Pookcast Episode 14 - World Series of Beer Pong 6

I tried so hard to retire from beer pong. I've been playing for about 8 years now and decided to call it quits after the World Series of Beer Pong 5, which took place in Las Vegas in January 2010. After failing to make the playoffs (Day 3) for the 3rd consecutive year with Joey Kanz as my partner (while compiling a personal WSoBP worst record of 5-7), I figured I was on the decline and I should hang it up before I embarrass myself any further. And for the most part I was ok with life without beer pong. I played in a satellite tournament in Green Bay back in February (faithful visitors of Pookon's Ill Blog will remember that as the night that I recorded the "Fat Teen Wolf" episode of The Pookcast), then I played with Brodey and Aaron at a bar back in June or something and then one more time about a month or two ago. So I have only played beer pong 3 times this year, and only one of them was in a competitive setting. That sounds like retirement to me. Then I was working on the Pookon.com WSoBP 5 story. And I got nostalgic. Then one drunken night I was worrying about turning 30 next year, and how I don't feel comfortable wearing khakis (like I do at my day job) and how I much I love the beer pong community because I am accepted there. So I decided to sign up for the WSoBP 6. I also had to fulfill a promise that I made to Hummel one drunken night earlier in the year when I told him I would be his partner at the WSoBP if he couldn't find anyone else to play with. So all of that brings us up to date

The following occurred after a long night of drinking with former CHBPL members Brodey, Lorge, Casey, Denise, Aaron, Charlie, Felicia and TJ. When I got home I was a sad drunk and I poured my heart out a little bit and realized how much I really did love the WSoBP and beer pong in general. So check out the videos below if you want to see my softer side. If you think I'm just a whiny little pansy that never amounted to anything, then your viewpoints will be validated by watching this. Some of you might watch this and fall in love with me all over again, just like you did in Last Cup. And most of you don't give a shit. Whatever it is, thank you once again for spending time with me via the Pookon Empire. Later dudes.

Part 1



Part 2



- pookon -

www.pookon.com
email: pookondotcom@gmail.com

Your 2011 Milwaukee Brewers manager is... Ron Roenicke?

The first thing that you are probably asking right now is, "Who the hell is Ron Roenicke?" Trust me, you're not alone. The only reason that I know of him is because I follow Brewers news like white guy follows a suspicious noise into a creepy dark house in a horror movie. Roenicke was the bench coach on the Anaheim Angels for the last 5 years under one of the finest managers in the American League - Mike Scioscia. He had been with the organization for the past 11 years and managed in the minor leagues but this will be his first time managing in the majors. Roenicke was the dark horse candidate for the open manager job in a group that included former Mets manager (and favorite for the job) Bobby Valentine, former Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin and White Sox bench coach Joey Cora. There are many reasons why I didn't feel like Roenicke had a snowcone's chance in hell at his gig, but in the end I really like the hiring and I am very much looking forward to seeing who he picks for his coaching staff and to see if he is the right fit for this team. The first question will be answered before baseball resumes down in Spring Training in February, but the second questions may take years to answer. Let me set the record straight on my opinion of the last 3 Brewers managers before I continue.

Ned Yost. He was the lightning rod of criticism, but the majority of that didn't take place until the last 2 years of his reign as skipper. I liked Ned Yost until that point. When Yost took over for Jerry Royster the team was in complete dissary. Coming off of their worst season in franchise history (56-106) Yost guided a the newest crop of Brewers youngsters back to respectability. Some might argue that it was the talent (Fielder, Braun, Weeks and others) that would have been good regardless of who was managing them, but from what I noticed Yost was really good at sticking up for his players and never ripped them in public. What happened behind closed doors I'll never know, but he was loyal to his players to a fault. You might argue that he stuck with some players too long (like Suppan and Bill Hall) and he couldn't manage a bullpen to save his life. But I liked Ned Yost as a manager of a team of younger players. But he just wasn't the manager to take the team to the next level, which is why he got fired with 12 games remaining in the 2008 season.

Dale Sveum. He will be remembered by Brewers fans for 2 things - his walkoff homerun on Easter Sunday in 1987 to keep the winning streak alive and for managing the Brewers in the final 12 games of the 2008 season and the 4 games of the NLDS. As anyone in this current generation of Brewers fans will never forget, the Brewers won the NL Wild Card on the final game of the season and made the only playoff appearance in their lifetime (so far). As soon as Sveum took over for the Brewers he shook up the lineup and showed the willingness to play small ball (bunting, using the hit and run, stealing bases, etc.) and not rely on the home run. It also appeared that the players responded better to him because he was a better fit for the team than Yost was at that time. His lack of managerial experience probably prohibited him from getting the full time gig. That job went to Ken Macha. Svuem however stayed with the team as hitting coach, a position that he still retains to this day thanks to a new 2 year deal.



Ken Macha is old. Well uh... why uh... you'll have to talk to Rick on that one. I didn't see that pitch. Probably because you were too busy napping or doing crossword puzzles in the dugout. I hated the Macha signing from the beginning and it is now easy to see that Macha wasn't the right manager for this team. To be fair he wasn't given a whole hell of a lot to work with as far as pitching goes but of the manager's job is to motivate his team and put them in the best position to win, then Macha failed. I'll talk more about Macha in my 2010 season wrap up of the Front Office / Coaching Staff, but I believe one of the main reasons that Ken Macha was hired is because the Milwaukee Brewers were one of the last if not the last team to hire a manager with Playoff experience. Macha had done well with the Oakland A's in 2003-2006, but a lot of that may have had to do with the fact that he had a couple of pitchers that you might recognize - Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito (when he was in his prime as a Cy Young Winner). But the main reason I didn't like Macha was because he was an American League manager. And he managed the Brewers like an American League team.

So what does this all have to do with Ron Roenicke? He is known as being very player friendly and has good relationships with the men on his teams (like Torii Hunter, pictured) which sounds an awful lot like the negatives associated with Ned Yost. He also has had no previous Major League managerial experience, which was the big knock against Dale Sveum. And although in the minors he managed in the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants systems where they play by NL rules, all of his experience in the majors has been as a member of the Angels. An American League manager, which was the big knock on Ken Macha. So if he possesses characteristics of the 3 previous Brewers managers that did not succeed, why the hell would the Brewers feel that he would be a good fit to manger here? I'll tell you why (in my own opinion of course.)

1. All of the other available managers were the wrong choice.

Bobby Valentine currently has a cushy job at ESPN as an analyst, and it would take a pretty penny to pry him away from that gig. Word on the street is that he was seeking Joe Girardi type money, who just signed a 3 year extension with the New York Yankees for $3 million dollars a year! That's a hell of a lot of money to pay a coach if you are the Brewers, and let's not even act like Valentine was that good of a coach anyway. His teams hovered right around .500 with the exception of 2 years with the New York Mets, which he led to the NL Pennant in 2000. And he hasn't managed since 2002. If he is that good of a manager, then tell me what he hasn't managed a team in 8 years? He may be a "sexy" name, but he was not the right fit for this market. Bob Melvin. Another manager with prior success that hasn't managed since then. He managed the Arizona Diamondbacks from 2005-2009 and was named manager of the year in 2007 when he led his team to a 90-72 record. That year the D'Backs won the NL West and lost to the Colorado Rockies, who were arguably the hottest team of all time that year (remember how the Rockies won 21 of the last 22 games to make the playoffs?) Melvin was fired in 2009 after the D'Backs got off to a slow start. And he was also reportedly one of the candidates for Brewers manager the year that they hired Yost. I thought he was the favotire for the job because GM Doug Melvin liked him then, and obviously still liked him enough to consider him for the job now. I would have been ok with B Melvin, but I still wouldn't have wanted him. Joey Cora. I'll be honest with you and say I don't know much about him except for the fact that he has been the bench coach under Ozzie Guillen for the Chicago White Sox since 2003. He was the youngest of the group at just 45 years of age and is looked at as one of the up and coming new managers. His named popped up in nearly every managerial search in the MLB lately, and he will no doubt be a good manager some day. I just don't personally care for Guillen so I can't speak highly of anyone working under him. I know that's unfair, but it's my opinion. Write your own blog and rub it in my face.

