Anyone enjoying themselves?

[greeg35]

Just curious if anyone is enjoying watching Brewer baseball right now. It seems like everywhere I turn there is complaining and negativity about the brewers. I feel like a severe minority in my enjoyment of these last few days of baseball this year. Sure I wish we were in the running for the division; but we're not. In a couple of months I'll be wishing the season was still here or that the next one would start. In mid-winter I'll be scouring sports news for any tidbit about the most insignificant Brewer news or rumors (and enjoying reading threads hundreds of pages long here at brewerfan about them). By next spring I will be thirsting for baseball so hard that it will hurt. Winning is the bottom line in sports, and it probably always has been; but it seems even more all or nothing now than it used to be.

 

Maybe its my imagination.

[Buckylovesbeer]

We were spoiled by the playoffs.......but I agree, I am going to miss baseball from the moment it ends this year!

[BrewCrewForever]

While the games have been super frustrating over the past month or so, I still enjoy the fact I get to watch my favorite team play baseball. And here I sit on an off day wishing a Brewers game was on. While the stretch run won't be as exciting since we are out of it, it is still baseball and when the season ends I will be sad. Even though the Packers will be in full stride by then. 1. Baseball 2. Football. It has and will always be that way.

[wibadgers23]

I'm going to enjoy watching the young guys like Escobar and Gamel the rest of the year (if Macha plays them) along with Braun and Fielder of course. Right now it's not fun watching this pitching staff.

[bklynbrewcrew]

Its not just about making the playoffs but I just cant get any enjoyment over watching this team lose to the likes of the Pirates. All I ask is that the team is competitive and competing for a playoff spot in September. There have just been too many years like this where the team is floundering and going through the motions, basically playing the string out.

 

All in all i love the Brewers but its torture watching this team play uninspiring baseball.

[bani1717]

Still glad the season is still going, but it's not like I'll be planning my life around the Brewers schedule for the next month and a half like I would be if we were in a tight race.

[BrewCrewForever]

Watching Escobar and Gamel will be fun, as well as seeing Braun and Fielder continue to put up big numbers. If I remember correctly they have the highest duo total or HR's and RBI's. That is pretty cool, they are like the 2009 version of Ruth and Gehrig. Sort of.

[valpocrewsader]

Looking forward to the season being over, personally. Playoffs shmayoffs, I just want my team to have a decent, respectable winning record when they're supposed to. We're back to being laughingstocks again ... impossible for me to enjoy any part of that. At this point, I'm just in a hurry to put the entire MLB season in the rearview as quickly as possible. Every day the season drags on is just another day for people in other cities -- friends, broadcasters, analysts, fans across the nation -- to point and laugh at how bad we are again and mock what a flash in the pan last year was. (Thanks, CC!) Ready for the embarassment to be over.

[pebadger]

I used to watch every night. I don't anymore because I simply don't enjoy it. I know I care too much about this stuff to begin with, so that doesn't help me gain any perspective. I approach most sports from a coaching perspective and gain a lot of enjoyment from seeing things done well or done right, regardless of the final result of a given game. (Though of course I still really want to see my teams win, first and foremost.) I just haven't seen a whole lot of anything of real interest in most recent games. The Brewers haven't been very good and their opponents, though frequently winning, often haven't been that much better; they simply are mashing terrible pitching and not having to do too much else to secure a victory. There is hardly any drama, there is little to learn from, and though it's interesting to see Escobar, there is little else of interest to me on this team right now. It's simply not 'my team' right now, given the recent turnover (due both to moves and injuries) of guys I had become accustomed to watching.

 

Don't get me wrong. I fully appreciate the value of strategic changes to the roster at the right time and for the right reasons. This will again grow into 'my team', but right now this is just a group of guys I'm not all that invested in playing poor quality games of limited significance.

 

My greatest realistic hope is that the Brewers will have some meaningful late seasion games with the contenders, but a quick look at the schedule leads me to believe that other than possibly the Colorado series, there won't even be that to look forward to, barring a STL or PHI collapse.

[Funketown]

I'm still listening to Ueck just about every game. I guess that could just be because I just have too much time on my hands, but I'm also listening for next year. I mean, I'm cheering every Lopez double for that comp pick, etc. Oh, and I'm still thoroughly enjoying watching Soriano and co fall further out of the playoff hunt.

