BruisedCrew

So, now that “lockdown bullpen” is off the list, the Brewers have no strong points.

Scoring garbage runs against mop up relievers is nothing to be excited about.

Even the All Star relievers can’t stop the Pirates Express.

How many positive posts in the last year have you had? Aguilar has been brutal lately though. The All Star hoopla and the burden of trying to carry the offense singlehandedly seems to be taking its toll.

This team picking up Machado would be the stupidest move ever. Why compromise the future for a two month rental for a team that needs so much more than one hitter?

Unable to go first to third? That was a rope from Yelich, I don't think Broxton goes first to third on that. He's meat if he tries, the Pirates have very good outfield arms. That's not at all a bad play by Chase. A rope? It was a sharp ground ball that found a hole and rolled out to a right fielder that was playing deep. I’m not saying Anderson should have tried for third, but a non pitcher with any speed at all would have cruised into third on that kind of hit with two outs.

4 hits, but just 1 run thanks to Anderson being unable to sacrifice and then not being able to go from first to third on a ground single to right field. In series like this it always seems like the opponent responds to every score from the Brewers. Let’s see if Anderson can avoid that today.

I don’t think it’s a matter of being gassed. I think it’s a team with a weak offense and terrible starting pitching regressing to the norm after winning an unsustainable number of close games in April and May. They needed the bullpen to be nearly perfect to win many of those games, and now the bullpen isn’t being given many leads, and they are no longer perfect.

Things will get a lot easier after the break: 17 games in 17 days, all against playoff contenders, including 7 against the streaking Dodgers, and 8 games in two parks that (like Miami and PNC) are not homer friendly. Look out below.

Anderson feeding his gopher early. Hopes for winning one in this series are fading quickly.

Know what? I'll give you exactly three guesses to figure out which orifice you can blow your "fair weather fans" BS out of, Mr. "joined in April 2018". I went to my first Brewers game in 1979, when I was seven years old, and have been a diehard Brewers fan ever since. In well over 90% of those years, the team has been mediocre, bad, or excruciatingly bad. In the seasons they were decent, or even great (twice!), they ended up breaking my heart in excruciating fashion. The Milwaukee Brewers are Lucy, and its fans are Charlie Brown. Every year, we get our hopes up. And, every year, Lucy pulls the ball away at the last second, and we end up flat on our backs. We know it's coming, yet we can't help but get invested in a team that inevitably falls flat on its face. I could watch every postseason game the Brewers have played in in my lifetime in a three day weekend, and have time left to go out for diner on Sunday night. That's how bad this franchise has been. They're the Detroit Lions of Major League Baseball without the glory years in the fifties. We've never had "glory years". If Brewers fans want to talk about the glory years of Milwaukee baseball, they have to look at the team in Atlanta that used to play at County Stadium. The vast majority of posters here, myself included, have stuck by this team through thick and thin (the overwhelming majority of which has been thin). We have waited for decades for a great starting pitcher, only to see the few studs we've developed (Teddy Higuera, Ben Sheets) see their careers ended prematurely because of injury. Yet, still, we remain hopeful. So, if some of us want to blow off a little steam when we see the all-too-familiar nose dive begin, we're allowed. And don't you dare question my, or anybody else's loyalty to this team. You're new here, and you don't know me, or anybody else, from Adam. Well said. I took a day off of my senior year in high school to see the first ever Brewers game (a 12-0 loss to the Angels) and have followed and supported the team ever since. Fair weather fan, indeed.

For me, the pessimism, skepticism, cynicism, or whatever you want to call it when it comes to the Brewers is definitely a result of seeing so many precious good starts eventually and seemingly inevitably fall apart. Some of those years go all the way back to the 70’s.

This has all the earmarks of a 5 game sweep. The pitching and hitting are collapsing together.

Time to stand up to the PNC Hex. Too many times over the years the Brewers have been slapped around by inferior Pirates teams, including last year when they gave away all that was left of their 5 game lead at the AS break by scoring just 9 runs in a 4 game sweep. This is shaping up as the same kind of series with the short, ineffective starts piling up, the bullpen wearing down, and the offense sputtering.

Cain to the DL, Shaw unavailable for at least a few days (and very possibly headed to the DL), and Yelich slumping. Going to have to find a way to stay afloat by winning some low scoring games. Like 2-1 with Aguilar hitting 2 HRs.

The Brewers offense is the perfect elixir for a struggling pitcher.

The “they haven’t played anyone” argument had a lot of merit last year. Didn’t play any of the top 3 teams in the B10 East at all, and the games against the better of the other teams (Iowa, Northwestern, and Michigan) were all at home. If you think the Badgers have a tough schedule, take a look at what Michigan is facing. Road games against Notre Dame, Michigan State, Northwestern, and Ohio State and home games against Wisconsin, Penn State, and Nebraska. Harbaugh haters should have a field day because UM is going to have to have a great team and season to get through that with no more than 3 losses.

I understand that you normally don’t want to use your best relievers when you’re behind. But, when they haven’t pitched in 3 or 4 days, and you’re facing an offensively challenged team that has already gone to the bullpen in the fifth inning, maybe it would make sense to use some of your better relievers to try to keep the game close and count on your offense to score a couple of runs over the last 4 innings. Using Logan in the sixth yesterday, letting a struggling Anderson start the sixth today, and then going to Williams in the 7th today allowed the Phillies to put tied and one run games out of reach. IMHO this was a bad weekend for Counsell.

With only one off day before the All Star break, the Brewers dependence on a perfect bullpen to pull out wins (on days when they don’t score 10 runs) is really going to be tested. It has been less than perfect over the last couple of weeks and now the top relievers (who have all had a few rocky outings themselves) are going to have to do more.

Anderson has one good outing then he goes right back to serving up gopher balls.

Maybe the Brewers should figure out that Hoskins is by far the Phillies biggest offensive threat and not give him anything to hit.

To be fair, he only had one strike to work with after Cain took third thanks to the ump calling strike two (on a pitch that looked clearly inside) while Cain was stealing. After that call Braun knew he’d better be swinging.

I think the Brewers might have kept Sogard around because they needed his wife (a former college softball player who is about 6 months pregnant) for this game.

Now that the Brewers bullpen is no longer perfect their house of cards is collapsing.

Looks like Counsell is straining not to use up too much of the bullpen heading into the Cubs series.