7/19 Brewers (Sheets) at Pirates (D'Amico)

[MassBrew]

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[PeaveyFury]

Wow... talk about an awful squeeze play..... yuck.

[MassBrew]

Everybody's in Beloit -- shortest game thread ever.

 

Nice job by Yost not over-managing and letting Kolb go the final two innings.

 

Congratulations, Ben, you've earned a nice arbitraton-eligible bump for 2004. 25 years old yesterday -- I'm continually mystified to think that some wish to trade you. You'll be "in the prime" of 27-28 in 2005-2006, and not eligible for free agency until after 2006. We'll enjoy your stay -- thank you very much.

[Al the Thinking Man]

I've never proposed trading Ben, MB, nor do I want to deal any young pitchers. He's the type of arm we need more of, not less of. 25 year-olds with upside that are pretty decent now are few and far between.

 

Kudos to Ned and his staff for removing him after 105 pitches. Many on here would have had no trouble having him "build confidence" and "tough it out" throwing 142 as we chased that 67th win as if it came with a prize.

[nikip43]

Very very smart move by keeping Ben to a sort of "pitch" count...hes thrown a ton of innings this season for a losing cause

 

Hes never really "Ben" bothered by injuries and to overwork him this season would be silly. The Marlins (notorious for overworking pitchers) saw one of their top studs AJ Brunett go from being a future workhorse to missing the whole year plus more due to an arm injury. Add Brunett to the rotation of Willis and Josh Beckett, you've got something even more special.

 

Besides, what needs more confidence, Sheets or the bullpen (more importantly, other teams watching Brewer games trying to gain confidence in pieces of the pen in which they wish to aquire)

[gmanspack]

What was also good about this game is Kolb held the lead unlike dejean

[thebruce44]

Looks like Sheets evened his ERA at 4.00. Obviously the win is the most important, but it would be a big step for Ben to hang out in the 3's the rest of the year.