BrewCrewRising

I'm going. This season stings to be sure, but there is something about going to a game with no expectations. And I too hope every player is cheered and feels the appreciation the fans should feel for them.

Very good points, and a nice post. I agree about throwing money at the bullpen. That's one of the reasons I'm annoyed with the Thatcher/Sarfate trades. Sarfate I can let go of a lot more quickly since his presence performance did not seem predictable from his AAA numbers. Maybe he was just miserable in AAA. Thatcher though is killing me.

Ah...my bad. Thanks for the explanation. And, damn, I was kind of looking forward to letting him go. He just isn't that good.

Wise signed a two year contract before the beginning of last season, and MLB4U.com reports that Wise is a FA at the end of this season.

This is a two part question: How much trouble are we in for 2008 in regards to the bullpen? It's obvious that our bullpen is a weakness. You may argue that it's average, but there are few pitchers there I have a lot of confidence in . Even CoCo makes me jumpy at times. So, I'm assuming we can't re-sign Cordero, Turnbow is shaky and not to be seen as a lynchpin of the bp, Wise is a freeagent if he's not dead, Linebrink is a FA and I fear that we'll re-sign him, and don't even get me started on Spurling, McClung, and Aquino. Also...did DM totally blow it by trading Thatcher and Sarfate? I know that Sarfate's numbers at AAA were not inspiring, but he's pretty good in Houston now. And Thatcher's numbers are pretty darn good in SD. I know hindsight is 20/20, but given what a weakness the BP has become, it bothers me that two good young arms have parted ways with the Crew. Thoughts or insights?

So.....sorry to revive this thread, but ....... Under what circumstances do we let Yo pitch again? With 8 games left, Yo has one more possible start. So, his next start is with 3 games left. Have we burned his arm out yet? I'm just trying to hold out to some kind of hope here. Even if it is for years future...

Well, like I said above, it scares me when fans try to rely on somebody else's curse. We didn't start the curse, so we can't depend on it. Then again, I'm too superstitious for my own good. The fault lies not in the curse dear Horatio, but within our own inability to win some of the games we should have won this year.

This, coupled with something Ennder said has me swayed toward the "Nay". The manager does not play. He may to some extent inspire players, but otherwise his only job is to position the game to his team's greatest advantage. I just don't see that from him. We don't need a manager anymore who can make West Obermueller and Mark Kinney feel confident about their lack of stuff. We need a guy who can position the talent to the greatest advantage and give us a higher percentage of wins out of those games where the talent of the team doesn't explode into a certain win. And if you're going to bunt, why not have Suppan do it right away? He bunts much more than Counsell and would probably be a little more effective at it. That said, I have to echo the above statement that says you play for the big inning on the road. That was a lot to spend on the specter of 1 insurance run.

Yeah, me too. My reverse psychology strategy is not working.

2 out of 3. You mean 2 out of 3 winning by at least 5 runs! The Cubs are a team of destiny. Their third game (the off game) will only be won by 4 runs or so. Besides you got Big Z pitching on Sunday. That guy is unstoppable. A true Ace. Never gets injured and battles hard. You will win at least 2 out of 3, and the third is just Zach Duke has been more like Zach Puke this seasons. I'm seeing a big CUBS SWEEP here! Go Cubs!

As I write this they are beating up against Maholm, a lefty and supposedly the undoing of the Cubs. The Cubs will sweep this series no problem!

I agree with this. Although I think to be fair, it should be renamed the "Cubs Entitlement Trophy". GO CUBBIES!

I agree with this and more. I think there should be a stat I'll just casually refer to as RUCUS (Relativity Underneath Cubs Unique Supremacy). So for example the '27 Yankees, '54 Indians, '98 Yankees would all have a RUCUS of -1 (meaning they're only 1 RUCUS under the Cubs. The Big Red Machine might be -3. All I hope for the Brewers is that DM makes some trades so we can just get at -10 RUCUS. That would be so awesome. I'm so honored to have seen the Brewers at Wrigley and to have given my money to one of the truly great teams and organizations in baseball. Sorry to post so much on this thread, but I am just brimming with well-wishes for the truly awesome Cubs. GO CUBS GO!!

Great picture! I hope that little kitty brings great luck to the infant ursa! Go black kitty and deliver the division title the mighty, glorious and storied Cubs deserve! GO CUBS GO!

Yes indeed! Go Cubs! Handle the Buccos, Fish and Reds with impunity! You've shown you're awesome, so keep showing it! You're going to be division champs and more! GO CUBS GO!!

