HIATUS

With my finals, job searching, and breaking my ankle over the past few weeks I haven't been keeping up with the posts. It's TBD when I will continue.

Check back in a week or so.

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YOUTUBE HALL OF FAME ADDITIONS

I added a few batting stance videos to my YouTube HOF. It's a couple of guys who immitate batting stances over the years. So far, they have done the Yankees, Red Sox, and Cardinals... it's pretty humorous and freaky good.

Here's a little taste:

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THE TRADE THAT KEEPS ON GIVING: RICHIE SEXON

Sexon has been on a downward spin ever since leaving the Brewers. Here are the players Melvin parlayed the slugger into:

• Craig Counsell

• Junior Spivey traded to Nationals for Tomo Ohka

• Lyle Overbay traded to Blue Jays for Gabe Gross (traded to Rays for Josh Butler), Dave Bush, Zach Jackson

• Chad Moeller

• Craig Capuano

• Jorge de la Rosa traded to Royals for Tony Graffanino

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GABE GROSS TRADED TO THE TAMPA BAY RAYS

In a odd turn of events, it was announced just minutes after the game in which he scored the winning run that Gabe Gross was traded to the Rays. Tony Gwynn Jr. will rejoin the squad tomorrow.

I just got done praising Ned for sticking with Gabe in the post below... now I wonder how much of that was influenced by the higher-ups wanting him in there to increase his trade value. With Cameron coming back, they weren't going to have Kapler, Gross, Dillon, and TGJ all on the team. Someone had to go, and Ned indicated he expected TGJ and Dillon to be back very soon.

Gross is a pretty streaky hitter, but very serviceable against righties especially. He has a great eye at the plate, shown by his always respectable OBP, even when his average is down. It's a little troubling to see one of the best walk guys on a team full of impatient hitters leave, but TGJ is essentially better in every area except hitting for power. Gross should platoon at the least down there...best of luck to him in Tampa.

The 6'5" pitching prospect Josh Butler (2nd round pick two years ago) was acquired in the deal.

Scouting Report:

"Butler got off to a tremendous start, helping San Diego sweep Texas to start the season. But like the Toreros, Butler has slipped as the season has worn on. After taking the summer off to rest his arm, Butler showed electric stuff early in the season, when he formed a power 1-2 punch with freshman Brian Matusz atop the San Diego rotation. His fastball sat in the 91-94 mph range with good life. He finished off hitters with the fastball or one of two breaking balls: a firm 12-to-6 curveball, or a sweeping, hard slider. His mechanics proved too taxing for him to maintain his stuff over the course of the season, and his strikeout numbers steadily dropped. Butler has improved his mental approach; now he needs his body to mature. He needs to add strength and incorporate his lower half into his delivery more, putting less stress on his arm and making him more durable. He still ranks as the second-best prospect in a down year for San Diego County, behind San Diego State's Justin Masterson."

• Butler's freshman and sophmore year bio

• Minor league stats at baseball-reference.com

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GABE'S TO THE RESCUE!

You can watch the game here at mlb.com, scroll to the 4:31:30 mark to see Kapler's winning AB. Free registration required.

Few thoughts from today's 12 inning win today:

- Gabe Gross proves that when he is hot, he's can be a very good player. I have to give Ned a nod for sticking with Gross through his slump. A few days ago you could tell Gross started getting some good wood on the ball, it just wasn't falling. Not only did Gross miss a homer by probably 2 inches today, but he chipped in another double and 2 bases on balls as well. His only out was about a 390 ft shot to straight center field. Those 3 at-bats combined he probably smashed the ball over 1100 feet today.

- Weeks rips a nice bases clearing triple, and a single early on. Right after I trash-talked him a bit, you might think he made me look like an idiot. But, this is exactly my point because he has this couple game or week long stretches, but can't put it together for a few months.

- I wish I could figure out how many games Weeks and Prince have affected and will continue to affect negatively by being average defensive players at best. Weeks threw the ball in the dirt on what would have been a game inning double play, and of course Prince couldn't pick it. Right in our division, Derek Lee and Albert Pujols pick so many poor thrown balls out of the dirt, it really makes you wonder how many more outs Prince could be making if he were good with the glove. Weeks' throw wasn't good but many people are placing all the blame on him when, if Pujols was there... it woulda been game over.

