Klements Bratwurst

Hermedia deep gone!!! Cubs trailing 3-2. Sheffield Ave bomb!

Edmonds with a double. 2nd and 3rd two out. What does Edmonds do at the plate when I don't listen? He is like hitting .750 with 11 HR's when I tune into the mighty WGN. Although he is hitting only .237, he hasn't completely turned it around, has he?

Why do I feel that I wasted too much time paying attention to this Cubs game? I know somebody is going to hit a wind blown Wrigley homer, and it isn't going to be a Marlin.

Their bullpen is in sad shape right now. Last night if DeRosa didn't make that diving-laid out catch in rightfield with the bases loaded in the 8th inning, the bases would have cleared and it could have been 6-5. Then Marmol found it exciting to pretty much walk the bases loaded in the next inning. It was tough flipping back on fourth on the MLB Xtra Innings package watching the Cubs game when Braun was jacking another Brewer late-inning homerun in the left field bleachers. I think they need Wood back. I wonder if Lou broke Marmol running him out there in 19-5 Cub wins.

Don't look now. Cordero has been doing this to the Reds the better part of the last week.

My favorite post on Northsidebaseball.com was when the Brewers were swept by the Red Sox to fall to 20-24 or whatever it was (4 games under .500 at worst) and the Crew fell into last place at that time. The Cub fan poster started a thread title "The Brewers have arrived......in last place!!!!" If I had an account over there, I would find that thread and bump it up to the top by simply saying "ugh".

Here is the Brewers' lineup: 2B Rickie Weeks SS J.J. Hardy LF Ryan Braun 1B Prince Fielder RF Corey Hart 3B Bill Hall CF Mike Cameron C Jason Kendall RHP Seth McClung

Ugh. Suppan at a .9 VORP. I guess that is what happens when you go into a mid summer swoon again of throwing BP fastballs for the better part of 4 starts. I would have said a month ago he is performing over his head with his ERA in the high 3's. I guess he fell back to the median numbers and then some. In regards to the bullpen, Melvin was on WTMJ this morning and said he made some phone calls about improving the club over the break but didn't elaborate on what he was looking for. He did say that it would probably be under 50% chance something gets done at this time. He likened any move as to more of a "tweak" here and there versus a major change. He said there are still too many teams sorting through whether or not they are in it or not. I would say though that he must be looking for some relief help, but certainly didn't sound willing to give up another high end prospect for a rental. Mota just needs to be replaced. I think Brian the Automator said as a joke that Gagne was French for Turnbow. I would say that Mota is Spanish for Turnbow as well. We just can't seem to get that guy off our roster!

With all the talk of bullpen misuse and starters not going deep enough into games, I thought I would look up some information on bullpen usage from last year and this year. To set up the discussion, it was late July 2007, when Doug Melvin made a move to bring in Scott Linebrink with hopes to improve the Brewers beleagured bullpen and thus help the Crew push toward their first playoff birth in 25 years. Ultimately as many of us want to forget, the Derrick Turnbow's, Chris Spurlings, Matt Wise's, and even Linebrink and Cordero wore down in the second half and the Brewers fell two games short of the Cubs. Or did the relievers really wear down? Here is the list by National League Team of total innings thrown by the bullpens in ALL of 2007. The Brewers ranked 11th of all National League teams for innings pitched for the bullpen arms. (Caveat- anyone with a paid membership to baseball-reference.com can get these stats just to the All-Star Break from 2007). Here is the roster of Brewer relievers that accounted for all the bullpen innings in 2007. With all of that stats that are posted there, I think it just came down to the fact the Ned Yost just didn't have the horses to get the job done down the stretch. In high leverage situations last year he basically used Turnbow,Wise, Spurling, Shouse, and Linebrink to get to Cordero in 2007. There wasn't a lot of quality there. It could be argued that Turnbow was effective earlier in the season and he did get overused by Yost, but considering Turnbow was DFA'd in early 2008 it suggests that he just wasn't a quality trustworthy arm. I think when looking at 2007, I don't know that it was completely fair to say that the bullpen was abused when looking at the total innings pitched in 2007. I think the bullpen failed because collectively they were not very good. Old news. Now fast forwarding to 2008. As non-Ned Yost supporters might ask, Has Ned Yost learned his lesson in regards to bullpen misuse and abuse of relievers? Here is the list by National League team of total innings thrown by the bullpen this year (All-Star Break). The Brewers rank 15th of 16 teams in total innings pitched suggesting that the starters are going deeper this year either by Ned Yost forcing the issue by keeping the starters in for an inning or more this year than last or just plain and simply the starters are better in 08 than 07. Here is the list of Brewers relievers that have accounted for those innings in 2008. The problem that I see again in 2008 is the same in 2007 regardless of the fact that the Brewers relievers have thrown the second fewest innings of all teams in the NL. We have too much of Mota which equals the 2007 Turnbow. On the positive side, we have better relievers in Villy and Riske to replace Wise and Spurling which should bear out better results. Obviously we need to replace Mota. I guess, I hear and get caught up in a lot of friendly discussions about bullpen abuse throughout the course of the season. While I don't agree with Ned on a lot of his bullpen decisions, (Sheets start in Colorado game in Colorado), I think the "bullpen innings thrown abuse metric", can be quite overblown as a whole. It still comes down to quality relievers getting the job done. Now you may convince me otherwise if Marmol burns out completely down in Chicago, because he "seems" way overused, but even as a team the Cubs don't have too many innings in them either. (There I go contradicting myself!!!)

