Team Wisconsin

How did I do on my 2011 predictions?

2011-10-21T15:49:00.000-05:00

As typical everyear I post my preseason predictions. Typically, I have been pretty damn good in years past. I called that the SF Giants would make it to the World Series, which they won.

Well, I once again called the NLCS right. I had picked Milwaukee to make it to the series and lose to the Phillies. Well, I was half-right, seeing that St Louis came through big down the stretch. Take a look at how I did.....

World Series 2011

RED SOX win it all
Boston defeats Milwaukee
Well, I'm wrong all-together.
Milwaukee defeats Philly: NLCS
Boston defeats Minnesota: ALCS
I had one correct team in the CS, Milwaukee
Milwaukee defeats Atlanta: NLDS
Philly defeats Colorado: NLDS
Boston defeats LA: NLDS
Minnesota defeats Tampa Bay: NLDS
Despite the spelling error, I did have Tampa Bay in the ALCS
Likewise with Philly and Milwaukee; So I had 3 out of the 8 teams rightAL East
Boston Red Sox
Tampa Bay Rays *
NY Yankees
Baltimore Orioles
Toronto Blue Jays
I picked Tampa to win the Wild Card, which they did
AL Central
Minnesota Twins
Detroit Tigers
Chicago White Sox
KC Royals
Cleveland Indians

AL West
LA Angels
Texas Rangers
Oakland Athletics
Seattle Mariners

NL East
Philadelphia Phillies
Atlanta Braves *
Washington DC Nationals
Florida Marlins
NY Mets

NL Central
Milwaukee Brewers
Cincinnati Reds
St Louis Cardinals
Chicago Cubs
Pittsburgh Pirates
I picked the Central Division winner right
NL West
Colorado Rockies
San Francisco Giants
San Diego Padres
LA Dodgers
Arizona DBacks
The biggest failure...picking the DBacks last when they actually won it.

Here I wrote a few paragraps about my predictions. I will highlight the areas where I was right:::

Boston is destined to rebound big time this season with the addition of Gonzo and Carl Crawford as well as a healthy rotation. Tampa will have the 2nd best rotation in the league, but their offense will struggle as they try to form as one with out Pena & Crawford. Baltimore could be the biggest surprise and even bump NY from 3rd place.

Minnesota is the best team in a poor division. They are the first to get bounced in the playoffs, but this season should be different. They have Kirk Gibson that can step up and fill the void if Francisco Loriano doesn't pan out. Detroit is always a threat, but can't compete with the Twins.

The Rangers will prove to be a fluke, even with the addition of Beltre and Brandon Webb. I wonder how their lockeroom will be with a newly appointed GM (Nolan Ryan), letting Feliz get his way in the starting rotation, and their treatment of Michael Young fresh on their minds. Meanwhile, never count out Mike Scosia and his club. They are sleepers and should be able to take the division, although it will come down to the wire.

The Rockies have the youth and the leadership to win the NL West. I truly feel that San Fran will falter down the stretch. They have the risky Barry Zito and a young hurler who could stumble in his 2nd full season (Madison Bumgarner), while Tim Linsecum has shown that he can be sketchy at times. Having a solid bullpen will help though.

Milwaukee and Cincinnati will battle back and forth this season. But Milwaukee pitching depth (yes, you read that correctly) will surpass the Reds. Both teams will run the stat board when it comes to offense, but Prince Fielder is destined to have a career season and Ryan Braun is showing no signs of slowing down. Milwaukee's pitching will be better than Cincy's, bullpens included.

The NL East will have the a repeat of 2010 on their hands when Atlanta and Philly battle it out. Don't count the Nationals out early....they are destined to make a significant jump this season, while the Marlins and Mets drop off.

Obviously, I picked the AL CY Young winner wrong (will go to Verlander), but Halladay has a shot
Long shot, but I could also get the Prince Fielder MVP prediction right. If he doesn't win, he'll finish 3rd or 4th.
NL ROY will go to what's-hit-nuts from the Braves (the closer) while the AL ROY is unknown.Far-fetched individual awards:
AL Cy Young: David Price
NL Cy Young: Roy Halladay
AL MVP: Miguel Cabrera
NL MVP: Prince Fielder
AL ROY: Kyle Drabek
NL ROY: Freddie Freeman

All good things must come to an end

2011-10-17T16:43:00.000-05:00

Now that the Brewers have closed out their 2011 season it's time to look ahead. How do they capatilize off what they accomplished this season? How does a small market team compete next year with out their star first baseman? How do they upgrade this offseason at the corner-left infield? Who will man RF next season? Will Corey Hart take over 1B? Is Taylor Green the answer at 3B? Can the Crew lure Jose Reyes this off-season?

So many questions--with no easy answers.

Here's what we know, Milwaukee will probably have the same starting rotation in 2012. The bullpen will look the same as well, except for KRod and a few other names not worth mentioning (I don't have their contract info in front of me).

The offense may still have Carlos Gomez manning CF and possibly even Nyjer Morgan, if he can be signed at a reasonable price. The biggest question mark is in RF, with Corey Hart being either dealt this offseason or moving over to 1B. That of course is pending the Prince Fielder question, which is pretty much accepted that he will be moving on to richer...er...bigger waters.

The infield will also probably have some new faces. SS will be vacant and 3B will probably have Taylor Green manning it next season. Green of course was a mid-season call-up and then apart of the playoff roster. Ideally, Milwaukee will like it if they can some how move the 29 year-old Casey McGehee to a new club in return for some prospects. Most likely, McGehee will stay-put however, as he is only 1 season removed from having 100 RBI in 2010. But his knees aren't getting any more durable.

Jose Reyes will be the most sought after free agent (who's names aren't Prince & Albert) this offseason. Reyes would be a welcomed addition, when Prince bounces town. He would be cheaper and he still has plently of ball left in him (29 years-old). My only concern with him is his weak-ass hamstrings and the idea of him spending at least 2 stints on the 15 day DL. He did so for the Mets this season, in the midst of earning his batting title and his career season. Other options at SS would be Jamey Carrol (old as dirt) and Hairston Jr, who plays 3B far better.

So barring any freak injuries or big roster moves, the Brew Crew will look the same except for the #4 spot in the line-up, as well #6.

Will Milwaukee try to add 1 more arm to their rotation? It's doubtfull, considering all 5 of the starters will be back in 2012. However, if Melvin can score a CJ Wilson or CC Sabathia, you can imagine that either Marcum, Wolf, or Narveson will be dealt for a SS or 1B. My guess is that Marcum would be moved to an American League team in return for some infield help, since he has 1 season left and is up for his final arbitration.

Season Over, Prince heading out of town (?).

2011-10-17T12:03:00.000-05:00

Well, as soon as Milwaukee and the state of Wisconsin heard that RR was going to start Marcum in game 6, we all pretty much knew it was going to be over....and it was.

St Louis defeated Milwaukee 12-6 in the deciding game 6 and they will be representing the National League in the World Series against the Texas Rangers.

Prince went 0-4 in the game and 1 for 14 in games 3 thru 6. He made a couple of decent defensive plays, but otherwise, was quiet the rest of the series.

All in all, it was disappointing to see the Brewers lose this series. I'll type more later.

Milwaukee ties NLCS up 2-2 with St Louis

2011-10-14T15:51:00.001-05:00

After dropping 2 in a row to St. Louis, Milwaukee rebounded last night in a 4-2 win at Busch Stadium. Thanks impart to some small ball, the Brewers were able to claw their way back from being down 2 runs. The Cardinals got off to a quick start with solo jacks by Allen Craig and Matt Holliday off of the shaky Randy Wolf. Lucky for the Crew, Randy Wolf shook it off and pieced together one of the best postseason outing in franchise history. Albeit he has some fierce competition for that nod, but given the circumstances of the game (down 2 games to 1) I feel this is worthy of that make believe award.

Randall Wolfster (1-0) went 7 complete, giving up 2 earned runs on 6 hits. He tallied 6 k's and 1 free pass. Wolf even contributed at the plate with a line drive double.
The bullpen did the rest. KRod pitched the 8th and gave up a hit and struck out 1 while John Axford collected his 2nd save of the postseason; giving up 1 hit to Lance Berkman (PH).

At the plate, Jerry Hairston Jr has been unreal! He went 2-4 with a double and a RBI last night and made some key defensive plays.

Jerry Hairston has been the unsung hero this offseason; heck even the month of September he has been on point. Doug Melvin knew exactly what he was getting when he made the mid-season move to bring in Hairston Jr. This veteran infielder can play anywhere on the field, most importantly, he was the fill-in for Rickie Weeks while he was on the mend for his twisted ankle. Felipe Lopez was brought in from Tampa's AAA team/affiliate as soon as Rickie's news broke that he would miss 4-6 weeks. Lopez got off to decent start with a 2 hit game in his first stint back at Miller Park, but it was obvious that Milwaukee needed somone larger than that. Hairston has World Series experience, although not much, but he did have 6 AB's with a hit back in 2009 with the Yankees. He also went 1 for 2 in the ALCS that year against the Angels.

Hairston Jr. brought his cornerstone defensive play to 2B and now he's the sure shot at 3B, in place of the struggling Casey McGehee. The 35 year-old is a leader in the club house and plays with raw emotions in the batter box. He makes contact with the ball and has been relied on a couple of times this postseason to deliver.
Thus far,Jerry has gone....
6 for 16 against the DBacks in the NLDS; with 2 key doubles, 2 walks, and 3 runs batted in. Against the Cardinals, his 6 for 16 with 3 doubles and 1 RBI line has been a reliable crutch in this offense. Especially over the past couple of games where Milwaukee's Braun & Fielder have failed to homer.

Tonight, it's Zack Greinke vs Jamie Garcia (LHP). Corey Hart and Carlos Gomez are starting in the outfield. Hopefully Hart will start to come around. He's been absolutely horrible so far.

Cordell Hart is hitting a piss poor .196 in the postseason play (2008 & 2011). Even worse, the Kentucky redneck is down to a .83 at the plate: 1 for 12, 3 strike outs, 2 walks in the NLCS.

Meanwhile, Nyjer Morgan (who is no stranger to hitting pitches in the dirt) is racking up a stellar average this October. Dude is hitting .310 at the plate and has driven in 3 runs. He's the spark that ignites this team. Nyjer is a must start in game 6 & 7.

Granted, Morgan can be way too much to handle at times (most of the times)....he's the missing piece in this Brewers puzzle of an outfield. He's much needed.

It's fun to read some of these looks from the nation's media outlets. Here are some that are worth reading....

New York Times looks in to the rivalry between St Louis and Milwaukee with an emphasis on beer making.

Wall Street Journal also touches on the suds series.... Did you know it costs $8 to buy a rice beer at Busch Stadium?!?! It's only 5.50 for a barley/hops brewed Miller at Miller Park.

Milwaukee's offense does the talking

2011-10-10T08:54:00.000-05:00

What a game yesterday. It was a game of highs and lows, having Milwaukee coming back twice in the game. At one time they were down by 3 runs. But with this offense and power in the middle of the order, the Milwaukee Brewers are hard to keep down. The Crew won game 1 by a score of 9-6.

Both Prince & Braun smacked home runs yesterday, with the latter also hitting a 2-run double. All together, Milwaukee collected 5 double by five different players. Rickie Weeks, who was struggling at the plate this post season added to that mix.

Most impressive has been the play of Yuni B. The man has flat out been raking in the playoffs. Yesterday Yuni went 2 for 4 with a double and a HR. He gets my nod for player of the game (slight edge over Braun and Saito).

Zack Greinke earned the win, but was far from perfect in his 6 innings of work. He allowed 6 earned runs on 8 hits. But he did tally 6 SO's and walked 2. Saito was the star of the pitching game, holding the Cards with runners on the corner. Sait had Alberta Pujols hit in to a double play (typical Alberta fashion).

John Axford recorded the save yesterday. In order to collect the last out of the game, he had to take a liner off his throwing arm. But he was still able to throw the runner out and he says he's OK.

The NLCS....the no love championship series

2011-10-09T08:15:00.001-05:00

How ironic, the last time Milwaukee won a playoff series was in 1982 when they came back from being down 2-0 and beat the California Angels. They would later lose to the St Louis Cardinals in the World Series in a closely contested series. Now it's time for revenge. Revenge from those days when the '82 boys couldn't seal the deal, revenge from 2007 when Milwaukee and St Louis got in a beam ball battle in September, and this season when tensions flared from both sides.

The Cardinals fell to the Brewers hard in the early season series' but then came storming back in August and September to even it up, 9-9. Both sides have similar ERA, batting averages, and other statistical areas. Granted, they're not as close of a team as the Diamondbacks were. But this will be a series that will be played and won with some small ball, some power, and most importantly--its pitchig.

Jamie Garcia takes to the mound against Zack Greinke in todays Game 1 at 3:00pm.

Let the trash talking BEGIN.
It's obvious both sides respect each other's game, but they hate each other personally. From Carp's distasteful tactics of yelling at batters and mad dogging them, to Tony Plushs' habit of cocking of pitchers with his (I hate using this word) swagger.
Tony Larussa hates the Brewers, that's a no-brainer really. I think he fuels a lot of this,dating back to 2007. When Zack Greinke told the press Friday night that the Crew doesn't like Carp, we all knew that. I mean, Milwaukee doesn't like Carp. So when Greinke said that, what's the big deal? Well, Tony Laruss didn't seem to care for it.

Nice summary of the upcoming series by NY Times.

Marcum flops / D-backs take Brewers to game 4

2011-10-05T16:36:00.000-05:00

Arizona 8, Milwaukee 1
For whatever reason, Shaun Marcum has been horse shit over the past 5 starts. Thinking that Roenicke was on to something, he pitched Greinke on short rest and took his chances on sending Marcum to the mound on the road. Since Marcum has been better than damn good on the road this season, it all made sense. However, in Randy Wolf-type fashion....there was a communication break down between Marcum and Lucroy that resulted in Paul Goldschmidt hitting a grand slam HR with 2 outs in the 5th. Only this whole incident happened after Ron Roenicke decided to intentionally walk Miguel Monterro (clean-up hitter) in order to try their luck on Goldshit (.387 average with bases loaded). Wrong choice. But hey, Roenicke hasn't made too many blatent mistakes this season. Granted, you don't want to see him start now in the NLDS.

Josh Collmentor was lights out, stifling the Crew over 7 complete innings, giving up 1 earned run (a mistake to Corey Hart ended up as HR). He struck out 6 while only issuing 2 free passes. That makes 20 total innings in 2011 (14 scoreless innings in the reg season), and dude only gives up 1 run. His over-the-top approach would have hopefully been figured out by the 3rd inning, hell, even Sampson or his sidekick (TBS analyst) said Josh was tipping his pitches. But that clearly didn't help. It's like he's Braveheart throwing a gosh damn battle hatchet.

So, on to game 4 we go. Randy Wolf takes to the mound in a couple of hours and George Kottarus will hopefully provide that usual spark from the plate.

It's decision time!

Brewers aiming for NLCS; D-Back's face possible elimination

2011-10-04T16:31:00.000-05:00

What a time to be sick....right when the Brewers are on the cusp of earning their first ever trip to the National League Championship Series! I have been out of commission for almost a week due to the cold. But am ready to stay awake to watch game 3 tonight.

Milwaukee is on all cylinders right now and taking their show on the road to Arizona where they will try to sweep the D-backs right out of the playoffs.

