5/15/07 Brewers (Vargas) @ Phillies (Eaton): 6:05 PM CDT

[ccbrew]

2. We have to win the next 2.

 

Exactly. If we don't win the next two, the team might as well call it a season because their confidence will be shot and will enter a insurmountable death spiral.

[aracko]

Might be time to get Sarfate ready - Maybe give him that 7th inning role for a bit. If Turbo doesnt get it straight then we might have the answer under our nose.

[IslandsAC]

No complaints here. I did not think the crew was going to get back into it, but they showed me a lot by fighting back. I really like this Brewer team but they just came up against a Phillies team that is solid right now.

 

That was a good pitch that Turnbow threw.

[Oldcity]

Quote:

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It was a good game. No complaints from me.

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Agreed. I'm much more irritated about yesterday's game.

[bucksman4]

The disheartening part is this road trip out East was the "test" all the critics put us to and said if we did well, we were for real and if we didn't, this team might very well still be a fluke.

 

I look at it as simply 2 losses in Philly and not the extreme case that some people paint this road trip to be. Sure it would be nice to take some of these close games, but the thing that makes me a little bit leary is how T-bow is pitching here lately. In order to go anywhere this year, we need the T-Bow/Cordero duo to be as flawless as they were earlier this year.

[bobskube]

I never had confidence in him. Anyone who thinks he can close for us after this year is sorely mistaken.

 

He can be pretty successful as strictly an 8th inning guy...no more.

[JET15]

Quote:

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if we did well, we were for real and if we didn't

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It might allow us to stay out of the spotlight by actually not doing so well on this roadtrip. This young team may not be ready for it. They may not be "The Young and The Restless" material. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

[cruiserx43]

Everybody who is worried about what the critics from the east coast think remember who won the world series last year with only 83 wins. All I care about doing is getting into the playoffs. The rest will take care of itself. If that means we only beat up on our own division, so be it.

[bobskube]

No, this does not hurt as much as yesterday, but it makes me get even more angry about giving that one away.

[augie46]

ALL IS WELL! ALL IS WELL!

[augie46]

I need to figure how to put images in these posts. Serously, we are OK. No need to panic. I still think that we have too much dead weight in the bullpen. I would be for getting rid of Spurling and Dessens, while adding C******n and Zach Jackson in order to create more versatility in the bullpen.

[Weirdos19]

If you people want to jump off this ride this year, than jump.

 

Sure, we lost 4 of 5. We aren't that bad. Before, we were 24-10. We weren't that good. Simple.

 

We have the best team in the division. Bar none. Everybody loses 4 of 5. We could easily have won 4 of 5. The only game that wasn't a possible win was Sunday.

 

No reason to jump off the bridge.

[sheethead]

I blame tonight's loss on yesterday's loss.

 

Gross is terrible, bottom line. That is one thing Tim Allen and Sparky have nailed. The dude cannot do anything this year.

[jason21nl]

Gross is terrible, bottom line

 

 

can a guy be horrible with as little ABs as he has had?..dude sits and sits and sits then is asked to do one of the hardest things to do in baseball...that is PHing...but man alive, I wish he would have come through today

[sheethead]

I stopped holding my breath a couple weeks ago.

[bigredrobbo]

We probably have another 50 or so nights like this to look forward to (thinking positively).

 

For god's sake let's have just a little perspective around here. Turnbow has a couple bad games and all of a sudden he's a vastly different player to the one that cruised through April mowing down hitters for fun. Sheesh!

 

We only have 7 bullpen pitchers - if we assign them all the Dessens label and not pitch them every time they have a bad outing, we'll be down to having Wiser and Coco pitching 2 innings each every night for the rest of the season.

 

Losing sucks, it always will, but some here are beginning to sound like a cross between Chicken Little and Phillies fans...

[rluzinski]

Gross is terrible, bottom line. That is one thing Tim Allen and Sparky have nailed. The dude cannot do anything this year.

 

Yeh, they really nail observing how well a player has done in the recent past. Takes a special kind of guy to be able to do that.

 

That sound you hear is Derrick's wheels coming off.... again.

 

Did he look bad tonight (didn't see the game) or did he look OK until giving up the HR?

[Team Canada]

I stopped holding my breath a couple weeks ago.

 

 

So you stopped holding your breath in April? That's just stupid.

[TheCrew07]

Sarfate isn't able to find the strike zone in AAA, what good would he do the big league club? He's Spurling except he also walks people instead of letting them get hits. I know his father reads these forums, but until Dennis can locate his pitches consistently he has no business in Milwaukee. He's given up 16 hits and 13 BBs in 14.1 innings in AAA. How successful is he going to be in Milwaukee giving up 2 baserunners an inning? Please believe me when I say I want him to be successful, but he's done nothing in his career to earn a call up.

 

Turbow may very well implode, but he was pitching well, and sometimes when you miss with a 95+ fastball people are going to hit one out. I'm not ready to give up on him yet. Yesterday he stunk, today he just got beat by the batter.

 

Spurling is confusing to me, his stuff is decent, he just doesn't seem to locate or make the proper pitch selection at the right time. Watching the games I feel like he cheats himself, sort of like how I felt about Eveland last year.

