We WILL turn this thing around!

[The stache]

The Brewers lost again last night, and now we're 2-8. We've lost eight of our last nine. We haven't scored in 26 innings. The hitters aren't hitting, and the pitchers aren't pitching. Buck up, everybody. We are going to turn this around. I guarantee it!!!

 

And to those of you that might be thinking that the season is over, I have one thing to say...

 

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/4063/belushibrewer.png

 

What? Over????? Did you say "over"?

 

Nothing is over until we decide it is!!!!!!!

 

Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no! And it ain't over now!

 

Cause when the going gets tough....the tough get going.

 

Who's with me???

[WV Brew]

What does that mean exactly? You're predicting 90 wins or just over a .200 winning percentage?

[Invader3K]

I admit I'm very down on the team right now, but you're right...at least we know they can't be this bad all year.

[dlk9s]

Coincidentally, I just watched a show about Animal House on the Biography channel. Now the bio of John Belushi is on.

[chickinbrickin]

WE can't turn anything around because WE are not members of the team.

[JimH5]

There is no "we". There is only a "they". And right now, they stink.

 

Minus 27 in run differential, 2nd worst only to San Diego (minus 28).

 

A complete lack of depth to handle times of injury.

 

A minor league system considered among the bottom 10 in baseball.

 

No first round draft pick this year (I guess that will only prevent them from choosing another flameout non-prospect).

 

A looming case regarding their best player and a possible suspension.

 

And I've got a fresh coating of snow outside.

[JohnBriggs12]

I agree with all comments on "we". We don't play and we don't manage or general manage. If they don't start winning some games, they will be so far buried that even the return of every injured player won't be enough. It's a mess right now. Weeks once again is being exposed leading the league in strikeouts and double plays hit into (that's quite the combo). How bad are Halton and Morris, that they go with the collection they have at 1B this season? Braun might not see a pitch to him between now and Memorial Day. His frustration is showing. Aside from Axford, Badenhop and Gonzalez have just been awful. Those guys were supposed to stabalize the pen. Yes, Lohse has been good so far, but no better than Carlos Villanueva who cost less than a third of Lohse's salary.

[homer]

The guy posts a hilarious over the top rah rah speech and people are debating the use of "we"?

 

I love the attitude, 'stache!

 

[JackNicholson1974]

The team stinks. I know that Ramirez and Hart are hurt, but Melvin knew Hart was going to be out for an extended period of time before ST started. He did nothing about it. There is no excuse for this team to be running out a starting lineup with Blake Lalli, Yuni Betancourt and Martin Maldanado in it.

 

Our farm system is completely void of any talent whatsoever, I wouldnt "blame" that on trades made for Sabathia, Marcum and Greinke as much as I would on terrible scouting and development.

 

The bullpen is rotten.

[brettac1]

Yeah, I think they are just bad. It's about impossible for me to even watch them right now.

[RockCoCougars]

Last time the Brewers started like this, we ended up with roughly 150 games of a Jerry Royster managed team. I take a small bit of solace in knowing there is no way things can get worse than that.

[3and2Fastball]

I think that it is reasonable to assume that once Hart, Ramirez, Green and others return to health, our offense will be much better.

 

What I am intrigued with is watching to see if Mark A completely panics if the losing continues. We've seen him do that before (firing Yost with a week or two left in the season, insisting on being buyers at practically every trade deadline). I think Mark A is always concerned with attendance and (probably rightly in regards to short-term thinking) equates having the team out of contention with disaster at the gate. Regardless of injuries, if the Brewers are this bad at the trade deadline (and they very well could be!) we might see some pretty bizarre moves at that time, including some desperate trades and the firing of various coaches or even the firing of Melvin & Roenicke

[DHonks]

thus far they've been more fun to watch than during the Macha years. Those are the only 2 years of my life when I gave up on watching games. But it's also early and I'll need to see more signs of life.

 

We need our pitching to become competent, and our offense to score some runs.

[homer]

Braun and Weeks are a combined 3 for 22 with 14K's and 2 BB over the last three games. Things will get better on offense. I'm still worried about the bullpen though.

[adambr2]

It's plenty early. The problem is that it problem isn't going to get better real quickly. This roster as currently constructed with all the injuries is probably one of the worst in the league.

 

They have to at least stay within striking distance of .500. If they bury themselves too far (10 to 15 games or more out by June), they aren't coming back.

[DHonks]

why couldn't they come back? Baseball is a game of streaks. Most teams will play roughly 70-80% of their schedule around .500. What separates the playoff teams from last place is the streaks. If we have no more stretches where we lost 8 of 9 games the rest of the year, but we have a couple where we win 6 of 7, we'll do fine. I don't recall us having a really bad streak last year. In 2011 we had the unbelievable 30 game stretch. It's early, the history for our relievers says most should be okay, and our rotation should be pretty good. Lohse has been better than expected, Yo worse, Estrada on par, Peralta better, and Fiers disappointing.

