Tough loss at the Rockies tonight, shoulda, woulda, coulda not thrown Mota in the 8th.  Next time I guess. 

Lots of good things going on with these guys in the past couple weeks.  Won a couple series and are pretty much on the same pace as last year.  Too bad those little bears keep winning otherwise it would be a tight race.  Looks like the Cubs and Brewers changed places since last year.  After the All-Star break is where it counts.  How about the Cubs start tanking? Let's let the Cards and Brewers catch up.  Hope it starts tomorrow night!

Side notes: 

• looks like we got a good draft pick, versatile and a good stick.  He's at the end of a long line of catchers though.
• Bill Hall -- can it!  Be happy with what you got, play harder, and be thankful you're not in AAA ball with Turn-bull. 
  
• Speaking to Turn-bum, he's 1-0 with a 8.10 ERA, 14 K's and 26 BBs.  Quality AAAer.  See ya in A ball soon.

Personal Notes:

• School is back in session after 4 years.
• Hardball could be better.
• Softball ain't that bad to play once awhile.
• Where's Steve at?  He's M.I.A....
  

Draft time is coming up in a couple weeks.  No where near as publicized as the NFL or NBA draft, but I wouldn't be complaining if I got drafted in the 50th round, not saying that would ever happen.  The draft is June 5th and 6th to be exact and MLB.com is bringing you pick by pick.  Milwaukee gets the 16th pick overall, a couple picks in the supplement 1st round, and three picks in the 2nd round.  Most of these picks come from trades of Cordero and Linebrink.  Not to shabby having 6 picks in the first 62!

Brewerfan.net Draft 2008 preview

I've complied my own review of #1 draft picks.  We'll see if they become sizzlers on the diamond or sizzling behind a grill.

Ken Felder - an agent for various MLB players.

Jeff D' Amico - Drafted the same year ARod was and he played his last game May 10, 2004.   He wasn't a bad pitcher, just not a quality starter. 

Antone Williamson - Considered one of the worst #1 draft picks, besides Tony Mandrich, he played 1/16 of a season for the 'Crew.   Much like the entire first round in 1994, he didn't last too long.  Last game was 7/1997.

Geoff Jenkins - If the pocket book was the size of the stat book, then I would say he was a success in Milwaukee.  I think the Brewers were waiting for him to breakout more so.  Compared to previous #1s, he's a success.

Chad Green -  8th overall pick in the 1996 draft.  One of the few that aren't in the bigs anymore.  Probably selling cars.

Kyle Peterson - 13th pick in 1997, debuted in 1999, battled injuries and was in the minors for the 2000 season.  Played his last game in 2001.   I'm guessing he's a garbage man.

J.M. Gold - He battled injuries as well.  Scouts were super high on this guy and he never made it out of the minors.  Last known stats are from 2003

Ben Sheets - Brewer's ace.  Enough said.

David Krynzel - Traded to Arizona along with Doug Davis and Dana Eveland in return for Claudio Vargas, Johnny Estrada, and Greg Aquino.  All of which are no longer on the team.

Mike Jones - he is in his 8th pro year and still in the minors battling injuries, elbow and arm surgery.  Brewer's haven't given up on him yet and I'm guessing if he's not back to 100% by next year, he'll be 100% to give Amway speeches.

Prince Fielder - My favorite vegan who likes slapping meatballs over the fence.

Rickie Weeks - He's had his ups and downs and hopes to keep his everyday 2nd baseman job.

Mark Rogers -  Another  #1 pick who is battling injuries as well.  He's been in  Single A ball for the past couple years.  I'm smelling another bust!

Ryan Braun - Well...right now this guy is a stud.  ROY in 2007 and we are praying he doesn't have a bad season.  (I drafted him #1 in fantasy, he better not have a bad year!)

Jeremy Jeffress - Jeffress is ranked high on many prospect lists, although his high ranking doesn't mean that he'll be playing that much.  He's been keeping busy getting 'high' on his own.  He is fresh off of a 50 game suspension right now.  He's out of rehab and hopefully he'll be high in stat categories.

Matt LaPorta - His first professional at bat was a home run.  Let's just say he's got a lot of power and we hope to have him stay healthy...and off steroids.

