The stache

Pathetic. This game is a comedy of Melvin signing errors. Garza sucks against the worst team in baseball, and Broxton is his usual awful self. No lead is safe with this team.

I am pretty confident he will eventually turn it around. He has a long track record and most of his struggles have been due to control. I just don't know when he will figure it out. Might be a whole year of struggles coming though. He had a 1.527 WHIP coming into the night, and he's actually raised that, unbelievably, with a walk and 10 hits allowed in 5 innings pitched. I'm not at all confident he'll turn it around. Some pitchers just lose it. He's been absolutely terrible.

You're talking about a streak vs teams I'm guessing to begin the season were ranked 29th&30th as in series the Brewers should win. I wouldn't be concerned at this moment Yeah, we have plenty of games against everybody not Philadelphia to go yet. Don't underestimate this team's chances of screwing it up again. I don't know, it's just nice to see them in the win column again for a change. It won't last, but we can remember what it was like when this happened a lot. Sigh.

In his last 6 starts, 32.2 IP, he's allowed 26 earned runs. A 7.16 ERA. Even this weak lineup could abuse him, he's so bad.

We've won 6 of 8, let's keep that going. And Lohse is garbage. I'd be surprised if anybody picked up a 36 year old has been with a 6.28 ERA and 19 HR surrendered in under 100 IP. I think the last time he pitched, somebody said the same thing, and he imploded.

Based on the comments alone, I'm surprised to see we won. Braun and Luc a combined 7 for 10. Only a double from Brauny, and 6 singles, but it's 7 hits. I would love to see some more of that. Quietly, Braun is starting to heat back up. After being down to a very un-Ryan Braun like .245 after the game on 6/20, he's raised his average 20 points, and the extra base hits are coming again. Seventh in the National League in home runs (15) and RBI (50). After going 27 games without a single double or triple, in the last 47 games, he's got 10 doubles, 2 triples and 10 home runs. That would be his normal 75 extra base hits over a full season. He's hit .276 with a .901 OPS since then, and has a much better .302 BAbip (these stats do not include his three hits tonight). I know that I'm reaching here, but in a season so bad, I need to find some positives. Braun has a good shot at 30 home runs and 100 RBI (he's slightly ahead of that pace right now). He's also been successful on 90% of his stolen base tries (9 in 10 attempts). He's at a 1.6 WAR now, and if he stays healthy, should finish with a 3.5-4.0. Not where he once was, but considering the defensive penalty he has now, he's doing pretty good. He was third in the NL MVP his second year with a 3.9 WAR. He's looking at a 3.3-3.4 oWAR at his current pace. Bottom line? He's not the cause of our problems.

Rodriguez had a 1.00 ERA in 27 appearances coming into the game, with a 0.778 WHIP, averaging 10.7 Ks per 9 IP, and a 4.57 K:BB ratio. He'd given up one home run....in 27 innings. And you're freaking out because....what...he gave up a few inconsequential runs, while finishing off a Brewer win? Seriously???????? Now his ERA is 1.61. Terrible, just terrible. And if a giant asteroid hit the Earth tomorrow, we'd all be dead. What's your point? Do you walk around all day whining about what could have been, or are we just lucky recipients? It's baseball. Do you know how many times in the history of this game the outcome could have changed massively "if a guy got the bat off his shoulders on the final pitch?" There are plenty of Brewers to be irked at. K Rod has not been one of them. He's way...way...way down the list of people you should be directing your vitriol at.

Sucks for me, 4 games out of first place in my league, with him as one of my three outfielders. Another of my three, Adam Jones, is likely going on the DL tomorrow after missing 8 of the last 10 games. I'd have dropped him long ago, but Yahoo (and my league commish, in his "infinite wisdom", believe they have to tell me who I can and cannot drop on my team. So, now I'm stuck with two big black holes on my team until I can move them to the DL).

