Playoffs?

It is semifinal week in the OJSFA!

GAME 1:

The White Broncos (10-4) v. OJSFA or Die (8-6)

LINE: Broncos by 25

SERIES HISTORY: Broncos lead 5-4

Thoughts: I'm going to kick Richard's ass. Brady is going to throw 10 TDs for him, all to Deion Branch, who starts for me.

GAME 2: Clown Baby (9-5) v. Schmock's Team (12-2)

LINE: Schmock by 3

SERIES HISTORY: Clown Baby leads 6-5

Thoughts: I'm not sure how either of these guys made the playoffs. Schmock almost went undefeated with Santana Moss as one of his starting wideouts. My brother was a playoff team all year with Knowshon Moreno and Ryan Matthew's failed expectations as his backfield. I think my brother hangs on due to A-Rodg being out for Schmock and A-Peter playing on an ice rink Monday night.

AWARDS

Aaron Rodgers won the MVP award. He was the best player on Schmock's team.

Past Winners:
2006: LaDanian Tomlinson
2007: Tom Brady
2008: Phillip Rivers
2009: Tom Brady

Arian Foster came from nowhere to win the Offensive Player of the Year. He scored the most points. He was on my team.

Past Winners:
2006: LaDanian Tomlinson
2007: Tom Brady
2008: Drew Brees
2009: Drew Brees

PACKERS PLAYOFFS

Check out the ESPN playoff machine. The Packers are totally and completely fucked. They almost have to beat the Pats to have good chance at the playoffs. Or the need the Vikings to beat the Bears with a converted WR at QB. And their fans will be angry, cold and sober.

I dunno, maybe Matt Flynn is good. I can't really imagine them winning. Pats by 17. And Belichick is still a dick.

CREIGHTON BLUEJAYS

Gregory Echenique makes his debut tonight on ESPN3 againt Idaho St. For those who don't know, Echenique is a transfer from Rutgers. He was the number 9 overall recruit two years ago, and the Big East freshman of the year. For a Valley school to get a guy like this is a big deal. I guess Echenique is immediately going to put up 30-20 every night. He is the Stephen Strasburg of the Creighton Bluejays. Good times.

Rants and Panic: Piping Hot

First, thank you to the Sports Bottle for your mighty fine contribution.

Second, thank you for fucking nothing Green Bay Packers.

Was that the most frustrating loss ever? It was right up there. Especially since it was a conference game and we needed to win that shit. As long as we won against the G-Men and the Lions, the other two games didn't matter that much because we probably would have at least a wild card wrapped up going into the Chicago game due to random conference tiebreakers. Instead, we fuck up our last easy game. Now, we probably have to beat New England AND have Minnesota beat Chicago AND beat Chicago ourselves to win the division. Oh, and we probably have to do it with Matty Flynn.

I mean Jesus do I take Rodgers for granted. He never wings random passes 12 yards over receivers heads. And never bounces them two yards short. I'm not really blaming Flynn for the loss. If he had ANY help at all from either the coaching staff, the offensive line, the receivers or the running backs, we win that game.

It was just embarrassing. I'm pissed beyond words. I can't even really enjoy the fact that CBS switched away from the Pats-Bears at HALFTIME because the Bears got raped so hard. And I'm not going enjoy watching the Eagles-Cowboys tonight because a) I have to root for the Cowboys and b) the week in fantasy is pointless.

Of course fucking Tampa Bay won too. Just in case the Pack couldn't be more fucked. I knew the instant Rodgers got hit that he was done. He had no idea where he was for the next two plays. In fact, one has to wonder if he was concussed in warmups or something.

Maybe the Packers plane crashed due to weather and they were ALL concussed? McCarthy certainly loved the following plays today:

1) Draw plays that lose a yard. Especially on a huge 3rd and 1 in the fourth quarter after your backup quarterback marched down the field with 8 to 9 yard passes.

2) 3 yard passes to slow white fullbacks turned running backs on 3rd and 8. Did it at least three times.

