Bad vibes in the clubhouse?

[joepepsi]

I think beat writers struggle to come up with information that isn't easily available to everyone who has cable TV or an internet connection. Stats, player profiles, every single game is available to any schmoe from the comfort of his lazy boy. So, reporters like to emphasize "insider" crap like clubhouse chemistry, manager's losing respect of players, etc. I tend to view this stuff as made up crap.

[homer]

He may not have even made it to the clubhouse. This could all be conjecture based on Hall's trade request, Prince's sulking about his contract in spring training, or Braun's comments after the Boston series. Put it all together and one could opine that the Brewers have clubhouse issues. I don't think this would necessarily affect performance on the field though.

[FVBrewerFan]

White Sox are in first place, last time I checked their clubhouse isn't exactly a Sunday picnic.

[Thurston Fluff]

If you start with an agenda and look for examples to prove your point you may find a player sitting in the corner quiet and brooding yet somehow miss the 24 others laughing and debating where to go together for dinner that night.

He seems to have been looking for reasons to believe a team 4 games above .500 isn't gong to be a contender. It appears to me he had no other choice but to manufacture something because the Brewers performance this year has done nothing to indicate the point he wanted to make.

[Bring Back the Stein]

I respectfully disagree with the criticisms of Richard Justice. Along with Paul Sullivan at the Tribune, I think he's best positioned to offer these sort of magisterial pronouncements about the division. Not only because he's earned his chops, but because he does do a great deal of reporting. And even if you don't agree, sometimes third-party observations carry more value than those offered by the embedded beat writers (and that conversation already has played out on various other threads here).

 

The bottom line is that the narrative is believable when it comes to the Brewers. You have players competing for time and complaining publicly. You have folks looking at a big contract to one star, with others waiting to cash in. You have high expectations and, so far, middling results. And you have a manager who, at least in his public comments, seems petulant. I don't know that it's such a far-fetched claim. Now whether a bad clubhouse means a bad season is another question altogether.

[Yeti73]

I think it matters to an extent. I'm starting to think having a bad apple behind the plate has more of an impact than anywhere else (except for manager). I really think Estrada threw off the pitchers and that spread last year.

[Thurston Fluff]

The problem Stein is a reporter who has seen this team so little has no way of knowing what the clubhouse is genuinely like.

As far as the other players waiting to cash in. I'm sure if everyone of them was willing to give the deal Braun gave the Brewers relative to his value they would already have a contract as well.

If contract jealousy is a problem then it's time to get rid of any player who is jealous. There is no team now and never will be any in the future who have all players earning the same money. There is no team now or ever where some are over paid and some underpaid. If a player can't deal with that type of inequity and allow it to infect the team in some way there is no place on any team for them because that will always be the case. It might also be worth noting that every player gets to chose who negotiates his contracts and are part of one of the strongest unions in America. So nay beef they may have with regard to how much they make vs others should be aimed at their representatives not their teammates. Though I'm tend to think nobody on this team is that immature as to be mad at a teammate for getting his.

[DatHoser]

When did he go through the clubhouse? If it was after the Crew blew the lead in the first game of the latest series, there darn well better be bad vibes going through the clubhouse - meaning they took that loss badly.

[lukevan]

The biggest problem is he proclaimed the team going "nowhere" because of his perception of poor clubhouse atmosphere. Many people who read his blurb will assume he's correct but if the Brewers come back and win 88 games, Richard Justice's proclamation will be lost in the ether of sports journalism nothingness and forgotten.

[TooLiveBrew]

Richard Justice = moron

 

We = > moron

 

 

I'll take our opinions anytime, anywhere over those of a blowhard like this clown.

[Bring Back the Stein]

All's I'm saying is that this is not like some sports radio goof who breezes through for a quick quote. This is a guy who knows the game and the people in it and is not some chump. He gave his informed impression, just as we now are giving our impression of his impression. For what it's worth, the more ridiculous the Brewers make him look the happier I'LL be.

