Dodgers at Crew

Yo is turning into a pretty solid 4/5 starter.

Glad we caught the Dodgers while they are struggling.

Joe Block ‏@joe_block 13m #Brewers John Axford 3.60 ERA in his last 17 appearances, including his 6-pitch, 1-2-3 inning tonight Expand Reply Retweet Favorite More

quote:

Originally posted by Packdog:
Glad we caught the Dodgers while they are struggling.

dude, maybe the best in the game on the mound for the dodgers. let's see if the boys can get a shot at the pen.

The season is slipping away in May...

Was told, coming out of commercials leading into the bottom of the 7th, was a shot of a bunch of fans including our older son and myself, several rows behind Brewers' dugout; will have to check.

Going for the Dodgers' matinee finale on Wednesday - anyone going?

Yep, there we are behind several dudes up, all checking their phones. Kinda funny.

When is the "players only" meeting?

quote:

Originally posted by chickenboy:
Joe Block ‏@joe_block 13m #Brewers John Axford 3.60 ERA in his last 17 appearances, including his 6-pitch, 1-2-3 inning tonight Expand Reply Retweet Favorite More

Trade him now.

Los Angeles Dodgers:
1. LF: Carl Crawford
2. 3B: Nick Punto
3. 1B: Adrian Gonzalez
4. CF: Matt Kemp
5. RF: Andre Ethier
6. C: A.J. Ellis
7. 2B: Skip Schumaker
8. SS: Dee Gordon
9. SP: Zack Greinke

Milwaukee Brewers:
1. RF: Norichika Aoki
2. SS: Jean Segura
3. LF: Ryan Braun
4. 3B: Aramis Ramirez
5. C: Jonathan Lucroy
6. CF: Carlos Gomez
7. 1B: Yuniesky Betancourt
8. 2B: Jeff Bianchi
9. SP: Hiram Burgos

Bianchi back at 2B = Like

Heard on the radio, Greinke is 15-0 at Miller Park.

-Sigh-

quote:

Originally posted by gbIdaho:
Heard on the radio, Greinke is 15-0 at Miller Park.

Due to lose!

Best lineup RR has put together this year.

Luc should be batting 8th, otherwise no complaints

Here are some gaudy BA over their last 10 games:

Betancourt-.142
Weeks-.103
Lucroy-.142
Maldonado-.151
Gonzalez-.166

Even Gomez is in a funk at-.129

Don't care if Pitching is superb, you aren't going to win many games throwing these guys on the field.

So play the guys with the best averages the past 10 games?

quote:

Originally posted by chickenboy:

quote:

Originally posted by Packdog:
Glad we caught the Dodgers while they are struggling.

dude, maybe the best in the game on the mound for the dodgers. let's see if the boys can get a shot at the pen.

We all know Kershaw is very good. But he was 0 for his last 5 away starts.

In case you haven't heard, the Dodgers are under intense scrutiny for their current struggles.

Crap, three long outs by Brauny, Luc, and Go Go.

Burgos has been a train wreck

I think Hiram will be in the rotation sometime down the road; maybe not this season, tho. Soft tossers are not as bad an idea as some in BrewerNation imply.

Offense comes to life against Grienke.

Not to come without a base running derp.

I love outs on the bases..

This is why our run production doesn't match our hitting production.

thing that pisses me off is Fiers could have been at bat for all that to happen

quote:

Originally posted by El-Ka-Bong:
Luc should be batting 8th, otherwise no complaints

Agree... 7 or 8... Still best lineup we have seen.

quote:

Originally posted by El-Ka-Bong:
thing that pisses me off is Fiers could have been at bat for all that to happen

Lol.. Good point.

Nice call Chicken, Grenks takes his first "L" at Miller Park. May Segura's triple off of him be the omen to getting this season turned back around. Nice job by the Pen.

Bullpen did a nice job after Burgos left

Aoki RF
Segura SS
Braun LF
Lucroy C
Gomez CF
Betancourt 1B
Weeks 2B
Bianchi 3B
Peralta P

Go Crew!

now 18-27. On pace to lose 97 games.

If you'd have told me that we'd have three regular position players playing at all-star levels (Braun, Segura, and Gomez) and one other playing well (Aoki), I'd have thought there'd be no way we'd be less than .500, let alone .400. It speaks to how brutally bad the starting pitching has been. Other than Lohse, who's better than his record would indicate (his WHIP is 1.27), it's just been awful.

Just another brutal game today. Peralta had to be pulled in the 2nd.