[jeffy]

I enjoyed not feeling compelled to watch this team suck tonight.

 

So why will I be certain to have the game on tomorrow? Perhaps it's the drama of it all...will they lose all four games in washington or only 3.

[DougJones43]

I don't enjoy watching bad pitching and losing baseball, so I'm not enjoying this. Plus, once a team's playoff hopes are shot a lot of the desire to watch goes out the window. What exactly would I be hoping for as I watched? To me, there's not much of a difference between finishing 75-87 vs 73-89 or whatever, so I don't really care. The only reason I might leave a game on now for a few seconds will be to check out one of the young players or maybe watch Braun or Fielder bat.

[Invader3K]

I'll quote a song to relate how I feel at this point:

 

No fun my babe, no fun

No fun to hang around

Feeling that same old way

No fun to hang around

Freaked out...for another day.

 

No fun my babe, no fun

No fun to be around

Walking by myself

No fun to be alone

In love...with nobody else

 

 

ie. Yeah, I'm sick of it. I wanted more than one year of the playoffs. I thought we turned a corner last year, and apparently I was wrong. This team has done things "the right way", but seems to be punished for it.

[DHonks]

I watch, but I'm not enjoying it. They had one good stretch of around 30 games this season. Last year's team was competitive night in and night out. Up until mid-July, it was basically the same team, yet was far behind last year's squad. The differences:

-Yovanni as ace instead of Sheets

-Parra sent to minors instead of Bush

-McClung/Villy as failed starters replacing Villy alone as failed starter

-Looper pitching below past performance

 

-bullpen has been unreliable without Shouse and Torres

-Weeks got hurt but the combo of 5 good weeks along with McGehee/Counsell/Lopez at 2b has been far better than just Weeks in '08

-McGehee at 3b has been better than Bill Hall. 3b last year was a black hole if you take out the 3-4 weeks Branyan saw somewhat regular playing time.

-Hardy went from having a bad April-June to having an abysmal April-August, and he still is allergic to going to rightfield

-Prince learned to play passable defense and improved his pitch selectivity

-Hart/Catalanotto should be about the same as just Hart.

[crewcrazy]

I still follow the team as closely as I can, even though it's getting harder with a new semester starting up soon. There are things I still enjoy watching about this team -- Fielder is going to end up breaking the single season club record for RBI, it's still fun to watch Braun hit, Escobar's impressed me so far in this big league stint, Gamel will be back up soon, I'm interested in seeing if Casey McGehee can finish the season strong, and hopefully raise some hell in the playoff picture by making a little noise against the contenders in September and finishing the year strong. The pitching's not very fun to watch, but it's been worse before...nothing I haven't seen and stomached before. Finish the year strong, and head into an offseason that should see some pretty big adjustments.

 

If this team is mirroring Melvin's Texas squad, it's doing a scary good job so far. After their first playoff appearance in 1996 (with a 90-72 record), they missed the playoffs the following year with a record of 77-85. They rebounded from that season to make the playoffs the next two years, although they kept running into the Yankees dynasty and had trouble once they got there. Here's to hoping for a similar rebound after this season, with slightly different results in the postseason. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

[The Truth]

I'm having fun. I'm a huge Alcides Escobar fan and its been great watching him, knowing every time the Brewers take the field there's the potential for a highlight reel defensive play from #21. Love the way he flies around the bases and hustles too.

 

I also enjoy the "chess game" that is the MLB front office/personnel game. I enjoy thinking about how this team could rebuild a contender

[TheCrew07]

Following the minors makes it easier, there's always a couple of good story lines on the farm night in and night out. If the Brewers win, whatever happens on the farm is gravy, if the Brewers lose some minor leaguer does something worth getting excited about. It helps me even out the ups and downs of a long baseball season.

 

As for this moment in time, I don't get to see any games... I get home and check the score, if they won I watch the highlights on mlb.com and browse the box score, if not, I move on with my night. I have very little invested in baseball once my football season starts.

[Schlitz001]

A few years ago I remember Lyle Overbay saying something along the lines of, "The Brewers getting to .500 would be like winning the World Series for this city."

 

I don't think it's terribly hard to watch the Brewers play losing baseball. It's difficult to be coming off such a successful season and be where we are, but it's still easier than watching 101 losses.

