Oh, the life of a Pittsburgh Pirates fan. About three weeks ago, it was probably one of the more exciting things to be. Unfortunately for the Buccos, everything came crashing down to Earth...very, very quickly. And then they had to travel to Milwaukee for a three game series with the Brewers, a team that they hadn't beat all season and a team they have little to no success against in Miller Park. The beat goes on as the Crew took care of business, albeit not in the most efficient way possible. But they got the job done and that's what I always look for. After a sweep of the Bucs, the Brewers now stand at an impressive 70-51 with a five game lead over the St. Louis Cardinals, a team led by a man who thinks a fan base that just filled Miller Park with 45,000 fans is composed of "idiots."
Fair enough, Tony LaRussa. We idiots have our own Tony around these parts who we can't get enough of, and his name is Nyjer "Tony Plush" Morgan. The player who hasn't received enough discussion for the Comeback Player of the Year Award did it again today, and I'm not talking about the interview department. Plush came up in the bottom of the 10th with runners on second and third and one down and crushed the ball to deep right center. It turned out to be a long sacrifice fly as George Kottaras trotted across home plate and the Brewers celebrated a 2-1 extra inning victory - and a sweep of the Pirates. Pittsburgh proved it can play with the Brewers, especially because of their stellar starting pitching, but they didn't have the killer instinct that the Crew displayed in all three games this weekend. The game I attended on Friday wasn't really in question for the most part, but once the Pirates closed to within two in the eighth, the always reliable Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder combo hit back-to-back jacks two sections from where I was sitting to put a nail in the coffin. If that wasn't enough, Casey McGehee tripled and K-Rod legged out an infield single for his first career hit to make the fans go absolutely nuts. When Saturday afternoon rolled around, Yuni B. popped one out, Marco Estrada pitched admirably for five innings and the bullpen (Tsunami Saito, Hawk, K-Rod, Axe) shut it down. Most notably, the Ax Factor gave up a lead-off triple in the ninth only to weasel his way out of the mega-jam and nab his 31st consecutive save. Ridiculous. And then their was Sunday, where the Brewers trailed nearly the whole game 1-0. Brauny stepped up in the eighth and rifled a run scoring base hit to center off Pirates' closer Joel Hanrahan to tie the game. Tony Plush finished the Bucs off, and that was that.
Not only are the Brewers an astounding 70-51, but they are a league best 44-15 at Miller Park thanks in part to thousands and thousands of idiots packing the house night in and night out. It doesn't get more fun than this. So what did we learn from the weekend? The Brewers are taking advantage of the weaker teams in the Central Division and taking care of business - just like they should. What else? Marco Estrada has a future as a starting pitcher in this league. He just has a different demeanor on the mound as a starter and if the Brewers can't find a spot for him in the starting rotation next season, I fear that somebody else will. Anything more? The Brewers have some major ice water in their veins. I'm not willing to put the effort in looking this up, but the Brewers have won many more one-run games than their opponents and they also have some of the more clutch hitters in the league. We know the obvious candidates, but how about guys like Casey McGehee or Mark Kotsay or George Kottaras? These guys might not be putting up the best overall numbers, but man do they come through when it matters. A lot. In my mind, this is one of the most important ways a player's performance should be measured. Maybe I'll start up my own statistic...
As fun as it is to talk about the red-hot Milwaukee Brewers, who start a four game series at home against the bankrupt Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday, the Green Bay Packers played an exhibition game Saturday night out in the greatest city in America...Cleveland! Am I right or am I right? Naturally in the opening preseason game, the starters will only play a series or two, so I won't spend too much time discussing a rather meaningless game. The usual suspects were in attendance; A-Rodg hooked up with Greg Jennings for a touch and other guys like Ryan Grant and Clay Matthews saw the field (sadly no sign of Jermichael). However, I really liked what I saw from a few players - most notably newcomer Randall Cobb and safety Morgan Burnett. Both of these players will be battling for significant playing time this upcoming season...and both of them deserve some. Burnett suffered a season ending injury last season in week five and was replaced by Charlie Peprah, so those two will be going at it in practice, but I thought Burnett really had a nose for the ball Saturday night and made a few plays that stood out to me. As for Cobb, he made all the catches he was supposed to make and was pretty stellar in the return game. With rookie running back Alex Green out with an injury, Cobb got more looks at kick returner. As the game went on, there were the players that surfaced who were trying too hard to earn a roster spot and I began to lose interest in the game...a game the Packers would lose 27-17. Darn.
