Our Current Starting Lineup Does Not Look Good

[danzig6767]

Oh I know it's not going to be called an error, just saying that was really a weak triple. He hit it what, 225 feet maybe?

I agree that was a very lucky triple and should have been caught, but at least when Morgan is in the game instead of Kotsay, i feel like we have a guy in there who can make some plays, via offensively or defensively.

 

While Hart is out, i have a seriously hard time wrapping my brain around why Roenike seems to think that Kotsay's corpse should play more than Morgan? How does that happen? Roenike strikes me as not being a huge stats type of guy, but even his eyes should clearly see that Nyger is much superior defensively, and Kotsay looks every bit as washed up at the plate as his numbers showed last season. So how does it happen that Roenike could view Kotsay as his first option in RF with Hart out? What would be the rational in his head as he's choosing this? Even the gritty veteran excuse doesn't really have any standing here given that Morgan has 1250 at bats under his belt, he's no Brad Nelson type of rookie.

[endaround]

Except of course Kotsay was out there too.

[brewers19]

Oh I know it's not going to be called an error, just saying that was really a weak triple. He hit it what, 225 feet maybe?

Though to his credit, the fact that he kept running flat out on what was a fairly routine fly ball allowed him to reach third. Most players would have only made it to second on that play, and maybe even a few really lazy ones would be stuck at first.

[RobDeer 45]

lineup looked a lot better with Counsell and Tony Plush in there! I do remember CC saying he can't handle major playing time. That being said I'd like to ride that line of having him play and then day off and see how he holds up. I think YB can be ok in there and will add some pop at times so I'm ok with them both playing. I just would like to see CC in there as much as he can handle. As for GoGo I so want to cheer for this kid but I have lost most of my faith (I wasn't expecting a miracle but at least some progress). I'm really happy that we have Nyger.

[monty57]

Really glad that we got our first win, and really glad that Morgan is making the most of his PT, forcing Roenicke's hand in giving him PT. Hopefully it will come at Kotsay's expense now and at Gomez's expense once Hart's back.

 

All this scrub-bashing aside, it still required a 2-hit shutout to get our 1-0 win. We really need Fielder and McGehee to wake up before we'll start scoring more runs. Putting Morgan between Weeks and Braun on a regular basiswill help, but some hits out of the 4-5 spots in the order will really get us rolling.

[The Truth]

it still required a 2-hit shutout to get our 1-0 win. .

well, alot of that was Derek Lowe, who also pitched great, just not as great as Yo. We won a pitcher's duel. How often did that happen last year? With Greinke coming next month and as long as Marcum pitches like he's capable of, we have the potential to win a lot of pitchers duels this year. This year's Crew is capable of winning games when we only score 2 to 4 runs, last year's Crew rarely did that

 

 

[TooLiveBrew]

Really glad that we got our first win, and really glad that Morgan is making the most of his PT, forcing Roenicke's hand in giving him PT. Hopefully it will come at Kotsay's expense now and at Gomez's expense once Hart's back.

 

Yes, and Morgan not only seems to be the exact type of player that fits Roenin' Ron's gameplan, but he's played that way so far too. His "triple" last night made me wonder how Ron couldn't be all about the guy.

 

 

some hits out of the 4-5 spots in the order will really get us rolling.

 

Fielder certainly has tended to start out slowly -- career .832 OPS in March/April, his lowest other career monthly OPS is .883. In fact, May is Prince's best monthly career OPS. McGehee's career is short enough that you can't really make generalizations about his opening months, but I'm sure he'll start hitting too.

[monty57]

it still required a 2-hit shutout to get our 1-0 win. .

well, alot of that was Derek Lowe, who also pitched great, just not as great as Yo. We won a pitcher's duel. How often did that happen last year? With Greinke coming next month and as long as Marcum pitches like he's capable of, we have the potential to win a lot of pitchers duels this year. This year's Crew is capable of winning games when we only score 2 to 4 runs, last year's Crew rarely did that

 

I guess what I was saying is that we're only scoring 2.6 runs per game in the small number of games we've played. Our offense is much better than it has shown, even with some of the dead weight we have. Fielder & McGehee will heat up, and we'll get even better as players get healthy.

 

Agreed on the pitching front. No offense is good enough to score a lot of runs every game, and it is good to have multiple pitchers who can keep us in the games where our offense fails to show up.

[tstads20]

Yes, and Morgan not only seems to be the exact type of player that fits Roenin' Ron's gameplan, but he's played that way so far too. His "triple" last night made me wonder how Ron couldn't be all about the guy.

Exactly, and with how poorly the bottom of the lineup has hit so far, you almost have to play the hot hand with Morgan just to open up scoring opportunities. I have no doubt Prince will get going soon, but without Hart, you need to take offense where you can get it. And so far, Kotsay hasn't looked good in the field or at the plate...

[logan82]

MadtownStadley wrote:

Exactly, and with how poorly the bottom of the lineup has hit so far, you almost have to play the hot hand with Morgan just to open up scoring opportunities. I have no doubt Prince will get going soon, but without Hart, you need to take offense where you can get it. And so far, Kotsay hasn't looked good in the field or at the plate...

You never play the hot hand. You should always play the better player.

