The stache

Here's one I made. When I think of the Brewers in divisional play, this old Fed Ex Super Bowl commercial popped into my mind. http://williamgregory.net/images/caveman.gif

As we sink deeper and deeper, way way down...into the abyss, I am reminded of happier times when Prince Fielder was still on the team. When Corey Hart actually played most of the season, when Ryan wasn't getting booed at every park not named "Miller Park", and Rickie Weeks was actually good. http://cdn0.sbnation.com/imported_assets/730965/brewers-cruising.gif Remember those days?

Right. We've had guys hitting the snot out of the ball (Gomez and Segura specifically), but we're really not scoring that many runs. We're 22nd in the Majors in scoring. 163 runs in 40 games is 4.075 rpg. Our pitchers have a 4.55 ERA. Baseball 101 tells me that we need to score a little more, and give up a little less. And I think right now we're performing below our averages, which were bolstered somewhat by our 9 game winning streak.

I saw the Brewers as a team that could compete, hopefully hover around .500, and make some steps forward with our young pitching. I wasn't looking at it as a rebuilding year, but I did expect some growing pains. I thought Gallardo would still be solid. I also thought the moves we made in the offseason would bolster our bullpen. I'd hoped that Axford would rebound slightly. Gallardo has taken a step backwards this season. He's not been sharp to date. Axford has been awful, and the only thing more nerve-wracking than his poor performance has been Roenicke's refusal to leave him out of high leverage situations. Send him down to Nashville to work, or let him work it out in mop up duty. Teams like ours cannot afford to just throw away games because Roenicke has some sort of reclamation project going with John Axford. Ax might be the nicest guy in baseball. I like him as a person. But this is business, and I don't care if John marries Roenicke's daughter. As a manager, he has to make the tough decisions that are sometimes necessary to win. He can't worry about being buddy buddy. A lot of money is invested in this team, and it's not performing anywhere near where it should be.

^^^^ excellent analysis, thecrew! http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/joker.gif I'm starting to think when it comes to the Brewers and pitching development, it's been a perfect storm of sorts. We've not drafted a lot of high ceiling pitchers (poor talent evaluation). We've done a poor job of developing the pitchers we have drafted (poor coaching) We've had some pretty serious injury issues with the pitchers we've drafted (poor coaching, and maybe insufficient conditioning). It's looking like we're dropping the ball in several key areas. That's a big concern going forward.

I don't think Gamel has to even approach his potential to be a valuable player for the Brewers. He's not going to get big bucks anywhere with his lack of production to date, and two knee injuries. But if he can get healthy, he could be really good off the bench. Who's on our bench right now that scares anybody on opposing teams?

We have now had stretches where we went 2-8, and 2-13.

I think the talent is around a .500 team. They are underachieving this year. Our starting rotation is nowhere near average. Nor is our bullpen.

Hmm. You might just have me there, thebruce44. Touche. I thought initially having him start in right and sitting Corey for the whole game was worse, but upon further review, starting him in center was a boatload of fail.

That's an excellent point, rluzinski, and I was going to post something about the other night, and just forgot. Braun's now what, 2 for 7 in stolen base attempts? I know Aoki has stolen 6 bases, but has also been nailed 5 times. Segura has been outstanding percentage wise (14 of 16), as has Gomez (9 of 11). But stealing a lot of bases isn't necessarily a good thing if you're getting them at a low percentage. Running yourself out of an inning is poor fundamental baseball. We need to run a little less, and increase our success rate.

Peralta also had the best GOSO (ground out, strike out) rate of all AAA pitchers last season. The WHIP is due to a lack of refinement. He's got the stuff, I just wonder if we have the pitching coaches to help him take the raw stuff he has, and help him turn into a strong #2 or 3.

I completely agree, danzig6767, that Mark's taking over the Brewers has been a big time positive. I don't know how much he is influencing baseball decisions, and more than anything relating the nightmare scenario I see here in Dallas. I think Mark has a lot more sense than Jerruh, and I hope he, too, will see that we are in a position where things could get very rough here soon unless some changes are made. If a change at manager and GM is going to be done, better it be done now. Ryan Braun is still young, turning 30 this season. I want him to get another shot at the World Series, and if we don't make some drastic moves now, we're going to waste his prime years floundering. I love the Brewers. I've been a faithful fan since I was a kid, and it pains me to see the franchise with so little young talent, especially on the pitching side of the ball. Whatever the status quo is as far as scouting and development...it's not working.

I saw this last night watching the Nationals-Padres game: http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/3637/speedjss.jpg It's not velocity that's the problem with Wily. At some point, you have to figure he's going to put it together, because he's got all the things a successful starter needs. He's got nasty stuff, he gets a lot of ground ball outs. At least, he did in the minors. I certainly hope something clicks soon. We really, really need him to step up.

Well, Aramis gets 3 back! Can our pitching slow down the Cardinal offense, and allow us to get back in it?

^^ I love Trading Places!

