Fear The Chorizo

this is what happens when you can't score runs...seems like the run of early season close wins that catapulted the Crew to a hot early season start has abruptly ended, and now these close games are turning into gut-punching losses. fun when the baseball season evens out, ain't it? yeesh! hoping the bats wake up here to salvage this game - it would be a tough loss to take, for sure.

Yes, Bailey left with a knee issue, apparently

8-12 weeks is potentially the rest of the regular season...all jokes aside about his backup being great in his absence, that's a HUGE blow to the Cardinals.

I remember Mark Buerlhe joking after his perfect game that after about the 4th inning he was joking and chasing teammates in the dugout, telling them "hey, I have a perfect game going!" the jinx stuff should be an appendix to the unwritten rules of baseball

piles of injuries to Cards and Reds really have this division there for the taking...gotta get the offense going, and a win today + series win over the weekend against the red birds sure would be a great way to get to the all star break

can Jimmy Nelson hit? pitching has been uneven lately, but definitely not the culprit for this brutal July start...offense has been asleep since late June aside from an Overbay grand slam last night.

Estrada still has value for the Brewers and it would be foolish to just dump him for nothing this year. Much more likely to see him included in an offseason trade after his arbitration # is determined, or potentially as rotation filler in a deadline trade this year.

Unless Braun is even more like ARod than many think, it's logical that Braun was clean during the 2012 season, the year after he won his appeal and after he failed the 2011 PED test to open the playoffs. Braun pretty much replicated his 2011 MVP numbers in 2012, hitting 8 more HR and playing in 154 games. To me, that's what a fully healthy and clean Braun is capable of doing in his prime. The injuries Braun continues to sustain make it difficult to see him getting back to that point this season, and unless that thumb injury can be repaired or heal it's difficult at this point to see him return to MVP-caliber form. A power hitter that can't turn on an inside pitch and slug it over the LF fence is going to get a steady diet of inside fastballs. He's still a very good player even at his diminished production when he's dinged up, but that contract starts looking mighty bad if he can't get healthy and put together some 2012ish years together in the near future.

I'm not saying all the Cardinal arms are going to wash out...simply stating that 2014 hasn't gone at all like expected for many of these pitchers, whether injury or underperformances were the main culprits. I'm fully aware the talent is still there, but baseball has a way of taking young pitching talent and giving organizations headaches trying to keep it healthy and productive over the long haul. Wacha's shoulder injury sounds less than encouraging for his longterm health before a signficant injury pops up. Martinez has all the stuff in the world, but doesn't have the innings built up on his arm to expect him to stay strong well into September as a starter. Not sure I get the Estrada to Miller comparison...pretty much any sane person would take Miller if given the choice between the two.

As one poster said you can't build a SP staff in 1, 2 or 3 offseason with trades and FA. This Cubs move just insured they wont be a threat for at least 5+ years. Could have been sooner. Their fans should be pissed. The Cubs can sign Hammel as a FA after this season and they can sign Samardzija as a FA after next season. Neither one is signing an extension with the A's. The Cubs lose nothing in this deal that they can't get back. Wouldn't the Cubs likely forfeit their 1st round draft picks by signing quality free agent pitchers over the next few seasons? Or are top 5/top 10 picks protected with the new rules? If those pics aren't protected, I have a hard time seeing the Cubs being huge FA players, at least until their 1st round pick is back in the teens.

