Alright, time to get back on the horse.

I've been very busy with a string of golf tournaments in the past few days, so I apologize for the lack of Round 'em Up-ness.  Good thing akittell is around, as his great articles are keeping you all informed and whetting the Brewers appetite.  

How about a couple things I learned this weekend?

1. Losing to the Padres is depressing.
2. Eric Gagne should never pitch in the eighth inning again.  I'm done defending him.
3. CC Sabathia is a stud.  An absolute stud.
4. Ben Sheets will continue to get injured in the weirdest manners, whether it's a cramped groin because he decided not to drink any fluids before the game, or having his hand go numb because he's terrible at the plate.

Here are you links of the day...retroactive a bit.

Be sure to check out akittell's great article on Dave Bush and his misleading numbers.  You'll be surprised at what you find.

• It seems that Brian Giles' homer off Eric Gagne was the straw that broke Ned Yost's back.  I think it's safe to say Gagne will not be seeing eighth inning duties anytime soon.  Milwaukee's skipper says that he will attempt to play the match-ups a bit more.  He plans to mix in Guillermo Mota, Carlos Villanueva, Brian Shouse, and David Riske (please no).  I would love to see Mota and CV in the eighth.  Shouse should rarely see a full inning.
• Battlekow from Brew Crew Ball has some pretty pictures regarding Eric Gagne's suck-ness.  It's rather depressing to visually see how bad he has been, even though Ned Yost has stuck with him.  There is something to be said for sticking with your players and not giving in to knee-jerk reactions, but I get a little upset with how stubborn Yost is with certain players.  If a pitcher is on pace for giving up over 50 home runs in 200 innings and has a reasonable sample size, you don't keep trotting him out there for a couple weeks to see if it's gotten better.
• Ken Rosenthal from FOX Sports believes that Milwuakee will be shopping J.J. Hardy or Prince Fielder this off-season for some young, quality starting pitching.  MLB Trade Rumors doesn't see the Crew parting with Fielder.  I'm not sure what I would prefer at this point, as Fielder would net a larger return.  He would also leave a bigger hole in our offense.  J.J.'s defense and bat is quite valuable in the middle of the infield though.  It will be interesting to see what happens this winter.
• Cleveland.com is reporting something completely new about the PTBNL in the CC Sabathia deal.  If the Brewers make the postseason, the Indians will get to select who they want from the list of four prospects.  If Milwaukee is not playing in October, however, the Crew gets to decide which prospect will be playing in the Indians' system next season.  I hear Cleveland desperately wants Taylor Green, so I assume he's gone if Milwaukee makes the playoffs.  It is not clear who is all on the table in the trade, however, so I'm not sure who Milwaukee would want to ship to Cleveland.
• Prince Fielder is in the biggest power outage of his career.  Don't worry though.  He'll just swing harder to try to break out of it.
• The Brew Town Beat notes that Milwaukee's pitchers have all grown beards since September started.  That hasn't worked out overly well, so BTB is calling for the pitching staff to shave off the facial hair and start pitching better as a whole.  I agree that pitchers are superstitious by nature, but Ben Sheets has thrown the ball well with his manly beard.  I think he can keep his.
• Yovani Gallardo threw against live hitters before Saturday's game.  Before you get too excited, there is almost no chance that he will be returning to the Brewers before the season ends.  He still is not performing too many defensive drills and has to work on simple things like running.  This story is largely a tease, in my opinion, but it is fantastic to hear that Yo is progressing so quickly from the knee injury.  He is my favorite Brewer and will be a main cog of the starting rotation next season.
• September is the time of year when wide-eyed, young prospects get to experience the big league game for the first time.  Alcides Escobar is one of those youngsters.  He's soaking it all in and enjoying every minute in the dugout.  The young shortstop got his first hit on a bloop single, but has also been used on the basepaths as a pinch runner.  I knew he could run well, as his 34 stolen bases in Double-A suggest, but he's faster than I thought.
• Speaking of Alcides Escobar, he and Mat Gamel made Baseball America's Minor League All-Star team at their respective positions.  I was surprised to see Gamel still take home the first-team honors, as he slowed down a ton down the stretch.  Then again, he's always been a fast-starter and struggles as the season wears on into August.  I wonder if it's a lack of adjustments on his part or simply fatigue.
• The Hardball Times gives each team a theme song.  Milwaukee's is "The Kids Are Alright" by the Who.  The young core and the young starting pitching have come through to put the Brewers atop the Wild Card race, even though that four-game lead over the Phillies is looking rather tenuous right now.  Milwaukee needs to get on another win streak and put this race away.  The Phillies are getting hot and my heart cannot take a close race or a disappointing end to the season.
• Perhaps in a delayed response to the CC Sabathia controversial one-hitter, Dugout Central says the MLB should get rid of the official scorer completely.  I have to agree that there is always a hometown bias in the decisions, but I wouldn't go as far as to say it needs mending.  The scoring decisions rarely matter.