Wouldn't say he flopped had a solid first full season at 23. Wasn't terrible. Age 24 season last year was tough and struggled on an awful, struggling team. Hard to judge a guy who was young, developing, and stuck in an awful losing environment. There was no positives to build on for him. When you start to struggle on a team that loses over 200games in 2 years.... Hard to snap out of that. The losing mindset for someone that young is a real factor. HAmpers development. Exactly why I am hopeful. Though we flat out suck this year, the Brewers haven't been terrible as of late. We collapsed at the end of last year, and have been terrible since. But we had a fairly decent run for a few years before that. Nothing Earth shattering, but certainly not back to back 100 loss seasons. My hope is that Dominguez comes in here with a fresh mindset, realizes that a new organization is giving him a chance to show what all those scouts saw in him, and get it going. Maybe it doesn't happen. But I've been watching baseball for three and a half decades, and faaaaaaar too many times, I've seen guys with big expectations flop for a few years, and then...it all clicks. Look at a guy like Joey Batts, José Bautista. The guy managed to hang on in the Majors for six years, playing 575 games, to age 29, and had a 91 OPS +. 58 home runs, a .238 AVG and a .400 SLG in 1,754 career ABs. Then, out of nowhere, 94 home runs (leading the league both years, including 54 in 2010), and a .951 OPS since. 201 HR in the last 6 years, even though he's been injured on and off. Now, I don't expect him to come anywhere near that production, but it does happen. That's why if you get a guy that had massive potential, and you can get him cheap, while he's still young---you go for it. I'll take a chance on Matt Dominguez over most of the "safe" guys on our 40 man now. He could flame out, but that chance at catching lightning in a bottle can have a big impact on a team's fortunes, especially a small market team like Milwaukee.

This is just so sad. I always really liked Darryl. He had some impossible shoes to fill when his career started (how do you succeed a legend?), but he played the game hard, and from all accounts was a really nice man. RIP, Darryl.

Do you live in Texas? Do you get, and watch Houston Astros baseball games? I do, and have, and he was being hyped as one of the young stars in Houston. Young stars are the ones who are looked upon as being the draws at the gate. And when the broadcasters are comparing your power potential to that of Jeff Bagwell, a reasonable expectation is created.

If a bear takes a dump in the woods, does it still stink, even if you're not there? Bush league is bush league. Bunting to get on down 1-0 in a perfect game is one thing. Your team still has a chance to get back into the game, or even win it with one swing of the bat. Leaning into a pitch with two outs in the bottom of the ninth in a perfect game when your team is down 6-0 is the lowest form of Bush league baseball there is. I've never been so disgusted by a blown call costing a pitcher a perfect game. What's sad is that when I google "umpire call blows perfect game", there's more than one example that comes up! At least Jim Joyce came forward and said he screwed up.

I agree with your post, MrTPlush. Just editing it slightly to make my point...um, on point.

Absolutely, 1000%. The official scorer should have changed the hit by pitch after the game, and Scherzer should have a perfect game. Bush league move by Tabata. 100%.

5. IP, 13 hits allowed, 10 earned runs. Just a bit off. This team disgusts me. From top to bottom, it's pathetic. I am DONE with this team until Doug Melvin is removed as GM. I will not watch this team play again until Mark A pulls his head out of his nether regions, and figures out what poison the clown at the very top of the hill is to this team.

Finally, Braun uncorks one. #14. Need him to get hot.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/minorleagues/prospects/y2009/profile.jsp?t=p_top&pid=518625 Now that was from 2009/10. A while ago. But I highlight "coachable", because it means the guy is willing to shut up and listen, and make changes to his game to become a better player. This is the kind of low risk, potentially high reward move that the Brewers need to be making while our young talent develops.

