Brewers-Nationals Preview: How Much Worse Will it Get

It feels like it can't get worse......but that's also not the first time i've had that feeling.....getting swept by the Skeleton Pirates....by what was already a glorified triple-A team....before they traded away half of their starting line-up........well it's time to put that behind and see what this weekend has in store

Brewers [58-62] vs. Nationals [43-78]

Friday
Looper [10-6 5.03 era 84 ERA+] vs. Martin [2-2 4.61 era 94 ERA+]

The last time these teams played, Jeff Suppan gave up two grand slams to consecutive players. In light of Suppan and Looper battling to be the most incompetent pitcher on this staff and his propensity to give up the long ball....i wouldn't be shocked to see Looper give up 3 grand slams in a game....the Nationals have rookie J.D. Martin starting......don't know too much about him.....his wikipedia page says his fastball tops out in the high 80s.....so for all we know he's this generation's Suppan/Looper

Saturday

Burns [3-4 5.36 era 79 ERA+] vs. Lannan [8-9 3.68 era 118 ERA+]

The last time Mike Burns started happened to be the last time the Brewers scored more runs than the team they were playing. Burns turned out his best start of the season on Saturday. However, Burns easily goes from good to atrocious on a start by start basis depending on how well he is locating his pitches [which is usually apparent within an inning or two]. The Nationals start a talented and one of the leagues more under-rated pitchers in John Lannan. Despite having a season very similar to Joba Chamberlin..he gets about 1/100th of the attention because Lannan was unlucky enough to pitch for one of the 28 teams ESPN doesn't care about promoting....I wouldn't be shocked if Lannan becomes one of the elite pitchers in the bigs

Sunday

Parra [8-9 6.33 era 67 ERA+] vs. TBD[?-?]

Either way both teams probably score lots of runs. The Brewers have given Parra lots of run support since his return from Nashville and Parra has started to give up lots of runs on a regular basis lately.

Monday

Gallardo [11-10 3.59 era 119 ERA+] vs. TBD

Either way, the Brewers bat's no show in this one. Something about Braden Looper having a better win-loss record than Gallardo is highly unjust. Also, it shows that win-loss records can sometimes be less credible than a Brett Favre retirement.