danzig6767

Wow

I'm still blown away that Livan managed to be as productive as he was for Washington in 2010 and 2011. Watching him pitch, he stuff looked as hittable as Suppan with that 84-87 mph fastball of his. If Marcum ends up being ok, i'd rather see Estrada go to the pen and Fiers stay in the rotation.

Yeah, I have absolutely no idea whatsoever how Izturis brings anything more to the table than Maysonet. Zero. Yea, Maysonet is just a spare part type, but i was impressed with his defense and at the plate he at least could rip an extra-base hit here and there while batting .230-.250, something in that range. With Izturis at the plate though, he looks to be in that Will Nieves category of utterly helpless.

We were so spoiled last year in the pen It's just so brutal being a fan of a team with a bullpen performing terribly. There literally isn't a single guy in that pen right now where i don't feel impending doom when brought in during a close game. That's why i rarely get mad a Roenicke for moves he makes with the bullpen this year because i often find myself thinking i don't know who i'd want used either in situations once the starter exits. Loe had been solid prior to last night, but in general all of these guys simply put on to many baserunners and baserunners spell trouble in close games. You obviously can't win in baseball without at least pretty good starting pitching, but a bad bullpen can sink you almost as much and the Brewers pen has struggled from the get go this year.

It's amazing how excruciating it is to follow a team with a dreadful bullpen. Yea, starting pitching is more important, but teams with a bad bullpen rarely ever have a chance at making the playoffs.

Man, our bullpen is such a trainwreck this year compared to last season. Of all the reasons why i have little hope this team can go on a serious run to get back in the playoff race, our bullpen tops the list. As a type, there goes another one. What a disaster this pen is.

Man, our bullpen is such a trainwreck this year compared to last season. Of all the reasons why i have little hope this team can go on a serious run to get back in the playoff race, our bullpen tops the list. As a type, there goes another one. What a disaster this pen is.

I believe a lot of people here would hate Joe Maddon a lot as Roenicke and Maddon have the exact same down to a T managing style. Both have the same problem or perceived problem with bullpen management. I remember one game where I believe Maddon had Longoria sacrifice bunt a runner over to 3rd late in a game. If that happened here this board would blow up. Point is there is no manager in baseball that worth anything really at most a manager is going to win you maybe 1 game a year and probably lose about 2-3 games a year. That's the issue A few years ago i used to read the forums of other teams sometimes, including the Cardinals one. Tons of St. Louis fans would rip on LaRussa almost nightly, calling him clueless, an idiot, past his prime, etc. Of course after the Cards won it all last year, he was back to being smart to most on their forum. If you were to read the forum of every team in baseball, on pretty much every single one of them you'd find a certain percentage of the posters regularly calling the manager clueless, an idiot, braindead, etc. Same in other sports. I still remember on this Packers forum i read, a bunch of posters ragged on McCarthy and said he needed to be fired because the team could never win a ring with him as coach. Including during the year the Packers eventually won it all. Of course then those fans said he was smart.

The Jays hitters didn't "figure out" Thornburg though, he simply made three bad pitches. One up and two that split the center of the plate. If he was hitting his spots as he was earlier in the game instead of splitting home plate, it wouldn't have resulted in three straight jacks. Had he thrown those same terrible pitches to those three guys the second time they faced Thornburg, the results likely would have been the same. Power hitters usually crush fastballs right down the middle, regardless of the inning.

How did that work out for Farrell? Not well. Id say a 4 pitch walk to Gomez before Braun means you dont have good enough stuff to face Braun and Farrell is watching the game and figured that out. It seems like RR does not have that ability. Its a tough spot to bring a guy in to face Ryan Braun with the bases loaded, 1 out and the tying run on 3rd. I have a feeling bad things would have happened if he stuck with the original guy also My only point was that while overall i'm not a big fan of Roenicke, he isn't the clueless moron so many make him out to be either and baseball fans of pretty much every team go way overboard in nitpicking practically every move to death. Players performing well make managers look smarter than they are and struggling players make managers look dumber. Talent wins in pro sports and managers IMO only have limited impact over a full season.

