5/4/08 Brewers (Sheets) at Astros (Sampson): 1:05 PM CDT

[pebadger]

I hear that for over 100 years teams played and won close baseball games without a "closer". This even occured within my living memory.

[TabbertBB]

Nice job of moving the runner up-----NOT!

[dlk9s]

Am I the only one who would bunt here with 0 outs? Only need one run (hopefully).

[brewtank34]

I'd even be interested in seeing how Pena handles the closer's role.

[tristarscoop]

We should be in first place if it wasn't for him.

Putting all our losses on Gagne is as far-fetched as putting them all on Yost. Should he be doing better? Absolutely. But we also knew coming in that he wasn't going to be perfect and that we'd be giving up some runs out of the bullpen. The assumption was that our offense was going to be so prolific that we would have a few runs to give. Our offense has made it such that our pitchers have had to be perfect at every outing and that's just not feasible. I'm just saying the blame goes all around.

 

EDIT: Edited back long quote. -PF

[brewtank34]

It's Cameron time!!!

[GoudaBrew]

I'd even be interested in seeing how Pena handles the closer's role.

Yeah, but I'd imagine it'd be hard for Melvin to justify a $10 million dollar set-up man. But that's a shame.

 

[brewtank34]

Putting all our losses on Gagne is as far-fetched as putting them all on Yost. Should he be doing better? Absolutely. But we also knew coming in that he wasn't going to be perfect and that we'd be giving up some runs out of the bullpen. The assumption was that our offense was going to be so prolific that we would have a few runs to give. Our offense has made it such that our pitchers have had to be perfect at every outing and that's just not feasible. I'm just saying the blame goes all around.

 

 

That's besides the point....He's blown 5 (without going into extra innings) wins for us. Period. It has nothing to do with our offense.

 

EDIT: Edited back way too long quote. -PF

[WV Brew]

I'd walk Cameron and pitch to Braun.

[Brewer Killa]

I dont have confidence in anybody else closing for this team.

Mota, Riske or Stetter would be Just fine with me.

You have not seen enough games this season. Mota maybe. But Riske is really shaky and Stetter has only been here for a quick bit. After he gives up his first run alot of opinions will change on him as well. But he is surely not our closer. That is just being said in anger for this game.

 

[lcbj68c]

I dont have confidence in anybody else closing for this team.

I envy that you have some left in Gagne.

 

 

It's not so much confidence, but I think he is the only one with closer "stuff" and closer "mentality"

[tristarscoop]

We should be in first place if it wasn't for him.

Putting all our losses on Gagne is as far-fetched as putting them all on Yost. Should he be doing better? Absolutely. But we also knew coming in that he wasn't going to be perfect and that we'd be giving up some runs out of the bullpen. The assumption was that our offense was going to be so prolific that we would have a few runs to give. Our offense has made it such that our pitchers have had to be perfect at every outing and that's just not feasible. I'm just saying the blame goes all around.

 

That's besides the point....He's blown 5 (without going into extra innings) wins for us. Period. It has nothing to do with our offense.

How can it be beside the point when it's exactly my point.

 

When we added him we KNEW he'd give up runs. Our offense was supposed to cover his butt so that it didn't matter.

 

[sdcheezhd]

So far we've lost 1 game all year where Gagne blew a save. So even if the hypothetical other closer were perfect we wouldn't be in first place. 1 loss in 13 save opportunities (or maybe 2 of 14) isn't too bad.

[TabbertBB]

They would rather strike out Mike than walk him.

[brewtank34]

I dont have confidence in anybody else closing for this team.

Mota, Riske or Stetter would be Just fine with me.

You have not seen enough games this season. Mota maybe. But Riske is really shaky and Stetter has only been here for a quick bit. After he gives up his first run alot of opinions will change on him as well. But he is surely not our closer. That is just being said in anger for this game.

 

 

I've watched every game so far. I would feel good assuming that the majority of us don't feel as "nervous" when those pitchers come in. For the most part, they are all looking better than Gagne....Even Riske who had his shakes earlier.

[Ennder]

They would rather strike out Mike than walk him.

Looks like they walked him to me, he just decided to swing at ball 4 (on the 3-1 pitch).

[lcbj68c]

I have a sneaking suspicion we will be under .500 come Thursday morning

[tristarscoop]

So far we've lost 1 game all year where Gagne blew a save. So even if the hypothetical other closer were perfect we wouldn't be in first place. 1 loss in 13 save opportunities (or maybe 2 of 14) isn't too bad.

Thank you!

Look, I'm not trying to start in with anybody, but it gets frustrating when people who haven't been in the thread all game show up only to bash the team with sweeping generalizations not backed by any facts. It gets my hackles up.

[brewtank34]

We should be in first place if it wasn't for him.

Putting all our losses on Gagne is as far-fetched as putting them all on Yost. Should he be doing better? Absolutely. But we also knew coming in that he wasn't going to be perfect and that we'd be giving up some runs out of the bullpen. The assumption was that our offense was going to be so prolific that we would have a few runs to give. Our offense has made it such that our pitchers have had to be perfect at every outing and that's just not feasible. I'm just saying the blame goes all around.

 

That's besides the point....He's blown 5 (without going into extra innings) wins for us. Period. It has nothing to do with our offense.

How can it be beside the point when it's exactly my point.

 

When we added him we KNEW he'd give up runs. Our offense was supposed to cover his butt so that it didn't matter.

 

 

Oh poor Gagne....We're SOOOOOOOO sorry we haven't been giving you at least three runs to record your easy save. How sad. Boo whooo for Gagne. STEP IT UP!!!!

[dlk9s]

So far we've lost 1 game all year where Gagne blew a save. So even if the hypothetical other closer were perfect we wouldn't be in first place. 1 loss in 13 save opportunities (or maybe 2 of 14) isn't too bad.

That's being results oriented.

 

I mean, a guy could tag from third on a pop to short and be safe at home because of a terrible throw, but that wouldn't mean tagging was a good decision. Similarly, just because we won most of the games Gagne has blown doesn't mean him blowing them wasn't bad.

Plus, in some of those games, our bullpen had to be used more than it should have been.

 

[lcbj68c]

I agree Tristar. Not having Gagne as the closer doesn't put runs on the board, or wins in the scorebook to make the difference between 16-14 and 20-10

[brewtank34]

Come on D...let's get it to the 12th.

[lcbj68c]

Oh poor Gagne....We're SOOOOOOOO sorry we haven't been giving you at least three runs to record your easy save. How sad. Boo whooo for Gagne. STEP IT UP!!!!

I'm not gonna disagree with you, but where were you from the 4th to the 9th inning when we were failing to do anything offensively? I agree that Gagne needs to step it up, but so does this entire baseball team right now, outside of Ben Sheets. And even Ben gave up 4 runs in under 7 innings today.

[Blancofan1]

it's amazing how much better (more accurate) that Torres' strike zone is compared to what Gagne was getting

[tristarscoop]

The thing that Gagne has that I haven't seen out of the rest of the bullpen is the composure to get himself out of jams. I'd be willing to talk about another closer if someone else would prove they can handle themselves on the mound in that same manner.

 

I think Torres is getting to that position, but I'm not sure I'm willing to lose his ability to go multiple innings.

 

Stetter has shown some of that, but he's too young and he was a LOOGY heading into Spring Training. A larger sample is needed before we can think about him in that spot, I think.