Milwaukee takes first jab at LA

Ned Yost must have felt pretty confident in Eric Gagne tonight, or....he was just very naive/stupid. I would go with the latter due to the simple fact that only a little more than 2 days ago, the once prized closer was asking to be taken off that role.
Regardless, the Canadian threw a solid inning in earning his 10th save of the season. After giving up a lead off single the four-eyed-bearded monster threw pitches peaking at 94 mph. He did face the bottom part of the Dodger line-up but still regained some confidence he had lost in his shaky start to the season. Hats off to Gagne! Yost, you're a lucky S.O.B.

The Brew City's offense ignited in a grand fashion tonight with 6 Brewers having hits and 3 with two-hits. Charlie Villenueva gave Milwaukee's starting rotation its third consecutive win and trying hard to turn around their downward spiral. Charlie gave up 3 runs and 8 hits...but no home runs which is key being that he has already given up 10 this season! He is now 2-4 and earned his first win since first start.

The biggest story however is Ryan Braun's third straight solid game! Tonight he had a double and a triple plus 2 rbi's.
Over the past three games, Ryan Braun's stats read as follows:
4 HR
1 Triple
1 Double
6 RBI's

.294 season batting avg

Hell, Prince Fielder even came up big today as well w/ 2 hits and an RBI. If Prince starts to follow suit, plus Cory Hart batting the way he is....the Brewers could be turning things around in a hurry. They need to heat up before traveling over to Boston over the weekend, which they are in the process of doing.

Brewers Record 20-19
3 games back

-Cubs lost Hurray!

-Chris Capuano to have Tommy John surgery....again. After throwing some lite pitches today his arm had severe tightness. I just can't see him coming back from this, he will never be that pitcher he was in 2005-2006. Good luck to you Cappy!

-Thoughts go out to Milwaukee Brewer public announcer at Miller Park, Robb Edwards, who had a heart attack today. I love his voice. I have only been to 4 or 5 other MLB ball parks, and his voice is the best (slightly biased).

-Sports Illustrated followed The Crew around in Chicago, Houston, and Miami to give the readers a peak inside their clubhouse...of course they picked the worst road trip to do so. It will be in this weeks issue. Jsonline.com
Hart & Hardy playing Ping Pong...Notice Bob Uecker wearing nut-huggers


-Huntsville Stars' rising stars (no pun intended):
Cole Gillespie
Matt LaPorta
Both are solid outfielders playing in opposite sides. Look for these two to make an impact soon. La Porta probably this season yet in a pinch hitting role.

-Two news sources I check out on a regular basis are:
Sportsbubbler
Baseball America - Also, you can receive a free issue of this magazine by clicking here!
Deadspin- Baseball Blog

Bottom of the 8th....Gagne is about to come in

Why the hell is Yost putting Gagne in to close after he relieved himself of that duty and he even pitched two innings last night? If he blows this, I will blame Yost and not Gagne.

Think Pink

Ryan Braun smacked 2 homeruns last night, his fourth in the last two games...all with the same pink bat. Although last night he used a black bat, it was the Mothers Day pink bat painted over. His batting average has sky rocketed to .288 now that he has, according to Yost, come out of his slump. Now if only Prince Fielder could follow suit. He looked awful at the plat last night chasing pitches out of the strike zone and failing to earn the walks he was dished out by Wainwright (3-2). JJ Hardy ended his wopping 5 game hitstreak, but he has started to make contact better and made some great defensive plays.

-Mike Cameron is batting .180 right now. Not an ideal spot in the batting order for this type of numbers. Granted, he only has about 50 at-bats, so this number can fluxuate. He is a quick centerfielder that can get under the fly balls on both gaps, more so with left-center of course.

-Dave Bush has a great game! Way to go for Bushy who gave up only 1 run in 6 innings. He looked shaky at first giving up a dinger to Rick Ankiel in the first, but quickly shook it off. Hopefully he gained some confidence down in Nashville.

-Mitch Stetter looked out of sync last night and this outing should be put aside as a rare incident to date. He has had too many solid innings to raise too many eyebrows with last nights semi-melt down.

-Eric Gagne said he is ready to pitch in the 9th. AFTER ONE GAME? C'mon Eric. I admire that you took the blame and all, but lets face it....one game break is not enough. My vote is for Closer by Committee (the most used term in Milwaukee over the last 3 days).

-As pointed out by JSOnline Blog yesterday, Deadspin was at Miller Park Sunday. They bitched about the roof being closed.

-Turnbow is just as bad in Nashville as he was in Milwaukee. I don't know if his stuff can be fixed anymore. He's beyond repair. Yost should have done this last season because now it is too late.

-Cleveland Indian's second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera had an un-assisted triple play last night! Only the 14th time in in history....pretty sweet! Congrat Asd-ru-ballllllll.

Back to normal for The Crew this week, as the wrap around series (weekend in to Monday) is done. They will have to do the same 4 game wrap around with Nat's later in the month.

