Kevin Youkilis is expected to be re-activated from the disabled list in time for the Red Sox's game tonight against the Orioles. However, during his absence, the Sox called up their top prospect Will Middlebrooks to man the hot corner. He responded with a line of .297/.325/.581, including 5 home runs and 16 RBI over 74 ABs. Youkilis, meanwhile, started the year with a robust .219/.292/.344 over 64 ABs with 2 home runs and 9 RBI. While he has a place on the roster for now with Cody Ross conveniently going on the DL, are his days with the team numbered?

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Disclaimer: For those that with a faint heart or without a substantial amount of humor (or perhaps haven’t had a morning cup of coffee yet), this post may not be for you. This is an entirely satirical piece dedicated towards the upcoming season without taking into account probable or even certain real life events. I am not a Cubs fan or troll, as I am not the spawn of pure evil. Instead, the intention of this writing is to prepare fellow Brewers fans like myself for the opening mark of the season less than two weeks away and have a laugh about our club.

                Let’s think about this reasonably. The Brewers are headed for another season of baseball that will be one for the record books. As spring training is drawing to a close, the roster is getting finalized and the players ready. Due to the absolutely dazzling pitching performances shown by Jeff Suppan this spring and not having anything to do with player salaries whatsoever, Ken Macha will name him the opening day starter for a second year in a row. Unfortunately for Jim Edmonds, he’ll have to battle through the season with a blown out new hip that he just replaced and he’ll just have to get another shiny new titanium ball and socket joint put in. Luckily enough for the Chris Narveson supporters, Carlos Villanueva will demote himself down to Nashville promising he’ll ‘try better next time,’ opening up a roster spot. And alas, for fan favorite David Riske, he’ll have to keep rehabbing his Pleasestayoffourteamitis on the disabled list.

                Once opening day rolls around and Jeff Suppan finishes his complete game shut-out, the Brewers rotation will turn into dreadful mire. Manny Parra has established himself as a viable young ace of the rotation, but he really needs to boost his innings pitched, and bring down his WHIP and strange facial hairs to firmly entrench himself in the rotation of the future. Yovani Gallardo benefited from his demotion to Nashville last season and has the tools to succeed, but whether or not he has the mindset to pitch effectively and consistently remains to be seen. New face Randy Wolf is an unproven young pup (an abandoned Wolf raised by humans?) and has to transition his game from AAA to the big leagues to prove he’s not one of those dreaded quad-A players, as he’s clearly never had major league success before. If southpaw Doug Davis can find enough free time in between fighting crime as the famed Duck Dodgers and curing cancer worldwide, he’ll be a real asset to the rotation, but he has to prove his durability and consistency first. Free agent-to-be Dave Bush is better stashed in the bullpen so he’s not put in jail for viciously mauling twenty-seven straight batters every five days with his lumberjacking axe. Or nunchucks, depending on his facial hair.

                Luckily enough for the Brewers, the offensive lineup is top to bottom stacked with so much talent scoring runs will be no issue at all. Leadoff hitter Rickie Weeks has proved every year since his call up that he is a run scorer and is one of the most durable and consistent bats in the lineup. The only real question is who will get more intentional passes this year: Rickie Weeks or the baby dreads underneath the doo rag. Two-hole hitter Carlos Gomez has the easy power built in like Russell "Paul Bunyan" Branyan but needs the fielding and base running to catch-up with his natural hitting talent. Ryan Braun needs no introduction, but working as an attractive female model at his Milwaukee restaurant will really cut into his practice time. If he can get cleanup hitter Prince Fielder to stick to his carnivorous eating habits, we can easily expect another 300 homeruns from the big feller, give or take 250. A solid 550 home runs might be able to put him second to Albert M.V.Pujols.

