xisxisxis

Nobody knows who the other players are yet and anyone who says otherwise is flat out lying. I'm sure Melvin, Shapiro, and their staffs know who are the players. Does that make me a liar?

That's an interesting comparison. I don't think CC is '01 RJ good, but it still gets me all hot & bothered as a comp. I don't think we really appreciate how good CC is pitching right now. If you take away his first few starts (which were pretty bad), CC has been pitching like a Cy Young winner since April 17th: ERA: 2.18 WHIP: 0.99 K/9IP: 9.52 K/BB: 6.41 Move him to the NL (with no DH) and a group of hitters unfamiliar with him and I see a significant upgrade to Bush/McClung. This easily makes the Brewers the frontrunners for the Wild-Card and gives them a shot at beating out the Cubs for the division. Great move by Melvin & Co. I expect Mcclung to be the odd man out because he's never pitched more than 110 innings in the majors and if he remained a starter he'd be on track for another 14-15 starts which could theoretically put him at 130-160 IP for the year depending on how those starts go. I believe Mcclung will go back to the pen and Bush will remain in the rotation for IP considerations mostly and since Mcclung has exprience in the pen, an area that needs upgrading before 7/31.

The Brewers relievers are 12-10. The losses: Mota 4 (1 x 8th, 2 x 9th, 1 x 10th) Gagne 2 (1 x 9th, 1 x 10th) Riske (1 x 8th) McClung (1 x 10th) Stetter (1 x 12th) Torres (1 x 7th) In 5 of the losses the brewers were leading, the other 5 the score was tied.

Yeah, it's starting to suck. Does it suck worse than being in the 6th year of a GMs tenure and have the current team to show for it, yet we still hear what a *GREAT* job he is doing. Should we look at Melvin? The question should be what's Mark Attanasio going to do? I doubt anything as long as the money is rolling in, but you can always hope that winning comes first at some point. Edit: I guess I really wouldn't see point of debating any issues if only positive thoughts are allowed outside the vent thread. Well I think the hope was the Vent thread would reduce general negativity. Here's a thought, how about a good team to reduce negativity towards the Brewers.

Rickie Weeks having 3 errors is further proof that judging a player's defensive abilities based on errors is a joke. Give Rickie a break today, he's probably tired from getting 2 hits and raising his average a whole .003 on the day.

Fireing Yost was pushed pretty hard last week by many posters as a fix for all our problems. In fact there were some who thought Yost was the reason for our young players not hitting. Can you point me to those posts so that I can read them. I've been skimming the threads and haven't seen either of those assertions.

Inman for Crabbe? Naw, won't happen.

He had a few nice starts in the postseason, but that's nothing to hang a hat on 2 years after the fact. Some brilliant GM will give him a backloaded long-term contract because he's a winner....

How many people will be suprised if Attanasio or Melvin publicly back Nedly this weekend? I'm predicting it. Something like "the team has struggled to overcome some key injuries, but we have faith Ned can keep them focused and will have them moving in the right direction...." Not only will Ned not be fired soon, but he'll get support from the bosses. I am the contrarian!

Also, Maddux doesn't get a pass here. I've heard before that it is frustrating for young players to work with him because he is constantly tinkering with them. No first-hand proof, just what I've heard second hand. I've heard similar things about Maddux, also second hand. But if you think about it, how many promising young pitchers have come up the last 4-5 years, and how many of them have panned out? Not many young pitchers have gotten better under his tutelage. Let's not restrict it to Pitchers. Do Hardy and Weeks look like they've improved. Fielder had a great year last year, but looks like crap this year. Hall is all over the map, Braun is a figment of last years imagination, and even Hart isn't doing as well as might be expected. The sample size might be small in 2008, but there are more than a few top prospects that are showing little to no advancement in the majors (in their frickin prime years). This organization is based on prospects as the model for success and if there isn't a significant improvement in their performance once they hit the majors we may never have that competitive window. I've always thought Yost was the worst manager for a set of young prospects, but maybe I've been too limited in my criticism and Maddux and the other coaches have a significant role to play too.

Only 129 more games until we are out of our misery for another season.

Well if you're right, Doug Melvin will be canned too. I hope I'm wrong because as many here know I've never been a fan of Ned Yost. I lobbied heavily against him for manager and started the Fire Ned Yost fan club the day he was hired. I road that bandwagon alone for many years and it's nice to see the converts. And I fully expect if Doug doesn't jettison Ned at some point they'll both go, but as much as many here like to think Doug is the greatest GM in the world, he has to be held accountable for this team at some point and if they hang a single injury out as the main cause for a possible failure this year then what is the likelihood that a great GM couldn't plan for the loss of a rookie pitcher.

