Results tagged ‘ Branyan ’
Brewers (4) vs. Cubs (6) 7/28 — Tastes Great, Less Filling
Tastes Great:
Ryan Braun–What a stud.
JJ Hardy–His home run got the Brewers off the schnide and into the scoring column.
Russell Branyan–Had been awful to terrible the last month, but had gotten a couple hits lately and finally put a good swing on the ball to tie it up in the 7th.
CC Sabathia–Other than a couple missed pitches to Soriano and bit too much nibbling in the 7th he did good. Its not bad when your “off” day consists of going 6 2/3 and allowing what should have been 2 earned runs.
Less Filling:
Rickie Weeks–0 for 4 with 2 strikeouts. Credited with one HUGE error on the double play that didn’t get turned. Somehow wasn’t credited with an error on Fukudome’s grounder that he should have made the play on.
Official scorer–Needs to be fired. There’s been 6 to 8 times this year with Weeks alone where there’s been plays that should have been made quite easily yet he wasn’t given an error on. Hey, scorer….DO YOUR JOB PROPERLY AND DON’T BOW DOWN TO THE PLAYERS!!
Salomon Torres–Got ahead of the hitters ok, then wasted pitches and nibbled allowing consecutive walks. Then it only takes one hit to score runs, which of course occurred. Gotta go after people at some point.
Bottom of the order–Has been terrible lately. Hall’s got the three game winning hits but hit sub-.200 overall since the all-star break. Cameron we all know about, but has been even worse lately to the tune of .206 since the break. And Kendall, God bless his heart, has been great with the staff and throwing guys out, has hit only .212 since the break (and .187 with 4 RBI in July). Throw in the pitcher’s spot and that’s 4 pretty sure outs at the bottom of the order. Its hard to get anything going consistently when you have to rely so much on 3 or 4 guys in the lineup.
Ned Yost–Sometimes I wonder why Ned even stays in the dugout during the game for the lack of actual managing that he does. We’ve discussed the lack of bunting, hit-and-running, and overall movement ad nauseum. And I think most would pretty much agree he does not know how to manage a pitching staff. So in the other key game management area, pinch-hitting, he does nothing either. How many times do we get to see Cameron strikeout late in games, or Kendall fly out weakly to right? When did these .250 and below hitters become too good to be pinch-hit for? Its ridiculous.
Brewers (7) @ Giants (4) 7/20 — Tastes Great, Less Filling
Tastes Great:
Manny Parra–Took a shutout into the 8th inning with a pretty low pitch count, but ran out of gas a bit and ended up going 7 2/3 allowing only 2 late runs. Also picked up a hit, marking the 5th straight game in which a Brewers pitcher has gotten a hit. Who knew!?!
Ryan Braun–I feel a heat wave coming on and it shall be called Ryan Braun. Finished off a series where he went 6 for 13 with 2 doubles, 2 triples, and a home run to go along with 5 RBI. Stole a base, walked once, and made a nice sliding catch in yesterday’s game also. What Derby hangover??
Rickie Weeks & JJ Hardy–Were on base a combined 5 times and scored 4 times. It really helps when the top of the order can get on to set up the boppers.
Less Filling:
Bottom of the order–At a time when the top of the order is heating up (Weeks, Hardy, Braun, Fielder), the bottom of the order is cooling off considerably. Kendall’s average has dipped into the .250 range, Cameron is still struggling along around .235, and Branyan’s average has nosedived to .243. Good thing the pitchers have been producing at the bottom lately:)
Brian Shouse–Once again the bullpen, Shouse in this case, took what should have been a relaxing day for Solomon Torres and turned it into a save situaiton. With a 5 run lead in the 9th the closer should be able to rest and get ready for a huge 4 game series against the team directly above you in the standings. Instead he is forced to throw 15-20 pitches in the bullpen and come into a stressful save situation. Granted he only had to get one out, but it was a stressful out nonetheless. That’s about 3 or 4 times that’s happened now since Torres took over. I know he’s got a rubber arm, but it’d still be nice not to have to worry about over-working him. Plus the more times you put yourselves in that situation, the bigger chance something like 5-0 turning into 6-5 happens.
