batman

I just don't understand how a team that has been struggling to score runs over the past week can afford to sit their hottest hitter. Hall isn't in the lineup again.......and again we trot Ginter and Clark out there. I can understand the desire to get Billy some time, but why isolate Ginter and Clark? Keith's OPS is .810 and while he hasn't been tearing the cover off the ball, he hasn't been terrible either. Clark is 3-for-9 with a walk in his last thirteen plate appearances (that's the last 7 days) and the reason he's in there is because Yost likes his career stats against Wells (5-for-http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/glasses.gif . That's a ridiculously small sample, but that's what Yost said about the decision. Apparently he had originally intended for Clark to start all three games - one in left, one in center, and one in right - but I guess the rainout changed that. I just don't get it. I'm not sure how comfortable Billy is playing third, so it seems like he's only going to get playing time at shortstop and second. With Counsell Nedley's new favorite player (with Wes on the DL), I don't think he's going to see a lot of time there. And with Spivey just back from injury, I would guess Nedley will let him play everyday for a while. I wouldn't mind giving Billy an occasional start in place of Ginter or in right-field, but I just don't see that happening. And to what benefit was it to bring up Corey Hart if he isn't going to get anytime. 5 to 7 days of rotting on the bench isn't doing anything for his advancement. I am pretty sure we could have brought up McGruder or Liefer to do that. Come on Yost. That was a 40-man roster decision. Hart is on the 40-man whereas Nunnally, Magruder, and Leifer are not. Therefore, we would have had to DFA one of the 25-man players in order to bring them up. I don't think he'll be up for very long, and so there's really no long-term detriment to his development. If anything, I'm sure it's extra motivation because I'm sure he's having the time of his life. ~Bill

MILWAUKEE PITTSBURGH AVG HR RBI AVG HR RBI Scott Podsednik CF .263 4 14 Jason Kendall C .308 0 19 Craig Counsell SS .260 1 7 Jack Wilson SS .354 4 15 Junior Spivey 2B .278 3 17 Jason Bay LF .361 2 6 Geoff Jenkins LF .268 4 24 Craig Wilson RF .340 9 28 Lyle Overbay 1B .359 5 38 Ruben Mateo CF .000 0 0 Brady Clark RF .236 3 12 Daryle Ward 1B .341 5 10 Keith Ginter 3B .259 6 15 Chris Stynes 3B .214 0 9 Chad Moeller C .250 2 13 Jose Castillo 2B .283 2 9 Doug Davis LHP .000 0 0 Kip Wells RHP .143 0 0 (3-3, 4.04) (3-4, 4.26)

So there is no reason to believe the Brewers can just walk all over them (no matter what Jim Powell thinks). JP never said that. Rather, he has been saying that in order to remain near .500, the Brewers need to play well against teams like the Expos and especially the Pirates. We're not going to beat up on the Astros or Cubs or even Cardinals, so we have to win a lot of games against the Pirates and Reds if we are going to stay at or near .500. Stop hating on JP, ~Bill

Carlos Villanueva with an outstanding outing tonight. Did anyone get to check him out in person? Seven shutout innings, five hits, a walk, and five strikeouts. Beautiful. I don't know why, but he's become a personal favorite of mine even though I've never seen him pitch. Just one of those things, I guess. ~Bill

Today's lineups are brought to you by happiness, 'cause that's what happens when Nedley puts together a batting order like this http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif . MILWAUKEE PITTSBURGH AVG HR RBI AVG HR RBI Scott Podsednik CF .269 4 14 Jason Kendall C .302 0 19 Craig Counsell SS .268 1 7 Jack Wilson SS .344 4 15 Junior Spivey 2B .290 3 17 Daryle Ward 1B .378 5 10 Geoff Jenkins LF .262 4 24 Craig Wilson RF .347 9 28 Lyle Overbay 1B .360 5 38 Rob Mackowiak 3B .261 8 19 Keith Ginter 3B .260 6 15 Jason Bay LF .333 2 6 Ben Grieve RF .260 3 10 Abraham Nunez 2B .298 1 4 Chad Moeller C .235 2 12 Tike Redman CF .232 2 13 Ben Sheets RHP .000 0 0 Josh Fogg RHP .000 0 0 (4-2, 2.90) (1-4, 7.75) I'm going through Brewers' withdrawal, so they better get this game in. SlideBernieSlide is supposed to be there, too... don't want his trip to get spoiled by rain. Go Brewers! ~Bill

