Use this site to find NFL football tickets for any NFL team - They have a nice selection of New England Patriots tickets and Bears tickets for the 2008-2009 season. In addition, you can find tickets for your favorite NFL team, including Midwest favorites like the Colts, Browns, Packers, Lions and Bengals.
[Editor's Note: This is the first offering from a new writer that we are very excited to bring aboard: Ronald Clements, a 10-year journalist who has covered Division I football, basketball and baseball, as well as the NFL, NHL and NASCAR. Ronald is a graduate of East Carolina University where he majored in broadcast journalism and was a Senior Sports Writer for The East Carolinian.
He also has experience as a blogger, having been a featured columnist at Bleacher Report and a featured blogger for ESPN.com. Oh, and he was in the Marine Corps from 1992-2001, which makes him more of a badass than 99.9% of the people reading this and certainly more of one than the clown doing the editing here.
Ronald will be covering the Cardinals, Brewers, Packers and Badgers. His first post is below. Enjoy.]
——————–
If the Milwaukee Brewers are going to somehow make an improbable run toward the playoffs, the final month of the season is the time to do it.
That run could start tonight when the Brewers visit NL Central leading St. Louis.
The Brewers and Cardinals tangle nine times in the next 33 days, and Milwaukee has six games against the second-place Chicago Cubs.
Braden Looper goes tonight against his former team at Busch Stadium. He is second on the squad with 11 wins, trailing Yovani Gallardo’s 12.
The Brewers need Looper and Gallardo to be solid down the stretch. More importantly, Milwaukee needs the rest of the staff to break out of its disappointing season-long funk.
Carlos Villanueva was solid last year, but is 2-10 this season with an ERA over six. Manny Parra and Jeff Suppan both have losing records and ERAs hovering around six.
Most knew that the Brewers starters would struggle this year without Ben Sheets and C.C. Sabathia. But after a strong start, who knew they would simply collapse around mid-May and never recover.
At this point, the playoffs are extremely unlikely, but one can hope. What should also be hoped for is simply finishing the season over .500. As it stands, the Brewers are two games below .500 (64-66) and 12 games behind first-place St. Louis.
The Cardinals, on the other hand, own a 10.5-game lead over Chicago – the largest margin of any division leader in the big leagues. The acquisitions of Matt Holliday, Mark DeRosa and John Smoltz have really worked out well for the Cards. Couple that with consistent starting pitching provided by Chris Carpenter, Adam Wainright and tonight’s starter, Joel Pineiro, and St. Louis has been on fire since the all-star break.
The Brewers aren’t out of it yet, and can make up some serious ground in the month of September. They’d probably have to win at least 10 of those 15 remaining games against St. Louis and Chicago to make the playoffs.
As much as I hate to say it, that just isn’t going to happen.
The Cubs need to stay hot if they want to stay in this close NL Central division race.
Carlos Zambrano is the most recent victim of the DL for the Cubs. These things have happened a lot to the Cubs this season, but they have battled to stay close to the top of the NL Central. Aramis Ramirez has also been hurt recently. This time it’s his left shoulder. It is not, however, supposed to be serious, and Ramirez will decide Monday whether he will play the last game of the 4-game series against the Rockies.
As of Saturday the Cubs were only 1 game behind St. Louis, but that could change in a heartbeat. Holliday and Pujols are starting to hit, and if the Cubs don’t do the same thing they could see St. Louis run away with the division.
Both the Cubs pitching and batting have been very inconsistent, but as of late the two are staring to come together. Rookie Randy Wells is still having a tremendous year, and is the best pitcher on the team right now. Derek Lee has started to act like the old D Lee, hitting home runs and driving in runs.
While still not playing like he should, Milton Bradley is hitting better. With an average still under .250, Bradley hasn’t shown a great performance after the All-Star break but he has made some improvement.
The bullpen still remains a mystery. Sometimes they perform well, and other times they just plain suck. Carlos Marmol isn’t showing the same dominance that he had last year.
Kevin Gregg has been decent, but fans still don’t trust him when the Cubs have a slim lead heading into the ninth. No one in the bullpen has become a sleeper. No one has really stood out, and I think that has really hurt the Cubs’ bullpen.
It’s a mystery to me how this team is still very close to making the playoffs. I don’t know if it’s because of the Cards not playing well, the overall mediocrity of the division, or just that the Cubs are playing well when they need to.
The last month and a half will prove what team can play better ball in the closing stages of the season. My pick is St. Louis.
