ASU student. My wife: "Is the game that boring or are people in Wisconsin that hard up for a good looking girl at a baseball game." Ouch. Probably, just the large camera combined with the Brewer minidress at a game seems off for a student
No the difference is your #5 pitcher isn't as good. You take him out because you have a chance to blow the game open and its very likely you'll have to pull him soon anyway and Hawkins or Saito would be a better choice to pitch the 7th anyway.
Jerry Crasnick just mentioned some talk about Barmes. http://twitter.com/#!/jcrasnick/status/93816394155704320 Maybe playing AStros and dodger off each other in Barmes vs Carroll
Yes and no. For example if a hitter likes a given parks eye it may make a big difference. McGehee in Chase: .467/.529/.833. Now that is only 34 PAs but its so far outside his norm that he might just see things better there.
Karstens comes from the BABIP gods. His current BABIP is .235 and that contributes to his current strand rate of 88.7%. Its why his ERA is 2.34 while his FIP is 4.48 and his tERA is 4.77.
Melvin has always jetisoned guys with major league experience to play better prospects. Its how Weeks got his job, it how Lucroy got his job, its how McGehee got his job, its how Braun got his job.
So I guess has every other offense that has faced him. The guy has an FIP of 3.27. And he has a really good minor league record outside of his stint in AAA last year when he had control issues.