By: Big Rygg

In what is hopefully the first of 9 victories on this homestand, the Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Atlanta Braves by a score of 3-2 courtesy of a Mike Cameron walk-off sacrifice fly. It was one hell of an ending to an exciting game, if at times frustrating, game.

J.J. Hardy had a 3/4 night with two huge RBIs and recently maligned Bill Hall scored the winning run on the aforementioned sac fly. Pretty much every one contributed in some way, but probably the biggest story of the night goes to starting pitcher Dave Bush.

The night started out seemingly on a powder keg as Bush allowed a solo home run in each of the first two innings, one being a rookie's first career homer. Those two runs, though, would be all the Braves would get off of Bush or any other Brewer pitcher for that matter. Recently acquired Julian Tavarez pitched a perfect 8th inning on 8 pitches and Salomon Torres worked around one hit in the 9th and earned the victory on Cameron's walk-off.

All in all, a good night for the Brewers and hopefully the jumping off point for a strong homestand. The Brewers are, after tonight, a mere 3 games over .500 at home. Granted, they've only played a MLB-lowest 21 games at home, but even still, the Crew needs to pick it up. I'm very encouraged by the face that the Brewers now sit 2 games under .500 overall after having played 31 games on the road so far. That being said, if we pick up the pace on this homestand, we stand to be a few games over .500 by the end of it.

The Braves have won 6 games on the road all year. We need to exploit that. Houston is only one game over .500 on the road, so we can hopefully use that to our advantage. Arizona, who had the majors' best record at one point this year, did most of that work at home where they are 19-9. Away from Chase Field, they are 11-13.

After the beginning of the year where we ran into everyone's aces, things have turned a bit, at least during this homestand. We avoid Roy Oswalt when Houston comes to town (even though he's been getting hit way above average so far this year). We avoid Brandon Webb when the Diamondbacks come to town. We're going to avoid Tom Glavine while the Braves are here...

The point is, all nine of these games are winnable. We won one...let's see how far we can take these next eight games.

By: Big Rygg

 Julian Tavarez - Season Stats: 0-1, 6.39 ERA, 12.2 IP, 18 H, 9 BB, 6 K

The Milwaukee Brewers have a man traveling with them to the Cream City today. That man is long-time MLBer Julian Tavarez.

The Brewers have had a rash of injuries as of late, and have called up a few minor leaguers to fill the gaps for now. Tim Dillard has pitched very well, and Carlos Villanueva has taken back to the bullpen like a fish to water so far, but with David Riske and Eric Gagne on the DL and Zach Jackson struggling, something needs to be done to get things back in order.

Tavarez has appeared in 743 games in his big league career, starting 108 of them (including 23 starts in 2007 for the Boston Red Sox). You can bet that the Milwaukee Brewers, if they do in fact sign Tavarez, would be looking for him to shore up the bullpen.

In the majors since breaking in during 1993 with the Cleveland Indians (even though he saw limited action in 1993 and one pitched in one game in 1994), Tavarez has amassed an 84-71 record with supplementary statistics of a 4.44 ERA over 1327.1 IP. He pitched 9 years in the National League, but all of the past three years (2006-2008) were spent in Boston.

Does Tavarez have anything left in the tank with which to help the Brewrers in 2008? Well, if he passes the physical he's supposedly taking when he gets to Milwaukee and the Brewers sign him, I'll certainly hope so.

---

Moving on to sadder news, former Milwaukee Brewers Geremi Gonzalez died over the weekend after being struck by lightning in Venezuela.

Gonzalez pitched in the Major Leagues as recently as 2006 with the Toronto Blue Jays. He pitched last year with the Yomiuri Giants in the Japan League.

Geremi Gonzalez was 33 years old.

By South Side Rob

the next couple of days. Hall has sat the last two games for the Brewers since they were facing right-handed starting pitchers. When this move was made, most baseball people said finally. It was getting Chris Capuano out of hand. Last season, Yost continued to throw Capuano out for starts. 16 straight starts resulted in losses, then, 4 more in relief, then finally, another 2 more in starts for a total of 22 straight games in which either Capuano started or relieved a game, the Brewers lost. I'm not suggesting that all of these losses were because of Capuano. The point here is, it took way too long for the manager and coaching staff to realize that there might be a negative trend they need to put a stop to.

