Looks like I'm already down and the season hasn't even started.

Torvik got me to pick a QB favorite earlier this summer and I went with Phillips over Stave. While Stave has not been officially named the starter, the word on the street is he will win the job.

I am coming around on the new coach. I still have reservations about changing offensive and defensive systems that have worked amazingly over 2 decades, 2 coaches and 6 Rose Bowls. The choice of Stave over the much more athletic McEvoy, and the slightly more mobile and more experienced (or at least older) Phillips leads me to believe they are willing to craft the scheme to the talent. Stave will not be running the read option any time soon.

One of my reservations about the new coach had more to do with fan expectations more than Gary Anderson. After 2 wildly successful coaches and an impossible to imagine 6 Rose Bowls I thought the fan base had lost touch with reality when it came to reasonable expectations for this program. This is mostly based on what I hear and read, but it seemed pretty representative of the fan base as a whole.

What I heard at the end of the Bielema era were ridiculous things like UW should be a contender for a national championship. Not a Big Ten Championship, a National Championship. UW has had some great teams and has had some seasons where they were close to such lofty goals. UW certainly would have had a chance to play for a National Championship in a couple of recent seasons if an 8 team playoff existed, but that's a topic for another day. UW is not that type of program, and probably never will be.

I think I may have misread some of the fan base expectations because people hated Bielema so much. Much of my fear about expectations is because despite all of Bielema's success there were constantly fans who hated him and wanted him fired. They hated him because he didn't win a Rose Bowl, or have a good Bowl record in general, but mostly they hated him because he was a dick. I didn't care that Bielema was a dick. All I cared about was that the Badgers went to 3 Rose bowls and had a ton of wins while he was the coach. Gary Anderson on the other hand seems to have endeared himself to the fan base in a very short time, and by all accounts is pleasant to listen to in interviews and is an all around good human being.

If the fans like him, will they be more forgiving than they were with Bielema? Maybe. If he doesn't win enough to get to bowl games routinely then it won't matter how much he is liked or how saintly he is in life. Earlier this year if I was told he will win regularly but won't get to a BCS/Rose Bowl then I would have said he won't finish his contract. Now that I have seen how likable he is I'm not so sure. Fans are human beings after all, and how much a person is liked does matter to them in their perception of him as a coach.

I will start making my picks against the spread like last year, but not for a few weeks. You shouldn't bet on something you know nothing about, and no one knows much about football teams they have never seen play. Even though the only thing I'm risking is my pride. I'll resume picks in a few weeks once this team has shown more of itself.

It's too bad teams can't make overseas trips every year.

I know it's almost football season so I'll do a post on that soon, but I couldn't resist my basketball Badgers.

It was quite fun to get some summer basketball from the Badgers this past week. All I was able to watch was the 2nd half of the Ryerson game, but even that was a welcome break from baseball. I didn't see or read anything to question my assumptions from the end of last season:

The Badgers are going to start and play a lot of 3 guard and probably some 4 guard lineups. Kaminsky will have to play a lot. Dekker will almost never come out of the game and will be a dominating force in the Big Ten. They are going to be a lot of fun to watch.

The schedule came out today and it should be a fun year. There are not as many early cupcakes as usual. Perhaps because of the Canada trip UW will be ready for big tests early and they will get some wins. They start with Big East foe St. Johns on a neutral court, probable preseason top 10 Florida at home, and at Green Bay (where Bo Ryan has suffered a preseason loss before).

I think this team will be a championship contender in what should be a good but not great Big Ten Conference. They have a lucky schedule in that they don't play at MSU or at OSU and only play each team once. The other 2 teams they get once are Nebraska and PSU on the road. I think they ride a 4-0 record in those games plus a 10-4 record in the remaining games to a share of the Big Ten title at 14-4.

Sam Dekker is going to be great

The Badgers went 4-1 on their Canadian tour, and Sam Dekker pretty much dominated every game, except for one game when he got in foul trouble. I got to watch most of the stream of the Ryerson game, which included these two Dekker assists, on back-to-back possessions:



I'm going to enjoy watching Sam play for the next couple of years.

--Bart Torvik

Badgers QB redux

Alright, Chorlton, time to take a stand:

Who should start at QB for the Badgers?