My next post will more than likely include my Wisconsin Badgers football season preview while, of course, continuing to touch on the play of the Brewers. With the Crew playing out of their damn minds lately, I really can't scrap together all that much to talk about...I'm so used to being negative about everything. Now in the last year, the Packers win the Super Bowl, the Badgers go to the Rose Bowl, Wisconsin and Marquette basketball reach the Sweet 16 and now the Brewers, who have won like 100 of their last 101 games. Something like that. So you're starting to see a new "me," like it or not. Let the good times roll.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Thursday, August 11, 2011
To BE the Best, You Have to BEAT the Best
The St. Louis Cardinals aren't the best team in the MLB by any stretch of the imagination, but they are the best in the National League at a few things. They score the most runs. They have the highest team batting average. They have the biggest d-----bag manager in the history of baseball. So going into their mid-week series against the Cards, the Milwaukee Brewers were not only looking to hold on to first place...they were looking to continue their dominance of St. Louis and eliminate any hope the Cardinals had of winning the division. Maybe the latter isn't possible just yet as the Crew and the Cards still have to tangle six more times and play 44 more times apiece. But to once again prove me wrong in my prediction that the Brewers would only take one game home from Busch Stadium (which I'm perfectly fine with, by the way), Milwaukee won the series 2-1 and extended their division lead to four games. Behold the power of beer.
To make my prediction even more wrong, I thought the one game we would squeeze out would be in game three when Yovani Gallardo went up against Chris Carpenter. AAAAYYNNN! Wrong. Gallardo (pronounced gah-lard-oh here in America) just didn't have it and left plenty of pitches over the plate, especially for Albert Pujols, who had four hits and a dinger. Yovani has definitely had his ups and downs, but at the beginning of the series with the Cardinals, he had the best ERA and most wins among Brewers' starting pitchers. He's now third in ERA behind Shaun Marcum and...get this...Randy Wolf. Wolf's dominant outing on Wednesday came in the one game I thought we would for sure lose, and the one man Wolf pack jumped on the prove Dave wrong bandwagon and now leads the team's starters in ERA. But going back to Gallardo; I'm trying to figure out why this guy can't put it all together...all the time. Obviously, Yovani is a great talent and still only in his mid-20s, but he has plenty of experience at The Show by now and just when you think he's figured it out, tonight happens. Granted, Yo didn't have the best effort from the defense tonight, but usually our pitchers don't because our D is border line atrocious.
One of the theories I read and agreed with was how it looks like Gallardo struggles when he works slowly. I've always been a believer in working quickly, but not rushing. I do it in many aspects of life...like back in my heyday when I pitched and nowadays when I disc golf and golf among other things. Get your mind out of the gutter. Anyway, getting back to Yo...he was a bit deliberate out on the mound tonight against the Cards and he wasn't even close to hitting his spots. To be honest, he's lucky to have only given up five runs, but it didn't matter in the end as the Brewers would fall because of a lack of clutch hitting and poor defense to go along with a bad outing for Gallardo. These are things Brewer fans have probably seen enough of and also things that the Brewers haven't been doing lately, but I guess every now and then there's a slip-up. Besides, without Ryan Braun in the lineup to keep everything cool with his laid-back Jewish attitude, we had to expect a semi-meltdown. But a 5-1 road trip is exceptional, especially when going up against the second place Cardinals and considering the Crew's ridiculous home-and-away split. Along with Gallardo speeding up his process on the mound and being unable to make adjustments, I'd like to see more of Jerry Hairston Jr. at second base. For what we gave up for him, there's no excuse to have him sitting on the bench as much as he has been. Hairston should be receiving more playing time at second than Lopez in my mind and will continue relieving Tony Plush in center whenever a lefty is on the hill. Otherwise...keep pushing on, Brewers. I'll have a front row seat in the Beerpen tomorrow night (thanks, Kyle) to undoubtedly heckle the Pittsburgh Pirates right fielder and beg Corey Hart to toss me a baseball. Speaking of Corey, don't be an idiot and give up a triple to Pujols again. Thanks.
Not sure what else to blab about, really. I'll definitely have more after the Packers break the seal on their preseason schedule Saturday and will be sure to preview the Wisconsin Badgers upcoming football season sometime next week as well along with the normal Brewer chatter. Out of the Badgers camp, I've been hearing a few different things...Russell Wilson is getting comfortable in the Badgers' offensive system and finding Nick Toon to be one of his favorite targets. Hopefully he begins to take a liking to tight end Jacob Pedersen as well; that would bode well for my fantasy team. Also, there was a no-name backup receiver who will miss some time because of a hernia (ouch) and there have also been some talks about the Badgers' kicking situation, which is interesting. Because returning starter Phillip Welch is nursing a leg injury, red-shirt freshman Kyle French has been getting some looks. I have a bone to pick with Mr. French because back when he was attending my rival's high school, he beat us with a 48-yard field goal as time expired. Brutal. Ruined my night. Better not do it again.
In Packerland, there are a few noteworthy items to touch on now that I think about it. Today, former Packer running back Ahman Green officially retired. Green had some solid years earlier in the decade for the Green and Gold and also signed on with the Pack in '09 when Green Bay was hurting at RB depth. He's Green Bay's all-time leading rusher which speaks for itself. We'll see if that and his five 1,000+ yard seasons running the ball in a Packer uniform will be enough to get him enshrined in the Packer Hall of Fame...I have little doubt that it will. And did you hear about this, folks? Clay Matthews, who saw his production fall off quite a bit in the second half of the season last year, has a pretty good excuse as to why: HE HAD A BROKEN LEG! Umm...what? This guy is nuts. Although the golden haired linebacker did say that it was feeling fine by the Super Bowl in which he made one of the biggest plays in Green Bay Packer history, this shows Matthews' incredible perseverance and makes me proud to be a fan of the Pack.