"$21 Million? I have a family to feed"

Latrell Sprewell, the one-time laughing stock of the NBA and Milwaukee native, had his River Hills home foreclosed today. I used to drive by this house on my way to work at Taylor & Dunn's Public House. This is the richest neighborhood in the state...which only a few miles away from the poorest neighborhood in the state. Oddly enough, Latrell hung out on both sides of town. Additionally, this ex-All Star doesn't like to pay bills either! He also had his yacht called "Milwaukee's Best" (not this kind, but this kind) was auctioned off by the US Marshal's last summer. That was the same boat where he strangled his lady friend. Oh yeah, and his old coach in San Fransisco.

Stand up guy!

Good idea

The blog "Brewer Nation" has a good idea with this one:

You all remember Russell Branyan? Well, he has been playing very well for Nashville hitting .355 and a team-leading 8 HR's. He is a journeyman veteran and one-time Brewer, who could rotate with Billy Hall at third. This then giving Hall some days off to tweak his batting. The transition back to third has been shakey, in my opinion. He sits at 5 errors (9 total in 2007 at center) and is batting a horrid .197! Call it what you want....that is pretty low, however he does have 7 hr's. Platooning Russell the Love Muscle in there could spark a flame under Halls' arse.

Another OJ Taints USC's Image

Silliness. That's the word that comes to mind when I think of USC sports. They are silly because time after time this college powerhouse in football and the recent success of its basketball program have all been tainted in the last couple of years. Not only does the school have to deal with the Reggie Bush scandal, now the they have to handle the OJ Mayo case.

Outside The Lines (ESPN) reported yesterday that OJ Mayo was teaming with a sports management organization, which is illegal. The agency, BDA, was providing him with lavish meals (Red Lobster, yuck), vehicle, flat-panel TV's, and other commodities during his high school and one-year lay over at USC. All of this under the nose of USC's athletic department and Tim Floyd, the heralded basketball coach who will be entering only his third season there.

Of course, on Mike & Mike In The Morning, Greenburg was talking as if this was okay. It is the rules that are messed up. The rules should be changed because these student-athletes are making all of this cha-ching for the schools.

Well, rules are rules now matter what you think of them "GREENIE". So in that you are wrong sir. These punk kids who are on their way to the pro's after spending a year or so at their school due to regulations tend to lean towards the illegal side of things. Meaning this, USC's image will now suffer due to the actions of two unethical students, not even alumnus'. Perhaps now, schools will be more careful when it comes to recruiting one-year hoppers who will have a brief stay at their school. Yes you will get that one year of fame and be in the spotlight, but what happens afterwords....when they leave you? They aren't even graduates of your school, but they may still have an effect on your institution due to their actions while on campus. Think carefully, perhaps this is why Bo Ryan and Wisconsin tend to stay away from the one-year hoppers in fear of this. Although no school is immune to NCAA violations (UW included), it is acts like this that can be prevented.

---------------------------------------

Hey Crean....you still liking Indiana? You PRICK!. I look forward to Indiana coming to Madison and Bo Ryan putting the hurt on you.

You honor your contract. Great example you taught your players in Milwaukee!

---------------------------------------

Hanley Ramirez, the rising star for the Florida Marlins (23-14), is closing in on a long-term deal of 6 years & 70MM dollars.
What is it with this team? They dump all of their star players year after year, especially after winning the two World Series in a decade. Yet they continue to have the lowest pay in baseball and are now 8 games above .500 and tearing through Milwaukee's arse. I believe the season series is at 5-1. Sad for us, good for them. Oddly enough they have the lowest turn-out in the attendance I believe.

Suppan & Braun Deliver

The Crew inched a little closer to .500 with a 5-3 win over the NL's Central Division leading Cardinals. Suppan pitched lights out today over his old teammates. Giving up only 6 hits and 1 run, the veteran righty brought his ERA down to where it he usually is...in the 4's (4.63). That being said, he really delivered for the Crew by working the pitch counts and even pitching through the 7th inning. The latter of course being a little hard to believe considering he's a 5-6 inning type of starter. He did surpass his season high in walks however giving out 5 free passes.
Braun put the hurt on Looper by going yard twice and raising his average to .281 on the season. It appears he and Fielder have begun their resurgence as they have had a decent series against the Cards.
-Season series is at 4-4 w/ the Cards.

The closing role was given up by Gagne forcing Yost to call on others to fill in. This being the frosting on the cake for Yost to be fired. Had Gagne not voluntarily hand in his closing keys, he would've been right back out there today. Thankfully, he made the decision for Yost by allowing others to close. This brought up the plan of having a "committee" approach by having match-up closers. Yost called on Torres to have first crack at it. This resulting in a homerun that was first caught by Cory Hart over the fence, and then flopping out of his glove due to the backlash in his wrist. Valid try.
So, Yost went with Brian Shouse who then put the nails in the coffin. This only after giving up another run. So there you have it folks, in the words of Brian Anderson. The Brewers came up big in offense and defense giving up no errors and solid pitching.

-Billy Hall broke his Mothers Day homerun streak of 2. Not a shocker there. He did run the bases pretty nice scoring on a speedy run to home and being tripped up by the catcher.
-All that pink made me think I was at the roller rink back in grade school. Hell, the players had pink rope necklaces, pick undershirts (some did) and even pink gum to bring awareness to Breast Cancer. Fathers Day will of course yield sky blue to do the same for Prostate Cancer.
-Yost should be canned.