Last year we clashed on Stave versus O'Brien.

You failed that test. Redemption time?

End of an era for Bucks

The Bucks signed and traded Brandon Jennings today to the Detroit Pistons for Brandon Knight and some throw in players.

Just a few years ago the Bucks were an up-and-coming team with Andrew Bogut earning 3rd -team all-NBA and Jennings as a rookie superstar with oodles of potential. Then Bogut shattered his elbow, and the rest is sad Bucks history. That team went to Game 7 in round 1 of the playoffs against a solid Hawks team without the injured Bogut, but he never returned to the player he was and Jennings never made that leap from potential to star.

When the Bucks shunned Jennings and offered Jeff Teague a 4-year 32-million-dollar deal it was obvious Jennings was no longer in the plans. This Bucks team looks ready to go straight in the tank. I didn't think Kohl would allow a team so bad to be put on the floor, but I was wrong. This team looks headed to a starting lineup of Knight, Mayo, Delfino, Ilyasova and Sanders. Lottery here we come. At least there will be dirt cheap tickets available by January.

Did Aaron Rodgers just lose a year's salary?

Green Bay QB Aaron Rodgers was a strong defender of Brewers' left fielder Ryan Braun when he was accused of juicing last year. His defense included the following exchange with a fan on Twitter:

@toddsutton ya I'd put my salary next year on it. #ponyup #exonerated
— Aaron Rodgers (@AaronRodgers12) February 23, 2012

Now that Braun has essentially confessed to using PEDs, many are saying that Rodgers lost his bet, which amounts to $8.5 million or so.

To state the obvious, there's no enforceable contract here because there was no consideration. But a tougher question, perhaps, is whether there was even a bet. Notice that Rodgers's statement is couched conditionally: "I'd put my salary next year on it." So he said that he would put his salary on it, but left unstated were the terms and conditions of the bet. People don't normally make "bets" unless they stand to gain something if they're right. So this seems like a challenge to make a bet, a dare, rather than an actual bet. There was no real offer, and no real acceptance. Most importantly, they never shook on it.

There is one countervailing piece of evidence, though: the hashtag comment "#ponyup." What does that mean? My colloquial understanding of the term is that to "pony up" means to pay up, especially after you lose a bet (particularly in a card game such as poker). Does Rodgers's use of #ponyup imply that he is promising to pay up if he's proven incorrect? Or is it a reference to winning bets he previously made to others before Braun was ephemerally #exonerated?

There's enough ambiguity in there that I would say Rodgers is not beholden under the Gentleman's Code to #ponyup this year's salary to Mr. Sutton or anyone else. But a big fat charitable donation to a worthy cause might be in order.

One final thought. I'm on record as suspecting that PEDs are rampant in pro and college football. In that light, Rodgers's over-zealous defense of Braun seems suspiciously defensive. The QB doth protest too much, methinks.

NCAA Tourney performance by conference and thoughts on the Big Ten's future

My summer project so far has been to add coach and conference data to my database of NCAA tournament results since 2003. This has made it even more fun to play around with. For instance, here is the performance of each conference that has won at least 10 games in the Round of 64 or later since 2003:

You can see that the Big Ten has about the same overall winning percentage as the other major conferences. It also has the second-most Sweet 16s and second-most Final Fours and has sent as many teams to the championship game as any conference over this period. (And, notably, Indiana went to the finals in 2002, the year before this dataset begins.) Yet the Big Ten has failed to produce a champion in this period because it has gone 0 for 4 in the finals. 

Meanwhile, representatives from the Big East, ACC and SEC are a combined 10 for 11 in the championship game since 2003. The lone failure was Paul Hewitt's 2004 Georgia Tech team, which lost in the finals to UConn of the Big East. That means that the ACC, Big East, and SEC are a perfect 10 for 10 in the finals against teams from any of the other conferences. Kansas is the only champion from outside those three conferences, and they beat Memphis of Conference USA.

The other stumbling block for the Big Ten has been the Sweet 16, where its record has been 10-14. The Badgers are largely responsible for this, having gone 1 for 5, so the rest of the conference is a merely mediocre 9-9 in that round.

What conclusions can we draw from this? Two spring to mind. 

