It's hot, damn hot

Today, it's going to be over 100 degrees with a heat index of 112... and I have softball tonight. If the site isn't updated for the next couple of days, you know that I have spontaneously combusted.

Yep, they're better

Much was made about how much the Brewers missed Sheets and Ohka this year. So, how has the duo performed since coming back? You tell me:

Sheets: 2 games 15 IP, 1.80 ERA, .93 WHIP and a 15/1 K/BB ratio.
Ohka: 3 games 18 IP, 2.50 ERA, 1.11 WHIP and a 15/6 K/BB ratio.

They do this over the course of an entire season, they both are flirting with 18 wins. Think the Crew could have used 2 guys like this?

The picks are rolling in

No, this is not a shot at Favre's performance on the field, it's that the Packers signed 3 players in the last 2 days: Colledge, Spitz and Martin. This puts our projected starting OGs (College and Spitz) in camp on time, which is huge. I mean like Grady Jackson's ass huge. Or even Gilbert Brown's ass huge. Or maybe I'll stop the references to large black men's asses. It's great these guys are going to be around the whole camp and not do some stupid holdout. The running game is going to be improved this year just by these 2 guys alone and them being in camp on time ensures that. Oh yeah, and Martin is in camp and now we have a #3 QB. Whee!

All that is left to sign is AJ Hawk and Abdul Hodge. Both of these guys showed incredible instincts and grasped the defensive scheme quickly in mini-camps, so if they miss a few days, it's not a major deal. Now this morning, PackersNews.com is reporting Hawk's deal should be done tonight! If both are signed this week, it will be huge. Like Rueben Studdard's ass huge. Or even... nevermind, I'll stop that now. Needless to say, things are looking great for the Packers to have a good training camp.

A New Racing Sausage!

The Brewers unveiled the newest member of the Racing Sausages today, Chorizo! Rumor is that he will be making his first racing appearance this weekend during the Brewers/Cincy series. Given how the Brewers have been doing lately, this would be the only reason people would be coming to the park. I called Miller Park to get an interview with the newest sausage and I was told to stop calling, well the actual term was "cease and desist", (like I'm scared of some legal mumbo jumbo) and if I didn't, a large man would come and "introduce himself" to me. Boy, I hope it's Carlos Lee!

Oh, and the photo is from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Bye Bye Lee

After going 3-6 on their road trip, I know I'm not coming out with any breaking news that the Crew can be labelled as "sellers" at the trading deadline. They have Carlos Lee who will be a FA at the end of the season and will not be able to afford the $ that he will be able to command, so they have to try and trade him by the July 31st deadline. The Crew could get a deal that would bring back memories of the Sexson trade as far as the amount of talent we could get. I'm not against that, but I am going to miss Lee. He's going to be leaving kids, so get used to the idea.

Pretty disappointed this year with the Crew. All the pieces were there to make a great run at the postseason. Injuries to Sheets and Ohka kinda ruined that along with Turnblow doing his impression of Chernobyl. The offense has been sporadic, but still with any consistent pitching, this team could be at the 52-53 win mark and in the thick of things.

Turnblow at it again

Last night Turnblow blows his 4th straight save and his 8th of the year. In baseball, closers are made when they are deemed to have 'it'. What 'it' is is hard to quantify and is more of a feeling about the man. Whatever 'it' is, Turblow has completely lost 'it'. This last month of meltdown is akin to what Kolb did last year with Atlanta and nobody wants him to close for the Brewers, so why the hell is it tolerated with Turnblow? Because we have no other option? Well Melvin, Yost and Maddux need to find that option.

Simply put, the Brewers are not going to make the playoffs this year with Turnblow closing. He has single-handedly cost the Crew more than just several past wins. With him completely sucking, the team has lost it's confidence that a 1 or even 2 run lead is going to be safe. The doubt factor creeps in and the team's attitudes and playing change. If the team doesn't believe the closer can stop the other team, the closer doesn't either, and thus the "bad breaks" just seem to happen. Well, I'm tired of giving Turnblow a pass on the rough "bad breaks" he just seems to get. An ERA of 5.54 and a WHIP of 1.51 are NOT a result of "bad breaks", it's a result of bad pitching.

Yes, I don't have a suggestion right now as to what to do, but neither does Melvin, Yost or Maddux and they are the ones who are supposed to have one.

What do you mean #53?

Money magazine published it's top 100 cities to live in the US and Madison finishes #53? What the hell! A perennial top 10 city suddenly drops to the likes of Edmond, OK and Aurora, IL? There is only one explanation for this: the damn FIBs! That's right, those Illinisians must have sent forth a cadre of malcontents and scum to infest the glorious city of Madison to bring it down to the level of Aurora! This insidious plot has apparently worked as the good cheese-loving people of Madison have seen the image of their glorious city sullied by these... these... non-cheese-loving-troglodytes!

I say rise up O great Madisonians! Rise up and cast out these things out of your city and reclaim your proper place in the world! It shouldn't be too hard to get the Illinisians out, just offer them some low interest financing on some lovely mobile homes in Rockford, IL and they'll think they just won the lottery.

Not such a good start

The Brewers end up winning the last game of the series against AZ, but drop 2 of 3 to start this huge 9 game road trip. This combined with St. Louis sweeping the Dodgers puts the Crew 8 back from the Cards. Not that there was much hope of a division championship this year anyway. They are 4 back from the WC lead at this point which is not insurmountable, but they need to take 2 of 3 in both the SF and Cincy series if they want to stay in contention. Should they fall to 8 back or so from the WC by the end of the month, look for Carlos Lee to be dealt and the Brewers to bring up the kids from the farm to prep for 2007.

Vote for Bucky!

