OMFG

The hands you see above are those of Brewers owner Mark Attanasio. He and his GM Doug Melvin have decided that the window on a small market team competing is slamming shut. And Attanasio has stuck his dick in it. Completely out of the blue and/or my brother's wet dreams, the Crew has traded for Zack Greinke. (I should note that this was somehow scooped by "Bernie's Crew", which is AMAZING work.)

This is a move that is a total all in moment, and one that is worth it if it gets the Crew within reach of a championship. The Crew traded starting CF Lorenzo Cain, starting SS Alicides Escobar, and top prospects Jake Odorizzi and Jeremy Jeffress for Greinke and SS Yuniesky Betancourt.

The Brewers rotation has gone from one of the most average on paper (and one of the worst in reality) in the NL last season. To one of the best. The previous addition of Shawn Marcum and now a recent Cy Young winner in Greinke puts them right up there with the San Francisco Giants as far as the rotation goes. Greinke, Gallardo, Marcum, Wolf, Narveson. If everyone stays healthy, that is NICE.

This means that it is all-in with Prince too. Now they a) don't need the pitcher they were trying to get, b) need his bat to make this worth it. Another positive of this on the Prince front is that if this doesn't work out for whatever reason, they can unload him at the trading deadline for prospects to fill the farm system that they just completely emptied. This is not the preferred scenario, but they haven't traded him yet because they were trying to get a young MLB ready pitcher for Prince, which nobody would give up. But I bet that even for a two month rental they could get prospects similar to Odorizzi (who is still a year or two away, and projects as a number 2 or 3 starter) and Jeffress (a troubled SP turned probable reliever with a big fastball). So we have options.

With Prince going, and nothing coming back for him, this also means that the best chance is probably this year. While Prince could be somewhat replaced because he is bad on defense, it is tough to replace the hitting completely. The lineup this year looks competitive on paper, even with the loss of Cain and Escobar. Lucroy is solid at C. Prince at 1B. Weeks at 2B. McGehee at 3B. The Hammer in left and Hart in RF. Those are really decent players at all of those positions. Escobar had been a disappointment at the plate, and we are replacing him with a slightly older version of him in Yuniesky Betancourt .692OPS, 1.3 WAR. While Betancourt's numbers aren't great, they are slightly better than Escobar's right now, so there isn't much of a step back there (Ecobar: .614 OPS, -.7 WAR). Maybe Escobar figures it out, but that is a risk that needs to be taken. I'm alot more worried about the Carlos Gomez experience in CF, because I hate him. But you probably aren't going to have 8 competent hitters in every lineup.

So this move is ridiculous and awesome and surprising, and completely made me forget that the Pack is going to lose by 50 and have their playoff chances ended this weekend. I may not choose the most painful method of death now!

I'm sure someone will have a little better analysis than me, and I look forward to reading it. I hope that this is the summer of '08 all over again.

The Surplus, CC and The Bloody Bengal Tigers

I had a funny thought yesterday. Someone called into the local sports talk radio and asked if Ted Thompson gets to keep what the Packers don't spend from their salary cap. That in and of itself is sort of hilarious, but what was funny was that on "The Office" this week, the same thing happened. There was a budget surplus, and Michael got to keep a percentage as a bonus if it wasn't spent. I wonder what Thompson's cut of the $20mil or so is? I'm definitely not a Thompson basher, and would probably lean more towards apologist land. However, clearly a smartly selected veteran or two from the free agent pool couldn't have hurt. Sitting on the money is stupid, but equally stupid would be to blow it like it grows on trees, like most would have him do. I think the Packers as an organization are kind of similar to the Brewers in that they can't afford to make tragic and expensive mistakes on high priced free agents, and need to be someone selective. That being said, I can't imagine there wasn't one or two guys out there that wouldn't have broken the bank, and would've been more helpful than most of the draft picks this year were.

Speaking of the Brewers, I guess CC isn't coming after all. I'm not going to believe he actually signed until I see him in pinstripes, because there have been incorrect stories all off season about when he was signing and with who. Yesterday there was a story blowing around that CC outright told the Yankees to get bent and the Brewers were the front runners. The whole hot stove rumor thing is rather ridiculous. But at least we got Mike Lamb and Todd Coffee!

Bucky BARELY held on last night in a snooze-fest against Idaho St. I say snooze-fest because I kept dozing off to the dulcet tones of Craig Coshoun, and bricks being laid by the Badgers. Any time a Big Sky team comes into Madison and has a last second shot to win, that doesn't bode well for your tourney chances. But historically, Bucky plays down to its competition, and will probably rattle off 10 or 11 Big Ten wins, which will put them in the hunt for a 6 seed or so. If UWGB (who has been borderline great since getting blown out by a D-II team) knocks them off Saturday, we may have a problem. Marcus Landry would be only about the 4th best player on alot of other Big Ten teams, and he is relied on to be our main man, which might not be good. Also, he is probably the only non-gangster/Mormon to have two kids in college.

Big game tonight in the Big O. I'll leave most of the good analysis to the great Kyle Whelliston at Mid-Majority.com. I think Dayton is probably a better team at this point. But both CU loses came on the road, both big Dayton wins were at home, Dana has kicked his team in the ass, and CU rarely loses at the Qwest. I can only hope that finals don't lower the crowd number. CU 65, Dayton 63