Brewers (1) vs Cardinals (5) 7/9 — Tastes Great, Less Filling
Tastes Great:
Manny Parra–I’ll be the first to admit, I had written him off and certainly did not expect this kind of game from him. I even bet my co-worker lunch that he’d have an ERA over 4.50 in this game. I lost, and I’ll pay up. Enjoy the McDonald’s Dollar Menu Derek:)
Less Filling:
Ken Macha–The players are not performing well of late, but the skipper is doing absolutely zero to help them. He’s burying the team’s best prospect on the bench (Gamel), doing nothing to stand up for his players and coaches (barely put up a fight when two of his coaches got kicked out), and has continually made poor bullpen decisions. Today he disgustingly ran Villanueva out there again, even though he’s been over-used and ineffective for over a month. If he was going to use Coffey today at all, he should have put him out there to start the 8th; if he wasn’t going to use him then he should have not pitched him at all.
Carlos Villanueva–As I’ve said before, I don’t put it all on him because he is not being used properly. Macha seemingly thinks he can be a setup guy, which Villy isn’t. A solid middle relief pitcher, sure. A reliable starter, no. Put your player’s in the best position to succeed. But the player’s gotta step up at some point too, and Villy hasn’t been.
Todd Coffey–See above. Although at least Coffey has been largely effective this year, unlike Villy.
Brewers offense–Really….only three hits? And not a single walk? Wow, either the stuff about the shadows is really true, or it is at least getting into their heads big time. For whatever reason, the day/night thing is real. Here’s the Brewers splits so far this year:
Day games: 28 games, 93 runs (second worst in NL), .218 batting average (worst in NL), .677 OPS (worst in NL)
Night games: 56 games, 299 runs (most in NL), .273 batting average (best in NL), .802 OPS (best in NL)
Brewers (5) vs Cardinals (4) 7/9 — Tastes Great, Less Filling
Tastes Great:
Patience–After collecting just two walks in the opening game shutout at the hands of the Cardinals, the Brewers made all the Cards pitchers work, drawing 9 free passes in the game, with every starting position player except Mat Gamel taking at least one.
Mike Cameron–Cam showed a good eye, taking three of those nine walks. And he got a hit in his only other at-bat. He’s been either way up or way down lately, but hopefully he’ll get a little more consistent and stay up.
Craig Counsell–Did exactly what you ask of your leadoff guy, he got on base. Had a couple hits as well as drawing one of those walks. Even drove in a run.
Mat Gamel–I know he struck out twice with the bases loaded, but it was nice to see him get some chances and of course go yard for two RBI’s. God I wish Macha would just put him in everyday and let him do h is thing. Plus he played some pretty solid defense, which had been his achilles heel in the minors.
Todd Coffey/Mitch Stetter–The dynamic duo did their jobs to a “T” once again. Coffey even went two innings.
Less Filling:
Jeff Suppan–I really didn’t want to put him here, and probably wouldn’t have if he’d been able to get through six, but having to come out in the middle of an inning is never good. Plus four walks isn’t good either.
Ryan Ludwick–That mustache is uglier than sin. Total molestor style.
Brewers (0) vs Cardinals (5) 7/7 — Tastes Great, Less Filling
Tastes Great:
Corey Hart–The lone bright spot pretty much, Corey collected three of the Brewers seven hits.
Less Filling:
Yovanni Gallardo–His walk totals have been a bit worrisome lately, and it’s beginning to catch up to him. His pitch counts have been high, and I really worry about his health now and going forward. That’s what happens when you put so much pressure on one guy to win every game; sometimes they don’t deliver and it leaves you kind of shell-shocked.
Ken Macha–He’s left Gallardo in too long on several occassions this year, and that extra work may end up coming back to bite the Brewers in the form of fatigue or even worse injury. Add to the fact that Macha did relatively little to protect his players and his other coaches, and just not a good game for anyone.
Doug Melvin–Hey Doug, shut your pie hole. Criticizing, especially in a condescending manner, your best player will not get anything accomplished. I think Melvin is starting to feel some heat for putting a less talented team out there this year, and he’s trying to pre-emptively defend himself when things don’t go well for the Brewers.
Chris Narveson–Why is this guy on the major league roster again? I guess it’s actually not that big of a deal since with as much as the Brewers have been getting beaten soundly lately, a mop-up guy is needed.
