Eddiehitsthefoulpole

We look like a dead team. Lifeless. Something needs to happen in order to shake this team up!

I was never one to worship at the Church of 3TO. But let's face it, we need more left-handed power in our line-up. Branyan gives us a platoon option with Hall and the ability to give the outfielders an occasional day off without drastically changing our batting order. Also, opponents aren't going to make too many pitching changes to counter Gwynn or Counsell. However, they may do it to keep Branyan in the park in late inning situations. That could mean one less lefty for Prince to face in the late innings.

I think that Melvin has a had a couple of bad off-seasons in a row. I don't think that he should be fired. It is easy to second guess some of those decisions, but some of it comes because guys had their best years at contract time. I fault him for signing Suppan for so much money that it appears that we won't be able to compete for Sheets in the free-agent market. I guess that I would hate to lose Melvin because of so many years of watching the Bando-Taylor era of near ineptitude. We are still a small market team, which means we have to be perfect when spending money and nobody is. This is a difficult GM job. I think that we could fire Ned Yost and find someone better. I don't know if the same could be said for Melvin.

We squeezed to stay out of the double play, when the Cardinals had their infield in. I kept thinking that Gagne is close because he doesn't give up a lot of hard hit balls. But in reality he is a trick pitch guy now. He can't be an effective closer until he can get something out of his fastball. I think we have enough good arms in our bullpen to hold and save a game without using Gagne. Why did we play for one run in the 8th when our closer is struggling?

I wasn't a real big Ted Simmons fan when he was with the Brewers. I tend to remember him as the guy who roled the ball back to the pitcher after the second out in a game against Baltimore early in 1982 that cost a run, eventually the game, and almost cost us the pennant. He liked to do "odd" things like throw to second to get the back runner in a double steal. Then as a GM he goofed waivers on Wes Chamberlain (and I think someone else at the same time), losing him to the Phillies. His positive reputation really comes from his stint with the Braves. He was a basically a pinch-hitter with them, and he did a lot of positive work with their young players. He also helped keep bench people focused during games so that they would be ready when they called on to enter the game.

Gagne is on pace to appear in about 75 games this year. That is too many. Some will say that it is about 75 games too many.....but that comment belongs in another thread. When every game is close, you play with fire. Things will go wrong. We need some dependable left-handed bats to help our offense.

Why, when we play the Cardinals, does it always seem like they determine the match-ups and we react to it? What you can see here is that we need to define some bullpen roles and stick to them. We have too many guys who can only pitch one inning out of the bullpen. We could reduce our bullpen by one and still have more flexibility.

Sometimes I get the feeling that the FSN director for these games doesn't understand baseball. Or at the least he seldom knows where the ball is going.

I feel good about Villanueva. I think over the long haul he will go you a number of quality starts. I could see Manny Parra being sent down. Manny is just not going deep enough into games. His command needs improvement. Manny probably needs more minor league time for his development.

I would have been upset at Ned if Gagne had closed it out. We shouldn't be using a relief pitcher with a history of arm problems 4 days in a row. Plus, it seems that every year our closer does a good job in April and May, and pitches every day. Then he falls apart in the second half. Usually our catcher falls apart too. But yet we use them the same way every year. Ned never learns. No brains, no headaches!

I would have saved Shouse for Griffey and Dunn. Suppan was cruising. He was strong and sharp. This is another game that we have to win twice.

I am a Ned detractor. I thought Ned should have pulled Mota. He didn't, it worked. Mota may be a better pitcher for it in the future. I am going to stick to second-quessing the decisions that go wrong.

I am having a flashback to all of those Sunday blown saves from last year.

I think that Marquette is worried that if they don't hire Buzz Williams then James and McNeal would leave and the good incoming freshman class would choose to go elsewhere. My feeling is that those things will happen regardless, and that Buzz isn't ready for Marquette yet.

Isn't interesting that when Indiana wanted Crean two years ago, but wouldn't match his salary at Marquette, that Crean stayed at Marquette. Now when Indiana beats his salary at Marquette, Indiana has become the best job in the nation.