The Mascot Hall of Fame is currently voting on the 2006 inductees to the Mascot Hall of Fame. Bucky would be the 1st mascot voted in from the college ranks. Click on the title of the post to get to the site and vote for Bucky! While the fan voting is not the biggest factor, it is part of the process and if Bucky should win by a landslide, it would only make the committees selection of him for the Hall that much easier. After all, there is no more beloved college mascot than Bucky Badger.

So get over there Cheeseheads and let's make this happen!

On Wisconsin, On Wisconsin Grand 'ol Badger state!

Should I really be happy?

Let's look at this line for a second or 10:

The Brewers are 5.5 games back of the division and 3 games back of the wild card leader at the All-Star break.

These are not insurmountable numbers at all and after the last decade-plus, most Brewer fans would be as happy as a Bears fan with a "buy one wart removal, get a 2nd one free" coupon. The possibility for the playoffs is very real. But, why don't I get a warm fuzzy off of this though? Here's why:

The Brewers record is 44-46 and their pitching staff has a NL-worst ERA of 5.03. Add into this that their offense is below average in OBP and runs scored (4.5/game), and those factors combined are not a good mix to have. The old addage that pitching wins championships is in play here, except in reverse: BAD pitching destroys any chance of winning, let alone playoffs.

I know, I know, Sheets and Ohka are due back this month and suddenly the rotation will look a lot better without some of the humps they've been throwing out there. But who's to say that they will make a difference? It's going to take each of them about 2-3 starts to get back into the groove and by then it's mid-August. Add in that the bullpen is a fricking disaster right now so even if they do put in a quality start, there's a good chance the bullpen will blow it. Let's face it, the Brewers are not going to put together any huge win streaks right now. At best they can top off at 4 in a row, like they recently did. But then they go and lose 3 in a row to the frickin' Cubs AT HOME. The Brewers have 72 more games to go and I think it is likely that they will go 38-34 the rest of the way. That puts them at 82-80 on the season, which won't win any divisions or wild cards.

I was real optimistic at the start of the season, but the Brewers have had 3 1/2 months to take advantage of a very weakened NL Central and actually come into the break with the division lead. If we are expecting them to suddenly be able to "turn it on" for the final 2 1/2 months, I think we are deluding ourselves. Don't get me wrong, I would love to have them make the wild card and will root like hell for it. But I just don't see it happening.

There's my cheery post, Happy Monday!

In Praise of the Boxer Briefs

I encourage all men (heck the 3 women that read this site also) to read the above linked article on boxer briefs. If you haven't made the switch to these by now guys, I fully recommend that you do. In fact, I'm wearing some now, and don't you want to be more like The Oracle?

Sweep those Reds!

photo from Yahoo!

Ha Ha! After a miserable road trip, the Crew come back with a HUGE sweep of Wild Card leaders in the NL (now the former leaders). Now the Cubbies come to town and the Brewers need to beat them down like the losers they are. Just when the Crew look helpless, they pull out a 6-5 win in 13 innings with a bases loaded 2 run double by Rickie Weeks (with helmet in hand) and thus completing the sweep. This team is fun to watch if nothing else.

Stuff the Ballot Box!

It's that time of year when the last All-Star is selected and we fans get to stuff the box to make it happen. I propose that Twins and Brewers fans unite in a common cause, to get Liriano and Capuano on the rosters. You have to vote for 1 from each league, so why not help each other out? Nothing says America more than doing whatever you can to get your guy elected. You can vote as often as you like, and it's so insanely easy to vote 4-5 times/minute. Take 10 minutes of your day, vote 50x/day and watch this plan come to fruition. Let's show those bigger market clubs that we can stuff the ballot box just a good as they can!

Click here to get to the MLB voting page.

You have until Thursday night at 5pm CST to vote, so get to it! What? Like you got something better to do if you're reading this site. Don't let the terroists win! Vote for Capuano and Liriano now!

Did this just really happen?

It has been announced that the Bucks have traded TJ Ford to Toronto for Charlie Villanueva and cash. I am just stunned at this, stunned. Not only that the move was done to deal Ford, but at what we got in return.

Now, before I get into this, I will admit that I have been a supporter of TJ Ford. I like him, and he's an inspirational story on how he came back from injury. I think he still has a bunch of potential and will miss him.

However, for us to get Villanueva for him is a frickin' steal. He's just completed his rookie season and was avg 13pts and 6 reb/game for Toronto. He has so much more upside than Ford it's ridiculous. He is a legit PF that the Bucks have needed. Now Bogut can move to his natural position of C, which kicks Magloire out of there (thank heavens). Villanueva is a physical, big boy that is going to explode next year, bank on it. I don't know if the management in Toronto was still drunk from drafting Bargnani #1 overall, but they made a huge blunder here. They not only gave us a better player than Ford, but cash... CASH!.... as well. It's like someone offering you a 20oz juicy T-bone and $10 for your double cheeseburger from McDonald's, a no-brainer.

The Bucks had a logjam at PG with Ford, Williams and Bell and one of them had to go. Williams has better instincts and shooting ability than Ford and Bell is a fantastic defender who doesn't make many mistakes, so Ford was the obvious choice to go with being a defensive liability. The Bucks are set just fine at PG without him.

Another reason I like this move is that it shows that Harris is not afraid of trading a former top pick, admit he's not working out, and improve the team. Gotta love a GM who thinks in the overall benefit of the club and not let emotional ties to players get the better of him.

First, we get rid of that crappy purple color scheme, then we get a fantastic true #4, now all that's left is to dump Magloire on some team for I don't know, a couple extra beer vendors, and my 4th of July weekend will be perfect.

For some other great commentary on this trade and the Bucks in general, check out Bucks Diary by Sky Hook. He does a fantastic job.