The stache

ESPN was railing on Ryan Braun? /insert shocked face.

Just a fyi, something can not be more or less unique.

I totally agree.

Oh good grief, now Bob Costas is pontificating on MLB Network's Braves-Cardinals game. Now my night is complete.

He's my fantasy team's starting catcher (Luc is my backup), so I'm loving it. Gotta love Scooter Gennett. He's hitting nearly .500 over his last 10 games (17 for 35). That's unbelievable. he just got a single with the bases loaded to get us on the board. Come on, Sean. Grand slam time!

Whoa, slow down. Braun's suspended, and rightfully so for taking something (as of yet, we don't know what) that MLB has on it's prohibited substance list. Nobody's defending him for that. But when ESPN and Yahoo Sports are both saying "Braun contacted Tulowitzki, Votto and Kemp, telling them to back him up because the collector was an anti-sematic Cubs fan", then two of the three guys he (finger quotes) supposedly contacted come out and say that's a complete fabrication, do you not stop to pause at all and at least question some of the other stories they've published? ESPN is famous for the "unnamed" or "confidential source". They can pretty much publish whatever they want, and since we can't confront, or at all question the people providing this information, or challenge it's veracity, do we just accept everything they say on it's face? No. Braun is guilty of doing wrong. But is he the manipulative monster ESPN and Yahoo are trying to make him out to be? Well, in this instance, they appear to be completely wrong. So maybe they're wrong about some other things, too. The point is we don't have the bleeping facts. Everybody is slinging stuff at Braun, tarnishing his name left and right. And maybe some of it is warranted. But there's also a lot of stuff, it appears, that is being made up.

I did not see this posted today, so here it is. Troy Tulowitzki has spoken, and says that Braun did not at any time ask him for support, or disparage Laurenzi, Jr. http://blogs.denverpost.com/rockies/2013/08/19/troy-tulowitzki-says-ryan-braun-never-disparaged-sample-collector-to-him/15391/

Scooter now 13 for his last 29. He has 6 multi-hit games in his last 7 starts. At .307 with 4 HR and 11 RBI, and a nifty .897 OPS.

Whether or not Luc's a star is still open to debate. But that at bat against Chapman last night in the ninth is one of the greatest at bats I've ever seen. One out in the bottom of the ninth, Luc worked him to a 14th pitch, then hit a monster 2 run walk off home run. Spectacular! http://wapc.mlb.com/mil/play/?c_id=mil&content_id=29775307&topic_id=8878756 Luc now at .286 AVG 17 HR 64 RBI with an .826 OPS

+1

I was shocked that Aoki was safe. My head almost exploded when Roenicke sent him with one out in the ninth.

Well, that was a waste of three hours.

Jesus, 2-1 in the 8th, down by a run, and there's nimrod Ron Roenicke running us out of a base runner again. Two outs now instead of one out with a man on first. I give up. Our manager is dead from the neck up. You would think eventually a light bulb would go off over his head.

It's hard to watch this team when there's no offense whatsoever. Khris Davis's home run was the only thing I've had to cheer about all night.

That play was unbelievable. Gomez is one of my favorite Brewers to watch play on a daily basis in a long time. Agreed. I love his enthusiasm. I just hope he's ok.

If the Brewers didn't have bad luck, we'd have no luck at all. I swear to God.

Oh no, Gomez is hurt.

That was a bomb, wow. 458 feet!! And...another base running blunder. Bianchi picked leaning too far off of first.

Everything should be weighed. We have obviously been lacking our three biggest offensive guns for pretty much the entire season. But in situations where the game wasn't decided by a lack of firepower, but a dumb managerial decision, Roenicke shouldn't get a pass. The way I look at it...how many more years are we going to give him, and make excuses? Last year, it was the bullpen while we had the best offense in the league. This year, it's we don't have enough offense. The common factor is the manager and coaches are screwing up, and costing us games. They're not the difference between making the playoffs and not, obviously, but when this team does get it together again, the same management team in place could very well be the difference. I don't trust Ron Roenicke. Time and time again he is just too slow to react. He is stolen base happy. That's fine when you steal with guys that do it with a high rate of success. Aoki is successful 3 of 5 times, meaning 2 out of 5 times he's not. That's a horrible rate, and when you are in a dog fight, and every out and every run counts, you don't throw away base runners carelessly. Aoki should have been on first when Lucroy walked. Then it's first and second with one out instead of Luc on first with two outs. Maybe A Ram takes a different approach, and maybe we score a run more. As much as I loathe Roenicke's management style, it's Kranitz I really want out of town. He is the man behind the curtain in Oz, and he's pulling the levers. The continual failure of our pitching staff in pressure situations has to be blamed on somebody. Our bullpen came into the night ranked fourth best in the Majors, which I find unfathomable, because it seems that whenever somebody is sent out there from the pen in a high leverage (pressure) situation, they melt. Gonzalez had a two run lead, yet he's out there pitching nervous with the first batter. Hello? No matter what you do, you cannot surrender the lead to the leadoff hitter. Go after him, be aggressive. If he hits it out, so be it. But go at him, and get a fly ball, a strikeout, or a grounder. Nibbling around the edges is never going to get the job done. Then, after he walks two, we send the biggest head case we have out there. Seriously, what compelled Ron Roenicke to send Axford out there with two men on, no out, and 36,000 fans screaming? Did he pick his name out of a hat? Everybody watching the game knew what was coming next.

I'm cool with adding him to the list. I was pretty irked when Segura was told to run for third. It was clear Martin was going to nail him. everybody in the ballpark knew what was going to happen except for our third base coach.

I don't know, Jim. As poorly as we've been playing, I might actually welcome a distraction from the on-field action. ------------- Continued: Braun Suspended for Remainder of 2013 Season: Busted by A-Rod/his people?

Snatching a defeat from the jaws of victory. Great job pen /golf clap. Brewers have shot themselves in the foot repeatedly all year. The offense went to sleep again. 1 hit in the last three innings, and that base runner is eliminated because Ron decided to run a guy stealing at a 60% success rate. Oh, how things could have been different with first and second and one out. I want Ron Roenicke and Rick Kranitz both out of Milwaukee. Firing the bullpen coach this year ain't gonna cut it. These two imbeciles are awful, and they end up showing how inept they are on a daily basis.

A tale of two bullpens: Texas bullpen tonight: 2 1/3 IP, 1 hit, 0 earned runs, 1 walk, 32 pitches, 24 strikes (75% strikes) Milwaukee bullpen tonight: 2 IP, 2 hits, 3 earned runs, 3 walks, 42 pitches, 22 strikes (52% strikes)

Agreed, but the Brewers can't figure out what they're doing with Thornburg. He was starting at AAA, then they bring him up and pitch him 7 games from the pen. Then they have him starting. You want him to go more than 5 or 6 innings? He has to start on a consistent basis. You can't have him go from pitching an inning for a few weeks, then tell him to go out and throw seven innings. You don't do that to young arms. The Brewers have nobody to blame but themselves.