Special

That is the word to describe Yovani Gallardo. He follows up his first ever complete game against Houston with this gem today. 8 innings, 2 hits, 1 BB and 11 K's (career high), picking up the win his third of the season. And to top off that pitching performance he won the game with his bat hitting a solo HR in the 7th which was the only run of the game. Gallardo now has 4 HR in his very young career. If you take away that one inning against the Reds where he blew up, his stats would be as sick as Zack Greinke's over in the AL for the Royals. It's a shame today's game was not on TV for those who could have watched it. For me, I'm at the point with Yo where his starts are must see. There is a certain buzz in the air on the days he pitches. Much like Sabathia's starts were last season. It's a pretty cool feeling. Thanks Yo.

Lorenzo Cain Possibly Done For Season

Talk about shitty news a day after a fantastic Brewers game. This comes from down on the farm as Cain a CF who is the Brewers #6 rated prospect tore his MCL in a game last night for AA Huntsville diving for a ball. According to the blog post at JSonline by Haudricourt, Assistant GM Gord Ash says Cain will probably miss the rest of the season but could be ready to play in the Arizona Fall League. This news just sucks as Cain had a real chance to become the starting CF for the Brewers in 2010. With this injury that could be pushed back to 2011. Best wishes to Lorenzo, hopefully he can rehab and come back the way he was before the injury. He was in a bit of slump at Huntsville but this kid has shown a lot of promise.

Gallardo Dealing

Man it was fun to watch last nights game. Yovani Gallardo was straight dealing, threw one bad pitch to Carlos Lee and other then that he was lights out. Really showed what most of us knew all the long that when healthy this guy is an ace and can be as good if not better then Ben Sheets. Complete game with 7 K's and 0 BB's in front of a bunch of his family. It was the first complete game of Yo's career and to do it in front of his family it had to be very special for him. Save for for his one bad inning against the Reds he has been as good as advertised. Gallardo's outing was so good it kind of overshadows what the offense did getting 4 of their 5 runs with a 2 out rally. Just hitting single after single to take the lead. Great hitting approaches in that inning by Corey Hart, Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder. Oh and I almost forgot there was that football like collision between Mike Cameron and Houston catcher Humerto Quintero. Both guys stayed down for a bit and Quintero actually had to leave the game. When they did the replay with the sound it actually did sound like a collision you would hear on the gridiron.

Reader Poll Results

"Who should be the 8th inning guy when Hoffman comes of the DL?"

Todd Coffey: 85% (12 Votes)

Carlos Villanueva: 14% (2 Votes)

Jorge Julio: 0% (0Votes)

Respect The Beard

Man, Dave Bush had it working today. Pitching no-hit baseball through 7 2/3 innings. I didn't see it since I was at work, but had Uecker and Cory on the radio in my cubicle. It was probably the most intense I was listening to a game at work ever. After the Brewers got up 5-0 and Bush completed 5 innings of hit less baseball, I found myself getting as much work done while the Brewers batted so I could totally focus on the game while Bush pitched. I kept thinking to myself just get to the 9th and give yourself a chance to have only 3 outs to get for Brewers history. But Matt Stairs of course, a former Brewer ruined that with that solo HR in the 8th. This was the second time Bush took a no-hitter into the 8th as he did it last year against the Blue Jays at Miller Park. Someday he is gonna finish off one of these near no-hitters. And when he does, we can finally say someone other then Juan Nieves has tossed a no-no as a Brewer. Besides Bush's great outing Braun stayed hot and Fielder had a huge bases clearing 3 RBI double. Looking forward to the series in Houston with Gallardo going in the opener tomorrow night, also the first HD game of the season.

It Might Be Time For Manny Parra To Take A Trip To Nashville

Lets face it, Manny Parra's first three starts have been pretty awful. His second he only gave up 3 runs in 6 innings, but his first and third starts just plain terrible, going 4.1 and 4 respectively. I really thought this would be Manny's break out season, that he would really show everyone that he can be the strong #2 we need behind ace Yovani Gallardo. Well so far Parra has been not even close. In is three starts he has 9 walks and he seems to have pretty much no control whatsoever of his fastball. He seems to be able to throw his off speed stuff for strikes but just struggles to no end to get his fastball over to get ahead in the count. Is it physical? Or mental? I'm not really sure.

What I'm getting at is if Manny has another bad starts or two, it may be time to send him down to AAA Nashville to get himself right. It worked last season for Dave Bush, maybe it would work for Manny as well. The questions is who takes his spot in the rotation for a turn or two? Conventional wisdom says Seth McClung, but if Macha wants a lefty to replace him how about calling up Chase Wright from Nashville for a shot? He can't be any worse then Manny has been, can he?

