Will Brewrs sucumb to the SI cover jinx?

All of the talk this week surrounding YOUR Milwaukee Brewers is about whether or not they will fall victim to the Sports Illustrated cover jinx. Players have been asked (to which my fellow Twitter follower Nyjer Morgan "pleads the fifth.)
Ryan Braun spoke with Tom Haudricourt for a brief in the Journal-Sentinel and said, "I think it's great," said Braun. "It's great for the Milwaukee Brewers organization, it's great for the city of Milwaukee. For all three of us, we're proud to have the opportunity to represent this organization, the city of Milwaukee and the state of Wisconsin."
That's both sides from the players, who will never say the curse exists. The "Taking the Fifth" is about the closest you'll get to it. My take on it is, there might not be a jinx, but after the run they made, there is bound to be some market correction in the next couple of weeks that could make the gap between them and the Cardinals closer.
The start of that correction is already underway with the split in Pittsburgh in the four-games three days at PNC.
The next 16 games have some tests in them with the likes of the Cardinals in three-game sets both at Miller Park and Busch Stadium, plus the Phillies for four and the Rockies for two (all six of which at home). The fact that 12 of the 18 games will be at Miller Park, the other three of which include the Cubs this weekend, should help the Brewers keep from letting things get out of control, but I am thinking it might not be as successful of a run as they've had at home to this point. Although, every time I seem to think that, they seem to run off 8-1 homestands.
The other thing going in their favor is the move by Ron Roenicke (who is making a strong case for Manager of the Year, which I will make in a future post), choosing to skip Chris Narveson the next time through the pitching rotation with two off days (today and Monday) and go with just the Big Four in what has to be a move to push forward with the Magic Number at 22 entering Thursday night with hope of catching the Phillies for the best record in the National League.
So where will this market correction come in? Those nine games against the Cards in St. Loius and the Phillies and Rockies at Miller Park will test this team. You'd have to hope the offense can pull out of this current slumber, Tuesday's 11-run outburst not included. That could be the telling week in whether this team can catch Philadelphia for the top-spot in the NL. 
That Phillies series will be the biggest regular season series this team will have played and all eyes will be on Miller Park. We'll have to see how the team handles those four games and the top-tier pitching they will see in the playoffs.
One would think Roenicke and pitching coach Rick Kranitz have already worked a couple weeks ahead to plan out the pitching staff for the Phillies series and skipping Narveson and utilizing him out of the pen helps maximize victories. With it a ways out, we'll have to wait and see.
Of course, the biggest question mark in this whole thing is the return of Rickie Weeks. One would expect him to return at or shortly after Sept. 1 from his sprained ankle. If he's able to come back in the No. 5 spot in the order and produce like he was prior to getting injured, what I just said will be nonsense. If he slumps, things might get a little tough heading into the final two weeks of the regular season.

No matter how it turns out, the last time they were on the cover, April 27, 1987 "Team Streak" fell flat and missed the playoffs. Well, this team WILL NOT be missing the playoffs, but I wouldn't be surprised with a little market correction bringing this team back to earth a little bit.


As you may have noticed there's no Nussie Hunter in today's section. I'm toying with the idea of doing away with the feature and focusing on just sports. What do you think?

Yuni B carrying the Brewers? Yu Bet!

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).