Here's Your Chance

The news wasn’t good for the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday, when they found out that their ace, Ben Sheets, had been placed on the 15 day disabled list with a sprained finger.

Sheets was injured Saturday against Colorado when in the 3rd inning, after releasing a pitch to Todd Helton, he felt it “pop”. The right hander left the game immediately to have the finger looked at by team physicians. Initially it was thought to be not terribly serious, but on Monday, the decision was made to rest him for the next two weeks.

Sheets has been having a fantastic season so far and has been the steady hand for the Brewers, leading the way for their pitching staff all year. He already has 10 wins for the club and has been a big part of the Brewers resurgence this season as they lead the NL Central. His absence will leave a huge hole in the Brewers rotation for these few weeks but the Brewers have a few promising young pitchers to fill it.

The first choice will be top prospect Yovani Gallardo who has started a few times this season already and pitched in relief as well. He has been successful in each role and will get another shot at starting now. He is the ace of the future for this club and has the stuff to dominate whomever he faces.

Another option will be Manny Parra, another rookie, who will compete for playing time and be used in a Carlos Villanueva-type role for spot duty and long relief. Parra has been destroying the minor leagues this season and has been lights out in triple-A Nashville with a few good outings, including a perfect game, only the 8th in PCL history. Needless to say a call up was inevitable and with Sheets hitting the disabled list, the future is now for these fine young pitchers.

Fearsome

Ryan Braun is on fire. National League pitchers, be afraid. The Milwaukee Brewer rookie is well on his way to NL Rookie of the Year with only Hunter Pence of the Astros standing in his way and a 16 game stretch from June 19, has made his stats even more impressive.

Braun played his first game in the Majors on May 25th and started off well, but nothing he did then compares with the hot streak he’s currently on. Braun has been dominant and has been enjoying the spoils of batting between J.J. Hardy and Prince Fielder in the Brewers potent lineup everyday.

In only 72 at-bats Braun has piled up 7 home runs and 21 RBI on 28 hits. The rookie has been instrumental in the Brewers success this season and he has been a huge factor in keeping them relevant and leading the NL Central. He has 11 homers and 32 RBI total this year so the 16 game tear he’s been on has been well over half of his stat production.

With Braun manning the hot corner for the foreseeable future, the Brewers look like they’re here to stay.

Call up the Kid

The Milwaukee Brewers lost a big-time player on Thursday when Bill Hall went down with a bad ankle sprain. Hall was attempting to bring back a Ryan Doumit home run but came down poorly on his ankle, surely sending him to the disabled list shortly. And for the record, there was no chance that Hall could get that ball as it was well past the fence, making this injury a little tougher to take as it was easily preventable.

Speculation seems to say that Hall will likely be out for at least a month as the sprain is a bad one. Luckily for the Brewers though, the outfield is a deep group in Milwaukee as Geoff Jenkins and Kevin Mench can easily step up and help fill the void, not to mention that Tony Gwynn Jr. is still in Triple-A and could be called up to take the roster spot.

Gwynn was called up early in the season but was sent back down, not due to a lack of production, but rather due to a lack of playing time. This could be the break he needs to prove himself to Ned Yost and Doug Melvin.

Hunter Pence vs. Ryan Braun

While the AL Rookie of the Year race is fairly indistinguishable and generally bland, the NL race is really heating up and evolved into a 2 horse race, at least at this primitive stage. Ryan Braun is the late comer, catching up quickly on the leader Hunter Pence.

Both have had great seasons thus far and both have much to prove, but Ryan Braun is looking superior now.

Braun went 4 for 5 with 4 RBI and a homer tonight, while Pence’s team, the Astros were shut out yet again for the umpteenth time this year, proving further their offensive ineptitude.

Braun also has the advantage as the season wears on as he bats between the dynamic Prince Fielder and the ridiculous J.J. Hardy. Seriously, I’m running out of superlatives for this team, and that’s definitely a problem that the Astros offensive attack doesn’t have to deal with.

