MNBrew

Who the heck do you think could manage this snakebit team any better? Even the great managers lose over 60 games virtually every year. It's really Roenicke's fault that Estrada sucked tonight, the hitters were human windmills and couldn't hit in the clutch for crap when it really mattered, and the only good option in the 9th got used to hold a lead and then fared lousy in his 2nd inning? Why is McClendon treated like Typhoid Mary out there? He can't possibly pitch any worse than K-Rod -- and almost by default has to be at least a little better. Any mojo & momentum he might've had going in AAA before his callup surely has probably dissipated by now. I'm not suggesting McClendon's the answer. But we can at least safely say this: It's not possible to be part of the problem when you don't ever get into games.

This isn't going to end well.

He might get the save CHANCE, but highly unlikely he actually pitches well enough for the save. Great bullpen management. The sarcasm here should've been on the notion that the Brewers might actually put together enough hits in close proximity to score a run and actually have a lead. Today the pitching hasn't been great but the offense has been mostly putrid. This looks like the offense that went through that crappy 1-9 stretch or whatever about 2 weeks ago.

The whole team is off. 13 Ks & NO walks against this totally crappy Astros team? Come one!

Like sharp objects, Roenicke should be kept away from Axford in the 9th of close games and from K-Rod in any circumstance where the Brewers are fewer than 8 runs up or down.

Bogusevic at least seems that every RBI against the Brewers is of the "dagger" variety. It's just way too typical of this year that generally sucky players can't be counted to suck against the Brewers.

Axford's control reverted to pre-Henderson call-up levels tonight. Why the heck can't he throw his breaking stuff for strikes this year? Inexcusable!

Bogusevic is a terrible player against seemingly everybody except Brewers. Unbelievable.

No, Rogers does. The Packers QB isn't playing tonight.

Axford in the 8th, Henderson in the 9th, much more likely this crap doesn't happen.

Need a miracle.

Hasn't part of the problem over the past month for Axford been that he's had trouble throwing his curveball for strikes? Sheesh, he's been missing a whole lot with it over that time.

Can we please just DFA K-Rod? He is beyond putrid. Sure, Axford sucked for a while, but he's doing a respectable job of putting things back together. But K-Rod's done pretty much totally bad & nothing good since having the closer role handed to him.

Khris Davis, Burgos, Sanchez, Stetter, Kintzler, & Meadows for sure aren't on the 40-man. For what it's worth, I'd like to see McClendon starting getting some game action since he's the Brewers' bullpen's current version of "Where's Waldo?" He did well last year & not so well earlier this year (incl. at AAA, though that really turned around as the year progressed). Point on McClendon being that sooner or later we need to start seeing what we have in him, if he's going to be part of the mix or not.

Gomez still offers a lot off the bench if he plays himself out of a starting role. I like the idea of next year's OF consisting of Braun, Gomez, Aoki, Schaefer, & Gamel (assuming Hart's still at 1B) -- playing time obviously having plenty of variables as things unfold.

I still don't get why folks wouldn't at least want Gamel on the bench next year if he doesn't have a starting position going into the year. Why in the world does it have to be an all-or-nothing thing? I LOVE the idea of him on the bench or as a platoon option IF he doesn't earn a starting spot. Plain & simple, the quality of your DEPTH matters. There's almost no way the Brewers go through the whole year without 1 or more starting position players losing time to injury. Shoot, what if it's Hart who blows out a knee and does so in Spring Training and will miss the whole season? Gamel could well be the starting 1B again, and long before they even break camp. . . . unless those of you who want him moved get the satisfaction of seeing him traded (as damaged goods sold low) over the winter . . . but then what after an injury and we lack depth again (like at SS this year)? I'd much rather have Gamel as the ready replacement for injuries at 1B, RF, or LF than another Travis Ishikawa or Brooks Conrad or Wes Helms or some other ham-and-egger like those guys. Heck, while his throws are about as consistently accurate as scud missiles, I'd even be okay with him holding down the fort for a couple days at 3B if need be (though not much more than that). . . . So given those possible scenarios, at least in a vacuum, to me there's absolutely no reason to feel like the Brewers HAVE to trade him.

