The stache

See, I have to disagree. Last I read, 40% of pitchers in the Major Leagues have had Tommy John surgery. While some have had the surgery before getting there, a lot of these guys are reaching the Majors, and then having what would have been career ending injuries back then. It didn't happen back in the 60s, 70s and even the 80s, at least with any frequency. You look at all the greats...I can't think of a single great pitcher who blew their arm out in this way, and had to retire prematurely because of an injury that is happening with frightening frequency today. The number of teams really had nothing to do with it. 16 teams, or 30 teams, that's still a few hundred Major League pitchers. Which of them blew out their arms? Sandy Koufax had to retire because he was in great pain when he pitched. But, he was still the best in the game. Had he torn his UCL, he'd have been stopped dead in his tracks. The fact is that pitchers throw far fewer innings now than they did back in the golden era of baseball. Not only that, but pitchers back then used to throw complete games left and right. Going back to Koufax, in his four greatest seasons, 1963 to 1966, he won 97 games and had a 1.86 ERA for those seasons. And he threw an unbelievable 89 complete games. Since 2000, Roy Halladay leads all Major League pitchers with 65 complete games, only he got those 65 in 370 starts across fourteen seasons. Second best is Livan Hernandez with 39. I would think that in the later innings, when a pitcher is tired, that would be when a pitcher is most at risk of an injury. But today's pitchers don't throw complete games. They throw fewer innings per start. And their arms are blowing out at a rate previously unseen in Major League history. Velocity might be a tick or two higher on average, but there were plenty of guys hitting 100 mph, or close to it, and they never had arm problems like these. This is a relatively new phenomenon, within the last 20 years or so, and now it's becoming more and more common to the point where you expect to see a great young pitcher have it.

That's funny. What's changed? Oh yeah, the manager. Anyone else think Counsell might have had Braun in his office this week and told him to take the walks? He's clearly an OBP guy. Here's an interesting fact. Since Counsell took over (six games), Braun has struck out 3 times, walked seven, and scored a whopping 10 times. His OBP prior to Counsell was .273. It's up to .327 now. And for the month? His OBP is .395. Braun is clearly not there yet. But if I told you that Braun, while still working out the kinks, was on a pace to score 100 runs, hit 31 home runs, and drive in 84....you'd be pleased. Now, with hitters in front of him actually starting to hit, those RBI totals will go up. If not? He's content to get on base, and score. The short term signs are very, very encouraging.

You can dis Parker, but if he were healthy, I'd give him the #3 starting spot in the roster without blinking an eye. In fact, if he could put his arm troubles behind him, he could be the ace on this team.

I look at our lineup, and just cringe.

Highly troubling to me, this is (yes, I am in Yoda mode). I'm continually amazed by how many young pitchers are going under the knife, and while it seems a lot of people are talking about it, there's no real credible solutions on how to fix this. Is it arm mechanics? Is it how pitchers are managed? Is it the sheer stress being placed on the human body? I think it's a combination of all these things. Pitchers back in the day used to consistently throw 300-350 innings or more. Cy Young threw 400 innings plus five times. The Christian Gentleman, Christy Mathewson, averaged about 275 innings pitched a year for his seventeen year career. Walter Johnson the same for 21 years. Hell, even in the modern era, pitchers did it, too. Bob Gibson eclipsed 275 IP seven times, going over 300 twice. Steve Carlton, the same. These guys got 4,500 to 5,000 innings out of their arms, and never needed Tommy John. In sports, there's this need to be bigger, faster and stronger. I think that today's athletes have pushed the envelope so much that the envelope has started pushing back. Some have suggested that teams start carrying an additional starting pitcher. More days between starts. Fewer pitches. I don't think that's going to solve anything. I think that pitchers have gotten so strong, the amount of stress placed on their arms is just too much. Perhaps there's too much strength, and not enough flexibility. It's sad. You really can't get too attached to a great young starter, because right away he gets hurt, and misses a year with Tommy John.