Taking control of the NL Central this year hasn’t been easy. 4 teams out of the 6 are still in contention for a division title, and things could just be heating up.
1.St. Louis Cardinals – The division leader for most of the season has just recently been tested by the Chicago Cubs. The acquisition of Matt Holliday has paid off. With Ankiel and Ludwick not performing like last year, Holliday was a must pick-up to add offense to the outfield. The return of Carpenter has also helped the Cardinals stay atop of the the division. Pitching hasn’t been the problem for the Cards since their ERA is 3.71, 3rd in the whole league.
With players like Holliday, Pujols, and Carpenter why didn’t the Cards take more firm control of the division?
The problem is their inconsistent hitting. The Cards are ranked 23rd in hitting, batting a team average of .256. The Card’s hitters are not doing as well as last year, and it is hurting them. Ankiel and Ludwick are having a tough time following up on their breakout season that they both had last year, although Ludwick has been hittin much better since the break.
Overall it has been the consistent pitching that has kept St. Louis afloat and in the race for the division title.
2.Chicago Cubs – The team picked to win the division has been the most up and down this season. There have been points in the season were the Cubs looked totally out of it, and now suddenly they are tied for first along with the Cards. The Cubs are behind the Cards in hitting and pitching, but their offense has started to pick up as of late and that is why you see them on top of their division.
The Cubs season hasn’t been without a lot of criticism of the team and the signings of certain players. Randy Wells, however, has been a revelation as the only consistent pitcher for the Cubs. Wells, a really nice catch, has produced many great starts, and has been a huge part in the Cubs staying in the race. The Cubs just might make the playoffs this year, but they need to watch out for Holliday and Pujols. If those guys start hitting on all cylinders, then the Cubs could be in trouble.
3. Milwaukee Brewers - The Brew Crew are playing at the level most people thought they would play. They have begun to dip a little in the recent weeks, but are still only 4 games out of first, which is still a very reasonable distance considering that they are 1 game below .500.
Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder are having great seasons again but it’s not the offense that is lacking. It’s the pitching. After losing CC to the Yankees, the Brewers are having trouble finding a go-to pitcher. Every one of their pitchers are having decent but not great years. Before the season started people knew the pitching was the weak point so it doesn’t come as a surprise. Look for this team to contend in a few years if they get the pitching help they need.
4. Houston Astros – A huge shocker that this team is were they are at. They have sipped the past 10 games going 3-7, but they are still hanging in there after a terrible Spring Training and start to the year. Having only three big names on the team — Â Oswalt, Lee, and Berkman — the Astros are really holding their own. Almost a sleeper this year, the Astros have flown under the radar. Now I am not saying they will win the World Series or even make the playoffs, but they are doing a good job of at least keeping a possible playoff appearance within the realm of possibility.
With a few more months left in the regular season, the Central Division race should be an exciting and close race all the way to the finish. We will have to see which teams are still contending after August, and which have fallen off the playoff wagon.
Get ready to watch some great American baseball!
* – Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday photo credit: SkyNews
Major League Baseball’s first half of the season ended poorly for Ohio’s two teams.
Â
Hope has been gone since mid-April for the Cleveland Indians, and clearly, it’s only getting worse as the Tribe is looking at a 100 loss season if they don’t play decently the rest of the way. This from a team considered by many to be the favorite in the AL Central and by some to be a pennant contender. Thanks, Eric Wedge. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out — in October.
Though the loss of Jay Bruce – and the continued absence of Edinson Volquez — for an indeterminate amount of time with a wrist injury won’t help matters, Cincinnati is still just a few games behind first place St. Louis. So despite needing to leapfrog many clubs, there’s still hope in the Queen City for the first playoff games in Great American Ballpark’s history.
The calendar has flipped to July, trade rumors have intensified, and teams are preparing to start their final series before the All Star Break after getaway day on Thursday. That can only mean one thing: the Chicago Cubs are only a few months away from tacking another year of futility onto the ever-growing grand total (which you can now track on your iPhone!).
But it also means something else: it’s time to dole out some midseason awards.
Since our primary focus here at Midwest Sports Fans is, well, the Midwest, I am going to focus my award giving to just the Central divisions of the American and National League. Let’s get right to it.
