This one's for you, Bud

Below is the entirety (absent my address) of my letter to Bud Selig regarding the decision not allow the Mets to wear first responder caps on September 11th.

The Office of the Commissioner of Baseball

Allan H. (Bud) Selig, Commissioner

245 Park Avenue, 31st Floor

New York, NY 10167

Dear Mr. Selig,

I consider myself to be a tremendous fan of baseball.  I love the history, the records, the intelligence of the game.  It is my favorite sport.  But, I was sorely disappointed to learn of the decision made to prohibit the New York Mets from wearing caps honoring the Fire Department of New York, the New York Police Department and the Port Authority Police Department during the game on Sunday, September 11, 2011, the 10th anniversary of the worst terror attacks on American soil.  I was further disappointed to learn of your own reaction to your decision being publicly disseminated.

The Mets intended to continue wearing these caps after the pre-game ceremony, but Major League Baseball adamantly prohibited this and according to a Mets player, physically confiscated the caps.  This decision is unbelievably hard-hearted and oblivious and it speaks to tone-deaf corporatism.  Joe Torre, Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations, released a statement that essentially attributed the decision to a desire to maintain consistency amongst teams and minimize the need to choose sides.

I lost no family or friend in the 9/11 attacks, nor do I even know someone who lost someone.  But I do know I am an American and every American lost something that day.  A decision based on the idea that allowing the Mets to wear these caps would be “choosing sides” is offensive.  And frankly, MLB’s desire for consistency is hypocritical.  On April 13, 2009, the Pittsburgh Pirates replaced the normal team caps with those displaying “Pittsburgh Police” to honor 3 police officers killed in the line of duty shortly prior to the game.  And that was the home opener!  They wore them the entire game.  The Mets wore first responder caps when baseball resumed approximately one week after the 9/11 attacks. 

Then, today, I learned that you called the Mets and personally rebuked the Mets for “leaking” the decision.  Mr. Selig, I have to say, that is utterly preposterous.  Frankly, you are in charge of running a very public sports league.  Every decision you make is subject to public scrutiny.  To not have wanted this decision to be released means you wanted no one to know it was made.  If you take anything away from this, it should be that if you make a decision and don’t want anyone to know of it, it’s most certainly the wrong decision.

And that’s the final point here.  You may claim Mr. Torre made the decision.  You may claim it was made by several people after careful consideration.  But, you are the Commissioner.  Every decision made in MLB is ultimately your own.  You could have easily overturned this decision.  You did not.  I hold you and only you responsible for this crass and impossibly silly decision.  I’ve lost a great deal of respect I’ve always held for you in the past.  You can regain this respect by apologizing.  No “We’re sorry for any offense some may have had” apology.  A real “I was completely and utterly wrong. Period.” apology.

A decision to wear the caps would have cost MLB nothing in terms of money or brand equity.  It absolutely would set no precedent.  (Who would ask for permission to wear “Save the Whales” caps based on a precedent of “You did it on 9/11!”?  No one).  I urge you to consider the effect your decisions have on people more carefully and recognize that MLB lost a great opportunity to cement its place--one in which people saw baseball as such an important part of recovery after 9/11.

I welcome any contact you may want to make to discuss my concerns or your position.  I can be reached by phone at xxx-xxx-xxxx by email at corey.a.heim@hotmail.com or on Twitter at @brewfangrb.

Sincerely yours,

Corey Heim

What was MLB thinking? Were they?

Tonight's game at Citi Field between the Mets and Cubs featured a very well done pre-game ceremony honoring the members of the FDNY, NYPD, PAPD and NYC's EMS.  It also included many of Tuesday's Children (children of victims of 9/11), who entered the field with Mets players.

During the pre-game ceremony, the players and coaches wore FDNY, NYPD and PAPD caps...and planned to wear them during the game.  MLB entered the picture and forbade them from doing so, under threat of a "very heavy fine" to the team.  Now, clearly MLB threatened the team with a fine, because if they threatened to or actually did fine a player for wearing the highly offensive cap, the MLBPA would have wiped the floor with MLB.

Then, we received word of the utterly preposterous statement from Joe Torre, in which he claimed he made the decision to not allow the caps, under the pretense of not wanting to "pick sides" (uhh, there's a big competition between NYPD and LAPD at a Mets home game? What did I miss here?) and a desire for things to be "consistent".  Uhh, what about in the first game after play resumed after 9/11, in which this EXACT thing happened?  As Keith Olbermann indicated in a tweet, the Mets had to fight for that, but MLB ultimately allowed it.

I still fully intend to write a letter to MLB condemning such a foolish stance and if I do, I'll share it here.  I'm not so enraged over this decision over mere jingoism or "you do this, the terrorists win" silliness.  I am anti-stupidity.  There was no reason, at all, for this decision.  It was an utterly stupid decision to make in the first place and a stupid situation where none of the adults at MLB reversed it.

If Joe Torre really did make this decision all on his own, he should be removed from his position and put out to pasture.  If you really can't take a situation like "Oh, 10th anniversary of 9/11, you want to wear caps honoring the firefighters and police?" and come up with anything other than "OK", then you can't be trusted to make truly important decisions like expanding replay and evaluating other truly meaningful on-field issues.  If this was a group decision and Torre was the patsy, I'm not sure that's better--so more than 1 person all agreed this was right?