Looking forward to tomorrow. Looking forward to Saturday. And hopefully, looking forward to the fall for more reasons than football.
To make my prediction even more wrong, I thought the one game we would squeeze out would be in game three when Yovani Gallardo went up against Chris Carpenter. AAAAYYNNN! Wrong. Gallardo (pronounced gah-lard-oh here in America) just didn't have it and left plenty of pitches over the plate, especially for Albert Pujols, who had four hits and a dinger. Yovani has definitely had his ups and downs, but at the beginning of the series with the Cardinals, he had the best ERA and most wins among Brewers' starting pitchers. He's now third in ERA behind Shaun Marcum and...get this...Randy Wolf. Wolf's dominant outing on Wednesday came in the one game I thought we would for sure lose, and the one man Wolf pack jumped on the prove Dave wrong bandwagon and now leads the team's starters in ERA. But going back to Gallardo; I'm trying to figure out why this guy can't put it all together...all the time. Obviously, Yovani is a great talent and still only in his mid-20s, but he has plenty of experience at The Show by now and just when you think he's figured it out, tonight happens. Granted, Yo didn't have the best effort from the defense tonight, but usually our pitchers don't because our D is border line atrocious.
One of the theories I read and agreed with was how it looks like Gallardo struggles when he works slowly. I've always been a believer in working quickly, but not rushing. I do it in many aspects of life...like back in my heyday when I pitched and nowadays when I disc golf and golf among other things. Get your mind out of the gutter. Anyway, getting back to Yo...he was a bit deliberate out on the mound tonight against the Cards and he wasn't even close to hitting his spots. To be honest, he's lucky to have only given up five runs, but it didn't matter in the end as the Brewers would fall because of a lack of clutch hitting and poor defense to go along with a bad outing for Gallardo. These are things Brewer fans have probably seen enough of and also things that the Brewers haven't been doing lately, but I guess every now and then there's a slip-up. Besides, without Ryan Braun in the lineup to keep everything cool with his laid-back Jewish attitude, we had to expect a semi-meltdown. But a 5-1 road trip is exceptional, especially when going up against the second place Cardinals and considering the Crew's ridiculous home-and-away split. Along with Gallardo speeding up his process on the mound and being unable to make adjustments, I'd like to see more of Jerry Hairston Jr. at second base. For what we gave up for him, there's no excuse to have him sitting on the bench as much as he has been. Hairston should be receiving more playing time at second than Lopez in my mind and will continue relieving Tony Plush in center whenever a lefty is on the hill. Otherwise...keep pushing on, Brewers. I'll have a front row seat in the Beerpen tomorrow night (thanks, Kyle) to undoubtedly heckle the Pittsburgh Pirates right fielder and beg Corey Hart to toss me a baseball. Speaking of Corey, don't be an idiot and give up a triple to Pujols again. Thanks.
Not sure what else to blab about, really. I'll definitely have more after the Packers break the seal on their preseason schedule Saturday and will be sure to preview the Wisconsin Badgers upcoming football season sometime next week as well along with the normal Brewer chatter. Out of the Badgers camp, I've been hearing a few different things...Russell Wilson is getting comfortable in the Badgers' offensive system and finding Nick Toon to be one of his favorite targets. Hopefully he begins to take a liking to tight end Jacob Pedersen as well; that would bode well for my fantasy team. Also, there was a no-name backup receiver who will miss some time because of a hernia (ouch) and there have also been some talks about the Badgers' kicking situation, which is interesting. Because returning starter Phillip Welch is nursing a leg injury, red-shirt freshman Kyle French has been getting some looks. I have a bone to pick with Mr. French because back when he was attending my rival's high school, he beat us with a 48-yard field goal as time expired. Brutal. Ruined my night. Better not do it again.
In Packerland, there are a few noteworthy items to touch on now that I think about it. Today, former Packer running back Ahman Green officially retired. Green had some solid years earlier in the decade for the Green and Gold and also signed on with the Pack in '09 when Green Bay was hurting at RB depth. He's Green Bay's all-time leading rusher which speaks for itself. We'll see if that and his five 1,000+ yard seasons running the ball in a Packer uniform will be enough to get him enshrined in the Packer Hall of Fame...I have little doubt that it will. And did you hear about this, folks? Clay Matthews, who saw his production fall off quite a bit in the second half of the season last year, has a pretty good excuse as to why: HE HAD A BROKEN LEG! Umm...what? This guy is nuts. Although the golden haired linebacker did say that it was feeling fine by the Super Bowl in which he made one of the biggest plays in Green Bay Packer history, this shows Matthews' incredible perseverance and makes me proud to be a fan of the Pack.
Looking forward to tomorrow. Looking forward to Saturday. And hopefully, looking forward to the fall for more reasons than football.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Trust Issues
Happy one year Balls, Brats and Beer anniversary! It's been a fun ride.
