Goldy's Weekly Takes

Hello 8 loyal readers!

Well, the Brewers are still scuffling along. It has been a long time since we have been able to put up the sweep the leg post. Amazingly, the Crew still has a six game lead in the division. The thing that bothers me at this point is that the current team in second is the Cardinals. Granted, they are not a great team, but they are the defending World Series champions and I believe they have it in them to put together a couple months of solid baseball and make life miserable for Brewer fans. Also, it looks like the Cubs are starting to hit. McManus pointed out that their line-up is loaded. If they score 6 runs a game, the can overcome their pitching.

Speaking of pitching, can we just be done with Turnbow? I no longer feel comfortable with him coming in and having a 5 run lead. If the Crew is playing in tense late season games or in the play-offs, can we really afford to put Turnbow in hoping he is "on" that day? At the end of the year, he will need to be on the shortest leash possible. If he pitches solid in the middle part of the season, Ned can Drop the Leash. (I think I may try to work in one Pearl Jam reference per week). Anyway, if Turnbow can't be trusted, who pitches the 8th? Let Wise go 2 innings? Not a bad idea, but then he is not usable for 3 days. I like letting Villenueva pitch a couple innings. That would be my choice. I was all about him staying in last night, however, and that didn't turn out too well. Capellen is not an option. It is becoming clear that those 100 mph pitches a few years ago may have not been all natural. Maybe Aquino can step up. Heck, I would rather see Spurling than Turnbow.

I like Turnbow. When he is "on" he is devastating. However, when he is off, it is brutal. Any Major Leaguer can hit a 98 mph fastball when they know it is coming. If the slider isn't working he completely abandons it and only throws the heat. In a pressure game, I don't know if the Brewers can take the chance to find out if he has it.

On to Ryan Braun. It is hard not to like the guy. Driving home from McManus' after the game last night, Powell interviewed Braun. Braun knows he is good. Stated that ML pitching wasn't much different than AAA. Said Peavy and Hudson had great stuff and were top tier, but the rest of the guys were no different than AAA pitchers. Braun also took ample time to admire his bomb last night. I am not a huge fan of this, but he did knock the crap out of it, and since it was a no doubter, that's ok. Not like Aramis who though he hit one out, only to take 4 steps out of the batters box and see the ball get caught on the track.

More Braun thoughts. The 2005 draft had 3 3Bs taken at start of the draft: Gordon, Zimmerman and Braun. Zimmerman has the most ML experience of the trio and is solid. In KC, it was a given that Gordon was going to be the second coming of George Brett. People wanted him up last year. This year he was given the 3B job to start the season. The Brewers determined Braun wasn't quite ready and sent him to Nashville for 2 months. Here are their ML stats so far this year:

Gordon: 52 games, 180 ABs, 31 hits, 3 HR, 8 RBI, 4 SB, .172 AVG, 8 ERRORS
Braun: 12 games, 45 ABs, 14 hits, 3 HR, 8 RBI, 2 SB, .311 AVG, 1 ERROR

So, in 135 less ABs, Braun has the same number of HRs and RBIs and half as many hits. Gordon's D has been a joke and Braun looks respectable. Granted, Braun has real major league hitters hitting around him, but Gordon's season has been awful so far. What am I getting at here? Of the 3 3Bs, Braun was the third best, but at this point, I would take him over Gordon for sure.

Other thoughts:

• The Brewers have to lead the Majors in home runs hit with 2 strikes. Both Hart and Graffy's HRs last night were on 2-strike counts. Prince has hit a bunch with 2 strikes. Also, as Matt pointed out, the majority of these bombs are solo shots.


• Braun looks like Brendon Fraizer (School Ties era "Cowards!") with a hint of Reche Caldwell eyes.


• Continuing the Braun love fest, his new nickname shall be Easy Lover. Matera and I were discussing at bat music at the game on Friday and I suggested Hart should come up to "Never Surrender". When Braun came up, going with the cheesy 80's theme, we randomly came up with Easy Lover. This led to Matera and I singing that song the whole at bat to the point where my wife was shaking her head and hiding in shame. What happened? Braun hit a bomb out in center. Too keep the good mojo going, we sang Easy Lover during his next at bat and he hit a double to the base of the wall in center. This guarantees that at any game I am at, I will be singing Easy Lover during the entire at bat. Jill will be thrilled.

• I am going to the game this afternoon. I hope to see Zambrano punch someone.

• One thing that drives me nuts at games, Matera as well, is people who get juiced over a high pop up to shallow left field. Not every fly ball is a bomb.

• Daniel LaRusso will fight!

That's all for now, need to get some work done. Let's take 2 out of 3 from the Cubs

til next time, "woke her up around 1, she didn't hesitate to call Ice Cube the top gun".