naivin

I hate Rush, but I'm all for posting videos for no real reason. Here's a great one by a great artist about a Believer (Ties in nicely with the Monkees reference yesterday as well)...

So, by that you mean the Cubs? Lord knows they 've been taking care of their business.

Who cares, the point is to win the games. Judging by your ridiculous comments above, is your position that the players weren't affected by knowing the stakes, last night in particular? If so, I'm assuming you watched a different game than I did. Its too late now anyway, but I will simply ask what would the harm be? What's the difference?...the rest of the league would chuckle (even though they wouldn't)? Who cares? They could chuckle all they when the Brewers take the field on Monday.

So let me get this straight...Our playoff hopes are coming down to Capuano, Bush, and Suppan against Maddux, Young, and Peavey. Sounds good. I like those match-ups. Actually, may not be too bad, I have kind of had visions of Capuano as a secret weapon this weekend, Bush is good at home. Young is not so good on the road. Peavey will be on short rest, and this game is what they brought Suppan in for. Now, I have little doubt the Cubs are going to win the first 2 in this series rendering the whole thing meaningless anyway, but I guess you never know. http://blogs.sltrib.com/tv/uploaded_images/StevePerry-772215.jpg

I agree with that. I just think winning is more fun, and if this can help, I'm all for it. BTW, Schroeder suggested the same thing after last night's game. Don't know if he was speaking figuratively, but for what its worth...

I don't necessarily disagree, but isn't the goal to get there by whatever means necessary? If you can prevent them getting uptight, wouldn't you want to do that? Do I know for sure it would make a difference? Of course not, but this rationaliziation of not caring if they make it because they supposedly don't deserve it, makes no sense to me. If they are one win better than the competition, they deserve to make it, and if you can remove any possible obstacles to getting that one win, you should do it. I do know that last night, the Brewers were clearly tight. The 5 errors speak for themselves. If the stakes aren't as high, does Damian Miller try to let that bunt, that seemingly wasn't going to roll foul, roll foul? I'd doubt it. Without looking, the trio of Hart, Jenkins, and Hall have to be something like 0-24 the last couple nights. Add Damian to that list and it gets worse. I have no doubt that now that they're effectively eliminated, they will come out and play much like they did the first couple games of the Cardinals series, when there was also seemingly nothing to lose. They wilted under the pressure, and if there is a way to potentially limit that pressure, you do it. Blocking relevant scores is done routinely in the NFL. Why should this be any different?

I renew my stance on this. Was discussed by Bill, Davey, and BA after the game last night, with both Davey and Bill saying they thought the team was tight the last couple nights - particularly before the game last night. Wednesday's implosion came directly on the heels of the Cub game going final, and they pretty much never made it out of the clubhouse last night. The previous couple nights when they were able to play with nothing to lose, they pitched great, and were banging the ball all over the park. I agree its great for the fans, but the less this young impressionable group of players knows, the better. Its too late now, but I am convinced the results of at least one of the last two might be different had they not known about the opportunity they had been given, and felt the corresponding pressure.

I am curious as to your rationale for that position...Why do you believe they should be in first place by several games? If you could turn back the clock, what would you go back and change to make that reality?

Nice to see the attitude when you're the "genius" who wasn't aware of the availability of Parra. I'm sorry you have such a big cross to bear, but last I recall nobody is here posting as part of their sentence and anyone is free to come and go. Don't let the door hit you on the way out if a little negativity tortures your frail constitution. I think I get it, when you can't attck the argument, attack the person making it. Thanks for the tip, but I think I'll hang around a bit longer.

Actually Linebrink was pulled in favor of Ray King to face Ankiel.

