DougJones43

I take back all the bad things I said about this team. CC Sabathia is the greatest human being to ever walk the planet. All the suffering has been worth it. This is really amazing.

I take back all the bad things I said about this team. CC Sabathia is the greatest human being to ever walk the planet. All the suffering has been worth it. This is really amazing.

YES!!!!!! OH MY GOD!!!

YES!!!!!! OH MY GOD!!!

I can't believe we are this close. I always wondered what this feeling is like. GO BREWERS!

I can't believe we are this close. I always wondered what this feeling is like. GO BREWERS!

That's what I was thinking. Did CC and his agent also say "it isn't my decision?" I love that one. "I would like to stay with this team, but it isn't my decision." Just be honest, you are going to whoever pays the most.I would imagine that they are referring to the pressure from the player's union to get the highest possible amount. It's not necessarily just for himself, but the bigger deal he gets, that will drive up the price of all upper echelon starting pitchers. The union really handcuffs top players in this regard.

Let's pretend for a moment that a pitcher compiling as many complete games as possible wasn't that important in the grand scheme of things (I know, doesn't require much pretending -- they're really not that important). Let's also pretend for a moment that Ned Yost actually considered the ramifications of running a pitcher into the ground during games that were already decided (I know, impossible to imagine him not being a complete dullard). Anyway, I wanted to look through CC's starts with the Brewers, and find out how many innings could have been saved if he had been pulled from games at reasonable times. --- July 18, MIL @ SF: Brewers won the game easily 9-1. They had a 6-0 lead entering the 8th inning. Sabathia could have been pulled there. The Brewers scored 3 more in the 9th, and led 9-1 (not even a shutout for CC anymore), but CC pitched the 9th. He probably should have been pulled after the 7th, definitely after the 8th. Verdict: 1 to 2 unnecessary innings --- August 8, WAS @ MIL: Brewers had a strong 5-0 lead after 7 innings. The Nationals offense is pretty offensive, and didn't exactly pose much of a threat to storm back. CC pitches the distance anyway. Verdict: 2 unnecessary innings --- August 13, MIL @ SD: Brewers led 7-1 after 5 innings. Sabathia pitched 7 innings, and threw 114 pitches. I know our bullpen had been shakey, but it didn't seem necessary to push him through that 7th inning, up by 6 runs against a bad San Diego team. Verdict: 0 to 1 unnecessary innings --- August 18, HOU @ MIL: This was the worst one in my opinion. No shutout, not a close game, and yet Ned insists on leaving CC on the mound to throw a whopping 130 pitches. Brewers led 7-2 after the 6th, and 8-2 after the 7th. Given his high pitch count, he could have been pulled after 6 IP, and should under no circumstances have gone past 7 IP. Verdict: 2 to 3 unnecessary innings --- August 31, MIL @ PIT: This was the potential no-hitter. Brewers win easily, but you can't mess with somebody who has a chance at a no hitter. Verdict: No harm, no foul --- Overall, it looks as though up to 8 innings could have been easily shaved off of Sabathia's total during just this second-half of the season. That means he essentially pitched a full extra game for no real reason. Also notice that 3 of the starts in question came back-to-back-to-back. That most likely added even more stress being bunched together like that in a 10-day period, and is just totally unacceptable management of a starting pitcher. It's all fine and dandy that the Brewers decided to abuse his arm since they wouldn't be re-signing him, but did anybody stop to consider the effect it might have on Sabathia later on this year when we needed him most, during a playoff chase? He pitched two of his least effective games in his two outings before tonight. It would be difficult to prove a correlation between those poor starts and Ned's abuse of him, but it sure seems like you'd want to err on the side of caution when it comes to keeping somebody as potentially dominant as CC Sabathia ready to go at full strength during September. A good portion of the abuse of Sabathia was totally preventable.

There's your answer.

Yeah, well that's the world of mass communication for you, especially if you are somewhat unproven or unknown. I suggest he get used to it, because if he wants Brew Crew Review to become a reputable source for people, getting dragged down into petty battles isn't the way to do it. Let the reporting speak for itself. Next time, people probably won't doubt him as much, but it won't be because of the personal, petty arguing with anonymous internet posters...

I just think people didn't know who he was, so they were wondering why throwing his name out there gave the news any credibility. Don't take it so personally. Breaking this story will help Brew Crew Review build credibility, but don't be sour because people didn't just give you credibility without being familiar with you. And "told you so" and "gotcha" and "you better respect me now!" posts when you are right aren't exactly the marks of journalistic intergrity. Try not to immidiately undo the good you've done for your reputation by breaking this story.

JS Online: Gallardo to Start Tomorrow

http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/7884/bellim7.jpg Either this, or we'll use an old clancy idea -- move Hart back to 3B!

YES!!!!! What a rocket!!!! I love you, Chunk-O-Butt!!!!!

Having depth is always valuable. Assuming everybody is going to stay healthy is foolish. Gabe can play all three outfield positions. Over the course of a year, it is almost a guarantee that at least one of your outfielders will get hurt and/or need time off. And, as has been pointed out, Gabe could have been the #1 lefty option off the bench, and could have started against some tough RHP. I guess we won't know the overall value of this trade until we find out what happens with the career of the minor leaguer involved -- Suffice to say, it's unlikely that a low-level prospect will ever turn out to be an impact player. The move certainly hasn't helped the Brewers this year though.

An injury to Ryan Braun. An injury to Gabe Kapler. A terrible slump for Corey Hart. These are all things that happened to the Brewer outfield, and have in different ways contributed to the team's slide. Back when Gross was traded in April, many fans felt like it might be a mistake. Gross was one of the best on the team at taking a walk, he was a left-handed bat, and giving him up really stripped away the depth the team had in the outfield. Now, Gross is helping Tampa, while the Brewers have spent the past month-plus being pretty handcuffed as to what to do with the outfield each day. But hey, at least we kept Tony Gwynn Junior!!! Some Gabe Gross stats to ponder: [u]AVG[/u] [u]OBP[/u] [u]SLG[/u] [u]OPS[/u] Since Trade .252 .340 .455 .795 Since Aug 9 (Braun Inj.) .287 .374 .487 .861 September .288 .364 .475 .839

No star player sits when they can still play. Who would have been better for the team? I ask that knowing full well how bad Braun has been but does anyone really jump out at you as an option?I think the point is, maybe if Braun had sat out another couple of weeks, he might be more healthy now. I think guys play hurt too much, and I think that the pressure to "play though it" is just more of the sporting culture's archaic tough guy crap. Usually, all it does it lead to a lot of injuries getting worse, and/or players just never fully recovering which leads to poor seasons. How many times have you seen a normally good player struggle through the majority of a season, only to find out later on that he was never healthy. It sure seems to happen a lot. So, take Braun for instance. Obviously this is just a hypothetical, but would you rather he played the last 6 weeks of the season at 60%, or took more time off and played the last 3-4 weeks of the season at 90% health? Again, I'm not saying that I know the exact circumstances of his injury/recovery, but you get my drift.

Well, that didn't take long. I nominate that BrewCityUnit gets to stay. Since I was the one who badgered him into that wager, I would like to give him a pardon. People shouldn't be held accountable for irrational things they are doing right now. It's the fault of the Brewers. Going 4-15 and blowing a playoff spot will make people do and say crazy things.

Yeah. The Brewers seem to just get unlucky EVERY year. I'd happily take just one year of fortune. As far as the prospects go, I'm not saying the outlook is bleak. I'm just saying that most of them regressed this year, and have not performed up to their projections. It's frustrating when basically all of your hitters perform below expected for a season.

I'm sick of hearing that other teams are just lucky. If it's luck or whatever, it always seems to evade the Brewers, and I'm tired of it. It sucks. [u]PLAYER[/u] [u]AGE[/u] [u]EXP[/u] Hall 28 5 yr Weeks 26 4 yr Hardy 26 4 yr Hart 26 3 yr Fielder 24 3 yr Braun 24 2 yr While it's true that most of these guys are not quite at their "prime" yet, they're not exactly that young and/or inexperienced. And (with the exception of Hardy) they are ALL performing well below their projected numbers for 2008. Put a positive spin on it if you want, but I think it's pretty disappointing.

Before August 9th (497 PA): .300 / .340 / .587 / .927 July 4th - August 9th (126 PA): .357 / .407 / .722 / 1.129 After August 9th (129 PA): .235 / .318 / .417 / .735 Thanks, 1992casey!

Yeah, but the real nucleus of the team was supposed to be Braun, Fielder, Hardy, Hart, Hall, Weeks, Sheets and Gallardo. These guys were all reaching the age/experience level where true breakout seasons could have happened. It really didn't for any of them, except maybe Sheets. Gallardo got hurt, and none of the positional players have an OPS over .900. Three of those players sport an OPS under .800, and one of them (Hall) is actually under .700 for the season. This was supposed to be a dynamic young team. In short, "the kids" have really failed to live up to potential or expectations, and have failed to deliver the production necessary for the Brewers to be a top tier baseball team. Hart has had a dreadful second-half. Fielder is underperforming. Braun was doing well up until a month ago. Hardy has pretty good numbers overall, but most of his success has come in short, white-hot spurts. Weeks has been a pretty bad disappointment. Hall has been embarrassingly bad. It's pretty sad -- this group looked like they had the potential to do something special.

What am I doing wrong?

test [code] Before August 9th (497 PA): .300 / .340 / .587 / .927 July 4th - August 9th (126 PA): .357 / .407 / .722 / 1.129 After August 9th (129 PA): .235 / .318 / .417 / .735 [/code]

Ryan Braun has been in a free fall during the past month. It seems to have coincided with the injury to his ribcage. His power numbers really plunged. I'm not making any excuses for this team, but basically being without their best hitter for a month hasn't helped the Brewers. <span> [u]AVG[/u] [u]OBP[/u] [u]SLG[/u] [u]OPS [/u]Before August 9th (497 PA): .300 .340 .587 .927 July 4th - August 9th (126 PA): .357 .407 .722 1.129 <font color="#FF0000">After August 9th (129 PA): .235 .318 .417 .735</font> </span>