TheCrew07

I get what you're saying, I just don't think we can chalk this up to luck. McGehee seems to be below average, Prince is below average, Escobar has been below average, Zaun below average, Braun has been exposed, and Hart continues to regress defensively. If you just think about the total number of balls misplayed in the corner outfield spots over the first month (not just errors), fielding errors, then all of the throwing errors (some not even on balls in play) it makes perfect sense to be rated so poorly. This isn't a predictive metric, it's descriptive, and while we can certainly debate it's merits and/or validity, in this case even a casual observer who's watched every game would say this team has been pretty bad defensively to start the season.

I was duped! I no longer trust anything Isom or Hook have to say about pitchers! Both guys pimped Evan as a guy who'd turn it around this season, and lord knows I was hoping, I have an affinity for lefties being one myself, but he's been more wild this season than he was last season. He currently has more BB than IP. He also has more BB than SO, it's too bad really.

Ha... that's true enough, but there's been so many balls in play that I doubt we're talking about a smaller sample than other teams.

How could that possibly be the case with all of the balls in play against the pitching staff so far?

The T-Rats are about to lose again, this is crazy... The best offense in the Midwest League, all that projectable pitching, and a such a horrible W/L record so far this year.

Minor League DL is only 7 days, he can come back any time, but I doubt he would go right to AZ, though I guess stranger things have happened.

He's everything I think many of us hoped Dykstra would be. On a related note, Dykstra has started the season on a positive note, he hit well and made a diving play yesterday.

Lo Cain isn't an option, he hurt himself legging out a double and hasn't had an AB since Apr 25th.

Wow, 9H 3BB, and 5R in 3.1IP for Rivas thus far... On the flip side Del Howell had a nice outing, "it's starting to come together Pepper"....

I like all of our announcers, I think we've been pretty fortunate it in that regard. However I really enjoy the calls when Mehring and Wendt get excited. Chris' call of Garfield taking third on a bad throw up the line after he had singled to CF to score Gennett was just awesome.

Did anyone else go and read the comments on this feature on JS Online? Comparing his stuff to Suppan is such a joke I don't even know where to start, and I don't know why I always read those comments out of morbid curiosity.

Gomez will bat in the #2 spot until he goes into a horrendous slump or Macha is canned. Meanwhile every time Escobar goes 1 for 10 Macha will sit him down for 2 days in favor of Counsell. I have no problem with Craig getting starts here and there but he's on pace for over 30 starts at SS alone. If he wants to get CC 2 starts a week rotate the 2 starts between every IF position besides 1B, keep everyone fresh. It wouldn't hurt to give McGehee and Weeks a day off here and there. Macha is way too inconsistent for me, he says it's all about production, except when it's a veteran he likes who's slumping, then he keeps trotting them out there day after day. Let the youngsters go through their ups and downs without punishing them Ken.

I was just coming here to post the exact same thing. I'm having a hard time believing what I'm hearing. I really thought the pitching staff was going to be the strength of this team.

If we won't be able to afford Fielder then why would we be able to afford Greinke once his contract is up? We should further thin out the farm system to acquire Greinke, who then is just going to end up walking in FA anyway? I'm all for acquiring impact talent with longevity, but Greinke would be a glorified rental player. If I'm going to acquire a player I want 3+ years of him, and I'm not into paying market value for those wins. I want to sign Braun/Yo type contracts with players or no contract at all. We can plug some positional holes through FA, I don't have a problem with that, but no way do I want to pay market value for pitching. If we want to acquire impact talent the most effective way to do that is to trade an established MLB player and get multiple prospects back, if you're the Brewers you are much better off being sellers than you are being buyers, especially since we've bought and depleted the farm system every year since 2007.

I think we should quit trying to build trade proposals around big name players because they cost too much to acquire. Instead we should focus on trying to acquire MiLB pitching or young MLB pitching on the rise. The idea should be to acquire Greinke before he's Greinke, not pay a premium both in prospects and dollars to acquire and keep him around once he's established as a CY type pitcher..