I mean really, what has he done? Ned's been a team player from the beginning and Melvin has shown loyalty beyond reason to his managers. I've stated this in a number of threads, but I don't see anything happening to Yost until there is a drop in revenues because of fan discontent no matter what the record. Until they lost money they'll keep spinning excuses. And since the Cardinals bully the Brewers no matter who is on the field for either team for whatever reason, I will say Monday is N Day. I don't like LaRussa much, but I believe a vast majority of the reason the Cardinals own the Brewers is because he manages circles around Yost.

Excuses, excuses, it's getting tiresome to hear. If the lost of Yo is that massive, then why bother playing any further, they might as well fold up for the season. At least that will save many fans from spending their hard-earned money and precious time watching the team suck. There's still so many games left to do something and fight for a playoff spot, think I will be sick if DM or Yost use Yo's injury as an excuse for failing to meet playoff expectation at the end of the season. This team has been unofficially rebuilding for 6 years and Melvin hasn't once stated a timetable for turning this team around because he wants your hard earned money no matter how disappointing this team has been. We heard plenty of excuses in 2006 for the teams performance setback, I'm not holding my breath this year. Then last year, in the throws of another meltdown by a Yost lead team, Melvin and Attanasio fall over each other to assure Nedly his job was safe. In the face of pretty strong fan discontent. Why? Because their cash registers were ringing up big revenues with record attendance. Until the lifeline to Attanasio's pocketbook takes a hit they simply don't care whether the fans are unhappy. This is a big business and money talks.

Wow - I left the computer, came back, and we scored two whole runs! Go away for twice as long and see if we score 4 runs. An average strikeout is a little worse than a normal out. What's a non-average strikeout?

If the knee jerk reactions were confined to the vent thread it wouldn't bother me, but most new threads seem to be knee jerk threads. Speaking as someone who understands jerks well http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif , there's a whole spectrum of negativity. I agree that we should reserve the Vent thread for knee jerk responses, but in other threads their needs to be a high standard than simply "the Brewers suck". However, we shouldn't expect that only the Vent thread is the place for criticism of anything Brewers related. EDIT: sent PM instead of clogging up the vent thread I replied.

Ned Yost is 77-85 in his last 162 games. I'm predicting his Brewer tenure will be over Friday morning. Ain't gonna happen. Melvin and Nedly got all the cover they need if this team doesn't meet expectations when Gallardo went down with a season ending injury. I can hear it now, "the team simply failed to meet expectations due to injuries. If we had only had Yo for the whole year we would have made the playoffs" It's not like they haven't used it before.....

Must be, since you fail to note that Berkman out performed a 22-y-o (hardly shocking), then got outdone by a 23-y-o (incredibly surprising, given Berkman's talent)... and then you're using roughly 100 AB to try to make some form of definitive statement. I never made the assertion that it was reasonable to compare them year for year given their age differences, YOU DID: "If you think Prince isn't already a more dangerous hitter than 32-y-o Lance Berkman at this stage in his career, I don't think you could be convinced of anything you don't already believe." You made the comparison and you implied that if you didn't understand that Prince "isn't already a more dangerous hitter" than Berkman then you were biased ("I don't think you could be convinced of anything you don't already believe"). Fact is that Berkman has outhit Prince his first 2 seasons (again, OPS+ of 163 and 131 are better than 156 and 111). Your assertion is wrong. If I called you on it and you aren't happy then get over it. This is a message board and any comments you or I or anyone make are subject to challenge. I've posted here for many years and on ESPN before the move to BF and I constantly get challenged on statements I make and have to back them up. That's the nature of this beast. Years ago anyone with attitude who was clearly wrong would get jumped on by multiple people (there are a few moderators that will jump on you if you don't dot your i's or cross your t's, but they tend to only go after the people who aren't fully supportive of the Brewers), but these days there's a lot less meaningful debates here and one of the reasons I've been less inclined to post. Simply you need to back up your statements and if you can't then admit it and move on. I know it's 'fun' and all to bash the Crew right now, especially when you leave out relevant details like the fact that both StL & Hou are playing way over their heads & the Brewers are well under theirs. That's a straw-man argument. I never said that, nor implied that in my post. That is simply putting words in my mouth to deflect the issue. I actually am not panicked by the current struggles. The offense will get going at some point. I am, however, less inclined to think this team has the talent to overcome the loss of Gallardo and the loss of all of our SP depth and challenge for a playoff spot. Any positive that I would have hoped from a poor start (Yost's firing) are gone because I am sure Melvin and Attanasion will give Nedly a pass because of the injury to Gallardo and somewhat to Sheets as reasons the team might not meet expectations this year. Apparently, that's not a sign that things are likely to get grooving soon for the Brewers... it's a sign that every good player on the Brewers forgot how to be good! Where's my 'sky is falling' cap?! That's pretty good hyerbole (I'm not sure what grade Geno would give you), but it's a bit of overplay for the little post I made. Try to focus it on someone who clearly is making crap up and not to someone simply because they disagree with you.

