"Run Off" Win On Memorial Day

I was in attendance today at Miller Park on Memorial Day to witness the "run off" win. All I can say is it was awesome. The Cardinals want to bitch and moan all the time about how the Brewers celebrate victories by untucking their shirts and how it is "classless" or "disrespecting the game", well today they said "screw you St. Louis, we will just celebrate out of your sight so you don't get all upset over it."Don't know who's idea it was on the team, but it was classic.

Other then that Yovani was just dealing today. After the way the pitching got beat up in Minnesota Yovani sure looked like an ace today, a true stopper. I know he didn't get the win but he was a HUGE reason we were in a position to win 1-0 today. And what can you say about Bill Hall, myself and numerous others have crucified him and how bad he has been against RHP. Well today, he replaced Gamel late in the game for defense and ended up winning the game with his offense. See what happens when Billy goes with the pitch to the opposite field? Good things, very good things.

It's Official (If It Wasn't Already)

Bill Hall should never, ever play against RHP again. In what may have been his last chance at playing against RHP tonight he went 0-3 with 2 K's and a GIDP. Macha pulled him in a double switch in the bottom of the 6th. Like last night, Hall just looked awful not covering any part of the plate and swinging at bad pitches while letting good ones go. I have full faith in Ken Macha that he will do the right thing and now go to a straight left/right platoon with Hall and top prospect Mat "The Batt" Gamel. However, with the Brewers going to Minnesota this weekend for interleague play Gamel will most likely DH and Counsell will be at 2B so Hall may actually play against RHP. Unless Macha decides to give Casey McGehee a chance at 3B against RHP while Gamel DH's?

Emptying My Thoughts 5/21/09

Time for me to empty these thoughts on current Brewers news out of my head.....

It totally sucks that Rickie Weeks is out for the year with another wrist injury, this time left hand. Of course all of us in Brewer Nation know and feel that way. Rickie was really putting his total game together and then it gets taken from him because of injury. I have total confidence though that Rickie will work hard to get back and be ready to pickup in spring 2010 where he left off in May 2009.

With Weeks now gone, I like the fact the Brewers are looking internally to fill the 2B void. No need to go making a trade, at least not yet. While no one can really replace the skill set Weeks brings to the park everyday, a Counsell/McGehee platoon should do just fine. If it does not I'm sure Doug Melvin can swing a trade for a veteran 2B, I know DeRosa's name has come up but the Brewers don't have the pitching Cleveland wants for him. Of course they could even sign an unemployed 2B like Durham or Grudzielanek. Hopefully it does not come to that and Counsell and McGehee can get the job done. If they don't, before a trade happens you might see Alcides Escobar get a chacne since he will now play 2 out of every 3 games at 2B for AAA Nashville. I'm not a big fan of that idea since Escobar is a SS and would somewhat be wasted at 2B.

With Counsell now set to platoon at 2B, that opens up a perfect opportunity for top prospect Mat Gamel to actually stay up with the Brewers even after the interleague series. With how bad Bill Hall has been against RHP, and he has been brutal (especially last night in the 9th, that was ugly), Gamel should now go into a strict platoon with Hall at 3B. It just makes to much sense, and if this were the case Gamel would get most of the starts and it would be worth keeping him up. However, if Macha does not feel this way I hope they send Mat down to AAA to paly everyday instead of rotting on the bench with the big club. Gamel has already shown that great bat he has, of course he has also shown how bad his glove can be. But like they old saying goes, the bat plays. And Mat has a mighty good one.

I LOVE the trade of Tony Gwynn for Jody Gerut. Let me say that again, I LOVE THE TRADE. Gwynn was going nowhere fast in the Milwaukee organization. He couldn't even beat out Duffy or Nelson to make the team this year. To me he will always be a AAAA type player who always had hype around him simply because of the name on the back of his jersey. Now hes gone where the Brewers won't be tempted to give him more chances. The Brewers get in return a solid 4th OF in Gerut who can play all three OF spots and has some pop from the left side of the plate, he has struggled so far this year though after a solid year in 2008. With Gerut meeting the team in Minnesota for the weekend series it appears either Duffy or Iribarren are going down to AAA Nashville. Let me say as much as I have ripped him, I do wish Gwynn the best. Maybe he can find something playing for his hometown team. Good luck Jr!

