GB12

And Michigan State loses. Would have been tied for first had we won.

Well that kills. Horrible final 3 minutes. Easily could have come back, but they chose to jack up threes instead of taking the points.

Yeah, I'm almost expecting a Michigan State and Wisconsin tie. When I was trying to do the percentages Wisconsin and Michigan State sharing the title was by far the most likely scenario. The predictions was more of just what I was thinking at the moment. I felt like throwing in a Wisconsin loss otherwise they would have tied in that too. As for the tie breaker rules, there are none. The Big Ten just names them co-champions. The last time there was a tie was 2002 when Wisconsin, Ohio State, Indiana, and Illinois all finished 11-5 so there were 4 co-champions.

And interestingly enough the Illinois win probably actually hurt a bit for the polls as I'm sure some voters will see the Michigan State win as a little less impressive now that they lost again. However the gain in the conference standings is much more important than the poll position. I posted kind of a Big Ten break down somewhere else, I guess I might as well post it here too. The Badgers are actually in great position to get a piece of the Big Ten title now. So how does the Big Ten shake out. The Big Ten standings right now look like: 1. Michigan State (9-2) 2. Wisconsin (8-3) 3. Illinois (8-3) 4. Purdue (7-3) 5. Ohio State (7-3) It looks wide open between the top 5, and in a way it is, but I'd rank them in the order listed below for favorites to get at least a share of the title. Wisconsin: Already had all the tough conference games in the early part of conference play and made it through with only 3 losses. Those losses came against Michigan State, Ohio State, and Purdue all on the road. The Badgers won all three home matches giving them a split series for all. So with those out of the way Wisconsin has a cake walk of a schedule to finish the season. All they have to do is take care of business against teams they should beat anyway and they're looking pretty good for at least a share of the title. Hardest 3 games remaining: @Illinois, Illinois, @Minnesota Michigan State Obviously being in first place right now they control their own destiny and take it if they win out. However they got Purdue right away on Tuesday which could give the Spartans their third loss in a row and put them right back with the rest of the pack. I'm not sure what Kalin Lucas' status is for that game, but if he's still out or even not 100% I definitely see Purdue winning. Even if they win they still have to play Ohio State and go to Purdue. I see them getting at least one loss out of those and assuming Wisconsin can take care of business against the lesser teams that'd get them a share of the title, but I think there's a good chance they drop two there. Hardest 3 games remaining: @Purdue, Purdue, Ohio State Ohio State Only two really tough games remaining, but the timing isn't too nice. They have to go to Michigan state just three days after playing the Boilermakers. However they have already beaten Purdue on the road and have only one conference loss with Evan Turner. If the records were even I'd definitely put them ahead of Michigan State. Hardest 3 games remaining:@Ohio State, Michigan State, @Illinois Purdue They still have a lot of work to do. They have to go on the road to Michigan State and to Ohio State within a 9 day span. They also have to face Michigan state for the second time on the 27th. With 3 losses already it'll be tough to get through that and still have a shot. One loss might keep them from having a chance, and two almost certainly will. Hardest 3 games remaining: @Michigan State, @Ohio State, Michigan State Illinois: I almost didn't want to include them because like I said they have no chance, but I suppose I'll show why. They're pretty much the opposite of Wisconsin. They've had the easiest schedule in the Big Ten so far, and that is the only reason they are sitting at 8-3. They're just about done with those easy games now though. They probably have the hardest remaining schedule of any team in the nation. In their final 7 games they have to play Wisconsin twice, Ohio State twice, and Purdue. They should enjoy that third place standing now because Illinois is looking at a 12-6 to 10-8 conference record at the end of the year. Hardest 3 games remaining: @Wisconsin, @Ohio State, @Purdue Basically Wisconsin has gotten its hard games out of the way while Michigan State, Purdue, and Ohio State will beat up on each other. For the next section I tried doing percentages, but there are still way to many possibilities, so I'm just going to list the possibilities with the best chances. I'm pretty much assuming that all games not against another contender is won, which of course as seen by tonight's game is not always the case. Assuming 2 losses takes the conference: Champion: Michigan State Assuming 3 losses takes the conference: One of Purdue and Ohio State will be eliminated after their match up. That is certain, there cannot be a 4 way tie with 3 losses. It's also extremely unlikely that everything plays out perfectly so that both Michigan State and the winner have 3 losses. Champion: 1. Wisconsin and Michigan State 2. Wisconsin 3. Wisconsin and Ohio State 4. Michigan State Assuming 4 losses takes the conference: Well for this to happen Wisconsin would have dropped a game to a game it should have won and Michigan State would have lost 2. This is where the three way ties come in. Still impossible for the 4 way I believe. However a three way would seem very likely. Champion: 1. Wisconsin/Michigan State/Ohio State 2. Wisconsin/Michigan State/Purdue 3. Wisconsin Now here are my predictions as to how the rest of the season will play out. Illinois: @ WIS - L OSU - W @ PUR - L @ MICH - W MINN - W @ OSU - L WIS - L 11-7 Purdue @ MSU -W IOWA- W @ OSU -L ILL - W @ MINN - W MSU - L IND - W @ PSU - W 13-5 Ohio State IOWA - W @ IND - W @ ILL- L PUR - W @ MSU - L @ PSU - W MICH - W ILL - W 13-5 Wisconsin ILL - W IND - W @ MINN - L NW - W @ IND - W IOWA - W @ ILL - W 14-4 Michigan State PUR -L @ PSU - W @ IND - W OSU - W @ PUR - W PSU -W MICH -W 15-3 Big Ten Champion: Michigan State

