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joepepsi

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Everything posted by joepepsi

  1. Melvin built a team based on offensive prowess and pitching that would be just good enough. If you consider this team a failure then the blame has to lie with the offense. Last year's pitching staff was 9th in ERA and runs allowed. This year it's 4th in both. That's good enough to make the playoffs. Offensively, Hardy is the only player who has shown improvement. I suppose Cameron's power spike counts as an improvement too. Everyone else is worse than they were last year. Everyone else. It was unreasonable to expect Fielder to top 50 homers or Braun to hit .324 again, but the core of the team is a young talented offense. As a group they should have shown improvement. Hart, Hall, and Weeks are worse than in 2007. Braun and Fielder have been fine overall, but neither has shown any improvement in any area over last season. And they both have disappeared for extended periods of time at different points throughout the season. It's a stubborn, regressing offense that seems too arrogant for their years to make adjustments in their approach. Either that or these youngsters simply aren't as good as we hoped. That's the real weakness of this team. And that is not Melvin's fault.
  2. He has a good voice, good delivery, and isn't obnoxious. To expect more than that from your play by play guy is folly, sheer folly. He looks pretty young. With experience I expect him to be one of the better broadcasters in baseball in a few years. The only thing about him that annoys me, as other have noted, is "Corey Hart would be next". Really? Would be? In the 2nd inning with no outs and no one on base? Barring a meteor crashing to the on-deck circle, shouldn't he say, "Corey Hart WILL be next"?
  3. I'll feel more comfortable with a 13-2 win.
  4. In his last 8 starts Bush is 4-1 with a 3.23 ERA. That includes the 5 inning 6 run drubbing he took from the Mets. If the Brewers will it will be a great day!
  5. Actually, Lamb is signed for next season. $3 million + an option for 2010. I could be wrong, but I think the Twins are on the hook for the salary. If not, then I expect the Brewers will drop him at the end of this season.
  6. I will be stunned to see wholesale changes. It almost never works to completely makeover a team, shift everyone around and then expect to win a championship. Most GMs will look at what is the simplest, most cost effective way to get the biggest improvement over the previous year's team. I think with the Brewers that will come in the form of the the same defense lineup except for a new 3B and possibly a new 2B; and one or two veteran new starting pitchers from trade or free agency. Probably add another reliever or two. I know this is not a perfect team and there are weaknesses that need to be addressed. But it's important to remember this is a team that played .645 ball for 2/3rds of the season, from the Boston series to Sept. 1. They can't be complacent, but neither should they revamp the entire team. 95 wins are not that far off.
  7. I really hope Sveum isn't the manager next year. It is hard for me to believe the best manager to take the Brewers to the Promised Land has been their 3rd base coach all this time. It's like Bud Selig thinking his son in law and daughter were the most qualified people in the world to run his ball team.
  8. Weeks/Durham (not a strict platoon) Hardy Braun Fielder Cameron Lamb/Dillon (strict platoon) Hart/Nelson (not a strict platoon) Kendall/Rivera (alternate games)
  9. I think Hart continues to play everyday because there's no proven Veteran Gamer to play the outfield since Kapler is injured. It's pretty obvious they have no intention of playing any of the minor leaguers in the field.
  10. Nice summary, I had the same thoughts listening to him yesterday.I think it takes a different manager style to rebuild and introduce young players to the majors, then it does to manage a playoff caliber team. There's a lot more pressure managing a "win now" team. I think we started to see last summer that Ned struggled with that pressure. I think it's fair to say Yost was a fine manager for the first 4 to 4-1/2 years.
  11. I hope he is back next year. With only 11 games remaining I've all but given up on anything making sense with this team. I just want to see if they can win one more game. Frankly I don't care who plays the next 11 games as long as they can win one game. That said, Weeks should be playing against any lefties from here on out. And for cripesakes how about just one game where Durham leads off and Lamb, playing 3rd, bats 2nd.
  12. I will contribute later this week. Thank you for all the hard work you guys do. This is a fantastic site, and the only Brewer site I visit. If you are ever considering switching from Yuku, I suggest looking into freeforums.org.