First, the Big Ten has been unlucky not to win a championship over the past 11 seasons. Based on the Kenpom data, par for the Big Ten since 2003 is 1.85 championships, which makes sense. Illinois, Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State were all championship quality teams that made it to the finals and lost to another good team, so if you replay those championship games they likely come out on top about half the time.

Second, talent kills. What the Big East, ACC, and SEC have that the Big Ten lacks is an abundance of top-line talent. Every team that has won a championship since 2003 has had at least five players drafted in the first round during that period—and only two (Florida and Louisville) have had less than ten. By contrast, just one Big Ten team has produced five or more first-rounders 2003: Ohio State, with seven.

Overall, the Big Ten has produced just 22 first-rounders since 2003. Meanwhile: Duke and North Carolina alone have combined to produce 24; Kansas and Texas: 21; Florida and Kentucky: 19; UConn and Syracuse:18. Those eight teams have combined for 18 Final Fours and 10 of the 11 championships.

In the Big Ten, the "Big Two" are Ohio State and Illinois, who have combined for 11 first rounders. Both of those teams have been to the finals, but no championships of course.

Still, things are looking up for the Big Ten. Michigan and Indiana have reestablished themselves as the kind of programs that can attract big-time talent, having just produced four first-round picks this year and with good classes coming in. Michigan State remains a power, and has frankly been unlucky to have been held back by personnel and injury issues over the past decade. Gary Harris could be an All-American this year. Ohio State just reloads every year. Wisconsin has a likely first-rounder in Sam Dekker, and the freshman class has potential high-level talents in Koenig and Hayes. Illinois has tradition and a wealth of local talent to draw from, as will Maryland when it joins the conference in 2014. Matt Painter has shown he can recruit elite talent to Purdue before, and he continues to land top-100 recruits.

Add it all together and I have a prediction: the Big Ten will win another national championship in basketball—eventually.

--Bart Torvik

Has anyone seen Herb Kohl without sunglasses lately?

There may be a Weekend at Bernie's thing going on, as I fear Herb Kohl may have died. This is the only explanation I can think of for the recent Bucks moves.

The Bucks started the madness by drafting Giannis Antetokounmpo in the first round who won't be ready to play an NBA game this season. A very non-Kohl move.

The Bucks did not try to re-sign Monta Ellis in the free agency period, despite offering him $36 million over 3 years before free agency began. He eventually signed with Dallas for a reported $25 million over 3 years with incentives that could raise the deal to 30 million.

They then signed Jeff Teague to a restricted free agent offer and have ignored the face of the franchise for the last 3 years, Brandon Jennings. Atlanta matched the Bucks offer leaving the Bucks with no Jeff Teague, and poisoning a relationship with Jennings that was already on thin ice.

Now the sanest move of all has happened, one which is completely un-Kohl like. Today the Bucks used the amnesty clause from the last collective bargaining agreement on Drew Gooden. Gooden had 2 years remaining on a deal that pays him over $13 million over the next 2 seasons. The Bucks will still have to pay the entire value of the contract unless some other team signs Gooden, in which case the Bucks just pay the difference between what he gets and what the Bucks would have paid. The idea that Herb Kohl would pay a player 13 million dollars to not play a single minute for his team is crazy in the Kohl world. The only reasonable explanation is that there is a string attached to his arm waving at John Hammond to go ahead and do what he wants, regardless of how sane it is.

Go Badgers

With the signing of Jon Leuer to the Grizzlies, the Badgers now have 3 players in the NBA who have earned contracts beyond their rookie deals. Greg Stiemsma also signed a new deal with the Pelicans this week. While Devin Harris's deal with Dallas was put on hold until his toe injury heals, he was poised to sign a 3-year 9-million-dollar deal. Maybe he's not technically in the league right now, but once his foot heals he will certainly find a home on a team that needs guard depth. Seems weird to say, but Devin Harris will be entering his 10th year in the NBA this season.

I haven't done the research to back it up, but I venture to say no Badger coach has had 3 players get to multiple NBA contracts during his tenure. Go Badgers.