I can agree with that. When they achieved the #1 ranking a few years ago, as good as that team was, they were too reliant on Alando Tucker and that lead to the early exit. This year there is so much balance on this team it's ridiculous. You start at the top level with Hughes, Bohannon, and Leuer. At least one of those should top 15 points with probably getting at least 2 in double digits. Then you drop down a level and you got Taylor and Nankivil. These guys have been borderline first group as of late. Taylor has scored 13+ in the last 4 games and Nankivil is averaging 12.7 since Leuer has been out. That's 5 very solid guys that are going to give both offensive and defensive production. There aren't many teams that can say they have a better five than that. Then you go deeper in and get Evans, Wilson, and Jarmusz. All three are under 5 points per game, but they still bring value to the team. I'd even say that Rob Wilson almost single handedly won the first Michigan game. I don't think I'm being a homer in saying I truly believe that they can make the Final Four this year. I'm certainly not predicting it (yet. we'll see what I project in my bracket, although I doubt it), but I think it's possible. I think we can expect at least a Sweet Sixteen from this team though.

Brian Anderson is calling the Oklahoma-Gonzaga game that's on ESPN right now.

I completely forgot he was still on the active roster.

I think he'd be slightly worse than Prince defensively, but I would still love to pick him up if we trade Prince. Braun-Dunn-Gamel would be a nice 3-4-5.

Are you talking about trading for him this offseason or signing him as a FA after his contract with Washington is up?

New York-Boston is tied at 0 in the 14th.

Well he was drafted by Gord Ash.

He was safe, but that was still stupid for sending him.

Lots of cheers in LA for a Brewers win. Seriously, the Dodger fans misread that ball worse than Brian Anderson does.

I'm not sure how much truth is behind this, but there was a 3 team trade for Hernandez that got turned down at the last minute. http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2009/08/felix-gonzalez-were-part-of-failed-deal.html If they turned down Adrian Gonzalez and Clay Buchholz I can't imagine what it would take from us.

I'm perfectly fine with Kendall retiring as a Brewer. As long as it's this offseason.

It really does actually.You need multiple seasons for that to mean anything.

That's pretty cool. Though it'd be a lot cooler had he accepted the invitation. Haha.

The more I think about it, I'd like to keep him another year. Weeks gets injured often and we don't even know how he'll come back from this most recent one. In 5 MLB seasons Rickie's high for games played is 129, and he's only topped 100 twice. Keep McGehee as insurance at 2B and he can also start the season at 3B if we still don't want to play Gamel for whatever reason. Also try and teach him OF in the offseason and he'd be pretty valuable even if he's only a bench player. Then depending on how well he learns OF and if his bat doesn't drop off significantly we could trade off Hart and play McGehee in the OF if Rickie and Gamel are fine. I wouldn't be opposed to selling high either though. If we could get a decent starter for him or package him with Hardy for a better pitcher I'd be good with that too. I don't really know what his value is though. If he'd only get a #5, then forget it.

Cameron is worth a lot more than $5 million. I'd match the $10 he got this year to keep him.

The solution seems pretty simple. The Brewers should trade Hart and Hardy for pitching. Then they can put Gamel in Right Field and McGehee at 3rd. I'd rather keep Gamel at 3rd since I don't think there is much of a difference defensively between the two.

No way. You are vastly over estimating the fans. 100% of fans like us know who Gamel is, but of all fans it's probably around I'd say 65% know who Gamel is and far less for Escobar.

Just wondering, Say Jeffress didn't get suspended again and was having a fairly decent season in the minors. What kind of package do you think it would take with him involved.

I don't mind giving up Rottino at all. In fact I kind of forgot about him. The thing that gets me is that we traded for a guy we released. That never feels good.

$83 million - $21 million saved (2010) - $22 million (2011-2014 salary) relief = $40 million for 4 seasons of Zito. I think that says it all. We'd be paying $40 million MORE than we are with Suppan and Hall. The point would be to lower the cost, not double it.

He's more of a DH/1B at this point, and of course that wouldn't help us any.