I have made my position clear about Tom Crean's depature.  I was hoping sleeping dogs would lie but I came across this recent article where Tom Crean is upset that Eli Homan is transfering to Detroit Mercy.  The question is Tom how can you be upset that Detroit coach Ray McCallum orchestrated the move when you can be excused of the same thing. 

 

It is interesting that Marquette lets Nick Williams out of his commitment and suddenly he is on his way to Indiana.  Now do I fault the kid?  No, he made it clear he wanted to play for Tom Crean.  It is interesting in the timing of when he joined the Hoosiers and that Crean and crimson would take him.  Most coaches after jumping ship try to stay clear of their former commits.  It looks bad and it sets you up for all sorts of accusations.  Just look at how Bob Huggins stayed away from Michael Beasley after he left for West Virginia.  Rumors had it that Crean contacted Williams and Tyshawn Taylor with his decision to leave Marquette before his own players.  Taylor's high school coach neither confirmed nor denied that.  So that can give the conspiracy theorists plenty of fodder.  In fact, there is proof that Crean was trying to orchestrate Marquette's verbal commit, Erik Williams into going back on his word and coming to Indiana (although give Crean the benefit on that one because Erik Williams has signed nothing).  Typical Tommy, claim victim when it effects him but act like you did nothing wrong when you do the same thing.  Good thing we do not have to deal with that garbage anymore.

Jeff Goodman of Foxsports.com has a quick note about how Dominic James testing the NBA waters last year has made him a poster boy of how that can hurt a players stock.

Seems College Basketball's Player of the Year, Tyler Hansbourgh enjoys jumping off a balcony in the offseason. Is the kid allowed to do some stupid college activities like taking a 15 feet dive into a pool fully clothed? Does the guy have a responsibility to say I represent a major university and I have the hopes and dreams of many on my shoulders so I think I should pass on moronic activity. Read the story and you make the call.

It is the first week of May and as I write this the Brewers have just gone one-two-three to start game two of the Marlins series.  This is starting to sound familiar.  One-two-three innings, scoreless innings, bases loaded and only having one run to show for it innings.  What happened to the offense that played like it was paid by the home run?  The Brewers currently sit 17th in home runs and 26th in team batting average.  As I go deeper into the nerdery (Tommy Boy reference for those scoring at home), the Crew rank 21st in on-base percentage and 26th in hits.  I could go into the pitching stats but it might make the children cry.

 

The Brewers first five weeks have not been as pretty as people had hoped for.  So is it time to sound the alarm or march to Doug Melvin's home and demand the head of Ned Yost and Eric Gagne?  No, it is too early for that.  Still plenty of baseball left to be played in this month, let alone the entire season.  Every team has a patch of pitching or hitting problems.  You do have the right to raise that concerned eyebrow and wonder if the Brewers will live up to the hype.  The NL Central race is suddenly looking like a four pony race and you do not want to have a ton of distance that needs to be made up down the stretch.

 

The Crew stand at .500 as I write this but when a starter not named Ben Sheets has not won a game in a month, you have to wonder if the Crew's arms can get it down.  Gagne has proved to either be feast or famine.  I remember another Brewers closer who used to be like:  Derrick Turnbow.  We have all seen how that show ends.

 

The bats were supposed to be sending Bernie Brewer down his slide at least three times a game.  The only sliding Bernie has been doing is sliding his pants on.  You do not want the offense to panic because that is when pressing can occur and that can only make matters worse.  What can wake up the bats is just focusing on getting on base.  There in lies the problem with .319 OBP.  Still, more base runners means more pressure on the opposing pitcher which means a better chance for a good pitch to hit.  Instead, of taking more pitches (113 walks=16th in the league, not terrible but not great), the Crew are swinging away (223K's=10th in the league). 

 

There is still plenty of time for the sleeping giant to wake up.  At the rate the Cardinals are winning games, the alarm better go off soon or the giant might not having anything to chase when it wakes up. 

Most people in Milwaukee already figured out that Eric Gagne is turning out to be a bust. Just to reinforce that opinion, check out Dayn Perry of Foxsports.com's reason for listing Eric Gagne as a free agent bust.

Here's an idea for an office pool, when will Ned Yost pull an Ozzie Guillen?  When will Yost just say the heck with it fans, you are already think I am arrogant, well, here is a tirade as proof?  Yost may not be as hot headed as the manger to the South is but Yost has been getting probably even more criticism than the Oz.  You have to wonder about how much Yost can take.  He gave a little snip back at the fans for booing at Miller Park a couple weeks back.  He has blown up about the umps.  The next step is the profanity laced tirade.  The way he has been treating the press lately, he may actually try to rip a reporter's head off.  That is just my prediction sort like why  I'm marking down June 15th in my pool. 

Check out my Case of the Mondays on Sportsbubbler.com.

Tom Crean showed he is cleaning up Indiana but he is also irritating to the guys he is letting go as well.

To the 25 people who called the show and the countless Brewers fans who think all Doug Melvin has to do is send Derrick Turnbow down to the Minors, it is not that easy.  He has no minor league options left that is why Dave Bush went down.  Here is more information on the tough decision Doug Melvin has to make about Turnbow. 

 

My thought is after reading Adam McCalvy's article is just cut your losses and move on.  Turnbow has been too much of a roller coaster pitcher and the cart has been riding on the low part of the tracks for quite some time.

 

I just find it interesting that last week Yost was talking about how this team needed Turnbow and that he's an all star pitcher.  All of a sudden Turnbow can not be trusted when Ben Sheets and Mike Cameron came back and the team decided to send Bush down.  Do you think Yost was trying to pump up Turnbow's stock with the kind words and pitching him in three crunch time situations last week?  The pendulum could not have swung faster on D-Bow. 

 

I do buy some of the thinking for Bush in the minors.  They want him as a starter and with Ben Sheets's injury history, it is not bad to have a back up plan.  Bush was not that sharp to begin with so what makes you think he could come in the 7th and just throw strikes?  The minors will do Bush some good.  I also think the major reason he is in Nashville is because Melvin could not get the player to be named later for Turnbow. 

The Cubs game take forever. Is it just me or does every Cubs game take about three and a half hours? I feel like I age ten years every time I watch the Cubs and Brewers play. I remember my grandpa use to fit in a three hour nap between the second and seventh inning. He would watch the first two innings, crash out and wake up for the 7th inning stretch with a full beard. It can be like waiting for paint dry. A baseball game should take no longer than three hours. It should not rival the length of the movie Gettysburg. Which most Cubs games take to complete. That is your Wednesday reason to hate the Cubs.