[Thurston Fluff]

The problem he had wasn't so much what he said about the Brewers as why he said it. He had an agenda that required the Brewers not to be a threat to the Cubs and he had to reach for something to make that seem plausable. The fact that the only thing he could find was some sort of supposed clubhouse tension seems more to be something he needed to find than something that was actually there. For example if I wanted to claim Prince was never going to play on a winning team I'd take his comments about his anger over his salary and make it seem like it was the reason he isn't playing very well right now. I could then extend that thought all the way to him being selfish and allowing his personal feelings to get in the way of his play and it's negative effects the team as a whole. Thus wiht a littel work I could blame the fact that the Brewers 7 game deficit in the division is his fault. I would of course be neglecting the fact that the Brewers are that far behind because theCubs have been better than advertised, the current home/road splits of the two squads, injuries ect.

[Phenomenal Smith]

Yeah, it's not like they went to the World Series in 2005 with Brad Ausmus and Adam Everett playing in that bandbox.

I think Roger Clemens, Any Pettite, and Roy Oswalt had a little more to with Houston getting to the WS that year than Brad Ausmus or Adam Everett, they were just along for the ride.

But the quote said you needed 8 sluggers. Also, if thought Everett was not "just along for the ride", his defense was outstanding. I'll concede Ausmus didn't bring much, but the pitchers all loved him.

[ESPNOwen]

Richard Justice will be on our show today at 3:13 pm CT. If you live outside of market 99, note that we stream like a mutha'. www.espn1070.com

[ESPNOwen]

I would guess there is a decent chance this guy has never stepped foot inside the clubhouse and this would be another example of the shoddy sports reporting that we have come to know and love. I will think this way until I see examples otherwise.

 

The reason he's on at 3:13 and not 3:40 as I had hoped, is because he'll be in the Astros clubhouse...as he often is at that time. So, umm, I guess we could take your theory and drain pasta with it.

[TooLiveBrew]

Except that razzzor was referring to the Brewers' clubhouse

[Thurston Fluff]

The reason he's on at 3:13 and not 3:40 as I had hoped, is because he'll be in the Astros clubhouse...as he often is at that time. So, umm, I guess we could take your theory and drain pasta with it.

 

How does him being in the Astros clubhouse put holes in the theory that he may not have ever been in the Brewers clubhouse? If indeed he is in the Astos clubhouse so often it only lends more credence that he has not been in the other clubhouse enough to make the assertion he did. Can't be in two places at once.

[ESPNOwen]

Brewers were in Houston - Richard Justice is in Houston. I think he was in the Brewers clubhouse.

[tosabrewfan]

What did he say on the show?

[ESPNOwen]

He said Prince has an attitude problem, probably because he's slumping. We'll podcast it if you'd like to listen.

[TooLiveBrew]

I think he was in the Brewers clubhouse.

 

Yes, > 10 minutes surely gives him all the information he'd ever need to know.

[pretendastronaut]

I only caught a replay clip on the stream, but I heard him say that he thinks Prince has an attitude problem, something about Hall that I didn't catch, and that he thinks that Yost is a competent manager that is under a lot of stress and he thinks that is not making him loose.

 

Lots of "I think", which is about as good as what "we think".

[giffted1]

I think if Justice had seen the Brewers clubhouse after they swept the Astros in Milwaukee, he would have gotten a completely different view of the team. Players are going to be a little testy after a loss. It doesn't mean their chemistry is bad, it means they're human.

[ESPNOwen]

I think you're right for the most part, but he's not the first guy to come on our show to talk about Prince's attitude.

[pretendastronaut]

I wonder how much of Prince's "attitude" is the imagination of the fans and the media though? I mean, Prince's comment wasn't nearly as bad as we hear from players in other sports, and yet people treat it like constantly complains about it. Is it coming up because of anything that we really know of? What else have we seen to indicate he has an attitude problem that is effecting the clubhouse or not making him a leader?