Second Fantasy Team

Of course, Schaub was injured before the draft had even ended. Awesome. I can't handle the Douche that is Brady Quinn as my quarterback.

This is for our Ladies... league.

My brother decided today to start another league, so I've got one more draft tomorrow.

FF overload!!!

Fantasy Football Lineup for Shepherd Express League

(click on the picture, it will open up much clearer)

Fantasy Football draft

I have my first draft tonight and I'll be tweeting my picks.

Are you following me?

http://twitter.com/tristarscoop

The Brewers are on the verge of winning their second straight game in which Braun and Fielder are 0-for. Wow.

Kendall has 3 SB in 2 games!

To be fair, Suppan had a good outing. Quality start, one run, lots of ground balls - thats the best we can ask for

STILL laughing about Carg and imagining a Trogdor-esque version of Craig! DAGRON!!!

Junior announcer just said Carg Counsell was leading off for the Brewers :)

SWEET! Cowboy Mouth on the PA at Miller Park!

Hilarious how much of my Facebook feed this morning was lamenting the Suppan start on Suppan bobblehead day.

Monthly dose of culture: we're at the art museum after dark. Beer tasting, DIY crafts, music - pretty cool.

Pretty impressive fans at MP

Since you usually only hear stories of misbehaving fans, I decided to share the story of some awesome fans I saw tonight.

Read about it at BCB.

Brewers formula for losing a game: just 3 runs on 10 hits and 9 left on while committing 3 errors = TEH SUXORS

At least they learn quickly. Much better rundown there. Great move by Escobar to take over at third "Screw this, Im faster than all these fools!"

Awful break on the ball by Braun. Just a terrible read.

Congrats to the teen in front of us in the front row of Sec 207 who pulled a ball back from over the rail when his friend biffed it. (more on this later)

Oh my god Cam, the 1st 2 pitches were over your head and you struck out.

Disgustingly awful error by Vargas, but holy hell were those some beautiful pitches to get the final two outs!

Prince's OPS is over 1.000 after that HR in the 3rd

Oh my lord Frank the Cat just did a half skip into a one armed windmill whip thing that seemed timed with I Dont Want To Lose Your Love - an air guitar solo!

Found the key to Kendalls game - lean into it

Prince's HR felt like it was in slo mo.

Sitting just foul of where Prince's HR went out and holy crap did that thing soar. Thought it was a popout and then we all stood to see if it was fair or not.

With Lopez out, why isnt Escobar leading off?

Ok, the decorative lights on the Mar quette interchange are green and gold tonight. WI folks really are football nuts.

SO annoyed with the Brewers. We put up 8 runs in 3 innings and now have just a 2 run lead.

Should have known not to be excited about the Brewers. PS Mike Burns is not a viable starter. He was a career minor leaguer for a reason.

Packers one TV Brewers on the other. Sports fangirl bliss.

Dear Sports Gods, Please let the Packers preason performance be indicitive of how the year will go. Remember the Brewers and the Favre debacle? You owe us!

MMMM! Its Miller Time! Taking the Miller Brewery Tour

The Bill Hall Era has mercifully ended!

Sports Illustrated writer Ben Reiter broke the news with this sarcastic tweet: SI_BenReiter Breaking: Bill Hall traded from Brewers to Mariners. Seattle, get ready for the Series!

Here's the JSOnline info on it - I'll bold my favorite part -

Hall traded to Seattle (updated)

By Tom Haudricourt of the Journal Sentinel

Aug. 19, 2009 5:10 p.m.

Pittsburgh – The Milwaukee Brewers traded infielder/outfielder Bill Hall to the Seattle Mariners today for minor league pitcher Ruben Flores.

The deal almost certainly included a large amount of cash going to the Mariners because the Brewers owed Hall approximately $10.5 million on the four-year, $24 million deal he signed prior to the 2007 season. Hall had a $6.8 million salary this year, $8.4 million next year and an option for 2011 at $9.25 million with a $500,000 buyout.