You know what's insane? The Green Bay Packers play on August 13. Yeah...that's Saturday. I'm more than excited to see actual football again, but there's another team in Wisconsin that deserves just as much if not more attention for the next few months or so. Lately, this team has been winning, winning and...winning. They have created a lot of buzz around the state of Wisconsin with their play at home and their play in general, winning 11 of their last 12 games and stretching out a three game division lead over the St. Louis Cardinals. Did I mention that all 12 of those games were against division opponents? Granted, six of them were against the lowly Houston Astros, but three were against the Chicago Cubs (just had an eight game winning streak) and the other three were against the hated Cardinals. The Brewers are 65-50 and about to face off against the Cards again in what has become a two team division race; this time in St. Louis. It's just as big as if not bigger than last week's series at Miller Park because we are that much closer to playoff time and it will be a tougher task for the Brewers to go into a hostile environment and succeed. When it's all said and done, I expect the Crew to take one game of the three game set to retain the division lead, but of course the fan in me would like to see the Brewers win AT LEAST one game.
A two game lead would be nice to have heading into the weekend series against the struggling (to put it lightly) Pittsburgh Pirates. The ongoing season series with St. Louis will only continue to get bigger as we get later into the season - the Brewers have nine more to go against the Cardinals. Before this series begins on Tuesday, there's something I'd like to address: trust. As the season has progressed, I've found myself gaining more and more trust with the Milwaukee Brewers - in the first month of games or so, I trusted:
Ryan Braun
Prince Fielder
Rickie Weeks*
Shaun Marcum
These were all players that in mind deserved to be All-Stars, and three of them were. Notice how the low number of players correlates with how poorly the Brewers were playing early on in the season. However, as more games were played and more players came back from injury, I began to trust more players like:
Jonathan Lucroy
Yovani Gallardo
Randy Wolf
John Axford
Nyjer Morgan
The Brewers were performing better and barely managed to be in first place once we got to the All-Star break (which seems so long ago now), and then they had to survive a brutal road trip. By going 5-6 in Colorado, Arizona and San Francisco, the Brewers somehow managed to remain in first and that's when they went on their recent tear. In the first part of the second half of the season, many more players started to become reliable which helped the Brewers get over the losses of Rickie Weeks and Carlos Gomez to injury:
Corey Hart
Yuniesky Betancourt
Zack Greinke
Kameron Loe
Takashi Saito
LaTroy Hawkins
Current trust count: 15 (Hitters: 7, Pitchers: 8)
Other players on the roster, like Casey McGehee and Francisco Rodriguez, are on their way to earning my trust, which would make a total 17 players on the trust list. McGehee's three home run outburst showed he might be getting his stroke back (finally) and although K-Rod has had some sketchy moments in his time in a Brewer uniform, the Brewers have yet to lose a game as a result of K-Rod. Some guys simply don't play enough to earn my trust (Josh Wilson, Mark Kotsay, George Kottaras, Carlos Gomez*, Tim Dillard), some haven't been in a Brewer uniform long enough to earn my trust (Felipe Lopez, Jerry Hairston Jr.) and some haven't quite performed well enough to earn my trust (Craig Counsell, Marco Estrada, Chris Narveson). Agree with my reasoning or not, the point is that we feel better about this team each and every day. When the offense was struggling, the pitching was superb; as of late, with the pitching not performing quite as well, the offense has been pounding the baseball. This helps explain how close the number of players I trust is between pitchers and hitters. And just because I don't trust a player doesn't mean I don't think they are performing well for their role. This season, I began to take a liking to Go-Go because I could accept that he was only good for world class defense in center and good base running. With the Narve-Dog, he is probably one of the most reliable number five starters in baseball. Other players provide good depth and fill in nicely when needed.
Not much to complain about these days, and that's saying something, because I almost always have something to b---- about. Playing poorly on the road? The Brewers are 8-6 on the road post All-Star break. Replacing McGehee? He is beginning to provide stability in the five hole. Lack of production from guys not named Braun and Fielder? Almost everyone has stepped their game up on offense over the past week. Kameron Loe? Totally shutting down hitters in any situation he's called on to enter. So on that note, be sure to check out the Cards/Brewers series this week. It's a biggie and who knows what fireworks we'll be treated to with that nut case Tony LaRussa sitting in the opposing team's dugout.
Like I said at the beginning of the post, the Packers' opening preseason game is right around the corner. There have been a few minor injuries that some players are dealing with (most notably Greg Jennings (hip flexor), Tramon Williams (hip flexor) and Mason Crosby (ankle)), but for the most part we should be seeing everyone participate in the game Saturday against the Cleveland Browns. Earlier talks around the Packer practices have revolved around how the offense has looked sloppy, but this has to be expected considering how much time players missed during the lockout. I didn't get a chance to watch the Family Night intrasquad scrimmage since I was up north, so I'm excited to see the 2011 Packers in action for the first time and give my feedback on the game.