Nice! Brewers vault into sole possession of second place! They are the Wild Card leaders!

Regarding a potential Mota replacement, from the links that were posted above, I must agree with Haudricourt that I think I would like to give Luis Pena a shot. A nice power arm would be nice to replace Mota. Maybe we can find our version of the lockdown "Marmol" from earlier in the season before Pinella burned out his arm pitching EVERY game that needed a fire put out.

If I recall, when the team was in Arizona, the brass all had a "closed door" meeting probably regarding the trade. Then I believe Haurdricourt or McCalvy reported that the head trainer Roger Caplinger was called into the meeting for the remainder of the meeting. Why would Caplinger be needed to meet on a transacation type issue? I wonder if in fact Suppan was feeling some sort of tired arm syndrome or discomfort and thus it really pushed the Sabathia issue to a greater need. Suppan was pitching over his head earlier this season, again having a nice April/May but since that Twins start at Miller Park where he had the shortest outing of his Brewer career, he has been off. He pitched poorly in Atlanta versus a AAA lineup due to Atlanta positional injuries. He pitched even worse in Arizona, and I don't have to describe the "dung" he was throwing yesterday to the Pirates. I hope this three week stint refreshes him for the stretch run. If not Greg Maddux here we come!

Sabathia better shut down the Rockies that day. Redman is a Brewer killer regardless of his stats! Hopefully this new crop of players (Braun, Hart, Hardy, Fielder, etc) can beat this soft tossing junk baller.....

If Melvin doesn't find an infielder with a LH bat, I will gladly take Mark Grudzielanek that I proposed a few weeks back in a thread under his name. His line is still holding up well (.313/.368/.418). His contract expires at the end of this year and he plays excellent defense. I personally think that if Rickie doesn't get it going soon before the end of July he will be outrighted to Nashville and a minor trade for Grudz or Durham will be made.