Looks guys, this is much ado about nothing. We're 30 games into the season. There are 130 games left. That's a lot of baseball to be played, and the Brewers have played much better of late. This teams is showing that it could be a .500 team when Lucroy comes back. That's not great, but it's not terrible, either. If you can win as many as you lose, and make up a game occasionally, a team can overcome a terrible start, in much the same way that they can overcome a great start and collapse at the end. I am highly concerned with the thinking that the Brewers should trade away their only bankable players, the guys that make this team worth watching, because of the man in charge. Say we do trade Gomez, and Lucroy, Segura and a few of the pitchers we have. Do we seriously expect that Doug Melvin will find anywhere near equal value in these young guys, guys that will be a few years away from even making the Major League roster, much less helping the team to win? He's had an awful lot of first round draft picks in the last five to ten years that will never sniff the Majors. If he is the problem in the organization (which I strongly believe is the case), then dumping the good players we have now for a bunch of bad players, and possibly a few good ones much later, isn't an attractive option to me. It makes me worry about the very future of this franchise. Mark A. is not happy with the team's performance this season, but we're still drawing fans at the gate. How happy do you think he'll be if we're no longer drawing 2.5 to 3 million a season at home? Because, if we trade Lucroy, and Gomez, and a few of the other guys that make this game fun to watch when we are playing well, that income stream will disappear, and then we'll be left with a GM that has never won anything of note in three decades in a position of authority, and a bunch of draft picks that said GM won't know how to use. Where does that leave the franchise? I don't want to do any kind of a talent dump while the man at the top doesn't know what he's doing. And as long as Melvin is in charge, this man who has won exactly one playoff series in 28 years as an assistant General Manager/General Manager, that is precisely what we have. Until Mark A. realizes how terrible Doug Melvin is, this franchise is not going to get appreciably better. It kills me to say it, but has Melvin done anything of late that gives any of us the impression that things are improving? He's canned the manager this year, and a couple of coaches last year. Are we better off now than we were?

Trade Gomez, and our outfield could be Khris Davis in left, Logan Schafer in center field, and Gerardo Parra in right when Braun has a day off. That's just...frightening. Joc Pederson is better than all three of them combined.

Five days...five days before the home run barrage started, and I offered the guy in my league Victor Martinez when Braun was doing nothing. And he hemmed and hawed for five days. Now Braun is on fire, and I have no chance of getting him. Thanks a lot. I'm just happy to see him destroying the ball again. And I hope all the naysayers are having a nice hot cup of sthu.

Oooo, and Orlando Arcia has a 2015 Bowman Chrome certified auto. Time to pick a few of those up!

Holy hell, I need to keep my eye on Arcia. It's only AA, and his numbers have dropped some, but 18 games, he still has a 1.000 OPS. I was high on the kid defensively, hoping his bat would come along, and expecting he'd be a pretty decent hitter. But this is a nice reassurance of that. Let's see if he can keep hitting at a nice clip. If he could stay in the high .280s the rest of the year, or even flirt with .300, I'd be thrilled. Absolutely thrilled!

Braun seemed to have a little swagger going around the bases on the slam. That we have not seen in a while. Now, if he starts hitting the ball to left/left-center with any kind of authority on a consistent basis, watch out. He clearly....CLEARLY still has the power. He doesn't need to be using a lighter bat, and anybody suggesting that his great years and home run numbers were due to something he chewed on, or injected...should close their yaps from this point going forward. A healthy Ryan Braun, a Ryan Braun with sound mechanics, can absolutely still be the superstar he has always been. Those incredible seasons were a result of hard work, and natural ability. I've watched a lot of baseball in my career, and I would still put him as one of the top 5 hitters in the game healthy. Now, will he keep pounding the ball like this? Maybe, maybe not. He's still got some things to iron out. He's not 100% yet mechanically. The grand slam to left center was a nice eye opener, and it's a starting point. It means he got full extension, which is something I've not seen for a while. Contrary to popular belief, he had good power numbers last year, but his totals were short of what we are used to because he could only utilize his opposite field stroke. The point which we start to get excited again is when he turns on a few more balls to straight away left field. Not only will his home run numbers increase, but the extra base hits will start coming. And that is precisely what has always made Braun an offensive star. It wasn't the home runs alone. Plenty of guys can hit 30 plus home runs. It's the extra base hits, and the average, on top of the home runs, that made him an elite talent. That's why only four players in the history of Major League Baseball had more extra base hits in their first six seasons than Ryan Braun. Those men? Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Chuck Klein and Albert Pujols.

