A March game that could haunt Milwaukee in late September

Yeah I know it is early.
It isn't even April. So with 161 games left to play, why is this game between Cincinnati and Milwaukee so important?

It is true that there is a lot of time to make up this one game deficit. But these two teams could be two of biggest contenders for the National League Central crown. And guess what? If these two teams go down to the wire, every game in September will be precious.

And if Milwaukee loses the division by a game, I am sure a game where they hit homers with the first two at bats of the season and had a 3 run lead in the 9th to the Reds then coughed it up will be a sore spot.

The games count as much now as they do late in the season.

You had better get your act together, Brewers. The Reds magic number is down to 161!

Good for Ron Roenicke

Good for him for getting his first win as Brewers manager.

But also good for him for not panicking nor "going by the book."

It's early in the season and everyone is soiling their pants with pitch counts. Meanwhile Yovani Gallardo chucked 8 innings of 2 hit ball in a 1-0 game. Did Roenicke go to the closer like everyone on the planet Earth is told they should do?

Nope. He let Gallardo finish it. An ace is established. Confidence is built. More wins to come.

Also good for him for employing one of the Iorg brothers.

I always confused them. Then again, I also confused the Roenickes.

Maybe that's why he hired him.

Zack Greinke helps complete the Gary Sheffield trade

I started thinking about Gary Sheffield when Zack Greinke arrived in Milwaukee yesterday. Let me explain.

There was a telling moment in Zack Greinke's introduction to the local press. He said "The main reason I wanted to get out" and he stopped himself with a smile and made a correction "I mean preferred to get out of Kansas City..." and he continued.

The first statement was the correct one. He wanted out of Kansas City, the once proud baseball city that was home to one of the true marquee franchises of my youth. Now it is the Pittsburgh of the American League. The team that is there to develop players for other teams while perpetually piling up prospects for a pennant run that never comes.

All the while people complain that their lack of success comes from their small market and revenue, all the while teams with smaller revenues consistently make the post season.

So you can't blame Greinke for wanting to get out of that purgatory and the Royals dealt him when his value was still high and teams that wanted Cliff Lee were craving a consolation prize.

But after reading Tim Brown's article on Yahoo Sports, I lost a little bit of respect for Greinke. He won the Cy Young in 2009 with his slider being his best pitch. And when the Royals stunk as they have every year he pitched in KC, he didn't throw the slider as much making sure his arm was good and strong to whatever contender he landed with.

Sorry but the Royals drafted him, made him a millionaire many times over and didn't give up on him when his anxiety disorder made him leave spring training in 2006.

The Royals stood by him as he had to leave baseball for psychological reasons. A team could have said "This clearly isn't going to work. His head is all messed up."

They didn't. They let him work out his issues and let him back in to be in the position to go from "a head case" to "elite ace."

The Royals deserved a little more than "I'll save my best stuff for the winner." And the other contenders in baseball deserved to face Greinke at his best as the Royals could have played spoiler down the stretch.

He checked out. And I guess it was karma that he was dealt to Milwaukee.

Remember all of those years ago when Gary Sheffield was playing for the Brewers? He was a future superstar playing with future Hall of Famers Robin Yount and Paul Molitor. But he hated playing in Milwaukee and wanted out and supposedly made errors on purpose to hasten a trade out of town.

He was shipped off to San Diego (and then Florida, and then Los Angeles, then Atlanta, then the Yankees, then Detroit, then the Mets...) and put together a career that at least deserves to be part of the Cooperstown discussion. (And somehow he managed to circumvent the whole steroid stigma despite being as involved in the BALCO accusations as Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi.)

So one star dogged it to get OUT of Milwaukee.
And today one dogged it to get traded TO Milwaukee.

In a way I guess Greinke was a player to be named MUCH later in the Sheffield trade.

It shows how far the Brewers have come that they are considered to be a destination for someone wanting to win NOW!

Now if a star will play at half speed to get traded TO the Royals then Kansas City fans could call it even.

