DougJones43

Think of how much money is at stake. The players themselves wouldn't be the ones to continuously figure out how to circumvent the system, but I imagine they have connections and access to "trainers" who would. I'm sure the funds used by professional and amateur athletes to hide steroid use dwarfs the funding put into things like the anti-doping agency, and therefore they will be a step ahead of the system.

I agree with every thing said here. I'm now of the belief that when a guy gets caught, it doesn't mean that he's one of only a few who actually took a PED. More likely, it simply means he was one of the few who accidentally screwed up and did something that was detectable.

Even if Braun somehow wins the appeal, there will always be doubts. The public has never bought the idea that an athlete "accidentally" took steroids, and that's not going to change now for Braun (no matter how much we as Brewers fans want to think he's the exception). The damage is done, there's no reversing it -- now it's just a matter of how bad things are gonna get and whether the suspension will hold up. My first instinct is that this is going to be the worst single incident that's happened to this franchise since Molitor left.

I'd be totally fine with him as the manager for the Cubs or Cardinals. I'm not really attached to the guy, so it wouldn't bother me at all to see him on a rival team. I doubt it'll be hard to find a comparable replacement as the team's hitting coach. Plus, I don't think he's going to make a very good manager. From what I remember about his brief stint managing the Brewers, he's really into small-ball. He'll probably bunt more than Roenicke does, which would actually be helpful to us by slowing down a potent offense like St. Louis.

I felt a fun nervousness and excitement during the Arizona series. There were ups and downs during that series, but it seemed like a good, hard fought series between both teams including a pitcher's duel to end it. The Cardinal series wasn't like that for me, and it's not just because we lost. Like Ajay said, it didn't even feel like playoff baseball. It was just depressing. It didn't even seem like the Brewers were the same group of guys they were during the regular season. It felt more like a nationally televised regular season series from 2004 or something, where we had no business being on the same field as the Cardinals. Error after error. Horrible starting pitching. Multiple run deficits in the first inning to start most of the games. No clutch hitting. LaRussa and their team looking calm and in control, while our manager and team looked shell-shocked in the dugout. Not at all what I expected out of a NLCS appearance. I too feel cheated, duped, and let down by our entire team. Cardinal Nation is once again Lucy holding the football laughing, and we're Charlie Brown flat on our backs wondering what happened.

I'm somewhat fearful that as long as Melvin and company are in "win now" mode, they won't allow any rookies to play a meaningful role on the team.

It's not that people won't remember, it's that if Lawrie turns out to be as good as it looks like he might, one (and maybe another in 2012) good regular season out of Marcum won't at all be worth it.

Contrived celebrations suddenly aren't very endearing when the team plays like crap and gets their asses handed to them.

I hope it signifies the end of beast mode. Forever. That would have been okay for a semi-pro hockey game. But the National League Championship Series?

This was about a 90-win team (Pythagorean record) that ended up winning 96 games. I think defense needs to be addressed, obviously. Watching Hart's skills in the field erode makes me wonder if he should become a 1st baseman soon. Shaun Marcum had a nice regular season, but doesn't have dominating stuff -- I think Milwaukee could have made the playoffs without him, and I think we're going to really regret giving up Lawrie for a couple years #3 type starter. Hairston needs to be brought back in the primary utility role. Betancourt had a good postseason, but still absolutely needs to be replaced. I really hope Taylor Green and Mat Gamel are given a fair chance to win starting positions next year -- but I fear Melvin/Roenicke would prefer to try to fill every roster spot with a veteran player, which isn't going to make any type of sustained success possible in this market. It was very nice to win a division title and a playoff series. There is still a lot of talent in this organization, and with the right approach there can be a bright future, especially for 2012.

even if he couldn't get to it, at least show you're trying to. Lazy, he is frickin lazy. I would bench his ass right now for the lack of effort Right after it happened, I re-watched it a couple of times and I think he could have gotten to it. It was a lot closer to Betancourt than Weeks. Yuni made no effort on it though which is inexplicable to me.

What exactly was Yuni doing on the groundball? It looked like it should have definitely been within range to at least go after it, but he came forward like he was going to cover 2nd base. ???

It's no use. It's not getting through. The argument just keeps getting reverted back to: - There's no guarantee that the team would have won the game with a competent defensive CF - Other guys could have played better so it doesn't matter Both of these counterpoints are clearly continuing to miss the larger issue that in baseball, with the outcomes often decided by very narrow margins, it is vital to be as good as possible in every aspect. You can't make decisions that put your team at a disadvantage (even a little) with the margin for error being as small as it is during the playoffs.

I think we should start Fielder at SS tonight, since there's no guarantee it would cost us the game. If he botches some easy plays and we lose by 1 run, we can just say that the pitching should have struck more guys out and the offense should have scored more runs.

Sorry, but if the 2nd batter of the game takes you out of the game.......... if the team is really that weak, they don't belong here then. I don't think you fully appreciate the importance of every out in a playoff game, especially when all of the opposing team's runs came in a single inning.