When is the last time that the Brewers were 17 games over 500? 1987?

Fukudome has to be one of the most overrated players in baseball. Those who have him on their fantasy team will concur.

Is pretty gloomy. I think I’ll go slit my wrists now.

From what I heard yesterday, they plead “Not Guilty”

The Brewers better hope that Ryan Braun ’s condition is simply one of innocent muscle spasms. Since when are muscle spasms innocent?

Red flag #1 – Braun is dealing with pain in both ribcages, but he does not know why.

Prior to Saturday’s game, Braun said that he felt some discomfort in his lower back and ribcages, and the pain worsened during his first at-bat. Braun described what he felt in terms of symptoms following the at-bat: "I couldn’t breathe. It locked up on me. That’s why we think it’s spasms. It’s not actually the back. It’s both ribcages."

Red flag #2 – Braun continued to talk about what makes him hurt : "Every time I laugh or sneeze or cough or roll over, it’s pretty painful. They said it could be something like if I irritated one of my vertebrae. Everything around it tightens up to compensate.”

Insidious onset of pain and bilateral spasm in the lower back area, combined with pain with coughing, sneezing, laughing, rolling over (activities that markedly increase intra-abdominal pressure), especially in a younger, active individual, is a red flag for a spine issue.

Red flag #3 – Pain is not relieved by rest.

Rest makes muscles feel better, even after a few days. It is unlikely that this is a muscle injury because of the bilateral nature of the situation, and lack of precipitating factors. He does not recall a specific injury that occurred that would have left him with discomfort prior to his at-bat that ultimately resulted in his increased pain. Muscle injuries tend to have a direct cause and effect relationship.

Muscles in the lower back/rib area can, however, spasm in the presence of another pathology. Our bodies are very good at protecting ourselves when we are unaware of the presence of bodily injury.

If he is not feeling appreciably better in the next day or two, the Brewers would be smart to administer an MRI to see if there is a disc bulge/herniation, spinal instability, or underlying arthritic pathology that could be responsible for the spasms. Given what we do know, I would not be surprised at all if Braun ended up on the DL.

Not that anybody cares, but yesterday I complained that national ESPN radio was interviewing the Hootie and the Blowfish guy. Today…Kenny Chesney. Who tomorrow? My money’s on Sigourney Weaver.

It sounds like a Yosting:

Black said he signalled to Tichenor that Edgar Gonzalez would play second after batting in the No. 9 spot and Brian Giles had pinch-hit for second baseman Tadahito Iguchi in the No. 2 spot, but Tichenor interpreted it to mean that Gonzalez was merely entered as a pinch-hitter for the pitcher and Giles would stay in, even though it meant the Padres were left without a second baseman.

“He just misinterpreted what we wanted to do,” said Black, arguing from the top step of the dugout when bounced. “We wanted to put the pitcher in the 2-hole. He thought we wanted to go straight up. The (lineup on the scoreboard) scoreboard had it right.”

According to crew chief Gerry Davis, Black gave the wrong hand signal for the maneuver he wanted. Whatever the case, the Padres’ most feasible option at that point was to take Hairston out of center field and make a major league second baseman of him for the first time since 2004. Naturally, the first ball struck went right at Hairston, who fielded it cleanly for the assist.

He is the first player in the modern era to switch teams while leading the league in homeruns. (Credit to ESPN or FSN or some channel I heard it on)

I thought for sure the other player that did it would be Jonathan Sanchez against the Brewers in April, but he only had 8 in 4 innings.

It’s not like the fact that the league spreads from Washington State to Tennessee is the major driving force of their ballooning travel budgets…the two conferences already only play 32 games against each other. Teams play 16 games against the seven teams in their own conference, and 4 games against the 8 other-conference clubs. That’s four home and four road series (with the assignments switching each year), and the road games are scheduled into just two trips for each club. You’d still have those two road trips even with conference games, they’d just be a little cheaper; apparently not a whole lot cheaper though, or those two trips wouldn’t be potential dealbreakers right now (since there are already 8 or so of the presumably cheaper trips, too).

Of course, since it’s so small a part of the season anyway, I doubt there’ll be major opposition to cancelling inter-conference play altogether if that’s what the financial circumstances call for.