7/20/05 Brewers (Sheets) @ Cardinals (Mulder) 7:10 P.M. CST

[Rob]

No argument on the pathetic hitting. It speaks for itself.

[shelmark]

Rob,

 

Why do you keep on with this? Honestly you can't make the statements you made without expecting some backlash. Saying a guy has to do what it takes, what the heck is that? He is a pitcher trying to get out every hitter, not just certain hitters. He gave up 3 runs on two swings of the bat. Sheets wouldn't call it a great game but certainly not material for bashing on this board. It is actually quite common for the best pitchers in the league to struggle early if at all, Sheets seems to be in that class right now. Now if you don't throw any more jabs and then follow that with a truce this should be done. Can we all agree that our hitting with RISP did us in tonight?

[H0FFY]

Amen Rob.

 

I am tired of:

 

we are just not any good

we had bad luck

the other teams are really good

we are doing well to be over 10 wins at this stage

wait until next year

 

We should expect that our guys can do better than 0-13 with RISP; we should expect our manager will actually try to use his brain

[DougJones43]

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He is our #1, I'm expecting that he takes the Cardinals to the shed

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if you think that aces are supposed to never give up any runs to #1 offenses in order to be true "playoff calibur aces", i think you're expectations are a little off

[ThePurpleStorm]

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What's garbage is all the low expectations and excuses. Welcome to another losing season.

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I wouldn't go that far. This is arguably the best team with the best pitching in baseball we're playing. And I bet you we split.

[Ando Calrissian]

If we want to be in the playoffs then we have to beat the best teams.

 

if i'm not mistaken, our last three series have been against three very good teams (marlins, braves, nationals) and we've either split the series (marlins) or won it (braves and nats). i'd say that managing a split (hopefully after tomorrow's game) with the 1st place team from the NL central (and the team with the second best record in the whole mlb, i think) while on the road qualifies as a huge step for this brewers team.

 

i know that we are a whole three games below .500 after tonight, but it seems as though the team is improving. how can i say that you might ask? we'll compared to other years, we're not 20 games out of first place and in the cellar.

[PietroSanGiacomo]

Doug Jones:

 

Nothing is confusing about the change of heart by this message board. I was just trying to state how dramatic Jenkins's turn-around has been. He's regained everyone's trust in a very short period of time, and rightfully so. Sorry for being ambiguous.

[Ando Calrissian]

we are just not any good

we had bad luck

the other teams are really good

we are doing well to be over 10 wins at this stage

wait until next year

 

i don't think anybody said that HOFFY. in fact, i'd think that if someone did make arguments to those points at this website, they'd get harrassed off the board.

 

We should expect that our guys can do better than 0-13 with RISP; we should expect our manager will actually try to use his brain

 

i think these are things that everyone expects. i don't think anybody has made any excuses for the garbage offense tonight.

[DougJones43]

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He's regained everyone's trust in a very short period of time, and rightfully so

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agreed. if the same situation had come up 3 weeks ago, i would have said leave magruder in. but jenkins is white hot. i wouldn't have even given him the day off though either.

[Anders34]

On the positive side, how about J.J's night at the plate? 2-3 with a 2B, HR, BB and a line drive out in the 9th! Keep on raking, J.J.!!

[Brian the Automator]

[ He gave up 3 runs on two swings of the bat. ]

 

...and one of those were given up on a pretty well-pitched ball.

 

Sheets definately wasn't the goat tonight.... Carlos needs to do a little soul-searching to figure out what's going on. If the Brewers can split the series tomorrow, it would be tremendous.

 

Come on people, these are the freaking Cardinals. If they go 1-3, i'll be disappointed, but if they go 2-2 at Busch, that's just a great job.

[moofnelson]

I think what it boils down to, is that we hate to see Brewers lose games they should have won.

 

moof

[Brian the Automator]

[ I think what it boils down to, is that we hate to see Brewers lose games they should have won. ]

 

At some point, they're going to have to solve the RISP problem, you're right. I guess I would have been much more disappointed if they were playing some mediocre team.

 

...maybe start trying to get the hitters to hit away more when runners are on. They have some decent away hitters (Hall, Overbay, and now Jenkins is starting to)

[Brian the Automator]

hoffy.... did you want Jenks to face Tavarez to bring in Ray King, or are you talking about a different pinch-hit opportunity?

[Oswald Chesterfield Cobble]

In the end, not pinch hitting for magruder was not the worse thing in the world. #1 King would of came in and its a different story. #2 we had the tying run on base for branyan still. #3 jj was robbed, if he was not it might be a different story....

[H0FFY]

hoffy.... did you want Jenks to face Tavarez to bring in Ray King, or are you talking about a different pinch-hit opportunity?

 

yes, for sure Brian. I think I actually would have pinch hit Jenks for Lee; then that would have swapped Mag around to the right (he is better there, hey?); and I even wanted to see Branyan for Moeller/Hardy

 

The game was set up perfectly for Ned to manage - and he did nothing

 

I can stomach losing with our best players - that is life; but to actually not play our best players when you have guys on 2nd and 3rd in a one run game in the 8th inning when you have the bench and the flexibility to do it is so so so bad

 

I hate losing because our mangage is dumb; I dont like that at all; it is sad

 

I am sad; darn

[Brian the Automator]

Jenks for Lee? Yeah, I can see the logic behind that... but PH'ing for Hardy? Hardy was raking all night...