NL Central 1st Half MVP: Albert Pujols, and I really don’t need to say anything else about it. His name itself is becoming hyperbole. I want to see a new version of “The Most Interesting Man in the World” commercials featuring Pujols. They could be called “The Most Dominating Presence in Baseball” and include lines like “he once struck out, just to see what it felt like” and “he’s seen less pitches than the World Cup, yet his goatee alone has hit more home runs than Ryan Ludwick.” Albert Pujols is amazing and is not just the NL Central MVP, but the MLB MVP for the first half of 2009.
AL Central 1st Half MVP: This one is not so clear cut. Let’s take a look at a few of the candidates (stats as of July 9th):
Obviously I really want to say JD, or even Scott Podsednik, and I think there is an argument to be made for them as their value has been highlighted by the injury to Carlos Quentin, but I have a hard time giving it to anyone other than Justin Morneau or Joe Mauer with the impressive stats both have racked up.
It certainly isn’t Zack Greinke, whose team becomes more irrelevant with each passing week. If his ERA was still 1.00, then maybe. But he hasn’t been as lights-out recently, which is to be expected since he isn’t the greatest pitcher in the history of mankind and all beings, as some have suggested.
While everyone is salivating over Mauer, and don’t get me wrong — he has been great since returning from injury, Morneau has been producing at a high level for 24 more games and over the span of almost 100 more ABs than Mauer. Plus, batting average is an overrated stat, so Mauer gets no bonus points from me because he’s making everyone dream about .400. Both are great candidates, and by the end of the year such a difference in games won’t be so magnified, but right now I have to go with Morneau, who has been the most consistent run producer in the division over the course of the entire first half.
NL Central 1st Half Cy Young: I see two primary contenders: Adam Wainwright of St. Louis and Yovani Gallardo of Milwaukee. Here are the stats:
Pretty damn close based on the numbers (and you could probably throw Ryan Franklin in the mix here too, who has been great as the Cardinals’ closer). My first instinct when comparing Gallardo and Wainwright is to go with the guy pitching for the team in first place, but it’s hard to use team record as a tie-breaker considering the Cardinals are only one game up on the Brewers in the standings. Or is it? With two pitchers this close, sometimes it comes right down to head-to-head battles.
Thus far in 2009, Wainwright has absolutely dominated Milwaukee. He is 2-0 in two starts against the Brewers, going 15.1 innings and giving up just a single run while striking out 18. Gallardo, on the other hand, has struggled somewhat against his team’s primary competition for the division title. Despite having a better overall ERA and WHIP than Wainwright, Gallardo is 0-1 against St. Louis. Sure, he pitched 8 innings of shutout ball while only giving up 2 hits in the teams’ May 25th battle, so you can’t blame him for the no decision there, but that game was not head-to-head against Wainwright like the July 7th game was. In that battle, Gallardo lasted only five innings and gave up four runs in a 5-0 loss for the Brew Crew.
So maybe that one game difference for the Cardinals is the difference between Wainwright and Gallardo. I’m giving the 1st half Cy Young for the NL Central to Adam Wainwright.
AL Central 1st Half Cy Young: Lots of legit contenders here. Let’s list them out with stats:
Mark Buehrle, White Sox: 9-2, 3.14 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, 114.2 innings, 65 K, 25 BB
If we were giving this out to the pitcher who has been the most generous to opposing hitters and teams, Fausto Carmona would win in a landslide. And yes, this is the same Fausto Carmona that went 19-8 with a 3.06 ERA in 2007. But obviously I only listed Carmona here to throw more salt in the multitude of open wounds Cleveland’s start has given its fans. More on him later.
Back to the subject at hand. Zack Greinke obviously has the best numbers, but I just don’t believe in handing out awards to players whose teams are not in the playoff race. There is a different level of pressure when your team is expected to win and when games are meaningful. If the award were Most Outstanding Pitcher, it’s Greinke by a landslide. It’s not, and it clearly states in the fine print of my own personal Cy Young and MVP criteria that last place teams (Cleveland sucks so bad they don’t count anymore) cannot have Cy Young or MVP winners, so we’ll let Willy Wonka tell Zack Greinke what he’s won:
(By the way, credit goes to Hugging Harold Reynolds for tweeting that video yesterday. I hadn’t seen that in forever, but always loved Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Charlie Bucket is a golden god.)
Honestly, I can’t find a whole lot to separate Buehrle, Verlander, and Jackson. All three have had excellent seasons. I’d give the edge to Buehrle because he owns the Tigers and Verlander sucks against the White Sox, and both have more wins than Jackson, but it’s really splitting hairs between those three.