Interesting Bucks move

The Bucks traded Luc Richard Mbah-A-Moute to the Kings for a 2nd-round pick today in what is basically a salary dump move. Luc signed a 4-year deal for $19 million and was 2 years into that deal with the Bucks. At the time he signed the deal it was a reasonable contract for a role-playing, sometime-starter, defensive specialist. At that time Luc was still just 24 and had some potential to grow his offensive game and develop into a solid starter. That didn't happen over the last 2 seasons in which Luc battled through injuries and missed about a fourth of the games. He remained a quality defensive player but never developed into anything more. At 26 he is still young and can be a valuable role player, but he did not outperform his modest salary. He is now overpaid based on his production, but not ridiculously so.

The question is why make a salary dump. Moves like this usually happen when a team needs salary cap flexibility, something the Bucks probably don't need this year. The Bucks are not going to pay the luxury tax, and there is no free agent they could sign that would require them to make such a maneuver. Sometimes a team will make a move like this to clear playing time for a youngster. If that youngster is the new draft pick Giannis who is not ready for NBA competition then the Bucks may be planning to really tank this season. If they had not made the Reddick trade and still had Tobias Harris then this would fit, but they did.

Do they intend to start Delfino or Ilyasova at the 3? Probably not. There is probably another deal (either free agent or trade) that has yet to be announced but has already been made.

Perhaps this will give the Monta fans hope the Bucks can still sign him with added flexibility. We can still dream until he signs elsewhere.

Rise and Fall of the Brewers

I haven't really followed the Brewers much since I left Wisconsin in 2000, but this Grantland piece nicely chronicles their rise and fall since then.

--Bart Torvik

3 year plan

John Hammond signed an extension to be the Bucks general manager through the 2015-2016 season, 3 full seasons from now. His newly hired coach Larry Drew just signed a contract for 3 years with a team option for a 4th. The Bucks just signed OJ Mayo to a 3-year 24-million-dollar contract, and Zaza Pachulia to a 3-year 16-million-dollar contract. Ersan Ilyasova signed a 5-year contract last season, but only the first 4 years and $32 million are guaranteed meaning it will effectively expire after 3 more years assuming he doesn't vastly outperform his deal and earn the 5th year. That leaves the Bucks with about 23 million in expiring contracts after the 2015-16 season. The Bucks are high on last year's rookie John Henson and his rookie deal will expire after the 2015-16 season. If he turns out to be the player they are hoping he becomes then he will certainly eat up some of that salary cap space on his 2nd contract.

Through Hammond's tenure the Bucks have done a pretty good job dumping bad contracts and the have just one currently in Drew Gooden's 5-year 32-million-dollar deal. That deal was inked in 2010 and has just 2 years remaining. The only other veteran contract on the books is a reasonable deal with Mbah-a-Moute for 4 years and $19 million which is 2 years in. Both Mbah-a-Moute and Gooden come off the books the season before Hammond's contract expires.

Udoh, Ish Smith, and Sanders will all be free agents after this season, but only Sanders is expected to stick around after this year. His value is difficult to figure. He has developed into a good player but is far from an all-star talent. The Bucks will have the right to match any offer as he will be a restricted free agent so the market will figure out what he is worth after another full season as a starter.

There are no players currently under contract past the current John Hammond contract, which bring us to the two players who will soon. Giannis Antetokounmpo was just drafted by the Bucks, but will likely not play any significant minutes for at least 2 seasons. The question is when do the Bucks sign him. Hammonds said after the draft that they intended to sign him right away and bring him in to practice/play with the Bucks, or more likely in the D league. That would start the clock ticking immediately on his 4-year rookie contract. If he stays overseas for a year or two then he would still be on his rookie deal whenever he came to the Bucks. There is a pretty high likelihood that he is a bust, as most 15th picks are. His future will not likely determine Hammond's future unless he turns into a star, in which case Hammond looks like a genius and won't have to worry about his next contract. What about the other soon-to-be Buck, Brandon Jennings.

There is no doubt the Bucks will sign Jennings, whether it is by negotiation, or by using their matching rights on another teams offer since he is a restricted free agent. He is the only marketable player on a bad team and the Bucks gain nothing by letting him walk. Kohl will not allow his only money making player to walk out the door for a few extra million dollars. That doesn't mean they will keep him for the length of the contract, as he will be trade bait the instant he signs. The only question is do the Bucks really believe in him enough to use their Bird rights on him and give him a 5-year deal, or will they just give him/match on a 4-year deal to limit their long-term exposure. My guess is the later.