Third baseman Casey McGehee will have yet another solid year at the plate due to his bald spot wearing a hole in his batting helmet and distracting pitchers long enough by deflecting the sun’s rays into the pitchers eyes, forcing them to throw a lob right over the plate. And for those night games when the sun is hiding on the outside of the roof or on the other side of the world, he’ll enact his post-Cubs curse breaker and hit with an OPS of 1.02 years. Right fielder Corey Hart will utilize his fancy new goggles and play up to his 40 million arbitration salary. New catcher Gregg Zaun will stay in the Limelight all season mainly due to the fact that he is not Jason Kendall, the Hall of Fame catcher Mustache opted not to resign. Young shortstop Alcides Escobar will have to juggle beating off post J.J. Hardy lovers, his dazzling and bright smile, and lack of top prospect pressure to be an effective everyday player. Most bench spots throughout the league are utilized effectively, but useless washed up veteran Craig Counsell holds down the fort with the help of Not Tony Gwynn Jr., Tim Wakefield’s baggage boy, Joe the Plumber Inglett, and Julio Franco Jim Edmonds.

As the season progresses past April, all the way through the All-Star break, the Brewers will find themselves as strong buyers at the trade deadline. Corey Hart will have ridden a hitting streak of 84 games through the first half of the season, followed by small successes in a few games, followed by absolutely dismal production in two different positions, leading to a trade to the Canadian league for a bag of maple bats, which are then turned into maple syrup for Prince’s breakfast, increasing his protection in the order with more padding for those hard fastballs. As Cuban defector Randy Wolf’s real birth certificate is found and is actually discovered to be 33 years old, he instantly acquires midseason form and readies the rotation for a stretch run. Ryan Braun’s head became too swollen with his successes and pinched nerves in his neck due to the overwhelming weight, so shifting Edmonds over to left allows for the Brewers to trade Suppan to the Phillies for Jayson Werth since they like paying reasonable market prices for older, experienced players, like Placido Polanco.

September will bring a race to the finish in the hotly contested Central division. Luckily enough, Carlos Zambrano will attempt to shove his entire team into a Gatorade container before tossing it on to the field, so the Cubs sank to the bottom of the division where they rightfully belong. The Cardinals dynamic duo of Jose Pujols and Matt Holliday is not enough to overcome Felipe Lopez’s extreme gusto and effort on the field, which unfortunately caused every single Cardinal pitcher to have their pitching arm fall off. The Astros will be forced to trade off every worthwhile member of their team to raise the funds to cover the repair costs of the in-stadium train after passing sponsorship of it to Amtrak and having it crash during the 7th inning stretch of every game. The Reds and their communistic ways will not succeed, this is America. This leaves the Pirates to push the Brewers for the last spot, but fortunately the Pirates will realize they’re still in rebuilding mode and will concede the division because it’s just not their time yet, and the fans will graciously agree.

The Brewers will be able to push past the Phillies in the first round this time as team cancer CC Sabathia is not present this time and power through the Giants for the pennant by smoking out Tim Lincecum with Jeremy Jeffress. However, the Brewers will run into the inevitable brick wall of the Kansas City Royals and the unstoppable force of Jason Kendall. Maybe not this year sports fans, but we can always hope for next year.

According to Bill Center of the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Brewers are rumored to have interest in trading for Padres ace Jake Peavy. Though this is highly unconfirmed and possibly impossible, lets try and break it down a little bit.

The first obstacle is Peavy waiving his full no-trade clause to come and play here in Milwaukee. This probably won't be a big deal, as the Brewers have proven they are a contending team, unless he has some prior injustices against the city.

The second is the ability of Kevin Towers and Doug Melvin to hook up on the content of players coming to San Diego. Towers shot for the moon when he asked Atlanta for the likes of Tommy Hanson, Jordan Schafer, Yunel Escobar, Charlie Morton, Jason Heyward, etc (clearly not all of them, but you get the picture).

Finally, do the Brewers as an organization and us want to give up more prospects/MLB ready players for another picther? Clearly the Sabathia trade worked out well, but as ya'll know, he is no longer with us. Peavy, under contract through 2012 with an option for 2013, is not in the same boat and may require more, as he would serve much more as a rental.

Who would be given up? The name of Gwynn is still sacred in San Diego, but there would obviously have to be much more with him. If the Cubs could sneak by with a package of Josh Vitters and Sean Marshall, the Brewers would probably be able to assemble something.

