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Well, maybe recent history.  As of a few moments ago, Sabathia threw his third complete game as a Brewer (in 4 starts, not to mention, it was his 3rd IN A ROW).

For the record, the most complete games in a season by a Brewer pitcher in the last 20 years was by Jaime Navarro in ‘91.  He had 10 of them that year en route to a 15 win season.  At this rate, Sabathia may get to that mark in just the 2nd half of the year!  In his short time with Milwaukee, he’s doubled his CG total for the season.  This guy can really eat up innings and he’s probably the best move the team could’ve made to help out the bulpen.  Bill Castro must be feeling great about having CC on the mound, as it gives him some extra time to try and figure out how to get the relievers on track.

In some of the best news I’ve heard since “Favre-gate” started, it was reported today (I believe Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal-Setinel first broke the news) that the Packers are shopping Favre around.  It’s likely a sign that the team is worried that Brett Favre might actually report to training camp.  Word is they spoke to Baltimore so far as well as some other teams.  Sounds like the reasonable compensation is a 3rd round pick, maybe a player (definitely not a starter).  As everyone has said, Tampa is a spot with great potential for Favre.

So now the way this is probably going to play out is 1) Favre will have to show he is serious about playing and report to Green Bay (or do something to indicate he wants to play).  2) Favre will have to agree to play for whatever team the Packers have negotiated a deal with.  3) He will be gone before he ever gets a chance to put on his green and gold uniform.

To show a bit more comitment to the future, 7th round pick Matt Flynn, the QB from LSU, signed a contract today.  He’s probably going to be our #3 guy this year unless he has a fantastic preseason.

FUNNIEST.  SHIT.  EVER.

Seriously, there is no way this can possible end in anything but heartbreak and unintentional comedy.

You’ve probably never heard of Chuck Douglas Booth, unless you’re related to him.  You probably won’t hear about him again unless the local news does something when he is in your area.  Who is he?  Well, he’s just a guy trying to catch a double-header today, in two different states!  Here’s the story from the Detroit Free Press.

In other news, I’m not sure how many times this video has been around the web already, but here’s another link for it.  Italian Spider Man is GREAT!  There’s several episodes as well as some knock-offs.  Here’s the trailer:

And just for fun, let’s watch something painful from the past:

Well, the first night of Sabathia in Milwaukee was exciting, but nothing after his arrival was spectacular so it’s on to other things.  Looks like Elton Brand is going to be a 76er.  So much for him saying he wanted to put his pride aside to get a ring ala Boston.  Instead he has gone from one NBA wasteland to another.  Not only that, but Baron Davis opted out of a ton of money to help make things happen in LA with Brand.  Now Baron Davis is the newest star wasting his life as a Clipper.

In other news, why is it news that Favre sent a text message to Ted Thompson?  Can we all just agree to shut up about Favre until something official happens?  I don’t care what he secretly hopes.  I don’t care what teams some idiot sportswriters or braindead fans want him to play for.  I don’t care what color shorts he wore to the bait shop on Thursday.  It’s too much.  We need preseason to start so this can all be brushed aside with the other pointless gossip.

Batman and Robin.  Super hero, understudy.  Always has been that way, always will be.  Robin is always an afterthought compared to Batman, because Batman is Batman.  It has nothing to do with what Robin has done or hasn’t done.  In fact, unless you are the type of person who really studied the comics, you don’t know much about Robin at all.  The common person thinks of Robin from the aweful TV show where he was (in)famous for saying things like “holy uncanny photographic mental process, Batman!”  You can’t judge the entire potential of a character on a poorly written spoof sitcom.  Robin still got the bad guy a few times and he always put in a good effort.  Not only that, but he learned from Batman!  It’s not like it was some character with superhuman abilities like Spider Man trying to teach something that can’t be taught.  Sure, there is some inherit ability in being Batman, maybe some good instincts or reflexes.  However, a lot of it is based on experience and a knowledge of his craft.  Let’s face it, large fortune aside Batman is a regular guy like anyone else.  Sure, he’s a tad more pissed off than most, but regular guy nonetheless.  So why is it impossible to believe that someone who maybe has a similar skillset couldn’t learn Batman’s craft?  Maybe if Batman takes a vacation for a month, is it impossible to believe that Robin couldn’t go off and take out Dr. Doom?  Is it even beyond comprehension that Robin could do Batman’s job better?  Or at least, do it better than an old, overweight George Clooney Batman?  Well, obviously I’m not the only one who wondered this, because there was a comic series (maybe more than one) based on the Robin character going solo.

So why can’t this philosophy apply to Favre?  Aaron Rodgers has all the tools necessary to be a quarterback, we know that.  He’s learned from a great quarterback.  Maybe Favre didn’t take on an active role as a teacher, but Rodgers could at least have learned by watching.  On top of that, sure Favre has had some success recently, but he also threw 29 interceptions not too long ago.  McCarthy admitted he has had to shorten up the playbook based on Favre’s abilities (mainly his inability to throw a deep ball).  You don’t have to do that with Rodgers.  I’m not saying Rodgers will be breaking ANY of Favre’s records, ever.  I’m saying, that there is a possibility that Rodgers could have a better next few seasons than a guy who is 14 years older than him.

