2011-05-04 Brewers (Greinke) at Braves (Hudson) - Game 2 - 7:00ish PM CDT [Brewers lose, 8-0]

[GormanHarvey]

Is there a reason Betancourt mostly refuses to bend over and/or dive?

[chickinbrickin]

Is there a reason Betancourt mostly refuses to bend over and/or dive?

 

Because he sucks!

[rluzinski]

So who's shocked with this shutout?

You said, "I wouldn't be surprised if..." That's just a silly pseudo-prediction that sports fans use to hedge their bet. If it doesn't happen, well they didn't necessarily think it wouldn't. But if it DOES happen, well they recognized it as a real possibility. It's just as easy for me to say that I wouldn't be shocked if a great pitcher could shut out the Brewer's offense. Well... why would I be?

On that note, I totally wouldn't be surprised if the Brewers broke up the shut out in the 9th. Would you be shocked if they did?

[Mr QL]

this team doesn't look any better than last year

[crewcrazy]

This team is the same group of players that took 3 of 4 from the Braves a couple weeks ago. Not much has changed, other than the Braves getting hot this time around and the Brewers struggling to score runs.

[TheCrew07]

Not much has changed... other than the pitching has stunk this time around.

[brewmann04]

I don't know the pitching and hitting and now fielding is going to pot recently.The crew need to to get this fixed before the season take a turn for the worst.

[COBrewerfan]

Just a bad stretch. It happens when you play 162 games. Its the opposite of our hot steak after the 0-4 start. Long way to go. And Yuni is not diving because he is not throwing the guy out even if he dives for that ball. That was on the other side of 2nd. And the game is already over. Funny the things people come up with in a game we have zero runs in and there is only one hit.

[rluzinski]

So funny how if the Brewers had one less hit, ESPN would be cutting into the game live and everyone would be watching. One hit? Bleh... who cares.

[cnycerveceros]

Just a bad stretch. It happens when you play 162 games. Its the opposite of our hot steak after the 0-4 start. Long way to go. And Yuni is not diving because he is not throwing the guy out even if he dives for that ball. That was on the other side of 2nd. And the game is already over. Funny the things people come up with in a game we have zero runs in and there is only one hit.

Is condescension now allowed here at BF.net?

[markedman5]

Nothing has changed other then our hitting was non existent, our fielding stunk and our pitching wasn't much better........

 

 

Ohter then that exactly the same.......

[pingman]

Hudson:

 

29 batters faced....

28 BALLS !!!!!

[Oxy]

So funny how if the Brewers had one less hit, ESPN would be cutting into the game live and everyone would be watching. One hit? Bleh... who cares.

After reading hundreds of your posts over the years (longtime lurker), I have to question: are you in favor of playoffs in sports? Or should we just declare the regular season champs the World Champions and kind of do the playoffs just for kicks and giggles? After all, 162 games is a far larger sample size than a couple of playoff series', so it doesn't really make sense to give all the glory to the playoff winner.

[pingman]

I like the current playoff format with 4 playoff teams...... HOWEVER:

 

1) way too many off-days during the playoffs......as a result you can win with only 3 good starters..... look at the Diamondbacks when they had Johnson & Schilling ....if the game is designed for 5 starters during the regular season it should be the same for the playoffs

 

2) having the all-star game winner get home field advantage in the World Series sucks.....

 

3) the unbalanced schedule is not fair because it's biased against a team that plays in the toughest division

[owbc]

It may be just a bad stretch, but they really need to start winning soon. Everyone is back now and they have one month to get back in the race before the brutal part of the schedule hits.

 

Of course, the schedule doesn't look so bad if the Royals and Indians stay hot with the Twins slumping, but you have to think that will be reversed by June.

[The Truth]

if the Royals and Indians stay hot...

the Royals are managed by Ned Yost, they'll be strictly a 1st half team

[Invader3K]

This was one of the worst games I've seen from the Brewers in a long time. Maybe I just have a short term memory, but I cannot remember a display of such incompetent defense combined with almost non-existent offense in a few years from this team.

[dlk9s]

I didn't expect the rainout I attended to be the best game of the series so far.

[brewmann04]

We need to start playing better Basball and that inculdes the Hitters not named Braun and Prince. Hopefully Yo will get untrack and the pitching will start to help carry this team and the Defense needs to tighten up .

[Invader3K]

We need to start playing better Basball and that inculdes the Hitters not named Braun and Prince. Hopefully Yo will get untrack and the pitching will start to help carry this team and the Defense needs to tighten up .

Yep, just all of that needs to happen...

[Oxy]

We need to start playing better Basball and that inculdes the Hitters not named Braun and Prince. Hopefully Yo will get untrack and the pitching will start to help carry this team and the Defense needs to tighten up .

Yep, just all of that needs to happen...