Are you suggesting that he should fire Melvin? If so, that is ironic for a couple of reasons, considering you mentioned the 2011 season in the same post. I think he's saying that completely gutting the farm system and putting all your eggs in one basket (the 2011 season) was a pretty poor and unsustainable long-term strategy. That is exactly what I am saying, and if he let Mark Attanasio dictate the "strategy", then he's part of the problem, too. We have a guy down here in Dallas, Jerry Jones, who is an owner and GM. He likes to fancy himself a football guy. His one stroke of luck was signing Jimmy Johnson as head football coach, and with Johnson making all the football decisions, and "buying the groceries" (making draft decisions, personnel moves), they won three Super Bowls. Two with Johnson at the helm, and one with the team he built. Since Johnson was fired, the Cowboys have won one playoff game. One. Why? Because Jerry Jones can't butt out. He is there to sign the checks, and market his team. Mark needs to do the same thing. Put people in place to make sound baseball decisions, sign the checks, and show up at home games. An honest assessment of where this team was at before the 2013 season should have dictated we not sign an old pitcher, giving up a much needed first round draft pick. We weren't going to realistically compete for a playoff spot unless our hitters performed at near 2012 levels, and one or more of our young pitchers really stepped up. Everybody and their mother picked the Brewers for fourth place, third at very best. Why? Because everybody has it out for the Brewers? Or, maybe because they were able to gauge our overall talent level, and see we couldn't compete in our own division with the Cardinals and Reds. For the Brewers to be successful, we have to be drafting and developing our own talent. We can't be chasing big name players. We cannot afford it. If we can't develop pitching any better than we have been, we're looking at some dark days.

The Cardinals pants us in pretty much every metric. Luck has nothing to do with it. This Brewer team is just terrible right now, and it pains me greatly. We have NO starting pitching. None. Gallardo is in decline, Peralta thus far is not living up to the hype, and we blew our first round pick to get Lohse, who we can't score runs for. Mark Attanasio needs to get real, and fast. We need a new general manager, a new pitching coach, and a new manager. We also need some better scouts, because they're just not finding talent. I hate to sound negative, but I'm just being realistic. Since drafting Braun in 2005, when was the last impact player we've had come through our system? What great young player is on the way we can all point to? Hunter Morris might end up being a really nice hitter, but is he a star? Time will tell. I look at our top twenty prospects, and compare them against every team in our division, and we're in trouble. The Cardinals have pitching all over the place: Shelby Miller, Carlos Martinez, Michael Wacha, Trevor Rosenthal. They have the best hitter in the minor leagues in Oscar Taveras, and a stud middle infielder on the way in Kolten Wong. The Pirates have Gerrit Cole and Jameson Tailon, two outstanding starting pitchers on the way. Starling Marte's already up, Alen Hanson, Luis Heredia, Gregory Polanco are all top 100 prospects, and Josh Bell, if he can stay healthy, is a star in the making. The Cubs? Not much pitching beyond Arodys Vizcaino, but Brett Jackson, Jorge Soler, Javier Baez and Albert Almora blow away the hitting talent we have. And the Reds? Robert Stephenson and Tony Cingrani are going to be a great one-two punch atop the order, and then they've got the fastest guy in all of baseball on the way in Billy Hamilton. Look at the top 100 prospects by team (just using MLB.com for this): Cincinnati: (3), Hamilton, Stephenson, Cingrani. 2 starting pitchers there Pittsburgh: (5), Cole, Taillon, Hanson, Polanco, Heredia. The only reason Josh Bell is not top 100 is his injured knee. He will be on this list soon. 3 starting pitchers, and Marte just reached rookie status, and is no longer on this list Cubs: (3) Javier Baez, Albert Almora, Jorge Soler Cardinals (4): Oscar Taveras, Carlos Martinez, Kolten Wong, Michael Wacha. 2 starting pitchers, in addition to two starters that just fell off this list as they reached rookie status, Shelby Miller and Trevor Rosenthal. Brewers? (0): we do not have a single prospect in the top 100 according to Jonathan Mayo. Peralta was our lone guy, but he's reached rookie status. He's the best we have.

From 96 wins just two years ago to this. This is just sad. And the cupboards are barren in our system. Thank you, Doug Melvin. How long until Mark A. acts?

Actually, Kotsay started in CF, not RF, but stupidity noted. In game three, Kotsay started in center. In game four, he started in right field, and Corey Hart, who'd started game 3 in right, sat out. http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN201110130.shtml

You're right, a manager with a pitching background might not help in the development of pitchers. But he might have a better feel for how a pitcher's really doing. At this point, I'm looking for improvement anywhere I can get it. And Ron Roenicke seems completely enamored with John Axford. He just doesn't have it right now, for whatever the reason, yet Ron keeps putting him in there. And we keep getting burned. It's like handing a child a live grenade, and being somewhat surprised when he gets his hand blown off. If Ron wants to get him out of his funk, send him down to Nashville, and let him get some real game work in where it doesn't put the big league club further in the hole.

As much as I get the anti-Yuni thing, it's not his fault this year. I know he's returned to career norms this last week or so, but he is not to blame for this team's record. I'm not blaming him at all for our record. The question was going forward, who should be cleansed, or removed, from this team. Yuni has played out of his mind for much of the season, but we can't expect that going forward. I love that he was crushing the ball, but I would rather have somebody that was a little more consistent in his place.

Oh, it's no problem. I knew you were referring to our pitchers. I guess what I was trying to say is that with all our younger pitchers, a veteran lineup should be able to help them ease into their career with plenty of run support. We had the top offense in the NL last year, and while that's not a guarantee of success for this year, we should be scoring more runs in support of our young pups than we are. I don't want to be playing for the future, either. We finished above .500 last year, and we were in the NLCS the year before that. There's no reason why we should be in rebuild mode. We lost Zack Greinke. We added Lohse, who was 16-3 last year, and a young superstar shortstop in Segura. We realized a gain with those transactions. I also like Hellweg as a closer option, or at least a setup guy a la Chapman. The guy's like 6'8", and has an explosive fastball/slider combo.

The Brewers definitely need to find a new manager, because RRR is about as bad as it gets. A manager with a pitching background, somebody that actually knows how to manage a bullpen, would be very nice. But who's available?

Ron Roenicke Rick Kranitz John Axford Rickie Weeks Alex Gonzalez Yuniesky Betancourt

Maybe I need to break out John Belushi in the Brewers hat again. Only, I don't get any indication that this team is going to turn it around.