What a pitiful way to draw attention from a day/night where there should have only been ONE THING in focus.  I'll always remember the sacrifices made 10 years ago...and trust me, Joe Torre and Bud Selig, I'll never forget the decision you made today.  No check that--you're not worth the use of that heartfelt phrase--to never forget.  Instead, I think I'd rather just forget men like you are in charge of the game I love.

Wow, what a day!

Today's game featured some of the most remarkable defensive play I've seen generally and easily the best defensive performance of the season for the Brewers.  Much of that good defense was certainly assisted by somewhat bizarre (and in some cases, downright inept) baserunning by the Dodgers.  But great teams take advantage of mistakes by opponents and importantly, don't let them recover.  The triple play really was something to behold--it wasn't one of those that you say "Hey, it might be...it could be..." because at least on TV, you didn't see Kemp trying to score until Prince threw home.  He really, really struggled with that throw in the first few months of season, but has done much better in his last 3 or 4 attempts.

And Pittsburgh has a very old population with few babies, so the Cardinals suffered a 6-2 loss.  That gives the Brewers a 6 game lead over St Louis and they are 20 games over .500.  Their magic # is 35!  Much of the good things about the Brewers have been beat to death, so looking at St Louis for the moment, they still must be viewed as dangerous.  40 games is still a lot and as injuries the team's already suffered have shown, anything bad could happen between now and the end of the season.  First, I hope that doesn't happen to begin with, but it occurs to me that the team is so deep, it can make it through anything short of complete catastrophe.  (I won't say it "aloud" even though I'm not superstitious and just let you define "complete catastrophe).  I find myself rushing to the mailbox everyday to see if my invoice for playoff tickets has arrived.  (Then, I just gotta hope I can make the money work--I'll be utterly crushed if I can't).

Signing off with a note of relief that both Taylor Jungmann and Jed Bradley for what I believe to be perfectly reasonable money.  (Forget the slot #'s, they're utter nonsense without a rule requiring they be followed).  It'd be nice to see Jungmann in September next year for his cup of coffee and bullpen help.  It does make me dream of signing Greinke to an extension and these guys coming up to support him in the starting rotation.

Last note:  Am I the only one who keeps forgetting Greinke is only 28??  Wow...

Who would have thought?

The Brewers' performance of late is some of the best proof you could ask for that PITCHING MATTERS.  In the last 2 games, the offense scored 3 runs, but won both games.  The defense today again let the pitching down and against any other effective offense, the Brewers easily would have lost today.  But, Saito did a great job (again) and Axford was Ax.  Bigger to me, though:  Marcum with a very trying and difficult 1st inning that required 22 (?) pitches...but he pitched like a man, got through 7 innings (check that: 7.2!) with no other runs.  That's just---well, I can't even really describe it.  How about this:  The Brewers have the best ERA in the NL since the All-Star Break.

I think what I am taking away over the last 2 weeks is cliche, but still true:  They do just what they need do to win and that players that CARE make a difference.  You can get a summary anywhere, so I'll keep that out here...but I have a question:   In the 8th inning, can anyone really explain why Hairston pinch ran for Lucroy anyway?  I mean, Kottaras did come in at catcher in the top of the 9th, but he didn't have to--Lucroy could have caught and George could have still pinch hit when Wilson's spot came up in the 10th.  I must be missing something here because there's no way Hairston is THAT much faster that Lucroy.  In the succinct words of @mykenk: #whatever.

And the 10th is just another chapter in the Nyjer Morgan goofy saga.  Personally, I think the best part was the Al-like stare down of a routine fly ball.  (Nevermind that it drove in the game-winning run).

Let me just wrap with Counsell.  He really has no place on the team.  He actually is probably the best defensive infielder not on the DL, but honestly, every starting pitcher is probably a better hitter than he is at this point.  The Brewers are either just that good that it doesn't matter or they've been lucky that their best play of the year has come with Weeks out and Counsell's ineffectiveness is hidden.  Either way, it's obvious he's not going anywhere--especially with roster expansion only 2 weeks away, it makes little difference.  But, RRR MUST, MUST, MUST stop starting him.  It's going to come back and bite the team in the ass eventually.  I'll stop here--but I've got high praise for Yuni in a later post.  Hopefully with the playoff push coming, I'll be able to post a little more often.  I promise: Unless it's huge or breaking, nothing Packers until at least the day after the first regular season game (and even then, just probably a commentary on the game).

Is it Possible?

We can all talk about how the last six games are games the Brewers "should have won anyway", like they are unimportant or don't matter.  But even the worst team DOES win games occasionally and wins are wins when it comes down to the final record.  So this streak is very important.

The pitching--starters, middle relief, end of game--have been truly remarkable.  It's provided a quality start (pretty meaningless stat, but it does show the consistency over time) in nearly every game for 2 weeks.  This isn't totally unexpected or fluky.

The real question is, with the trading deadline having passed with the Brewers acquiring ok depth for the infield, but no difference makers, can the Brewers survive with Casey McGehee playing regularly at 3B and Yuni at SS?

The answer, like most answers tend be, is "it depends".  IF (a big IF) Yuni can remain reasonably productive offensively with the occasional "What you are DOING??" moment defensively, I'm now actually ok with him there.  Even a month ago, Casey was the bigger concern and honestly, that remains true today.  He's hit SOMEWHAT better over the last month, but is still short of what is needed and he's woefully inadequate defensively.  The real issue is a player could turn it around offensively far more easily than they can become good defensive players.  (Especially with Casey because he's slow and has limited range).

