Impressions of Roenicke 2012

[Baldkin]

Choosing Tim Dillard over Kameron Loe, John Axford or Francisco Rodriguez is always the wrong choice in a tie game.

[Funketown]

Choosing Tim Dillard over Kameron Loe, John Axford or Francisco Rodriguez is always the wrong choice in a tie game.

 

K-Rod had already pitched, but I don't see why they didn't leave Loe out.

[jerichoholicninja]

Choosing Tim Dillard over Kameron Loe, John Axford or Francisco Rodriguez is always the wrong choice in a tie game.

 

The wrong choice was leaving Dillard in after he proved he couldn't throw a strike after the first two batters. Axford should have been warming after the sac bunt and brought in after the walk. I would guess that about 28 of the 30 managers manage that inning the same way Ron did, which is dumb. The stupid save stat prevented Axford from coming in that inning or before it.

[Glennron]

I don't remember, was Loe pinch hit for in the top of the 11th? He only threw 7 pitches in the 10th.

 

Not using Axford over Dillard is dumb, but the whole refusal to use a closer in a non save situation on the road definitely seems to be a league wide phenomenon and not just Roenicke. Not that it makes it any less frustrating to see a guy who arguably shouldn't even be on an MLB roster out there.

[Baldkin]

I don't remember, was Loe pinch hit for in the top of the 11th? He only threw 7 pitches in the 10th.

 

Not using Axford over Dillard is dumb, but the whole refusal to use a closer in a non save situation on the road definitely seems to be a league wide phenomenon and not just Roenicke. Not that it makes it any less frustrating to see a guy who arguably shouldn't even be on an MLB roster out there.

 

No, he was double switched out in the bottom of the 11th. Pure idiocy, making a change with the last guy on your bench when no change needed to be made.

[Funketown]

Leaving your best pitcher on the bench in these games and letting your mop-up guy pitch is like bringing out Iker Casillas to kick the 10th PK in a PK shootout so you can save Messi for the 11th. I just don't get it.

 

Maybe it makes it better that other managers do the same stuff, maybe it doesn't. I don't really know.

[Thurston Fluff]

Not using Axford over Dillard is dumb, but the whole refusal to use a closer in a non save situation on the road definitely seems to be a league wide phenomenon and not just Roenicke. Not that it makes it any less frustrating to see a guy who arguably shouldn't even be on an MLB roster out there.

 

What is really weird about it is Ron isn't afraid to do things most managers don't. He routinely pinch hits with the catcher, his defensive shifts and suicide squeeze fascination all show he will go agains the grain. Yet the closer non save situation on the road I can't remember him doing. Either there is something we are missing, this is one of those player relation things where each guy knows his role or something I can't figure. I'm glad Dillard is getting a shot in the majors. I always liked him but he is a fringe major league player. He really shouldn't have been in the game there. Especially after he faced a couple guys. Oh well like you said it seems to be league wide so chances are every team will end up on the short end as many times as we are from it. Someone here once said it takes third of the season to see what you have. That sort of always stuck with me. I guess unless you use them in that third you still won't know.

[markedman5]

http://milwaukee.brewers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120509&content_id=30815108&notebook_id=30815282&vkey=notebook_mil&c_id=mil

 

 

"Some moves are not made, Roenicke said, for reasons he cannot share."

 

So it's top secret why one person can't hit higher in the order?

[Ennder]

http://milwaukee.brewers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120509&content_id=30815108&notebook_id=30815282&vkey=notebook_mil&c_id=mil

 

 

"Some moves are not made, Roenicke said, for reasons he cannot share."

 

So it's top secret why one person can't hit higher in the order?

 

This comes as absolutely no surprise to me. Most managers don't share their reasoning for things with the media, they give them some cliche [expletive deleted by mod] answer and try to keep their reasons to themselves. No reason to tell your opponents why you do the things you do.

[The stache]

30 games is a small sample size within the overall context of a season, but how much longer can the lineup continue struggling to produce runs before substantial changes are made? Perhaps Ron needs to change how he looks at some things.

 

You have a future Hall of Famer batting third. It would make sense to me, a casual observer, that the manager should do anything possible to get people on ahead of him. Yet to this point, he has shown no willingness to change what is not working.

[monty57]

30 games is a small sample size within the overall context of a season, but how much longer can the lineup continue struggling to produce runs before substantial changes are made? Perhaps Ron needs to change how he looks at some things.

