Baseball Hates ME, so...

[GenoSeligPrieb]

This is probably the eariest this has happened in a long time.

 

Whenever the Raiders stink - which is nearly always these days - I tune out football. And while I was laughing when I heard the Broncos lost Elvis Dumervil to free agency, due to an inept paperwork deadline mistake of all things, my sense of schadenfraude wasn't as sharp as it had been. It's probably because we can't challenge them for anything meaningful, any time soon. So why bother getting worked up, when there's so little hope, right?

 

That's how the Brewers are already making me feel this year. With our closer looking like the latest incarnation of Derrick Turnbow, the young starting pitchers not showing much, Corey Hart disabled, RRR still managing the team, and now Aramis Ramirez in serious pain, I'm starting to hate baseball back.

 

Does anyone else feel this resigned sense of indifference yet?

 

And that's manifesting itself in indifference, which is unfortunate. Since DirecTV is enabling the MLB package for free this week, I was pumped, watching not only the Brewers, but as many games as I could. But after getting kicked in the groin again last night by this team, I didn't watch the late West coast games, as I usually do. And now, this morning, my son was watching Quick Pitch, and I couldn't get psyched to pay attention.

 

I know, I know, I'm overreacting, and a few wins to get us back over .500 could make me happier. But with all our injuries and disappointing performances by guys we're counting on, it's not looking good right now.

[TURBO]

Add the fact that we have no first basemen, and no first round pick next year either.

 

I'd like to go into a rant about our manager, but everyone here knows how I feel about him, so I will let others with thoughts like mine handle that.

 

I had optimistic hope that we could be around the .500 mark this season, but with so much working against us, I am becoming a non-believer.

 

Not one 1B on our roster to open the season is just mind-blowingly stupid. Melvin is a knob.

[jjkoestler]

A vent thread the first week of the season?

[splitterpfj]

This happening at any point in a season stinks, this happening to start the season just sucks the life out of the whole thing.

 

Last year, the June-July performance of the bullpen kept this team out of the playoffs, this year, we're probably playing a month without the 4-5 hitters, which will kill this season, right out of the gate.

 

If things go the way I expect them to for the next month, I'll just hope for development from the pitchers over the course of this year, and go from there.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Everyone needs to relax. They'll be fine.

[Point Beer Is Best]

With our closer looking like the latest incarnation of Derrick Turnbow,

 

Can we just retire the number 59?

[PKBadger]

My dad is what you'd call an "old school" baseball fan, not really into the sabermetrics stuff at all. His biggest pet peeve when watching games is pitchers not throwing strikes/getting ahead in counts. Drives him nuts. And despite what I know about why pitchers choose to be careful sometimes or waste pitches outside the zone, I have to be honest that it's starting to eat at me too.

 

Too many dang 2-0 and 3-0 counts. Aggravating!

[Oxy]

Everyone needs to relax. They'll be fine.

 

"fine" as in--nobody is going to die? Half the roster is injured, the bullpen has been horrible and in the only good start our starters have produced so far we still lost the game. Even the lone game we won we did it after a blown save. Of all the possible good things that could have happened to start the year, Jean Segura pretty much it. Everything else has been bad. It could be worse if guys were out for the year I suppose, but in the here and now it's about as bad as it could possibly be.

[logan82]

Weeks has been pretty good.

[gregmag]

Geno -- yes, me too. Also love the thread title.

[splitterpfj]

It really is amazing, the Brewers haven't caught one break yet. The broken bat that flew at Gonzalez to open up a big inning, the ball Gonzalez just smoked right at the third baseman with the bases loaded and nobody out, Braun gets hurt in BP of all things...it has to get better than this.

[sveumrules]

I'm done. Call me in June of 2014 to let me know who we took with the first pick.

[FVBrewerFan]

Yes, the start of this season is depressing. But none of the injuries are long term. Braun will be back any day, ARam in a another couple weeks, Hart in a month or so. This line-up will be one of the best in the NL. Pitching is still more of a concern, but the good news is there's plenty of options this year- both for the rotation and pen. Further, I think the bench will be much better than the last few years once everyone is back.

 

There is a danger in getting too far behind before everything falls into place, but with 156 games left I am not giving up. This from not exactly the most optimistic Brewers fan in the world.

[monty57]

Well, for a bit of optimism... we've got the Cubs for the next three games. That's about all I've got.

[Eye Black]

Well, for a bit of optimism... we've got the Cubs for the next three games. That's about all I've got.

...and we don't have to face Samardzija. Just a sweep away from being back to mediocre.

[GenoSeligPrieb]

Just watch. Segura will be DLed now.

 

Why in hell do we have 13 pitchers? Godforbid, a player gets hurt for a few days like Braunie & we're left with a damn pitcher to PH with the game on the line. Then we hear RRR is sticking with Axford - a very Yostian managerial move.

 

The ONLY time I want to see Axford out there again is if we're up at least 4 or down at least 4. And when he gives up his first run, he's out

 

Migod, we're 1 - 5 at home already. Thank God Mad Men is 2 hours tonight. I have nothing else to look forward to

[monty57]

Why in hell do we have 13 pitchers?

 

Well, it was supposed to be to protect Lohse, because they "didn't know what they had with him." Which, in itself is an interesting thought, since they just guaranteed $33MM to him, but ironically, he was the only pitcher who didn't need excess bullpen help behind him.

 

Having 13 pitchers was probably a bad call from the get-go, but it's criminally insane at this point... except for the fact that our team-builder (Melvin) has put together a 40-man roster where our only position player options are outfielders and a guy who can only play 2B. We're not willing to lose anyone from the 40-man who is not injured, and I don't believe we can dump someone who's on the DL (like Bianchi or Rogers). One could argue that it's the guys on the DL who are limiting the flexibility, but Bianchi, Green and Rogers all could've been waived prior to going on the DL, but were placed there so we wouldn't lose them.

 

Therefore, we're going to field a lineup consisting of a catcher, three shortstops, a second baseman and three center fielders with a two-or-three-man bench. Don't worry, it's only for fifteen games or so... roughly 10% of the season.

 

Right now, I think Nashville would probably win a best-of-ten series against Milwaukee, but at least the paying customers of the Milwaukee Brewers will get to see Yuni make half-hearted attempts at fielding throws in his direction, while Gonzalez bats clean-up. The most exciting thing about watching the Brewers right now is seeing pseudo-prospects get their first MLB hits, and seeing tape-measure HRs off our BP bullpen.

[Thurston Fluff]

The only thing that could stop me from following them is endless "fire someone" talk or "how bad our manager's strategy is" debates.