Looks like if you stay healthy, things should work out.  Not to mention it looks like the Brewers are making better decisions.

I did have to check a few sites like Baseball-Reference.com, Baseball Cube, and JSOnline.com....did you expect me to find out what happened to Antone Williamson?

• Its the first round of inter-league play and Brewers are going be taking on the Boston Red Sox.  Let's just say that it's going to go either way here.  It's either going to be a blow out every game by the Red Sox or the 'Crew will squeak by.  Because I'm optimistic only when the Brewers play NL teams, I say they will get owned by the Sox.  I hope they prove me wrong!  They get to face Dice-K, Wakefield, and Beckett.  The Brewers are throwing Suppan, Bush, and Villanueva.  Boston pitching has had a rough season thus far, but their hitters have compensated.  Currently they own the MLB's best batting average.  It's 50 points higher than the Brewers.  Too bad Sheets wasn't pitching and too bad LaPorta wasn't called up for the series.  Even if they get swept, I hope that the final scores are respectable. 
  
• 5/15/2008 was a very nice day for one young MLB player.   That guy is Ryan Braun.  He got the biggest "zero plus" player signing in MLB history.  He hasn't even played a year yet and he's only twenty-four years old!  He also hit a home run the day he signed the contract.  Talk about icing on the cake.
• The signing of Braun brings the question of "What about Prince?"  Do the Brewers take a chance and sign him to a long-term deal?  Possibly, depends on his offensive and defensive performance and the tenacity of his agent.   You can see why they jumped at the chance to sign Braun, he's more athletic and versatile.  If he limits his errors he's a legit five tool player.  Prince is a 3 tool player and may never stay at first base.  At 5' 10", the future may hold a DH spot for him.
  
• Under the Ray-dar:  Rays in 1st, Yanks in last?!?!  4.5 games are separating them.  Hopefully that that lead doubles every month.  Too bad the Red Sox aren't down there as well.  The Rays are young and the Yankees are ARod-less.  Maybe it's a matter of time before the two teams switch places.
• We want a Pitcher not a DHer?  Only one AL team is batting over .270 (Boston is batting .294).  NL has 5 batting .270 or higher.  The NL has more guys in double-digit home runs, not to mention doubled the players batting over .300 than the AL.  The DH productivity this year is well below par.  You only need one hand to count the guys hitting over .250 who have DH'd so far this year.  Makes you wonder why both leagues can't have the pitchers bat.  Check the hitting stats for Micah Owings, Carlos Zambrano, Livan Hernandez, Dontrelle Willis, Brandon Backe, Adam Wainwright, and don't forget about Rick Ankiel (pitcher turned outfielder).
  

It is sweet that the Brewers on a 3 game winning streak.  I probably wouldn't hold my breath, but with Braun on a tear and other bats are heating up and Gagne back as closer?  How could Brewer fans not be little excited?  You did read that Gagne is the closer again?  He's been reinstated after he lost/gave up his closer role a few days ago.   Very interesting.....

I was a little confused when I saw him throwing in the pen in the eighth inning.  A friend of mine had called and he wasn't watching the game, so I filled him in and we had our doubts if they'd win.  As I let him go, I saw he gave up a hit, then they blew a double-play. Grrrrrr....  Then a fly ball out.  Then a passed ball, then he walked another.  UGH!  So runners on 1st and 2nd, 2 outs and I'm thinking that Yost must have a HUGE pair to keep Gagne in the game.  I was waiting for him to get yanked.  Maddux did come out for a visit after the walk, so that usually that helps with settling pitchers down.  So after all that, he got a pop out and I went to bed and slept good. 

For the most part he didn't pitch bad in that inning, there should have been a double-play, but you can't assume those.  He kept the ball down and the at bat with Andruw Jones was a good battle, and by surprise for some one who is hitting .170, he was able to manage a walk out of it.  All-in-all, I say he deserves a B.

Let's hope that this move doesn't come back to haunt Yost or whoever is making the calls here.  There are going to be more blown saves by Gagne this year, but let's hope they are fewer and farther between.

How long before he's Gone 'eh ?