Here is a look at the storylines leading in to tonight's game:

Shaun Marcum is at ease as he will take to the mound tonight. Having come over from the AL East, Marcum feels ready and willing to do work in Arizona. His NL best road era of 2.21 will go up against Josh Collmenter (10-10, 3.38). Collmenter blanked the Crew earlier in the season, but that was when the Crew was resting Ryan Braun, Nyjer Morgan was on the DL and Jerry Hairston Jr was still playing in DC.

Speaking of Hairston, he's probably one of the biggest acquisition during the 2011 season--which was all but under the radar.

Nice story on Saito by the Phily Daily News. This 41 year-old reliever had to go through a lot this season; from the earthquake that rocked his home country to the many injuries that had set him back through out the first half of the season. He's a big piece to the bull pen though!

Prince is ready for the Chase Field boo's.

96-66: The 2011 Brewers beat out the 1982 Brewers

2011-09-29T09:04:00.000-05:00

96 WINS 96 wins
96 wins
96 wins

Last night the Milwaukee Brewers notched their 96th win of the season, thus beating out the storied team from 1982 for the best franchise record. What a season Milwaukee, thank you!

Zack Greinke allowed earned his 16th win of the season, this after missing the first 5 of the regular season, after going 6 complete and giving up 2 earned runs on 5 hits. He looked damn good and brought some nasty stuff.

Offensively, Lucroy & Hart went yard in the same innings while GO GO GOmez followed suit an inning later.

95-66: Prince blasts 3 HR's in route

2011-09-28T08:58:00.000-05:00

Brewers beat the Pirates last night 6-4 behind a career night by Prince Fielder. He hit his 36, 37, and 38th home run of the season while Rickie Weeks blasted the longest home run by a right handed batter in Miller Park history.

It was another tough day on the mound however, as Randy Wolf looked sloopy and out of sync with George Kottaras. He gave up 4 earned runs on 9 hits in only 5.2 innings of work (the 5.2 innings is normal for pre-playoffs). Regardless, Randy Wolf's era will finish at a surprising 3.69 for the season.

Speaking of, how about our starting rotation?!?!

Yovani Gallardo (17-10) 3.52 era / 207 SO / 207.1 innings -- that's a strike out per inning!
Shaun Marcum (13-7) 3.54 era / 158 SO / 200.2 innings -- similar as 2010, more walks though
*Zack Greinke (15-6) 3.86 era / 197 SO / 165.2 innings -- 197 K's and he missed a month!
Randy Wolf (13-10) 3.69 era / 134 SO / 212.1 innings -- most innings pitched in the rotation
Chris Narveson (11-8) 4.45 era / 126 SO / 161.2 innings -- biggest surprise of the rotation, excellent #5
*pitching tonight

Chris Narveson (15 day DL) and Zack Greinke (first 6 weeks of season) were the only pitchers to go on the DL in 2011. That's a huge difference compared to the years past.

You want to see something funny? Watch THIS video clip of Ryan Roberts grand slam home run last night, called by Darron Sutton. Noticed the lack of fans in the stands. Miller Park had over 40,000+ fans jammed in the park. It looks like there are maybe 5k (if they're lucky).

94-66

2011-09-27T16:16:00.002-05:00

94-65: Crew cruises past Fish in series sweep.

2011-09-26T09:16:00.000-05:00

Milwaukee, not showing any signs of coasting through the final days of the season, cruised to a victory yesterday afternoon against the Fish. I will admit, I didn't even tune it because I watching the Packers play. Granted, I should've because we're only days away from October baseball starting, but I have been on baseball overload as of late. Friday & Saturday's games drained me. How cool was that? My gully.

The Brewers set a Miller Park record with their 55th win of the season, by beating Florida 9-5 behind Chris Narveson's (11-8) nice outing. He went 6.1 innings allowing 4 earned runs on 5 hits, 5 K's and 5 walks.
It was the bullpen, the unheralded bullpen that has been the reason behind Milwaukee's pennant, that closed it down. K Loe went 1.1 innings and gave up an earned run, while Hawkins & Estrada finished it off.

Ryan Braun hit his 33rd HR of the season. If he doesn't win the MVP....my gully.

Enough with the game....how about the NLDS....

Who will start at 3B? It's looking more and more like Casey McGehee will be the odd man out. Jerry Hairston, Taylor Green, and Counsell will probably all take starts, with Hairston probably getting 2 starts in the NLDS. Casey is 4 for 52 and his BA has dropped to .224 on the season. Not exactly what you want to see at the corner. He also has 20 errors, which is good for 3rd worse in MLB.

Don't forget that Milwaukee is hosting a playoff rally on Thursday down at the Summerfest grounds.

My name was NOT selected in the ticket lottery. This made me sad. I suppose I should've entered a few more times.

93-65

2011-09-26T08:34:00.000-05:00

92-65: MILWAUKEE WINS FIRST PENNANT SINCE '82!

2011-09-25T08:35:00.000-05:00

What a game--what a game. Milwaukee was on all cylinders Friday night, especially Ryan Braun. It was his 3-run blast in the 8th inning that sealed the deal for the Suds City. Just like in 2008 when Braun hit a grand slam in the 8th that capped their first playoff appearence since '82. Pictures and videos can only begin to do this event any justice.....Milwaukee won 4-1 and the Cubbies (beloved for one night) beat the Cardinals.

Magic Number at 2 heading in to the weekend...

2011-09-23T08:41:00.001-05:00

The time has come for the Milwaukee Brewers to seal the deal and to bring home a pennant. With the Pirates coming to town and the Cardinals dropping last night's game 6-8 (against the Mets), the stars have finally aligned over Miller Park. The Central Division could get wrapped up tonight with a little help from the Cubs, who play the Cards starting at 7:15pm tonight. My guess is that Milwaukee will win tonight and they'll have to wait around for 10-15 minutes to celebrate, because I have a feeling the Cubbies are going to come through. They hate the Cardinals more than they hate us; not that it matters. It's not like they're saying, "Man...let's whoop ass on them Red Birds to help out our dogs that live an hour up the road from us. Regardless, Chicago is 5-5 over the past 10 games and if they play tonight like they played Milwaukee this past series....there could be a party in Milwaukee tonight. I am willing to guaranty that Chicago will win at least 1 game of this series. So all Milwaukee has to do sweep this series. By the way, Pittsburgh is 3-7 in the same time span.

Tonight, Milwaukee's true ACE of the team Yovani Gallardo (17-10) will take to the mound againts RHP Chris Volstad (5-12, 5.13).

The Brewers' Minor League coaching changes have been named and Don Money will no longer be the manager of the Sounds. He has been named to the role of Special Instructor/Player Development. In his place will be the Huntsville Stars old manager, Sandy Guerrero. In Sandy's place will be Minor League Hitting Coordinator, Darnell Coles.

Damn it, I wish I had ESPN Insider subscription, because THIS STORY was on to something. Granted, if you don't have a membership you can only read a few paragraphs....but they hit it on the head. Once Prince leaves in December-Feb this offseason, Milwaukee will then have some cash freed up to make an off-season move of their own. Possibly a couple of moves. Could they go out and reel in an even better 5th starter in their rotation? Narveson has certainly delivered this season, I should say over-delivered (10-8, 4.40 era). But pitching wins championships. That's a long shot of course, but they will need a new set-up man and a 1B. Better yet, they'll need a new SS and possibly even a 3B if Taylor Green isn't "the one".

This of course leads to an even more pressing question....who's the answer at 3B this postseason? Platoon the likes of McGehee & Green, possibly even Josh Wilson? My feeling is that you stick with Casey and let give him the NLDS to prove himself. If he hasn't had a spark in his offense by the end of the 2 game homestand (against the Braves, in this scenario), then you scratch him for Green/Wilson platoon. My question, in hind sight, is why didn't Milwaukee just leave Mat Gamel at 3B? They had to have known that he would not be the answer at 1B next season when Prince Fielder leaves for SF or whereever he'll go. They should've kept Gamel where he is comfortable....if there is such a thing. I just don't think he'll be a contibutor at the big league level, especially if he's not at 3B.

It's time to put the women and children to bed and go looking for dinner.....Bring it home Milwaukee!

91-65

2011-09-23T08:10:00.001-05:00

91-64: Brewers magic number dwindles down to 3

2011-09-21T08:53:00.000-05:00

Please please please St. Louis, don't lose tonight. Milwaukee takes on Chicago for a day game (1:20pm) while the Cardinals play the Mets at home later tonight. If the Brewers and Cardinals both win, the Crew will be celebrating their first pennant since 1982 at home in bed or at a bar, apart. They need this celebration in order to build off it heading in to the last 2 series of the season and then on to the post season. Isn't it nice? I'm sitting here bitching about the Brewers clinching too soon.

Shaun Marcum was lights out last night, make no mistake about it. He went 8 complete innings and gave up 1 earned run on 5 hits, 7 strike outs, and no walks. This is what Milwaukee fans want to see during the final days of the regular season. Frankie Rodriguez had 3 k's and gave up 1 hit, looking equally impressive.

Marcum & Hart each doubled, the only extra base hits for the Crew.

Ryan Braun went 1 for 5 and his batting average dropped to .332 on the season; Jose Reyes is at .331. So they are neck and neck in the batting king race.

My guess is that Ryan Braun will win MVP this season and Prince Fielder will finish 3rd. Jose Reyes or Kemp will finish 2nd.

If Milwaukee wants to make a big off-season splash, they'll target corner infielders. No better place to look than Aramis Ramirez. The 3B pool this off-season for free agents is small. Milwaukee has to ask themselves if they should bet on McGehee (0-4 last night) & Green to platoon 3B next season or go on a for-sure thing like Ramirez. I think you could sign Ramirez and work out a trade that could send Taylor Green (and another prospect) to a team for a SS. Time will tell in October on what Milwaukee will do the leftside of that infield, but I have a feeling that it's not going to improve much.

Mike Fiers (RHP) may get his first big league start of his career against Pittsburgh.

Milwaukee's rotation, as I see it, will be:
The Brewers will clinch the 2nd best record in baseball, thus giving them homefield advantage in the NLDS. They will face either Atlanta or St Louis in Milwaukee.
1. Yovani Gallardo
2. Zack Grinke
3. Randy Wolf
4. Shaun Marcum

You know damn well that Greink will pitch at home, as his record is spotless at Miller Park. So he's a shoe-in for the 2nd spot in the rotation; that way he doesn't have to pitch on the road. Gallardo has always been the team's ace and should be #1 guy. That's a long term investment type thing Milwaukee's coaching staff will give him, since he's going to be around a while. Zack & Marcum (and Wolf too, I think) could all be gone after the 2012 season.

Bullpen
long relief: Narveson
7th Hawkins
8th KRod
9th Axford

I don't see Saito staying healthy in October, as he is already experience some calf stifness and was unavailable for last night's game. He's brittle, but damn good when healthy.
Loe will probably be used here and there, depending on the rest for the others. Estrada will be the odd man out all together, unless our SP's blow it in back-to-back games.

90-64: Milwaukee's Narveson flops hard

2011-09-21T08:17:00.001-05:00

90-63: Back to the basics for Milwaukee

2011-09-19T08:33:00.000-05:00

It was Jonathon Lucroy who last week told AM 1250 that Milwaukee destined to have a break out series coming up. Well....he was right. Milwaukee swept the Reds out of Great American Ball Park and they are now on their way to Chicago, where they'll hopefully clinch the pennant. Which sucks if you think about how small that club house is at Wrigley. It's going to look like a bunch of grown men smashed in to a janitors closet.

The Brew Crew took game one with a score of 6-3.
The Brew Crew took game two with a score of 10-1.
The Brew Crew took game three with a score of 8-1.
Do the math at home now, and that gives you 24 runs by Milwaukee.

Milwaukee can now breath a sigh of relief. With their magic number down to 4 games and only 3 more series left to play, the Brewers will probably keep their rotation the way it is and shoot for the #2 spot in the playoffs (home field advantage).

More speculation on where Prince will end up next season. I'm seeing Albert Pujols staying put in St Louis and Prince going to Washington DC. In return, Milwaukee will either land James Looney from the Dodgers or be a long shot at getting Lance Berkman to fill in at 1B.

89-63

2011-09-19T08:24:00.003-05:00

88-63

2011-09-19T08:24:00.001-05:00

87-63: Brewers turn Miller Park in to a flop house

2011-09-15T08:38:00.001-05:00

What a piss poor game to watch. I will tell you right now, between that game last night and the comments made by KRod and Prince Fielder over the past day....it's starting to make me feel like this team is trying to shoot themselves in the foot.

With the magic number at 8 games and the Cardinals now within 5.5 games of capturing the pennant, Milwaukee would rather play the "look at me" card and have two of their star players put the spot light on themselves.

KRod...well, we all know that he's a prick. I'm not that pissed that he opened his yapper. He's a closer that has been filling in as our set-up man and he's been doing an excellent job. Who really cares if he's unhappy, he's gone after this season anyways. If anything, he's hurting his own new contract cause because he's now opened his fat mouth with the last 3 clubs that he has played with. One of which was in NYC where he beat the shit out of his pops-in-law. Look, he's a stud of a closer, but who in their right mind is going to give him some shots when Axford has been doing the job? Unhappy, who the hell cares.

Prince Fielder told TBS that he was done in Milwaukee. A bit pre-mature to say don't you think Prince. Look, I'm not an idiot, I'm not blind, you're on your way out. But you're here now, so why say stupid things like that? Aren't you trying to win a pennant?

Drew Olson from OnMilwaukee.com & ESPNMilwaukee.com wrote THIS about the situation.
Dan Patrick, while on his AM radio show, echoed Drew's words

I truly feel that Milwaukee will win the NL Central, but the way things have been going...they could make an early exit if they don't get home field advantage and start pulling their heads out of their asses.

87-62: Ryan Braun Walks Brewers Off

2011-09-14T09:31:00.000-05:00

Ryan Braun hit his first walk-off homerun since 2009 last night, during a low scoring duel against the Rockies. Milwaukee came behind after Prince Fielder crushed his 32nd HR of the season and also contributed a double (.294 BA) while Casey McGahee hit a line drive double that almost scored Rickie Weeks. Thanks to a couple of errors and some laboring by Zack Greinke, he only lasted 5 innings. He exited after his 116th pitch. But Milwaukee's relievers stepped up, especially Kameron Loe. He was able to get out of a jam with 2 men on. John Axford earned the win after going 2 strong innings in the 9th & 10th innings.

Milwaukee's 2011 schedule was released today. The NL Central is matched up with the AL Central; they'll be playing KC, Minnesota (of course, twice), White Sox and at home against the Blue Jays (AL Central). The city of Milwaukee will also host a "true" Opening Day game versus the Cardinals at 3:00pm on April 6th. So that will be a gem of a game for me to see in-person!

I'm looking at doing a trip with my wife out West when Milwaukee travels to San Diego and San Fran during the first week of May. That should be a fun trip.

The All Star game for 2012 will be in KC.

LaTroy Hawkins is a nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award for 2011.

KRod is the designated closer for tonight's game against the Rox, since Ax went 2 innings last night.

Very cool cause that Kilar Family is doing to honor their 6 year-old son who passed away (killed by a drunk driver). They are looking to raise funds to build a field of dreams for youth baseball. It would resemble the field in Dyersville, IA as seen on "Field of Dreams", from what I heard, with the corn as the outfield fence.

86-62: Milwaukee snaps 5 game losing streak

2011-09-12T08:30:00.000-05:00

I'm calling it a blessing in disguise. This recent beating the Brewers received from the Phillies could be a blessing because things were going too perfect for too long prior to last weeks series with St Louis.