Along with a season preview for the Packers, a look ahead for the much-hyped Wisconsin Badgers will be coming soon. I know I said that I would be previewing Bucky on August 10, but I feel like that's too far away from the start of the season (September 3), so I'll plan on waiting another ten days before I do my write-up on the Badgers. And since Green Bay begins their season on a Thursday night on September 8, I'll give my Packers' preview about five days after my Badgers' preview. Last year I was a rookie blogger and didn't know what to write about right off the bat, so I was a tad early on my football season previews. Sorry to let you all down, but we've got a good Brewers team to distract us from that disappointment you're feeling.
Thanks for staying with me over the past year. Let's hope there are many more to come.
You know what's insane? The Green Bay Packers play on August 13. Yeah...that's Saturday. I'm more than excited to see actual football again, but there's another team in Wisconsin that deserves just as much if not more attention for the next few months or so. Lately, this team has been winning, winning and...winning. They have created a lot of buzz around the state of Wisconsin with their play at home and their play in general, winning 11 of their last 12 games and stretching out a three game division lead over the St. Louis Cardinals. Did I mention that all 12 of those games were against division opponents? Granted, six of them were against the lowly Houston Astros, but three were against the Chicago Cubs (just had an eight game winning streak) and the other three were against the hated Cardinals. The Brewers are 65-50 and about to face off against the Cards again in what has become a two team division race; this time in St. Louis. It's just as big as if not bigger than last week's series at Miller Park because we are that much closer to playoff time and it will be a tougher task for the Brewers to go into a hostile environment and succeed. When it's all said and done, I expect the Crew to take one game of the three game set to retain the division lead, but of course the fan in me would like to see the Brewers win AT LEAST one game.
A two game lead would be nice to have heading into the weekend series against the struggling (to put it lightly) Pittsburgh Pirates. The ongoing season series with St. Louis will only continue to get bigger as we get later into the season - the Brewers have nine more to go against the Cardinals. Before this series begins on Tuesday, there's something I'd like to address: trust. As the season has progressed, I've found myself gaining more and more trust with the Milwaukee Brewers - in the first month of games or so, I trusted:
Ryan Braun
Prince Fielder
Rickie Weeks*
Shaun Marcum
These were all players that in mind deserved to be All-Stars, and three of them were. Notice how the low number of players correlates with how poorly the Brewers were playing early on in the season. However, as more games were played and more players came back from injury, I began to trust more players like:
Jonathan Lucroy
Yovani Gallardo
Randy Wolf
John Axford
Nyjer Morgan
The Brewers were performing better and barely managed to be in first place once we got to the All-Star break (which seems so long ago now), and then they had to survive a brutal road trip. By going 5-6 in Colorado, Arizona and San Francisco, the Brewers somehow managed to remain in first and that's when they went on their recent tear. In the first part of the second half of the season, many more players started to become reliable which helped the Brewers get over the losses of Rickie Weeks and Carlos Gomez to injury:
Corey Hart
Yuniesky Betancourt
Zack Greinke
Kameron Loe
Takashi Saito
LaTroy Hawkins
Current trust count: 15 (Hitters: 7, Pitchers: 8)
Other players on the roster, like Casey McGehee and Francisco Rodriguez, are on their way to earning my trust, which would make a total 17 players on the trust list. McGehee's three home run outburst showed he might be getting his stroke back (finally) and although K-Rod has had some sketchy moments in his time in a Brewer uniform, the Brewers have yet to lose a game as a result of K-Rod. Some guys simply don't play enough to earn my trust (Josh Wilson, Mark Kotsay, George Kottaras, Carlos Gomez*, Tim Dillard), some haven't been in a Brewer uniform long enough to earn my trust (Felipe Lopez, Jerry Hairston Jr.) and some haven't quite performed well enough to earn my trust (Craig Counsell, Marco Estrada, Chris Narveson). Agree with my reasoning or not, the point is that we feel better about this team each and every day. When the offense was struggling, the pitching was superb; as of late, with the pitching not performing quite as well, the offense has been pounding the baseball. This helps explain how close the number of players I trust is between pitchers and hitters. And just because I don't trust a player doesn't mean I don't think they are performing well for their role. This season, I began to take a liking to Go-Go because I could accept that he was only good for world class defense in center and good base running. With the Narve-Dog, he is probably one of the most reliable number five starters in baseball. Other players provide good depth and fill in nicely when needed.
Not much to complain about these days, and that's saying something, because I almost always have something to b---- about. Playing poorly on the road? The Brewers are 8-6 on the road post All-Star break. Replacing McGehee? He is beginning to provide stability in the five hole. Lack of production from guys not named Braun and Fielder? Almost everyone has stepped their game up on offense over the past week. Kameron Loe? Totally shutting down hitters in any situation he's called on to enter. So on that note, be sure to check out the Cards/Brewers series this week. It's a biggie and who knows what fireworks we'll be treated to with that nut case Tony LaRussa sitting in the opposing team's dugout.
