2013-05-17 Brewers (Peralta) at Cardinals (Garcia), 7:15 PM CDT [Brewers lose, 7-6]

[danzig6767]

The Cardinals are clearly a better team than we are, but it is amazing how many grounders they hit against us find empty space and flares find outfield grass. Then after guys on are base, a finally hard hit ball clears the bases.

[TURBO]

No more talk of the Cardinals being lucky. They are better than us.....PERIOD!

 

Seeing you guys talk about lucky this and lucky that is ridiculous.

[rluzinski]

From 96 wins just two years ago to this. This is just sad. And the cupboards are barren in our system.

 

Thank you, Doug Melvin.

 

How long until Mark A. acts?

 

Are you suggesting that he should fire Melvin? If so, that is ironic for a couple of reasons, considering you mentioned the 2011 season in the same post.

[danzig6767]

From 96 wins just two years ago to this. This is just sad. And the cupboards are barren in our system.

 

Thank you, Doug Melvin.

 

How long until Mark A. acts?

 

Didn't Melvin get a three year extension last year?

 

As for the team, it has multiple problems, but in the end, if your pitching stinks, you can't be a playoff contender.

 

Watching Peralta struggle so badly is a real bummer because he by far has the best arm of the young pitchers on the roster and in AAA. If at least he was pitching well and with Segura being a stud, there would be more to get excited about going forward.

[adambr2]

From 96 wins just two years ago to this. This is just sad. And the cupboards are barren in our system.

 

Thank you, Doug Melvin.

 

How long until Mark A. acts?

 

Are you suggesting that he should fire Melvin? If so, that is ironic for a couple of reasons, considering you mentioned the 2011 season in the same post.

 

I think he's saying that completely gutting the farm system and putting all your eggs in one basket (the 2011 season) was a pretty poor and unsustainable long-term strategy.

[danzig6767]

No more talk of the Cardinals being lucky. They are better than us.....PERIOD!

 

Thanks for stating the obvious.

 

Good luck finding a single person here who doesn't think St. Louis is clearly the better team. They have lots of good pitching, we have lots of bad pitching. End of story.

[rluzinski]

From 96 wins just two years ago to this. This is just sad. And the cupboards are barren in our system.

 

Thank you, Doug Melvin.

 

How long until Mark A. acts?

 

Are you suggesting that he should fire Melvin? If so, that is ironic for a couple of reasons, considering you mentioned the 2011 season in the same post.

 

I think he's saying that completely gutting the farm system and putting all your eggs in one basket (the 2011 season) was a pretty poor and unsustainable long-term strategy.

 

At the very least, Mark A was complicit; at worst he was/is pushing Melvin towards that kind of short term gains philosophy.

 

And while their start to the 2013 may suggest otherwise, they are an average team with average talent and an average team payroll.

[adambr2]

I half expect Garcia to throw a perfect game, tip of the iceberg to our season.

[markedman5]

9 up 9 down in 28 pitches.........good thing Ron straightened everything out in the team meeting he called last night

[The stache]

The Cardinals pants us in pretty much every metric. Luck has nothing to do with it. This Brewer team is just terrible right now, and it pains me greatly. We have NO starting pitching. None. Gallardo is in decline, Peralta thus far is not living up to the hype, and we blew our first round pick to get Lohse, who we can't score runs for.

 

Mark Attanasio needs to get real, and fast. We need a new general manager, a new pitching coach, and a new manager. We also need some better scouts, because they're just not finding talent. I hate to sound negative, but I'm just being realistic. Since drafting Braun in 2005, when was the last impact player we've had come through our system?

 

What great young player is on the way we can all point to? Hunter Morris might end up being a really nice hitter, but is he a star? Time will tell. I look at our top twenty prospects, and compare them against every team in our division, and we're in trouble. The Cardinals have pitching all over the place: Shelby Miller, Carlos Martinez, Michael Wacha, Trevor Rosenthal. They have the best hitter in the minor leagues in Oscar Taveras, and a stud middle infielder on the way in Kolten Wong. The Pirates have Gerrit Cole and Jameson Tailon, two outstanding starting pitchers on the way. Starling Marte's already up, Alen Hanson, Luis Heredia, Gregory Polanco are all top 100 prospects, and Josh Bell, if he can stay healthy, is a star in the making. The Cubs? Not much pitching beyond Arodys Vizcaino, but Brett Jackson, Jorge Soler, Javier Baez and Albert Almora blow away the hitting talent we have. And the Reds? Robert Stephenson and Tony Cingrani are going to be a great one-two punch atop the order, and then they've got the fastest guy in all of baseball on the way in Billy Hamilton.

 

Look at the top 100 prospects by team (just using MLB.com for this):

 

Cincinnati: (3), Hamilton, Stephenson, Cingrani. 2 starting pitchers there

Pittsburgh: (5), Cole, Taillon, Hanson, Polanco, Heredia. The only reason Josh Bell is not top 100 is his injured knee. He will be on this list soon. 3 starting pitchers, and Marte just reached rookie status, and is no longer on this list

Cubs: (3) Javier Baez, Albert Almora, Jorge Soler

Cardinals (4): Oscar Taveras, Carlos Martinez, Kolten Wong, Michael Wacha. 2 starting pitchers, in addition to two starters that just fell off this list as they reached rookie status, Shelby Miller and Trevor Rosenthal.

