Brewers White Sox Series Preview

Quite possibly my favorite K Bye of all time...

K bye Brad Nelson!

The internet was blowing up tonight with reports trickling out that Mr. Mat Gamel was on his way to Milwaukee. Rumors were rampant if a trade was in the works, blah blah.

Scratch all that garbage. Gamel can hit...and he's up here to stay. Welcome to the show Kid. Oh yeah...I'm 26 now. I can call people kids.

Anyway, the Brewers have been playing so well lately the complete non-productivity of the bench (C3 excluded) has been somewhat overlooked. Yeah we've (I've) had a lot of fun teasing Brad "DFA" Nelson and to a lesser extent Chris Duffy...but how bad has it actually been?

Oh I'll tell you!

Brad Nelson - 0 for 21
Chris Duffy - 3 for 28
Casey McGehee - 3 for 15

Ummm...sure...small sample size...but hey...that's 6 for 64! between the 3 guys! That's .094 combined! Dryhump me!

Good to see some accountability. That's all I got to say.

All those nice stories about Brad Nelson during the spring seem like years ago. I'm not a gambling man (ha!), but I would feel pretty confident he'll never see time again for any team in the show barring injury or a September callup. This isn't personal. I'm sure Nelson's a nice guy and all that. But God, watching him at the plate was just BRUTAL.

K bye Brad. Good luck in all future endeavors.

Let's Get Some Runs!

Where In The World Is Chuckie Hacks?

Where: Lambeau Field

Why: Why not?

Not quite the Super Bowl, but I was in GB this weekend and had to snap some pics. A family from Boston thought this was the best idea ever. Lost a decent amount of cash at Oneida Bingo and Casino. Your welcome, Oneida Nation, your welcome. Bingo with all the blue-hairs was sweet. Give it a try. FYI - It's not a "dobber," but a "dauber." You think you only need 1 dauber to play bingo? Think again. Some people have 2 or 3, but the real die-hards have little carrying cases with like 10-12! No joke. Good times.

Not Helping Matters

The New England Patriots have committed 44 accepted penalties this year, for 406 yards.

Conversely, the Packers have committed 94 penalties for a staggering 844 yards!! - 105 more than the 2nd highest team.

Don't worry, MM will get the penalties "cleaned-up" this week.

Bill Hall's Lessons Go Unheeded

I'd like to thank Corey Hart for not wanting to sign a long-term contract with the Brewers prior to the season to buy out some arbitration years.

If he had signed that contract, it appears that he would have joined the likes of Bill Hall and Derrick Turnbow as players who got paid and then immediately proceeded to suck.

Hart is so dumb that he started sucking before he got paid.

Thanks Corey.

Booty Call

The recent struggles for the Brewers have been well documented, here and elsewhere.

If you read Tom Haudricourt's stuff on his Brewers Blog, he's absolutely falling apart right now. The sky has fallen in poor Tom's world. He's gone insane.

But it's not just the Brewers who are struggling to win games as a contending team here in September. We know the Cubs are struggling too, just as badly as the Brewers are. The Arizona Diamondbacks have lost 6 straight games - with Webb and Haren at the top of their rotation, you'd think a 6-game losing streak should be impossible. The White Sox can't beat Toronto and have lost 3 straight. The Twins aren't winning either.

Good pitchers are blowing games. Papelbon blew a save last night. The Cubs bullpen suddenly can't close games out. Torres, who has been great all year, is stumbling, today's performance notwithstanding.

The Rays are 4-6 in their last 10 games, and as I watch them play the Red Sox tonight in extra innings, those two teams are 1 for 21 with runners in scoring position tonight. Make that 1 for 22, as the Red Sox fail again as I'm writing this. Now 1 for 23.

Really, among contending teams only the Mets and Dodgers are winning - I guess you can add in Houston too, since they have crawled back into the Wild Card chase.

What the hell is going on here?

I think Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn has the answer. Tight booties.

"I tell the kids you can't play with a tight booty. There's nothing you can do in the game with a tight booty. You can't run, you can't pitch, you can't hit, you can't do anything."

So there you have it. You loosen your booty in September, you win. Maybe Gwynn can come visit his son and the Brewers in Philly and teach them how to loosen their booties.

Start with Fielder. His might take a while.

Back to Important Matters

Enough talk about football - what really needs to happen tonight is for the Brewers to start putting bat on ball and scoring some damn runs. It's actually quite incredible that the Brewers managed to split that series with the Padres, given that they scored a grand total of 7 runs in the 4-game series.

Good thing the Reds have Volquez going tonight. F me.

Prince Needs to Go in Time Out For a Day

I think it's time for Prince to sit out today's game, to think about what he's done. Or hasn't done.

He's just brutal right now. He is slugging .223 (!) with 20 Ks in his last 67 at bats over the past 3 weeks. Batting .179. Those are Craig Counsell numbers. Actually, Craig Counsell scoffs at those numbers.

I like Prince, I really do. But he needs a day off, especially given that the Mets are throwing another lefty out there today.

Give Rivera a start at 1B. Just don't bat him cleanup.

UPDATE:

In today's lineup Rivera is playing 1B and is not batting cleanup. Thanks for reading, Ned.

Don't Get Any Hits With RISP!