4/18/08 Brewers (Sheets) at Reds (Arroyo): 6:10 PM CDT

[BrewerBrent]

huzzah! Hart batting fifth.

[Glennron]

I'd rather have Hart batting lead-off over Counsell, but having him ahead of Bill Hall is a start. At least Counsell works the count and usually works the pitcher a little bit.

[Oldcity]

I have to say I am pleasantly surprised. I was pretty sure Ned would go back to Hall batting fifth after his day off.

[bjkrautk]

Given Counsell's good day at the plate yesterday, in addition to Weeks' 1-for-13 history against Arroyo, picking today to give Rickie a game off seems like a sound decision.

[BrewCrewForever]

Lineups:

 

BREWERS

2B Craig Counsell

SS JJ Hardy

LF Ryan Braun

1B Prince Fielder

RF Corey Hart

3B Bill Hall

CF Gabe Gross

P Ben Sheets

C Jason Kendall

 

REDS

CF Norris Hopper

SS Jeff Keppinger

RF Ken Griffey Jr.

2B Brandon Phillips

LF Adam Dunn

3B Edwin Encarnacion

1B Joey Votto

C Paul Bako

P Bronson Arroyo

Given the way Counsell has hit latey I have no problem with him getting another start and batting leadoff giving Rickie a day off. Also Hart batting 5th is nice to see.

 

[Menotti80]

i think this is the perfect line up for tonight.

 

bold prediction: gross has at least one extra base hit.

[bork]

Given the way Counsell has been hitting and the way the rest of the infield hasn't, I could see Counsell getting a couple starts a week.

[wisconsinfan47]

Yost gets (and often deserves) a lot of crap around here (from me, too), but he should get some credit for putting that lineup out there. That's twice in this young season that Nedly has made the kind of change in the everyday lineup that I think he's usually too stubborn for. (Other one was Braun <---> Fielder). Could this be due in part to Simba?

 

In other news, Wow. Braun's OBP is now lower than his average after that sac fly yesterday. The kid's gotta stop swinging at everything.

[GormanHarvey]

Any predictions for Sheets line tonight?

 

I will go with: 7 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8K

[And That]

Sheets' ERA is going to go up some today, and he's due to give up a few home runs. The Reds have a nice lineup. I'll go 6 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 8 K, 2 HR. I hope he doesn't go too far over 100 pitches today... he's been averaging more pitches per game than I would like to see.

 

The Brewers' lineup is about as due as it gets. I'll pick the Brewers 7-6.

[BrewCrewForever]

bold prediction: gross has at least one extra base hit.

 

Man I hope so. I'd much rather have Gwynn or Kapler in there but they are both hurt so Gross will have to do. Were down to almost only a week till Cameron comes back anyway so whatever.

[GormanHarvey]

The Brewers' lineup is about as due as it gets. I'll pick the Brewers 7-6.

I might be a little slow on the pick up here, but is your screen name if reference to Melivn's habit of saying "and that" after just about every sentence? I noticed it the other day when he was talking about signing Weaver and I couldn't believe how many times he said it.

[And That]

You know yes it is and that.

[GormanHarvey]

You know yes it is and that.

That's hilarious!

[Lake Geneva Brewer Fan]

I'm home extra early from work... just snapped a ice-cold MGD... excited to see Sheets and the Crew win tonight!

[Gobias Industries]

You know yes it is and that.

You forgot Rickie's "ummm's" between every word.

[rluzinski]

I don't like knowing that the top two hitters in the lineup probably have an expected .320 OBP between the two of them tonight. That is not a good way to get your offense going. Owell, I'll just pretend that Braun is really the 4th leadoff guy!

[TSack27]

Here's hoping that Gross can pull a McClung tonight... meaning, have a bust out game now that a large percentage have him written off as the odd man out when a regular is ready to return to the line-up!

[RyDogg66]

Safe to assume that Kapler is still unavailable?

[sargennm]

Safe to assume that Kapler is still unavailable?

I don't think so. Gross' career numbers against Arroyo are really good. I say he gets this game to stink it up one more time, and if he does, we get Kapler tomorrow.

 

[Bring Back the Stein]

I don't care what happens tonight, just so long as we don't get to Weathers, in which case we'll make him look like we made Fogg look. (Someone should make a list, if it doesn't exist already somewhere here, of all the sub-par pitchers that break our necks with their 80 mph cheese).

[berniebrewer4life]

Ugh, isn't it gametime yet? I wanna watch some baseball here!

[rluzinski]

I don't care what happens tonight, just so long as we don't get to Weathers, in which case we'll make him look like we made Fogg look.

 

When it comes to current brewer batters, Weathers has been owned by them (.318/.416/.500/.916):

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/bvsp?playerId=2560

[Bring Back the Stein]

Boy, what game is replaying in my head? I'm slightly reassured. Thanks.

[sheetswannabe]

Is Braun's batting average really 2 points higher then his OBP%

 

http://milwaukee.brewers.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=460075

 

Hows that possible?