pebadger

Yeah, but he made a nice catch in the All-Star game.

Don't worry about the guy at second, Crew. Just win this thing. Can't ever be easy, can it.

Sure seems from all the evidence we have that it hit the bat, but it is a bit odd that of the two guys closest to the play plus Wolf nobody even made a complaint. Usually I trust the people closest to the play over the limited views we get from teh cameras, but this is one of those rare occasions in which I think they all just missed what happened.

Loe makes me nervous here. Hope I'm wrong.

For everyone complaining about Rock, and not without reason on a number of points, he has been dead on about the HBP issue all year long.

Probably just me, but the only thing I thought of when they showed the replay of Prince climbing the ladder to go after Escobar's throw was how much it would hurt if he came down on sombody's foot.

Dear Baseball Gods, I know the Brewers aren't making the postseason. I know that all games are meaningful, but some are just more meaningful than others, and frankly, the Brewers really don't have very many of those left at all. I will admit that in a couple short weeks my sports attention will shift away from the Crew almost entirely. For this offense, I beg forgiveness. I know the Brewers have at least one more good run of games in them yet this season. Please, please consider allowing that run to be tonight and tomorrow. I'll give up a good series against the Padres. I'll give up a good mid-September series against the Giants. I'll even accept Brandon Phillips, bless his heart, continuing to pummel Brewer pitching over the next month. I wouldn't at all mind a nice revival from September 3 through September 8, but if these next two games are any good, I'll take what I can get those days. Thank you for your consideration.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Ron Gardenhire heard the boos from Twins fans Sunday afternoon. And the Minnesota manager acknowledged he was kind of booing himself at the same time. Even though Kevin Slowey just thrown seven innings of no-hit baseball against Oakland, Gardenhire went to his bullpen to finish the game. The bid for a combined no-hitter didn't last long, either, when Jon Rauch gave up a double to the second batter he faced in what would end being a 4-2 Twins victory. "I would boo me too," Gardenhire said. "I took a pitcher out with a no-hitter going. But I would do it 1,000 times the same way." The reason was simple: Elbow tendinitis caused Slowey to miss his last start. Combine that with 106 pitches to get through seven innings and there was little chance of him throwing two more innings -- even if he continued to hold the Athletics without a hit. "We're not going to come close to risking this guy," Gardenhire said. "It's the way it is. It's sad. I'd be booing too because I want to see a no-hitter, but I also know I'm responsible for this guy's arm." I think Dusty Baker's head just exploded.

This is not unlike the line of thinking by which I ended up with my wife.

If asked I could clear my schedule next spring. I'll work cheap (3 yrs, $1.5M) and be a fan favorite because I'll show "fire" and emotion". Most importantly, I have playing experience and know exactly what it's like to plunk 3 batters in a row and feel no remorse whatsoever. Sure, I was a hard throwing 8-year-old with fastballl control issues at the time, but at least the players will know I have their backs. I've also work on the field with future major league players and a World Series-winning manager (as minor league bat boy) and received an advanced degree in basball wisdom here at bf.net. Not only that, I've umped organized games, too. Competence, economy, "fire" and credibility built on experience. Can't miss.

It's not a "tough luck" loss, BA. It's a "we stink and we've pretty much stunk all season" loss.

I'm waiting for the day that a local prosecutor decides to get involved in a beaning or a mound rush. It has happened in hockey. It will happen one day in baseball when somebody gets badly hurt. There is no license to commit assault in sports events. The big issue here would always be one of intent, and in that way the batters are probably at a doulbe disadvantage as it will almost always be easier to prove intent when a batter goes out to pummel a pitcher than it will when a pitcher plunks a batter. It could get really interesting in such a case if there was testimony that a manager "ordered" an act of violence that resulted in somebody being seriously injured. There is always the possibility that rather than a prosecutor being the one to bring all these legal issues to a head, they will instead come up in a civil case after a player who has had his career significantly altered brings a civil case alleging an assault. Sorry to take the "fun" out of this, but it's always fun until someone loses an eye. Melvin's comments on the issue today are also worth considering. Until the players decide to take care of other players, it's hard to feel all that sorry for them as a group. Yes, it stinks within the context of the team you play with this year when you're getting plunked a lot, but I tend to think that the best way to make the problem go away is to a) for the players to decide that plunking/retaliating in any form just has run its course and won't be done anymore, and b) for the players/clubs/MLB to back that up by instituting a process for imposing significant penalties in the first instance, not after the cycle of plunking/retaliation has already started. I tend to think that the large "lead" that the Brewers have in the NL HBP derby this season is mostly a statistical anomaly, but given the fact that the Brewers have been at or very near the top of the league for at least 5 or 6 seasons there are probably some identifiable factors at work here over the longer term as well, not including Ken Macha.

I've just gotten home from helping repair my Dad's A/C. Looks like I got the better end of the deal.

That half-inning made staying up for this pretty much worth it.

The Marlins rating is actually pretty bad. That the number of viewing households is comparable to Milwaukee is mitigated by the fact that Miami/Ft Lauderdale has a population equivalent to the entire state of Wisconsin, and that doesn't include that part of the Marlins TV market north of Broward County. There are a lot of good baseball fans down there, but many of them are Yankee fans.

Yeah, we're on pace to end this thing at about 11:30. There is an opportunity here to make this one memorable, but they have to do some more damage to Volquez quickly. Really a missed opportunity last inning.

Kottaras should have hit there. Anyone on the roster can catch as well as him in a pinch.

Sweet. After tonight's thrilling come-from-behind win, the biggest game of the season to date won't be televised. Sure, I'll be working, but still . . .

Braun is not. Not right now anyway.

With the Reds as the opponent, this is a night tailor made for Bill Hall to be a savior. Or at least eat up innings

Even the 47 people in the upper deck in St Pete were making noise after that.

It's really too bad Rickie had that big slump after the first few weeks of the season. His season numbers would be absolutely huge otherwise.

Kottaras still can't catch the ball.

An, reiterating for the record, WMLW makes my eyes bleed. Ueck and Gameday/Gamecast are preferable.

According to ESPN Gamecast, Prince is hitting 35 points higher than his season average when facing an 0-2 count. Seconds after seeing that, Prince gets another 0-2 hit.