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Entries from August 2008

News of the Weird

August 28, 2008 · 1 Comment

Posted by Steve

Don’t really feel like talking about last night’s game against the St. Louis Baseball Code of Conduct Enforcers, so instead I’ll relay this little nugget.  From today’s minor-league blurb in the JS:

NASHVILLE (AAA): Centerfielder Tony Gwynn hit a walk-off homer to lift the Sounds over Albuquerque, 5-4.

Categories: Uncategorized

Thought Cornucopia: Let the Good Times Roll!

August 27, 2008 · 1 Comment

Posted by Steve

First, some thoughts on yesterday’s game.

  • It was actually close for most of the game, and the Brewers were lucky to have a 3-0 in the middle of the game. Each team squandered several scoring chances over the first five innings. At one point Bill said, “The Brewers could easily be leading 8-0,” to which I thought, “And they could easily be trailing 4-3.”
  • It’s funny to me to that some praising Sheets for yesterday’s outing are the ones who had been criticizing him. He really didn’t pitch much differently that he has over the past few weeks… He was a little luckier this time, and he didn’t make his mistakes in crucial situations last night, unlike the Houston start. Oh, and he had a ton of run support for a change.
  • I have felt all season the Brewers are better than the Cardinals, but I couldn’t believe what I was watching yesterday. The Cardinals making errors—and mental errors at that, is something I’m just not used to, yet they’ve regularly done it in games against the Brewers this season.
  • The Brewers own Rick Ankiel this season to the tune of a .619 OPS in 53 plate appearances. It seems the guy will swing at any fastball above his letters. The Brewers only give him that pitch or a curve in the dirt and he’ll get himself out.
  • Finally, we come to Ryan Braun’s pwnage of the Cardinals pitching. I couldn’t say it better than Bernie Miklasz of STLToday.com in his blog entry titled, “Changing of the Guard: Brewers Own Cardinals (I enjoyed his title as well).

One more thing: I simply do not understand what the Cardinals are trying to do in their approach to Milwaukee bopper Ryan Braun. This kid simply murders them, and the numbers almost read like fiction.

In 57 ABs vs. the Cardinals this season Braun has 28 hits for a .491 BA. He’s slammed 7 homers and has 13 RBIs. His OBP is .516, and his SLG is .965 …

In his two-season career, Braun has 99 ABs against the Cardinals and he’s raked ‘em for 43 hits … that’s a .434 BA … and he has 10 homers and a SLG of .838.

And yet the Cardinals keep pitching Braun the same. In yesterday’s blog I relied on the STATS scouting reports to offer a glimpse at Braun’s weak spots as a hitter, and basically you pound him low with fastballs and sliders and mix in the change. Or you can ride the fastball up and get him to chase it. What you don’t do is throw this guy any heat from the top of the knees to the belt; he’ll destroy you. And you don’t try to blast him inside; Braun loves to turn on those pitches in. So what do the Cardinals keep doing? Of course: throw the mid-thigh gas, and try to smoke him inside. That was their strategy Tuesday, and Braun launched a thigh-high fastball into the Milwaukee bullpen for a two-run jack. And he added two singles. That’s right: give it to Braun exactly where he likes it. And let the dude keep mauling them. It’s almost comical the way Braun slaps them around. And they simply refuse to alter their approach. It’s as incomprehensible as anything I’ve witnessed of this team in recent years. Yep, the Cardinals will keep showing Braun that they’re right; you just watch.