So the manager is beyond reproach because...he's the manager? He has a legitimate ROY favorite, the NL MVP favorite, an emerging threat at second base, an All-Star shortstop, a very good (and tall) young RF/CF, two young stud starting pitchers, one of the better fifth starters you'll find on any team that doesn't have a >$100M payroll, and a great closer. It's not perfect, but with this franchise's limited pursestrings, you're not going to get many teams that are as built to win as this one. What do we get for it? A team in a bad division that's barely over .500 and is constantly shooting itself in the foot. Pitching coach talks to the pitcher until the umpire kicks him off the field, and the pitcher responds with four straight horrible pitches to a .176 hitter. Manager gets himself run from a one-run game because he's in a urination contest with the other dugout. Hitters make mediocre pitchers look like Cy Young favorites, while making Cy Young favorites look like Cy Young favorites. It's not all Ned's fault, and I've about had it with people on the other side broad-brushing me and others like that. But the buck stops with him, and no coach is doing an impeccable job on this team. Never said he was beyond reproach. You are only being broad-brushed if you choose to be broad-brushed. I agree with every one of the positives you just sighted, but you seem to be doing a little broad-brushing yourself and discounting the flaws - serious flaws, and when you put the two together what you get is a slighltly better than .500 team, because for every one of those good things, there seems to be something to off-set it. On the one hand you have Braun and Fielder. On the other you have Hall and Jenkins/mench (even though I think Hall will hit again next year). You have Gallardo and Villanueva. Then you have Sheets (well actually you don't have Sheets, thats's the problem) and Suppan. You have an All-Star shortstop, and you have a pathetic catcher. You have an emerging star in Weeks, but you also have his defense, and he contributed nothing for 3/4 of the season. You have a great closer, but you also have the likes of Turnbow, Wise and company, so you either need him to pitch 2 innings every day, or you can't consistently get to him. Despite the star power of Fielder, Braun, even Cordero, the sum of the parts is an average to slightly above average team.

You know darn well had they done that and he hits one out, or hist a double and scores, whatever...there would be an equal number of people here today calling Ned an idiot for pitching to Pujols ina one run game. That's just baseball. I happen to agree with the decision (at least not pitching to him)...with one out and the likes of Schumacher, Ludwick, etc. coming up, you just don't let Pujols beat you.

Not sure if I am a Nedophile. If they decided to make a change, I wouldn't really care, but I think he has done a decent job. But, my main issue is that I just have little time for the constant loser's lament - it's the managers fault. It is nothing more than wishful thinking by fans wanting desperately for the team to be better than they are. Here's what I know, this team has serious flaws - a Number 1 starter who is completely unreliable, a bullpen full of guys that are even less relaible than that, a catcher who can't catch or throw, a CF and LF that combine to hit about .250 and little run production, number 2 and 3 starters that have been somewhere between below average to terrible for the bulk of the year, complete dependence on a rookie and second year pitcher for any sort of rotation stability, possibly the worst defensive line-up in the league. Yet, here we are looking at our first winning season in 15 years, and approaching the final weekend of the season still alive against a verteran team with more talent (at least experienced talent), better pitching, a significantly better bullpen, and a manager widely considered to be among the best in the game. If it was as simple as Turnbow being the only guy to cough up games, and Ned sticking with him when there are better options, I'd be right there with you. It isn't though. Wise, Linebrink, Aquino, Capuano, McClung, Spurling...pretty much everyone but Shouse have not been able to be trusted. When you don't have options, you don't have options.

Good plan - get the only pitcher you can count on thrown out in the 4th. That definiteley would have helped. Not sure if they changed the rules so that you can activate a guy off the DL in the middle of a game, but that is the only way you would get Parra in the game last night. Not to mention the fact he hasn't pitched in a month. And you're suggesting that would have been the smart thing to do, huh? Any other good ideas?

Completely ridiculous. First off, in your world where the manager is to blame for everything, Yost getting ejected should be a good thing. That aside, how fired up were the Cardinals exactly that they were able to sit there with the bats on their shoulders while Brewer pitchers couldn't find the strike zone? Getting squeezed by the umps? Come on! Did you watch the game? Do you really think Turnbow was getting squeezed? Those pitches weren't close. Nobody was getting squeezed. I understand the appeal of blaming the manager,because it provides an easy answer. Much easier than facing the reality that we need to completely revamp the bullpen if we want any chance of winning next year, or coming to grips with the fact that the bottom of our order has been completely useless.

