Oxy

You also have a baby orangutan as your avatar. For some reason I don't think this would be a huge sacrifice for you :p.

The point is that starting Kotsay in CF was not only a questionable decision to start with, it was a downright horrible decision to start with. All of the those other things that you mentioned sucked, but they didn't suck as a result of a poor managerial decision. They were unavoidable, unlike Kotsay's gaffe(s). The criticism here is on Roenicke, not Kotsay. This isn't a 20/20 hindsight sort of criticism, either. The decision was bad right off the bat, and 99% of the posters here knew that it was bad before the game even started--just look at the board and IGT. You are trying to play the devil's advocate here, but it's just not working at all.

I was optimistic about getting this game in, but it looks like a significant band of showers has developed throughout the middle of Missouri. I really don't want a stop-start-stop-start game.

I gave RR a pass early in the year when Kotsay played center for a few games due to injuries. I didn't like it, but didn't think it was that big of a deal. This is a big deal. It would be SUPER awesome if RR is actually a secret genius and is only using Kotsay as basically a pinch hitter in the top of the 1st and will then put Gomez or Morgan in for defense in the bottom half of the first. I would actually think that would be a pretty smooth move. We have enough versatility on the bench to pull that off.

And where is your evidence that the playoffs are NOT magical :P

How about plunking him every time instead? If that's always wrong, I don't want to be right http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

I agree, but only if the Brewers can win at least one of the next two. I don't want to start Narveson in an elimination game when Greinke is fully rested. That would not make any sense, no matter what the splits say. If they can get a win or two though, I'd love for Greinke to pitch at home.

I'm going with #1. Part of the reason that I've been a bigger Brewer fan than Packer fan over the last 15 years is because they've never won it all. Quite frankly, when the Packers are as good as they are now, I find myself not only expecting victory every single week, but it is almost disappointing when the have an offensive drive that doesn't result in points. I take their success for granted. If the Brewers win the Series, what will I have to look forward to? Winning it again? Or only future disappointment every time they DON'T win it? Now I'm obviously not saying that I hope they lose, that would be ridiculous, but I think I'd take the greater chance at making it as far as possible this year and falling just short than trying to bite off the whole wad of success at once. Yes, I know that I am somewhat sick and twisted.

Yo will be pitching on full rest tomorrow night against Carpenter--no reason to give him 5 days off. What everybody is failing to understand is that St. Louis' pitching staff really isn't in much better shape than the Brewers'. When taking the bullpens into account I'd say that it's worse, even with the poor starts by everybody not named Gallardo (obviously it's not better if the starters continue to be THAT poor, but that's unlikely). Thus, if Gallardo can pull out the win tomorrow against Carp, I think St. Louis is all but done in the series, while if the Brewers lose I still think they have a decent chance at coming out on top.

Yeah, nobody likes to get trounced, but it's still just one game. The pitchers that got rocked last night for the Crew are not the meat of this staff, and will not be relied upon again to win games (outside of 1 start by Marcum, Narveson, or Estrada). Had Saito, K-Rod and Axford blown the game I'd be far more concerned. Our best, most reliable guy is pitching in the next game. Carpenter is great, but who else on the entire St. Louis pitching staff are you afraid of? Anybody? The Crew's offense has been getting guys on base up and down the lineup (despite failing in some key moments last night) and our superstars are mashing. All in all, the Brewers are still in a far better spot than the Cards, ESPECIALLY if they can beat Carpenter tomorrow night. I wouldn't want to rely upon Lohse, Garcia and Jackson to win 2 out of 3 games for you. I suppose the same could be said if Carpenter wins tomorrow night in regards to Greinke, Wolf and Marcum/whoever, but I'll still take our guys, especially with the back end of our bullpen. Fans will be overly emotional though in both directions. After the first two games of the ARI series it was near unfathomable that we might lose the series, but we almost did. I'm going to enjoy the ride no matter what. Heck, even if we drop the next 2 games we could win the last 3. It's just the way baseball is.

I am sure that they are only contracted to work until a set time (1 hr postgame I suppose). Since this is America, the Brewers likely cannot legally allow grown adults to do as they please in an unsupervised parking lot. Although after the tragedy at Dodger stadium earlier this year, that is actually pretty understandable.

Is it possible to like Greinke, have sympathy for everything is has gone through and currently deals with, yet also be disappointed that he didn't show up for the rally? That is where I am at.

That's one heck of a sports day. It would really be pretty difficult to match a day like that in terms of attending 2 live sporting events that have such large implications for each team. Have a good time-- I imagine there are a few others out there who are doing the double dip; I envy you.

Exactly. Cougar lost his edge because he was holding on way too tight--aka "gripping." He was a good man though... still is a good man.

