Prince Fielder: To Trade or Not To Trade?

I'm not gonna lie; that looks delicious

Before being punished by the Cubs on Monday night, the Brewers had won 8 of their last 10 games and gave the 13 or so fans still paying attention to the team a little more hope for 2010. Of course, winning streaks like that would have been preferred in July and August when the team held the division lead and/or still had a chance to make a playoff run, but I guess we can say better late than never. Even though the last 12 games are very difficult (Cubs, Phillies, Rockies, Cardinals), Milwaukee has a legit shot to finish at .500 or better. Three years ago, I would have been very happy about that, so it must be a good thing that it’s now considered disappointing.

But that isn’t what’s on the mind of Brewers fans today. The beast they call Prince Fielder is finishing off the finest offensive season in Brewers history. Unfortunately, it very well might be his last. The fun part about being useless in September is that writers will talk about shit like this because the games don’t matter. What do I think? I’m glad you asked.

Wrapping Up College: Week Two

This guy is not pleased about Ohio State's inability to beat a good team from outside the Big Ten. But you think he'd be used to it by now, right?

Here’s a riddle for you: If the Milwaukee Brewers sweep a series over a team from the NL West but nobody cares about it, did it really happen?

The answer: I guess, technically, yeah it happened. But it was the Diamondbacks, so it’s not that impressive. And it brings the Crew within 14 games of the division lead. Oh.

Now that we’ve effectively wrapped up my baseball discussion for the day, we can move onto the second weekend of college football. As expected, there were few upsets found in this week’s slate of games. But there was still plenty of interesting football to go around.

A Fat Man Celebrates and A Nation of Soft-ass Dudes Cries

The other day (Sunday, to be exact), Prince Fielder hit a walk-off home run in the 12th inning to give the Brewers a 2-1 win over the San Francisco Giants. It was the only win in four tries over the holiday weekend for the Crew. But of course, the only story from the game (It was a 12 inning, one-run game! There was a triple play! Aaron Rowand grounded into a triple play for Pete’s sake – somebody talk about how ridiculous that is instead of this crap!) was actually a non-story blown out of proportion because we live in a time of moral soapboxes and giant, giant softness

Watch the video here. Prince hits a bomb on the second pitch and the crowd goes wild. Fielder points back at the dugout on his way around the bases, untucks his jersey near second base (OH THE HORROR!), and finishes his trot by jumping on home plate surrounded by his ‘mates. Upon impact, everyone else falls down like a bomb went off and then they quickly get up and celebrate with Prince.

Who’s Ya NL (Central) Rookie of the Year?

Rowengardner: NOT my Rookie of the Year

I could spout off angrily about the Brewers getting swept by the Pirates, coming back strong to defeat the Nationals 3 of 4, and taking that momentum all the way to the bank in Milwaukee. Of course, they left it at the bank and got swept by the Reds at Miller Park this week, so we won’t talk about that anymore. The Crew is now 61-66 and, for all intensive purposes, donezo.

So instead we’re going to discuss the NL Rookie of the Year race, with 95% of the discussion centered around NL Central players and a line or two about the rest of the schmucks in the league.

Central Booking: Slow Day in the Streets

by Josh Mosley
Only nine games went down in the majors last night. And lucky for you, the Central had five of those games. Join us won’t you?

The Black Wednesday Shakeup

My man love for Alcides Escobar is just beginning to blossom.

I woke up on Wednesday morning and it was just another normal hump day (not with ladies, kiddies, but rather a middling midweek day. Get your mind out the gutter, this is a family blog). I went to work, only 30ish minutes late, and had a cup of coffee. Then I checked out the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel website and the MLB Rumors website, as I do every day, and found some shock and awe news that would make G Dubs 43 blush (not really, but you get the analogy). Roster shenanigans were abound and I quickly stopped focusing on work to figure this out and discuss with my compadres. So jump with me and we’ll analyze your new look True Blue Brew Crew.

I’m good at, like, stuff and things too! (Part II)

by Danny Mehigan

Yeah Andy? Think you’re so special? Well, Mrs. Mehigan (Hey mom!) said I can be anything when I grow up. And I chose to write a meandering blog about baseball with two college cohorts. Mission accomplished. However, I could have done plenty of other things too. And I woulda been much better at them than these NL Central clowns.

When A Prince Goes Nuts

The Prince plots his plan for Mota's demise

For those of you that haven’t heard, Prince Fielder tried to go all John Cena on Guillermo Mota and the Los Angeles Dodgers at the conclusion of Tuesday night’s ballgame. Here at the Swing, we have studied the film (really puts the Zapruder to shame), filled beakers with liquids that cause unknown gases, and stroked our beards-in-the-making for hours as we try to dechiper the incident. (Note: I realized this is late, and definitely not news, if it was even news in the first place. But I was busy. And out of town. And you’re going to deal with it.) And what follows is the breakdown:

Central Booking: Where six teams get processed everyday

by Andy Paschen

We’re going to try something new here at The Swing: Central Booking. I got into work early today, poured myself some coffee into a fancy red mug, sat down in my swivel chair and then … nothing. So I says to myself, I says, “Peter Nincompoop (that’s what I call myself sometimes), why don’t you check out what happened in every N.L. Central game and do a quick post on that for The Swing?”

How ‘Bout Those Packers, Eh?

That's worth 4 points in this league

The Brewers came into the All-Star Break a few weeks ago sitting at two games over .500 and starting to struggle. As recently as July 1, they had a 2-game lead in the division. Luckily, as I so astutely noted in my first-half review, the second half began with a 17-game stretch against bad baseball teams. It was time for the Crew to reclaim the division and set the tone for the second half. 17 games later, we have come to a conclusion…