Been To Long

Been almost a month and a half since I posted here in VFBC. Things have gotten busy with house hunting with the wife and just the general busyness of summer and 4th of July weekend. Also I got really enamored in Twitter and just posting 140 character blogs. But the shine of Twitter has kind of worn off and I would much rather revive VFBC and be able to share longer thoughts. Anyway.....

All-Star break is just about over and the Brewers begin the second half tomorrow in Cincinnati for a four game series. As it stands the Brewers are 2.5 games back of the Cardinals for the NL Central and 4 games back of the Giants in the Wild Card. June was a pretty awful month and so far July has not been much better. But, the Brewers are still in it and have a chance. And really they have not showed a consistent offense all season, Hardy nor Hart has gone on any kind of hot streak yet, Parra came back pitched great in his one start before the All-Star break and Dave Bush is coming off the DL on the 20th. I picked the Brewers in my preseason predictions to win the Wild Card, and I still believe they can or maybe more likely win the division. But I don't think they should make a trade to do this.

Last year we gave up a bunch of good prospects most notable Matt LaPorta and Michael Brantley, but we did it for a true difference maker in CC Sabathia who helped us break a 26 year long playoff drought. There is really no Sabathia out there to trade for this season (maybe Halladay, but no way he could live up to or do what CC did. No one will ever do that again). There are guys like Doug Davis and Jarrod Washburn, who are nice pitchers but really no better then what we have. And since it is a sellers market you would have to overpay in trade to get a guy like that. And I personally don't want to see a Gamel, Escobar, Lawrie, Cain or Salome traded for a pitcher of that caliber.

I think the Brewers go with what they got and see what happens. Getting Parra and Bush back could be like making a deal. If Parra can pitch anywhere close to the way he did against St. Louis in his comeback start he would be huge. Now I'm not saying Parra can go out and pitch 7 scoreless every start with 7 K's and 1 BB, but I think he figured something out and should be more consistent. As for Bush, you just hope you get the Dave Bush of April/May pre getting hit on a line drive off the bat of Hanley Ramirez. Bush looked very solid and was consistent the first two months of the season and was a big part of the Brewers early success. If these two can bring it, get what you expect from Looper and Suppan and if Gallardo continues to look like an ace this team can get back to October without over trading for a middle of the road pitcher.

Second half of 2009 here we come, hopefully it is a fun and joyful ride like the second half of 2008. If we don't make it, I just want to see them in contention the whole way.