Brewers offseason outlook, NBA lockout developments, and the PBA

I've been trying to come up with topics not about sports, and come to the conclusion that this mostly is in vain. Sports are what i know and pay attention to, and i can become rather opinionated about certain situations and consider myself to be pretty passionate about my teams.

With the World Series over and the hated Redbirds winning the title, the big question in Brewer nation now is, what do we do in the offseason to get even better to go all the way next year? Many Brewer fans i talk to seem to think that the Brewers NEED Prince Fielder to have any chance to compete for a NL pennet. I tend to think the other way though, i think that the Brewers starting pitching is now good enough to keep the Brewers in games and in contention, i just think they need some help at a few positions to solidify the team and push the Brewers to the next step. Although i just stated that the Brewers starting pitching is good enough, i think the big needs lie in extending the contracts of Greinke and Marcum; yes the same Marcum who was atrocious in the playoffs. also i think the Brewers will make a push for Rangers pitcher C.J. Wilson, the acquisition of Wilson would push the Brewers over the top. i think 3rd base is a big question as well, do we stay with McGehee, Taylor Green, or do we make a push for David Wright or possibly Kevin Youkilis. and then 1st base, does Fielder stay, do we put Matt Gamel there or go into free agency for a 1st baseman.

This next part i guess would be my "Jim Rome is Burning" opinion. Earlier this week reports were heard that the NBA would probably have to cancel another 2 weeks of games. Then the very next day it all sounded as if a deal was close at hand, just to take that back two days later and cancel two more weeks of the season and say that talks had broken down. i wanna know how you can be in a room discussion the proposed deal for 15 hours and not get any closer but in fact take a step or two backwards and put yourself farther away from reaching an agreement than when you started the day? I just don't get it.

Being a bowler myself and a person who enjoys watching the PBA (Professional Bowlers Association) i am kind of finding it a little depressing with the fact that the PBA season hasn't even started yet, when no more than 5 years ago they would have 3 tournaments in by this point, the first of which was in Milwaukee for a 4 year period. I also am not a huge fan of the way the PBA has structured its "World Series of Bowling" where 6 tournaments are held within a two week period and the TV broadcasts of the finals of these tournaments tape delayed. i always enjoyed going to the PBA website to watch the live scoring updates of qualifying and match play when the tournaments were bowled on a week to week basis and all of the TV broadcasts were live.

I would look for the Brewers to make a splash in the free agency market upcoming, the NBA to not have games till after the new year (anything before that would be a bonus), and for those of you with nothing to watch on sundays when the packers play the late game, starting Dec. 4 flip to ESPN at the noon hour and watch a PBA tournament, you may not find as interesting as i do, but its still gotta be more interesting than watching golf or tennis.

The Jet is on the Runway..............?

With the Brewers out of the playoffs and my interest level in the World Series waaaay down for the fact that the Cardinals are in it and not the Brewers...actually i wouldn't mind if it was anyone except the Cardinals, but i know find myself on weeknights i'm home looking for something to watch. It is about this time of year i start watching my favorited NBA team, the Dallas Mavericks, just out of boredom because the NBA regular season isn't really all that interesting, but the NBA is currently in a lockout and the stand off between the players association and the owners doesn't look to have a light in the end of the tunnel yet.

But let's think for a second...who is really hurt by this lockout? No, not the players, i'm sure LeBron is still doing just fine with his shoe endoresements, and many of the players have signed contracts to play overseas during the lockout. The owners? Ya...not so much, they're all rich businessmen who can suffer to take a little bit of a hit from the postponement of the season at this point. i think the people that are really hurting from the lockout are the teams employees. The people who work the ticket offices and the various venders of refreshments and memorabilia. While LeBron is off endorsing his shoes for Nike and chilling at some vacation home many of these people have no work to do right now, forcing them to search for another job until this whole dispute is over and players are back on the court and tickets can be sold.

Unlike the NFL lockout in which there was a legitimate shot at working out a deal before the season, the NBA has already cancelled the first two weeks of the season and are not making any progress toward a new deal. All along everyone new this lockout would be worse than that of the NFL, nobody really expected to have any real games before the new year, but now it is beginning to look like there may not be a season at all. It's not like i live and die with the Mavericks like i do with the Brewers or Packers, but it's gonna be a bummer not being able to watch a team as fun like the Mavericks do what they do.

In a typical post about the NBA, I'd end it with a sign off of LET'S GO MAVS!! but as there is no NBA and the Packers rolled again to go 7-0, I'll have to end it with...
GO PACK GO!!!!!

UGH......

With lots of stuff going on in the sporting world today, i still cannot get away from what is really bugging as i write this right now...the Brewers game. I could write about the Packers dominating to move to 6-0, or the tragic death of Indy Car driver Dan Wheldon in a race today in Las Vegas (R.I.P. Mr Wheldon), or even the Badgers standings in the first BCS standings of the season. The Brewers play so far tonight even has this die-hard fan feeling the life of another season slip away wondering...why?