  • Let’s talk about Mike Cameron. His gigantic August has vaulted him to the top of the pack among center fielders. He is now third in all of MLB behind megastars Grady Sizemore and Josh Hamilton in OPS among center fielders. Cameron’s .871 OPS is identical to Prince Fielder’s. I could argue Cameron has been the best center fielder in the national league this season, particularly factoring in defense. This signing has proven to be a fantastic one, even before figuring in that he was a second or third option signed late in the year. I fully expect the Brewers to pick up his $10 million option for next season.
  • The argument could be made that last night’s game was the most important of the year, at least in terms of playoff implications. It was a 12 or 13 percentage-point swing, with the winner’s chances jumping by about six percent and the loser dropping by a similar amount. That is a gigantic swing for one game. The Crew jumped from 85% to 90.6%, while the Cards fell to just 6.4%. Of course, tonight’s game will have a similar swing. Simply put, though, the Brewers find themselves in great position.
  • Last night on a pre-game radio show, the following question was posed on a “round table” segment: If the Brewers sweep these two games from the Cardinals, will they lock up the wildcard? The first panelists seemed appalled by the question, basically saying there’s still an entire month to go and it’s way too early to say something like that. The second panelist was sabermetric-minded Rob Neyer, and his simple answer was: “Absolutely.” This definitely brought a smile to my face, because although I’m afraid to say it, I agree with him. A 5 ½ game lead with a month to go is substantial in any form, but when you consider the Brewers are considered/projected to be a better team than both the Mets and Cardinals, it’s huge. Add on the Brewers’ favorable schedule compared to the Cards, and… Well, like I said. They’re in a great situation, especially if they sweep tonight.

Categories: Cornucopia of thoughts

The best fans in baseball!

August 26, 2008 · Leave a Comment

Posted by Steve

I’m sure those Cardinals fans stayed to the very end tonight.

A line from Adam: Love the mock cheering. Except they’re Cardinals fans, so it’s mach-cheering.

Awesome game.  That was a sweet grounder single by Lawn Gnome.  And I loved, absolutely LOVED La Russa micromanaging a game down 5-0 by pulling a reliever after one hitter.

Categories: Uncategorized

Pooh-poohing Tony and the Cards

August 26, 2008 · 2 Comments

Posted by Steve

Ah, the Cardinals. Let me tell you why I despise the Cardinals (picture Chris Farley in Tommy Boy when he says to the waitress, “Let me tell you why I suck as a salesman.” That’s how I said that sentence).

  • Their fans. Okay, not their fans specifically as much as the reputation of their fans, and in turn the fans who brag about said reputation. Go ahead and google ‘best fans in baseball.’ Here, I’ll even do it for you. It’s a friggin’ Redbird lovefest. Cardinals fans don’t boo. They don’t turn on their team. They’re knowledgeable. They don’t interfere with play. They don’t leave early. They are friendly. They work at soup kitchens. They respect Ozone Action Days. They’re courteous drivers, but only when they aren’t biking to work. They’re celibate. I get it! But you know what? I heard a lot of booing when the Brewers swept them out of their stadium. And if you go to a Cardinals game on a Saturday night, I guarantee you’ll find some drunk, obnoxious fans, just like at every other stadium. Must we glorify a fan base for simply not being on the level of scum-of-the-Earth Cub fans? I say no! Give it a rest.
  • Their over-performing crappy players. In seven minor league seasons, Skip Schumaker has an OPS of .738, so it only makes sense that he’d be at .795 this year in the majors. Aaron Miles has a 96 OPS+ this season, but a career OPS+ of 76 (and that’s with two seasons in Coors Field!) Ryan Ludwick was never a bad player, but who puts up outstanding numbers in their first full-time season at age 29? Either the Cardinals are idiots for not giving him a chance earlier, or Ludwick is an outlier in a group of outliers—which seems to happen to the Cardinals all the time.
  • Their crappy players performing where they should be and not costing them wins. Seriously, this team has Brian Barton, Skip Schumaker, Adam Kennedy, Aaron Miles, Brenden Ryan, Joe Mather and Cesar Izturis. That’s not all. On the pitching side, they have had a rotation including Todd Wellemeyer, Kyle Lohse, Braden Looper and Joel Pineiro the entire season, and they have given 40+ innings of relief to Ryan Franklin, Ron Villone and Russ Springer! What the hell? How are they not terrible? Pujols, Glaus and Ludwick are all great, but that doesn’t make up for a team half-filled with scrubs.
  • Aaron Miles specifically. I don’t think any player irritates me more than Aaron Miles right now. What is he, 4’9”? Baseball Reference has him at 5’8”… Not buying it. Hey Aaron, why don’t you choke up another foot on the bat? Better yet, turn it around and hold the bat by the barrel. That should help you hit the ball even more weakly. And check out the dude’s goatee. Have you ever seen a goatee that full in your life? It looks like he has hair plugs on his face. You can’t convince me his back isn’t just blanketed in hair. I bet he even has the Mo Williams shoulder hair. If Aaron Miles grew out his hair and a full beard he could easily pass for a dwarf, but for now, he looks more like a lawn gnome. In closing, Aaron Miles=Gnome.
  • Albert Pujols’ nonexistent injury. At the beginning of the year we were hearing how Pujols’ injured elbow was bound to blow out at any moment, and there was virtually no way he’d make it through the season. Well, so much for that, and it hasn’t even affected him. Annoying.
  • The Antichrist. Yep. You knew I’d get there eventually. Good ol’ Tony La Russa. First of all, thank goodness it isn’t September yet, because La Russa would use 20 pitchers in each game if he had an expanded roster. Each game would take five hours. My favorite moment of the greatest series in the last decade was seeing La Russa run out of bench players in regulation and having to send up relief pitchers to hit in extra innings. Thing is, you know he’ll have something up his sleeve. This is the last time the Cards will have a crack at the Brewers this season, so he’ll be pulling out all the stops. Last season, he played Ned Yost like Andy Dufresne played the warden with that beanball ‘mine’s bigger than yours’ ordeal. I’m really hoping that Yost has learned to ignore that crap this time around, but somehow I’m not very confident. I also hate that La Russa is being credited for winning with this crappy team, even though it’s probably warranted. Would he get 100 wins out of this Brewers team? Seems that way, but they’re probably too talented and deep for him. I imagine if he was offered the Brewers job, he wouldn’t agree to it unless Tony Gwynn Jr. and Laynce Nix were called up and Craig Counsell was named starting shortstop.

