Yo is my bro

Well it kind of looks like this is going to be Brewers Appreciation Week because I am all about the love right now. These guys deserve it. Aramis Ramirez has been killing the baseball lately and that deserves kudos. I could write twenty five hundred words about Ryan Braun anytime, any place. I could do it every single day if I wanted to. He's that good, but you know who never really seems to get his due? Yo. We hardly ever talk about Yo which is weird because Yo is freaking awesome. Yo is my bro.

Yovani Gallardo has always been outshone by his fellow starters. When the Brewers got Marcum we knew that Marcum would be #2 to Yo, but we still thought about Marcum more. Marcum was new, Marcum was exciting and Yo was still Yo. Then the Brewers got Zack Greinke and Gallardo took a clear backseat. Zack Greinke was a former Cy Young winner with all the potential in the world. He seemed like he was a constant threat to pitch a perfect game or strike out a billion batters. Yo? Yo would get like nine strikeouts and be done by the sixth inning. This was always the perception at least. As it would turn out it was Zack who'd rack up the strikeouts and be done early. Yo would do that too, but he was still the best bet of the three to go deep into a game. (Think Game 1 of the NLDs.) Who knew? Continue reading »

Aramis Ramirez is True Blue Brew Crew

When the Brewers first signed Aramis Ramirez I was like "cool, now most of Prince Fielder's production has been replaced and he is not Casey McGehee." I wasn't like Zack Greinke acquisition excited or even Shaun Marcum trade excited. He was just kind of there. You knew he'd be good, but you knew he wouldn't be really exciting either. Aramis Ramirez is just one of those guys who goes to work, hits for his numbers and then goes home. He doesn't run hard on grounders and he isn't super dramatic. He just does his job and at the end of the year you are almost surprised at how good he was.

Or at least that's how it was supposed to be. What we got instead was a dude who makes you mad that the Brewers aren't playing better because he is absolutely killing it this season. He hit. 374 in July, THREE SEVENTY FOUR. He's going to break the Brewers single season doubles record, that's going to happen. He might hit .300 which would be absolutely amazing considering he hit .214 in May. He's made just enough good plays and has a good fielding percentage at third base that he's being called a good third baseman and will probably get some Gold Glove votes. Really, this is actually happening. He's been good for 4.7 WAR so far this season. Prince Fielder? A mere 3.7 WAR. Prince who? Aramis is third among all ML 3B in wOBA which, again, is amazing when you consider he hit .214 in May. Aramis Ramirez has been a revelation and he is putting up one of the great Brewer hitting seasons of all time. Continue reading »

Brewers no longer hungry for the Wolf

The Brewers released Randy Wolf today. A curious move considering they are about to shut down two starters, but an understandable move nonetheless. Randy Wolf has not been very good in 2011. He has been unlucky, but luck can only account for so much. Anyone who has watched him pitch this season knows that no matter how hard he worked or how well he was throwing, he was always hittable. I don't want to throw around the S word because Wolf was a lot better than that dude, but there was the same sense of "the Brewers are going to need to score a lot of runs today" when he pitched. Fair? Probably not, but that's the way it worked out.

When the Brewers signed Randy Wolf here is what we said:

Is it too many years? Not really. You can expect Wolf to be average to above average this year with a slight drop off next year and then anything can happen in the third year. (Hopefully.) He could age well or he couldn't. I've been staring at his Baseball Reference page like it was the Carrie Prejean sextape for about two weeks now trying to figure him out and I think I'm getting there. Randy Wolf has only been awesome twice, last year and 2002. Don't expect him to be awesome. Yet he's only been crappy twice, his rookie year (doesn't count) and 2006 when he was recovering from Tommy John surgery. Don't expect him to be crappy either. After that every season of his career has been average to slightly above average and if he can do that, the Brewers will be extremely happy and you should be too.

Continue reading »

Take Me Out To The Cubs Game: A Short Story

He grew up a Cubs fan just like his dad did. As a kid his dad would sit him down in front of the TV, turn on WGN and the two of them would spend a summer day with Harry Caray. It was a ritual as a kid, but then he got older and friends and girls and other things got in the way. He grew up and he didn't watch as much Cubs baseball with his dad as he used to. He didn't watch any at all really. Now that he's older he doesn't consider himself much of a baseball fan, more of a football guy. He probably couldn't even tell you who won the World Series last year, but he did like the Cubs. He loved the idea of it more than anything else. "Did you know that a guy lived his whole life without ever seeing the Cubs in the World Series? I hope that's not me." He'd say and he meant it too. The Cubs were his team. Forever and always.