I don't think I'm overreacting at all. Thornburg was pitching at AA yesterday, and tonight he's facing one of the toughest lineups in the majors. We got 5 great innings out of him. Asking him to go through that lineup a third time was asking for trouble, and that's what we got. Thornburg will be a great pitcher for us, but we were expecting too much for a guy that's pitched 10 games in AA to come in and pitch six or more innings at the Major League level. I have to say I agree... You would expect a manager to be able to figure this stuff out on his own. It sometimes seems like RR is learning on the fly, except, that can't be true because he never makes corrections to the stupid things he does. He just keeps doing the same stuff over and over and over and over. Before the 6th, I told my son that Thornburg should come out, avoid the loss, set him up for a possible win, and let him go to sleep tonight knowing he pitched a hell of a game against one of the most potent line-ups in the league. Instead, he is now dealing with disappointment instead of pride. If I can figure that out, why can't he? Common sense really, which is always lacking in our dugout. Thonburg was at only 75 pitches and hadn't been struggling. He wasn't on some low pitch count. No way in hell would i have pulled him before the 6th and i doubt other managers would have either, much less to put in that scrub Dillard. Zero reason to. As for him "dealing with disappointment instead of pride", come on Turbo, i'm sure he's a big boy an will handle it fine. If he can't, he isn't long for the majors because big league hitters beat up all pitchers. It's part of the job description. Dust yourself off and take the ball five days later.

How did that work out for Farrell?

He should have been pulled after 5 innings. Asking the kid to go from AA to MLB, facing one of the better offenses in the majors, and going through the lineup three times, was too much. But Roenicke would rather "save his bullpen", and make the kid labor through another inning. Result? Three home runs in a row, and now we're behind because our idiot manager couldn't outmanage Terry Schiavo. Your nuts and acting like a typical fan on many sports forums, way overreacting to everything. Thornburg was pitching fine through five and there was zero reason for RR to pull him before the inning started. None. Maybe he waited one batter to many, but that's it. Plus, our middle relief is garbage anyways.

The two 88mph pitches in the 6th were to Villanueva after falling behind 2-0. Just get me over strikes.

It wasn't a velocity problem. The pitch to Rasmus was up and the next two split the center of the plate.

That's a really tough lineup for Thornburg to have to make his first start against. Power up and down the Jays lineup and he found out quickly the difference between mistake pitches in AA and the majors.

Has anyone ever has such a massive career turnaround like Bautista has?

Man, the ball rockets off Lawrie's bat kinda kinda like a young Braun. That's one trade which down the road very likely will make Brewers fan cringe big time.

Those were pitches to Villanueva after falling behind 2-0. So i think he was simply just making sure to throw a strike down the middle and force Carlos to swing the bat.

The kid has been very impressive. I love that he doesn't pitch scared, trying to nibble to much, and as a result get in lots of 2-0 or 3-1 type of counts. His command looks great, especially for a guy making his first start.

Just getting someone to take on their contracts for the rest of the season is probably the best case scenario for the Brewers.

No, I'm sure it's using Twitter that's causing the problem. Walks so often are deadly for these late inning guys. Ax for whatever reason is just struggling badly with his command. The odd thing is even as he's been struggling to throw strikes of late, his velocity looks to be up. Hitting 97-99 on nearly every fastball.

The 1-0 fastball was pretty much right down the middle also. After he looked at both, i knew he'd end up striking out. I like that in general he's a patient hitter, but swing the bat there George.

Big fan of his, but he sat there and looked at back to back fastballs right over the middle of the plate. Ugh.

I'd be curious how much of the game calling is actually done by the catchers now as it appears the majority of pitches are being called by coaches/managers from HS on up these days. If you watch close, the catchers are peaking into the dugout after every pitch, are they looking for a specific sign for some kind of play like a pitch out, or are the pitches being called from the dugout? I think catchers look to the dugout for things like a pitch out because in the end, it's the pitcher on the mound who decides what pitch he wants to throw.