What would it take to make this season NOT a disappointment?

[dlk9s]

I'm sort of piggybacking off the Wild Card possibility thread. While I in no way think the playoffs are a reality (even though they are technically a possibility), I have been thinking about the Brewers' chances of at least having a winning record this year. That, I think most would agree, is well within the realm of possibility, even if it still might fall under the "unlikely" category (since we are still 6 under .500 and have some tough series remaining).

 

To this point, most Brewers fans consider this season a disappointment. But is there any end result in which we don't make the playoffs where you all would consider this season NOT a disappointment?

 

Would .500 make you feel good about this season? 82 wins? 85? More? What would be the victory mark, if any, that would change your feelings on 2010 from "disappointing" to "not disappointing?" To take it further, are there different win totals where you would be neutral versus actually happy about the season? Again, assuming we don't make the playoffs, since obviously we'd all be happy in that case.

 

Personally, I'm undecided. I think I'd be pretty content with a .500 record and would consider it a pretty good season if we ended up higher than that. Somewhere in the 78-80 win range, though, and I'm not sure. Disappointment? Not necessarily. Happy? No.

[trwi7]

Don't really care about wins and losses anymore. Would just like to see the young guys perform well.

[logan82]

Don't really care about wins and losses anymore. Would just like to see the young guys perform well.

I would like that as well. In addition I would like to see Parra finish the year strong and also Arnett not completely suck the rest of the year like he has so far.

[Tbadder]

This year's been fine with me. I think they're better than I thought given the starting rotation, and still believe they'll figure out a way to get to .500. They are an entertaining club, fun to watch, with a bunch of interesting players (Loe, Braddock, Axford, Cain maybe, Hart's revival, Week's career year, Casey solidifying his value, Lucroy). All in all satisfying stuff.

[Invader3K]

I just want them to play competitive ball down the stretch.

[BrewCrewForever]

W/L record does not really matter at this point to me. Just want them to be competitive and get some of the young guys playing time. Really would like to see Braun get hot and end with more Ryan Braun type stats.

[Thundercat32]

personally I don't care if they win another game all year, as 1 game out of the playoffs is the same as 100 games out. In fact, if you're going to miss the playoffs it can often make sense to lose more games for a higher draft position i.e. Mike Trout. However, that usually doesn't coincide with good play from key players for next year's team. So yeah overall I want to see good play. I don't care if it comes in a 4-3 win or a 3-4 loss.

 

Here are the things I'm most concerned with for the rest of this season:

 

1) Sign Dylan Covey, letting him walk over $300k would be assine

 

2) I want to see Ryan Braun take a better approach at the plate, up his power #'s and get his average over .300

 

3) I want to see Jake Odorizzi finish strong at Class A, possibly earn a promotion to Huntsville

 

4) I want to see Alcides show any sign at all he's starting to figure things out at the plate

 

5) I want to see Rickie Weeks stay healthy for the rest of the season and maintain his production. Especially if they offer him an extension.

[Hammer]

1) Sign Dylan Covey, letting him walk over $300k would be assine

2) I want to see Ryan Braun take a better approach at the plate, up his power #'s and get his average over .300

3) I want to see Jake Odorizzi finish strong at Class A, possibly earn a promotion to Huntsville

4) I want to see Alcides show any sign at all he's starting to figure things out at the plate

5) I want to see Rickie Weeks stay healthy for the rest of the season and maintain his production. Especially if they offer him an extension.

1 - Agree

2 - I don't care about the power numbers. I really want him to improve his plate discipline. Really, he should have the easiest path to a .400 obp on the team.

3 - Agree

4 - To me, it looks like he has really started to turn it around in the last couple of weeks. Maybe I'm only watching the games where he is getting hits but he looks ok to me.

5 - Agree

[hawing]

I just want them to play competitive ball down the stretch.

I'd say this is my minimum hope for the rest of the year. We've already attended (and stayed to the end of, because that's how the hawing household operates) at least three games that were utter stinkers, and while I realize no team is immune to the occasional stinker, I think we've seen our share in 2010. Competitive play is easier to take, even when your team falls short.

 

Otherwise, every year I selfishly hope for a winning record in games we attend. We are currently 13-10 (12-8 in MP, 1-2 elsewhere).

Also, a .500 or better record overall would be nice.

[Ennder]

Narveson and/or Parra to have a strong finish to give hope for them being a strong part of the rotation next year. If both have strong finishes I'll be very optimistic about next season.

 

That is really all it would take for me. The team basically played like I expected for most of the season but had a terrible stretch early that they can't hope to recover from.

 

There are a lot of positives to take away from the season even with the current record.