So help me understand...Your position is that you wanted Seth McClung pitching to Albert Pujols? He did not put retaliation ahead of winning. The intent was to win, and retaltiation just happened to fit with the timing. Instead of working around Pujols or intentionally walking him, they put one in his ribs. What position was Turnbow put in exactly, one where he is asked to go in and get 2 outs against future Hall of Famers, Ryan Ludwick, Skip Schumacher, and Kelly Stinett? I guess $2.5 million doesn't go as far as it used to if that is somehow considered an unreasonable request.

Shouse has been put into situations you would otherwise prefer not to use him simply because he is about the only one who has demonstrated any sort of consistent ability to get guys out. Unfortunatley the state of our bullpen is such that he has probably been as good an option against RHers as are the other option such as Turnbow, McClung, Spurling, Aquino - yikes! If that doesn't tell the whole story right there I don't know what will. Doug Melvin - we need you!

It wasn't the tying run. The Brewers were behind. What is it people don't understand about the fact that they were going to work around him anyway - much the way the Cardinals were going to do with Fileder when they drilled him? Unless of course some of you think it would be a good idea to have Seth McClung or Derrik Turnbow pitching to Pujols in a one run game in which he had already hit one out and had been on base every time up I think. They were never going to pitch to him. Pujols is not a guy that is going to get himself out, which is why McCLung was brought in to do the dirty work, given the situation, instead of messing around with the unintentional intentional walk.

Oh good grief...Did you see where those pitches were? It had nothing to do with the size of the strike zone, unless of course I missed some sort of rules change and strike zone now extends into the batters box. Our pitchers weren't getting squeezed, they weren't even close.

http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A9gnMiV3rftGcwIA5w.jzbkF/SIG=1246rog0a/EXP=1190985463/**http%3A//www.btinternet.com/~janhodson/Perry.5.jpg

A bench coach will often also sort of be another set of eyes in terms of line-up and provide input on who is available on the bench for various situation that may be coming up, possible PH's, defensive replacements, etc.

Nearly every guy ot there is completely unreliable. Its a huge problem, and the main reason we are sitting here 2 games back instead of 2 games up. Fixing it is gonna cost some serious prospects, FA money, or both in the off season.

To say Yost blew the game by throwing at Pujols and putting him on base is completely ridiculous. Down by one run in the 8th inning, there is no chance in you know where that Derrik Turnbow, Seth McClung or any of the other pieces that make up the garbage collection we call a bullpen were going to pitch to Pujols. He was going to be standing on 1B no matter what (Much like Fielder when he got hit, unless of course they decided to pitch to Pujols, in which case we would have been lucky if he was only standing on 1B). That part of it is a ntotal on-issue. The more I thought about this, if seeing your star player get drilled fairly high, didn't wake that team up last night, perhaps Ned was hoping a little more action might. There may be better ways to get revenge, but it was pretty obvious watching the bottom half of that order hit last night, that wasn't going to happen. Pujols on first wasn't the problem. Pitchers inability to get out that high powered bottom half of the Cardinals line-up was. I think they wilted last night as a team. The quartet of Hart, Jenkins, Hall, and Miller (not gonna be too rough on Miller as he has been forced into action. He is what he is), were completely useless. They had chances to put that one away early and failed miserably. Couple that with a pathetic bullpen and you get your result. There will of course be focus on the Pujols thing, but that is well down the list of reasons they lost - if its on the list at all. Once again, the easy answer crowd will try to pin any loss on Yost, because then they can cling to this silly notion that if we would just replace hime, we'd be good. We lost because our key players (Fielder, Braun, Hart, Weeks) had rough nights we didn't score abunch of runs, and as is typically the case, there was nobody there to pick them up.

Girardi actually talked about this on Saturday in that he thought it was tougher on the Brewers to play with the pressure of knowing the Cubs had already won their game. I just think knowing the outcome with 3 innings or so left to play could affect them.

If you're Ned Yost, do you ask that the Cubs score not be posted on the out of town scoreboard (or have the game on in teh Clubhouse) for the next few days, or as long as it matters? It is a small thing and perhaps irrelevant, but personally, I would. No reason the team needs to even know what the Cubs are doing. The Brewers job is simple - win today, and I think they should at all times assume the Cubs are going to win their game - especially since the Cubs games will be completed well before the Brewers will all week.