Did you watch the Badgers play this year? Actually Washington State has a lot more movement in their offense than the Badgers did this year. I don't know why any kid would want to run the swing, where so much of the time players stand and watch while the ball moves slowly. Their averages weren't much different either. Tony is a hot name for a lot of jobs. I had heard that when he left Madison that he wasn't on good terms with Bo. He may relish an opportunity to compete with Bo over state supremacy. Marquette may be able to land a big name coach because they had paid Crean a lot of money. A high-priced basketball coach is already in the budget.

After last year I have no trust in our bullpen. I feel a sense of helplessness today. Although I think we have more "pros" this year. We may be able to re-order our bullpen if Gagne's performance wasn't an aberration.

I didn't know Hernan was moved to the outfield

I don't see how the refs can be blamed for this one. The Badgers poor decisions would be to blame. Davidson is similar to teams that have given the Badgers problems. I also get the feeling that the Davidson staff did a lot better film study than the Badger staff did.

I was really impressed with Curry. He is in the mold of a Steve Alford or Tony Bennett. However I think that he is a better shooter, and has a wider variety of shots, than those guys did. I was disappointed with the Badgers inability to adjust tonight. They needed to play defense further out on the floor and they didn't. They needed to open up the lane for back-cuts to counter Davidson's pressure. They didn't. The Badgers had a great season. They deserve to be commended for it. Davidson was just better tonight.

Who was #90?

At the end of last season we fired Nick Leyva as our third base coach. Apparently it was his fault that we couldn't score enough runs. I guess Ned viewed making three outs on the bases a game as the good old days. I started out this month reading about how we were going to hit the pitcher 8th. I have always thought that was crazy. It has never worked for a long period of time when the Cardinals tried it. Then I read that we are batting Ryan Braun behind Prince so that Ryan can steal bases. I think that he would be the first person in the history of baseball to bat clean-up because he can steal bases. I am not saying that hitting Braun 4th is a bad idea, I am just saying that his reason for doing seems irrelevent to that spot in the batting order. Now I know we want to make lots of outs on the bases. Then I see that we want to bat Mike Cameron 2nd. The 2nd spot calls for a good contact guy who know how to work the count, that sure sounds like Mike Cameron. Why do I get the feeling that Prince is going to come up a lot with bases empty? Today I read that it appears that Carlos Villanueva is going to start the season in the minors. I am sure that he would really benefit from the minors. He was already dominating AAA two years ago. He has also outpitched ALL the other starters in Spring training. He and Yo kept us in the race last year. I guess that Ned puts more value in the way Dave Bush gets guys out after the other team takes a 5-0 lead in the second. I also guess that Ned values the way Claudio makes it out the 6th inning once a month. Ned must also like burning out the bullpen the way we did last year. I wanted Ned fired last year. What he is saying this year scares me. Why can't we just use a normal batting order, start our best starting pitchers, and use our relievers in a way that makes sense to the masses? Instead, it looks to me that we will start the year dealing with streakiness and excuses. At the end of the year Manager Simmons will have Kendall batting 8th, Villy in the rotation, and the Brewers in the race. While we always talk about the losses in the August and September, the losses in April and May count the same. NED, SET THE TEAM UP RIGHT FROM THE START, WILL YOU? I want to be the first to call for his firing, already. I know that people will jump on me for saying this. I am old enough to know what it looks like when the train comes off the track. It is obvious that this is the same Ned who messed up last year's team. He does not manage up to the caliber of his talent!

We will have Hall bat 6th, Cameron hit 7th, and the pitcher hit 8th. How many rallies will we kill with 3 straight K's this year?

Was Leyva the catching instructor? This reminds of when Rich Dauer was let go. We had been hearing how he was a manager-in-waiting, how innovative he was, then he was fired. Why I am thinking conspiritorily I wonder if Ned takes a page from Joseph Stalin and purges anybody who is a threat to power. Having managed before, Leyva may have brought new ideas and Ned may have seen that as a challenge to authority. That was just one scenario.

I don't think that Dave Bush will be a Brewer next year. He makes every start. You know what you are getting from him. He has more value to other teams than ours. With Yo and Carlos we can move a starter. I think Bush will be the one that generates the most interest.