owbc

I don't blame RRR for Morgan's injury, but the fact is that bunting is a risky activity it's not the first or last time that a player is going to break his finger bunting. The more you bunt, the more likely it is to happen. The problem is exacerbated because they shouldn't have been bunting there, so the risk was totally unnecessary.

Morgan went on the DL so that Braun could strike out on 3 big uppercuts. There was no attempt to hit a single to score the run, just to continue hitting bombs like this team has been doing for the last 5 years. It's fine if the Brewers want to play small ball, but everyone needs to be on the same page. You can't have Braun going after a 50 home run season if you are going to keep bunting in front of him. The purpose of the bunt is to hit a single after it, right? A double, triple or HR scores the run anyway. A walk is worthless because you are playing for 1 run and it sets up the double play. They may as well put Craig Counsell in the #3 slot: 2010: Braun: 1 single every 5.8 PA Counsell: 1 single every 5.6 PA So Braun and Counsell are almost equally as likely to drive the runner from second in on a single, which is the intended goal of a bunt. No wonder it never works.

Hopefully it's just the pain that's making him act like he broke it. But he's a hockey player so I suspect its legit. The thought of Gomez in the 2-hole for another month makes me want to throw things.

Why bunt and then swing for the fences?

The shifts work, but Yost did them also. If only Yost was better with the media and bullpen management... There's still time for RRR to figure out the flaws in his methods and put Corey Hart in the #2 spot.

Just figured that out. I read the game thread and posted that before looking at the actual score. Judging by the posts, I figured we were getting no hit.

Tried to take night off Checking in to see the score Not looking good. Bye.

It may be just a bad stretch, but they really need to start winning soon. Everyone is back now and they have one month to get back in the race before the brutal part of the schedule hits. Of course, the schedule doesn't look so bad if the Royals and Indians stay hot with the Twins slumping, but you have to think that will be reversed by June.

It's come up before and there really isn't much that can be done at this point. It's hard to find good defensive players because teams do not like to give them up. The defense will be better next year with Gamel and hopefully a new shortstop. In retrospect, it was probably not a good idea to go sign contact pitchers like Marcum, Wolf, and Greinke (to an extent) and expect them to match their career average ERAs with one of the worst defensive infields in baseball. If I remember correctly from last year, 7 out of the 8 playoff teams were in the top 15 in MLB in defense. Having a good defense also seems to be most advantageous to teams that play in hitters parks, although you can't completely sacrifice offense and wind up like Seattle or Oakland. But the Brewers have bigger problems right now, defense can't score runs.

Lots of visible frustration from the Brewers' hitters. Not good. They need to calm down and get back to basics, this road trip isn't going to get any easier.

He's already at 29 with only one out recorded.

Maybe they are talking about which team he will be playing for in August?

Why is our LOOGY still in?

I haven't watched much in the past week so that could be the reason. They look horrible today.

So far, I've seen an 85-win team playing like an 85-win team. Honestly, there have been very few surprises this year, almost everyone is performing as expected, minus Gallardo. I do hate losing streaks though, looks like Greinke is going to have to be the "stopper" already tonight unless the offense wakes up today.

If the players knew there were real consequences for DUIs, they wouldn't happen nearly as much. I thought MLB would take it more seriously after the Adenhart tragedy, but I guess alcohol is just too much a part of the sport, players, fans, sponsors, etc. that it is going to take a serious incident caused by an MLB player for it to happen. I do not understand why it is not considered a violation of MLB's substance-abuse policy. The players take in too much of a substance and then engage in an illegal activity that risks their life and the lives of others. We suspend players 50 games for smoking pot, so why not suspend Lowe and Choo 50 games for a first-offense substance abuse violation? They are baseball players. They make millions of dollars and they can't pay $50 for a cab? Completely intolerable. In the inevitable event that one of these players ends up injuring or killing someone, I hope the player, team, and MLB are ready to face the multi-million dollar lawsuit. If they permit an organizational culture where DUIs are barely punished, then they are absolutely legally liable when someone gets hurt because of it as they should be. Maybe it's not as much MLB's problem if it happens in the offseason, but it most definitely is their problem if these guys are doing it on company time--which you could argue includes all road trips, which are really just glorified business trips. Even if a company doesn't punish you for a DUI on your own time, you bet they would if you got a DUI while representing your company on the road. I applaud the Brewers for being one of the most progressive teams in addressing this serious matter.

If you check bags, Southwest is almost always the cheapest. But Airtran was doing a good job of keeping pace with them. Which probably explains the purchase. Eventually they will all have to start paying out retirement packages to their long term employees, which will result in some currently unknown airline taking over the "low cost" tag.

Yeah not looking good to start on time with another round of rain moving in. I wouldn't be surprised if the game gets called tonight.

I think the only change to Southwest is that they will no longer be flying all Boeing 737s as Airtran has some smaller planes also. The biggest concern is that the prices are going to go up. Southwest and Airtran were generally the two lowest fare airlines out of Milwaukee, so combining them will cut out some of the competition. But for those who fly Southwest frequently, it is going to add many new destinations. Personally, the biggest loss is that it will also probably mean the loss of Airtran's cheap nonstop flight from Milwaukee to Ft. Lauderdale which is quite convenient since every other flight requires a stop and/or plane change.

I'm more concerned about the offense than Gallardo. Braun and Fielder are coming back down to earth and the rest of the offense is still non-existent. There have been very few sustained rallies and big innings this year. They are making lots of outs on the basepaths with little to show for it--22nd in MLB in stolen bases and they probably lead the league in outs at home plate. They are also 22nd in walks which is even more scary considering they were 10th last year. I think you could argue that this team hasn't really found its "groove" yet, but you don't want to get too far behind when it looks like the Wild Card is going to come out of the NL East. Yo will be fine--although our hopes for a Cy Young type campaign are virtually over. At least this will get rid of the potential All-Star game controversy.

How does Betancourt have 25 career triples? Nice hit to bail out the inning though :-)

I'm starting to get really tired of Gomez and his .277 OBP in the #2 spot. Corey Hart did great in the #2 slot last year, I do not understand why he is not hitting in front of Braun. Putting that aside, tonight is a good time for Gallardo to return to ace form.

BREAKING NEWS: Chuck Norris returns from trip to Pakistan

I wish they would use a tennis-style review system. Let the human umps continue making the calls and give each team 5 reviews per game. The pitcher calls for the review, the umpire points to the booth, and the result is displayed on the scoreboard. The process would take less than 30 seconds.

This is usually when the Astros win on a 275-foot HR. I hope today is different.