Fear The Chorizo

the 2011 Cardinals also were in the midst of an unconscious hot streak of offensive production from mid-september through that postseason. the trade they made to remake their bullpen and give LaRussa what seemed like 30 relief options and that offensive hot streak were what won them the world series, let alone even squeak into the playoffs, that year for sure.

If healthy, Garza has the stuff to succeed in the postseason - the issue becomes if he can avoid the meltdown inning that occasionally plagues him. Until his oblique injury, he was the best starter the Brewers had going over the last month of his outings. If Garza comes back in the next 1-2 weeks, what about piggybacking Nelson/Fiers once every 5 days? A bit outside the box, but you start one for 5-6 innings and bring the other one in to finish a game out, rotating the order for each start. That way essentially both of them are potentially available between outings to add quality depth to the bullpen.

Dickey knuckleball in an afternoon game at Miller Park with some shadows...that could be disastrous!

maybe Garza can be our late inning RH reliever...would put in blue, but honestly unless Lohse keeps scuffling due to his ankle what other pitcher would you take out of the rotation right now?

The Brewers have had "luck" on their side, as the rest of the division has been decimated by injuries while they have {knock on wood} remained relatively healthy. About damn time compared to the Brewers' injury/off the field-related woes over the past few seasons. Even if they've remained largely healthy, the 2014 Brewers have lost two quality RH power arms out of the pen in Thornburg and Henderson, plus Garza's out for at least awhile longer. Braun's been on the DL and is having an uneven season by his standards. Ramirez has been on the DL. The injuries, particularly to pitching, on this team haven't been catastrophic because they've gotten enough contributions from the depth they've built up...something nobody thought they had going into this year.

ironic that RR had 3 relievers warming up with Yo dealing over 8 innings, yet he won't have a reliever ready to replace KRod if he doesn't have it and the game's on the line...because he's a "closer", or something.

rooting for KRod to lock this down, but I can't agree with the decision to pull Yo in this game.

No way you take Yo out of this game before giving him a shot to finish it in the 9th.

Braun needs to stop swinging at balls, for starters. watching him over the last few games, it seems like his bat speed just isn't there...because of that he can't turn on fastballs, and he's forced to start his swing earlier which is probably contributing to alot of swings at bad pitches (he's doesn't have that extra split second to identify pitch/location better). Not sure if that's thumb/oblique related, or if he's in the midst of a dog days slump because he needs a few days to recharge the batteries. Either way, it's not an ideal situation. My guess would be that his thumb is the main culprit, and I for one hope he opts for surgery on it as soon as this year is done. Even if it's not a guarantee that it will be successful, resting it didn't fix the problem last offseason.

Javy Baez K:BB ratio...infinity kid couldn't draw an intentional walk right now with his approach - I think you need to see if he can actually not swing at 4 straight pitches before even giving him a hittable strike.

with the construction nightmare going on with I-90, take mass transit

We score 4 runs in the bottom of the 7th to retake the lead and the majority of the posts still have a negative tone. I'm sure there will be another 1.5 pages of the same while smith and KRod finish the game off

when the offense struggles, call on Turner! good god what a weird IGT...

In April/May the bullpen was unhittable in meaningful game situations. things have a way of evening out...this stretch since basically the all star break is the evening out for a bullpen due to injuries and pitchers who simply aren't great. c'mon Maldy, come through!

Curious whether Wang would be eligible for the Arizona fall league this year...thinking the Brewers are going to try and get him as many innings as possible this season in effort to start him off at high A in 2015. Getting a few AZ fall league starts would help increase the IP, and it's likely that many of the Brewer pitching prospects are going to be at/beyond their innings limits by then.

I think you make that sort of trade if the Brewers get that opporunity and it doesn't cost them too much in terms of prospects. Then you go into next year with Rollins taking Weeks' place on the roster - for 11 million you'd get a switch hitter who can back up/play both SS and 2B, who's much better offensively and defensively than Weeks. Bringing in Rollins would also give the Brewers options to shift Segura over to 2B for some starts against tough LHP, or when Gennett would need a day off. Right now if Segura's in the lineup, he's playing SS exclusively even though many scouts viewed him as an ideal 2B.

100 million remaining on Hamels' contract, with the Phillies' payroll being in as awful a situation as it currently is...I would imagine the Phillies would seriously consider sending Hamels to Chicago if the Cubs are willing to pay that amount and part ways with a solid middle IF prospect to groom for replacing Rollins or Utley down the road. Many Cubs fans are wondering where Alcantrera will play everyday and whether he'd transition to OF with better prospects/players in the Cubs system being groomed for SS (Castro, Russel), 2B (Baez), and CF (Almora). Alcantrera's had a pretty solid 1st month in the bigs, and I can see him being tradebait that could move in this sort of deal. The way free agent pitching contracts are going, I'm sure a team like the Cubs who desperately need frontline pitching would view 5 years of Hamels at 100 Million as a bargain, even if it costs young, cost-controlled talent...especially if it's already blocked by prospects with higher ceilings.

So far, the Ricketts haven't shown any interest in putting a winning product on the field. They are interested in making money. I'm not convinced they will spend the big bucks on free agents or even signing their young players. Maybe their attitude will change in a few years, but for now I'm not concerned. pretty much every single thing in this post is wrong. They've thrown a TON of money and resources into their farm system and scouting/development structure, which was non-existent before Theo was hired (by the Ricketts, for big money, by the way). Rizzo and Castro both signed big pre-arby contract extensions last year. They've spent the past few seasons trading away horrible contracts given out by Hendry (I think Soriano is still being paid about 18 million by the Cubs this season), so their seemingly low payroll is actually inflated with players no longer on their roster, whom the Cubs picked up salary in trades in order to get something in return. The Ricketts have allowed Theo and Jed to run the baseball side, which has been a complete teardown of the MLB roster over the past 3 seasons along with a total rebuild of the organization from the ground up. It might seem like the Cubs are being cheap, but I guarantee that as this dead money falls off their books, the Cubs are going to operate like a team without payroll limitations when it comes to signing their own talented players and bringing in free agents worth signing.