 

You have a future Hall of Famer batting third. It would make sense to me, a casual observer, that the manager should do anything possible to get people on ahead of him. Yet to this point, he has shown no willingness to change what is not working.

 

I'm not a Roenicke apologist, but what can he do? Here are the Brewers' OBP:

 

Kottaras .500

Lucroy .370

Braun .363

Gonzalez (out) .326

Gomez (out) .321

Hart .314

Aoki .302

Weeks .302

Gamel (out) .293

Ramirez .266

Ishikawa .250

Morgan .244

Green .222

Izturis .222

Conrad .000

 

The only move he could really make is to move the catchers up, but Lucroy has a career .314 OBP and Kottaras is a career .321 OBP, so is that really a better move than keeping Morgan/Aoki at leadoff and Weeks at #2? Any of those three should be able to get on base at a much higher clip than Luroy or Kottaras.

 

I'd probably give 1B to Green, who has upside, over Ishikawa who doesn't, but other than that Roenicke can't really do much when his hitters aren't able to hit and his pitchers aren't able to pitch. Eventually they'll figure it out, because we do have some good players. At that point I'll start nitpicking Roenicke over some of his moves, but for right now there's not a lot he can do.

[MJLiverock]

I agree Monty. Everytime I see the accusation of RR's using a small sample followed by Lucroy has to hit high in the line up or Green has to play 100% of the time I think an angel gets their wings ripped off. Lucroy is a career .314 OBP guy who is hitting well right now, with his .373 BABIP I have no problem with the manager keeping Weeks, Morgan, at the top for longer period. Lucroy started hot last year and ended up with a .313 OBP.

 

And everything about Green in the major's is small sample at this point.

[logan82]

That is why you look at what Green has done in the minors.

[MJLiverock]

fine, but Green's numbers in the minors don't look all that different than Ishikawa's and the projection for Green to hit around .260-.265 with a .325 OBP is right at what Ishikawa has actually put up in the Majors while being an actual first baseman. I just don't see that some horrible decision is made if Green doesn't automatically start every game. I want to see him play but I don't think RR is an idiot for playing Ishikawa at first over him at times.

[logan82]

I think that you have to take the context into consideration for Green. He had a wrist injury in early 2009 which probably effected him into 2010. Similar to Weeks wrist injury.

[jerichoholicninja]

I think you start Green over Ish because Green has a future in the organization at some position while Ish will hopefully never play for the Crew again after this season.

[3and2Fastball]

I think you start Green over Ish because Green has a future in the organization at some position while Ish will hopefully never play for the Crew again after this season.

 

Are you kidding? Travis Ishikawa is only 28 years old! Kotsay was 36 years old last year. I'm pretty sure that Roenicke is thinking of Ishikawa as "his Kotsay for the next 8 seasons..."

[Glennron]

Someone needs to tell Roenicke a large point of the squeeze play is the element of surprise.

[ninja33]

a bigger part of it is bunting the ball more than 6 inches away from home plate.

[Baldkin]

a bigger part of it is bunting the ball more than 6 inches away from home plate.

 

Or not bunting with a guy who's messed up 4 of the 6 sac's he's tried this year already?

[ninja33]

i think those kind of go hand in hand.

[Baldkin]

Pinch hit a LHB vs a LHP followed by a RHB vs a RHP.... or RHB vs LHP, LHP vs LHP.

 

RRR chose option #1.

[markedman5]

I saw this in the paper today and it struck me as odd. So we were having great success in pitching Pujols inside and then for whatever reason(becasue Larussa plunked Braun? really?) we stop doing it and he kills us in the playoffs?

 

I mean seriously?

 

Roenicke then used how the Brewers pitched former St. Louis Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols in 2011 as an example.

 

"We had the issue with Pujols, where we got him out inside last year," he said, referring to Pujols going 5 for 42 against Milwaukee before catching fire late in the season. "We stopped pitching him inside, and he started killing the ball against us.

 

"Well, we probably should have kept pitching him inside."

[adambr2]

His mistakes are going to be a lot more glaring since there is currently a lot less talent on this team compared to last year's to cover up his mistakes.

 

At this point we are looking like about a 75-80 win team this year, which would be the second worst thing to happen to this team this year in light of the Roenicke long-term extension.

[TURBO]

At this point, 75-80 wins would seem like the lottery... I think 70 wins is more realistic.

 

RR is a dweeb, I hate him. I hate everything about the way he manages this team. He is killing me.