8/26/07 Brewers (Bush) at Giants (Lincecum): 3:05 PM CDT

[Nearsighted Views]

Crap--I just threw up all over myself.

[pebadger]

Warner Robins, Georgia has more mental toughness than the Milwaukee Brewers.

[Ennder]

Now this feels better, it was so uncomfortable rooting for a "winning" team.

 

Ned pinch-hits Hall for Gross when RH bats hit .171 against Taschner (.280-something for LH bats).

 

Uecker and Powell are throwing chairs right now.

 

C'mon Cubs, officially ruin my summer.

Righties and lefties have hit Taschner about the same over his career. All you are seeing is a small sample size at work. I think Ned needs to go but a lot of the complaints about him are really reaching.

[brewdude15]

what REALLY hurts is the girl that i like is a Cubs fan....i'm gonna hear it when school starts back up, unless things get turned around.

[adambr2]

Yeahh, we made it .500!!

Oh wait, this isn't 3 years ago where I would acually be thrilled about that. We've sure made leaps and bounds the last couple of years.

[milwaukeesportsfan]

I think Ned needs to go but a lot of the complaints about him are really reaching.

 

How about, Ned left Bush in too long once again, even though everybody knows that Bush has not gotten through a lineup three times in one game practically all season without giving up a big inning?

[crewcrazy]

Wow, Brian and Bill being brutally honest in the postgame show for a change. Kind of surprised they would be allowed to say some of that kind of stuff...I think you can kind of tell Bill's getting tired of Ned Yost.

[ecjimg]

owwww...apparently you can still hurt yourself kicking pillows, barefoot. stubbed my big toe on the floor and broke the nail.

I didnt think i had anger management issues, but this team is killing me. Ive taken losses,,,,,stupid losses much better the last few years. (except the losss to St. Louis last year when Joe Winklesas pitched at Miller). Do you guys/gals know what its like to have to go to work and face CUB fans!

Im out of excuses for this team

[jlau20]

Time to start the Countdown to 82 Losses thread? Maybe some reverse psychology from BF.net will get them going?

[Bruce Ciskie]

Righties and lefties have hit Taschner about the same over his career. All you are seeing is a small sample size at work. I think Ned needs to go but a lot of the complaints about him are really reaching.

 

Well, if by "about the same", you mean "lefties hit about 50 points higher", than you're spot-on. Congrats.

[brewcrew00]

Wow, Brian and Bill being brutally honest in the postgame show for a change. Kind of surprised they would be allowed to say some of that kind of stuff...I think you can kind of tell Bill's getting tired of Ned Yost.

 

what were they saying, I missed it?

[Ennder]

Righties and lefties have hit Taschner about the same over his career. All you are seeing is a small sample size at work. I think Ned needs to go but a lot of the complaints about him are really reaching.

Well, if by "about the same", you mean "lefties hit about 50 points higher", than you're spot-on. Congrats.

 

Righties have a .020 higher career OPS against him which means about the same, but thank you for the snotty remark, they are always better when they aren't backed up by facts.

[brewdude15]

Corey Hart played horrible defense today. He's had an up-down season, too.

[ReverendBrewmeister]

What is quite disturbing to me is this whole "third time through the order" business.

 

I agree that Bush should not have been lifted, such an implosion can't always be expected. But this trend of starting pitching is not good and needs to be addressed. Is there some blame to be placed--not on the pitcher--but on the pitching coach and pitch selection by the catcher? I'm beginning to really think so.

 

What is driving me to that conclusion is the lack of the same thing happening as often for our batters vs. opposition pitching. The "third time through the order" doesn't seem to matter for our hitters; I haven't noticed opposition starting pitching implosions which are becoming too frequent in our pitchers. Why is this so? It's a question that also needs to be asked and answered. Is it a lack of "clutch hitting?" Or is it that our opponents have better coaching and pitch selection?

 

If blame can be placed on coaching and pitch selection, then might warrant the removal of our manager and staff, though I doubt it would help much at this point in the season.

[Bruce Ciskie]

Righties have a .020 higher career OPS against him which means about the same, but thank you for the snotty remark, they are always better when they aren't backed up by facts.

 

Of course, what you conveniently dismiss is that Taschner has seen more action this year than in any other year of his career. If you're going to pick at a sample, 2007 would be the one. He has more appearances and innings this year than in his first two years combined.

 

Last I checked, the stat I quoted was indeed a fact. As are his 2007 numbers against a larger sample than he's ever faced before.