Milwaukee was able to scrape off a win during the 4 game series with MLB's best team. If you think about it, all of the game were close and could have gone either way, but they didn't. Put things in to prospective, Narveson wouldn't have pitched Thursday night if we were in the playoffs.

85-62

2011-09-12T08:26:00.001-05:00

85-61

2011-09-12T08:25:00.003-05:00

85-60

2011-09-12T08:25:00.001-05:00

85-59: Fugly loss in St Louis

2011-09-08T09:08:00.000-05:00

The Crew ended the season with a .500 record against the Cardinals (9-9). It was a disappointed way to end the season series with them, getting shut out by Carpenter (complete game) and the clowns 2-0. Seeing Nyjer act like a hot head and then both benches clearing in the 9th. Don't get me wrong, I love this rivalry and I wish they would've come to blows....back in August. But this is September and there's only 18 games left to play with an 8.5 game lead over the Cardinals. Don't give them reason to try any harder than they have to in order to catch up. Tony LaRussa, Carp, and Pujols all handled it well and with well spoken words in their interviews. All three of them said that Nyjer is a good player, but that sometimes his unorthodox way of celebrating or talking trash takes the focus away from him being a good player. Pujols hit it on the head, why is Nyjer Morgan on 3 different ball clubs in 3.5 years? That's easy to answer, because he had no guidance and he was playing for Minor League teams (DC & Pittsburgh) in Major League Baseball. Look, I hate the Red Birds more than the Cubs even....but Nyjer was out of line with his antics. But that'll happen, that's the type of player he is. He'll also be the first player out there defending his teammates. He's the reason why Milwaukee is going to win the Central!

Casey McGehee started the festivities last night when he got ejected in the 4th inning on a questionable strike 3 call. Morgan of course followed in the 9th with his own invite out.

The Brewers have the Central all but wrapped up, yet they still have to play the Phillies in a 4 game series at home and then the remainder of the games are against teams under .500 on the season. Milwaukee could go up a 1/2 game on the Cards if they win tonight, due to the Cardinals having the night off before they take on the Braves at home.

Rickie Weeks will be back tonight! He'll get eased back in and probably not start at 2B until next week, is my guess.

85-58: Crew fails to come back against Cards

2011-09-07T09:38:00.001-05:00

85-57: Milwaukee's win streak hits 4 / Stifles Red Birds

2011-09-06T16:19:00.003-05:00

Milwaukee is back on a roll after sweeping Houston and taking the first game of their series in St Louis.

The Crew is now 10.5 games ahead of the Cardinals and 4 games ahead of Arizona. The DiamondBacks are trying to catch up on the Crew in order to get home field advantage. As it stands, Milwaukee would take on Atlanta in the NLDS. The DBacks are now 9-1 over their last 10 games and the hottest team in baseball thanks to Ian Kennedy's NL best 18 wins (Verlander has 21 wins in AL).

This picture (above) was taken before the Brewers were leaving Houston on Sunday. Nyjer Morgan thought of this idea and even presented a new alter-ego in "Tony Tombstone" (see below). If I was a fan of any other team in baseball, I would be pretty annoyed by Nyjer. But it can't be overlooked what he has added to this clubhouse. Since coming on board in April (Cutter Dykstra trade), Morgan has added some energy and identity to the Crew. Let it be known that the only personality that wasn't bland in that locker room was Carlos Gomez, and he can barely speak any English. Let's face it, if I wanted to hang out with a team and drink some beers--the Brewers would not be that team. Prince would sit there quietly, Braun would be admiring himself in the mirror, McGehee would pet his beard, and only one would be fun....John Axford.

Although i agree that some of Axford's facebook statuses have been odd and almost nerdy, he's a unique guy that likes to have fun. Likewise with Nyjer Morgan; both players provide a spark and lighten up the mood when there's a 5 game losing streak or someone is in a funk. LaTroy Hawkins seems to feed off this energy and often times tweets about it. He's been quoted numerous times as saying Nyjer only needed some veteran oversight in order to perform at his level in 2011. Prior to, he was constricted and frowned upon by the young locker rooms in DC & Pittsburgh. Here in Milwaukee, he's embraced by the state and the team's management.

With a .308 batting average and season-long resume that includes a number of clutch hits, he's been the best addition to the team this season. Throw in Jerry Hairston Jr, and you have the GM of the year in Doug Melvin as well as a Manager of the Year in Ron Roenicke. Sure, the GM of the Diamond Backs could arguably be the pick, while Jerry Manuel for the M of the Y. But I'm biased...and Milwaukee has a longer history of sucking balls.

George Kottarus hit for the cycle over the weekend and he's the only one to do so in Major League Baseball this season. He's been outstanding in the back-up role and he could be used as trade bait in the off-season.

Mat Gamel: Why didn't he get called-up for expanded rosters?

Neat story by the Post-Dispatch on the Crew. Apparently Randy Wolf has a brother that umps for MLB; whenever the rotation matches up for him to cover the Crew, they shuffle the older brother out of town to cover a different game. Apparently he's so popular, he can't visit his favorite restaurants in Milwaukee because of his connection to Randy. My guess is that the two probably resemble each other (See below, left).

Milwaukee is looking at (possibly) having a batting king and a league MVP if things work out. Ryan Braun is looking at being crowned the Batting King for the NL. He remains ahead of Jose Reyes by a handfull of points. Prince Fielder and Braun are up for the NL MVP and both could win it (split? could happen). The only other player that's a threat is Matt Kemp, who's hitting .320 with 32 HR's. But the Dodgers are going no where this season and winning does matter in the ballot box. So I would expect to see Braun as the MVP if he takes the batting crown. If he doesn't, Prince Fielder will take the MVP. Of course, this is all barring any injury or prolonged slump.

Q&A w/ Mr. Baseball, def worth a read.
Pujols crying about the shadows at Busch Stadium yesterday. To his credit, he does have a valid point. Even the Brewers were apparently griping and even comparing it to Miller Park as being worse. Both teams should shut the hell up and suck it up. The stadiums are gems, both of them.

84-57: Crew Sweeps Houston

2011-09-06T15:50:00.006-05:00

83-57

2011-09-06T15:50:00.003-05:00

82-57

2011-09-06T15:50:00.001-05:00

81-57: Brewers Blasted, Again

2011-09-02T09:08:00.002-05:00

College Football Predictions 2011

2011-09-01T16:02:00.000-05:00

It's that time of the year where I educate you all on making predictions in College Football.

Here they are:

Top 10 (season ending)
1. Alabama (tops Oregon in title game)
'Bama rolls tide all over the SEC with their lethal combination of QB's and Heismann winner in Trent Richardson.
2. Oregon
3. Oklahoma (tops TCU in Fiesta Bowl)
4. Nebraska (tops Stanford in Rose Bowl)
5. Stanford
6. Florida State (tops South Carolina in Sugar Bowl)
7. TCU
8. WVU (beats Houston in Orange bowl)
9. Florida
10. Oklahoma State
*Surprise teams: Oklahoma State & BYU (wins the Pac-12 South but loses to Oregon in the conference title game)
**Flop teams: MSU, Texas A&M, Notre Dame, Texas, and Boise State

Big Ten
1. Nebraska (beats UW in Indy)
2. Iowa
3. Northwestern
4. MSU
5. Michigan
6. Minnesota

1. Wisconsin
2. OSU
3. PSU
4. Illinois
5. Indiana
6. Purdue

81-56: Cardinals Destroy Brewers

2011-09-01T08:49:00.000-05:00

It was ugly from the very start. St Louis' Furcal blaseted a solo shot to get the 1st inning off to a start. And then the ultimate douche bag, Albert Pujols blasted a solo shot. I love it how he gets a free pass to stand there watching his home run leave the park and then his a-typical pointing to the sky when he arrives home. What nimrod. The embarassing shot for Randy Wolf was when his rival Jake Westbrook blasted a grand slam HR in the 4th inning, his first career dinger.

Not much good came out of this game. Casey McGehee continued to struggle at the plate by hanging a golden sombrero up. His average has now dipped down to his normal 2011 range of the .230's. He's still a .287 career hitter, so there's hope and he's certainly shown that this season. But it's obvious that Taylor Green is nipping at his heels. Speaking of, Green made his first appearence at the plate and he made it count. Green spanked a liner to RF to collect his first hit, which was a single. He's going to be a hell of a player.

Brandon Dixon of the Cardinals will get his first start of his career today against Yovani Gallardo. Don't expect big things by the Crew today, they butt against new pitchers, they butt bad. Expect to see Taylor Green starting today because he faced Dixon with in the past week down in the Pacific League.

Milwaukee made their September call-up's announcement last night after the game. Logan Schafer (CF) who's hitting .327 and ANOTHER catcher in Martin Maldonado (C) who's hitting .328 on the season down in the Pacific League. Emabarrassingly enough, I never heard of Maldonado. Which is a shame, because apparently he's ripping it up in Nashville.

81-55: Milwaukee couldn't bunt last night

2011-08-31T09:28:00.000-05:00

Errors & Can't Bunt

That pretty much sums up last nights game against the Cardinals. Oh, and lack of run support too. Shaun Marcum (11-5) tossed an excellent game and worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the 5th, thanks to Yuni & Prince committing back-to-back errors. He gave up the only 2 runs in that inning which proved to be the deciding factor in the 2-1 loss last night. Marcum gave up only 4 hits over 7 innings and he struck out 4.

The middle of the order put of golden sombreros.
Nyjer & Hart both doubled and Morgan drove in the only run.

Newly drafted hurler Jed Bradley will begin his career in the Arizona Fall League for Peoria. This past summer he did play some ball for the Cape Cod League. Both Bradley and Freddie Prinz Junior looked damn good. Bradley was in the booth with BA & Rock last night. Seemed like a good kid with a level head, albeit he does have a silly hair do. I found in interesting that he was not allowed in Miller Park by his agent when he came to town for a physical prior to the draft. This is done, of course, to limit the visual splendor that is seeing the (possible) baseball park that you might play in once you sign the dotted line.

Carlos Gomez is going to come off the DL on Thursday, just in time for expanded rosters.

81-54: Milwaukee Brushes Aside the Cubs

2011-08-30T09:02:00.000-05:00

I was on vacation since Thursday so didn't get much of a chance to make a post.
I was able to listen to most of the Cubs @ Brewers series and it sounds like Corey Hart is heating up. The pitching has been on-point and Zack Greinke is the most dominate home pitcher in MLB. He's a perfect 10-0 @ Miller Park. That's why Doug Melvin made that deal.

Cool story from USA Today on the sabermetrics of Quality Starts. Zack and Estrada are mentioned.

Jonathon Lucroy is hitting .413 on Tuesdays this season. That's bad for the Cardinals. How do I know this? Because the morning 1250 am show out of Milwaukee was talking with Lucroy on the air just now and they brought it up. Lucroy seemed a little annoyed because of the superstition of letting a guy know he's on fire. It's like telling a pitcher in the 8th innning, "Hey buddy, you know you're throwing a no-hitter?".

Milwaukee will hit 3 million tickets sold this week. That's insane for the smallest market in all of baseball. Milwaukee ranks 9th in baseball for attendance and should leap frog the Cubs by the end of the season.
This is the 3rd time since 2008's wild card season.

Milwaukee welcomes the wacko Tony LaRussa and the Cardinals to town for a 3 game series to end the month and open September with. Come Thursday, Milwaukee will enter their last month of play.

80-54

2011-08-30T08:50:00.001-05:00

79-54

2011-08-30T08:49:00.003-05:00

78-54

2011-08-30T08:49:00.001-05:00

78-53: Brewers are on their way to 30 games over .500

2011-08-24T08:45:00.000-05:00

This is insanity....Milwaukee whooped-up on the Pirates AGAIN last night after bouncing back from a let-down game yesterday. The Crew topped the Bucs 11-4 and were led by an unsung leader in Marco Estrada (4-8, 3-2 as a starter). Not only did Estrada beat the Pirates for the 2nd time in 11 games from the mound, he also help at the plate with a couple of sac bunts that advanced a couple of baserunners. Estrada went 7 complete innings and didn't walk a single batter. He gave up 2 earned runs on 7 hits.
Latroy Hawkins fumbled a bit by giving up 2 earned during his 8th inning.
Nyjer Morgan went 4 for 6 on the night with a double and 2 runs batted in.
Prince Fielder drove in his 100th RBI of the season, first to reach that mark in all of baseballl; this despite going 1 for 11 in the series. He's due to erupt just in time for the Cubs series. Lucroy had 3 hits and an RBI and McGehee hit his 10th HR of the season.

Milwaukee now has a 10 game lead over St Louis. But keep in mind, they still have to play them 6 times. Their magic number is now 23
Milwaukee has THE biggest divisional lead in all of baseball right now.

Excellent, excellent story by Packers writer Lori Nickel on Nyjer Morgan. I had no idea that he had a daughter at 19 (girlfriend was 17) and that he gave up the rights to her to play baseball. At first read, I thought "why the hell did he give up being a parent to play baseball?". But then you read it again and after the 3rd time you start to understand why. He was broke and young. Nyjer gave up the right to see his daugther and father her, in order to make money by playing baseball. Is it something I would do? No....but then again, who am I to judge. He was in a tough spot and had to react. Just so long as Nyjer is paying child support (and then some), I'm fine with it.

Milwaukee's Ron Ron is trying to down play the SI cover jinx. Funny stuff seeing him on FSWisconsin last night, just laughing and wincing. On a serious note, was that not the best cover you see in a long time? To see 3 grown men (2 of them All-Star candidates) jumping up and down in the air in celebration? That's what baseball is all about.

A Breakdown by Sporting News on how the Braves, Brewers, and the NL West representative will match up with the Phillies.

......

Mark my words, the Brewers now have the Phillies in their sights. They know damn well how important it will be to clinch home field advantage through out the playoffs. I truly feel, that the Brewers can catch up to Philly and take the best record in the NL. Instead of checking the Cardinals score, we need to be checking the Phillies! Milwaukee has a legitimate shot of obtaining the NL's best record by the end of the season--and all of baseball! Home-field advantage would give them a huge shot of winning the NLDS & NLCS. Thanks to the National League beating the AL in the All-Star game--they will get home field advantage in the World Series too!

Finally.....not since Easter Sunday, 1987......

2011-08-23T12:33:00.000-05:00

Not since Easter Sunday, 1987 did the folks over at Sports Illustrated put the Brew Crew on the front cover. Yes, Braun was on a regional issue a few years back. But that doesn't count. Tomorrow's printed edition hits newstands and for once, the smallest market team in all of baseball is on the cover. It helps that the Crew has won 23 of 26 games! FYI....Rob Deer was the last player to be on the cover (Team Streak). I can't wait to read the Lee Jenkins story!

77-53: Milwaukee splits double-header with the Bucs

2011-08-23T08:56:00.000-05:00

Milwaukee played a pretty damn good 17 innings of baseball yesterday; but it was 1 inning of play that did them in during their second (night) game. The Crew took the first game 8-1 and dropped the second game 9-2.

The first game had Chris Narveson making his first start in 3 weeks, having just been activated from the DL list after cutting his thumb while knitting. He tossed a stellar 5.1 innings of play before exiting with a "nail issue". He allowed only 5 hits and no runs, walked 1 and fanned 3 (85 pitches, 35 strikes). What a surprise this hurler has been in 2011 and last season in 2010. I will admit that I have been suspect of him. But what I need to realize is that he's the 5th pitcher in that rotation. You hope that he gets a winning .500 record when he's on the mound.