So where does the 3-year plan take the Bucks? In the short term, probably to the cellar of the central division. The Bucks won only 38 games last year, and they replaced Monta Ellis with OJ Mayo so it's hard to see how this team will be better. Next season looks like a lottery season, but next year is about sorting out the young guys more than winning anything. Jennings and Mayo will hog the ball and the shots, and hopefully not destroy their trade value in the process. The question the Bucks need to figure out is if Henson and Sanders are good enough to be the staring bigs on a playoff team, or if they are just more journeymen assets the Bucks will use to make future trades.

After this season, the Bucks should have a lottery pick in a strong draft. That pick will probably be the deciding factor in Hammond's future. Hammond will have to decide about Sanders next season, and he will hopefully have enough information to decide what Henson will be. If Sanders, Henson and Giannis all pan out, and the 2014 pick is a hit, then the Bucks could return to the playoffs by the end of the 3 year plan. That seems like a lot to ask, but it's probably all Bucks fans can hope for right now.

A new stadium and an ownership change to a stable local ownership group is unfortunately about as likely, but far more important to the Bucks' future.

summer craziness

So there is no Packers or Badger football until August. No Bucks or Badger Basketball until fall.
Baseball is just too boring and the Brewers suck anyway.
Time to take this blog in a different direction.
Tonight will be the first in a series interesting questions. Tonight's topic:
Top songs I just can't help but get jacked up for.
When I got down to it, there are many, but 2 stand above the rest.
Beatles: Helter Skelter
Doors: Five to One

Honorable mention goes to:
Rolling Stones: Paint it Black
Guns and Roses: Welcome to the Jungle
Animals: House of the Rising Sun
Nirvana: Smells like Teen Spirit
Bruce Springsteen: Born in the USA
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Breakdown

Personal preference plays a pretty important role in this one. Feel free to dispute and add others.

Draft thoughts

I had two college basketball related thoughts about tonight's NBA draft:

1) Two Hoosiers were drafted in the top 4. What would Bo Ryan do with two top-4 NBA picks on the same team in the same year? I'll tell you what he'd do: he'd successfully petition to move his team up to the NBA, and the Badgers would finish fourth in the Eastern Conference but lose a seven-game series in the second round of the NBA playoffs. People would say he just can't win the big one.

2) A total of four players from Michigan and Indiana were drafted in the first round tonight. Coincidentally, the Badgers played Michigan and Indiana four times last year. They won four times, too.

I got so much hand I'm coming out of my gloves

Only you Seinfeld fans will get that one.

That's what John Hammond has to be thinking after the Bucks made their 1st round pick tonight. Hammond, who got a contract extension through 2015-2016 earlier this season, drafted a player that may not wear an NBA uniform for 2 years. The 18-year-old Giannis Antetokounmpo has some spectacular talent, but is as raw as they come. Giannis also just signed a 4-year contract with his team (although there is reportedly not a huge buyout), so he will likely play at least one and maybe 2 or 3 more seasons overseas before he suits up for the Bucks. This is not the "win now" kind of player that Herb Kohl may have demanded if he didn't trust Hammond.

Hammond has shown a definite pattern in his drafts and Kohl has given him the freedom to follow it. Hammond has never picked higher than 8 since he became the Bucks GM. Every year he has taken a player that had a high ceiling, but also high bust potential. When you are picking in the late lottery or mid-first round this seems like a pretty sound strategy. Hammond's picks have been:

#8 Joe Alexander

#10 Brandon Jennings

#15 Larry Sanders

#10 Jimmer Ferdette (traded for Tobias Harris)

#14 John Henson

#15 Giannis Antetokounmpo

Henson was the only major college (UNC) guy that had a 3-year history of production. Larry Sanders was from VCU and a late bloomer. Alexander was an athletic guy but didn't have a basketball head. Jennings, Harris, and Giannis were all 18-year-old gambles. All but Henson are guys with big upside. Not that Henson won't develop into a good player, but he was a more known commodity after 3 years getting significant minutes at UNC.

