Opening Night

Thank goodness baseball has arrived. Although the Crew doesn't kick-off their season until Tuesday, the Phillies and Braves meet tonight on Sunday Night Baseball.

Nothing like watching HD on ESPN. Their channel, in my eyes, comes in the best and offers the best quality. Right behind them is WGN. However, I don't watch that station too often. But when I do watch the Cubs at times, I do notice that the colors are pretty clear.

The final roster has been turned in today and there doesn't seem to be any surprises. Gwynn is down in Nashville, Lamb is out, and Riske is in. There will be a couple of new names we'll get to know in Casey McGehee and Chris Duffy as well.

A number of preseason predictions came out the past couple of days. Most have Chicago taking the Central, with a few rebel "experts" picking the Cards. That's fine with me. Fly in under the radar. One thing is for sure, all critics believe that this will be a down year for the Central and that there aren't any teams that can compete with the Cubs. One thing I do agree on with some of the writers, is that the Reds will be quite competitive this season with Voto, Phillips, Bruce, and a decent rotation. We'll see.

Matt Vasgersian, one-time Brewer Radio commentator, feels that Milwaukee will compete for a playoff spot. It will be nice to see him on MLB network this season.

Jason Kendall wants to retire a Brewer (6 more seasons). Let him stay. He would make a great mentor for Salome when he comes up. Meanwhile Rivera is cursing his profile pic in the team-program.

Milwaukee looks to an explosive offense to offset their woefull pitching.

My feeling is that the current rotation has to survive the first half of the season in order for the Brewers to have a shot at the playoffs. Come June or July, Milwaukee should be able to pull in an ace via trade. Perhaps even sooner. The economic strain that some teams are going through will result in trade triggers being pulled faster/sooner in to the season. Melvin is patiently awaiting chatter.

Milwaukee beat the Dodgers yesterday in their Spring finale. Brad Nelson jacked a three-run homer to lift the Crew to a 7-4 win.

Mark Rogers is pitching pain-free and may start to make fans forget that he was a bust, when picked 5th overall in 2004. This is a nice piece done by his local paper in Maine. It would be nice to have both Rogers and Jeffress coming up through the system and actually cracking the rotation. Jeffress had his own problems when he tested positive for pot a couple of years back.
Melvin is thinking that Milwaukee will have a number of strong arms to chose from in the next couple of seasons. Additionally, Mike Jones (RHP) is also expected to contribute in the near future.