The Brewers designated Hall for assignment last Wednesday after he batted .201 with six homers and 24 RBI in 76 games. Hall’s season included a brief assignment to Class AAA Nashville with the intent of working on his swing, but he was recalled when rightfielder Corey Hart had an emergency appendectomy.

Flores, 25, has spent the 2009 season at low Class A Clinton and high Class A High Desert. The 6-foot-4, 170-pound right-hander was 3-2 with a 4.39 ERA in 44 games with 18 saves. In 53 1/3 innings, he has allowed 45 hits, 26 earned runs and 35 walks while logging 61 strikeouts.

Flores was selected in the 12th round of the 2003 draft. He is a native of El Paso, Texas.

Flores will report to high Class A Brevard County.

Hall, 29, was given his $24 million deal after batting .270 in 2006 with team highs of 35 home runs and 85 RBI. After switching from shortstop to center field in ’07, his offensive numbers fell off to .254 with 14 homers and 63 RBI.

Moved to third base in ’08, Hall’s offensive numbers continued to fall, particularly against right-handed hitters, prompting the move to a platoon role. In 128 games, he batted .225 with 15 homers and 55 RBI.

The Mariners have been short at third base since Adrian Beltre was sidelined with a bleeding testicle, the result of being struck by a batted ball without wearing a protective cup. Unproven Jack Hannahan had been playing third for Seattle.

Obviously, the connection with Seattle is that GM Jack Zduriencik was the Brewers' former scouting director and is familiar with his play.

UPDATED MONEY INFO:

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED.COM REPORTS THAT THE BREWERS WILL PAY THE REMAINDER OF HALL'S $6.8 MILLION CONTRACT THIS YEAR AND MOST OF HIS $8.4 MILLION CONTRACT NEXT YEAR, AS MUCH AS $7.15 MILLION.

Poor Bill Hall - how bad do you have to feel when you're the guy they had to pick up in order to cover for the dude with injured junk? (aside to Beltre: You don't wear a cup?)

And the Packer/Favre trash talk begins...

Green Bay linebacker Nick Barnett said today's he's thrilled to have a
chance to finally be able to put contact on the quarterback he
practiced with for five years.

"Would I like to hit him?" Barnett told reporters today "Hell yeah I'd
like to hit him. All these damn practices out here and they didn't let
us hit him.

Looking into the TV camera, Barnett added, "I want to get a nice
little shot on you, Brett.

"I said it. Put it on the bulletin board."

Only in Milwaukee?

Tailgating in style?

Or just plain weird?

He keeps turning up like a bad penny....

ESPN News is reporting that WCCO-TV in Minneapolis has said that Brett Favre is expected to sign with the Vikings today.

ESPN also just reported the Brett Favre boarded a plane at 9:10 am in Hattiesburg, Miss., and is headed for Minnesota.

WISN Channel 12 is reporting that the local regional airport in Hattiesburg, MS has confirmed that a plane with the Vikings logo on it left about 9:10 am and is scheduled to land in Minneapolis around noon. Both Brett and Deanna are reported to be on the plane.

The best part of that article (that I’m reading on my phone) is WISN sports director Dan Needles’ quote that Brett “doesn’t like training camp.”

And while we all know that’s true, this is the ultimate in douchebaggery. Hold out – don’t have started the possible comeback/rumors so soon – do something to avoid training camp, but don’t announce your retirement AGAIN in order to avoid training camp.

Favre’s Prima Donna self-importance has been well-documented, but this is an all new low.

Chris Mortensen just said on ESPN that Favre just didn’t want to go stay in the dorms, so that’s why he wanted to avoid training camp.

____

Now ESPN is reporting that pending a physical, Favre is signing for $10-$12 million for one year.

"

A source close to Brett Favre said the quarterback, pending a physical, will sign a contract with the Minnesota Vikings for between $10 million to $12 million, according to ESPN senior NFL analyst Chris Mortensen.