3) Screen passes to your slowest running back not named Jon Kuhn (Dimitri Nance).

4) Bombs on 4th and 1 from your backup QB who was missing most receivers by multiple yards.

5) 3 step drops with press coverage, backed up by a tight zone, when your offensive line was getting dominated.

6) Any play that did not require the QB to roll out (minus almost every Flynn completion, and the Jennings two handed pass to the DB)

To his credit, I've never seen McCarthy as angry as I did today.

The o-line took a HUGE step back today. Part of the blame goes to Flynn who clearly hasn't mastered the art of stepping up in the pocket like A-Rodg. I think A-Rodg has learned the limitations and masks some of the problems. I'm not a coach, and I don't know how to fix the issues on the line, but they were really bad. And probably concussed.

The receivers legitimately seemed to not give a shit. Jennings seemed to take the rest of the game off after dropping the perfect pass from A-Rodg. Driver seemed to not make an effort to catch some of the passes. I thought James Jones had stayed in the locker room after warmups. How do you not get open against this secondary? I know that there were probably twice as many in coverage as normal due to the o-line getting violated by Suh and Co., but Jesus.

And why did we only blitz Stanton like once? And when we did he panicked. We gave him ALL DAY in the pocket. We sorely missed Cullen Jenkins.

I'm more angry now than I was twenty minutes ago. We probably can't lose another game. And I really don't see Matt Flynn beating New England. I wish it was 1992 and we could ignore concussions, damn the long term health consequences.

I just blacked out. I bet that made no sense.End rant.

Do They Make a Pill for This?

The Milwaukee Brewers have schizophrenia. And I'm honestly not trying to make light of the real disease, which is probably horrible. Maybe they are bi-polar. I dunno. The point is, the Brewers don't seem to know either, which is causing them to play horribly.

Sometimes the starters get shelled, and we all blame that.

Sometimes the bullpen blows a lead, and we all blame that.

Sometimes, we can't hit, and we all blame that.

The Crew is running out of things to blame. Perhaps they aren't that good. As a broad generality, I say that good teams usually don't have this many things go wrong in the first 25 games. And I'm saying this without any stats to back it up. I wish someone would prove me wrong. Sometimes good teams will go through long stretches where a lot of stuff goes wrong, and they figure it out and go on to win. But I just can't fathom a really good, playoff caliber team, that has things go this outrageously wrong with so many different things over the course of this short of a period of time. Its not like when the starters are bad, we lose 6-5. It is 9-3. When the bullpen blows leads, it is a three run lead, and it is three days in a row. When we can't hit, we get shutout 3 out of 4 games, and the game where we do score two runs, one comes on a homer from our pitcher. Things just seem to be getting out of hand.

We already are 7 games behind St. Louis, who has the champagne on ice for their divisional championship celebration on June 3rd. According to coolstandings.com, the Cards have a 77% chance of winning the division. The Brewers have a 4% chance.

Deep Breath. On to the bright side.

We are 25 games into a 1,573 game season. So it is early. And other "good" teams are sucking balls too. And they won't ALL be bad, right? Boston is 11-14 in a much tougher division. The Angels are 12-14. Atlanta is 11-4. The Dodgers are 11-14.

Prince can't possibly be this bad all year.

And if Prince is this bad all year, we can either a) resign him long term or b) convince some team to trade him for a bunch of stuff. But seriously if he sucks this year, he fucks every plan the Brewers are working on right now.

Hoffman will probably figure it out. Right?

Yo.

Rick Peterson's coat can continue to cover up what I imagine is a chest hair fro. (Dude, take off your jacket. It is 70 degrees.)

IN CONCLUSION, if Milwaukee ever needed a day off it is today. They should enjoy their day off in either San Diego or L.A., Ryan Braun can have some sort of red carpet event for whatever he is trying to sell today. I say it is a merkin. My wife says his mouthguards. Either way, he will definitely be in US Weekly this week.