There's Braun hating baseball again.

There goes Ryan Braun not caring again, to the tune of about 430 feet into right center field. Two nights in a row where he hasn't cared about baseball. And that home run he hit last night, was off of Johnny Cueto, who, last time I checked, was a pretty darned good pitcher.

Garza needs to go. He's awful. If we're going to tank, I'd rather tank giving some of our young guys a chance to get some real Major League experience than trot this overpaid has been out there to serve up batting practice.

I know he has a ring. But winning a World Series ring as a 29 year old backup catcher, during a season which he hit .198 with 1 home run and 6 RBI, doesn't equate in the slightest to calling the final out of a World Series win for the team that he has covered day in, day out for nearly four decades. It's not even in the same ballpark. Ask Jim McMahon if winning his Super Bowl ring as a backup of the Packers was as thrilling as winning a ring in 1985 as the starting quarterback for the Bears. The hardware might be much the same, but the experience, the emotional investment, and the ultimate payoff, I promise, are nowhere close. Ueck loves the Brewers. He may have liked playing in St. Louis. He may have even liked spending his time on the bench, south of the Mendoza line, backing up that interminable wind bag Tim McCarver. But one cannot think of the Brewers without thinking of Bob Uecker. Can the same be said of the Cardinals? I think of Stan Musial, Bob Gibson, the Gashouse Gang, Ozzie Smith, or Albert Pujols. Bob Uecker isn't even an afterthought when I think of the hated Cardinals. I don't feel sorry for Uecker. As I said, he's had a pretty great life all in all. But I guess I feel shame that my team, in the nearly 40 years since Uecker came to Milwaukee as announcer, hasn't won it all even once. I think back to the utter glee in his voice when we won the American League pennant in 1982. I'd like to hear that again. I think Bob deserves that.

Oh, we all do deserve better. Absolutely. But for most of us, there is time. For Ueck, well, he's 81. He doesn't have too many summers left, and he deserves to see the team he loves, the team he has watched and talked about for decades, to win the final game of the season just once. And our owner demurring, saying "well, our manager and GM aren't being looked at" is a friggin' slap in the face.

