adambr2

What choice did we have? It's not like we were going to turn Overbay into an outfielder. Anyway, regardless of whether or not Bush eventually stays in the rotation, the Overbay trade was a very good one. We got a solid lefty prospect, a good 4th outfielder, and a back of the rotation pitcher for an average first baseman. Bush is what he is, a back of the rotation pitcher, nothing more. He's not an ace or even a #2, nor was Overbay worth one. Zack Jackson, even if he never makes our roster, still has good value for a team looking for a back end lefty starter. Gross could start for some MLB teams, especially against righties. Especially considering that every GM in baseball knew that we were looking to change over to the Prince Fielder era and knew that we were backed into a corner, we got a good deal done.

I love Hardy, but I really don't want to hear about what a defensive stud he is for quite awhile. Yes, I know he rushed that throw, and he probably wouldn't have had him anyway, but that's another run he cost us with poor defense. He looks brilliant at times, but still makes too many mistakes to be considered gold glove caliber at this point IMO. On that note, please fire Ann Carroll already. Do not give her the rest of the season. I'm pretty confident she's responsible for this terrible slump. Should have known we'd make Gagne look like the Eric Gagne of old tonight. Even more frustrating since I hate that guy.

Less time on soap operas, more time practicing your swing, boys. This offense is terribly inconsistent right now, not playing small-ball, and I shudder to think where they would be without Prince right now.

Honestly, this next roadtrip is probably the road trip of the season. If we go into a tailspin again and put together a 2-7 trip, or something like that, we may literally be looking at giving up the division lead. It's starting to get very ugly. We are not playing consistent baseball, and haven't even won consecutive games in forever, besides the 2 game "winning streak" against the Marlins. They need to put it together very, very soon. This is getting extremely ridiculous. A bad west coast trip where you go 1-5 happens. A month long slump where we can't even put together a winning homestand does not show any signs of life at all. We are not going to win the division by default. Someone else is going to make a run, maybe not a huge one, but enough to put us in their rearview mirror if we continue to play such awful baseball.

This one is easy enough to figure out, Fox is hoping that Bonds will be at or near Aaron's record so they hype the living daylights out of this one for Bonds.

This is not directed at you, but I am so tired of hearing "we'll be better next year." We've been hearing that for so long that it's tough to have a lot of confidence in the statement. Several years ago, a lot of us projected the team to get back to .500 in 2005, (they did), at least flirt with the playoffs in 2006, (that failed, but injuries played a big part in that), and look to contend for a World Series in 2007. This team sure doesn't look like it can compete with the Mets or Braves in a 5 or 7 game series if it can make the playoffs. Why should we be so much better next year? Because Prince, Hardy, Weeks, and Braun have another year under their belts? How do we know they won't regress like Hall is doing? Will Gallardo pitch like an ace in his rookie campaign? Will we even have CoCo back? Tell me we'd be more than a .500 team without CoCo this year, I don't know that we would be. This team has the talent to compete in ANY division. Melvin has assembled a rotation that should be among the league's best. The bullpen features a couple all-star closers including the current best closer in baesball, as well as other good players. The lineup includes two star infielders in Prince and Hardy, and two players absolutely loaded with talent in Braun and Weeks, who is now in his 3rd year. The oufield features a very solid platoon in LF, the reigning team MVP in CF, and Hart, who could be a very effective RF both in the field and with the bat and his speed. This lineup doesn't include Hammonds, Vander Wal, Helms, etc. The rotation doesn't include Ruben Quevedo, Gary Glover, and Wes Obermueller. The pen doesn't have a very soft tossing aging reliever. Face it, this team may have more talent than any Brewer's team since '82. If they fail to acheive .500 with this team, I'm sorry, but I think that would be Ned's ticket out of town. Got to be able to take us to the next level at this pont. If they miss the playoffs, I guess that'll depend on if they were 6 games out at 82-80, or just a game out at 89-73, for example. Either way, the talent is there, and the NL Central has never been more ripe for the taking. Failing is not an option this year. I'm not saying World Series, but we damn well better start winning some series' and take this division. There isn't a single other team there that really deserves it. Don't fall into the same category, please.

I think it's going to be switched up a little bit. I don't personally think Mench and Jenkins are the best options every day as DH -- simply because there is a reason they are platooned, they are usually pretty weak against same-handed pitchers. My predictions: Gross will get a few "starts" as DH against RHP. Gwynn will start a couple games for Hall in CF, and Hall will be the DH those days. Maybe once or twice, Counsell may start at third and Graffy at 2nd, and Braun is the DH.

I love cheapie saves. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif Great game by Tony Graffanino and Kevin Mench. Notice how that's NOT in blue! http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

Not to nitpick, but it was 5-2. Anyway, I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree, but I don't really think our pen has been enduring too many struggles, other than that horrible outing against Atlanta. So I figured with adding the extra man in the pen now with Capellan, we could afford to go to the pen after the 6th.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong. I believe Cordero could get shelled here for 10 runs and 5 homers, and not a single run would count as an "earned run", because it was assumed that the 3rd out should have occured on the error. Just one of those quirky scoring rules....I think that's how it works...

I don't get how you can even say that the experiment has "failed". No one thought it would be an overnight success, and it hasn't been. But it has steadily improved. Davey Nelson even said at the start of the season that he thought it would take 2 years in CF for him to be as good there as he is going to be. We get all over Hall when he makes a mistake in the outfield, but it's overexaggerated -- fact of the matter is that May was a much better much defensively than April, I'm thinking June will be better -- it's a steady progression. If he makes another blunder on June 26th, we will probably get all over him again, forgetting that it's been 25 days since he last made a big mistake out there. He's improving, he's getting used to it, he knew what he messed up on tonight, and he'll learn from it.

. I would like to be able to find a way to look that up, but I just have a real hard time believing that a runner on 3rd scores, with 1 out, less than half the time on average.

I like Turnbow so much better when he gets ahead of the hitters.

Eh...the Marlins would have just countered with a LOOGY anyway.

How is there only a 25-30% chance of the run scoring with a pinch-hitter? That's about the likelihood that the pinch-hitter would have came up with a hit. A fly ball scores a run, as does a slowly hit ground ball, a successful squeeze, etc. A lot more options with 1 out, I'd say closer to at least 50% that he gets the run in.

This is after the fact, but does anyone think it was a mistake for Yost to bat Suppan in the 6th with 1st and 3rd and only 1 out? A pinch hitter likely scores a run there. You have the extra man back in the pen now, why not use him? I know Suppan's PC wasn't very high anyway, but at most, he's not going to go more than 1 inning further. We had a chance to break the game open, rather than settling for the 3 run advantage, and I don't think that was the right call, especially considering that lead is down to 1. Basically, Yost sacrificed a run for the luxury of keeping Suppan in for 1 extra inning, and I just don't see how that was a good idea.

Yes, always smart to put an extra man in scoring position for free with Uggla coming up, Hall.

Collecting her personal belongings? We can only wish.

I bet Capellan gets some work tonight. How do you guys think he is received by the Brewer faithful?

What a shot!

Not trying to dog Hardy whatsoever, he's obviously been amazing for us....but does it seem a little like he's chasing that changeup in the dirt quite a bit lately?

I wonder if the wheels are turning right now for Bill Hall. "Hmm. If I stay patient and try to take the other pitch the other way, good things tend to happen...I wonder if there is some sort of correlation..."

Now let's see if the Pirates can go ahead and blow their game against the Padres so we can get back up to a comfortable 6.5 game lead. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

Great win!!! That was a big one.

Not a traditional groundout, but we'll take it!