Decompression

Thus begins the postseason. Obviously "decompressing" from the season is the order of the day, or the week … the cleansing begins and the cheering one-self up through inanity and other real live events, reading up on politics, read about the Packers losing to the Falcons at Lambeau, horrible financial news, whatever. It pales in comparison, and clearly importance, to the Brewers being bounced from the playoffs. Jim Powell watched five episodes of The Office, I watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and thankfully the sun is finally out.

Perhaps it's another irrational feeling, these damn unchecked emotions about a local sports team tend to overwhelm, but I think the Brewers are still going to be in good shape next season. Most of it is context considering the Brewers are in the NL, but the offense, which will consist of players between the ages of 23-27, will still be pretty good. I also find myself reminding myself that a team with average pitching, average hitting, and average defense finishes with 81 wins, something of which I believe will be attainable in 2009.

Other teams would kill for the core Brewers team going into next season: Braun, Fielder, Hardy, Weeks, Hart, Gallardo, and Parra. If the team manages to pull off the virtually implausible task of signing Sabathia (multi-year below market) or Sheets (for one year), then the playoff fires will be stoked again. I think it would be a mistake to get rid of Doug Melvin, but the manager of the team is negligible. Should Sveum return or they hire a more mature/experienced manager, it means little to me. Suppan isn't the reason the team got bounced from the postseason, certainly a part, but in the end he was the 8^th best starting pitcher on the team and, seemingly, the only one able to start that day.

Many questions abound and they'll be answered in due time. There are a few conditional questions, like the team options on Cameron (yes), Counsell (no), and Torres (yes) that won't be decided until a few issues clear up. Since my schedule has also opened up, I'll create a compendium of Q's that need to be answered this postseason or November 1^st, whichever seems most important. Tomorrow I'll post what the roster will look like on November 1^st, the day players can file for free agency.

So we all can return to our normal lives, pondering questions of what could have been, should have been, and ought have been go into this interesting offseason after this watershed of a season.