Ball And Glove

I don't know how his arm got stronger, but his accuracy has been (literally) unbelievable so far this year, especially after we had to sit through a year of Johnny Estrada behind the plate. He's had his bad throws here and there, but for the most part he's been tough to steal on (unless Sheets is pitching -- he takes so long to get to the plate that it's impossible for Kendall to throw anyone out). Kendall had LASIK surgery over the winter...maybe they gave him a robotic arm while he was in surgery, too. I honestly have no idea.

Just wanted to say good luck this series, and hopefully it'll be full of entertaining (and injury-free) games. I'll try to cut down on my posts here during the series, out of respect to everyone here -- I doubt many people want to know what a Brewer fan thinks, especially if things get ugly for either side. I also hope those going to the game have a good time, and try not to mind the drunken idiots who call themselves Brewer fans that only bother to come out for Opening Day and Cubs games. It's really unfortunate, but a lot of the diehard Brewer fans have stopped going to these Cubs games at Miller Park because they can't stand the drunk college frat boys who feel it's necessary to curse out every opposing player even though they're sitting next to a 6-year old. I guess that kind of thing comes with having a successful team, though. Here's to hoping for a civil series, and afterwards we can go back to burying the Cards into third place. :D

Wasn't he supposed to make a start at the beginning of the year, but was scratched because he hurt himself while warming up? Edit: Yep...hurt himself warming up in April against the Pirates: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=280403115. I'd be a little surprised if he makes it into the game today.

Right, because acquiring the reigning AL Cy Young award winner was pure luck. Well, winning 7 in a row on the road is pretty lucky, especially when the team winning those games can't hit with RISP and three of those games were won on HR's in the last inning. Nothing wrong with admitting when the ball is bouncing your way, IMO.

imagine if Dusty got his hands on Sabathia. He'd pitch him in back to back starts That wouldn't surprise me at all if it happened in the playoffs. With Dusty as the manager i could see him sending Sabathia out there for back to back starts and 150 pitches per start.. They say momentum only takes you as far as the next day's starting pitcher -- what better way around that than to start the same starting pitcher? You can't lose momentum if you use the same pitcher that gave you that momentum! It's pure genius!

Wrong team to do it against with Mr., don't you dare throw at my guys, but I'll throw at your children's skull, managing the other team. I'm calling brawl in the next matchup between these 2. (and hopefully Braun, Hardy, Hall, Weeks, Sabathia, and Sheets get 2 month suspensions out of it) Lifting a quote from brewerfan from the other night, assessing what a fight between the two teams would be like... It might just be worth the suspensions to see that, depending on how many games ahead the Brewers are in the wildcard. :wink:

Apparently there's been some nasty weather in the St. Louis area, and they might have trouble getting a game in tonight. I'm bracing myself for the Cards winning 12-0 tonight, though -- this road trip has been too good to be true for Milwaukee. After seeing this team basically lose the division last year because they couldn't beat anyone on the road, it's unbelievable that they're a win away from a 7-0 road trip. Looks like the Brewers stole the Cards' pixie dust once they got into St. Louis.

I don't see what Yost had to do with Gallardo taking a wrong angle while covering first base and crashing into Reed Johnson. I guess you could argue that it was Ned's fault he kept him in the game after that, but the ACL was torn on the play at first, and once it's torn it can't be torn any worse. I'll say the Brewers are pretty lucky that Yo didn't hurt his arm while compensating for his knee, though. With that said, I would be more worried about Sabathia throwing so many complete games if he pitch counts were crazy high, but for the most part they haven't been. In his debut against Colorado he threw 97 pitches in 5 innings. The game against Cincinnati was the only game with a high pitch count -- he threw 122. Against the Giants he threw 110 in 9 innings. Last night in St. Louis he only threw 106. As long as he stays around 100 pitches every start, I won't be too worried. The Cy Young thing is stretching it, though. It only started because ESPN fantasy geek Eric Karabell was on a Milwaukee radio station and mentioned (unsolicited) that he thought Sabathia would win the NL Cy Young.