Lohse has elbow problems. Fiers starting on Sat. Never a good thing to have elbow aches, probably headed to DL.

Roster change coming.

But also, there has been a boatload of games where the offense has scored something like 2 or less runs/game. The offense and defense(pitching) cannot get in sync very much.

With Braun's BA climbing, the Brewers have 4 of the top 9 batting averages in the league. Pretty amazing and yet... 18-27!

quote:

If you'd have told me that we'd have three regular position players playing at all-star levels (Braun, Segura, and Gomez) and one other playing well (Aoki), I'd have thought there'd be no way we'd be less than .500, let alone .400. It speaks to how brutally bad the starting pitching has been. Other than Lohse, who's better than his record would indicate (his WHIP is 1.27), it's just been awful.

Look back at the 2007 Brewers season. or the 2009 or 2010 seasons. They had no problems scoring runs those years either. The problem was their pitching sucked. It's the same thing this year.

This is ultimately where Doug Melvin has failed. Sure, he's made some decent personnel moves but without trading for CC Sabathia in 2008 they don't make the playoffs. Without dealing for Zach Greinke they don't run away with the division in 2011.

My question is where are all the homegrown pitchers? Every year the Cardinals seem to find a dominant guy.

It's looking more and more like this is a lost season. You can't expect to win consistently with this kind of pitching.

I think the pitching has been below their talent, that falls on Kranitz

Kranitz hasn't helped matters either, but it's a mess with the pitching overall.

quote:

Originally posted by El-Ka-Bong:
I think the pitching has been below their talent, that falls on Kranitz

I was discussing this exact thing with a buddy at work the other day.
The pitching in general was much better under Mike Maddux. And I'm too lazy to look it up, but I'm guessing the team ERA under Maddux was better than it is with Kranitz.

Obviously talent plays a huge part, and this years crop just isn't very good.

But look at what Maddux has done with the Rangers. That team used to be all about the offense and absolutely terrible pitching. Now Maddux has turned that around.

However, part two to that equation is Melvin.
Melvin was in Texas, and developed a high powered offensive club year after year. But their pitching was god awful.

Melvin comes here, and it's a lot of the same thing. A lot of bats, not a lot of home grown pitching. Makes a couple of key trades to push the Brewers to the post season. Now the farm is dried up, nothing to trade, and his yet again, it's obvious Melvin has no idea how to scout/find/draft good pitching.

Other than Gallardo what pitchers have they been able to develop and bring up through the farm system?

We all know the struggles/bad luck with guys like Mark Rogers, but this is ridiculous.

Melvin hasn't exactly been known as a guy that's been able to build pitching but you would still think they'd have better success than they've had the last 10 years.

Peralta has the stuff to be a decent pitcher, but I wonder if he's either not getting the right coaching or if he just needs more time in the minors to develop.

Its about as frustrating as it gets now with this team. I have to agree on the Melvin issue. The guy can bring in offense (although it seemed to have disappeared) but has never been known as a GM who knew anything about pitching. How long does the guy get a hall pass for this? I posted last week about the Brewer offense, but in hind site was wrong. We got guys that can hit..we just can't score any runs. And how long as we going to see RR giving ARam days off like he currently does? He's nursed his knee back to full strength yet RR feels he needs to sit him every few days but keeps finding ways to get Weeks in the line up. I just don't get it....

If Weeks is able to pull out of his annual funk this season I will be amazed...its time to cut bait with this guy. Ya, maybe Scooter isn't 100% ready, but Bianchi and Betencourt (talk about regression) can also play 2nd base....why not give Scooter some reps with the big club? Are they afraid he will turn into Gamel or Green?

This could turn out to be a very long summer....

Braun summed it up best...Miserable!

when has the offense disappeared? Yesterday?

Agree with Bianchi getting time at second, Yuni and Scooter can pass.

I don't know if the Brewers have more pitching flame out in the minors than other clubs, but it does seem that way. I thought when they brought in Rick Peterson it was for an organizational philosophy about pitching. That hasn't really paid dividends. High school arms are probably where the Brewers just don't mine enough talent, but the risk/reward is also highest.

Melvin's biggest pitching mistakes has been throwing money at bad pitching. Suppan and Gagne are the extreme examples. Wolf to a lesser extent, but fans seem to remember how it ended, not the big picture. At least he targeted some pitching with the Grienke trade, but that puts those young arms in the farm system that just doesn't seem to develop pitching. Melvin hasn't always capitalized on bringing in young arms on moves like that.


I think the best organization move right now would be to poach some other teams scouts who understand young pitching.