My 1st half AL Central Cy Young goes to Joe Nathan, who has just be out-of-this-world awesome. The Twins’ pitchers (other than Nick Blackburn, who is having a very good yet under-the-radar season) have struggled this season. Francisco Liriano, Scott Baker, and Kevin Slowey have all dealt with injuries and bouts of ineffectiveness. The one constant (throughout all the years Ray, has been baseball) has been Joe Nathan at the back end of the bullpen making sure that when the Twins do have a late lead, they do not surrender it.
I’m not a huge proponent of giving Cy Youngs to closers who typically pitch less than a third of the amount of innings a top-line starter does, but Joe Nathan has given up only 18 hits in 33.1 innings and is 22-24 in save opportunities. He has been beyond dominant and there is no way the Twins would be as close to first place as they are without him. It’s a competitive field, but Nathan is the choice.
NL Central Manager of the 1st Half: Tony LaRussa, and I don’t think it’s close. Ken Macha has done a nice job in Milwaukee keeping the Brewers in the race without C.C. Sabathia or Ben Sheets, but LaRussa has the Cardinals in first place with one legit hitter in his lineup. Yes, that hitter is the great Pujols, but look at the rest of the team’s offensive stats. Putrid. And it’s not like their pitching has been lights out. Ryan Franklin has been a revelation in the bullpen, and getting Chris Carpenter back has helped, but this is still a rotation that counts on guys like Kyle Lohse, Joel Piniero, and Todd Wellemeyer. That LaRussa has the Cardinals in first place is a testament to his managerial genius (and to Pujols’ utter dominance, of course).
AL Central Manager of the 1st Half: I really want to say Ozzie Guillen, and I think that he’s done a great job, but my vote goes to Jimmy Leyland of Detroit. It’s not just that the Tigers are in first place, it’s that they’ve been able to rebound from last season’s disappointment with a far less potent offensive attack and without the benefit of an above-average bullpen. Leyland has navigated his way through the struggles of Dontrelle Willis and Armando Gallarraga, plus had to deal with Magglio Ordonez’s sharp decline. Leyland essentially has a lineup with only three hitters who have been consistent producers (Miguel Cabrera, Brandon Inge, Curtis Granderson), yet there the Tigers sit, a couple games up and eight games over .500.
2009 has been an excellent rebound season for Detroit, and Leyland deserves credit as the man steering the ship. He also deserves credit for having one of the most hilarious old school baseball cards ever. The hat, the mustache, the sunburned face…I’m not sure if he’s at Spring Training, a train conductor, or working at a carnival.
And with that, let’s transition into a few “alternative” awards for the first half.
NL Central Least Valuable Player of the 1st Half: Milton Bradley wins this one. Signed in the offseason after putting up terrific numbers in Texas, The Angry One has only gotten 203 ABs so far this season and hasn’t done much with them. He’s hitting .236 and, even worse, is slugging only .374. Ouch. Plus, he is being his usual distracting self and getting into public pissing matches with his manager when he’s not forgetting how many outs there are in an inning. Like most things having to do with the Cubs, you just get the feeling that this is not going to end well.
AL Central Least Valuable Player of the 1st Half: Fausto Carmona of the Indians. We touched on his stats above, and they really say it all. This guy has just gone straight downhill since 2007 and the Indians have to be wondering if he’ll ever be able to recapture the ability that made him appear to be one of the bright young pitching stars in the big leagues. Despite a rough 2008, a lot was expected out of Carmona this year. Well, the Indians have gotten a lot out of him…it’s just all been bad.
AL/NL Central Worst Manager of the 1st Half: Hands down Eric Wedge. You need look no further than this site, where our very own AJ Kaufman calls for Wedge’s head in pretty much every article he writes. The Indians were expected to contend for the AL Central crown, yet they are 13.5 games out and 19 games under .500 already.
AL/NL Central Manager with the most potential to give his kids truly awful awesome names: Eric Wedge. If he had any sense of humor he would name his kids Orange, Potato, and Cheese. No such luck though. As it is, he and his wife named their kids Ava and Dalton Cash. Oh well.
Come to think of it though, Dalton Cash Wedge is a pretty sweet and unique name. The kid is either going be a scrappy middle infielder/#2 hitter in the majors or the lead actor in his generation’s version of Dawson’s Creek. Well done Eric. (See, we don’t always criticize you on Midwest Sports Fans.)
