Invader3K

Yeah, I agree. It seems like after every bad pitching start, we're all ready to crucify whoever happened to have the latest turn in the rotation, regardless of past results. This team has a lot of problems right now, but Dave Bush is not really one of them.

Yeah, I agree with rluzinski. Like I said in my post earlier, I was somewhat critical about Macha leaving Bush in too long yesterday; but most of the criticisms you could legitimately level against the manager in this series would be nit picking. What is a manager going to do when his best starter gets shelled in the first couple innings, or when his lineup that scored 37 runs the last series only scores a total of 4? No amount of lineup tweaking or pitching substitutions is going to create a winning situation in any of the three games the Brewers just gave up. The players have to take it upon themselves to do better at this point.

I like the move. Personally I have liked seeing Parra come out of the bullpen and look strong. I just get the feeling with Narveson that he needs more of a defined role, and hopefully pitching every fifth day as a starter will cause him to be more effective.

Hey guys. Like I mentioned earlier, I was at the game today. No, I didn't personally see the guy fall over the railing, but it happened about 15 feet in front of our seats in Friday's. My wife did see it. She said a couple people tried to grab his feet before he tumbled over, but weren't able to stop his fall. Hopefully he is OK. Anyway, the main point of my post is that in my 22 seasons of attending Brewers games (I just turned 30 last month), I think I can honestly say this was one of the worst losses I have seen first hand. It wasn't just that the Brewers lost, or that they lost by 10 runs. It was the fact that it was basically a massacre. They had already lost the series to the Cubs, and proceeded to not put up any sort of fight whatsoever. This team looks like it has no spark or fight in it. I don't blame Macha for this one. I do think he left Bush in too long, but by the time I think he should have yanked him, the game was lost anyway. It's not like the offense put up any sort of competitive fight anyway. From my viewpoint, it seemed like Bush was getting squeezed a bit, but not enough that it would have ultimately mattered in the outcome of the game. What made things worse was the amount of Cubs fans at the game. The wife and I had seats two rows behind home plate (section 119). We actually sat next to a middle aged couple of Cubs fans. They were from Brookfield. As I said calling into Homer on 540 after the game, I guess they were just "mentally defective". Actually, they were nice people. What made it worse, though, was that once the Cubs took the lead, they were pretty quiet. It's like they almost felt sorry for us. It was bad. I did not enjoy this game at all. We actually left after the 8th inning, and I was glad to be out of there. I don't know why, but being at this loss put me down a lot more than many losses in the past. It's one thing to see the Brew Crew lose, as that is nothing new, but this was downright embarrassing and shameful.

Wife and I are at Miller park having lunch at Fridays. A fan in front of our window was reaching for a fly ball and fell over the railing onto the field. Kind of scary. I think he's still down there right now.

Maybe everything isn't quite as rosy for MLB this season as expected. Probably nothing to panic about yet, but it seems like in some of the smaller markets, attendance isn't where they hoped so far this year.

I've never understood why lefties "have to be split up in the rotation" anyway. I'd rather see a couple good lefties in there on consecutive days than a bad righty.

Well, that was the point I was making earlier. Increased revenue sharing sounds all well and good, but how do you actually make the Yankees give up money they've earned? Out of the goodness of their hearts? Just seems like another pipe dream for small market fans to grasp at.

The offense is just really not coming through tonight here. Disappointing.

Good showing by Davis today. Brewers need to get him some runs. Should be in line for the win.

One thing to keep in perspective is the draft picks we got for CC. Off the top of my head, I can't remember who they were, though.

What kind of experience is needed to come in and pitch 3 innings when your team is getting blown away? I agree with Hawing....grow a pair and just admit this is because of Suppan's salary and not about what is best for the team. I agree with this. It's not like he would be the first starter shunted down to the bullpen. Heck, the Cubs just did the same thing with Zambrano earlier this week, and he's obviously a much better pitcher than Suppan at this point. And yes, I wish there would be some acknowledgment about the reality of the situation and cause for this decision to keep using Suppan in the rotation, when he's obviously the worst pitcher on the team.

I kind of agree with this. I'm not sure a salary cap and floor are really the answers in baseball. Sure, it seems to work in the NFL, but look at what a mess the NBA is. Baseball is just plain different from those sports, and I think the cry of salary cap is reflexively thrown out by some baseball fans way too much. Increased media revenue sharing seems like it would be a good fix, but how do you actually get teams like the Yankees to agree to do that? Right now, baseball is raking in tremendous money, and I'm not sure there is that much economic incentive to force substantive changes.

You can't totally blame Suppan for last night's loss, since the offense seemed to fail to show up as well. However, he put them in the worst possible spot...down early and pressing to score runs. He just doesn't have it anymore as a starter. I'd be fine with moving him to the bullpen and then letting him go if he can't even handle that. We just can't dink around with him as a starter anymore. The losses in April and May count as much as the ones in August and September.

Yeah, that lineup doesn't scare me at all. Should be a winnable game.

Good catch (I'm assuming you're right, I didn't look that close). Kind of makes you question where he got that "lot estimated to be worth $8000-9000" figure from.

I don't know. I think part of it is LaRussa being crotchety old manager; and I think part of it is that their fanbase thinks that they are the New York Yankees of the NL. The sense of entitlement and "holier than thou" attitude displayed by many of them has really gotten old and over the top, quite frankly. They seem to think that fluke World Series Championship run in 2006 has given them some sort of cache to present themselves as perennial champions.

I know this is partly heresy, but we have Charter and it's fine. We get every Brewers game, and all the HD ones that are offered. We also get MLB Network in HD. DVR service is fine. Their internet service is pretty good, and very fast. No problems with outages or anything like that. We actually just switched to DirecTV from DISH at the business I co-own. Saved us about 20 bucks a month (at least for the first year), and we get all the same channels.

Yes, it was very nice to see Gomez draw three walks in two games; as I mentioned in the in game thread. Now he just has to keep it up.

Right. That would be the big incentive for him. That article above mentions he's averaged only 95 games between 2005-2009. One more big injury this season could cause him to be perceived as having relatively little value moving forward. Part time 2Bs don't get $7-8 million per year.

Honestly, as a hitter, he kind of reminds me of Alex Rodriguez.

To me, while that seems reasonable, it still feels like an overpay based on how much he has been hurt. I guess I would do it, but I would be extremely leery.

They had to move Braun from 3B though. He was terrible defensively. Even as a huge Ryan Braun fan, I'll admit that.

The difference is that five years ago, you could start to feel that the Brewers were turning a corner. We had Fielder and Weeks coming up from the minors as heralded prospects. I'm not sure you can really say anything like that about the Pirates at this point. 2005, don't forget, the Brewers went 81-81. Heck, even in 2004, the team was somewhat in contention before fading down the stretch. This Pirates team is obviously a non-contender might struggle to win 70 games. As far as the Pirates "fire sale", they do that every couple years. It's like they can't pick a crop of players and just stick with them. What is there to be a fan of there at this point? Zach Duke? They'll surely trade him in another season or two.

Well, at least we can say it's the first 20-0 victory in modern MLB history. Those pre-1900 stats are sometimes hard to even verify.