Brewers Starters–Obviously the Brewers offense can’t say a whole lot today, having
scored a total of 0 runs. However, they once again were put behind
early in the game. As Braun said, it is disheartening and frustrating
to always be playing from behind. And it usually doesn’t result in
good things for your offense when you’re always playing from behind. I
did a little research…
Since June 1, the Brewers have
played 33 games counting tonight. In those 33 games, Brewers pitchers
have given up at least 1 run in the first or second inning 18 times. I
didn’t count exactly, but I would say roughly 60-70% of those times
were games where they gave up runs in the first inning, and oftentimes
that was a crooked number.
The Brewers are 13th in the NL
overall in ERA heading into today, and 14th in starter’s ERA. The
Brewers had the worst overall ERA in the league in June at 5.37. For
the year, the Brewers have the third worst ERA in all of baseball in
the first inning, now at 5.96 after today.
Melvin Is Officially An Idiot
So, Doug Melvin ripped Ryan Braun for his post-game comments from Sunday’s games, saying it was unprofessional and that he was ticked off.
Melvin is a fricking idiot. He’s apparently going for “Non-GM of the
Year”. Leave the rotation short with no depth behind it, do nothing to
fix the problems you created in the lineup, jerk around your best
prospect and let your manager leave him rotting on the bench, and now
make a huge deal out of nothing. And you can be sure Melvin’s response
is going to get national attention, whereas Braun’s comments got play
locally only because the Brewers are on an off-day.
Braun
had the guts to say what Melvin and Macha were too ignorant to admit,
that they have left this team in a bad spot and won’t step up to the
plate and acknowledge it. They got lucky with McGehee, got a good move
in Hoffman, a so-so one in Looper, and have struck out on every other
decision since last season.
–Trusting in Bill Hall. Check.
–Trusting in Manny Parra. Check.
–Trusting their rotation was good enough to contend. Check.
–Trusting that Mike Burns was an adequate 6th starter. Check.
–Trusting that Mike Cameron was worth $10 million instead of using that on pitching. Check.
–Trusting that Jason Kendall was an adequate everyday catcher. Check.
–Trusting that Dale Sveum was an adequate hitting coach. Check.
–Trusting that Bill Castro was an adequate pitching coach. Check.
–Trusting that it was ok to do nothing with your best prospect. Check.
–Trusting that you didn’t need another everyday left-handed bat in your lineup. Check.
I have been a Melvin fan for a while, and defended him last year on
several occasions. But this is one of the dumbest moves I have ever
seen. As I said, now this story is going to be national news, and only
so because of Melvin’s stupid mouth. When the Brewers underachieve
this year it will fall squarely on his shoulders.
Brewers (2) @ Cubs (8) 7/5 — Tastes Great, Less Filling
Tastes Great:
Prince Fielder–One of the few constants this year.
Ryan Braun–One of the other few constants this year. And after the game he once again stepped up and said what others (including management) were too chicken to say. He was right on in his critique, and unlike what many people fail to acknowledge, he did call out the offense in addition to the pitching. But that doesn’t make as good of a soundbite.
Casey McGehee–Holy cow, where would this team be without his surprising play?
Less Filling:
Mike Burns–I should have known someone with the same name as my dad’s shady former business partner wouldn’t be any good. I guess I don’t blame him a whole lot, he just shouldn’t be pitching here.
Doug Melvin–Which brings us to today’s big loser, Doug Melvin. How could you think it would be a good idea to go into the season with Mike Burns as your sixth best starting pitching option. You know you’re going to need a fill-in at some time, and a castoff from other team’s minor league squads (he’s not even a major league castoff) is the best you can do? Terrible drafting, and terrible system management.
Chris Narveson–Why is he still up? He’s been terrible in most outings, and barely ok in the others.
Bill Hall–Why is he still on the team? Seriously, trade him for the lowest level prospect you can, pay half his salary and say good riddance to a team cancer.
Brewers (11) @ Cubs (2) 7/4 — Tastes Great, Less Filling
Tastes Great:
America!!–Happy Birthday ya ole dog. Let’s just hope the current administration doesn’t screw it up.
Casey McGehee–Whether he had extra motivation to play well against his old team or not, he certainly was outstanding today. Also, he has quite the penchant for re-deeming his mistakes and
quickly. There was of course the grand slam following the error on
Monday, and today he’s done it twice. After not being quicker getting
the ball to first on Harden’s bunt he hit a triple off the top of the
wall. Then, after throwing away a ground ball he hit a homer in his
next at-bat. If McGehee can continue to take advantage of Prince getting walked so much, it would be huge.