First of all, Dominguez was rated as high as top 35 by MLB.com. I posted a link to it, not hard to click. Big difference from top 85. He was one of the elite third base prospects in the game. Why has he failed? Do I really need to point out that he came up with the Marlins (strike one), then got jettisoned to MLB's version of Siberia (Houston) for three seasons. Now, Houston is turning it around, but they were a dumpster fire in the NL, and the entire coaching staff was awful. How the hell is a kid, who has already been moved once at age 21, going to develop? "Hey Matt, we don't have jack in Houston. So, we're relying on you, kid, to park 30 bombs into the seats. You're going to be the one that sells tickets. No pressure." Show me any top prospect who would have thrived in that element? The kid hit 7 home runs in a 12 game span. What, did he just get lucky? Was he just "Hodor" up there swinging a giant club, and a few times he got lucky? The guy's power is legit. He's had no major injuries. His "issues" at the plate are either mechanical or mental. Those can be solved. Then, bring in a coach to work with him on getting his footwork back to where it should be, so he can play third. He's not the savior. Nobody is expecting that of him. He's a guy that could be a stop gap for a couple of years until the young guys we've recently drafted can (God help us) make it to the big club, and make a serious impact. He is cheap. He is strong. I don't care what his ranking was, 85, 35, 46, 102....when you hear "Gold Glove caliber with power potential" at third in a prospect, I don't know about you guys, but my eyes light up. To call him a has been, or garbage is ridiculous. If that's the case, then half our 40 man roster is "garbage". Go back and read the scouting reports on him. They're out there. People that know a hell of a lot more about baseball than I do (and I know a lot)--professional scouts who watch thousands of players each year--they were very, very high on this kid for a reason. Sometimes, you just can't give up on a top rated prospect. If the Reds had done that, they don't have a massive year from Devin Mesoraco last year. If his hip heals, which I expect will happen, that kid is going to be hitting 30 + home runs behind the plate for the Reds for the next five years or more. But when he didn't "put it all together" right away, there were people that wanted him dumped. You don't throw this one back. This is a 6'1" 220 lb young man that can hit the ball out of any park in the Majors, and if he gets his confidence back, can be really good defensively. Is his OBP low? Yeah. That's a lack of patience, which can be taught. Of course, the Brewers, with their .295 team OBP (again, last in the Majors) probably isn't the place he's going to learn that. But maybe we'll get lucky. And since we're not going to lose Wang, there is absolutely no risk. A little money. $300-400k for a chance at a solid, or better third baseman. I'll take that chance every day of the week, and twice on Saturdays.

If I called 1,000 random baseball fans on the phone, and asked them the following question: "Are the Milwaukee Brewers a respectable franchise now?" How many of those 1,000 people do you think would say "yes"? I don't think the Brewers are respected. Not at all. I read other baseball boards. I think the people that actually study the game, as I do, and look at the big picture, do not feel that Milwaukee is a respectable team in the slightest. Thirteen years Melvin has been here. We have won our division...once. And the NL Central isn't exactly the AL East. The Cardinals have been very good, but for the majority of those 13 years, the other teams have been bad. We've had the Cubs and Pirates (both terrible until the last two years or so for Pittsburgh, and Chicago this season). Then, we've had the Astros (LOL) and the Reds (at times, pretty good). If I did a statistical breakdown of the quality of competition within our own division, what do you think I'd find? We play divisional foes more than the other teams. Playing the Astros, Cubs and Pirates every year should at least get this team to .500 if we have anything on the ball. Why? Let's look. Our one "great" season, 2011. We won 96 games. In our division, we had: St. Louis 90-72 (won World Series) Cincy 79-83 Chicago 71-91 Pittsburgh 72-90 Houston 56-106 Look how awful the rest of our division was that year. Know how many 95 loss teams there were in our division between 2006 and 2013, when we finished above .500 4 times in 6 years? Ten, including five 100 loss teams. With the addition of a second wild card, it's easier than ever to make the playoffs. Yet we're still not doing it. The last three years, there have been two wild card teams in the NL. A full third of the teams in each league make the playoffs. Yet we still have only two playoff appearances in 13 seasons under Melvin. And again, there's where we are now. The Brewers a respected franchise? We like to think so, but I'd bet that if we asked people, we'd find a very different answer. 47 years. Zero World Series titles. Zero. And I no longer buy this cop out that it's so much harder for small market teams. Let's look at some teams with metro less than 3 mil, like Milwaukee. St. Louis 43-21 Pittsburgh 37-27 Kansas City 36-25 Tampa Bay 36-30 Minnesota 34-30 San Diego 32-35 Cleveland 30-33 Cincinnati 29-35 Colorado 28-36 Milwaukee 24-42 I see several small market teams that will make the playoffs, and have at least a decent chance of winning it all. Of the ten markets below 3 million people, half are well above .500. Two others are within 3 games of .500, and then you have the three bottom feeders, of which we are the worst. And if you look at those top five teams, what do they share in common? Some of the best minor league systems in the game.