Kam Loe (16th hold) gave up a hit and Saito (9th hold) combined to pitch an excellent 6th inning. Tim Dillard did give up a run in 2 innings of work, but still looked pretty decent.

Braun hit his 25th HR, which was a 2-run shot in the 9th.
Jerry Hairston continued his top notch play by going 2 for 4 with a double and he also walked. His batting average is now at .267 on the season. What's going to happen when Rickie returns in mid-September? At the very least, Milwaukee doesn't have to rush his recovery. But once he does return, my guess is that Hairston will split some time in CF/RF. He'll probably give Rickie a day off a week.

Last night's game was blah. Zack Greinke was on-point most of the game until the 7th inning when he was charged with 7 earned runs. His ERA went back in to the 4's (4.22) and his record dropped to 12-5. Even still, he was cruising through all 6 innings, but he hit the wall fast and labored. Franky De La Cruz gave an additiional 2 runs off of 3 hits in 1.2 innings of work.

Corey Hart started the game off with a solo HR during the first pitch of the game. That was his 19th of the season. It would be nice to see him finish with 25HR's this season.

Let's get real people, Milwaukee was due for a horrific inning. All teams get them. What's important is how they bounce back today.

Our beloved Crew has now won 23 of their last 26 games. Their magic number is 25 and they are ranked #1 in MLB's power poll!

Donate blood and earn Brewers tickets.

Forgot to mention this before, but one time Brewers top prospect, Mark Rodgers (first round pick in 2004) was busted for using a stimulant (failed test). It should be noted this is his second time getting busted, but it is not for HGH or steroids.
This guy has struggled to make it in the Brewers farm system. He's now serving a 25 game suspension starting next season, as he is already out the rest of this season due to carpal tunnel syndrom. He's only 25 years-old and has time to turn it around. He did show some promise last season when he was called up in September when he started in 2 games (no decisions) and gave up only 2 earned runs in 10 innings of work.

77-53

2011-08-23T08:33:00.001-05:00

76-52: Milwaukee sweeps New York

2011-08-22T08:48:00.000-05:00

On to Pittsburgh for a double header today.
Milwaukee has officially turned it aroundon the road. Yovani Gallard (14-8) earned the win yesterday while Casey McGehee blasted his 9th HR of the season in the Brewers 6-2 route in the final game of the series. Ryan Braun went 3 for 5 with a double while Prince went 1 for 4 and walked.

Milwaukee's magic number is 27! When was the last time we ever said "Milwaukee" and "Magic" together in the same sentence. (Ok, minus the Bucks vs Magics).

With Narv Dog coming back off the DL, that makes Felipe Lopez expendable. He was designated for assignment. With Hairston playing lights-out and the Brewers love fascination with Craig Counsell, there is no need for a third 3B. I would like to note that Lopez played pretty decent for as a fill in. Considering the fact that he was in AAA for Tampa all season before being traded to Milwaukee and thrown in as the starting 2B once Weeks went down last month.

It was tough to see KROD blow a save on Saturday. I mean, Milwaukee was up by 2 runs and he still couldn't batten down the hatches. To his credit, if there's one team that knows how to hit him, it's the Mets (or the Phillies). How about that fire out past RF in New York that night? It was from a chop shop across the road.

75-52

2011-08-22T08:31:00.001-05:00

74-52

2011-08-22T08:30:00.003-05:00

73-52: Lack of offense results in Brewers loss

2011-08-19T09:10:00.000-05:00

When you look at the grand scheme of things, this recent homestand that the Brewers just wrapped up could concern someone who looks at his or hers glass half empty. Sure, Milwaukee went ape shit on their opponents and went 6-1. But one has to dig deep in a contender to see what's wrong when other are looking at them and thinking of them as being perfect. Milwaukee outscored Pittsburgh and LA 19-10. When you think about, besides last Friday's game that opened the homestand against the Pirates (scored 7 runs)--Milwaukee failed to score more than 3 runs in a game. They scored 1 run in a game twice; likewise with scoring 2 and 3 runs in a game, respectively. Milwaukee offense has been in hibernation this homestand. Something to worry about? Doubtful, it shows that they have faith in their pitching. But on the road, this could turn in to trouble. Milwaukee faces a tough road opponent in the New York Mets (60-63) over the weekend and then it's on to Pittsburgh (58-64). The latter is shooting for a .500 season and they'll be playing to win it.

Despite Marco Estrada's (3-8, 4.28) second straight excellent outing, Milwaukee was unable to muster enough run support to help their substitute pitcher. He went 5 complete, which is an inning more than what most fans expected, and he gave up only 1earned on 3 hits and he struck out 5 batters. That's pretty damn impressive once you think about it. Averaging a K an inning is all that you can ask for in a fill-in starter. Kam Loe was the one that dropped the ball. He entered the game in the 6th with only a 1 run deficit. He went 2 complete, giving up 2 runs (1 of them earned) and struck out 2. Dillard continued to make Milwaukee questions why the hell he is onthe team? His era climbed to 4.98 after going 1 inning and giving up 2 earned runs on 3 hits. Franky De La Cruz only went 1 inning and he gave up a hit. It's obvious that once Narveson comes back off the list, Dillard should be shipped down and La Cruz should stay. There may be another roster move, as Milwaukee plays a double-header in Pittsburgh this weekend. Willy Peralta could get one of the starts on the DH game.

Milwaukee is definately a home team. They rank 4th in batting average in all of baseball with a .281 batting average, 6th in HR's, and 5th in hits. Milwaukee ranks 9th in team ERA with 3.30 and oddly enough, only 3 teams of the 8 teams ahead of them are AL teams (Oakland, Tampa, and Anaheim). The Brewers, however, are 1st in all of baseball for games won (47) and last in losses (16, which is the best in baseball). I'd say their only blemish is their number of wild pitches ranks 4th in baseball (29). Some of that can be directed at the sophomore catcher, Jonathon Lucroy, who has been stellar behind the plate calling games. As with any young catcher, it takes a while to learn the defense. I would argue that Lucroy's ability to throw out base stealer trumps the wild pitches card. Milwaukee ranks 19th with ony 42 SB's against them.

Milwaukee sign-calling is either completely assanine and wrong, or our players are clueless and don't understand baseball sign-language.

73-51: Brewers spoil rookie's solid outing

2011-08-18T09:10:00.000-05:00

Zack Greinke (12-4, 3.92 ERA) set a new mark at Miller Park by winning his 9th straight home decision. He also out dueled Dodgers highly regarded rooked Nathan Eovaldi, who had an excellent game giving up 2 earned runs in 6 innings of work. Meanwhile, the Brewers ace went 7 complete and gave up 1 earned run on 5 hits. He did walk 3 batters, which was unusual for the him.

Milwaukee's offense was led by Jerry Hairston Jr's timely hitting; he had one hit and drove in the Crew's only 2 runs of the game. Jonathon Lucroy added 2 hits (one was a double) and his batting average is now up to .289 on the season.

Lucroy is quietly putting up a huge season at the plate. The national media has yet to even mention him outside the whole LaRussa verbal dust up. It's crazy how he worked out too. All things considered, Angel Salome was Milwaukee's catcher of the future. He was drafted in the 5th round by Milwaukee in the 2004 draft. He even was apart of a September call up where he went 0 for 3 in 3 games. That was then, this is now. Salome was shuttled out of Milwaukee last season and he landed with the Seattle Mariners, Jack Z's team--the very same point man that picked him in 2004. Lucroy became Milwaukee's go-to catcher when Salome had some mental wariness problems in June of last year. Lucky for Doug Melvin, he had the young (at the time) 23 year-old playing in Huntsville in Lucroy. The 3rd round pick in the 2007 draft was slowly-but surely climbing the ranks and making waves. Obviously, Melvin and Co. wasn't too worried when Salome fell of the wagon, because they made no moves to bring in minor league catcher. Instead, they brought in fill ins like George Kottarus at the big league level. Prior to George, Damien Miller and Estrada were the fossils behind homeplate.

HERE is a good blog entry on Zack Greinke and his return to ace-hood. In hind sight, perhaps the back injury to Zack wasn't such a bad thing after all? I mean, think about it. I have written about Greinke's anxiety issues in the past. What better way to curb that all, than to have him sit out the first month of the season on the DL? By that time, the fans are settled and they are more patient with his results. Had Greinke started right away in March/early April, well, the fans would have been short on patience and he would've heard about it far sooner than later. One will never know if Zack actually messed up his back playing pick-up basketball -- I have always called bullshit on that one -- but I am guy that loves a conspiracy theory here and there. Perhaps, he was held out the first month in order to protect his confidence? Long shot I'd say, but baseball is mental game more than anything.

72-51: The Thrill Drill Continues

2011-08-17T08:53:00.000-05:00

It's as if it's a drill....a routine....a practise of the fine arts. The walk-off win was once again used last night and once again, Mark Kotsay was the one who delivered. Much of the game was a snore-ific. Trust me, I love pitchers the duel it out and the defense shines--just not in back to back games. Yovanni Gallardo brought his A-Game but didn't factor in to the decision. And again, a Milwaukee starting pitcher went deep in to the game. Yo went 8 complete and gave up only 4 hits, 1 walk, stuck out 9 and allowed 1 earned. His ERA is now at a respected 3.55 on the season. Saito (4-1) notched the win and his ERA dropped to 2.20 on year.

Corey Hart & Kotsay each contributed by driving in 2 of the 3 total runs of the game.

Cardinals Watch..... The Pittsburgh Pirates deflated the St Louis Cardinals hopes even more with their walk-off homerun that put the Pirates in front 2-0 in the series. Keep in mind, both the Cards and Crew face a sub .500 schedule the remainder of the season. Granted, the Cards & Crew still face each other 6 more games.

I vaguely remember when I was a kid and the Brewers won the AL East pennant and then later went on to the win ALCS and loss to the Cardinals in game 7 of the World Series. I do remember asking my dad questions, nothing in particular, probably all annoying questions--but he took the time to fill me in with the rules and the reasoning behind his loud clapping (a Robin Yount diving catch on one occassion). Likewise with 2 of my 3 boys (the youngest is...well...too young). But my oldest, Landon, and I have been bonding over the Brewers. I was listening to the radio this morning (am1250 Milwaukee FSRadio) and they were talking about this topic. Over the past week, my oldest boy will "sneak" downstairs and crawl on my lap to watch the Brewers play. I would ask him what he was doing, and he would say, "Dad, I just want to watch the Brewers". When I get home from work at 5:25pm my awesome wife has dinner waiting with the boys already sitting at the table. We eat and then I clear the table and then I take 3 of the boys (or sometimes 2 of them) and go on a bike ride to the high school ball diamond and football field. We play sports, and explain the games to them, and we run around. I try to relate the Brewers to them in what they do while playing. I think it's important to show state pride in your teams and support them, even though they make millions more than us common folk to. At times, I know my boys get annoyed when I turn their tv channel to my station at 7:05pm (most nights). But after they stop yelling--they watch.
It's nice to bond with my kids over the game of baseball. And this Brewers season is far different than the rest. Sure the Crew squeeked in to the playoffs in 2008, but it hasn't been like this 2011 season. This has been a thrilling ride to date. My son asked me last night when the baseball season is done.....and I told him when the leaves start to fall of the trees and it gets dark out just after dinner.

71-51: The BEST defensive game I have ever seen by the Crew

2011-08-16T09:08:00.000-05:00

Last night was insane. Despite the first 5 innings being a snore-fest on the offensive side, it was the defense that lit Miller Park up with a Triple Play, 3 Double Plays, and a throw-out from CF that could probably be marked down as a contender for the Play of the Year. Yes, the triple play that involved Wilson, Betancourt, to Fielder was phenominal and only the 6th one of it's kind in Brewers history; but it was Jerry Hairston's play that surprised the hell out of me. Miller Park's 38,000+ fans were reved up as each of the 3 double plays occurred. When the Triple Play happened, the stadium seemed explode, at least on tv it looked that way. The icing on the cake was the last play of the game when Prince caught a rocket liner and then stepped on 1B to get the force out on the Dodger who was already half-way to 2B.

Randy Wolf was unstoppable and one could tell that he was ready to go from the start. When he took to the field last night in the top of first inning, the FSWisconsin camera was focused in on him. He and Kottarus stood there and you could see Wolfy getting amped up and ready to fire out of the dug out to begin the game. He went 8 complete and gave up a season high 5 walks on 6 hits, 5 strike outs. Despite the free-passes, the shut out was on point and well needed.

Ryan Braun, Jonathon Lucroy, and Corey Hart all homered for Milwaukee. There 3 HR's were the only difference in the game. Fielder, Braun, and Hairston all added base hits respectively.
Odd, there was no doubles or triples in last night's game--but there were 3 HR's.

Axford saved his 35th of the season (32 consecutively).

Every thing is clicking right now, even the defense.

Milwaukee signed their top 2 draft picks last night, during the 11th hour of negotiations. Taylor Jungman (2.5 MM) and Jed Bradley (2MM) finally grew a pair and signed the dotted line. In years past, I would have been sweating bullets and wondering to myself, "Why isn't Milwaukee throwing money at these kids---get them signed!". This year I'm thinking, screw Jungmann. Who is he to get all high and mighty. Sure he had a kick ass regular season, but he also went 1-3 in the post season for the Longhorns. We needed to sighn Jed Bradley, otherwise that pick would've been gone for next season, since it was the very same pick that rolled over from last year (Covey pick). Milwaukee was able to sign 33 of their 51 picks. It's always good when teams can sign 2/3's of their draft picks. What sucks is that waiting until the August 15th deadline is the new norm. Also, players are getting paid a pretty penny more than what the MLB 'suggests'. So in essence, MLB is following in the footsteps of the NFL in over-paying their draft picks; only the NFL made corrections on that during the new CBA.

Milwaukee added a free agent pitcher, Mark Williams of Marietta College (OH). He's reporting to Helena Brewers.

Update on Gomez & Weeks; both of which are ahead of schedule.

2 things on Attanasio....1) He never said he wouldn't buy the Bucks from Senator Herbert Kohl and his cabana boys. 2) The US will not go in to a double-dip recession. Oddly enough, I believe him more than I believe our president when it comes to the economy.

70-51: Crew bucs Pirates (ha!)

2011-08-15T12:35:00.000-05:00

Outstanding play and confidence in their skills is what propelled the Crew to sweep the Pirates out of town.
Yesterday's game was a key example of how the Brewers have evolved in to a World Series contender. A come from behind win that was accomplised thanks to Nyjer Morgan striking out and flying out. Ha!

Late to work this morning (dr appointment) so I will type more later.

69-51

2011-08-15T12:33:00.004-05:00

68-51:

2011-08-15T12:33:00.002-05:00

67-51: Carp out duels Yo

2011-08-12T08:51:00.000-05:00

Milwaukee's 4 game lead on top of the division is their largest,
this late in to the season since 1982!

Despite Milwaukee getting off to an excellent start in last night's game (2 runs in the 1st), Albert Pujols and company quickly put in work to prevent being swept. Albert went 4 for 4 with a HR, 2 runs batted in, and scored twice. The top of the order for the Cardinals offense woke up from their slumber part at Tony's house. Meanwhile, Chris Carpenter (8-8) was far better on the mound than Yovani Gallardo (13-8).

Yuni Betancourt continued to swing the hot bat for the Crew, going 3 for 4 on the evening. Mark Kotsay started in LF for Ryan Braun (sat the entire game/rest) and he went 2 for 4 with a double. Fielder also addded a hit and drove in a run.

