Yo dealing early again, looks like he's got good stuff, just can't hit the edges... fastballs hard & down, which should set up some breaking ball opportunities in the middle innings.

Yet ANOTHER ball that would've been out in Miller Park

Estrada doing what Wolf could not: Get ahead of hitters & continue to go after them. Something that Yo has been doing very well at lately.

Again, the announcers doing zero homework: Fielder known as a good low-ball hitter, but he just tomahawked that pitch down the line... Prince has shown quite often in his career that he prefers the ball up.

Crew 0-8 with RISP... not a good recipe for climbing your way back into a game.

Kottaras with yet another hard hit Brewer ball... caught. For as bad as the luck has been on defense, it has carried over to the offense tonight.

Dreckman seemingly flipping a coin on the strike zone tonight... equally bad both ways.

Wolf with nothing tonight. Little bit of everything: badly located pitches, squeezed zone, & some unfortunate bleeders. I assume that's his last inning, since there's really no one to save for tomorrow.

Crew up 1-0 on one of the more complete-played games of the season. Yo was absolutely filthy today, ties Don Sutton's record with 9 K's in a Brewer postseason start. It helps for tomorrow's bullpen situation as you're never sure how a SP will be on a short-rest start.

Prince not staying?

There seems to be some surprise by this around the 'net & some people I know. Really, if anyone thought he was resigning with MIL, I have a nice campfire tale about a fiscally-responsible, thrifty current president you might like to hear. They can't afford him & Prince has earned the right to go make whatever small-nation GNP someone else wants to pay him.
Then I read this from Lee Jenkins at SI.com:
He is leaving, an inevitable announcement, delivered at a startling time. If Fielder made this declaration six months ago, the Brewers could have been more serious about trading him. Now, they have no recourse.

Just another case of a national writer trying to write about the Crew, yet being totally clueless to what he's talking about. The Brewers KNEW Prince wasn't signing past '11, so Melvin went out & got pitching he needed, and PLANNED on letting Fielder walk for the draft picks at the end of the season. Short of a cataclysmic breakdown, there was no way Melvin was flipping #28 at the deadline.

Enjoy what is left of the 1-2 punch. It's been an awesome ride, but all good things must end.

Aaron Rodgers on his chameleon facial hair... classic

RIP John Kennedy Oswald

I've held off for awhile on the Jani Lane comments concerning his death & place in music history. I guess it's taken some time to digest & realize what we lost & what most people don't realize we lost. Strange how I kept waking up the night he died with "Song & Dance Man" stuck in my head... I guess a rock & roll hero was calling out to his fans one last time.
He was SO MUCH MORE than the "Cherry Pie" guy. It makes me sick to think that's how he's remembered. I will always remember him as the master lyricist & king of melody... see songs such as "Mr. Rainmaker", "Bed of Roses", "Quicksand", or "Stronger Now".
The demons would not allow him to carry on, sadly, but let's not forget what he was: a phenomenal songwriter & musician, who couldn't carry on. I could go on for many paragraphs, delving further into hero-worship hyperbole, but I'll simply end this way:
I will miss all the music Jani will never write. He brought much joy into my life over the years & I hope he realizes that many mourn his passing like a family member's.

I know everyone likes to joke at Counsell's expense for the 0-45 streak, but before tonight's hit, I would venture to guess he saved more runs than he cost. Sure we want production, & sure we think the Crew is keeping him on for nostalgia reasons, but, truthfully, his value is defensively. Everything else is butter.

Considering the large returns on traded stars so far, I'm thinking that Doug may well have done the best job of upgrading without giving up anything of consequence. And let's hope that Rickie gets well fast, which in itself would be equivalent to a deadline deal.

Lopez is certainly helpful as a switch-hitting IF. Hairston has played everywhere but catcher & the Boston Pops, with decent defensive metrics.

Just an open question to chew on: Though he does still have value as a defender & a good eye at the plate, does this foreshadow the end of Counsell's time in MIL as a player?

Crew Acquires Hairston, Jr.

Just came through... no word on what went back to the Nats.

UPDATE: The Nats receive minor-league OF Erik Komatsu. Komatsu at AA this year: .294/.393/.416. Hasn't shown much HR power since being drafted in '08, but has solid OB skills. Plays all three OF positions. Ranked 14th by Baseball America in the Brewer's system.

Doug continues to reshape the bench with flexible vets. Hairston's numbers this year: .268/.342/.385, nice OBP ahead of the boppers. Some combo of Hairston, Lopez, Counsell should be able to hold down 2b while young Rickie is out. There's plenty of offense to go around in the Crew's lineup.

Meanwhile, here's the pitching numbers over the past few games:
- 17/20 quality starts (six or more innings, three earned runs or fewer)
- 2.62 starters' ERA in those 20 games
- Bullpen: 0 ER in last five games, spanning 12 1/3 innings

Getting past the "we're done" feeling when Rickie went down, Melvin made a helluva move getting Felipe Lopez for nothing. In '09 he had a great second half. Surprisingly, he's been ok in the field the last couple years. I think Lopez can hold down the fort quite well at the moment.

Losing Rickie is obviously on par with losing Prince, but I think we can withstand it for a few weeks, no pun intended.

Wil Nieves traded to ATL

The Brewers may or may not get cash in return (that's the "considerations" part), but they don't really lose anything, either. You know, other than the 20 games we had to watch him hit .140/.189/.180
UPDATE: Nieves was traded to Atlanta for $1. I suppose he's worth a McChicken off the Dollar Menu - James Langrehr "The Brewer's Bar"

I read that last line as totally deadpan in my head. I laughed so hard I just thought I would share the humor.

Big music news revealed last night (well, big for me anyway), ex-Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy & ex-Whitesnake guitarist John Sykes are forming a power trio with an as-yet-unknown bassist.

Sykes, of course, was the unheralded star of the mammoth Whitesnake album in 1987 & the leader of the criminally underrated Blue Murder.

Look for it sometime early in '12.

Hey, Ron, that's how you use Loe correctly... (see File In Noggin For Future Use)

righties, righties, righties. Only.

Two stories you won't be reading in mainstream papers, both exposing Walker's budget plan as what it is... fiscally responsible & working.

Walker's Vindication

The New Normal

Collective bargaining is not a "right", at least not by the classic definition. In fact, if you really look at this entire fight, collective bargaining was a nice shroud to cover public theft.