The first step is admitting that there truly is a problem. And, I don't see that admission coming from the guys, or "the guy", at the top of the food chain. To paraphrase Mark Attanasio, "we have veteran guys on this team, and all but about 20 of them are underachieving per their career norms." And, this time in his own words, "the manager and GM are not being looked at right now". Nobody is on the hot seat because the players are underachieving. That's the answer we are provided. Well, is there no question as to why they are underachieving? Perhaps they are not motivated? Perhaps the guy chosen to lead the team is not up to the task? The 1958 Green Bay Packers were 1-10-1 even though they had seven future Pro Bowlers, including four Hall of Famers (Bart Starr, Paul Hornung, Jim Ringo and Ray Nitschke). With essentially that exact same team (plus the players that Lombardi drafted, though not all of them started right away), Vince Lombardi led the Packers to a 7-5 record in 1959. The difference was a clear statement of what was acceptable in Green Bay under Lombardi. He said that the team would relentlessly pursue perfection, and though perfection was impossible, they would pursue it, achieving greatness in the process. He said he was not remotely interested in just being good. He set the tone for the whole franchise, and they won five NFL Championships, and the first two Super Bowls, in the next eight seasons. Well, hell, if those screw ups at the top of the food chain here have no accountability, what is there to motivate the guys on the team now? Pride? LOL. As I write this post, I am watching When it Was a Game, the wonderful HBO Films three part documentary comprised of home movies shot on 8 and 16 MM cameras from the late 20s through the early 60s. Hall of Famer Enos Slaughter, who is included in the voice-overs, said back then, you had to play for your spot on the team every year, no matter how good you were. You had to prove yourself every year, show the manager that you hadn't lost a step. When Yogi Berra was a rookie, and didn't run out a pop fly, Joe DiMaggio gave him an ice cold stare, and Berra didn't do it again. I accept that the game is much different now. But regardless of the era, or the sport, or level of talent on a team, a good coach/manager can make a big difference. A great coach can motivate decent players, and make them good, or good players, and make them great. There is none of this accountability on the Brewers. There is no leadership in the dugout. No Prince Fielder to beat up a water cooler. There's no fire on this team. Jerry Kramer, who is one of the best pulling guards in NFL history, was not getting it after being drafted by the Packers. Lombardi chewed him out in front of the team at a film session. Kramer, after practice, left the field, sat alone in the locker room, and thought he'd never play for the Packers. Lombardi came into the locker room, put his hand behind Kramer's head, and said "son, one of these days, you're going to be the best guard in the NFL." And, that lit a fire in Kramer. We don't have anybody in this entire franchise, not in our minor league system, and certainly not in the Brewer front office, that possesses the ability to empower our players. They have done well in the past, and they're paid a lot of money. So, they should just perform, right, Mark? Sometimes, when things start going bad, you need a leader with a reassuring voice to take command. We have none. So, how do we turn it around? That can't even begin because the guys at the top don't acknowledge that there's anything either "sad" about this franchise, nor anything that "needs to be turned around." And, unfortunately, I don't foresee that changing anytime soon. Mark Attanasio is much like a drug addict refusing to admit he has a problem. We've won 11 of our last 45 games, dating back to last year. The Brewers are the first team in MLB history to lead their division for 150 days, and fail to make the playoffs. Mark? There is a problem, and if you can't see that a .244 winning percentage over the last 1/4 of a year isn't a MAJOR problem, then you aren't the man to own this franchise, and I would appreciate you getting rid of it immediately. This isn't the business world, or the stock market. Do you think that somebody like Mark Cuban, or Bob Kraft, or George Steinbrenner, if he were still alive, would tell the media "there's no problem" if their team were playing .250 ball? Of course not. Yet the Brewers are profitable, so Mark apparently doesn't care. I don't need Chicken Little running around yelling "The sky is falling!", but, I do need an owner that says something similar to this: "As the owner of the Milwaukee Brewers, I want to make it absolutely clear to our fans that no stone will be left unturned as we examine why a team that led our division for almost the entire year last year has suddenly become the worst team in baseball. Every single person employed by this franchise, from the lowest minor league level coach, all the way up to the General Manager of the Brewers, is held accountable by me. I will sit down with anybody in my organization that wishes to speak with me, privately if need be, to find answers. I am greatly concerned by the lack of performance I am seeing on the field, and if this continues, changes will be made. I want reassurance that the man at the top is in command, and not just walking around shrugging his shoulders saying "I don't know what's wrong." If your company's stock dropped 30 points, you'd launch an inquiry, right? Well, your franchise is failing, Mark, and consider the paying customers your stockholders. Find answers. Solve the problem. Or, you will see a drop in attendance, and soon.

I've tried to quantify why there are fewer black men playing baseball. Maybe the increase in competition from around the world is primarily responsible. Possibly, but I don't think so. One thing that has struck me is that high school athletes don't play as many sports as they used to, choosing to concentrate on one. When was the last time we had a two sport star like Bo Jackson, or even a Deion Sanders? I know that Russell Wilson wants to play baseball. I don't know how good he is, or if he even has a realistic shot at the Majors. It could be that he's in camp more as a publicity draw. But let's be honest here. Yes, the NFL offers a much shorter career span. I don't know what the average career is now across all positions, three years? Four? The NBA may not have that extreme, but I believe the average career length is shorter than in baseball, too. Fewer players per team, and I would think the risk of injury in the NBA is somewhat higher. More leg injuries jumping up in the air, and coming down hard on somebody else's foot. But, the one thing that both the NFL and NBA offer over Major League Baseball. The chance to play right away. And if I'm a young black man, and incredibly talented athletically, with equal upside in all three major sports, what would look most attractive to me? If I sign with an NFL team, I have a chance to compete for a starting job right away if I'm an offensive talent. Even if I'm a defensive talent, or not a front line starter, I still have a great shot to make the team, even as a special teams player. NBA? One and doners abound. Most of the really good kids you saw in the NCAA 64 are going to be in the NBA this time next year. Then, there's baseball. The big talents will sign a nice contract. They'll get a few million up front. But to reach the Majors, they still have to spend a few years in the minor leagues proving they can hack it at the Major League level. Is it that the other sports offer the chance to play now, where baseball makes even the best talents go through the kiddie leagues? Is that drawing young black athletes away from baseball? I think it is a combination of these things. More competition from around the world, and the chance to play right away in the other sports. Of course, I could be way off, but I don't think I'm that far off the mark.