Enter Bill Hall. As of this writing, Bill Hall is 21 for 133 in 145 plate appearances against right-handed pitchers for an embarrassing average of .158. Let's soak that in. 145 plate appearances. 21 hits to go with 42 punch-outs. It's not like we are talking about a few poor at-bats. This is lengthy. I could pile on and tell you that Bill Hall averages .143 whenever he works the count to 3-1 which is a hitters count. That's against both left and right-handed pitchers. How are these numbers helping the Milwaukee Brewers win baseball games? On defense, he has 11 errors and a fielding percentage of just .912 which is slightly better than Ryan Braun's pct of 2007 which was .895.

The writing is on the wall for this season. This isn't about keeping players happy. That should be ending quick. If it doesn't, the Brewers will get a manager that cares more about winning than friendships. That's it. Professional team sports teams are measured by wins. You don't win, your no good. You can't contribute to the team winning, you can't play. What they pay a player should not matter. The Brewers can have a major-league minimum player hit better than .158 against right-handed pitching.

If Bill Hall's agent can negotiate a trade with Doug Melvin, I would be in favor of it. I'm sure Bill Hall is a nice guy. So was Wes Helms and Sean Berry. Another thing these 3 have in common is that they were all asked to play everyday when most of them only had success in the major leagues as part-time role players. The Brewers gave them full-time money and thought they would get double the production. As a result, their production fell below what they previously produced on a part-time basis.

It's a mess. Bill Hall should not be playing everyday. I know, Rickie Weeks should not be playing everyday either but look at our roster and tell Ned who else he can play at 2nd base. The time for making friends is over. If Yost saves his job it will be because he finally figured out that winning is what he's being paid for. They have their whole lives to be friends. The time to win is now.

By: Big Rygg

For those of you that get the movie reference in the title of this post...Good. For those that don't, all it basically means is that the home team won a game on the last play.

For those of you that don't follow the team closely enough, Miller Park in beautiful Milwaukee, Wisconsin did NOT host a baseball game today. The Milwaukee Brewers were playing (for the third time ever) in the brand new Washington Nationals' ballpark in Washington D.C.

Just in case math wasn't your favorite subject, allow me to put two and two together for you...

The Brewers lost to the Nationals in our nation's capital today. Thanks only for an 18 inning marathon loss by the Cincinnati Reds today, the Brewers sit a half-game out of last place again in the N.L. Central Division. The Scrubs and Cardinals remain in a virtual tie atop the division with the Astros a surprising one game back and even the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates are now a game up on the Crew.

This has always been a very competitive division (even moreso this season, it seems) and will most likely end up coming down to the wire. Hopefully the Brewers are in that mix.

There have been stories about the toughness of Milwaukee's schedule so far, and they lend themselves to allowing for a pretty good run if we can stay within striking distance. We've played an inordinate amount of games on the road to this point, and we've faced VERY few teams with a losing record so far.

But I digress from all things "season-long" for the rest of this post.

Today, Manny Parra started the game by throwing 10 consecutive strikes. His eleventh pitch was spiked in the dirt and allowed a run to score from third base. In the 9th inning, Guillermo Mota sent one to the backstop which allowed the winning run to score from third. I wish I had the chance to look into the last time a team's first and winning runs scored on wild pitches, but I don't have that kind of time.

What I do have time for is to publicly groan about the fact that we lost this game after coming back from a 6-0 deficit with a stellar 6th inning. I know I went off about being able to handle losing but hating the way we lose some times...this game is a burning beacon of case-in-point.

Ben Sheets is on the mound tomorrow. We need a win. It's a good combination for the Brewers, but it sure would've been nicer had we been going for a series win instead of a doing our best to split.

I cannot wait for this team to come hoome. Not only because I have tickets to Tuesday's game, but because we desperately need some home cooking.

I'll be asking my wife to warm up the oven because I'm inviting 35 or so to dinner.

by South Side Rob

I don't care whether everybody or nobody picks this article up. Everybody has the right to say what they want to say. Thanks Ned. I didn't need your permission but I thought it was necessary to print it.

The Brewer Nation (Another words, South Side Rob) once made the mistake of running with a story that was initially reported on a local sports radio station about a false trade involving Adam Dunn, Chris Capuano, and Tony Gwynn Jr. If you recall, I did apologize for that mistake and I haven't come close to becoming that careless again.

