JS- Braun tells it like it is

[thebruce44]

Braun has been saying for a while now that his timing has been off. He has critisized himself in the past and did so again here several times along with the rest of the team. Then he called out the pitchers when asked specifically about it.

 

These are the exact answers I want to hear in this situation. Well done Braun.

[CheezWizHed]

Thats the problem with written media. You can't tell the inflection, the background, etc... The reporter can even twist what was said he he/she so desires (not saying its happening here).

 

So when ever I read written media (including BF.net), I tend to give the benefit of the doubt, since so much communication is lost in writing something down. Since Braun said "we", I'm chosing to take it as "we".

 

I think we are reading into this too much to say "he really meant they". Thats how great players stop talking to the media altogether.

[SoCal Brew Crew Fan]

If you read the entire blog, he had a very concise and truthful evaluation of the season to date. He called out the team and even himself. I found nothing wrong with it. The guy is right.

 

If you want to read into it that he was calling out Julio...so be it. The guy won't be with the team by the time they get back to Milwaukee. If he's calling out Parra, so be it as well...the guy is mentally soft and it showed last night. If he's calling out himself, that's fine too. His timing has seemed off leading many including myself to suspect he's not 100% healthy. The homers were great, but 3/5 hits were little dribblers in the infield. I'm not ready to call the end of the Braun slump yet either.

 

If anyone has earned the right to speak out it's Braun. He's delivered in the team's biggest moments and has signed a contract out farther than any other Brewer.

 

I'm sure there were a few stretches last year when the team went 4-9 and they still won 90 games. No reason it can't happen again. The 4-9 just isn't hidden among 162 games yet. No reason to panic, but no reason not to call it as he sees it.

[Ennder]

If he's calling out Parra, so be it as well...the guy is mentally soft and it showed last night

 

Really? Not being able to throw strikes makes him mentally soft? Was he mentally tough last year when he had his very good stretch?

[phxMILWfan]

I know he commented on his own performance too. I just think there is a big difference between talking about yourself and talking about your teammates. I guess I should also give him the benefit of the doubt too. That said, it would look bad to come out tonight and go 0 for 4 with 2 K's. He needs to follow up those statements with another big game.

[GormanHarvey]

Great post SoCal!

[Nottso]

If he's calling out Parra, so be it as well...the guy is mentally soft and it showed last night

 

Really? Not being able to throw strikes makes him mentally soft? Was he mentally tough last year when he had his very good stretch?

Parra seems to have a "deer in the headlights" look about him when he's on the mound. I don't know if that's just his natural facial expression, or if he's praying on every pitch. He doesn't seem to exude the same confidence as Yo does, for instance. I don't know that that makes him "mentally soft," but I've noticed it every time he pitches, and I find it just a little disturbing.

[JJHardy7]

I don't really have a problem with it. The timing just seems a little strange. Maybe he makes comments like this after he personally has a poor game? It's pretty clear the team didn't lose last night because of Braun.

 

I'm much more worried about Parra at this point. I really like Manny, but if he can't 'figure it out' that will really hurt the Brewers chances this year and long-term.

[GormanHarvey]

Really? Not being able to throw strikes makes him mentally soft? Was he mentally tough last year when he had his very good stretch?

With the kind of stuff that Parra has, he should be able to pitch he way out of many of the jams that pitchers run into during the course of a season. Kind of like C.C. did last year when he would be towards the end of his rope in some games and get in a jam and just did deep, take it one pitch at a time, and make the pitches you need to make to help get yourself out of the tough spot. He would physically AND mentally tough. That may not be a real fair comparison seeing that C.C. is C.C. and Manny is well, Manny, but it was the first one that came to mind. Instead it seems like most of the times Manny gets into trouble he crumbles like bleu cheese and loses his composure. I would say this points to a lack of confidence and mental weakness.

[SoCal Brew Crew Fan]

When you have very good stuff and you can't make pitches at critical points in the game after cruising though several innings as he did on numerous occasions last year, yes, I'd call that mentally soft. Granted, he had a great June last year cruising in games where we was staked to a big lead and maybe this year it's just working the April rust off, but that meatball he threw to Werth last night was far too typical of the type of pitches he threw in critical moments of games last year. He also hasn't proven he can get deep in games, when his velocity often seems fine in the middle innings. Call it what you will, but my unscientific often irrational view from 2000 miles away watching far too many Brewers games on TV sees it as mentally soft.

[DougJones43]

If he's calling out Parra, so be it as well...the guy is mentally soft and it showed last night

Really? Not being able to throw strikes makes him mentally soft? Was he mentally tough last year when he had his very good stretch?

Parra seems to have a "deer in the headlights" look about him when he's on the mound...I don't know that that makes him "mentally soft," but I've noticed it every time he pitches, and I find it just a little disturbing.

 

As caveman-ish as this may sound, I kind of questioned his toughness a little bit since the Fielder incident from last year. Granted, Fielder is a beast, and few men would want to tangle with him, but the way Parra just let him shove him around without doing ANYTHING was kind of pathetic. At least stand up and yell something back -- get in his face a little bit just to stand your ground. Parra just sat down on the bench, and when they showed a closeup of him, it looked like he was about to cry.

[MJLiverock]

This isn't the first time Parra's mental toughness has been called out. Yost mentioned it a few times last year and even Parra talked about one of his weaknesses being mental. He has been called out for pouting in the clubhouse after poor performances as well.

 

Braun's comments seem spot on, we don't have to baby and coddle everyone all the time sometimes a little criticism is needed and appropriate. I don't have any problem with him saying any of the things he said or when he said them. For all we know he has been ripping himself everyday but it just doesn't get printed or maybe this was the first time a reporter actually asked him about it after another loss. Not everyone is so thin skinned they can't handle someone pointing out struggling or bad play. I'm glad when a player doesn't like losing and doesn't walk around saying its along season, or its a small sample, or we'll get 'em next time.