AS AN ASIDE, I was watching the Kentucky Derby on Saturday and saw A-Rodg get interviewed on "Millionaire Row", and he was wearing a douchie fedora and a gray suit. But it was A-Rodg so it was awesome. In the past two weeks I've seen pictures of him in Vegas, and now drinking mint juleps with trophy whores in Kentucky.

Can't You Smell That Smell?

Oooohh that smell...Can't you smell that smell? Ooooh that smell. The smell of death surrounds yooooou!-- Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Actually, that smell is burning human flesh. Because Trevor Hoffman exited the bullpen on consecutive days and did his best gas can routine. And burned down Miller Park twice. Either that or it is Hoffman's rotting carcass. Either way.

I'm in full on panic mode. Am I overreacting? I dunno. Did I overreact to Gagne a few years back? How about Turnbow? I have a sneaking suspicion he is done.

Could he turn it around? Sure. I would be willing to bet he has gone through stretches like this before, in his 73 year career. But he wasn't 163 years old when he went through them. Sometimes, you just can't do it anymore.

The solution? I think we start with giving him "some time off" away from the closer role, to see if he can get anyone out in the 6th or 7th. If he can, then I have no problem putting him back in the 9th. But at this point, he may have already cost us a playoff spot (assuming we periodically don't just forget to hit, and assuming Soup doesn't magically "earn" his spot back). Give someone else a shot.

The reality? Macha will not let anyone else close unless Melvin puts Hoffman on the DL with some type of mysterious ailment. Macha is extremely old school, and treats veterans with WAY too much respect at times. I just can't fathom how much worse it can get. I mean, say what you want about Turnbow, at least he had a high 90s fastball (although he rarely got it over the plate). Hoffman hardly even throws his change, and when he does it is not a strike. Then he grooves a 82 mph fastball over the middle of the plate, and it lands 450 feet away.

Just not happy at all.

$12.5 Million Dollar Pitching Machine

I am starting to get frustrated about what I believe is going to happen to the 25 man roster for your 2010 Brewers. While I could be wrong, it looks like the Crew is preparing to send Carlos Villenueva to AAA to start the season, rather than sending Jeff Suppan home. I don't get it. Haven't they seen enough in the past four years to know what you have with Suppan? Haven't they seen enough in the past few weeks? I'm not making the argument that Villa is great. He is decidedly average. But Soup is decidedly terrible. They are wasting a roster spot over money, when the fact remains that they are going to pay him whether he gives up 50 HRs or not. So why guarantee yourself a few losses? What do you have to lose if you are the Brewers? He was part of one of the worst pitching staffs in Major League Baseball last year. This is bordering on insanity. The stats on Soup are just staggering. I'm too lazy to post them here, but last year he was like WORST IN THE LEAGUE in WHIP and ERA among full time starters.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe they are trying to trade him and that is why it is taking so long. I dunno. But I doubt they are going to cut him at this point, and that is a shame. The Brewers are good enough to compete for the playoffs with a semi-competent pitching staff, but they are not good enough to lose three or four games while giving a guy the chance to pitch his way out of something, that he has been trying to pitch his way out of for two plus seasons.

IN OTHER NEWS

Twinkie forced someone to steal us great tickets to one of the Brewer-Twin games in Minnesota in May. I've never paid more than like $30 for a baseball ticket, and we are paying $62 (regular price) for these. I look forward to a rain out.

-Sports Bottle and our female companions are going to drink ourselves blind in Brew City on Saturday night after I attend the wedding of one of his ex-girlfriends. I wish I could just skip the wedding. Whatever. Me after 60+ hours of work for 8 straight weeks, on like no sleep, plus drinking to get drunk = forgetting things.

RELAX.

Yesterday about 5 p.m., you would have thought that Ted Thompson took a dump on Curly Lambeau's statue, and wiped his ass with the American flag.

Free agency had started. The Packers had not held a gun to Chad Clifton's head and demand that he sign whatever they offered him therefore giving up the chance to check to see if he could cash in one last time. Clearly, Thompson did not utilize the Jack Bauer strategy of kidnapping Clifton's family and threatening their lives if he did not stay in Green Bay. It was obviously Thompson's fault for letting Clifton hit the open market, because the player has no choice in the matter.

