Warning Track Power

Monty, I agree with a good number of your points but I fail to see the restrictive future financial obligations that you mentioned. Hart's ($10m) contract is done after this season 2013, Weeks ($11m) and Ramirez ($16m w a $4m buyout for 2015) after 2014 and Lohse ($11m) after 2015. Other than Braun and Lucroy's extensions, where are these financial restrictions? Am I missing something?

@ThurstonFluff: And Greinke was 16-8 with a 2.16 ERA in 2009, whereas Lohse was 6-10 with a 4.64 ERA. What does that mean? Nothing. Looking at a span of years, from 2008-2012, Lohse in 809 IP has a 3.90 ERA and a 1.28 WHIP, whereas Greinke in 1,035 IP has a 3.39 ERA and a 1.19 WHIP. Moving forward, if you would rather have a 34 year old Lohse than a 29 year old Greinke then we have nothing to discuss because in my mind that shouldn't even be an argument.

@Monty: Yes. I agree that the roster and state of the minor leagues does fall on Melvin. Period. The roster is aging but not truly old save Ramirez and Lohse who are mid-30s. The everyday roster includes Hart, Aoki and Weeks who are 31, Braun is 30, Gomez is 28, Lucroy is 27 & Segura is 23. The average age of the bullpen, which turns over almost yearly, is 30. The rotation has one pitcher over 30, Lohse. That isn't really an old team in my opinion. What I don't agree with is the notion that this team is bereft of talent and vastly underachieving based on what they are capable of and that should not fall on Melvin. NL Pitching Ranks: 15th ERA, R, ER, WHIP, H, HR Most of us on this board felt really good that our offense paired with a 1-2-3-4 of Gallardo-Lohse-Estrada-Peralta should be an 80+ win team. Maybe not a playoff team but definitely capable of being in the mix in late August. Now there is plenty of time between May and August but each one of these pitchers, save Lohse, have VASTLY underperformed this year. How is that Melvin's fault? @Thurston Fluff: Lohse had a great 2012, but I don't believe anyone with realistic expectations should have expected him to be on the level of Greinke, Gio & Bumgarner. Put another way, would you take Lohse over any of them because I wouldn't?

@TLB: I definitely feel your pain when it comes to organizational building when it comes to the pitching staff. Suppan, Looper, Wolf, Lohse type signings do nothing for you and I would have hoped that DM would've learned his lesson from these type of signings in 2007, 2009 & 2010. While Wolf and Lohse (to date) weren't terrible signings, expecting those aforementioned pitchers to come in and be #2s for the Brewers when other teams are throwing out Greinke, Gio Gonzalez, Madison Bumgarner types really isn't good organizational building. In fact, the only reason the Wolf signing ended up looking good was because he became the #4 after the Greinke & Marcum trades. If the Brewers in 2013 had the ability to pull off two trades that made Lohse the #4, that signing (while not terrible based on Lohse's results so far) would undoubtedly look much better as well. Should this fall on Roenicke? I think so. I definitely think Kranitz deserves major blame as well. Lohse has been fine but Gallardo (4.50 ERA) & Estrada (5.44 ERA) have regressed this season. Peralta's (6.45 ERA) development as a Top 100 prospect in baseball has gone dramatically backwards this season with his inability to throw strikes consistently. Fiers/Burgos (5.93/6.44 ERAs), while not necessarily #1 ace types or even #2 or #3s, have pitched terribly for the most part. While we should have expected some regression from Estrada, Fiers & Peralta from their 2012 levels, their ERAs from 2012 to 2013 have each gone up 2+ runs. That is off the cliff regression. How and why has this happened? Watching from 2012 to 2013, the stuff looks the same, but the ability to throw consistent strikes isn't there. To me, that falls on the coaching and time in the video room to identify the source of the inability to repeat mechanics. Roenicke & Kranitz deserve MAJOR blame for this and I for one think Kranitz should be shown the door today, but that's just me. Where I don't agree with you is if you have a disagreement with their approach to building a lineup. LouisEly put it far more eloquently than I will but I couldn't agree with him more. Save losing Fielder and that had more to do with economics of baseball than anything else, I don't think we could have anticipated the dealing of Cain, Hardy, Jeffress, Escobar & Greinke could have worked out any better than it has. The Brewers have Braun, Segura, Gomez, Lucroy, Aoki all locked in for 3+ seasons and that is a excellent start to a power/speed lineup. If they can somehow supplement this core with a 1B, 2B & 3B moving forward, the Brewers will be in excellent shape. RR only needs to stop making stupid decisions about stealing and baserunning fundamentals. Braun has 2 SBs & 5 CS. Aoki has 6 SB & 6 CS. Either they are tipping when they are going or they are in obvious stealing situations and RR is being outmanaged, the latter of which is the more likely source in my opinion.

