Recently, I decided to make it a personal goal of mine to visit every Midwest League park before the end of the season. And why not? Most of them are within reasonable driving distance, tickets are cheap, and the parks typically have a lot of stuff for little kids to do. I've been to a few Wisconsin Timber Rattlers games, which I really enjoy...it's great to have a Brewers affiliate within driving distance again. Last Saturday, I saw that there were two more games reasonably close - Peoria and Quad Cities were both playing within 3 hours from me. Randomly, I picked Quad Cities. We bought tickets online, hopped in the car, and made our way.

Davenport, IA was hosting what appeared to be a music festival downtown, so most of the streets leading toward Modern Woodmen Park were blocked off. We eventually made our way around it, and arrived at the park about two hours before game time. There was an older gentleman sitting at the parking lot entrance, who was there to inform us that parking was free...excellent. Even though we were there early, there were still a lot of cars there, and even a few tailgaters. Lots of fans were wearing Hawaiian shirts - turned out to be Jimmy Buffett Night*. The stadium was situated along the Mississippi River, and waterfront stadia always score points with me. On the outside, I thought the brick façade made the stadium look much larger than most single-A facilities.

* is there some requirement that every minor league baseball team has to have a Jimmy Buffett Night?

Around one and one-half hours before game time, the gates opened. Interestingly, there was a long, steep stairway that went up from the main gate to the grandstand. I suspect that this was done to protect the seating area from flooding, though I'm not sure how useful that is if the parking lot/entrance is underwater. Inside the park, you will see box seating extended down to the end of each dugout. Beyond that, the 1st base side has stairs leading to a large picnic area. On the 3rd base side, bleacher seating extends much further into the outfield. Like many parks built around this time (1931, in this case), the L-shaped seating configuration leads me to believe that it was built with both baseball and football in mind. Despite this, it feels very much baseball-only. Great sightlines - I watched bits of the game from just about everywhere in the park, never had any bad views, and you can get very close to the action.

As someone who almost always purchases a general admission ticket to minor league games, I really enjoyed this park. This is one of the parks I've visited that allows you to walk all the way around the playing field in a complete loop. This is good for one year old boys who always need to be running someplace, as well as dads who like to take pictures from various spots. Leaving the complex after the game was easy, even with a large music festival going on nearby - traffic was still very light. I'll definitely look forward to returning.

The rest of my photos from the day can be found here

The phrase "closers who flame out" sounds like a Wikipedia article that should redirect to the Milwaukee Brewers page, doesn't it? The Brewers have had a long and proud tradition of pulling closers out of nowhere. Closers who eventually go on to flame out, that is. Mike "Mustard Man" DeJean, Leo "Icelandic Brand" Estrella, Dan Kolb, Mike Adams, Derrick Turnbow, and coming soon - the Francophone Turnbow - Eric Gagne, have all fallen off the face of the Earth since being removed from the closer role.

Last night, I flipped on the AAA All-Star game just in time to see Nashville closer Luis Pena attempt close out the game for a Pacific Coast League victory. Unfortunately, he gave up 3 runs in the 9th and nearly gave up the lead. Pena is the logical choice to take over as the Brewers closer next season, so let's just hope he doesn't flame out before he arrives in Milwaukee.

Good business would be to let a guy close for a year, trade him, and let him flame out with the new club. We did that with Dan Kolb, and it netted us (the admittedly disappointing) Jose Capellan. Saloman Torres is having a solid year since being inserted in the closer role. We have an option for 2009, so we should pick that up and trade him in the offseason. Watch him flame out while Pena flourishes. Trade Pena, find another one-year wonder off the scrap heap for 2010, and so on.

Astros pitcher Shawn Chacon attacked General Manager Ed Wade, after Wade "was basically yelling and stuff".

Was he really yelling? Or just "basically" yelling? What does "basically yelling" mean, anyway? Chacon reminds me of the guy who bought my old cell phone on ebay, and later demanded a return because it "practically fell apart" when he took it out of the box. I allowed him to return the phone for a refund, and when it showed up, surprise surprise, it did not "practically" fall apart.

Shawn Chacon, you're a funny guy, and you have made my quotefile. Keep the exaggerations coming!

Last year, we had Jack Cust. This year, we have Russell Branyan. Who will be the next AAAA journeyman to put up All-Star numbers out of nowhere? The answer probably has more to do with opportunity than anything, but I stumbled across one guy who really looks the part. Brian Myrow is a 31-year-old first baseman (he can also play 3rd base and corner outfield) in the San Diego organization. He has only 30 career Major League at bats, but he has carried an OBP well over .400 over his AAA career, now spanning 4 seasons. He has some pop too, with a SLG over .500 in those seasons.

Certain AL teams are wasting hundreds of plate appearances on sub-.700 OPS designated hitters. There is no excuse for this when you have guys like Myrow waiting patiently in AAA. If San Diego isn't going to use this guy, someone can. A DH has one job, and that is to hit. Why, then, does Seattle continue to send Jose Vidro's .587 OPS out there every day? It would take a low-level prospect at best to land Myrow in a trade. Look at Branyan, he's been traded for cash, players to be named later (some of which were never even named!), and prospects with little-to-no hope of making it to the Majors. Come on, Mariners, all it would take is some A-ball relief pitcher, and a black hole in your lineup will be filled.

Now, about that Richie Sexson character...

With reports coming out that Seattle first baseman Richie Sexson will be released, and rumors swirling about Prince Fielder's future, an obvious solution appears to me.

You know where I'm going with this. Jeff Cirillo was a great Brewer in the late 90s. He had a few more good seasons in Colorado, then moved to Seattle and fell apart. A few years later, Cirillo comes back to Milwaukee. Career resurrected. Could the same happen to Richie Sexson? Maybe. The Brewers have a solid track record in recent years with reclamation projects. Cirillo, Doug Davis, Gabe Kapler, Jason Kendall, Brady Clark and Rick Helling were all players that everyone else had given up on. I don't know if its comfort. lower pressure, or just something in the water, but these types of players always seem to do well.

Prince Fielder is a great hitter, but he's also a Scott Boras client, and a likely DH candidate in the not-so-distant future. Since he's not likely to sign a Ryan Braun-like contract, and with the Brewers need for quality starting pitching (especially if they cannot re-sign Ben Sheets), trading Fielder to an AL team doesn't seem like such a bad idea. If Sexson can come anywhere near what he was doing two years ago, we lose very little production. If he continues to struggle...well, at least its an easy position to fill. I have little doubt that Mat Gamel or Matt LaPorta could handle first base at a Major League level. Russell Branyan, Joe Dillon, and countless AAAA power hitters are deserving of playing time.

Obviously, trading Fielder based on an assumption that Richie Sexson will return to his career averages is a bad idea. If we could pick up Sexson on a minor league deal, and make it clear to him that he'll be given the opportunity to start at first base if he performs well, this stupid proposition might just work out.