Let the Winter Meetings Begin!

Indianapolis is host to this year's Winter Meetings. What a great event this is. I love it. It's like going back in time to when I was in high school. All the rumors, gossip, theories, game plans, cheating, flirting, and impractical thinking...all under one roof!

It's like the male version of soap operas. Seriously, name me a better waste of time then the Winter Meetings! Don't get me wrong, I live for this event. It allows me to think "outside the box" and play the 'what-if-game'.

First up for Milwaukee is the idea of Melvin targeting LHP Randy Wolf. The crafty southpaw was not offered arbitration, therefore, Milwaukee would not have to forfeit a first round draft pick to sign him. Considering that John Lackey is going to draw offers between 18MM and 20MM, I'm glad to see Milwaukee going for the second best pitcher available. Hang in there one more season before the god awful contracts come off the books (Hall, Suppan, Riske). After all, Wolf did go 11-7 last season for LA and helped guide them to the NLCS.

Other rumors getting thrown around out there....

* I laughed aloud when I read this one on Jsonline.com.....
Apparently, Tom Haudricourt is thinking that a straight-up trade that would send Soup to LA for Juan Pierre is a good idea. Granted, I salivate at the thought of having a left-handed hitter who can play centerfield. Thus, giving us a back-up plan should the Carlos Gomez plan go to shit. For some odd reason the Dodgers are looking for a third team to participate in this plan of theirs. They are willing to send Pierre to a team in return for an over-paid pitcher...in layman's terms.

* Mike Cameron is on the Cubs' radar. If they are able to deal Milton Bradley; they are then willing to hire Cam's services. This is concerning to say the least. Cameron is always good for 20+ HR's a season plus excellent defense. He sure does strike out a lot, but he could add value to their outfield.

* I would anticipate Milwaukee pulling off a trade to bring in at least one starting pitcher. Granted, the farm system is not as full as it once was...but moving a Gamel and/or Hart could entice some teams. Although I am worried that McGehee won't be able to repeat his stellar rookie season, I do feel that Gamel is someone who doesn't fit in with Milwaukee clubhouse. He also reminds me of a ditzy blond, only with brown hair.

Back to it....

Well, let us take a look at my college football predictions that I made back in August.
Granted, there is still 2 weeks of football left to be played, but we all know that the BCS will come down to the winner of the SEC title game ('Bama vs Florida) and Texas.

It's looking like my BCS title game is going to be correct. I truly believe that 'Bama will beat Florida and they will then lose to Texas.

It appears that I botched the bowl lay-outs below. But I got the title game right, thus far. Unless something crazy happens with Texas, and of course, 'Bama loses to Florida.
-I called Cincy almost spot on. Granted, it's looking like they will finish 5th or even 4th in the BCS rankings. But I had them as my surprise team.
-I had Iowa as my top Big 10 team, but they lost to OSU so that got shot down. Needless to say, they should still get an at-large-bid.
-The actualy Rose Bowl is OSU vs Oregon. I had Oregon in the Fiesta Bowl and OSU out of the BCS. Whoops.
-The biggest surprise is TCU, I didn't mention them in the top 10.
-I called USC right, although they could get a shot at an at-large-bid I hear.
-Utah was my biggest disappointment....they are ranked 20th right now and they have 2 losses. Likewise with Cal.
-Michigan State was my bust pick in the Big Ten.

Well....you can check the rest below. All in all, not bad. I'm still on pace to win some coin.

With the start of the season only 2 weeks away, it's time to release Scottage Cheeses' 3rd Annual Pick-A-Dicks:
Citi National - Rose Bowl (aka Taxpayers Bowl)
Texas (3) over Alabama (6)
FED EX Orange Bowl
Virginia Tech (8) over Oregon (13)
Tostitos Fiesta Bowl
Boise State (12) over Oklahoma (2)
All State Sugar Bowl
Iowa (23) over Notre Dame (24)
Top 10
1) Texas
2) Virginia Tech
3) Alabama
4) Boise State
5) Iowa
6) Oklahoma
7) Oregon
8) Utah
9) Cincy**
10) California
*Please note, USC will finish 11th or 12th. Their schedule is far too tough (non-conference).
**Cincy will be the surprise team of the year
***Michigan State could easily sneak in over Cal.
Big Ten
1. Iowa
2. Michigan State
3. Ohio State
4. Penn State
5. Michigan
6. Minnesota
7. Illinois
8. Wisconsin
9. Purdue
10. Northwestern
11. Indiana
*I love the Badgers more than my pet cat, Jack. But it's going to take one more year before Clay reaches his full potential and the Badgers will have options at QB.
**Iowa is returning most of their O-Line, QB, D-Line and have a couple of options to replace Shonn Greene.
I may have gotten the conference match-ups wrong in the bowl. If so, sue me (I love that line!).
HERE are my predictions from last season....yikes. I went out on a limb and picked two SEC teams to go to the title game. Why? Look how close it came to Michigan vs OSU in 2007.

