Are the Brewers a Good Team?

[fallingleaves]

To me this all comes back to Yost and the coaching staff. Braun and Fielder are shadows of the players they were last year. I do not have confidence in Yost et al to successfully develop young talent. Look at Rickie and JJ, in my opinion they are below average mlb starters at their respective positions. Just think what would happen with this club if we had a real manager like Pinella how this team may have developed.

[joepepsi]

I've thought all along if the team sputtered and coughed out of the gate Yost would be gone by mid-June and they'd throw in the towel. Hopefully that doesn't happen.

[BADGERJOBOB]

I agree totally with Ennder's last paragraph. Yo's injury is a killer. I do think the offense will come around in a little bit, and be just fine, and I think the bullpen is pretty solid, but it's going to just get worn out because of the rotation.

Yo's injury is a killer because we failed to improve this club in the off season. I mentioned it numerous times and got blasted for it but there were serious issues with this club heading into this season.

 

1. I never understood why everyone was on the "our young guys are going to improve and thats all we need" bandwagon. How? Where?

a.Our two best hitters had career years last year. Was everyone expecting Fielder to hit 60 dingers this year? .410 on base? As good as Braun was last year it was expected that pitchers would make adjustments forcing Braun to do the same.

b. Hardy has never really proven to be a great hitter other than a 2 month period in his career.

c. Weeks has not proven to be able to hit consistently in the majors. Again he had success for what 1 month?

d. Hart was probably the only player that I could see making an improvement as he has always been a good hitter. Now I would love to see him lead-off.

2. Can't expect to contend for a championship when your going into battle we 3 very inexperienced starting pitchers, 1 ace who is constantly getting hurt and a pitcher who didn't look real good last year and is on the downside of his career. So here you have it, one plus month into the season, Sheets has missed a start, no surprise. Yo is done for the year. Parra and Villanueva can't get out of the 5th inning and we have no one else to stop the bleeding.

3. For all the experience we achieved last year, it still falls woefully short compared to the Cubs club leaders (Lee, Rameriz and Soriano). Also the Cards for that matter but who would have thought the Cards would be playing this good.

4. The closer position was the one huge question mark going into the season and so far Gagne has been a disaster. For all you stat crunchers who have defended this club through their blue and gold colored glasses, what percentage of his appearances have lead to a 1-2-3 inning? Anyone? We all know about the 5 blown saves but even the ones he doesn't blow are very nerve racking.

5. This club is still very young and while we went out and got Cameron and Kendell, I was not sold on their production. Kendell has been much better then I thought. Cameron is still a wait and see. Nevertheless it seems like we are still learning to walk when we need to be running. The future is bright but I just don't think the future is ready now.

 

Unfortunately, it looks like we don't have the makeup this year to truly contend for a division title unless we get aggressive with trades which at this point in time is probably not a good thing. That was something that should have been done in the offseason. I know, one can never foresee injuries (Yo and Capuano) but based on past history, we should have assembled a better pitching staff as I would have loved to have gone after a legit ace pitcher like Santana or someone just below his stature. Add in the fact that we still don't have a legit lead-off hitter on top of all the issues mentioned above and there you have it, a disappointing season. Hopefully, Melvin will go after some legit talent in the off-season and arm this team with a legit chance at making the playoffs as we do have a very good core. A closer, #1 or #2 starter, a 2b or ss who can get on base and either signing Sheets or getting an adequate replacement are the keys to success next year. It looks like we have the money and the minor league talent to fill our holes for next year. I just don't know if we have the mentality from the top down to change our philosophy to winning instead of building. Hopefully we can maintain striking distance for much of this year as the experience would serve us well next year.

[BADGERJOBOB]

The Brewers are going nowhere with 83 wins this year. Right now we're further back from 1st than we ever were at any point last year.

 

If you read my previous post, the comparison was not necessarily saying that the Brewers can do anything with 83 wins, but that the St. Louis rotation wasn't very good that year and that that type of rotation can still win a World Series.

You are correct but also the division that year was extremely weak. Also while their starters struggled for much of the year, their relief pitching was good and they had veteran players in Edmunds, Pujols and Rolen who carried that team down the stretch. If we manage to stay in til September do you believe Fielder, Braun and Cameron can carry us down the stretch like the Cards top 3 leaders? I don't think so.

[TooLiveBrew]

Edmonds did not carry that team -- he played in all of 6 games (a whopping 15 PA) in Sept. 2006, and was decent to good in the playoffs. Rolen's Sept. OPS was .696, and he was garbage in the playoffs save his 19 AB in the WS. Pujols was fantastic in both Sept. & the postseason, but he's a tremendous hitter.

 

I think you're completely overreacting. I won't even go into your previous post.

[danzig6767]

Going into the season, i figured the Brewers to be one of the better offenses in the NL and around a middle of the pack pitching staff, i hoped that would be enough to win 87-90 games and win the division.

 

I was expecting us to win more of those 8-5, 7-4, or 6-4 type games than we've won so far. The pitching staff even with a healthy Gallardo i didn't see as good enough to win a lot of games with just a decent offense. We obviously have time left for the offense to be much better, but now minus Gallardo, i highly question even if the offense picks up that it will be enough to pass the Cubs and Cardinals.

[JohnA17]

We suck. 2 hits tonight and maybe this belongs in the vent thread but I don't think so. Winning all the xtra inning games early in the season masked it but our big hitters aren't all that and guys like weeks and hardy are just plain bad major leaguers right now. The bullpen is even worse than last year and our starters without Yo are below average. I see this as a 75 win team right now, the offense will pick up eventually but not enough to overcome the bad pitching. Watching Gange on Sunday afternoon was the most depressing Brewer game I watched in years, THEY KNEW EXACTLY WHAT TO DO against him. He flat out does not have the action on his breaking stuff anymore and no one respects it. 10 million down the tubes, I could care less about the money except I am sure Ned will stick with him and make us suffer.

[PeaveyFury]

Right now, they're definitely not a good team. But I find it very hard to believe that the Brewers are playing at even a fraction of how good they actually are.

[sheethead]

not a good team. And if winning tradition helps propel a team to the World Series, then the Brews can fold it up right now.

[Brewer Fever]

Right now, they're definitely not a good team. But I find it very hard to believe that the Brewers are playing at even a fraction of how good they actually are.

 

Maybe they just aren't getting better. They're 75-85 since last year's 24-10 start.

[TooLiveBrew]

not a good team. And if winning tradition helps propel a team to the World Series, then the Brews can fold it up right now.

 

Luckily this has nothing to do with anything.

 

 

They're 75-85 since last year's 24-10 start.

 

So now people are going to combine two different sets of players & claim it tells us something? I feel like my head's about to explode.

[treego]

This team has potential, offensively. This team has horrible starting pitching right now. Middle relief pitching has been good. Closers have been bad. The defense is average. This team is a .500 team at best.

[don1481]

I feel like my head's about to explode.

 

May I suggest:

 

http://www.excedrin.com/images/products/th.jpg

[TooLiveBrew]

Sheesh -- thanks don. I think I'm going to go take some more 'alcohol' and lie down. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif