theavrock

Come on guys. What a crappy throw.

Yea. Bill and Brian really tossing him the softballs. My favorite was the "if in spring someone who have told you after that interleague schedule going in to the AS Break you would be one game out of 1st would you have taken that?" I know they aren't paid to ask the tough questions but yeesh

Good lord does Bruce have a cannon. Good work Yuni and Kots.

Prince with the Braun in his early days treatment. Error followed by an extra base hit

all is well that ends well at least for this inning. 7 extra pitches for Narv but no other damage done.

So thats two botched rundowns and a wild pitch. What's next? A balk?

what a freakin joke. How many outs are they going to make narv get Time for some unearned runs?

Come on Prince. What a joke. How many times have the Brewers messed up the rundown this year?

Nice camera work there FSN. Would have liked to see the single that just happened.

So you are saying that WAR sucks as a stat or that Yuni and Casey haven't been as bad as their WAR suggests relative to other teams? I think it you picked any stat you like you're still going to find Yuni and Casey among the worst regulars in the major leagues. The Janisch/Renteria -.08 is a lot different than -.7 of Yuni. If we don't agree on that then we will probably have to agree to disagree. Even if we set the bar down to 100 PA's (which would be all be regulars) Cards: 1 Reds: 1 Pirates: 2 Astros: 1 Cubs: 2 Brewers: 3 Maybe I am looking at it the wrong way, but the Brewers appear to be giving more AB's to players producing below replacement level.

Lucroy has been 8th for a while. It's stupid but at least Ron is doing it consistently. He should be up in the batting order, esp with Braun out. Yet again Gamel is wasting away on the bench and Gomez could be played instead of Kotsay. That is more what I am upset about. Really should be Weeks Morgan Hart Fielder Gamel Lucroy Gomez Yuni Narv-Dog Now that is a lineup I can get behind.

Most teams only have a few players with over 300 PA's but looking at the Reds, they have their 4 best players over 300 PA's and no one else. But they do have Janish with 246 PA's and a -0.2 WAR, and Renteria with 159 PA's and a 0.1 WAR. The Cardinals also only have 4 players with ovner 300 PA's but they do have Theriot at 334 with a 0.4 WAR and Descalso at 238 with a 0.4 WAR and Schumaker at 186 with a 0.4 WAR. I seriously doubt that WAR is so precise that it can be used to determine there is any difference in a -0.2 and a 0.4 player over 250 or so PA's and a few defensive plays. That is probably my biggest beef with how WAR is often used - - assigning a precision to the stat claiming that decimal place differences in players has a meaningful or exact quantifiable difference. What is the margin of error on the stat 1, 0.5? The defensive stats are suspect over small samples, not to mention the whole debate about how accurate they are, also the accuracy of the mythical replacement level. I have no problem with using WAR to say player X is bad, O.K. or good, but when it is used to say a guy who is a few decimal places away from another guy is some meaningful difference or can really be translated into wins I have diffculty in that premise. I used 300 PA's because thats what Yuni and Casey have gotten. I wasn't giving it an in depth look I was just looking at players with negative WAR and pulling out those that had 300+ PA's. What you saw though kind of speaks to a different point. If the Reds 4 best players are getting the most AB's why are we giving so many AB's to guys with negative WAR's? Also Yuni and Casey aren't sitting at -.2 or -.1 They are almost a full WAR negative right now for half a season. They are on pace to be - 3 WAR for the season. Thats not -3 WABOF (Braun or Fielder). That is replacement level. Something that theoretically anyone can provide. .4 WAR is nothing to scoff at. Over a full season thats almost 1 win. if you have 4 guys you are at .8 WAR (over a full season) on one team and 4 guys at -.4 WAR that is a difference that playoffs can be decided by.

