Milwaukee Brewers And NL Central News, March 17

Monday’s Game: Brewers 9, Cubs 6
Record: 8-7-2

Today’s Game

—The Brewers hit hard and fast, lighting up Jeff Samardzija for five runs in his two innings. Bill Hall and Corey Hart hit home runs. They also hit the Cubs' first reliever for three in the third. Dave Bush, meanwhile, was most excellent, giving up only one run and getting out of a massive bases-loaded jam in the fourth.

Brewers News

—Svuem is trying to do what so many have failed at…cutting down on the Brewers strikeouts.

—A must-read for all the new Casey McGehee fans… an interview with Valley Sports.

—Chuckie Hacks can’t believe Rob Neyer. Neither can I. It’s basically a lot of trading for trading’s sake and moving players around for…well…the sake of moving players around.

—The Hacks also don’t believe you can compare this year's team with any team from Oakland.

—Eduardo Morlan gets interviewed about being a Rule 5 Draft Pick.

—Miller Park Drunk takes the opposition on the question “Is Rickie Weeks Good?”

—The Crawfish Boxes continue their Positional Throwdown. Ryan Braun wins the LF category.

—Brewer Nation has a podcast. So does MLBHub-Mate RotoRob

—In the interest in saving everyone some time, let me summarize basically every preview for the 2009 Milwaukee Brewers: The 2009 team lost Ben Sheets and C.C. Sabathia and that will hurt them. They won’t win as many games and will probably finish in second place and not go to the playoffs.

Ryan Braun is good, Prince Fielder can hit home runs, Rickie Weeks and Bill Hall need to improve, Yovani Gallardo and Manny Parra are young, it’s Macha’s first year in Milwaukee, and Trevor Hoffman is a Brewer. You can choose to read on if you’d like, but that sums it up.

—Diamond Hoggers does a nice little job of previewing the Brewers for non-Brewers fans. So does Baseball Reflections.

—Baseball Analysts believe the Brewers will come in second place this year in the  Central, but also that the Cubs will win their division by more than any other team will win theirs.

—Blog Walkoff Walk also believes the Brewers' losses in pitching will hurt them and drops them all the way to fourth in the division.

—MVN believes the Brewers will also be in second place and will be in the mix until the last couple weeks of the season.

—Bleed Cubbie Blue gives the Brewers some decent respect, but they don’t believe the Brewers will make the wild card this year. Funny quote:

"

"…one of the worst things from a Cubs point of view to happen to the Brewers was the firing of Ned Yost, whose bizarre decisions may have cost the Crew some victories last year (example: At one point, the Brewers were carrying 14 pitchers on their 25-man roster, and without one of them being Brooks Kieschnick, that severely limited their flexibility…"

"

Minor Leagues

—The T-Rats are coming to the TV if you live on Wisconsin’s east side.

NL Central

—Are the Cubs still looking at Bobby Crosby? More importantly, is Bobby Crosby this year’s Brian Roberts? I’ll go with probably.

—After getting lit up by the Crew today, Tramp Stamp might be heading back to the bullpen.

—The Cardinals, already lacking a second baseman, are also lacking a closer. With front runner Chris Perez possibly having injury issues, it’s very much a toss up.

—Ivan (Pudge) Rodriguez signed with Houston. Guess they decided to throw in the Towles…that’s just not funny…

—The Pirates can’t even get Pedro???

Other News

—Is Joe Mauer another BJ Surhoff? Kind of a reach…

—Julian Tavarez signed on to the Nationals and said that the Nationals were his drunken hook-up. I can’t wait until they cut him too.

—A Junior Spivey sighting (and alleged signing) in NYC with the Metropolitans.