2. The Brewers are in a semi-rebuilding mode.

This, in my opinion, is the biggest reason they hired Roenicke. Face it, pitching and defense wins and we don't have a lot of pitching. We struck out with a couple of pitching selections in the draft and some of them had their path to the majors delayed either because of injury (Mark Rogers) or personal reasons (Jeremy Jeffress). If even one of those guys were in the rotation and Manny Parra panned out, you'd be looking at a very good rotation with Gallardo, Parra, Wolf, Rogers and Bush/Narveson. With the offense that we have had the last few years, that would have been good enough to succeed in 2009/2010. But that didn't happen, and our pitching prospects are down in single A. And the Brewers are going to trade Prince Fielder. It is going to happen. Whether it is during the Winter or before the July 31st deadline, he will be dealt for pitching prospects. So we are looking at possibly 2-3 seasons before those home grown pitchers mature and make it up here. Hopefully they do it like the Packers and rebuild right before our eyes and still remain competitive, just like they did when they passed the torch from Favre to Rodgers. With a good group of players like Braun, Hart, Lucroy, Escobar, Cain and McGehee, we have the talent to stay competitive while also rebuilding. That is why hiring Roenicke makes sense. He'll be given a little bit of much needed leeway as he gets accustomed to managing while waiting for our pitching prospects to reach the majors. With names like Valentine or Melvin, people will be expecting us to win now, and that simply can not happen until the pitching arrives. The fans may not like the hiring of an unproven manager, but that is exactly the way to go if the Brewers are indeed rebuilding the team and playing for the future. I just hope that the fans go easy on Roenicke and give him a chance before writing him off. It may be a year or two before we understand his coaching philosophy. At this point I'm willing to try anything.

3. Roenicke sounds like the right man for the job.

No former co-worker or employee is going to say bad things about that person unless they have some personal issues with them or do it out of spite. So far there has nothing but glowing praises for Roenicke by players like Torii Hunter, his former boss Mike Scioscia, former Angels bench coach and current Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Madden, former Angels pitching coach and current San Diego Padres manager Bud Black, and even from Brewers broadcaster Brian Anderson, who was the play by play man for the AAA San Antonio Missions in 1997 when Roenicke managed the team. Everything that I have heard says that he is a real stand up guy who is very good at communicating with the players on his team. This may change once he is the manager, because it seems like it is easier for the bench coach to play good cop to the manager's bad cop. The players will often go to a secondary manager on the team because the head manager is often the disciplinarian who makes all of the decisions. You don't want to tell the manager that you are mentally struggling or your right hamstring is a little tight because the manager may take you out of the lineup for a day or two to rest up. And as we've seen before, a starter can lose their job so easily by being out of the lineup and replaced by a younger player. Think of Casey McGehee replacing Bill Hall or Lorenzo Cain replacing Carlos Gomez. But I digress...

The other knock on Roenicke is that he is from the American League (like Ken Macha) and that he will play AL style baseball with a NL team. Not so fast. Yes, the Angels are in the AL, but they do play more aggressive baseball by stealing bases, setting up the hit and run, getting productive outs by sacrificing runners over and generally manufacturing runs. He's going to have his hands full teaching a bunch of free swinging home run hitters to play small ball, but we arguably have one of the fastest teams that we have ever had in franchise history. There's no doubt in my mind that Braun, Hart, Weeks, Escobar, Cain and Gomez each should easily steal more than 10 bases with the majority approaching if not going over the 20 base mark. If he allows his players to be more aggressive on the bases, we won't have to sit back and rely on the long ball to bail us out. And we saw how much our feast or famine offense hasn't worked in the past, so it's time to take a new approach. And what better than a new way of playing baseball with a new philosophy from a new manager to do it.

With all that having been said, I can come up with more reasons why Roenicke is a good hire... but I'm not going to. And least not right now. I've written far too much pertaining to a man that I have never seen manage a game for our team and that I know little to nothing about. Why is why I'm asking you to give this guy a chance before you give up on him and the Brewers. As you can see with the Milwaukee Bucks this year, it takes time for a new philosophy (a defense first mentality) and cohesiveness and teamwork (with new players) to take effect. These kind of things don't happen overnight and it may be until mid-season until we are operating at full speed. Same thing goes for the Brewers. First off Roenicke has to come in and lay down his ideas and managerial style. Then it is up to the players to buy into his style and put it it action. Most people wrote off Rick Petersen after the first few months of the season because our pitching didn't improve, but although it was a small sample size, our pitching staff had the 3rd best ERA in the major leagues in the month of September. This may be just a fluke, but if the players believed and trusted in his approach to pitching and got better as a result of it, aren't you glad that we still have him around? The baseball season is very long, and all that you have to do is stick around .500 for the majority of the season before making a push in the final half. Hopefully we can do that while both the players and Roenicke learn on the job and work together as one.

So it might be a couple of months into the season or even a full year before we can start to examine if Roenicke was a good hire and is a good fit for the team, but all I'm asking is that you give him a chance. If you believe as I do that the Brewers are kind of in a mini rebuilding mode, then you can't expect them to be a playoff team on Opening Day 2011. I appreciate the fact that you have high expectations and that you want your team to win because believe me, there is not too much more that I want in my life than to see the Brewers win the World Series, but you also need to stay ground and be realistic. It's not too hard to balance the two out. I think that is what being a true fan of the team is - you believe that every year your team has a shot and you root for them to win until they are mathematically eliminated but at the same time you are knowledgeable to understand their current situation. With the new focus in the minor leagues of drafting and developing our own pitching (which is something that should have been done years ago) and making adjustments at the major league level, I believe that the team is back on the right track after straying from the course during the "Asleep at the Wheel" years with Grandpa Ken Macha. All that we as Brewers fans did to do is be patient and believe. Why not be optimistic
and hope for the best? What do you have to lose? If the Brewers really are your team, don't you want to see them succeed? I know that you do, so give Ron Roenicke a chance to turn this ball club around. Now all of this once again is in my own opinion, but I believe that he is the right man for the job and we will return to the playoffs within the next 3 years. Because that is what I want. And once again I'm all in on the Brewers. I wouldn't have it any other way.

- pookon -

www.pookon.com
email: pookondotcom@gmail.com

2010 Milwaukee Brewers Season Review - Overall

I'm guessing that if you are here right now that you've been reading my blog for quite some time. If not, then welcome to Pookon's Ill Blog. I used to write in here a whole lot, but thanks to Twitter (which you can read about my latest exploits on the right of this page) I usually talk about ill shit in 140 characters or less. But sometimes I have some shit to say that will take up a hell of a lot more space than that. One such idea was to do a blog series titled "25 Brewers in 25 Days." Basically I profiled each player who would be on the 25 man roster on Opening Day. I threw out some thoughts, personal stories and memories about that player and also a prediction of their 2010 stat line. I originally starting writing this at the All Star Break, which is about the halfway point of the season when you have a good enough sample size to properly evaluate the season. The trading deadline is July 31st and teams must decide whether or not they are sellers or buyers, which tells you about the direction of the team in that current year and in the future. And then I closed out my post back in July with this little rant. I really meant to do this blog entry during the All Star break but I just didn't feel like it. I know that isn't a good excuse but between settling into my new place, work, family events and the heat, I was just too tired to sit down and crank this sucker out. I know it doesn't sound like a lot, but it does take a fair amount of work to get these blog entries written especially when they are about the Brewers. I put a lot of time and emotion into the Brewers, and so far this year my summer has been affected by their poor play. The Brewers have been under .500 for the majority of the season and have suffered a few bad losing streaks including a 9 game one back in May that prompted me to start a Hunger Strike until they won a game. You can read all about that in the post below. But I'm not here to linger on that, I'm mostly here to take a look at my preseason predictions and see how accurate I was.

I'll start out addressing some bold predictions that I made for the team as a whole back on March 10 when I wrote the first article in the 25 Brewers in 25 Days segment. These are the 5 predictions that I made:

1. The Brewers will finish in 2nd place (behind the St. Louis Cardinals) in the NL Central with a 88-74 record and win the NL Wild Card, returning to the playoffs once again.
2. The Cubs will finish 3rd, Reds 4th, Astros 5th and Pirates 6th.
   
