Some days witty opening lines just don't write themselves. The Brewers were off yesterday, but there were 10 other MLB games, and you can see their Win Expectancy Graphs here.

The Brewers start a quick 2-game series with the Cardinals tonight, the two teams' last scheduled meeting in 2008. So what are our expectations? Tom H. says a split is good enough. Screw that. The Brewers can't bury the Cardinals this week, but going into Thursday's off day 5.5 games up would feel a lot better than 3.5.

MLB Fanhouse notes that the Cardinals still play several contending teams down the stretch, while the Brewers have 2 series each against the Reds and Pirates.

Adam McCalvy over at The Official Site has a mailbag up, and the first question is about Jason Kendall wearing down. Yes, it is a slow news day.

So the Brewers have sold out 21 straight games, and will likely (if they haven't already) sell out both games in the Cardinals series (or at least they would have, if the series was in Milwaukee. Oops). So what exactly is a sellout? Don Walker says the Brewers call a game a sellout if only individual tickets are available. I'm not sure where I got the impression that "sold out" meant no more tickets are available. Why would the Brewers want to advertise that all of their games are sold out if there are individual tickets left?

Today's Sabathia rumor comes from Jon Heyman, who heard from an unnamed source that Sabathia would prefer to play for the Giants. El Lefty Malo sees it as unlikely. Is playing close to home so important to CC that he'd spend the next 2-3 years playing on terrible rebuilding teams? Even with Sabathia and Lincecum, does anyone think the Giants would contend anytime before 2011?

Jayson Stark dropped the ball. Even with CC Sabathia, Ben Sheets and a choice between Parra, Bush or Suppan, he doesn't think the Brewers rank within the top five postseason rotations.

Maybe starting pitching is overrated. Recondite Baseball discovered that two former Brewers are among the pitchers with the worst game score ever to record a win.

The latest WhatIfSports Power Rankings have the Brewers 3rd, behind the Cubs and Rays. The Whisnant Rankings have them 9th.

I'm not usually one to self-promote, but again, slow news day: I'm enjoying the debate in this FanPost about how to select an MVP and Ryan Braun's qualifications.

Only two injuries to report:

Johnny Cueto is only expected to miss one start with his recent elbow trouble.
Carlos Guillen left last night's game with lower back spasms and is day to day.

I'm sure the Pirates thought only scoring 3 runs on 16 hits Sunday was bad, but the Dodgers now have a feat to compare: Last night they became just the 13th team ever to collect 13 hits without scoring any runs. So now the 2008 Dodgers have won a game where they didn't pick up a single hit, and been shut out on 13 hits.

In the meantime, their manager is blogging about carrying around tiny dogs.

Drink up.

So I went to bed early again last night. As it turns out, it's a good thing I did because I had to get up at 4 to take care of a sick puppy. Speaking of sick puppies, Battlekow, even if I had no links today I would've posted anyway to push your post-game fanshot farther down the page. That's just unnecessary.

Win Expectancy Graph
BR Box Score

The Official Site is reporting that Ryan Braun felt better yesterday and expects to play this weekend against the Dodgers. This greatly decreases the chance that Laynce Nix will get a single at-bat during his brief stint as a fourth outfielder.

Nix was brought up when Russell Branyan was placed on the DL with an oblique strain. Apparently 19 plate appearances over the team's last 20 games (including nine total PA's in August) were too much for him to handle.

In-Between Hops has updated the Fielder HR chart and notes that Prince has once again hit his stride.

How dominant would Team USA be if they could still have Ben Sheets pitching for them? In The Official Site's preview for today's game, Sheets remembers his Olympic glory in Sydney.

Jeremy Jeffress experienced slightly less glory yesterday in Huntsville, giving up 2 runs on 2 hits and 3 walks in just 2 1/3 innings in his Southern League debut.

Bugs and Cranks has the Brewers 8th (up one spot) in their most recent power rankings.

Big League Stew further destroyed their own credibility by posting a list of the 25 most improbable big league success stories that includes several guys who have racked up less than a full week of big league action, but mysteriously misses the most obvious Brewer. What part of "last year I managed in the minors, this year I'm hitting .304/.337/.490 for a likely playoff team" isn't an improbable story?

