Brewers-Padres Preview Plus my take on the Weathers trade

The Brewers have the night off after a frustrating series in Houston culminating in them leaving approximately 3,875,465 men on base in yesterday's 2-0 loss to Houston...with a home run hit by Geoff Blum being the difference.

But that is all said and done...and on to this week's series

Brewers (55-56 5% playoff chances) vs. Padres (47-66 <.1% playoff chances)

Tuesday:
Clayton Richard (5-3 4.49 era 102 ERA+) vs. Braden Looper (10-5 4.84 era 87 ERA+)

The Padres start talented pitcher Clayton Richard who they got in the Jake Peavy deal a couple weeks the ago. The Brewers start Braden Looper who couldn't hold a 7-1 lead against the Padres a couple weeks ago but pitched very well against a loaded Dodgers team. While I was impressed with how Richard pitched against the Brewers a couple weeks ago, I don't see him beating the Brewers two times in a row....the Brewers tend to score lots of runs when Looper is pitching and I see the Brewers winning a high-scoring battle.

Wednesday:
Kevin Correia (7-9 4.51 era 83 ERA+) vs. Carlos Villaneuva (2-9 6.05 era 70 ERA+)

A rematch from the last game of the last series. Both pitchers pitched better than usual in this game. This game is the hardest for me to make a call on. This game will come down to whether the Carlos Villaneuva who put in a gritty performance in San Diego shows up or the Carlos Villaneuva that's struggled for the last couple months shows up. I'm not too high on the Brewers chances in this game but Villaneuva has proved me wrong against San Diego once....I think he has just enough to get the win in this game.

Thursday:
Cesar Carillo (Major League Debut) vs. Manny Parra (7-8 6.26 era 67 ERA+)

While Manny Parra has pitched well since coming back from Nashville....his short winning streak probably comes to an end here. The Brewers are facing a pitcher making his Major-League debut. For some reason the Brewers tend to no-show in these games and play horribly in all aspects of the game. Padres take this in a blow out

Other Observations from the last few days:

The Brewers got David Weathers from the Reds for a player to be named later yesterday.

While I wish the Brewers would go and get a STARTING pitcher......this is still an excellent trade. While Weathers isn't a hall of fame pitcher.....he is a smart, durable and effective middle reliever/set up man who can help out an exhausted bullpen and help out the Brewers playoff hopes in the event they ever get back above .500.