badenhop, Francisco Rodriguez, Jimmy Nelson, Donovan Hand, Sean Halton, Martin Maldonado

The Microsoft team approached Kyle late last month asking if we'd like to interview Brewers radio announcer Joe Block to see how OneNote has benefited him at the ballpark.

Growing up in Detroit during a time in which the Tigers were as successful as ever, it wasn't difficult for Joe Block to latch onto America's favorite pastime from an early age. But it wasn't until Block was eight years old when he realized his desire tokeep track of the stats, rather than lace up his cleats 162 times each season, would eventually become his calling to the game.

Fast forward to November 2013, and the Michigan State University graduate now looks toward his third season calling play-by-play with Bob Uecker for AM 620 WTMJ, the Brewers' official radio network.

The process with which baseball statistics are organized and utilized for baseball broadcasters has changed significantly over the last decade -- and as Block can attest, Microsoft OneNote has been a remarkable asset for him in his first two seasons calling plays for Milwaukee. When was the last time the Brewers turned a triple play? At the drop of the hat, Block is able to access the information he compiled earlier in the week to make the listener's experience more enjoyable.

I had the opportunity to speak with him briefly last week, asking him about his broadcasting history, past methods he used to store data for his profession while mixing in a handful of Brewers-related questions along the way. Below is an abbreviated version of our conversation.

Programming note: The Mug is off today and will return Friday morning.

AD: Hey there Joe, I appreciate you taking the time to answer a few questions for us. How's the off-season been?

JB: It's been good just to spend time with my wife and see Wisconsin. You now, just to be a normal person for a little while.

AD: Well that's great to hear. You mentioned in the promo video that you'd decided to switch to the statistics of baseball rather than actually playing the game when you were eight years old. What factors went into that decision?

JB: I don't think anyone is that committed to a career at age eight, but what it was doing at that time was just trying to figure out what I liked to do. We had something in class one day where you filled out a scantron form and it spits out what you wanted to do. I don't think mine said 'broadcaster', but it was something along those lines. And that's where that idea kind of came into place. I took it more seriously once I got to high school, but like other kids, I started to shy away from playing the game at an organized level and spent a lot of my time just talking into microphones. I was really weird.

AD: Did you have a specific broadcaster who you idolized growing up?

JB: Ernie Harwell of Detroit was the first guy that I identified. He's a Hall of Fame broadcaster and had a great southern-style. I got to know him later on in college through a couple of chance meetings and over time I got to become good friends with him. He really helped me out starting things off, and being able to be around Vin Scully when I was with the Dodgers, but there's been no bigger influence I've had in my broadcasting career than Bob Uecker -- learning how to be an entertainer and not just a broadcaster.

AD: What was your primary way of organizing everything before OneNote?

JB: It wasn't very good. For football and basketball I used Excel and created spotting charts, and that works for those sports, but for baseball, that doesn't really work because there's lineup changes too often. It just didn't make sense. I've also kept a physical notebook, which becomes hard to find information as well as it's just cumbersome to carry.

Scott Franzke of the Phillies recommended it to me through a casual conversation about how he used OneNote, and after being able to dabble with it and figure it out, I kind of set up my own way of using it. Then I found because I can type things from my phone when I'm in the cage or around the clubhouse, or I'm away and I can access it from my tablet, I can use it. In the off-season, when there's a story on Yovani Gallardo, for example, I don't need it for four months, but it would be cool to talk about it in spring training -- and that's where OneNote has made my job so much easier and it's made me a better broadcaster.

AD: I have a friend who's interested in going into radio broadcasting, and he was wondering what is the best route to becoming a play-by-play announcer?

JB: I think first off, you need to get experience, and sometimes that's hard to come by. Like I said before, try to just get to a ballgame and just hear yourself practice, listen to a lot of different broadcasters so you can kind of get a feel for what they're saying and what they're looking for. And once you get that experience on your own, then you have to get to a point where you want to start calling some games in college. After that, you just have to have your tapes ready and send your stuff out to get critiqued and land that first job. You get a little better after that and hopefully it all comes together over time.

AD: Switching to more Brewers-related questions, do you think the team regrets forfeiting the rights to its first-round draft pick by signing Kyle Lohse?

JB: I do not. Starting pitching is very hard to come by and it is very expensive. The Brewers came into the season very much at a dearth for starting pitching and I think they were hoping that a lot of things would go right for their rotation to look solid. Any educated observer would know that pretty much everything would've needed to go right for them to feel that way, and it didn't, of course. He was available, and he was available at a reasonable price for today's market. Considering the track record that he had, coming off a 2.86 ERA and the last couple of seasons being one of the top 15 or so starting pitchers in the National League, that's a pretty good market. Mark Attanasio has always been willing to upgrade talent when needed. Coming into the season, the Brewers were still contenders and starting pitching was their major Achilles' heel and if it weren't for injuries, this team would've been awfully competitive.

AD: One question everyone still seems to have is whether Scooter Gennett can be a legitimate second baseman offensively and defensively for the long haul. Do you believe he can be that for this franchise?

JB: I do and I reserved judgment about that until I saw him play this season. Folks would ask that he's hitting .300 in the minors and triple-A, Rickie Weeks is struggling and hey, why not bring up Scooter. Well, my answer was I've seen him swing the bat 15-20 times -- I couldn't make an honest evaluation. But being around him and having seen him play, he's got moxie. Defensively is going to be the question mark with him. He had been error prone in the early parts of his career, but he has really become a plus, I think, defensively. He'll never win a Gold Glove over their at second base, but he has shown, at times, web-gem type plays. All you really need from him is to be an average defender, because I think he can be an above-average hitter. Not in terms of power -- I think that power may have been a bit of an aberration this year. I think that in time, he can become a more advanced hitter.

AD: What do you think Khris Davis must do to make a legitimate case for a starting role on this roster in the near future?

JB: I think he needs to improve his throwing a little bit, and he seemed to do that over the course of the year. I thought he was much more mortal against breaking stuff last year, but the reason I think he's going to be good -- and I was very skeptical in his very short time in spring training -- is he really spun on some pitches that were just off the plate or a good breaking pitch that curled just outside of the zone. He's a really good fastball hitter and most power hitters, like Josh Hamilton, profile the same way -- very good at hitting the fastball, not exceptional at hitting breaking stuff. Someone's going to have to come inside with a fastball and when they make that mistake, he took advantage. He's got plenty of power, he's a stronger guy than he looks and they think he's got a pretty good eye, and so I think his hitting tool could be outstanding. I don't want to go and say this guy is going to hit 30 home runs if he played every day, but he hit 11 in 150 at-bats. so at the very least it's intriguing to see what he might be able to do with some sort of regular playing time. And if his defense in left field is his only major demerit, then he's got an interesting future.

AD: That's all I've got for you, Joe. Again, we truly appreciate the time. Hopefully we can do this again soon.

JB: Sure thing. I'm glad that you wanted to talk to me, and thanks again.