"Broom-sha-ka-la-ka"

That’s right, ladies and gentlemen! Break out the brooms because the Milwaukee Brewers had a 2-game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals and are now…12 games out of first place…Okay, so when you put it in perspective, things still suck, but it’s still impressive that the Crew can hang with the big boys. Especially when it comes to a bitter rival like the Cards. I know it’s cliché, but the Brewers have a chance to play the spoiler role down the stretch, as they play division leader Cincinnati nine more times and have 3-game series remaining with the Padres, Cardinals, Giants, and Phillies, who are all vying for playoff spots.

Today, it was the Lorenzo Cain and Randy Wolf show in St. Louis. For all of you fair-weather fans out there asking yourselves, “Lorenzo who?” you’re missing out big time. In my inaugural post, I predicted that Cain would be the main man in center field by the start of next season. He solidifies that prediction with each passing day, including today as he went 2 for 3 with a double, triple, an RBI and 2 runs scored. Cain is hitting at a torrid pace, with a batting average of .389 after 36 AB’s and is a blast to watch during these trying times for the Brewers. Wolf had a surprisingly strong outing as he out-dueled Cy Young Award candidate Adam Wainwright by going 8 1/3 innings and giving up 1* earned run. The asterisk accounts for Ryan Braun allowing two fly balls to go over his head, which ultimately led to two runs being scored by the Cardinals in the 9th. Aside from this causing me obvious discomfort, it gave the ageless wonder a chance at his seventh save of the season. No, I’m not talking about this dufous. Trevor Hoffman stepped in for regular closer John Axford, who was struggling with his command, and threw three pitches to strike out Brendan Ryan. This means Hoffman now has 598 career saves and is inching closer to a coveted 600 save career. It would be pretty cool to get out to the ballpark and see that happen and perhaps it will during the upcoming 9-game home stand. Something to keep an eye out for.

Another thing I want to touch on shortly is pitcher Randy Wolf. As painful as it is to watch this guy pitch at times, to this point he has put up okay numbers (10-9, 4.67 ERA) and ate up the most innings of any pitcher on the staff (100.1 pitches per start, 162 total). I know that more was expected than this coming off his solid 2009 season and the hefty contract he signed in the off-season, but I’m hoping that Wolf has turned a corner now that he has put together a nice string of solid outings. I expect bigger and better things for Wolf from here on out and moving on to the 2011 campaign. There will be more on Wolf and the rest of pitching staff in a later post.

A quick update on some of the happenings as the Badgers and Packers gear up for their respective football seasons…the Badgers already had a few question marks on defense, and injuries to four potential starters certainly won’t help the matter. The most recent to go down was safety Jay Valai with an undisclosed leg injury. Linebacker Mike Taylor had a second knee surgery for his injury from last season and is expected to miss at least the season opener at UNLV. The man who is expected to fill in for Taylor, senior Blake Sorensen, has a calf injury and defensive tackle Jordan Kohout (knee) is also sidelined. Luckily, none of these injuries are too threatening as far as we know, but Wisconsin can’t afford too many nicks to key players with the little depth they have on defense. If the injuries force some new faces into the lineup by the start of the season, I’ll give a quick overview of these players before the UNLV game.

Hide the women and children, because people are already going into panic mode over who will step in at the outside linebacker position opposite of Clay Matthews. Since we still have three preseason games and three and a half weeks to figure it out, I’m not going to worry yet…but all the Pack can do is continue experimenting. I would still like to see Chillar inserted into the vacancy. Oh, and in case you missed this, here you go. Ridiculous (love the celebration). Brent who?

The fantasy baseball playoffs are coming up soon. Not sure if any of you care, but I figured I would at least show you that for as much time as I spend watching sports, it pays off at least somehow as you see the numbers below. Both of my teams have been carried by pretty outstanding pitchers so far, which I guess makes sense since I was a pitcher myself back in the day.

My fantasy baseball team updates! (2 separate leagues)

Team 1: 10-5-3 record. 1st place in division, T-1st overall. (Scoring: Head-to-Head Most Categories)
Team 2: 91-78-11 record. 3rd place in division, 4th overall. (Scoring: Head-to-Head Each Category)

In both leagues, the top four teams reach the playoffs. Sorry if the links don’t lead you to where I want them to, but I think they should…

I came up with a short list of subjects I will cover in the future, some sooner than later. They include:

-The Brewers pitching situation
-The Prince Fielder situation
-Top 5 things I would change in each sport (or in all sports)
-Wisconsin sports teams’ busts/collapses/triumphs
-Bucks/Badgers/Golden Eagles Basketball season previews
-My March Madness Manifesto, which is a list I compiled with a friend of mine that I believe will be of much help when it comes time to fill out my bracket for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. (Obviously, a few of these won't be coming for awhile)

I encourage readers to submit ideas as well because the most important thing is what you all want to read. Just leave a comment below and also feel free to comment on any posts with feedback and opinions because again, I value these things very much. I also encourage you to become a follower of the blog if you haven’t already become one so that you know when new posts are up…and because I’m kind of a big deal. But all kidding aside, you should do it.

The items on this list, along with my regular updates on Wisconsin sports teams, my fantasy teams, and other regular weekly topics, will all be upcoming on the blog…I’m just not sure in what order. Stay tuned!

Until next time…