He had a son of his own now and he figured he'd be a Cubs fan just like him. Harry Caray wasn't around and half the games weren't even on WGN anymore, but it didn't matter to him. He was a Cubs fan and his son would be too. He didn't realize that things were different now. His son couldn't relive his youth just like he couldn't suddenly become his father. His son didn't want to watch a baseball game on TV, not when there are X-Boxes and Nintendo DSes and interwebs to be played. His son didn't want to play catch with a baseball, he wanted to play a game of baseball... on his 360. Despite his best efforts he could not get his son to care about the Cubs of Chicago. The world had changed, his son didn't live in his world anymore and the man didn't realize it. Like Jack after he got off the island he wanted to go back.

A game. That's would fix things. If only his young son could see the Cubs live and in person he could finally see how great it is to live in the world as a Cubs fan. Cubs fans are like a big happy family, he thought. After a game he would see this and his son could join the family. Then they'd be closer, then they'd have something to share. Something just for them. He looked at tickets online, but Wrigley Field was just too expensive even with the Cubs not playing well. Between the drive into the city and the parking and the food and everything else he knew there was no way he could justify it to his wife. Plus, she'd probably want to come with which was out of the question to him. This was a father and son thing and she couldn't come. (Besides he could use a break.) He couldn't figure out how to afford the trip. The trip that would make his son love his team as much as he did. The trip that would make him and his son feel more like him and his father. And then it came to him. The answer was right in front of him all along: Wrigley North.

Miller Park was not only closer, easier to get to and more comfortable, it was also cheaper. He could hop on the expressway from the North Suburbs and be there in no time. He could be back before midnight and not spend nearly as much as he would downtown. It was perfect and it's not like there wouldn't be plenty of Cubs fans in attendance. They don't call it Wrigley North for nothing. He bought the tickets and August 20th they would go.

The ride up was more of the same for their relationship. The son played his video games while the dad drove. He tried to talk, but the son was too into his video game. Just like always, but the actual baseball game? That was different. His son was into it. His son stood and cheered, he laughed and he was in awe of every homerun. "I did it," he thought "I made my son a Cubs fan." He'd never felt prouder as a father.

The Brewers entered the bottom of the fifth and with the Cubs leading 3-1 it occurred to the man that his son's first Cubs game would be a win. This excited him to no end and he couldn't hold it in. He asked his son if he thought the Cubs were going to pull this thing off to which his son replied "yeah, maybe." He liked that. He liked that his son didn't count his chickens before they hatched. After all, there was a lot of baseball left to be played.

The bottom of the fifth got rolling and the Cubs remembered they were the Cubs. The Brewers went off on them for eight runs and any hope of a Cubs win probably went with them. When Jonathan Lucroy hit his second homerun the dad felt bad. He remembered how he felt as a kid when his dad took him to a game and he saw the Cubs get destroyed. That was so long ago, but the wounds still felt fresh. He wanted to make his son feel better at this moment so he turned to console him. Only his son didn't need any consoling. He was on his feet, cheering and high fiving strangers. His son was as happy as he'd ever seen him. His son was a Brewers fan.

The father felt betrayed. How did this happen? How could this happen? Where did I go wrong? He couldn't grasp why his son wouldn't want to be apart of the same family that he was a member of. It didn't add up. So he asked him. The boys answer did not surprise him because he had heard it before many times throughout his life. He did not, however, ever expect to hear the words from his son. These words were never supposed to be said by his own flesh and blood. His son's words were simple yet biting. Short yet pointed. There were only three of them, but the father felt every single one of them deep in his heart.

It's been said that children make you want to live your life over. That the world through their eyes is so much better than the world through your own. This is not something the man thought about that day, but it is something he probably should have because his son's words were the truth. A truth he should have learned a long time ago. A truth his father should have told him. The truth, as the boy said, is this:

"The Cubs suck."

A Brief History of MPD Memes

In case you guys haven't figured this out by now I am down with internet memes. I like to stay current on them, I think they are funny and I like to figure out a way to integrate them into the Brewers. This is what led to the creation of LOLBREWERS, the official MPD tumblr. From Sad Keanu all the way to McKayla is not impressed I love them all. (Except for that overly attached girlfriend one. That one doesn't really do it for me/hits too close to home.) Memes are fun, even if they are a major cause of brain rot and in ten years people will communicate exclusively through a white Impact font with black outlines.

Over the years we've used quite a few here at the site and even created a few of our own. Since I have Chikara brain today (Which is tonight! Get your tickets! See you there!) and am having trouble stringing sentences together I thought I'd compile all we've done in the past in one handy, dandy post. So let's do that now. Continue reading »