As Spring Training has come at least, this means the regular season is just right around the corner! The question comes to how new manger Ken Macha will line up the order, with possible input coming from bench coach Willie Randolf.

So what's it going to be on opening day? Will Rickie Weeks be back to leading off or will the job be Mike Cameron's again, as he was with Svuem. There are 7 positions all but set in stone, being C, 1B, 2B, SS, LF, CF, and RF. 3B is still up in the air. Just go with a 3B platoon at  the position, unless you have ideas for separate line-ups for the likes of Hall, Lamb, or others.

Here's a sample order:

2B Weeks

SS Hardy

LF Braun

1B Fielder

RF Hart

CF Cameron

3B Platoon

C Kendall

P Gallardo

Have at it!

During a Q & A portion at the Brewers on Deck at Midwest Express Center, Melvin fielded questions about free agent pitcher Ben Sheets.

“It doesn’t appear that it’s going to happen,” Melvin said, noting that Sheets recently meet with the Texas Rangers.

Sound's like the bridge is all but burned back to Milwaukee.

A young fan also asked Melvin if the Brewers had any interest in free agent outfielder Manny Ramirez. Melvin responded:

Melvin said there wasn’t a place for Ramirez on the team and Milwaukee already had a left fielder.

“Who would you rather have Manny Ramirez or Ryan Braun?”

The young fan chose Braun.

So, there we have it, nothing overly new, just confirmations on what we already expected. Jeff Suppans of the world, here we come!

The article is from a Racine newspaper columnist, Greg Giesen.

Straight from the Bill James Handbook, these are the current Brewers 40-man roster and Spring Training Invitees projections for 2009. Take it as it is. As you can see, roughly half of the team have no projections, but such is life. I hope you enjoy looking at this as much as I enjoyed typing it in. If you would like to know the Bill James projection for any player, just ask in the comments.

Note: If a player is added to any list, the projections will be added with them. I apologize for the lengthy space at the bottom, it simply won't go away.

The Brewers tendered contracts to Prince Fielder, J.J. Hardy, Corey Hart, Rickie Weeks, Dave Bush, and Seth McClung. Prince, arbitration eligible for the first time along with Hart, Weeks, and McClung, is in for a big raise.

However, most notably left off the list is starting lefty Chris Capuano. After a second Tommy John surgery, who knows what he is capable of doing. However, if he can somehow return even close to the 18-win form he was in 2005, clearly he would be an asset to a team currently deprived of starting pitching due to recent free agent departures.

Per MLB.com, courtesy Adam McCalvy.

Edit 9:24 PM: Ty Wiggington has become available through a non-tender from the Astros. A solid 3B pickup, that'd be nice eh?

The Green Bay Packers Press is reporting the release of Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila. Justin Harrel was activated from the PUP list to take his place.

Most of the experience and depth on the line is now gone. What was Ted thinking? KGB was a valued and hardworking player and now is counting on his young 'uns to step up again. Thompson counting on his younger players has become more and more evident in his managerial style.

Not new to baseball but to the trade market, Jake Peavy is the hot new item. The two time allstar and 2007 NL Cy Young winner has been available by the Padres' front office. Peavy's repertoire includes the command of several different two-seam fastballs (88-90 mph) and a four-seam fastball (93-97 mph), a hard slider (83-88 mph), a change-up (80-84 mph), and sports an occasional curveball (74-76 mph).The burning question has become who will land this true ace? The current front runner is the Atlanta Braves, but no team has fully announced their intentions.

The real winner in this derby: The Milwaukee Brewers.

San Diego has been known to be searching for a center fielder and young pitching in this deal. Who better to match up with than the Brewers? Tony Gwynn Jr, son of former major leaguer Tony Gwynn Sr. (of course), has been coveted by the Padres for some time now. Matching Gwynn with a young pitcher plus a throw in or two might just get this deal done. Most noteably would be Jeremy Jeffress, though I'm sure Doug Melvin would be reluctant to trade him. CC Sabathia was an amazing addition to the team, why not try another star pitcher? However, the prospects given up may not be worth the pitcher coming in. With the lowest WHIP in baseball since 2004, Peavy would certainly be a noteworthy asset to the team. The prospects may be worth giving up for this 27-year old pitcher not  even to the peak of his career. As always, lets get the comments going!