Good news

Casey McGahee has been awarded the Rookie of the Month honors for his campaign in September. He batted .337 with 5 HR's...all with a bummed knees. It's highly doubtful that he will finish in the top 3 for ROY voting, but he should be. He played the entire season with a crap knee and he rode the bench for the first couple of months, prior to Weeks' injury.

Alcides Escobar found out that he will be considered a rookie next year in the 2010 season. This is great news. Not only does it help with his ROY bid in 2010, but it also help the Brewers in future contract talks. He had 129 at-bats over the past two seasons....the cut-off is 130!

Well, it's the off-season for the crew....so let the Mike Cameron rumors begin! Keep in mind, MC is a free agent. The Padres say they could use Mike Cameron in CF to platoon with TG Jr.. I say bs on that.....Cameron will never agree to a platoon situation.

HERE is even more reasons why the Milwaukee Brewers ownership should be able to land a couple of solid pitchers in the off-season.

Quest for 2010 Post-Season Starts...TODAY!

Well folk, the Crew ended on a good note yesterday by sweeping the Cardinals. Granted, the Cards were probably only looking forward to their NLDS match-up with LA....but a win is a win.

With that being said, the Crew finished sub .500 (80-82) and met their critics predictions. Starting the season most picked the Crew to be the biggest drop-off in 2009. I called BS on that, but deep down I knew that the pitching was suspect. Oh well.

The run for the 2010 post-season (and the end of the Prince Fielder era) starts today!

What a great way to start out the off-season with THIS piece of news that involves the Brewers signing Trevor Hoffman to a one-year deal worth $8MM and a mutual option for 2011.
Hoff tallied 37 saves out 41 opportunities for the Crew in 2009 and also made the All Star. This is excellent news for Milwaukee, considering that the pickings were quite slim for closers this off-season!

Against my wishes, the Milwaukee Brewers have decided to bring back Kenny Macha for 2010 and possibly 2011. I really thought this man would kick some sense in to these young players. He's decent, but a Cecil Cooper or Willie Randolph would've done wonders. I was against Willie last off-season.....but seeing how he connects with the young players makes me with otherwise.

One more thing...

The pitching in Milwaukee is by far the worse I have seen in some time. In fact, it's the second worse in the league! From top to bottom, even including Yovanni Gallardo at times...this rotation is purely laughable.

Doug Melvin, despite my fondness for him, should be held accountable for this atrocity. Why? Because he actually felt that this rotation would be okay for 2009.

"I thought we had middle-of-the-pack pitching," he said. "If we were seventh or eighth in ERA, between 4.30 and 4.50, we'd have a chance. It didn't happen." -Doug Melvin

Really? Even wit out pitching coach Mike Maddux; who went to the Rangers last winter? We can't blame you for parting ways with Ben Sheets and losing out to CC Sabathia. But adding another arm to the rotation, other than Oliver Perez, would have worked last winter.

Grow some nuts and kick Suppan to the pen. Who knows, he may actually be okay down there.

Michael Hunt hinted at a pretty good idea in the above mentioned story in yesterdays Journal-Sentinel....

Milwaukee has to a little more gutsy in going after solid pitchers this off-season. Not reckless, but will to take more chances with injury-laden pitchers. Granted, Ben Sheets has probably scared the living bejesus out of this sort of thinking. But look at the risk that the Cardinals did in signing John Smoltz? Or the Phillie's with Pedro Martinez?

This day and age, you have to take chances and hope that it works out. Of course, I will probably be bitching if it doesn't...but you know what? That's okay. I'm a fan of Brewers baseball.