Attanasio isn't the only one who should be frustrated. We all should be frustrated with this team. 5/8 of the regulars hitting over .300, a bullpen that just had a 20+ IP streak scoreless snapped today, yet the Brewers continue to lose at an astounding clip and a lot of the time have really not even been in the games the past three weeks. It's disheartening to be a fan right now and Attanasio is in danger of fans losing interest to the Badgers and Packers far earlier than July this year.

In regards to Peralta, he consistently looks like he is falling off to 1B after every pitch. Does Kranitz not see this terrible balance a month and a half into the season?

Why try to go to 3rd when you're down 6-0? Seriously. What a maddeningly frustrating team.

Thought I would bring this item back up a year + into Joe Block's tenure... I am sitting at my desk right now listening to the Twins-Braves game and man Provus sounds good. Informative and engaging, yet never missing a beat on the game. I am listening to Provus over Powell right now but love the style they both brought. Additionally, I still love listening to Pat Hughes call of Cubs games. I can't believe how fortunate we have been to have had Ueck and Hughes, Ueck and Powell & Ueck & Provus from 1984-2011. I bring this up only because Joe Block is still so darn boring to listen to and I am not sure it will ever change. With Ueck being 78, I am hopeful that Block either improves soon or the Brewers look to someone else when that time comes when Ueck isn't doing Brewer games anymore. Has Joe Block improved in your opinion?

I forgot about how much I liked Loretta as a player. Looking back over his numbers in Milwaukee in the late 90s, this guy was one of the most underrated Brewers of all time. Solid player. Also, how weird is it to see the #8 now without the name Braun across the top? http://houstonist.com/attachments/houston_alex/loretta.jpg

I really want the Brewers to beat Greinke bad. Not that he was a bad guy in Milwaukee. I just really want Greinke to knocked around tonight for not showing up in the NLCS in 2011.

How will RR give Bianchi a nickname? Bianchi-y?

1-0 Dodgers....Game over. (semi-blue) Kershaw is just amazing! Best pitcher I have ever seen.

I am so sick of this team and its general lack of fire and leadership that I see. Many made fun of the Diamondbacks for the Justin Upton trade, me included, and while I still wouldn't have made that deal, I do love the players they have assembled on that team for their general passion for the game. Combine that with a fiery and passionate leader/manager like Kirk Gibson and you have a team that may not win the World Series but will bring it every night and you will love to root for even when they slump. I'm tired of Zombie Roenicke as the manager. Like him as a person. Hate him as a manager. No passion and his in game management leaves much to be desired.

@Monty: I am guessing the same thing about the Cubs announcers and completely agree with the "not doing him any favors" idea should he not entertain the idea of an extension now. With Segura looking to possibly put up numbers that will dwarf anything Elvis Andrus (he of the 8 year $118 m extension) has done (Segura has already hit more HR in a season than Andrus), Segura and his agent may have unrealistic expectations about what an extension for him should look like. Let's hope not.