First of all, to respond to the bolded portion of your post. No, it absolutely does NOT need to die. When we are "hunky dory" with anything less than winning it all, it's time for a franchise to get the hell out of town. And that's where far too many Brewer fans still are. We have been so awful for so long, now that we are slightly less awful, that's seen as some beacon of light. Finishing above .500 doesn't warm the cockles of my heart, because so many teams do it every year. Is that what we're aspiring to? And for the love of God, people, please stop with the "compared to the last 33 years" nonsense. The Brewers have been one of the biggest disappointments of all American professional sports franchises in the last fifty years. Whenever a comment is made "well, this 13 year run is better than what came before"....stop typing, and think about what you are saying. Because, in essence, here it is: "In the aquarium that is Major League Baseball, the Seattle Pilots/Milwaukee Brewers have been the bottom feeders for the vast majority of their existence. For the last thirteen years, a couple times, we were not bottom feeders. One time, we were really good....in thirteen years. One other time, we were fairly good (and we made the playoffs ONLY because a pitcher we acquired had one of the greatest half-seasons by a starting pitcher in recent memory). Without CC Sabathia, we don't sniff the playoffs. Not even close. I'm not discounting it. I'm just not putting a lot of weight into it. Showing up at the dance means nothing if you spend the entire evening standing at the punch bowl. Finishing above .500 is not something to be proud of. When that's viewed as a positive of "gee, look how far we've come!", things have been very, very bad. I don't give a damn that we've finished above .500. Know how many of the thirty teams in Major League Baseball are above .500 right now? Seventeen of them. Finishing at .500 is NOTHING in today's game. It's not a success story. It's not a gold star on the report card. All that means is that you were slightly better than some, still a long way behind the best teams in baseball. The bottom line is that Doug Melvin has had the keys to the car for well over a decade, with an owner that is spending, comparatively, more than any prior owner in team history, and we are once again the bottom feeders of Major League Baseball. And six seasons of winning more games than we lost (which is no achievement) doesn't help to ease that fact. I'm tired of rationalizing our failures. I'm tired of accepting one truly good season in thirteen as some sort of progress. Save from 1978 to 1983, the Brewers have been an abysmal failure of a franchise. We have won two post season series in 47 years. That is terrible. No, it's laughable. You know who laugh at us? Fans of the Miami Marlins. They've been around half as long, and they've been terrible for most of their existence. Yet, they've won two World Series titles, the first in their fifth year of existence. Meanwhile, we've been here nearly half a century, and we haven't made it to the Series in 33 years. We have only Philadelphia to thank for not being the WORST TEAM IN MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL. Right now. The Brewers are 24-42. We have a .285 OBP as a team. In another discussion about Matt Dominguez, I posted the team OBPs put up by the Astros in 2012, 2013 and 2014. All of them, including a 2013 team that lost 111 games, were better than the Brewers this season. That's what we are! We are 30th of 30 teams in baseball--dead last--in OBP. We are 27th in runs scored. Pitching? We are 28th in team ERA, with only Boston and Colorado (the thin air) worse than us. We are 26th in team WHIP. And, we are dead last in home runs allowed, having surrendered 80 in 66 games. Logan Schafer.....should not be in the Major Leagues. Elian Herrera....should not be in the Major Leagues. Martin Maldonado should barely be in the Major Leagues. Hector Gomez, Hernan Perez...how are these people wearing Major League uniforms? This is where Doug Melvin has taken us. This is how he's built our franchise. On August 19th last year, we were 71-55 after beating the Blue Jays. We went 11-25 the rest of the way, and we're 24-42 this season. We've gone 35-67 since August 19th last year. 32 games below .500. Melvin is a cancer to this organization. From our minor league affiliates jumping ship with no warning (Melvin clueless to the coming punting of the Brewer organization), to ridiculous signings, to one terrible draft after another...he has completely handcuffed this franchise. All that young talent we had, and we got one truly great season from them, because Dougie wanted to go out like John Elway, on top of the world. But we should be overjoyed to have that memory, right? We finished above .500 five times in thirteen years. Woo hoo!

