I know we all hate the nights when we've waited all day to get home and watch the Brewers, only to find out the game has been postponed. And as much as I enjoy grabbing a cold one and watching the Cubs get blown out 11-2 by the Astros on MLB Gameday, am I wrong in thinking that it would be best for the Brewers to have one of their weekend games against the Nationals rained out?

My reasoning is pretty simple. Having one of the weekend games rained out would allow the Brewers to skip one of the scheduled games where a fifth starter is necessary (either April 16 or 17, the way I see it). I think the Brewers are hoping that Greinke will possibly be able to make the April 26th start, which would be the next time the Brewers use a fifth starter.

The only drawback I see, would be if the game gets rescheduled as a double-header with no Brewers off days around it or as a double-header sometime this weekend. Then, it wouldn't make a whole lot of difference, because it would just mean us having to use our fifth starter in a double-header this weekend or a sixth starter later in the year.

I hate rainouts more than anyone, but I think it could help us to see one this weekend. I guess I could survive one more day of rooting for that "In play, run" against the Cubs.

Can you name all of the Milwaukee Brewers players to have played a game at shortstop since 1995? I just created this sporcle game...so everyone should give it a shot. It's tougher than you might think since a lot of these guys didn't play many games for us. Hope you all enjoy it and lets hope that Escobar is the only Brewers shortstop for a while now. You can get there by going to http://www.sporcle.com/games/ajoconnor/brewers_shortstops

Tonight I got the chance to hear Doug Melvin speak at a banquet in Madison, so I thought I would highlight some of the key points that he discussed.  A lot is old news, but I figured some of it might be interesting, knowing it came straight from him.

(1)  Sheets.  Doug gave the impression that Sheets' career is over as a Brewer.  He said they haven't closed the door to a return, but he expects him to be elsewhere when the season starts.

(2)  Prince Fielder - Melvin said that trading Prince would require a 1 or 2 starter (no big surprise) and that he hasn't talked to any teams about a trader and nobody has contacted him, probably because they know the asking price and teams don't have that kind of pitching to give up.

(3)  The starting rotation.  The Brewers are still looking to solidify the rotation, but he didn't discuss details here.  He gave four starters that are set in stone - Gallardo, Parra, Bush, Suppan.  Doug talked about McClung's versitility, but didn't like his high pitch counts and the void in the bullpen moving him to a starting spot would create.  As for Capuano, he said he is a possibility to fill up a starting spot, but said it probably wouldn't happen until early May sometime.

(4)  Third base - left this one wide open, basically as a competition between Hall, Mike Lamb, and mentioned Gamel at the end (didn't give many details as to a timetable on him).

(5)  Other interesting sidenotes...

     -Kendall and Cameron had a big part in getting Hoffman to come to Milwaukee instead of LA, which is obviously much closer to Trevor's home.

     -Hoffman has won the Roberto Clemente community service award somewhere around five times.

     -The Brewers have already hit the 1 million tickets sold mark for 2009 sales.

     -Ray Durham, along with several other major league free agents, are considering retirement if the money isn't right.

Hope everyone enjoyed, and at least found a couple things that they found interesting or new.

     Let me start by stating the obvious.  If we were to sign CC and he stays healthy for five full years, he is undoubtedly worth the money.  However, at what point are the Brewers risking too much of their payroll to try to sign him?  To be honest, I'm personally not sure whether 5 years/$100 million is too much or not.  I do know that this contract would be tying up somewhere between 20 and 25 percent of the Brewers payroll for the next five years and signing starting pitchers to long term deals is just about the riskiest thing a team can do.

     If he pitches like he did last year, then yes, he is worth it.  Keep in mind though, the Rockies were saying the same thing when they signed Mike Hampton.  Hampton then proceeded to struggle for two years with the Rockies, pitch two average years with the Braves, and then pitch a whopping 15 games and 147 innings in the next four years.  It should also be worth noting that before this big contract, Hampton had pitched three more sub-4 ERA seasons and fewer total innings than CC currently has pitched.  Similar things can be said about the big contracts and lack of production from Carl Pavano and Barry Zito.

    All in all, I think we have to seriously consider what we wish for with CC.  As much as we would love to have him back as a Brewer, we must be sure to envision him both as a Cy Young Award winner as well as the next Mike Hampton when we are thinking about the contract situation.