Brewers checklist for the offseason

I have to say, I am really happy with the Brewers season, despite their 3-1 exit in the first round of the playoffs. "Playoffs" is a word that didn't get thrown around a lot when talking about the Brewers in my lifetime. I've been waiting for this since I was three years old, and the fact that we can finally say that we lasted longer than the Cubs is priceless.

Here's what I think the Brewers need to do in the offseason. I'll probably make a post at the beginning of the season to grade their performance.

1. Re-sign CC. His agent says he loves Milwaukee. We'll soon see how much he loves it, whether he's willing to give up $20+ million in New York, Boston, or L.A. for $12-15 million in Milwaukee. But if the Brewers complete step 2 of my plan, we might be able to hike that up a bit.

2. Get rid of Gagne, Suppan, Riske, Weeks, and Hall for a bag of balls. This would free up $25 million dollars (and a bag of balls) for us to go shopping. Obviously, it's going to be tough with Suppan due $27 million over the next two years, a deal no team would be willing to pick up, and Riske making around $3 million a year for the next two years, but getting rid of any of these players, with the exception of Weeks, would at least free up some salary.

3. Let Sheets go. $12 million dollars. Listen, the guy has averaged 23.5 starts in the last four years. While he usually put forward a great start, the reality is that when we really needed him, he has not had a great track record. Besides, even if we wanted Sheets back, I don't think it's going to happen.

4. Shop for a third baseman, starting pitching. Our fielding at third base was beyond horrendous this year, probably costing us a substantial amount of games. I'd even be willing to give up some a hitting spot for a good defensive third baseman, because Lord knows that we had neither a good hitting or fielding third baseman this year.

5. Start calling up a first baseman and third baseman. If the Brewers don't make Fielder happy with a new contract, he's going to be ready to leave at the first chance. He'll probably take us to arbitration court this year anyway, which could put a strain on our budget and may lead to a trade. Brad Nelson looks like he has some power potential, but he needs experience. Mike Lamb has had some decent fielding stats in his career, so who knows.

6. Make Ray Durham a full-time starter. The bottom line is that the man is consistent in everything he does, something that no one in their right mind would say about Rickie Weeks. It's hard to give up on a young player, but Weeks has shown absolutely no maturing whatsoever. I don't even know who would be interested in taking him.

7. Re-sign Kendall. There are some Kendall haters out there, but you can't argue with his defensive stats. He had the best throwout percentage in the majors, and his pitch-calling was exceptional. I feel like the Brewers will have even more success with him with a new manager because you can be darn sure that the next manager will know to take a pitcher out before he's given up seven runs in an inning (see July 7, 2007 , fifth inning, and Yost even had Suppan pitch in the sixth!), so pitchers will still be hitting the spots that Kendall sets up for them. Yes, he's old, but he's cheap and he gets the job done. For a defensive catcher he comes up big offensively when we need him most.

That's all for now. I may add later. Here's the two subjects I'm undecided on: Should the Crew spend a lot of dime on Fielder and make him happy? I don't know. When the man slumps, he slumps. We already have a power-hitter in Braun and we could use more contact hitters. At the same time, he carried us through September. It's tough to say. I think it could be disasterous if we hold on to him for a long extended period but he could also do a ton of damage somewhere else. The second is that I could not tell you who we should sign as manager. Sveum showed that he knows when to take a pitcher out. But his lineups are sometimes cooky, and his demeanor reminds me a lot of Yost. My initial guess, before he was even bench coach, was that the Brewers are planning on making Yount the manager. The thing is, players don't always make the best managers, and Yount has no experience. You could get an Ozzie Guillen, or you could get a Alan Trammell.

I'm not going to throw up too many hyperlinks because you can find these players' stats and stuff pretty much anywhere.

Song of the day will be another Mugison song because I didn't really explain much about him with the first post, and I've been listening to him a lot lately. Mugison is an Icelandic indie artist, who is actually very popular on the island. However, that's not saying much, as you only have to sell 5,000 albums to go gold in Iceland. People compare him to Beck, as his music is very experimental and sometimes trippy. His portfolio is extremely diverse, from highly electronic stuff, to good ole blues, to amazing acoustic songs, to songs with orchestras. I'll give you three songs to display his range.

