Monthly Archives: June 2007

Posted by Steve

…

…

…

Oh, Gosh.

 I’m never going to Wrigley again.

Posted by Steve

People are making a big deal out of the Cubs series this weekend in Chicago.  The Brewers have won 12 of 14 games, and the Cubs have won six straight, so hopefully it will be an entertaining series.  As for how “important” it is…  Well I’ll just say I’m not overly nervous.

Unless one team sweeps the series, little ground will be made up either way.  If the Brewers can just avoid being swept, they’ll have at least a 6.5 game lead on the Cubbies after the series, which is still fairly cozy.

Perusing some message boards, I’ve seen people (Cubs fans, mainly) claim that the Cubs’ season depends on this series.  There are statements like (paraphrasing), “If the Cubs get swept the season is over, but if the Cubs sweep I think they’ll win the division.”

Yikes.  There are 162 games in a baseball season.  All of them count equally.  Let’s not try to make this series any bigger than any other one.

As far as the series itself, things certainly stack up well for the Crew.  Gallardo vs. Hill should be a good game with two young pitchers facing off.  Saturday is Ben Sheets vs. Sean Marshall and Sunday is Dave Bush vs. Jason Marquis.  Marshall has been hot lately, but Hill has cooled off a little bit.  Marquis, as expected, has also fallen back to Earth.

The Brewers will send Yo, Sheets and Bush against the Cubbies while they miss “Big Z.”  I will in fact be in attendence tomorrow; it will be my first time at Wrigley.  Here’s to a great start from Yo before his stint in the bullpen.

My half-hearted attempt at some NBA Draft discussion

I am admittedly a fair-weather Bucks fan, and not a huge NBA fan in general.  I usually watch the draft though, just because I like watching drafts for any sport I remotely follow.  I’m also a big college basketball fan.

The Bucks created quite a stir when they took Chinese forward Yi Jianlin with the sixth pick.  Yi’s agent and the Chinese government wanted him to go to a team with more marketability and a higher Chinese population than Milwaukee, and they did not permit the Bucks to work him out, but GM Larry Harris took him anyway.  I’m not going to pretend whether I know if this guy is a good pick, but I will say that I’m impressed that the Bucks took their best available player despite all that crap.  When I hear his potential is somewhere around Dirk Nowitzki and Pau Gasol, I don’t see any reason to complain.

I also like the Bucks second round pick of point guard Ramon Sessions from Nevada.  He’ll provide depth if the Bucks don’t re-sign the turnover-prone Mo Williams.  I’ll be honest though, the main reason I even know who Sessions is is because Glenn (brother) was Nevada in our NCAA 2K7 franchise and constantly crushed me in that game.

I can’t think of a better team for Wisconsin star Alando Tucker to end up with than the Phoenix Suns.  His exceptional athletic ability fits perfectly in the Suns run ’n' gun offense, and I can’t wait to see him running alongside Steve Nash and throwing down lobs.

Whew… Four paragraphs on the NBA!  That’s about enough for another year.

Posted by Steve

Haven’t posted in a few days, so I have sort of a laundry list of things I’d like to cover.

Corey Hart is a man.

Anybody who thought this guy was overhyped as a prospect (and there surely were some) aren’t saying anything anymore.  It’s nice that Ned Yost finally figured that out too.  The Brewers’ offense has taken off since Hart moved to the leadoff spot, and he has simply not felt like making outs over the last month.  His OBP is up to .397 (drool…) but he’s also slugging a healthy .533.  The other day was just awesome, as he went 3-3 and worked a 13-pitch walk off poor Brian Bannister.  Interestingly, it looks like the Brewers could end up with two consecutive N.L. Player of the Month award winners.

This offense is good–and it has depth.

With Weeks, Braun and Hardy playing regularly, there is hardly a weak spot in the entire lineup.  It’s easily the best lineup I’ve ever seen in my life of Brewer fandom.  Hardy and Fielder, the pair that carried the offense for the first quarter of the season, have been relatively quiet this homestand (Hardy mainly due to injury, but still), yet the team has been scoring runs at will.

It’s also deep.  Damian Miller is nothing special, but he’s a passable major league catcher.  That’s something the Brewers haven’t been able to say about a backup catcher in a long time.  Counsell and Graffanino–guys that we whined about earlier this season–actually become assets when used in their intended reserve role.  Graffy’s little power streak recently has been nice, and Counsell continues to draw walks and get on base at a decent clip along with his great defense.

Yo should be here to stay

Whether he stays in the pen or in the rotation, I don’t see any reason to send Gallardo back to AAA.  This is besides the fact that he’s been a lot of fun to watch.  It’s only been two starts, but it’s apparent that he’s anything but overmatched.  There’s no reason the Brewers can’t monitor his workload at the major league level.

Dave Bush is nothing but a five inning pitcher who shot Kennedy. *

I’ve had just about enough of the crowd that is completely convinced that Dave Bush can’t throw more than six innings.  He had a few rough outings early in the year, and now anytime he allows a baserunner after the fifth inning people scream for the bullpen.  In reality, Bush has been excellent in his last five starts, and he is rapidly lowering that artificially inflated ERA from earlier in the year.