If Braun Goes To The DL

If Ryan ends up having to spend some time on the DL with this intercostal/back injury I think the best scenario for the team is to call up Mat Gamel to start at 3B and start Bill Hall in LF (which he is doing tonight in Pittsburgh). Yes Gamel makes errors at 3B and Hall has been stellar there. But with Braun's bat gone you need someone who also has a big stick. Neither of our backup OF's Nelson or Duffy do really and I shutter to think of Gwynn getting called up and getting a lot of regular playing time. So you have Gamel come up and play 3B with his electric left handed bat and you move Hall to LF to keep his bat in the lineup and he has played in the OF before all be it in CF. Obviously this is all speculation but with Braun sitting out his third consecutive games you have to wonder if a DL stint is imminent. Although he did have an MRI today that was negative, which is good news.

45 Worst (Current) Contracts In Baseball

Of course, Jeff Suppan and Bill Hall make the list. As well they probably should. As you look through the list it's obvious Suppan and Hall are not close to being the worst contracts, but since they are the only Brewers on the list they are the worst to me and all that really matter.

Hall Injured, Before Position Players Even Report?

Billy Hall who had the inside track to be the starting 3B this season or at least half of a platoon with Mike Lamb now will not. At least at the start of the season. Hall tore his left calf muscle yesterday while exercising on his own, position players don't even officially report until the 17th. Tough break for Hall who will now miss 4 to 6 weeks which could carry into the beginning of the regular season. I feel bad for Hall as I think he had a chance to put it together again like he did in 05' and 06' after having lasik eye surgery. Now Hall will have to make up for missed time to do that.

If there is anybody happy about this news it has to be Casey McGehee and Mat Gamel. Those two will now get more reps at 3B. McGehee is a right handed batter who may get the opportunity to platoon with Mike Lamb in Hall's place. Gamel is the Brewers 2nd best prospect who now has the chance to show everyone his glove has improved and if he blows everyone away with hist bat which is possible he could start at 3B opening day for the Crew. Everyone knows Gamel's bat can play in the bigs already, but his glove is considered worse then Braun's was in 2007. However, Gamel has improved each year with the glove so maybe he makes a big enough jump this year to make the opening day roster. Stay tuned.

Winter Meetings Day #2

Welcome to day #2 of VFBC's coverage of the MLB Winter Meetings. Nothing groundbreaking, but a few bits of news to go over. In a non Brewers related note the first "big" signing of free agency happened today when the Mets came to terms with former Angels closer Fransisco Rodriguez. It is reported as a 3 year deal worth $37 mill. Quite a bit less then I thought K-Rod would get. I mean I thought some idiot GM would way overpay for him since he shattered the single season save record in 2008. He is a good closer, but when you look more closely at his stats there are many better then him. I hope it blows up in the Mets faces, because that would be funny.

On to real news, Brewers news. The Crew signed 3B Mike Lamb to a 1 year deal for the league minimum. Lamb was acquired very late last season and actually had a few key pinch hits late in the year. He did not start any games. Looks like right now the plan would be for Lamb and Bill Hall to platoon at 3B at least to start the year, maybe until they feel Mat Gamel is ready. Personally I like the signing, very low risk and if nothing else Lamb is a good left handed bat off the bench who can also play 1B if needed. He has a couple of decent years in Houston before falling on his face last year in Minnesota.

Speaking of Bill Hall, he had the lasik surgery. All I can say is I hope it helps Billy as much as it helped Jason Kendall. If so, maybe Hall can relive some of his 2006 or even 2005 magic when Hall looked like a rising star for the Brewers.

Ben Sheets was at the winter meetings today and is "rumored" to have had a meeting with the Yankees. Excuse me while I puke. If the Yankees sign Ben and CC I might lose it. I already hate the Yankees about as much as I hate the Cubs, which is a lot. And if they go and sign both of our best pitchers in the same offseason. Man, having to see Sheets and Sabathia both in pinestripes is enough to make a grown man cry.