Exactly. In addition to improving the hitting, pitching, and defense, it couldn't hurt if we picked it up a little bit in the managing and coaching departments. The general managing has also been a bit erratic, so I suppose we could shore up some weaknesses there too. In my opinion, our ownage is off the charts, though. Hats off to Attanasio.

[rluzinski]

So funny how if the Brewers had one less hit, ESPN would be cutting into the game live and everyone would be watching. One hit? Bleh... who cares.

After reading hundreds of your posts over the years (longtime lurker), I have to question: are you in favor of playoffs in sports? Or should we just declare the regular season champs the World Champions and kind of do the playoffs just for kicks and giggles? After all, 162 games is a far larger sample size than a couple of playoff series', so it doesn't really make sense to give all the glory to the playoff winner.

I'm kind of surprised a comment about the significance of no hits vs. one would prompt a question about the playoffs but here goes:

It's all about what the fans find the most entertaining, right? There is just too much entertainment value to the playoffs to just get rid of them. Of course, you also have to keep the regular season relevant and you want to make sure the better teams have a good shot at winning it. If you let 16 teams in the playoffs and it's a COMPLETE crapshoot, that would suck the entertainment value out the entire sport.

So the question isn't whether you should have a playoff, it's how often do you want the best teams, to win it.

 

[Oxy]

I'm kind of surprised a comment about the significance of no hits vs. one would prompt a question about the playoffs but here goes:

It's all about what the fans find the most entertaining, right? There is just too much entertainment value to the playoffs to just get rid of them. Of course, you also have to keep the regular season relevant and you want to make sure the better teams have a good shot at winning it. If you let 16 teams in the playoffs and it's a COMPLETE crapshoot, that would suck the entertainment value out the entire sport.

So the question isn't whether you should have a playoff, it's how often do you want the best teams, to win it.

 

You kind of dodged my question a little bit by talking about "the fans" and what the MLB baseball would/could realistically do. I'm not asking that. I'm asking about YOUR opinion, and what YOU would prefer. After all, YOU are a fan. Do YOU get excited by the possibility of a no-hitter vs. a one-hitter? It sometimes seems through your posts that you'd rather there wouldn't be any drama, emotions, or psychology in sports.

 

The reason I made the connection between no-hitters and the playoffs is because I find them somewhat analogous, except on a larger scale, i.e. one-hitter : no-hitter : : best regular season team : World Series Champ. What the average fan sees as "being clutch" a lot of stat oriented people view as "being lucky." I just want to know what you think.

[rluzinski]

I'm kind of surprised a comment about the significance of no hits vs. one would prompt a question about the playoffs but here goes:

It's all about what the fans find the most entertaining, right? There is just too much entertainment value to the playoffs to just get rid of them. Of course, you also have to keep the regular season relevant and you want to make sure the better teams have a good shot at winning it. If you let 16 teams in the playoffs and it's a COMPLETE crapshoot, that would suck the entertainment value out the entire sport.

So the question isn't whether you should have a playoff, it's how often do you want the best teams, to win it.

 

You kind of dodged my question a little bit by talking about "the fans" and what the MLB baseball would/could realistically do. I'm not asking that. I'm asking about YOUR opinion, and what YOU would prefer. After all, YOU are a fan. Do YOU get excited by the possibility of a no-hitter vs. a one-hitter? It sometimes seems through your posts that you'd rather there wouldn't be any drama, emotions, or psychology in sports.

 

The reason I made the connection between no-hitters and the playoffs is because I find them somewhat analogous, except on a larger scale, i.e. one-hitter : no-hitter : : best regular season team : World Series Champ. What the average fan sees as "being clutch" a lot of stat oriented people view as "being lucky." I just want to know what you think.

You seem to be suggesting that I have personal preferences and I am trying to mold my favorite sport into what I want it to be. Others may do that but I attempt to remain objective. I have spent hundreds of hours of my life attempting to study the "truths" about baseball. Sometimes those truths serve to shed light on the inner workings of the sport, other times they just tell me that the answer just isn't known.I still am watching the Brewers, so apparently I am still extracting pleasure from the sport even with my non-traditional view of it.

To respond to some of your other points:

Like pretty much anyone else, I like the playoff system in sports in general. I enjoy the drama in sports and that's what the playoffs give you. It is important to me that the best team overall has a good shot at winning it, though. For that reason, I don't really like the best of 5 series. Make it best of seven and don't let teams get away with using only three starting pitchers.

I appreciate awesome individual performances. A starting pitcher dominating his opponent is great TV. I just take exception to how baseball seems to measure domination. There is nothing particularly special about no hits vs 1 hit to me. Hudson dominated the Brewers a lot more than Loriano dominated the White Sox, IMO.

I enjoy watching a Brewer have a clutch performance but that doesn't mean I think that player is necessarily a clutch player. He WAS clutch. Perhaps some players do possess some quality that allows them to perform better in high leverage situations. Trying to identify who they are is virtually impossible, though. It's not that I would PREFER that there is no such thing as clutch players, I just don't think I know who they are.