The Comeback Kid

Yovani Gallardo is as big a part of the Brewers future as Ryan Braun or any other young player. And on May 1st when Gallardo tore his ACL it looked like he would be done for the rest of 2008 and would have to wait to 2009 the year that with the impending loss of CC Sabathia and Ben Sheets to free agency would be the year Gallardo becomes the Brewers ace. Well Gallardo isn't your normal pitcher. He is a very special young talent with a tremendous work ethic and the heart of a champion. He has worked his ass off during rehab of the knee and after pitching numerous simulated games and taking batting practice today he will start tomorrow night against the Pirates. Wow! Now he will be on some kind of strict pitch count as well as having to take it easy at the plate and on the bases but with our rotation in shambles and still fighting to win this Wild Card and get to October baseball the addition of Yovani could be huge. If his teamates don't get some inspiration watching a guy pitch tomorrow night that less then 5 months ago tore his ACL I don't know what will. I'm not even too worried about his coming back to play even as important as he is to our future. With the way he works and if the Dr.'s, Trainers and GM Doug Melvin cleared him then he has to fine and the risk for injury has to be non existent. Go Brewers! and go Yovani Gallardo!

Yost, Is Officially Toast

Today a little after 2pm, the Milwaukee Brewers announced the firing of Manager Ned Yost. After a 3-11 start to September and just getting swept in 4 games by the Phillies who are now tied with the Brewers for the Wild Card, GM Doug Melvin and mainly Owner Mark Attanasio have seen enough. Yost has been fired and 3B coach Dale Sveum has been named interim Manager for the final 12 games of the season. Also Ted Simmons was reassigned to an "advisory" role from being the bench coach and Sveum names his own bench coach.....Brewers Hall of Famer and Sveum's best friend Robin Yount. With Sveum becoming Manager minor league instructor Garth Iorg who was up with the big club since September 1st will become the 3B coach.

I have to say I was shocked when I heard the news. I was sitting in my cubicle at work listening to 620 WTMJ as I do just about everyday. I was sending an email to a customer when I heard: "Breaking news, the Brewers have just fired Manager Ned Yost." I couldn't believe what I heard, I thought is it a joke? With 12 games left and in a tie for the Wild Card they are firing Yost? I mean I expected him to be fired if we missed the playoffs after another collapse. But with 12 games left?

Well I LOVE the move. It seems Yost had lost the players since September started and with us basically in a 12 game playoff to get to October baseball for the first time in 26 years a move of desperation was made and I am fine with it. All signs point to the players have a huge amount of respect for Dale Sveum and with him and Robin Yount calling the shots for the final 12 games to get us into the playoffs, well I like our chances. Let's do this! It starts tomorrow in Chicago against the Cubs with CC Sabathia on the mound.

Oh Where Has The Prince Fielder Of 2007 Gone?

Last season Prince Fielder almost won the MVP award and looked like he was going to be a very rich man going into arbitration before next season. Fielder crushed 50 HR and was the youngest ever to do that in a season. His complete numbers looked like this:

.288/.395/.618, 50 HR and 119 RBI

Those are fantastic numbers, now I sure didn't expect Prince to put up those kinds of numbers every year. It is very hard to hit 50 HR in a season. But for him to drop to these numbers:

.262/.361/.471, 28 HR and 84 RBI

A .471 SLG%? That is just not going to cut it. Not when you slugged .618 a season ago! And he has now been stuck on 28 HR for well over 20 games. Where is the power stroke?

But perhaps the thing that has disappointed me more then anything about Fielder's game this season has been his defense. I thought he improved quite a bit from 2006 to 2007 and expected more of the same in 2008. But he has been horrendous, maybe the worst defensive 1B in all of the NL. He has 15 errors this season and probably could have more if not for generous official scorers. I can't even count how many times this season I have wanted to throw a brick through my HD TV after Prince made a bonehead play in the field.

Before this season started, Prince grumbled about not getting a big contract and only getting his contract renewed for the minimum. Well he wanted the type of money Ryan Howard got in arbitration which was 10 million. Well with Prince headed to arby before next season with the numbers he has put up this season I doubt he gets 10 mill. Maybe between 5-7 if he is lucky.

