2013 Brewers Whipping Boy...

[bani1717]

So let me get this straight, we gave up our first round pick to minimally improve the team but planned out everything else so poorly we are now stuck with Yuni at 1B.

 

This made me laugh out loud. Look on the bright side... at least he's not batting cleanup.

 

The whipping boy on this year's team is the first baseman we don't have.

[logan82]

The coaches and/or management who thought that Betancourt was clearly a better option at first base than Davis deserve to be on this list.

I really don't have a problem with Davis not being at 1B. Some people just shouldn't play on the infield. We know this from watching Braun.

 

So let me get this straight, we gave up our first round pick to minimally improve the team but planned out everything else so poorly we are now stuck with Yuni at 1B. Melvin is the clear leader for whipping boy. Of course DPR has to shoulder some of the blame. Maldonado is an option to play 1B. Not a good option but miles better than Yuni.

I typically agree with all your posts, but Maldanado being miles better than Yuni as a 1B? Can't get on board with that, they're both terrible options. Neither one can hit, nor are good defensively at the position.

I feel at least with Madonado there is the hope of some upside on the hitting. I don't see how he could possibly be worse on defense.

[H4P]

Through 5 games, the Brewers pitching staff leads the majors in hits, HRs, OPS and TB. They are 2nd in OBP and SLG and 4th in ERA. And it's not the type of leading you're looking for. Small sample size for sure but what's disturbing is the total lack of a clear leader in this contest at this point.

 

They started 0-5 in 2011. I'm going to try and stay positive and hope it just turns back into Yuni.

[TooLiveBrew]

Our 1B situation is baffling.

 

A MLB team, beginning the season without a single 1B on the roster is just so insanely stupid, it is hard to fathom.

I think you mean "embarassing, and a telling indictment of the management of the club."

[monty57]

Look on the bright side... at least he's not batting cleanup.

 

No, Gonzalez is. That's not a joke... Alex Gonzalez is our cleanup hitter and Yuni Betancourt is our first baseman.

[sveumrules]

Coming into the season we had Hart, Ramirez and Green for the two corner IF spots. By the 5th game of the season all three were injured. Green is already AAAA if you ask me so anyone else DM would have acquired for additional depth would be AAAA as well.

 

The difference between YuniB and AlGon & any AAAA player is basically nil so I don't really see what the big deal is, personally. Would everything really be puppies and rainbows if Lyle Overbay were at first? I think we'd still be 1-4.

[brettac1]

At least I would feel more like the 1B is borderline presentable if it was a guy like Overbay. I legit can't watch this team while Yuni is the starting 1B. It's too depressing.

[TheCrew07]

It may appear from my posts between the trade and MLB forums here that I genuinely dislike DM, which honestly isn't the case. In fact, I've actually always wanted to like to guy, it's very difficult for me to condemn coaches/managers/decision makers for many reasons. It's just that since my focus turned to pitching all those years ago I've just been on a completely different page than him.

 

This year Melvin is burying himself again, we squeaked by in 2011 with no depth at all but that didn't happen in 2012 and the start of the 2013 season has been miserable. How does it make sense to have 2 CF and 3 SS on the roster, then call up another utility CF/SS type? The problem here isn't the 40 man when Yuni B shouldn't have a roster spot to begin with, and it certainly isn't SS/CF with 5 players on the 25 man for those 2 positions. The problem is the corner IF with both Ramirez and Hart on the DL. Why is it acceptable to play 2 players who don't hit well as a SS at premium offensive positions... ohh, and both have been horrible defensively playing out of position, not to mention that Yuni is a terrible defender playing his "natural position".

 

I forget exactly what inning it was last night but Gonzo muffed a ball turning a DP into a force at 2B, Lucroy reached over the plate and got called for catcher's interference, and Yuni B made no effort on throw from Segura that was low and wide but still catchable. How successful are the Brewers going to be when the pitchers need to pickup 3 extra outs per inning?