You are ignoring 100's of years of pitching data. This logic just doesn't happen. Even the Great Jack Morris didn't do it. I want Greinke getting as many post season starts as possible, so I want him pitching Game 1, no matter where it is played.I'd say that you are ignoring common sense, which says that different guys will react differently to being up by many runs. Some guys may relax more in an 8-0 game which may cause them to throw BETTER than they would in a 1-0 game. Some guys may lose focus because of the big lead. Some guys may purposely throw more strikes to avoid walking batters which may cause more line drives and hits OR may cause more quick innings which would allow the pitcher to go deeper into the game and again put up better stats than he normally would. On the whole (taking everybody's statistics and lumping them together), you see nothing--perhaps because all of these factors cancel each other out, or perhaps because there is nothing there to see. As Russ said in the other thread, an absence of evidence is not evidence of absence; particularly when trying to use stats from ALL players to say that ONE particular player isn't affected by circumstances. It's just extremely poor use of stats.

There is a gigantic difference in mentality between an observer (fan) and participant (player). From a players perspective, pebadgers mentality is totally the attitude that needs to be taken. Since they have no control over who they will play in the future, there is no point in even thinking about, worrying about, or hoping for or against anything, since then it just becomes a distraction that could possibly impede the task at hand--winning the current game. Fans, however, are different. Fandom is all about speculation and anticipation. If you want to wonder about the future and determine the best odds of winning and then hope for those circumstances to come about knock yourself out. If you want to hope for the most difficult path possible because the reward of overcoming the odds will be far more satisfactory than merely having things fall in line for you, then knock yourself out. Either way, whatever mentality you have very likely won't have an actual effect on the results of the game. I say very likely because I suppose it could be possible that if enough fans had a similar mentality, they could actually cheer en masse in a different way than if they were merely passive observers. This increase in energy could possibly inspire the home team and rattle the away team to such an extent that it affects their performance. However, since this would be a very singular occurrence, most statistically minded people will throw up their hands and say that this possibility is ridiculous merely because it cannot be repeated and tested over multiple controlled trials to get the proper sample size in order to scientifically determine if there is actually an effect. Personally, I play the odds before the fact because I want to win, but would actually enjoy beating the Phillies and Yankees more than beating the D-Backs and Tigers, so if I know beforehand that the Crew will win, I'd rather play the Big Boys http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif.

Two pitches. Two hits. Fun stuff. CC would have got this guys pitch count up though.

Can Counsell just retire now? Felipe has now outproduced him this month after one pitch...

Well, Lopez hit 3rd and cleanup whenever he was in there for the Rays this year, so batting him fifth isn't too bad.

Except all of Weeks' negative UZR came in his first 4 years in the league, and he has basically been league average for the last couple of years. Meanwhile, Lopez is aging and is on the downside of his career. Weeks is a better defender than Lopez right now.

I think "mental state" is a better term than "emotions." It has more to do with being able to focus better when you are comfortable with your surroundings and able to go about your normal routines without having to think about and remember things like "what's my hotel room #? Where is the coffee shop? when is breakfast served? When is the bus to the ballpark?, etc. etc. etc." When you are on the road and out of your normal environment, part of your mind is occupied by a lot of stuff that can be a distraction. When at home, all of those things are pretty much completely routine and one can more easily focus on baseball (or basketball or football or whatever). I think that college basketball is the only environment that the crowd truly plays a major factor in the energy and emotions of the players (and more significantly the officials) during the game.

The answer to that question is "yes, there is a good chance that from this point forward McGehee could outperform what Taylor Green could do." Now if the question is could Taylor Green do worse than what McGehee has already done to this point the answer is probably no. I'm all for bringing up Green and giving him a shot, as I don't think that means the Brewers are "giving up" on McGehee. I really wish that statement was never made, as now whenever Green does get called up it insinuates that the Brewers are now ready to "give up" on McGehee, instead of framing it as giving the guy who is tearing it up behind him a chance.

Ahh. That could be, I don't do the Twitterverse. I can usually wait the 5 minutes it takes before any worthwhile Tweet is reported.

He does, but that is never the focus of an article or a blog post, and usually he only does it after there is much clamoring from the fans (on here and in the comment of MJS) for him to ask about something. His criticism is usually veiled, saying something like "Despite Taylor Green batting .330 with 20 hrs and an OPS of .995 in Nashville, Melvin and Roenicke are unwilling to call him up to the big league club because of [X, Y, Z with quotes]." He almost never just out and out says what he thinks the Brewers should do, and it isn't his job to do so. He might also use 20/20 hindsight to criticize a decision, saying that it didn't work out, but rarely will he criticize the decision as it is made or try to push for something that he thinks should happen.

Haudricourt is not a columnist or an editorial journalist, though. He is a beat reporter who reports the news. It's not his job to criticize or question the decisions of the Brewers, that would be somebody like Michael Hunt from the MJS. He is responsible for Who, what, where, etc. He can ask why something is or isn't done in a situation and then report what is said--which is exactly what he has done in this situation. You can't ask the beat reporter to also be an editorialist or else they are going to get frozen out of info VERY quickly. There is PLENTY of criticism and editorializing these days on sites like this, blogs, and ESPN, so I'm not exactly sure what you expect from Haudricourt. Do you think he just just keep hounding the FO until they do what the fans want? Give me a break.