4 weeks left

Well, not much to get excited over. Carpenter made the Brewers look like complete morons by limiting them to 1-hit...the day after Prince Fielder and the Crew beat the SF Giants in walk-off fashion that was seen all over the Sports Centers of the world.

I don't get it. Why would the Crew think it's swell to do the bombs-away / bowling theme after Sunday's game? Honestly....I don't get it. I seldom get mad at the Brewers and especially Prince Fielder...but that was simply retarded. Sorry folks.

Yes, it looked kind of cool...but then I opened the paper to see that the Milwaukee Brewers are virtually a couple of games from being officially out of the post-season race. Not to mention that the Crew is under .500 and threatening to break their consecutive seasons of winning records.

Here's an idea....act like you have been there before. This single-handidly topped the list of uneeded celebratory shinanigans that Ryan Braun has ever done.

Enough with that....

JJ Hardy is 2-15 since coming back from Nashville. Honestly, this kid pisses me off to high heaven. It's like he doesn't honestly know why he was sent down to the minors. Nobody elses fault but his own, would be the best way to handle this ordeal. But no, he claims stupidty.

OnMilwaukee.com pointed out the obvious today when they did a piece on the looming threat that Milwaukee's grass-roots movement is coming to an end. The JACK Z days are numbered where Milwaukee's fans could look to the future. JJ and Corey's days are (hopefully) numbered and the Rickie Weeks that we say in the first 1.5 months may not return; it is Rickie Weeks afterall.

If Melvin wants any chance to returning to the post season, he will have to part ways with Prince Fielder...or....hope that he can deal the farm away for a solid ACE. I hate to see Prince go, but it's going to happen in 2010-2011. Get the most that you can for him!

5 weeks left....

Hi, my name is JJ Hardy and I played my way out of the starting SS position...all on my own!

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/brewers/56431322.html

Who would have thought that the Milwaukee Brewers would be sitting two games under .500 and in 3rd place entering the final month (5 weeks) of play? If you would have told me that JJ Hardy would be apart of the September call-up, I would have said you were nuts. Oh, and if you would've told me that Jeff Suppan sucks...I would have responded with a "no shit".
So goes the long season that is baseball. Milwaukee enters, what should've been, a key 3-game series in St. Louis this week. However, instead of fighting for first place the Milwaukee Brewers are fighting to get to .500 on the year.

JJ Hardy is expected to be called up today and may even start for Milwaukee. This may be a kind gesture on behalf of Macha and Melvin to Hardy, seeing that he has some hard feelings on what went down in August. Wwhaaaaaaa (crying to myself). Get over it JJ. How many times has Melvin given you excessive amounts of time to jump out of your constant slumps that often times last more than 2 months?!?!? Business is business and it's moves like this that will make Milwaukee in to a contender team. You can't think like a small-market team, you have to act like the Yankees and not look at the situation as being personal. Melvin may have just graduated from "Small team thinking like big team: 101".
With Hard spending the 20 days down in the minors now allows Milwaukee to have one more year of control over the 27 year-old SS. This is great! Why you might ask? Well, because his trade value has sunk to an all-time low this season. With Escobar playing well and JJ refusing to move to 3B...Melvin has no other option but to trade him. By packaging the SS up with an additional year of control on the contract, thus allows teams to look pass this horrid 2009 season. Granted, JJ will flourish with a change of scenery and this is a huge risk by Melvin. To gamble on something young and immature while giving up on a veteran (so-to-speak) who has proven to hit 20+ HR's in a season.
Something has to be done though. This nucleus has to be broken up. It started with Geoff Jenkins not coming back and continued with Billy Hall being shipped to the minors before being dealt to Seattle for a bag of bats. It starts here gentlemen. Melvin has shown that he can be tough, finally!
So where does Milwaukee go from here? It's time to start wheeling & dealing! Prince Fielder? I love ya, but you can bring the team 2 solid pitchers (one possibly an ACE). Yes, certainly this leaves a gap in the middle of the order and it takes away 1/2 of the productivity. But as San Fransisco is proving to the MLB this year....you're only as good as your pitching. What good is it to have a 1-2 punch in the line-up with out a solid 1-2 punch in the rotation? Bring back Looper, Bush, and Parra. Throw Suppan in the bullpen (who cares that he's a veteran) and go pull off a trade that will land us a valid ACE and a back of the rotation hurler.

1. New guy
2. Parra
3. Bush
4. Looper
5. New guy