[PrinceEatMeat]

logan3825][quote author=MadtownStadley wrote:

Exactly, and with how poorly the bottom of the lineup has hit so far, you almost have to play the hot hand with Morgan just to open up scoring opportunities. I have no doubt Prince will get going soon, but without Hart, you need to take offense where you can get it. And so far, Kotsay hasn't looked good in the field or at the plate...

You never play the hot hand. You should always play the better player.Totally agree. Morgan is clearly the better player. I think Roenicke will realize that very soon if he doesn't already.

[rluzinski]

Morgan is clearly the better player against righties for sure.

[davemakovec]

Ron Roenicke is the better player than Mark Kotsay. This shouldn't be a difficult decision. Kotsay has no place on a major league roster. I fear, though, that since he went 2-2 the other day that Roenicke will start referring to his "veteran experience" and keep putting him in games.

[PrinceEatMeat]

davemakovec]Ron Roenicke is the better player than Mark Kotsay. This shouldn't be a difficult decision. Kotsay has no place on a major league roster. I fear, though, that since he went 2-2 the other day that Roenicke will start referring to his "veteran experience" and keep putting him in games.

Seeing as he sat the bench the day after going 2-2 in part-time duty, I don't really think that played into it much.

[JohnBriggs12]

Ron Roenicke is the better player than Mark Kotsay. This shouldn't be a difficult decision. Kotsay has no place on a major league roster. I fear, though, that since he went 2-2 the other day that Roenicke will start referring to his "veteran experience" and keep putting him in games.

Not sure I understand the hatred for this guy. He's had a solid major league career. His numbers aren't great but he's played the majority of time in pitchers parks. He's had all of 11 AB's as a Brewer. There's no reason to think he won't be able to produce numbers similar to what Inglett did last year in a similar role.

[logan82]

He's had a solid major league career.

 

Sure he has but that is in the past.

[endaround]

Kotsay in 2010 .239/.306/.376

 

Inlgett in 2010 .254/.331/.401

 

There is absolutely no reason to expect Kotsay to produce similar numbers to Inglett

[PrinceEatMeat]

Kotsay in 2010 .239/.306/.376

 

Inlgett in 2010 .254/.331/.401

 

There is absolutely no reason to expect Kotsay to produce similar numbers to Inglett

Agreed, actually there's plenty of reason to believe he'll produce much worse numbers. That's one of the reasons why everyone here hates him. Inglett is better in the role Kotsay will be asked to play, so it makes no sense to have Kotsay playing that role. There's actually a lot of people that would be better in my opinion.

[endaround]

Inglett could also actually play the field

[rluzinski]

Ron Roenicke is the better player than Mark Kotsay. This shouldn't be a difficult decision. Kotsay has no place on a major league roster. I fear, though, that since he went 2-2 the other day that Roenicke will start referring to his "veteran experience" and keep putting him in games.

Not sure I understand the hatred for this guy. He's had a solid major league career. His numbers aren't great but he's played the majority of time in pitchers parks. He's had all of 11 AB's as a Brewer.

I think Kotsay a terrible player and it has NOTHING to do with what he did in 2001 or 2011. Both are almost completely completely irrelevant with regard to estimating his current worth. In summary:

Small samples (1-50 AB) = basically worthless (especially in spring training!)

10 year old data = basically worthless

So until you appreciate those two points, you will always struggle to understand why people have certain opinions about certain players.

 

[RightFieldCoder]

Small samples (1-50 AB) = basically worthless (especially in spring training!)

10 year old data = basically worthless

That's not true. I say we dig up Ruth and unfreeze Teddy Ballgame. Our outfield will dominate!

[MJLiverock]

endaround]Kotsay in 2010 .239/.306/.376

 

Inlgett in 2010 .254/.331/.401

 

There is absolutely no reason to expect Kotsay to produce similar numbers to Inglett

Unless of course you are ZIPS. Either way neither is a world beater.

 

Kotsay .256/.309/.375/.688

Inglett .254/.316/.352/.668

 

 

 

 

[endaround]

The question was would Kotsay repeat what Inglett did last year, not would Inglett repeat what he did last year.

[Ennder]

You also cant' stress enough how terrible Kotsay is in the field at this point. He has to greatly outproduce a random player offensively because he is such a huge liability defensively. Kotsay should not be more than a PH vs right handed pitching and that doesn't really hold enough value to make a roster.

[danzig6767]

You also cant' stress enough how terrible Kotsay is in the field at this point. He has to greatly outproduce a random player offensively because he is such a huge liability defensively. Kotsay should not be more than a PH vs right handed pitching and that doesn't really hold enough value to make a roster.

Melvin doesn't seem heavily into sabermetrics, but at the same time he doesn't seem to ignore them either. He has a full time stats guy on the payroll. He has multiple scouts.

 

So even though Kotsay is roughly the 23rd-24th-25th man on the roster and thus will be limited in the impact he can have positive or negative, he can impact some games where he does play. It simply makes me wonder what Doug saw in making him not only invite Kotsay to camp, but also guarantee money which pretty much guaranteed a roster spot? I'm seriously at a loss to figure that out? There had to be something beyond Kotsay just being a veteran because he wasn't the only veteran looking for guaranteed money and it's not like we were desperate for another lefthanded bench bat.

 

So what could Doug have saw in Kotsay that made him say, we really need to guarantee Mark some money so we get him?