anyone else seeing big changes ahead? Latest: Mark A says Melvin is going to be here a long time, Macha will not be fired Monday

[RockCoCougars]

I think that Macha needs at least 3 wins by the end of the week, or next week at this time, Randolph will be manager. I posted this after the San Diego debacle a few weeks ago and they got 5 out of 6, hopefully it works again...

[Invader3K]

Even if they somehow win three yet this week, they'll be sitting at 18-26 on the season, and quite possibly still in fifth place. Not really sure if that is good enough to save Macha at this point.

 

I was reading Dave Cameron's assessment of the situation, and he figured that if 92 wins is considered the number needed to make the playoffs (which may be slightly high), they need to play like .620 ball the rest of the way. I don't know if this team is even capable of .550-.600 ball the rest of the way. I hope Melvin and Attanasio are being honest with where this team's chances are this season.

[TooLiveBrew]

http://www.fangraphs.com/...hp/break-up-the-brewers/

 

Cameron piece for FanGraphs Invader referenced

 

Before the season began, some people (such as myself) expected the Milwaukee Brewers to at least give the St. Louis Cardinals a fight for the National League Central title. It wasn’t hard to look at an offense that featured Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder, and Rickie Weeks as one that could put runs on the board, and there were enough arms on the pitching staff that I liked to think that they could outscore the opponents on most nights.

 

It hasn’t happened. After losing last night, their seventh consecutive defeat, the Brewers stand at 15-23, seven games behind the first place Reds and six and a half games behind the Cardinals. They are one of only five teams in baseball with a winning percentage below .400. They are certainly better than they’ve played, but, at this point, the hole may be too large for them to climb out of.

 

With 124 games to play, assuming that they’ll need to win 92 games to give themselves a good chance of winning the NL Central or the Wild Card, they would have to play .621 baseball the rest of the way to make that happen. As much as I like some of the players on this roster, I don’t think anyone can realistically expect the Brewers to win 62 percent of their remaining games.

^ Excerpt

[chickinbrickin]

What needs to happen from this point on for the Brewers to have any hope this season and beyond.

1. Hoffman needs to retire and save face. There is no spot for him on the team. I could care less that he is looking to get 600 saves. The Brewers owe him nothing. I never thought Melvin should have resigned him in the first place.

2. Zach Braddock needs to be call-up to fill the roster spot vacated by Hoffman. He doesn't have to close right away (Carlos can fill that role for a while), but he is our closer of the future. Zach had one hick-up in Triple-A, but has been back to his dominate self since.

3. Bye-Bye Suppan! Eat the money and cut him.

4. As far as I am concerned Davis and Bush can go as well, but it won't happen.

5. Melvin needs to go! He hasn't shown any ability to put together a pitching staff, and he hasn't brought in a staff that can get anything out of the players. He has made questionable signing after questionable signing of aging pitchers. Melvin has also shown he has no ability to draft pitching either. Jeffress? Adams? Fredrickson? Heckathorn? Arnett? None of these guys have done anything yet to impress me. Odorizzi is the only SP in our system that I think could develop into an ace.

I read a post about how he brought the Brewers back from the dead; so we owe him a longer leash. No we don't! He hasn't brought them back from the dead. He made one ok trade for Sabathia, which got the Brewers a playoff appearance. Currently, his questionable moves with his management staff and pitching have made the team look more dead than ever.

6. Prince gets traded. This trade needs to provide us with good young pitching. This trade is why Melvin has to go. If they decide to move Prince does anyone really want Melvin engineering the deal?? NO!! I love Prince, but I would rather see him traded than walk, because you know he isn't going to sign an extension.



**I would much rather watch Brewers loses with a bunch of young guys on the field that offer some kind of hope for the future**

[sgtcluels]

I said this over on BCB this morning. Everyone stop wishing people are going to retire. They are not. They have a guaranteed contract of millions of dollars, that kind of money easily out weighs any shame players get for being washed up. The front office has to force the changes, every player wants to play, every player thinks they are better then they actually are.

 

Hoff isn't going to retire this year or next. He needs to not retire to collect another $500,000 from our organization. He'll simply wait a year.

 

No more talk of players retiring, this is a business, and they are here to make as much money as they can.

[RockCoCougars]

I said this over on BCB this morning. Everyone stop wishing people are going to retire. They are not. They have a guaranteed contract of millions of dollars, that kind of money easily out weighs any shame players get for being washed up. The front office has to force the changes, every player wants to play, every player thinks they are better then they actually are.

 

Hoff isn't going to retire this year or next. He needs to not retire to collect another $500,000 from our organization. He'll simply wait a year.

 

No more talk of players retiring, this is a business, and they are here to make as much money as they can.

That's a good point. Though it's a nice dream, the only two guys I can think of in the past 20 years that walked away from big contracts mid-season were Mike Schmidt and Ryne Sandberg (though he came back later). That said, both those guys are Hall of Famers, so maybe Hoffman would want to preserve his 'legacy' in the eyes of voters and not leave them with the impression that he hung on too long.....so maybe there is a slim chance with him. Sadly, the odds that Suppan would retire are the same as his HOF chances.

[endaround]

Solomon Torres walked away

[sheethead]

They have a guaranteed contract of millions of dollars, that kind of money easily out weighs any shame players get for being washed up.

 

Exactly. For $5 million, I would have no problem suffering another four months of humiliation, especially if during the humiliation I still was able to eat all the catered food I wanted, hang out at the ballpark all day, and do even less work than I was hired to do in the first place. Some humiliation that guy is going to suffer the rest of the year.