Like I said at the beginning of the post, the Packers' opening preseason game is right around the corner. There have been a few minor injuries that some players are dealing with (most notably Greg Jennings (hip flexor), Tramon Williams (hip flexor) and Mason Crosby (ankle)), but for the most part we should be seeing everyone participate in the game Saturday against the Cleveland Browns. Earlier talks around the Packer practices have revolved around how the offense has looked sloppy, but this has to be expected considering how much time players missed during the lockout. I didn't get a chance to watch the Family Night intrasquad scrimmage since I was up north, so I'm excited to see the 2011 Packers in action for the first time and give my feedback on the game.
Along with a season preview for the Packers, a look ahead for the much-hyped Wisconsin Badgers will be coming soon. I know I said that I would be previewing Bucky on August 10, but I feel like that's too far away from the start of the season (September 3), so I'll plan on waiting another ten days before I do my write-up on the Badgers. And since Green Bay begins their season on a Thursday night on September 8, I'll give my Packers' preview about five days after my Badgers' preview. Last year I was a rookie blogger and didn't know what to write about right off the bat, so I was a tad early on my football season previews. Sorry to let you all down, but we've got a good Brewers team to distract us from that disappointment you're feeling.
Thanks for staying with me over the past year. Let's hope there are many more to come.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Flipping the Bird
Forgive me if I sound dumb in this entry. The following thoughts are only those of an idiot fan. Not only that, but I just got done watching the season premier of Jersey Shore and I can't say I've ever been more ashamed than today to be an American. But it's entertaining stuff. Moving from people undeserving of attention to those who warrant some recognition, the Milwaukee Brewers just completed an 8-1 home stand and finished it off with an anything-but-boring series victory over the Tony LaRussa-led St. Louis Cardinals. Anybody else lose a little bit of respect for that franchise? Over the last couple years, it's safe to say that LaRussa has managed to turn one of the most proud franchises in baseball into complete thuggery. LaRussa managed to steal the attention away from what was really important, and that was two teams fighting for a pennant in August. Maybe I'm just an idiot fan, but what I saw from the Cardinals in that series - the complaints about the lighting in the stadium from LaRussa - pitcher Chris Carpenter claiming that the Brewers were stealing signs - LaRussa ordering pitcher Jason Motte to throw at Ryan Braun...TWICE - Yadier Molina bumping and spitting in an umpire's face while arguing a strike three called...and only getting suspended for FIVE GAMES - I'd be embarrassed to be a Cardinals fan.
Trust me. I was a lot more infuriated on Tuesday night than I am tonight, a night that featured a game in which the bush league moves of Tony LaRussa took place and the Brewers eventually lost in extra innings. Now that I've calmed down (for the most part), I would like to turn my attention back to baseball. The Brewers are now 62-50, 12 games above .500 (the most they have been above .500 all season) and three games above the Cardinals in the Central. If there's one thing that the series with the Cards proved for Milwaukee, it's that a lot of guys are beginning to tickle the ball pretty well. I mean, who's NOT feeling it at the plate right now? Corey Hart has raised his average over 20 points in the last week, we've seen the turnaround of Yuni B in the second half, Braun and Fielder have both recovered from mini-slumps, Tony Plush continues to do his thing at the plate, in center and in the interview department, Jonathan Lucroy is still hanging around .280, and then there's Casey McGehee...I know I've been calling for McGehee's head for the better part of the season, but the complaints were warranted. McGehee hadn't found it at the plate all year, but with the loss of Rickie Weeks to injury and the troubles in the five hole, manager Ron Roenicke went back to what he started with - McGehee was hitting fifth again.
Low and behold, McGehee went OFF on the newly acquired Edwin Jackson and hit three dingers off of Jackson before Wednesday's game came to a close. McGehee had five home runs before Wednesday; he now has eight. In fact, he was 2-5 in Tuesday's game, so I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that this was McGehee's best two-game stretch of the season. And that's the thing...it was only two games. But McGehee has shown signs of snapping out of it. He's been staying inside the ball better and using all fields (his first, second and third home runs went to right, left and center field respectively) while hitting the ball hard. I'm not going to get ahead of myself and jump back on the Casey McGehee bandwagon just yet, but nobody's happier than me to see him succeed. All in all, the Brewers' offense exploded against the Cardinals...and to think I predicted the three game series wouldn't see any high scoring games. The Crew put up 23 runs on Carpenter, Jaime Garcia and Jackson, and the later was left out to dry because of how many relievers were burned in Tuesday night's marathon. Hopefully the bats can stay hot as they move forward into another series with the Astros. Oh yeah, and then the Brewers travel to St. Louis to play another series with the Cards - three of the nine remaining against the fighting LaRussa's. If my math is correct, Molina won't be playing in one of the games as a result of serving his suspension, but with the way he played on Wednesday I wouldn't mind seeing him in there.
