MNBrew

Lucroy at least gets some hits. Someone also forgot to tell Scooter about the team offensive slump, and Gomez was out long enough he forgot how badly he was swinging the bat before his injury, too. Ramirez, Braun, Segura, & Reynolds are just plain worthless right now, and Davis hasn't been much better, either. Why in the world Reynolds -- he of the .168 BA since July 1st -- is starting against a RH SP is beyond anything rational. His defense doesn't make up for ZERO offense. It would be one thing if he were actually driving in runs, but the 13 RBIs to go w/ his 8 HR since July 1 mean he's only driven in 5 guys besides himself in nearly 2.5 months, which is worse than Segura, and I haven't even checked to see if any of those HR's had anyone on base (I think at least one did)! Add the pitcher's spot and we've got 3 totally unproductive spots the lineup in addition to anybody else's slump -- Braun's & Ramirez's specifically at this point -- and it's no wonder we can't score any runs!

Maldonado's gotten the bunts down before including in squeeze situations. That part of it's not ridiculous. If Maldonado gets the bunt down, the game is tied on Schafer's deep fly ball. Personally I would've preferred to see Overbay swing away since his BA since Aug. 1st is over .300 -- one of few on the team whose game hasn't been a total disaster. That said, lately nothing's been going right, so when that trend continues, it really wouldn't have mattered what choices Roenicke would've made b/c it likely wouldn't have worked and, because we're all so frustrated, the "fire Roenicke" posts/rants/thoughts would've probably been invoked regardless. I'll also admit that my bigger frustration was him letting Segura hit b/c his clutch hitting has been terrible for a very long time, his BA is putrid, his OBP is putrid, and he has 6 RBIs since July 1. I'd much rather have seen Overbay hit & then Maldy try to get the bunt down, PH-ing for Segura, or just PH-ing Herrera for Segura b/c he at least seems to be able to do something every once in a while. Maybe it's time for Segura to come down with a contagious case of shoulder soreness from Wei-Chung Wang -- in other words, I wish they'd come up with an excuse to DL & shut down Segura for the rest of the year b/c he's doing nothing to help the team and plenty of harm. I'm not condemning him. Probably very few of us on this board can relate to his losing his son. I just can't help but wonder if Segura's just mentally worn out -- and if that's so, I wouldn't blame him one bit. Right now I think there's at least one other SS on the roster who would have a better chance of contributing to winning baseball right now, and I'd rather he be playing than Segura.

No-hit or perfect game. I'll call a broken streak tomorrow night -- only because I think it's preposterous to do so, but at this point, so what?

Demoralizing as this losing streak is, that's still a ridiculous statement.

Mountain out of a molehill. Some people have become so well-trained to react to words -- even to expect to have to have a reaction to words regardless of how ridiculous or unjustified the reaction is -- that they don't really think about what the person meant or the context in which those words were spoken. This sure seems to be a textbook case of that. ThurstonFluff hit the nail on the head. Just relax and play -- they have to let the game come to them. In hockey they use the metaphor of gripping the stick so tight it becomes sawdust. The translation is "pressing," which is exactly what the Brewers are doing. It's like the longest shots you ever hit in your golf game: They come when you swing just right, not when you swing the hardest -- the latter of which 99% of the time will result in anything but the outcome you desire. Right now, extra-base hits are so infrequent. BA w/ RISP -- heck, with any runners on base -- is putrid. Multiple-run HRs are like winning lottery tickets -- impossible! It seems like it would take 20 hits in an inning to get a mere 3 runs on the board. . . . The players try harder and the slump just continues -- so painful! Pitchers feel like they can't afford to make a single mistake, which results in countless mistakes, not zero.

This collapse (hopefully only temporary with a good rebound coming, but it sure doesn't feel that way) is incredibly demoralizing, but as ElCaballo45 just pointed out, the majority of the key issues aren't Roenicke's fault and I don't believe he should take the fall for this -- nor should Melvin, who, IMO, is one of the best GMs in the game, all in all doing pretty darn well in the smallest market in the bigs. To me the only thing crazier than the idea of firing Roenicke is that somehow Craig Counsell deserves to be manager or GM or in any kind of point-guy leadership role with this team. He's a good baseball guy, but he's no Harvey Kuenn (hometown guy) and any notion of hiring him for anything certainly reeks to me of blind homer-ism. Heck, I never get why Brewers fans loved the guy on the field even though he totally sucked except with the glove and at making the pitcher throw a lot of pitches to him -- before he'd eventually make the out anyway (Lyle Overbay, anyone?).

There are guys with twice Gallardo's strikeout total who aren't in the HOF. Ben Sheets doesn't have his number retired, nor should he. Gallardo is an average-to-slighty-above-average SP at best. He shouldn't be a consideration for HOF or number retiring. As such, while it's a nice sentiment behind the question, the only way it has a chance of happening is if Yo suddenly finds the Fountain of Randy Johnson and has a 2nd half of his career as prolific as the Big Unit. Anything short of that, HOF or number retiring are a total non-issue in my view.