I almost pee'd my pants when I heard we got Sabathia!! Good memory from last year! Here are the updated Wildcard Standings with the Crew on top. Now we focus on the higher goal!!! 2008 National League - Wild Card Standings NATIONAL W L Pct GB HOME ROAD RS RA DIFF STRK L10 DIV WC POFF Milwaukee 49 39 .557 - 28-13 21-26 406 395 +11 Won 3 6-4 25.4 31.3 56.7 St. Louis 50 40 .556 - 26-21 24-19 415 399 +16 Lost 1 5-5 12.0 23.3 35.3 Florida 45 43 .511 4 26-20 19-23 439 460 -21 Won 1 5-5 9.4 3.4 12.8 NY Mets 44 44 .500 5 22-18 22-26 419 408 +11 Won 2 5-5 14.7 5.4 20.1 LA Dodgers 43 45 .489 6 22-20 21-25 365 356 +9 Won 1 7-3 49.8 0.8 50.6 Cincinnati 43 47 .478 7 26-19 17-28 384 439 -55 Won 4 7-3 0.4 1.5 1.9 Atlanta 42 47 .472 7.5 30-18 12-29 395 367 +28 Won 1 4-6 9.0 4.1 13.1 Houston 41 48 .461 8.5 22-21 19-27 387 426 -39 Lost 1 4-6 0.2 1.0 1.2 Pittsburgh 40 47 .460 8.5 25-19 15-28 420 482 -62 Lost 3 3-7 0.2 1.1 1.3 San Francisco 39 50 .438 10.5 17-28 22-22 367 408 -41 Lost 1 5-5 9.7 0.2 9.9 Colorado 37 52 .416 12.5 25-21 12-31 402 471 -69 Lost 1 5-5 3.2 0.1 3.3 San Diego 35 54 .393 14.5 21-26 14-28 329 416 -87 Lost 1 3-7 0.6 0.1 0.6 Washington 34 56 .378 16 18-26 16-30 326 447 -121 Lost 5 3-7 0.1 0.0 0.1

That rumor is bunk. We have already heard from Haudricourt that Escobar and La Porta will not be included in a same deal. Plus from a few days ago, he will not trade 2 of his top five.

I have gotten over the debacle yesterday. I figured that the game that Rivera's lunging grab of a line drive that turned into a double play saved the Brewers and Gas Can Mota. So sub out the game yesterday that we should have won and replace it with the game we lost from the other day. A 5-5 roadtrip is OK by me. 7 games over .500 with a nice homestand coming. Plus if the Crew can add Sabathia, I think this might be a big pick up for the team.

Probably not related but Micah Owings isn't starting now tonight for the Diamondbacks. It appears to be Petit instead. I hope something isn't going down with Micah Owings and this Darron Sutton "rumor" EDIT- Diamondbacks indicate he has a sore "glute".

Unless of course Melvin plugs the Weeks hole with a Mark Grudzielanek, Ray Durham, Ronnie Belliard (gasp), (insert established veteran middle infielder here) after using Weeks in a Sabathia deal.

Why is Ned back to this 2007 rule "7th inning guy/8th inning guy/closer?" That is why Melvin jettisoned Wise and brought in guys like Riske who can go multiple innings. If it wasn't for Rivera it would be the identical situation as the Sheets game in Colorado that Mota threw lit matches on a nice lead. Mota shouldn't be pitching in high leverage situations. He is no better than Chris Spurling.

Soup is going into his summer swoon again. His last three outings have been terrible. He went from a #3 starter to a #5 again. Lets hope he figures it out sooner than late August again! They better not lose this game after having a 7-1 lead.

I find it hard to believe that the Rangers would be thinking of giving up a 10 win pitcher with a 4.13 ERA when they have some sort of shot (albeit a longer one) in that they are currently only 6.5 games back. Just throwing it out there that Rosenthal is saying that the Brewers have kicked the tires on Padilla. Melvin looking at Texas Rangers? I have never heard of that! I certainly wouldn't want Melvin to give up Gamel or LaPorta to the Rangers, but they are looking for young arms back. Why did they trade Voloquez then? Anyway, more fodder from the rumor mill. Padilla is too up and down for my tastes. They are trying to sell high now on Padilla if this is true.

On the WSSP home page there is an audio link on there in their Top Stories section regarding an interview that someone did with Gord Ash. I only caught the end of Sparky talking about it that it is a good "listen" and I think he said that Ash made reference to the fact that LaPorta might not be on that "untradeable" list. I can't download the file at work, can anyone summarize this? Very curious as to what Gord had to say about the possibility of adding some arms soon to the club both in the pen and the rotation and what pieces might be made available to do so.

We are starting our walk from the best western soon. Sitting in the left field homerun porch tonight. Wife, two kids (3 and 1) and the in laws all decked out in brewer gear! Go crew!

I think the Twins are due for a slow down, winning eight or nine in a row. Lets hope it happens in Minnesota this weekend. I don't like how our bats performed in Atlanta though. Leaving at noon today to get up there way ahead of time.