Are the Brewers still alive on September 21st?

After yesterday's comeback, I am starting to get excited for real about this

"September to Remember!"

 

Someone needs to blog about this!

The 2012 Milwaukee Brewers-a lost season

Okay, so we are up 5-1 over the Cincinnati Reds after 7 innings on a beautiful night at Miller Park.

 

Then RR puts in K-Rod for the 8th inning. What? What did he think was going to happen? Did he think it was August of 2012 when the Brewers were good and we could count on K-Rod and The Ax Man to finish things off? Well, obviously this put the game in jeopardy and he takes K-Rod out just in time. Now he puts in The Ax Man, OH my god, RR must want us fans to see another meltdown by this team!

 

So the lead was still 5-2 but the bases are loaded, I felt like leaving to avoid seeing the Brewers lose again but as I thought about it I saw a ball looking like it was going to be a base clearing double somehow caught by Hiroyuki Aoki. If not for great Defense all night by our Right Fielder we totally lose this game. The Ax Man survives the 8th with the team still up 5-3. Up 6-3 going into the 9th I was excited to see who might be the NEW Brewers closer (we need to try someone because it has been obvious for a month that The Ax Man and K-Rod can no longer do it) and what does RR do?

 

YEP, He puts the Ax Man back out there. Crap he really has lost it. RR is stuck in 2011. Well the Ax did finish it off and we did win 6-3 on my final Brewer game of this lost season BUT the credit for this save must go to Aoki and the win to the Home Runs the team hit and to the starting pitcher Yovanni Gallardo. The problem is that after The Ax finally did get another save, RR is sure to keep sending him out there, the Defense will not always bail him out so we can expect the final two months of this bad season to include many more losses.

 

The Brewers will finish about 72-90 in 2012. Why did things go so bad? Not having Prince Fielder surely hurt the team a lot. Many injuries early in the season made things difficult. The biggest problem was the bullpen that was better than average last season, especially K-Rod and Ax, and much worse than average this season, especially K-Rod and Ax again, but sometimes in life it is not what happens to you but how you react to it. Much like what happens to me in my own life, RR did not handle it well. In fact managing a major league baseball team is just to much for him to handle. We saw how he messed up the 2011 NLCS and now this season he and his team was never able to recover from things that happened to them because he is too resistant to change.

 

Ryan Braun cannot do it all by himself and some bright spots did emerge this season. It is too bad that we had to trade Zack Greinke away but we did add three good players in that trade and the new Shortstop just played his first game as a Brewer. It is hard to be real confident about what next season will bring but I know this:

 

In my opinion the Milwaukee Brewers need a new manager for 2013!

What do you think?

College Football Playoff in 2014 FINALLY!!!

After years of BCS criticism and calls for a playoff, we will finally have a four-team playoff in college football! Two semifinal games on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day and a final game about a week later. That’s the good news!

There are still many problems with the playoff plan. The primary problem, as I see it, is that rather than running like a regular playoff in any other NCAA sport, the two semifinal games will take place in the bowl system. This means that hundreds of millions of dollars per year that the NCAA could generate by bidding out the two semifinal games will instead go to the hands of the bowl organizations. Some universities, particularly ones that rely on state and student subsidies, could really use this money. So why give it away to the bowl organizations?

Other problems include the possible controversies that will erupt when the four teams are selected, since the selection criteria for those four teams has not been established. Obviously Wisconsin is still in a position where they need to schedule better competition for pre-season games OR win every game and win the Big Ten Championship game OR both to have any chance of being one of these 4 teams selected. Being part of the 12 team Big10 however is a great advantage. It is necessary to be in a power conference. We Badger fans can at least dream about a championship.

The “haves” will still likely run college football, leaving the “have nots” out when it comes to the playoff. Boise State and other teams from small conferences now have even less chance of winning a championship. They can go undeafted and hope but still get no respect. And then there’s still the basic problem of corruption within the bowl organizations.

At the end of the day, the four-team playoff is a good start but we are still far from a college playoff that is fair and equitable and benefits all rather than just a few, like the 16 team tournament I have been talking about for years. We finally have a college football playoff. I will become more interested right now but in the future, let’s hope they get it right!