Mike Cameron–Apparently reports of his imminent turnaround being premature were in fact premature perhaps. As the Official Mike Cameron Streak Barometer, I am moving the current level to “Breaking Out Of It Finally.”
Prince Fielder–He’s trusting his teammates to pick up the slack when teams pitch around him, and his on-base percentage is reflecting it. And when teams do make mistakes in pitching to him he continues to make them pay.
J.J. Hardy–As the Official J.J. Hardy Streak Barometer, I had already correctly predicted his break out. And his hot streak continues as he keeps pounding the ball. And that diving stab that turned into a double play was a thing of beauty. I have always been baffled by people that said he’s not a good defensive
player. He’s a very good to great defensive player, and the real (read
not outdated and inaccurate Range Factor and Zone Rating, but rather John Dewan’s Plus/Minus rating as well as fielding percentage) statistics
back it up.
Ryan Braun–Heck, why not. He got a couple hits and made a nice sliding catch followed by a little flair/fun with his teammates. Apparently (big shock) the Cubs broadcasters thought it was a little too much. I guess they didn’t know that Ed Sedar has actually been teaching that move as an effective way of reaching and catching those balls. And the fun at the end was just that, fun with his team. But what can you expect from Cubs broadcasters, especially that ******* Brenly who railed on Braun after he hit the homer off Dempster and understandably stared him down earlier this year. I’m glad the Brewers didn’t hire that idiot.
Braden Looper–It wasn’t always pretty, but his defense made it difficult on him a few times too (in addition to bailing him out a few times though). But six solid is certainly acceptable in light of some of the Brewers recent starts.
Bullpen–Two of the recent strugglers down there (Villanueva and Narveson), along with stalwart Coffey made it through three shutout innings.
Less Filling:
I really want to be nice in an 11-2 win, so I’ll just make quick mention of Corey Hart’s ridiculous blunder in right and Macha’s decision to trot an already overworked Villanueva out there yet again today. Oh, and also for the decision to start McClung, which continues to wreak havoc in the bullpen.
Brewers (1) @ Cubs (2) 7/3 — Tastes Great, Less Filling
Tastes Great:
Jeff Suppan–Dare I say…a great game by Suppan. He didn’t throw a ton of strikes (only 48 of his 90 pitches were strikes), but the ones he did throw were well-located. It’d be easy to complain about the one run he did allow as it was off the bat of a pitcher, but all in all he was great. A shame the Brewers offense screwed him out of a win. Who’da ever thunk Suppan would be the only guy in the Tastes Great column?
Less Filling:
Bill Welke–A disgraceful way to end the game. That pitch was a strike as it caught several inches of the plate and when Fox took his normal batting position it was right at the belt (he scrunched down as the pitch got there so on TV it looked higher than it really was; and F Jake Fox for saying he thought it was high and inside). Welke’s zone was all over the place all game, and even the Brewers run scored on what appeared to be a strike that was called a ball.
Ken Macha–Wow, he’s making a lot of appearances here lately. Let’s see:
Bad lineup management? Check –Really, Jason Kendall leading off? He’s the guy you want getting the most at-bats in the game? It’s appearing that Macha is a bigger blind Kendall lover than Yost almost.
Bad bullpen management? Check –Trotting Villanueva out there in the 8th was downright stupid. The guy’s been overused, and as a result has been increasingly ineffective. Also, the Brewers lost an extra inning game when their two best relievers (Hoffman, Coffey) did not pitch despite good rest.
Bad in-game management? Check –Jody Gerut gets an at-bat but Cattalanato (or Gamel and even Rivera for that matter) doesn’t?
Bad team management? Check –Macha should have stormed the field after that last pitch, but he barely raised a fuss. Then in the post-game he pretty much glossed over it. Way to stick up for your guys in a huge situation there Kenny. Obviously arguing wouldn’t have changed anything, but it would set a tone for the next game with the umps and with your team.
Craig Counsell–Failed to get a sac bunt down on two occasions and then struck out in what turned out to be a huge situation. Then he blew what should have been a catch in the 10th that ended up scoring. It wasn’t an error in the scorebook, but it should have been caught.
Brewers offense–For the second game in three days (and third time in less than a week) they leave their starting pitcher out to dry. 1 for 11 with runners in scoring position (with that one hit not scoring a run) is embarassing, just like their performance in general.
Mike Cameron–I guess reports of his eminent turn-around were exaggerated. He looked terrible today, striking out three times.