Well, that's bound to happen when you jam as much chew into your mouth as Hall does. Serves the Cards right for not have a spitoon positioned outside the batter's box. :grin: I wouldn't be surprised if LaRussa did have something planned, though -- if not for the Hall thing, then for the incident at the end of last year where Yost brought in McClung for the sole purpose of throwing at Albert Pujols...I don't remember if the Cards ever "retaliated" for that. Beanball wars are incredibly stupid, but if LaRussa wants to risk Looper getting thrown out of the game early, then he can certainly be my guest, especially with the way the Brewers have been hitting the Cards' bullpen in this series.

Ned Yost just called for an intentional walk of Adam Kennedy with Molina on second base, allowing the Cardinals to clear the pitcher in the third. :banghead:

Ludwick homers in the first inning, Pujols follows with a double into the gap. Suppan getting hammered early.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad they pitched well last night, and I realize that they may have to pitch in close games if they're on the roster. I'd rather not see them pitch in close games on a regular basis, though, and the only way to make sure that they don't is to have them off the roster. I'd love to see the Brewers replace them with another reliever via trade and bringing up Luis Pena to give him a shot. I realize Villa was unavailable last night, and Yost's hand was forced by McClung only going 5 innings (although I would probably argue that Yost got himself into that predicament by starting 5-inning McClung instead of Bush to begin with, but that's what the "Brewers Platoon 5th Starter" thread in General Baseball is for). I know Villa can't pitch every game. The Brewers' problem is lately, they only have 2.5 good relievers (Villa, Torres, and Riske depending on which version shows up), and there are going to be days when those guys are unavailable. Directing your tirade at me seems a little weird, though. I never said "Bring in Villanueva instead!" I didn't really even second-guess Yost. I'm glad things worked out the way they did, but I also realize that things could've gone wrong. I don't know how that makes me a clown or pathetic, but if you want to explain what you meant, feel from to PM me -- I just don't want to clutter up this thread. As far as I'm concerned, since I'm a Brewer fan on a Cubs board, I'm a guest here...I make it a point not to disrupt things when I'm a guest. As far as tonight's game goes, a win would be huge. The Brewers have won both games in which Lohse started against them earlier this year, but he still pitched pretty well.

I heard one rumor that had Holliday and Fuentes going to Philly for Shane Victorino (what the hell?), Carlos Carrasco, Lou Marson, and J.A. Happ. Doesn't make much sense to me...it would completely clear out what's left of Philly's farm system, but it doesn't seem like enough for 1.5 years of Holliday and a solid reliever like Fuentes. Victorino being included makes me believe that it's a bogus rumor (what the hell would the Rockies do with Podsednik, Taveras, Spilborghs and Victorino?? That's a ton of crappy speedy outfielders), and it doesn't seem like the kind of move Dan O'Dowd would make if he believes the team will contend again next year once everyone's healthy. O'Dowd's probably better off waiting until the offseason and trying to sucker a team into a Miguel Cabrera-type deal during the Winter Meetings or something.

The Arizona Republic says it's likely Rauch will set up Lyon for the moment, along with Chad Qualls and Luis Pena. Link: http://www.azcentral.com/sports/diamondbacks/articles/2008/07/22/20080722dbacksrauch-CR.html No official word from Bob Melvin yet on how he's going to use him, though.

The Huntsville Stars are just looking to solidfy their lineup for a playoff run. Seriously, though, I don't see any reason for this. Kapler's been a pretty good 4th outfielder this year and Branyan is capable of playing corner outfield. This just has to be for organizational depth, or something.

If that's the case, though, why did they put him in the rotation to start the year? Wouldn't it have made more sense for them to leave him in AAA all year?

Stetter was sent back down to make room for Suppan. I don't know how Guillermo Mota still has a job...the Brewers were incredibly lucky that Yost didn't get burned playing with fire last night when he put in Mota and Gagne with a 1-run lead. You kind of get the feeling that Doug Melvin is too proud to admit he made a couple mistakes with Mota and Gagne, otherwise he would've cut his losses by now -- both are one 1-year deals, so it wouldn't be crazy to cut both loose.

