danzig6767

I don't think Melvin has done a poor job in his time here, but his reputation IMO is somewhat bigger than what's he's done overall since becoming our GM.

The closer role gave us a win tonight Franklin pitched the 8th inning and got three outs on five pitches. Franklin has pitched much better than Isringhausen all year, a 2.00 ERA vs 7.47 for Isringhausen, yet Franklin is removed after only throwing five pitches the previous inning because the "closer" has to pitch the 9th.

I was trying to figure out what route the Brewers would take to strand Braun at third with nobody out. I was figuring popout, then the DP, but the result was the same and expected.

I question that Hardy can be a .350 OBP guy because i don't see Hardy being able to generally hit for a high enough average. He hit .277 last year and my guess is that's around his ceiling batting average wise, but he'll more often hit around .245-.265 and he won't walk enough to get on base at a .350 clip with that low of a batting average. On the home run front, Hardy has the power to hit 20-25 homers each year, but i doubt he has the hitting skill to match the power he has.

If that pitch wasn't so high, it would have been a strike, it went right over the middle of the plate

I think in general Yost probably gets to much blame for the team struggling, managers in baseball can only have fairly limited impact on a sport that's so much one on one individual based. With that said, i don't think he's a good manager and it's hard for me to see where the downside would be from replacing him.

During his first year with us when he had his great secondary numbers, i remember Bush usually sitting around 88-90 with his fastball. Last year his numbers were much worse, but i forget if his fastball had lost any velocity. This year, more often than not his fastball is in the 84-86 range, he's not throwing as hard as his first year with us. Now i don't claim to know if a few miles per hour would really matter all that much given a 88-90 mph fastball like his first year with us is hardly something that big league hitters struggle to catch up with. Hell, look at Turnbow, don't command the fastball and big league hitter will even rake a pitch coming at them in the 94-97 range. All i know is my hopes that we'd see more of the 2006 Dave Bush instead of the 2007 Dave Bush isn't happening, were are seeing so far an even worse version of the 2007 Dave Bush. Walks are up, velocity down, and he's still prone to leaving tasty meatballs over the plate after he puts a runner or two on base. For me, Bush has been painfully frustrating to watch since he's been here. Outside of Sheets/Gallardo the last two years and this season so far, no other starter seems able to just quickly cruise through stretches of most of their starts like Bush can without allowing many or any baserunners. Then he walks a guy, maybe hits a guy, gives up a bloop hit or two, or some combination of those. Unfortunately, then bam, Bush serves up a 85-86mph fastball right over the heart of the plate or badly hangs a curve to the next hitter or two and there goes what looked like a potential nice start. I kept hoping that at some point in his career Bush could avoid being as helter skelter as he is, but i just don't see it happening. With that said, i have no confidence that Jeff Weaver will do any better. One of those situations of would you rather get stabbed in the eyeball with a fork or ice pick? To make matter even worse, Villanueva and Parra both deserve as much a boot from the rotation as Bush does.

Do you know anything about the stuff he has? Is he just a junkballer that's fooling AAA batters?

Yea that sucked, but yet again our "offense" is futile at getting runs across the plate. The odds we score 3 more runs tonight look to be microscopic.

The pitching staff as a group is getting killed by walking so many batters, fourth most allowed in the NL.

Just unreal lately how many grounders and squibs find holes to become hits, but ours find gloves

It's amazing how in baseball when a team is in a bad funk where they both aren't playing well and getting no breaks, it starts feeling like they won't win another game.

Because the importance of hitting coaches is overrated by many fans

I wasn't trying to imply that i think St. Louis will keep playing at a .629 win percentage, they won't or that the Brewers are toast. I just thought they'd be a bad team this year and i'm no longer convinced that will be the case. Now i do believe they have a decent shot to stay in the race all year, something that i never would have expected prior to the season.

I'm fairly confident that Houston won't stay in contention for a playoff berth once we get deeper into the season, the Cardinals though i'm starting to think they just might be able to. The Cardinal not only have Pujols, but enough guys in the lineup that get on base to where i think they'll score enough runs to stay in the race. Their bullpen also looks pretty solid, it's the starting pitching for them that will decide their fate. I was annoyed that St. Louis was able to get Lohse cheap after Boras foolishly turned down a 3yr deal from the Phillies. Lohse is by no means a great pitcher, but he's a solid innings eating 4th/5th starter type that they really needed. Wainwright has ace or near ace stuff and seems to finally be putting it all together. I expected the Looper to the rotation experiment to be a huge failure, but he's probably no worse than Suppan. Todd Wellemeyer is another reliever turned starter that surprisingly has been very effective for the Cardinals in 18 starts covering 100 innings this year and last year. Pineiro was terrible in the AL and could still end up being quite bad in the NL, but so far at least he's been solid. Carpenter i believe will be back sometime in July. With us losing Gallardo, i have a hard time saying our rotation is for sure better than the Cardinals is. Wainwright is no fluke, he has ace stuff that can match what Sheets throws. Parra/Villanueva are nowhere near a lock to perform better than Wellemeyer and Lohse. As bad as Bush has been last year and this year so far, it's hard to say he's gonna do better than Pineiro. LaRussa is a much better manager than Ned

