DuWayne Steurer

It's fine to say your starter only has to go 3-4 innings because you have 11 guys in the pen (10, minus Riske now), but what good is that when most of them suck? All kidding aside, the only guys I feel comfortable seeing in the game close and late anymore are Villy and Torres.

Ha, one post from me in the whole thread and I made it into their quotables. Cool beans.

I'll be happy with someone who doesn't bring in his LOOGY to intentionally walk a guy who hits .212 off of lefties, to have him face a murderous right handed batter, and my 13 year old kid fits that bill. In all seriousness, like others, I'd love a manager who's not afraid of a little creative thought. A guy who would use his closer in the 8th inning if the other team's 3-4-5 is coming up. Given the day and age though, I'm sure that might be a little too much to ask. I mean, most of "The Book" is pretty easy to follow, (my feeling that most MLB managers are inflexible to the extreme regarding said Book aside) and Ned just couldn't/wouldn't do it, instead, relying on his gut and stupid made up rules that would pop into his head as he went along. (Saying it's "not fair" to bring in a reliever with men on base just killed me, honestly)

It's funny, because I was just looking at the standings on ESPN, saw we were only a 1/2 game behind the Mets, and was thinking this exact same thing. My 2nd thought was "I wonder if someone on Brewerfan started a thread about it?" Not that I'm exactly hopeful the Brewers will start playing like gangbusters (though I hope to heck I'm wrong), but it's a thought.

The media stories popping up the last week, and especially today really paint an ugly picture of Yost and how he's perceived by his players. Really makes you think that maybe Ned wasn't the "players manager" that we've been lead to believe.

Honestly, truthfully, if it's someone from the '82 Brewers, I'll turn in my fan-card. Over the last 5-10 years or so, this organization has taken a bunch of guys that were my childhood heros and made me downright sick to death of seeing and hearing about them. The only thing you have to have done in life to get a job with the Brewers is seemingly have been attached in any obscure way to the '82 Brewers. I vote for Bobby V. He's not a nice guy, and he's not a guy you probably will see work hard to develop young talent, but if you're in that "window" where you're competing, he's a guy to have around for 3-4 years.

I had 2 Epiphone Les Pauls that if they didn't say Epi on the headstock, you wouldn't have known they weren't Gibsons. On the other hand, I had an Epi SG that sounded and felt like you were strumming a rock across a dirty rubber band.

I don't think this is entirely about this year. There's a lot of disillusioned members of the fan base after yet ANOTHER Ned Yost led collapse. Blood appeases the masses, so Nedly was the (fitting) sacrifice. Yes, to h-e-double-hockey-sticks with the "casual fan" but they pay the bills. This was as much about keeping face in the PR department as it was about trying to win some games the rest of the year.

When they know the offense is struggling like they are, and probably aren't going to score many runs, they feel they have to make a perfect pitch every pitch. You get tight, and you make more mistakes One could argue the hitters are pressing because they know the bullpen is likely to give up any lead of less than 5 runs on a given night. One could argue the starting pitchers are pressing for the same reason. At the end of the day, everyone can only do their own job.

His rationale for why he lets pitchers finish innings when they're getting tagged just gets dumber by the day. There's 486 pitchers on the big league roster, and all of a sudden it's against Ned's new rule book to bring a pitcher in in the middle of the inning if there's runners on because "it's not fair" No, Ned, what's not fair is the fans of this team watch another (and another, and another) late season collapse because of your weird rules that you make up on the spot to fit your needs because you don't know how to manage.

I want Yost fired the very second they're mathematically elimnated from the playoffs. And if he's replaced by one more stinking retread from 19-frickin-82, I want Melvin fired.

I'm alreay passed the panic and into the acceptance stage. 2 game lead at the end of the day, but I can't fathom the Brewers winnng a game in this series. And I also don't expect the Astros to lose ever again.

Can't watch anymore. I just can't. "Plenty of teams would love to be in the Brewers position right now" Yeah, melting down, with their 5 game lead dwindled to 2 by the end of the day, in the midst of the worst offensive team slump they've gone through this year. "This is just an up and down that teams go through during the season" Yep, and the Brewers under Ned do the DOWN consistently in September. Please, please, please, fire Ned after this. I know Ned isn't out on the field making the plays, but the emotional side of me will need to see someone scapegoated after the 3rd historic 2nd half collapse under Ned's reign of terror over Milwaukee baseball.

We could sign chipper and have an awesome offensive 3B for about 105 games or so next year.

There are currently exactly zero reliable relievers in the bullpen.

This is easy for me. I'm at school tonight, so I'll have the Brewers on gamecast. If I was home, however, it'd still be Brewers with occasional flips to the Packers to see how they're doing.

AMEN! 130 pitches in a game they were winning by 7 going into the 9th, and here's a game where we REALLY could have used him in the 8th, but Ned's getting cold feet. And I know some people will point at the offense and say "they only scored 2 runs by that point, if they score more it's moot". No it's not, the context is the 8th inning guy is brought in to protect a 1 run lead, whether it's 8 to 7, or 2 to 1. And lately (ha!) Gagne can't be trusted in a pressure situation.