Brad Fischer–Twice in the last week he has sent pitchers to the plate when they were going to at best be involved in a bang-bang play with the potential for a collision and injury. As it was, both were thrown out fairly easily (in addition to still risking injury).
Brewers (5) @ Cubs (9) 7/2 — Tastes Great, Less Filling
Tastes Great:
Prince Fielder–The big man loves hitting at Wrigley. In the last three years he’s got 10 home runs there, easily the most of any park besides Miller.
Mike Cameron–Three weeks ago or so I said Cameron wouldn’t start heating up until around the All-Star break, based on the normal ebbs and flows of his career. A three-hit game tonight gives some hope that this may be his breakout time.
Less Filling:
Seth McClung–I don’t blame him 100%, because he really shouldn’t be in the starting rotation. But he’s still gotta be better than what he’s shown in his last two outings.
Ken Macha/Doug Melvin–I hated the decision to move McClung to the rotation, and oh geez, I was right. Just a stupid decision that has cost them runs (and a game), and been a drain on the bullpen. So, what can they do fix their screw-up? Well first they need to move McClung out of the rotation. Then, here’s the options (barring a trade, which isn’t likely nor probably a good idea right now):
Tim Dillard’s last two outings: 8 innings, 2 runs; 8 innings, 1 run
Chase Wright’s last two outings: 6 innings, 1 run; 7 1/3 innings, 1 run; 5 innings, 1 run
Unfortunately, wunderkid Chris Cody has cooled off after being so hot
initially upon his promotion to AAA. He’s given up 4 and 5 runs
respectively in his last two outings, going 5 innings each time. He
hasn’t been terrible in those games though, giving up 5 and 6 runs
respectively and not really being in trouble with walks.
Chris Smith–He’d been pretty decent coming into the game, but maybe that game was an example of why the Red Sox got rid of him last year.
Brewers vs Mets Series Wrap-Up
I apologize for not getting new posts up for each game. The Mrs. and I along with our son attended Monday night’s game and did not get home until late. Then Tuesday was a work outing to see the Northwoods League Madison Mallards with another late night. At least we got to see a pretty good game Monday. Even got in some unexpected Hells’ Bells.
Getting that sweep on Wednesday would have been huge, but that kind of game isn’t unexpected for this team unfortunately. And I would be re-miss if I didn’t give a big Tastes Great to Casey McGehee. I was booing right along with everyone else when he dropped that pop-up Monday, and he deserved every bit of it. But he got the chance to redeem himself and did so in a big way with that grand slam. It was awesome. Big ups to the Brewer fans for vociferously booing Gary Sheffield as well. He’s one of the all-time worst people in sports and deserves every bit of it. He admits to making errors and playing bad for the Brewers on purpose because he wanted out. Plus he used steroids. I only wish the TV announcers would have talked about it more and publicized his stunts during his time with Milwaukee.
Here’s some pics from our outing.
The Mrs. and the little one. He did pretty good. He really liked the walk-up music, as he started dancing every time. He liked clapping with everyone else too.
Me and the little guy. Sorry for the blurriness of the photos, the wife spilled pop on the camera in the car so we had to resort to camera phone use.
Hells’ Bells!!! The music itself wasn’t as loud as I thought it would be, but pretty cool nonetheless.
Brewers (0) vs Giants (7) 6/28 — Tastes Great, Less Filling
Tastes Great:
None–Absolutely none when you get beat 7-0 by a jayvee Giants team. That wasn’t even a Triple-A quality lineup the Brewers faced today, yet they gave up 13 hits and 7 runs. F You Brewers! Better put a better performance up tomorrow when I’m at the game.
Less Filling:
Jeff Suppan–Yet another game where the Brewers pitchers give up early runs to put their team behind. It’s becoming an every-game occurence, and is incredibly maddening. And then, he can’t even keep them in line, giving up several more runs, and can’t finish out an inning. Great return on that $42 million investment. I wonder if the Brewers fall out of the race this year if they can find anyone stupid enough to trade for him? Probably not.
The bats–Sadowski, Howry, Sanchez – aka Murderer’s Row of pitching, or so the Brewers would have you believe. A rookie making his first-ever start, a reliever he was run out of town he was so terrible, and a guy that just got kicked to the bullpen shut out the Brewers. What a joke. And it’s not like Sadowski was just pounding the strike zone; he only threw 45 strikes in his 85 pitches. And only threw 11 first-pitch strikes against the 23 batters he faced. So the Brewers were working ahead in the count most of the time.
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