Frankie De La Cruz made his Milwaukee Brewers debut after he was summoned from Nashville to fill in for Narveson. He gave up a hit and struck out 1. The bullpen looked solid again against the Cardinals. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the Cards haven't scored against our pen this season?

Milwaukee is back home this weekend to play the Pittsburgh Pirates in a 3 game series. The Pirates have fallen back to 3rd place (tied with Cincy) and they're 10 games behind Milwaukee. This team fell apart at the seams when they lost that mis-call against the Braves in extra innings 2 weeks ago. It didn't help that they cut Lyle Overbay after they brought in Derek Lee. Why fix something that wasn't broken?
Tonights Match up: Paul Maholm (6-12, 3.54 era) vs Zack Greinke (10-4, 4.21)
Saturday: Kevin Correia (12-10, 4.75) vs Marco Estrada (2-7, 4.50)
Sunday: Charlie Morton (9-6, 3.56) vs Shaun Marcum (10-3, 3.52)

For now on Team Wisconsin is going to have Cardinal Watch in order to keep tabs on Milwaukee's biggest rival during this pennant race.
The Cardinals added veteran reliever Arthur Rhodes to their pen.
Excellent article on LaRussa - Roenicke "feud", if you call it that. LaRussa probably wants there to be some feud, but Ron Ron is too smart.
St Louis will remain home for the weekend as they play the Rockies. Here's a preview. I can see them taking 2 of the 3 games. Likewise with Milwaukee.

Good Read

2011-08-11T12:25:00.000-05:00

Lucroy called out LaRussa on AM1250 (Milwaukee) last week. I remember it perfectly because I was listening to it at work, think to myself, "this kid has balls...but I like him".

HERE is a story in the Post-Dispatch. The comments are fun to read. One guy said something like: in 10 years, no one will remember or know the name Lucroy....LaRussa will be in Cooperstown.

I wouldn't be too sure of that buck-o. Lucroy has the makings to be a career catcher in the bigs, baring any injury.

67-50: Milwaukee widens NL Central lead to 5 games

2011-08-11T08:48:00.000-05:00

     Make that 5 games straight on the road! I would have never thought that this was possible back before the All Star break. But it's true, our Milwaukee Brewers are now 5 games ahead of St. Louis in the what has turned out to be a 2 team race for the pennant. The Crew is now 17 games over .500 and well on their way to their first pennant since 1982. But they're aren't there yet and a lot needs to happen in order for them to take the Central. There are 44 games left and Milwaukee is now down a starting pitcher. Chris Narveson was placed on the 15 day DL and the Brewers brought up Frankie De La Cruz from Nashville to fill in for Estrada, should he get lit up this weekend.

     The Crew defeated the Cardinals 5-last night at Busch Stadium behind a strong outing by Randy Wolf (9-8, 5 hits, 1 earned, 1k, 0BB). Hell, Wolfie is one win away from joining the 10 win club! He was impressive from start to finish, and he went 8 complete innings when the Brewers needed him the most. Again, with Narv-dog on the DL the bullpen is going to need the SP's to go the distance.

   KRod closed out the game in the 9th for a non-save opportunity. He did allow 2 hits in his typical shakey fashion. But he did finish his first game as a Milwaukee Brewer.

Prince Fielder & George Kottaras each doubled
No Brewer had more than one hit.
Hart Fielder and Betancourt each drove in a run a piece. Yuni's was with 2 outs and 2 RISP.

Yovani Gallardo will take to the mound tonight when the Crew goes for the sweep and attempt to win their 7th straight.

Jerry Hariston Jr made his first start at 2B for Milwaukee...and he had a couple of gems too. He also went 1 for 4 on the evening with a base hit.

In other news, Uggla extended his hit streak to 31 games last night.

66-50: Brewers deliver in the clutch

2011-08-10T08:52:00.000-05:00

Despite leaving the bases loaded on one occassion and going 3-8 with RISP, Milwaukee was still able to deliver when it counted most. In 10 innings the Crew defeated the 2nd place Cardinals 5-3 behind an excellent outing by Milwaukee pitching staff. Shaun Marcum went 6 complete giving up 3 earned on 8 hits (3 k's, 1 BB). John Axford notched his 33rd save of the season and his 30th straight, while Latroy Hawkins earned his first win of the season in a huge 9th inning appearence. Krod also looked good in his inning of work during the 8th.

Corey Hart looks like he recovered from getting hit on his left hand; he started things off right with a 2-run homer in the3rd inning. Jonathon Lucroy is contuing his kick ass 2011 campaign. He's now hitting .286 on the season and last night he drove in a key run and went 2 for 4 from the plate. Defensively, he looked good as well--having key stops on some wild pitches by Shaun Marcum and Axford.

Shaun Marcum may have tweaked his hamstring or was cramping-up during the game. After smacking a double in the 5th inning and making it over to 3B eventually, he was then caught in a run down. During that blunder of a play, it looked like he rolled his ankle. Then during the 6th inning he labored through out the inning by taking 30-45 second breaks in between pitches. He was working his legs and stretching during those breaks and he 'winced' at times. He was in obvious discomfort, but he finished the inning.

Chris Narveson sliced his throwing hand with a pair of scissors last night while fixing his glove. I'm calling bullshit there. That means he must have done it doing something even more stupid. That being said, the 8 stitches will keep him out 7-10 days and he fore sure miss his Friday start at home versus the Pirates. This shouldn't effect the rotation as there have been a couple of off days in the last week.

KRod is saying and doing all the right things!
"Obviously, when I got traded here, I was told that I would get a chance to close out games," Rodriguez"Unfortunately, I haven't got any opportunities yet, but that's something that I guess has worked out well. We're winning. We're in first place. As long as we win, I will be happy"

It was agent Scott Boras that was preaching to the MLB that if anyone trades for his client, they better have him closing games. The last thing teams want is an unhappy closer. Stupid move on Boras' part, really. After all, it's KRod that has to prove to other teams that he can play for any team out there -- and get paid. He's turning in to a great team player, or at least acting like it.
Probably the most brilliant thing about adding Krod to the team was that GM Doug Melvin was able to cock block a team like the Cardinals from landing a big name closer. Now they have they're own problems, LIKE THIS.

Let the rivalry continue.....

2011-08-09T09:19:00.000-05:00

Huge game tonight down in St Louis between the Crew & Cards. The sabers were already being rattled by Tony Larussa for this coming series, last week.

Let's get our blood flowing already!....

"This is not like those cup-stacking beer bashes that the totally uneventful Cards-Cubs series have disintegrated into.

Cards vs. Brewers is what a genuine baseball rivalry ought to feel like. Provocative, contentious, but most of all competitively significant."
....from THIS story in STLtoday.com.
"I couldn't agree more with this writer is saying. Gone are the days of the Cubs being the divisional rival for both Milwaukee and St Louis. It was so 2010 to think that the Reds and Cards are the biggest rivalry. Now Cincy is sitting back 9 (or so) games out of 1st place. It's a two team pennant race that starts tonight!
A year ago, it was a snarling grudge with the Cincinnati Reds that broke out in lots of sniping, trash talk, bad blood and brawling on the infield. This year, it is the Brewers who are the adversaries and are being treated as victims of some grudge that Brewers fans are convinced was conjured up in the vivid and belligerent mind of La Russa.

They are wrong, of course.
La Russa's mind isn't particularly belligerent. It is rooted in Old Testament baseball, where sins against the old-school code are handled in primeval ways. The La Russa way has produced a long line of haters and bitter rivals. But his Cardinals do not seem to mind how long the line. Instead, they wear it like a badge of honor, quite frankly."
Another great piece from that story. Look, I despise LaRussa because he's a F*CKING Cheat. Not because he honors the old testament of baseball. It's because he's calling Milwaukee a bunch of cheats, while he's standing next to Mark McGwire (hitting coach) in the dug out. Seriously, I understand and love the idea of payback baseball, protecting your players; but LaRussa is a filthy cheat.

5 things to watch for during this series....

You want a feel-good story about Craig Counsell? HERE you go. Let's not forget that he's had 1 hit since the Canucks were still in the NHL playoffs. Ha!

65-50: Crew breaks out the brooms in Houston

2011-08-08T09:07:00.000-05:00

Never, in franchise history have the Milwaukee Brewers ever swept the Astros in Houston. Prince Fielder erupted for 9 hits in the series, 2 of which were towering shots to RF. Craig Counsell even broke his hitless streak.

Yuni Betancourt raised his batting average to .268 on the season; he did so by raising in 5 points along in yesterdays game. Betancourt is THEE hottest SS in the National League right now.

The weekend sweep did have some bad news that came along with it. Corey Harts was beamed on his wrist (negative x-rays) and Casey McGehee who banged his knee on the final play of Saturday's game. Both missed Sunday's game and Hart could miss Tuesday's game.

All three games in Houston were led by some damn good starting pitching 2 of the 3 nights. Yovanni Gallardo (13-7) led the way on Friday night by going 8 complete innings and giving up only 1 earned on a lowly 4 hits, 6 K's, and one walk.
Chris Narveson (8-6) only went 5.1 innings and he gave up 4 earned on 2 Homers that he gave up. John Axfort notched his 32nd save of the season and Milwaukee had to use 5 relievers to get the job done. KRod looked most impressive when he set-up Ax in the 8th. He fanned 2 and the 3rd grounded out.
Zack Greinke (10-4) continued his 2nd half dominance, only this time, on the road. He went 7 complete giving up an earned run, 3 walks (season high), and fanned 6 all on 4 hits. Kam Loe looked on-point in the closing 1.1 innings by fanning 3 and giving up 1 hit.

Milwaukee has yet to sign their first 2 draft picks from June's selection. August 15th is the deadline; these 2 hold-outs will sign by the deadline. It's just the new norm; agents holding out until the last mintute. Kind of sucks because Taylor Jungman was actually being considered for a late season call-up. I thought that was a long shot, but now that he's not even signed yet--it won't happen.

Up next? The Crew travels to St Louis to meet their divisional rivals. The Cards have also won their last 4 games, just like the Brewers. Both teams did so by playing horrible NL teams.
Tuesday: Marcum (10-3, 3.58 era) vs Edwin Jackson (8-8, 4.11 era)
Wednesday: Randy Wolf (8-8, 3.51 era) vs Kyle Lohse (9-7, 3.45 era)
Thursday: Yo Gallardo (13-7, 3.56 era) vs Jake Westbrook (9-5, 4.83 era)
Milwaukee then travels back home to take on the imploding Pirates (lost 10 straight) at Miller Park. Then LA travels to town to start off next week for a 4 game series; 7 game homestand is in store once Milwaukee returns from St Louis.

64-50

2011-08-08T08:27:00.001-05:00

63-50

2011-08-08T08:26:00.001-05:00

62-50: Cardinal Beat Down By Milwaukee

2011-08-03T16:40:00.000-05:00

Hey LaRussa, take what ever dignity you have left and get out of town.

Milwaukee destroyed St Louis 12-5 in todays matinee. The rubber match turned out to be a shoot out with the two teams cranking out the hits with Milwaukee notching that category 15 to 11.
Casey McGehee led all Brewers with a huge game; he notched his first career 3 HR game and he drove in 5 runs and scored 3 times himself.
The top of the batting order was potent as well, with Hart adding a HR and a single. Morgan & Braun each added a pair of hits each, with the latter hitting a double.
Felipe Lopez also added 2 hits.

Randy Wolf (8-8) went 6 complete, giving up 5 earned on 9 hits (2 k's / 2 bb).
The bullpen was lights out! Loe, Hawkins, and Axford each pitched an inning and they only allowed 2 hits in 3 innings.

Milwaukee owns St Louis this season, that's for sure. At home, St Louis has only won 1 game out 6 attempts.

No retalation in today's game.

Ron Roenicke says Rickie Weeks is making progress, just got off crutches
Milwaukee surpassed 2010 ticket sales already

THIS is funny....LaRussa actually called Rock and talked with him about Bill's use of words in last nights commentating of the game and the incident that took place. Why the hell would a major league skipper call an opposing team's tv announcer and take issue with words that were said. Unreal, LaRussa is off his rocker.

Pujols was a woeful 1 for 14 in the series.

Erik Komatsu, who was part of the deal that brought us Jerry Hariston Jr, has "hitting in his genes". I agree. He's going to be a star and I don't agree with Milwaukee dealing him away. He's a good OF option.

Awesome story that was done on the Brewers and the city of Milwaukee, by Sports Illustrated. I'm waiting for them to feature the Crew on the front page. That hasn't happened since 1987 with Rob Deer and Team Streak...I think.

61-59: Crew & Cards Bring the PAIN

2011-08-03T09:06:00.000-05:00

Milwaukee lost a nail-biter last night in extra innings, 7-8. Yes, it sucks that the Crew lost and they snapped their 7 game winning streak.

But lets skip the fact that Marcum gave up 6 earned runs in 6 innings of work on 7 hits. Or that Prince Fielder had yet another throwing error trying to throw out a Albert Pujols at home (albeit he did make up for it later in the game a throw to home).

The real question is: Did Milwaukee intentionally hit Pujols (Saito's pitch)?

The second question is: Did LaRuss make the call to hit Braun?

Here are the sources:

-AM 620 interview after the game with LaRussa; The Cardinals skipper called Milwaukee fans "idiots" but quickly reworded that. He claims that he did not give the sign to beam Braun, instead he told Motte to pitch inside (like Milwaukee did, allegedly).

-Tony Larussa is arguing that Miller Park/Milwaukee Brewers are cheating at home. He claims that the stadiums perimeter lights that seperate the upper and lower bowls (used for ads). Tony says that it's brighter when the opposing teams are pitching as compared to it being dimmer when the home team was on defense. I noticed those lights being extra bright during the game (a vibrant blue). But I didn't notice who was up to bat.

"Major League Baseball surveyed the situation and alerted the Brewers that they did not need to change anything about the field."

Of course MLB would rule against LaRussa. This is obsured. It goes to show that the Cardinals are sad little children that have a sense of entitlement because they're club has been around for over a century.

LaRussa should worry about his own stadium's decorations.

-Pujols didn't speculate about the Brewers intentions...but he said that the pitcher better "keep the ball low".

-St Louis Post-Dispatch discussion board is filled with interesting comments.

-Let's not forget Yadier Molina's rant with the home plate umpire that resulted in him chest-bumping and spitting in the face, thus resulting in him getting tossed. He should get 3-4 games suspension when all is said an done.

Let it be known, Saito did not intentionally hit Pujols. That would've made zero sense because Albert would've made 3 men on base with 2 outs (I believe) with the game tied. That makes absolutely no sense.

Milwaukee.....WE HAVE A RENEWED RIVALRY. Screw the Reds-Cards "rivalry". The Reds are out of it.

61-49: Greinke Blows Past the Red Birds

2011-08-02T09:01:00.000-05:00

Milwaukee extended their win streak to 7 and they are now 12 games above .500 on the season!
Zack Greinke (9-4, 4.41) delivered last night against the Cardinals. Despite giving up a 2-run homer to Matt Holliday in the 1st inning, Greinke was cool-calm---and collected. Honestly, Zack has on point most of the game despite the high temps and humidity on the playing field (not confirmed). Their was so much humidity that Chris Carpernter's hat was drenched in sweat. Everytime he lowered his head sweat would literally pour of his hat. The heat got to Carpenter--or--the Brewers eventually did, because once the 5th inning hit the Brew Crew ignited to score 5 runs on 6 straight hits and then added another run in the 7th.