[JohnBriggs12]

"I want to see Alcides show any sign at all he's starting to figure things out at the plate."

 

What are you watching? Since the All Star game he's hitting .296/.329/.383. He's got the highest line drive percentage (22%) of any of the regulars. His spray chart shows hits from foul line to foul line, equally distributed. I'm not a big fan of BABIP, but his is pretty low considering his impressive line drive rate. He could easily be hitting around .280-.290 had he found a few more holes.

 

I'm confident that by the end of the year his overall numbers will be more indicative of his offensive talent, which I believe is considerable.

 

For the rest of the season, I'd like to see Narveson step up and establish himself as a decent starter. He's close right now. His WHIP is respectable and I think he knows what he's doing out there. If he can avoid and/or minimize his rough innings, he gives them a cheap option in the rotation going into 2011.

 

I'd like to see Wolf continue his recent form and finish the season strong. He's got time to get his numbers to respectable. If he does that, he's got some trade value even with his contract and I firmly believe to get young pitching they are going to need to be able to offer a quality veteran that a team might be wanting.

 

I want Lucroy to firmly establish that he can finish a season off, and negate any thought of them looking for a veteran in the offseason.

[AJOHNSON104]

I'd really like to see the young players (Lucroy, Escobar, Cain) continue to play well.

I've been waiting all year for a streak of like 16-4. Would be a little late, but would make September interesting.

Want to see starting pitching stabilized, but waiting for that for 2 years. How about 4-5 times through rotation without anyone getting crushed for 7-10 runs in 4 innings.

[RightFieldCoder]

Competitive play is easier to take, even when your team falls short.

My SO and I were following Toronto's almost no-no, and she commented that this would be the 3rd time this year for TB to be no hit. She said, "well, it sucks to be a fan of Tampa." I pointed out that they are 4 games up on the wild card and still trying to win a tough AL East. I said I'd gladly watch the Brewers be no hit 3 times in one year if it meant we still made the playoffs.

[wibadgers23]

I would like to see:

1. Prince to really catch fire and finish the season with a bang in order to raise his trade value even more.
2. Our trio of rookies (Cain, Lucroy, Escobar) to finish the season strong.
3. Call up Amaury Rivas and give him a couple of starts.
4. Mess up a playoff run for a contender (Cardinals!).

 

[Invader3K]

I agree with all your points, wibadgers.

 

I guess some more specific things from myself:

 

- Braun to continue his current hot streak. I think he can finish the season with a BA above .300, restoring any lost confidence in him.

- Lucroy to show that he can handle the load of being an everyday starting catcher, while doing a decent job as a hitter. This is partly selfish, as I picked him up on my fantasy team.

- Parra to show whether or not we can count on him as part of the rotation for next year.

- Narveson to do the same.

- Rivas and/or Jeffress called up, just to give fans some hope and an idea of what they can possibly look like against MLB hitters.

- Cain to continue playing well and cement himself as an everyday MLB starter for next season.

- At least one player dealt in an August trade, just to give us something interesting to talk about. Even if it's just a veteran like Hoffman or Edmonds in exchange for a marginal minor leaguer.

[JohnBriggs12]

I'd like to take a look any of 3 bullpen candidates for 2011, Brandon Kintzler, Mike McClendon or Donovan Hand.

[The Truth]

82 wins

[colbyjack]

I don't think there is anything this team can do for the season not to be considered disappointing. Not being in the playoff race for pretty much the entire year has been tough to swallow. Finishing .500 or better is nice, but doesn't make up for what has been an uncompetitive season. It didn't help that Uecker hasn't been behind the mic for much of that time. I'm happy to see the crowds as big as they are at Miller Park, because it's clear that the community recognizes that the Brewers are still in better position now than they were 3-5 years ago.

 

So, anything the team can do to better position itself for next year is key. Even if Gomez comes off the DL, get Cain as much regular playing time as possible in CF. Same goes for Lucroy behind the plate, although he's been the regular pretty much since Zaun went down anyway. Get Gamel up in September and find as many ways to get him into the lineup as possible.

 

I too would like to see Rogers, Rivas and Butler given a spot start or two in September. I might do the same with Scarpetta since he too is on the 40-man, but would be more protective of his psyche as to not damage his confidence since he should struggle. Get creative, stretch out the starting staff to give some taxed arms (like Gallardo's) some more rest in between starts, or set up a piggy-back system. Hopefully that would place less pressure on the bullpen as well if you're able to consistently get 4-8 innings from a proposed piggy-back system.

