DougJones43

I see a major difference in between Jenkins and Sheets. Jenkins almost always got hurt on some kind of actual freak play. He broke his ankle at 3rd base. He hurt himself in the outfield by diving. Stuff like that. It all seemed like actual bad luck, rather than an issue of durability. Sheets seems to always hurt himself just by throwing normal pitches or warming up. If he was getting hit by line drives or colliding with baserunners, it might be a different story. but the stuff that his been happening to him seems to just be that in some form or another, his body is too fragile to handle the rigors of normal pitching.

That would be nice. And it doesn't seem to have damaged us, which is also good. We won the game tonight without him. I'm just saying, moving forward with issues such as how much we should be willing to pay if we'd like to extend Sheets, this stuff can't be ignored any longer. I think it's gotten beyond "freak injuries that aren't cause for future concern," and into the realm of "this stuff is becoming a trend and not an anomoly - it probably needs to be considered." I'm not necessarily concerned about his hamstring moving forward. I am concerned about what he's going to pull/tear/tweek/catch/contract/injure/sprain/twist/strain the next time, when it will happen, and how much time he'll miss because of it.

I think MoneyballMan made that remark in good humor. But while on the subject, I've never quite understood why so many professors feel the need to make their political beliefs known. I guess I understand if it's a Political Science course. However, why English, Business, Physics, Art, and/or "Intro to Badminton" instructors feel everybody needs to be aware of their political stances is beyond me.

I agree it is encouraging that he hasn't had any structural damage or chronic injuries to his arm. However, I think it has gotten past the point of being able to just write all of these things off as "freak accidents." In the span of two seasons, he's had problems with his back, shoulder, blisters, groin, finger joint, and now had to leave a game with a sore hamstring. I don't want this to become a debate about what it does or doesn't mean to be injury-prone, but there's really no denying the fact that Benny seems to be much less durable than the average pitcher - particulalry over the past few seasons. Even though nothing can be considered "chronic," it's definitely reached the point where it has become a cause for concern in my opinion. "They call me Mr. Glass..." http://img460.imageshack.us/img460/7180/glasssheetssc7.jpg

I've always wondered how many of these posters actually act like this in their day-to-day lives. Does the anonymity of the internet create this kind of behavior from otherwise normal individuals? And if not, why do such a high ratio of sociopathic personalities end up here, at brewerfan.net?

They make references to cheese or bratwurst sometimes, I think. That's about the best they can do. They're mostly idiots.

For the most part, I've really liked the lineups Ned has put together for most of the season. The only problems I had were Estrada batting 5th for too long, and TGJ and Mench getting a few too many starts earlier in the year. Other than that, I've been a big fan of the lineups he's put together, particularly lately. Giving Weeks the leadoff spot back was certainly a big gamble the opened Ned up to criticism, but I think it was a good move. I also like that Dillon is seeing some playing time. I think he gives the team some "professional" at-bats that the lineup was lacking before. There have been some bold decisions, but I like a majority of them. In an ideal world, maybe he could come to the park, fill out the lineup card, and then call it a day and go home. http://static.yuku.com//domainskins/bypass/img/smileys/wink.gif

I think careful is the way to go with Gallardo. If he goes 5-10 innings over his "limit," I can live with that. Not much more though. I still don't mind this move. Something needed to be done to try and tighten up the bullpen. More often than not, you have to give up something of value to get a quality reliever. Some people felt Inman had a pretty limited ceiling. Maybe Melvin was one of those people. Also, the chances of re-signing Cordero are slim. Maybe we'll have the inside track to signing Linebrink for next year, and he could be a good guy for a more solidified bullpen next year, and perhaps beyond. I don't think so. I really think that situation was handled perfectly. I don't think we would have started much better than 24-10, even with Braun. The team played without his bat for almost 2 months, and then he was called up when we needed a shot in the arm for our offense. He had about 6 weeks to work on ironing a few things out before starting his career in the show, and he hasn't disappointed (with the bat at least). Coulnd't have worked out better, IMO. I think so. But then again, I've been told I hate Ned with the fury of a thousand suns. Apparently, it's a personal hatred that knows no bounds. So you definitely need to take that into consideration when listening to my opinion. I think the Brewers would be in a world of pain without Benny's 23 starts this season. That's a tough one. If I had to guess, I'd have said slightly more than the average bullpen. Cordero has been amazing, and Shouse has exceeded expectations. Aquino has the worst WPA on the Brewers at -1.42. He has managed to do that much damage in a mere 11 appearances. Pretty impressive, if you ask me. Edit: Fangraphs estimates that the Brewers bullpen currently has a cumulative WPA value of +2.35. Shouse, Cordero, and Turnbow are responsible for a majority of that. Take it for what it's worth, but kind of a surprising stat.

That's certainly possible. But like I said, Yost is still ultimately responsible for giving Braun the greenlight in that situation, is he not? Pinning this one on Braun is weak. The manager is supposed to be the one in charge and making important decisions, not leaving it up to the rookie 3rd baseman.

Did Braun, a rookie, give himself the greenlight to steal? Whose in charge of this team anyway? And, like jason21nl pointed out, Hart went at the exact same time. It sure seemed like something was in the works and failed, but I digress...

I am glad you get a kick out of living out your "glory" days by criticizing the manager on the internet. I don't know what that means. I want the Brewers to win, so it disappoints me when our manager makes decisions that I feel hurt our chances of victory. I express my opinions on Brewer stuff in this message board, just like you do. Trust me, if there was an ignore button you could use for a specific poster I would use it. Why do you need an ignore button? Is it really that difficult to just not read something?

This is a message board. I post my opinions about Brewer related stuff. If you don't like reading my posts, I suggest you skip over them. Unless you get a kick out of annoying yourself.

Fair enough. I can get on board with that. I feel Ned uses his gut far too often, but that's just my personal opinion.

Sure I do. I've given Ned credit for plenty of things, including using Cordero in the 8th yesterday. But I see you've resorted to "repeating" what I say. This seems to be another case where the debate has fallen into ad hominem attacks rather than an actual defense of Yost, so there might not be much point in continuing this discussion.

I don't think so either, that's why I brought it up. You implied it was a decision that was made without the use of reason, and I was pointing out that such decisions do involve reason. Maybe not a statistical reason, but a reason nevertheless. You began this entire thing by stating that managers don't really need to use reason for all their decisions.

I see things have reverted back to the "could you do better?" argument. I ask that the manager think about his decisions, and suddenly I think I should be the manager? Come on now.

I never said all of the reasoning needed to be completely stat-based. I think at the very least though, simple logic should be applied to every decision. As far as Counsell and Dillon go, there should be some kind of reason as to why they played. Whether it be some kind of matchup advantage, somebody's banged up or needs rest, etc. If the reason is just "I don't know, I just felt like playing them," then it's silly even if they do have hits today. Making too many decisions based on your "gut" might work out sometimes, but eventually over the course of a season it will almost always fail, and logic will win out.

Are you saying that you think it's okay for managers to make decisions that don't involve reason? Why even have a manager then? Maybe the Brewers can just buy a magic 8-ball and keep in down in the dugout. "Is Greg Aquino the man we want on the mound in a close game during a pennant race? Will Kevin Mench get a hit off of Ryan Dempster?? Should we attempt an ill-conceived double steal that is certain to kill this rally???" http://mlblogs.mlblogs.com/photos/uncategorized/8ball.gif

I don't believe Ned brought that up as a reason though, and that is where the problem lies. People would be way more tolerant of these things, if there was at least some evidence of logical thought behind them. Instead he gives explations like "the flow of the game" or "we like Linebrink there" or "you make a decision and there's no crying about it." Things that aren't really explanations at all. Then, sometimes he says things that are just blatantly false, like that Javier Valentin hits better when he's batting right-handed, or they wanted Jenkins for defense when they removed him the next inning. It' not just that he makes poor decisions - it's that there always seems to be extremely faulty logic driving the decision making. There didn't seem to be any reason to believe Braun could steal 3rd though. He was out by 5 steps. Obviously, it would have been nice to have a guy at 3rd, but the chances of making an out there are quite high. In my opinion, the risk was not worth the potential reward, and it was an idea that was almost certain to fail.

It happens to the best of us. I probably should have used blue font, but that kind of takes the fun out of it...I guess I'll have to lay the sarcasm on even thicker next time. http://static.yuku.com//domainskins/bypass/img/smileys/wink.gif

I don't know that I'd necessarily consider myself a genius, but I can tell you that these numbers: .320/.350/.553/.903 are all much bigger than these numbers: .230/.299/.443/.742 At least I think they are. If not, my kindergarten teacher has some serious explaining to do...

I really wish somebody had kept a running tally on all this kind of stuff. From all of the head-scratching decisions, to the weird and non-sensical explanations, to the claims that there are 46 letters in the alphabet - and everything in between. I think if all of these things were documented in one place, it would really be a good way to accurately display all of the damage this man has done to our season. Unfortunately, such a list would be so enormous it would probably cause the site to crash.

The first one was a toss-up. We still had Nix availabe, so Mench could have been hit for if the Reds had a RHP to face him later in the game. It was a close game, and we had a chance to blow open a nice sized lead in that 5th inning. Jenkins predictable strikeout nearly killed it completely. That's supposed to be the added benefit of having so many guys in September, is the increased flexibility to make decisions like that while still leaving viable options for later on in the game. That's more of an opinion call though. Leaving Jenkins out there in the 7th (and putting a hit-and-run on no less) is just one more completely inexcusable, indefensible move by Ned.

You're just ignorant. It's up to the players to execute no matter what the situation is. Jenkins should have found a way to hit that ball in the dirt (off a LHP) to prevent that weird hit-and-run from failing miserably. And it's just blind luck that Cordero got out of that inning with a strikeout, while somebody like Aquino throws wild pitches and gives up triples. Stop holding Yost accountable for the things that have happened to this team. It's just not fair!

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