      

So I was able to take in a Brewer game this past Saturday.  The game was on my work.  They provided a nice little Saz's pre-game cookout, beer, and decent seats.  Highlights included, just being able to be at the game, watching Sheets pitch (it was a long time since I last saw him pitch), and seeing my friend Steve http://mybrewers.mlblogs.com/ and catching up.  Other than those, the game wasn't that bad.  Sheet's pitched well, got his franchise leading strike out.  I'll leave it at that. 

It was nice to take the kids again, but they weren't in the best mood.  I was surprised we made it to the 7th inning to see the sausage race.  Either way, that was the end of the game for us.

I eventually found out what happened that with that game.  Good thing I left when I did. 
Hearing about Gagne's comments, surprised me a little.  I understand the guy is struggling, but as a competitor, why would you not want the ball?  I'm sure everyone was glad he said what he did, but at the level these guys are at, its not wise to have those comments show up publicly.   Heck, even Yost didn't know what he said until he read his comments. 

Different aspects of the game change from little league to the majors, but the competitiveness shouldn't especially if you love the game and especially if you're getting paid to play!  This guy is making big bucks and is saying he can't do something!  You won't hear a hitter say this garbage, you might hear him say that he needs a little advice from his coaches or his team.  He might get a day off, he might work a little bit harder on the off days, or before or after games.  A closer in baseball needs to have confidence in what he does, "giving up" should not be on the agenda.  Either way, Yost's decision to do a "closer by committee" proved promising for Sunday's game.  Also, taking 2 out of 3 this weekend was also promising.  You gotta love those pink Pepto Bismol bats, I think they added a little relief for our upset stomachs.

As the Brewers just dropped their 4th game in 5 tries, I noticed that this is pretty common for them to do this at this time of year.  Other than the 2007 season, at this time they have been a .500 team or below the past 5 years.  I hope we are not seeing the team of old.  We were definitely spoiled last year by batters putting up huge numbers and pitchers grinding out innings, and don't forget about a flawless closer.  In remembering that its only May and it's still super early, I will continue to be optimistic, patient, and loyal, but I can't help asking: "Are you ready Weaver?"

All week I heard "Brewers", "let's go see "Brewers".  For a couple of three year-olds, they really didn't know what exactly they were, except that they were related to baseball.   I'm thinking that this was a good start to their young lives.

I figured after seeing that this weekend was the 5 county promotion where tickets were half off, I didn't have much of a chance of getting any seats.  I checked on Thursday and the ticket office didn't have any two seats together and to my luck, they were accepting vouchers from the 2007 C'mon Back Club in exchange for standing room only tickets.  I figured what the heck, kids don't want to sit and watch an entire game.  Baseball is a complicated sport for 3 year olds.  They just wanted to know who had the ball.  Heck, they thought dad was playing when we got there. 

This Brewer game was the first of the season and their first Brewer game of their young lives.  I felt like they could go on with their lives now.  Actually, I felt that it was my duty to share with them a cool experience, minus the drunkenness and swearing.  Obviously they really didn't know what it was about, besides that I watched them and I talked about them.  They really didn't quite understand that what they saw at the ballpark, was what they saw on TV, were actually the same thing.  Regardless, they played on the kid area and did the little kid sausage race.  They spent a good amount of time on our shoulders and snacking on candy and other goodies and for some reason they really liked the sausages.  My fiance' and I were happy they were well behaved and I was happy I could spend a night like this. 

The only sad part was missing Fielder's 8th inning home run.  We were on our way out, but little guys got to see the fireworks.

Next up, Cardinals on May 10th, kids and all.

    

So I'm an avid fantasy sports player.  I do baseball, football, golf, hockey, occasionally basketball, NCAA, and I have done Nascar (shhhhh, I was didn't know what I was getting myself into).  Anyway, this year I was in a basketball league and it might be the last time I grace anyone's presence in a basketball league.  I think there is a direct correlation between the type of person and the sport or team they are a fan of.  I know basketball is full of trash talking on and off the court, but it appears it boils over to the fantasy end of it.  I mean these people couldn't even find the hole in the basketball hoop and if they did, their head couldn't even fit through it.  Anyway I didn't pay attention to the basketball league anymore and was happy to see the season go. 

