Fear The Chorizo

All the pitchers should watch 5 Cardinals games in a row - I'm not saying the Cards' staff is going to keep this trend up, but they are among the league leaders in fewest walks per game. If our pitchers watch the Cardinals win games by throwing quality strikes consistently and forcing teams to get multiple hits in an inning to score runs, maybe they'll realize that they could be just as successful and probably even better than the Cards' pitching, since as a staff I think the Brewers have pitchers with better "stuff"

Aramis is also dealing with a wrist injury that's kept him out of the lineup for a few games, after he had been hit by a pitch a few times on it. Aram and Soriano are about as injury-riddled and DL-prone as Sheets is...any time one of my Cub fan friends talks about Sheets being fragile, I just bring up all the nagging injuries these two face - I also bring up the time Sheets drilled Ramirez, which led to Ramirez throwing his helmet at him and spraining his ankle. If anyone's fragile it's a guy who injures himself in an altercation with Sheets!

When I first read this, I wondered what percentage of games normally are wins of more than 3 runs, but I went through last year's results and found 32 games the Brewers won in 2007 by more than 3 runs, which is closer to 20% so your point is well-taken. This early in the season, the 10% number could jump way up with a good offensive week - the more alarming trend is the three games the Brewers won in easy fashion were all in the season's opening week...it's been nailbiting time ever since.

It's articles like these that make me anticipate a 16-5 type run for the Brewers...just when the talking heads and "experts" think they have it figured out, baseball has a knack of completely disproving them. If last season taught us anything, it's that writing anyone off in early May is incredibly foolish - the Brewers were 24-10 around this time last season, and nobody else in the division was even over 0.500...the division was a foredrawn conclusion, and nothing could go wrong. Not exactly how it turned out. The Cubs are finally getting to a portion of their schedule that doesn't include the Pirates - the Brewers are in the midst of their second 9 game road trip in their first 35 games. As for sketchy rotations, anyone paying attention to what's been going on in Cubbyland? Pinella's already lost his patience with Hill, getting that way with Marquis, Lilly's been inconsistent, and Dempster's starting to get hit around like his peripheals indicate. They basically have the same rotation as Milwaukee's right now, only their middling starters that can't get deep into games are veterans. I'm still not buying the Cardinals, simply because they have career bench players playing everyday at this point - they're playing very well right now but there will come a point when these guys show why they've been career bench players and castoff pitchers. Also, their bullpen will continue to trend towards blowout mode, since the same relievers are being used on almost a nightly basis to get wins - very similar to the brewers' hot start last season. As much negativity that surrounds the Brewers, we should be thrilled that they're still 16-15. The pitching staff as a whole needs to get more consistent, but it would be really nice if they start scoring runs more consistently. To quote the great Lee Elia, I hope we get hotter than ****!

This was the last time the Brewers won a game that didn't include a 9th inning save situation - they've been able to do this in only 3 games so far this season out of 31 games. When only 10% of your games are easy, cruise-control type wins, it puts a ton of strain on the bullpen and pitching staff as a whole. 5 blown saves from Gagne stinks, but what also stinks is that the apparent strength of this team, the offense, has yet to get going and give a very strained pitching staff some much-needed support.

The Brewers need to continue to develop pitching in their minor league system - it's the only way they can expect to hang on to their young position player talent and remain solid enough as a pitching staff to compete. Twins, A's, Indians - smaller market teams that have consistently contended by drafting/developing and trading for young pitching talent and then spinning it for additional prospects/pitchers once they become too expensive. These teams have been able to keep their best young pitching around a season or two past arbitration, but they've shied away from giving the crazy money contracts in order to keep a solid roster. The Brewers appear to have little trouble identifying MLB-quality position players in the early rounds of the draft. They've been bitten by the injury bug when drafting young pitchers though - hopefully that changes with the draft this June.

I think Yost is the scapegoat for far too many of this teams' shortcomings. We've heard nothing but great things about all these up and coming young prospects who are surefire MLB stars...all of them have warts, and those warts often get overlooked by everyone, myself included. We all want the young players on the roster to succeed so much that when they struggle we think there has to be some other reason for it other than the player himself. The pitching staff has gone from having a surplus of middling starters to very little depth, and the bullpen is ready to implode (part of that blame goes to Gagne, who can't keep blowing saves and sending this team to extras, and part goes to the ineptitude of the early season offense so far). Yost may not be the best bullpen manager in baseball, but I think he also has far from one of the best bullpens to work with, too. When your key relievers can't stop walking guys, you're screwed no matter what you do. If this team is going to compete, they have to start scoring alot more runs, and take some of the strain off a fragile pitching staff. with all that said, this team is still over .500, 3.5 games behind a surprising Cardinals team, and in the midst of a second 9-game road trip already in early May...I'm concerned, but not jumping off a ledge any time soon

"P.S. I'm not trying to be a jerk face on this issue, but as an umpire, I get a little peeved at the perceived ignorance of the uniformed. " How dare you actually cite rules when making your arguments - broad generalizations and assumptions are much better!