With the pickup of Hairston and Lopez, Roenicke MUST start giving consistent playing time to Hairston (putting him and Lopez at whatever position they perform best--they are both versatile to play either 2B/3B consistently and while not ideal, either can play SS).  The defense must be put out there to help the pitching, but NEVER again this season should that desire for defense trump utter offensive ineptitude like that of Craig Counsell.

That means Counsell has to be released.  It will be painful and a slap to his pride and the "hometown guy".  But if there are players that provide the defense RR wants and provide better offense, then Counsell is not useful as either a defensive replacement or a late-inning pinch hitter.

The Brewers are in control of the division and their playoff future.  I hope every decision (of both action and inaction) the team makes is one that helps keep that control.

Does Prince need to sit?

Nah, I'm not saying for days and days or anything...but just a day or 2.

To my eye, he's pressing.  His at-bat in the 9th inning exemplified that more than any other at-bat I've seen from ANY batter this year.  Of course, I'm not saying he's hit the wall or is terrible.  With Yuni, incessant pop ups and weak grounders are expected.  But in that 9th inning, Prince just waved at 3 straight pitches that were close-ish, but easily off the plate and not particularly nasty.

He's lost much of the plate discipline and patience we saw earlier this year and much of last year that basically forced the pitcher to walk him because he just wasn't going to switch at a pitch he couldn't hit.  Additionally, with Rickie behind Prince for the last 6 games (right, 6?), the pitcher at least has had to pause and just not just give Prince the unintentional, intentional walk.

I know Prince wants to play everyday and I absolutely HATE taking a legitimate bat out of the lineup, but I think it's for the greater good to just give him a day or 2.

I've been absent for a bit, so I want to do a quick hit, but hopefully, I can put together a more complete post on options for the left side of the infield.  (Hint: See the title of the blog).

What does the trade for K-Rod do for the Brewers?

The news of the trade of 2 players to be named later for Francisco Rodriguez broke minutes after the All-Star Game ended last night.  The very first tweet I got on the issue was from Jon Heyman and I was literally typing a reply to him along the lines of "Huh?  Is this a butt tweet?  A tweet intended to be a direct message?  A tweet sent before it was finished?"  But more and more news came out on it and I realized it was real.

My first reaction was "meh", "uggh" and "But wait, we still have huge problems at SS and 3B?"  As debate went on over whether the move was smart, whether it helped the Brewers, what it cost them, etc I came around to realize that it PROBABLY helps the team.

The players on the list from which the 2 TBNL will be chosen are likely to mid-level (at least relative to the players in the organization) but nothing major or game-changing.  This is a pure salary dump by the Mets and even then, not really a salary "dump", but rather a desperation move to avoid the vesting of the option on K-Rod's contract for 2012.  (It requires 100 games finished in 2010-2011 AND 55 games finished in 2011).  He had 46 games finished in 2010 and has 34 already this year.  20 would get him to the 100, but he needs 21 to get to the 55.  Much like most of the internet realized, there is no way he finishes 21 games this year.  Even if John Axford is catastrophically injured or implodes, a) there aren't likely to be a HUGE number of save opportunities anyway and b) K-Rod could still finish 20 games and avoid the vesting option...and the Brewers can use other options to fill the need (Saito/Hawkins/Loe).  It's a non-issue.

If he can keep his focus and not make an issue of not being "the closer", K-Rod definitely gives the Brewers a much more stable option in the 8th.  His WHIP is a little sketchy (certainly not truly dominant like he was in years past), but his K/9 is still nice at 9.7 and can put movement on a fastball in the low 90's.  I believe the real benefit is this lets RRR truly go on matchups rather than roles.  I think for a long time, he was locked into Loe as 8th inning guy because Saito was injured, and maybe he didn't trust Hawkins.  But with K-Rod easily being able to go 2 or 3 days in a row, Loe can be used against RHB where he has a huge advantage and K-Rod can still be used occasionally to spell Axford to close.  (That makes the Brewers bullpen very dangerous if RRR can push Ax 3 games in a row and not have to really worry about the next day knowing he can use K-Rod to close there if he has to).

Taking on financial costs in this trade, rather than giving up much in the way of talent still leaves Melvin with a few (a very few) pieces to try to execute a trade for SS help.  But, honestly, I am still very committed to the idea now that they might as well stick with Yuni and IF McGehee just continues to struggle, they must call up Taylor Green at least to TRY to see if he can succeed in the majors at 3B.  I do not want Furcal--who is an improvement, but too much of an injury risk---and the rest of the possible trade options just don't offer enough improvement over Yuni (how sad is THAT?).

1st Half Review

I'm going to skip the 1st half grade thing (others do it better).  I'm not going to rant.  (How can you rant with the team in first place)?

I'm just going to sum up the good, bad and ugly.

The Good


Prince, Braun and Axford are really the VERY good.  There's really nothing to say here, because we all know what's what with these 3.  Nyjer Morgan is part of the good.  He brings extraordinary energy to the game.  But more importantly, he's filled another potential black hole on offense.  Consider all the game-changing, lead-taking plays where he's scored the tying or game-winning run, got the game-winning hit or was an important part of a late-game win.  And while he does give up something on defense, he's still a plus defender in CF.

Rickie falls into the pretty good to very good category.  He leads MLB 2B in HR and R and has a very good SLG.  He also leads MLB 2B in E (yes, I know...I'm trying to cut down this already ridiculously long post) and has a middling OBP and BA.