On injuries:

Carlos Guillen has a pinched nerve in his lower back. The team is saying 2-3 days but it could be more.
Derek Jeter missed last night's game to recover from being overrated fouling a ball off his foot Tuesday.
Mike Lowell is on the DL with an injury to his right oblique.
A's CF Ryan Sweeney is on the DL with a sprained right thumb.
Tigers RP Joel Zumaya is back on the DL with a sore shoulder.

Jose de Jesus Ortiz says next week's road trip to Milwaukee and New York is make-or-break for the Astros season. Right now they're the fourth best team in their own division and BP Postseason odds has their shot at the playoffs at .4%, or about one in 250. How much more broken can you get?

Last night, though, they did manage to send 12 men to the plate in the sixth inning of their game with the Giants despite only picking up 3 official at bats. Four walks (1 intentional), three HBP, two sac flies and two singles led to a six-run inning.

Did any of us expect Zach Jackson to be a major league starting pitcher this season? He'll make his AL debut for the Indians tonight, filling the rotation spot vacated when Paul Byrd was sent to Boston.

Oh, and Keith Law is commenting and speculating on the financial issues facing Whole Foods.

Drink up.

Here's a tradition I'd like to see more of.

Win Expectancy Graph
BR Box Score
BDD Recaps

You can either stop holding your breath, or prepare to hold it for 15 more days: the Brewers' deadline to make a decision on Jeff Weaver has been extended to June 15.

Apparently David Riske has no new structural damage, but is taking longer than expected to recover. That's bad news all around. Of course, Salomon Torres is pretty excited about getting to close games.

So last night the Brewers got 3 hits and won. That's a stark contrast from August 24, 2002, when they got 20 hits and lost, tying the tenth highest hit total in a nine inning loss of all time. Recondite Baseball has the full list at that link. Or, you could stay here and watch me struggle with bad segues and awkward linking.

In the fanposts yesterday, Greg8370 mentioned a report that the Brewers might be looking to move their AA team to the Eastern League, and had been mentioned as a candidate to play home games in Norwich, CT. After a brief search this morning, I found the column mentioning it. Sounds like the Defenders are having some real problems with the Giants organization, mainly tied to the fact that the Giants don't like the ballpark dimensions, and also don't like playing 30-degree home games. I think I'd stick with Huntsville. I emailed the reporter, though, to see where he got the rumor from.

UPDATE: I've been in touch with Joe Perez, the writer from the Norwich Bulletin. You can see our conversation here .

So yesterday afternoon I had a moment to kill, and I got an email from the Brewers. They really wanted me to vote (25 times) to get some Brewers in the starting lineup of the All-Star Game. They've also posted a story about how close Braun is to only being 4 spots back of the leaders. So I sat down with the stats, picked out the best candidate at each position...and didn't vote for a single Brewer. Here's the ballot I clicked and reclicked and submitted 25 times:

AL:
C: Joe Mauer
1B: Kevin Youkilis
2B: Ian Kinsler
3B: Joe Crede
SS: Michael Young
OF: Milton Bradley
OF: Josh Hamilton
OF: Magglio Ordonez
DH: David Ortiz

NL:
C: Brian McCann
1B: Lance Berkman
2B: Dan Uggla
3B: Chipper Jones
SS: Hanley Ramirez
OF: Nate McLouth
OF: Pat Burrell
OF: Adam Dunn

On injuries:

Pirates P Zach Duke will get an extra day before his next start to allow a blister to heal.
Carlos Guillen is battling some hemorrhoids his manager seems a little too eager to talk about.
Marlins P Scott Olsen still isn't getting velocity back after an exceptionally long outing against the Brewers weeks ago.
Troy Percival collapsed falling off the mound last night and has a tight hamstring. Grant Balfour may be called up in his place.
A's OF Ryan Sweeney had to be taken to the hospital for X-rays after fouling a ball off his foot.
Frank Thomas may be headed to the DL after an MRI on his strained right quad revealed major inflammation.
Blue Jays C Gregg Zaun has been placed on the DL with inflammation in his elbow.

Does the price include my computer and rent for mom's basement? The Juiced Sports Blog ranks the 100 most valuable sports blogs.

It didn't crack the top 100, but I think this post is pretty valuable: The Padres recently acquired Cha Seung Baek, and Paul DePodesta discusses the move.

Oh, and a hydrochloric acid spill is a pretty good reason to suspend a game.

Drink up.