Corey Hart, Nyjer Morgan, and Ryan Braun all collected 2 hits, with Morgan adding 3 RBI.
Prince Fielder failed to collect a hit, but did walk twice.

LaTroy Hawkins was called upon to go 2 complete innings, which he did. After getting of to a rocky start in the 7th inning, he setteled down; collecting 1 K and 2 walks on 1 hit. Kam Loe sealed the deal in the 9th and didn't give up a hit.

It was nice to see Tony LaRussa get out-managed by Ron Roenicke. No longer is LaRussa the best manager in the NL Central...Roenicke has him beat THIS season. The squeeze bunt by Zack Greinke which ended up with everyone staying safe and Zack reaching 1st safely was a gem. Casey McGehee was alert and he decided to stay at 3B instead of running blindly to home plate. It was the veteran Cardinal players that botched the play when catcher Molina hesitated with his throw thanks to Albert Pujols running in and pointing to 3B, when Molina had an easy play at 1B.

Nyjer Morgan could be mentioned as team MVP when it comes to the end of the season. I realize Prince Fielder is up for the league MVP, but when it comes to making a huge impact within the team--from someone unexpected, Nyjer has to be considered. He's .324 on the season and has an .817 OPS. His hitting with RISP is in the mid .300's and he's clutch.

KROD & Axford are turning in to a dynamic duo. HERE is a NYTimes story that went behind the scenes of the biggest mid-season trade of the season. Yes, it's bigger than Michael Bourne going to Atlanta or Hunter Pence going to Philly. Milwaukee landed best closer in the game and threw him in the set-up role. They needed an extra arm in the pen and they went out and got it.

It's August, the Crew has a 3.5 game lead in the NL Central and they are 12 games over .500....so.....they are starting to plan on the playoffs and how they will promote the ticket sales.

60-49: Milwaukee notches their best record of the season; 11 games above .500

2011-08-01T08:47:00.000-05:00

Milwaukee did what they were supposed to do over the weekend; they swept the Astros right out of Wisconsin. All things considered; Hunter Pence being traded to Philly during the middle of the game on Friday night and Michael Bourne going to Atlanta before yesterday's game should have (and did) given the Brewers a huge edge....

It's August 1st and the Brew Crew has a season best of 11 games over .500, which translates in to a 60-49 record. Kind of feels weird, it's August 1st and the Milwaukee Brewers are 11 games over .500 and they are in first place of the NL Central. Odd.

One could write about all the terrific things that occurred this weekend, but I'd rather look ahead to task at hand. The St. Louis Cardinals are coming to town for a 3 game series. Tonight, Chris Carpenter (6-7, 3.68) will take to the mound against our prized off-season addition...Zack Greinke (8-4, 4.50). Now is the time for Zack Greinke to show Wisconsin why he's worth giving up on Alcides Escobar and Jake Odorizzi. To date, he's made a decent argument--especially from his past few starts.

St Louis is 2.5 games behind Milwaukee; so if the Crew wanted to seperate themselves
from their biggest threat--they should do so starting tonight.

-Jerry Hairston Jr. was traded to Milwaukee from the Washington Nationals. I like this move, although it was a lot to give up for a 35 year-old veteran. The Brewers had to give up their Minor League Player of the Year in Eric Komatsu (OF) in doing so; but a move that was needed. With Craig Counsell on the verge of (being forced to) retiring since he's been mirrored in a 0-44 slump.
"When I walked in the clubhouse, I saw (leadoff hitter) Corey Hart hit a home run," said Hairston. "That was good to see." -Hairiston Jr.

So now Milwaukee has a handyman in the crafty, .253 career hitter. Jerry has played 3B while filling in for Jordan Zimmerman in addition to playing SS, 2B, and the outfield.

-The Pittsburgh Pirates have now dropped to 4.5 games out of 1st place after being swept by the Phillies this weekend, but they should be able to have a decent shot of sweeping the Cubbies over the next couple of days at PNC Park.

59-49

2011-08-01T08:28:00.003-05:00

58-49

2011-08-01T08:28:00.001-05:00

57-49: Cubs get swept right out of town...go be a cubbie somewhere else

2011-07-29T08:27:00.000-05:00

Milwaukee swept the Cubs right out of town. The Cubs only mustered 3 runs in the series, which is pretty funny.

Shaun Marcum earned his 10th win of the season and lowered his ERA to 3.33 on the season. He lasted 6 innings and gave up 2 earned runs on 7 hits, only 1 walk, and 4 strike outs. Both he and Gallardo are the only Milwaukee pitchers to have double digits win on the season.

Ryan Braun launched his 21st HR of the season.

Yuni Betancourt has been red hot during the last two months. He hit .284 in June and .311 in July so far. Aside from his E6 problem, he's not too shabby and its nice not to have to rely on Melvin bringing in another SS to replace him or McGehee. Now Melvin has to only worry about finding a Rickie Weeks (temporary) replacement; which he (sort of) did when he traded for Felipe Lopez (again) for cash considerations. Lopez was in AAA for the Rays and hitting .305. He's done nothing over the past couple of seasons--since he left Milwaukee after the 2009 season. Lopez will be the odd man out in that platoon, as he is reporting to Nashville. Despite Counsell's horrible 0-44 slump, he's been damn good on Defense.

56-49: Milwaukee shuts out Chicago; Greinke Heats Up

2011-07-28T08:58:00.000-05:00

First, the good news. Milwaukee beat their border rival the Chicago Cubs. Carlos Zambrano looked decent on the mound, only giving up 2 runs to the potent home team offense. What I found funny was when Quade came out to remove him from the game and Zambrano had a mini tyrade that resulted in him exiting the mound and making fascial expressions at the Cubs' manager.

Greinke looked his best last night, going 6 2/3 innings of shut-out work; giving up only 3 hits, 3 walks, and fanning 9. His pitch count jumped in the 2nd or 3rd inning (can't remember which one exactly) when he threw 25 total pitches. Had it not been for that laboring inning, I could see Greinke pithching a complete game. But again, when you have Saito/Hawkins/Loe-KRod-Axford as your 1-2-3 punch at the end, why risk injury with your starters. Compete games aren't necessary like they were in seasons past. Back in the day, Milwaukee needed Ben Sheets to throw a complete game in order to cut the pen some slack. Not any more. Different bullpen--different results..

Rickie Weeks twisted his ankle something fierce; he will be out 2-4 weeks, just announced by Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports. He'll be put on the 15 day DL (possibly the 30 day DL) and Eric Farris has already been summoned from Nashville. Starting tonight, Milwaukee will have a platoon between Farris, Counsell, and Wilson. My guess is that Wilson will get the majority of the time, since Counsell is in a 0-38 slump. He popped out twice last night to shallow RF. Farris is only hitting .256 with 36 RBI's....but he can get on base and plays semi-decent defense. Counsell will be the starter when Ron is slanting towards a defensive approach to the game.

Milwaukee plays St Louis 8 times in August. Rickie weeks it out 2-4 weeks, my guess is the latter.

Prince Fielder snapped out of his homerless streak....

55-49: Kameron Loe to the rescue?

2011-07-27T09:15:00.000-05:00

After Milwaukee came back from a 2 run deficit in the 1st inning, they seemed to be on cruise control the rest of the game. Chris Narveson was on his way to his 7th win of the season, which he accomplished, only after Kameron Loe saved his ass. Narveson loaded the bases in the 6th with no outs before he exited the game--and then Loe took over. Kameron Loe had been a weak spot in the pen as of late, even leading Doug Melvin to trading for KRod to plug in to the set-up role. Loe worked his "magic", so to speak. He had two hitters ground out, the first resulting in a tag-out at home and the second leading to a double play. Both plays were a result of some brilliant defense by Casey McGehee, who also drove in a run on a timely triple. The leftside of the infield has really turned it on over the past 2 weeks, which is a welcomed sight by the Ron Ron.

Ryan Braun went 3 for 4, one of which was his 24th double of the season that drove in his 69th of the season. Corey Hart also doubled and Prince Fielder added a hit. The latter seeing his batting average drop to .287 on the season. He's still homer-less since before the All Star break and his MVP campaign is staring to take a hit.

John Axford made franchise history last night by notching his 25th consecutive save, beating out Doug Jones. What's funny about this is Jones' streak lasted May to September when he did it. Since taking over closer duties from Trevor Hoffman last season, he has collected 52 saves out of 57 attempts. Impressive, yet he's basically unknown around the league still. Hopefully the league will start to take note, now that KRod is in Milwaukee and unable to over-take the closing role. Looking at last night's save, he was on fire. His fastball hit 97 and he was throwing 3-4 different types of pitches. Only once did he get in to trouble when a pinch hitter (forgot his name, does it matter? Cubs are filled with no-namers) hit a liner right to Rickie Weeks, but he fumbled it and was given an error on the play.

KROD had an impressive hold in the 8th when he struck out 2 batters.

Carloz Zambrano & Zack Greinke take to the mound tonight.

- The trade deadline is coming up Sunday, yet there hasn't been a major move (other than KRod coming to Milwaukee). Doug Melvin is looking to add another major piece, and they're still toying around with the Carlos Beltran sweepstakes.

54-49: Crew ends 11 game road trip with 5-6 record

2011-07-25T08:25:00.000-05:00

The Brewers could've beat the San Fransisco Giants, but their offense was too weak. Prince Fielder has been horrible at the plate (aside from yesterday's 2 for 4 showing). Ryan Braun has been the only glimmer of hope in that line up as of late.

54-48

2011-07-25T08:23:00.004-05:00

54-47

2011-07-25T08:23:00.002-05:00

53-47: Crew gets shut out....AGAIN

2011-07-22T08:56:00.000-05:00

Unreal. Ian freaking Kennedy man handeled the Milwaukee Brewers last night. Prince Fielder is in a 0-19 slump and his batting average dropped to under .290 on the season. Luckily, Zack Grenike looked some what decent, although earning a loss. He struck out 7 and walked none. Greinke's command was good but I felt he was throwing too much off-speed garb in the 60's.

Caterpillar Global Mininig is giving away free tickets for the Cubs series this week at miller park. It's their way of saying, sorry for gutting Bucryous from Milwaukee. It starts at 9:00am...or actually, right now!

53-46: Milwaukee beat the DBacks in 10 / Gomez out for season

2011-07-21T08:51:00.001-05:00

Milwaukee took the early lead last night in Phoenix after Ryan Braun hit a solo home run, his second in as many nights. But the DBacks and the equally as effective offense came storming back to tie it up in the 8th inning thanks to a blown save by KRod. Lucky for Milwaukee, Carlos Gomez was playing CF last night and he pretty much won the game for Milwaukee with his diving catch in the 5th. Only it was that catch that broke his collar bone. Right when he went down and made the summersault catch, I knew he landed on it worng; not to mention the way he was holding his arm. I broke my collar bone in 6th grade playing football (as a running back) and I can still remember the pain, the look on my face, and the way I held my arm---Go Go did the same thing. Likewise with Charles Woodson when he broke his CB in the Super Bowl.

Takashi Saito ended up earning the win last night and John Axford closed it out for his 26th save of the season. Despite KRod's fumble, Milwaukee is starting to show that they have the best 1-2-3 punch in the NL. Throw in Hawkins if Saito or KRod are on short rest, and you still have a solid back end of the pull pen.

Nyjer Morgan drove in the go-ahead run in the 10th (3-2) while Braun added two runs driven in and Lucroy 1. Ryan Braun had a HR call recalled, which was a damn close call.

Milwaukee is now 4-3 on their west coast road trip and they play the 4th game of their Arizona series tonight. Zack Greinke (8-3, 5.04 era) against Ian Kennedy (10-3, 3.39 era), the latter slowly becoming the surprise SP of the NL West. Both Kennedy and Ryan Vogelsong of the Giants (7-1, 2.02) are proving to be impact players in their respective teams' rotations. Speaking of Vogelsong, the Brewers will face him on Saturday and likely pit Yovani Gallardo against him. Tomorrow night's game is at 9:15pm CT, so it's going to be a bender of a night when Marcum (8-3, 3-39 era) takes on Matt Cain (8-5, 2.99 era). Sunday's game is Baumgarner against Randy Wolf.

USA Today feature on the Brew Crew

Cool little write-up on yesterdays "This day in history", when Hank Aaron hit his 755th HR.

Ryan Braun- Scoring runs is what cures him!

52-46: Milwaukee moves up to 2nd behind Bucs

2011-07-20T08:41:00.001-05:00

Milwaukee had a run-rest last night in Phoenix that resulted in a 11-3 whooping over the DBacks. Right from the start the Brewers bats were on the prawl when Corey Hart blasted a lead-off HR. Following that was Ryan Braun's return to the line-up (albeit a short one/4.5 innings) that witnessed a 2-run homer. Yuni Betancourt woke up for one game and launched 2 HR's, a single and drove in 4 runs. That's a far cry from his 2010 campaign where he hit 16 homers. It was Yuni's first career multi-HR game of his career. All together, Milwaukee tallied 5 HR's and topped their previous season record of 4--which occurred in four seperate games.

Yo struggled out of the gate too, giving up a run in the 1st innings and bringing the DBacks within 2 runs. I will hand it to him though, he did have to bat in the top of the 1st inning and this sometimes has an effect on the pitcher. That being said, Yovani Gallardo collected his 11th win of the season. At this rate, he could win 17-18 games this season (fingers crossed). I don't see him winning 20+, it's not going to happen.   Yo gave up 1 earned in 6 innings of work.

Marco Estrada was impressive; he struck out 4 batters in 2 innings of work (no hits). Kameron Loe gave up a hit in one inning of work. Loe has gone from a pretty reliable set-up man while Hawkins and Saito was out....to possibly being optioned down to Nashville because of a set bullpen. On paper, he's the odd man out in my opinion. If anything, Ron Roenicke will eventually bring up a southpaw once the season hits mid-August.

UPDATES: Things are progressing slowly in trying to sign Milwaukee's top 2 picks in Taylor Jungmann (U of Texas) and Jed Bradley (Georgia Tech), as expected. August 15th is the deadline. Of course, Brewers fans still have the memory of Dylan Covey in their heads.  Milwaukee failed to sign him after he opted to attend school in San Diego and treat his newly diagnosed diabetes.
Also...Ryan Braun is going to be eased in to the line-up. What you saw last night (4.5 innings) is what to expect the rest of the week. Braun will start the game but Morgan will eventually shift to LF and Gomez will play CF. -- Craig Councell is in a career slump at the age of 40. He's hitless in 33 at-bats. My guess is that he'll retire once we hit late August.  Milwaukee can't afford to go down the stretch with a dud for a pinch hitter. It will be a bitter sweet ending too.

More chatter on Wilson Betimit (KC) being targetted by the Brewers. He's hitting .281 compared to Yuni (.241) and McGehee, who's below the Mendoza Line.

Trade ideas being discussed on 1250AM (Milwaukee): Carlos Beltran for Corey Hart...would you do it? My answer is yes.

51-46: Arizona rookie blanks Milwaukee....AGAIN

2011-07-19T08:58:00.001-05:00

Unreal. Milwaukee got blanked by Josh Collmenter and DBacks yet again. The rookie RHP has now tossed 14 scoreless innings against the Brewers and gave up only 6 hits. Last night he retired 12 consecutive batters before I gave up watching and went to bed. Meanwhile, Randy Wolf gave up 3 runs (2 earned) and got in trouble just about every inning. Even still, giving up 3 runs to the potent Arizona offense is an accomplishment that should be matched with SOME run support. Casey McGehee sucks...that's pretty much how you sum up the offense.