Vikings coach Brad Childress confirmed in an e-mail to The Associated Press Tuesday morning that Favre was traveling from Mississippi to meet with the team."

Coffey Time for Saturday, August 15, 2009 is 11.66.

Ok MP boo birds, frickin Mike Burns (!) pitched 6 scoreless innings and is at just 84 pitches and you boo a 2-run homer?
That’s crap! It’s a quality start from our #7 starter.

Too funny - the US Cellular photo thing is now in front of a backdrop of Miller Park. Poor JJ, even his cutout got demoted!

Astros' pitcher Arias' line: zero innings pitched, one run in, responsible for runners all over the bases. A truly Turnbow-esque performance!

Little Weenies during a Saturday Sausage Race?

Shrewd move by Coop to IBB Kendall to load the bases in the 5th and force Macha to either pull Burns or strand 3 runners.

The LF scoreboard says Kendall is hitting .714 with 1 RBI against Moehler!!!

So the pre game jumbo tron commercial says we can text Brewers, a problem and location to 41513. Do you think Brewers Kendall Sucks At Bat is a valid complaint?

And you thought hitting the pitcher 8th was a Yostian thing of the past - Escobar in the 9 hole and were stuck with Kendall behind the dish.

At vintage baseball and Im pushing on the boyfriends arm and he tells me "Its the 1860s, you have to listen to me"

Seriously too funny for words

Thank you Doonesbury, for a huge smile today!




(Click to view enlarged)

Digging Sons of Maxwell from Nova Scotia and "United Breaks Guitars"

Drinking the night away at Gaelic Storm at Irish Fest!

Let me be the first to say it

Bench Kendall. Kendall Who? Mike Rivera for Everyday Catcher!

Mike Rivera says “I’ll see your HR and raise you” by doubling Kendall’s season HR output in just two at-bats. Rivera has two home runs (his first multi-home-run game) and five RBI (a career high.) And it’s just the fourth inning.

Ok, but really, as long as we’re shaking up and showing folks that no one is safe, why wouldn’t Melvin take a chance on Rivera. The poor guy has put in his dues. Give him a long-term trial to see if he’s the catcher of the future or not. Or give him enough playing time that some other team will want to trade something decent for him – I’m just sayin….

Brewers catchers leading team resurgence

Last week it was Jason Kendall with his first HR of the year, now Mike Rivera just hit a three-run shot. I’m calling it now. The reemergence of the Brewers in the second half will be led by the explosive bats of Brewers catching. Kendall was 2-2 earlier in the series.

This is it! The Brewers are on their way…

Brewers claim Doug Davis off waivers

Doug Davis Claimed By Brewers

By Eddie Schmid [August 12, 2009 at 9:57pm CST]

9:57pm: Nick Piecoro at the Arizona Republic also gets confirmation that the Brewers claimed Davis, and says that a deal is not likely but cannot be ruled out. He hears the claim was made because the Brewers hold real interest in Davis, not as a tactic to block other teams.

9:25pm: Heyman's sources confirm that it was the Brewers who claimed Davis. The Diamondbacks now can choose to either talk a trade, allow the Brewers to claim Davis or pull him back.

8:50pm: According to SI.com's Jon Heyman (via Twitter), Diamondbacks lefty Doug Davis has been claimed by an unknown team.

Davis has been named quite often in the recent past as a candidate to be moved. Heyman speculates that the claiming team could be the Brewers, as they've been having a "pro-active day." Tom Haudricourt at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel thinks that's a good guess, as the Brewers already made a run at Davis before the deadline. Davis made comments earlier today saying that he doubted the D'backs were planning to negotiate on an extension and called a trade to a contender a "win-win" situation for him.

Brewers demote Hardy amid waiver rumors, promote Escobar and fire Bill Castro

I really, really wish I could read up more on this, but my internet at work is so limited.

The Brewers sent JJ Hardy to AAA Nashville, presumably because of his current slump. If, as it seems, we’ve all but given up on the season, it probably isn’t the worst idea to get Escobar regular playing time in the bigs. The problem, of course, is that by putting JJ in AAA, we’re severely hindering his value, I would think.

