2013-05-16 Brewers (Burgos) at Pirates (Liriano), 6:05 PM CDT [Brewers lose, 7-1]

[phnxcrew]

Even an optimist has to start questioning this team nearly 1/4 of the way through the season. There's a lot of time left, but man being behind the Cubs (wow) and dropping 9/10 division games is looking bad.

[The stache]

Why was Ramirez off to start the night?

 

What's worse right now, our hitting, or our pitching?

[markedman5]

Ramirez needs another day off to make sure he doesn't reinjure himself....at least that is the stroy they are selling.

 

Our bench is a disgrace.....

[TURBO]

Well, looks like the Pirates aren't going to be the doormat that a lot of people thought before this series.

 

Last place stinks.

[markedman5]

That #1 draft choice we gave up for Lohse is going to be really high.......man is this team bad......

[brewmann04]

Actually that pick will be for 2014

[DocLuna7]

Yeah, I consider myself to be an optimistic person by nature. But this, this is getting to be ridiculous. If anyone wants to talk me off the brewers ledge I'd appreciate it. Losing this much, this early, to teams within the division is doing nothing for my confidence.

[brewmann04]

Well 0-4 vs cards. 0-3 vs Reds. 1-3 vs pirates now Cards again could be another sweep.

[brewdude15]

#1. Ramirez just can't catch a break.

 

#2. How long until some moves start to be made? Tired of seeing guys who are struggling (Rickie, Gonzalez, Lucroy, Yuni, etc.) in the lineup every day. Perhaps if we would've spent a little in the offseason to bring in some legit help off the bench...

 

#3. As for the pitching, we knew this was going to be a train wreck. I'm pretty sure RR and everyone in the front office knew it too. Coming off of a year in which we had a mediocre-at-best pitching staff, you'd think the problem would've been addressed a little bit more than signing Kyle Lohse, Burke Badenhop, Tom Gorzelanny and Mike Gonzalez. It's like we picked up all the toys that none of the other teams wanted to play with anymore.

[jjgott]

The thing is, this is what happens when you allow young players to go through their growing pains in the majors. I'm not saying we should've gone out and signed every FA, but if you advocate to let young pitchers play in the majors, there's a strong possibility things will suck. Not signing Lohse could've made things look even worse. Now maybe this puts us in a better position for next year's draft but it certainly doesn't make it fun to watch.

[brewmann04]

Ugly and we need some of these minor league arms to get up here. Yes hopefully Perelta will benefit.

[markedman5]

The Brewers have had only 6 starts where our starting pitcher has gone at least 7 innings......Wainwright has that many by himself.....

 

We have now lost 12 out of our last 14......wow

[The stache]

The thing is, this is what happens when you allow young players to go through their growing pains in the majors. I'm not saying we should've gone out and signed every FA, but if you advocate to let young pitchers play in the majors, there's a strong possibility things will suck. Not signing Lohse could've made things look even worse. Now maybe this puts us in a better position for next year's draft but it certainly doesn't make it fun to watch.

 

Beyond Segura, none of our hitters are "young guys". Weeks is a veteran, and contributing next to nothing. Lucroy is a vet, and is struggling mightily. Betancourt and Gonzalez are old guys, and after a hot streak by Yuni to start the season, we are getting little from them. Hard to win when 1/2 of your lineup is not producing anything at all. And when we are in a position to win, our manager makes a dumb decision like putting Axford and his 9 + ERA in for the 8th with a 3-2 lead. We're playing poorly as it is, and on the occasion when we do play well, our skipper sabotages us.

 

Our pitching is bad, but our hitting might be worse. We're 20th in the Majors in scoring. For all the hitting exploits of Gomez and Segura, they're not scoring a lot of runs. Both are on a pace to score 91 times. For guys stealing as many bases as they are, and both hitting over .350, that's awful.

 

Braun is Braun. The last two seasons, when he won the MVP and was MVP runner up, he had OPS stats of .994 and .986. This year, he's a .992. He's hitting well, driving in runs, and playing great defense. Segura is playing at an MVP level, as is Gomez. Aoki's playing great, hitting over .300 with an .821 OPS. Few teams in the Majors can put together a better top of the order.

 

And yet, we're about to go 7 games under .500. Considering we were 2-8, and fought to get back to 3 games over .500 at 14-11, that's absolutely awful.

[The stache]

Maybe I need to break out John Belushi in the Brewers hat again. Only, I don't get any indication that this team is going to turn it around.

[pebadger]

It's frightening how quickly I'm moving toward apathy despite really wanting to care.

[markedman5]

Yep...me too....

It's frightening how quickly I'm moving toward apathy despite really wanting to care.

