I haven't seen the Brewers actually play recently except for their lone win in Chicago. Is it the general consensus amongst Brewers fans that this team is pretty much done for?

Can the Brewers catch the loser of the East race? Well, they will presumably only get one more start from Sabathia, and it's up in the air whether they will even get one more from Sheets. They are getting beat by the Reds, still reeling from the debacle against the Cubs, and they are 4-15 overall in September. If they are NOT done -- if they come back -- it will be one of the great gut-check turnarounds of all time.

If they are done, it's hard to see who else is going to catch whichever of the Phillies or Mets doesn't win the East. The Marlins and Astros are all five GB in the loss column, and the Cardinals six back. You know what that means, don't you? If someone other than Milwaukee wins the WC, and it's the Mets who get caught and left out, it's going to take a collapse that would be pretty much a match for 2007.

And Brewers and Mets fans can endlessly debate who has had the worst of the last two years. You say Yost, and I say Randolph . . . let's call the whole thing off.

A number of Brewers fans have given up on the team in disgust. Whether that means the team is done for who knows.

Biggest changes under Sveum have been that the bats have come to life and the team choses to make a couple of outs a game on the bases. They have been in every game except Friday night; of course they still are 1-4. Two have the games have ended with Prince Fielder striking out with the lead runs on base. While there are more hits, the team still has no idea how to move runners along with outs or hit with runners in scoring position.

Now on Thursday they lost a game when Ryan Braun made a poor play on a ball that was ruled a double. They were up 6-2 with two outs in the ninth. The Cubs follow this with three more hits, the final being a home run to tie it up 6-6 and they won it in 12. Today the Reds are up two in the ninth. Weeks homers to cut it to one. Then Kendall singles. PH Tony Gwynn can't get the bunt down, then lines out to left on a good play. Cameron strikes out. PH Lamb hits a ground ball to 2B that the SS should end the game on but he boots it. Do the Brewers make him pay like the Cubs did the Brewers on Thursday? Of course not. Braun works a walk in a good at-bat, then Fielder strikes out on four pitches.

Of course, the Brewers had the bad luck to start their sequence with the HR instead of ending it like the Cubs did. The Brewers are pretty much doing a vaudeville tour of bad baseball right now. Bad hitting, fielding, starting pitching, relief pitching, injuries, bad luck. I guess I haven't seen any lack of hustle, so they've got that.