I’ve accepted that no matter the outcome, the games themselves, like all Cardinals games, will suck. They’ll be drawn out with multiple pitching changes and double switches. If the Brewers get swept, I’ll be much angrier than I should. All rationality says I should be very pleased with a split, and I’m sure I would, but I’d love nothing more to take both and almost be single-handedly responsible for keeping them out of the playoffs. After years and years and the Cardinals’ doormat, I don’t think that’s too much to ask for.

Aaron Miles

Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: , ,

Nice to be on the other end of one of these for a change

August 25, 2008 · Leave a Comment

Posted by Steve

Quite the game yesterday. It wasn’t particularly well-played offensively, but the pitching and defense was very good, and the Crew continued their knack of winning close games. Things are looking great right now for the Brewers. They just swept the Pirates and have won four in a row, they are 3.5 games up on a playoff spot and BP has them at an 85.5% chance at the playoffs. Simply split the short series in St. Louis, and the Brewers will give themselves a sizeable lead over the Cards with no games left against them as they enter the final month.

I’ll let this replace Bill’s Scouting Report this week, because it was by far my favorite thing he said all week. In the bottom of the 12th inning yesterday, Bill was giving a quick rundown of the Jason Davis, the pitcher entering the game. “He’s thrown the ball pretty well as a Pirate,” said Bill as the stats were shown on the screen.

Here are the stats that were shown: 23 2/3 innings, 25 hits, 12 walks, 10 strikeouts and a 1.56 WHIP. For those scoring at home, that makes for a sweet .833 strikeout/walk ratio and 3.8 strikeouts/nine innings.

Basically, Jason Davis has been quite bad as a Pirate this year, so what the crap could have caused Bill to say he’s throwing well? Well, Davis had somehow managed to only allow 10 earned runs for a 3.8 ERA. Of course ERA is a poor indicator of relief pitching performance, and over 23 innings it’s meaningless. No matter to Bill, whose thought process I guarantee went like so: ‘Jason Davis. Pirate. Pitcher. 3.8 ERA. Hey, that’s pretty good. Jason Davis has thrown the ball well as a Pirate.’