This is a opinion blog. Period. We are our own sources. We don't have sources close to the organization or in the organization. Unlike Tom Haudricount, I don't have Doug Melvin's cell phone number on speed dial. I don't care about exposure. We have our community. We don't have tons of comments but I do believe we have a group of readers. That's all Rygg or myself wanted to do from the beginning.

Okay. With that out of the way, now its time to educate Ned Yost, or, at least, remind him of things he's done in the past that he is now becoming too stubborn to do.

In 2006, Geoff Jenkins hit .133 against left-handed pitching (13 for 98). With those ugly numbers staring Yost in the face, he made a commitment in 2007 to have Jenkins only face right-handed pitching. I believe this was the correct move because he was putting Geoff in the best position for him to succeed and to contribute to the Brewers offense. It worked for most of the season, especially in the first six weeks.

Now, in 2008, Yost is faced with 3 everyday players who are hitting at or below .200. I read somewhere where these 3 unfortunate players have been dubbed, "The 200 club". With numbers that poor, you would think something has to be done to correct the problem.

Here's what I suggest.

At current, Rickie Weeks is only .189 against right-handed pitching (25 for 132). Against left-handed pitching, he's only slightly better at .206 (7 for 44).

At current, Bill Hall is only .164 against right-handed pitching (21 for 128). Against left-handed pitching, he's hitting a robust .333 (11 for 38).

At current, Mike Cameron is hitting .230 against right-handed pitching (14 for 68). Against left-handed pitching, he's got a big fat .000 (0 for 9). That sample size is a bit small for Cameron. So, I looked at last year's splits, are sure enough, against right-handed pitching, Cameron hit .222 (93 for 418). Against left-handed pitching, he hit .294 (45 for 153).

In order to get these 3 players hitting again, I suggest they sit against right-handed pitching. Not for good, just for now. You don't break out of these kinds of slumps by riding the pine so I say start them against left-handed pitchers which gives them the best opportunity to succeed and contribute to this offense. Once they seem to figure things out, you can start to give them a few starts against right-handed pitching. If they fall back into a slump, simply start the process over again.

Basically, that's called managing 101. If Ned would do some of the things I mentioned above, I believe most of the fans would cut him some slack. He refuses to acknowledge the fans. In fact, he actually thinks the beat writers are intelligent baseball people. I'm not saying their not but there is little evidence that they know more than knowledgeable baseball fans. Just because you have a journalism or broadcasting degree or background, that does not make you an expert or even knowledgeable on the subject of baseball.

Don't believe me? Read newspaper baseball columns or listen to sports radio stations. That should be enough to fully convince you of this.

I don't have an answer for the problems with the starting pitchers. If somebody does, please post it here.

One last thing. I heard on the radio that Brewer teams have a lifetime record at PNC Park of something like 20-42. Does that mean this Brewer team has no chance? How many of these 62 games was Jason Kendall or Mike Cameron been a part of? Answer, none. How about Tony Gwynn or Ryan Braun. Answer, very few. Is there a Brewer who's been a part of all of them? Nope. What about Ben Sheets? Well, he doesn't pitch everyday so that eliminates all pitchers to begin with. I'm nit-picking but don't say THE BREWERS have a lifetime record at PNC of 20-42, say Brewer teams have a lifetime record of 20-42 at PNC Park. Every season, the team is different. Yes, the Brewers are struggling this year but this team has nothing to do with the previous 62 games played at PNC Park.

By: Big Rygg

Ladies and gentlemen, you've happened upon a new place today when coming to the normal Brewer Nation blog. As it is an election year, we here at the Brewer Nation have taken it upon ourselves to have some campaign paraphenalia put together about an upcoming election.

Welcome to Campaign Headquarters!!

It's a little crude, but it was whipped together in about...20 minutes or so by a buddy of mine at the office, but here it is: The Official Campaign Poster for 2008 that we should all get behind.

 

Feel free, nay...encouraged, to post this image all over the 'net in attempt to garner support for the man that ought to have a job in the big leagues right now. The best job available is one that he's held with the core players currently on the roster, and what's more is that he's won championships with the core players currently on the roster.

The Frank Kremblas for Manager Campaign has officially begun!

This team is underperforming; this much we know is true. South Side Rob has laid it out both in print and over the airwaves that while the talent on the Milwaukee Brewers has increased from last year, our play has not only failed to improve along with it (in all areas other than defensively) but I would go so far as to say that it has regressed. South Side Rob has pointed out the crystal clear fact that the only true constant on this team has been the mediocrity atop the managerial/coaching flow chart.

