J.J. Hardy still feels upset about the Brewers decision to send him down to Triple-A. "It's been simmering. There are questions in my mind," Hardy said. "The more and more I think about it, the more I think, 'Why would they do this to me?' "It beat me up inside. For them to give up on me this year, it kind of hurt. I definitely feel like I was being punished." But his agent him if he ended up being a September call-up, which is expected to happen Tuesday, he'd spend exactly 20 days in the minors and lose service time in the majors. If a player spends fewer than 20 days in the minors, his service time isn't affected. Now the Brewers will control Hardy for one more season because he won't have the service time required to be a free agent after 2010. Instead, Hardy will go through an extra year of arbitration and won't be on the open market until after the 2011 season, also making him more tradable. The notion of being dealt makes Hardy understand the decision. "At first I felt OK. It would give me a chance to relax," said Hardy, who avoided arbitration this season by signing a one-year, $4.65 million deal in the winter. "But that's when my agent told me about the 20 days. "That's when I was like, 'Now I understand.' The more I replay the conversation with Doug, the more I realize there was never a chance for me to be called up before (the 20 days)."