mletto157

I don't see why so many people are seeing Gagne as this huge downgrade to Cordero.... If anything I see it as more of a lateral movement. Let's not forget that Gagne was a Cy Young winner a few years ago. And this being his 2nd year from surgery he should be somewhat back to his former self. Last year was year 1 back from surgery - the year in which all pitchers see down stats - and to be honest, he wasn't even bad last year. He had a decent year. Yeah, he had a couple of blowup innings in Boston, but come on... it's Boston, I'm willing to bet he was nervous as heck; but still his K/BB's were great.

Having Yo as the starting pitcher is just as good! :-) Damn I love having a pitcher that can actually hit. After watching Sheets' pathetic at bats, this is something new.

I agree with these guys. The fact is... looking at Mench's BA vs. RHP he has like a 1/5 shot to get on base and looking at Jenkins, he has like a 1/4 shot to get on base (he's 4-17 vs Dempster career too). That's just taking into account their averages over the course of the season. That's not taking into account that fact that on that night Mench was 1-3 with 2 RBI's, and seeing the ball very well. Do you still think it was a terrible move? Maybe not the statistically correct one... but with the night Mench was having pulling him in favor of Jenkins and watching him WHIFF strike 3 in the dirt would have sent just as many fans screaming. Out of 20 AB Jenkins gets on base ONE more time than Mench in that situation. Yost did not LOSE us the game, period. Yes, statistically Jenkins would have been better... but being on a hot streak or a cold streak should and does play a HUGE role in determining who gets the nod in certain situations. Is there a better option than Ned out there... probably; but to think that it's going to have the impact that some people on here think is utterly ridiculous.

One thing I think people have to realize is right now Prince is pretty much THE face of the franchise. M.A. will want to keep him as long as he can. Prince is putting fans in the stands and for that reason alone they'll want to sign him. Think of the money it could cost not to have him. Hell, the common fan only knows a couple Brewers and one of them is DEFINITELY Prince... take him away and a lot of the common fans won't come to as many games. I think that will have a huge impact on his contract... It's hard to let the face of a franchise get bought by someone else. Especially if on that team he'll just be another player (cough Yanks & RSox). I think he likes being the most valuable player on his team.

I think if someone does make a thread that is specifically dedicated the mistakes that Ned Yost makes - that people should only be able to post these mistakes while the game is on when he made the mistake, before it goes wrong. This way they aren't looking back on the mistake after it failed and saying it was a bad move (which is usually what happens). Then we can actually see when he makes a mistake that was visibally WRONG. For example that Mench/Jenkins hitting mess... most knew that was a bad move way before it didn't work. Not that it would have worked with Jenks anyway, but it would have been better strategically and statistically. One thing this will also do is let all the arm-chair managers have their fun in trying to actually manage the game while it is being played, while the move is being made. Than they can see what others think of their move. Most likely there are many reasons why that move would be bad. There will be a lot of people that get post things like "he should have used _____ pitcher instead of _____." And someone will quickly be able to point out pitch counts, managing his relievers, etc... You just can't use your best releiver in every game... simple as that... even though most would like to. And since most likely the Crew will be in most of their games this year sometimes we're going to have to throw out a below average releiver, or at least one that isn't our best, when the game is close. Also, most will see that it's impossible to predict when a pitcher will falter unless his pitch count approaches 100. If a pitcher starts to get rocked in the 6th at only 70-75 pitches you'll be able to look in that thread and see that no one said to take him out after the 5th - because he wasn't visibilly tired, and his pitch count was still ok. My point is basically we'll be able to see that none of us on here are better managers than Ned. Not saying he is the best option available for the Crew right now, because I'm sure there are better, but none of those that are better are nobody's posting on a fan site. As many have said, there are a lot of things that we don't know that go into these decisions; including advise from his staff, sickness, injuries, etc... and even when there is a visible fault in his move, a lot of times I'm sure he knew what would have been better, but just wasn't able to do it at the time for probably reasons unknown to the fans.