Brewers Playoff Bound?

As a Wisconsin sports fan...It's almost unthinkable...The Milwaukee Brewers may be headed for their first playoff berth since 1982...I consider myself a Brewer fan, but I'll be the first to admit that I've stayed away from paying serious attention to them the past 20 years...and who could blame me? They've always been a small-market team that's hardly been committed to spending money on free-agents. They've instead taken the time to build one of the best minor league systems in all of baseball. But the reason I've stayed away for so long is that I didn't want to give my heart to a team that continuously allows their players to walk away and sign with other teams because they couldn't afford to keep them...Plus, I'm a much bigger fan of 80's baseball...pre-steroid era...when you could root for Hall-of-Famer's like Rollie Fingers, Paul Molitor and Robin Yount and enjoy the contributions from greats like Gorman Thomas, Jim Gantner, Ben Oglivie, Don Money, Ted Simmons, and Cecil Cooper...names that I'm sure younger Brewer fans are fairly unaware of...These guys played the game the right way...oh, and you can thank this group for the reason there are 'Throwback Fridays'...

But this new ownership has proven even skeptics like myself wrong...We're paying money not only to lock-up our young stars like Ryan Braun, but they're willing to throw down cash for big name free agents like CC Sabathia and veterans like Ray Durham. To me, that shows the fans that we're committed to trying to 'win now', an attitude that definitely brings fans like me back to the table...the first half of the baseball season is pretty boring anyway...I've always tuned in more following the All-Star Break and into the Playoffs...Much like watching an NBA game, it doesn't make any sense to watch any thing other than the 4th quarter...



CC has been straight dealing since being traded to the 'Crew...Last year's Cy Young Award winner has gone 4-0 with 3 complete games and an ERA under 1.50...No fan could argue with production like that...despite the fact the Brewers traded away a highly-touted outfielder to get him...We'll take it...The team is coming off a huge 4-game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals and we've won 8 straight...to within one game of the Cubs for first place.

But before we anoint the Brewers the next champions of the NL Central...It's important to make note that one pitcher does not make a team automatically playoff bound...Our pitching staff is still pretty shaky beyond Ben Sheets, Sabathia, and Manny Parra...



Salomon Torres has done a decent job in the Closer role as of late...after twin 'Gas Cans' Eric Gagne and Derrick Turnbow have set the field ablaze with their horrible performances both this and last season...We're not out of the woods yet...Our pitching staff is clearly the 'Achilles Heel' of this ball club....It's great that the Brewers have a legitimate shot at making the playoffs this year, but don't forget there's a lot of baseball yet to be played...