brewerphandog

How is he supposed to fix his swing playing 2-3 days a week and obliterating his self esteem in the process. If you can answer, you'll have given away your identity--a miracle worker, holy figure, soothsayer, etc...

Bottom line RL is that Rickie Weeks with his current situation, injury or otherwise is not contributing to winning baseball--the coaches correctly diagnosed this and realized that he may contribute in August sent him away to get right. I expect him to go down, suck it up, rake and be back in 2-3 weeks at which point Joe Dillon will be history. Should he go down and hit .230 with no gap power and more pop ups than a bad web browser than we've got major problems.

rluzinski do you make up arguments? No one seems to clamor for a permanent benching...? THat would be easy to argue against, what he needs is what he got a chance to play every day and restore his swing. As I said he comes back in a few weeks and in a sense it is lightning in a bottle almost like getting someone in a trade.

Rluz...worst offensive playe, not player...big difference. Since May 1, you'd be very hard pressed to find a more futile offensive performance. Key point, I indicated since the end of April. Take his stats from 5/1 to now. (grab a barf bag and get ready)

AMEN NDOG!

Considering his performance since the end of April it is not a stretch to say that Rickie Weeks has been the worst offensive baseball player in the majors. (For you OBP guys--you're going to need to do better than that.)

JS was talking about he is tired and overworked...well the trade, layoff, baby, underuse since his arrival, baby again will certainly provide him rest as he'll pitch about 1 time in 11 days.

There are so many places you go with this setup...I'm suprised no one did Rickie. I was expecting something like his dad was in a hurry so he only saw fastballs.

This type of treatment may help if/when it comes to resigning Scott.

I'm not worried about Prince and his HR totals, look at him...he'll hit HR's. I just think he is so focused on left field and punching the ball that he has gotten away from getting extension and opening the hips. I like the Villy/Yo idea.

Some of the elements ailing us are without cure, for example Weeks. I hope he becomes a complete stud but right now he's south of being a complete dud. I think a wise move baseballwise would be to flip he and Gwynn for now or even Crabbe so he can a bit of his swagger back verus AAA pitching. He is pressing, mired, and I think a bit hopeless in his demeanor, I'd like for him to go and rake for a few weeks and see if you can't catch lightning in a bottle. A canned ham could hit .151 since whenever so it isn't going to hurt you in the short term, may be a big move in late August. Flip Miller and Estrada. Johnny is a good offensive player, not a great one. Defensively he is woeful. He is not nimble, plays with poor angles, hasn't learned to discard a mask and has dropped no less than 6 foul balls that most catchers could catch Dottie Henson style, and his complete inability to throw out anyone is unaccpetable. He is not healthy, plays with little intensity, and can't run. He should be the one in spot duty until he is right. Miller is 10x the defensive player and does a great job calling a game. I'd be curious to their respective ERA's...when one or the other is catching. Turndero. I don't advocate a change, but I would flip T-Bow and Linebrick when he's finally able to play full time and have T-Bow ready in the event that CoCo implodes. When you look over and see LInebrink and T-Bow in the dugout and think, hmmm...Spurling or the saw horse in the clubhouse hallway....You have troubles, it might be nice to inspire CoCo or loosen him to realize he has a guy capable (as capable of imploding or shutting someone completely down) behind him. It is nice to think that with Villy, Brink, and T-Bow you can effectively make the game 6 innings...only problem our offense usually plays for 3, and our closer has a knaack for giving it away in the 9th, so we may need to change our approach. Other ills: Fielder needs to start pulling and hitting the baseball with authority, he looks like David Segui. His average has been steady, but when was the last time he just committed to pulling the baseball and started driving the ball--not everything he is seeing is away, he's too left field conscious in my opinion. Get healthy--Sheets! Patience people!

Since the break Rickie has an OBP of .350. Yeah, what's his OPS over that time....351!

Jenkins dad kicked the ball to him, that might explain his woes hitting righties and lefties.

