DirtyFranksBrewCrew

I don't care what the lineup is, just as long as Gross isn't hitting 2nd again. The combination of him & Weeks at the top of the order (and their combined .170 average with a on OBP not much better) is killing them. Another thing I'm curious to see is how the bats perform vs the otherwise very pedestrian Kyle Lohse. They've faced two similar-type pitchers this year in Fogg & Figueroa, and failed miserably. Getting shut down by Zambrano or Harang is excusable, but letting these journeymen stiffs beat you is embarassing. Another poor offensive performance and it might be time for Melvin to start shopping around for a left-handed bat.

Not that it really matters at this point, but let's say your season is on the line and you have a choice between two pitchers to start the game, neither of them very good. However your team is 16-7 in games started by one guy (or something like that), while your team has lost 18 straight starts made by the other guy. Which guy do you choose? A no-brainer, right? How about starting anybody (=Parra) than the guy who has lost 18 in a row. Nah, he'll snap out of it! We've been hearing that since June. Pathetic* Talk about loyal to a fault.....the season officially ends tonight. I desperately hope Attanasio does what most owners/management do in professional sports: give their public support for a guy only to can him a few weeks later. FIRE YOST!!!

Yeah, no kidding. This just in....Turnbow has control issues. The way he's been throwing lately, it would be shock if he didn't walk any one of us, let alone a big leaguer. You would think they'd seen enough of him but I guess not. Who's our manager again?

From the Journal Sentinel: "We still have math on our side," insisted Brewers manager Ned Yost. Uh, no you don't. What a complete moron. Another year with this guy is another year wasted. How can anybody defend him at this point. The WORST manager in the bigs. By far.

So many people to blame for yesterday's loss.....Cordero w/ the blown save, Rickie back to playing Rickie-defense, Yost allowing (calling for) Counsell's ill-conceived bunt attempt with a guy on 3rd and 1 out. The last one is especially frustrating, because it was something controllable. Ned has been pretty good about playing the match-ups of late with his pinch-hitters (like in Friday night's chess match w/ Cox), yet yesterday he inexplicably decides to let lefty Counsell (.156 vs lefties) face Ring when he has Mench (.322 vs lefties) and Joe Dillon (.556 vs lefties) on his bench. Even if Cox pulls Ring immediately for another righty (which I doubt he would, but who knows?), the odds are still much better with either of those two guys at the plate compared to the match-up that played out. Then to make things worse, he allows him to repeatedly attempt bunts, even w/ two strikes on him!!! I'll grant Counsell has had some big hits this year in tight spots, but this one is hard to defend. A little consistency please Ned!!! The only consistency Ned has shown has been his ability to make bad decisions (or non-decisions) at crucial times. This one may have cost them the game, and probably the season. Yes, despite his ineptitude (yet again) the Crew still should've won, but Cordero allowed that .216 hitting scrub to take him deep. Equally inexcusable. And one last thought regarding late game defensive substitutions: I usually don't mind Braun being pulled late with a lead as he has been pretty brutal in the field all season long, but for the past month plus Rickie has been the worst defensive player on the team (again). I don't have the numbers to back it up, but it seems that Braun has actually improved of late while Rickie has regressed to being the terrible fielder we've come to know and hate. With Counsell's ability to play anywhere west of 1B, the recognition of this trend might actually lead one to think that subbing for Rickie would be the right move. I'm nitpicking I know (what can I say, I hate Yost), but I still think it's a point worth making. And finally, the decision to pitch Capuano today in an absolute must-win game because he's "had success vs the Braves in the past" is just another example of cluelessness.....you would think Ned would understand by now that what Capuano did "in the past" (=before his 20 game losing streak) should have absolutely no bearing on what he does now. He's a jinx, a loser, good-bye and don't let the door hit you in the a_ _ on the way out! Vargas isn't a much better option, but he looked good vs the Astros earlier this week so why not give him a chance? Or Parra for that matter.....anybody but Capuano. Of course if our "ace" wasn't as brittle as my late grandmother, it would be a different story..... I give the Crew credit for an exciting season and staying in the race when a month ago it looked like they were ready for a nosedive, but unfortunately they will fall a bit short. Despite the popular notion that "the Cubs will choke," "they're the Cubs, they're losers," etc, it's not going to happen. Their competition is just too bad the rest of the way for them to collapse. I hope a week from now I am eating crow, but let's face facts......the season is over. The three culprits for this season, yet another without post-season baseball, are (you pick the order, I give you mine): 1) Yost; bad decisions all year long cost the Crew wins, plain & simple. Credit where credit is due, good decisions were made too, but vastly outweighed by the poor ones. Unfortunately a winning record (barely) will be seen as progress and he'll probably be back. 2) Sheets; enough with this guy already. If they can get something for him in the off-season, they better do it. He's gone after next year anyways and we know he can't be relied on. Sure, he'll probably pitch 3 straight healthy seasons for the Yankees and win a Cy Young, but that's life. His fragility is as big a reason for the Brewers downfall as any. 3) Youth; maybe it's too simple an explanation, but the Brewers' road woes are probably largely due to the youth of the team, especially when contrasting it with their fantastic home record. A half-dozen or so more wins on the road next year and we're in the catbird seat. Ahhhhhh, next year.....a familiar sentiment this time of year for Brewer fans. There's my rant, I welcome your comments. Looking forward to watching the Pack try and beat the Chargers later today (though I think their undefeated bubble will be burst). Talk at y'all next season!! DirtyFrank