The Bad


Greinke.  He has amazing peripherals with 12.0 K/9 and 1.9 BB/9 and a decent WHIP at 1.251.  But they aren't correlating to results.  This is largely because of his HRs (and especially HR with runners on).  Sure, he has a great record, but that's largely a function of run support and W-L is just the worst possible way to evaluate a pitcher anyway.  I ONLY put him in the bad because of the expectations.  A very good season from Randy Wolf, a fairly stable season from Chris Narveson and the W-L on Greinke's starts has covered much of the real worries we'd be having.  I still strongly suspect there's a mechanical blip or glitch that is out there that can be fixed and BAM! he's back to rock solid.  (Take a look at his last start where RRR went out to the mound and basically forced him to pitch from the windup with runners on).  Without fixing the flaw, 2 things could happen and both aren't good:  1) He keeps the peripherals but still gives up the runs.  The bad of this is the luck of getting run support for his starts could easily go away.  2) The results finally start matching the peripherals.  But this seems very unlikely because it's the flaw itself that's keeping them from matching.

The Ugly


Yuni.  Forget it.  You know it, I know it, Ray Charles knows it.  There are no minor league options here at all and trading for an improvement is the only option, which is probably very limited.  (The Brewers probably don't have the pieces to get a very good replacement, the replacement that could easily be had isn't likely to be a significant improvement or the middle replacement options are going to require taking on salary and injury risk).

Casey.  I believe he at least has the ability or opportunity to get better.  Maybe pitchers have adjusted.  Maybe he's just regressed.  But he has the history of actually DOING it.  Yuni has no history at all.  But, the leash on McGehee MUST be short.  As I tweeted earlier today, if this season is really "all-in", then every option has to be considered.  A failure to do so is abandoning all the other moves that were made this year in either misguided belief he'll "just get better" or effort to be nice to Casey.  Casey's a big boy. His feelings are unimportant.  Hit or get out of the way.  Fixing this problem is probably even harder than the Yuni problem, mainly because there are even fewer trade options for a 3B than a SS.  However, there is well-performing option at AAA right now.

My next point leads a little to my next "ugly", but this recently disclosed plan to have Gamel split time at 3B and 1B is truly idiotic.  Gamel had, up to now, played nearly exclusively at 1B in Nashville.  (Likely in an effort to have him be a strong competitor for the 1B job next season to replace Prince).  Plus, he's shown no real ability to defend 3B.  (And some even question his ability to hit).  So someone really has to explain to me why taking time from the full-time 3B (who is doing very well there) and taking the full-time 1B away from THAT position is going to help either one of them.  It's stupid and as many will tell you, I refuse to abide stupidity.  Don't want to promote Green to spell McGehee?  Fine, whatever.  But this plan, if implemented is a strong competitor to my next "ugly" for dumb, dumb, dumb.

RRR's bullpen mismangement


Setting aside the last week or so, make no mistake:  RR has failed, to any observer's eye, to properly manage the bullpen.  Certainly, there have been injuries that forced some into "roles" that they probably never were going to be used in.  And, ineffectiveness from those that are actually in their "roles" can frustrate anyone.  But the biggest issue is RRR's stubborn attitude.  Locking guys into set roles like Loe as "8th inning guy" is just...mind-boggling.  Every stat has shown he's far less effective vs LHB than RHB.  So if you know well ahead of time the 8th inning will feature 2 of 3 or 3 of 4 LHB, then it's folly to run a guy out there that has a worse split when there's a guy just sitting out there that is very good vs LHB and is good enough overall to not be a LOOGY.

The rest of the team ranges from "that's nice" (Lucroy) to "meh" (Hart).  Most of the rest of the starting rotation and bullpen fall into "that's good" category.  (I don't count crash and burns like Herrera or injuries here).

The team is nicely poised to win the NL Central.  Given Philadelphia and Atlanta's performance, it's seems very, very likely 1 of them will win the NL East and the other the Wild Card.  That puts the Brewers in the spot of having to win the division.  The real problem is only that there are a lot of competitors.  Houston and Chicago are done, forget it.  Cincinatti could be losing its grip if it can't stabilize its rotation or if Cordero goes into full-on meltdown, but they are still a strong competitor that can't be dismissed.  Pittsburgh's a wild card---they are young and unproven--can they hold on when it gets ugly in September?  St Louis is probably the best team of the 3 right now, but their offense is going to have to overcome their bullpen and the back end of their rotation.  If RRR sticks with a pen management plan that is match-up based rather than role-based, that will be a huge help.  I'm also going to assume that at some point, one of the following 3 things happen:  a trade for SS improvement, management loses patience with Casey and brings up Green (or Gamel--uggh), or McGehee just turns it around.  If those things come true, that may be enough to put the Brewers in it to win it at the end.  To me, the question mark is Greinke.  If he can fix whatever it is that is going on, that gives yet another solid starting pitcher.  If that happens, too, then the Brewers could easily pull away with a comfortable lead by mid-September.  Either way, it means a lot of fun and interesting baseball in the next 2 1/2 months.

This is what the rest of the season is...

The last couple games have restored my (and probably most fans') faith that this team IS talented enough to win and probably, without a catastrophe, talented enough to win enough games to either win the division or be very close at the very end.