The Great Unrest (official video) - Mugison - Youtube (Slower orchestral, acousticy song that builds beautifully)

I Want You (semi-official video. Mugi made this for his grandparents' 50th Anniversary) - YouTube. *This isn't the greatest example of his trippy stuff, but it suffices. For better examples, see "Sad Like a Truck", and "The Chicken Song". There just are no videos on YouTube for these. The Chicken Song features an amazing line. "The chicken is one of few birds that never can fly / but even with his head chopped of he'll still give it a h--- of a try / How beautiful is that?"

To the Bone (Track only) - Mugison - Youtube

Off the Schneid

I went to the Brewers game yesterday. Be jealous. There is nothing like a baseball game. I said to Grant as we were walking up to the stadium, "I feel like I'm going to Six Flags." A baseball game IS the grown man's theme park. It has its distinct smell, distinct noises, distinct feeling.

I smelled somebody grilling about 3 weeks back in Madison and i had an urge to run the 70 miles to Milwaukee and pick up a Smoky Joe along the way. When we got into the place, though, we were disappointed to see that hot dogs had risen to $4.50. Insane. Right then, I said "We're coming to dollar hot dog day." Four hours later, we had ordered tickets to one of those games.

We ended up sitting at the end of one of three rows occupied by someone's 30th birthday group. Naturally, the friends of this guy were trashed. Well, one ended up sweating profusely. Not cuz he was fat. No, cuz he was plastered. The guy looked like death, and naturally, his friends found it funny. His girlfriend came down from the two rows above his and tried to help him out. Well, the dead guy suddenly came to life when he grabbed an empty large cup in two milliseconds flat and filled it about halfway with his own personal fluids. Naturally, rather than help him to the bathroom, his friends were merely blurs as they fled their seats for the aisles. They were more worried about their beer than their friend who quite possibly had alcohol poisoning. Basically, the rows around them cleared out too because they were disgusted by the amount of sweat and puke on the floor.

Me and Grant? Not disgusted at all. I labelled the man "Steve Barfman" This was a sign of the baseball season starting. It was highly amusing. This guy was apparently 32 years old and wasted at one o'clock in the afternoon. There's a college saying: "Enjoy it now, because after college it's called alcoholism."

At around the sixth or seventh, two guys jumped onto the field and ran from the third baseline towards the bullpen. I've never seen so many security guards on the field. They were chasing from behind, from the sides, from everywhere. But the ones that caught them came flying out of the bullpen. One guy got the classic spear from the guards, where it looked like Brian Urlacher taking out Mother Theresa. But the second guy didn't get caught from behind. No, he tried to break through a line of the guards that had come from the bullpen. Well, he tried doing this by bowling over one of the guards. This guy would have none of it, and he actually threw a haymaker at the guy before he had the chance. Yes, this guy got punched. Hard. And it was beautiful.

The baseball was beautiful, too. Ryan Braun's my favorite player (I used the second pick in my fantasy draft to get him even though he was ranked about 17 in the league). The guy finally got off the schneid on home runs. It wasn't a ball that barely cleared the fence like Kapler hit later in the day, it was a rocket. Parra had a no-hitter through five. We ended up winning 5-4. Gagne (pictured) was lights out in this save opportunity.

Last year, the Brewers were 8-1 with me in attendence. I was hoping the Crew would give me free tickets as a good luck charm, but this has not been the case. Nevertheless, I couldn't have asked for a better game to start out the season with.

Rather than have a song of the day today, I have to make an album of the day. I have been a fan of Colour Revolt for a couple years now. Up until April fools day, they only had an EP of 6 songs to listen to. Although this EP is one of my most prized posessions, I longed for more. Well, I got it last Monday at 12:01 am, as I downloaded their new CD "Plunder, Beg, and Curse" off of iTunes. In five days I've listened to this album 21 times. These guys are going to make a big name for themselves in the months to come. They are a mix of Modest Mouse, Brand New, Minus the Bear, and an old blues musician. Jesse Coppenbarger has one of the best voices in music. The guy is so young, but he's got such a booming voice for such a scrawny body. They have three guitarists, but as so many reviewers have written before, they are not obnoxious at all and are each necessary to make the music what it is. Check out their myspace and see for yourself.

Colour Revolt's Myspace

By the way, Geoff Jenkins looks weird in red, it's weird that our catcher can run faster than a snail, and it's great that the Cubs are 2-3.

Pictures of the Brewers game will be put up when I get back to Madison.