3. The Brewers will once again draw over 3 million fans.
4. Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun, Yovani Gallardo and Rickie Weeks will make the NL All-Star Team.
5. Alcides Escobar wins NL Rookie of the Year

I'll admit that I was a little high on the Brewers in Spring Training. In 2009 they finished at 80-82 despite having the worst pitching staff in all of baseball. With the additions of Randy Wolf and Doug Davis I thought they would definitely improve upon that. With the exception of JJ Hardy, the offense was returning intact as one of the top 5 in the National League. I figured that all the pitching staff had to do was be a little bit better than last year and we would improve by 5-8 games. I'll try not to get too in depth as an attempt to keep this short and sweet, but if you have been following my blog and the 2010 Brewers, you will see that I am more wrong than I am right.

1+2. The Brewers finished in 3rd place in the NL Central at 77-85. Cincinnati won the NL Central at 91-71, St. Louis was in 2nd at 86-76 while Houston made a late surge to finish a game behind the Brewers at 76-86. Chicago tried to tank their season but ended up in 5th place a game behind Houston at 75-87. They tried to match Pittsburgh's record of 57-105 (with an uncalled for 17-64 on the road) as one of 2 teams (with the other being the Seattle Mariners) with 100 losses, but even the Cubs couldn't screw up that bad. I guess that 3rd place sounds better than 5th or 6th, but after finishing with records of 90-72 in 2008 and 80-82 in 2009, 77-85 is another step backwards. Despite not (arguably) having the proper talent to succeed, this 2 year slide ended up costing Manager Ken Macha his job, something that I will address when I doing my year end review of the Management.

3. The Brewers drew over 2.7 million fans (2,776,531 to be exact). Thanks in large part to being out of the pennant race early in the season and finishing with a home record 40-41 , the Brewers drew under 3 million fans. It could have been worse had they not rebounded from a terrible start to the season where they were 5-15 in late May, which at the time was worst in the Major Leagues. Their road record was 37-44, which isn't terrible but looks worse when they were under .500 at home. I know that 2.7 million fans is nothing to scoff at, as it still placed us just out of the top 10 at #11 out of 30, outdrawing larger markets such as the New York Mets, Chicago White Sox and the Atlanta Braves. All of which finished with a better record and one of which (Atlanta) made it to the Playoffs. Even though Miller Park resembles more of a house party than a sporting venue on some weekends, we do have some of the best fans in baseball, even if the majority of the fanbase isn't very knowledgeable and thinks we should sign Prince Fielder to a long term contract. I'll get into that more later, but thanks to their fan's wallets, the Brewers can afford to have a payroll around $85.3 million, something that was unheard of back in the early 2000's when the payroll hovered around the $40 million mark.

4. Only 3 Brewers players made the All Star team - Ryan Braun, Corey Hart and Yovani Gallardo. Prince Fielder had a very disappointing 1st half and Rickie Weeks got hot too late. to be noticed. But he did end up having a monster season and finally stayed healthy. Corey Hart made it by gaining the respect and the votes of his fellow players around the league. After a terrible last half of 2008 and all of 2009 (which was well documented on this blog) Hart made a great comeback in 2010 and deserved to be there. Sadly Gallardo would land on the DL with an oblique strain the week before the All Star Game and would be ineligible to pitch in the Midsummer Classic. One could have made an argument that Casey McGehee should have made the team as well, but other 3rd basemen such as David Wright, Placido Palanco and Scott Rolen were in larger markets and garnered more exposure. And even though Braun and Hart combined to go 0-4 with 3 strikeouts, it was the 1st time since 1983 (Robin Yount and Ted Simmons) that the Brewers had 2 positional players start an All Star game. In a season filled with disappointments, we had to linger on any shred of positivity.

5. Alcides Escobar did not win NL Rookie of the Year. I've been really high on Alcides Escobar for a long time. A lot of people got all uppity when JJ Hardy was traded, but it was done mainly to permanently open up the door at shortstop for Escobar. He was still pretty young (23) on Opening Day but he finished 2009 on a strong note (.304 avg, 1 HR, 11 RBIs in 125 at bats) that made it look like he would have a breakout 2010 season. I'll get into more details when I look back on his season as part of the review on the infield, but the NL Rookie of the year award will most likely go to Atlanta's Jason Heywood or San Francisco's Buster Posey. As you will see in a little bit, I was maybe too high on Escobar. But it also didn't help that Manager Ken Macha refused to "throw him into the wolves" by batting him in the 8th spot in the lineup for the majority of the year. I don't feel like he was given a fair shot to succeed in 2010.

I've just barely scratched the surface of what I have to say about the 2010 Milwaukee Brewers. Which is why there will be a lot more Brewers talk in the upcoming weeks. Since the Packers are 1 more injury away from calling players up from area High Schools, it's pretty safe to say that the season is over. I'm super high on the Milwaukee Bucks (Fear the Deer!) but their season will be in its infancy by the time you read this. So that means there is plenty of want and need to talk about the Brewers, especially since they are in arguable their most crucial offseason in recent history. From things like getting a new manager, to the will they/won't they trade Prince Fielder talks, to how to improving a pitching staff that once again finished at the bottom of the league in all statistical categories, there will be something to talk about. Whatever happens, you know I'm counting down the days (which stands at 115 as I am writing this) until Pitchers and Catchers report to Spring Training, which for me is the unofficial start of the 2011 season. I'll see you in a few days with the 2010 season review of the Milwaukee Brewers infielders.

- pookon -

www.pookon.com
email: pookondotcom@gmail.com

I Wanna Be...the Summer 2006 edition (and January 2010 edition and October 2010 edition)

Every now and then I come back to my list of things that I want to be. It's a "bucket list" of sorts, except for that the majority of these things are impossible to achieve. Take for instance where I say I want to be one of the rings that circle the planet Saturn. That is physically impossible. The only way that I could achieve that is if I found a Genie in a lamp and wasted one of my 3 wishes on that. Not only would that be unbelievably stupid, but I also would not be able to make any more wishes once I wished for that. And even if I did that as my 3rd wish I would no longer be alive because I would just exist as ice, rocks and dust particles in outer space. But there are some things that I could do if I was in the right place at the right time (like being the last person to ever close Wolski's) or if I put a little effort into my life (like being the man of some woman's dreams.) It's a ridiculous list. I know. But so is everything else I put on here. I don't call it Pookon's Ill Blog for nothing.

Basically when I get drunk my mind goes random and I add a couple more things to this list. As you can see, this particular list started way back in August of 2006. Then I picked it up again in January of 2010 when I was browsing through some old saved material on here. And then I got drunk on a Tuesday night. I didn't intend to do that, but I was already having a rough week and I found out that yet another person I know was married and I am still single. And getting older and less attractive by the minute. Normally that kind of information doesn't throw me off the deep end, but like I said, I was already having a terrible week and I just kind of hit a breaking point. My way of working out problems and frustration is to have a couple of drinks and start writing. That may not be the best way to handle it, but at least it brings about some pretty random works of literature. So without further ado, I proudly present the latest edition of the I Wanna Be... list.