Not only that but OMFG! The Bears paid an aging (pretty freakishly athletic, but still aging) 4-3 Defensive end, who doesn't like to work very hard, 6 years, 91.5 million with $42 mil guaranteed. Obviously, Thompson should have offered him $100 mil to play a position he had never played before! Either that or had him killed so that the Bears couldn't overpay him.

Then, Detroit went out and signed Kyle Vanden Bosch! And Nate Burleson!! They are going to win the Super Bowl!! And the Bears also signed a backup running back! GASP!

It was seriously panic on sports radio. Thompson had no plan, Chicago and Detroit were not going to lose a game except when they play each other. He Who Shall Not Be Named will be back, and the Vikings will be 12-4 (losing only to the Bears and Lions), the Pack was going to trot out Breno Giaciomini (sp) at left tackle, Rodgers was going to get injured in week one, and we traded away Brian Brohm and OMFG Matt Flynn is going to be our starter and we will go 0-16. This was all based on the fact that a 36 year old LT with bad hips and bad knees was going to visit Washington.

Oh, and overnight they signed Clifton to a 3 year, $20 mil deal. Seriously. Calm the fuck down. I would enjoy the Pack making a splash. But they will be fine. Ted has a plan, and he is working his plan. You (Packer fan) are not on the phone listening to what is going on. You can't just give the players everything they ask for without negotiating anything. If you did that, you would be the Washington Redskins. Or the Bears I guess. It will be fine. Have a can or 15 of Busch Light. Smoke some cigs. Eat some fried cheese. The Packers are still going to be fine. I will let you know when to panic.

The End?

I was actually going to try to get some work done this morning, but I am fighting hangover day 2 (more on that later), and I just got angry about the Packers after some conversations with co-workers, so I've got to get it off my chest.

Thankfully, I was in such rough shape yesterday during the game that I had a hard time mustering up the energy to get angry. I was just trying to stay alive.

PROBLEM: The special teams is an abortion. We cannot go on like this any longer. How many more times are we going to give the other team the ball at the Packers 30 yard line? Can we figure something else out here? I'm to the point where I would advocate just kicking it directly out of bounds and giving the other team the ball at the 40, because it would save us 30 yards of field position. And is it really that hard to TOUCH someone coming right up the middle on a punt? That was inexcusable. If a guy comes on the outside, so be it. So fucking frustrating.

ANSWER: I've really got none. We supposedly kept 14 FBs so they could play special teams. We also grossly overpaid Jarrett Bush because he was allegedly our best special teams player. But obviously whatever or whoever is supposed to be covering can't do it. Special teams has been a comedy of errors all year. Blocking and tackling would be a start.

PROBLEM: The O-line. I guess Tauscher was the answer to the problems that plagued us. Through my near death experience, I'm pretty sure Rodgers didn't get touched when Tauscher was in there. Then Tauscher "re-injured his knee" even though I never saw him get hurt. (Maybe it was walking to the locker room?). And Barbre played bull fighter again and Rodger got sacked 6 times. I mean, the O-line is historically bad. 37 sacks in 8 games. The all-time Packer record is 61. Rodgers is going to die.

ANSWER: Attach a healthy knee to Tauscher? Get someone off the street to replace Barbre? I mean, it was like the Bucs got replaced by the '85 Bears at halftime. I'm sure we don't have anyone better than Barbre, but could anyone be any WORSE?

PROBLEM: Penalties. They are bordering on insane.

ANSWER: Don't commit penalties. I've got nothing.

PROBLEM: Lack of pressure on the opposing QB.

ANSWER: I don't think we have the personnel that is capable of blitzing. We NEVER don't get blocked. Maybe the solution is not to blitz? It is a damned if you do, damned if you don't thing. Our linebackers are not good in coverage either. And the d-line can't get any pressure.

PROBLEM: Rodgers taking too many sacks.