Bill also probably thinks Carlos Villanueva had a great outing yesterday. Sure he loaded the bases with nobody out in the 12th inning and was pulled, but he didn’t allow any runs!

Categories: Bill's Scouting Report of the Week · Milwaukee Brewers 2008

Ah, Nostalgia

August 22, 2008 · Leave a Comment

Posted by Steve

I was just reading over the JS Brewers blog entry discussing the fact that the Brewers have nine remaining games against Pittsburgh, and it mentioned the 2005 season in which the Brewers broke their losing season streak against the Pirates.

Man, remember that?  What a friggin’ embarrassment.  For like an entire month, FSN was actually counting down the games to .500 after each win.  Darren Sutton shot in his pants after each win as though it was a countdown to a division title.  People were genuinely excited about .500.  Ugh.

Then again, Pittsburgh is still in that mindset.  I don’t sympathize much because the Brewers were also terrible for so long, and also because the Pirates have finally blown it up correctly and will probably be good within a few years.  In other words… CRUSHIN UR PIRATES… CRUSH CRUSH CRUSH.

Categories: Uncategorized

If this is a slump, what will his hot streak be like?

August 20, 2008 · 1 Comment

Posted by Steve

Last not was obviously not a good outing for Ben Sheets. At the same time, to me it seemed like a microcosm of his overall performance since the All-Star Break: Not very good, but not as bad as it’s being made out to be.

In six innings, Sheets allowed just six baserunners (1.00 WHIP for Pete’s sake), walked one hitter and struck out seven. That’s a very nice performance in general, and if someone did that consistently he would not give up many runs. Of course five of those runners scored on Ben’s two biggest mistakes—the triple by Bourn and the homer by Blum.

It’s similar to his “bad” stretch. The game article in the JS is titled, “Sheets Continues to Struggle.” Michael Hunt wrote a column today in which he A) claims that having CC Sabathia throw 130 pitches in a six-run game isn’t a bad move (wrong!) and B) that the “main concern” for the Brewers should be Ben Sheets (more wronger!). Hunt, of course, claims he’s struggling because his record since the end of June is 2-6. Good God, every time I see a prominent media member use W-L records as an important indicator I want to cry.

It’s a joke to call this a bad stretch. Since the All-Star Break, Sheets has an ERA of 4.06 and a 1.22 WHIP. Those numbers are not as good as Sheets’s total numbers from this season, but they’re good numbers! If you want to see a bad stretch from a good pitcher, check out Sabathia’s first seven starts of the season: 7.51 ERA, 1.77 WHIP.

Also comical in that Hunt column is this line: Sheets likely isn’t coming back, either, and would the Brewers ever like the chance to ride him for more than the six-plus innings he has averaged for them in his last 10 starts. He criticizes Ben for averaging “six-plus” innings. What to know something Mike? Six-plus innings per start is also above average!

Then there’s the reader poll.  Do you want Ben Sheets to return to the Brewers next season? Somehow, 51.7% said no!  What an absurd result. Big thumbs down to the JS for skewing that poll as well. Hm, let’s throw up a shortsighted column in which we tell readers that Sheets is struggling, and then right next to it we’ll have a poll asking whether they want Ben back next year! I wonder what the results will be…

I realize Sheets has not been as good as he can be, but he’s still been a good pitcher since Sabathia arrived. In fact, I’d say he has things perfectly in perspective.

I ain’t pitching great,” the Milwaukee Brewers right-hander said. “But I don’t think I’m pitching as bad as it’s made out to be. I’ve pitched plenty of winnable games and pitched plenty of losable games during that stretch. The first half, I came away with a lot of victories, pitching the same way that I have this half.”

And my favorite line: “People just want to look at your won-loss record as to how you’re pitching,” Sheets said. “I’d say I’ve had two really bad ones since the all-star break. All the other ones, I’ve kept us right there.”

Categories: Articles that irritate me · Milwaukee Brewers 2008

DreamRickie has even more potential

August 18, 2008 · 1 Comment

Posted by Steve

I realize I have what is likely an unhealthy obsession with the Milwaukee Brewers, and my dream last night confirms that. Here’s a description.

