This Could Very Well Be What The Kids Call "It"
>> Tuesday
If you read this blog with any sort of regularity (or are quick-witted enough to look at the top sidebar on the left), you know that baseball allegiances among the staff are pretty much split between the Brewers and the Cubs.
Paul, Vince, Pat and Mike bleed the proverbial Cubbie Blue, whilst Nate and I live and die (and, let's be honest, we're pretty much doing more dying right now than livin') with the Brew Crew. Additionally, Zuch backs the White Sox, so for the stretch run this year, he's one of ours.
As such, tonight, tomorrow and Thursday could very well tear this blog apart. In what has come down to an ugly-though-still-entertaining finish in the NL Central, the Brewers and the Cubs will square off for a three game set at Wrigley that will in all likelihood tell us a lot about the race over the next month. It's no understatement that the series is much, much more important for the Brewers - if they lose 2 of 3 or get swept, you can pretty much write them out of the division race. For the Cubs, losing would be a blow, but with a game and a half lead, they wouldn't be out of it just yet.
As if the series itself weren't big enough already, the three game set gets an extra boost with the return of two of the teams' most important players. The Cubs will get Alfonso Soriano back in the lineup tonight as he returns from a month-long layoff due to a leg injury. The Brewers got good news of their own recently when it was announced over the weekend that Ben Sheets would likely make a start either tomorrow or Thursday against the Cubs. Due to the recent woes from the starting pitching (Tuesday's starter Jeff Suppan has been horrible of late, Yovani Gallardo is clearly running out of gas, Claudio Vargas may be headed to the DL, Chris Capuano has been bafflingly bad after winning his first 5 starts), the Brewers desperately need a strong Sheets for any hope of a playoff berth.
More important for me (and therefore you) is the fact that win or lose, this three game series represents the first time in a long time that the Brewers have played a slate of games so meaningful this late in a season. Sure, in '05 they were fighting for a winning record, but that isn't the same. They weren't a headline on ESPN or a featured story on SportsCenter in 2005. This means more. It's an entirely different feel now, they've got a legit ROY candidate with Braun and an MVP hopeful in Prince Fielder, and for the first time in a long time, there's legitimate reason to believe that they will, in fact, come back better next year.
How fitting it is also that as the Brewers develop into a contender that they've finally also found themselves a meaningful rival. Sure, it'll never top Cubs-Cardinals for history's sake, but Brewers-Cubs ain't nothin' to sneeze at. There's some legitimate bad blood between the fan bases and an interesting dichotomy between big market and small market that casual fans can appreciate. It'll never be Yankees-Sox, but for now I'll take it.
Whether this is the last hurrah of the '07 Brewers or the beginning of a miracle stretch run, I guess my point is this: this year has proven to me that pennant-chase baseball is better that I could have imagined (despite the ups and downs) and that even though it's just three games at the end of August, this series is huge.
My homeriffic predictions:
Brewers win 2 of 3 behind Suppan and Sheets, with Rickie Weeks and Prince Fielder having huge series to back the starters.
Your own predictions welcome in the comments.
Also - no matter what happens, let's just hope that one of these two teams goes on to win the division. If the Cards sneak past both teams...well, that would be lame and I, for some reason I can't really put my finger on, would feel a little cheated.
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9 comments:
For the next three days, you should put a thick vertical line down the center of the blog with yours, Zuch's, and Nate's posts on one side, and Mike's, Pat's and my posts on the other. Since Paul supports both, his posts get a big vertical line through the center.
Also, I guess this had just never sunk in on me before, but it sort of blows my mind to realize that you've never experienced a hometown rooting interest in a pennant race, as you said. For all the Cubs itermittent horribleness, they've at least given a race, if not always the marbles, every few years during my existence ('89, '95, '98, '01, '03, '04, '07). You have acutally had nothing, with the arguable exception of '92. But even for a prodigy eight year-old baseball fan as I was at the time, 1992 seems like a very long time ago.
No kidding. It's been rough, especially since it was a drastic difference when compared to the Packers teams I followed as a kid, since they started getting really good (like 93-94 or so with the ascendence of #4) when I was becoming conscious of football and sports in general.
Compared to that, the Brewers have been a tough sell, and it really speaks to how awesome I am (as a fan and generally) that I've hung with them despite getting pretty much nothing in return. Also, I'm no turncoat sellout like Nate who used to be a Cubs fan as recently as like 2 years ago. What a phony.
Let's not forget Danny, who has a whole closet full of turncoats (rimshot).
So drawing a line down the middle of the blog? Wouldn't that just make this page look like an old "I Love Lucy" episode?
Should be a pretty entertaining series, and I'm surprised Sheets is coming back, I thought he was pretty much out till the middle of September. I do think the Brewers will probably get swept (not a homerific prediction) as I think the Brewers have really nothing left in the tank as their pitching has been horrific the past month or so. I do have reservations about the Cubs and their decision to bring Soriano back so quickly (he is not even close to being 100% and is batting leadoff) when he will be a certain liability in Left and not much of a baserunner. I do think if they bat him 5th (and don't give me this crap that his stats aren't as good as him batting leadoff as his at-bats are severely numerically skewed in favor of leadoff). Ultimately, the Cubs pitching is better (not by much) and that will likely be the deciding factor with Hill, Z, and Lilly going.
Actually, I'd say the Cubs' pitching is pretty significantly better than the Brewers' right now. In fact, the Cubs' margin of better-ness is about as "much" as "better" gets when it comes to comparing major league pitching staffs. Five serviceable starters--a few of whom are quite good--and zero tomato cans pretty much defines "good major league pitching staff." The Brewers right now are like four tomato cans praying for the one good guy to come back, hopefully healthy enough to pitch.
Having said that, we're talking about baseball, so I wouldn't predict a sweep if we were talking '98 Yanks vs. '62 Mets, much less two teams who are a game and a half apart.
Well, my prediction is obviously a little tardy as the Cubs just won.
I hate to say it, but I think the Brewers will completely fade if they can't take this series (although I consider the Cards' sweep of the Crew the beginning of the fade anyways). Of course, you could provide arguments like "Sheets is coming back" to say they'll stay in it. But frankly, Chicago has played better baseball over the last two months despite some of their own inconsistencies.
At this pace, I think the Crew will finish below .500. They've had a couple of smaller slides this season, but we're talking about a team that has gone 8-20 in the last month. They are not the team they were in the first half.
I agree with Vinnie on the pitching. Despite a somewhat disappointing August, the Cubs' pitching staff was outstanding in July and still looks healthy and competent. The Brewers' staff has a 6.40-something ERA this month: the starters haven't been intolerably bad, but the pen has been horrendous. I'd say the difference is indeed rather drastic.
Thus, I predict the Cubs will take the Central. And that's coming from someone who bleeds a lot less Cubby-blue than he used to.
Paul, you're pretty much right on. It's not even that the bullpen has been bad, per se, it's just that they're bad now because they were so heavily taxed when the starters were slumping (except Shouse - my man is still throwing BBs).
I have to agree with you, though, I don't see any legit argument as to how the Brewers can legitimately turn this around. Sure they "could" start playing out of their minds, but I don't see anything that suggests they will. There are too many question marks with the rotation (although Suppan pitched well last night and his last time out, as did Bush). Overall, I don't see how they hang in when the Cubs are playing so well right now.
Also, consider this: since starting 24-10, the Brewers have been playing losing baseball. That's one month of the season where they were really good. Other than that and a few hot streaks of like 2-3 days, they've been a losing team. Doesn't seem like it, eh?
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