The Milwaukee Brewers'  starting pitching has not been good. It's beena struggle for most of the season. Outside of Gallardo (most of the time) and Randy Wolf (some of the time) Ken Macha has had to go to his bullpen earlier and earlier with predictable results. Milwaukee won 2-3 this weekend over San Diego despite the starters struggling again. They won the first two games with some clutch late game hitting and some good relief work. Gallardo lasted only 3 and a third on Friday and Narveson made it three innings on Saturday. Manny Parra went six on Sunday but when it fell apart, it fell apart quickly. Parra called his fastball command "consistently terrible". He gave up seven runs on eight hits with 4 walks. This has been the pattern with Parra...one or two bad innings sabotaging decent starts. Now Macha and GM Doug Melvin are talking about replacing Parra when the Brewers expand their roster on September 1st. They have options. Mark Rogers, Cody Scarpetta, Josh Butler and Amaury Rivas are all on the 40 man roster. The job of Melvin (if he's around) this winter is simple...starting pitching...and if that means trading Prince Fielder to aquire something decent, most Brewer fans will live with that.

I hated Lou Piniella when he was with the Yankees. Of course in those days I hated all Yankees. But Piniella was one of those guys that you would love if he was on your team but absolutely despise when he was on the other team. He played balls to the wall all the time and hated losing. He carried that over to his managing and of course got carried away as some of his recorded meltdowns on the field will show. This season had to be very depressing for him...an expensive underachieving team circling the drain for the last two months....but what he brought to the Chicago Cubs organization is something that should stay with them. That is the expectation of winning. It seems that the Cubs organization for years knew they would draw fans whether they won or lost....so building a winning team wasnt the priority it might be in other places. Piniella wouldnt accept that...now, spending money is no guarantee of a winner(this season is a perfect example)but the culture of losing that had been ingrained at the corner of Sheffield and Addison for decades needed to go. Cub fans are no longer content to sit in the bleachers at Wrigley and just enjoy the experience while the team flounders on the field. Ryne Sandberg is expected to be the next Cub's manager and it is he who will be expected to carry on what Piniella built and also take the next step...

The packer starting offense looks ready to go...the defense, not so much. Aaron Rodgers looks great but unless you want a season of high scoring shootouts, the defense has to get healthy and start stopping someone. No rest Thursday night as Peyton Manning and the Colts come to town.

The high school football season gets underway this week. All games will be on Foxsports 1390 WRIG. The Wausau East Lumberjacks start the season Thursday night at Thom Field against Kingsford, Michigan...I'll be on the air at 6:45.

Songs of the Day  (from my I-pod)

Gimme Back My Bullets-Lynyrd Skynrd (1976) this is the Lp where they went to two guitars instead of three before Steve Gaines joined the band...the sound was different but still smoked. Ronnie Van Zant was an icon of the 70's.

Gimme Three Steps-Lynyrd Skynrd (1973) a classic from the first Lp...Everybody remembers Free Bird and Sweet Home Alabama but this band had tons of good tunes...when you think southern rock it was the Allmans, CDB, Marshall Tucker Band and the boys from Jacksonville...and none of them rocked harder than Skynyrd.