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09/19/2004 - Brewers (Davis) at Astros (Clemens) ESPN2


batman

Indeed.

 

Here are the ages of the Brewers' starting position players.

 Player Age -------------------- Scott Podsednik - 28 Keith Ginter - 28 Brady Clark - 31 Geoff Jenkins - 30 Lyle Overbay - 27 Russell Branyan - 28 Craig Counsell - 34 Chad Moeller - 29 -------------------- Average Age: 29.375

That's not "young". I hope Tony Gwynn, Jr. is reading brewerfan and can relay that to his dad. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

 

~Bill

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We switched back and forth between the Brewers and other programs tonight. I suppose it's too much to hope that the ESPN2 team gave Sharpie any props? and it wasn't just the Rocket showcase? As if holding back the Brewers' offense takes a lot of skill these days...
Remember: the Brewers never panic like you do.
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I'm incredibly frustrated with the way this team is finishing up the season. They haven't beaten a contending team in over a month and are going to have a tough time even matching last year's poor record. Maybe they're "battlin'", maybe they're not, either way they're playing at an unacceptable level and management can't find ways to make changes. They're wasting everyone's time trotting out the same old lineups, and frankly, the players are playing like they realize it. It's just maddening.

 

Robert

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The pitching has declined somewhat in the second half, but not in any sort of unreasonable way. Davis and Sheets still look like a pretty good pair at the top of the rotation. Santos may or may not be 5th spot fodder or he just may have worn down. The bullpen has taken some knocks in the second half, but a lot of it was Kolb having a more reasonable performance. On balance though I'd say our pitching staff is light years ahead of where they were coming into the season and that's a pretty big positive.

The offense is just so bad. If you are going to continue to lead Pods off Overbay needs to hit 3rd slump or not. With his steal numbers and Overbay's doubles we have an excellent chance to score if those two are bunched in the line-up. Instead we've got the no batting average and power wunderkins stuck in there and frequently just leave Scotty stuck at second. As disfunctional as this offense is quirky things like line-up construction become more important. But at this point that's just small potatoes because we've only got two real hitters in the line-up. Clark makes modest contributions with his OBP in a line-up otherwise devoid, and Jenkins has chipped in modest power, but despite getting to lukewarm levels he's still been pretty bad.

We talked a lot about stranding baserunners early in the season, but with Keith remaining mostly a hacker and Counsell's batting skills reduced to only walking we're not even getting baserunners anymore. Branyan has plugged one hole, but we've still got pits at catcher and SS with the entire OF barely a step above. It's going to take atleast 2 BIG upgrades out of those spots to really get this offense to respectability. I happen to think despite missing most of the year that Hardy can provide one of those Big improvements, but even if Doug feels similarily he can't really count on Hardy doing much more than playing good defense and hanging in there, so he's got to do everything he can to provide some serious boost.

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"There it is again: "young Milwaukee hitters" "

 

I'm willing to cut Tony Gwynn some slack from last night.

 

Some may argue that he should know the Brewers a bit better because it's his son's organization. But a) Junior isn't even close to playing with these esteemed Brewer legends yet, and b) how many dads can rattle off the names of their sons' co-workers? http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

 

Tony's a national announcer who, understandably, doesn't follow a last place team whom he never covers, too closely. And in terms of calling the Brewers a "young" team, I think he was trying to be kind. Young almost always equals bad, like a poor-hitting catcher = defensive star, right? And for most, "young" = "This is...what?...his second year?...He must be...25?" But that crappy lineup we keep sending out there is littered with (until now) career backups like Clark, Bennett, Branyan, Overbay and Branyan, who rarely have seen extensive playing time before. So the perception is, since I haven't seen much of them before, and they stink, then they're probably young.

 

Tony seems like a decent guy, which is welcome in this age of in-your-face commentators, and who knows?, maybe next year or if he's still around in '06, Mr. Gwynn may become more comfy in the booth and be able to speak out a bit better.

 

Look at Rick Sutcliffe. He's getting very comfortable calling games now, but he was pretty generic and stiff at first.

 

Friday night, when that fan in the first row in Yankee Stadium failed to grab an easy potential home run ball as Manny Ramirez reached in and snatched it away from him, Rick said, "That was a gimme...And judging by that fan in the grey shirt's reaction, that wasn't the first beer he's had tonight."

 

Priceless!

"So if this fruit's a Brewer's fan, his ass gotta be from Wisconsin...(or Chicago)."
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I'm sorry, but Tony Gwynn get paid very well to give color commentary on what, 50 games a year? He can do some actual research for games he is provding color on. It not just Tony's fault of course, there seems to be this belief that Yost is doing his bet to teach his young team how to play the game. But if it takes 20 secs to see that the young Brewers consist of Sheets, Bennett, and Hall, and that the Brewers are a bunch a stopgaps why can't people being paid to do that actually do that?
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