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.
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