By the way, in his last game at AAA on the 9th of June, Dominguez was 3 for 5 with a grand slam and 7 RBI in total.

"Mediocre at best defensively." Hmm. Now, let's get into the really real world, and look at some tangible, irrefutable data. In the now 47 year history of the Milwaukee Brewers, do you know how many third baseman (playing a minimum 125 games) have had a higher single season dWAR at the hot corner than the 1.3 dWAR Matt Dominguez put up in the 152 games he played at third for the Houston Astros in 2013? One. Here is the report I ran on Baseball Reference. Let me repeat that. In the 47 years this franchise has existed (including the one year in Seattle), a single third baseman...again, in nearly half a century of Brewer baseball, has ever had a better overall defensive performance at third base. That man was Jeff Cirillo. In 1997, Cirillo put up a 2.1 dWAR in 154 games, and he put up a 1.9 in 156 games at third in 1998. In 1982, Paul Molitor put up a 0.2 dWAR at third base, and a 1.0 in 1983 at third. Other than Jeff Cirillo, no third baseman in the history of the Milwaukee Brewers has ever had the kind of defensive performance Dominguez had the year before last. Now, I'm not saying the guy is Brooks Robinson, or Michael Jack Schmidt at what I consider to be perhaps the trickiest defensive position in the Majors. But if he could come in here, and replicate that performance, and hit 20 home runs, that would be a workable short term solution. And considering where this young man's ceiling was at one time, he might just surprise us all, and do better. Wouldn't it be nice if we got another Carlos Gomez-type success story again? We've had enough bad luck, we could use some good. "He doesn't hit for average. He doesn't walk" Who gives a [expletive deleted by moderator]? Nobody else on this team hits for much average, and they certainly don't walk. Third base is supposed to be a power position, and a defensive position. If Dominguez plays solid defense, hits .240, hits 20 home runs, and some of our gnats at the top of the order are doing their jobs, and getting on base, the RBIs will come, too. That's better than anything else in our system. Maybe he does better (not likely, but we can hope). Hopefully, within two years we can move Jake Gatewood or Gilbert Lara to third, and have our long term answer. "He has no range." Again, let's look back at the numbers. Jeff Cirillo's range factor per 9 innings in the two seasons I alluded to were 3.02 and 3.10. In 2013, Dominguez, who is nowhere near as fleet a foot as Cirillo was at age 27/28, had a 2.85 range factor per 9 innings. Molitor in 1982 and 1983 had a 3.15 and a 3.10. That's not too far off, guys. And Dominguez has good arm strength, too. From MLB.com's 2011 Prospect watch (Matt Dominguez was the #35 prospect in all of baseball at the time. Need I remind anybody of the teams Dominguez played on from 2012-2014? He played 340 games for an Astros team that went 55-107 in 2012, 51-111 in 2013, and 70-92 in 2014, or 176-310 combined for the three seasons. Nobody in Houston was very good while he was there. The Astros, as a team, had a .302 OBP in 2012, a .299 OBP in 2013, and a .309 OBP in 2014, good for 15th, 15th and 13th (out of 15 teams) those years. Only Jose Altuve's .341 AVG boosted their team OBP up from dead last in '14. Guess what. Dominguez was stuck on a team where nobody had any real discipline. Look at J.D. Martinez, another guy I've been watching for a few years. He played 86 games for Houston in 2013, and had a .286 OBP. Awful, right? Look what happened when he moved to Detroit. The very next season, Martinez, who was basically cast off, hit 23 home runs, drove in 76 with a .912 OPS, which included a .358 OBP. Change of scenery. If we can get Dominguez to work with a decent hitting coach, I'll bet we could at least get his walk rate up a little bit. The point to all of this? As always, perspective. Between 2013 and 2015, Aramis Ramirez, playing 279 games, had a 1.5 WAR total. In 2013, Dominguez had a 2.2 WAR. Now, last year was abysmal, but if you were stuck in Houston for three seasons before this most recent turn around, bought with years of top three picks, you'd probably take your foot off the gas, too, a little bit. The kid has talent. He still has potential. He's only 25 years old! Maybe he's a complete wash, and out of town by this time next year. Or, maybe...just maybe, he starts to flash some of the talent that scouts from MLB.com, Baseball America, and Baseball Prospectus all named him one of the top prospects in baseball. Sometimes, all it takes is a change to a player's approach, or an adjustment to their swing mechanics, to get them back on track. If Matt Dominguez can come anywhere near the level that was projected for him, then we've got a steal. Maybe the odds are against it. But isn't he worth a shot? Who else are we going to put there instead? If he plays well for the next two seasons, good for us! If not us, what was the real cost? At worst, a couple hundred thousand bucks a year, and an exposed work-in-progress lefty that is at the very best still two to three years away? Ok, I'll take that. Gold Glove caliber, power hitting third basemen don't grow on trees. Stick him in there, and let's see what he can do. And as for his power? 430 foot bomb against the Cardinals. Two home runs against the A's (7 home runs in a 12 game span). And a grand slam against us. Take it from somebody who spent a good deal of time watching him, reading scouting reports (hell, buying his darned baseball cards). That potential is still there. Give the kid a chance.