I’m at a third party to a meeting between Ned Yost/Doug Melvin and Rickie Weeks in a Miller Park office. I don’t really think I am there physically as much as I just have an omniscient view of what is going on, like in a movie. Ned asks Rickie to sit down, and then says (paraphrasing, as I don’t remember what DreamNed said ), “Rickie, we like you a lot. We drafted you very high, and we had great hopes for you as a baseball player. Unfortunately, we can’t afford to wait on you any longer in this pennant race. We’re releasing you.”

“What?!?” exclaims a stunned Weeks. “But I’m just starting to come around! I’m only 25, I mashed in the minors and I’ve been injured for much of my major league career! Plus I’m coming around offensively now!”

“I’m sorry Rick,” says Ned. “We can’t afford to wait. We have another option now, so we’re going to act. We wish you luck.”

“You’ll regret this!” yells Rickie. “You’re making a huge mistake!”

Fast forward to my reaction, which takes place in a new but unknown location. I am somehow in the company of Melvin and Yost, who are actually listening to me for some reason. I’m pretty much repeating what Weeks said to them, only more maniacally. I end it with the over-the-top line of, “And you’ll both be run out of town for this! You’re ruining this team! RUINING IT!!!”

I woke up sometime around there, and it was 2 am or something. Despite the fact I was actually talking to Doug Melvin and Ned Yost and it couldn’t have possibly happened, this was one of those dreams that seemed completely real. I lied in bed, 100% convinced Rickie Weeks had been released. I think I actually said out loud, “Ray Durham??” I started laying out in my mind all the things I would write here on the matter. I was ready to rip Doug Melvin to shreds. I was already envisioning myself comparing Ray Durham’s stats and Rickie Weeks’s stats since the trade (.275/.366/.438 for Weeks, .186/.271/.349 for Durham–small sample noted), noting how ridiculous it is for them to make this decision based on less than a year’s worth of stats, etc etc.

I was fully convinced Weeks was no longer a Brewer for what seemed to be about 20 minutes. The remote possibility that this may have been only a dream finally crossed my mind, but I wasn’t totally convinced. I was almost to the point of getting up and checking the computer, but then I must have fallen asleep.  I woke up and didn’t even remember having the dream for a couple hours before it all came back to me.

There has to be better things I can do with my time.

Categories: Steve's Brewers/Baseball-related dreams

When you say ‘Olympic Analyst,’ I say ‘Chris Collinsworth’

August 17, 2008 · Leave a Comment

Posted by Steve

This is like my third or fourth non-baseball post in history. Just a disclaimer, I guess.

I’ve been out of town the entire weekend and haven’t been able to follow the Brewers live. Instead, I’ve been trying to watch the Olympics, but I can’t get past Chris Collinsworth analyzing the events. He was breaking down the swimming the other day, and right now he’s interviewing some gymnast. And the other day TIKI BARBER was covering stuff too… What the hell?

Collinsworth just said, “As an athlete, there are times you need to get back on the horse… And with you YOU NEED TO LITERALLY GET BACK ON THE (pommel) HORSE HAHAHAHA!”

I’m sure these athletes love shmucks who don’t know anything more about these sports than we do interviewing them on national television.

On a final note, I am loving these two gymnastics analysts (one male, one female) competitively trying to out-analyze one another. High comedy.

Edit:

The best part is I just realized watching this that the pommel horse is actually only used by men in the Olympics. What Collinsworth referred to as the pommel horse is actually the balance beam. That girl hates him.

Categories: Uncategorized

He even makes the English language gritty

August 14, 2008 · Leave a Comment

Posted by Steve

“He just took a swing and kind of felt it pop,” manager Ned Yost said. “He was hitting balls out of the ballpark, right? Then he turned around and I seen him walking in. So I said, ‘He must be feeling good. He’s had enough BP.’ He still had like five minutes left, but Bill (Hall) was standing right there and said Russ was hurt.”

I don’t know about you, but when I seen that quote from Ned my head hurt. Yyyya just gotta git-r-done!

Categories: Uncategorized