DuWayne Steurer

Good article. I did find it hilarious that he says the one thing that could potentially de-rail a deep playoff run is Yuni B. Got a nice chuckle out of that.

I had a big problem with it when it was Nieves, not so much now that it's Kottaras, who is at least semi-competent with a bat in his hands. It's all fine and well, since we're winning. There's just something about needing to coddle/cater to a #4 starter that kinda bugs me. You'd think a guy making Wolf's money, hell, any professional, could put aside his personal bias and just do his job regardless of who's behind the plate. It's not like there's a language barrier or anything between Wolf and Lucroy. Ah well, it is what it is. Like I said, we're winning, so it doesn't matter. If the Crew were languishing 5-6 games out instead of the other way 'round, I wonder if this wouldn't be more of an issue.

It's no secret that the Brewers have a pretty bad defensive team......nothing's going to change that any time soon, but this game was an absolute gem by the defense. Whatever could go wrong DID go wrong for the Dodgers. One of those scenarios where the Brewers were put in position multiple times to make plays, and they came up on the positive end every single time.

Time for a first inning 2-run big fly. Get that one back and then some.

To be fair, an average starting major league LFer catches that ball to Braun.This is true. It's just an auspicious start. Everything that's been in play has been hard hit so far. First inning yips against the Pirates isn't what I expected here today.

This isn't the start we were looking for out of Marcum. A 395 foot flyout, a rope down the line, and a double off the wall.

I'd like to say "small sample size" but over his career, Morton has been consistently awful vs. lefties. However, there's nothing about Craig Counsell or Felipe Lopez that makes me think it was 'necessary' to get them into the lineup today.

I mean.......come on.......this has to be a joke, right? Lopez leading off........Lopez and Counsell in the same lineup........with Kotsay. Nope, it's not. It's real. Lopez leading off? I mean, seriously? Yeah, yeah I know, "Well who ELSE would you put leadoff? Well, not Lopez!

I look at it this way. If the Brewers play .500 ball the rest of the way, the Cardinals have to be 10 over (26 - 16) in order to tie. Not that this is by any means impossible, or even a 'long shot', but when you think about it that way, it makes a person feel pretty good about our chances. Lots can happen between now and then, but I'm happy with where we're sitting.

I am not advocating using WAR for choosing MVP, but in 1987 Ozzie had a 7.5 WAR, and had a very good season at the plate considering he had 0 homeruns. For a guy with 0 homeruns to have 75 RBI, and over 100 runs is fantastic. He was also (obviously) a huge run saver on defense. If I were given a vote, Ozzie would have gotten mine, and I wouldn't have even had to toss it around before I picked him over Dawson.

What's our playoff odds now?

Dawson was one of the worst MVP choices ever. He had a good, not great season in which offensive numbers across the board were grossly inflated, and had a .323 OBP. I know, I know, his job is to drive in runs, not get on base. No matter how you slice it though, getting out 68% of the time is a detriment to your team and scoring runs in general.

