2013-04-03 Rockies (Nicasio) at Brewers (Peralta), 7:10 PM CDT [Brewers lose, 7-3]

[brwrsfan]

Our 2, 3 and 4 hitters are 14 for 32 with 2 HR and 8 RBI in 3 games, and we're about to fall to 1-2.

 

Aoki hasn't gotten on much in front of them, and the bottom half of the lineup has been pretty brutal. And we've left a lot of guys on base.

[trwi7]

I keep seeing Roenicke referred to as RRR...

 

What does the middle R stand for? Seriously, I seem to have missed something.

 

Runnin' Ron Roenicke for our aggressive and sometimes stupid running.

[markedman5]

Brewer staff making the Rockies look like the 27 yankees......

 

Giving up lots of HRs is not a thing to be good at if you want to win games.....

[TURBO]

I keep seeing Roenicke referred to as RRR...

 

What does the middle R stand for? Seriously, I seem to have missed something.

 

I believe Runnin' Ron Roenicke, due his comments after being hired that he loved aggressive baserunning and stealing

 

 

I keep seeing Roenicke referred to as RRR...

 

What does the middle R stand for? Seriously, I seem to have missed something.

 

Runnin' Ron Roenicke for our aggressive and sometimes stupid running.

 

 

Thank you.

[brwrsfan]

Brewer staff making the Rockies look like the 27 yankees......

 

Giving up lots of HRs is not a thing to be good at if you want to win games.....

 

I would almost rather it was JUST the HR, you can call that some bad luck or whatever, but above and beyond the 8 (?) HR in 3 games, the 40 hits is very, very troublesome.

[Ennder]

Brewer staff making the Rockies look like the 27 yankees......

 

Giving up lots of HRs is not a thing to be good at if you want to win games.....

 

I would almost rather it was JUST the HR, you can call that some bad luck or whatever, but above and beyond the 8 (?) HR in 3 games, the 40 hits is very, very troublesome.

 

To me the hits are more luck than the HR. Hits are just sort of random noise most of the time, HR are usually poor pitches. Especially this series where the Rockies had 9 infield hits which is just insane for a 3 game series. You should expect 2 or 3 instead of 9.

[topper09er]

Take this in fellas, the only 2 Betancourts in MLB history facing each other

[brewmann04]

I just hope they don't wait to long to remove AX from the closer role. I can't see how Ron has any trust in him. Maybe tonight Ax will tweet us the reason why he has pitched poorly. It should not take long to remove him like it did last season.

[The stache]

With the top of our order coming up, 3 runs is still doable. Yet Roenicke seemingly just let it ride, and it could have been much worse.

 

Brignac singled to right

Cuddyer homered to left

Herrera flied out to right

Fowler homered to right

Cargo lined out to left

Tulo singled to deep right center

Rosario singled to left

 

Roenicke didn't get off his butt until after another home run and two singles were surrendered by Axford. If he pulls Axford after the first home run, it's a 3 run game.

 

My problem is that he let Axford keep throwing after giving up a game tying home run in game 1, and a two run bomb in this game. He should have been out then. Maybe the Rockies still score another run, but it's clear that Ax doesn't have it, and he shouldn't be out there floundering.

 

The Rockies have an awful bullpen. Three runs is possible. Four is harder.

[Dollarbill13]

Brewer staff making the Rockies look like the 27 yankees......

 

Giving up lots of HRs is not a thing to be good at if you want to win games.....

 

I would almost rather it was JUST the HR, you can call that some bad luck or whatever, but above and beyond the 8 (?) HR in 3 games, the 40 hits is very, very troublesome.

 

To me the hits are more luck than the HR. Hits are just sort of random noise most of the time, HR are usually poor pitches. Especially this series where the Rockies had 9 infield hits which is just insane for a 3 game series. You should expect 2 or 3 instead of 9.

 

I was just going to post this. We should still have a pretty good team xFIP after this series

[adambr2]

I just hope they don't wait to long to remove AX from the closer role. I can't see how Ron has any trust in him. Maybe tonight Ax will tweet us the reason why he has pitched poorly. It should not take long to remove him like it did last season.

 

I doubt he's going to go on Twitter tonight and tweet "I'm leaving my fastball up, I can't locate any other pitch, and therefore I'm essentially throwing BP."

[TURBO]

Ok, it's one bad series. Going to have to try and keep perspective.

 

We have no 1B. Starting pitching has been weak. It looks like we have a serious issue at closer, and Yuni is back on the squad.

 

I don't like how things have started, but it is only 3 games. I doubt we are going to solve any of the above issues soon. We knew coming in, even though management didn't seem to know, that we were screwed at 1B. We were pretty sure that our starting pitching would be a giant question mark, and given last years daily horror show from the bullpen, we couldn't be sure what we had there either. So far, minus Axford, the bullpen has looked fine. Axford might never be the same guy we saw in 2011, but how long will we suffer through his struggles this year?