His OBP is .289!! He shouldn't start a game again. Let Rogers / Clark take some tries. Reynolds sucks! Since August 1, he's hitting below .150 with an OBP under .220. And he's playing a whole lot more than Overbay, who's only hitting .333 yet getting half the PA's as Reynolds in that time. Colorado's unfortunate asking price for Morneau makes the pain of Reynolds that much worse. Between Reynolds, Segura (0 HR & 6 RBI since July 1), and the pitcher's spot as regular black holes for most of this year, plus the major slumps of Gomez (.238 BA since August 1) & Braun (.239 since August 1), there's about as close to nothing going on offensively as possible and it's running a very serious risk of totally wasting this whole season, which had until the past 2 weeks been something to be pretty proud of, all things considered.

I waffle on this over the course of the season, but tonight again makes me think this is the offseason to trade Gallardo (IF they can get something worthwhile for him AND if a suitable replacement is found). He's simply nowhere nearly reliable enough. To wit: In his last 10 starts... - 5 really good starts in his last 10 (0 or 1 ER), but - 5 equally putrid ones (21 ER in 25.1 IP for a 7.46 ERA; also 52 H or BB for a WHIP of 2.05). Point: When he's good, he can be really good (usually for up to 6-7 IP before his pitch counts ends his night). But there's just as good of a chance that he throws up on himself and gives the team ZERO chance to win the game from the get-go.

Team slumps have a way of making everything seem lousy. The pitching's been reasonably respectable except for those couple SF debacles and K-Rod's meltdown against SD, but the offense is going so badly right now that they're giving the team no chance to win -- to the extent that I think a Brewer pitcher who throws a complete game perfect game still would only have a 50-50 chance of being the winning pitcher. It wouldn't take much for this to turn around, but I'm very concerned that it'll happen soon enough to even matter. (Yup, the sky's falling.)

When was the last time Gomez got a hit that mattered? It sure seems he's a freakin' windmill out there the past week, and his "clutch" factor is about zero. It's like a couple years ago when he never met a slider he didn't like to swing at -- no matter its location.

EXACTLY IF ONLY RRRR WERE BETTER WE'D PROBABLY BE WINNING RIGHT NOW. I, too, love how it must be the manager's fault that the pitchers are throwing meatballs on the seemingly rare occasions when they actually do get the ball into the zone. 13-2 and we're still not out of the 5th. It's supposed to be about pitching and defense and neither of those are coming through well at all lately -- at least not in any clutch sorts of ways.

Brewers pitchers already at 140 pitches & we're not out of the 5th yet. Posey 4-4 w/ 3 R & 3 RBI ... again, only in the 5th inning. Here's hoping for a major SF bullpen meltdown tonight and, even barring that, the Brewers getting this crap out of their system today and playing winning ball again starting tomorrow.

Geez, so many one-pitch ABs for the Brewers tonight -- and obviously nearly all for outs.

Must. Throw. Strikes. Estrada.

Zach Duke in the last game, Estrada tonight.... Can't any of our relievers consistently throw first-pitch strikes anymore? (... at least when it matters?)

I guess your head's exploding then.

Well, obviously any potential deal has to be reasonable. If we take the whole contract, I'd think we give up a whole lot less.

Zach Duke has given up 14 ERs all year, but 9 of them have come this month. Yikes! Ditto the call for bullpen help and, as I noted in the trade rumor/idea forum, if adding a Papelbon or someone comparable helps straighten out this BP and, more importantly, helps them win the division, I'm all for it in spite of the salary ramifications.

Now, a day later, K-Rod's penchant for HRs bites them and if trading for Papelbon can help eliminate some of these meltdowns by a bullpen that's not in a great groove -- and make a difference for the Brewers winning the division, I'm all for it in spite of the salary impact.

Zach Duke: 9 ER in his last 7.2 IP. Four incredible months, but he's been inept all August. Honestly, the Brewers played with fire all night and couldn't do much of anything themselves, so it's not like they deserved to win. But it still stinks because they totally blew the chance to gain a game on St. Louis -- all because they couldn't get a .230-something hitter out in the 9th & 10th innings.

Double play . . . please?!?!?!?!?!?

Triple play . . . please?!?!?!?!?

I don't know that it's bleak that they can, but my sense is also that it's fairly unlikely they will. So few August trades made thus far, but there's still time left and it's not uncommon at all to have a flurry in the last couple days of the month. For all that gets leaked or speculated, it's still not always known who has or hasn't passed through waivers, and among them who might possibly be dealt.

I like that idea, but Jimmy Nelson has only ever been a starter and he's not doing the greatest job at that lately, so I think putting him into an 8th inning role -- let alone into any crucial bullpen role -- would represent a huge leap of faith on many levels.