- Trenni, the sideline reporter, is really growing on me. She's not dull by any means, and she asks a lot of good questions in pre/post-game interviews. She's good.

- When Seth McClung says the mustache is cool and that everyone should do it... we should probably all listen. He called out Guillermo to join the trend in a post-game interview.

- Lastly, Gabe Kapler has just about rapped up the comeback player of the year award in the first month of the season. He delivers the game winning hit today after not starting a game for 9 days. If you're into that cliche Gabe Kapler muscle pictures, go check out the Keep Turnin Up the Heat blog. As expected they put up another half-naked Kapler pick when he has a good game. Porn site or brewers blog? You decide.

- The game tomorrow should be really interesting. If today's game wasn't weird enough to see big AL playing 2nd base for the first time in his career or a bunch of pitchers pinch-hitting for both teams, check out the game tomorrow. With the Brewers bullpen pretty much all tapped out and Dave Bush getting the start, it could spell disaster. In Bush's 3 starts this year, he's averaging about 5 and a half innings per start. They'll definitely need him to go longer than that tomorrow if they have any chance against the Phils.

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BREWERS AND MILLER PARK IMPROVEMENTS SINCE 2002

I found this article at onMilwaukee.com which calls for 100 things the organization should do to improve that team. 6 years later, I'd say they made some fine improvements.

Just to refresh you, here was the starting lineup in '02:

1. Alex Sanchez, cf
2. Eric Young, 2b
3. Jeffrey Hammonds, rf
4. Richie Sexon, 1b
5. Geoff Jenkins, lf
6. Tyler Houston, 3b
7. Jose Hernandez, ss
8. Paul Bako/Raul Casanova, c

What is absolutely hilarious about this lineup is that they were playing guys like Houston, Hammonds, and EY when they had guys like Mark Loretta, Ronny Belliard, and Matt Stairs on the bench. Good stuff, Jerry Royster, good stuff.

Most notable changes the article called for that happened at some point recently:

1. Selig family replaced

10. Develop a farm team

11. Capitalize on Brewer legends

16. Trade anyone for Jeff Cirillo

27. Add investors with some real money

35. Bring back Bonnie Brewer

52. Cultivate new fans by holding Brewer summer camps

54. Bobble heads, bobble heads, bobble heads

66. Show 1982 highlights between innings

74. Cultivate a player through several years in the minors and grow him into a fan favorite before trading him to the Yankees in his contract year because you can't afford his salary

81. Let Bill Castro make his mark on the pitching staff

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Now, the most notable things that definitely didn't happen in the last 6 years:

2. Bring back the old ball and glove logo

6. Trade Geoff Jenkins for an up and coming star

8. Bring in a big name manager like Felipe Alou

12. Bring back Bernie's chalet

30. Bring Paul Molitor back into the organization in some capacity

43. Bring back Matt Vasgerian, please

44. Give Jim Powell and Bob Uecker control of everything

50. Let Bernie slide into something, a beer mug makes sense

83. Stop platooning so damn much

93. Tell Bill Schroeder to cut that porn star mustache.

98. Promote David Krynzel to the big leagues; why not?

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BREWERS SHOWING OFF THEIR 80'S PORN-STACHES

A couple Brewers are tapping into the facial hair of Brewers past.

Villanueva, today's starter, is sporting a fine mustache. It looks like Hardy and Kendall have also followed suit.

Thousands of ladies are surely disappointed with JJ's new look, but I'm not hatin' it.

MUSTACHE UPDATE! And... best of all we find out in Tuesday's extra innings fiasco that Mr. Seth McClung has joined the mustache party. Nothin better than an orange-red colored stache.

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RICKIE WEEKS NEEDS SOME TIME AWAY FROM THE LEADOFF SPOT

PUT COREY HART AT THE TOP OF THE LINEUP! pretty please.