Let's get off the Reed Johnson bashing - not his fault or a dirty play at all. It's one of those freak plays where 200 things have to happen just right in order for something terrible to result. I think as a baseball fan, you have to be disappointed when anyone gets seriously injured on any team - it obviously doesn't look good at all for Yo right now, but I'll wait until they have the full diagnosis once the swelling goes down before declaring the full season gone for Gallardo.

Is there anything saying whether this is a partial or total ACL tear? My gut tells me it's a partial tear - An exteammate of mine tore his ACL while trying to field a grounder - they weren't sure how bad he was injured and wanted him to throw a few from the mound. He basically fell over as soon as he tried pushing off the mound and he was done - a complete ACL tear and partial tears of some of the other ligaments. If Yo had a multi-ligament knee injury yesterday on his pushoff leg, there's no way he could have continued to pitch. Another teammate of mine pitched a full season with an ACL brace on his leg, but that was his landing leg, and it wasn't like he planned on making 30+ starts. MRI's can reveal partial tears that don't necessarily require surgery. While I agree in hindsight that keeping Gallardo in the game for almost 2 full innings afterward wasn't the best thing for him, I do think that if Yo had a complete tear there's no way he would have been able to pitch. Depending on what the stability tests conclude on a knee with a partial tear determines if surgery is necessary, or if the ligament/knee can be rehabbed without going under the knife. Either way, the recovery process for any type of ACL injury would set Yo back to not really contributing this season. This is just a brutal way to start a weekend.

Let's see: When McClung entered the Marlins game, Riske, Turnbow, Stetter, Mota, and Gagne had already pitched in that game. Torres had pitched two innings the night before, and the Marlins had right-handed hitters coming up that inning. There was nobody left to pitch those innings except for their mop up guy, the fact that their "worst" reliever gave up a run shouldn't surprise anyone. It's tough to win a game when your offense scores 2 runs in 10 innings no matter who's pitching for you. Not going to jump all over McClung for losing that game by any means. The 2nd Cubs game is exactly the reason why McClung is valuable to this team - as long as he can give you multiple innings to keep the rest of the bullpen fresh (the relievers the Brewers need to count on to win games), I'm fine with him getting hit around or walking a few guys...just finish the innings you start. Turnbow couldn't even pitch a full inning in a meaningless situation.

endaround put it best - it's not that Tulo is never going to be the same player he was last season because of this injury, but since the Rockies locked him in for 6-7 years, it takes away the possibility that his pre-arby performance would limit the value of his arbitration figures. the arby system really gives small market teams windows of opportunity to contend if they run their organizations properly. The contracts that Tulo and Longoria have signed to completely negate the arbitration process may start to bridge the gap to a point where big time prospects in the minor leagues start signing long term deals before they even get to the big leagues.

I've never bought the strength of schedule argument for baseball, because I think it's not necessarily who you play, but when you play them. For example, the Astros are a completely different opponent if you don't have to face Oswalt during a 3 game series. Pitching matchups get shuffled due to offdays and injuries so much that to say it's great the Cubs play the Mets for 4 in late September is kind of pointless...so much can happen between now and then healthwise during the course of a season that it's probably not worth looking more than 5 games ahead for upcoming games/series.

I'm still confused why he's hitting 5th, when it's pretty obvious that he's a #2-type hitter...more of a table setter and a guy that will work the count. If the Cubs ever wised up and put Soriano 5th, Fukudome 2nd, and found a way to deal for Roberts...with with what we now know that Fukudome isn't overmatched, they'd have a devastating lineup (they're going good enough now as it is)

Turnbow had been kicked to the curb by two other organizations prior to Milwaukee picking him up - the Brewers caught lightning in a bottle for about a season and a half, only to be shown during the next season and a half the exact reasons why a pitcher with his stuff was made available to them in the first place...he was too inconsistent, and couldn't be relied upon in a significant role on a team. I'm not too concerned about the Brewers needing to eat what's left of Turnbow's contract - in reality, they're basically paying him for how good he was 2 seasons ago, when he was making peanuts and dominating games. Good for Turnbow that he was able to cash in at least once during his career, and good for the Brewers to finally realize that they needed to make a move to give them more value with that 25th roster spot. If this team is serious about contending, they can't keep pitchers or players on their MLB roster who don't contribute in some meaningfull way. I actually hope Turnbow ends up in AAA, and has an opportunity to try and work through his issues

And suddenly that contract Tulowitzki signed after playing one season in the bigs looks alot better for Tulo

We have to remember how the Brewers acquired Turnbow - he was scrap heap material that didn't pan out in Philly and in Anaheim. Doug Melvin has a knack for mining nuggets, but those nuggets are there to be had for a reason - they're not consistently good enough for their former teams to worry much about losing them. Right now, the Brewers are basically playing every game a man short on their roster - Turnbow can't be relied upon for anything. The 4-6 run inning seems to have a better chance of happening than a 3 up, 3 down inning at this point. I can deal with McClung eating up innings in blowouts and having him get hit around a bit, but Turnbow can't even get himself 3 outs in a completely meaningless situation. time to cut the cord

comment, just wanted to add that the Brewers didn't exactly light up any of the four straight lefty starters they faced last week - my guess is their overal team OPS ranking is pretty similar to their OPS vs. RHP only.