The thing I (and most fans) are going to have to come to terms with is that much of the way the team has played the last couple weeks is likely the way much of the rest of the season may very well go.  None of the other competitors for the division have teams that are obviously dominant or well-rounded enough to take control.  The Reds starting rotation is muddled right now and frankly, just not that good.  And their offense just doesn't have enough complementary pieces to help Votto, Bruce and Phillips.  The Cardinals haven't completely solved their bullpen problem and unless they complete a trade for Heath Bell, they might not do so.  The Pirates?  Oh come on, now, I babble enough here that it's not even worth wasting time with them.  (Ok, fine:  McCutcheon is a very good and exciting player.  Their starting rotation is just good enough to make people pay attention and their closer is as good as it gets--right now.  I'd be very happy for the Pirates if they finally finish over .500).

But much like the Reds and Cards have flaws, so do the Brewers.  That's much of the reason why the 3 teams have gone through courses of very good and Good Lord! turrrible.  Thing is, in my opinion, the Brewers are better equipped to either simply succeed despite their flaws or fix them.  The Brewers have a by far better starting rotation overall and right now, their "worst" starter is a guy is the most likely to get better and return to his career norms than he is to just get worse.  If Greinke can finally get his results (runs, essentially) to match his peripheral stats (K/9, K:BB, BB) he could become fairly dominant.  I believe with much of what Nick with @BerniesCrew was saying last Sunday on the live blog that perhaps a minor mechanical correction, especially when in the stretch could be all this takes.  His strand rate is also at a low level that can't really be expected to continue.  (It's so low in large part because he's not stranding many because many baserunners are being cleared with home runs).

RRR has seemed to lock into the platoon of Morgan/Gomez and that's really done a lot in eliminating one black hole in the lineup.  Corey seems to be perhaps improving at the plate, so that will help.  That really just leaves the worst player in baseball and the Most Unimproved Player in baseball.  Yuni has shown no real ability to be better, so we shouldn't expect him to just get good.  But McGehee has proven he CAN hit, CAN drive the ball.  More patience with him is just as likely to pay off as a replacement is to be great.  A replacement for Yuni has to be found. 

Lastly, the bullpen "problems" are just not nearly as bad as casual fans might think.  Kameron Loe is not terrible nor does he need to be burned at the stake.  But he can't be used in situations where lefties are going to hit (or be likely to hit).  But, he is an important asset against most RHB.  Braddock MUST be used more efficiently.  He's NOT a LOOGY and RRR would do well to start to understand this.  Whether he's actually getting better or is just trying to give Loe a breather, RRR's bullpen management has been better in the past couple games.  (But I agree with @BrewersBar that Braddock would have been better to use in the 8th than Hawkins tonight). 

Essentially, largely only having to better use what this team has instead of having to go out and get actual replacements is what I think puts the Brewers in a better position than the Cardinals.  And the Reds need improvements out of a lot more of their rotation than the other competitors.

Is my frustration with Roenicke misplaced?

I attended today's game and my dad had to calm me down a couple times.  I wasn't booing Kameron Loe (I don't boo Brewers unless they blatantly show a lack of effort or are just outright terrible).  My frustration was with Ron Roenicke.  To my eye, he deserved hard questioning of his decision-making.  Why was Loe brought in AGAIN when Arizona had a slew of left-handed hitters due up?

Roenicke claims initially it was because Arizona had a bunch of right-handed bats on the bench.  Really?  They were going to pinch-hit for 3 or 4 hitters to "force" Roenicke to bring Loe in?  Ridiculous.  In the post-game press conference, we find that Braddock "has been dragging a bit" due to his recent workload.  Well, if he's just "dragging a little bit" that doesn't sound like "unavailable" to me.  He's a professional baseball player and I'm sorry, but even a little tired, Braddock is most certainly a better option vs LHB than Loe.  (Braddock for the year has an oppBA of .167 vs LHB...and Loe has an oppBA of .267 vs LHB).  And on the "he's dragging" point, Loe has been worked a lot harder than Braddock anyway, so if one of them is going to blow up vs the LHB, it's more likely to be Loe regardless.  Shockingly, this is exactly what happened.

What about Saito?  Speaking only in a generality, he was signed to be the set-up guy before his injury anyway, but Roenicke wanted to ease him back and use him in the 6th or 7th inning.  WHAT??  He's been pitching in the minors for 2 weeks and on Saturday night, he pitched in the 8th!  Sure, it was 7-4 at that time, but he faced 3 batters and only threw 10 pitches, 9 for strikes.  Absolutely no reason at all for him to not pitch today in the 8th if Braddock really wasn't available.

Roenicke is supposed to use advanced analysis when researching an opponent.  (It's how they how set up all defensive shifts).  So why doesn't he have a plan for match-ups like this?  How does he not know who is and isn't really, really available?  I refuse to outright blame Loe for today's performance in the 8th.  He's overworked and not well matched to LHB.  He was set up to fail.  His manager needs to know better and he needs to improve HIS performance.

Dreaming of player moves...

So it appears inevitable that Saito is coming back tomorrow (or Saturday?).  RRR has told us a position player is going down in response.  This has prompted the requisite speculation of who that someone is going to be.

Most knowledgeable folks in the Twitterverse (God, I hate that term!) my group of Brewer follows says it should be Kotsay.  I agree.  There is drunken hope it could be McGehee (maybe many hope it's McGehee and the drunken part is just me), but it's not going to happen, even though I just learned today that he apparently does have an option left.  (I still don't get why the Cubs got rid of him then--if he had the option.  Now we know, I guess).  Regardless, it's not to be him because it would force the Brewers to bring up Taylor Green and basically, play him every day.  Not until there's no hope will that happen.