 

Some of us have been nagging about roster and organization construction for a long time and while it is Yuni's fault that he stinks, it's not his fault he's on this team. I still don't understand why you take the best teacher of pitching from the entire organization and stick him in the major leagues as the bullpen coach. How is he going to fix anyone without the benefit of side bullpen sessions? Relievers don't get those... Tunnell should be working his magic with our minor league pitchers, not wasting away in Milwaukee's bullpen because it's the "most help needed" spot on the MLB team. It's not the rotation's fault that it has only been repeatedly patched with short term solutions for the duration of Melvin's tenure, it's not Ramirez' fault that he was playing hurt to begin with, and finally it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that players over 30 years old tend to get injured. The injury problem for aging players is of course further complicated by their pay, as when they are on the DL their high salaries are dead money, and in many cases it's a significant sum of money, so there's no money available to go out and get a replacement player.

 

I'm going to leave the Lohse/draft pick thing alone for now but it doesn't matter how Lohse pitches if the Brewers finish in 3rd or worse in central.

 

The problem has been and continues to be that management is more concerned with putting butts in the seats than they are being able to sustain the organization from within. Milwaukee is the smallest market in baseball, the Brewers have one of the worst TV contracts in baseball, and all available revenue streams appear to be tapped out. If we don't focus on organization building how is the performance of the MLB team ever going to get better than it was from 2006-2011? 1 divisional crown and 1 play-off series win is the best we can hope for every 6 years even with potential HOF players on the roster?

 

That's not good enough for me and I would hope that our expectations have risen enough as a fan base that it shouldn't be acceptable to the majority of posters on this forum. Melvin should be everyone's whipping boy, he's the one who is ultimately responsible for this entire mess.

[TooLiveBrew]

This is the first time that I can remember where I feel genuinely ambivalent about the Brewers. I don't feel excited to tune in to watch any given game. I feel like the organization, relative to the product on the MLB field, is in complete shambles. Two injuries shouldn't turn your lineup into a joke... and if they do, your GM and/or manager didn't do the job of building depth.

[gregmag]

I'm in the same place as TLB. Five games into the season, and it doesn't even seem like management is trying. When Yuni B is starting a game at 1b, that's when you call up Morris, because at that point the slim chance that Morris might be ready to contribute at this level far outstrips the chance that Yuni will ever help with anything.

 

I remember when Harry Dalton ran out of rope. He was a great GM for quite a while; he was instrumental in getting the team to a competitive place it had never seen before. But eventually his limits -- sticking with bad veterans (Gantner), overrating his players' trade value (Surhoff, IIRC) -- took over his good sense, and he had to go. Maybe that's where DM has gotten to. I've always been much more positive than negative about him, and I realize that some of the present difficulty comes down to context that he either couldn't control or created for defensible reasons. But I have to say, it feels like he isn't even trying to think creatively or attend to details anymore. Half the lineup and the bullpen look hopeless at this point, and the starting pitching was always a gamble.

 

I hope this is just my depression talking, and the pitching comes around, and some guys get hot . . . but this team looks like it's losing on its merits, and it looks like it could lose 100 games.

[Baldkin]

This is the first time that I can remember where I feel genuinely ambivalent about the Brewers. I don't feel excited to tune in to watch any given game. I feel like the organization, relative to the product on the MLB field, is in complete shambles. Two injuries shouldn't turn your lineup into a joke... and if they do, your GM and/or manager didn't do the job of building depth.

 

Well, for one, it wasn't two injuries, it was four. Braun, Ramirez, Hart, Green (who could've at least been the LH half of a platoon at 1B). Any team loses 3 all-star caliber players, their lineup takes a hit.

[prophet]

I'm officially putting my vote in for Axford. nobody has hurt this team more than him so far this year. He is, at this point, is Turnbow2.0.

[Jenkins5]

I'm officially putting my vote in for Axford. nobody has hurt this team more than him so far this year. He is, at this point, is Turnbow2.0.

 

Well I wouldn't call a ninth inning BP pitcher a whipping boy. Aren't BP pitchers suppose to give up home runs and long long long warning track outs? Please without the blue hear the sarcasm oozing out of my text lol

 

Axman is easily the whipping boy. terrible in WBC, Spring Training, and first 3 outings. He needs to get the Ax soon. You can't get away with being this bad cause of success couple seasons ago. An opposing hitter at this point just smiles when he comes in. They just need to sit back and wait for him to feed them a juicy straight as an arrow fastball right now middle of plate.

[prophet]

I'm officially putting my vote in for Axford. nobody has hurt this team more than him so far this year. He is, at this point, is Turnbow2.0.