What should the Brewers do now?

Cincinnati	25	19	.568	-	13-8	12-11	171	163
St. Louis	25	20	.556	.5	12-9	13-11	240	176
Houston	21	23	.477	4	16-10	5-13	182	170
Pittsburgh	20	24	.455	5	11-10	9-14	126	160
Milwaukee	18	26	.409	7	11-13	7-13	191	220
Chicago Cubs	15	29	.341	10	9-15	6-14	155	201

Obviously things are not getting any better for the Brewers so the question becomes:

Is it time to rebuild or do we still have enough talent to retool and make a run in 2013?

Ryan Braun is under contract for years yet so I say RETOOL, give Zack Greinke a long term deal NOW, it will cost a lot but without him the Brewers will not be able to contend in 2013!

My advise for Brewer fans!

Normally a record of 15-20 just 35 games into the season does not mean you are out of it. There are still 127 games remaining, that is 78% of the season! The problem is that Milwaukee has already lost 3 of the key players for the season due to injury and our new 3B Aramis Ramirez was a huge waste of money. It looks like 2B Rickie Weeks will never live up to his potential and worse yet, his best days might already be behind him. What do we have, really, as far as stars? Ryan Braun and Zack Grienke, and that's it! Maybe Jonathan LuCroy is on his way but does anyone else on this team excite you? Argue for Yo if you want, or Corey Hart but I don't see them at the same level.

Manager Ron Roenicke does not appear to be the right guy to lead this team. Not only did he totally get out-managed in the NLCS last season but he has failed to react quick enough to what has been happening. He has started to tweek the lineup a little but my god, he still has Aramis Ramirez hitting cleanup. This makes no sense. Don't keep guys who are not producing in production spots in the lineup, no matter how much they make. That is my opinion anyway.

Any expectations of playoffs this season need to be put to rest right now. They simply don't have what it takes. Doug Melvin will not be adding any more expensive players to this team. They need to have some cash to go into the off-season with a chance to re-load again while there is still some talent here. Even if later this season they do jell into a team with good chemistry and get hot a few times, it's a .500 season at best. If this team is not going to get better then what should we do?
Here is my advise:

I say watch just to watch and enjoy baseball and root for your team. Enjoy watching Ryan Braun continue his remarkable career. Support the team, enjoy the Miller Park experience when you are at the game but don't take the losses hard and celebrate the wins, every wins, even wins over bad teams like the Twins or the Cubs because we are not much better.
Take the pressure off of the players and yourself. Drink a few and have fun!

Injuries will be blamed for this poor Brewer season but...

remember...something was wrong with this team before the injuries became so devastating. See the previous post if you need a reminder of how bad it already was before Gomez and Gonzalez went down!

What is wrong with the Brewers? (5 players to blame)

When a team starts 11-14 it is never just one thing. Yes we do miss Prince Fielder but I need to place most of the blame on the the pitching. Yovani Gallardo has been the ace of this staff for years now and we are still waiting for him to reach potential. Up until this season he was progressing okay but I always felt like once we acquired Zack Greinke, Zack should be considered the #1 guy.
Yo is 1-3 with a 5.79 ERA...the only way to describe this is TERRIBLE.
Zack is 3-1 with a 3.94 ERA...also not as good as expected but still unbeaten in Miller Park.
Randy Wolf is 2-2 with a 6.84 ERA...he has not been worth his contract.
Shaun Marcum is 1-1 with a 3.19 ERA...he is better now than in the playoffs last season
Marco Estrada is 0-1 with a 3.71 ERA...solid in relief and now a starter because of a season ending injury to Chris Narveson...BIG LOSS... who is missed because the bullpen suffers from losing Estrada. I like Marco as a starter but the relief pitching has become a huge problem. part of this problems is because the starters are not able to go enough innings.

The bullpen overall has been HORRIBLE with the worst being K-Rod. Francisco Rodriguez came back to the Brewers this season because no team wanted him enough as a closer to give him the kind of contract he was looking for. Are his best years behind him?
Right now as the Brewers set up man he is 0-3 with a 6.57 ERA...he is second to Yo on my list of where the blame should fall.