If anyone is a “six-inning pitcher,” it’s Claudio Vargas.  In 13 starts this season, Vargas has made it through seven innings exactly zero times.  He’s really the only pitcher in the Brewers’ rotation of whom you can’t think, “At least this guy has a chance of throwing a great game today.”

*Kudos to Mr. Adam James Grayson for the title of this post.

Derrick Turnbow has been just fine.

And no, I’m not being sarcastic in that heading.  Sure he blew the game on Sunday, but all sorts of stats indicate he is having a very solid season.  Aside from his 22 holds to three losses…

IP: 33.1   WHIP: 1.08   BAA:.188   SO: 41   BB: 14

Turnbow has had a few craptacular outings, but what relievers haven’t?  Overall he’s done a good job.

Hooray Beavers!

Congrats to the Oregon State Beavers, who repeated as National Champs Sunday.  They dominated the College World Series by not losing a game and crushing North Carolina in a 2006 finals rematch. 

I became a Beaver Backer just in time to say that I wasn’t a complete bandwagon-jumper.  I went to the CWS last year, which was shortly after the Brewers drafted Cole Gillespie.  For this reason I bought an OSU hat and adopted them as my team to root for on the trip.  They went on to defeat North Carolina in an exciting three-game series.

The best part is they’ll be right in the thick of things again next year.  They only returned two starters from last year’s title team, so they weren’t expected to do much again until ’08.  Well they came out of nowhere to win it this year, so obviously they’ll three-peat next season.

Edit: Matt LaPorta

Looks like LaPorta has been a little tougher to sign after all.  It sounds as though the two sides have been settled on the price tag for a few days, but have been working out the language of the contract.  Things like call-up times and minor league starting level.  Boras might even be pushing for a spot on the 40-man.

Posted by Steve

Thoughts/Observations/Musings/Cogitations:

• First things first:  I got a haircut and shaved my beard today.  I originally was going to let it grow until I got an interview somewhere, but eventually changed my mind.  I’m not sure how I feel about it.  In fact, I definitely don’t like it; it makes me look four years younger.  Maybe I’ll hold out for a job that will allow me to groom myself like a bum.  On the bright side, I left a fu manchu moustache for a couple hours before shaving that off as well… It was pretty awesome.  Anyways, on to baseball.
• Funny, the difference a day makes.  As brutal as Tuesday’s loss was, it was only one loss, and the Brewers seem to have bounced back.  Plus it was sweet watching a no-hitter, kind of.  Verlander’s one of my favorite pitchers, and he was simply dominant.
• If Bill Hall is truly back on track this team should be just fine.  He’s looked completely locked in the last few games; he even had great at-bats against Verlander (three walks).  The offense has sorely needed another power bat besides Fielder since Hardy inevitably slowed down, and Hall can definitely be that guy.  To quote TooLiveBrew from brewerfan.net, “Bill Hall is so awesome, the only way he can not reach base in Detroit is to simply leave the city.”
• I’m wondering if Brian Shouse has much time left on this team.  He hasn’t been good this season–1.62 WHIP and just six strikeouts to six walks in 13 innings.  Thirteen innings is obviously a small sample, but that is part of the problem as well: his lack of innings.  To put it in perspective, Shouse is trailing both Chris Spurling (broke Spring Training in AAA) and Elmer Dessens (DL stint) in innings pitched.  His complete inability to retire right-handed hitters requires him to be completely lights out against lefties almost every time to even have value.  I’d almost rather see Joe Thatcher from Nashville, or even Manny Parra replace Shouse.  Parra has been a starter his whole career, so you figure he at least won’t allow righties to OPS .900 against him.
• Villanueva is just solid.  Don’t look now, but his ERA is now 2.87.  Also his 47 innings pitched are not even 15 less than Claudio “Runners In Scoring Position” Vargas (61.2).  Here’s hoping Capuano’s back soon.  If he’s out a while I’d vote for Villanueva moving to the pen and bringing up Yo Gallardo and limiting his innings in the pen.
• Speaking of Yo, he’s now at 110 Ks and 28 BBs in 77.2 innings.
• Per JSOnline, the Brewers are close to signing Matt LaPorta.  He’s expected to get a $2 million bonus.  As speculated by many, the “Boras Factor” wasn’t much of a factor at all because LaPorta wouldn’t have gotten 7th-slot money later in the draft even if he held out.  Good to hear.  It will be interesting to see where they send LaPorta, as it should give us an idea of how much they want to fast-track him to the big leagues.
• Rickie Weeks is taking batting practice and should be ready to go by Monday.  The team has decided not to send him to Nashville for a rehab stint.  Interestingly, the reason Yost gave for this is that his wrist is likely to swell up again so they won’t waste him in AAA.  Sounds like, unfortunately, Weeks might be good for another DL trip before season’s end.
• How great would it be if the Brewers can steal the series later today?  After being no-hit in the first game, that would be pretty impressive.  With Sheets rolling, I like their chances.  Time to start righting the ship.  Keep turnin’ up the heat, you jazzy Brewers, you.

Posted by Steve

Image from usatoday.com