 

Tough to feel good about this team right now, but taking the next series should ease some of the pain...................................hopefully.

[brewmann04]

Hope the brewers won't let ax stay in the closing role as long as they left him there last season. This is an issue that looks like last season all over.

[3and2Fastball]

In what universe is Yuni B more valuable than even Blake Lalli? Not in mine

 

over/under on how long it takes RRR to get Segura out of the 8 hole? 40 games? 80 games? 2 seasons?

[3and2Fastball]

And how can you build an MLB team that is taken seriously enough to sign Kyle Lohse and not have a starting 1B to begin the season?

[TheCrew07]

I still maintain that Ax needs to dump that crappy curve and go back to throwing his slider more. The curve was a nice change of pace pitch when mixed with his heavy FB and slider but it's too loopy a curve to be a featured secondary offering by itself.

 

As a hitter if you don't fear a secondary offering you just sit FB because you know you can get your bat on that curve...

 

I would have never qualified Ax as a control guy, in my opinion he needs to do a better job keeping hitters off balance so his mistakes don't get crushed, and whatever he was trying to do with his pitches last year didn't work, and through his first couple of appearances this season it seems to be the same mix of pitches.

 

Maybe I'm just bitter because it seems like every time I think to myself this is a good spot for slider he loops up a curve and it gets hammered some place and I want smack both him and Lucroy through the TV.

 

At any rate, the Brewer's continual struggle with the back end of the bullpen is why I'm always in favor of flipping an overvalued reliever coming off of a big year. If you can land an everyday player or starting pitcher make that move 100 times out of 100, reliever performance is volatile, sell high when you can.

[owbc]

I'm not convinced that 1B is a significant issue. In 2011, they won 96 games with a left side of the infield of Casey McGehee (147 games at 3B) and Yuni Betancourt (149 games at SS). They were both terrible at the plate and terrible in the field. At least Gonzalez can catch the ball.

 

The pitching, on the other hand, that is a big, big problem that doesn't disappear in mid-May.

[wisniewski]

I'm not convinced that 1B is a significant issue. In 2011, they won 96 games with a left side of the infield of Casey McGehee (147 games at 3B) and Yuni Betancourt (149 games at SS). They were both terrible at the plate and terrible in the field. At least Gonzalez can catch the ball.

 

The pitching, on the other hand, that is a big, big problem that doesn't disappear in mid-May.

 

Agreed completely.

 

As for Ax, I hate to pile on the guy and I don't want to be knee-jerk, but IMO he's just not a very good pitcher. He's another guy (the the history of MLB is filled with) that caught lightning in a bottle for one season or short period of time and somehow parlayed that into a 'reputation' or 'status' as a legit big league thrower and closer...only to flame out and disappear a short time later.

[RightFieldCoder]

Fun happening from the game last night. JaDerHeyski warned me to "be ready to catch this". The next pitch to Fowler landed 5ft short of being in my lap. Have to give her props for calling his shot.

[TURBO]

TheCrew brings up an interesting point about Lucroy. Does he call every pitch and Axford follows blindly? If so, he could be part of, if not the biggest part of our problem. If he is calling a bad game in the later innings, and he is responsible for a piece of the bullpen's problems, maybe he should take some responsibility for the crap filled nonsense we have had to endure with our bullpen...

 

Just thoughts...

[brewmann04]

I am more concerned about our Pitching than anything our top 3 guys did not pitch deep in the games which is an early concern.This also combined with the early Struggle of AX is a concern even after only 3 games. I am not sure AX will have a long leash this season.

[Brewnittle]

An interesting point was made on MLB network Mitch Williams said that he thinks Ax is tipping his pitches that thier is no way guys can hit a guy like it's BP when he throws a 97 mph fastball in combo with a big hook and slider.........I think thier might be something to that because lets face it dexter fowler was hitting Ax like he was willie mays

 

 

also he went on to note that part of the problem was Ax isn't knocking people back at all this year and last year he thinks Ax needs to start using that 97mph fb to knock them back and then use the curve/slider to corkscrew them

[brewmann04]

Well lets hope our Pitching Coach has seen that problem since that is his job and starts to fix the problem.

[Brewnittle]

Agreed thier is an obvious problem I just hope for the team sake it gets worked out .......also I'm rooting for Ax to put it back together again............Season is early and for me atleast thier is still hope

[Invader3K]

I think Axford needs to have a very short leash at this point. Assuming they don't find that he's injured (which would explain the drop in velocity), I'd probably give him through the next series to get himself together. Otherwise demote him and make someone else the closer.