 

If the game was riddled with managing mistakes, i'd put it on Yost... but with this many runners left in scoring position, the professionals gotta come through. His hands weren't 100% clean, but there's plenty of blame to go around.

[NlGHTWlNG]

I will give Yost credit tonight. I thought he did well with both the bullpen and pinch hitting. This one, as it should always be, is on the players.

[AJAY]

Just got home from the game. I had a nice time at Busch Stadium. It seemed really different in person than it does on TV. It took me a while to get acclimated to the depth perception.

 

1. As you all noted, the hitting with RISP was HORRIBLE. We should have had a million runs. I am sick of the strikeouts and non-productive outs. Runners at second and third, nobody out. At least hit a groundball to second. Some of the balls they swung at were in the dirt. Mulder was behind in the count all night, and still they couldn't do more. It was painful. I wish I had a laptop so I could have come here and said BOOOOOOOOOO !!

 

2. Brady Clark swung at the first pitch of the game against a pitcher nobody on this team has ever faced. WHY? He seems to have Scott Podsednikitis. He needs to go back to working the count, drawing walks, and fouling off a lot of pitches. He seems to feel he has to hit his way on. Once he proves he will take his walks, he will get better pitches to hit.

 

3. Hardy is looking awesome at the plate. I hope he hits the weights a little this winter so some of those line drive outs can carry a little more and maybe leave the park. He was hitting the ball extremely hard.

 

4. There were quite a few Brewers fans there. More than I expected. It was fun chatting with them.

 

5. Eveland seemed poised out there. Even when he was in a jam, he stayed calm, threw strikes, and minimized the dama

 

6. The new Cardinals stadium is coming along. You get a nice view of the inside when you walk around there. But it's hard to imagine how they will finish it in time for next year. I am not going to say that they NEED a new ballpark, but I am sure they will enjoy more of the comforts like wider concourses, restaurants, etc. Busch really did not have much and it was cramped in there. By the way, everything seems expensive there compared to what we are used to in Milwaukee.

 

7. As you all know, Albert Pujols is ridiculous. It's scary when he comes up.

[endaround]

So AJAY you're saying you weren't in the cheesehead?

[brewmann04]

I agree if we Get out of STL 2-2 it will be great.

But we have to begin and raise the bar and expect this team

to compete with the big boys.

 

However we can"t expect that to happen until this team solves it problem with RISP.

 

THIS has been going on way to long and needs to be fixed and stop wasting good Pitching.

[AJAY]

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So AJAY you're saying you weren't in the cheesehead?

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No cheesehead for me. It was 100 degrees outside and I was concerned about the cheese melting. I opted for the Brewers retro hat. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

[endaround]

On TV they shouwed a guy in a cheesehead who was about to pass out from the heat. Bill said that before the game he was over at teh Brewer dugout trying to get autographs.

[AJAY]

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On TV they shouwed a guy in a cheesehead who was about to pass out from the heat. Bill said that before the game he was over at teh Brewer dugout trying to get autographs.

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Yeah, I was there next to him near the Brewers dugout during batting practice. He was on his honeymoon with his new wife. He was on his break from the military.

[Bucky Rules]

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I know we were playing the Cardinals but why should that matter? If we want to be in the playoffs then we have to beat the best teams.

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Actually that's not true. The Cardinals are far and away the best team in the National League. If we don't beat them, but beat everyone else, I'm pretty sure we would still be a playoff team. It's no crime to lose to the Cardinals in St Louis -- even with your ace on the mound.

 

But the Brewers aren't a playoff caliber team right now. The sooner everyone comes to grips with that, the less stressful the season will become. I am more certain now that they will be a playoff caliber team within the next year or two, than I have been in a looooong time. But this team is still a hitter or two away --- Weeks and Fielder may be those hitters.

 

 

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did not jenks need a full day off; and cannot be used in a situation that everyone can see; then he appears in a who cares, doesnt matter role in the next inning

 

we should just forget about this day

 

by the way, the PLAYERS can see how Ned manages, how long before they start to get angry; what a joke batting mag instead of Jenks

 

(heck I would have even batted Jenks for Lee and Branyan for Magruder... that was the game RIGHT there)

 

shame Ned

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I couldn't disagree with this more. Yost managed this perfectly, as far as I'm concerned. He knew he would get a RHP in the 9th inning. If he pinch hit Jenkins and/or Branyan in the 8th, they'd be facing Ray King. If they don't give up a run in the bottom of the 8th, it would not have been possible to have had a "meaningless" AB for Jenkins. As it turned out, they still got Branyan up representing the tying run. I really don't get where this was so "shameful".

 

As for the players "seeing how Ned manages". That's very true. And to a man, they seem effusive in their praise about him. It doesn't seem to be the standard pat answers when they speak about him. It seems much more genuine than that.