Weeks is never once shown that he can consistently make contact, limit his strikeouts, and flat out get on base. These are all qualities you need in a leadoff hitter. I am fed up with his strikeouts and inability to put the bat on the ball.

In a 1-1 pitchers-duel of a game on Sunday, I think it was Kendall who led off the inning with a no-out double. Weeks not only didn't get a bunt down to move the runner to third, but he couldn't even make contact. I commend him for trying to go the opposite way with a hit, but he has to come through there. It's not as if I'm ostracizing him for not getting a hit, I'm saying you gotta at least ground one to second base to move the runner over. There is no way your leadoff hitter shouldn't move that runner to third, striking out in that situation is absolutely inexcusable.

Weeks went 0 for Cincinnati striking out 5 times in 11 AB's. Even if your not producing a lot of hits, you can still not strike out so much. I'll say it again, leadoff hitters should not be going down on strikes. Ned needs to stop being a "player's manager" for one minute, and realize Hart is the better option there. Weeks has been given exactly 1,000 chances to show he can fill that role, and I'm straight up sick of it. It's still early in the season, but this is just more of the same inconsitency that we've seen for years with him.

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NEVER A DULL MOMENT - 14 PITCHERS FOR THE CREW

So, if you read my post about the different possibilities for what would happen when Gallardo was slotted to come back on Sunday, you know that I laid out exactly 14 different scenarios thinking surely one of them had to happen. Well I was wrong 14 times...

But then again not even the finest baseball mind of our generation (whoever that may be) could have predicted the Brewers to go with an astounding 14 pitchers on their roster by sending down Joe Dillon. Apparently, they expect Sheets to be able to go on 6 days rest, and Dave Bush will take Sheets' regular spot in the rotation, after having his spot taken by Yo. Understand all that so far? The benefit of this maneuver is that if Sheets still isn't ready to go, they can retroactively put him on the DL so if he needs another 5 days or something, they can do that. It also covers their behinds in case Sheets can't go because Bush will pitch, then if Sheets needs more time, they will just bump up the spots in the rotation as if Sheets had been gone since his last start. Seems logical.

If that happens and Sheets goes on the DL, Joe D will get called right back up. If Sheets is healthy, they won't stay with 14 pitchers. They might not even stay with 13. Dillon will have to take the spot of somebody in the next week for certain, and Tony Gwynn Jr possibly could come back too. Stetter and McClung are the obvious candidates, but they both pitched well their last times out.

This 14 pitcher thing is just a buying time situation until they know if Sheets can go next time out. The really difficult roster decisions have yet to be made because there is no way in hell they are going to keep 14 for longer than the next 3 days. I still standby that one of my scenarios will happen!

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SHEETS' INJURY

Apparently Sheets first started experiencing soreness in his triceps as early as his start in the series with the Mets. He was yanked out of the game after the 5th inning, but said that it was the worst in the 3rd inning.

This tells us a number of good/bad things:

The Good:

1. If he's been experiencing the pain for a some time now, I'm sure the Brewers trainers have already had a thorough look at the arm. They, and Sheets, felt it wasn't bad enough for him to continue pitching.

2. Since he pitched 2 more innings after the height of the pain yesterday, this also means Sheets wasn't extremely concerned about it.

3. Since their was a 5-0 lead at the time, chances are good that they were being overly cautious.

4. The team didn't come out and say Sheets would miss his next start, which means it could potentially go either way. There's no reason to jump ship until we hear more.

5. A LOT of pitchers spend at least a little time on the D.L. throughout the course of a season, it happens all the time.

The Bad:

1. Any kind of Ben Sheets injury makes one nervous. He's had so many little problems over the years, that nothing can really be taken lightly.

2. Sheets said the pain was near where he experienced the lat muscle injury 2 years ago.

3. The fact that Yovanni is slated to take a roster spot tonight or tomorrow gives them an easy out by putting Sheets on the DL. If they feel he shouldn't make his next start, they probably won't hesitate to put him on the 15-day. Which will be annoying because it won't necessarily tell us a ton about Sheets' status because of the situation that they need a spot for Yo.

