Last Call !!!
I’m convinced. This season has been and will be an absolute waste. If I’m GM, I send Carlos Lee to the team with enough strike-throwing arms you can get in one deal. Throw Geoff Jenkins and Bill Hall in the deal if you have to.
In return, you will be unloading 200+ strikeouts out of your lineup. That by itself will improve the offense. Even with the players above, this team cannot even play 500 baseball. How much do we really lose by moving them?
Ned Yost and Brady Clark can go too. Take whatever you can get from them. Even if its nothing, you can clear a roster spot and 3-1/2 million committed to a player who has never thrown a runner out trying to take an extra base. I mean, NEVER!
Ned Yost is as predictible as they come and to fool us lately, he’s been making all his moves one batter or pitcher too late. He sure is trickey. Not even Phil Garner would ever use Brady Clark as a defensive replacement over Gabe Gross who, in the last two games is 3 for 5, with 4 runs scored, 2 walks, and 2 runs batted in.
He lets Brian Shouse face Edwin Encarnacion (a right-handed hitter) who luckily deposits a ground-rule double, otherwise, Dunn scores from first. Then, he goes and gets Jose Capellan.
This season is lost. I think it would be nice to see Gabe Gross in left, Tony Gwynn Jr. in center, and Corey Hart in right for the remainder of the season. With the loss of Mr. Clutch Bill Hall, you bring up Ryan Braun and let him see some big-league pitching.
As to the replacement manager, right now, I don’t care as long as its not Daron Sutton or Bill Schroeder, who, this weekend, are making love with Ken Griffey Jr. and the recent trade where the Reds, who received a very young Bill Bray and a Danny Kolb-like Gary Majewski.
The thought of Gross, Gwynn, and Hart in the outfield would be worth watching the remainder of this season. It beats watching Carlos Lee do his "Ronnie Belliard" impersonation by making no effort to help the team (Two missed fly balls, 1st pitch swinging double plays while jogging to first). Who wants to waste their time watching that junk!
In my last move as GM, I outright release Sutton and Schroder. I rework a television deal that includes every road game to be televised. I beg my owner to pre-buy all the games between the Cubs and the Brewers and resell them only to people who live in the 5-county area who actually have paid for Miller Park.
My replacement in the TV booth can just be one person. A Vince Skully wannabe would be close enough. No reporter in the stands. No interviewing the coaching staff in the dugout.
Would you look at that! Not only have I gotten rid of everything that is old, wrong, and keeping this club down. I’ve freed over 20 million dollars to be spent correctly this off-season so just about every bullpen pitcher for the Milwaukee Brewers will have a different address next season.
Laugh all you want. Going into next season, we will see how much of a different look this team has. If I’m closer to being right than wrong, 2007 should finally be the year we get to experience post-season baseball.
The Brewer Nation 
I’d like to go ahead and volunteer for that broadcast position opening.
I’m never ready to quit (hope always springs eternal in the mind of a homer), but I am ready to see what we can get for Carlos Lee. He’s leaving at the end of the year anyway, and we’re not making a run with him.
Anybody heard any good rumors?
-Adam
I enjoy reading your column! I, also, agree with the majority of what you have posted. I, too, would love to see what Corey, Tony, Jr. and Gabe could do as everyday starters in August and September. I am really taking exception to Carlos’ play of late, both offensively and defensively. Does not seem to have his heart in it anymore.
My biggest disappointment of all is that losing becomes easier and easier the more you do of it. Players start to mail it in. Aggressiveness dissolves into passiveness. Accountability disappears. I think many of us true fans of the Crew agonize over the losses longer and harder than folks on the payroll, roster players or otherwise.
How many times are we going to be “teased” until about this time of the year only to have our hopes vanish? I truly thought that Attanasio, Melvin and even Yost were going to be the difference. Not now. I like Ned but I would like him even better in another franchise. Will Robin ever get a chance? Heck, I would give Lou Piniella a crack only because of his no-nonsense approach. The temperature would warm up in the clubhouse, that’s for sure.
I live in Tampa, FL. and, as one would imagine, do not have a lot of company down here as far as Brewer loyalists. My Florida tag is a vanity plate that reads “BREW FAN”. I am 43 years old and have loved this franchise for 33 of those years. I have never lived in Wisconsin yet I deeply love the Crew……..maybe that is why this season hurts so much!
Thanks for listening!
