Running Baseball VII (or second half I, if you like)

fixed

 

I'm already on the Angels bandwagon...

That NY-LA (of Anaheim from California) World Series is going to be a good one.



(This is my 13,000th post...does that mean it's unlucky for the two teams I just mentioned?)

 

... the Phillies would put her in the rotation

 

Thanks.

You set 'em up, I'll knock 'em down.

 

He's an injury-prone fourth outfielder now. Sure, he may have some value, but it's very little.

 

The Cubs-Phillies series should be terrific: Two second-place teams trying to catch the division leaders and get better wild-card position. Too bad that Zambrano won't be going in the series, though. The best pitching matchup is tonight's with Hamels vs. Lilly and with the Brewers off tonight, the Cubs tie Milwaukee for first place with a victory.

 

The Brewers' ship be sinkin'.

I was there to witness Sunday's meltdown in person. I've never left a sporting event I attended more sickened from a fanboy standpoint than I did on Sunday in St. Louis. For the one and only time in my life, I contemplated leaving a Brewers game early I was so pissed. (I stuck it out to watch the Brewers predictably go 1-2-3 in the ninth, yeah for me!)

The Brewers' bullpen contributed to Milwaukee blowing a 5-0 lead, but along the way, there were lowlights that came straight from the depths of hell -- a passed ball by Johnny Estrada that scored a run, Carlos Villenueva walking in the go-ahead run. Walking in runs is something that probably ranks No. 1 on Bubbler's list of baseball no-no's -- there's very little, if no, excuse for it -- so walking in the winning run had me simmering.

Only the presence of my 5-year-old kept me from unleashing the string of profanities in my head that would likely have triggered the nearby New Madrid fault and killed thousands in the Mississippi River valley from my fuckquake.

The Brewers' bullpen blew four games in their Cincinnati-St. Louis roadie, including a 6-0 lead Saturday and 5-0 yesterday against a Cardinals team that now has life. Cordero is absolute shit on the road (ERA is something like nine points difference home and away), Turnbow is Turnbow -- worthy of a meltdown one-third of the time. What was once strengths are now vices or some such Doobie Brothers album madness.

What's worse is that some of the other one-time dependable bullpen personnel -- Villenueva, Matt Wise, etc., have not been much better of late. Even newly-acquired Scott Linebrink tried to join the "fun" on Sunday, loading the bases before getting out of it.

But equally, if not more, fatal to the Brewers -- and something that was doomed to catch up with them sometime during the season -- is its inability to move runners.

The Brewers out-hit the Cardinals on Sunday, but were lucky to get the five runs they got (two runs coming after a bad call on an infield single at first base, two more driven in with two outs by pitcher Yovanni Galarrdo). They simply have no one aside from maybe Ryan Braun who can move runners.

And Rickie Weeks? You need to sit your .215 hitting ass down. He threw one ball in the dugout on a relatively routine play and crucially dropped the ball on a double-play pivot in the fifth when the Cardinals ultimately scored four runs. I don't know if his wrist still ails him or whether his head isn't right, but he's killing the Brewers when he plays.

Ned Yost is starting to drive me nuts. He refuses to stick with a consistent lineup, and maddeningly dilutes it on occasion by resting multiple producers at once (see box score from Justin Verlander's no-hitter for evidence, I think I played center field in that game), yet he'll ride pitchers way past the point of being effective.

The Brewers are not dead, but unless these things get rectified in this current homestand (not easy with the Mets and Phillies), it's going to be a rough road.

I don't what this has to do with anything, but on another note, I was treated with nothing but class by the Cardinals fans at Busch Stadium, no one taking all-too-easy potshots at fanboy of a team that was choking like dogs.

The one Cubs fan I encountered? Epitomized jackass. Not trying to paint a broad brush, I've been around cool Cubs fans and dickhead Cardinals fans ... no wait a minute, I've been around cool Cubs fans? Did I just say that? ... yeah I am trying to paint with a broad brush.

 

I stand in awe.

 

Fuckquake. I like that. I like that a lot.

 

Cubs will broom the Sillies.

 

I could see 3 out of 4, but they won't sweep them. No way.

In other news, are the Braves really going to get Dotel, too? Seems like they finally understood how clearly winnable the NL is this year.

 

Hammer, what do you say we make a sig bet?