[Invader3K]

Last time the Brewers started like this, we ended up with roughly 150 games of a Jerry Royster managed team. I take a small bit of solace in knowing there is no way things can get worse than that.

 

Yeah, this team is off to a franchise worst start since 2002. Not good, but there's no way they're this bad for the whole season, like I said earlier.

[adambr2]

why couldn't they come back? Baseball is a game of streaks. Most teams will play roughly 70-80% of their schedule around .500. What separates the playoff teams from last place is the streaks. If we have no more stretches where we lost 8 of 9 games the rest of the year, but we have a couple where we win 6 of 7, we'll do fine. I don't recall us having a really bad streak last year. In 2011 we had the unbelievable 30 game stretch. It's early, the history for our relievers says most should be okay, and our rotation should be pretty good. Lohse has been better than expected, Yo worse, Estrada on par, Peralta better, and Fiers disappointing.

 

If they were 15 under at that point, they would be 19-34. Assuming they need 90 wins to reach the playoffs, they would need to go 71-38 to finish the season at that point, or a .651 winning percentage. The best team in MLB last year had an overall winning percentage of .605.

[DHonks]

that's over the course of 162 games. over the course of 30, 40, etc, it's much more possible to have streaks.

 

Could use a win today followed by 4 of 6 at home. That would put us at 7-10 and withing striking distance of .500 by May 1

[pebadger]

It's snowing hard here. The "good news" is that it will warn up just a bit and then we'll have a coating of ice instead.

 

Any parallells between that situation and how I feel about the Brewers is just coincidental, but I understand how the ancients thought just a little bit better.

 

As noted above, I just want them to stay within shouting distance of .500 at this point. They need some sort of achievable benchmark by which things can be objectively judged on a large scale. Without that, it just becomes a long, long slog to the end of a summer which hasn't even started yet.

[TheCrew07]

Obviously this team isn't as bad as its record since getting a line-up constructed of something other than CF/MI types will help tremendously.

 

The problem is that this wasn't a playoff team to begin with unless everything broke the Brewers away, and that certainly hasn't happened to this point. The question is at what point do they bottom out and start a recovery? There's still plenty of time to be at least a .500 ball club and I can see where people who thought this was a contending team would be disappointed in what has transpired thus far.

 

I wouldn't mind seeing Melvin get fired if that meant bringing in some new blood from outside of the organization and not promoting one of his cronies to take his place just to maintain some semblance of continuity for the remainder of the season. I've felt for a long time the organization needed to change direction and the Brewers won't do that if they replace Melvin with someone of similar mindset from within. I'd prefer a younger guy with a good mix of scouting/sabermetrics who sees value the same way that I tend to, but I don't think Mark A. would hire a guy like that. Hell I'd like him to take a run at Friedman who could employ the same strategy he's been using in Tampa but he'd have more resources financially to plug holes in Milwaukee but that's a pipe dream.

 

As for RR, he's par for the managerial course... way too many of these guys get worked up over short term production samples and have too quick a hook with young players. I wanted Davey Johnson the last time the Brewers went hiring as he's an excellent teacher of the game, is patient with young players, but still has that gritty old baseball guy quality that Melvin seems to like. I haven't given much thought to a replacement manager but looking at the organization the only guy I would want for that "interim" position would Erickson who's coaching all the way down in A ball with the T-Rats... The rest of the guys appear to be the same as the old, but I highly doubt they'd pluck a manager from A ball so what would we really gain from sending RR packing now?

[turnbow59]

Why do people care if you say "we" instead of they? So silly...

 

We will turn it around, but thats because it cant get much worse...

[chickinbrickin]

Why do people care if you say "we" instead of they? So silly...

 

We will turn it around, but thats because it cant get much worse...

 

Because we indicates you feel you are a member of the team or organization which you are not. No big deal to me, but that is why.

[vegasbrewcrew1993]

Like most I am pretty down on the team. However, its a long season and the crew will have some key starters return from injury soon. I think the crew will finish short of the 85 wins I predicted but finish near 81.

[Eye Black]

My biggest concern (and the scenario I think is most likely) is they will climb back just close enough to .500 to keep hope alive past the trade deadline, but never get over the proverbial hump to have a legitimate shot at a playoff run. Obviously I would love to see a playoff push, but that doesn't look promising at this point. And given the other alternatives, I would rather have them out of the playoff race in July and able to make decisions that can benefit the future of the club as opposed to riding out a 78 win season.