Arizona has now beaten the Brewers all 4 games this season.

Up and down and up and down...this makes me stressed out.

I think Ron Roenicke made his first major mistake as Manager. Ryan Braun could've easily been put on the DL on Sunday, July 3rd and have plenty of time to rest his calf; thus resulting in Milwaukee being able to bring up a much needed bat. Instead, Ron Ron has been dinking around with Braun and keeping him out of the lineup in order to be extra careful. Now it's his hamstring. My guess is that it's still his calf that's acting up. So now they're still trying to decide if he should be sent to the DL or not. You can never be too carefull with Braun. He's had some nagging injuries this season that also includes his shoulder (taken out of the Dodgers series out in LA.

Paul Molitor is in Wisconsin Rapids, WI as a guest for the Northwoods League all-star game. He spent time playing for the Beloit Brewers (minor league) and played at Wisconsin Rapids, which was a Twins affiliate.
Why doesn't Molly have a statue out front of Miller Park?

Miller Park is celebrating it's 10th Anniversary this season. Now they want you to do a writing assignment about it.

Pittsburgh is back in 1st place of the NL Central, Milwaukee is in 3rd. WTF. Additionally, the Pirates are beat the Reds last night to get to first. Is this team really for real? I still don't think so.

51-45: Milwaukee splits in Denver; Next Stop is Phoenix...

2011-07-18T09:09:00.001-05:00

Odd...Milwaukee was in 3rd place after Friday's loss in Colorado. Pittsburgh was in 1st. That being said...

What started off as a debacle ended in a some promise. Milwaukee dropped the first 2 games of the 4 game series in Denver, only to narrowly beat the Rox the final 2 games. Yovanni Gallardo allowed a season-high 11 hits and Milwaukee as a whole gave up 20 in their 12-3 loss. Chris Narveson didn't fare much better on Friday night when the Colorado shut-out the Crew 4-0. Despite Corey Harts late-inning HR on Thursday night on Thursday, Milwaukee had failed to score in 15 out of their last 16 innings. To cap things off, Ryan Braun saw his hit streak come to an end at 23. He's now 3rd on the club's hit streak list, 1 shy of 2nd place.

And then Ron Roenicke decided that change FINALLY needed to come....so he switched up the batting order by putting Rickie Weeks in the 5th hole. To those outside the state of Wisconsin, this news is no big deal. But to Wisconsin and Milwaukee...it was a change that should've been made at least 2 seasons ago. Rickie Weeks was brought up through the farm system as the lead-off hitter. In fact, he has never started in any other slot than lead-off. He's batted 5th before after a substituting, but for the past 5+ years Rickie Weeks has been the lead-off hitter for Milwaukee in order to protect Prince Fielder. Simple enough concept, but for some reason Ned Yost, Ken Macha, and Ron Ron (the latter is partially to blame) failed to realize that this should've been done years ago. Coming at even a bigger surprise was Josh Wilson replacing Yuni Betancourt's struggling ass. More on that later...Corey Hart, who was hitting 5th, was bumped up to lead-off. He hasn't been in that spot since 2009.

I would say this: As a result of Roenicke's batting order change, Milwaukee's offense saw a "jolt" in their offense. The Crew was finally able to match Colorado's offensive punch by beating them 8-7 on Saturday and 4-3 in Sunday's game. The Rockies kept coming back on Saturday's game and despite having a 3-0 lead. But it was Rickie Weeks (in the 5th spot) that hit a 2-run home run off of their closer Houston Street. Milwaukee then saw their newest addition in Franky Rodriguez do work on the Rox in a 1-2-3 8th inning before Axford earned his 24th save and 25th on Sunday.

Speaking of Sunday, Shaun Marcum had to exit early after the 5 complete innings due to a neck soreness, after he made a web gem of a play throwing out a runner at 1B. Apparently it's not an issue, just tightness, but Milwaukee has to be worried. Their top hurler in the first half of the season has now struggled or exited early in his starts since mid June while in Boston. Even more worrisome is the fact that he hadn't earned a win since June 13th in Chicago? I didn't have time to fact check that, but I want to say that's true--and I heard Provis say something about that. Marcum however, is not expected to miss a start.

To make matters worse, Ryan Braun strained his hamstring and had to leave Saturday's game. He was available to pinch hit on Sunday, but I truly feel that he tweaked it and Milwaukee's being overly cautious.

Josh Wilson, despite colliding with Casey McGahee's attempt to catch a foul ball, has been pretty damn good at SS. He went 4 for 8 in the 2 games he's started and collected a double. Let's see if that continues in Arizona.

Rumors were flung around this weekend about the Brewers having interest in Wilson Betemit, the 3B from the Royals. No thanks...no....really, Ned Yost....no thanks. Jamey Carroll was another name mentioned over the weekend. Again, Milwaukee should set their sites on Taylor Green and work-in a platoon type situation. I know that's hard to do with the Gomez-Morgan platoon going on...limited roster space, but perhaps Gomez should be optioned down in order to try it. Morgan is MORE than capable of playing every day, especially with Kotsay playing well in the reserve.

Recently, the Timber Rattlers (Appleton) and the Milwaukee Brewers extended their relationship. How does a major league team NOT have a low A team near their city? It's so much easier for rehab stints. Milwaukee always had a local team in Beloit, but then that relationship switched a minor league team in West Virginia (the Power). Luckily, Appleton knew they had something special to offer Milwaukee.

50-45

2011-07-18T08:30:00.003-05:00

49-45

2011-07-18T08:30:00.001-05:00

49-44: Milwaukee sucks on the road...plain and simple.

2011-07-15T08:38:00.000-05:00

Last night's game was brutal, to say the least. Despite the fact that the rain at Coors Field prevented the Brewers from taking BP and shagging fly-balls prior to the game--is no excuse for the horrible performance that Milwaukee turned out. Yovanni Gallardo was god awful, horrific, disgusting, un-ACE like. The offense was off to a smoking hot start, but it kind of takes the air out of you when you take the lead twice and give it back to them right away. Look, you're going to get the occassional ass-kicking once every 2 weeks (even the good teams). So take it on the chin and move on Crew....move on.

Gallardo is horrible and Coors Field and they're horrible on the road (16-30). So the question is; Why didn't Ron Roenicke do what other clubs did and rearrange their rotation a bit. Have Narveson start the first game and skip Gallardo? It's a bit far fetched, but they suck on the road and this could set the tide for the entire road trip (11 games).

Ryan Braun extended his hitting streak to 23 games with a rip-roaring liner in his first at-bat from coming off his calf injury. With a hit in tonight's game, he could tie for 2nd for the club record. Paul Molitor has 39 games-which is the record, so there's a ways to go yet.

KRod says he "just wants to win". Well, you picked the right club for that....at home (Miller Park).

"It was a surprise. Definitely a surprise," Rodriguez said of the trade. "I was a little bit shocked. I knew I was in a market where eventually the Mets would find a way to trade me. But I never thought it was going to be Milwaukee."

I would be surprised too. I mean, his ex-agent Paul Kinzer forgot to turn in KRod's no-trade list to the Mets org. So the Mets knew they could trade him anywhere; but then KRod switched agents and signed on with Scott Boras. Once the Mets found this out--they knew they only had a small window of opportunity to make a deal and send him packing ANYWHERE. Milwaukee is ANYWHERE, considering that they are on most no-trade lists on star players and the city generally has to get waived or Ok'd by the player (Trevor Hoffman is one example of this, I believe). So in a matter of 6-8 hours the NY Mets were able to make a deal with the Brewers and screw over Boras in the mean time.

Milwaukee Lands a New Set-up Man!

2011-07-13T09:24:00.000-05:00

....and the first team to make a huge splash during the trade season is......

MILWAUKEE!!!!

The Milwaukee Brewers dealt 'two players to be named' to the New York Mets for Francisco Rodriguez and $5MM dollars. The cash will be used to offset some of the 11.5MM Krod is set to make in 2011. What makes it more interesting is that KRod already has 34 "finishes" this season; so Milwaukee can use him 21 more times to finish games this season before the 17.5MM option automatically vests with a 3.5MM buyout option. That 5MM that was sent to Milwaukee is to offset that buyout option, I would imagine. What makes this interesting is that Krod is a recently signed Scott Borras client. Scott is a little upset that KRod will be auditioning for a new contract next season....as a set-up man! How genious is that?

Doug Melvin saw a window of opportunity and took it. He was able to keep a closer out of the Cardinals hands and he was also able to utilize KRod as a set-up man and not have it work against his remaining 21 games. Will KRod be happy in Milwaukee? Possibly, but he has no choice after the shit show he pulled last season. He can't afford to make waves and voice his displeasure. Melvin has him by the balls...so to speak. How smart of a move is that?

Meanwhile, the Mets were able to unload some salary in time for the off-season push to keep Jose Reyes. With Carlos Beltran, David Wright, and Jason Bay on the books--that's 57MM of their 141MM payroll.

According to Doug Melvin, just now on AM1250 (Milwaukee), KRod is "happy" to come on board...but other than that, Melvin didn't elaborate how his talk went with KRod.

When Melvin was asked "if he was done" this trade season--he hesitated and then went in to the old go-around of "the trade ideas you hear about are the ones that don't happen". So my guess is that Melvin will work under the radar, just like with KRod, and land another deal.

My guess as to who the "two players to be named" are going to be Khris Davis and Taylor Green. Those two are the pieces that NY could use, with David Wright probably departing soon.

Apparently the deal went down fast, possibly a 1/2 day.

Milwaukee was not on KRod's "no trade" list.

- Oh yea, forgot to mention that Prince Fielder was named the ALL STAR MVP for his 3-run homer to put the National League ahead and eventually win the game. The Brewers will now have home field advantage in the World Series (smiley face).

49-43: Milwaukee takes series with Reds/First place tie with Cards

2011-07-11T16:07:00.001-05:00

Milwaukee won a nail-biter yesterday afternoon in front of a sell out crowd at Miller Park. Thanks to clutch veteran hitting off the bench by Counsell and Kotsay. Kotsay ripped a single and drove in the tieing run in the 9th inning and then Counsell hit a walk-off sac fly to left field which drove in the winning run.

With Ryan Braun out of the All Star game, he will have plenty of time to recoop before Thursday's game in Denver.

Who is the set-up man for Milwaukee? Loe or Saito, Hawkins or Braddock? Well, apparently Ron Ron is going to use the match-up approach and keep both of them on their toes. Makes sense and it's certainly doesn't suck that Milwaukee has 4 options.

According to THIS study by On Numbers, the Brewers are a hard team to root for...but there are 8 other teams that are tougher.

Prior to Sunday's game minor leaguer Cody Scarpetta got a surprise call-up to Milwaukee. Although he wasn't used, the experience was probably exhilerating to say the least.

2B Eric Farris might be a trade target at the deadline? No where to go for him with Rickie Weeks healthy season.

The Brewers are testing a new "demand ticket pricing" system.

48-42

2011-07-11T15:58:00.001-05:00

47-42: Back on track?

2011-07-08T09:33:00.000-05:00

We'll see tonight when the Brewers take on the Reds in game 2 of the 4 game series. Milwaukee has to take advantage of these head-to-head match ups with the Reds, Cards, and even the Pirates. Last night they certainly did. Chris Narveson bounced back from his god awful outing in Minneapolis last weekend to throw 6 complete innings; giving up 2 earned runs on 7 hits, 5 strike outs, and 2 walks. The bullpen was again shakey with the usually sturdy LaTroy Hawkins giving up an earned run. From the very start his velocity was missing, having only maxed out at 91 mph with a fastball. All other pitches were in the mid-to-high 80's. Saito was on point as he threw a scoreless/hitless frame. Axford (23) notched another save, but had to earn it the hard way. He gave up -- yet another -- homerun to Ramon Hernandez, the very-same Red that launched a HR in the season opener that lost the game for the Crew.

Rickie Weeks hit a line-drive HR in the 5th inning and he drove in 3. Yuni Betancourt also had a big game with a double, a RBI, and he now leads the National League in sac flies. Kotsay has hit safely in his last 8 games; he also drove in a run and made an excellent play out in LF to stop an extra base hit.

Melvin & Co. will have a hard decision to make when they have to decide what to do with Braun. If he plays in the All Star game and then goes on the DL, that DL stint/date is NOT retroavtive from June 3rd when he missed his first game....it would start from the All Star game. Make sense? So basically, if he's going to be put on the DL, they should do it now and then make it retroactive from July 3rd, so he can be ready for the Arizona series on July 17th in Phoenix. Tracking? I'm barely haning on here.

46-42: McGehee Shows Up....Finally

2011-07-06T16:46:00.000-05:00

*Ryan Braun's MRI came back positive, or, no sign of major injury. He will be out tomorrow's opener with the Reds.

Casey McGehee finally decide to show up to lead Milwaukee to a 3-1 win over the DBacks. For the second time this season he provided the late game heroics by blasting a 3-run dinger in the bottom of the 7th that provided the go-ahead runs. As you may remember, Casey did the same thing against the Cubs back in April (2-run blast). This is a glimmer of hope that he can still turn it around, albeit he is batting .225 on the season and 5 homers.

Yovanni Gallardo FINALLY brought his "A" game by going 7 complete and giving up one run on a single mistake (home run to K Johnson, lead-off). He settled in after that one mistake in the first inning and gave up only 4 hits, with only one of those hits for extra bases (double to Montero). His pitch count even hit 123, which shows how hard he had to labor to complete the 7 innings.

Odd--Milwaukee wore their old throwbacks today, which was Yo's call (according to 1250am Milwaukee).

45-42: Pirates jump to 2nd -- Crew drops to 3rd

2011-07-06T08:52:00.000-05:00

What is a fan to do? The dog days of summer can be hard on a brother all by itself, but then you throw in the Brew Crew's woos and you then find yourself with heartburn. The current slump has been extended while playing the NL West second best team. Yes, they're not even in first place--yet the DBacks are whipping the Brewers around while ON THE ROAD like it's nobody's business.

Such is baseball. I mean, come on now people. Let's look at the obvious. Milwaukee could continue to slide against the Reds; meaning they could get swept by them and still be just fine. The Reds don't have the pitching and the Pirates are the Pirates, they will self implode. Both are mirages.

Randy Wolf gave up 7 runs in 3 innings last night....therefore he should be stripped of his right to have his own catcher in George Kottarus or Will Nieves (who's now out). For some reason, Wolf has some issues with Lucroy--ever since Lucroy's first game catching last May. Wolf was crying and bantoring like a little boy. Get over it...no one is better than the other. The ONLY pitcher who picked his catcher and had every right to do it was Ben Sheets and his partner Chad Moeller. Heck, CC didn't even have his own catcher. Why should Wolf? Don't get me wrong, Randy has been lights out this season and bumps in the road will happen. But I'm sick of not seeing Lucroy in the line-up when they need him most.

Rickie Weeks in a horrible slump right now; his BA dropped to .274 and he's 5 for 37 stretching back to June 26th. He's our 2B and slumps happen, but it's time to start thinking about flipping him down to the 2 hole. He has the HR power, no sense in hitting solo shots. The lead-off hitter should either be Morgan when he's starting in CF or Gomez, if the guy could learn to take a pitch. Ok, maybe I'm on crack with the Gomez thing--but Morgan should be considered the everyday lead-off.

Prince was named the NL Player of the month for June. This is the second POM award, last one coming in April (...right?).

Prince selected Rickie Weeks to join him for the HR Derby. That way Rickie can continue to hit meaningless home runs. Ok Ok, that was low, but his HR's all come when they are out of the game.