This is kind of a joke, but with the way CC Sabathia handles the bat and fields his position as a pitcher. Could CC play 1B on the days he isn't pitching? Just a thought, kidding of course. Or am I?

Lucky 13

With yesterday's fantastic pitching performance from Ben Sheets he was able to do something this season he had never done in his 8 year career. Win more then 12 games. Sheets had won 12 games twice in his career 2004 and 2007. Sheets now 13-7 on the season pitched a beautiful complete game shutout over the Padres last night with 7 K's and only 1 BB. Sheets with the shutout lowered his ERA to 2.82 on the season. The most remarkable thing about the game was Sheets had no room for error as the Brewers only scored one run for him. Hopefully 13 does not become the new career high in wins for Sheets, he has probably 4 starts left so he should add to it.

It's About F'ing Time

There is a very, very strong rumor/truth? going around that I can't find a link to but it is supposed to be true. It is that next season every Brewers game that is broadcast by FSN-Wisconsin will be broadcast in magnificent High Definition, thank God! This season 65 of around 140 games broadcast by FSN-Wisconsin were in HD. My hope is not only are ALL the games broadcast in HD but that every game the Brewers play that are not exclusive to say Fox, TBS or ESPN be aired by FSN-Wisconsin. They have come close this season, but there have been at least a few games that were not aired.

Your Dead To Me

I have been one of the biggest and most vocal supporters of Eric Gagne through his struggles this season. And the reason I had supported him was because A. I'm a fan, I have been a big fan of Gagne's for years B. Although he struggled he did have some very good outings. But after the Mets game earlier this week and then last nights outing in which he screwed up CC Sabathia's shot at a 10-0 record as a Brewer by giving up a HR ball to Brian Giles in the 8th inning to tie the game, I'm done with Eric Gagne. He is dead to me. If he didn't pitch another inning this season I would be more then okay with it.

The fact is, it is September. There are 21 games left and we are only 4 back of the Cubs and we have a 4 game lead on the Phillies for the Wild Card. We are very close to snapping a 26 year playoff draught. And with every game so important we can not continue to trout out a relief pitcher in the 8th inning of close games who has an ERA of 6.69, WHIP of 1.70 and an OBA of .289. Those awful stats have led to far to many blow ups in close games. I know we spent 10 mill on Gagne this season but it's time to cut our losses and only pitch him if the game is out of hand in either direction. Or we might suffer more losses that could cost us the postseason.

It's September And I'm Nervous

I wish I updated this thing as much as I did earlier in the season. I think there are multiple factors as to why I don't. I would say the number one reason is I am lazy. After a hard day at the office I'm just not up to blogging. When I was in school and working part-time I was much more apt to do that. I think the second reason is I'm getting nervous.

We ended August by rolling over the Pirates in a 3 game sweep in Pittsburgh and CC Sabathia came oh so close to a no-hitter if it wasn't for a d-bag of an official scorer who called a slow roller back to Sabathia that he dropped a "hit" by Andy LaRoche. But then the calender flipped and we moved into September. One month to go. We hold the wild card and we are still not to far behind the Cubs for the division. And how do the Brewers start their march toward clinching a playoff birth for the first time in 26 years? By getting swept at home by the Mets in a three game series. The first two game were very close, but today the Brewers got spanked 9-2. So yes, we start September 0-3 and I'm nervous as hell.

I still feel we will get into the playoffs one way or another. But as a Brewers fan my whole life I have seen this team disappoint me before and that is why this state of nervous feelings linger in my mind all day, everyday. I have flashback's to last years collapse, I think back to 1992 when we just missed out on October baseball because of the Blue Jays, who could forget 1987 we started 13-0 and fell flat on our faces. Then I think even worse thoughts, Sal Bando calling Paul Molitor "just a DH", the entire Wendy Selig-Prieb era (actually it was an error), the 2002 season when we lost 106 games. I could go on, but I will stop. Basically I'm saying as Brewers fans we are prone to disappointment and its hard to shake. But this team has the talent to do it. They have shown this whole season how good they are and I think they have come to far to wet the bed and piss this thing away.

We got our asses handed to us by the Mets. But now we have the lowly Padres and Reds coming to town. It's time to feast on these bottom feeders before we hit the road for that tough 10 game road trip to Philly, Chicago and Cincinnati.