adambr2

Seriously, I think the guys could set Ned's house on fire and he would still defend them. Stop treating the "kids" like kindergartners. I could say "Turnbow threw really well today, he just happened to miss the strike zone with his pitches by about 3 feet. (fixed code --1992)

Brantley with Gwynn's defense would probably be our leadoff man and CF for the next 10 years.

As long as you are getting the HD package, the HD cables should come with the HD box provided. They did for me, anyway.

Tomorrow being an off day, I think I'll have to figure out how many "going for the road sweep" games we've lost in the last 4 years since our last successful road sweep. It's getting to be completely disgusting. I'll be all right as long as I don't have to hear the words "gravy day" and all smiles in the clubhouse just happy to have taken 2 of 3.

At least it's only a "gravy day", so the loss doesn't count as much as a regular loss. Seriously, I may as well start making some huge bets against us in every game that we're going for a road sweep. That's a get rich quick scheme if I've ever seen one.

I don't remember many from this last decade...didn't Sheets take one into the 8th one time? I vaguely remember Wes Obermueller taking a perfect game into the, I think, 7th inning one time.

How am I supposed to find the vent thread quickly with all of this winning nonsense going on lately?

My dream scenario: Prince traded for Lincecum in the off-season before he hits arbitration. LaPorta is moved to 1st. Suppan has a solid 2008 and is able to be traded without eating salary for prospects at season's end. $12.5M freed up, and therefore Sheets is re-signed. 2009 rotation: 1) Sheets 2) Lincecum 3) Gallardo 4) Parra 5) McClung 3 runs would be enough to win most of our games!

If this game is Exhibit A in your case against Yost, your case is pretty weak. Sorry, you're right. This is only about the 97th stupidest thing Yost has ever done with his bullpen.

How many of the runs were earned? That doesn't matter at all, neither of Julian's were earned tonight. On that theory Julian was a fine move. Not sure how you are getting that. Three runs scored before an error was even made. All four runs were earned -- and Tavarez definitely earned them.

Does any other coaching staff/manager make as many odd botches during a season, then chuckle about it after the game and say something like, "I had a mosquito bite and it itched!!" like it doesn't matter at all?

This game is Exhibit A this season about just how clueless Ned Yost is about in-game decisions and managing his bullpen. Wonder what would have happened if we had gone with Mota when Tavarez was clearly done. Of course, we couldn't use him, because we had to "save him" for a later hypothetical situation. Ned Yost plays the game like it's chess. He's always sitting there, stroking his chin, trying to figure out what his opponent is going to do 10 moves from now. Only when it's too late does he realize that while he was worrying about what his opponent would do 10 moves from now, he got distracted from what was going on right now and gets put in checkmate. Good managers like Pinella don't manage like that. When they have an opportunity to go for a win, they go for it. If they have to burn up an extra reliever to do so, they do it. They adjust from there, but they don't let their worries about the future cause them to let their guard down in the now.

Bill Hall is like the new Wes Helms. A player that we thought had some good potential and we backed that hope up with a lot of money, only to find out that said player wasn't that good. Then saw player get consistently booed at home.

Melvin: "So, we have an infielder we're looking to trade, he's hitting .218 with a .286 OBP, and hitting about .160 against righties. He hit 14 HR's last year. He's disgruntled, and booting some easy balls. Plus, he makes $6.8M next year and $8.4M in 2010, with a 2011 option for $9.25M!" Other team's GM: "Goodness gracious, are you insane in the membrane?! Take your pick of one our best pitchers, and let's get a deal done!"

In this case, looks aren't at all deceiving. LOL

This isn't a Ned-bashing post, but I think the concept that Ned is a motivator and his guys work harder and give more effort and never quit moreso than any other manager is a complete myth. He sure didn't get Estrada to hustle. Guys still don't sprint out ground balls for us any more than any other team. Not trying to call him out specifically, but Hart has been lacksidasical at times in RF. On multiple occasions, guys have hit balls that they thought were either homeruns or foul, that were not, and weren't even halfway down the line to first by the time they figured this out. I can think of specific incidents with Hall, Branyan, and Kendall. We're not a team that often rallies from behind to win when we have 8th or 9th inning deficits, at a higher rate than other MLB teams. I don't see where our manager gets his guys to "never say die" and "keep battling" while guys that play for other managers just pack it in when they're down late. If you want to praise Ned, that's fine, but like others have said -- I just don't see anything here. Yost has never struck me as a fiery motivator and I kind of doubt that players fear his reactions if they lollygag down the line to first. And I'm not putting this on Ned -- well, not entirely. It IS his job to get on guys that aren't hustling and take action if necessary. But their responsibility to hustle should be understood, it shouldn't need reinforcement. These are grown men and professional baseball players and shouldn't need to be told to sprint to 1st base rather than jog when they hit a routine groundball to SS. But using the word "battle" 964 times in press conference over the course of the season doesn't make Ned a motivator.

That really doesn't bother me that I'm in the minority considering some of the greatest points made in human history started in the minority. I could come up with the "seriously compelling argument", but I'll just let this all play out and when the Brewers make the playoffs a couple times in the next few years, the study won't even be needed, because Ned Yost will have brought us to the playoffs and that will be something no other manager has done since some guy named Harvey Kuenn. That will be enough for me to think Yost is a good manager. Will it be good enough for you? Hypothetically? Absolutely it will be. Now what in the sand hill have you seen in the Yost era to make you so confident that that's going to happen?

Hart and especially Braun don't need that many days off. That's nearly a full month off for the course of the season for our best offensive threat. There's no reason Braun should need to sit out more than 1-2 days a month unless there is some kind of illness/injury.

What a disappointment. As I remember he was one of the top prospects in baseball, not just our organization, when we acquired him from the Braves for Kolb.

I don't see how we get anything of real value in return for that kind of package. Gagne and Turnbow pretty much have negative value where the cost of paying them is worth more than their actual value to a team. Hall is close to that point two with his salary the next two season. TGJ has very minimal, if some value.

I think we tend to get caught up in statistic odds sometimes which can be a little misleading. I'm sure the Cubs odds of catching us in late June last year were even more astronomical when they were 8.5 behind us. Statistically you could have figured late last June that the Cubs had a very minimal chance of catching us. The odds of us going 10 games under .500 for the balance of the season seemed non-existent the several times we were 14 games over .500. That being said, I do agree that the Wild Card is a lot more realistic goal at this point.

He had one bad year and other than that has been mostly a good and sometimes dominating reliever who never seems to wear down. We really couldn't have traded for him at a better time.

I'm fine with a Branyan/Dillon platoon and don't think we'd lose much there right now. I like Hall, but Branyan's production is head and shoulders better than the .160 AVG that Hall is putting up vs. righties. Right after 2006 would have been the peak time to trade Hall, but now I don't see how we'd get much of a helpful return, certainly not the pitcher that would really help us that Hall's agent is thinking of.

Torres is (should be) making this an extraordinarily easy decision for Yost. I hope he makes the right decision. If he cares as much about winning as he does looking our for his "kids," he will. There is absolutely no reason that Torres should not at last keep the role as long as it is winning us ballgames.

Well, it looks like he's out there this inning, so I think it's probably a moot point.