YoGasKpose

So we could be looking at a lineup that features Kottaras, Gomez, and Yuni? Or will RR go with Morgan despite the lefty for AZ.

So...Does Kottaras start tomorrow?

That's gotta be a mistake that they pay a price for. Come on, offense!!!!

The good news is that Marcum threw fewer pitches than Collmenter that inning. Ugly start, but now we get to see how they respond to some adversity. Let's go Crew!

Would have been nice to get a big hit from Rickie there. Gotta put up a zero here. Keep the crowd from getting too pumped.

This is almost a textbook specious argument. (1) We would be better off retiring RBI from the record books than allowing RBI to be used in this kind of deceptive fashion. To emphasize that McGehee had more RBI than Fielder suggests that McGehee was, in some meaningful sense, better than Fielder, which proves the weakness of RBI as a stat if anything does. Prince Fielder, of course, has hit rings around Casey McGehee for the entirety of both men's careers. The irony is that McGehee wouldn't have gotten his flashy RBI numbers, even hitting fifth, if Prince Fielder wasn't putting up a .400 OBP in front of him. (2) Emphasizing, in this context, that the team was doing well from June on suggests that McGehee had something to do with the team's success. In reality, McGehee couldn't have done much more to hurt the Brewers in the first half if he had beaten the entire starting rotation senseless with a tire iron. The Brewers' competitiveness in the first half is a heroic testimony to their ability to drag the dead weight of Casey McGehee across home plate. (3) The argument pretends that McGehee's first half horror show didn't happen. Well, it did. He killed the team for the better part of four months. To say he had earned the benefit of the doubt is just a smooth way of saying that you're choosing to ignore everything he has done badly while hyperinflating everything he does well. At his very best, Casey McGehee has been a very good -- never great -- hitter and a poor defender. At his very best, he can start. At anything less than his best -- including his mediocre second-half numbers this year -- he's the kind of player that good teams bring off the bench. He should not be starting for a contender. He's exactly the kind of guy that smart organizations jump at the opportunity to replace with one of the best 24 year-old hitters in AAA. As I've said, I can understand the reasoning behind sticking with him now (although he should have been toast long before now). What the Brewers do with him this winter will provide a good test of how serious the organization is about winning. I think everyone will acknowledge that RBI is a flawed stat. But, then again, so are all stats. We invent statistics so we have an agreed upon measurement representing a certain quality. Are some better than others? Yes. And I'd say RBI is about in the middle of the pack as far as statistics go. The fact that McGehee drove in more runs than Fielder last year doesn't mean he's a better player, but it does mean he was more successful at driving in runs. Scoring runs and bringing them in are what the game is all about, so I don't think this can just be discounted. I get the argument, but I also think the backlash against RBI is a little overblown. Yes, it's dependent on teammate success. Yes, it involves a degree of randomness. But as a raw measurement, it does give one an idea of how successful at player was at converting scoring opportunities into actual runs.

I'm certain I'm in the minority, but I actually like this lineup a lot. Would it look better with Lucroy? Yes. But it seems RR got this one mostly right. It helps seeing JHJ in there. Wilson is in because of something outside of RR's control, as is Kottaras. I really think that's just a Wolf thing, and can you really blame RR for not forcing things with the way it's been going? Go Crew! Just. Keep. Winning.

I'm reminded a little bit of the Twins 2006 season as well. That was the group Ozzie Guillen termed "piranhas" for the folks that remember. I think this team certainly has a different style than that team, but this hot streak they've been on is a lot like the one the Twins ripped off to catch the Detroit Tigers and win the division. I mention it because I've always felt like Ron Gardenhire sort of typifies this player's manager vs. statistical genius dichotomy. I've never thought Gardy was a very strong in-game manager, but he's always been able to get his teams to play well over the course of a 162-game season. The 2006 team especially seemed like one that really got along and played hard for each other. The problem for the Twins, of course, has been postseason success. And I think that's where a manager's deficiencies can be put under a magnifying glass, as every in-game decision takes on so much additional importance. For that, the jury is still out with RR. Of course, if RR can get the Brewers in the thick of the things year in and out while getting players to overachieve consistently, I don't think anyone would complain.

We're all in much worse moods when the Crew loses... Oh, the joys of fandom.

Statistically better? Yes. Better period? Depends on whether or not you believe stats tell the whole story and how you feel about the job RR has done so far. Now, let's get back in front. I feel so spoiled this series having not trailed until these last two innings.

You completely missed his point. I believe his point is the manager somehow has more access so he will know when a player is more likely to succeed. The results dispute that assumption. The manager may know when a player is more likely to succeed. My point is that the manager fails to take into account the difference in actual talent. You don't think RRR knows that Braun is better than Kotsay? My point is simply that sometimes the manager deserves the benefit of the doubt. Just because the stats don't corroborate a decision does not mean it's the wrong decision, at least not in this case. Sometimes there are factors that we, as fans, can't and don't know about. At some point, you just have to put some faith in the person running the team. When two people reason from two different bases of evidence, it's likely that they'll come to different conclusions.

Ouch. Not a good start for my man Yo. This has all the makings of that 2nd game from the last series. You think pitcher's duel, and it ends up being a slugfest. Hopefully the Crew can get a different result this time.

He does understand his players. He fails to understand their abilities or lack thereof.Look, I totally understand this. Every advanced statistical metric out there says that Mark Kotsay in the 3-spot is insane. But, as someone pointed out earlier, it's also a little bit insane to assume the manager of this team, the guy who is around all of these players every single day, can't accurately gauge who is ready to succeed. We have an unprecedented amount of information available to us as baseball fans, and it's easy to get lulled into the idea that we have access to EVERYTHING that we could possibly need to know. Unfortunately, that is just not the case. I get that lots of folks disagree with RR. I do too on occasion. But to pretend he's clueless or out of his mind just strikes me as a little bit unfair.

What an awesome trip so far. A win tomorrow puts the Crew in first by a week. Man I would love that.

Axford throws every day. He's a pitcher. I understand the apprehension, but it's not like 25 warmup pitches is going to really tire him out.

We also have no idea the conversation in the dugout. Wolf looked like he was cruising but maybe he ok'd the move to the pen?? Unless someone says otherwise Roenicke pulls some strings and it netted some runs. Fair enough. I hesitate to make a change when the starter really has the offense off balance (it's one thing if he's been laboring), but it did work out so no harm done. I wouldn't have played it that way, but I'm not in uniform. K-Rod with two quick ones. Finish it!

So, basically, RRR was setting up that inning to give Luc and Hart AB's with a runner at second. I guess I see it, but I still think it was worth letting Wolf at least open the ninth.

So, I guess no Wolf? Did George take a foul ball off the face or something? I don't get it.

So I guess the big question is do you send Wolf out for the ninth with Patterson, Pujols, and Freese due up? Or, I guess, do you let Wolf pitch to Pujols and Freese, since I'm assuming he'll get Patterson.

Well what is there to say? "Wolf doing good..." "Wolf still doing good..." "Quick inning, Wolf's doing good".True. Which is probably why we've all resorted to talking about how quiet it is http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

Well, there was that. Take a bathroom break, miss the entire half inning.

What a quick three innings. The game really seemed to be dragging during the first third, but the middle just flew.

Agreed. Keep cruising, Randy.

I'm interested to see how Wolf fares third time through, but color me impressed so far.

Kind of a quiet board given the magnitude. I guess everyone is watching the dawn of the Jurgen Klinsmann era. Another great inning from Wolf.