I don't appreciate what Beroid has done to baseball. Hate is an awful word...

a). Brian said it earlier today. I'll put it a different way: "Your highs shouldn't be too high and your lows shouldn't be too low". b).I would add this one: "Act like you've been here before". This was said to a young man who scored a touchdown and acted like a buffoon. Bottom line: this is frustrating for us, bottom line, but we had to know this was going to happen? We didn't expect to run away with the division without a fight? Frankly I'd be disappointed if we didn't have a little drama. I expect them to pull the spur out of their backside and learn from this, there is no reason to expect them not to come out and fight like crazy. Management has shown their serious, we've shown we're serious as fans, Ned has shown sparks of anger, the players are serious and focused. They are simply not playing well. I expect Linebrick to come in here add another option to that pen, shorten the game even more and the bats to wake up. "We can't all hit .170 for the rest of the year" (Melvin). Their bats will wake up, Weeks needs to start hitting, Hall needs to round into shape, and Suppan needs to start putting quality starts together. I expect them to do that. I expect them to tip their cap to the Reds for playing very well in all phases and get after it. I was at the ALCS at County Stadium in 82 and I've been a die hard fan since the late 70's...so I've seen both sides of things. Sports can be frustrating, but we can't take it out on each other. In other words, understand this is a journey and act like you've been here before. We as fans have some measure of accountability in that regard as well, we can't turn on each other and act like fools every time something goes wrong. It is perfectly acceptable to question a strategy and an approach, but keep it in perspective. I'll hope to be watching in October as I did 25 years ago...I'll be smiling one way or the other.

Let's consider the FACTS/TRUTHS The Cubs are playing great baseball. The Brewers lead is shrinking. The baseball season has over 2 full months remaining. There is a substantial amount of baseball to play. That being said... We need a few things to change (that could be a fact) if we wish to win the division: A) Stop worrying about the Cubs B) Some production from guys who are not producing--Rickie, Billy, Suppan in particular. C) No offense to his majesty, but he needs to rip the jester hat off and start hitting like a prince. He's been OK, but we won't the division with him being OK. Sad but true. I am looking forward to enjoying this pennant race and other the occassional rant about the incredible # of popups and K's this team registers, I am going to relish every minute of this JOURNEY. You can't get to October from April without traveling through June, July, August, and September. And to the condescending, yeah water is wet...that's productive discussion. (almost as productive as reminding us of how you right you were three days ago)

I have to say while watching him this series--he plays so hard, he is a treat to watch in many regards. He is intense, he has improved defensively, he runs people over, takes guys out, is a very good baserunner...dang. I know I have been all over him, but there is not one person in this world other than maybe him and his parents, who wants him to absolutely absolutely explode offensively more than I That young man just does almost everything well, except hit an offspeed pitch that is. Maybe the move back up the order will change things for him?

I think he hurt his rep with his foolish comments about his unwillingness to platoon.

We all know Weeks can hit...quote. I'm afraid I don't agree with that. We all know he could hit may be more accurate, but he never really has hit like he was projected too. I guess we could say we all know he can hit .275. That isn't really in sync with my definition as a "hitter".

If he could just put together a streak, that would be huge. This team needs him, if he could put together a couple week stretch where he shows his old power and could get on base. I think we're dreamin.

differences between the two: 1. We're clinging to a division lead, looking to win a pennant. 2. Graffanino is infinitely better than our backup plan last year at 1st base. 1B is also arguably significantly more important a position in your lineup than 2B. Send him down.

What disturbs me is that his outs, are either pop ups or K's. He's simply not hitting the ball hard or putting himself in a position to run. He's far to athletic to be popping up to second.

Yo was extraordinary. That was his best performance as a brewer, he has a chance to be phenomenal. What a gutsy performance.

Only positives can come out of this. Yost wins the game, sends a compelling message to his team about performance, and Weeks gets a stern wakeup call. I think Rickie is a high character guy and works dilligently to get out of this mess, but the fact of the matter is ala Jenkins of recent vintage we have seen very little change in his approach. He seems determined to fix this his way swinging at absurd pitches standing on top of the plate, etc...I am not Jim Skaalen but I have noticed no change in his approach. Hopefully this message helps him become the hitter he SHOULD be. My big question will see this accountability the rest of the year and next? I ensivion still seeing Nedley say, "we knew it would be a full year to recover and another year to get back to where he was and then another year to take the next step".

I don't think "give up" is an option. I don't think you trade him unless you get a big time talent back, his ceiling is high everyone knows it. But in my opinion he needs to be jettisoned to AAA until he can at least look like he has a remote chance to hit off speed pitches. Right now, when he looks like John Q. Guyoffthestreet he doesn't belong in a big league lineup. Unless you get a signed form promising only to pitch him fastballs middle in. Its time to stop allowing for players to learn how to play at the major league level. I'd send him down today and see where he is in 1 month. If he has shown he can hit a steady diet of AAA breaking pitches to the tune of about .340 then he come back up, because that will drop to about .260 and that would render him above average. As it stands right now, no one is benefitting from this situation. To the quesiton everyone is thinking; Graffy? Yes I would. Period.