[FVBrewerFan]

That was NOT Braun calling out Parra for a bad performance. It was Tom Hardricourt.

 

Yea, Prince can take care of Parra. (Man that calls for a picture I don't have)

[TheCrew07]

Ennder I'm as big a Parra fan as you are, we've both been very consistent on that point. I don't think it's stretch to have the opinion that Parra isn't right upstairs. He alluded to it himself this ST, and it's been hinted at in the past by various sources. He doesn't seem to handle negative events very well at all and tends to snow ball on him. His stuff is as good as it gets and he's a LHP but that doesn't mean anything if he's not going to locate and cave in to pressure. If he's missing his spots, there's an error, a player gets a hit on a pretty good pitch... those events seem to temporarily unglue him. That's part of the reason I've always liked Bush, he's a bulldog on the mound and just gets mad, he may not have the best stuff but he's going to compete on every single pitch. I'm not sure Parra is in that same class yet, but if he can get there then look out, we'll have another Ace type pitcher.

 

Does anyone remember Lincecum's first start against the Brewers (I belive it was last summer) where he got lit up early and looked beaten on the mound? I know there were multiple comments in the game thread about it at the time and it's stuck with me. Parra still carries that same demeanor sometimes on the mound, he just looks whipped. Then he'll come out the next inning, his body language is completely different, and he'll mow em down 1, 2, 3.

 

I think it was JB12 that wanted Perez over Parra and if Manny isn't careful Perez is all he's ever going to be.

[Fatter than Joey]

But in the end, even though Yost wasn't allowed to finish season as manager, his was somewhat vindicated by the post season birth.

 

Yost got fired in an unprecedented manner last year. I would say that a lot more people than the fans panicked and overreacted if a manager gets fired 150 games into the season.

 

At least stand up and yell something back -- get in his face a little bit just to stand your ground. Parra just sat down on the bench, and when they showed a closeup of him, it looked like he was about to cry.

 

I seem to recall getting into a fight with Prince Fielder, my strategy was to wait until he opened his mouth, and then I punched him in the mouth -- then he would raise both of his hands to cover his mouth, and his pants would fall down, and then I would punch him in the belly while he was reaching down to pull up his pants, and then his pants would fall again, and I would punch him again in the stomach, and after about 6 or 7 times punching him in the stomach when his pants fell down, he would go down for the count -- I don't see why Manny Parra couldn't have employed this strategy.

[naivin]

AT what point do we need to be concerned that Parra's collision with "the wall" last season, wasn't necessarily temporary? I'm not saying I'm there yet, but when does the word fatigue turn into the word bad?

 

Like many here, I hold the opinion that he is mentally weak.

[DougJones43]

I seem to recall getting into a fight with Prince Fielder, my strategy was to wait until he opened his mouth, and then I punched him in the mouth -- then he would raise both of his hands to cover his mouth, and his pants would fall down, and then I would punch him in the belly while he was reaching down to pull up his pants, and then his pants would fall again, and I would punch him again in the stomach, and after about 6 or 7 times punching him in the stomach when his pants fell down, he would go down for the count -- I don't see why Manny Parra couldn't have employed this strategy.

 

Weren't you concerned about the large bandage in the shape of an X on Fielder's belly? You really should have informed brewerfan about it at the time, so we could debate its significance.

[GormanHarvey]

I never knew King Hippo and Prince Fielder were one and the same!

[NievesNoNO]

I don't think he's necessarily throwing anyone under the bus. He was asked a question and responded with his feelings at the time. It's obviously a response of frustration, but the truth as well.

 

I actually think that while he was speaking he may have had some regret to the way he worded his comments about the pitching and continued with saying the offense and defense were bad as well.

[Ennder]

So basically Yost made a comment about Parra's mental toughness and now fans will throw it at him every time he has a couple bad starts is what this is all about. I guess this is how these types of things usually work. I mean Looper looks like he is freaking out on the mound after every ball, doesn't mean he isn't mentally tough. McClung is 'tough' yet he can't throw a strike to save his life half the time. If anything the problem Parra has had in his career is he struggles that 3rd time through the lineup, if I'm worried about anything with him it is that he won't be able to go more than 5-6 IP per start even when he gets his control.

 

Parra's 'wall' was almost completely BABIP which does suggest fatigue naivin. His K/9 and BB/9 were fantastic late in the year, this is a very different issue he is having with not being able to throw strikes.

[TheCrew07]

Not just Yost... Parra himself said it and I believe Prince said something about during the scuffle that's not repeatable, though I may have read his lips wrong.

[dlk9s]

Braun's probably regretting signing the deal for several reasons (not enough cash, might want to play for a winner) and is doing whatever he can to make the most of a bad situation.

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/439/fuknogf9pr7.gif

[rluzinski]

Yost got fired in an unprecedented manner last year. I would say that a lot more people than the fans panicked and overreacted if a manager gets fired 150 games into the season.

 

Fans screamed "season over!" about a billion times throughout last season and called Yost a fool for having the nerve to suggest that people were over reacting. That's what I am referring to.

[endaround]

Yost was fired for having Shouse pitch to Burrell. If Atanasio was in Philly that day Yost wouldn't have managed the 2nd game of the double header.

[crossface21]

1250 WSSP was talking about Manny Parra on the pre-game show tonight on the round table and they all seemed to agree with a suggestion that CC Sabathia had for Parra, and that was for him to stop using so many different pitches. Stop using 4, 5, 6 pitches, and just use 3. I think if Sabathia is giving me advice, I'd at least give it a shot.