pebadger

Live from the MP parking lot: This is the first time I've ever felt like I wasted money coming down. Even in the Lopes and Royster years, I was OK with bad baseball, becasue I expected it. And when they won it was a surprising bonus. Today was just a giant letdown. This team is in need of a serious shakeup. Until the 9th, this team pitched about as well as it can. And I'm tired of hearing "the bats will come around". They'll get better, but I doubt that they will just start putting up 7 runs a game, too. STL has tried to give away 2 games, and the Crew has only had the ability to accept 1 gift, and that by the skin of its teeth. Today's boos were just yesterday's deferred boos. I think there will be a bad atmosphere at MP for quite a while this season. Barring an unlikely and unexpected dramtic turnaround to wrap up this homestand and then Boston and the always "fun" trip to PIT looming, MP crowds will probably be ugly until they are served at least one head on a platter.

Tomorrow just got a lot more fun. Great win for the boys. Now let's string a few together.

Have the Brewers run themselves out of more runs in the last 10 days than they've actually scored? If you take out the Sunday game at Houston, I think this may be the case.

Regarding crowd noise, the dam was about ready to break just before the lineout double play. And not in a good way. That play could end up being a turning point in a lot of ways. Now the boys just need to find a way to score more runs than they have all week. Will be interesting to be in the park tomorrow.

Just you guys wait. Braun, Fielder, Hall, Weeks and JJ will rake in September. Sure, they'll be 17 out at that point, but maybe they can contribute to another exciting postseason like they did last year.

Quite possible. On the other hand, the position the Brewers occupied for much of the season right up until the flight to Houston was kind of a head-scratcher in itself. Given their numbers, having that good a record at that point may have been a mirage as well. I think some of the psychology here, the basis of which rests on a story arc going back to last season, plays a huge role in fan perception and reaction. It was a very, very bad week by any measure. It seems to me though that the question is whether it was a (for example) 1 in 1000 bad week for a mediocre team or a 1 in a million bad week for a pretty good team.

Would you dress the monkey in just a jersey and cap? Or go with the pants, too? Also, this should be one of those monkeys that can do those really fast backflips. To be honest, I don't know that any of this matters, unless the monkey has ungodly breaking stuff and is a player-manager. What this team needs (besides more pitching) is confidence. Right now I beleive the hitter have zero confidence in anyone other than Sheets in terms of getting consistant starts. They probably respect Suppan and think that he's going to be OK, too. But otherwise, you'll find more faith at an atheist's convention. Every victory (at least those my dim memory can recall) seems to come at the expense of hanging on for dear life, which further chips away at this team's belief in itself. I believe Ned needs to go. Making that move is only smart though if you have someone lined up. If mangement has any design on achieving goals, both in terms of baseball and gate, that it set out prior to the season, I think I'd probably go with Kremblas with an interim tag. The idea being not to upset the applecart to much in terms of familiarity, and to bring in a guy most of these players have won with before. I keep Maddux and Castro, dump Sveum and Skaalen. Don't know what the dynamic is with Sedar, but if he's a good fit with the players and not a Ned toady, keep him around. Otherwise, if management deems probability of (self-defined) success for the season to be low, blow the thing up in terms of caoching staff and go for an outside-the-organization guy to shake things up a bit. Let him pick his own staff and let the chips fall where they may. If they take this route, I'd ant a guy who had minimal prior contact with the organization who would come in with a pretty clean slate in terms of his perception of the player talent level.

Heading down to MP this weekend for the first time this season. I really want to enjoy myself, but I have a feeling the atmosphere is just going to be poisoned and ugly. And the weather will probably make the tailgating not worth it.

Remember over the weekend how some were cursing the park in Houston? Though it is a valid point in general, I've come to the conclusion that the park is irrelevant at this point.

I didn't think 'Lost' started until 9 on Thursdays.

Not that anyone is counting, but a loss tonight means not only will the Brewers continue to be closer to last than first, they'll also now be closer to last than second as well.

Bush is just unlucky. His BABIP-against stat is unsustainably high. I'm sure it will come down eventually. I don't do blue.

Memo to 2008 Brewers pitching staff: It has come to our attention that a motivational flyer reading "If one home run is good, two is better!" was inadvertantly placed in the mailboxes of all members of the Brewers roster prior to embarking on the current road trip. It was intended that this flyer only be distributed to position players, but an office intern misunderstood his instruction to distribute the flyer to "hitters". Please disregard the flyer. We apologize for any confusion this incident may have caused. Ned and Jim

Can someone with a DVR rewind and confirm, please?

I follow the game closer than most, but not nearly as much as many on this board. That said, I can honestly say that I don't think I ever heard of Badenhop before tonight.

A simple blast wouldn't convey the wheels-falling-off feel that seems so appropriate right now.

In the past, I would almost expect another bloop, then an error, a walk and a blast. But no more. I'm optimistic.

Instead of of the radio crew having a Home Run Inning, maybe they should scale back the optimism a bit and have Base Runner inning.

Why no Gwynn here?

Five pitches and still nobody out!

Was Kapler's grounder the hardest hit ball in the last three innings? Or Kendall's?

It occurred to me that watching the Brewer hitters right now is almost like watching a pitcher who is 'guiding' the ball.

If the Brewers put the ball on a tee tonight, they wouldn't strike out as much, but you still have to wonder if they'd score enough runs.

It's getting to the point where, if I knew beforehand that the Brewers would throw a perfect game through 8 innings, I'd give them a 70% chance of winning.

Squeezed or not, I have a suspicion that Gagne will be getting the Turnbow treatment upon his return to Miller Park.