Tastes Great:

Ryan Braun–If there was any doubt about who the leader of this team is, it was settled tonight.  Braun was one of the first ones to restrain Fielder and could be seen getting in Fielder’s face about the situation.  Afterwards he went out and knocked a towering home run out of the park.  He also doubled and walked in the game.

Less Filling:

Prince Fielder–I guess we should have seen this coming.  Prince is a guy that admittedly has had some anger issues in the past, but anger is also what he uses to motivate himself.  In the past he’s used the slights he feels from being “bigger” to motivate himself, and also the on-going feud with his father.  The bitter estrangement from his father is what has motivated Prince’s major league career so far.  I said several months ago that the anger of Prince worried me and I felt would eventually drive him out of Milwaukee.  Once he runs out of external factors to get angry at and motivate himself, he would turn on the team.  I didn’t expect it to be a teammate, but rather management and/or the organization.  I felt he would eventually burn bridges in Milwaukee and either force a trade or simply walk away at free agency time.  That certainly is the path he and his agent (Bor-***) have been on.  There have even been rumors the Brewers might be forced to trade him this off-season.

Now it looks like this is all coming to fruitition.  In the last couple weeks we’ve seen increasingly angry and childish behavior from Prince in the form of slamming his bat down on pop-outs, arguing with and subsequently getting kicked out by umpires, and now this.  In my opinion he should be suspended 5 games.

Ned Yost–Notice how during the entire altercation in the dugout Ned did absolutely nothing, did not even get out of his chair.  Just sat there and looked lost like he didn’t know what to do.  Then after the game he was his usual condescending, arrogant, defensive self and actually had the gall to chastise reporters for asking about the incident.  “It’s a family issue and it’s rude for the neighbors to be sticking their nose in our business” was his quote.  Is there any doubt if Ned has lost this team?

I read Tom Haudricourt’s blog on JSOnline.com regarding the incident, and I skimmed down to the comment section.  Usually the comments there are kind of ridiculous and downright disgusting, but the first one there was incredibly insightful.  It read:

Ned said exactly what I expected him to say under the circumstances.
It is, however, more revealing than it appears at first glance. He sees this Brewers team as a family, and what do families contain? – children.
 
Ever since this group of young players have arrived in the big leagues, they have been ‘babied’ by Ned Yost. None of them have ever been held accountable for poor performance or lack of hustle. They have been defended to the media to the nth degree, with Ned happy to twist himself into knots and make himself sound like a complete idiot, rather than acknowledge that their play on the field is anything less than perfect.
 
In short, Ned Yost has treated his young players like children.
 
Tonight was living proof of the old adage that if you treat people like children, you should expect them to act like children.
 
Children do not play baseball in October

Manny Parra–I certainly can’t fault him for what happened with Prince.  It appeared he didn’t do anything to provoke the attack and didn’t even try to defend himself or go after Prince.  But his performance on the mound certainly left a lot to be desired.  He was absolutely cruising through 4+ innings.  In fact he had a no-hitter going until he gave up the base hit to Cabrera.  The wheels then quickly fell off.  He allowed back to back walks then a double to the pitcher with two strikes.  A hard shot got by a belly-flopping Prince Fielder and all of a sudden the Reds had a 4 run lead.  Manny hasn’t been sharp his last few starts and has struggled with walks and giving up the big inning.