So Ted was a little busy today...per packers.com...

The Green Bay Packers have signed punter Derrick Frost and long snapper Brett Goode and released punter Jon Ryan and linebacker Abdul Hodge.

Now I ask, why release possibly the fifth or sixth best linebacker instead of Breno Giacomini, superbackup O-line or Tracy White, who can be replaced easily on special teams. Jon Ryan, who had a  reat 34-yard run against the Titans demonstrating strong athletic ability, was released in favor for a punter who was released from the Redskins after getting beat out by a rookie. Ryan, who has shown B.J. Sander-esque inconsistency on occasion, has the potential to boot 50+ punts at any given time.

With only 34 games (at the time of writing) and the postseason left to the season, the off-season will be here before we know it. Some say it's too early for an off season debate, but I say neigh, its an off day, lets get something productive done!

At last count, the Brewers have fourteen "key" players that have contracts expiring after the 2008 season. They are: 2B Ray Durham, 3B Russell Branyan, U Craig Counsell, U Joe Dillon, CF Mike Cameron, OF Gabe Kaplar, SP CC Sabathia, SP Ben Sheets, SP Chris Capuano, RP Derrick Turnbow, RP Guillermo Mota, RP Brian Shouse, CL/RP Saloman Torres, and CL/RP Eric Gagne. (I'm sure I'm missing some, so if I see any in the comments or anyone with the power to edit, feel free to add them to the list.)

Both Cameron and Torres have team options for the 2009 season, a $10MM option with a $750K buyout and a $3.75MM option with a $300K buyout. At the time of writing, it seems as though both will be exercised, leaving the Brewers without five position players, three starting pitchers, and four relievers.

I will attempt now to make a 25-man roster out of the best free agents available this winter. Bear with me; this might get a little hairy. I'm sure some will disagree, but I'm basing this on current and past performances. If someone is most likely to go back to the team they came from, they will be off this list.

2008-2009 Free Agent All-Star Team

Catchers: Jason Varitek and Ivan Rodriguez

First base: Mark Texeira and Richie Sexson

Second base: Orlando Hudson and Mark Ellis

Shortstop: Rafael Furcal and Orlando Cabrera

Third base: Hank Blalock and Joe Crede

Outfield: LF/RF Adam Dunn, LF Manny Ramirez, LF Milton Bradley, LF Pat Burrell

Starting Rotation: CC Sabathia, Ben Sheets, A.J. Burnett (has an option to opt out of contract, it is presumed he will), Jon Garland, and Oliver Perez.

Relievers: Francisco Rodriguez, Brandon Lyon, Brian Fuentes, Kerry Wood, Eric Gagne, Will Ohman

That team might win a few games, eh? Compared to the 2007-2008 off-season crop, this is a gold mine. Solid players across the board at all positions. Now, what are the Brewers to do? Lets assume all of the non-free agents stay put. There's a good chance that Kaplar and Branyan stay with the team, so that brings the total to missing: three infielders, three starting pitchers, and four relievers. What to do?

In regards to the infielders, the play from third base has been less then spectacular, and free agency may address that problem. Players like Hank Blalock, Joe Crede, and Casey Blake would fit the mould nicely. Nomar Garciaparra, who has played all over the infield, including first base, could provide the Craig Counsell bat with a little more pop. Perhaps the minors can shove some players up. Mat Gamel has proven he can handle a bat but apparently not a glove, so he may be looking to move to a less precarious position (See Braun, Ryan). Alcides Escobar, apparently a better shortstop than Mr. Hardy, can provide gold glove defense in the middle shifting J.J. over to third or second. Speaking of second, the Rickie Weeks experiment has yet to reach its lofty potential. Veteran guys like Mark Ellis and the switch-hitting Orlando Cabrera can provide the stability Brewer fans have been looking for. If Ray Durham sticks around he has shown he can still play and provides the lefty platoon bat for Mr. Weeks.