The team also announced the firing of pitching coach Bill Castro. Casto had been a coach with the club for 18 years. He’d been the bullpen coach for 17 years before getting the promotion last off season. However, the Brewers pitching staff ranks 27th in the majors with an ERA of 4.84 and have allowed a major league-leading 151 home runs in just 121 games.

Bill Hall was also sent back to Nashville.

SS Alcides Escobar and OF Jason Bourgeois were promoted to take Hardy and Hall’s places on the roster. Escobar was a AAA All-Star and is hitting .298 with 4 HR, 34 RBI and 42 steals in 109 games.

To replace Castro, the Brewers have brought in former player Chris Bosio on an interim basis. Bosio spent the past two season in AAA as a pitching coach and filled that rold for Tampa Bay in 2003.

The Elvis Extravaganza is not living up to its billing. They might have over sold it a bit - more like a regular ganza.

Why yes I am watching an Elvis impersonator contest!

State Fair today, family bday party tom, Brewer game Tues, Phantom of the Opera Wed, Irish Fest Fri, old time baseball and Brewers Sat, TRats Sun.

Watching unicorns at the State Fair!

Early August Jinx?

So the whole situation Tuesday night (Aug. 4) was weird enough all on it’s own.

But what if I told you that it happened exactly a year to the day after the Prince-Manny Parra dugout dustup. But it gets weirder, still.

In 2007, then-manager Ned Yost and then-catcher Johnny Estrada got in a dugout scuffle. That one happened on August 3.

Sure, having it be one day off ruins the flow a little – but still, for the past three years we’ve had major anger issues on the same two days?

Prince and Mota

In case you don't keep track of me over on Brew Crew Ball (though I don't know why you wouldn't) here's my post on the post-game shenanigans as well as my lovingly typed from post-game video at 1am Ken Macha transcript. It's a sickness, I know.

Yoga with a Baseball Player? Groundskeeper for a Day?

This is a super-interesting article about how teams are finding new and different ways to bring in money - though at least half of the ideas featured had their proceeds going to charity, so I'm not certain the writer got enough focus going.

Being an LA Times piece, it focuses on the Dodgers. There's an extensive look at a promotion the Dodgers did where participants payed $100 to do a yoga session with Andre Ethier on the field at Dodger Stadium, but also mentions $170,000 raised on three seperate nights where fans could take BP under the lights at Dodger Stadium and a fishing trip with two Dodgers pitchers.

A few other teams' ideas are mentioned - The Detroit Tigers are allowing people to pay to be groundskeeper for a day and multiple teams across all sports genres are promoting cruises with players.

Brewers VP of Communications Tyler Barnes is quoted and the Brewers' drive-in movie nights are specifically mentioned. Though no specific amount was released, the article said the first weekend of movies in July brought in over $8,000.

Brewers ALMOST had blockbuster trade?

Brewers were close to three-team deadline deal from Adam McCalvy's blog

The Brewers were so close to completing what general manager Doug Melvin called a "big," three-team trade for a pitcher ahead of Friday's nonwaiver Trade Deadline that Ken Macha tuned into the MLB Network in the visiting manager's office at PETCO Park and waited to see the news break.

It never did.

The deal fizzled, and the pitcher in question wasn't traded. Because of that fact, Macha and Melvin refused to talk about the blockbuster that wasn't -- Melvin did assure reporters that the pitcher in question wasn't Toronto's Roy Halladay -- and the Brewers were left to soldier on with a weakened starting rotation that will be re-joined Saturday by right-hander Mike Burns.

Macha didn't sugarcoat the factors that brought back Burns, who was bounced from the rotation and then returned to Triple-A Nashville after going 2-3 in five Brewers starts.

"We have kind of depleted all of the options," Macha said.