There's the red-hot Brewer offense, and then there's the suddenly not so solid pitching. After having some ridiculous number of straight quality starts, Shaun Marcum and Randy Wolf struggled over the past two games and luckily, the offense was able to step it up to keep the Brewers in the game. But I'm still not concerned one bit about our starting pitching because this is just one instance for Marcum and Wolf, two guys with sub 3.50 ERAs who have been reliable all season long. That and the emergence of Zack Greinke (finally) has me sleeping well at night. The bullpen? Ehhhh...yeah they're alright for the most part. K-Rod hasn't exactly prevented heart attacks in the eighth inning, but so far he hasn't cost us any wins. Takashi Saito is reliable for the most part, but he's a big reason why the Brewers didn't sweep the entire home stand. Axe has been incredible...so has Hawk...so has Loe...wait a minute - so has Kameron Loe? Yes, you heard correctly. The man has 41 scoreless appearances on the year, and that's nothing to joke around about. Loe is a shut-down pitcher against righties and as long as RR continues to use him in the right situations, he will continue to provide a huge boost late in games. So while the pitching has been a little suspect lately, there's no reason to get up in arms. If anything, the Astros should help us all feel better.
Now for a short segment on football. One more signing was made by the Packers since my last post, and that was fullback John KUUUUUUUUUUHNN much to the delight of quarterback Aaron Rodgers and the entire Packers' fan base. That should basically be it for Green Bay as far as signings and cuts until we get a few games into the preseason and the roster has to be slimmed down. A few things to note thus far: first round draft pick Derek Sherrod is seeing time at left guard, the only position on the offensive line that is in question right now. With Chad Clifton protecting Rodgers' blind side and last year's first rounder Bryan Bulaga holding down right tackle, Sherrod wouldn't have a chance to see much playing time at his natural position, thus the move to guard. I'm in full support of this move because quite frankly, we don't really have anyone else to fill the void that Daryn Colledge left (in my opinion, we didn't lose much - with the money the Packers offered College, they didn't think so either). There is also a three-man rotation going on at the outside linebacker position opposite of the Claymaker between Brad Jones, Erik Walden and Frank Zombo, so we'll see how that shapes out over the course of training camp. Defensive line is also a question with Cullen Jenkins gone, but Ted Thompson must like what he has up front with B.J. Raji, Ryan Pickett and Mike Neal among other guys like Howard Green and C.J. Wilson. More battles? How about at strong safety (Morgan Burnett v. Charlie Peprah) and running back (Ryan Grant v. James Starks v. Alex Green). It's difficult to say what will end up happening with the safety situation, but I can't see Burnett overtaking Peprah...at least not right away. Peprah performed nicely for Green Bay last season after Burnett went down, so I think it's his job to lose right now. Meanwhile, the Packers seem to have the perfect dilemma at the running back position. Starks is going to push Ryan Grant and there will probably be somewhat of a platoon between the two, and then there's Alex Green, who can come in for third down situations because of his pass catching ability. Personally, I've seen enough of Ryan Grant and James Starks proved that he could step in and do some things Grant could not...like, you know, not run straight forward all the time. Should be fun to see how all of the aforementioned position battles shape out.
The Wisconsin Badgers football team has just begun hitting the practice field, so I'll have more on them pretty soon. In fact, August 10 is the set date for my Badgers' season preview, so get ready for that. I know I'm ready for a little college football and if I could attend a game in Madison that was even half as awesome as the Ohio State game last year and watch Russell Wilson play, I'd be satisfied. Despite my love for the Big Ten (12), I was assigned to cover the Big 12 (10) for a college fantasy football site. I must admit that I'm a little out of my element covering this conference, which might be obsolete in the next few years, but it's a pretty cool gig and it led to me taking part in my first college fantasy football league...yes, those exist. I'll let you know how it goes, especially since I'm forking up $20 for it. Speaking of fantasy football, I should probably get going on starting up my annual league...
...AHHHHH, I GOTTA GO!
Trust me. I was a lot more infuriated on Tuesday night than I am tonight, a night that featured a game in which the bush league moves of Tony LaRussa took place and the Brewers eventually lost in extra innings. Now that I've calmed down (for the most part), I would like to turn my attention back to baseball. The Brewers are now 62-50, 12 games above .500 (the most they have been above .500 all season) and three games above the Cardinals in the Central. If there's one thing that the series with the Cards proved for Milwaukee, it's that a lot of guys are beginning to tickle the ball pretty well. I mean, who's NOT feeling it at the plate right now? Corey Hart has raised his average over 20 points in the last week, we've seen the turnaround of Yuni B in the second half, Braun and Fielder have both recovered from mini-slumps, Tony Plush continues to do his thing at the plate, in center and in the interview department, Jonathan Lucroy is still hanging around .280, and then there's Casey McGehee...I know I've been calling for McGehee's head for the better part of the season, but the complaints were warranted. McGehee hadn't found it at the plate all year, but with the loss of Rickie Weeks to injury and the troubles in the five hole, manager Ron Roenicke went back to what he started with - McGehee was hitting fifth again.