Riske To DL, RJ Swindle To Milwaukee

This move did not shock me one bit. You could tell in spring and in the one game Riske pitched in the regular season that he still is not right. We all remember watching Riske get lit up last year and then he went the DL as it was revealed he has a bone spur in his elbow. Well seeing him pitch in 2009 and this trip to the DL proves he probably never recovered. It's a shame we have only seen the good Riske (you know the one we gave that nice contract to) for that little bit at the beginning of 2008. If he was 100% healthy he would be a great help to our bullpen. I don't know if we will see that in 2009.

Taking Riske's spot will be left handed reliever RJ Swindle. Swindle is a side-winder similar to Brian Shouse. Never hurts to have two left handed pitchers to bring out of the pen, now the Brewers have that with Swindle and Stetter. Brewers start a 9 game, three city, east coast road trip tomorrow in New York at the new Mets stadium Citi Field, which from the looks of it on TV is an awesome ballpark. I like the fact the Brewers have Bush and Gallardo going in the first two games, but then have Suppan finishing out the series on Sunday.

Reader Poll Results

"Over/Under 37 HR's for Ryan Braun in 2009?"

Over: 77% (7 Votes)

Under: 22% (2 Votes)

It's Been Awhile, Please No One Panic (About Me Or The Brewers Start)

I hated going this long between posts since the start of the season. I have just been running circles getting last minute stuff together for my wedding which is about two weeks away now and I have been living out of a suitcase the past three weeks while the bathroom is getting re-done at our house. Lets put it this way, I have not even seen the two new episodes of "The Office" from last week or the pilot of "Parks And Recreation". I pretty much work, watch the Brewers, drive to my future sister in-laws place, sleep and repeat. With random wedding stuff to do in between.

So the season is underway and were 2-6. Yeah it has been pretty rough for us in Brewers Nation. It has mostly been bad pitching and specifically our pitchers walking batters at an alarming rate. The hitting has been decent. Besides yesterday game, runs have been scored. Its just that our two big hitters Braun and Fielder are not having much to do with the runs that have been scoring. On a bright note Corey Hart and Rickie Weeks have looked very good.

Getting to my point, after only 8 ball games people are already calling into sports radio shows in town and saying they are "done" with the season because the Brewers are "done". I mean the worst part is the people are serious. I mean some of the calls I have heard are just comical. I think people just need to take a step back, a deep breath and realize we have played 8 games and have another 154 to go. Don't get me wrong, if our record and the players numbers are progressing like they are now at say the start of June then I would start to panic a little bit. But for now, just relax and enjoy the fact that baseball is back and that the Brewers will turn it around and hopefully soon. Oh except Jeff Suppan, its fine to panic about him. He just is not a very good baseball player.

It's Almost Here.....

A little less then 19 hours from now the Brewers will FINALLY open the 2009 season at AT+T Park in San Francisco. I could not be more excited. Just watching bits and pieces of "MLB Tonight" on MLB Network and catching some of the games on ESPN today have just wet my appetite for getting to see my team play tomorrow for the first time in a game that counts. I think I can sum up my excitement best in the text message I sent my buddy today. "Starting tomorrow, we have something to do and look forward to just about every single day for the next 6 months." Even Suppan getting the nod on opening day can't hamper my excitement about tomorrow. I'm using 3 hours of "sick time" tomorrow and leaving the office at 2pm so I can be home, changed into Brewers gear, comfortable in my chair with a beer cracked open in plenty of time before the first pitch from Tim Lincecum to Rickie Weeks.

I was pretty pumped today when the Timber Rattlers released their roster for the start of the 2009 season and Brett Lawrie and Cutter Dykstra were on that list. It's going to be fun making the trek a bit north to Appleton this summer getting to watch two of the Brewers top prospects just get going in their careers. It's nice that the Brewers have a minor league team in state again, gives you more of a reason to go to a minor league game when you can go see the future of your MLB team.

My 2009 MLB Predictions

Here is the way I see the 2009 season going down. Feel free to agree or rip my predictions with your own.

American League

AL East Champs: Boston Red Sox

AL Central Champs: Cleveland Indians

AL West Champs: Oakland Athletics

AL Wild Card Champs: Tampa Bay Rays

AL Champs: Boston Red Sox

AL MVP: Grady Sizemore

AL Cy Young: Roy Halladay

AL ROY: Matt Wieters


National League

NL East Champs: New York Mets

NL Central Champs: Chicago Cubs

NL West Champs: Los Angeles Dodgers

NL Wild Card Champs: Milwaukee Brewers

NL Champs: New York Mets

NL MVP: Hanley Ramirez

NL Cy Young: Cole Hamels

NL ROY: Cameron Maybin

World Series Champs: Boston Red Sox

Reader Poll Results

"Do you want Tony Gwynn Jr. on the Brewers Opening Day roster?"

Yes: 15% (3 Votes)

No: 84% (16 Votes)