  13. I thought he was one of the better signings in MLB this year; then he failed to perform. This is good news; he won't come in and blow anymore leads, Gagne will ride solo on that from now on, plus it suggests his poor performance was due to injury. Hopefully he returns to form and pitches well next year.
  14. I like the Macha idea. The other guys mentioned just seem tired, old, and from a bygone era. Macha was on board with the Beane philosophy and won a ton of games. He won his division twice in 4 years and finished 2 twice.
  15. got it. Thank you.
  16. It was Hargrove, and I certainly hope that he is near the top of the list of candidates. Hargrove is a nice guy but a terrible manager. He sits in the dugout and picks his nose all game. I suspect this was coming from Mark A. and they were ready to pull the trigger at any time, but wouldn't do it unless something significantly bad happened. Like the doubleheader yesterday. I wouldn't be surprised if Simmons is the manager next season.
  17. I think Melvin has done a great job. Not everything he touched turned to gold, but it never does. He's a good GM and should stay at least for another season.
  18. I bet CC will pitch even better with a new manager!
  19. Nice post, backupcatchers. I am grateful for the off day today. Not for the team's sake, but for mine! This has been painful. I purposely didn't pay much attention to the doubleheader because I expected them to get swept and I wasn't going to sit around and suffer through it. I'm taking your advice today and realizing it has been a great season to watch Brewer baseball. They can and should still make the playoffs, but if they don't I still have had a fun time and will miss the season when it's over.
  20. But that's the problem. Ever since Earl Weaver retired there doesn't seem to a manager capable of strict platooning. Hall has nearly 100 plate appearances since August 1 and his OPS is .599, striking out 1/3rd of the time. I haven't been keeping track; is this all because he's still playing against RHP?
  21. The only thing is that graphic was technically incorrect. The Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals "franchise" hasn't been to the post-season since 1981, which is 27 years. I'm sure FOX didn't count them, though, since they moved to a different city.I don't get it. The Orioles haven't made the playoffs since 1997, 11 seasons ago. It's been 1985 since the Royals were in the playoffs, 1992 for the Pirates, '93 for Toronto, '95 for the Reds....What am I missing about that graphic?
  22. Chances are LaPorta would not have played in 2009 much anyway. Ned doesn't vary his lineups much. La Porta's only opportunity would come at the expense of Hart or Fielder and I don't either of them sitting out much '09.
  23. I'm just really happy our .248 hitting catcher was able to play both games yesterday. That kind of grittiness is what's going to bring the Brewers a Championship this year.
  24. This is what I have been trying to say throughout this topic. Thank you! Hall should no longer be considered an everyday player or even a regular part of a platoon. Barring a complete makeover of the lineup, something within the realm of possibility given the last two weeks of play, the only position to improve on is 3B. I think you try to do that in 2009 by acquiring a veteran who can play good defense and provide a consistent bat.
  25. I realize Braun is the "franchise" pplayer, but given the offense Hardy has put up this year while playing ss, I think it's fair to call him the either the best player or the MVP of the team , as far as position players go. That's certainly a viable option. I just think few teams will make defensive shifts unless a player's is defense is so poor it's costing lots of wins. I just think when a team is playoff caliber they tend to make moves that are less risky. Moving your All Star caliber ss to 3rd and handing the starting ss job to a AA rookie is the sort of thing a rebuilding team does. Keeping your ss where he is and trying to upgrade 3B with a "proven" veteran is something a competitive team is more likely to do. That's certainly possible, especially if Escobar plays like an All Star in AAA next year. At that point trading Weeks or Hardy could be the better move. My point is, if Hardy is signed on for 3-4 more years you may get the most value for next year by trading Escobar as part of a deal for quality starting pitcher or 3B. In the end I guess it depends on if you think the Brewers should build on this year's success, re-tool, and go for it again in 2009 with largely the same team, or if they should take a step back in 2009 and risk a minor rebuild with the hope for a stronger team in 2010. I think most teams will continue to "go for it" each year, until it's clear a current core group has peaked.
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