Dominguez? Very good? Did you watch him play? I did all last season. Mediocre in the field and atrocious at the plate. So much so that he started the year in the minors! I don't care about Wang, but I care about bringing garbage like Dominguez. Moves like this have me ready to give up on this team. And I've been a fan since 82. The ups and downs, I was there. Now, I just don't know. He might not have, but as I said, I tracked him extensively in the minors (watching him when I could, monitoring his progress). The guy has the talent. You don't He had a 0.1 dWAR last year, and a 1.3 dWAR the year before. That's hardly mediocre at the hot corner. As far as why he dropped in 2014? Maybe because he was only hitting .215...for the Astros, who were awful. Often times, defensive play will follow offensive output, and if it's not happening at the plate, a player might just lose their enthusiasm with the glove before. I've seen it happen many times. A new environment could be just the ticket he needs to get his career back on track. Wang, on the other hand, had absolutely NO business being on a Major League 40 man. Now, he may develop at some point in the future. But we have an immediate need at third base. Dominguez is at least somebody who doesn't look completely out of place at third. We have nobody else that we can say that about anywhere in our organization.

They hacked Doug Melvin's computer one night for sh--s and giggles. There was nothing of value there, though. Color me shocked that the Cardinals organization would do something like this. Truly shocked.

Dominguez blows Mark Reynolds out of the water defensively. Absolutely blows him out of the water. I tracked this kid for three years before he reached the Majors. He was being touted as a Gold Glove caliber third baseman with plus power. He's never reached his potential, but let's face it, he's better than anything we have in the minors right now that could contribute at the Major League level. That's how sad our system has become. The DFA of Wang should be the last straw in Melvin's coffin. I've been done with him for a while, but this move, keeping him on the 40 man roster when he brought absolutely nothing to the team (and I do mean NOTHING), only to drop him the next year, is a big blinking sign that our General Manager is a clueless dolt that I wouldn't trust to run a Dairy Queen, let alone a Major League Baseball franchise. He's failed miserably at the Major League level. In three decades, none of his teams have reached the World Series. That's where we hope to one day get to, right? With Melvin at the helm, all we are doing is pushing the calendar back more. Melvin's continued employment by the Brewers only extends out this terrible trend further.