When Lasker doesn't hurt himself like he did in the 1st inning he's pretty good.

I think the system is under rated. We have 3 impact bats in Gamel, Lawrie, and Salome. I realize it's hard to be excited about Salome, but even Lucroy will be a good hitter for a catcher, in that I have no doubt. We have a ton of depth, that's a very good thing. If we can surround a couple of stars with average or better players, the MLB team will be very good. It's not necessary to have an impact bat at every position, I'm unsure why we tend to focus on the position players so much obsessing about getting impact talent at every position. We do have quite a bit of impact pitching in the system, and by impact I mean pitchers who profile to top out in that 1-2 range. I guess what you believe will depend on what you consider to be an impact pitcher. We have plenty of pitchers that could be #2s, and I'd be happy with that. If Rogers will ascend over the course of the season he has the stuff to be a #1, but he's tough to project due to his control. The same could be said of Jeffress, both those guys could be 1s, or they could pitch themselves into relief, or even out of the league. Rivas is over looked by everyone, I think he's in that 2-4 range in MLB. With Peralta making progress on a 3rd pitch, he's comfortably in that 1-4 range, the same can be said of Heckathorn and Arnett. Odorizzi doesn't throw as hard as the other guys, but I think he's in that 2-4 range as a starting pitcher as well. Many are high on Scarpetta because of his CB, I think his ceiling is more a #3, but I'd definitely take that from him. Of course some of these guys will flame out, but we only need to get 3 or 4 of them to pan out, and there's still hope for Parra. Of course I'm leaving out guys like Lasker and Krestalude as well, but we don't know exactly how hard those guys are throwing. I'll have a more informed opinion when I get to see them pitch in person. If we can get back a couple of impact prospects from a Fielder trade and Gamel/Salome get back to playing again I think the system suddenly becomes pretty formidable.

Wisconsin Timber Rattlers Between Game Audio Chris interviews pitching prospect Eric Arnett. They discuss his start to the season, adjusting to a new mind set, the weather yesterday, and what comes next for him.

Well there's 2 ways to look at that I guess, but that speaks volumes about the position players in Nashville. Heether and Lucroy are the only 2 guys I'm following, and Heether sure has struggled to start the season. Another interesting note that Chris just mentioned. The T-Rats just scored the most runs in an inning since becoming a Brewer affiliate. They scored 5 runs in an inning twice last season, 5 runs in an inning on Sunday, but the 6 runs today is franchise high now as a Brewer affiliate.

If the rotation holds it will be Damon Krestalude as the starter.

It really bothers me that every time Escobar goes into a mini slump it's news worthy and Macha pulls him from the lineup. Like last year when he hit the HR and Macha claimed he got power happy and went 1 for 10 because of the HR. Why does Escobar have to sit, why are his mini slumps worth a segment during the in game broadcast? Talk to me when he's 1 for 25... otherwise it's just baseball. He's 1 for his last 14, that's a 3 game slump, such an over reaction to nothing.

Regardless of the outcome of today's game It's too bad real life isn't a video game... otherwise I'd be able to construct a trade around Manny Parra and get Kershaw in a Brewer uniform. *sigh* Ha, a Gomez broken bat bloop single, maybe the bounces will go our way today.

I was going to break apart all those quotes and respond to them individually but after reading it I'm more demoralized than I was before. In the interests of self preservation I think I'll just reiterate my frustration with management and move on.

Bowman sure has been wild the last 2 starts, 3 walks already again tonight.

Apparently the T-Rats are in a rain delay. I just finished messing around with the audio and went to tune back in and we're back to music. A thunderstorm is rolling through, but it's not really raining all that hard. There is lightening associated with it though. Too bad, Arnett was pitching well according the box score. edit. And now a Tornado was sighed, and a tornado warning, doesn't look like the T-Rats will be back tonight.