Moving on to baseball....  I've been playing fantasy baseball the longest, all the way back to the free Sandbox.com days.  Now you have to pay for Sandbox.com, but there you get people who actually care about playing and there is a chance to win cash.  Because I'm on welfare (well, pretty close) but !Yahoo still has free games and there's pretty decent people in those leagues.  That was until this week. I'll try to keep this short....I like custom leagues, gives you different categories and usually they are pretty competitive.  So I joined one.  Little did I know that I was playing with a bunch knobs with IQs equivalent to their middle finger.  Vulgarities, unnecessary comments about genitalia, people questioning others sexuality, and the kicker was rosters being modified without permission!  That was my last straw!

I can only deal with so much juvenile behavior.  I have more patience with toddlers than I do teenagers or adults.  The start of all this was a comment I made to the commish about a player that he dropped of another team's roster without his permission.  I checked my team later that evening and found the rest of my team was dropped and the players were already picked up by other teams.  You're probably thinking I made some smart *** comment, but it was actually a pretty safe question asking if he was going to drop any more people if a player hit a grand slam against the White Sox (assuming he was fan).  GO FIGURE! that some south-side, foul-mouth, fool would do that.



In all honesty, I don't care, I benched the rest of my team and called it a year.  I changed my team name and talked some smack as a parting shot to the d-bag commish.  I mean I didn't pay money and fantasy baseball isn't getting me anywhere.  So congratulations to some guy who sits up to 1 in the morning caring about if he takes first in a fantasy baseball league while he twists one off to the Playboy Logo channel.         

It seems like a word I use frequently when the Brewers are playing, especially in the past week.  How many more extra inning games are they going to play?  How many more blown saves is Gagne due for?  How many more pitchers are they going to call up?  All this is unbelievable!  I guess fans should be happy that they are over .500 as well as 5-1 in extra inning games.  Believe it or not, I'm still a fan of Gagne.  Even though four blown saves might sound like a lot, they've only lost one of one of those games where he's blown a save.  The hitters have been saving his rear.  Nonetheless, it's down right frustrating.  Thankfully we have two or three others that can easily take over the closer role.  I like the fact that Yost hasn't lost faith and neither has the team.  Once a pitcher gets a sniff of the team losing faith in them, the fat lady has sung.   

On a personal note, this Saturday will be a run of emotions .  A funeral for an unexpected death and a Brewer game with two 3 year olds.  This should be interesting.

Yes, that means thirty-three in Spanish.  Thirty-three is actually my favorite number because that's the one I wear on my baseball uniform when I try to play hardball.  I've had the number since junior college and then every summer after that.  It's just been a number that has stuck with me. 

The reason I talk about it, is because Miguel Tejada's age is actually thirty-three instead of thirty-one.  I'll spare you the details on how his age changed and you can Google the article whenever you're bored.  After ESPN reported this for their new program E:60, Tejada admits he is infact thirty-three.  Whew!  I though he was maybe 40, because you know that two years is such a big deal!  Who cares, lets move on!  It's baseball season, there's games going on and other more important issues to discuss.  Anyway, I have a few theories if you want to call them, on why I think it's not Tejada's fault that MLB got the wrong age:

1.  El scouto no habla espanol.  I'm sure Tejada said he was nineteen (diecinueve), but scouts having little or no spanish speaking ability probably misunderstood him.  Have you ever hear Tejada speak? 

2.  Tejada admitted he was poor.  What are the odds that a poor kid could read or write, much less pick out a number? 

3.   What are the odds that the information ESPN found is legit?   I mean who's keeping tabs of this stuff in a country filled with turmoil and despair?  There is a large gap between the rich and the poor.  What if Tejada's dad is just in it for the money?  I'm sure ESPN bought his next 3 years of smokes in trade for his birth certificate.

4.   When Tejada played for the Athletics, he didn't have time to look at the program, he was busy tearing it up on the field.  The only thing he needed to see was the bat hitting the ball and the ball slapping the leather.

All in all, I hope this doesn't boil over to something completely ridiculous.  I like ESPN, they have great programs, but let's be honest, we don't need them becoming the TMZ of the sports world.  Jim Rome already has that job.