John Axford is 0-1 with a 4.70 ERA...he is doing his job being 5 for 5 in save opportunities however.

Overall Brewer pitching is 11-14 with a 5.04 ERA. No offense can be expected to put up over 5 runs every night so the pitching is the biggest problem here. The Defense is still a problem as well but better than in past years so it can't be blamed for the poor start.

What about the hitting?

George Kottaras .304 with 3 HR and 9 RBI in limited action is the only bright spot.
Carlos Gomez .292 1/5...better than last season and I think he should be the regular CF
Ryan Braun .283 7/17...not what we expect but I am not worried about our biggest star.
Corey Hart .280 6/13...solid overall, we need him to become a .300 hitter
Jonathan LuCroy .279 2/8...just what we expect and need from him.
Norichika Aoki .269 1/2...he might be able to help us as he gets more playing time
Alex Gonzalez .263 4/14...this is what we expect and a little more
Mat Gamel .246 1/6...he was looking okay but is now out for the season...BIG LOSS
Aramis Ramirez .207 2/10...these are not clean up hitter numbers, he needs to get hot
Nyger Morgan .175 0/0...what happened to T. Plush, losing is not fun!
Travis Ishikawa .172 2/5...he will stay on club as he plays 1B but he is no answer.
Rickie Weeks .172 3/6...time to face it, he has become a solid second baseman but as a hitter, he will never be the star we hoped he would be.

Izturis .167 0/1...obviously the Brewers have a very weak bench.

Overall the Brewers are hitting just .229 with 32 HR and 98 RBI. The fact that we are 11-14 is actually hard to believe. These numbers look like a club than loses twice as often as they win.

Here are my top five under performers so far:

1. Yovani Gallardo
2. Francisco Rodriguez
3. Rickie Weeks
4. Nyger Morgan
5. A. Ramirez 

THINGS ARE MUCH WORSE THAN I THOUGHT!...all we can do is look for solutions. Manager Ron Roenicke really messed up in the playoffs last season but this lack of production can not be blamed totally on him. THE TIME IS NOW to do something about it. He has a lot of options here one month into a six month season sitting at 11-14 after 25 games with 137 games to go. There is plenty of time but is there enough talent? If things don't turn around I think Doug Melvin might be the one to go but maybe both of them. The question is...What lineup would you put out there given the options you have with this team. Please post comments with your plan.

Here is my plan:

First off, don't worry about any players feelings and bring up some other guys from the minors to replace the ones who continue to fail to produce off the bench. The five starters will stay the same for now but only Zack Greinke has a secure spot in the rotation. Gallardo is not going anywhere either but might need some rest and be later in the rotation. Only Ax is secure in the bullpen. Look to trade an outfielder and consider any offer for any player other than Braun. As far as the starting lineup I think a few things need to be tried here in May and I would start with dropping Aramis in the batting order and get Carlos Gomez and Norichika Aoki in the lineup every day and play more small ball:

1. Gomez CF
2. Aoki RF
3. Braun LF
4. Hart 1B
5. Gonzalez SS
6. LuCroy C
7. Ramirez 3B
8. Weeks 2B
9. Greinke P

Predictions are just for fun!

People make predictions all the time. Professional sports writers and bloggers, broadcasters, and various other people, on television, on the radio, in the newspaper or magazine. We all like to sound like we know what we are talking about but really we are just taking educated guesses. So why do we do this?

It's fun and it sparks debate!

My 9 year old son just won a bracket contest and claims he knew all along that it would be Kentucky over Kansas for the NCAA Championship in basketball. He knows his sports but lets face it, sometimes we just get lucky! Still, I will listen to what he says before making my predictions in the future. He told me not to go with Missouri and he never doubted Kentucky for a minute.

When I told him before the 2010 NFL season started that the Packers would win Superbowl XLV and then they did, he thought I really knew my stuff, it looks like those days are over. Anyway, we have been discussing major league baseball now that the season starts tonight. We have been trying to figure out why many experts expect the St. Louis Cardinals to win the NL Central division. Sure they won it all last year but playoffs are about who is hot at the time. Clearly the Brewers were much better than the Cardinals during the regular season last year and won the division, finally!