I can't imagine Segura turning down the contract extension. He would be a FA after the 2018 season currently, which means he would be a FA when he was 28 and entering his age 29 season. Giving himself an assurance of a big payday as well as giving the Brewers cost certainty to Segura's age 29 or age 30 season, depending on if the Brewers buy out one year or two years of FA, seems to make the most sense to all parties involved. Brewers gain a known dollar amount for budgeting, Segura gets one big payday at 29 or 30 where he will likely command an enormous salary, provided he continues down the current path. I am very confident this will get done.

http://content.sportslogos.net/logos/54/64/full/ophgazfdzfdkeugut9bdw3iyz.gif http://content.sportslogos.net/logos/54/64/full/fgd3p1n91e4fy5ze7cnb1z51d.gif

Amen. How does a team that has its everyday LF, CF, RF, SS & 3B (5/8 of its everyday lineup) all hitting over .300, score a total 22 runs over the last 8 games? Yes, Weeks is hitting .190 & Lucroy is at .220, but Gomez & Segura are .350 +. Being 16-23 is frustrating enough and could be relatively expected with this pitching staff. However, I would have expected a lot more 6-5 losses with this lineup than we have been seeing.

What a piece of garbage...I never heard the actual details before. I change my tune on this being a good signing. I'd rather lose every game than have this guy succeed on my team.

Isn't this a double standard for Lucroy vs. Rickie? Shouldn't Rickie be given the same treatment given his performance over most of his career and the second half of last season?

Lost in the RR hate, Rickie & Gallardo slumps and the implosion of Axford is the overwhelming loss of our solid catcher Jonathan Lucroy. I absolutely love is guy but he has been atrocious at the dish this year. While I didn't expect him to hit .320, I definitely didn't expect him to hit .220. He's been abysmal and is lucky his start has been hidden by other issues with this team or else he might be public enemy number 1. What is going on with Luc?

Yes. I love this philosophy. Gallardo is the perfect guy to throw strikes early given the unpredictable nature of how good his slider and curve will be from start to start. It's so frustrating to see so many first pitch balls and 2-0 counts from him. It might just be my overall frustration with Yo in particular but it just seems like his control has never progressed and this year so far has regressed substantially (unsubstantiated claim based on watching games without statistical analysis).

From 2009 - 2012 his ERA & WHIP have been 3.28 & 1.28 and he is only 31. If he can give us just the average between what he was last year (4.38 ERA & 1.33 WHIP) and his career average (2.70 ERA, 1.17 WHIP), meaning a 3.54 ERA & 1.25 WHIP, he is worth the callup. Personal feelings about his off field problems aside...

Watching the Cardinals series last weekend I kept hearing about how one of their philosophies is to pump a first pitch strike to get ahead in the count and put the hitters on defense. How often do we see Yo & Peralta pitch in 2-0 & 3-1 counts? Of course they're going to get hit more frequently when they are behind in the count. Is this a Brewers philosophy? Probably not but it falls on RR & Kranitz to correct their inability to throw strikes then. I think the coaching staff deserves an equal share of blame for the pitching woes.

Amen Adam. Amen. I would take it a step further as well to say if Rogers & Peralta hadn't pitched out of their minds over the final 1/4 of the season last season, we would already have a new pitching coach. Watching our pitchers just feels like a steady line of regression in the middle years of their careers. Guys like Gallardo & Axford are still in their prime and still have the same "stuff" they have always had. So what's the deal with the lost velocity and inability to get guys out all of a sudden? To me, this screams mechanics.

If Dee Gordon hits at just .265-.275 clip, the Dodgers will start him at SS and Hanley at 3B once Hanley returns from the DL. I just don't see how that team with its difficulties scoring runs can possibly sit a guy who hits .270 and could steal upwards of 60-70 bases. Put another way, if Gordon produces like that, there is no way the Dodgers give up anything like Puig or Lee for Ramirez and would only do so if Ramirez could be had on the cheap.