If Gamel is healthy but doesn't start next year, I think you absolutely keep him around. There's absolutely no reason to have to trade him. The whole issue is depth, and I'd like to think Gamel's a lot better player to have off the bench or ready to step in to start than the Ransom/Ishikawa/Conrad types we've seen this year. I've long said that whoever your 4th OF or 5th IF is, he'd better be someone you're VERY comfortable with having as a long-term starter because in the event of an injury, that's exactly what his role his. Ideally that player is someone who's strong with the bat and in the field. And at least on the offensive side, that was the whole issue with Izturis being the top IF reserve this year. Goodness knows, the guy can field quite competently. But his offense was usually incredibly confounding. . . . On the flip side, while Gomez has had some consistency issues and Morgan hasn't been nearly the hitter he was last year, that kind of quality depth in the OF is absolutely why there really haven't been any issues in the OF this year like there have been in the IF. So that's why I think you keep Gamel next year even if he's not starting: So that Melvin & Co. aren't left to going out to sign next year's version of Cesar Izturis. Even if Gamel's not a starter, he's certainly far from being another Izturis or Conrad.

At this point I'd sincerely hope someone would claim K-Rod when he's run through waivers because it may be the only way we can get rid of him at this point without paying the rest of his contract. Roenicke needs to start someone else -- anyone else! -- when it's traditional "set up guy" time b/c K-Rod's now good at giving up more baserunners than outs and can hardly even get more than a single out most of the time nowadays. Sheesh!

Count me in on this plan!

Not at all . . . Since Segura's already seen a few days on an MLB roster, and assuming he's here 'til season's end, he'd still be FAR from qualifying as a Super-Two, so the Brewers would still have 6 years of contract control after this year and three years before he'd be arby-eligible.

Paul, 2 beefs & 1 major point of agreement. First, the beefs: 1. There's not really any team that's as consistently fully "homegrown" as what it sounds like you'd be hoping for from the Brewers. The '11 was mostly homegrown in the field & largely not on the mound. Without those major moves to improve the rotation, we weren't going to sniff anything close to playoff contention. I can't fault Melvin at all for making the moves he did. 2. Related to #1, Melvin & Co. figured they should've had at least a 2-year window for major contention. But this team tripped out of the starting gate and ultimately the wheels just came off. However, I still believe this team should've been performing a ton better than it has. Greinke was outstanding except for 2 terrible starts. Marcum was good, proving largely that his October collapse wasn't symptomatic of a downward career trend, but then he got hurt. Gallardo's had an off year, Wolf hasn't pitched anywhere nearly this badly for the past several seasons (except May-plus of 2010), and Narveson made 2 starts before being lost for the year. We lost our strong/reliable SS and had no one good to replace him with. Rickie Weeks forgot how to hit a baseball at all for 3 months. Gamel was lost for the season and RR had to play Morgan &/or Ishikawa ('til Ishi got hurt, anyway) a lot before Gomez came back & Hart shifted to 1B. Axford & K-Rod have been incredibly lousy and that's ended up magnifying in a major way that the rest of the bullpen's been as bad as Ax & K-Rod -- of course to the extreme point where they can't be truly counted on to hold a lead at all. . . . Point being this: Even if some of these things were bound to happen, it kinda defies the odds that so many of these things have come to pass, let alone ALL of them. It makes the FO's plan look horrible in hindsight, but it really wasn't a lousy plan (remember, Melvin did dump Yuni B to land Gonzalez, which theoretically addressed the most glaring issue on the diamond the '11 Brewers had). Remember, too, that the Felix & Weaver contracts (5/$85M or so on average, right?) were seen as being the type of contract Greinke would likely get offered & hopefully take -- and that, with another good Brewers year, most saw there being a good chance Greinke may well take given his personality, etc. . . . until the Giants gave that Sabathia-level deal to someone not named Sabathia (Matt Cain), which also screwed up that whole particular plan. Sorry to get so carried away. My major point of agreement is this: I love your logic on Hart vs. Ramirez moving forward. I like much of what Hart's doing at 1B, but I like what Ramirez is doing at 3B much better -- comparable power (XBH's), better run production, better OPS, etc. -- and I'd also hope to see them explore moving Hart. I think Ramirez has been more consistent over his career than Hart, and a better run producer at that. Losing either Hart or Ramirez helps give some needed financial flexibility, and I think Ramirez is the one who's more worth keeping (and a few more million bucks a year isn't enough to sway my decision).