The Milwaukee Brewers won't be giving up the throne that easily and if they do Zach and I agree that the Cincinnati Reds are the team that might take it. Sure the Brewers no longer have Prince Fielder but look at what St. Louis no longer has: The best hitter in baseball, Albert Pujols, and a great Manager, Tony LaRussa. I feel pretty safe in predicting that the Cardinals will finish no better than 3rd place in the NL Central, of course I have been wrong before!!!

2011 NFL Predictions

I have gone through every game on the NFL schedule to come up with the most accurate predictions possible for each team. I have taken into consideration that the Jaguars are going in a new direction at Quarterback, the Colts will have to play this season without Peyton Manning and the fact that the new kickoff rules could hurt teams with a good return game.

Also the "dream team" in Philadelphia could go through a nightmare early in the season with that Offensive Line. Protecting Michael Vick and keeping him healthy is the key to this teams success.

I predict the Packers will beat the Chargers in Superbowl XLVI after a great NFL season!
Here are my regular season record predictions for each team:

NO 13-3
AT 12-4
TB 9-7
CR 3-13

GB 12-4
DT 10-6
CH6-10
MN 2-14

AZ 10-6
SL 8-8
SF 8-8
SE 3-13

PH 10-6
DL 9-7
GI 7-9
WA 5-11

HU 10-6
TN 8-8
ID 6-10
JK 5-11

BT 13-3
PT 12-4
CL 9-7
CN 3-13

SD 13-3
KC 6-10
OK 6-10
DN 3-13

JT 13-3
NE 12-4
MI 6-10
BF 4-12

Question for Wisconsin Sports Fans?

On Friday night August 26 when the Packers play pre-season game #3 at the Colts at the exact same time that the division leading Brewers play in Miller Park vs. the Cubs, which game will you pay more attention to and why?

Brewers Win with complete game shutout by Yo (4/5/11)

It is great to have that first win but now it is time to start scoring some runs. Yovani Gallardo not only pitched a complete game shutout but it was a 2 hitter AND it was Yovani Gallardo (YoGa) who scored the only run.

Yo twice had similar games last season but this was his best yet. I think he is a true Cy Young Award candidate. Zack Greinke, a former American League Cy Young Award winner will be able to pitch for the Brewers at some point. Shaun Marcum and Randy Wolf will be solid starters I believe but will have bad games like they both did the first time out this season. Chris Narveson had a very good first outing and the plan is for him to be the fifth starter.

The Brewers need to bring someone up from the minors to pitch tonight (4-6-11)because of the Greinke injury but I think this starting staff is going to be a great one. The key is to need the relief pitchers as little as possible. Nice job by Ron Roenicke allowing YoGa to pitch all nine innings last night. The pitching staff is good enough to be a champion but the sub-par Defense could hold this team back. When ever a pitcher is struggling, like all members of the bull-pen right now, they need a solid Defense behind them to pick them up but the Brewers don't have that.

Good hitting can overcome a lot of things but right now it is the Brewers biggest weakness. The amount of runners left on base game after game for the past few seasons is alarming. If the Brewers can find a way to score more runs that what they leave on base this team will have a good season. The fact that it did not take a Home run to score the run last night is a good sign but we need to do that a few times in every game to win consistently. The inability to score those two runners thrown out at the plate in the 8Th inning last night would have cost Milwaukee the game if not for the masterpiece thrown on 4/5/11 by Yovani Gallardo!

Brewers 0-4 (Even lost the home opener)

When will the first win finally come along?

Tuesday?

This Week?

Over the weekend vs. the Cubs?

Next Week?

Next Month?

Not until Zack Greinke can pitch?

Will the Brewers will set the record for most losses to start a season?

Please click on comment below and place your vote!

The Brewers 0-3 start, no need to panic yet but...