In short, if we've got better players in place of the ones that left and the returning players have another chunk of experience under their belts, the lack of production and near regression has to be due to lack of proper direction.

Baseball teams make adjustments from game to game, series to series, month to month over the course of a season. They learn how to pitch another team's lineup and how to best try to hit another team's pitching staff, Baseball players make adjustments from game to game, inning to inning, at-bat to at-bat as well. These tweaks and changes are guided by the men observing from the dugout (and possibly the coaching boxes) during the course of a game.

Well, my friends and loyal readers, the rest of the league has adjusted to the Milwaukee Brewers' style of play and we need to adjust back to find an edge again.

We are done with believing that Ned Yost is capable of spearheading that effort. There may be several men that are capable (Dale Sveum probably not among them), but we feel that one man is the right man for the job:

Frank Kremblas!

Casting your vote for Kremblas today can save 10s of games this year and in the future!

by South Side Rob

OK. There's a few glaring problems with the 2008 version of the Milwaukee Brewers. First off, this roster that consists mainly of right-handed hitters is NOT WORKING! Here's a solution. Send Joe Dillon back down to triple A and bring up Russell Branyon who, at current is hitting .368 in Nashville with 11 home runs and 33 runs batted in. Now, when we face a right-handed pitcher, you sit Bill Hall in place of Branyon, you sit Cameron in place of Tony Gwynn Jr, and you sit Rickey Weeks in favor of Craig Counsell. When you face a lefty, you platoon back. Right now, I'm confident that Branyon, Gwynn, and Counsell can do no worse that what we are currently receiving from Hall, Cameron, and Weeks.

Also, we scrap this pitcher hitting 8th. You put Kendall 2nd since, he's the only player who can handle the bat well enough to hit the ball to the right side of 2nd base. You lead off Gwynn against righties and Hart against lefties. YOU START playing some small ball. The beauty of playing small ball is that it can always be available. Plus, the long ball will probably occur more often since the team can now just focus of playing fundamental baseball and stop swinging out of their shoes.

The pitching is really a mess. I agree with the Stetter demotion. I would also agree with skipping a start to any of the rotation players who struggles even Sheets or Suppan. If Bush can seem to win a game or keep us close, then, you try someone else. Last year, Capuano should have been pulled from the rotation after 4 straight losses, not 22 or whatever that nightmare of a number was.

As bad as things are right now, Yost and his buddies in the dugout have nothing to worry about because nobody seems to be held accountable for not doing their jobs. Stop tipping their cap to the opposition and spend quality time trying to figure out how to beat the competition.

Right now, the Brewers sit in 5th place which means they have to now figure out a way to leap-frog over 4 teams in order to regain the lead back in the NL Central. Easily said but very hard to do. Even if this team wins say 17 out of their next 20, that does not guarantee that the 4 teams ahead of them can play well enough to remain ahead of the Brewers. Right now, the Brewers need 17 of of their next 20 instead of only 4 over their last 15 games.

If ownership cannot see that management and the general manager's plan for 2008 is clealy not working, he can forget about seeing 3 million of us go through the gates in order to support what clearly isn't what we've been promised. I have only 3 games that I've committed to that is coming up. Right now, I'm in no hurry to schedule the 4th.

By: Big Rygg

The title of this post would be "great", "stellar", or any one of a hundred other positive adjectives that are more positive than "great". How would today have attained one of those descriptive words? The Brewers would've needed to win the game.

But all that aside, something else happened today that makes this a good day all on it's own.

It was announced officially, at a 10am news conference, that starting left fielder Ryan Braun signed a brand new 8-year contract that will keep him with the Milwaukee Brewers through the 2015 season. The best part about this contract itself is the value...a measly $45 million.

(Yes, that value could up itself to $51 million if Braun's service time at the end of the 2009 season qualifies him as a Super Two player, and either way it's the richest contract in Milwaukee Brewers' history, but let's focus on what this signing means instead of how much this contract is worth.)

This contract is the longest is Milwaukee Brewers' history as well. It's kind of an obvious statement, but stop and think for a minute about what this means about Ryan Braun: the man.

Simply put, Ryan Braun wants to be in Milwaukee. Sure, you can be pessimistic and say that he was going to be here through 2011 at a minmum anyway, but the fact that he chose to sign on the dotted line to stay in Milwaukee through (at a minimum) two of his free agent years says a lot.