My first question is what exactly happened to our starting pitching that had been soo consistent the entire regular season? In the playoffs the Brewers have really only had 3 good starts by the starting pitchers, Games 1 and 5 in the NLDS by Yovani Gallardo and one by Randy Wolf in game 4 of the NLCS. Other than that the starting pitching has been average in some games (mainly Greinke's starts) and downright awful in the other games (Marcum's starts.) and when you really look into it it hasn't only been the starters, the middle relievers from the bullpen has also had its struggles.

The other thing leaving me scratching my head about this team is the defense. Yes, i know we are not an exceptionally well fielding team, and i never said we were, but there have been a few games this postseason where plays that HAVE to be made simply havn't leading to extra outs for the opposition and regularly leading to runs putting us in a hole.

One bright spot in the postseason has been the play of Jerry Hairston Jr. i really wasn't a fan of his before the postseason, but he has showed that he is a solid player, who might give McGehee a run for his job next spring training. It's been a great season with the first division championship since '82 but right now it looks like we'll be just a little bit short. Not sayin its over yet, im still glued to the tv hoping for a comeback but looks like we'll hafta get 'em next year!
GO BREWERS!

Tony Plush or Tony Hush?

As i sat in the pits at Lakeshore Lanes Friday night listening to the Brewers most important game since 1982, i could feel the nerves that come from being up in a series 2-0 just to be unable to finish the job and let the series go to 2-2. And then the feeling got worse in the top of the 9th with a blown save by "the Axe-Man", fortunately the Brewers were able to keep the game tied until the bottom of the tenth, when fan favorite and outspoken Nyjer Morgan came up to the plate and delivered the game winning single, once again earning one of his many nicknames "Tony Clutch."

And then came his post-game antics, some interesting interviews on live tv, and a tweet calling out the next round opponent, and division rival Cardinals. Now we all know that Nyjer is a player that plays the game with a lot of intensity and personal flare, which he credits to his alter ego, Tony Plush, sometimes though T-Plush takes over and things get out of hand. Take for instance a game against the earlier mentioned Cardinals in which Morgan struck out, then proceded to curse out Cards' pitcher Chris Carpenter and first baseman Albert Pujols' and throwing a big wad of chew at Carpenter; but it didn't end there, Morgan then tweeted about the Cardinals being a team that whines about calls, lighting, etc. and called Pujols, Alberta Pujols. The big question is do we need Morgan drawing this unwanted attention to himself and possibly even building a reputation for the team?

It may be time for Brewers' Manager Ron Roenicke to tighten the leash a bit on Morgan putting him into another self dubbed alto ego "Tony Hush" explained by Nyjer as "Tony Plush when told to be quiet." With the Cardinals' being a team that already sometimes takes offense to opposing teams antics, ex. Brewers untucking of jersey's after wins in 2008, and "lighting" issues at Miller Park earlier this season, it may be smart for Nyjer to shut his trap and let his bat do the talking so no more fuel is added to the fire of this already heated rivalry.

GO BREWERS!!!!

Transformers & T-Plush

Wasn't really sure what to write about for this week's blog, so i figured i'd write about the highlights of my weekend, the release of Transformers Dark of the Moon on DVD and the Brewers playoff series and particularly Nyjer Morgan.

First of all, the release of TF3, i was already a big fan on the Transformers movies before i went to see the new movie in theaters, in my opinion it is the best movie i have ever seen. That said, i knew i had to go get the day it came out on DVD, so that's what i did friday. i'm gonna try and not give away any of the story line for those of you who have yet to see it. but i like it because i feel it has more of a human storyline instead of just autobots vs decepticons, along with great action sequences and even some funny characters with some good one-liners, (Jerry Wang before being killed in his office).

And now the other highlight of my weekend, i was going to try and now write about the Brewers, but being the big Brewers fan i am, i simply cannot do that now that we are up 2-0 in the series heading to arizona. In this blog i mainly want to focus on one of the Brewers big role players, and a new fan favorite this season, Nyjer Morgan a.k.a. Tony Plush. Nyjer Morgan is one of those players that you hate when he's not on your team but your favorite when he is. I was excited when we picked him up in a trade because the guy is a tough out and all he's done since coming to Milwaukee is hit in big situations. He also brings energy and personality to an already fun loving group who he's really helped stay loose all through the pennet chase and into the playoffs. He also is a solid center fielder and can run down just about any fly ball. His one weakness is sometimes he gets too wrapped up in the moment, as seen after striking out against the cardinals this season, and in a bench clearing brawl he started last season as a member of the Nationals.

Bottom line, Nyjer Morgan is a player who gives his all for the team and is really enjoying being on a winning team for the first time in the career (previous time spent with Pirates and Nationals) and also being a fan favorite. Oh by the way did i mention the Badgers totally rocked the Huskers saturday night and are now ranked fourth in the nation?

GO BREWERS!!!!!!!