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He sure is quick! I thought that play was actually going to be close.

Wow! I just noticed that on the replay. What a clown! LOL!!

I find this to be puzzling as well. I also have to admit that Mark's comments about fans having to "deal" with Melvin for a long time really rubbed me the wrong way. If you want to say his job is safe, fine, but to say it like that?

Well, this team currently has the 4th worst record in baseball so this is a risk I would be willing to take.

The Brewers can't afford to build a pitching staff by signing players that are 33 (Wolf), 34 (Davis), 37 (Hawkins), 41 (Hoffman) and 32 (Suppan). It is too expensive and the level of uncertainty is too high. The Brewers certainly can't act as if they are surprised when they see these types of payers decline. As far as I am concerned, the Brewers farm system has generated 1 legitimate Major League pitcher that would be worthy of starting for a good team under Melvin's 8-year watch. The Brewers have traded players such as Carlos Lee, Richie Sexson, Lyle Overbay, JJ Hardy and failed to get any meaninful in terms of pitching in return. Some may think that the lack of pitching can be blamed on Jack Z but Doug Melvin was the one ultimately running the show and had numerous opportunities to go after pitching via trade.

I don't think anyone is suggesting that they are. They sure don't seem to be helping much though. When things are this bad (and they are that bad), you almost have to do something. I understand what you are saying and agree with your post regarding Peterson and Macha being fired ASAP. My only issue is how many managers does Melvin get to fire before people acknowledge the fact that he has created a team that is completely void of legitimate Major League pitching?

Am I the only one that thinks LuCroy has a striking resemblence to Wes Obermueller?

Macha may not be a great manager but there isn't a person in this universe that could win with this rotation. Look at the horrifying ERAs of our opening day rotation: Gallardo: 2.89 Wolf: 5:10 Davis: 7.56 Bush: 5.59 Suppan: 6.84 Is it really Peterson's fault though? Here are the ERAs of our opening day starters from last year: Gallardo: 3.79 Parra: 6.36 Suppan: 5.29 Looper: 5.22 Bush: 6.38 Macha and Peterson are not the only problems here.

Here is my simple take on the issue. Macha could and probably should be upgraded. That being said, there isnt' a soul out there who could win with this team. Macha should be replaced now and Melvin should be replaced at the end of the season. The Brewers need a GM who can better manage the payroll and evaluate pitching. This team needs to make pitching the priority and begin developing it as they can't attempt to rely on shelling out $10MM/yr contracts to guys like Randy Wolf and Jeff Suppan. I know that I will likely get criticized for this but I feel that Randy Wolf is going to be the second coming of Jeff Suppan. I don't like his age, I don't like his injury history and I don't like the fact that they signed him coming off a contract year. I suspect that people aren't going to be very happy with his contract a year from now.

It seems that many on this board greatly over value this team's pitching. Most of us thought it would be impossible for the pitching to be worse than last year and unfortunately, we were wrong. What I find to be particularly troubling though is that many people fail to acknowledge that any of starting pitchers need to be replaced. They will make the case that Gallardo, Wolf, Bush, Davis and whoever we go with as a #5 all belong in a Major League rotation. The problem with this line of thinking is that while none of them may be utterly terrible, when you look at them collectively, they just aren't that good and fail to match up with the rest of the league. When you have a weak #1 and #2 pitcher, you need to be better than average in the back half of the rotation if you expect to compete. So comparing Dave Bush's numbers to other #4 pitchers in the leage does not really make a whole lot of sense when these other teams are potentially stronger in the #1 and #2 spots. At the end of the day, this rotation is one of the worst in baseball and it is not going to be getting any better unless changes are made. With the contracts that have been given to Gallardo and Wolf, this means that Davis and/or Bush will have to be upgraded. I really don't understand how this can be debated. I found this article while visiting another Brewers site. Its an interesting read as it shows not only how Buster Olney views the Brewers pitching situation, but also how a rival evaluator views it as well. Its my first time posting an article here so hopefully I am following all the rules: http://espn.go.com/mlb/notebook/_/page/bbtn100520/baseball-tonight-clubhouse Don't blame Macha for Brewers' current failures by Buster Olney Key excerpts: "But you wonder how much of a difference a change at manager would actually make, because no matter who is filling out the lineup card, that person -- whether it's Macha or Willie Randolph or Connie Mack or John McGraw -- cannot change the fact that the Brewers just don't have a lot of pitching weapons. " "A rival evaluator chatted on Tuesday about the Brewers' staff. "When you look at their rotation," he said, "they basically have a guy who has the stuff to be a No. 2 starter on a good team [Yovani Gallardo] and a guy who could be a No. 4 [Randy Wolf], and then a bunch of guys who should be long relievers. That might be the softest group of pitchers I've seen in years." "

You are right. Its just frustrating to watch this team. The bullpen is gassed and our starting pitching just can't seem to go deep into games. At some point, Macha is going to have no choice but to hang some of these guys out to dry in an effort to save the bullpen.