It can't be Counsell, either, really because although I think at this point Jaime Moyer could blow his "fastball" by Counsell's bat, getting rid of him leaves the Brewers with no versatility in the infield.  It could be Wilson, but when he plays, he has hit a little and strangely has shown some power.

Kotsay is the odd man out.  Forget the stats (which all on their own have shown he can't be relied on for a PH or even bench role)....just WATCHING him can show he doesn't have any power.  His only real benefit is he can play first, but short of complete catastrophe, Prince plays every day anyway.  And if something catastrophic did happen, Gamel would just be called up.  So Kotsay's useless.  (In case you missed this, so far).

Then, after the Minnesota series, they need to option Gamel back to Nashville and bring up Brandon Boggs.  This is not a slight on Gamel--but he is not a veteran that can succeed with infrequent or late-game play.  Plus it wastes time--I'd rather him get 9 innings everyday at first base and be ready to be the guy to beat for the job there with the Brewers in 2012.

Let's hope that since I have to wake up and deal with a 100 degree heat index later today that at least there's good news to read.

Why I hate the losing on the road

Believe it or not, it's not the losing.  It's the why.  I'm analytical, but also emotional.  To not allow myself to be bothered by the actual losing, I just have to remember that even the best baseball team will lose a lot.  Even Philadelphia, with the best record in baseball, is still going to lose 60 games.  That's still a lot of evenings sitting glumly with your beer (or vodka/Dew).

But what really bothers me is I just can't figure out WHY the Brewers are losing on the road so much and so badly.  You might say it's because they've played against good teams so far on the road.  That doesn't really doesn't work because they won 2 of 3 from Philadelphia and lost 4 in a row against the Nationals.  Besides that, the Brewers swept division-leading St Louis at home and lost 2 of 3 to the Mets.  The quality of the opponent isn't correlated to the home/road records.

What about the park?  Sure, this year, Miller Park is leaning more heavily batter-friendly, but historically, it's pretty close to neutral.  And if the Brewers are a power-hitting team, park effect can explain the poorer showing against San Diego and the Dodgers, but doesn't explain their performance against the Yankees.  (Sure, the Yankees are just overall a good team, but Wednesday night was the Brewers best opportunity to beat up a bit of a struggler in New York's rotation.  That didn't happen).

I'm not even going to look at RISP.  That's just such a stupid stat, that I can't even stand discussing it.  It's just absurd to think that hitters somehow will try harder just because runners on base.  They're trying hard to get on regardless--no hitter wants to strike out or GIDP.

I'd like suggestions if you got them, because we're halfway into the season--park factors can't explain it (the Brewers have visited enough different parks to equalize them), imbalance in road opponents (saying that the Brewers road opponents have been predominately good) doesn't exist and much as Shawn Marcum would like to explain it away with Yostian thinking, it's not all just bad luck.

The home record simply isn't sustainable.  Hell, if it DOES keep going like this, it won't matter what the road record is, but it statistically isn't viable.  The road record doesn't even really need to be good (or even "ok"), it just can't be terrible.  But without understanding what's causing the road issues, I'm not sure how it can be fixed.  And I hate not knowing.

Casey and Yuni can't really be that bad, can they??

Unfortunately, yes.  On Saturday, I stumbled across an article that I believe was on cbssports.com that discussed 2011's biggest disappointments so far.  Unfortunately, I can't find the article anymore, but I'm not really talking about those players--it just served as inspiration.

With Baseball Reference's help, I looked at ranks of qualifying players.  My initial thoughts were that with the struggles players like Adam Dunn, Jason Werth and Dan Uggla have been having, Casey and Yuni would rank in the lower quartile or so, but not be rock bottom.

I was wrong.  There are 162 "qualifying" players in MLB.  In OPS+, Casey is 156 with a 66 and Yuni is 157 with a 65.  For comparison sake, Dunn is 144th with a 76, Uggla is 160th with a 61.  The worst player by OPS+ is Chone Figgins (OPS+ of 40.  40!!).  

The real problem is right now, (Yuni's 3-4 day today and his "HR" yesterday notwithstanding), neither player is doing anything well.  Casey is 152nd in OBP (.283) and Yuni is 159th (.255).  Only Uggla, Tejada and Figgins are worse.  Yuni's only saving grace is a LITTLE bit of slugging (he's 136th).  Casey is 151st.  One can easily argue that Casey is the worst player on the Brewers right now.  Casey has history, though, so I'm not ready to entirely give up on him.  Yuni did have ok-ish offensive numbers with KC, but historically, Yuni's never really done much.

In my mind, this puts the Brewers in a very difficult position.  There are no viable internal options at SS (not even really any options that would be a reach or a stretch).  The only solution is a trade.  There are going to be people arguing for relief pitching, but I remain adamant that this is not only a bad idea generally it's also just not necessary.  Braddock remains an option once the team is confident his issues are resolved and Saito if he can stay healthy is a very good 8th inning option to have in the pen.  

Taylor Green is probably a bit of a reach option at 3B, but what does that mean?  We bring him up and Casey goes to the bench, because I'm fairly sure he's out of options and even with his performance this year, he probably wouldn't clear waivers.  I understand the PCL is generally offense heavy, but this isn't rookie ball.  In 66 games so far, Green has a slash line of .309/.374/.544/.918 with 11 HR and 38 RBI.  He has 25 BB and 41 K.  (The walks and K's are a little sketchy, but not too bad).