ANSWER: I don't think there is a solution here either. He holds it because he's trying to make a play. He's just wired that way, just as He Who Shall Not Be Named was wire to throw it into triple coverage. I think Rodgers needs to take off an run more.

IN SUMMARY: We are fucked. Could we finish 4-12? Probably not, because we play the Lions. But I would say it is alot more likely than 12-4. Realistically, we should be favored against Detroit, Seattle and San Fran the rest of the year. I don't see any way we beat Dallas, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Arizona or Chicago. The chances of the playoffs are not good at all. I don't see much of a silver lining to losing to a bad 0-7 team with a rookie QB making his first NFL start.

And say we do go 7-9. What happens then? What happens when a team with Super Bowl expectations (albeit maybe overhyped) finishes third in their division and below .500? Heads have to roll, and I am sick of the same shit. Who goes? I predict McCarthy probably does, because the GM always gets two coaches. But the startling lack of playmakers and depth is making me doubt the TT way. In theory, I like his philosophy. But if it doesn't work, and I'm not sure it is, at what point do we have to give up? When do his failures outweigh the positives (and certainly there are some) to the point that we have to start over?

I'm sure things aren't as bad as they feel, and I'm overreacting to an awful performance. But is 4-4, with the schedule they have played, any reason to celebrate? I think not.

Sigh

At some point, don't we have to start questioning Mike McCarthy? The coaching in the first half was absolutely horrible. The second half was much better, save for the two gigantic abortions which I will discuss later. I hate complaining about coaching, and I'm quite certain I haven't had a real complaint about McCarthy since he's been here. But yesterday was glaring ineptitude.



Let me start out by saying that I think the Queens are better than us. I'm not sure that can be disputed. I don't think they are alot better, but they are good enough that we can't have 7,000 mental errors and reasonably expect to beat them.



-The playcalling in the first half was inexcusable. We can't block anyone. So clearly, the obvious decision is to throw nothing but 5 and 7 step drops. Then, after 5 sacks or so (regardless of whose fault) we should not adjust at all and stick to our plan of running nothing but 25 yard routes. It was ridiculous. The second half proved that short, quick passes will work. And they ALWAYS work. And we REFUSE to do it.



-Ryan Grant. I dislike me some Ryan Grant. He has no vision whatsoever. Yet McCarthy REFUSES to give anyone else an opportunity to carry the ball. I don't think we were running the ball much against the Viqueens no matter who it was, but didn't it seem that Ahman Green ran with a little more purpose? Why does he steadfastly refuse to give anyone other than Grant more than two carries, both of which are draw plays on 3rd and 16??



-Kickoff returns. We have NOBODY faster than Ahman Green to return kicks? By using him, you are basically saying "We will just take it at the 25, thanks." No CB? No WR? Nobody can return kicks but Ahman Green? Baffling.



-Kickoff Coverage. I get not wanting kick away from Harvin initially. But after two straight backbreaking returns, McCarthy finally decided to squib. Again, sort of out of necessity because we couldn't even get a hand on him. Then, after that was successful twice. He inexplicably kicks it deep and gets burned AGAIN? What the fuck?



-Mason Crosby is not capable of kicking a 50 yarder. The fact that he is like 0 for the season, should tell you that. It made no sense to throw a 40 yard pass on 3rd and 8, and then settle for a FG.



-Defensive scheme. Pretty much dominated the 3rd quarter. I think we had a bit of misfortune in the 4th. Poor field position killed us in most cases. But other than 2 possessions, we got NO pressure on He Who Shall Not Be Named at all. Maybe the Viqueens o-line is that good? Or maybe our talent sucks? Alot of what I think happened is that the Queens did what the Pack should have and ran a ton of short routes. Even if we could get through, we wouldn't have had time to get to Him. But even on deep drops, he generally had all day. And I saw Kampan stumbling around in coverage most than once.



-Penalties. Jesus fucking tap dancing Christ that is frustrating. Fucking headbutts, fucking holdings, fucking shit. Every fucking week. Is there ANY fucking accountability? I realize that maybe the players are dipshits, but you can't fire 53 players.