I've said it time and time again. I am as big a baseball fan as there is on this planet. I love everything about the game. To me, baseball is the perfect game, and its history continues to amaze me. Many evenings, if I'm not watching a Major League game, I'm reading Pitching in a Pinch, by the great Christy Mathewson. Or, I'm watching my blu ray of When it Was a Game, thrilling to the sites and sounds of the game as it was played during the golden era, a few seconds of seeing Cy Young, or Honus Wagner in full color bringing a tear to my eye. Or, I might be looking through my baseball card collection, examining a Walter Johnson under a microscope, or flipping over an Eddie Mathews, or a Bob Gibson card, a whiff of 50 year old gum escaping from my Card Saver II. More often than not, I'm crunching some statistical comparison on Baseball Reference, or reading about a player on SABR.org. And as bad as the Brewers are right now (and, they stink. I'm not going to sugar coat it), I know that eventually, it will get better. This malaise is not interminable. Eventually, our owner will come to his senses-I have to believe that. Whatever happens, I have watched this team, and loved this team, since the late 70s. Now that I am feeling a little better, I am hoping to watch a game should the Brewers ever be shown on national television again. I just can't justify paying for MLB.tv while we are playing so poorly. I'm not going to burn $120 for something that will only make me angry. So, when the Brewers end up on ESPN, or elsewhere, I will watch them. I'm only 43, and though the Brewers have only made it to the World Series once in my lifetime, I plan on breathing for many years more. So, someday, they have to get to the Series, right? So, why am I mad? I'll tell you why. I'm mad because I feel that Bob Uecker's time is running out, and he has given the better part of his life to this franchise, and they have given him little back in return. Oh, he's been paid. He's famous, and he's seen some incredible things. But I want to see the Brewers win it all not for me, or for the average fan. I want them to win it for Ueck. And this franchise, which was on the right path not long ago with a plethora of young talent, has done a complete 180. Now, we are the laughing stock of baseball, and while we have some promising young players in the minors, our farm system as a whole is one of the worst in baseball. We're not going to the World Series any time soon, and I fear that we won't get back there while Bob is alive. There are two things that greatly anger me in sports right now. Jerry Kramer's inexplicable omission from the Pro Football Hall of Fame is one. This is the other. I can't speak for everybody, but I know I will speak for many of us when I say that Bob Uecker has given me more hours of enjoyment, and laughter, than probably anybody else in the entertainment world. And knowing that this great man, this unequaled lover of Milwaukee baseball, is not going to see the team he has stood by for so long make it to the promised land, well, it has me absolutely steamed. And the statement from Mark Attanasio that "he is not looking at the manager or general manager right now" while our team has gone 11-34 dating back to last year, is just the cherry on the worst kind of sundae imaginable. I am trying to remain positive about this season, even as it spirals out of control. I will weather this storm, even if it takes another 3-4 years before we see anything resembling winning baseball again here in Milwaukee. After all, I've done it before. I can do it again. But Ueck deserves better.

Perhaps your reading comprehension needs some improving. I am trying to work out a trade FOR Ryan Braun. In other words, I am trying to acquire him, hence why I hoped he would "move Braun before he got hot". Understand? And don't tell me "I don't believe." I've been a Brewers fan since 1978 when I was 7 years old, and I've never stopped believing in them. I've never seen my team win a World Series in the 37 years since I started watching them. And I might be ticked with the team's ownership and leadership. But I still believe in, and love this team, and I will until the day I die.