I could bore you with statistical comparisons to some of the great sluggers in the game today, I could even tell you where Braun ranks in several offensive categories since his arrival in the big leagues (it's pretty good, in case you were curious), but I won't because you can find that other places.

What I will do is tell you something that you can't hear anywhere else...

I, Adam "Big" Rygg, as a life-long Brewer fan finally am willing to buy a jersey with an active player's name on the back of it. As any long-time reader of this blog (at least since last summer) knows, my favorite player of all time is Robin Yount. Always has been, always will be. But there's a difference in buying a Yount #19 jersey or a Gorman Thomas #20 jersey or a Jimmy Gantner #17 and buying a J.J. Hardy #7, a Rickie Weeks #23 and even (at least for now) a Prince Fielder #28.

The first three jerseys will not change. They just won't. Yount played his entire career as a Milwaukee Brewer, Gantner likewise, and Thomas may as well have. The latter three? There's no guarantee in the game today, and far too often players are gone from Milwaukee before you know it.

Geoff Jenkins' #5? Nostalgic, sure, but also outdated and no longer accurate. Ben Sheets' #15? Could be gone this summer even. So many guys have come through Milwaukee on their way to good careers, it's frustrating.

But that culture, at least for a day, has shown signs of turning. Ryan Braun's contract not only keeps a good player in Milwaukee for a lot of years but hopefully is indicative of things to come with several more of the current core of this team.

Prince Fielder and Corey Hart ought to be next on the priority list for General Manager (and blog sloganized) Doug Melvin, in my opinion. After that, we'll see, but the bottom line is that Ryan Braun set the bar...

He set the bar for contracts for players with less than 2 years of Major League service.
He set the bar for Milwaukee Brewer contracts and possibly even for payroll projections.
He set the bar for for the teammates that he said he hopes sign with the Brewers as well.

Makes you feel good as a Brewer fan, doesn't it?

Good day...good day.

by South Side Rob

I need your help. I felt like reading Tuesday Night's game recap on ESPN, and I read the first quote by Ned Yost regarding Eric Gagne, and it says, "Sure, I could not pitch him so that nobody thinks that I'm stupid for pitching him"

Maybe I'm still waking up this morning but I don't understand that statement. Seriously. I've tried. I don't get it. Could somebody please translate this?

By: Big Rygg

I was at this afternoon's nationally-televised game, and I cannot tell you how disappointed I felt upon leaving the stadium.

Let me set this up for you a bit first...

I can handle losing. As a life-long fan of the Milwaukee Brewers, I've gotten very good at being able to handle losing. What really gets my goat, sometimes, is how we go about losing.

Tonight, we were down 0-3 through 6 and 1/2 innings. While the bats didn't exactly come alive in the bottom of the 6th, we did lay off enough pitches to walk two runs in. It was a great display of plate discipline by the men involved. Then, in the bottom of the 8th, Prince Fielder showed one more time why he's our MVP. His game-tying solo home run was the type of thing that leads us to victory!

Then, with the bases-loaded and only one out (Corey Hart was retired by Russ Springer on a fly ball), Jason Kendall was at the dish and Ned Yost called for a squeeze play on the first pitch. Bill Hall broke from third but Jason Kendall didn't get the bunt down. In fact, Jason Kendall didn't even square to bunt and simply took a called strike one.

He missed the sign and Bill Hall was very out.

Possibly liberating was the fact that Kendall grounded out to short to end the inning, and play that may have gone for a double play anyway, but then again as any official scorer will tell you, you can't assume a double play.

And that, my friends and loyal readers, it what made this afternoon's game so frustrating. Yes, Gagné could have shut them down in the 9th to give us a real chance to win it in the bottom half or even in extra innings, but the bottom line is that we should have been going into the 9th inning with a lead in the first place. If we take only a one-run lead into the inning, do we possibly lose anyway if Gagné gives up two? Maybe, but had we gotten the squeeze down, who's to say what else could've or would've happened in the rest of the 8th?

A missed sign...the possible difference between back-to-back victories and having gained absolutely no ground in the NL Central.

Kendall was rightfully hard on himself in post-game comments to the media, but he deserves mention here specifically as he completely missed the call.

But, tomorrow is another day, and another chance at victory!

And you can bet your *** that Kendall doesn't miss a sign tomorrow.