This is not how this "all in" Brewer season was supposed to begin. I think a rookie manager with more of a veteran ball club might not be the right match. This has me craving football but with the possibility of the NFL not coming to an agreement in time to start playing meaningful games in September, we need the Brewers to be good more than ever. This is the perfect season to win it all and have everyone in the state paying attention throughout this journey.

They look like the same Brewers as the last two seasons. Ron Roenicke needs to show us he is different from the most recent managers. You tell me, does this poor start already tell us that the Reds are much better than the Brewers? Should any hopes of winning the National League Central be adjusted to just hoping for a Wild card spot?

Playoffs? PLAYOFFS? What am I even talking about?

I JUST WANT TO WIN A GAME!!!

Who has a better chance at winning thier next Championship, Tiger Woods or VCU?

Well, the Final Four is set and are no #1 or #2 seeds have made it. Two Cinderellas, VCU and Butler, are there along with two other heavy tradional programs in Kentucky and Uconn. VCU has to be the most surprising team of the four. This team was on the outside looking in on selection sunday and when thier name was announced, Jay Bilas, Dick Vital and company were first in line to critize the committee for putting VCU into the field of 68. They argued that VCU had lost to teams like Georgia State, Northeastern, James Madison and Drexel in the regular season. But here we are, 2 weeks later, and VCU has gone on a remarkable and historic run by beating powerhouse teams such as USC, Georgetown, Purdue, Florida State and Kansas. How did this happen?

VCU, as a team, did not watch the selection show because they didnt think they were getting into the tournment but when thier name was announced, word spread quickly and the team was excited. They quickly turned on the TV and listened to so-called experts like Vital and Bilas rip thier team and calling them garbage! Hearing these experts say all of these things was plenty of motivation to go on this run. I even predicted that VCU would come out in thier first game with something to prove but I didn't think they would go on this furious run.

While VCU was pulling off this run, Tiger Woods was teeing off at Bay Hill. He was looking to win his first event in a year and a half. He started off well after shooting a 68 in the second round but tailed off in rounds 3 and 4, shooting a 74 and 72. He hasn't won an event since the '09 BMW Championship. Who would have thought that Tiger Woods would have not recovered from a scandal like this? Afterall, we hear scandals similiar to this all the time in sports and most athletes overcome the adversity, but I think Tiger Woods has fallen so far from grace that the greatest golfer in the game will never recover emotionally and mentally from the greatest mistake of his life.

So, when its all said and done, I think you will see VCU winning a Championship before Tiger Woods wins another event of any kind!

Bo Ryan lacks tournament success at Wisconsin

Bo Ryan has taken what Dick Bennett started at UW, turning the Badgers into a yearly contender for the Big Ten title and March Madness participant but now it is time to take the next step.

In 10 seasons the school has made 10 NCAA tournaments under Bo Ryan, advancing to four Sweet 16s and one Elite 8. Since the regional finals appearance in 2005 however, the tournament runs have been marred by hollow endings.

In 2007 the 2 seed UNLV bounced Bucky in the second round. Then came that stunning loss to Davidson in the Sweet 16 in 2008 and the 2010 loss to 12 seed Cornell after barely surviving 13 seed Wofford to open the tournament.

Now, here in 2011, the 8 seed Butler, who lost twice during the season to UW-Milwaukee, out-performed Big Red in the Sweet 16, leading to another premature exit.

The fact is that college basketball has changed. It is not the pure game that it used to be. As much as I love to see them play like a team, the problem this season was no star to turn to when times got rough. In the game today you need at least a couple of playmakers to go along with all the unselfish role players.

You could argue that Butler is much like Wisconsin and played in the championship last season and is in the Final 4 again this season. I think that is the exception,not the rule. Quite frankly their team has more heart than Wisconsin. The style of play used by these two teams is perfect for Butler but Wisconsin is a big-time program and needs to start acting like it.

Four of Wisconsin's last five losses in the big dance have been to teams seeded lower than it. As a fan I am sick of seeing my team ousted by inferior teams. To take Wisconsin to the next level, Bo Ryan needs to scrap his "system" offense and recruit some playmakers: watching this team throw up bricks on basketballs biggest stage is as frustrating as it gets