(from the archives - August 27, 2006)

Scatergories World Champion, makeup artist on the next George A. Romero's ______ of the Dead movie, a Canadian Mountie, Ludo in the Broadway production of Labyrinth, the one who is with stupid, born in the U.S.A., on the cover of the Rolling Stone, able to shop at trendy stores like the Gap, Abercrombie + Fitch and Aeropostale, able to break through child-locked devices, a glass is half-full kind of guy, a firefighter so that I could slide down that wicked pole, not mathematically eliminated, Michael Jackson's backup dancer, the Cowardly Lion, Facebooked by every student at UWM, Mr. Tumnus in the fantasy land of Narnia

(from the current archives - Saturday January 9, 2010)

riding shotgun in Uncle Greg's Maserati, the last person to ever close Wolski's, Milwaukee's Best Ice, backup harmonica player to Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan or Neil Young just in case they don't feel like doing it on one of their songs, Buddy Christ's bestest buddy, an expert at demolitions and dynamite so that companies will pay me to blow shit up, a World Series of Beer Pong Champion, a paid intern at BrodAmerica Enterprises, able to laugh at myself after I finish a bottle of Jack Daniels then go out to shovel snow and lose my keys, a contributor on VH1's Pop Up Video, the answer to the million dollar question on the Regis Philbin hosted version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, one of the official sponsors of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd

(from the even more current archives - Tuesday October 12, 2010)

a homeless man with a funny sign, 30 and flirty, cast as the Thing in the upcoming and unnecessary remake of The Fantastic Four, the spokesman for San Juan premium rum, the missing link, taken seriously for once, married with children (I'd even take being Al Bundy at this point in my life), one of the rings circling the planet Saturn, riding in the front seat because when you're riding in the back seat you're just cargo, all that I can be, in an A Capella choir that only sings current Top 40 hits like "Teenage Dream" by Katy Perry, a mad scientist like Greg Proops, sober on a Tuesday, happy about my life and not wallow in the depression that is my failures, able to do long division on paper, the saxophone player who plays a solo in every 80's song, smarter than the average mouse like Rez, the man of some woman's dreams, the backup vocals in my own song like the Choir of Timmys, the king of the world House in the remake of Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol, potty trained, the leader of the Revolution, Tom Barrett so I can approve this message, able to handle my problems without alcohol, able to go to infinity and beyond, more punctual so that I can come up with another I Wanna Be... list every 4 weeks instead of every 4 years...

- pookon -

www.pookon.com
email: pookondotcom@gmail.com

Pookcast Episode lucky #13 (actually 11) - Tommy's 21st Birthday

People only turn 21 once in their lives. Unless you are able to somehow buck the aging trend or get caught in some bizarre time loop like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. I happen to have found another way to keep turning 21. Normally I wouldn't share a secret this cherry, but this one is rather obvious - just party like you are turning 21. And the easiest way to do it is hang out with kids on their 21st birthday and get as drunk if not drunker than they get. Normally this is sad and pathetic, but my 21st birthday really sucked. So I vowed to make all of the remaining 21st birthdays that I attend better than my own. On July 20 (which was a Tuesday) I drove out to Madison to take my cousin Tommy out for his 21st. I took lots of pictures on my cell phone that have sadly been lost due to faulty technology, but after a night out at the bar, Tommy and I recorded an episode of the Pookcast. Keep in mind that it is about 3am and I had been drinking since around 630pm. But for me that's just like every other day. But this day was special because Tommy was here to bull shit with me. And it turned out to be a great ending to a pretty fantastic night.

Part 1



Part 2




I apologize for taking like 3 months to get this on here, but I just never got around to it. I know that I promised to do the Pookcast on at least a monthly basis, but as you can see I don't really get around to updating the blog too much during the summer months. I know it's a poor excuse, but I really need to be in the right mood and mindset to add content here. But now that episode lucky #13 (really #11) is up, I am currently looking for subject matter and people to join me in the next episode of the Pookcast. You know how to reach me. Be a part of history and comic gold. Take care of yourselves.

- pookon -

www.pookon.com
email: pookondotcom@gmail.com

Brewers Hunger Strike : Day 2

One more loss! One more loss which could've been a win! And you call yourselves professionals. I have never, ever seen a worse group of twenty-five players! You don't think as a team, you don't play as a team, you don't even LOSE as a team! You've all got your heads so far up your butts, you can't even see the light of day! One more loss and I... I'll do this...[throws a chair at a rack of bats] to each and everyone of you! There's this thing called talent... they don't have any of it!! That is courtesy of the great George Knox (played by Danny Glover in the movie Angels in the Outfield) who couldn't have said it any better. In case you haven't been following, the Brewers just lost their 9th straight game and I am starting Day 2 of my Hunger Strike. After the 2nd loss against the Cincinnati Reds (which resulted in a 2 game sweep) I vowed to stop eating until the Brewers win another game.

I was feeling pretty good about tonight. Randy Wolf was 8-1 with a 3.07 ERA in his career against the Pittsburgh Pirates. And let's not forget that the Brewers outscored the Pirates 36-1 in a 3 game sweep of the Pirates at PNC Park on April 20-22. After going 0-6 at Miller Park against the Braves and the Phillies and 0-2 against the Reds at Great American Ballpark, you would think that PNC Park would be a safe haven considering their success there this season. But when the Pirates scored 2 runs in the 2nd inning I knew that this game was over. That is because the Brewers were 3-21 (now 3-22) when the opponent's score first. That means that the Brewers only have a 14% chance to win if they don't score first! That is fucking pathetic! I understand that playing from behind is tough and having the upper hand puts you in a position of power, but when a team gets ahead of you in the 2nd inning you still have 7 FUCKING INNINGS TO SCORE SOME GOD DAMN RUNS AND BE IN A POSITION TO WIN THE GAME!!! It's like the other team scores and they collapse and are like "I'm the bag. Let's phone this one in and try again tomorrow." Fuck that. This shit is absolute horseshit and I personally have never seen the Brewers play this poorly.

Our current record (as of May 19, 2010) is 15-25 for an embarrassing 10 games under .500. That includes the current 9 game losing streak. What the hell happened? Every single day they figure out a way to lose the game. One day it's the starting pitching. The next day it is the offense. Then the bullpen blows a lead. Then the offense struggles. And then the defense messes up a routine grounder and extends an inning. Something is wrong with this team. And unless something happens soon were in for a pretty long summer here in Brew City. But maybe, just maybe things have to get worse before they get better.

How much worse can things get than 10 games under .500? If they keep losing at this pace manger Ken Macha will almost certainly be fired. While not all of this is necessarily his fault, someone does have to die for the sins committed by this team. And the manager almost always takes one for the team. I have nothing against Ken Macha but it is in my opinion (and apparently I'm not alone in this thinking) that he is not the right manager for this team. I don't think that he is bad but his laid back style is not conducive this this fiery team. Dale Sveum seems to be the right man for the job and the sooner that Macha gets fired the sooner that Sveum can take over. After all, Sveum managed the team that won the NL Wild Card in 2008 and made the 1st playoff appearance since 1982. Why Melvin didn't give him the job and hired Macha instead is beyond me. I guess I'm just not as smart as Doug Melvin is. But I believe that the players respond better to Svuem that they do to Macha and something needs to be done to light a spark underneath this team to turn them around. An old man who is sleeping during the game so that he can wake up at the crack of dawn to get his senior discount on his Moons Over My-Hami at Denny's tomorrow morning fails to connect with the youthful players on the roster. It's science.

The other reason that things need to get worse before they get better is so that the Brewers can fall so far out of contention this year that they are forced to trade Prince Fielder. This is a good thing. We need pitching. Our biggest bargaining chip is pound for pound the biggest player on our team. The Prince. I don't want to hear that Melvin is even considering signing Fielder to a long term contract worth in excess of $20 million per year. That would absolutely cripple the franchise much like Melvin did when he was GM of the Texas Rangers and he signed Alex Rodriguez to that absurd deal. Only recently (some would argue last or maybe even this year) have the Rangers recovered from that payroll debacle. If 2.5 million fans pass through the turnstiles at Miller Park every year, the Brewers payroll should hover around the $80 million mark. So if you pay Prince you are telling me that you are going to commit 20% of your total money to 1 player? Are you out of your fucking minds? That is a recipe for disaster! Sure Prince is a great player, but the game starts and ends with pitching. Prince can only do so much, but he can't throw a no hitter or keep the other team off of the scoreboard. So Prince needs to be traded for Major League ready pitching or some high level pitching prospects. And if the trend continues Prince is going to be traded sooner than later, which would be a wonderful thing.

So I'm on to Day 2 of my Hunger Strike. I emailed the Sportsradio 1250's Usinger's Brewers Post Game show with this little nugget, "Sparky maybe you should start the sleep strike now. I personally started a Hunger Strike after yesterday's loss and I will not eat until the Brewers win another game. 30 hours and counting. From the looks of it I am going to go hungry for a while. I'm doing all that I can to get the Brewers going because there is no way the team is this bad. Let's go Brewers - end my Hunger Strike. - Iceman on the Eastside." Sparky's response was "He's not eating? The Brewers are going to kill someone. They may kill him. A hunger strike? I don't advise that. That's not a good idea." Then Tim Allen chimed in with "I'm going to get a taco on the way home." Let it be known that Sparky has vowed to start a sleep strike if the Brewers lose both games in Pittsburgh. I'm not willing to go that far because I will go batshit crazy if I don't sleep for a few days, but I have no problem going a few days without eating because I am fat. I have reserves. I can handle not eating for a couple of days, but the way that the Brewers are playing it might be more than a couple of days. If anything Sparky's not sleeping is more detrimental to his health than my not eating. But what the hell do I know?