 

I like the idea of giving as many arms as possible a chance to show what they can do, including Jeffress, although I recognize that finding a 40-man spot for guys like Kintlzer, Hand and/or McClendon is easier said than done. As much as I would like to see Jeffress return to starting, part of me is intrigued by the Brewers having their own 'nasty boys' trio of Axford, Braddock and Jeffress moving forward.

 

Someone already mentioned this, but by far the biggest thing the Brewers need to happen between now and the end of the year is Prince needs to go on a tear and finish the year with some big numbers. Push that average to the .280-.290 range and get the RBI up. These may be shallow statistics, but they are still numbers you can point to in trade negotiations, since you know Scott Boras isn't going to do the Brewers any favors the next time he decides to open his yap to the media. Fielder's trade value needs to be as high as possible heading into the offseason.

[TooLiveBrew]

I agree that the season really can't avoid being a disappointment at this point, but it'll be much less disappointing if the following -- "Get Gamel up in September and find as many ways to get him into the lineup as possible" -- isn't too much of a zim-zam for Macha.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing the young arms you mentioned (Rogers, Rivas, Butler, Jeffress) get more than just minimal duty, which again goes back to the zim-zammy-ness of the situation. Hoping Macha proves me wrong for being concerned.

[mletto157]

Well finishing above the Cubs is still something I can be happy about no matter what the final record ends up as. But overall on the season, unless they make the playoffs, it'll be hard to make it anything other than disappointing just because (as someone mentioned) the majority of the season was out of contention, which is disheartening.

[crewcrazy]

Mainly, I just want to be entertained every night. Finish the season playing hard, and if you can screw up a few playoff chases in the process, all the better.

 

On an individual basis, I'd like to see Lucroy show some patience at the plate. His walk numbers in the majors so far haven't lived up to what we saw in the minors, so maybe he's still just adjusting to major league pitching. I'd also like to see Escobar keep hitting the way he has lately, although I have no idea if this hot streak is sustainable or not. On the pitching end, I'm probably one of the very few that still believes Manny Parra has something if he can find a way to tap into it, so I'd like to see him give the Brewers a reason to keep him.

[MadScientist]

The season itself is a disappointment, but if they show signs of real hope for next season it will at least take some of the sting off. The "Wait 'till next year" cry only works if there is some chance next year.

 

Signs of hope:

1) Good pitching by the Narvason, Parra, and anyone called up.

2) Hart, Weeks and Braun playing well.

3) Cain, Gamel, Escobar, and Lucroy looking like they should and will be in the lineup for years to come (and not by default).

[logan82]

Getting rid of Edmonds is one good way to make this season less disappointing.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Yeah, no matter how you slice it, this season has been a disappointing one. I don't think too many people figured we were legit contenders going in, but it's still a downer when you come out of the gate ultra flat, and never get back into it.

 

As for what I want to see between now and the end of the season..........

 

1.) Some serious AB's for Cain. I'd like to see the guy get 150 plate appearances. Not that that's enough to draw conclusions on, but let's see what the kid can do.

2.) Lucroy and Escobar finish strong.

3.) Not that personal accomplishements mean much, but I don't see any reason to not give Hoffman the opportunity to get his 600 saves.

[monty57]

I understand that teams have "up" years and "down" years. The biggest thing is to take advantage of opportunities whatever the situation. Trading Edmonds for someone who can help them for the next five years is an example of taking advantage of a down year just like signing CC was an example of taking advantage of an up year. I wish that they had made some more moves prior to the trade deadline (and in 2009), but at least the Edmonds trade showed something. Hopefully we can get similar deals with other players.

 

Some other positives that came out this year unfortunately came due to injuries or underperformance from others. The young bullpen arms have given me more hope for the future. If we don't spend $15-20MM on the bullpen, we should be able to better spend the money elsewhere. Lucroy getting his chance when Zaun got hurt has shown that he is fully capable of being a full-time MLB catcher, while Kottaras has proven to be a valuable backup. Gomez's injury has given Cain a chance to play everyday, and the injuries to Braun and Hart will probably give Dickerson some starts this week to (hopefully) show Brewers fans that we got a productive player. Finally, Narveson and Parra were given a chance to start everyday after Davis and Suppan were out of the rotation. At the very least, the front office has a lot more data on them when trying to fill out the 2011 rotation.

 

Another positive in the "learn from your mistakes" camp was "The Plan" regarding pitching. I think Melvin's comment that they were looking for big, strong pitchers with plus fastballs and offspeed pitches is an acknowledgement that they will no longer be targeting pitchers like Suppan, Wolf and Davis in free agency. I think in the future, if someone doesn't fit the bill, Melvin will look elsewhere to fill the rotation spot.

 

So, while the season as a whole has to be classified as disappointing, at least some positives came out of it.