Daily Archives: June 19, 2008

“In other words, Russell Branyan was the balls.”

Posted on June 19, 2008 by | 1 Comment

Posted by Steve

Crazy flippin’ game today.  Awesome performance from Dave Bush, and the pen almost gave it away.  But mainly, I’m here to post about the most intriguing man to walk the Earth: Russell Oles Branyan (yep, that’s his real middle name.  So badass.)

Do yourself a favor and go to ESPN’s state page.  Click on OPS.  Ok, so he has only 62 at-bats.  But he’s LEADING THE MAJOR LEAGUES IN OPS.  Another fun way to look at it:  Branyan has 20% more home runs thanthe home run leader for the Toronto Blue Jays, and he has 62 ABs.  Tee hee hee.

At this point it’s just funny to me.  Geoff Jenkins went on a ridiculous home run binge several years ago, but I don’t really remember anything quite like this from a Brewer.

Of course, it’s not all positive in my eyes.  What the crap took so long to get him up here?  Gwynn sucking up those critical pinch hit at bats that could have gone to Branyan hurt, and I’m still embarrassed that Branyan wasn’t up to DH in the series in Fenway.

Branyan has been raking all season between AAA and MLB, so it’s remotely possible his adjustment to his batting stance will allow him to finish 2008 with monster numbers.  At this point I’m ready to just sit back and enjoy the ride.

By DougJones43 of brewerfan.net

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Posted in Jack Bauer wears Russell Branyan pajamas

Bill Strikes again (6/18/08)

Posted on June 19, 2008 by | 1 Comment

Posted by Dan

I’m bored with nothing to do, some I’m going to criticize Bill’s scouting report on A.J. Burnett for today: (And a Bill quote as I type this)

June Gloom

National League

Road Warrior

First off, Burnett has only made 3 starts in June, so to even comment on the gloominess (is that a word?) seems premature. But let’s pretend it isn’t and look at the three starts:

5.0 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 4 BB, 7 K

4.1 IP, 10 H, 8 ER, 4 BB, 5K

8.0 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 8K

Clearly, June Gloom means that of his three starts this month, 1 was bad. Granted, it was really bad. But for the month of June he has a 10.6 K/9 rate. His BB rate is certainly a high (5.8/ 9 IP) but let’s face it, Bill looked at his 6 ERA for June and decided “June Gloom” was fitting. Now, what does “National League” mean? Clearly the Brewers are in the National League and Burnett used to be (2005). I didn’t really catch his commentary on this point as I was scrambling to write the points down before they were appropriately removed from the screen for all-time, but I would love to see Yost firing up the guys before the game by saying, “Alright guys! Remember, this guy used to be in the National League! And we are now! You know what that means!” The heart of the Brewers lineup (Fielder, Braun and Hart) had like 100 AB total before 2006 so I just don’t get the significance of this point. Lastly, Bill anoints Burnett a “Road Warrior”. True enough, this year Burnett has a pretty extreme Home/Away split (8.16/2.98 ) which is obviously sample size related. (54 innings @ home, 32 on the road). For the rest of his career Burnett features a Home/Away line of 3.51/4.15 which obviously seems to disprove the “Road Warrior” title. It really is like Bill doesn’t even try. I would totally prefer he just tell us what pitches he throws and be done with it.

Finally, as I was typing this, Corey Hart smoked a 2-run double to center on an 0-2, belt high, heart of the plate fastball from Burnett. Bill questioned his pitch “selection.” Something tells me, that Zaun wasn’t back there giving the “meatball” sign. I have a hunch, that the problem was in the pitch’s execution.

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Posted in Bill's Scouting Report of the Week