Washington Nationals directly threatened by Brewers's Offseason; Enter free agent madness

After a relatively quiet offseason, Nationals GM Jim Bowden exploded on to the scene, making a huge free agent splash. Not only inking fringe major league players, Jorge Sosa, Jose Castillo, Gustavo Molina, Gustavo Chacin, and the star of the group former Cubs, Orioles, and Reds center fielder Corey Patterson. But also resigning impact utility man Willie Harris.

When asked about this stellar crop of players, Bowden replied "We simply couldn't fall any further behind the Brewers, they are stockpiling too many weapons and we could not stand idly by." Specifically he mentioned that he had acquired a Molina who is a catcher, several "promising arms" to accompany staff ace Matt Chico and that Corey Patterson was "A breakout player with 5 tools and developing plate discipline." When reminded that Corey only hit .205 last year with limited walks and that most of the players signed are well past their primes/dead, Jim replied that his club should win roughly 100 games this year and then muttered something about crappy imported beer and some sort of bombs involving hunting. When asked about Teixeira's signing with the Yankees, he stated that the 2009 Nationals didn't need the slugger and they already had the Heart of the Champion. He ended the press conference stating that the signings where prompted when he saw a picture of Seth McClung's pitching forearm and feared for his life.

Merry Christmas Brew City Sports Blog!
Go Bucks!

MU Handles Tough Road Test

Is Dominic James the best point guard in MU history?

In a much needed game on Monday night, Marquette fought all game and squeaked out a 68-65 victory on the road at NC State. Once again, it was the four usual suspects doing the damage, this time led primarily by Dominic James, Lazar Hayward and Jerel McNeal. James's play was truly inspired in the final 4 minutes, as he scored the team's final 9 points - all on three pointers shot with his body at bizarre angles to the floor - and made a steal (though the box score says he had no steals) on NC State's final possession. Hopefully some of you out-of-towners found bars that had ESPNU, like those of us around here did.

While on paper the game was as close as could be, in reality MU showed itself to be the superior team. Sometimes you must look a bit deeper at the box score to tell the whole story. In this game, NC State was carried completely by Brandon Costner, who went 9-10 from the field, 5-5 from 3-point range, and scored 24 points. Costner is a good player, but he's not that good. Prior to the game, he was shooting 27% on 3-pointers. And the 5 he hit were contested. It was lucky for him to hit the 3's, just as it was probably lucky for James to hit his final three attempts.

The game again should remind us how difficult it is to win on the road in college basketball. If the road team has a lead in the second half, every single call will go against them. While the referees on the whole let the teams play, therefore making the game very enjoyable, it was frustrating to watch charge after charge and block after block down low go NC State's way. But this is the reality of college basketball - MU gets those calls at home - and it emphasizes the magnitude of this victory.

The victory means that MU will likely head into conference play with an 11-2 record, which at the start of the season I said was the realistic minimum goal of the non-conference games. They've now got 2 solid victories on their resume, and even if they go .500 in conference, they should make the NCAA tournament. I'd be mighty worried if they were 9-3 right now.

Discuss the team as desired and Merry Christmas to all.

Doug Melvin to rest of NL: "We're done fucking around. And that."

AP (Milwaukee) In an offseason highlighted by the economic uncertainty facing our nation, Brewers General Manager Doug Melvin has defiantly 'bucked' the cautious trend and signed some of the highest profile free agents the 2009 market has to offer.

(Pictured below: High profile free agents Jorge Julio, Todd Coffey, Eduardo Morlan, RJ Swindle, Casey McGehee, Mike Lamb, Trot Nixon (right), and Chirs Duffy)





"We're done fucking around," Melvin said. "And that. When you go to the playoffs for the first time in a quarter century, you tend to raise the bar in terms of expectations. We believe that signing Jorge Julio, Todd Coffey, Eduardo Morlan, RJ Swindle, Casey McGehee, Mike Lamb, Trot Nixon, and Chirs Duffy will help us reach those expectations."

The Brewers have also been rumored to be interested in Yankee's centerfielder Melky Cabrera, sure to be the crown jewel of this offseason's haul. When reached for comment regarding the potential Cameron-for-Cabrera trade, as well as Melvin's aggressive moves this offseason, Yankee's General Manager Brian Cashman began laughing uncontrolably. He then spent roughly $1/4 billion on 12 dominican farmhands that he will no doubt trade for elite small market ballplayers sometime in the near future.

Analysts project the 2009 Brewers to win somewhere between 135 and 140 games, obliterating the major league record of 116 set by the 2001 Seattle Mariners and the 1906 Chicago Cubs. "When you're adding players the caliber of major league retreads Trot Nixon, Jorge Julio, and Chris Duffy, you raise the bar quite a bit." Melvin said. He then finished his twelfth Molson Ice of the evening and drove off in his company car - a 1994 Buick LeSabre.

You don't see this very often

Whopper, anyone?

Ronald got the message.



I thought you guys might need a good laugh given the weather up there. Blizzards? Yikes. I'll take 50 degrees and sunshine in December any day.