This thread reminds me of how when the Yankees were getting scared of Boston coming back from being 0-3 in the 2004 ALCS you saw more and more of the CURSE signs out in the stands. This thread is bad mojo.

I'm just more worried about the Cubs than the Cards. I hope the Card sweep the Cubs this weekend. Cubs just have more talent with which to do be a thorn in our side. The Cubs have handled the Cards this season, but it's always a heated rivalry and sometimes does strange things. That's my silver lining comment for right now.

At this point I'm not trying to win the ultimate bragging rights about our record. I think even if the Crew blows it, being forced to play for something into September will help develop the younger players. If we are lucky enough to win the division and go to the playoffs, I'll again be happy that the players get a feel about playing into October, and that Milwaukee can get some playoffs after 25 years. But for now, I'm just enjoying the ride. I became a lot more Zen about all this once we coughed up the lead in the division. I'm just happy when they do well, and it's nice to see them with a shot this far along in the season.

I had tickets for the Sunday game in New York in May, for Saturday and Sunday last month for series in St. Louis, and for this weekend for the SF series. I had to give up all those tickets and didn't use them. They lost all those games.

Supposedly Monroe is a lefty killer, and that could explain why the Cubs have an interest in him. They have been abysmal against lefties this year.

Don't even get me started on Mr. Hanel. I'm sure he's the reason the bullpen has melted down.

Question: If we decline the option on Jenkins next year and then offer arby, do we get the draft picks? And all this talk of average/below average, where does he fall in terms of type of FA?

And the Crew couldn't score 10 runs? I think this thread now belongs in the vent thread. Seriously though, did anybody notice how many long fly outs the Crew had in that series? It seriously seemed like they were trying to long ball it all the time. I wasn't able to watch any of the games though. I "saw" most of it in MLB game day.

Has this been a disappointing season? First off, I realize that this sounds like a dumb thing to ask since we are at least assured to be tied for first place by the end of the day. We may win somewhere between 83-87 games and probably have about a 50% shot at winning the division. I'm sure had somebody said that this would be case in August back in April, most of us would have thought, wow, pretty good scenario. But is it? I think that 83-87 wins is a bit paltry. It seems that to truly be a contender, to be a team that can forge its own destiny, you have to be able to hit 90+. The Cards and the Cubs will always have the capability to leverage that kind of talent, but it's starting to seem like we will never be able to. I'm starting to think this season has been a disappointment because it revealed that the Crew isn't as good as many had hoped and wanted, and that it may not be in a position to be a true contender in the division in years to come. My reasons for saying this are: -Pitching: We are thin on our pitching future, IMHO. Yes, Gallardo (excusing yesterday) seems poised to be a great, great pitcher. But we'll be losing Sheets in the near-ish future, Cappy is a shadow of his former self, and we have the albatross that is Suppan's performance-to-contract ratio. Vargas and Bush can be OK, but they can't anchor a rotation. The bullpen, which once seemed like a shining spot of the team, has been woeful. With Wise a FA after this season (and who cares now?), Shouse a FA, Co CO a FA (and sequel to 3-mile island in any case), Turnbow overrated, Spurling a joke, I'm not liking the bullpen's chances either. -Linup: Prince and Braun have been great, but we can now see that they can't carry the team all the time. Corey Hart has been a great suprise, but I don't see him as a cornerstone to a team. Bill Hall may come back to previous levels. I'm pessimistic about Rickie. I don't know how LF will shake out in years to come (probably LaPorta in a year or two?), but overall, I'm not heartened enough by the lineup. It's good no doubt, but not awe inspiring, and when you couple it with the defensive numbers and the pitching, it's just not enough. Will we ever be a true 90+ win contender? Or do we just want to think that we will be? If we can't do it this year, what should make us think that we ever will? Sorry for the very pessimistic thread. But everything seems so very bleak right now.

I realized this a while ago when I saw Rickey hit that giant home run at old Busch and the fans gave him a round of applause. I thought that was classy. It has bothered me that Brewer fans have been such boo birds. I remember in 1982 how the announcers would say we had such great fans. I wonder if that was ever really true, or if we've just been jerked around so long and then gotten our expectations up and we've turned sour. Then again, I remember talking to some friends from Green Bay when I was at college, and they said they thought Milwaukee fans were bad fans in terms of the Packers. They said we were "mean" to them and hard on them. This was back in the mid 80's though when the Pack really, really sucked. Maybe we're just bad fans.