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.