[ELCABALLO45]

I watch the first couple innings of everynight. And I get excited when Fielder goes deep and I realize we are way out of it and I relax a little. And by the 5th inning I turn it off because I can't stand watching our pitchings staff. I want the season to get over just so we can get to next year faster.

[brewers4eric]

I can recall making the 3 hour trip to Miller Park back in 2002 to watch Vladimir Guerrero launch shots off of Rueben Quevado. That was the low point of my 31 year career of watching the Brewers. I thought about how low the club had sunk since 1978, when Paul Molitor appeared at the top of the lineup.

Joining this site has taught me to appreciate each level of the franchise. When the major league team stumbles, I try to find something good within the minor league section of this forum. I'll recommend the article on Mike Jones and Mark Rogers for anyone that watched the three game disaster against the Pirates.

I'm making the annual trip to Milwaukee next week. A friend from work has never been there before and he needs a dose of tailgaiting and cactus league nachos to convert from a casual baseball fan to a serious Brewers fan. For me, I need to enjoy a day off from work while Braun and Fielder are together in the lineup. That won't last forever, enjoy it while you can.

[OglivieHomePerm]

Regardless of how the team plays as a whole, I'm still enjoying watching Braun and Fielder play. I'm really trying to enjoy that pair as much as I can, because you don't know how long it will last. We are extremely fortunate as Brewer fans to have two players like them on the team. We haven't had two players like that since 1992, when we last had Molitor and Yount on the same team. It might be another 15 years before it happens again...or even longer.

[BrewCrewForever]

I can recall making the 3 hour trip to Miller Park back in 2002 to watch Vladimir Guerrero launch shots off of Rueben Quevado. That was the low point of my 31 year career of watching the Brewers. I thought about how low the club had sunk since 1978, when Paul Molitor appeared at the top of the lineup.

 

Whoa, I remember that exact game. I was there. It was a terrible game and for me one of the low points of a entire season of lows in 2002.

[MJLiverock]

Unfortunately I still have tickets for 4 or 5 games, fortunately they seem to win when I go so I alway hold out hope on those nights. In general it is painful to watch, even moresoe than the awful teams of the past in some ways. Back then the expectations weren't there and it was just fun watching baseball, even if it was to see the other team or a young Ben Sheets pitch. Now after some success it is hard to watch the just plain awful pitching and the players even look furstrated and sort of like they just don't care anymore. Sure a guy like Prince gets excited with a HR that pulls them close but you just know the pitching is just going to give the runs right back. I usuallly have the games going on my second tuner on the DVR and will flip over and check the score, maybe rewind a little to watch some plays but I can't watch a whole game anymore and too many times when I check the score the bases are juiced for the opponents and the bullpen carosel is going round and round and no one is throwing strikes. I have zero confidence in any pitcher, even Gallardo, at this point. He is talented but probably hitting the wall this year and watching him throw 100+ pitches to labor through 5 or 6 innings isn't exciting and he is the best we got.

 

I'll watch Braun, Fielder, and Escobar hit but other than them I just can't muster the interest anymore. Maybe in September when they call up some guys I'll gains some interest just to see some of the young guys play if Macha actually puts them in the game. When the Brewers used to be out of the race, I didn't care, I usually just got interested in some other team and rooted for them and watched the playoffs and WS. Now, I can't bring myself to care a bit about any other team and probably won't watch much of the playoffs, maybe the Dodgers games since I like a number of their players but I probably won't watch the WS at all, guaranteed not at all if the Yankees are in it. I'll get sick listening to the Jeter, Rivera, Posoda, love fest from McCarver and everyone else.

[Ennder]

I tend to not watch much baseball in August. It is sort of the lull in the season for me and it is always a very busy month for me anyway. So I havent' been watching the games at all to see how brutal it has been!

[joepepsi]

I'm still watching, still enjoying, and wished there had been a game on last night. My winters are long and dark and lonely without baseball.

 

I have to say though, these last several weeks have been painful to watch the Brewers. It's almost like 2002. Once they get behind, by even one run, you know the game is over. When Yo gave up the 2 run homer Wednesday night, I knew the game was over. This is the hard part. We all keep saying they are just a .500 team, but the reality is they are something much less than that. They are playing like the 2002 team; as the game goes along they getting farther behind.

 

I don't stick around till the end for most games. Still, a world with bad baseball is better than one with no baseball. So, I'll keep tuning into Ueck or flipping on FSN for the first pitch of every game.