 

Dessens... well, he hasn't shown much. I'm trying to think of something positive to say, but when was the last time he didn't throw gas on the fire?

 

At any rate, the crew was due for one of these streaks, and it really shouldn't surprise anyone it's happening on this road trip.

 

I blame everyone who posted about favorable pitching matchups for jinxing the road trip!

 

That's my half kidding font.

[patrickgpe]

good thing i wasn't near a computer last night, but Turnbow has never done well in 2 pitch outings. Therefore Villaneuva or Cordero should of came in the 8th. I know the double switch doesn't really make too much sense. Turnbow came in and had a good 8th. Why would you bring him out for a second inning. I blame this one on Nedly.

[Fatter than Joey]

Did he look bad tonight (didn't see the game) or did he look OK until giving up the HR?

 

Russ --

 

Turnbow came into the 8th 2 outs 1st and 3rd

 

Burrell -- He threw 2 fastballs to get the count to 1-1

He bounced a curveball, Estrada makes a great play keeping it in front of him, (wild pitch) -- count 2-1 -- next pitch Burrell chases a high FB to pop out

 

9th

 

Dobbs

Pitch 1 -- Curve low 1-0

Pitch 2 -- FB -- Routine GB to Prince unassisted -- 1 out

 

Nunez

Pitch 1 -- Fastball Nunez fouls off of foot. 0-1

Pitch 2 -- Fastball outside 1-1

Pitch 3 -- Fastball foul 1-2

Pitch 4 -- Low Curve in dirt Nunez Ks -- Estrada throws to 1b -- 2 outs

 

(All FBs were 97 mph up to this point)

 

Ruiz.

Pitch 1 -- Fastball fouls off 0-1

Pitch 2 -- Curve outside -- Estrada backhands 1-1

Pitch 3 -- Curve high/outside -- 2-1

Pitch 4 -- Fastball 94 MPH HR -- Game over.

 

That is what happened. --

 

I observed the following.

 

1.) Turnbow only gets one called strike (Burrell)

2.) No one swung and missed his fastballs.

3.) He only got ahead of one batter

 

His breaking stuff was largely missing -- He made a nice pitch to K Nunez though, that was the only breaking pitch swung at.

[brewmann04]

well i had the brewers down for a 5-8 raod trip .

 

we all knew this team was not that good as their record and it did help by beating up on the NL central,

[Fatter than Joey]

Just for fun -- Here is Tbows performance from Monday -- for comparison purposes.

 

Rollins

 

Pitch 1 FB -- fouled 0-1

Pitch 2 CB -- outside 1-1 (Close)

Pitch 3 FB -- High 2-1

Pitch 4 FB -- outside 3-1

Pitch 5 FB -- fouled 3-2

Pitch 6 CB -- fouled 3-2

Pitch 7 FB -- High/Inside Walk

 

Utley

 

Pitch 1 CB -- Low -- Wild pitch 1-0

Pitch 2 CB -- Way High outside 2-0

Pitch 3 FB -- Single to center (6-5)

 

(Maddux to the mound)

 

Burrell

 

Pitch 1 FB -- Flyout to deep right

 

Dobbs

 

Pitch 1 FB -- single

 

(Cordero up in pen)

 

Nunez

 

Pitch 1 FB -- Foul 0-1

Pitch 2 FB -- Swinging strike 0-2

Pitch 3 FB -- single

 

Ruiz

 

Pitch 1 FB -- Foul 0-1

Pitch 2 FB -- Called Strike 0-2

Pitch 3 FB -- FC/GB to Prince -- (Prince makes a bad play-- could have been a DP). (6-6)

 

Helms

 

Pitch 1 FB -- High 1-0

Pitch 2 FB -- Swinging strike 1-1

Pitch 3 FB -- Way Inside 2-1

(Cordero down Spurling up)

Pitch 4 FB -- Single (off the wall) -- (6-7)

 

Rowand

 

Pitch 1 FB -- Called Strike 0-1

Pitch 2 CB -- Sac Fly (6-8)

(Turnbow out)

 

Note: None of these singles were cheap -- all liners to the OF.

 

Nothing good is going to happen with Tbow throwing 13 straight FBs.

 

He also seems to be having trouble locating his 97mph FB as well.

About the only thing he got over the plate was the 93-94 MPH pitch

[sheethead]

So you stopped holding your breath in April? That's just stupid.

 

Wow Canada, pretty harsh - especially for a Mod. And BTW, two weeks ago yesterday (when i posted) was May.

 

Yeh, they really nail observing how well a player has done in the recent past. Takes a special kind of guy to be able to do that.

 

Some seem to think the season is 8 months long. Well its not, and it has been 1.5 months (25% of the season) now and still no results. To equate that to students, if you flunk 25% of your class, you are in trouble. It doesn't take a "special kind of guy" to see how contribution-challenged Gross has been this season, both offensively and defensively. For this year, I am going with the "don't wait until its too late" approach when looking for contribution. It's an approach the might be new to some Brewer fans, but it's something winning teams do. The Brewers are just about there, especially when there are plenty of other options available.

[litesrn]

It may be a dumb question, but hasn't Spurling actually pitched pretty well over his last few outings? He's hardly a candidate for Obermueller status.