It'll sound very cliche but, living through all that at the time, this is very much part of it, too: He just plain had a chip on his shoulder and, for whatever reason, always had a glass-is-half-empty view regarding how he was treated by the organization. One thing that surfaced later is that the Brewers never made much of a personal connection with him at all before they drafted him, so there were probably ways he felt he the organization didn't connect with him perhaps the way other organizations did that scouted him. That certainly didn't help build up some of the trust he later so obviously proved he needed. Sheffield complained at one point about a minor league game in which an error that pretty clearly should've gone to Darryl Hamilton was given to him -- according to Gary, it was because Hamilton had some major errorless streak going on. But he took that as a big insult. Funny how it sure took a darn long time for many to truly believe in the quality player that Hamilton would become, while in the meantime every good Brewers fan knew who Gary Sheffield was and couldn't wait for him to earn his way into the majors. It probably was a bit unfair to give Sheff the error, but leave it to Sheffield to take it so extremely negatively and view it as yet another indication that the organization didn't take care of him. It's also possible that he saw how adored & hyped his uncle, Dwight Gooden, was by so many in the media as Gary was coming up through the minors, and because of his potential and bloodlines, perhaps Gary had decided he should be receiving the same kind of treatment from his organization . . . before he'd really ever earned it on the MLB playing field. Over the winter before he was traded, he started talking so badly about many in the organization, even starting to rag on Sal Bando, I believe, the new GM who wasn't really ever in a role where he could've screwed Sheffield previously. . . . But the final straw was when he started trashing Bud Selig in the media -- the one guy who, as owner, stood behind Sheffield and believed in him, no matter what. It was at that point that Sheffield burned his last bridge and Bando had no real choice except to get what he could for him.

For as good as K-Rod was last year and for a stretch this year that at least included June & early July, I think what others are saying is rooted in this:\ It's just time to move on -- for both K-Rod & especially the Brewers. They already ended up with him a year longer than they truly intended, so I'd doubt they'd have any interest at all in another. They tried to make the best of it, but way too often (for what he ought to have been able to do), his performance just didn't cut it. Fresh start time.

It's worth remembering that all it takes is an injury to one of the "position-blocking" players for Taylor Green or Mat Gamel (if he starts on the bench) or Travis Ishikawa (hope not!) or whomever on the bench to become the everyday starter. That's why it's important to have a 4th OF and 1st reserve IF that would be basically starting-caliber players, not just bodies in a uniform. That's why we're suffering through Ransom & Izturis at SS -- b/c Alex Gonzalez was a solid Plan A as the starter, but there wasn't a good Plan B if he got hurt, which he did. If Ramirez or Hart gets hurt for any lengthy period of time, that opens the door for Green or whomever to get major playing time (assuming Gamel's in the mix in RF). I sincerely hope Green's getting MLB experience every day next year rather than being in AAA for another whole year until someone's injury creates an opening even if it means more bench time. I want him for what he can be as a starter and as a solid backup at 3 IF positions if he's not starting. Goodness knows, Taylor Green has a far more consistently sound approach at the plate than Cody Ransom! And I find it odd that suddenly this year, everyone's seemingly kinda writing him off when last year at this time, everyone was clamoring for him to be brought up to the majors -- and he proved himself well enough to be included on the post-season roster and given meaningful bench AB in some games. Green has the potential to be a LH version of Jeff Cirillo, or a Mark Loretta with a little more pop -- guys who do lots of little things right, make the team better, and generally do little if anything to hurt the team. I hope Green's given a good chance to stick because I think he's very much capable of becoming a player of those guys' caliber, and I'd take a guy like that every day of the week!

I'd do that deal, take his whole contract in order to give up less, and not think twice about it. Yes, I'm serious, and no, I'm not on drugs. The contract's not much more than they were already willing to pay Greinke, and it's only a 3-year commitment as opposed to a 5-6 year deal. Major rotation upgrade, creates a smaller but safer cushion for strong prospect SPs to develop. May bump Estrada to the 'pen, which also strengthens another area at no addition cost.