AL/NL Central Quote of the 1st Half: This one is easy and goes to (who else?) Ozzie Guillen. And there were a few of them, all of which were gloriously derogatory towards the team from the North Side.
“But one thing about Wrigley Field, I puke every time I go there. That’s just to be honest. And if Cub fans don’t like the way I talk about Wrigley Field, it’s just Wrigley Field. I don’t say anything about the fans or anything now. But Wrigley Field, they got to respect my opinion. That’s the way I feel…I don’t care if they hate me. They don’t feed my kids. If they hate me, that’s cool.”
That’s just a great quote, although the part about Ozzie not talking about Cubs fans may not be entirely true. Ozzie also had this gem:
“…our fans are not stupid like Cubs fans.”
AL/NL Central Home Run Call of the Year: Hawk Harrelson, two days ago. Hell yeah!
That’s all I’ve got. Sorry for not even mentioning your teams Reds, Astros, and Pirates fans…they’ve all been pretty uninteresting so far this year, at least as far as I’m concerned. But feel free to add your own midseason awards in the comments.
The White Sox bring out the brooms again tonight, and then play the Twins in a pivotal pre-All Star Break series. As Hawk might say, I loooove baseball.
The Cubs season hasn’t gone as planned. At .500 the Cubs have failed to meet the expectations of their fans and experts alike.
Many experts said that the Cubs had a great pitching staff, and for the most part they do. The only problem is those guys never seem to stay healthy, and when they return they don’t pitch well.
The Cubs hitters have fared much worse. The team’s batting average is .246, which is 26th in the league. While Derrek Lee has started to hit, his efforts are in vain. Kosuke has once again fallen under the .300 mark, just like he did last year after having a great start. Bradley has been a bust since he has yet to hit over .250. Soriano is their main source of power, but he is not a leadoff hitter. A leadoff hitter doesn’t bat .227 and strike out 70 times in 65 games.
The Cubs have just as many problems on the pitching side. Harden has done what he does best: getting injured. Zambrano has also gotten injured and suspended. Dempster hasn’t followed up on his breakout season of last year. Kevin Gregg has shown that he can’t be depended on to close tight games. Carlos Marmol has struggled to strike out hitters, which he did so well last year. With no clear bullpen ace, setup man, or closer, the Cubs have a bunch of problems that seem to stretch on forever.
If there is any hope this year, it’s Randy Wells and Ted Lilly. They are the only consistent pitchers on the ball club. They pitch well every start and give the team a chance to win. Lilly is 7-4 with a 3.04 ERA in 14 games of work. With Wells, his numbers do not tell the story at all. His 1-3 record is deceiving. His only bad start came against Minnesota, where he gave up 4 earned runs in 3.2 innings of work.
With all of their problems and inconsistencies, the Cubs will not win the Central division for a 3rd time in a row. The Cubs need a lot of revamping and rebuilding. I suggest dropping some older players and picking up younger ones that show promise. The one thing the Cubs have never really had is a good farm system. Most of their draft picks are a bust in the majors, or they never make it to the majors.
While I am a Cubs fan, I just don’t seem them pulling this off. 101 years it will be.
It’s been noted by several local and the national media that the Chicago Cubs are in the rare position of, essentially, being able to hand-pick their opponent for next week’s NLDS. You see, despite having clinched the National League Central Division (for the second straight year, a feat never before accomplished in this city) and home field advantage through the National League playoffs, the Cubs still very much have something to play for. Or, considering they are facing the Mets and have an upcoming series against Milwaukee to close out the season, maybe not play for.
With the Mets 1.5 games behind Philly in the East, and the Brewers and Mets within .5 games of eachother for the wild card, the outcome of these final two series will essentially determine the NL playoff plcture.
Free expert NFL picks, NBA picks and MLB picks. ATS Consultants' top-ranked handicappers make all selections using the most up to date NBA lines, NFL lines, and MLB lines.
If the Milwaukee Brewers are going to somehow make an improbable run toward the playoffs, the final month of the season is the time to do it., Brewers-Cardinals tickets and Brewers-Cubs tickets
in Milwaukee, Brewers-Cardinals tickets
in St. Louis, and Brewers-Cubs tickets
The Cubs need to stay hot if they want to stay in this close NL Central division race.
Taking control of the NL Central this year hasn’t been easy. 4 teams out of the 6 are still in contention for a division title, and things could just be heating up.
Major League Baseball’s first half of the season ended poorly for Ohio’s two teams.
).
