FanHouse DerrickTurnbow

It seems that not even Bobby Jenks can escape having to talk about a mention of himself in a book. It seems to be the "in thing" to do these days. It's not quite the magnitude of Joe Torre's new book, but former minor leaguer Matt McCarthy has written one describing his experiences as a player in the Angels system, where he had some interesting things to say about players like Jenks and Derrick Turnbow.

Jenks isn't taking the claims or the quotes too seriously.

The Brewers' bullpen ranked 12th in the National League with a 4.15 ERA this past season. Unfortunately, they may keep falling next year as two of their top relievers are up for free agency this year.

Francisco Cordero, the anchor to the 'pen, posted a 2.98 ERA with 44 saves, should find a lot of suitors as arguably the most attractive closer on the market. (Mariano Rivera is more decorated, sure, but he's also five years Cordero's elder.) Scott Linebrink, acquired by the Brewers midseason, had a down year by his standards but was still above-average and managed to strike out a batter per inning during his time in Milwaukee.

Brewers GM Doug Melvin will make his pitch but realizes keeping either player, especially Cordero, will be difficult. From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

"We're going to make a very aggressive offer and proposal to Cordero somewhere along the line in hopes of bringing him back," Melvin said. "We know how valuable a closer is in this game.

"When players get this close to free agency, they like to file. For us to get something done sooner is probably a long shot. They get a lot of pressure from the union to test the market, when you're a premium player."

Should Cordero in fact bail for more money elsewhere, the Brewers aren't completely stuck without any options: Derrick Turnbow, the team's primary setup man for much of the year, has closing experience albeit with a track record marked with inconsistency.

Status Check is FanHouse's conversation with fans from the rest of the blogosphere. Today, we talk with David Hannes from Brewers Bar, ESK from The Wisconsin Sports Bar, and Brad and Matt from Chuckie Hacks.

The Brewers are certainly primed for success over the next several years here with their young core of players. At what point do you say, "Screw the next couple years talk, this team is good enough to win now!" Have you reached that point for the 2007 season?

David from Brewers Bar: GM Doug Melvin, Owner Mark Attanasio, and Manager Ned Yost have been saying "we can win this year" all season, and I think most fans have, too. The fast start convinced almost every Brewers fan that the team had what it needed to win the division and even make it to the World Series. I think trading away Will Inman and two other prospects for Scott Linebrink solidified that the Brewers management wants to win now, and the fans are still thinking that way.

It's no secret that the Brewers are playing some bad baseball right now. Last night they were cruising towards a 2-1 win over the Braves and their first series win since they played the Nationals between May 7th and 9th when Derrick Turnbow and company gave up seven runs in the 8th inning and one more in the 9th to turn the game into a 9-3 Braves win.

That loss completed the sixth straight series loss for the Brewers. Still, it's not like they've been playing chumps all month. The six series losses have come to the Mets, Phillies, Twins, Dodgers, Padres, and now Braves. Not a bad bunch. Still, baseball has no strength of schedule component. Wins are wins, losses are losses, and the Brewers have been doing a lot of losing lately.

If the strength of their opponents is why the Brewers have been losing, we'll find out soon enough. Their next three series are against the mediocre Marlins, the clueless Cubs, and the wretched Rangers (I swear only that last pun was intentional). If you're going to win any division, even the sad excuse for a division that the NL Central is this year, you've got to beat the teams you're supposed to beat. This is the Brewers chance.

I've been saying it for like two weeks now, but the Brewers aren't going to be able to get away with losing like this for much longer. Someone, the Cubs, the Cardinals, hell the Pirates, someone is going to start taking the slack the Brewers have been giving the division and running with it. If the Brewers are going to stay on top they can't let this slide last much longer. There's no ifs ands or buts about it. These next ten games aren't just big for the Brewers... they're huge.

Photo Credit: Getty Images

One of the big questions in Brewers camp this spring is what to do with their big former closer Derrick Turnbow. Turnbow fell victim to Mark Wholers disease in the second half of the season last year: after a year and a half as an effective closer and a turn in the All-Star Game he lost everything, including his job to Francisco Cordero after the Carlos Lee trade. While it's still early this spring, he seems to at least be back on the right track:

Turnbow turned in his second consecutive strong outing Sunday in a 5-4 loss to the Los Angeles Angels, pitching a perfect eighth inning with one strikeout. Turnbow has retired all six batters he has faced in the two games, striking out two.

"It's been very good so far," Turnbow said. "I've just got to keep it going."

Of course with this being the spring, this immediately gets minds going and Brew Crew Ball is already turning over trade ideas for Turnbow. It's probably a little early for that, but Brewers fans have to be excited that one of the biggest questions they have this spring is what to do with an extra bullpen guy. When the questions facing your team are that small, things are moving in the right direction.