Brewers (8) vs. Blue Jays (7) 6/19 — Tastes Great, Less Filling
Tastes Great:
Dave Bush–I’ve been hard on him all year but he really came through yesterday. 7 innings of no-hit ball and finished with 8 innings, 2 hits, 1 run allowed. I really want him to succeed, but I am definetly tempering my enthusiasm about him continuing to pitch like he did last night until he proves it over a 3 or 4 start period.
Russell Branyan–10 home runs in 20 games (19 starts). Wow.
Prince Fielder–That inside the park homer shows why you never stop running until an ump tells you to stop.
Corey Hart–Drove in two big runs early. Is 5 for 10 since moving back to the 5 spot.
Jason Kendall–Two hits in each of the last two games. Hopefully he can continue it and get his average back up to the .280-.300 range.
Less Filling:
The bullpen–Thank God the offense staked them to a 7 run lead. Gotta just throw strikes in that situation. Dillard paid for it by getting sent down today. If they would have blown that lead and ended up losing I said I wouldn’t watch them for a month.
Brewers (5) vs. Blue Jays (4) 6/18 — Tastes Great, Less Filling
Tastes Great:
Ben Sheets–Another solid outing by the club’s ace, despite him not having great stuff. As I’ve said before, that’s what separates Sheets from the rest of the guys; his ability to get the job done time after time even when he doesn’t have his A-game.
Craig Counsell–3 hits out of the leadoff spot.
Corey Hart, Mike Cameron–Both used their legs to create runs. Hart got a double then advanced to third on a shallow sac fly. He scored on a 10 foot dribbler by Cameron that required excellent speed and baserunning ability. Cameron then stole second and ended up scoring on a sac bunt attempt by Sheets. Cameron also knocked a home run.
Salomon Torres–Had to come in for Mota and get a 1 1/3 inning save. He’s 8 for 8 in save chances since taking over for Gagne.
Russell Branyan–Yet another booming homer.
Less Filling:
Braun, Fielder–Combined to go 0 for 8 with 4 strikeouts and 8 men left on base.
Guillermo Mota–He’s cracked a few times in recent weeks and had to be bailed out last night after only getting two outs but giving up 3 hits and a walk.
Brewers (7) vs. Blue Jays (0) 6/17 — Tastes Great, Less Filling
Tastes Great:
Manny Parra–Was able to go 7 innings, allowing only 4 hits. The 4 walks isn’t a good thing and he did get in trouble a little in the 6th and 7th, but unlike earlier in the year he was able to make quality pitches late in the game to get out of it. It helped that the offense provided him a cushion so each pitch wasn’t for the game. Like McClung, I am now feeling comfortable with him on the mound; that leaves Bush as the only one that I cringe at.
Ryan Braun–Man Crush alert!! Two more jacks and he’s now at 20 on the year. He also moved up to 4th in the All Star balloting. He definetly deserves to start, and hopefully will get voted to do so. If he doesn’t, he almost a shoe-in to be added by the manager.
Counsell, Branyan, Fielder–Each hit homers and Branyan narrowly missed another when he hit one into the 4th level in right field that was just foul. It was one of the highest hits I’ve ever seen that traveled so far.
Less Filling:
The offense–Yes they scored 7 runs and hit 5 homers, but where was the rest of the production? Despite what Ned thinks, you can’t simply rely on home runs to score. We saw what happened last year and early this year if there was a bit of a drought in home runs: the offense sputtered and had no consistency.
Brewers (4) vs. Twins (2) 6/15 — Tastes Great, Less Filling
Tastes Great:
Seth McClung–Like Ben Sheets he’s really only a two pitch pitcher, but he throws pretty hard and his breaking ball is pretty solid, so he can get by as long as he is hitting his spots. When he pitches I feel comfortable that we’ll get a good outing.
Branyan, Cameron, Kendall–These three accounted for pretty all of the Brewers offense in this game as they were a combined 6 for 10 with 2 walks, 4 RBI, and 3 runs.
Bullpen–Outside of Tavarez they’ve been pretty solid lately and that continued today. Torres closed out his 8th save.