 

Well I wouldn't call a ninth inning BP pitcher a whipping boy. Aren't BP pitchers suppose to give up home runs and long long long warning track outs? Please without the blue hear the sarcasm oozing out of my text lol

 

Axman is easily the whipping boy. terrible in WBC, Spring Training, and first 3 outings. He needs to get the Ax soon. You can't get away with being this bad cause of success couple seasons ago. An opposing hitter at this point just smiles when he comes in. They just need to sit back and wait for him to feed them a juicy straight as an arrow fastball right now middle of plate.

 

don't forget all of last season, last spring training too.

[Ennder]

This is the first time that I can remember where I feel genuinely ambivalent about the Brewers. I don't feel excited to tune in to watch any given game. I feel like the organization, relative to the product on the MLB field, is in complete shambles. Two injuries shouldn't turn your lineup into a joke... and if they do, your GM and/or manager didn't do the job of building depth.

 

Well, for one, it wasn't two injuries, it was four. Braun, Ramirez, Hart, Green (who could've at least been the LH half of a platoon at 1B). Any team loses 3 all-star caliber players, their lineup takes a hit.

 

You forgot Gamel so it was actually five and yes when you get an injury stack like this it is a complete killer for any team, hard sell to try to blame Melvin for this. At this point it seems silly not to bring up Morris though and just hope he gets it fast.

[logan82]

hard sell to try to blame Melvin for this. At this point it seems silly not to bring up Morris though and just hope he gets it fast.

Very easy to blame Melvin for not having any 1B on the roster.

[TURBO]

You forgot Gamel so it was actually five and yes when you get an injury stack like this it is a complete killer for any team, hard sell to try to blame Melvin for this. At this point it seems silly not to bring up Morris though and just hope he gets it fast.

 

I find it easy to blame Melvin. On opening day, we did not have one 1B on our active roster. Not one! What kind of GM goes into a season without a single 1B on the roster when our regular 1B was on the DL for at least a month? There was no plan other than to start Gonzalez, a crap hitting SS, at that position. So yes, I find it very easy to blame Doug Melvin.

[craigharmann]

You forgot Gamel so it was actually five and yes when you get an injury stack like this it is a complete killer for any team, hard sell to try to blame Melvin for this. At this point it seems silly not to bring up Morris though and just hope he gets it fast.

 

I find it easy to blame Melvin. On opening day, we did not have one 1B on our active roster. Not one! What kind of GM goes into a season without a single 1B on the roster when our regular 1B was on the DL for at least a month? There was no plan other than to start Gonzalez, a crap hitting SS, at that position. So yes, I find it very easy to blame Doug Melvin.

 

 

Perfectly well said Turborickey!

[craigharmann]

You forgot Gamel so it was actually five and yes when you get an injury stack like this it is a complete killer for any team, hard sell to try to blame Melvin for this. At this point it seems silly not to bring up Morris though and just hope he gets it fast.

 

I find it easy to blame Melvin. On opening day, we did not have one 1B on our active roster. Not one! What kind of GM goes into a season without a single 1B on the roster when our regular 1B was on the DL for at least a month? There was no plan other than to start Gonzalez, a crap hitting SS, at that position. So yes, I find it very easy to blame Doug Melvin.

 

 

Perfectly well said Turborickey!

[Ennder]

So had we signed Lyle Overbay and he got hurt you'd be fine? Seems like a stretch to me. There was no reason to think Gonzalez couldn't handle 1B for a couple weeks while they assessed the situation. Not like it takes a lot of time to call up a 1B which we have plenty of in the minors if we just wanted a body to fill the position. Having Gonzalez penciled in at 1B is not the problem, having more than half a lineup injured is.

[logan82]

So had we signed Lyle Overbay and he got hurt you'd be fine? Seems like a stretch to me. There was no reason to think Gonzalez couldn't handle 1B for a couple weeks while they assessed the situation. Not like it takes a lot of time to call up a 1B which we have plenty of in the minors if we just wanted a body to fill the position. Having Gonzalez penciled in at 1B is not the problem, having more than half a lineup injured is.

It became a problem when they decided to sign Yuni because they thought they needed a backup middle infielder.

[Eye Black]

I have held off on commenting one way or another on RRR. Maybe it is overreaction on my part, but I cringed when I read Roenicke's post-game comments regarding Parra's slide juxtaposed with Segura's quote.

 

Said Segura: "I don't think it's all right. I think it was a little dirty."

