The Milwaukee Brewers will be taking on the Pittsburgh Pirates this weekend.  The Crew needs to take the series against the lowly Pirates, and you can see how the team needs to do down the stretch by looking at Part II of akittell's article "Tracking Down 92 Wins Part 2."  It's some great analysis.  It gives a great overview through the end of the year.

• Tom Haudricourt says the Pirates will have a large impact on the Crew's playoff chances in 2008.  They will have three series against each other in the final 34 games of the season.  If Milwaukee is able to take care of business against the Pirates, the team will be well on its way to making the playoffs.
  
• The Brew Town Beat wonders if anyone else is happy about the Xavier Nady and Jason Bay trades going into this weekend.  I am quite happy about it.  Xavier Nady kills the Crew every game, it seems.  While the trades benefit the Brewers this season, however, I'm not overly excited that Pittsburgh's front office appears to be rebuilding their system in the correct way.  They are getting plenty of talent into their farm system and proved this month that they're not afraid to spend money on draft picks (see Pedro Alvarez).  That just may or may not be me looking too far into the future.
• The bullpen is very well rested this season, as Brewers starters have gone quite deep into games throughout the season.  This is great news, obviously.  Last season, Derrick Turnbow complained about a sore arm due to overwork.  This season, some in the 'pen are worried about not getting enough work to stay sharp.  The bullpen will be quite rested for the stretch run, and that's more than the Chicago Cubs can say.  Carlos Marmol's arm still may fall off.
• Going back to The Brew Town Beat, they want to know why Laynce Nix is still with the Brewers.  They ask why Tony Gwynn Jr. isn't on the big league squad.  Nix is a big power threat, but strikes out a ton. 
  
• Why isn't Tony Gwynn Jr. in The Show?  I'll let Chuckie Hacks answer that one.
• ESPN's Buster Olney says that Ryan Braun is the best in the league against the league's best pitchers.  I didn't have the stats to back it up, but I always wondered if that were true.  He seems to pick it up against the likes of Carlos Zambrano all the time.  It's very interesting as well that Dan Uggla is so bad against good pitchers.  That's because he's strictly a fastball hitter and the better pitchers will get ahead in the count with offspeed pitches, while bad pitchers fall behind and have to come in with fastballs.
• The Junkball Blues warns to not get too excited about Alcides Escobar.  I understand why Radio is concerned with moving J.J. Hardy away from shortstop, as he has immense offensive value at the position.  That is true.  I will not argue with that, but Alcides has a chance to be a much better fielder at short than does J.J.  Not to mention, Hardy still would have a lot of value at second base.  The Brewers are not going to trade Escobar, nor should they.  Melvin is not going to trade away six years of cheap MLB service for a pitcher.  That is, unless DM and company don't believe Alcides can handle the bigs.  We all know that's not the case.  Perhaps I'll write an article on this once I have a little more time to think about it.
• Who should get the majority of starts at second base, Ray Durham or Rickie Weeks?  Brewers Fanatics took a poll and about two-thirds say Durham.  My response...get off Rickie's back.  He's done just fine since the All-Star Break.  Rickie has a .270 average with a .383 on-base percentage since the break.  If you think Rickie's the reason the Brewers are losing games at this point in the season, you are either not watching the games, or you have a personal vendetta against Weeks.  Either way, Rickie deserves the starting job.
• Right Field Bleachers thinks that everyone should start worrying about the Time Warner Cable Curse.  That's right.  There is pretty good evidence that whoever is in those commercials has a down year.  It has effected Jeff Cirillo, Bill Hall, Geoff Jenkins, and Rickie Weeks.  Get the bat boy or something to be on those commercials.
• The Capital Times says Miller Park is not as great as everyone thinks.  I disagree.  I've been to the new Busch Stadium that everyone loves, and I liked Miller Park better.  The newspaper seems to be very concerned about the placement of the stadium.  I don't really care about that at all.  The retractable roof is wonderful.  The only aspect of Miller Park I dislike is the scoreboard lights.  They're just annoying.
• The Chicago Tribune doesn't see much changing with the Chicago Cubs this off-season.  Ryan Dempster prefers to come back to the Windy City, and Kerry Wood will certainly come back.  Hopefully, the Cubs will not be making a big splash this winter.  That would be scary.
• Do you know who Mike Aviles is?  He's saved my fantasy baseball team this season.  Yes, a Kansas City Royal has been a Fantasy Baseball star.  If no one has picked him up in your league, do it now.  If you don't believe me, The Hardball Times can convince you.