crewcrazy

There were a few pictures that surfaced of Hall partying at some nightclubs. Nothing too scandalous, but since he was struggling on the field, that somehow translated into "Bill Hall partied himself out of Milwaukee." When I think of "cancer," I think of a guy teammates can't stand and want gone. That's not even close to being Bill Hall.

Like others have said, it's probably partially superstition, and partially the fact that they're more comfortable. The game notes put out every day actually keep track of their record with the different uniform combinations, for those interested. After Saturday night's win: White Uniforms: 1-2 Gray Uniforms: 2-10 Blue Home/"Brewers": 19-4 Blue Road/"Milwaukee:" 9-9 Retro: 1-1

A Mitch Hedberg reference and an Anchorman quote? Well done. Definitely looks like some wild fluctuation, but considering there are a ton of future reserves and relievers in the system, that's probably to be expected. I'm really interested to see the next Power 50, though -- the post-draft editions are always my favorite.

0-1 @ Reds 0-1 2-2 @ Marlins 2-3 2-1 v Mets 4-4 2-1 v Cardinals 6-5 2-2 @ Cubs 8-7 1-2 @ Red Sox 9-9 2-1 v Twins 11-10 1-2 v Rays 12-12 1-2 @ Yankees 13-14

Never question Casey's trivia prowess. Good to see Yo work so efficiently the past few innings. The Giants' lineup is pretty bad, so there's no reason to really mess around. Not a lot of bats that can hurt you, especially with the bases empty like they've been.

Mike Winters has been a joke behind the plate, but I won't complain.

Hart still ill. 2B Weeks CF Morgan LF Braun 1B Fielder 3B McGehee RF Kotsay C Lucroy SS Betancourt RHP Gallardo CF Torres 3B Burriss 2B Sanchez 1B Huff RF Schierholtz LF Belt SS Crawford C Stewart RHP Cain

I don't think anyone's throwing him in with the scrap heap -- he's a very good pitcher. Probably not as good as he's been through his first 11 starts, but still good. I do think he'll come back down to earth a little bit, but it's not like he'll start pitching like Suppan. An uptick in his strikeouts this year could be explained by facing National League lineups, his walk numbers are returning to normal after a rough start to the year in that area, and while his BABIP against seems low (.266) compared to league average, his BABIP against for his career is around .270. Those are things that I think can be sustainable. The things I worry about a little bit are his career-best (to this point) HR rates. After averaging 1.25 home runs allowed per 9 innings over his career, he's only allowed 0.76 this year, and that's with allowing 5.3% more flyballs than he has averaged over his career. That kind of thing just leads me to believe that more balls are going to eventually find their way over the fence, and we kind of saw that last night. The good thing is with the way Marcum pitches, it doesn't seem likely that he'll have very many runners on base if/when he starts surrendering a few more homers. He just hung a curveball to Crawford last night and the bases happened to be loaded...stuff like that happens. He's an Inverted W guy, but the problem isn't with the Inverted W as much as what happens with his timing because of it. Basically, his plant foot hits the ground early, and because of that, more stress is put on his arm and elbow because he isn't using his body's momentum to "power" his throw as much (the reason not all Inverted W's are evil is because some are like Carlos Marmol and can get their arm cocked before their plant foot hits). Tom Verducci wrote an article about Stephen Strasburg's mechanics a couple months ago about it, and I applied it to Marcum and took some screen caps back in March if anyone's interested in checking that out. The delivery has obviously worked for Marcum on the mound, but it's enough to make some people nervous about the future.

Love the fact that this year, the Brewers can face Lincecum-Sanchez-Cain in a series and not be at a huge disadvantage. Long gone are the days of throwing Suppan against Lincecum.

No you didn't. Melvin did. Not that Inglett is anything special but it would have been nice to have him.Inglett's year so far: DFA'd on April 28, outrighted on May 3, contract purchased May 8, outrighted to Triple A May 12. He had a decent 160 plate appearances last year, but on a year-to-year basis he's right around replacement level. If he could play short the Brewers probably would have given him another look, but he's limited defensively and doesn't have a ton of pop with the bat.

For what it's worth, Cruz didn't go to Texas because he thought he'd get playing time in the bigs there. They promised him the full-time job at Triple A, something the Brewers couldn't/wouldn't do with their desire to get Edwin Maysonet and Eric Farris time there. The fact that Cruz wants out of Texas/Round Rock after just a couple months is pretty surprising, though. Not sure he'd get much more of an opportunity if he came back to the Milwaukee system, though, considering how "pleasantly surprised" the F.O. has been with Yuni, and it's not like Counsell is going anywhere as the utility guy.

Brewers road BABIP: .256 Brewers home BABIP: .347 Every year in recent memory, they've been closer to the .280-.315 range on the road and at home. The biggest difference is that more hits are falling at home than they are on the road. It's not like they aren't hitting the ball hard on the road, either -- how many balls in the two-game Dodgers series were hit hard, only to find gloves in the outfield? These things even out by the end of the year.

When Wolf first came in last year, I remember Bill Schroeder mentioning just how complicated Wolf's signs were, and how hard that is on every catcher. I don't think it's just a "Wolf thing" where he's a pain to work with, though...a lot of veteran pitchers seem to be that way. There are times where he looks annoyed with Lucroy when he calls him out for a visit, but like Wolf is quoted as saying above, a lot of that probably has to do with frustration of things not going well on the mound.

At least there were some hard hit balls with runners on, especially late. Just a couple of bad breaks in the 8th with Hart and Braun making good contact but just finding gloves. I won't worry about the offense on the road as long as guys are getting on and hitting the ball hard.

Two pretty good pitches by Axford to force those flares into right, but Weeks shading over the middle a bit on RHB shifts makes those tough plays. I'm just glad to get through that Doumit AB with the ball in the yard. Had flashbacks to the last year or two.

Axford is warming. Doesn't look like Roenicke is taking any chances with this possible sweep.

Let's cool it a bit with the condescending comments, guys.

Honestly, I'm just glad that Greinke's going through this arm-building phase against teams like the Padres and Pirates. It could be worse -- the schedule could have given him more teams like the Braves his first few starts. His next start will be against Colorado, which will be a real test.

Greinke's arm is probably built up enough to throw 100 pitches over the course of an outing, but 20-pitch innings like the 4th still probably wear on him more than they normally would. Hasn't looked sharp at all in the 5th, and 40+ pitches is a ton for anyone to handle...let alone someone who's realistically one start or so removed from "spring training."

Greinke at 78 pitches after that double by Snyder. Over 30 pitches this inning with this Cedeno AB.

That was a pretty impressive AB by Walker. The pitch he hit out wasn't a bad one, either. There were a couple borderline pitches that could've been called strike 3 in that AB, but what else is new this series.

That is correct. He made Tabata look funny on it as well.Gave one to the Padres in his last start as well (to Brad Hawpe?). He said after the game he does it every once and awhile because the fans like it.

Boggs is in CF, PEM. I'm glad Roenicke is finally giving him a shot there. At least see what you have while he's on the roster before sending him out again when Morgan is back.

My guess is that Dillard's ability to multiple innings if needed played a role in the decision, considering the current state of the bullpen and the fact that there won't be another off day for a few weeks. I'm just glad they didn't bring Sean Green back.

Axford since his last blown save on 4/18: 9 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 11 K. Those 2 ER came in mopup duty in an 8-0 loss to Atlanta. After the disaster on Opening Day, Axford has an ERA of about 2.47 in 14.2 IP, 5 BB, and 15 K. Nice rebound.