Comments | baseball: Gotta love that whacky NL Central

gjenkins05 in baseball

Gotta love that whacky NL Central

Jun 27, 2007 16:50

With a Damian Miller walk-off HR today, the Milwaukee Brewers swept the Houston Astros and moved back to their high water mark of the season at 14 games over .500. The Brewers are 12-2 since being no-hit by Justin Verlander, and despite the Cubs 6 game winning streak they've made up virtually no ground ( Read more... )

cubs, nl central, brewers

Comments 21

fsfwannabe June 27 2007, 22:01:05 UTC

As a follower of the Cubs, I don't think the Brewers have anything to worry about.

I honestly think the Brewers are a better assembled team with less question marks around it. Assuming that their pitching stays healthy, they're not going to get caught in the Central.

gjenkins05 June 27 2007, 22:05:18 UTC

The Cubs offense is a bit more formidable with Lee, Soriano, Ramirez, etc. but we have a lot of young guys and roleplayers who come through pretty well.

Our bullpen has a bit of a tender underbelly, but once Capuano comes off the DL and either Spurling/Capellan are gone and Yo! moves to the pen, it will be a bit better. The Cubs bullpen kinda sucks, to be honest. lol

I like our rotation too, as long as Ben Sheets doesn't get dizzy again.

fsfwannabe June 27 2007, 22:40:15 UTC

Honestly if the Cubs keep Soriano at the top of the lineup, their offense isn't that scary. They have one power hitter (Ramirez) and a couple of OBP machines... but they're still trotting an awful offensive catcher of one flavour or another and giving at bats to Cliff Floyd and Cesar Izturus.

Pitching-wise, I have more faith in the Brewers staff. I've watched Lilly and Marquis excede expectations for most of the season, but I have to think that the league will catch up to them again.

gjenkins05 June 27 2007, 23:16:16 UTC

Yeah, Lilly and Marquis will regress to the mean eventually. I figured at some point they'd put Pie at leadoff and drop Soriano down.

ceetar June 27 2007, 22:01:41 UTC

same could be said for the NL East. Mets started pulling away, stopped winning, lost almost nothing.

gjenkins05 June 27 2007, 22:06:19 UTC

Very true.

ceetar June 27 2007, 22:08:45 UTC

of course Brewer fans are ecstatic, and Mets fans are convinced the season's over and are calling for the Manager's (and Schoeneweis's) head.

gjenkins05 June 27 2007, 22:21:46 UTC

Well, two weeks ago people were literally lining up to volunteer to help Ned Yost pack his office and GTFO. Every time the Brewers even lose 2 or 3 games in a row people go "here we go again!"

A lot of people say between the no hitter and Capuano's injury the next day, that is what jump started us again. We literally hit rock bottom.

Having Villanueva give us 5 quality innings in that game and having Billy Hall get back on track and win that game for us got us going. Then Yo came up on Monday and pitched really well giving us 6 starters for 5 spots, 7 if you could Villanueva who has been our most important bullpen arm other than Cordero.

The kids are going to struggle, but what we've been doing lately is picking each other up. Prince isn't hitting well right now, so Hart, Braun, Hall and Graffanino are picking it up just as J.J. and Prince carried us when no one else was hitting well.

Thread 12

vix June 27 2007, 23:28:35 UTC

I am so pleased they're doing well again, but I'll admit even when they weren't doing well, I was still not willing to give up on 'em. Then again, this season is a first for me in many respects, having followed the team closely since the '92 season, the last time I remember getting so excited about 'em.

gjenkins05 June 27 2007, 23:57:56 UTC

That's awesome. :)

I was too young to fully understand/care about baseball in '92, and since I was just born I have no recollection of 82, so I'm just used to us being bad. hahaha

drivingalone June 28 2007, 00:17:30 UTC

I have a question about the "Brewers - Cubs rivalry". On the outside, it looks like Brewers fans are trying to create a rivalry that doesn't really exist, just because Cubs fans travel to Milwaukee. Do Brewers fans go to Chicago?

Does this rivalry actually exist, or do Brewers fans just want it to? Cubs fans, what do you think?

gjenkins05 June 28 2007, 01:20:06 UTC

Cub fans will tell you their true rival is St. Louis, Brewers fans (especially Wisconsin Brewers fans) will tell you our true rival is the Cubs. We are so close in proximity and because Wisconsin and Illinois sports fans don't get along too well anyway (especially Packers and Bears fans), that is where a lot of the rivalry draws its juice. Plus whenever the two teams get together wild and crazy stuff happens, and especially now that both teams are battling for the top of the division, the rivalry will continue to grow.

Brewers fans do travel to Wrigley but not in the massive droves Cub fans come to Miller Park... although I could be wrong I've never made it down to Wrigley for a Brewers-Cubs game. Those crowds at Miller Park can get pretty rowdy.

someone_sitting June 28 2007, 02:27:41 UTC

There is a general feeling of dislike between Wisconsin and Illinois, it has more to do with football but it has transfered a little to baseball as well.

And drivingalone, I assume you've never been to/seen a Cubs vs. Brewers game at Miller Park. If you have, I don't know how you can say "just because Cubs fans travel to Milwaukee." It's gotten better lately, but nearly half of the crowd is Cubs fans. And nearly all of them are very incredibly obnoxious. If they want to see another ballpark, fine, but don't act like you own the place. This next series should be pretty interesting, both the Cubs and the Brewers are hot right now, it'll be interesting to see which is hotter. But the Cubs are really going to have to bring their A game, they're facing Yovani Gallardo and Ben Sheets. Oh yeah, and Dave Bush, but I wasn't expecting a sweep anyways.

You know everybody else wants their team to get no-hit now. Apparently that and losing your #2 pitcher for a couple starts the very next day is what it takes to get a team back on track. Who'da thunk?