Dr. Phandog's cure for the crew.

[brewerphandog]

Some of the elements ailing us are without cure, for example Weeks. I hope he becomes a complete stud but right now he's south of being a complete dud. I think a wise move baseballwise would be to flip he and Gwynn for now or even Crabbe so he can a bit of his swagger back verus AAA pitching. He is pressing, mired, and I think a bit hopeless in his demeanor, I'd like for him to go and rake for a few weeks and see if you can't catch lightning in a bottle. A canned ham could hit .151 since whenever so it isn't going to hurt you in the short term, may be a big move in late August.

 

Flip Miller and Estrada. Johnny is a good offensive player, not a great one. Defensively he is woeful. He is not nimble, plays with poor angles, hasn't learned to discard a mask and has dropped no less than 6 foul balls that most catchers could catch Dottie Henson style, and his complete inability to throw out anyone is unaccpetable. He is not healthy, plays with little intensity, and can't run. He should be the one in spot duty until he is right. Miller is 10x the defensive player and does a great job calling a game. I'd be curious to their respective ERA's...when one or the other is catching.

 

Turndero. I don't advocate a change, but I would flip T-Bow and Linebrick when he's finally able to play full time and have T-Bow ready in the event that CoCo implodes. When you look over and see LInebrink and T-Bow in the dugout and think, hmmm...Spurling or the saw horse in the clubhouse hallway....You have troubles, it might be nice to inspire CoCo or loosen him to realize he has a guy capable (as capable of imploding or shutting someone completely down) behind him. It is nice to think that with Villy, Brink, and T-Bow you can effectively make the game 6 innings...only problem our offense usually plays for 3, and our closer has a knaack for giving it away in the 9th, so we may need to change our approach.

 

Other ills: Fielder needs to start pulling and hitting the baseball with authority, he looks like David Segui. His average has been steady, but when was the last time he just committed to pulling the baseball and started driving the ball--not everything he is seeing is away, he's too left field conscious in my opinion.

 

Get healthy--Sheets!

 

Patience people!

[naivin]

Two words: Slump Busters!

 

(Or is that supposed to be one word?)

[monty57]

They may want to find a starting pitcher than can go more than five innings. I think flipping Villy with Yo would be a good idea right now. Yo's pitched well, but his innings limit, along with Bush, Vargas, Cappy and Suppan rarely making it past 5-6 innings have put a lot of pressure on the bullpen. Parra threw a strong six innings in his only start, maybe he's an answer as well. Our bullpen is pretty strong, but we need our starters to put up 7-8 inning starts on a somewhat regular basis or we're going to end the season behind the Cardinals.

 

As far as Coco... would it be unthinkable to make him the "home closer" and make Turnbow the "road closer?" It's hard to believe it's the same pitcher when you look at Cordero at home vs. on the road.

[JET15]

I'm not a Mark Grace fan, but the slumpbusters he described on the Jim Rome radio show are hilarious. In his words, "A slumpbuster is when you have to take one for the team. It's finding the biggest, nastiest, fattest broad, and you put the wood to her to come out of your slump. Also known as 'jumping on a grenade for the team'."

 

Quote:

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slump buster - n. an unattractive woman sought by a man for sexual relations in order to improve his sports-playing abilities or his involuntarily inactive sex life.

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[watertown28]

As far as Coco... would it be unthinkable to make him the "home closer" and make Turnbow the "road closer?" It's hard to believe it's the same pitcher when you look at Cordero at home vs. on the road.

 

 

 

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This is not a bad idea cuz with the pickup of linebrink I could see this actually working

[TerraceReserved]

Quote:

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His average has been steady, but when was the last time he just committed to pulling the baseball and started driving the ball

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I don't know, although his home runs are down a lot, he still seems to be ripping the ball and hitting more doubles. I hope he does starts to get his homer stroke back though, as we could use the offensive kick.

 

Edit: I was curious as to his double totals, so I did a little quick math to figure it out.

 

Since the all-star break he has 7 doubles in 69 AB. The first half he had 22 doubles in 324 AB. I figured out how many doubles he would have if he kept up the pace he had in the first half by using this proportion.

22*69=1518/324=4.69

So he has hit more doubles than his first half norm, which is a good sign considering how many less HR he's had.

[brewerphandog]

I'm not worried about Prince and his HR totals, look at him...he'll hit HR's. I just think he is so focused on left field and punching the ball that he has gotten away from getting extension and opening the hips.

 

I like the Villy/Yo idea.

[trwi7]

Now that we're competing how about a reverse sweep suit?http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Ennder]

Quote:

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They may want to find a starting pitcher than can go more than five innings. I think flipping Villy with Yo would be a good idea right now. Yo's pitched well, but his innings limit, along with Bush, Vargas, Cappy and Suppan rarely making it past 5-6 innings have put a lot of pressure on the bullpen

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Bush is averaging 6.13 IP per game which isn't bad at all.

Suppan is averaging 6.05 which isn't terrible either, though lately it has been going down.

[monty57]

Bush's last ten outings (IP): 5.1, 6.0, 6.0, 7.0, 6.0, 2.0, 7.0, 6.1, 4.1, 6.0

 

Capuano: 6.1, 8.0, 7.0, 3.0, 5.1, 3.1, 4.0, 7.0, 7.0, 4.0

 

Gallardo: 5.0, 6.2, 6.0

 

Suppan: 5.0, 5.0, 6.0, 5.0, 5.0, 6.0, 5.0, 4.2, 6.1, 5.0

 

Vargas: 8.0, 6.0, 5.0, 6.0, 5.0, 5.0, 6.0, 5.1, 6.0

 

Out of the 42 starts listed above, seven of them have been 7+ innings. That's not even one for every turn through the rotation. Assuming nine inning games, that means the bullpen has pitched 144 of the last 378 innings, or 38% of the inning in the above-listed starts.

 

No one expected Vargas to pitch deep into games, and I had no problem with him being at the end of the rotation, because Sheets, Bush, Suppan and Capuano should have been able to eat up more innings. However, Sheets is down, and when no member of your staff can go over 5-6 innings on even a semi-regular basis, it puts tremendous strain on your bullpen...especially when we've been playing a lot of close games, and especially when you have 18 games in 17 days.

 

Every night, you have to assume you will need to use three or four different relievers, creating about 20+ appearances / week for the 'pen. It's hard to expect every reliever to be "on" every night, so it makes it very likely that at least one of the relievers will blow it. It also means that Ned is forced to use the "mop up" guy(s) in tight situations so as not to have his better arms pitch six times a week.

 

People complain about our bullpen. I think they've done a heck of a good job considering what's been expected of them. Our starting pitching was supposed to be our biggest strength coming into the season, and I think it's time for them to live up to the billing. I don't care what the "peripherals" look like, if you can only pitch five innings at a time, you're not a top-line starter. Right now, we've got a lot of potentially good starters pitching like average to below average starters. If we want to beat out the Cubs and win this division, our starters have to pitch to their capabilities.

 

One suggestion is switching Villy and Yo. Carlos is pitching as well as anyone, and isn't limited in innings. As far as the rest of the starters, I don't know what needs to be done to give them a kick in the pants to get them going. Sorry if this sounds like a rant, I just get frustrated watching the starters hit a wall after 5 innings with the lead, only to see that lead gradually whittled away.