When comparing managers, it ultimately boils down to what kind of players he has to use in situations. carrying a 13 (or 14???) man pitching rotation handcuffs any manager from making aggressive pinch-hit and double switch moves. having a roster full of right handed hitters and a bench full of lefthanded punch and judy hitters limits a manager, too. I'm not the biggest Yost fan in the world, but I do think he gets too much of the blame for this team's shortcomings - the makeup of this current roster really limits the changes he can make to the position player lineup, and the bloated pitching staff seems to have 3-4 relievers to pick from for close games, and 2-3 relievers to pick from in blowout games. I'd much rather throw blame on a starter who can't get anyone out or a reliever who can't throw strikes AND get anyone out than try to blame the manager for every bad game a player/pitcher has.

We don't have to look at any more posts about the sluggish offense that start with: "Once Cameron comes back..." The Brewers are 25 games into the season, above .500, and hitting nowhere near their collective capabilities.

there would be plenty of 11 man pitching staffs in the majors that had more depth than the Brewers' 14-man did - what I mean by that is out of all the relievers in the pen, there are very few who have been consistently good, and when some of them come into a game it feels like a matter of time before the opponent has 2 guys on and nobody out. I think Bush clearing revocable waivers speaks more to a general over-valuing of him by us as a whole moreso than the thought of teams expecting a cut/release of McClung or Turnbow - if Bush was viewed as a better starting option than what teams like the Astros, Rangers, Orioles, Phillies, etc have in their rotations, they would have claimed him. I think we should view Bush for what he currently is - an arm that can give you similar production to a young pitcher with more upside who's just getting his feet wet in the bigs. There are plenty of teams that have poor rotation "depth", but pitchers with Bush's stuff actually do grow on trees, and many teams would rather let their youngsters fill in for injuries early on in the season instead of giving up young talent for a middling pitcher. Bush has been a pitcher with good peripheal stats and bad results for long enough that it's fair to say he's a #5 with limited upside at this point in his career. not specific to this thread, but in all honesty I've been more than pleased with the overall quality of Brewer pitching this season...if the offense wasn't virtually dormant for the entire first month, we'd have a record similar to the D'backs, if not better. Pitching has given us a chance to win basically every game so far this season, and I'm worried that we're in the middle of burning this pitching staff out since there hasn't been a game in a long, long time where 5 runs are scored by the 4th inning, and the opposition needs to use their long man out of the pen. if the bats are as good as we all think they are, it's about time they get going. if they don't hit, they're not going to stay in any kind of division/playoff race.

If he misses another start, it's really going to frustrate me - not just because he'd miss it against the Cubs, but because he could have been put on the DL 9 days ago, and the current roster issue that the team is handcuffing themselves with would have been avoided (at least carrying 14 active pitchers, and essentially playing every game with only 2 viable bench players aside from the 2nd catcher.) Melvin seems to DL people retroactively way too much - I'd rather the team keep it's roster flexibility and DL someone as an extra precaution this early in the season than what they've been up to with the injuries to Gwynn, Kapler, and Sheets so far this year.

It's going to come down to who has the best and deepest bullpen, just like it did last season. If Sheets avoids the DL, I think the Brewers' starting rotation can pitch further into games on average than the Cubs' rotation, which should help their pen. If the Cubs continue to run out the same 3 relievers in every reasonably close game (Howry, Marmol, and Wood), they're going to burn out. I also don't see how Dempster will continue to excel as a starter once the innings start piling up, since it's been years since he was used to start instead of close games. Much of the Brewers hot start in 07 was directly linked to how well their late inning guys pitched, but they were also pitching almost every game during that stretch that got them to 24-10. by June, Villy needed rest, Turnbow had lost his command, and Cordero started to have some blown saves. The Cubs have used a similar formula to how the Brewers started last year - combine a relatively easy, home-heavy early schedule with lots of appearances by their bullpen horses to finish every close game out. Looong way to go, as we found out last year - aside from the Cubs and D'backs, nobody else has a better record in the NL than the Brewers...it's not like there's a huge hole being dug that the Brewers will need to get themselves out of to creep into contention.

If Cameron's first game back is indeed April 29th, I think Rich Hill probably won't even bother to get out of bed that day...yeah, unless something unusual happens over the next 4 games the Cubs play, I would think Lou would go with Marquis, Dempster, and Z

4/15: Warning track, right-center against Braden Looper. 3rd at-bat. Caught by Ankiel. I didn't say the last time he hit a deep fly ball - the last time he had hit a line drive, much less got a base hit to the opposite field