BREWERS

A great write up of the Brew Crew by Jeff Passan,Yahoo! Sports' national baseball writer.

At 14-11, the Brewers would be in first place in the American League East and West. It's only good for fourth in baseball's best division thus far, the Central, though the Brewers aren't panicking. Small steps. They've gone from 106 losses in 2002 to 94 in each of Yost's first two years to an 81-81 record last season, the Brewers' first at .500 since 1992.

And to now: Make the playoffs.

"Why wait until next year?" second baseman Rickie Weeks said. "Honestly, some guys get into the playoffs early in their career, and before they know it, they're retired and they've never made it back. I want it now."

At the beginning of spring training, Yost stood in front of the Brewers and asked for two more wins a month. That would mean 93 victories, and even with Cincinnati, St. Louis and Houston's superlative starts, that would probably mean a playoff spot.

Yost doesn't want to put it in those words, exactly. The 50-year-old was a backup catcher with Milwaukee, Texas and Montreal during his six-year big-league career. He petered out in the minors with Atlanta, which gave him a low-A managing job before bringing him to the big-league club for 12 years as a coach. As the Braves taught him, winning happens first, then becomes endemic.

Read the whole take, it will make you want to buy some tickets.