Tomorrow the Brewers complete this brief 2 game series against the Pirates before heading up to Minneapolis for a weekend series. Chris Narveson has been pretty good as a staring pitcher in late 2009, Spring Training of this year and in the 4 starts he has made in 2010. But his 5th start will have him faced with a daunting task - keep the Brewers in the game long enough to avoid their 10th straight loss. Even though being a Major League baseball player is right up there in my top 3 wishes, I would not want to be in Narveson's shoes tomorrow night. But the best thing about baseball is that there is almost always tomorrow because they play 162 games. You know the Brewers can win tomorrow. It could happen!

- pookon -

www.pookon.com
email: pookondotcom@gmail.com

Brewers Hunger Strike

This shit has got to end. I'm not going to join the "Done Club" or stop watching the Brewers. I would never do that. But something is wrong with the Milwaukee Brewers. They have now lost 8 games in a row and were set to break out of that funk when Trevor Hoffman blew his 5th save of the season and drop the Brewers to an all time low. Sure, it's been worse. I remember working at Miller Park in 2003 when the Brewers lost 106 games and we were lucky to draw 15,000 fans a game. I was in my 2nd season of work there and I was often sent home early because I was low on the seniority. Of course I always stuck around to watch the end of the game, but it was really difficult to do that. I hope with all of my heart that it doesn't revert back to those days. I have decided to go on another Hunger Strike to try and end the Brewers losing streak. This will be my 3rd time starting a Hunger Strike but it will be the 1st time that I am doing it for a specific reason. I vow not to eat until the Brewers win a game. If they happen to win tomorrow (Wednesday May 19) against the Pittsburgh Pirates, then I will amend my Hunger Strike to last until the Brewers win a series. Desperate times call for desperate measures and these are truly desperate times as far as I'm concerned. I haven't seen the Brewers play this bad in the past 7 years, and unlike Ken Macha I didn't live through Prohibition, the Stock Market Crash, the Great Depression, World War II and all of the other troubling times in US History over the past 80 years. So I don't know how to deal with adversary.

So I have nothing left to do but go on a Hunger Strike to do my part in reversing the voodoo curse that has been placed on the Brewers in 2010. On paper they are not this bad. I profiled all of the players on the 2010 Opening Day roster on this blog and told you about my opinion on each of the players. While there are some players that I don't necessarily care for (Gregg Zaun, Jody Gerut, Doug Davis and Jeff Suppan to name a few) there is no way that the Brewers should be 15-24 as of May 18th. The most ridiculous stat is that the Brewers are currently 4-14 at home in Miller Park. In all of the years of bad Brewers teams that I have watched over the years, the one consistent thing was that the Brewers were a good home team. I know you hate stats but here are the home/road splits over the last few years.

2005: 46-35 home, 35-46 road.
2006: 48-33 home, 27-54 road.
2007: 51-30 home, 32-49 road.
2008: 49-32 home, 41-40 road.
2009: 40-41 home, 40-41 road.
2010: 4-14 home, 11-10 road.

As you can see, the Brewers have historically played better underneath the roof at Miller Park. For a team that owes it's payroll to 3 million + fans walking through the turnstiles at home, that's not a really good way to keep the home crowd happy.

We just got swept AT HOME by the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies on the last homestand. That shit was fucking pathetic. I can no longer sugar coat it. The Atlanta Braves came to Milwaukee with a 5-and-fucking-14 road record and they won ALL 3 GOD DAMN GAMES HERE. That is inexcusable. I can understand the Phillies beating us because they are the best team in the National League. But that still doesn't mean that they should sweep us. We should at least be able to steal a game from them. But for the Milwaukee Brewers in 2010, every day they find another way to lose.

On most days it is the starting pitching. Adding Randy Wolf and Doug Davis was supposed to stabilize the rotation and add "innings eaters" to the starting 5. But the common theme this year is that the Brewers starters reach the 100 pitch count by the 5th inning and end up giving up a shit ton of runs in the 6th inning because they are all tired out. Then the bullpen has to cover the last 3 innings of the game and all hell breaks loose. One day Carlos Villanueva gives up a boatload of runs. Then the next day Todd Coffey gives up 5 earned runs. Then the next day after that, Trevor Hoffman blows another save. But before that, the Brewers pitching staff has a good day but the offense decides to score only 2 runs. Then Prince Fielder goes 0-4 at the plate and strands a couple of runners in scoring position. I don't need to go on, because you get the point that every single fucking game the Brewers find another way to lose. It's frustrating. If you can't already tell I'm on the edge and just about to lose it. Something has to change and it needs to happen really soon because the excuse of "well, it's still early in the season" only works for a few more days. At 39 game into the season, we're just about 1/4th of the way into the year (40.5 would be the actual mark). The 25% point is a pretty indication of how the season is going to play out because once players have over 100 at bats, you get a pretty good indication of where they are going to end up. And it also shows you how the team as a whole is doing.

Maybe my expectations were too high. After 2008 when the Brewers reached the playoffs for the first time in 26 years they followed that up with an 80-82 record with the worst pitching staff in all of baseball in 2009. I though that Randy Wolf and Doug Davis could bring the staff back to average (with the maturation of Yovani Gallardo and Manny Parra) and the offense would win more games than they would lose. Technically it is still early (but when does that phrase no longer apply?) but it is almost June. I'm sick and tired of this shit! It's no fair that my teams (Brewers, Packers and Bucks) don't get to win Championships. But that is a different topic for a different day. It's summer, so for now I will concentrate on the Brewers.

Whew. Long story short I am going on a Hunger Strike until the Brewers win a game. If they happen to beat Pittsburgh in game 1 of the 2 game series (which is very likely) then I will be on my Hunger Strike until the Brewers win a series. I don't know if my actions will cause the Brewers to right their wrongs and start winning again, but it certainly won't hurt. Hell, some people fast for 40 days and 40 nights in preparation for the coming of Christ and some fucker named Gandhi took long fasts as a means of both self-purification and social protest. So if that shit worked for Gandhi it can work for me. Throughout my life I have believed that I am an instrument of God, and right now God wants me to go on a Hunger Strike to help the Brewers win. The Lord does work in mysterious ways. If any of you want to join me in this quest feel free to abstain from eating until the Brewers win a game or the series. When they get on a roll (as all good teams do) we will rejoice in the fact that it was our actions that caused the Brewers 2010 season to take the massive turnaround that was necessary to salvage the season.

I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get the Brewers back on the winning path. Lord knows that I'm dedicated to this team and will go to extremes to get that record back above .500. Will it be enough? If I go on a Hunger Strike will it really help the team win? Are they really just that bad? Will Lassie ever alert the town Sheriff that Timmy is stuck in the well? All these answers and more are coming soon on the next edition of Pookon's Ill Blog. Hopefully by then I'll be eating because the Brewers have figured out how to starting winning again.

- pookon -

www.pookon.com
email: pookondotcom@gmail.com

I'm pushing 30...

But for the time being I'm still 29. Fuck. That's all I really have to say for now. But I'm old and getting older but I still act like I'm 5 years old. So I guess it's not all bad though because I'm living the dream. I'm just not living my dream because nobody wants to marry a 29 year old ugly dude who acts like a 5 year old. So the women are staying far away from me until I get my act together. Maybe year 29 is the one where this 1,000 piece puzzle finally comes together. Probably not because I'm too busy watching Brewers games and drinking by myself in a darkened room. Oh well. Perhaps I'll accomplish all those things other people do when I'm 30. 30 is the new 20 after all, right? Whatever it may be, I control my own destiny and it's time to stop sitting on my ass thinking about what I can do and just go out into the world and start doing it. If I ever listen to my own advice, 29 will be the best year of my life. If I continue to ignore myself, then 29 will be just like every other year. It's in my hands. Like Allstate motherfucker!