Baez and Alcantrera were drafted by none other than Jim Hendry, so it's not all from Theo's regime. Bryant and Almora fell in their laps in recent drafts because they were picking at the top due to how bad the MLB club was. Not knocking the drafts of Theo & company, just indicating that their best prospects largely are their high 1st rounders and top international signees when they had more $ than anyone to throw at international talent some of those years. not hitting on top 5 picks kills organizations, they've simply taken advantage of the draft/int'l systems as much as possible by intentionally being awful at the MLB level the past 3 seasons. Until the Cubs go out and buy/trade for a pitching staff with cash and the plethora of prospects they're amassing, they're going to continue to struggle. The gap that needs filling in their farm system is pitching. the have been able to flip alot of marginal pitching for prospects in recent years, but they've also signed Edwin Jackson to an untradeable contract - so both hits and misses on that front. The Cubs have slowly turned the corner this season, both from an organizational development standpoint and an off the field standpoint with their Wrigley renovation plan. I think the fire sale has essentially stopped in Chicago, simply because they have nothing left to trade off the MLB team that would be deemed expendable/valuable. They currently have the rooftop owners by the nuts, and renovations will get underway this offseason, which will lead to increased revenue streams and give the Ricketts family much needed payroll flexibility. Many also forget the amount of debt the Ricketts had to leverage in order to buy the Cubs a few years ago, and getting the renovation done is a priority for them to be able to build a sustainable contender. I think the Cubs' best move was getting Rizzo and giving him time to develop at the MLB level - he's turned into an elite 1B, when 2 years ago many wondered why Theo and Jed went after him so hard via trades ( I think Jed traded for him 2-3 times depending on what organization he moved to) When the Cubs get their renovations completed AND sort their TV contract out, then they're going to be something to reckon with. Of all the prospects seemingly ready to set the world on fire in MLB, 1/2 of them will be solid MLB players, 1/4 will probably flame out, and 1/4 will be difference makers. For them, it's all about finding and being able to pay for pitching. For me, 2016 will be the 1st year they contend for a playoff spot, assuming continued development/health of their key players and a few free agent pitching contracts (I think Scherzer is a target this offseason, Price next offseason). I see 2017-2018 as a realistic timeline for them to have enough talent to contend for something more than a wild card spot....and beyond.

Wooten's part of the AAAA bullpen shuttle, I have no problem with him up for a few games until Garza's start rolls around - my guess is their decision on who starts between Fiers and Estrada in his place will come down to whether Estrada needs to be used in the games leading up to then. While I'd rather see Fiers start over Estrada at this point, IMO both pitchers have essentially the same chance to give the team a handful of quality starts in Garza's absence. At the end of the day, unless the Brewers' offense gets on a good roll during this difficult August/September stretch, who's the spot starter for Garza really won't make that much difference.

Doing nothing has not worked Doing something almost got Braun's head taken off in 2011, too. The error in retaliating against the Cardinals is that you assume they remember that they started it. They typically end up viewing the retaliation as reason to go headhunting.

I think the whole point of this back and forth is even if the Brewers start hitting Cardinal batters, it isn't going to stop Gomez getting hit by the Cardinals. So, if you're trying to retaliate in a bean ball war, it's not going to stop. To me, there's enough smoke with the Cards hitting Gomez that the ump would be completely entitled tomorrow to tell Matheny that his team is under a warning when they are exchanging lineup cards before the game. Not warnings to both sides, but issue a warning to the Cardinals and tell them they've earned it. That won't happen, and that's why IMO the league needs to grow a pair and start going after organizations that regularly incite this stuff. I think it's headed in that direction, as the league has gotten rid of home plate collisions as an acceptable part of the game. To me the next step is eliminating the intentional beanball wars. Retaliation only ends up leading to bench clearing brawls, it doesn't keep your own hitters healthier.

As much as I hate the Cards, I don't want umpires to just start tossing guys because of a history. To me, if there's a history as well known as the Cards when it comes to this garbage, MLB and umps should overreact the other way and start tossing/suspending pitchers immediately until that team's behavior changes. You can still pitch inside and still occasionally hit a batter, but when there's a question of intent, umps should be able to drop the hammer and kick a pitcher out without any warnings being issued. It's in the rules that they have that ability, why not use it?

The Cardinals want to incite a beanball war and turn games chippy, because that's how they play. Retaliating in any way other than beating them and pointing to the standings just fans the flames. It's not just the Brewers that this happens with - there's history with the Reds, Pirates, Cubs...pretty much every division team deals with this from the Cards from time to time. Honestly the only way this sort of crap stops happening is for MLB to wise up and allow umps extra leeway to toss a pitcher for hitting a batter when there's history of an organization that's always involved in this garbage. I'm sure the Cards would start thinking twice about this if Wainright had gotten tossed and then suspended 5 games so he'd miss his next start by MLB after Gomez got plunked - with grounds for both the ejection and suspension being the Cardinals are notorious for inciting these exchanges and throwing at guys.

Parra will start for Davis tomorrow against Masterson