Less Filling:
13 strikeouts–Don’t like to see that many strikeouts, especially against a guy like Baker that isn’t necessarily a strikeout pitcher. Plus because of a passed ball 3rd strike, the Brewers had the dubious distinction of striking out 4 times in one inning.
Brewers (4) vs. Twins (9) 6/14 — Tastes Great, Less Filling
Tastes Great:
Jeff Suppan–Another nice game for Soup. He’s a veteran pitcher that knows how to pitch, not just how to throw like some of the young guys. If he can pitch like this all year and keep his ERA under 4, that would be huge for the Brewers. Now the bats just need to pick up the slack and get him some runs so he can win some of these games he’s pitched so well in.
Russell Branyan–Talk about dramatic. That bomb he hit in the 9th off Nathan was one of the most exciting hits in recent memory for the Brewers; too bad they pissed the game away or it could have gone down in Brewer history.
Less Filling:
Julian Tavarez–And here comes his blowups, two in a row in fact.
Ned Yost–His deficiencies in game management raise their ugly head again. Despite having three relievers in the bullpen still, he allows Tavarez to load the bases in consecutive innings and Julian couldn’t recover the second time. So a guy loads the bases with no outs on two walks and a hit, and you leave him in? Terrible decision by Ned. Obviously there’s no guarantee that someone else would have done differently or kept no runs on the board, but you have to put your team in the best position to win the game and Ned failed to do that.
Corey Hart–0 for 6 but the big blow was his inexplicable error in the 9th to allow the runner to get all the way to third.
The offense–Sure they had 11 hits, but they couldn’t string any together to produce runs. Once again they’re simply relying on the longball to score, and if they don’t hit them or don’t hit enough they aren’t scoring.
Brewers (2) vs. Twins (10) 6/13 — Tastes Great, Less Filling
Tastes Great:
Russell Branyan & Prince Fielder–Combined for 4 of the Brewers 5 hits. Branyan recorded two doubles and has really taken advantage of the playing time he’s received.
Less Filling:
Dave Bush–It sure would be nice to have some starting pitching depth either in the majors or the high minors, because there is no reason for him to be pitching in the rotation anymore. He’s proved over the past two seasons that he can’t avoid the big inning and its evidenced by his 5+ ERA in that time. That injury to Gallardo really hurt our staff.
Bill Hall–I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I really wish we would have traded him in the off-season when he had value because now we’re stuck with him, his K’s, constant pulling off outside pitches, suddenly porous defense, and terrible salary. His two errors yesterday led to 6 unearned runs. And his K with men on in the 7th certainly didn’t endear himself to the fans as they serenaded him with Boo’s; and rightfully so.
The rest of the offense–What happened to the team that was hjitting so well coming into play yesterday? Oh that’s right, we reverted back to our normal form of making marginal pitchers look like Cy Young winners. Happens all the time with this inconsistent, strikeout-prone group.
Brewers (10) vs. Diamondbacks (1) 6/4 — Tastes Great, Less Filling
Tastes Great:
Manny Parra–That’s the young lefty we were hoping for. Got in a little trouble early, but instead of crumbling like he had earlier in the year, he gutted it out and finished his outing strong. Consistency, consistency, consistency; don’t go out there and go 4 innings the next time out.
Ryan Braun–Couple hits including a triple, couple RBI’s and runs. Just continues to rake.
Corey Hart–The first inside-the-park home run since Prince’s shot in Minnesota where the outfielder lost the ball in the lights. Also had a run-scoring single earlier in the game.
Gabe Kapler–4 hits, couple runs scored, an RBI, and a great catch early in the game that saved at least one run.
Prince Fielder–He just continues to produce.
Russell Branyan–The Brewers are 9-2 since he was called up. He didn’t cause all of it, but its definetly more than a coincidence that when another lefty bat entered the lineup it started producing. I hope people don’t start thinking he is a long-term answer though.
Less Filling:
Um…………for the first time in Tastes Great, Less Filling history we have none that deserved being placed here. Great job all around.
The Major League Baseball Amateur Draft is tomorrow beginning at 1 pm CT. I’ll be watching and will do a blog entry on the draft tomorrow.
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