Since the Yuni problem isn't solved until a trade can be done, which means waiting for sellers to sort themselves out, I am ready to argue that the Brewers promote Taylor Green, giving him the starting job at 3rd for 2 weeks or so.  If it doesn't work out, nothing much has been lost anyway and he can go back to AAA.  If he even hits .260/.310/.430 or something, that would be a huge improvement.  It's not a desperation situation now because of the team's play and standing, but it can't go on for the rest of the season with performance like this.

Time for Casey to Take Advantage

After tonight's game, Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire made it clear the Twins had made it a point of not wanting to let Prince Fielder beat them (doesn't every team?), but he did anyway.  The key point of the game was the Brewers 7th.  Counsell had popped out, Weeks and Morgan followed with singles and Braun had popped/flied out to short right.  So Prince is up with runners at 1st and 3rd with 2 outs and the score 3-2, Minnesota.

Keep in mind, Casey McGehee would be up after Prince.  Casey HAS been hitting a bit better of late and definitely getting better at-bats even in his outs, but he still has been struggling and Gardenhire elected to pitch to Prince.  A Jose Mijares fastball with bad location was seared to right and the ultimately winning runs scored.  With Prince on 2nd and 2 in, Casey grounded out to first.

With every clutch hit, Prince is going to see fewer and fewer hittable pitches.  If keeps his plate discipline, it'll be tons of walks...if not, lots more strikeouts.  Realistically, the Brewers could have Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder, Troy Tulowitski and Jose Bautista all in a row and Prince still wouldn't get much to hit.  Protection may be overrated and over-emphasized, BUT, if a guy is going to kill you and the next guy is nearly no threat at all, the decision to pitch around or intentionally walk the killer guy gets super easy.  

This gives Casey an opportunity.  Seen as a bad hitter or not, having just walked a guy, the pitcher isn't likely to fool around.  Casey SHOULD see more fastballs and if he continues working on finding his approach, the sharply hit balls will become base hits and the "just got under it" flies will become home runs.  Take advantage, Casey.  Do what you did last year and either make the decision on how to handle Prince hard or make them pay when they take the easy way out.

Why do managers make stupid decisions?

I know your reaction when reading this post's title was "I KNOW, right?"  But the serious part of this question is are the stupid decisions really stupid and in the grand scheme of things, does it really matter?

First, the decisions are probably not "stupid", but more likely "questionable" or "curious".  The one Runnin' Ron Roenicke decision that's been gnawing at me came in the bottom of the 9th of Wednesday's game.  3 consecutive singles and a sac fly from Morgan put the game at 6-3, Tampa Bay.

Here's where the headache begins.  Runners are on 1st and 2nd with 2 outs.  The bench consists of Craig Counsell, Mark Kotsay and George Kottaras.  Roenicke sends up the 0 for his previous 15, .236 BA, .283 SLG Mark Kotsay.  Huh?  The weird thing here is that the entire bench consisted of left-handed batters and RRR puts the coldest of the 3 up to bat?  Well, maybe he has good splits vs Farnsworth?  Not really--he was 4 for 15 lifetime.  Maybe he didn't want to use Counsell because he would've had to have come in at SS in case it went to extra innings.  So he was playing for a tie?  Can't be--that's just dumb.  But Counsell was only 2 for 9 in his career vs Farnsworth, so he's no better than Kotsay and his season stats are atrocious anyway.

But wait, what about Kottaras?  That is where the headache becomes an "IV morphine" migraine.  Then "you can't burn your backup catcher" rule is ridiculous--you're still down by 3 and you can't play for the tie.  Kottaras has never faced Farnsworth, but he's obviously the best hitter of the 3 remaining options. Why doesn't he bat?  RRR tells the press after the game, "George was on deck...it's just which guy you want to hit first".  Uhh, what?  First of all, why is Lucroy being pinch-hit for AT ALL?  So RRR's plan was PH for the catcher with an OF and then if that guy got on base, then you're going to use your back-up catcher to PH for the pitcher's spot?  Good Lord, that's simply asinine.  I mean, I get that clearly RRR wasn't playing for the tie, so you might as well empty the bench...but there are 2 outs, you need to continue the game and you bat the worst hitting of 3 options FIRST?

Put the loss on the offense going 7 innings without a run after a 2-run 1st...but Roenicke sure didn't do much to help win the game in the 9th, either.

Please, please, please don't trade for a RELIEF PITCHER!

If you're reading THIS, I'm sure most of you have already read the rumor that George Kottaras is being "made available".  The most likely trade partner is logically San Francisco, which is turning over every rock (no, sorry, no "The Rock" joke here) looking for catching help.

Jim with Bernie's Crew tweeted earlier a suggestion that the Brewers should try to get LHP Dan Runzler.  Jim definitely has his finger on the pulse of more players than I do...but after a review of his stats, I'm not totally convinced.  

This is NOT a criticism of Jim or the suggestion.  It's just a suggestion and we're getting to the time of the year where it's fun just to talk out trade possibilities and throw stuff around.  The concern I have:  Relief pitchers are, for the most part, a dime a dozen.  Sure, we might argue the Brewers bullpen is terrible or has hit the wall or whatever.  But I say Roenicke is flat-out mismanaging the pen.  (Forget Monday night, thanks to Bob Davidson stealing the show).

