3and2Fastball

Wonderful

Not sure if Cubs Director of Pro Scouting Joe Bohringer is ready to jump into a GM role, but the Cubs have really built up some strong prospects in the few years since he joined the team in 2011

I could see Craig Counsell getting a shot at GM after 2015 if Melvin retires after his contract is up, but what if Mark A cleans house after this season? Yankees Assistant GM Billy Eppler was strongly considered for the Padres GM spot but got passed over. Brian Cashman speaks highly of Eppler, he is 38 and the type of "young blood" the Brewers should consider bringing in. http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/feinsand-yankees-assistant-gm-billy-eppler-cash-experience-article-1.1894881 Giants Assistant GM Bobby Evans is another guy I would love to see considered http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/sf/team/frontoffice_bios/evans_bobby.jsp

It happens around MLB all the time though. It's generally just a given that a manager or GM will have an extra year added on no matter what if they are not getting fired at the conclusion of the previous season. I don't think MA will hesitate to can them both if we end up with a losing record. And who replaces Melvin? Craig Counsell?

They know the Brewers are losing viewership at the rate of thousands per minute, they are trying to put a positive spin on things

Better chance of the Brewers retiring Gallardo (i.e. DFA or giving him away in a trade) than retiring his number

Honestly I blame Melvin way more than Roenicke. I don't think Roenicke is all that bad of a manager

Trading for Parra was a good solid move. They tried to trade for Morneau Going into the season with Reynolds/Overbay at 1B was asinine.

I really thought that Roenicke would never be fired in this offseason under any circumstances, but if this implosion continues it could be possible

The Brewers can turn this around just as quickly as they lost it.....Baseball is a streaky game. I could see the Crew getting on a hot streak and riding that through the rest of the season. Better to get a week like this out of the way instead of playing like this at the end of September

Now batting .260 with a .400 OBP and he has 30 SB's in just 48 games!

not sure about using a shift against a journeyman catcher but that is nitpicking...pretty ugly loss but I did like seeing RRR get after that ump like he did

Personally I'd rather have Jimmy Nelson play the role that some think Papelbon would do for us in the stretch run of 2014

If he can be reasonably healthy, he should have a tremendous road trip this week, as he has historically been great in San Diego and even better in San Francisco, and he seems to be on a hot streak (hitting safely in 8 of the last 9 games). Last night was certainly a great start

Thank you, BRC. I didn't know if we'd see the day, but I hoped we would. This last week, I've found myself learning a lot about a guy named Mark Belanger. It's a name that we should all be familiar with. He was the great shortstop the Orioles paired with Brooks Robinson in the 70s and early 80s. In the eight seasons they were full-time starters together, they won a combined 13 out of 16 possible Gold Glove Awards. But that doesn't even begin to tell the story of how great Belanger was. I think everybody has seen the highlight reel plays Brooks made, seemingly at every impactful moment in the biggest games. The man had unparalleled range, he had great footwork, and he had an arm that would have made John Elway, Dan Marino or Brett Favre jealous if he'd played baseball while those men were in the NFL. His sheer power in throwing the ball was surpassed only by his accuracy. Well, though Belanger won 8 Gold Gloves, I've always felt he was a little underappreciated in baseball history. Everybody gushes about Ozzie Smith, the "Wizard of Oz", with his backflips, and his incredible grace. And the compliments bestowed upon Smith are well deserved. Yet Belanger was not only Smith's equal, I think he might have been better. I am a monthly subscriber to Baseball Reference.com, so I can access their database to run any report I want. Here's something shocking. dWAR, which is obviously defensive wins above replacement, attempts to place a players total defensive skillset in one number. Ozzie Smith has the highest dWAR in history. But he leads Belanger by less than a point, and he played some 550 games more than Belanger. Brooks Robinson is third all-time, and Cal Ripken is 4th (I admit I was surprised by this. Surely I expected to see somebody like Greg Maddux, or Bill Mazeroski. But three of the top 4 best defensive players, at least per this metric, were Baltimore Orioles. And Ripken was Belanger's successor. The Orioles also had Davey Johnson at second (he won 3 Gold Gloves), and Paul Blair in center field. Blair had 8 Gold Gloves in center. I would like to see the Brewers continue to develop players that are equally adept offensively and defensively. While we won't ever equal the level the Orioles reached, if you go through and count the number of 20 game winners the Orioles had every year during Brooks Robinson's career, you'd be shocked. Jim Palmer had many of them, and he was a Hall of Famer. But there were 20 win seasons by a lot of other pitchers that weren't superstars. Very good pitchers suddenly become great when they have a stifling defense behind them. Let's head in that direction, Doug Melvin. I saw Belanger play many many times, as I grew up part of the time in Baltimore. He was indeed incredible and watching him & Brooks take infield before games was a thing of beauty. Didn't matter that he could barely hit and either could Brooks late in his career, that entire side of the infield was completely locked down Pitching & Defense do indeed win Championships!

Well said! And they've got some players 3-5 years out (Coulter, Harrison, Lara and others) who are worth being excited about, too)

Robo-Braun shows up in Petco

Ryan Braun returning to San Diego and facing a LHP is a good thing.... Hopefully he brings on another "Robo-Braun" performance in San Diego again! (5 HR's in 18 games at Petco and a .818 SLG in San Francisco! Hopefully this is a good road trip for him) Braun is a career .340 hitter/.641 SLG% vs LHP I'm going to go right ahead a predict a huge game for Braun tonight

Braun is increasingly a defensive liability in RF

I know it is just Rookie Ball, and I know it is just 40 games or so, but Harrison has 25 SB's in those 43 games, only been caught stealing once, and a .381 OBP A pretty impressive start for a player who has a cannon of an arm from the Outfield

Fiers was super nice to my kid yesterday in autographing a Baseball for him and talking with us for awhile. He's got fans in our family for life

yesterday's game illustrated why Braun should be in LF when Parra is in the game. Anything else is just silly. Braun drops a fly ball that Parra would have caught with ease and would have ended the inning, and the next batter hits a HR. Little things like that add up over the course of a game or season. Braun is still a very good player who is capable of great things.....

Kintzler autographed a ball for my kid before the game today. He was really nice to my son and I'll always be a big fan of his after that.... all bias aside, I think he's going to be fine

My 11 year old is a hardcore Baseball fan and player and a big Brewers fan. Going to Miller Park 5-6 times a year as a family is a lot of fun for us.... the hassles as described above are real but the fun of going to the games with my kid outweigh that....

Brewers pitchers Mike Fiers, Brandon Kintzler, Tom Gorzellany & Will Smith along with bullpen coach Lee Tunnel all autographed a Baseball for my son at Miller Park today. (We went in right when the gates opened and went down to the field level to see if he could get autographs). It was great to see the players taking the time like that. I'd estimate that Fiers must've signed 200 autographs, he was out there signing for 30 minutes straight or so....