I still have plenty of disparaging remarks left for them.

Best Series of the Weekend

The Cubs – Brewers series kicked off on Friday afternoon, and in climactic and very dramatic fashion, the hometown Cubbies pulled it out, storming back from a 1st inning 5 run deficit.

Three hours or so earlier, I would have had a hard time believing that such a comeback could happen. The Brewers had Yovani Gallardo on the mound and the kid was hurling a gem, while his opponent, Rich Hill, had been touched up for 5 runs, including a 3 run jack by Kevin Mench, was strangely wild, and had thrown 73 pitches through 2 innings. By the time Hill had left, at the end of the 3rd, the score was still 5-0, and the Brewers were still firmly in control.

Then in came the much maligned Cubs bullpen. Led by Billy Petrick, for 2 innings Michael Wuertz for 2 innings, Carlos Marmol (who is the best reliever they have right now, check the stats) for 1 and finally, Bob Howry for 1. All tolled, the bullpen went 6 gave up 3 hits, 2 walks, 0 earned runs and 7 k’s. That is the kind of production a guy like Rich Hill, who has been great all year, deserves from his bullpen.

The comeback started slowly though as it took an RBI groundout, and a wild pitch by Gallardo to make it 5-2 in the 4th, followed than by an RBI single by Mike Fontenot in the 7th off Carlos Villanueva to make it 5-3. Than in the bottom of the 9th, in came Francisco Cordero, the MLB saves leader with 27, but a guy who has definitely cooled off noticeably since his hot start.

Cordero got a pop out right away but then Soriano and Fontenot (I told you this guy was good stuff) had back to back singles to put runners at the corners for Derrek Lee. Lee was able to get a sac fly to make it 5-4, leaving it up to Aramis Ramirez. So with 2 down, and the tying run on, Ramirez went yard. Big time. Huge game-winning walk-off home run to left field, taking some serious momentum for the rest of the series against the division leader, and closing the gap to only 6.5 games.

Pre-game, I had figured the Brewers would take 2 of 3 at least and possibly sweep based solely on the pitching matchups, but the bullpen I had thought to be the stronger of the two bombed, while the previously fallible Cubs bullpen looked impenetrable. Great win for the Cubs to start a huge weekend series.

Tomorrow’s affair should be just as good as Ben Sheets takes on Sean Marshall. 12:55 on FOX. Check it out.

Back on Track

After a lackluster late May - early June stretch that featured a 8-18 record for the Brewers, they are back on track and have now gone 12-2 in their last 14. They took down Houston again today with an 11th inning 3 run homer from Damian Miller, pushing their hot streak along impressively.

With their youthful infield gelling, the outfield tearing it up ( Corey Hart is on fire) and playing extraordinarily well, and the pitching holding their own, the Brewers are looking dominant in the NL Central again. Milwaukee is now 7.5 ahead of the Cubs, who have been holding their own lately with a nice 6 game win streak, and its hard to see that gap closing anytime soon.

Ask any GM around the league which infield they would choose to have for the next five years, EVERY GM would choose the Brewers. Doug Melvin deserves some serious credit for building this team of quality players who are also quality men.

Yovani Gallardo

Yovani Gallardo is here and you’d better pay attention. The Milwaukee prospect had his MLB debut this past week taking down the San Francisco Giants in efficient fashion going 6.1, and striking out 4 while allowing 3 runs. I was lucky enough to see this game as he worked his magic and it was enough to know that this kid just made the Brew Crew a whole lot more dangerous.

On Sunday he lit it up again as he took on the Royals, going 7 while putting up an 8K/2BB ratio. He allowed one run and didn’t give up a hit until the fifth inning.

The kid is scheduled to go on Saturday against Sean Marshall, who’s been lighting it up for the Cubs so far this season. Should be a dandy match-up and I’d advise you to check it out.

And on another note, how many superstars in the making under the age of 25 do the Brewers need? It's getting a little superfluous.