- pookon -

www.pookon.com
email: pookondotcom@gmail.com

Pookcast Episode 10: The Sports Edition with Brian

I had originally intended to a sports episode of the Pookcast with my brother James when I went to visit him in South Carolina back in November of 2009. He declined to participate, saying that he wasn't comfortable with appearing on the internet for everyone to see. As you know from visiting pookon.com, pookon's ill blog and my twitter site, I live my life in the public eye and don't give a shit about what people think about me. I had a laundry list of questions that I wanted to ask him. Questions like, "How hard is it to follow your favorite teams (Brewers, Packers, Bucks) when you are living in a different state?" "Is it difficult to start following a new team (in South Carolina all they care about is the University of South Carolina Gamecocks) and getting accustomed to reading about them in the newspaper and hearing about them on the radio?" I've lived in Milwaukee for my whole life except for the 2 years that I spent in college at UW-Oshkosh. And even when I was there all of the sports coverage was about the Packers and Brewers, so it was just like being in Milwaukee. So I really wanted to get his opinion on all of this, but he wouldn't sit down and talk with me. So I turned to Plan B - my cousin Brian. No one is as opinionated as he is and more passionate about Wisconsin sports. Brian was more than willing to sit down with me and talk sports. We covered a lot in this short 20 minute time period, and I know that we could have gone on for hours but there's no way you would have sat and watched that. I'm surprised if you actually watch this shit. But if you make to the end you will get an extra special treat that I'm sure you weren't expecting and that you definitely will be fortunate to receive. You're welcome. Enjoy Episode #10 of the Pookcast, and stay tuned to the Pookon Empire for more exciting content in the future.

Part 1





Part 2




- pookon -

www.pookon.com
email: pookondotcom@gmail.com

Milwaukee Brewers 2010 Season : First Impressions

The Brewers lost to the Cubs this afternoon, but I'm not yet ready to get into that one. I hate the Cubs and the city of Chicago so much that I'll need a couple of days to burn off the steam caused by this Brewers loss. But I do want to rant a little bit about the first week of the season and a couple of the first impressions I got from watching the Brewers at Miller Park. Let it be known that these are based on small sample sizes and therefor may not be true in another week or month's time. But as of today, Monday April 12, this is how I feel.

I'll start out with a few positives.

- Casey McGehee. I wondered myself in his "25 in 25" article if he would be as good as he was last year or if he would suffer a sophomore slump. Manager Ken Macha started out the season with McGehee batting in the 6th spot but has since moved him back to the #5 spot where he belongs. He has responded with batting .348 with 2 HRs and 4 RBIs, including a huge walk-off homerun on Sunday night against the St. Louis Cardinals. I know it's only 6 games, but he's looking really good. His Spring Training numbers were bad (.197 avg, 1 HR, 7 RBIs in 24 games) but from what I saw and heard, he was hitting the ball really well just always right at someone. It sounded like he hit into some bad luck outs and couldn't catch a break. So now he's finding some holes in the defense and picking up where he left off last year. And looking good while doing it.

- Rickie Weeks. Picking up right where he left off last year before the wrist injury, Weeks has once again gotten off to a hot start, batting .368 with 2 HRs, 4 RBIs and 6 runs scored. As the fire starter in what has been a explosive top half of the Brewers lineup, Weeks is setting the table for the big boys behind him. And since he is showing off his power, there are no doubts in my mind about that surgically repaired wrist. I hope to the baseball gods that he keeps this up because I have been waiting for years to buy a Rickie Weeks All-Star Jersey.

A few neutrals in here.

- Corey Hart. I bet you've been waiting for me to talk some more shit about him, but I don't have anything to say at this point. That's because Hart hasn't had the opportunity to start on a regular basis and therefor doesn't have the consistent at bats to show me which Corey Hart we will be getting. Will it be 2008 All-Star Corey Hart? Or 2009 "What a Loser!" Corey Hart? He does have a homerun and a couple of RBIs, but Jim Edmonds has started in just as many games in right field (3) as Corey Hart has, so Hart hasn't been given the chance to prove anything as of yet. And believe it or not, I want Hart in the lineup every day so that I can know if I'm right about my prognosis on his 2010 season.

- 3-3 is not too damn bad. Considering that we were playing the Colorado Rockies (92-70 last year) and the St. Louis Cardinals (91-71 last year). Both teams went to the playoffs last year, and if not for 1 pitch, we would have started out the season 4-2 instead of 3-3. Both teams look to be just as good or better, so these 2 series kind of showed me how the Brewers potentially match up against them in 2010. We can hang with the big boys. but we got a lot of work to do if we want to be able to be better.

And now for some negatives.

- Gregg Zaun. I try to remind myself that it's only 6 games into the season, but Zaun has yet to get a hit and has bounced into several rally killing double plays. I thought that we got rid of Jason Kendall and Johnny Estrada. I let it known before that I wasn't a big fan of the Zaun signing and made fun of his age. And I'm nowhere near accepting of his play calling so far. George Kottaras hasn't really been any better, and his defensive shortcomings have already been exposed. I was also not a fan of him being on the 25 man roster, as I made it well known that I would rather have prospect Jonathon Lucroy as the backup catcher. This is one sore spot in the lineup that needs to improve. Big time.

- Manager Ken Macha. So far I have no problem with his in-game decisions. His lineup card really grinds my gears though. First off, Casey McGehee (as mentioned) should have been batting 5th since Opening Day. That has been fixed. Secondly, Corey Hart should play everyday. That looks like it is being fixed. But Macha is still in the red because he is batting rookie shortstop Alcides Escobar in the #8 spot, where he has a slim to no chance of succeeding. He is getting nothing to hit because he's in front of the pitcher, and Macha refuses to "throw him to the wolves" by allowing him to bat in the top half of the order. So not only are his offensive talents completely wasted, he's not even given a chance to develop them.

- Milwaukee Brewers fans. For the most part they suck. Hoffman gave up a two run homer to Stavinoha on Friday night's game, and although it was heartbreaking, Hoffman did not deserve to get booed as he walked off the field. Show some class Milwaukee. Hoffman is a Hall of Famer and the All-Time saves leader, and even the best players are going to hit some rough patched every now and then. Yeah it sucked that he did it so early in the season (and once again on Sunday night) but don't boo the man. We don't do that here. If we do, then we're no better than the Cubs fans that we loathe. Brewers fans (with the exception of a small minority) are not baseball fans, they are at Miller Park because the Brewers are winning and tailgaiting is a fun thing to do. Most everyone is wasted and doesn't know shit about the game. I'm sure that I'll catch a lot of crap for saying this, but I personally know that no one was there with me back in 2003 when the Brewers were losing 106 games. We got a lot of bandwagon jumpers here, and as much as I like to criticize I also realize that the Brewers payroll is above $80 million because over 3 million people come through the gates each year. But is it too much to ask the fans to have 1 less beer and learn 1 more thing about the game of baseball?

- Jeff Suppan. He hasn't even started a game yet but he's already affecting the team. When he is activated off of the DL on Thursday to start against the Cubs, someone else has to go. And chances are the person who gets sent to the minors or released altogether will not deserve it, but Suppan gets to start because he's making all that money. While there is no good solution to this problem, it just goes to show how difficult it is to manager this roster with Suppan being on it, whether or not he is active. In a few days (probably Wednesday night) I will be writing my long awaited "25 in 25" article on Jeff Suppan, just in time for his 1st start of the year.

Those are just a few of the many early observations I have made. I can go on and on (Fielder has yet to hit a homerun, Trevor Hoffman blew 2 saves, Doug Davis is way worse than he was the last time he was with the Brewers, Yovani Gallardo has been anything but ace-like, Carlos Gomez is fast, the Bratwurst has yet to win in the Sausage Race, and so on.) but I'll save some of those for another day. I know that I already write too much and none of you have the attention span to make it to the end of the article. If you feel like I do, then join me in taking a deep breath, counting backwards from three and reminding yourself that it is only 6 (now 7) games into the season. There are still 155 games to go. That's a whole lot. So relax. I will if you will.