Because God forbid we have a starting pitcher go more than 6 innings. At the end of the day, when you don't have a starting rotation that can consistently go deep into games, you have to make these sorts of decisions. Macha is far from perfect but in my opinion, he has been given a terrible hand to play with.

Unfortunately, I have to agree. I was not very thrilled with this signing when it was made. He was an aging pitcher with an injury history who managed to have a career year heading into freee agency. To be honest, the signing eerily reminded me of the Suppan signing which I was not in favor of at the time either. I suppose his performance is nothing to worry about though. We are dealing with a small sample size and he has been really unlucky.

I am beginning to understand why some of you guys are saying Davis has just been unlucky. That being said, I think it is then time that this franchise starts going after luckier players to replace those who are unlucky.

Don't worry, you are not alone.

I can't believe how much "bad luck" this team has. No one is bad and no mistakes are made ..the Brewers just have a lot of "bad luck".

It is also important to note that comparing Melvin to his predecessors is not an apples to apples comparison. Relative to the rest of the league, he has been given a lot more money to work with. Edit: My apologies, sweepcc. I missed your post where you said pretty much the exact same thing.

72-90 This just isn't a very good team.

Mark Attanasio better turn this thing around quickly. Another season like last year and the recently acquired "Brewers Fever" that Milwaukee has is going to come to an abrupt end. Attendance lags performance and I have a feeling that if the Brewers continue at their current pace for much longer, 2011 tickets are going to be very easy to come by.

Not only do we have 2 of the top 10 hitters in the league but they aren't making a lot of money at the moment either. There was a lot of salary that could have been spent in other places to build around these guys. Places other than Hoffman, Hall, Suppan, Hawkins, Riske, Gagne ....

Here is a little tidbit that I like: The Brewers have won more post season games over the past 3 seasons than the rest of their division COMBINED. Its funny and its true. That being said, I am still baffled when I think about how bright our future looked 6 years ago. One wildcard appearance and one win is all we ended up with in the playoffs...

Sheethead, I agree with you in regards to Macha 100%. Macha really isn't worth keeping around. Yes he won in Oakland but how hard can that be when you have a rotation of Hudson, Zito, and Mulder, who were all in their prime. That being said, I don't believe that firing him is going to be enough to turn this thing around. This team has some serious deficiencies that in my opinion, the GM has failed miserably at addressing. It is also worth noting that these are the same deficiencies that our GM failed to address in his previous job as well. It is almost unbelievable to think that 6 years ago, all we did was talk about how great this team was going to be. We had arguably the best farm system in baseball and couldn't wait for the future to arrive. If we would have known at that time that a new owner would also be almost doubling the team's payroll, we would have been ecstatic. If we would have known that the end result would be one playoff victory, we would have been in disbelief. I really think it is time for Melvin to go.

Is Macha a great manager? I don't think so but I don't think that he is the reason the team is playing so poorly. Is it really his fault that he has a rotation full of guys who struggle to go 6 innings with virtually no one to turn to in AAA? Is it really his fault that his pitching staff has the 3rd worst ERA in the NL and only half as many quality starts as the Cardinals? Is it Peterson's fault? Well, since the pitching was just as bad (if not worse) under 2 other pitching coaches last year, I'm not really sure if you can say that either. At this point, I am sure you guys are picking up on what I am alluding to.

Let me put it this way, I had already realized that he would probably never be the same again but I did think that his performance would improve to at least Major League caliber. Now I am beginning to think that he may no longer have any business pitching to big league hitters period, regardless of the in game situation. He's had a great career and been a class act all the way but there simply is no more tread left on the tires.

Not a very encouraging performance today. 1 IP and 3 ER in garbage innings for Hoffman. I am beginning to fear that he may be done.