OTHER STUFF



I actually have to commend Thom Brenneman and Troy Aikman. They were actually pretty restrained in their effusive praise of He Who Shall Not Be Named. By far the best announcing team there has been for one of His games. It was obviously a big story, and they gave it the proper amount of attention. But they actually seemed interested in the fact that the Packers were playing.



G-Force did me proud. Two consecutive quarters of boos, plus a nice one at the end. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Anyone who says it was anything but a strong boo is a moron. Also, anyone who wasn't booing should get the fuck out. I don't want to hear from you two months from now when the Pack is in the playoffs. That includes the dipshits at the end of the game with the Packer garb on and the "We love (He Who Shall Not Be Named)" and "We want (He Who Shall Not Named Back)". Congrats folks, you fucking have him, because you are a Viking fan. Fuck. You.

Lets take a quick look at the wild card race since the division is gone barring a 2008 He Who Shall Not Be Named-type meltdown:
Philly 5-2
Dallas 5-2
NYG 5-3
Atlanta 4-2
GB 4-3
Chi 4-3
Ari 4-3
SF 3-4
Car 3-4

Two of those will win their divisions. I think NO and Min pretty much have theirs wrapped up. We play Dallas, Chicago, Arizona and San Francisco yet. 2 at home. We probably need to win all of them. I don't love our position right now, but there is a long, long way to go.

Can't wait to avoid all forms of sports media for the next two to three days. Watched a Taylor Swift video with my breakfast this morning instead of SportsCenter. Listened to Rise Against instead of sports talk.

Pity Bill Castro?

Bill Castro was one of the casualties of Doug Melvin's murderin' spree yesterday. He was canned after 18 years on the team. I'm not saying Bill Castro is a good pitching coach. I'm not saying that a pitching coach does or doesn't affect the results that a pitching staff puts up. I'm just saying that he had Jeff Suppan, Braden Looper, Mike Burns, Carlos Villanueva and Seth McClung starting games for him this year. And he was the one that took the bullet instead of any one of these pieces of shit. Oh, and hopefully they weren't comparing this year's results with last year's. Because last year we had Ben Sheets and CC mutherfucking Sabathia. Being a pitching coach (like any coach) and having any success, depends alot on what you have to work with. And the cupboard was pretty bare at starter this year, due to injuries and general shittyness. Firing Bill Castro is like firing a writer for not finishing a book on time, when you took away his laptop and replaced it with a calligraphy pen. Or letting a WR go when he didn't produce like last year, because he lost a fucking leg in the offseason.

But life's a bitch, and I'll get over it.

At Least Training Camp Starts Saturday

We just totally jumped into a time machine and stepped back to the mid 1990's last night. I knew it was a bad omen when we had a Pat Listach sighting. Jeff Suppan was Mr. Hyde last night. The entire bullpen was shit. Josh Willingham turned into the Babe Ruth-Barry Bonds-Ted Williams three-some love child (At least I had him in my fantasy lineup!). The sad thing is that we actually hit a little last night for a change, and it didn't matter. I think we are totally and completely fucked. An 8 run loss at home to one of the worst teams of the past decade will do this to a guy.

I am seriously starting to harken back to the times between about 1995 and 2006 when about July 28th, a young man's fancy would turn to analyzing 10-yard outs of dudes in helmets and shorts, and my investment in the Brewers involved looking at the 9-3 loss in the box scores in the morning paper. Of course, I didn't have cable for most of that time, and FSN didn't start showing almost every game until around 2004, and then I didn't even live in Wisconsin, so ignoring the Crew was alot easier. And the Crew was always about 20 games out by this time and there were no expectations because we were a poor team, with a shitty owner that hadn't been to the postseason since 1982.

Alot of that has changed now, so quitting is going to be increasingly difficult. I'm not quite to the point where I am not going to watch nearly every game. But it is going to be alot easier to switch in The Real World knowing that the Crew is probably getting their asses kicked. 4 games out is by no means done. But 4 games out in 4th place makes things alot harder. The Crew needs to win out in this series. And not waste any prospects in a trade. And hope for the best. I am getting fucking pumped for football season.