[crewcrazy]

Brewcrew00, they were pretty much repeatedly pointing out that Bush hasn't been able to get through the 7th inning with much success this year, and Bill said something along the lines of "There's a reason why the Brewers acquired Scott Linebrink -- to be the 7th inning guy." They also criticized the offense for being unable to add on runs. About the only thing they gave the Brewers a pass on was the Hart play, since they said it looked like he lost it in the sun and that the sun can be pretty brutal in RF during this time of day.

[MoneyballMan]

I think Ned needs to go but a lot of the complaints about him are really reaching.

 

How about, Ned left Bush in too long once again, even though everybody knows that Bush has not gotten through a lineup three times in one game practically all season without giving up a big inning?

 

Everyone "knows" that, but I'm sure someone will throw a stat back at you suggesting otherwise. It was just very logical to pinch hit for him and then let Linebrink pitch the 7th.

[Ennder]

Brewers 3rd PA in a game is a .930 OPS against. The NL in general has an .837 so while its normal to see a jump ours has been very extreme. Couldn't tell you if that is just noise, variance or something wrong with our pitching approach. Suppan, Vargas and Capuano all have histories of being below average the 3rd time through the order, Bush is generally decent his 3rd time through.

[Bruce Ciskie]

Everyone "knows" that, but I'm sure someone will throw a stat back at you suggesting otherwise. It was just very logical to pinch hit for him and then let Linebrink pitch the 7th.

 

Logic is useless when you're discussing Ned Yost.

[Ennder]

Righties have a .020 higher career OPS against him which means about the same, but thank you for the snotty remark, they are always better when they aren't backed up by facts.

Of course, what you conveniently dismiss is that Taschner has seen more action this year than in any other year of his career. If you're going to pick at a sample, 2007 would be the one. He has more appearances and innings this year than in his first two years combined.

 

Last I checked, the stat I quoted was indeed a fact. As are his 2007 numbers against a larger sample than he's ever faced before.

 

Yes lets limit our opinions to a sample so small that its almost meaningless, good idea there. Disagree all you want but you don't need to throw out the bad attitude when what I said was 100% true.

[thablingster]

The Cubs have got to be rubbing their hands together in anticipation of dusting us off this week. They really couldn't ask for more than Hill, Zambrano, and Lilly against Suppan, Gallardo/Vargas, and a blistered-hasn't-pitched-a-game-in-6-weeks-Sheets. Ouch.

[brewdude15]

this division is so bad, that the PIRATES are 9.5 back! speaking of my Corey Hart post, the only Brewers who have "lived up to the hype" are Fielder, Braun, Turnbow, and Hardy in the first half. Sheets should've been off the DL weeks ago. Cappy should've been better. Suppan has been a waste of money. Vargas has gotten lucky all year. Bush has been mediocre-at-best. Cordero has blown too many games (6). Weeks hasn't done jack crap. Hardy's been asleep the 2nd half. Estrada's had his moments, along with Gross. Jenkins has been in slumps, and mini-hot-streaks. Mench is Mench. Hall has had a down season, and Counsell, Miller, and Graffy have been the savvy vets. I have just ridiculed the whole team. I feel better to get this out of my system.

[Bruce Ciskie]

Yes lets limit our opinions to a sample so small that its almost meaningless, good idea there. Disagree all you want but you don't need to throw out the bad attitude when what I said was 100% true.

 

What did I say that wasn't 100% true?

 

He's got a career high in innings and games. Both his IP and G exceed his career totals through 2006. You want to add a sample that is less than half as large as his 2007 season, which is fine.

 

Personally, I'd rather focus on what a guy has done for the first five months of this season, rather than what he was doing in April or May of last year. Seems more pertinent.

 

(Along those lines, Dave Bush is SIGNIFICANTLY worse after the fifth inning this season, and it's even more pronounced when you look at his numbers in innings 4-6 versus 7-9. Yes, I know he's had some success in those late-inning situations in the past, but what Dave Bush did in 2005 really doesn't seem to matter much. At least that's what the Giants will tell you. http://static.yuku.com//domainskins/bypass/img/smileys/smile.gif)

[jlau20]

Some classic Ned Yost facial expressions here in the postgame.

[crewcrazy]

The Cubs have got to be rubbing their hands together in anticipation of dusting us off this week. They really couldn't ask for more than Marshall, Zambrano, and Hill against Suppan, Gallardo/Vargas, and a blistered-hasn't-pitched-a-game-in-6-weeks-Sheets. Ouch.

I think the funny thing is that most Cub fans that I've seen are even more down on their team than we are with ours. Check out the in-game thread on NorthsideBaseball for their game this afternoon...it's even more depressing than some of our game threads recently. I think both fanbases are bracing for the absolute worst and are only staying sane based on the fact that the other team in the race is just as bad as they are.