[jjgott]

The thing is, this is what happens when you allow young players to go through their growing pains in the majors. I'm not saying we should've gone out and signed every FA, but if you advocate to let young pitchers play in the majors, there's a strong possibility things will suck. Not signing Lohse could've made things look even worse. Now maybe this puts us in a better position for next year's draft but it certainly doesn't make it fun to watch.

 

Beyond Segura, none of our hitters are "young guys". Weeks is a veteran, and contributing next to nothing. Lucroy is a vet, and is struggling mightily. Betancourt and Gonzalez are old guys, and after a hot streak by Yuni to start the season, we are getting little from them. Hard to win when 1/2 of your lineup is not producing anything at all. And when we are in a position to win, our manager makes a dumb decision like putting Axford and his 9 + ERA in for the 8th with a 3-2 lead. We're playing poorly as it is, and on the occasion when we do play well, our skipper sabotages us.

 

Sure, I agree and sorry for wording it too much about "young guys." I guess what I was trying to say is there were quite a few posters to start the season that said we should play for future years and not really worry about immediate success. All I was trying to point out is this is what that strategy looks like. It's not pretty and can be pretty terrible to watch. That's not to say that we shouldn't be playing better, but that if we truly want to play for the "future" then we as fans need to accept that ugly baseball can and will be played on a regular basis.

[TURBO]

Playing for the future shouldn't include guys like K-Rod, Gonzalez and Yuni.

 

Playing for the future shouldn't mean signing Lohse and losing our 1st round draft pick, in fact, that goes in the opposite direction of playing for the future since we lost our future draft pick.

[The stache]

Sure, I agree and sorry for wording it too much about "young guys." I guess what I was trying to say is there were quite a few posters to start the season that said we should play for future years and not really worry about immediate success. All I was trying to point out is this is what that strategy looks like. It's not pretty and can be pretty terrible to watch. That's not to say that we shouldn't be playing better, but that if we truly want to play for the "future" then we as fans need to accept that ugly baseball can and will be played on a regular basis.

 

Oh, it's no problem. I knew you were referring to our pitchers. I guess what I was trying to say is that with all our younger pitchers, a veteran lineup should be able to help them ease into their career with plenty of run support. We had the top offense in the NL last year, and while that's not a guarantee of success for this year, we should be scoring more runs in support of our young pups than we are.

 

I don't want to be playing for the future, either. We finished above .500 last year, and we were in the NLCS the year before that. There's no reason why we should be in rebuild mode.

 

We lost Zack Greinke. We added Lohse, who was 16-3 last year, and a young superstar shortstop in Segura. We realized a gain with those transactions. I also like Hellweg as a closer option, or at least a setup guy a la Chapman. The guy's like 6'8", and has an explosive fastball/slider combo.

[TheCrew07]

Sure, I agree and sorry for wording it too much about "young guys." I guess what I was trying to say is there were quite a few posters to start the season that said we should play for future years and not really worry about immediate success. All I was trying to point out is this is what that strategy looks like. It's not pretty and can be pretty terrible to watch. That's not to say that we shouldn't be playing better, but that if we truly want to play for the "future" then we as fans need to accept that ugly baseball can and will be played on a regular basis.

 

Twist things much? Estrada, Gallardo, Axford, Fiers, and Figaro are not rookies and are not young.

 

Yes young pitchers will be up and down but this was a winnable game when Burgos left, and for his line it should really only be 2 ER, nor should his ERA have been ballooned the way it was, he was a sacrificial lamb which horribly skews his season given so few starts.

 

I don't see how this season can be remotely blamed on young players when injuries to older players and older players under performing are as much to blame as anything.

 

While Lohse is pitching fine, the team isn't playing well when he starts for whatever reason. While it's certainly not his fault, he's hardly had a net positive impact on the team to this point. Even with the 2 blown saves the team would be under .500 in his starts.

 

I would say that this is what happens when you don't have legit pitching and an aging roster.

[logan82]

You do realize Weeks has been much better the last 2 weeks right?

 

 

So a .220 BA is MUCH better?

 

Sorry, that isn't going to cut it in my eyes. That tells you how horrible he has been when you consider that to be much better!

 

So what are you disagreeing with me about, that Weeks has been slumping?

You need to look beyond batting average.

[TURBO]

You do realize Weeks has been much better the last 2 weeks right?

 

 

So a .220 BA is MUCH better?

 

Sorry, that isn't going to cut it in my eyes. That tells you how horrible he has been when you consider that to be much better!

 

So what are you disagreeing with me about, that Weeks has been slumping?

You need to look beyond batting average.

 

 

Of course you do, BUT, saying that Weeks isn't slumping, is ridiculous. The guy has been horrible in all facets of the game. You can break down all the stats you want, he has been terrible.

[torts]

I'm here in Pittsburgh at the game. I'm seated four rows behind the Brewers dugout. PNC Park is gorgeous in person. Good start for the Crew.

 

I was sitting a row in front of ya!