4. Sheets is pitching so well, you hate for him to have to miss any starts.

See these links for more info on Yovanni coming back and Bush's start being pushed back.

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Fielder's go-ahead HR

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MITCH STETTER CALLED UP, IRIBARREN SENT DOWN

Alright, something is definitely going to go down with the Brewers in the transaction department real soon.

They call up Stetter to give Shouse a little time to breathe, and more likely so that they can save him for the 9th inning lefties at crucial junctures. Now they can bring a southpaw in to face a Griffey or Dunn in the 6th, 7th, or 8th, without worrying about needing him later.

So... now they have 13 pitchers, and 12 position players, and YoGa is coming back in 2 days. I'm seriously confused. Gwynn and Iribarren are down in triple A, and Kapler looks to be back from his injury since he pinch hit last night.

When they bring YoGa back in 2 freakin days they still have an important move to make. One of McClung/Bush/Villanueva/Parra will have to be taken off the big league team still. But then they still will have 13 pitchers. Could Turnbow be on the move? I think its highly possible.

With the way McClung pitched yesterday, he has to have secured a spot for the time being. Which just about guarantees Parra will be sent down. He hasn't pitched too well anyways, and they want to limit his innings.

Also, with the way Bush, Villanueva, and Parra have been coming out of games early... the bullpen is probably a bit overworked lately. Which would help explain the 13 pitchers. We've seen Ned do this before, so although its highly unusual around baseball, it's not unusual for Ned.

Personally I'm on the edge of my seat to see what they do when YoGa comes back Sunday. Here's a recap of the possible options in order of my convoluted probabilities:

1. Parra sent down, Yo comes up
2. There is a trade that opens up a pitching spot for Yo (i.e. Turnbow) acquiring a minor league player, and Bush is moved to the pen.
3. There is a trade that opens up a pitching spot for Yo (i.e. Turnbow) acquiring a minor league player, and Villanueva is moved to the pen.
4. Parra sent down and a trade occurs (getting them back to 12 pitchers) acquiring a minor league player and gwynn is called up
5. Villanueva sent down, Yo comes up
6. They move Villanueva to the bullpen and get rid of someone from there.
7. They send Bush to the minors (he can't be claimed by another team, here's why) and Yo comes up.
8. They send Stetter back down after only being up for 2 games and Bush moves to pen.
9. They send Stetter back down after only being up for 2 games and Parra gets sent down too, and Gwynn is recalled.
10. Villanueva sent down and a trade occurs (getting them back to 12 pitchers) acquiring a minor league player and Gwynn is called up
11. Parra sent down and a trade occurs (getting them back to 12 pitchers) acquiring a position player.
12. Villanueva sent down and a trade occurs (getting them back to 12 pitchers) acquiring a minor league player and Gwynn is called up acquiring a position player.
13. They option McClung, hoping he clears waivers, and move Bush to the pen.
14. They option Bush, hoping he clears waivers.

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BUSH OUT OF THE ROTATION?

Yovanni Gallardo is slated to come back to the squad this Sunday.

On the brewers official site, they have listed "To be announced" as the started for Sunday's game against the Reds. That is Dave Bush's spot in the rotation. Normally they have their probable pitchers listed more than 2 games ahead. For example the Reds have Harang listed for that day.

This will be an extremely tough decision for Melvin and Co. to make. The "to be announced" spot for Sunday is really intriguing. So either it means nothing and they send Parra down, or they will bump Bush back a few days to keep Yovanni on schedule, or Bush is out of the rotation.

They are going to risk losing either McClung or Bush if they try to send either of them down, or they have to send Villanueva or Parra down when both deserve a spot with the big leagues. If you ask me, they'd probably rather send McClung down and move Bush to the pen if they didn't have to risk losing McClung. As a result it will probably be Parra that they sound down, unfortunately.