The Cardinals are pathetic....put a a fork in 'em. The Brewers will be 3 back by Monday. Time running out on 2007.

http://images.yuku.com/image/jpeg/bf3354d59738841d65eea968d454623bc9cb389.jpg One more loss away from .500 (which will come today vs Lincecum), one more month away from ANOTHER losing season. Assuming that plays out, it will be a travesty if Ned keeps his job. He is an awful manager, and his team's 2nd half collapse (again) once again proves this. His inability to right this ship should be the final nail in his coffin. I'm looking forward to next season when we have a re-vamped starting rotation (good-bye Capuano & Vargas, and good riddance), a new manager, and a new attitude. I'd like to think they could trade the brittle one (Sheets) and get something for him, but coming off another killer 10 win, injury-riddled season my guess is they wouldn't get anywhere near fair value, thus they're stuck with him for one more year. That might actually be a good thing in the short term as we can probably expect a miraculously healthy 2008 campaign from him given that it's a contract year (funny how that happens, isn't it?). It sucks he has to go because he's a great team guy and a helluva competitor, but the Brewers simply can't rely on this guy anymore. Next season will be the last one in which Brewers fans will have to qualify the upcoming season's expectations with the opening statement, "If Ben Sheets can stay healthy.....", though it's really going to suck when he wins a Cy Young in a Yankee uniform. Sure, we're only 1.5 games out!!! There's still a chance, right? Mathematically, yes. Realistically, they might as well be 11.5 games out. Anybody paying attention the past three months will surely know what I'm talking about. The only good that will come out of this huge tease of a season is the firing of the consistently inept manager. Yost defenders, the floor is yours.

Another Cappy start, another crappy start...I wonder if Ned has a little more leeway for him, it's only the season slipping away.....Oh yeah, great choice leaving Linebrink in after he loaded the bases too......man Yost sucks.