This is of course bad news for this year's team, although after Monta opted out of his contract this year was pretty much sunk. When I look at the players taken after Giannis, there isn't much that jumps out at you. The 2 point guards will probably both impact their teams this season, and I would have been happy to see Schroeder in a Milwaukee uniform with no Monta. This is a draft that won't be able to be evaluated for 4-6 years when the Bucks have to decide if Giannis gets a 2nd contract.

Rich Man's Greg Steimsma

I was drinking after playing volleyball at the time, but my friend told me this is how Mason Plumlee was described when he was drafted. I bet no one ever thought they would be described as that after being drafted in the first round of the NBA draft.

Bucks' Draft

The prospects for the Bucks in this year's draft are not good, as you would expect when a team doesn't pick until #15. However it's not all doom and gloom for the Bucks draft this year.

This year's draft is not considered to be a very good class overall. There is no super talent at the top. There is no Lebron, Durant, or Howard in this years class for a really bad team to get excited about. This is more of a foundation laying draft with a bunch of players who look like they will be solid NBA players, but none that look like perennial all-stars let alone franchise changing stars.

As with most years, we will look back on this draft in 2-3 years and say how did everyone miss on that guy. That's where the Bucks prospects (albeit a long shot) don't look so bad. In a draft where 1-10 aren't that different and 11-30 are even less so the Bucks have as good a chance as any team to hit on a diamond in the rough.

It is very likely that McLemore and Noel will go 1 and 2 in some order. Neither blows you away as a sure fire #1 pick, but both showed enough flashes of talent to move into the top 2 spots. The rest of the top 10 spots in no special order will go Porter, Burke, Oladipo, Bennett, Len, Carter-Williams, Zeller and McCollum. If any of these players fell to 15 the Bucks would be lucky to get them.

After the top 10, there are a bunch of players the Bucks could take. It's hard to say who they will fall in love with.

The obvious lack of depth at guard makes that an easy position for them to take. With Monta opting out of his contract, and Reddick a free agent there are a ton of minutes available for a rookie to grab. Caldwell-Pope is the player most think the Bucks are targeting. He has more length at 6'6" than the Bucks guards last year, but it's likely he is off the board at 15.

At point guard there is Dennis Schroeder from Germany who many people seemed to have fallen in love with so much that he has been discussed as a top 10 pick. Who knows if Kohl is one of his admirers, but he could be a nice backup and eventual replacement for Jennings if the Bucks sign him and then have to trade him.

The small forward position got less interesting when Dario Saric pulled his name out of the draft. If he had stayed in I think he would have been a good pick had he made it to 15. The other small forward is Shabazz Muhammed who also may not make it to 15. He was the hot prospect coming out of high school, but there are so many weird things going on around this guy that it's hard not to think bust. From his coach at UCLA declaring him in the draft, to his Asian little league age issues (is he 18 or 22), to his crazy father this is one guy I hope is gone at 15 so the Bucks don't have to take him. It's no fun watching a kid self destruct as I think he may.

Then there's a ton of bigs that will be available for the Bucks to pick from. Adams is the most likely to be off the board before the Bucks pick as he is the only other true center (7'0" and 255lbs) than Len with 1st round potential. In today's NBA many teams don't really play a true center, but all you have to do is look at the playoff teams to understand that a true center is still a valuable position (Duncan, Hibbert, Gasol, Noah, Bogut, Chandler). The rest of the hybrid center-power forwards the Bucks will have to pick from include Olynyk, Plumlee, and Gobert who all offer some different skills.

The Bucks will likely end up with one of these 7 players if they keep the pick. The other option is trade, which Hammonds has been more than willing to do in the past.

My prediction: Gorgui Dieng. The Bucks just keep acquiring 6'11" shot blockers with limited offense, so why not continue to corner the market.

I will be disappointed if I am correct.

Poor Bucks

My Bucks got some bad news this week when Monta Ellis opted out of the final year of his contract to test the free agent market. The Bucks had reportedly offered him a 2 year extension had he not opted out, making it a 3 year deal for about 36 million. Monta is the best player on a mediocre team and probably will get a bigger 4 year deal on the open market. Without any idea what direction this team is going in, it's hard to blame anyone for leaving. With the new NBA rules it is unlikely the Bucks will get anything in return in a sign and trade. They will just get worse.