Now that Sabathia has acted like a rational human being

How would you make the Brewers competitive in 2009 or 2010? Me? I'd try to send $24M of Sabathia's friends (Hall and Cameron) to New York for absolutely whatever Milwaukee can get in return, even if they are forced to eat a chunk of Hall's contract (and by a chunk, I mean pretty much all of it). Then, I'd try to move Corey Hart for Zach Greinke, because I think Dayton Moore is just stupid enough to pull the trigger. Alternative trades are the oft-discussed Fielder-for-Cain or Hardy-for-[insert Twins pitcher], or something similar to Tampa for a guy like Wade Davis. If they want to get really creative, moving Rickie Weeks for an equally underperforming pitcher and signing Orlando Hudson would get me excited. It would also potentially keep Jeff Suppan's ERA in single digits next season.

It's clear that the Brewers won't be able to compete in the non-John Garland free agent starting pitching race and may have to drastically overspend to get a piece of the bullpen ace race. If players like Burrell and Dunn are coming at relative discounts this year, Milwaukee needs to seriously consider converting their offensive value into pitchers and spending their free cash money on free agent offensive players. I might be missing something, but I don't see a Scott Podsednik-for-Carlos Lee trade on the horizon to bail Milwaukee out. Nor do I see the Brewers signing a savior like Jeffrey Hammonds to anchor the offense. And I hope to fuck that they don't sign any starting pitchers to more than a two year deal.

UW plays 6 white guys, loses to MU

Jerel McNeal flies past Brian Butch and Greg Stiemsma for a lay-in Saturday night

Marquette, or as I like to call it, The University of Marquette, won a sloppy 61-58 game at the Bradley Center saturday night over a much larger but far less athletic Badger team. Chances are you didn't see the game unless you were there or had ESPNU. ESPNU doesn't actually exist, so I'll assume most didn't see the game. Here were the three biggest story lines:

(1) Lazar Hayward stays out of foul trouble.

Lazar Hayward had two charges called against him and was giving up 3 to 4 inches in the paint. Yet he managed to commit only 3 fouls and stayed on the court for 35 minutes. While he wasn't himself on offense, he grabbed 13 rebounds and played very good interior defense. Hayward is not the best player on the team, but he's the most valuable. When he is out, MU is overwhelmed in the paint. Hayward's 13 boards were nearly a quarter of all the rebounds in the game. Unlike against Dayton, where Hayward fouled out with 16 minutes left and the floodgates opened, such was not the case last night.

As some supporters of every losing teams do, some Badger fans believe that UW got the raw end of the refereeing last night. That's simply not the case. Well, not exactly. UW committed 10 more fouls than MU, but remeber two things: (1) UW had 4 intentional fouls in the game's last minute and (2) MU plays much more aggressively and has drawn many, many more fouls than opponents this year. Also, Dominic James went to Duke Flop Camp. But I'll admit the refs' helped MU. The refs let the teams play, not calling too many chippy fouls. That certainly fits MU's style, and if the refs had called the game tightly, MU would have lost. After all, MU's 4 talented players played a total of 145 minutes. The starting 5 played 175 minutes. MU has no bench and didn't need it last night. Bo Ryan may get the most out of the available talent on his team in all of the NCAA, but his style hurt him in this game. UW should have tried to drive and draw more fouls or pick up the pace and force MU to use its bench.

(2) For the second year in a row, UW refused to play zone defense.

I don't understand it. UW refused to play zone defense again. Bo Ryan is a great coach. Why doesn't he understand this? MU is a bad outside shooting team and they are one of the smallest teams in all of the NCAA. Their halfcourt offense is pretty bad unless they can get the ball into the hands of a guard who goes one-on-one with his man. UW is not athletic enough to cover MU's 4 guard attack. Big white guys simply cannot guard MU. So why not play a zone? Make MU shoot from the outside (didn't they see how bad MU was at doing that during the first 10 minutes of the game?) and make sure that UW's big men don't get dragged out to the perimeter.

I asked this question last year, and the answer seemed to be "UW doesn't play zone defense." Okay. Well, I don't shower. Is that an excuse? No. Not doing something is not an excuse for not doing something. Start playing zone defense. UW did it for about a minute in the game. Thus, we know it's possible. If they had played zone defense, UW wins. Watch MU play Syracuse this year and tell me which team had the better defensive strategy, UW or Cuse.

(3) Jerel McNeal played like a madman in the second half.

Maybe it's because UW isn't athletic enough to guard him, or maybe he was possessed, but Jerel McNeal played like an NBA player in the second half. Like Hayward in point (1), McNeal stayed out of foul trouble. He played 39 minutes and was easily the MVP of the game. The above picture is the same one from JSOnline, mostly because it sums up the second half.

Hayward was poor on offense, but for 5 offensive rebounds. Matthews was pretty quiet. The bench was totally worthless. Burke is a terrible offensive player. And Dominic James was more careless with the ball tonight than usual. He had 3 turnovers in the official box score, but that could have been 5, which is more than he's had the last 4 games total I believe. It really was a one-man show on offense. McNeal at one point scored 14 straight points for MU.


In the end, MU needed this game more than UW. UW will finish 3rd in the Big Ten and get the "you finished 3rd in the big ten 4th seed in the NCAA tournament." Like it or not, MU is going to have to battle to make the tournament. The team should, but a loss here along with a likely loss against Tennessee, a potential loss at NC State and lord knows how many losses in the big east could put MU on the bubble.

I think the teams are pretty much equal this year. While UW is a much deeper, bigger, and better shooting team, MU is 100x more athletic. Ultimately, that athleticism won out this year.