Our Brewers preview interview was postponed last night due to our recording equipment picking up an errant AM radio station. We’ll try again tomorrow, but in the meantime, the Crack Technical Staff and I catch up on what’s been going on around the division.

Ruh-roh, Astros

• Kaz Matsui has undergone surgery to repair his anal fissure. He’ll be out two to three weeks, and will miss the opening.
• Utility man Mark Loretta will replace Matsui.

Trouble Brewers
Manager Ned Yost has interesting plans for his lineup.

• Mike Cameron will bat 2nd when he returns from his drug suspension. Yost wants Cameron’s replacement to also bat 2nd, so as not to disrupt the delicate order of the line-up.
• Yost will have the pitcher bat 8th.

Tweet tweet Cardinals

• Finally signed Kyle Lohse for 1 year and $4.25 M. What the hell happened to the consensus best free agent starting pitcher? Collusion? Backlash against Scott Boras?

Da Cubs

• Rumors that the Cubs will trade with the Orioles for lead-off hitter Brian Roberts continue to abound and be squashed.
• Kerry Wood looks to be the closer for this season.
• Ryan Dempster might not make the starting rotation.

Ahoy! Pirates

• Steve Pearce, one of the Pirates best prospects was cut and send down to AAA camp.
• Starter Ian Snell signed a long-term deal ($8 M over three years). With options, could buy out a year of free agency.

Watch out for McCarthy, Reds

• Jeremy Affeldt has been moved to the bullpen.
• Rotation looks to be Aaron Harang, Bronson Arroyo, Josh Fogg, Johnny Cueto, and Edinson Volquez

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Welcome to the semifinals of the Jason Romano Commemorative NLC’s hottest baller contest. 15 of the best-looking players on NLC (plus the newest ex-Mariner) face off in a single-elimination tournament.

Brad Ausmus comes to the final four by way of the nonReds bracket. He defeated Sean Burnett in the first round and Chris Duffy in the second round. Ausmus brings a very traditional tall-dark-and-handsome kind of hotness to the competition.

Even so, Ausmus has his work cut out for him against…

Bubba Crosby is a cult favorite in the competition. He’s already taken down Bronson Arroyo and Matt Belisle, two very well-liked Reds’ pitchers, to make his way into the final four.

Brad Ausmus
ht: 5-11 wt: 190 dob: 04/14/1969

Bubba Crosby
ht: 5-11 wt: 195 dob: 08/11/1976

[poll=25]

I mentioned the Reds placement on an MiLB.com article about the best minor league systems, but the Brewers place in another evaluation article, as well.

Despite losing closer Francisco Cordero to the Reds, along with effective middle reliever Scott Linebrink, the Brewers still apparently have a killer bullpen. Heck, the article seems to bestow kudos for getting rid of the 44-save closer.

Cordero already had a track record (with Texas) for crash-landing after a big season, so Melvin felt better about rebuilding his bullpen and went all out. A lot rides on whether Guillermo Mota and Eric Gagne can re-enact the deadly combination they formed with the 2002-04 Dodgers.

The Brewers were rated 4th best in all of baseball, which I find a little hard to believe. Gagne was unbelievably bad with Boston last year, and Mota’s average, at best. Plus, there’s no real telling how Gagne will pitch now that he’s no longer allegedly juicing.

The Brewers could have the best bullpen in the central, although that strikes me as faint praise. 4th in all of MLB? Probably not.

Just because the Reds have sucked for a long time now doesn’t mean there’s any reason for despair. An article on MiLB.com joins dozens of others in heaping accolades upon the Reds minor league system and prospects.

Out of all 30 teams, the Reds are ranked 4th best.

Outfielder Jay Bruce is the consensus No. 1 prospect in all of baseball. Ace of the future Homer Bailey may have had a small hiccup last year, but finished strongly and is still a Top 10 kind of player. Joey Votto is ready for a full-time first base job in the big leagues now and right-hander Johnny Cueto has generated a ton of buzz in big-league camp this spring, working his way into the No. 5 starter mix. Even if none of these players breaks north with the Reds on Opening Day, you’ll be hearing from them soon enough.

Thank goodness the team hired a manager who’s unparalleled in his ability to bring along young talent.

I know it’s only an article on SI.com, but there’s actually a positive look at the Pirates and their future. When an article starts off like this one does, you know that the author has either huffed the gold paint one too many times or actually believes what he’s typing.

I am ready to run through an outfield wall for Neal Huntington.

(A more cynical take might be that the writer’s simply trying to garner page views by something outlandish.)

John Donovan, the writer of the article, details the difficulties that anyone running the Pirates would encounter, not least of all is dealing with the almost two decades of futility. When Huntington says that the team has a rough time ahead and needs some work to be fixed, it’s easy to ignore him. The previous GM, Dave Littlefield, often said the right things, too, and that never got the team anywhere.

Like Donovan, I do feel something different with Huntington and the Pirates. Although I’m disappointed that the team wasn’t more active trading away players to reload their farm system, I can’t fault him. I don’t see any harm in waiting for players to improve their value. The Pirates have no big stars, and it would be a shame to trade Jason Bay when his value is so low.

Of all the teams in the Central, I want to see the Pirates win again, and I hope Huntington gets the time to let his actions match his words. Maybe if he has 6 years like Littlefield, we’ll actually see a competent Pirates team. At the very least, I expect we’ll see fewer trades like the one for Matt Morris.