To connect the Brewers' going downhill and Braun's arrival in the majors is an example of selective, convenient, and misguided reasoning. I wish you would elaborate more on this -- Upon Brauns arrival we had an injection of OPS. Why didn't we win more games? -- Lack of defense had a hand in it for certain. The pitching went to heck not because of the defense but because the starters pitched generally poorly and inefficiently (high pitch count for low inning totals) Perhaps the pitch count/inning rose because our D was making errors, or not making plays they should have? I don't know how a person can look at pitching results (in this case, runs scored) and not take a look at if a pitcher's D helped or hurt his cause. the bullpen was overused and became very inefficient I agree Ned Yost sucks. and because most of the hitters -- especially the veterans!!!!! -- didn't contribute for crap. What veterans? -- our lineup and the core thereof, is anchored by our young studs. I certainly can concede some of our vets came up short -- but most of our vets were situational players. To blame the decline largely on the defense is absurd. Really? -- "Largely" of course is your word, but if you watched the games, and walk away thinking our defense didn't leave games on the table, I guess we will have to agree to disagree. That said, I do completely agree that the defense MUST improve. Really? -- It sounds like to me based on your previous statements, the defense wasn't a substantial hurdle this last season, why then MUST our defense improve? -- It looks to me that you want better vet production, and guys like Suppan/Bush/Cappy to decide to quit sucking. Defense in my opinion is the #1 problem the Brewers have -- if Weeks/Braun/Hall/Prince are average fielders, I believe then that this team (after firing Yost and probably Melvin) can be a playoff team -- that is to say I think the offensive and pitching are good enough. If we stand pat with our D, we better get a bunch of pitchers that strike out 10+ batters in 7IP.