Sadly, I won’t be at the game.  I’m not even going to look at what ticket prices have jumped to in the last 24 hours.  It will be pretty amazing to see a Milwaukee game likely sell out, on a Tuesday against the Rockies.

I will definitely be watching the game though, cannot wait to see how the new ace (do you call it a “deuce” when you have two aces?) settles in his first night.

So now it looks like the starting rotation will be:
- Sabathia
- Sheets
- Parra
- Suppan
- McClung or Bush

And at the end of the season, we have the *potential* of adding Gallardo into that mix and push Suppan into the #5 spot. 

Look out Cubbies!

…but I’ve been reading the Sabathia rumors and have gotten rather excited.  Well now that it seems pretty much official, I am extremely excited.  In fact, I’ve been a Brewer fan for roughly 20 of my 26.5 years on this planet and I have not once been this elated to be a fan.  I think you have to agree this immediately puts the Brewers as one of the favorites in the NL to go to the World Series (them and the Cubs).  Man oh man, what a deal!  I can’t wait to see how the rest of the season unfolds.  It’s a tough to think of what LaPorta could have been, but it’s far greater to envision what is going to happen NOW.

Not that it can possibly be a secret at this point, but the word is Brett Favre wants to come back and play again.  The Packers don’t want him, they don’t want to release him either.  They want him retired.  Sorry Brett, should’ve thought of this before you announced your retirement.  Bummer for Brett, but that’s life, right?

Who knows… Even if the Packers want Favre back, you’d think they would put a big front on to make sure Brett really truely wants to come back.  You don’t want to take the guy in and have him change his mind week 2 of pre-season.  You also don’t want your future QB, Aaron Rodgers, to think that you’ll just cast him aside one more year without a second thought if you can get any hope of Favre being around.  And if the Packers don’t want Favre back, that makes sense too.  They’ve invested a lot in turning over the franchise and eventually you have to see that plan into action.

So what are we supposed to make of this?  There’s decent reason for the Packers not to take Favre back.  There’s probably better reason to take him back.  Granted he made some mistakes in that Giants game, as well as several other games, he still did get the team pretty close to a Super Bowl.  He’s also coming into a team that has hopefully improved from last year.  So in theory, taking Brett back puts your team as a top 5 team in the NFL with expectations of making the Super Bowl.  Going with Aaron Rodgers puts you as an expected 2nd place team in the division.  In the end, it’s probably worth giving the old guy another shot.  I guess if he falls apart mid-season you bench him and bring in Rodgers and Favre tarnishes his career a bit but gets some extra assurance that he is done with football.  If you tell him “no” and end up with an 8-8 season, you’ll always be wondering.

During their pre-season fantasy rankings of teams, Yahoo! picked the Chicago Bears as dead last for fantasy value.  This should come as no surprise, as the Bears have clearly shown that they have no interest in winning games or even scoring points anywhere inside the next 4 years.  The team is clearly trying to trim as much cap space as possible to go into another rebuilding next year and I’m guessing the only reason they gave Tommie Harris an extension was to keep fans coming in on Sundays.  The team is completely inept in every department but kickoff returns and old lazy linemen.

And that was just last season, they made some drastic changes this year.  Namely, losing a combined 110 catches, 1518 yards and 8 TDs between their two best receivers; Bernard Berrian and Mushin Muhammad.  Not only that, but they let Berrian go to a division rival!  They also wisely cut Cedric Benson, their leading rusher.  However, their new starting running back is a guy referred to as “the other Adrian Peterson.”  Their three starting QBs last year put together a 71.8 QB rating, a meager 6.4 yards per attempt, 17 TDs, 21 INTs.

I’m not sure who their starting wide receivers are going to be this year, but it looks like some combination of Mark Bradley, Rashied Davis and Devin Hester.  Not exactly confidence inspiring.  As the article mentioned, Greg Olsen does show some promise at TE, but he’s definitely not going to be a full time player.  He’ll also probably have a crowd of defenders around him at all times as no other offensive player is worth covering.  Beyond that, it looks like the best hope for Bears fans is that Matt Forte is likely to get 5-10 carries a game.  I’m sure as soon as he gets a 12 yard run (which will probably be the longest play from scrimmage for the first few weeks) his jersey will instantly become harder to find than thin crust pizza in Chicago.  The Bears fans will immediately crown him the new “Sweetness.”  Olin Kreutz will be on Chicago radio 10 years from now saying “Yeah, I remember I cut blocked the nose tackle and Matt got easily an extra 5 yards because of it.”  The crowd will chant for him to be a starter with dreams of “the run” going through their minds; only to see him get the job and average 3.2 per carry the rest of the year.

I’m sure this can all somehow be blamed on Urlacher’s bad back though…