ASIDES:

Also getting pumped for the drunkest month of my life since 2003 that begins Friday. 2 bachelor parties, one fantasy draft, one Packer preseason game. I might die. And/or get divorced.

Michael Vick is getting jobbed.

I Am Uninspired

Man. The Crew looked like they had all been out on a bender on their day off, and came to the park unshowered and unshaven to go to work. They hardly looked like they were trying once Yo gave up the bomb in the 1st. For the record, I think I agree with Braun that if something isn't done, I would be fairly shocked to see us in the playoffs. Not that I'm calling the season over prior to the All-Star break, but this is starting to be a trend. And we can't afford to be getting smoked by the Cards and the Cubs. We are in need of one of those patented and random hot streaks, where our number 7 and 8 starters (we have Yo, 2 number 5s (Bush and Looper), a 7 (Soup) and an 8 (whomever else is in the rotation)) get hot an go unhittable for about a month, while our hitting is one fire too, and we go 20-10 or something. They are just shaky as fuck right now, and with fragile nature of the clubhouse psyche, it could come tumbling down any day now.

Raped By Twins

I'll admit it. The Twinks fucking own us. Our team is on the borderline of a fullout meltdown. We need our pitching to get hot again, or we are screwed. Sure, we can score 10 runs a game for a week or so. But we can also leave 20 guys on base while we try to hit homers and fail. There are full on cracks showing in the dam. I'm not having a whole lot of confidence right now. Bill Hall should be playing against leftys? Really? Because I'm pretty sure I watched him swing through about 12 fastballs right down the middle last night. He is fucking terrible. There is no excuse for him to start over Gamel, McGehee (who is actually really good) or Counsell. Lets cross our fingers and hope someone named Mike Burns can get out of the 4th tonight. In closing, I would just like to say that .228 hitters make fantastic lead off men, and if Schroeder/Anderson are longing for the return of Weeks the Brewers are fucked.

Super Sunday!

So today there is finally football on again. And if that is wrong, I don't wanna be right. The pregame shows begin in like 30 minutes, and will repeat everything they've talked about for the past two weeks. My wife has to work today, so I will be firmly planted in front of my TV watching it, since there isn't anything else on. Creighton made the questionable decision to schedule at game at 2 p.m., so I will check that out. Otherwise, it is nothing but blowing hot air about a football game, and the discussion about how the economy is destroying the Super Bowl because the Playboy party got cancelled. This year is the first year that I can remember that I haven't had some kind of plan for today. Inevitably my wife will get a bug up her ass that we need to have a party like the day before, and she ends up inviting a bunch of people over, but she has to work this year, and if you think I'm putting that shit together, you are crazy. Her work schedule even takes away the possibility of going over to a relatives' house. In fact, I only have like 2 beers in the refrigerator. I will probably have to muster up at least enough energy to get to Shopko Express to buy some beer. But there won't be any special meals or snacks going on, which will be wierd. Anyway, I think the Steelers win, I think they force Warner into some bad throws, and shut down Arizona's not so vaunted run offense. Big Ben will do just enough on offense, and the Steelers win 27-17.
Last week: 2-0
Playoffs: 6-4
Season: 134-125-7

OTHER:

Is it safe to panic about the Badgers yet? Not that winning at Northwestern is ever a given (noplace in the Big 10 is), but they have to win somewhere at some point. How many teams have ever lost six in a row and got an at-large bid? I'm going to guess the list isn't real long. They've got to go 7-2 the rest of the way in my calculation, and win at least one in the Big Ten tourney. I came to the realization last night that I hate almost every member of the Badgers:

-7th year senior Marcus Landry has been one of the most disappointing recruits in recent memory. He was supposed to be the next Alando Tucker. He turned into the next Ray Nixon.