Hawkins might have a implosion waiting to happen, but until he's used in more high-leverage situations and DOES implode, then his very solid performance this year so far is going to waste.  And once the 10 days has passed, the Brewers need to get Braddock out of time out and bring him back to Milwaukee.  Tell Axford he needs to tell Zach when it's time to wakey, wakey if you have to, but leaving him in Nashville is just stupid.  

From my view, the Brewers biggest weaknesses are shortstop and the bench.  Counsell is DONE (but serves an acceptable role on the team for now as a backup IF).  Kotsay can make contact, but he'd be lucky to hit the ball out of TD Ameritrade Park, much less any MLB park.  Brandon Boggs, meanwhile, is toiling away in Nashville.  

Trade for a SS when the right deal comes along, while getting Wilson a couple starts a week.  Cut Kotsay, bring up Boggs and USE HIM.  I don't pretend this will suddenly solve all the Brewers woes, but I think the Brewers really only have the pieces to make one trade.  History tells us trading for relief pitchers doesn't work most of the time.  The best return is one that improves the biggest holes...and that's what Melvin should be looking at.

Will the Brewers play on the road kill their all-in season?

I didn't intend for this post to simply be a gripe about how the "Brewers can't hit on the road", but those problems can't simply be dismissed as something that eventually come back closer to the mean or that they will just "get better".

The Brewers split OPS on the road is 90.  So, yeah, not good, but not out right atrocious.  We are nearly 1/2 through the season (about a week at home from halfway and a series away from halfway on the road).  So sample size can't explain why the team's BA is 50 points lower on the road and their OBP is 60 points lower.  It might be just be a function of the road stats relative to the home stats.  (The home stats are so good, it makes the road stats look worse than they are).

The NL average slash line on the road is .248/.313/.378/.691 and the babip is .292.  The Brewers road slash line is .234/.292/.370/.662 and their babip is .267.  The babip is a clue to the Brewers poor road record.  (They are "unluckier" than the average road team, which is already bound to be "unluckier" than they would be at home).  The point being, in my view:  A team is generally worse on the road to begin with and the Brewers can't afford to be 10% worse than the average.

Personally, it seems very unlikely the Brewers could maintain their current performance at home all season.  That means that regardless of the reason, the hitters are going to have improve on the road.  And I really don't mean to beat a dead horse here, but 2 generally poor hitters on the team, Yuni and Gomez,  have some of the worst road splits.  Part of that improvement is going to have to come through less use of Gomez (already happening) and a replacement for Yuni.  I simply can't find any alternative to making a trade for a SS, even if he's only incrementally better.  Mevlin is all-in and if he can make this trade by giving up only 1 mid-level and 2 lower-level guy it's absolutely worth it.

Can't we all just...WAIT?

Say you're a Brewer fan and don't watch any games on TV, don't follow along on Gameday and don't listen to the radio.  Instead, if you choose to only read blogs or perhaps follow the Bernie's Crew Live Blog, you might find yourself like our friend "stix".  (Sorry, stix).

Stix is a perpetual pessimist.  The Brewers offense is terrible (it shuts down after scoring a few runs, it relies too heavily on the home run), the baserunners are stupid (the Runnin' Ron Roenicke (#RRR from now on) philosophy is killing the team), the bullpen is horrific, on and on.  And, it doesn't seem like he's ever around when they win...and if he is, the Brewers were lucky to win or there were dozens of things they did wrong.

But, is this true?  Well, to the point, does even matter?  The Brewers just played game 71 of 162.  We're nearly halfway there.  Did anyone REALLY expect the Brewers to have a 10 game lead here?  I think we all knew, somewhere, this was a going to be a battle to the end.  Can't we treat tonight's loss to Boston as one those "Aww, fuck it all" games?  The starter left after 1 IP and 44 pitches, the alleged LOOGY left most of us wondering, "How did Melvin and #RRR decide THIS was the guy to bring up after disciplining Braddock?" and Estrada saved the bullpen from a full-on meltdown.

So here's what I'm going to do:  Be overjoyed with the wins, especially those against the self-appointed, baby-eating arbiters of respect and their leader, Lord Albert.  And tell myself after the losses:  This is a perfectly acceptable reason to make another drink.  But most importantly, I'm going to WAIT.  Wait until it's obvious they are out of it or that if the Brewers make me ask Capital One to pay them thousands of dollars for playoff tickets, they will be useful.

I don't have a clue...

To be honest, I started getting really involved in Twitter just to get information easier.  (To be technical, I wanted to treat it as way to aggregate all the sites, writers and bloggers on my favorite things; mostly Brewers and Packers related).

I commented frequently on blogs and message boards and found myself not able to express myself in 140 characters, especially when I needed to go off on a rant.  Hopefully, you'll find these posts to be well thought out and reasonable.  But, I won't pretend there won't be hyperbole, some profanity (ok, FINE, a LOT of profanity) and probably some outright "WTF is he talking about" moments.

If you find yourself here, I appreciate feedback--constructive and positive.  I'm not terribly good at advanced sabermetrics, deep player evaluation or really anything that other blogs already do well.  [Way to market yourself as a unique source of information, Corey.  -Ed.]   I'm just a fan who likes baseball.  (And football.  And weather.  Oh, and vodka.)  Give me a follow @brewfangrb.  I already follow a lot of folks that are the inspiration for this.