Late to the party on this trade due to the holiday weekend, but wanted to make a few points: 1 - Hammel is much more than a throw-in to make the deal happen - Shark and Hammel were both among the top 5 arms likely to be traded by this year's deadline, and Hammel's arguably been the better pitcher this season. That it took both of these guys to get what Oakland returned to them shows just how valued top tier prospects are in today's game. 2 - it's obvious that the Cubs are stockpiling talent to try and flip for impact pitching, which could happen as soon as this offseason - there's just too many middle infielders throughout their organization not to use in trades. The difficulty becomes identifying which of these prospects are better to be traded and better to be kept. The other problem is assuming that impact pitching is there to be acquired for the Cubs when they decide they want it - I think the Cubs would have difficulty finding better options than Shark via trade in the offseason unless they included prospects that Cub fans would hate losing. At some point Theo's gotta pull the trigger and focus on the big league roster, but that never happens overnight, either. Remember, for all this talk of saving money on the major league payroll, they did give Edwin Jackson a 4 year deal for no good reason at all. I think Cub fans are going to be really frustrated when all these guys aren't on the opening day roster next spring, and even more frustrated when they realize the impact pitching available via trade or free agency tends to be the old and very expensive variety. Young, top of the rotation pitching prospects tend to be untouchable nowadays. 3 - Yes, the Cubs currently have a who's who list of prospects in their system, but eventually prospects have to prove it in the big leagues and it's extremely difficult if not impossible to break in a handful of youngsters at the same time and expect them all to treat major league pitching like AA pitching. The KC comparison was poo-pooed earlier in this thread, but I actually think it's quite similar from a prospect standpoint. The difference is the Cubs should have more $ to improve their big league club in areas the prospects can't fill. 4 - for all the talk about how scary the rest of the division looks, wondering why the Brewers' organization isn't mentioned more often...after all, they are currently in 1st place, for all the grief their farm system gets I can't think of a time where pitching depth was better throughout the organization (absolutely critical for being competitive long term in a small market), and I can't think of a team who had a better 2014 draft/international signing period than the Crew. Aside from Nelson their best prospects are years away, but you can't argue the level of talent in the Brewer organization hasn't increased significantly over the last 12 months.

The plethora of young Cardinal arms who seemed poised to dominate the division for years seem to have all run into a wall in 2014. Guaranteed that nobody figured the Cardinals would be desperate for starting pitching help at this year's trade deadline. No question the young pitching they have is talented, but health and making adjustments to your game while facing big league hitters are common pitfalls that have claimed more than their fair share of promising arms over the years. As for Allen Craig, he's very quickly running out of positions to play everyday in STL, and they probably could get some value in return for trading him to the right team now. To me Craig shouldn't be in the Cards' longterm plans, and I think he fits better into an AL lineup as a DH and utility 1B/OF in a hitter friendly park...come to think of it Boston makes a good deal of sense, so if a Peavy deal comes together look for him to be included along with lower level pitching prospect or two.

would be nice for the Brewers offense to score more than 2 runs in a game at some point before the all star break...been in a funk for a good while here just when some of the rest of the division is playing decent baseball.

Gomez with a neck strain the night after hitting his head on the basepaths...might need a day or two off but hopefully that's all. Segura left with leg cramps...doesn't sound too serious, either.

A 0.720-0.750 OPS 2B would make Scooter a top ten offensive 2B in MLB. Right now his career OPS is 0.834, which is the exact OPS for him thus far this season. The platoon advantage obviously inflates those #'s for Scooter, but the plus side is there are more RHP in the majors than lefties, so most of Scooter's AB's even as an everyday player would be against RHP. That said, even a 100 point OPS drop due to playing full time and struggling against LHP more often would still make him an above average offensive 2B. For a guy who never sniffed any top 100 prospect list before he earned his shot at the big leagues, you take that every stinking time. Couldn't be happier with Scooter thus far, and any issues people have with his current platoon-mate shouldn't be held against his value to the club. From a dollar to production value, I'd bet the Brewers are getting better production at 2B than what they're actually paying Scooter/Weeks together so far in 2014.

the fact that people have to dig through stats to find reasons Scooter isn't as productive as Chase Utley as a LH hitting 2B should pretty much tell you he's having a fantastic season. having a RH hitting utility IF that is better defensively than Weeks (and much cheaper) would be ideal, yes...but that can likely happen over this offseason. Heck, Weeks might get his option declined, find limited offers on the open market, and return to Milwaukee in the role he currently has for a smaller salary.

I'd be interested in trading for either Zobrist (switch hitter who can practically play anywhere) or Matt Joyce (LH hitter who would be a solid 4th OF option) from the Rays. Give Overbay's or one of the weak-hitting backup IF's roster spots to either of the two and the Brewer's MLB position player roster gets better and more flexible.

He's not hard to figure out, he just lets hitters make enough to mistakes to be successful. Since that's the essence of pitching, I'm glad he's good at it. He's great at getting hitters to chase because his secondary offerings look like they're going to be strikes...until they're not and the hitter ends up swinging at a hard to hit pitch. I agree that visually it isn't always the prettiest - there's no 96mph coupled with a knee buckling slider anymore, but he's been around the MLB block so much that he finds a way to get outs frequently.