Low and behold, McGehee went OFF on the newly acquired Edwin Jackson and hit three dingers off of Jackson before Wednesday's game came to a close. McGehee had five home runs before Wednesday; he now has eight. In fact, he was 2-5 in Tuesday's game, so I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that this was McGehee's best two-game stretch of the season. And that's the thing...it was only two games. But McGehee has shown signs of snapping out of it. He's been staying inside the ball better and using all fields (his first, second and third home runs went to right, left and center field respectively) while hitting the ball hard. I'm not going to get ahead of myself and jump back on the Casey McGehee bandwagon just yet, but nobody's happier than me to see him succeed. All in all, the Brewers' offense exploded against the Cardinals...and to think I predicted the three game series wouldn't see any high scoring games. The Crew put up 23 runs on Carpenter, Jaime Garcia and Jackson, and the later was left out to dry because of how many relievers were burned in Tuesday night's marathon. Hopefully the bats can stay hot as they move forward into another series with the Astros. Oh yeah, and then the Brewers travel to St. Louis to play another series with the Cards - three of the nine remaining against the fighting LaRussa's. If my math is correct, Molina won't be playing in one of the games as a result of serving his suspension, but with the way he played on Wednesday I wouldn't mind seeing him in there.
There's the red-hot Brewer offense, and then there's the suddenly not so solid pitching. After having some ridiculous number of straight quality starts, Shaun Marcum and Randy Wolf struggled over the past two games and luckily, the offense was able to step it up to keep the Brewers in the game. But I'm still not concerned one bit about our starting pitching because this is just one instance for Marcum and Wolf, two guys with sub 3.50 ERAs who have been reliable all season long. That and the emergence of Zack Greinke (finally) has me sleeping well at night. The bullpen? Ehhhh...yeah they're alright for the most part. K-Rod hasn't exactly prevented heart attacks in the eighth inning, but so far he hasn't cost us any wins. Takashi Saito is reliable for the most part, but he's a big reason why the Brewers didn't sweep the entire home stand. Axe has been incredible...so has Hawk...so has Loe...wait a minute - so has Kameron Loe? Yes, you heard correctly. The man has 41 scoreless appearances on the year, and that's nothing to joke around about. Loe is a shut-down pitcher against righties and as long as RR continues to use him in the right situations, he will continue to provide a huge boost late in games. So while the pitching has been a little suspect lately, there's no reason to get up in arms. If anything, the Astros should help us all feel better.
Now for a short segment on football. One more signing was made by the Packers since my last post, and that was fullback John KUUUUUUUUUUHNN much to the delight of quarterback Aaron Rodgers and the entire Packers' fan base. That should basically be it for Green Bay as far as signings and cuts until we get a few games into the preseason and the roster has to be slimmed down. A few things to note thus far: first round draft pick Derek Sherrod is seeing time at left guard, the only position on the offensive line that is in question right now. With Chad Clifton protecting Rodgers' blind side and last year's first rounder Bryan Bulaga holding down right tackle, Sherrod wouldn't have a chance to see much playing time at his natural position, thus the move to guard. I'm in full support of this move because quite frankly, we don't really have anyone else to fill the void that Daryn Colledge left (in my opinion, we didn't lose much - with the money the Packers offered College, they didn't think so either). There is also a three-man rotation going on at the outside linebacker position opposite of the Claymaker between Brad Jones, Erik Walden and Frank Zombo, so we'll see how that shapes out over the course of training camp. Defensive line is also a question with Cullen Jenkins gone, but Ted Thompson must like what he has up front with B.J. Raji, Ryan Pickett and Mike Neal among other guys like Howard Green and C.J. Wilson. More battles? How about at strong safety (Morgan Burnett v. Charlie Peprah) and running back (Ryan Grant v. James Starks v. Alex Green). It's difficult to say what will end up happening with the safety situation, but I can't see Burnett overtaking Peprah...at least not right away. Peprah performed nicely for Green Bay last season after Burnett went down, so I think it's his job to lose right now. Meanwhile, the Packers seem to have the perfect dilemma at the running back position. Starks is going to push Ryan Grant and there will probably be somewhat of a platoon between the two, and then there's Alex Green, who can come in for third down situations because of his pass catching ability. Personally, I've seen enough of Ryan Grant and James Starks proved that he could step in and do some things Grant could not...like, you know, not run straight forward all the time. Should be fun to see how all of the aforementioned position battles shape out.
The Wisconsin Badgers football team has just begun hitting the practice field, so I'll have more on them pretty soon. In fact, August 10 is the set date for my Badgers' season preview, so get ready for that. I know I'm ready for a little college football and if I could attend a game in Madison that was even half as awesome as the Ohio State game last year and watch Russell Wilson play, I'd be satisfied. Despite my love for the Big Ten (12), I was assigned to cover the Big 12 (10) for a college fantasy football site. I must admit that I'm a little out of my element covering this conference, which might be obsolete in the next few years, but it's a pretty cool gig and it led to me taking part in my first college fantasy football league...yes, those exist. I'll let you know how it goes, especially since I'm forking up $20 for it. Speaking of fantasy football, I should probably get going on starting up my annual league...
...AHHHHH, I GOTTA GO!
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