"Cappy's an all-star," said Yost, referring to Capuano earning a spot on the NL all-star staff last year and ignoring the fact he is 6-18 with a 5.20 ERA in 36 starts since. "He needs to get himself back on track. If he gets himself back on track, he's going to be a huge bonus for us. I'm more than willing to give him more than a little leeway right now to try to work himself out of this." Ned Yost in a nutshell. Cappy hasn't been an all-star since the 1st half of last season and as the numbers state, has been plain awful since. Good to see he's giving him a "little" (little = 3 months) leeway as the season slips away. Sure, there aren't many options, but anybody, ANYBODY would be better....David Wells, Zach Jackson, whoever. Good to know now that with Cappy starting Sunday the cap for wins on this homestand is set at 3....and they'll be lucky to win 2. Can't wait to cash in that "huge bonus." I've got some for Doug Melvin too...it seems that not much has been mentioned about the Luis Castillo to the Mets deal that quietly went down. The Mets got an all-star 2nd basemen for a couple of mid-level minor league prospects.....where were the Brewers when this deal was going down?? It's not like the brass didn't know that Rickie was in the tank at that point, did they really think Graffanino was the everyday answer? Now he's hurt, Rickie still can barely bat .200, and second is a gaping offensive hole. Melvin missed the boat on that one, and nobody seems to care. But will it really matter? No. As I stated over a week ago, the starting rotation right now is the worst in the league. That was statistically confirmed in the JS this morning. People keep saying they need to hold out until Sheets comes back, but that they're just reaching. Even if he comes back as scheduled (I'm not convinced he will), it will take him 2-3 starts to shake off the rust, just like it did last year. That should leave us with about two weeks of the regular season left, or maybe 3 more starts. In other words, even if Sheets does return to form, it will be too late. Also as predicted earlier, don't be surprised if the Brewers finish 3rd, and under .500 to boot. What do we do with Ned then? In a perfect world..... Every time I come on here and gripe they rattle off a couple wins, so hopefully that trend continues today. As you might suspect however, I'm not too optimistic.

Like any earlier post said, this season is no different than any other, we just got off to a good start this year. Anybody who seriously thinks the Brewers are contenders going forward is fooling themselves. Despite any stats to the contrary or their performance in the 1st half of the season, the bullpen right now is one of the worst in baseball. They are completely undependable, from CV to Turnbow, to Cordero, all of them have lost it at the wrong time. Not only do the Brewers have little shot at the post-season (the only reason I say they have any shot is because technically they're still in first, at least until Tuesday evening), I wouldn't be surprised if they finished 3rd in the division. I'm kind of hoping that happens actually, because that would probably force Attanasio's hand to fire our WORTHLESS MANAGER!!!! How many Yost-led teams have to continue to play poor defense, lose on the road, and collapse in the 2nd half before Attanasio wakes up? I've said it before and I'll say it again, the young & talented Brewers will NEVER win a thing with this clueless nitwit running the show. When does football season start again? I'm sick of spewing venom about the paper lion Brewers, I can't wait to shift gears and start complaining about the worthless Packers. Wake me when the nightmare ends!!!! (September 9th will do)

Yes, I couldn't agree more about the "who's now" thing. Just unwatchable television. Stuart Scott is just awful.

Time to face the music....the Brewers are pretenders. Prince looks tired, Braun has been unbelievable at the plate but equally bad in the field (of late anyways, 2 unearned runs in game 1 the difference?), and Weeks is just worthless. They don't have the maturity to win on the road yet, something the Cubs are obviously very good at. The starting pitching has actually been pretty decent for the most part (Suppan excluded) but their overrated bullpen is melting down at the wrong time so you hardly even notice. And of course then there's Ned. It's amazing how game in game out he consistently makes bad decisions. Pitching to Albert Pujols? Why? Because he was 1 for 5 in his career vs Wise prior to that? Yost is just clueless, it's painfully obvious. Here's hoping the kid can stop the bleeding tomorrow (assuming the offense can muster more than two runs for him vs the dominant Kip Wells).

Great decision Ned, challenge Pujols....he's such a terrible game manager. The collapse continues......

So I guess last night was an aberration.... No offense after the 5th inning, the bullpen (supposed team strength) failing again......that's the 2nd half Brewers we're used to. It seems like each loss lately is just a bit more brutal than the one that proceeded it.....a terrible trend. Seriously though, what to do with Coco on the road? With a road ERA of 7.20 heading into today, he has to be the worst closers in the league on the road. What about game 2, same situation? Do you go back to him?

CV-Linebrink-Coco........we need an insurance run or two