The Brewers Statement: We are NOT Kansas City (nor Pittsburgh for that matter)

When the Royals traded Zack Greinke to Milwaukee the other day, there was a beautiful symbolism to the move that wasn't lost on me.

Greinke wasn't dealt to New York. Forget the spin of "He couldn't handle New York." Neither the Mets nor the Yankees have the prospects to have pulled off the trade.

He wasn't dealt to the Red Sox, Phillies, Cubs, Angels or Dodgers.

The Royals, a small market club that ships off all of their stars, sent him to Milwaukee, another small market club that used to ship off all their stars.

Instead of sending Prince Fielder packing and looking to rebuild, the Brewers are going for it and adding a Cy Young contender.

And with that trade, the Brewers are doing something I've been urging the Pirates to do for a while and will pretty soon may encourage the Royals to do the same thing.

Go all in and give your fans a reason to be excited.

There is a reason I am bringing up the Pirates in this post about the Royals and Brewers.

From when the Wild Card era began in 1994 until the end of the 2006 season, the Pirates, Royals and Brewers combined for 34 losing seasons out of 36.

Only the 2003 Royals got their nose over .500 ith an 83-79 season.

And those three teams became the symbol of everything unfair with baseball. Their revenue was so much lower than the big spenders... how could they POSSIBLY compete?

This of course ignored the fact that low revenue teams like the Marlins could win the World Series twice in that stretch. And ignoring the fact that contraction worthy teams like the Twins and the A's could be playoff regulars. And the Expos, despite having no owner nor ANY fanbase managed to contend into September in 2002 and had a winning record in 2003.

Those three teams kept building for a future that would never arrive.

And the mantra of Brewers owner and commissioner Bud Selig (no conflict of interest there) was to change the economics of the game to help teams like his own.

Well, a wonderful thing happened to the Brewers: The Seligs sold the team.

Sometimes that's what you need. A change at the top could lead to changes in the whole culture of the team. Remember how the Red Sox couldn't win the World Series all of those years? From the mid 1930s to 2002 they were owned by the Yawkeys.

2 years after they sold the team, they were the World Champs.

After years of putting a losing club on the field under the Seligs, the Brewers finished at .500 in 2005, their first season under Mark Attanasio's ownership.

By 2007 they had a winning record and contended into September for the first time since 1992.

And in 2008, they did what would have been unthinkable just a few years before and would be sacrilegious in Pittsburgh and Kansas City: They dealt away one of their major league ready prospects for a veteran who was on the verge of free agency.

And even if Matt LaPorta turns into a good player for Cleveland... and even though CC Sabathia bolted town the second the season was over... it was the right move for the Brewers.

Sabathia pitched his heart out in his cameo for the Brewers. And when he pitched a complete game on the last day of the season, propelling the Brewers into the playoffs for the first time since 1982, he did something that no prospect could EVER do:

He gave Brewers fans too young to remember Harvey's Wallbangers or the great start of 1987 an actual awesome baseball memory of their team.

And guess what happens when you give fans a wonderful feeling about rooting for their team?

You build a FAN BASE!
You get excitement for your team instead of apathy!

Young kids in Wisconsin experienced a thrilling season and even a post season win at home in the Division Series. There isn't the hum drum "What's the point of watching them. They NEVER win" attitude.

And those fans who experienced the fun of 2008 have added hope in 2011. A new manager, a powerful lineup (with or without Fielder) and a rotation that now features Yovani Gallardo, Shaun Marcum and Zack Greinke.

Meanwhile the Royals got more prospects and continue to promise their fans that happy days are just around the corner.

The Brewers aren't playing that game, at least not now.
They are going for it and saying to their fans "We want you to have more good memories of your team."

All it took was a change in attitude (and getting the Seligs out!)

Will by NL Central pick be once again a year early?

This September I pointed out that I am not very good at picking who will actually win the NL Central, but I AM good at figuring out that the consensus pick will probably fall short.