This makes it more likely the Bucks will go completely in the tank next year. There is very little chance they will attract any player of his caliber, and even to get someone close they will have to grossly overpay. Kohl will likely do this since he wants to win now and keep public support behind a new stadium. They will have no choice to match an offer for Jennings if Ellis leaves, even if it is for a ridiculous amount of money. So starts the cycle of dumping bad contracts that I had hoped the Bucks had exited.

At least there is the Draft to look forward to soon. I'll follow this up with a post about the Bucks bleak prospects in the draft. Posts have been hard to come by this summer. Too many sunny days to spend time typing.

Golf Remains the Stupidest Sport on Earth

You may recall my spirited attack on the decision by the USGA and Scottish Royal Academy of Golf (or whatever the hell they call it) to ban "anchored putting."

Over at Slate, Josh Levin has a great article about the last time golf banned a putting practice, the "croquet" style, which was practiced by none other than Sam Snead:

The spry old-timer stands directly behind the ball, his putter between his legs. He then contorts his body into the shape of a question mark, anchoring the flatstick with his top hand and moving it forward with his bottom hand—an approach that golfer Jimmy Demaret said was reminiscent of basting a turkey. "I putt better this cockeyed way,” Snead explained to Sports Illustrated in 1967. “Not too many people can bend over quite as well as I can, but I think it is good for old golfers. They don't have to coordinate two hands, only one." And as he told the AP that same year, there was an additional benefit: “I can read the green much better with my croquet style because my eyes are so much closer to the putting surface.” 

Before Snead got to stooping, the croquet crowd hadn’t attracted much notice from the USGA. But as Al Barkow explains in Sam: The One and Only Sam Snead, the straw-hatted, seven-time major champion was a famous name, a player whose actions could inspire widespread adoption of an unorthodox technique. At the 1967 Masters, the legendary Bobby Jones—a man who, according to the Atlanta History Center, “called singular attention to the game’s best traditions”—threw a conniption at the sight of Snead’s bizarro methodology. According to Barkow, “Jones sat with Sam in a golf cart and told him that the putting style he had adopted didn’t look like golf.” Jones mentioned his objection to USGA executive director Joe Dey, who “took up St. Bobby’s observation and set in motion the process of banning croquet putting.” 

Despite the protestations of Snead, Gary Player ("I don't believe you should put a man down to hitting the ball one way") and Jack Nicklaus ("This is ridiculous. Why don't they just let us tee up the ball and play it?"), the croquet prohibition went into effect in January 1968. The new golf commandment both banned croquet-style putters like The Dude and decreed that it was henceforth illegal to straddle the ball on the green. “[F]or the first time in golfing history,” as Sports Illustrated explained in a 1967 feature, “the game's ruling bodies were telling a man how he had to hit the ball.” Dey told SI that a full-on ban “was the only way to eliminate the unconventional styles that have developed in putting. The game of golf was becoming bizarre. It was some other game, part croquet, part shuffleboard, and part the posture of Mohammedan prayer." Croquet putting had been banned, essentially, because a couple of old guys thought it looked dumb.

Season Over, Man. Season Over.

Whelp.

Since a promising 9 game winning streak the Brewers have lost  27 of 37 games, a starting pitcher to injury, a starter who was demoted to AAA, and gained their #6 prospect Scooter Gennett who was promoted to the big leagues to essentially take over for former all-star Rickie Weeks, who is batting .192 and has to be one of the worst defensive second basemen in the history of baseball.  (To his credit, one year Weeks did miraculously finish just fourth worst in fielding percentage among NL second basemen.)

Today, the Brewers' general manager Bob Melvin admitted "any more trades this year [will be made] for two or three years from now instead of now," suggesting the Brewers are ready to enter full-fledged rebuilding mode.

But wait, there's more!

Tonight, news broke that Ryan Braun--along with Alex Rodriguez and 18 other no-names--is facing a potential 100-game suspension in connection with a protracted Miami-based PED scandal.

Unfortunately for the Brewers the MLB does not have a salary cap, meaning big market teams like the Yankees can afford to buy more cheaters while draft-reliant teams like the Brewers will need years upon years to recover. In other words: What has two thumbs and probably won't be watching the Brewers for the rest of the year?  This guy!