One more thing...for all of you fans that love to boo your own players, it doesn't help. Groan, moan, shout, throw your hands up, sigh...there are lots of ways to express frustration without raining down a chorus of boos. Gagné was terrible today, no doubt about it, but other than making yourselves feel better, what's the point of booing a guy that's out there with the intent of helping your team win?

by  South  Side Rob

The new additions (I believe) are playing better than expected. With last year being valuable experience for the young players to obtain, we were all given the impression that this team would be much improved. Whoops! Oh yeah, there has been one constant and it's Ned Yost. The Brewers blew 2 4-run leads this weekend but I guess Ned feels its early and not that big of a deal. Does he really think this team is that good? If so, when will the fans get to witness this great team?

A new bench coach, a new 3rd base coach, a new catcher, a new center fielder, a new bullpen, and, yet, nothing changes. In fact, this team is regressing in some areas notably, base running.

After Sunday's joke of a game, Yost was in form which was back to covering for mistakes made by his players.

On Sheets being called out at home plate where he didn't slide, Yost said, "Of course he should have slid," Yost said. "Come on, we're playing baseball. Yes, he should have slid, but Benny gets on base so few times that it really was like foreign territory." Another words, it's ok to screw up running the bases when you rarely get to because your such a terrible offensive player? What's worse is that the replay clearly showed that Sheets actually beat the tag.

Now, we fast forward to the 9th inning and Rickie Weeks makes an outstanding play at 2nd base where he had to field the ball in short right field. Yes, because of all the distance he had to cover just to get to the ball, it did make it difficult for Weeks to put anything behind his throw. The result was a safe call by the 1st base umpire. Again, after seeing the replay, he was out. Close? Sure but the throw beat the runner.

Yost responds with, "It was bang-bang. Could have gone either way". No Ned, the throw was there in time which means it should have only gone one way. As such, the Astros are essentially allowed 4 outs in the bottom of the 9th.

Still in the 9th with Gagne thowing over the plate and at the knees to Michael Bourne and all 3 of these were called for balls. After Bourne walked and Tejada was unintentionally intentionally walked, Lance Berkman comes to the plate where he is awarded 5 strikes instead of 3. Two of Gagne's pitches were over the plate and right at the waist. Both of these pitches were called balls. One of them was on a 2-2 count. Had the ump made the call, the game is over and the Brewers win.

Yost, who, stood motionless in the dugout while this was taking place said after the game, "There were some calls that could have gone either way that we thought were strikes, but not the majority of them. We're talking two or three pitches." One of those pitches should have ended the game. Where was Yost and why didn't he question the umpire in an attempt to protect his pitcher? The way Yost acted tells me he only will protect his players from the media and not the umps.

I can't believe we are in the early days of May and I'm already fed up with all of these poor performances. We all bust our tails at work just so we can keep our jobs. It's different if you play for Ned Yost.

I've had just about enough of it. How about you?

"Houston, we have a problem."

Yes, those words are probably clichéd out by this point, but they are fitting since the Brewers head into Houston tonight to face the Astros...but they'll do it with a couple of changes on the big league roster.

One, that you've heard plenty about by now, isn't a problem at all for most people. Derrick Turnbow was designated for assignment this morning (which basically means the Brewers have 10 days to trade him, assign him to the minors, or release him if he refuses the minor league assignment). Turnbow has supposedly gone on record that he'll take the assignment and do his best to work out his issues in the minors. That's a good thing, Milwaukee fans. Not only does it bring balance back to the roster by providing an extra bat off the bench that we've been lacking, but that man is versatile player Joe Dillon. I'm a Joe Dillon fan.

The driving force behind this article, however, was the other news that came out of Houston today regarding the Brewers...that the spill that Yovani Gallardo took yesterday afternoon in Chicago was not as harmless as we thought (especially after Gallardo stayed in the game, and then came back out to pitch the 6th even).

Gallardo has a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee (note: this is not the same knee that was surgically repaired this offseason and that kept Gallardo out for the first couple of weeks) which looks to sideline him at least a couple of months (though more likely for a while). They'll know more about how long he'll be out once the swelling subsides and they can examine it better.

The roster move I spoke of is the recalling of Dave Bush from Nashville, the same Dave Bush that struggled mightily out of the gates this year and had all of one AAA start to work out his issues (though he was, admittedly, throwing better in his most recent big league starts than his first couple before he went down). In that one start on April 30th, Bush twirled 6.0 IP, surrending only one earned run on 3 hits while walking 2 and striking out 7. The walks still bother me personally, but we don't have a better option to take Gallardo's place right now.