I don't know if Mike Adams was a 'prospect' anymore, but he was shipped to the Mets for Jeremi Gonzalez in 2006, and look how that turned out. Michael Brantley's having a decent (101 OPS+) year in Cleveland, though I suspect we're not feeling that sting because of Morgan. Still, there is a big age difference, and Brantley at 24 certainly has room for improvement, and he's showing at least some marginal power this year (7 homeruns). I don't at all think he's perennial all star material, but he looks like he could be a starting caliber big league CF for the foreseeable future. LaPorta is scuffling a bit, he's got 10 homers, but his OBP has dipped below .300. Can't be getting a .700 OPS out of your 1B. I'm hoping he can turn it around, but he might not get a lot of playing time if he can't get that OBP up to at least mediocre levels. De la Rosa had a few decent seasons in Colorado, but nothing special, and I don't think anyone's losing sleep over him not being a Brewer these days. Cruz........yeah, that stings a little bit, but he was old, and as someone else said, he actually passed waivers in Texas, and nobody claimed him. Apparently, Doug wasn't the only one who thought Cruz wasn't a viable major league player. His rise to prominence wasn't all that predictable. His minor league strikeout numbers were atrocious. I don't put much, if any stock into strikeout rates, but at the minor league level, a strikeout rate as high as he had could be predictive as to how a guy might struggle at the big league level. Joe Thatcher had a couple really good years as a loogy for SD, but is hurt this year. In hindsight, I'd say with the production that Thatcher has shown that that trade would be a net loss. Inman still hasn't cracked a big league roster (6.06 ERA this year in the PCL) and Garrison I see has pitched a grand total of 2/3rds of an inning at the bigs for the Yankees this year. His minor league numbers don't look all that special. So yeah, it's safe to say that it doesn't look like Melvin has ever traded away a future superstar. The Greinke trade........time will tell. I really hated to lose Cain, but again, Morgan has eased some of that sting this year. On the flip side of the coin though, some of the big name prospects that the Brewers have traded for, likewise, haven't really panned out. Jose Capellan had one semi-productive year for us out of the bullpen. I don't really know if Overbay and Capuano were 'prospects' at the point the Crew acquired them. I can't really think of any other 'prospects' the Brewers traded for that were highly touted. I know at one point Helms was one of the Braves top prospects, but he was certainly not a prospect at the point the Crew acquired him.

Yankees of the midwest? The team that hasn't won a world series since 1908, or been to one since 1945? Was your post supposed to be in blue? They have the market-size/ fanbase/ money to buy an annual playoffs a'la the Yankees and Red Sox, they just haven't managed their advantage well. Logically, you'd think someday that will change, but contracts like Zambrano's are what help keep that situation from happening. There's nothing going on in that organization that makes me think that they stand a ghost of a chance of being a perrenial playoff team the way they're currently run. I'll have to see it before I'll even consider it.

Yankees of the midwest? The team that hasn't won a world series since 1908, or been to one since 1945? Was your post supposed to be in blue?

I'd like to say I'll miss Zambrano, and watching him melt down like this, but I won't. Baseball just doesn't need guys like him. I hope he stays away (but I doubt that he truly will)

Who's not giving their all?Well, I kinda hope Lopez actually isn't. If this is all he has to offer..........

Yeah, we've been pretty spoiled the last few weeks......but this game is ugly. Poor pitching from Yo, the defense is letting him down, and the offense isn't coming up with any timely hits.

Yo just isn't sharp tonight. Not hitting his spots. Of course, if the offense would, you know, bring in some of these runners they're putting on, it might be a different tenor to this game.

Well, this game is turning into one of those "leaving a small village on the basepath" type of games.

Lopez completely butchered that inning. What DOES Hairston have to do to get playing time on this team? He's a better option than 4 of the guys out there tonight in a game that essentially is worth 2 games in the standings.

AWESOME excerpt from Lucroy in that same article. "There's always something when we play the Cardinals. I know that as a player we're all kind of tired of La Russa's antics. This is what he does. He does that to try and play mind games with you. And he wants to get you all mad and angry and get distracted. That's just what he does. That's how he plays the game. Same thing with the scoreboard (lighting) thing. He is just doing it to try and get any advantage he can. And for us, we're all just kind of tired of it. He intentionally hit (Ryan) Braun after we unintentionally hit Pujols. So take that as whatever you think it means. That's just the way he is. We're not really worried about it. We don't really care. Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/bernie-miklasz/article_5fb8f162-c35c-11e0-a78f-001a4bcf6878.html#ixzz1UkFbrtFV

Yeah, the Weeks homer was a Friday, I remember it now. We were grilling out, and had a pit fire that night, sitting around having a few brews. I remember when he hit the bomb, I ran a lap around the backyard, and my wife was yelling at me to not break my neck running around in the dark.

It's weird to think about, but there's an outside shot that that is reachable, isn't there? Considering they started what...14 - 20?

I hated Nyjer Morgan's guts.........until he was a Brewer. And again, most non-Brewer fans think Ryan Braun is a pretty big douche. I just don't get why everyone's so concerned about the guy being a cocky 21 year old, and why they think that has anything to do with the value of this trade.