I guess I want to have my cake and eat it too on Beltran... The Cards absolutely made the right decision not to give Beltran silly money at this point in his career, but they do miss a productive OF power bat in the middle of their order, which was what he gave them during his time in STL. Their hope was to get that level of production at both RF and 1st with a combination of Adams and Craig, with Taveras as the RF heir apparent once he was ready. Craig has underperformed so far this year compared to his career norms, and Adams is having a good year offensively aside from a lack of power. Both could easily improve and make this discussion moot, and Taveras will undoubtedly be an everyday OF'er before long, but I think their lineup lacks the accomplished slugger to build around. Guys like Adams, Craig, or eventually Taveras may develop into that, but they're not there yet. Craig and Adams as RF/1b options are pretty good, but aren't comparable to Beltran/Pujols manning those positions for STL a few seasons ago. Holliday's just not that type of hitter at this point in his career, either.

Think I heard Garza say hello also. not sure if that's meant to be a plus or minus on this roster, since Garza's been really good of late. I have doubts on if he'll produce over his entire contract, but frankly the overall #'s he's put up in 2014 thus far would be the market rate for a #2-#4 starting pitcher, which is what his contract basically is. not giving up a draft pick for signing him is a plus, too.

What the injuries to Wacha and Garcia do is limit the depth their pitching staff has, which limits the pieces available to try and trade for frontline starting pitching, or more importantly an impact bat or two. Their everyday lineup on paper doesn't appear to have many weaknesses, other than they have an extremely limited ability to hit for power. Last year it was masked due to an unsustainable BA with RISP...this year it's actually below average if I'm not mistaken, and their run scoring capabilities have really suffered. They really miss a bat like Beltran in the lineup right now. The Cards currently have 4 regulars slugging over 0.400, and only 1 barely over 0.500 largely due to a high batting average (Adams)...By comparison, only Segura and Overbay are slugging under 0.400 among the Brewers' regulars, with 3 slugging over 0.500.

at this point in the season, I think it benefits the other 4 in the rotation if everyone gets an extra day, and the off days coming up set up perfectly to do so. Just because #5's been struggling shouldn't mean that you don't give the other 4 starters a break here and there to try keeping them healthy, too.

The only things I think we can really give Doug credit for this year is giving Scooter a chance and not selling the farm for a replacement level first basemen. Will Smith says hello KRod says hello Zach Duke of all people says hello Carlos Gomez and Jonathan Lucroy's contracts say hello pretty much the entire roster that's 17 games over 0.500 says hello. he's the general manager - he makes roster decisions on players both short and long term...he's done a great job putting together this roster, which I'd argue has more pitching depth on the 40-man than just about any other Brewers team I can think of. Not the rotation studs like CC, Sheets, and Greinke, but a solid group of starters and a deep pen. the flaw with this team is a thin group of backup position players which makes for a poor bench...I think the bench gets addressed one way or the other before the trade deadline. Injuries, particularly to a handful of key vets (Braun, ARam, Cargo), could derail this season...but that's the case with most teams if their best position players go down. I give Melvin a ton of credit for putting together a team that by all indications is above average at pitching, hitting, and fielding...if that continues it's good enough to make the playofs - which gives them a shot most of us didn't think was possible going into the season. There's what, 1 team with a better record than the Brewers in all of baseball almost 1/2way into the season? Not bad, IMO!

If the Brewers didn't have KRod on their roster for the first 3 months, I would guess this team would be alot closer to 0.500 than 1st place in the division by now. Compared to the other veteran closers signed by teams to shore up their bullpens over the offseason, KRod's been awesome. KRod has had some recent struggles, but some of that is inflated due to how unsustainably great he was early this year. He's been getting a TON of work, and while I love that he's able to pitch 3-4 consecutive games and it's given the bullpen an anchor at the end that's almost always available, I worry that's going to come back to bit the Brewers during the 2nd half unless he can get longer periods of rest.

I think the veiled racism issue actually does play a big role in this...seems like alot of the vocal Cardinal fans' unreasonable disdain for the Brewers started with the jersey untucking after wins, when the team had Cameron, Weeks, Fielder, and Sabathia as prominent players on the team that were beating the Cards like a drum. Always thought the crap the Brewers got for untucking jerseys after a win was a clever way for closet racists to lash out...Dudes take their shirts off after soccer matches, NBA players do the same after games often, NFL players often have their shirts untucked or even pads off when the final whistle sounds as they go to shake hands. The Cards player grew to hate the Brewers because they were better than them for a few years and LaRussa is an instigator.