I don't by any means feel Yost was the main culprit in the Brewers blowing their big lead last year or why the Brewers are struggling right now, managers in baseball IMO have a fairly limited impact on the success or failure of a team. With that said, i do think they have some impact and overall i don't think Ned is a good manager. As much as he can get on my nerves, i think if LaRussa was managing the Brewers last year, we win roughly an extra 3-4 games and win the division.

This game is a perfect picture of the career of Dave Bush Cruise quickly through some innings and not allow baserunners, but then the inevitable walk, bloop hit or two, maybe a hit batter, bam he hangs a slider or serves a 87mph fastball right over the middle that gets destroyed and suddenly he's given up 4-5-6 runs. Bush sure is frustrating to watch because he can look so good in starts, but he can't avoid giving up bombs or gappers after he puts a guy or two on base.

Man, i sure feels like a black cloud is hanging over the Brewers right now Bloopers, fisted infield singles, pinching umps that won't call strike three, etc. and they all seem to be going only for the other team

I've read Cubs boards once in awhile, Braun is the guy they seem to hate the most, along with fearing him. In fact, on NSBB , they had a lengthy why i hate Ryan Braun thread.

Plesac had a Randy Johnson in his prime type of unhittable slider when he was throwing well.

Speaking of the Indians, what happened to Travis Hafner?

It's really amazing to me that a network that isn't just starting up could be so bad with their camera work. In general, i'm not one to complain much about stuff like who announcers are in sporting events i watch or about other issues i find minor that others often rag on, but it shouldn't be to much to ask to have competent camera work.

I don't post much anymore, but i still read the forums a fair amount. There is a thread on this forum called the vent thread, not the analytical thread, yet for some reason you seem to feel the need to constantly complain that people are venting in a vent thread. Big shocker that there just might be some frustration knee-jerk reactions in a thread titled Vent Thread. So maybe if you'd rather just talk baseball instead of arguing with frustrated Brewer fans that feel like simply venting, don't go in the vent thread and basically tell people not to vent given that's what's going to be in nearly any vent thread. That's why the thread exists and it's not in the Statistical Analysis forum, because when fans vent, it's usually emotion based and those venting didn't feel like checking a few graphs or spread sheets before venting some frustration. Plus, it's not like there is a shortage of other threads where you can do just what you say you'd rather do, just talk baseball without all the frustrations that are guaranteed to exists in any vent thread on a sports forum.

Going into the season, i figured the Brewers to be one of the better offenses in the NL and around a middle of the pack pitching staff, i hoped that would be enough to win 87-90 games and win the division. I was expecting us to win more of those 8-5, 7-4, or 6-4 type games than we've won so far. The pitching staff even with a healthy Gallardo i didn't see as good enough to win a lot of games with just a decent offense. We obviously have time left for the offense to be much better, but now minus Gallardo, i highly question even if the offense picks up that it will be enough to pass the Cubs and Cardinals.

Melvin has done a solid job since he's been here, but i'd give Jack Zduriencik te biggest chunk of credit for putting the Brewers back on the map. He drafted Prince/Braun/Hart/Weeks/Hardy/Gallardo/Parra Sheets/Hall were inherited by Melvin Doug brought in on this roster Suppan/Villanueva/Bush/Cameron/Kendall along with the bench and bullpen. Melvin also brought in Yost who was a solid choice i guess as a manager for a rebuilding team, but i think Ned was negative value to the team last year and Doug still chose to bring him back. Melvin took over a Brewers franchise in 2002 that wasn't in good shape and we obviously are much better off now, he is part of the reason for that and he's made his share of nice moves. With that said, given the large amount of cheap and high quality young talent that Jack Zduriencik has delivered Doug, the Brewers should be at worst a solid team based just on that alone. Look around baseball, the vast majority of GM's haven't had a pipeline of cheap young talent to work with like Melvin has. Mix in that Attanasio has greatly increased the payroll Melvin has to work with, it's time that Doug surrounds that young talent he's been given with enough other pieces that get the Brewers in the playoffs.