Yuni an ALL STAR replacement? Well, it could happen (but it won't). With Reyes & Tulo out, Yuni ranks 4th in ballots.

45-41: Milwaukee drops to 2nd, Pittsburgh is right behind the Crew

2011-07-05T08:57:00.000-05:00

Hard to imagine that a 2 week long slump can still result in Milwaukee (barely) clinging to 2nd place and only a game out of 1st. Meanwhile, the biggest surprise of the NL--the Pirates--are 1.5 games out of first place. May I remind you that it's July 5th and not April or May. Pittsburgh hasn't been this far up in the standings, this late in to the season, since the early 90's I would imagine.

That being said, Milwaukee's bullpen has been horrific as of late....hell....the entire pitching staff has been god awful. They are barely chugging along down the stretch until the All Star Break. Right now is when Milwaukee should be making a push, with Albert Puhols on the DL. But no, Milwaukee has lost their May-early June fame and have settled back in to blah.

Yesterday, Milwaukee jumped out to 6-2 lead against the Diamondback--only to see it washed away. Marcum's slide continued with his 3rd straing bad outing. Despite hitting a Grand Slam homerun to put the Crew up by 4 runs, he still allowed 4 earned runs on 7 hits over 6 complete. His era has now jumped to 3.32 on the season. Hawkins allowed his first run since god knows when, his era is still at .82 (although he did miss the first 1/4 of the season). Axford really put the game out of reach when he allowed 2 earned runs on 4 hits in the 9th inning.

Hart homered and McGehee collected a double and a single (.224 BA).

Hopefully McGehee and Hart start to wake up soon, because now more than ever Milwaukee needs them to produce with Ryan Braun probably sitting out the Arizona series. It's my guess that Braun may even hit the DL and probably sit out the All Star game, thus leaving Prince & Rickie as the loan Milwaukee reps. That's okay though, they need him healthy for the 2nd half of the season.

Zack Greinke has not delivered for Milwaukee as we have hoped. Oh, and I'm not even considering his bone headed move of playing pick-up basketball and breaking gosh damn it rib. Despite haveing a 7-3 record, his era has now ballooned up to 5.66 on the season. He has been anything but clutch and one has to imagine if it's his social anxiety issue or if he has already seen his career peek in 2009 (Cy Young year). It has to be something, because it's really going to sting when Jake Odorizzi makes his big league in September or Alcides Escobar start turning it around. Although Escobar & Betancourt are playing equally as shitty, both hitting in the mid .240's with Yuni collecting 28 rbi to Escobar's 22. Regardless, Zack Greinke is supposed to be turning out an era in the 3's and his record should be as such. Fact of the matter is that he has not come through when Milwaukee needed him, like Sunday's game when Milwaukee could've won a road series...or in NYC when they played the AL Yankees. Truth is, he could still turn it around and help this club, but for now...he's only helping his own stats (strike outs have been decent, 89).
Let me digress....thus far, Milwaukee and KC probably came away tied in this trade with no one team making out ahead--as for now. Time will tell of course, by with Odorizzi's dominant performance this season in high A ball (5-4, 2.87 era) and Escobar continueing to play solid D, my guess is that KC will come out shining.
MORE on Greinke by TH of JSOnline
HERE is more on Greinke, by MLB.com

Milwaukee could hit 3 million fans this season, but they have to do THIS in order to accomplish it. Miller Park had its record 12th sell-out of the season.

I could write a lengthy story highlighting the success of our 3 all-stars, but why? Rickie Weeks is in a slump and Braunie is hurt...so sad :(

45-40: Milwaukee is embarrassed in TC

2011-07-05T08:28:00.000-05:00

45-39: Nyjer's Big Birthday Performance

2011-07-05T08:27:00.004-05:00

44-39: Thome KO's Brewers

2011-07-05T08:27:00.001-05:00

44-38: CC fans 13 / Milwaukee is shut-out of the Big Apple

2011-06-30T15:57:00.000-05:00

Well....Not much to say about today's game, other than CC Sabathia and his performance. The big southpaw struck out 13 batters and threw 7 complete shut-out innings against the first place Brewers. With today's loss, the Cardinals could replace the Brewers to close out the month of July. In doing so, the Cardinals will have finished all 3 (full months) in first place according to my memory. That being said, Milwaukee will have to lick it's wounds and return back to the upper Midwest for a 3-game series at Target Field.

Ryan Braun continued to swing a hot bat by going 3 for 3 today. Sadly enough, there were no extra-base hits today. Prince Fielder hung a golden sombero, as did Gamel-McGehee-Weeks and Hart went 0-3.

Pathetic offense, truly pathetic.

Randy Wolf (6-5) gave up 4 earned runs in 7 innings of work (7 hits, 3 walks). Just like with last night's game when Marcum gave up 4 runs, Milwaukee's offense should have picked up the slack. But no, that wasn't the case.

The time has come for Casey McGehee to get sent down to Nashville and Taylor Green brought up in his place. It's July 1 tomorrow and Casey has been given plenty of time, yet all he has muster is a horrible .224 batting average. Something has to change and Ron finally acted when he dropped him to the 7th spot...but it's evident that he needs a wake-up call.

As all of you recall, I'm sure, my prediction that the Milwaukee Brewers would escape June's treacherous schedule with a 42-40 record. Well, they did better than that, so for that--I'm thankful. Milwaukee closes out the month with 6 games above .500 in June. Not too shabby if you ask me.

The Brewers could save face before they return to the Badger state if they win the series in Mineapolis, which is new easy feat. Considering that they haven't faired well there--they lost their series there last summer 2 games to 1.

The All Star voting is now completed and the race it too close to call for Prince Fielder and Rickie Weeks. Both had leads but one never knows until everything is tallied. This would be Fielder's 4th time and Weeks' 1st in making the All Star team. My feeling is that both of them will be named starters along with Braun (3 total).

44-37: Bats go silent in the city

2011-06-30T08:59:00.000-05:00

Umm....Hey Corey Hart--do you mind hitting the ball sometime this roadtrip? My god. Nothing like leaving 7 RISP. Milwaukee was on the cusp of opening up last night's game with a 4 run lead. It could've happened, but Corey Hart and Prince Fielder both came up empty with runners on 3B & 2B. Awesome. Say what you want, but Marcum giving up 4 runs to the Yankees was not the end of the world. Milwaukee could've came back, but the offense lacked power and contact. Despite the fact that McGehee was dropped to 7th in the batting order, that didn't matter. You know why? Because Casey McGehee sucks this season. There I said it. I was always supportive of him while he battles through this slump. Yes, he collected a base hit; but this horrific offense & defense is too much.

Milwaukee sucks on the road, plain and simple.

The bullpen held it together, aside from Dillard giving up the HR. They threw 3 innings giving up the one run.

Sergio Mitre, despite having a solid couple of months with Milwaukee, has been traded back to NY Yankees for cash considerations.

CC Sabathia still thinks highly of his stint in Milwaukee when he single-handily put the team on his shoulders and carries us in to the playoffs. It's insane to think that a player who plays every 5th (or 4th in CC's case) game while he was on the cusp of collecting a huge, record breaking pay-day during the free agency. I will always be a fan of CC, just not today though.

44-36: Milwaukee out of it's league

2011-06-29T09:00:00.000-05:00

It's pretty much a gimmie that the Milwaukee Brewers would get ripped up and spit out if they were still playing in the AL East. Makes you wonder how the Baltimore's and Toronto's would do in other divisions?
Milwaukee lost 12-2 last night to far more inferior team. It's hard to stomach many more inter-league games like this one (or the Boston beatin'). Regardless, Milwaukee will hope to claw back to evening the series when Shaun Marcum takes to the mound tonight.

Zack Greinke was rocked early and often, exiting the game in the 2nd inning after giving up 7 runs. I'm starting to think that even IF (and I stress 'IF') the Brewers make it to the World Series (or even the post season--which they should make), you have to wonder if Zack Greinke's anxiety won't take control? Was it nerves/anxiety that Zack felt last night? No one knows but him, but it sure looked like he was out of his element out there at Yankee Stadium. Considering that he has pitched at Yankee Stadium (new & old) probably close to once a season in his career. Look, I feel for anyone who has to struggle with anxiety; it's a crappy thing to go through. I go through it everytime I fly, but you look at Greinke and you see that he battles that on and off through out the year--especially during the season--you feel for the guy. Granted, Greinke isn't the most fan-friendly player. He keeps to himself and doesn't like to play with the media. With that being said, he puts a lot of pressure on him to rise to the occasion; which he needs to do. There's a whole 2nd half of baseball to be played and he has to bounce back big time. Not to say that he hasn't had moments of brilliance over the past 2 months. A couple of 10 strike-out games that last into the 7th or 8th inning is huge, considering what the team had to deal with last season. So, there in lies my biggest concern/question....could Greinke rise to the occassion and play in MLB's post season? I'm not that sure.

Mat Gamel proved that he belongs in the Bigs. He went 2-4 with a RBI and played some good defense.

Can't decide who has a more severe case of ADHD; Carlos Gomez or Nyjer Morgan. Regardless, it fuels them to be damn good players. Albeit, it can also cause some offensive woes.

Rickie Weeks leap-frogged Brandon Phillips for the starting 2B spot in the All Star game.

JJ Hardy back to Milwaukee? Finally someone besides me is starting to think this is a GREAT idea. He's having a career year in Baltimore. Get over the idea of Reyes coming here. The Crew doesn't have the prospects to give up.

44-35: Milwaukee destroys old cross border rival, Twins

2011-06-27T09:13:00.000-05:00

It's nice to see the Milwaukee Brewers beat teams that they're supposed to. You know, like the Twins. It's sad to see them lose to the Mets and the Cubs. With that being said, Milwaukee rolled out the small ball this weekend and swept the Twinkies right out of Wisconsin. All 3 games were come-from-behind wins, so it wasn't like they were boring matches to watch.

Friday's game saw Miller Park getting the wind knocked out of them when Danny Velencia hit a 3-run homer to put the Twins up in the 6th inning. But then Prince Fielder cracked a double in to right field, driving in 2 runs. Randy Wolf picked up the win (6-4) and he continues to the be the anchor in that rotation. Near and by far, he has been the most stable, reliable pitcher in the rotation during the first half of play. On Saturday it was Yovanni Gallardo's turn to lead the Crew, and lead the Crew is exactly what he did both on the mound and at the plate. Gallardo (9-4) came within 1 win of the always-appreciated 10 wins prior to the All Star break. He also improved his ERA to 3.94 on the year by going 7 complete and giving up 6 hits, 1 earned run, and striking out 6. The only blemish was his 2 walks in the 1st inning. Milwaukee was led by the 4 home runs by Prince (21), Carlos Gomez, Corey Hart, and the inside-the-parker by Yuni Betancourt. The latter was a result of a mis-played fly ball that should've been caught by Delmon Young out in Left Field, but ended with his left foot getting bent up between the ground and the outfield wall. Lucky for his it was only a strain, however, this strain could almost be worse than a break/fracture. Finally on Sunday, the Crew put the icing on the cake when Chris Narveson (5-5) whooped the Twins. He went 6.2 innings, giving up 2 earned on 5 hits. Ryan Braun hit his 16th of the season and Lucroy continued to rake when he collected a triple and a double. Hell, Narveson even doubled and drove in two runs (as did Braun).

The Star-Tribue of the Twin Cities had the best headline that pretty much sums it up for their pitiful team; "Winless in Wisconsin".

Now that Young is probably out for at least 4-6 weeks, Justin Morneau also had neck surgery and he will be out until August...at the earliest. Joe Mauer also missed a game in the series. Their team is in dissaray, and I can say that it was bound to happen. They had their run, now it's time for the Crew. The star-tribune also ran a poll to see if Mauer should voluntarily play another position (1B?). It's apparent that he can't continue to catch as many games as he has in the past. So that's a lot of (deferred) money that is locked up in Mauer, who's health is suspect.

The Brewers are making their first trip to NY to play the Yankees since 1997. However, the Yankees are hot and they just wrapped up winning their 4th straight IL series. The Yankees own the all-time series record 208-182-1. People often forget that the Brewers and the Yankees were arch rivals back in the days when Milwaukee played in the AL East. The Yankees were always better, but the two sides had heated games. Probably matchups on the mound give the edge to Milwaukee:
Freddy Garcia (6-6, 3.30 era) vs Zack Greinke (7-2, 4.77 era)
AJ Burnett (7-6, 4.15 era) vs Shaun Marcum (7-2, 2.95 era)
CC Sabathia (10-4, 3.25 era) vs Randy Wolf (6-4, 3.20 era)

I can honestly see Milwaukee taking the series 2 games to 1, with the loan loss coming to CC--the brutal southpaw who I remain a fan of since he played in Milwaukee in 2008.

Excellent story by the NY Times on the Milwaukee Brewers and Ryan Braun.
Oh, and Prince Fielder will not be in Milwaukee next season....so get over it..
“This is definitely the best team we’ve had so far,” Fielder said. “I’m hoping for a return, but it is a business and you never know.” -Fielder, NY Times / June 26, 2011

Milwaukee will probably bring up Mat Gamel today so that they can add an extra bat to the line-up. In didn't make sense to bring him up for the last roadtrip because they had to also play an NL team in the Cubs. He will be welcomed addition, considering that he's batting .319 and will fill in nicely at the DL spot. I could also see him playing one game at 1B and having Prince bat in the DH spot. Perhaps that will rub him the wrong way?

Jemile Weeks, the younger brother of Rickie, is tearing it up for the Athletics right now. You may remember him when the Crew drafted the high schooler in the 2005 draft, but he had a full ride to Miami. So the A's drafted him in the first round and he's already been named the starting second baseman. Makes you wonder if he could've eventually replaced Rickie at 2B? Jemile is a switch hitter and considered to be faster than Rickie....oh....and he talks much clearer than Rickie.

43-35

2011-06-27T08:20:00.003-05:00

42-35

2011-06-27T08:20:00.001-05:00

41-35: Rays take series

2011-06-22T16:29:00.000-05:00

The Rays came in to Milwaukee with the best road record in the AL and they left town with that record still entact. Marcum exited the game after throwing 3 complete innings (giving up 2 runs) in a shortened start; Roenicke was either being overly cautious with him or he re-aggrivated the hip strain. My guess is that it's the latter. Tim Dillard gave up a 3-run HR in the 7th inning that put the Rays up 6-2. They never really looked back. No one seems to know why LaTroy Hawkins wasn't used instead of Dillard, considering the day off tomorrow and all. *Saito was sent down to Nashville to continue his rehab.

Milwaukee did have a chance in the bottom of the 9th with the bases loaded and the score was 6-3. But Kotsay must have been thinking too much about his other job offer coaching college baseball for his alma matter Cal State Fullerton--and he grounded out to end the game. Sadly enough, Kotsay (.234 average season, .214 in june) pinched hit for Jonathon Lucroy for some unknown reason. Yes, Lucroy is only hitting .200 for the month of June...but cmon man, look at yesterday's number.

Estrada dropped his season record to 1-5. Marcum's ERA is now at 2.95 on the season.

The defensive guru that is Carlos Gomez, is horrible at the plate. He went 0-3 and his average is now at .210. Yuni is hitting .233 and McGehee (who is starting to come around) is batting .229 this season.

Milwaukee will now get to face the Minnesota Twins who (as of press time, ha) is on a 8 game win streak. Keep in mind, Milwaukee handled them great last season and took the season series.