- pookon -

www.pookon.com
email: pookondotcom@gmail.com

25 Brewers in 25 Days : Carlos Villanueva

Tomorrow is Opening Day. Now don't get me wrong I love baseball more than anyone else and I'm super excited for the season to begin, but at this very moment, at 11:26 PM the night before, I am more excited to be done with "25 Brewers in 25 Days." This thing has been downright brutal and I only slipped up once (when I was too drunk to write the Dave Bush article a few nights ago). I was going to do a recap of this series, and I may still do that, but for now I'll just say that I was right on 23 of the 25 men to make the Opening Day roster when I planned out this project back in early March. The only ones that I had missed were George Kottaras (my pick was Jonathon Lucroy because I'm so high on him) and Carlos Villanueva. Carlos would have been an automatic lock if not for the Brewers need to hold on to both Manny Parra and Chris Narveson or risk losing them. What threw a big wrench into the machine was that Carlos Villanueva had a minor league option remaining, and they could send him down to AAA Nashville and still hold on to him. So I held off on including him in this feature until it shook itself out. And then Jeff Suppan went on the DL with "cervical disc pain" in his neck. And just like that, Villanueva made the team. But for how long? That question will be answered once Suppan's DL stint is over and he is reactivated.

Carlos Villanueva came up to the Major Leagues as a starter, then flipped back and forth between the starting role and the bullpen. In his first 3 years with the team (2006-2008) he was fairly effective. Take a look at these stats so you can understand why Carlos Villanueva has been an important member of this pitching staff. 2006 - 3.69 ERA, 2-2 record, 6 starts and 53.2 total innings pitched. 2007 - 3.94 ERA, 8-5 record, 6 starts and 114.1 total innings pitched. 2008 - 4.07 ERA, 4-7 record, 9 starts and 108.1 innings pitched. Then 2009 hit and Carlos hit rock bottom - 5.34 ERA, 4-10 record, 6 starts and 96 total innings pitched. A quick glance through those stats and the first thing that stands out is that he got progressively worse as the seasons went on. But last year he did have a 4.84 ERA as a reliever, which is a little on the high side but still not that bad. It seems like the Brewers now see him as just a reliever, and if he knows his role and sticks with that, he might be able to have more success with it. Some guys (like I mentioned in the LaTroy Hawkins article) are just better at one role versus the other. If Villanueva makes it through the entire season as a reliever we just may have the stats to back that up.

But he may not make it through the entire season. I would go so far as to say that no team in the history of baseball has ever gone throw the entire season with the same 12 pitchers that were on the Opening Day roster. It has to be impossible. Between injury, trades and poor performance guys go on the DL, go to another team or go down to the minors. So given that he has an option remaining, and the fact that there are a couple of promising prospects down in the minors (Zach Braddock, John Axford and Josh Butler to name a few) who should see some playing time this year. And then a player has to go when Suppan returns. Because you know with his $12.5 million dollar salary he's going to get at least 10 starts to prove that he belongs in the starting rotation. If he's healthy that is. So it is up to Carlos to do whatever he can to stay in Milwaukee instead of Nashville. Because after the year he had in 2009, he's got a big ol' target on his back. But if he goes down to Nashville at least he can share an apartment with Mat Gamel. Because unless Casey McGehee totally falls apart ("I hope not") Gamel's going to be down there for the whole year. So it took an injury to shake out the pitching staff and we still don't have a body occupying that 5th spot in the starting rotation. That spot (when it is needed on April 15th or 16th) is still listed as TBA and could be filled by Suppan (assuming he only needed 15 days on the DL), Parra or Narveson. So there are still a ton of questions to be answered. But as of today, the 25 man roster is set for Opening Day.

So Carlos Villanueva made the cut... for now. But he will definitely have to pitch better than he did in 2009 to stay there. This is going to be another difficult one to predict, but I'll go ahead and give it the "old college try":

4.84 ERA, 4-6 record, 52 innings pitched all in relief and the first one to get sent down to the minors when a roster spot is needed. But he will also be the first one recalled back the Majors should someone get injured.

Well, that's it. 25 days, 25 articles, 25 men on the Opening Day Roster. It's been a very interesting journey but it's time for Opening Day and time for the games to start counting for real. I'll come on here every now and then and do some kind of Brewers write up because I know that this won't be the last time this season I'll have something to say. Just think, the minute that Corey Hart says or does something stupid I'll be on here to rant about it. And we all know that it is coming sooner rather than later. But I can't help feeling like I forgot something. Kind of like when you leave to go on vacation and you feel like you left the oven light on or you forgot your 8-year old son Home Alone when you went with the rest of the family to France. It's nagging in the back of my mind. What could it be?

BUT WAIT!! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THERE IS ONE MORE PLAYER WHO HAS $42 MILLION REASONS WHY HE DESERVES TO BE FEATURED IN "25 BREWERS IN 25 DAYS". AND THAT WOULD BE EVERYONE'S FAVORITE BREWERS PLAYER - THE ONE AND ONLY JEFF SUPPAN. It may take me a couple of days to write this one, because I do need a day or two to recharge my batteries. Hell, I just gave you 25 feature articles in 25 days. But I do thank you for following along with me, and I do promise you that the Suppan article will be a fantastic grande finale to close out this segment of Brewers coverage on Pookon's Ill Blog. Because everyone who has followed the Brewers over the last 3 years can agree with me that there are plenty of things to say about Jeff Suppan. And surprisingly enough, not all of them are bad. SAY WHAT!?! I know you're dying to find out what good I could possible say about "Soup", but that my friends is a topic that will be covered tomorrow (or in the next few days). Brewers, Brewers, Keep Turning Up the Heat!

- pookon -

www.pookon.com
email:pookondotcom@gmail.com

25 Brewers in 25 Days : Chris Narveson

Chris Narveson was the savoir of the Brewers starting rotation last year. Unfortunately for them it was too little too late. By the time he was given the opportunity to start on September 13th, the Brewers were 14 games behind the 1st place St. Louis Cardinals and well enough out of the Wild Card race (12 games back). The worst part about it was that he excelled in that role, posting a 3.38 ERA with a 1-0 record in 4 starts (overall he was 2-0 with a 3.83 ERA). How is that a bad thing? That’s because the other pitchers who filled in for the injured starters were absolutely terrible. Mike Burns was 3-4 with a 6.86 ERA, Seth McClung had a 12.27 ERA as a starter and Carlos Villanueva had a 6.52 ERA as a starter. I know that’s a lot of numbers that I just threw at you, but looking at the stats sometimes is a whole lot more effective than me just telling you to believe everything that I say. I’ve said it before that a whole lot of what I do on here is speculation and opinion, but I do actually make my claims after reviewing enough evidence to make non-baseball people mad. If you really wanted, I could be overly technical in my presentation, but I prefer to keep this thing conversational.

I’ve been criticized about my writing style before, but I love it because I write just like I talk. Only when I talk I usually swear more. I try to keep the profanity to a minimum, but then that eliminates most of my language. But maybe then the angels will come help us out. Then in the 9th inning I’ll put in Hemmerling for Mitchell, and a drunk wifebeater wearing fan will yell at me to go back to Cincinnati. But when an angel helps Hemmerling score a wacky in the infield homerun, they’ll want me to stay. But once again, I’m on this wild tangent because I really don’t have too much to say about Chris Narveson, which is why this article is being written 1 day before Spring Training. Because the next thing I have to say about Narveson couldn’t have been said at the beginning of March, it had to wait until now.

Chris Narveson had the best Spring Training of all of the 7 starting candidates. In 13 innings over 5 games he did not give up an earned for an obvious 0.00 ERA. He did give up 10 hits and 5 walks though, but thanks to the defense behind him and 10 strikeouts he was able to work out of a lot of jams. So his 0.00 ERA might be a little misleading. The next best pitcher was Randy Wolf with a 3.15 ERA. Spring Training stats don’t mean jack shit, but Chris Narveson is on the roster primarily because he is out of minor league options. They’d rather keep him in the bullpen (where he has been effective in the past) in order to preserve pitching depth than to risk losing him. So it is my opinion is that Chris Narveson will play a very important role for the Brewers this year.