"He was going in there thinking he's going to have to break up two," Roenicke said of Parra. "By the time he gets that close to 'Seggy,' he doesn't know that Yuni bobbles that ball. So I thought it was fine."

I could not stand Tony LaRussa as a rival manager, but I always felt like he was willing to stick up for his guys (those not named Colby Rasmus, at least) no matter to what extent it may alienate the opposition. Over a long baseball season, it seems like standing with your players during these heated moments will earn their respect a lot quicker then remaining diplomatic.

[TURBO]

So had we signed Lyle Overbay and he got hurt you'd be fine? Seems like a stretch to me. There was no reason to think Gonzalez couldn't handle 1B for a couple weeks while they assessed the situation. Not like it takes a lot of time to call up a 1B which we have plenty of in the minors if we just wanted a body to fill the position. Having Gonzalez penciled in at 1B is not the problem, having more than half a lineup injured is.

 

Fine with signing Overbay? No, but at least it would have been a plan. At least it would be an attemt to acknowledge the fact that we needed an option at 1B that actually played 1B at some point in his career, and was serviceable. Going into this season blind, with no REAL plan at 1B was asinine. Who actually thought that Gonzalez was a good plan for a month or more? I don't see any excuse for a GM to enter a season with no plan at an offensive position. NONE.

 

There were a lot of reasons to think Gonzalez couldn't handle the position for 2 weeks or 4 weeks. The first being he has never played the position in his entire career. Couple that with th fact he is a crappy hitter, even for a SS, and we expected him to man a position where offense is a must, not a secondary thought.

 

Having Gonzalez penciled in at 1B is a large part of the problem when we have management that is unable to see the problems it can cause the line-up with just one injury. That is where we sit. Ramirez goes down, and the entire line-up is in shambles. Yes, it's bad that we have multiple injuries, but the problems are adding up based on the horrible decisions of a GM with no plan.

 

Again, what GM has ever gone into a season without a true 1B on the roster? It was a poor plan, and we are paying for it daily. Had we started with Morris up on the big boy team, and he batted .000 for 4 weeks, at least we know he knows the position. We don't have that right now. We still don't have a 1B on the roster, and I fully, 100% blame Doug Melvin for that.

[Ennder]

You were going to blame him no matter what happens so guess it isn't really worth discussing. The team isn't in the bad place it is right now because of Alex Gonzalez, he is far from the problem. The problem is the most injuries of any team in the league, a rotation that can't find the strike zone and a poorly built bullpen that is pitching as expected.

[TURBO]

You were going to blame him no matter what happens so guess it isn't really worth discussing. The team isn't in the bad place it is right now because of Alex Gonzalez, he is far from the problem. The problem is the most injuries of any team in the league, a rotation that can't find the strike zone and a poorly built bullpen that is pitching as expected.

 

It is very unfair for you to tell me what I was going to think/do no matter what happened. That seems like unfounded speculation to me. Sounds like a position someone takes when they have no real basis to retaliate in a conversation such as this.

 

Who said this is Alex Gonzalez's fault? It is Doug Melvin's fault for going into the season with no plan at 1B. None of this is Gonzalez's fault, who said it was? All the injuries are bad, but the problem has been compounded beacuse we have no 1B on this roster. Our back-up SS has to play 1B because we didn't start the season with a 1B. Then our 3B goes down, so he has to play 3B, which isn't his position either. Our utility back-up infielder (Yuni) now has to play 3B or 1B and has no business on the field at either position. We are sporting 2 crappy players at corner infield positions that are not used to the position, and who can't hit a lick. No one else in MLB wanted either of them, and we are counting on them to produce offensive numbers that palce them in the clean-up spot and 6th spot in our line-up. Had we had a 1B on the team, we would have only one corner IF spot to fill (3B) with a player that doesn't belong, now, we have 2 players starting that have no business being on the field. Segura gets hurt, that leaves Yuni at SS, Gonzalez at 3B and no one at 1B. In essence, that is 3 positions that are messed up because of Segura's injury. This is a giant clustered up mess, and with no plan to begin with, the problem could have been lessened.

 

It all builds on top of each other, and blame should rest squarely on Doug Melvin, the GM who came into the season with no plan real plan at 1B.

 

Actually, it probably doesn't matter since I really do not think that Attanasio would fire Melvin for any reason. If there ever were reasons to fire a GM, this has to be one of them.