Melvin wanted to bolster those options. He talked extensively to the Mariners about left-hander Jarrod Washburn, who instead went to the Tigers on Friday. Melvin also showed interest as recently as Thursday in Royals right-hander Brian Bannister, but Kansas City held onto him. He called on D-backs left-hander Doug Davis and, to a lesser degree, Jon Garland, both of whom stayed put. Melvin never got serious about the Padres' Jake Peavy, who went to the White Sox, because he knew Milwaukee couldn't put together the package of pitchers necessary to get him.

The Brewers will face one of those pitchers, lefty Clayton Richard, on Saturday at PETCO Park.

The trouble, Melvin said, is that San Diego wasn't the only team seeking young arms in the high levels of the Minor Leagues. All of Milwaukee's pitching prospects are lower in the system including right-hander Jeremy Jeffress, who might have been an interesting chip were he not serving a 50-game suspension. At the same time, Melvin made it clear early that he was hesitant to trade his top offensive prospects: Third baseman Mat Gamel and shortstop Alcides Escobar.

"Most teams are looking for one or two guys who are closer to the big leagues," Melvin said. "We've been a team that's drafted real well on the positional side."

Melvin was hopeful that he'd have a match with Seattle because Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik was Milwaukee's scouting director until last fall, and he knows the Brewers' farm system as well as anyone. For two months of Washburn, a free agent at season's end, Zduriencik received two left-handers: Luke French, who was in the Tigers' rotation, and Mauricio Robles, a top prospect who was at Class A.

"I didn't think on Washburn we were ever close," Melvin said.

But Melvin was near to completing, "a much bigger deal," that was so close to happening that within a half hour of the 3 p.m. CT deadline to deal players without first exposing them to waivers, Melvin had principal owner Mark Attanasio waiting near a phone, ready to approve a deal. When the three-team proposal fell apart, Melvin had another trade possibility in the works within 10 minutes of the deadline.

"It just didn't happen," Melvin said. "Both of them revolved around what another team was doing. Those are always tough."

So who was involved in the mysterious big one? Macha would only reveal that it was not a pitcher who would have been available to start for the Brewers on Saturday. Melvin wouldn't say, either, even when a reporter presented him with some possible names. One of them was Atlanta right-hander Javier Vazquez, who had just pitched on Thursday, but a National League scout offered assurances that the Brewers and Braves weren't talking about Vazquez on Friday.

The Brewers' quiet Deadline day left fans, more than two million of whom have already packed into Miller Park this season, venting their disappointment on talk radio and Internet message boards.

"I talked to him an hour and a half before the [Deadline] and he told me had another thing that he thought he was going to get done," Macha said of his midday chat with Melvin. "I'm sure that he's just as disappointed as all the other people."

On the other hand, Melvin received as many as 50 messages of support, many of them via e-mail from fans who were glad to see him thinking about the future by keeping Gamel and Escobar in the fold.

"How can people judge what's there when they don't know what was involved?" Melvin said. "Had we made a deal involving some of the players we talked about, I'm pretty sure they would have been disappointed, too. ...

"With every deal you talk about, there's some hurdle you have to get over. It's not just as easy as, 'Why didn't you give up this guy for that guy?'"

Teams can still make trades in August, but players must pass through waivers first. Players must be on a team's roster by midnight ET on Aug. 31 to qualify for postseason rosters.

Melvin will remain on the prowl, and he still has the postseason in mind.

"A lot of things have to go right," he conceded. "A lot of teams still feel they are in races, and we feel we're in the race. Teams could have injuries. But in our situation, we're going to have to play very well and be consistent. ... We can't have anything else go wrong, and we have to have a few things go right."

Ha Ha Ha!

And you thought giving up 14 runs, including two grand slams, to the Nationals was the low point of the season.


Nononononononono!

Obviously we don't know to what depths this team can drag itself (and us) so it can clearly go down from here, but I'd have to say giving up 10 unanswered runs after putting up 7 in the 2nd is going ot be one of those 4th and 26 sort of moments we'll remember from this season.