Like hell. Fire the idiot manager and general manager. Whoever comes in can't possibly do a worse job, and (gasp) they might even do better. I'm the biggest Brewers fan there is. Ask me when the last time I turned on a Brewers game was? I can't even remember when that happened, because I'm so FED UP with this team. Our happy-go lucky "um, I can't figure out what to do" owner while our 2-13 team continues to sink to the levels of mediocrity unseen in Milwaukee since we brought the Pilots over from Seattle. 2-13 is historically bad, and with Lucroy and Gomez out, there are no signs it will get better anytime soon. I posted a year ago how terrible Doug Melvin is as a General Manager. I watched him flounder in Texas. I posted the stats to show how inept his teams have been, the one playoff series he's won in nearly 3 decades in a management position in Major League Baseball. Yet Doug Melvin remains, like a cancer slowly eating away at what was once a fun-to-watch, if not great, franchise. Somebody post a picture of a little clown car. Because that is what our leadership have become. Our owner, general manager and manager are three clowns, and I imagine them all sitting in a locked room, asking each other "what do we do now?" "I don't know, what do we do now?" 2-13. Two and freaking THIRTEEN! Nearly 1/10 of the season has passed, and we have won TWO lousy games. We are on a pace to go 22-140. And if we did (we can't finish that badly, can we?), I wouldn't even look forward to the first round pick we'd get, because Doug Melvin would screw that up, too.

Maybe I'm drinking the kool aid. But I'm trying to work out a deal for Braun in my fantasy league. I just have this feeling that he's going to get it going, and really get it going, soon. I did catch some spring training game highlights, and what I saw from him looked good. I know how long abdominal issues can linger. His stats are terrible right now, but he's hitting the ball harder. He's too good of a hitter not to put it back together, and I'm confident he will. I don't think the Brewers make .500 this year. But they are a much better team than we have seen thus far. And when #8 starts swinging the bat again, others will follow suit. Hitting is a strange thing. I think back to the movie The Natural. The Knights were a "dead from the neck up ball club". Then Roy Hobbs came along, and started hitting. The rest of the team did, too. Now, I'm not saying Braun is Ted Williams right now. Far from it. But he has been one of the best hitters in baseball for a long time, and even though he's had a couple down years, I know baseball well enough to know that PEDs didn't turn a so so hitter into the superstar Braun was, and I believe will be again. I'm a big enough man to admit I am wrong, so if I crash and burn on this one, I will fess up. But I don't think #8 is done, not by a long shot. Anybody that has had a nerve issue in their hand knows how debilitating it can be. I only played baseball until I was 17, but I played tennis throughout college. And a nerve issue in roughly the same area as Braun's completely wrecked my swing, and then it messed with my head. I couldn't serve. My forehand lost all power, and it even ruined my backhand. I couldn't put any English on the ball at all. When the hand healed up, it took some time to get my mechanics settled again. I'd made some bad adjustments trying to compensate, and all I was hitting was a nice, soft little tennis ball. Braun's trying to hit a baseball traveling at speeds near 100 mph, and curving all over the place. I certainly don't compare what I went through to what he's still dealing with. All I can say is that I empathize. The shot Brauny hit tonight was a rocket. I'm hoping the guy in my league bites, and moves Braun before he gets hot.

His wife dropped a suitcase on his hand in 2012. That was a freak accident. Outside of this broken toe, which takes a few weeks to heal properly, when has Lucroy been on the DL for a prolonged period of time? The last two years, he's played 300 of a possible 320 games. That doesn't scream "injury prone" to me. Not at all.

+1. Ouch.

The thumb isn't the issue. He hurt himself on opening day. Abdominal injury, wasn't it. That would affect his ability to pull the ball. Why can't you just get over the PED thing? He had an MVP season in 2012, well after the PED issue came up. His struggles last year, and this year, have nothing to do with a lack of PEDs. Two balls to the warning track and a home run....that should tell you that his power is just fine. Pulling the ball is a mechanical issue, not a power issue.