If you think Prince isn't already a more dangerous hitter than 32-y-o Lance Berkman at this stage in his career, I don't think you could be convinced of anything you don't already believe. OPS+ for each over last 3 seasons: Fielder 2006 110 2007 156 2008 111 Berkman 2006 163 2007 131 2008 187 Yeah, I guess I must be delusional to think 163, 131 and 187 are better than 110, 156, and 111. Must be my jerked knee interfering with my vision. The only thing there's no way around is the knee-jerk reactions & selective usage of stats lately. Seems more of an inability to do math than any knee-jerk response. 163>156, 131>110 and 187>111. It's simple when you know what the squiggly little characters mean.

Most managers are going to leave players out there when both the player and trainer say they're good to go. If you disagree with this, your disapproval should be directed at coaches in general, not just Yost. Remember a guy named Nick Neugebauer? He said he was fine several times when he was pitching with an injured shoulder. Turned out pretty bad for him and it didn't help the Brewers organization to lose their #1 prospect because he *said* he was fine. Remember Jeffrey Hammonds. Didn't bother to tell anyone his shoulder was screwed up royally after his "career" year. Got a big fat contract and the Brewers got a big fat negative. Players aren't upfront about their health for various reasons and in the end the team suffers as much, if not more, than the player. I never played much past high school in any sport, but I sure as heck wasn't going to tell my coach/manager that I couldn't go if I could stand. There's a lot of reasons for not getting accurate information from a player that simply taking there word isn't advisable. That's not a Nedly specific problem, but I do think it was short-sighted to have left him in the game. It wouldn't have made a difference with him going on the DL, but it may be the difference between him being ready in 9-12 months vs. 12-15 months.

I'd like to see an ump get a call that bad be docked a games pay. I'd say 99% of questionable calls have some basis for understanding how the ump could miss (out of position being the biggest), but this guy had a clear angle and completely dorked.

Why do people think there are that many fools out there dying to take that on? Colleti, Sabean, Bavasi,Wade et al still have jobs. There's still plenty of suckers, err, GM's around who overvalue experience and seem to have a lot of money to throw down the drain.

This baffles me since Hardy was better than Hall last year and has been better so far this year. Cherry-picking data baffles me. Career OPS numbers: Hall .782 Hardy .741 JJ Hardy 2007 = .784 I'm not sure how 3 super-hot months erase 10 months of crappy performance and the numbers indicate that they don't. I mean sure you want to complain about Hardy's slow start that is fine but seems like an odd time to say he is somehow worse than Hall. Again, let's not cherry-pick. How about Hardy's craptastic 2005 and his sucktastic 2006, or his disappearing act the last 60% of 2007 and all of 2008 (so far). I'm being a bit rough on JJ, but if we want to drag Bill Hall and Rickie Weeks around town tied to the back of our pickup trucks, maybe we should also be treating JJ with the same disdain. I'll say it again for all 3, as soon as they become expensive we should be seriously looking at replacements (especially if the right deal comes along). There's no reason to panic now, but the money could be spent better especially if it's a question of signing Braun, Fielder and Yo long term.

All we need is GenoSeligPrieb and xisxisxis in there and this could be the most negative thread EVERZ!!11! Sorry I can't be accommodating RyDogg, but thanks for pigeon-holing Geno and me or should I say stereotyping. My only negativity these days is towards JJ Hardy and the free ride he gets compared to all the bashing of Hall and Weeks.

I take back the "props" I gave to Yost. At least YOU learned from your mistake. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif