pebadger

Did anyone really beleive this team as as good as the record they put up beating awful teams? Other than playing the Cards, Pittsburgh is the BEST team the Brewers have played since the road trip following the break. They are 8-9 versus the Cards (with today's result pending), Dbacks and Giants and way above against everyone else. They kicked away the first game of this series. A few bad breaks, a couple of bad plays and one flukish situation with the pitcher hitting a dinger cost them last night. They simply aren't good enough to steamroll everyone. They aren't the Phils. They probably aren't even the Braves. If they just don't panic they'll give themselves a decent shot in the postseason. That's all you can really ask. Today isn't over yet either.

Yuni cost ust the first game? I must have been watching a different game. That they didn't trade for Furcal tells me that even if they had he wouldn't be starting at SS. For all the gnashing of teeth here about this issue, it's clear that the FO feels differently about this than most do. It seems pretty clear to me that even if the FO thought Furcal was better than Yuni they didn't think he was that much better to mess with the chemistry and continuity of a team that was doing just fine. And it's not like Furcal didn't bring a whole lot of question marks with him in terms of performance and health. As noted, other than a few HR against the Crew, he's done nothing for the Cards.

Go Badgers.

OK, last chance to make a run to the Qwikie Mart before putting in a tough shift in front of the TV this afternoon/tonight.

Nobody needed to be convering 1B right away on that play, but after the ball went through to the plate, Prince (who was in the infiled cutoff) needed to recognize what was going on. He didn't.

How did nobody score? How did nobody get put out? Bad baseball. And now Kottaras can't get the ball out of his glove.

Sorry, don't understand the ovation for Braun there. He was slow down the first base line, then he got himself out of control, leading to another out at third base. Yes, nice RBI, but everything else about that play was bad.

I have no idea what that was about at all. Even if you thought you saw something that would get you a free base, that was about the worst possible situation in which to try it.

DFA Yuni. Oh wait, not his fault yet.

The team did nothing at the plate and when they did, the two best hitters on the team failed to capitalize.. The players booted the game away on defense. RR may have failed in this game, but not nearly as much as the players did.

Yeah, that should be first-round home-field. Football is here already and so is the language.

Here are the magic numbers for all the meaningful standings goals: To clinch a better record than the Phillies and likely home-field throughout: 36 To clinch a better record than Atlanta: 28 To clinch a better record than the DBacks and a first-round bye: 23 To clinch a better record than the Giants: 19 To clinch a better reocrd than the Cards: 18 To clinch a better record than the Reds: 16 The Brewers will not control their own destiny with regard to the Phillies until, within a given span of games, the Brewers win 9 and the Phils lose 9 with all other games being equal in that saame given span.

We know Greinke's home stats have been much better, across the board, than his road numbers. Gallardo has a much better home ERA than road ERA, though apart from his HR allowed many of his other numbers appear comparable between home and road. Marcum's road ERA is very good as compared to his home ERA, but otherwise his number appear comparable between home and road. Nonetheless, I think it's also fair to say that Marcum has appeared to be more comfortable pitching on the road than Greinke and Gallardo. We can argue the numbers all we want, but in the final analysis that question remains: Should the numbers matter in terms of splits? If so, at what threshold do we start paying attention to them? (Note that this is a very different question from looking at the numbers in a big picture sense). It appears very clear that the Brewers will have home-field advantage for the NLDS. I think it's a no-brainer that Greinke pitches one of the home games. I also think you probably prefer Yo at home and save Marcum for the 3 spot. None of that is very controversial at all, without regard to the H/R splits. But how do you set it up for a 7-gamer at Philly (if you even have the option given how things play out prior to that)? Do you hold ZG back to get a home start in Game 3 and give the first 2 games to Marcum and Yo? There are a bunch of other considerations that factor into the decision. But how much should the splits matter in the final analysis? Will be interesting to see if it matters at all to RR and the braintrust.

This graph depicts the seasons of the Brewers, Cards, Reds, Pirates and Phils with the x-axis being games played over time and the y-axis shwoing wins/losses. I think it pretty decscribes pretty well in a visual form how long the Phils have been playing consistently well and just how extraordinary this explosion has been by the Brewers. For purposes of this thread, it also shows just how unlikely it would be to catch the Phils. The Brewers would have to continue their own torrid pace and the Phils would have to have a completely uncharacteristic breakdown. http://images.yuku.com/image/png/279358d39bba811546646ba1f9c2c478427c51f.png

At this point the Brewers could get swept in BOTH Cards series and still probably be fine in terms of winning the division. Expanding on topper's point, even getting double swept, if the Brewers go 10-11 in the rest of their games, the Cards still have to go 15-7 in the rest of theirs just to tie the Brewers. And the Cards have 7 games left with the Phils and Braves. In short, it would take as epic a collapse as there has been in modern baseball to mess this up. I am 100x more worried about the Brewers losing their edge in terms of clinching too early than I am about them messing this up and even making it a race.

Just to change it up I think the theme from SWAT would be cool for Prince. Because, you know, he swats the ball really hard and . . . it would just be awesome. In fact, the entire lineup should pick out 70s/80s TV theme songs for one night. Maybe on a retro Friday after this thing is clinched. Hawaii 5-0 Rockford Files SWAT Magnum PI The A-Team

Well, I guess they have to post a big number this inning to make that Hart AB happen.

TG debut?

I like Yuni more than most here. He can make some nice plays when he does get to the ball. But saying he has great range is simply wrong.

Brenly on WGN: "Betancourt has great range" Can't make this stuff up.

How long will it be before we see a thread here worrying about the Crew clinching too early?

Well, it's nice that he gets to call their own execution. Nice to see FOX has the Cards on again next weekend. Should be great ratings for them in a baseball town like STL.

The three minor leaguers Pittsburgh threw at the Crew weren't any great shakes either. They beat Greinke and Marcum.

The offense has been very much feast or famine lately. I'd almost be tempted to pitch around *both* Braun and Fielder here.

Yep. These games against the Cubs almost feel like a no-win situation. If they win, they were supposed to. If they lose, you just get really frustrated losing to such a sorry bunch. In that case, even the Cards losing tonight would only soften the blow.