I'm not even sure where to start after such a long absence. Since I last posted a lot has happened and it seems like there is a lot to catch up on.

• The Ray Durham trade was a good one. They didn't give up too much to get him and he offers a lot of flexibility for the club off the bench and as a contingency plan for Rickie Weeks. My longstanding opinion on Weeks still stands, they need to try and give him every opportunity to succeed because his talent makes him a potential monster. That being said, if Weeks is mired in one of his slumps in September, they need another option to leadoff and Durham provides that. There has been a lot of unnecessary hand wringing that Yost hasn't played Durham enough, though Weeks has been far from terrible in the last month with the bat. Still, the fact that the trade created uncertainty doesn't mean it was a bad idea. Durham is a useful player and a good option to have in whatever role he eventually ends up filling.

• The Brewers have all of a sudden become real road warriors. After defeating the Reds on Wednesday, they are now 11-2 in their last 13 games on the road, an outstanding departure from their recent past. With any luck, this will persist and we can all stop talking/hearing/reading about Ned Yost's alleged inability to win on the road once and for all.

• Getting swept in 4 games at home by the Cubs hurts. A lot. It's the sort of thing that can send a team into a downward spiral of losses, especially when it's followed by 6 games on the road right away. Fortunately, this team rebounded nicely with a 4-2 trip and seem to have stabilized. Sweeping the series in St. Louis gave them some wiggle room and despite some serious offensive struggles since the break the team has a 12-8 record and is in better position than they were before the break. That's not a complete success, but it's far from bad.

• Yost is still misusing Carlos Villanueva and someone needs to put a stop to it. Since going to the pen, Carlos has a 1.75 ERA in 36 innings. There is no justification for using a player of that ability and production in low leverage "mop up" situations on a regular basis, especially when you consider the type of high leverage innings that have gone to inferior pitchers like Mota and Gagne. Now that Seth McClung is in the bullpen on an everyday basis, they should be able to give CV more meaningful innings, which would be a much wiser use of the given resources.