How long would "continues to struggle" be? It's been over half a season. I like Casey a lot and I have stated as such. If they continue to play him well then I hope he breaks out of it, but you have a guy who is raking in AAA. He can't be any worse than Casey is. You send Casey down and let him figure it out. Once he does you work him back in to the team. We simply can't afford to have a guy play as poorly as he has in a season where we are going for it. Yes they need SS and bullpen help, but the 3b problem can be solved in house and I can't figure out why they don't do it.

Where do you find this information? Would it be possible to post other teams? Is it normal to expect positive WAR from 8/8 players on a team and say anything with negative WAR is "putrid"? At least for me this is totally out of context, and I'm not really familiar with WAR, but I would expect that most teams have a mix of players above and below replacement. Without seeing the league wide data I would guess the Brewers WAR mix is somewhere between normal and good compared to the rest of the league. Otherwise every team in the league would be on pace for 100 wins.I just looked at the NL Central. The Cardinals and Reds have no players with 300+ PA's with negative WAR's The Cubs, Pirates and Astros only have 1 The Brewers have two. So the two teams we are supposed to be competing for the division with (I know the Pirates are there now, but I don't see the pitching continuing the way it is currently) do not have a single regular contirbutor posting a negative WAR. The Brewers have two. The info can be found at The Cubs, Pirates and Astros only have 1 The Brewers have two. [url=http://www.fangraphs.com'>www.fangraphs.com ]www.fangraphs.com[/url] EDIT: To further expand on that I looked at every division and checked each team in the top half of the division and only the White Sox, Giants and Phillies have 1 player with a negative WAR and 300+ PA's So the Brewers are the only team with 2 players with negative WAR's and 300+ PA's in the top half of their division. I would imagine if I looked at the bottom half there would be other teams that have this distinction but the Brewers are the only ones who are competing for their division with guys like Betancourt and McGehee getting regular AB's

Love it. Its actually sweet tea flavored vodka, but you probably had it with lemonade. A John Daly. Lovely in the summer.

NameTeamGPAHHRAVGOBPSLGwOBA Chone FigginsMariners70280481.185.230.246.212 Miguel TejadaGiants72287633.234.266.323.251 Dan UgglaBraves863485512.173.241.327.252 Alex RiosWhite Sox82324656.215.265.315.255 Casey McGeheeBrewers83339704.224.274.311.259 Ian DesmondNationals79328653.217.259.301.260 Yuniesky BetancourtBrewers79300695.243.263.349.262Looks like Chone Figgins has a nice stranglehold on worst everyday player, but Casey and Yuni are right in the thick of things for worst everyday NLer If we only had an in house option for even one of these players....

And bats 5th

SoCal you are bringing it tonight. Big ups, mad props

Wow. I miss 10 minutes and its already 3-0. I guess the good thing is there is plenty of season left. Bad thing is I have no faith that this team will turn it around, but more importantly that there is competent leadership at the top that will make the decisions needed to right the ship.

HAHAHA!!! Best post I have seen in some time. I love Hanel in there and you didn't even mention him.

What the heck? Is this not a reason to bring up Boggs or any of the other AAA OF's who are raking? Lets start an IF who has never started a game in the OF because we want Kotsay to play vs righties??? What is this team doing? I thought we were going for it this year.

+ a million!!! So clueless

In todays game alone, he 1.batted Yuni B 5th 2. started Kotsay over Gomez 3.removed Marcum when he had 85 pitches and 4. let Loe face 4 lefties in a row. His career line against lefites you ask??? .305/.478/.843 This guy doesn't have any clue what he is doing and is completely overmatched. If he didn't have the talent he has we wouldn't be giving him the leash he has. Big changes better be coming. Doug needs to make it fool proof for RRR.

So you use Loe's splits for ONE year and Shouse's career splits? How does that work? Loe's career vs lefties - .305/.365/.478/.843 Someone beat me to it. Way to cherry pick stats.

Jesus really? Just because we are in first is no excuse for not maximizing our talent. The decisions Ron and Doug have made have cost us games.