 

Re: Solomon Torres - that was for personal reasons, and it was after the season was over. He walked away from a club option buyout ($0.3M), because he no longer wanted to play. That's not even close to Hoffman's situation.

[Funketown]

4. As far as I am concerned Davis and Bush can go as well, but it won't happen.

I agree with a lot of what you said, but I don't think people realize what kind of a rotation we would have if DD and Bush were DFA'd. Without those two, we're looking at

 

Gallardo

Wolf

Narveson

Parra

Estrada

 

6) Kameron Loe

7) Chris Capuano?

 

I could see the argument for having one or both of them sent to the pen, especially if Parra and Estrada throw the ball well. I just hope we have learned from last year that it isn't that easy to find a competent pitcher off the waiver wire.

[TheCrew]

Bush has had one bad outing this year...... not sure why he is getting any hate.

[trwi7]

I agree with a lot of what you said, but I don't think people realize what kind of a rotation we would have if DD and Bush were DFA'd. Without those two, we're looking at

Does it matter? It's not like we're going anywhere this year. I'd rather get as many young guys as possible on the team to see what they can do and what their future roles with the team could be.

 

 

[Funketown]

I agree with a lot of what you said, but I don't think people realize what kind of a rotation we would have if DD and Bush were DFA'd. Without those two, we're looking at

Does it matter? It's not like we're going anywhere this year. I'd rather get as many young guys as possible on the team to see what they can do and what their future roles with the team could be.

From an ownership standpoint, I think it would be a terrible idea to go on a fire sale, even if guys like Bush and DD aren't huge assets at this point. The bottom line is that Mark A. needs fans to go through the turnstiles and to turn into games, and throwing in the white flag at this point in the season, although it might be a winning percentage maximizing decision, would probably not be a profit maximizing decision.

[logan82]

If we are not going anywhere this year we might as well stick with the old guys and push back service time of the youngsters. It is cheaper in the short and long term.

[endaround]

Its not like there are a bunch of guys who are ready to pitch right now. Estrada and Parra should get a bunch of innings but Butler is still hurt, Lofgren isn't close to being ready, Loe can't get LHers out and the guys in AA need time.

[trwi7]

Butler is still hurt

He made a rehab start for BC a few nights ago.

[Postseason2006]

Wolf has been a bust so far. ERA now over 5.10 and he's given up runs to a couple of challenged hitting clubs.

[Teatoe993]

If Macha had pulled him after the 6th like he should have, Wolf's ERA would have been in the low 4's I believe. Yeah it would have been cool if he could have gone deeper in the game but Macha let him out there to die after giving a 6 inning quality start.

[trwi7]

If Macha had pulled him after the 6th like he should have, Wolf's ERA would have been in the low 4's I believe.

More like 4.64.

[Funketown]

I think I can see Prince Fielder going on the DL tomorrow with a broken hand.

 

I really wonder if Macha will be around tomorrow morning. I'd say 3% chance he's fired tomorrow, 10% chance by the end of next week, 25% chance by mid-June.

[Mr QL]

I wonder how long we'll free fall until Macha is fired.

[markedman5]

Wow what a fitting way to end that game. Fielder strikes out. He offered at every pitch in the at bat and by my eyes none of them were strikes. Braun steals 2nd and then goes brain dead forgetting that his run means nothing.

 

The beat goes on.

 

I wonder what Antansio is thinking watching his team implode game after game?

[PeaveyFury]

At this point, I'd almost be surprised if Macha ISN'T fired on Monday.

[Beast Light]

Wolf has been a bust so far. ERA now over 5.10 and he's given up runs to a couple of challenged hitting clubs.

Unfortunately, I have to agree. I was not very thrilled with this signing when it was made. He was an aging pitcher with an injury history who managed to have a career year heading into freee agency. To be honest, the signing eerily reminded me of the Suppan signing which I was not in favor of at the time either.

 

I suppose his performance is nothing to worry about though. We are dealing with a small sample size and he has been really unlucky.

 

[Beast Light]

If Macha had pulled him after the 6th like he should have, Wolf's ERA would have been in the low 4's I believe. Yeah it would have been cool if he could have gone deeper in the game but Macha let him out there to die after giving a 6 inning quality start.

Because God forbid we have a starting pitcher go more than 6 innings. At the end of the day, when you don't have a starting rotation that can consistently go deep into games, you have to make these sorts of decisions.

 

Macha is far from perfect but in my opinion, he has been given a terrible hand to play with.

[Flood Pants]

From an ownership standpoint, I think it would be a terrible idea to go on a fire sale, even if guys like Bush and DD aren't huge assets at this point. The bottom line is that Mark A. needs fans to go through the turnstiles and to turn into games, and throwing in the white flag at this point in the season, although it might be a winning percentage maximizing decision, would probably not be a profit maximizing decision.

I disagree. Anyone who's not likely to be on the team next year should be shopped. The possible list includes: Hoffman, Zaun, Hart, Gerut, Counsell, Bush, Davis, Vargas, Suppan, Edmonds. Are fans really more happy with an 75-80 win team than a 60 win team? A losing team is a losing team. And I think everyone knows that we've fallen out of serious contention already, barring a miracle. I don't think a fire sale would do any more damage than has already been done. Melvin may as well do his best to prepare this team to win again in the next couple of years.