Yeah, it's bunched up, and yes, all common sense says otherwise, but it's nice to look forward to that first pitch each game... Indeed it is. I think we all appreciate the winning more because it has been so rare. Remember how tough it was to get excited about games in 2002 and even for much of last season? This year is 180 degrees different... and even if the winning doesn't last, it sure is nice right now! ~Bill

Apparently, there is a tornado warning. The silly thing is that I even went so far as to check weather.com this morning before posting the game thread because JP and Bob were talking yesterday about the bad weather in PA. I guess my meteorology skills are in need of fine-tuning. Oh well. ~Bill

05/21/2004 - Brewers (Sheets) at Pirates (Fogg) Doesn't look like rain will be a problem tonight as the Brewers visit PNC Park to take on the Pirates. Josh Fogg has been beat up pretty bad, so hopefully the Crew can get some early runs and Sheets can follow up his remarkable 18K performance with another win. Daily Brew Series Preview: www.brewerfan.net/ViewDai...portId=229 Speaking of the Daily Brew, it is having some technical difficulties that "hide" some of the entries. You can still access them, but you'll have to use the direct links... here are the other recent ones that are currently hiding: www.brewerfan.net/ViewDai...portId=219 www.brewerfan.net/ViewDai...portId=221 www.brewerfan.net/ViewDai...portId=222 www.brewerfan.net/ViewDai...portId=223 www.brewerfan.net/ViewDai...portId=226 www.brewerfan.net/ViewDai...portId=228 Should be fixed soon. ~Bill

Nicely done, Mr. Lisa Dergan. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif ~Bill

We're getting outhit by the San Juan Double-A team. Tomo Ohka is good. ~Bill

LHP Damauris Chavez I'm crushed. ~Bill PS: I have no idea who that is, but he has a great name http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif .

I would guess that he's thrown about as much as he can. With the rain delays, I'm sure he was on an even more reduced pitch count (because of the increased non-game throwing) and his pitch count probably started only at about 60 pitches or so. I'm following the GameCast, too, but that would be my guess. ~Bill

MILWAUKEE MONTREAL AVG HR RBI AVG HR RBI Scott Podsednik CF .263 3 13 Endy Chavez CF .252 1 6 Craig Counsell SS .269 1 7 Jamey Carroll 2B .286 0 3 Keith Ginter 3B .267 6 15 Terrmel Sledge 1B .253 4 10 Geoff Jenkins LF .263 4 24 Orlando Cabrera SS .252 3 11 Lyle Overbay 1B .363 5 38 Matt Cepicky LF .190 0 2 Bill Hall 2B .284 3 18 Juan Rivera RF .250 1 9 Ben Grieve RF .267 3 10 Brian Schneider C .243 6 12 Gary Bennett C .259 1 6 Andy Fox 3B .211 1 1 Wes Obermueller RHP .250 0 1 Tomo Ohka RHP .154 0 0 (2-1, 7.64) (1-5, 3.92)

Broken links do indeed suck, and that would be a problem. However, if people just emailed when there was a broken link or posted it somewhere on the message boards, I don't think it would be a big problem. The other thing we could try to do is get permission for some of the articles to be reposted online (with full credit to the author/source of course). I would think that some of the really small town newspapers wouldn't mind that at all, and they are usually the ones with the best player profiles. On a related note, hopefully we can "rescue" some of the lost links. Between Lexis, Google's Cache, and the Wayback Machine, a lot of stuff is probably still archived somewhere. MassBrew, if you're keeping a list of the articles that get lost as you find them, I'd be happy to see what I can do to track them down. Anyway, just my $.02. There is so much information on these message boards that it would be great to organize and share it more effectively with the "average Joe" who comes across the site from Google or elsewhere. ~Bill

Is this some sort of joke? Nedley hasn't been this creative with a lineup since... well... never. I like it. ~Bill

That's a really good idea... it would be something like Patrick currently does for the draft. Definitely something to consider and add to a "future features" list. ~Bill