In 2009 everyone and their cow was picking the Cubs to win.
I picked the Reds. The Cardinals won (I picked the Cardinals for the Wild Card.)

In 2010 everyone and their moose was picking the Cardinals to win.
I picked the Brewers. The Reds won.

But with Zack Greinke going to the Brewers, I can't help but wonder if the Brewers and their solid rotation and terrific line up, should be considered to be the favorites in a very winnable NL Central.

And would my pick be a year premature?
Am I the baseball predicting equivalent to that show Early Edition?

There's only one way to test it:
I am going to pick the Pittsburgh Pirates to win the 2011 NL Central.
If the Brewers win in 2011 and the Pirates win in 2012, I will be FREAKED OUT!

Never Cry Wolf

OK, Giants fans, that kind of sucked.

Yeah the magic number went down because the Padres are continuing their Wile E. Coyote impersonation and the Reds also lost...

And you have to tip your cap to Randy Wolf and the Brewers for a well pitched complete game shut out...

But there are only 15 games left. There's not a lot of time for cap tipping.

And guess what? The Rockies won again. The Dodgers clearly aren't going to be much of a help for the Giants in terms of beating contenders. This team is mailing it in and wondering who else is going out the door with Joe Torre.

1 game in the loss column separates the Giants, Padres and Rockies.

Lincecum takes the mound tomorrow.
Keep your cap on your head and let other teams tip THEIRS!

Nice to see Bob Davidson act out the end of "...And Justice For All."

It's not often that you can see a grown man lose his God Damn Mind.

But once again, in a night where we should be celebrating baseball, an umpire's ego takes center stage.

Bob Davidson tossed out a player, Brewers outfielder Chris Dickerson.

He tossed out a coach, Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan.

He tossed out Brewers manager Ken Macha.

And finally he tossed out a fan who was sitting up close and heckling Yadier Molina.

Now I don't know what he said and if the fan said anything racist, then I can understand it. But so far nobody has revealed if there was anything really offensive.

And besides, the umpire doesn't have the authority to eject a fan unless they interfere with the field of play. And this was a guy sitting up close. I can't imagine the guys sitting up in the upper deck of MILLER Park watching a team called the BREWERS and have been drinking beer since 11 AM were quoting sonnets.

But Bob Davidson basically went nuts. And we are talking about HIM instead of Trevor Hoffman's 600th save.

No doubt he would have tossed Billy the Brewers, all four Sausages from the Sausage Race and Bob Uecker before the night was out.

I can just hear him screaming "You're out of order... You're out of order... this WHOLE game is out of order!"

(Spoiler alert on this clip... it kind of spoils the ending but explains the blog post title.)

I am very good at picking who WON'T win the NL Central!

Everyone in the planet seemed to be picking the defending NL Central champ to cruise to another October date... everyone except your pal Sully.

Your Pal Sully took a look at the Cincinnati Reds and thought "Hey! THIS team is exciting, packed with young talent and the defending champ is overrated."

So before the season began, I stuck my neck out and said "THE IS THE YEAR FOR THE CINCINNATI REDS! I don't care what the experts say!"

Quite a prediction, isn't it?
One problem.

I made that prediction for the 2009 season.

Everyone and their cow were predicting the Cubs were going to win their third straight division... so many so that when I DIDN'T pick them, I had to write another post to justify my prediction.

Now I DID predict the actual division champion, the Cardinals, would make the playoffs. I picked them as the Wild Card team, not the Division Champs.

Well THIS year, everyone seemed to think the Cardinals were the no brainer pick to repeat as NL Central champs... again, everyone but your pal Sully.

And look at how the Cardinals are doing. Today the Cardinals got swept by the lowly Astros and fallen 7 games back in the loss column of the Reds.

So who did I pick? The Brewers!

Hey, I thought their pitching was going to be better and I liked their line up.

You know what? Pick the Brewers for NEXT year... I tend to be a year EARLY for the party.