The Brewers as a whole scuffled through much of April offensively, and hopefully the bats are finally beginning to come alive. Scoring 19 runs in a series has got to feel good for a change. I don't think that the team psychologically needs Gallardo like they apparently need a healthy Ben Sheets in order to perform well, but it's got to be a bit of a blow to lose the (arguably) second best pitcher on your team for what could be the rest of the season.

Will the Brewers have a hangover from this? Only time will ultimately tell, but I think we'll get a fair indication tonight in Houston.

Leave it a Chicago Scrub to injure one of the Brewers best and brightest. Let's just hope that the rest of the team can pick things right back up (and yes, that includes Dave Bush).

Come on Crew! Keep the road winning trend alive! Let's sweep the 'Stros!!

by South Side Rob

This time is now. Actually, its been time for some time now. I would have thought before the season began but what do I know (Don't answer that).

Ned's defense of Derrick Turnbow is that he's an All-Star relief pitcher or that he was at one time in his career. Jose Hernandez made an All-Star team too. Does that mean he can't be released? Ned does understand the rules of making the All-Star team doesn't he? Every team has to be represented no matter how bad that team may be playing. It's another subject but that's why I feel it shouldn't be considered an All-Star game because it just isn't.

What bothers me most about Turnbow's performance late last season and now this season is that nothing has changed. Nothing at all. The pitches he uses, his mechanics, nothing. He has made the decision going into this season that his performance and his skill is enough and there was no reason to work on his game or skill set.

I don't know about you but I would have thought about working out a few of my own problems last off-season so that I made sure I had some value to the team I'm under contract with in the next season. Turnbow didn't do that. He showed up with all the same problems and now, they have just gotten so bad that he is returning no value at all to the team.

The only value belongs to Turnbow and that is his salary (est. 3.2 million). If the Brewers could cut Vargas with money being owed to him and I think it was more, why can't the Brewers cut the line and move in another direction leaving Turnbow out?

I said in the off-season that it's hard to find hard-throwing pitchers which might be the only reason Turnbow is still employed. Now, every time he steps on the mound, he embarrasses himself even more. I'm starting to feel bad for him but in the same breath, a change is needed.

We've read what Ned has been saying of late regarding Turnbow and I even heard Doug Melvin this morning on the radio. The tone of his voice suggests that they will have no choice but to do what's best for the Milwaukee Brewers. Shouldn't that always be the case?

by South Side Rob

I never thought I'd see a Brewer team quit again. By the 5th inning on Wednesday, that's what I witnessed so I followed suit and turned off the game myself. I wake up this morning to find out the final was 19-5. At first, I was really mad but then I thought about it and noticed that the Cubs were only credited with one win as a result and the Brewers were credited with just one loss. I probably would not have cared if they would have suffered this beating to anybody other than a franchise who embraces losing the way they do down in Chicago.

Anyway, I did like the responses from veterans like Jason Kendal who said, "What's done is done. We'll just try to win the series". Ryan Braun, who, seemed like the one player who didn't quit said, "It does no good to dwell on it or focus on it or make it anything more than what it is".

Then, there is Ned Yost who, can always say something so obvious that people of his lack of intelligence can even understand, "I don't think we ever got settled in as a pitching staff".

The Chicago Cubs finished their best April in franchise history which goes back more than 100 years. Their fans are dancing through the streets. Some of their fans are already sizing up their chances against the Diamondbacks in a playoff re-match.

Today is a big game. It will tell us how much metal makeup this team has. How will this team deal with adversity. Getting thumped and embarrassed on a game that ESPN picked up is a sure-fired way to never be on the network for the rest of this season. With that out of the way, does this team have enough concentration to go out and win today and take the series?

With the unbalanced roster of right-handed hitters and too many pitchers, this team is not that good. The players we picked up were suppose to improve this team. I don't see it. In fact, Rickey Weeks (who played ok last night) and Prince Fielder (who was one of the first players who proved to me he quit last night) do not seem to be the players we thought they were. Kendall and Cameron appear to be even better than anticipated, yet, this team just does not play like a winning team. Every game is like going to the dentist. It's painful.

I hope the Brewers go out and prove me wrong and go out, and start playing to their capabilities...