Now this last piece seems to good to be true but another "rumor" going around is that the Yankees may be out of the running for CC and that some in the Giants camp believe the BREWERS ARE THE FRONT RUNNERS. HOLY FUCKING SHIT! It can't be true? Can it? This was reported over at jsonline.com in beat writer Tom Haudricourt's blog. Like Tom says, rumors fly around like crazy at the winter meetings, especially this year regarding Sabathia. But if that is true, wow. That is all I can say. Wow.

Off to watch Batman: The Dark Knight which came out today. Have not seen it since summer when it was in theaters so I'm pretty pysched. Great movie, if you haven't seen it yet, you should. More tomorrow all!

Not Really A Good Way To Start To A 9 Game Homestand

The Brewers quite literally sucked last night. Pretty much in all aspects of the game. Hitting, pitching and Fielding all kind of took the night off. They scored only 2 runs on 5 hits, that's right 5 hits against some guy named Kevin Slowey (what you never heard of him? Yeah me either). Bush didn't pitch horrible but he didn't pitch good either. Gave up 10 hits and 4 runs, 3 earned. Tim Dillard came into the game in the 7th and gave up 5 runs, but none of them were earned because as I said the fielding was awful last night as well. Bill Hall playing 2B had a very costly error (his second of the game) and it opened the flood gates as the Twins poured it on in the 7th. We still have 8 games left on this homestand, but if we want to catch up to the Cubs or Cardinals we need to win at least 7 of the remaining 8. We just had a 8-1 stand and there is no reason to think we can't do that again. JJ Hardy should hopefully back today or Sunday which means Counsell can play 2B and we can get the atrocious Bill Hall off the field. The fans at Miller Park really gave it to Hall last night with the boos as he was 0-3 at the plate and had those two very costly errors which now gives him 15 on the year. You know it's funny, Hall wants to be traded if he doesn't play everyday. He is getting that chance more or less with Weeks on the DL and he is doing nothing with that opportunity. Even if the Brewers wanted to trade him, could they really get anything for him at this point? He has a huge contract and has had a very bad year thus far. Oh and can we PLEASE ditch the retro uniforms yet? Another loss wearing them.

Lots Of Tidbits Including Hall Wanting Out

It has been awhile since my last post. Right after we took 2 of 3 from Atlanta I made a post and was pretty happy with that series. Well since then the Brewers swept the Houston Astros and won the first game of their series against the Arizona Diamondbacks and have a 4 game win streak going. Not to mention 8 out of their last 10 and now have a record above .500 at 30-28. But we can't gain any ground on the freaking Cubs because they just keep winning game after game. It might be time to start focusing on the Wild Card instead of the NL Central pennant.

In that three game series with Houston the Brewers held a very good hitting Astros lineup to 3 runs in the entire series! That is insane, considering the players Houston has on offense: Berkman, Tejada, Lee, Pence, etc.

I was at the beat down game Sunday proudly wearing my Braun t-shirt when he crushed the Astros 10-1. It was Ryan Braun bobblehead day and Braun basically pissed on the "bobblehead day curse" and hit a nice opposite field 2-run HR.

So far the call-up of Russell Branyan from AAA Nashville to platoon with Bill Hall at 3B has worked great! Not only has Branyan been very good defensively at 3B but in true Russell "The Muscle" fashion he is crushing ball while walking a lot and striking out a lot. In 7 games this season Branyan is batting .292, 3 HR, 4 RBI an OBP of .433 SLG .750 which is a OPS of 1.183. It's only 7 games, but those are very nice numbers.

And speaking of the other half of that 3B platoon. It appears Bill Hall is not happy about the situation and his agent has asked for a trade for Bill. Terry Bross who represents Hall said it would be best for his client and the team that he be traded instead of put into this platoon role. You know, I like Bill Hall but if he wants to go I think I'm fine with it. He probably isn't an everyday player like the Brewers thought when he had a good 2005 and a great 2006 season. He was maybe just playing out of his head and that got him the nice contract. He just can't hit RHP and that is not good. So if Hall packaged with prospect(s) that are not named Matt Gamel or Matt LaPorta could bring us a nice #2 or #3 type starting pitcher like for instance: Zack Greinkie, Javier Vasquez, Greg Maddux or Randy Wolf. That by all means trade him. Because I think a platoon of Branyan/Dillon would be fine and any one of those pitchers I mentioned could be huge for our staff.