I don't know how many people saw this on FJM yesterday, but apparently Twins GM Bill Smith loves him some Livan Hernandez: How long will it take for this guy to completely trash everything Terry Ryan built up? A couple seasons? This guy is proof that there will never be a shortage of dumb GM's in Major League Baseball to feast on. One thing's for sure -- I think the Twins can now plead not guilty on intentionally leaving Liriano in the minors by reason of insanity. "How can you blame us for leaving Liriano in the minors when Livan has 10 wins!? Liriano doesn't have any!"

Bush isn't scheduled to pitch until the second game of the Houston series, on July 26th (Saturday). Assuming he doesn't get any innings in out of the bullpen, it'll be 16 days between starts for Bush. That's ridiculous. That's 3 times through the rotation since the last time he's gotten a start. Luckily for you guys, Bush is scheduled to make the start in the finale of the Brewers/Cubs series against Rich Harden. That should be interesting.

In the bottom of the 9th I was having horrible flashbacks to the series in St. Louis last year that more or less ended the Brewers' season in late July. They won the first game of that series 12-2, but then saw the Cards score 2 runs with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th to win it against Cordero in Game 2, drop a close game 5-2, and then Derrick Turnbow gave up 5 runs in the 8th inning of the series finale to turn a 5-4 lead into a 9-5 loss. The Cubs finally caught the Brewers a couple days later, and the rest is history. It felt good to out-Cardinal the Cardinals tonight, though. I can't say I'm excited about the Suppan vs. Cy Lohse match-up tomorrow night, though, and I'm still having a bad feeling that Sabathia is due for a horrible start this series.

I'm really just waiting for Ned to use some hunting analogies and his dustification will be complete. "Setting your lineup is a lot like deer hunting..."

Yost is already saying he'll only start Durham 1-2 times per week: http://blogs.jsonline.com/brewers/archive/2008/07/20/yost-defends-weeks.aspx I'd say the fact that he was the #2 overall pick and the way he shot through the Brewers' farm system with ease would lead a lot of people to believe he's been underachieving in the majors, Ned.

If Chicago's lineup is easy to pitch to, you could pitch to St. Louis' with your eyes closed. If Chicago's bullpen is suspect, I don't even know how to describe St. Louis'. You say that the talent levels between the three teams is minimal, which isn't true -- the difference between the three teams' records is minimal, but the Cubs have the most proven talent of the three, and it's really not that close. The Cubs are the best team in the National League from top to bottom, and I don't have much of a problem admitting that. I don't know why Cardinals fans -- the self-proclaimed best fans on the planet -- have such a hard time doing that. You can say it's because of the rivalry, but I don't see many Yankees fans saying "Nothing about the Red Sox is scary. You can easily pitch to Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz. That bullpen's a joke." If I was a Cards fan, I'd be more worried about fighting off the Brewers than chasing the Cubs. This upcoming 4-game series is going to be huge -- if either team gets swept, it's going to be a big blow.

Pretty much looks that way. Ford seems to be the kind of guy Brian Sabean loves -- lots of speed with no power. I think he aspires to one day put together a lineup in which no one hits more than 10 HR.

The deal was announced as final on the Brewers postgame show on FSN -- they said the Brewers were sending outfielder Darren Ford and pitcher Steve Hammond in return. Neither Ford nor Hammond really projected to ever play in Milwaukee. Tom Haudricourt says that the Giants are also picking up about half of the $3 million he's still owed this season, and Durham is happy to join the Brewers (who wouldn't be happy to leave the Giants at this point?). Link: http://blogs.jsonline.com/brewers/archive/2008/07/20/durham-excited-to-join-quot-great-team-quot.aspx Edit: Ford's stats -- http://minors.baseball-reference.com/players.cgi?pid=4897 Hammond's stats -- http://minors.baseball-reference.com/players.cgi?pid=21440