Rob,
You definately read my mind on this one. I have been screaming about the strikeouts for a long time. But most Brewer fans do not want to hear about this. They remember the game winning hits by Jenkins and Hall, not the strikeouts with men in scoring position. Or the double play with the bases loaded and nobody out. It does seem like Carlos Lee is slacking in the outfield as of late, and not running out ground balls. Still, I am impartial when it comes to Lee. I think he is a great hitter and doesn’t strikeout much (39 K’s in 372 AB). Many local sports reporters and fans would like to see what we can get for him. But I personally would like to see him in a Brewers uniform next season. This is the first time in about 10 years where the Brewers have had a solid clean-up hitter. Maybe he really needs a swift kick in the rear.
Here’s a few more statistics for you. The Brewers are second in the majors with 754 Stikeouts, only 3 behind the Marlins. In 2005 year they finished 2nd in the majors with 1162 strikeouts. 2004, finished 2nd again with 1312 strikeouts.
Maybe its time for a new hitting coach. Yeah the homeruns are nice, but I would like to see more contact from our hitters.
Rob, Get Off The Bridge! Everyone’s fustrated but don’t panic! It’s July. I agree with the Jenkins and Brady assessmant but we must keep Carlos. I agree with Matt’s opinion above and it’s not our money it’s the ownership groups. Sign Lee and let all the youngsters play around him. Also, what do you expect Sutton and Schroeder to do? You forget that their listeners are senior citizens and young kids too. Not only die-hard, bandwagon leapers like some people…..
I would certainly not lament a huge changeover in the coaching staff. Uncle Ned could certainly be replaced by Mike Maddux. Maddux is the true leader of the club. With the loss of two very good starters, he’s taken a pile of scrap and kept the team at .500 for much of the year. And let’s not get started on Butch Wynegar, OK let’s… The players like him. Big deal. He talks to the idiots in the booth. So what? His players haven’t been able to make contact for the three years he’s been the hitting coach. He’s a career .255 hitter. Ganter hit .274 and a certain bench coach is a HOFer. They never struck out 100 in a season, and played on some pretty good clubs, so I think they may know a little about making contact.
As for some trades, dump Lee. He ain’t sticking. The 10 million a year we can offer won’t be enough. Might as well get something for him, and put somebody out there who will give you 100% on every play, (Gross, Gwynn, Hart, even Brday Clark). Move Jenkins back to left, (unless you can fool some other team into taking him.) Lee is an offensive force and will be missed, but not Jenkins. There are literally dozens of guys you can stick in the 3 hole who can strike out 100 times and hit 9 dingers in 4 months.
Finally, the announcers, I miss Mike Hegan and Jim Pashke from when they only aired road games on channel 18. Sutton is an idiot and Schroeder is moderate at best. Everytime I hear them I just can’t get those terrible Good Feet Store commercials out of my head… it haunts my dreams.
First of all, I have to admit that Jenkins is, for some reason or another my favorite player on this team aside from Cappuano. Don’t ask me why, he just is. But, even I’m done sticking up for him. He isn’t a bad player. He’s still got an above average arm and fielding and think he’s just been having a bad year in that department. He’s also doing very good against righties and with RISP. But his strikeouts and dreadful hitting (or lack thereof) against lefties can not be overlooked anymore. He’d be a great platoon player, but he’s definately not worth what we’re paying him, at a 7.5 mil clip. There are plenty of other better players out there for that kind of money.
I’m still undecided about Lee. I love his offensive numbers, but his lack of effort really irritates me. And it’s been going on all year. The least you can do his run out a groundball to short. That tells me that his heart isn’t completely in it. I’m not so sold on Nelson Cruz but Hart has proven he can hang in the bigs and Gross is doing a very decent job in center. I was critical of him around May but I’m sold now. And it’s great having all these top prospects, but I say we should start doing something with them via trades so we can start see some dividends. Keep Hart. Keep Braun. Keep Gywnn Jr. Toss everyone else for pitching. My personal choice is Zito because, again, I’m a big fan.
And finally, I can’t stand Sutton. Shroeder I can live with. He at least has some big league experience to draw from instead of night time stories his daddy told him. I don’t know who we could get to replace him, but maybe if we tell Tony Gywnn that we’ll start his son full-time if he joins the booth, I’m all for it. And get rid of Craig Coshan. That guys just straight annoying.