Here what the Brewers have listed for Sunday's matchup:

"This should be Dave Bush's start, but he could get bumped to make room for right-hander Yovani Gallardo's return from the disabled list. Bush has lost all three of his starts this season though he pitched better in St. Louis on Tuesday night, allowing three runs in six innings, all on two-out singles. Gallardo had his knee scoped during Spring Training and made three Minor League rehab starts to get to this point. He held the Reds to one run in 6 2/3 innings in his only start against them last season. Bush is 1-3 lifetime against the Reds with an 8.53 ERA including a loss in the last homestand."

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LACK OF HR TOTALS IN THE BREWERS LINEUP

Last year,

• Corey Hart hit a home run every 24th plate appearance

• JJ Hardy hit a home run every 25th plate appearance

• Prince Fielder hit a home run every 14th plate appearance

Combined, the trio has ZERO home runs in a total of 169 plate appearances between them. By last year's averages, Prince should have 4 hr's right now, Hart and Hardy should both have 2 apiece.

But the thing is, those figures are only averages based on last year's numbers. Sure they are off to slow starts, but HR's come in bunches. If Hart blasts a couple this weekend, he'll be right on pace, it's that simple.

Prince is off pace the most, but that is because he was on such a torrid hitting spree last year. 50 home runs is unrealistic to expect out of anyone in one season, let alone to do it 2 seasons in a row.

Did you know that not even Barry Bonds has hit 50 or more home runs twice in his entire career? He did it once when he hit 73, but never cracked 50 even once before or after that season. Also, only 25 players have EVER hit 50 home runs in a season.

Not to mention, that list was ridiculously imploded in the steroid era. 11 players did it from 1920 (basically when the home run era began with Ruth) all the way until 1994, and then the other 14 did it from 1995 through 2008.

So it took 74 years for 11 players to do it, and then only 13 years for the next 14 to do it. WOW. Sure there are the arguments that black people didn't get to play from the outset, and people in general have gotten stronger over the years, and the mound was higher for a period of time. But, these numbers are too insane to not think steroids dominated the past 13 years.

Sorry I got a bit off point, but those home run numbers amaze me. The point is, it's never been easy to hit 50 home runs in a year, let alone twice in 2 seasons. Even in the steroid era, only McGwire, Sosa, and Arod did it consecutively. Not to mention that no one has every accused Prince of being on steroids, so he doesn't have that goin for him.

Prince will have a multi-homer game one of these days because they come in bunches when players are on hot streaks. He's too good of a hitter to not come around one of these days, so wait patiently. It's a long season.

So what is a good cutoff point? For me, 35 big dogs is a lot more realistic to expect. If Prince hits 35, we should be happy, if he exceeds that we should be amazed. Anything under 35, we should be a little disappointed.

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TURNBOW IS CRYING

Here's the link from the latest JSonline blog post.

Brewers reliever Derrick Turnbow is so upset over being relegated to what he calls a "mop-up" role in the bullpen that he asked his agent to contact general manager Doug Melvin to see what the plans are for the beleaguered right-hander.

One of the major league leaders with 33 "holds" last year in a set-up role in front of departed closer Francisco Cordero, Turnbow has pitched in four games this season, all with the Brewers behind in the score. His latest outing came Tuesday night against St. Louis, when he entered in the eighth inning with the Brewers behind, 4-1, and surrendered two runs on four hits.

"I'd be lying if I said it doesn't bother me," Turnbow said this afternoon before the second game of the series against the Cardinals. "It bothers me a lot.

"(Manager) Ned (Yost) has to make the decisions he thinks are best for the team. It's my job to go out there and prove him wrong, and earn the spot back in the set-up role. (I had) 33 holds last year and I feel like I got demoted to mop-up role, or whatever.

"That's the way the game is. You've got to earn your right every day you're here to be in that set-up role. I've got to go out there and prove I'm worthy of doing it."....

Man oh man. Turnbow needs to bite his tongue. Of course he's not happy with being demoted twice in essentially 2 years from an all-star closer to mop-up duty, but he's just going to ruin team chemistry making that public.

Oh and by the way, there is one easy way to make these hurt feelings go away. PITCH BETTER. How about you throw half dozen shut out innings and then maybe then mention something about your role. This angers me greatly.

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