Looking at starting pitching, Brewer fans hope for the possibilities of CC Sabathia and Ben Sheets signings. Sheets would be easier to attain; as a part owner of the Milwaukee Admirals along with great chemistry with the team provides the beginning of a hometown discount that would allow him to stay with the team. Mr. Sabathia on the other hand is a different story. During the short time he has been in Milwaukee, the team has molded around him and he seems to be clicking with the whole team and seems to really enjoy Milwaukee, especially Jason Kendall, who has expressed interest in retiring as a Brewer. However, CC is a big time pitcher, and he comes with the big time markets. Teams like the Yankees, Angels, Mets, and Braves will be hot on his heels, along with smaller market teams in need of pitching, such as the Rangers and Phillies. Mark Attanasio has given Melvin the O.K. to open the wallet and spend money on players, but will this small market team be able to afford his big time pitching? If Sheets and Sabathia are unavailable, guys like A.J. Burnett and Oliver Perez can eat some innings and hopefully fill the big void less. Project pitchers are also available, like Mark Prior, Mark Mulder, and Matt Clement, and would be available at a discount for Mike Maddux to tackle. The old inning eaters are also available, the likes of Randy Wolf, Odalis Perez, Derek Lowe, Josh Fogg, Paul Byrd, and Randy Johnson, just to name a few. The youth in Manny Parra, Yovani Gallardo, Carlos Villenuava, and Seth McClung may struggle if forced to hold down the rotation with Dave Bush and Jeff Suppan.

The bullpen has been the Brewers Achilles heel for quite some time, with inconsistency reigning supreme. However, great players are finally available in the coming off-season. Francisco Rodriguez, K-Rod, is running away with the saves lead this year but will demand a premium price in free agency, most likely a record deal. Could he be the big money pitcher Attanasio and Melvin look at? If not, other solid closers and set-up men are out there. Brian Fuentes, Brandon Lyon, and Kerry Wood are all solid closers and have performed well for the team. Trevor Hoffman, Eric Gagne, Todd Jones, and Jason Isringhausen have been great closers in their career, but do they have enough in the tank to keep performing? Set-up men like Will Ohman and Juan Cruz have been stellar and would provide the key 8th inning role the Brewers have been looking for. The Brewers seem to have a gaggle of average to above average middle relievers; can one of them step up and perform to an elite level?

Of course the season has over a month (hopefully more for the Crew) until the 2008 season comes to an end. Of course there will be debate over what to do all the way until the beginning of the next. There will be bargains (Everyday Jason Kendall) to the blunders (Eric Gagne, is he turning it around, and not making that 10M look so bad?). Until then, enjoy the comments, hopefully there will be many, good luck to the Crew to finish out the season to get that first Series win for the franchise, and when the season is finally over, it's your move, Mr. Melvin.

I've heard discussions about Robinade a couple of times around here, some saying it tasting like Robin's sweat and others saying its the milk of heavan. My question is this: Where are ya'll finding the stuff? I seem to recall talk of it being at a Pick n' Save, but I haven't been able to find it. Anyone who also lives in the Racine/Oak Creek area able to help here?

As the trading deadline nears, many teams in baseball will be looking to buy or sell, depending on recent success.

As we all have hoped, the Brewers are competing quite well and are in the market as a potential buyer. With the farm system stocked with prime players (thanks to wonderful scouting and drafting), the Brewers hold several valuable trade chips that could just bring in the missing piece to the 2008 Series puzzle.

The question is this: What should the Brewers do? Hold tight to the prospects or make a move to finally overtake the Cubs and pound them into submission? C.C. Sabathia, as you all know, will most likely become the most coveted prize of this summer's trading frenzy. Will he be too overpriced and the better option may be to go for a smaller name, like Rich Harden, but just as effective, or break the bank and go for it all with Sabathia?