-9th year junior Travon Hughes. Shows flashes, but also does some really stupid things (i.e. taking 25 foot jump shots with 13 seconds left on the shot clock).

-Jason Bohanon: reminds me more and more of Tanner Bronson every day. If you are 5'9", you better be able to shoot the three better than 35.5%.

-Krabbenhoft: actually don't hate him. He is what he is, but when he is probably your best player, you are in trouble.

-Nankivil, Leuer, Taylor, Wilson: should all get more playing time in my opinion.

I am done making excuses for the tough schedule, and large number of "good" losses. You can't rely on moral victories at some point.

Classic

I think I've finally figured it out. Bob Sanders must be an assistant coach for the Badgers. That is the only logical explanation for why the Badgers have begun to remind me so much of the Green Bay Packers in that they are incapable of holding a lead late, or winning a close game.

Like last year when the Packers were the best 6-10 team in the NFL. The Badgers are the best 12-8 team in the NCAA. They could be 18-2 right now if they won every close game they played.

I think the part that bothers me the most was THAT was the shot that Bo Ryan called a timeout to get? A left handed floater, in traffic, from a freshman? If you are going to have someone drive to the basket, why not just let Trevon Hughes finish what it appeared like he was going to do before Ryan called the time out? It sure looked like he was breaking his man down off the dribble. I'll take my chances with the 7th year junior taking that shot all day. But if you are calling the time out, couldn't there have been a play drawn up for Nankivil, who out of the blue turned into Brian Butch and was 5-5 on threes? Or Landry, who has a pretty decent mid-range? I don't have a problem with Taylor taking the shot necessarily. I thought he did a really good job running the offense, and has some explosiveness and athleticism that nobody else on Wisconsin has. He was probably a little too eager in the last minute or so on the trigger, and that is probably because he hasn't played many crunch time minutes. My big problem was the lack of a playcall, and the horrible shot selection.

I still think we'll be OK. Need to finish up 7-3, which is doable.

CU is a mere 11 game winning streak away from a possible at large as well after the win last night.

Ladies and Gentelmen, Your Last Place Milwaukee Brewers!

A lot to catch up on as I was drinking myself into a coma over the weekend. I caught the game online on Thursday, the first game of the DH on Saturday and the Sunday game. My first thought while watching the Red Sox series is that is seemed like Milwaukee was playing a different game than Boston. As if we were a AAA team vs. their major leaguers. The level of talent is obscenely different. They are A LOT better than we are, and I guess I'm a bit surprised by that. Truthfully, Braun was the only one that could probably crack that lineup right now. He is on a tear that may be unlike any that any Brewer player has ever been on right now, and the Brewers have very few wins to show for it. The biggest thing with Boston is that every guy in their lineup was a danger to hit one out, regardless of the count. And that ballpark turns routine flyouts into HR's. Milwaukee's pitchers had no answer whatsoever. Very disappointing that we lose a game with our ace on Thursday, then lay an egg over the weekend. And now we are battling Pittsburgh and Cincinnati to hopefully get out of last. I am going to try to look this up at some point today, but I'm willing to bet that there aren't a lot of teams that are in last place on May 19th that end up making the playoffs. I sincerely hope that if the Crew doesn't manage to take 4 of 6 from the Pirates and Nats this weekend that Yost comes back to Milwaukee to find his shit in a box, and the locks changed. There is no excuse right now for them to be as bad as they are, and they clearly need a new voice even if you can excuse all of his decisions. The players have to make plays, obviously, but we don't have anyone to replace the players with, and he is in a gots to go situation. This is no longer about losing close games because the closer sucks (which he does).

-Weeks Watch (4 games): 3-13, 2R, 5BB, 4K, 2CS, 2RBI (Season: .193BA, .654OPS) Fairly poor as usual, but got on base 8 times in four games, not too bad I guess.

-Billy "Rob Deer" Hall: 3-12, 3K, 0 HR (Season: .199 BA, 9HR (2nd on team), 46K (1st on team by 10))

-There is going to be a Mike Cameron update in about two weeks. His honeymoon period is about over.