The View From Wisconsin

It took them six games, but the 2008 Brewers proved themselves to be the best NL team in Milwaukee baseball history.

For those of you just tuning in, I had completed previously a "Selig Series" between the 1982 AL champion Brewers and the '08 squad, where the '08 Crew came one game away from a sweep (due to, as I later learned, a transcription error on the part of me in regards to Moose Haas' ERA rating).

When that series was over, my natural instinct was to have the '08 squad take on the other great NL team in Milwaukee history, the 1957 Braves. This series I dubbed the Milwaukee National League Championship Series - and it turned out to be a (relatively) close series.

The Brewers and Braves split the first four games, but it was CC Sabathia's solid performance in game five (scattering 10 hits and striking out six) that turned the tide towards the Crew. The Brewers clinched the series in game six, with a masterful performance by Ben Sheets - and despite a major scare from Salomon Torres.

There are a few things that I learned from this series:

1. "Spahn and Burdette, One Day Wet, and maybe Buhl yet" wasn't just a saying - it was the truth. The two big guns of the '57 Braves starting rotation were 2-2 in the series;
   
2. Bob Hazle was amazing for the Braves, but Rickie Weeks and JJ Hardy both had a better series. Hazle went 9-15 with a HR and 3 RBI (and he didn't even play in game four), but Weeks went 10-26 with a homer, 4 RBI and a 1.044 OPS. Hardy went 7-25 with 9 RBI and a HR.
   
3. Jeff Suppan sucks rocks. He was so incredibly bad that I actually changed the roster and activated a semi-healthy Ben Sheets to pitch game six. This turned out to be a good move, since Sheets struck out six in 7.2 innings.
   
4. LONGBALL, as a game, tends to favor the hitter over the pitcher by a wide margin. I was getting consecutive rolls of walks and hits, and I was openly wondering if the pitcher on the mound could actually get ANYONE out.
   

Anyways, as a final act to this theoretical championship post-season, I've decided to have the other 95-win team in Brewers history - the 1979 AL team - to take on the '08 Brewers. Game one has Mike Caldwell going up against Sabathia.