 

Brewers? (0): we do not have a single prospect in the top 100 according to Jonathan Mayo. Peralta was our lone guy, but he's reached rookie status. He's the best we have.

[danzig6767]

From 96 wins just two years ago to this. This is just sad. And the cupboards are barren in our system.

 

Thank you, Doug Melvin.

 

How long until Mark A. acts?

 

Are you suggesting that he should fire Melvin? If so, that is ironic for a couple of reasons, considering you mentioned the 2011 season in the same post.

 

I think he's saying that completely gutting the farm system and putting all your eggs in one basket (the 2011 season) was a pretty poor and unsustainable long-term strategy.

 

Those trades aren't what is mainly killing this year's team, but the Lawrie trade i still worry about. Far and away what is killing the team is the massive failure over many year to properly evaluate pitchers in the draft and then develop them.

 

We have the worst ERA in the NL and a big chunk of the reason why is that of the arms on the team who actually came through the farm system, they've been terrible, while a team like St. Louis is getting fabulous production out of multiple arms from their farm system. It was only a matter of time before the abysmal track record of drafting/developing pitchers caught up with the front office.

[markedman5]

The trading deadline should at least be interesting......."Get back in there and SELL....SELL....SELL!!!....turn those machines back on!!"

[The stache]

From 96 wins just two years ago to this. This is just sad. And the cupboards are barren in our system.

 

Thank you, Doug Melvin.

 

How long until Mark A. acts?

 

Are you suggesting that he should fire Melvin? If so, that is ironic for a couple of reasons, considering you mentioned the 2011 season in the same post.

 

I think he's saying that completely gutting the farm system and putting all your eggs in one basket (the 2011 season) was a pretty poor and unsustainable long-term strategy.

 

That is exactly what I am saying, and if he let Mark Attanasio dictate the "strategy", then he's part of the problem, too.

 

We have a guy down here in Dallas, Jerry Jones, who is an owner and GM. He likes to fancy himself a football guy. His one stroke of luck was signing Jimmy Johnson as head football coach, and with Johnson making all the football decisions, and "buying the groceries" (making draft decisions, personnel moves), they won three Super Bowls. Two with Johnson at the helm, and one with the team he built. Since Johnson was fired, the Cowboys have won one playoff game. One. Why? Because Jerry Jones can't butt out. He is there to sign the checks, and market his team. Mark needs to do the same thing. Put people in place to make sound baseball decisions, sign the checks, and show up at home games.

 

An honest assessment of where this team was at before the 2013 season should have dictated we not sign an old pitcher, giving up a much needed first round draft pick. We weren't going to realistically compete for a playoff spot unless our hitters performed at near 2012 levels, and one or more of our young pitchers really stepped up.

 

Everybody and their mother picked the Brewers for fourth place, third at very best. Why? Because everybody has it out for the Brewers? Or, maybe because they were able to gauge our overall talent level, and see we couldn't compete in our own division with the Cardinals and Reds.

 

For the Brewers to be successful, we have to be drafting and developing our own talent. We can't be chasing big name players. We cannot afford it. If we can't develop pitching any better than we have been, we're looking at some dark days.

[markedman5]

I wonder how much better we would do if Garcia had to pitch against his own team and the Brewers got to hit against Peralta?

[The stache]

The trading deadline should at least be interesting......."Get back in there and SELL....SELL....SELL!!!....turn those machines back on!!"

^^ I love Trading Places!

[jjkoestler]

That winning streak was awesome. Let's do that again.

[Brewnittle]

Seriously need to trade as much as possible for as many pitching prospects as we can get

[Brewnittle]

nice AB ARam

[pebadger]

Yay?!?

[AZBrewCrew]

BA even seemed to have lost some enthusiasm on his HR call.

[The stache]

Well, Aramis gets 3 back! Can our pitching slow down the Cardinal offense, and allow us to get back in it?

[Brewnittle]

nice one Braun

[adambr2]

My biggest problem with our front office is that our organization seems to be a rudderless ship. It's been a long time since I've seen any semblance of a long-term plan.

 

It's like Mark and Doug meet twice a year -- once in December to look at the holes from last year and what overpriced free agents are available to attempt to temporarily plug those holes, and once in July to figure out if they have enough left in the farm system in a desperate attempt to trade for help for the stretch run (last year being an exception.)

[The stache]

I saw this last night watching the Nationals-Padres game:

 

http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/3637/speedjss.jpg

 

It's not velocity that's the problem with Wily. At some point, you have to figure he's going to put it together, because he's got all the things a successful starter needs. He's got nasty stuff, he gets a lot of ground ball outs. At least, he did in the minors.

 

I certainly hope something clicks soon. We really, really need him to step up.

[PrinceFielderx1]

Seriously need to trade as much as possible for as many pitching prospects as we can get

 

They don't really have the prospects, but they hopefully will have the MLB offensive ones to be able to dangle in a trade. I really wish Weeks was doing well, and Hart comes back strong, because they are the ideal candidates to trade. I'd also dangle Gallardo depending on the return.