As the 2nd lefty in the bullpen he can pitch multiple innings and allow Stetter to be the situational lefty that his stats suggest he should be. And as a starter he can do a spot start (like if another pitcher strains a muscle warming up for the game) or fill in for a couple of weeks every 5th day if someone lands on the DL. And unlike McClung or Villanueva I have the feeling that Narveson is going to be successful in that role. Call it a hunch or ESPN, but I just have that kind of feeling that he is going to be an impact player and be able to bail us out and stop the ship from sinking if it gets to that point. Either way, Narveson will be well known and well liked by the people in Milwaukee before the year is over. And that you can print in Rolling Stone magazine.

Chris Narveson’s 2010 stat line is very difficult to predict, because there is no way of telling how much time he will spend in the bullpen versus the starting rotation. And there are too many outside factors that could play a part (such as injuries, trades, demotions to the minors, etc.) that could force him into either role. But since he is starting the 2010 season in the bullpen, I’m going to predict that he will be a relief pitcher for the majority of the year and not see significant starting time until July or August when Suppan gets cut or ends up on the DL. So it’s going to look something like this:

3.92 ERA, 8-3 record, 98 innings pitched, 6 starts and unable to become a permanent fixture in the starting rotation thanks to Wolf, Davis and Parra (3 other lefties in the starting rotation.) He also holds the distinction of being one of players on the team (along with Parra) who's name sounds so much cooler when you say it like a Pirate. Chris Naaaaarrrrr-veson.

Although Narveson is unsure of his role on the team, I’m pretty sure that he is just thankful to be there. Being on the Major League team is a hell of a lot better than being in the Minors. But the next pitcher (and the last player on the 25 man roster) knows his role on the team by now. Carlos Villanueva came up as a starter but struggled in that role. He has proved to be a decent reliever, but if not for Jeff Suppan’s trip to DL to open the season, he probably would’ve started the season with AAA Nashville. So I’m guessing that he too is thankful just to be with the big league club. But how long will Villanueva be on this team? There are couple of factors in play that will lead to that decision, but that my friends is a topic that will be covered tomorrow (actually tonight since tomorrow is Opening Day). Brewers, Brewers, Keep Turning Up the Heat!

- pookon -

http://www.pookon.com/

email: pookondotcom@gmail.com

25 Brewers in 25 Days : Manny Parra

Manny Parra. What do we do with Manny Parra? That's the question that has to be answered this year. Like a lot of players on this team, he has a lot of potential and upside. But this 27-year old lefthander has yet to really put it all together. The problem with Manny Parra is that is seems to be all in his head. Without knowing him personally, I have no choice but to speculate on things like this. But I have intently watched these players for several years, so I feel like I am qualified to make these claims. And if I'm wrong then no troubles bubbles. After all, this site and these articles are just my opinions backed up for statistical evidence that tries to rationalize it all. And if you don't like it, start your own Brewers blog and counteract my claims. I'd love to debate you on the internet. Glad I got that out of the way. Other players with potential like Rickie Weeks have had a hard time getting there because they can't stay healthy. Manny Parra has been fine physically, but he seems to lose control in certain situations.

He has great velocity and he throws 4 pitches with lots of movement, and back in 2007 at AAA Nashville, Parra pitched a perfect game. For those of you who aren't familiar with the term (I don't know why I'm explaining this because you wouldn't be reading if you didn't know shit about baseball) a perfect game is when the pitcher (or a combination of pitchers) do not allow a batter to reach base and retire 27 consecutive opposing batters. To accomplish this feat (as only 18 pitchers have in Major League History) the pitching and the defense (because if a batter reaches base an account of an error, there is no possibility for a perfect game) needs to be spot on. Granted Parra did this at AAA, but regardless of which level you do it at it is still a pretty impressive feat. That was a little pointless and time consuming, but I felt that it was necessary to point out that Manny Parra is capable of pitching well and we should not give up on him yet.

As I have mentioned before (most likely in the Gallardo or Stetter article, I'm too lazy to go back and look at my own work) the Brewers have historically had difficulty drafting pitchers and moving them up to the Major Leagues. That is why Manny Parra's success with us is all the more important. We don't want to see him put it together as a member of another team. In 2008 he was 10-8 with a 4.39 ERA. Not too bad for his rookie year, but he's certainly capable of being much better. In 2009 he was being counted on (along with Gallardo) to anchor the pitching staff and provide the second half of a very good 1-2 punch. But Manny failed to deliver and was sent down to the minors to figure it out. After he returned he had a few good outings mixed in with the terrible ones, but they weren't enough to make his overall stat line look respectable. He finished with an 11-11 record with a 6.36 ERA. Obviously it was a big step backwards. This year we brought in two new lefties (Doug Davis and Randy Wolf) plus Chris Narveson emerged as a fantastic option at he end of last year and in Spring Training of 2010, so the question is what to do with Manny. He's out of options so he could and would be claimed by another team if we tried to send him back down. For all the reasons mentioned before plus a previous situation including former Brewers prospect Jorge De La Rosa, we need to stick it out with Manny and allow him to blossom in a Brewers uniform.

Jorge De La Rosa was a pitching prospect in the Brewers minor league system. He was ineffective as a reliever and had a 4.46 ERA in 2005. In 2006 he fell off the deep end and sunk to a 8.60 as both a starter and a reliever and he was traded to the Kansas City Royals. After struggling there he found himself with the Colorado Rockies, and in 2009 he went 16-9 with a 4.38 ERA. A lot of people including the Brewers management now feel like we gave up on him too early and we should have given him more time to work it out. But unfortunately 2010 for Manny is a make it or break it kind of year, as we simply do not have the time to allow a starting pitcher have a 6+ ERA. Parra is starting 2010 in the bullpen and could find himself in the starting rotation, but that is to be determined. There are several other factors to be considered before assigning him to that role.

The Brewers already have 2 lefthanders in the starting rotation but that might increase if Chris Narveson continues where he left off last year. Jeff Suppan is currently on the DL which does temporarily open up the 5th spot for Parra, but first he will have to pitch in relief and earn that spot. I do believe that Manny is more effective in a starting role because of his mental instability. It takes a certain mindset to be a reliever rather than a starter because often you have to come in the game in tight situations and get out of the jam. If a starter gives up 3 runs every time they go out and pitch, that's considered pretty damn good. But if a reliever gives up 3 runs every time they go and pitch, that's pretty damn bad. A starter always has a little more leeway because they can start the game by giving up a run or two but then settle down and have a quality start. Manny Parra seems to have some kind of mental breakdown when the going gets tough. Most pitchers find a way to work out of the jams the create, but when Manny gets bad the floodgates open and the runs start flowing for the other team.

But that is where new pitching coach Rick Peterson comes in. If he can work with Manny to stay cool, calm and collected when the pressure starts to mount, Manny can be that #2 pitcher that everyone has predicted him to be. Manny has the best pure talent of any pitcher on the staff, and when he is on he dominates the competition. It is truly a pleasure to watch him pitch when he dialed in, but like I said it's frustrating to see him when he is not. Manny Parra is 27 years old, which seems a little too old to still be considered young. But a lot of pitchers get into their prime in their late 20's or early 30's, and I have a feeling that Manny is about to do that. 2010 will be a very important year for him, and he's going to have a breakthrough year if he puts up stats like this (assuming that he starts, which is what he has to do if he is to benefit the team):

4.14 ERA, 13-10 record, 171 innings pitched, 120 strikeouts and the be Manny that we always knew that he could be.

This is assuming that Manny Parra does find his way into the starting rotation. One player that may have a say in that is Chris Narveson, who came out of nowhere last year and became the answer to the starting pitching woes. Where other pitchers failed to step up and help the team, Narveson succeeded and earned himself a spot on the 2010 Opening Day roster. Like Parra, he too is currently pitching out of the bullpen. But if he pitches anywhere near like he did last year and in Spring Training of this year, it's going to be really hard for Manager Ken Macha to leave him out of the starting rotation. But that my friends, is a topic that will be covered tomorrow. Brewers! Brewers! Keep Turnin' Up the Heat!

- pookon -

www.pookon.com
email: pookondotcom@gmail.com