There's one less 8th inning left this season for Gagne to pitch in.

As much as I'd love to see Cain, I'm really not interested in seeing Hardy go. He's hitting his prime, and I'm not sold that Escobar is read to go just yet. The guy had a pretty abysmal walk rate this year, and OBP is where our offene struggles. JJ's got the 3rd highest OPS, and 2nd highest OBP among our starters, to go along with a fine glove (albeit with limited range). To go along with Brian's comment, I'm sure the biggest reason that JJ doesn't want to move to 3B is becaue an .850 OPS ss makes more money than an .850 OPS 3rd baseman. Another thing to consider is that this team is really unsettled on the infield. Weeks and Hall are really unknown quantities going forward, and there's the possibility that the team will want to move Fielder as early as this off-season. Another starter is absolutely a need, but giving up JJ right now just doesn't feel like the right move.

Man, I've managed to avoid this thread all year, but I'm just wondering when Ned's going to figure out he's in a playoff race, and quit using Eric Gagne in pressure situations. I know we're supposed to believe that we're all just fans, and the guys making the decisions who are in the clubhouse everyday know better than us, but honestly, there's dozens of posters on this site (hell, probably hundreds) that could manage better than Ned. Craig Counsell, who does all the "little things".

Value does not have to be contextual. If player A is 5 wins above average, he'll make an 81 win team an 86 win team, or he'll make an 66 win team a 71 win team. That doesn't mean he has less value, it means he was on a crappy team.

I was thinking this exact same thing. It's mind boggling to me that there's 30 managers in the game right now, and not a single one of them has the creativity to use their best reliever in late innings against the opponent's best hitters. Just extraordinarily stupid.

It's pretty awesome going to work or whatever and having a lot more baseball talk than I can ever remember. I don't give a rip that these newcomer "casual" fans don't know what FIP or OPS+ or pythatorean W/L means. I don't, and frankly, to hold most to that standard is extraordinarily elitist at best. I don't care that someone who doesn't know who the hell Marc Newfield or Bryce Florie are wears a Sabathia jersey. And to top it all off, I don't care if a guy in a Sabathia jersey who doesn't know who Marc Newfield is or know what OPS+ is stands and talks baseball by the water cooler sounding like a know it all. I'm pretty darn sure at some point in everybodie's lives, they spouted off about something they knew nothing or little about, just to sound like they could carry their own in a conversational topic. We all whined and pissed and moaned about the 12,000 attendance nights at 3rd World Country Stadium, we complained and railed about the national media picking on the team for 15 years (as if they didn't somehow deserve it?) and now that we have record ticket sales, sellout after sellout, and an owner who's putting money into the team to be competitive, instead of glorying in a playoff race, we complain about the people who are by and large, making it possible with their financial contributions. Makes sense.

I know Kapps has played all 3 OF positions this year, and has average D, he almost always delivers with clutch hits when needed, and has 150% better plate discipline than Cameron Cameron has a higher OBP than Kapler despite hitting almost 50 points lower. Cam takes 4.23 pitcher per plate appearance, compared to Kapler's 3.92. Just because someone strikes out a lot, doesn't mean they have poor plate discipline, in fact, I'd argue the opposite; someone with 10 walks in 210 at bats is probably the guy who's plate discipline could stand to imrove. And the difference in D from Cam to Kapler in CF is a pretty wide gap. It's been said before and bears saying again, when you're rebuilding and figure to win 70 games, going with a cheap guy like Kapler to get 550 at bats is not a bad idea. When you plan to contend, you can't play it on the cheap with 32 year old guys who are far outperforming their career norms and who can't be reasonably expected to continue that trend, especially playing on an everyday basis.

To add onto what LouisEly said.....when you check out of an ER, they usually give you a "follow up" slip or something to that effect, and every time I've ever been to an ER, the slip will say something to the effect of " A visit to the ER if for immediate treatment and is not meant to replace the diagnostic abilities of your practicioner or specialist, please follow up with Dr. Whoever within 24 hours" or something of that nature. Their job is to deal with the immediate effects of whatever is going on with you. Too many people (and I am not saying anyone here) use the ER as opposed to their regular doctor for the sake of convenience, and that's a part (small part) of what drives medical costs in this country. Brian, going back to your reply to my post, again, I certainly don't know near enough about your situation, and I repeat that I'm not saying "don't sue", because if it's negligence or mishandling that has led to an increase or prolonging of your wife's discomfort, then you probably have grounds for it. I'm simply saying in a broader scope, that sometimes a lack of general knowledge in the medical field about a certain condition can be misconstrued as *negligence*, and when you're the party that's suffering for it, it can be extraordinarily frustrating. I repeat though, that I don't know your situation, and you very well may have (and it sounds like you do) doctors who have handled this poorly from the get go. Speaking only in my case, it was frustrating to find I had a condition that there was very little known about it, and what they did know, was vague and had divided opinion in the medical field. People close to me wanted to find someone to blame, but in the end it's not anybodies fault so much as it's just something that the medical field hasn't worked out yet.