Way back at the beginning of the season I wrote a blog asking how good Yuniesky Betancourt had to be to not be vilified by Brewers fans this season. To be honest, there were times he was downright horrible and you could bank on him swining at the first pitch and looking silly in the process.
But, as has been talked about a bit by beat writers Tom Haudricourt and Todd Rosiak in the Journal-Sentinel, Yuni B, or as the 223 calls him, Yu Bet, has blazed a trail in the second half of the season and is carrying the bottom half of the batting order for the Brewers. You might laugh at that and until I trotted on over to Baseball-reference.com, I didn't quite believe it either. Yuni is in the midst of a 10-game hitting streak, including back-to-back three hit games, just his fourth three-hit affairs of the season.
His numbers during this 22-game stretch are pretty ridiculous. He is hitting .388 since the All-Star break with 31 hits, three of which are home runs. That's more impressive considering he only has eight on the season. He's also driven in 18 runs to push his total to 48 on the season. Most importantly, his batting average is now approaching .270. Be honest, you didn't think in your wildest dreams he would even come close to that number this season.
Even Ron Roenicke has touched on the fact that Yuni has had his struggles this season, and while he toyed - for a game- with putting him in the No. 5 spot in the lineup, the No. 6 spot (or No. 7 when Rickie was hitting fifth and Casey McGehee sixth) is where he belongs. It's what earned him the Player of the Month honors on the team for the month of July and to be honest it couldn't have come at a better time.
The loss of Rickie Weeks for what could be six weeks (he won't be back until at earliest Sept. 1 to save the team from making the decision on who to let go) could have been something that sent the team into a tail spin. While the pitching on this team has been great, the Brewers still need runs to come in to score, and they need something behind Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder, especially deeper in the lineup. Both Ryan and Prince are hitting well right now, so Yuni has come through at almost the time the team needed him to most by delivering them and helping this group seize control of the NL Central.
Yes, Jonathan Lucroy has been solid in the No. 8 slot, but Yuni was looked at as a black hole in front of him. As was talked about on the D-List today, Drew Olson made a point that even Yuni's defense somehow looks better with him hitting so well. Now really it isn't but with McGehee finally coming back to where the team expected he'd be, things are coming together behind Ryan and Prince in some equally important RBI spots in the batting order.
I'm not asking Yuni to keep up this horrid pace, but it's been a welcome help in keeping the team rolling. Now with Corey Hart's bruised hand and day-to-day status and McGehee's knee pain, there are not many pops behind Prince in the batting order and help is needed to bridge the gap until all the boppers get healthy and return to the lineup.
Moving on to my faithful Chicago Bears. We are now a week into training camp and storylines are taking more shape beyond free agents. The biggest one on Bears camp in the last couple of days that was not related to the cancelling of Family Night at Solider Field on Friday Night (Ridiculous!) is the naming of all five starting offensive linemen. It was actually a bit of a surprise this would get done this early with the first preseason game coming Saturday night.
Even a tad more of a surprise was the guys themselves who will make up the five and a key omission by line coach Mike Tice. He named J'Marcus Webb as the starting left tackle, Chris Williams to left guard, Roberto Garza to replace Olin Kruetz at Center, Lance Louis to RG and rookie Gabe Carimi the starting right tackle.
The key ommission was newly acquaired center Chris Spencer as a free agent from the Seahawks. I would take this as a sign he's not ready to be the guy to lead this team at the line of scrimmage at the moment and Garza can step in now.
So why is this a big deal? It's no secret the line was what held the Bears back at the start of last season and I don't really want to remember the game against the Giants that nearly got Jay Cutler killed. By the second half of the season, the line had gelled and things started to come together with the same five guys anchoring things in front as a solid unit. This way the group has five weeks to come together in time for the Sept. 11 opener. The feeling among those close to the Bears in the media is this group could surprise some people this season.
The first glimpse of that comes Saturday night against those dreaded NY Giants.
Finally, it's time for the Nussie Hunter portion of our broadcast. I'm pretty sure you've heard of Bar Rafaeli by now. She's been on the cover of the SI Swimsuit Iussue in the past and dated Leo DiCaprio. She might be one of the most perfect looking women in the world. Seriously, find a blemish on her. That might be why she models bathing suits. My boys at Guyism found her modeling a whole ton of them today and my jaw nearly dropped. Here's a link to the entire album. And here's a sample (or two).
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