He had a .779 OPS last year. Why do you expect that he will have a lower OPS (.700-.750) this year? And yes, I believe KG would produce an OPS of between .800 and .900 while playing a full season. Somewhere between .810 and .825 seems reasonable given his minor league numbers and production in the big leagues thus far.... his career OPS is .791 as-is. ~Bill

Nicely played, rluzinski. Ginter's line is now: .268 AVG, .366 OBA, .495 SLG, .861 OPS The NL average second-baseman is: .267 AVG, .327 OBA, .404 SLG, .731 OPS And the average NL player, regardless of position, is: .261 AVG, .326 OBA, .420 SLG, .746 OPS I wish we had 10 utility players as good as Ginter. ~Bill

Today's lineups are brought to you in part by "WHY CAN'T THIS GAME BE ON TELEVISION?!?" and Ben Hendrickson. MILWAUKEE MONTREAL AVG HR RBI AVG HR RBI Scott Podsednik CF .277 3 13 Endy Chavez CF .234 1 6 Craig Counsell SS .239 1 7 Jose Vidro 2B .254 4 13 Keith Ginter 2B .250 6 13 Orlando Cabrera SS .243 3 10 Geoff Jenkins LF .258 4 24 Carl Everett RF .233 1 2 Lyle Overbay 1B .369 5 38 Tony Batista 3B .226 2 11 Brady Clark RF .212 3 10 Brad Wilkerson 1B .242 4 12 Wes Helms 3B .252 2 12 Juan Rivera LF .250 1 8 Chad Moeller C .241 2 12 Brian Schneider C .231 5 10 Doug Davis LHP .000 0 0 Zach Day RHP .077 1 1 (3-2, 3.99) (2-4, 3.35) Nice to see Ginter make his triumphant return to the lineup, and it looks like Grieve's groin is still bothering him. Carl Everett is back in the lineup for Montreal, but let's hope he's still very rusty. Go Crew, ~Bill

Daily Brew Series Preview: www.brewerfan.net/ViewDai...portId=224 Special thanks to SlideBernieSlide for compiling the NL Central pitching matchups. ~Bill

Just got home from the game and it was by far the best game I've ever seen in my life. I can barely talk, but it was worth it. Modest crowd of aoubt 20k but it was as loud as I've ever heard Miller Park in the last two innings. I love Ben Sheets. ~Bill

05/16/2004 - Brewers (Sheets) vs. Braves (Wright) The Brewers look to avoid the sweep today behind Ben Sheets. Former Cleveland Postseason Hero Jaret Wright, who is resurrecting his career in Atlanta, goes for the Braves. I'll be enjoying this one in-person, so I'll be offline all day. I do want to send out an apology to Nedley about last night's decision to remove Grieve so early. Apparently, Ben pulled a groin and is day-to-day. It doesn't account for all the other things Nedley did that were perplexing, but ya' gotta admit when you're wrong. My bad, Mr. Yost. Enjoy the game and go Crew! ~Bill

Dont worry Ginter is just in a little bit of a slump. We all know that given a full season he will bat about .330 and his OPS will be well above 900. You can't use a month as a sample. As long as he plays 8 days a week, come September you will think he's the second coming of Brooks Robinson. This is getting pretty lame. I took the time to answer everything you said in the thread you started, and I included a fairly extensive explanation of my (and others') arguments re: Ginter's potential. I hope you realize that Ginter's current line is: .250 / .355 / .478 / .833 By comparison, here's Scott Podsednik: .276 / .352 / .410 / .763 And here's Geoff Jenkins: .264 / .329 / .453 / .782 And here's your favorite, apparently, Wes Helms: .250 / .298 / .336 / .635 You either have an unhealthy obsession with batting average, or you don't let facts get in the way of your agenda. Jeez. ~Bill

I wish Johnny Estrada was our catcher. And this team doesn't look like the same team that we've been watching over the last few weeks. Maybe Nedley needs to meet a new NASCAR driver in order to find some inspiration. And the Braves need a third-baseman so they can move DeRosa to second. Think they'd be interested in getting Helms back? ~Bill

Ok, I totally jinxed Matt Wise. My bad. ~Bill