Buried alive
Back in the 19th century, lots of folks had a horrible fear of being buried alive. There were a few highly publicized cases of someone falling unconcious or dropping into a coma then, after being incorrectly pronounced dead by their friendly family doctor, finding themselves gasping for air six feet under.
Inventors saw an opportunity and sprang to the rescue. They came up with all sorts of devices that you could bury with your loved ones. Most of them centered around a bell (or other signaling device) situated above ground, and some kind of trigger placed in the hand of the possibly-departed. Thus, if the newly maybe-dead person twitched at all, someone would know.
Why do I mention this on a Brewers blog, of all places? Mostly because it's my Brewers blog and I think it's cool. Also because it's a shame someone hasn't put one of those triggering devices in Corey Hart's hand, because if they had, the bell would be ringing like crazy.
Any reasonable person could tell, as it became evident that we'd trade Carlos Lee, that whatever we needed in trade, it wasn't corner outfielders. (Of course, that was before we shipped off Nelson Cruz along with Caballo.) Even still, Corey Hart has proven all he ever will at Triple-A, and he's put up a respectable line this year in criminally limited playing time.
So, of course, we got a left fielder, one who Ned Yost promptly fell in love with. Since the trade, Corey Hart has gotten exactly one at-bat--in fact, he's gotten just that one pinch-hit appearance since July 28th. Let's look at how Geoff Jenkins and Kevin Mench are doing since then, shall we?
| AVG | OBP | SLG | |
| Jenkins | .167 | .259 | .333 |
| Mench | .200 | .192 | .320 |
| Hart | one friggin' at-bat | ||
Jenkins we've covered--it just gets uglier every day that he starts and Corey sits. Mench...well, go ahead and trot out the excuses: he's adjusting to all new pitchers; he didn't always play everyday in Texas; it's a small sample size; whatever. I don't particularly care why Mench isn't hitting well, and will probably never be as good a batsman as Corey Hart is. The point is, he isn't. Hart (and, occasionally, Gabe Gross) is rotting on the bench every single day--even being bumped out of some pinch-hitting situations by Tony Gwynn Jr.--because we all gotta love the veterans.
Um, let me rephrase that. We all gotta love the veterans who strike out a ton, play average or worse defense, almost never walk, and have virtually no upside. I promised that I wouldn't complain about THE TRADE anymore, and I'll keep that promise (after the next sentence). If, as reported, we had to throw in Nelson Cruz to get Kevin Mench, we not only did a serious disservice to our team's future, but we materially damaged the present.
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its sad
Ugh. All I could think about this morning is how miserable it is being a Brewers fan. Just when you think you've turned a corner, something goes wrong. Pay a leading offensive player and lifelong a Brewer a nice extension that is expensive for a team like the Brewers but seemingly important if they're ever going to compete? He'll completely lose his skills halfway through the extension, to the point where he's a huge burden on the entire team. Have a positive start to the season be derailed by injuries to 2/3rds of the rotation and the no. 6 starter? Don't worry, just when those starters come back healthy, we'll make sure your infield is completely decimated with injuries, and then throw another scare into you about the pitching just in case.
You know, sometimes teams just luck into a winning season. They don't necessarily expect it, and on paper they don't look that great, but suddenly some veterans have career years, and a few young kids play way over the heads. Think of the 1992 Brewers, 2003 Royals, even a little bit of this year's Tigers. But these Brewers can't even win by accident.
by Bill on Aug 7, 2006 8:22 AM CDT 0 recs
Didn't we win an award?
What the hell happened to them?
I've given up hope that Mench is just a younger version of Carlos Lee, and I don't really believe that at the deadline, we weren't presented with better options that could help us in 2007 and beyond (instead of our desperate rush for .500 in 2006).
That only leaves two possibilities for this trade to work out in Moustache's favor:
- We spin off Mench, Nix, and possibly (though not necessarily) Cordero. We might need Cordero for next year, though.
- Hart, Cruz, Gwynn, and Gross aren't very good.
The reserve of "benefit of the doubt" I had saved for Moustache is dissipating quickly. If we still have Mench, Nix, and Jenkins on our team next April, then it was just a bad, wasteful trade. At least if we just let Carlos go, we'd still have Cruz.
by roguejim on
Aug 7, 2006 8:55 AM CDT
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corey hart
it's quite likely that Gross/Hart/Gwynn would outproduce Clark/Mench/Jenkins down the stretch too so there is absolutely no excuse for playing the old guys.
by jacob on Aug 7, 2006 9:08 AM CDT 0 recs
Ego
by roguejim on
Aug 7, 2006 9:22 AM CDT
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Never, EVER underestimate the power of
by junkbonds on
Aug 7, 2006 12:21 PM CDT
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Optimistic
Optimistically, maybe the team is hoping Jenkins gets hot and is shopping him. Maybe he passed through waivers and someone needs a LH deep threat to come off the bench. Please, let's perpetuate this stereotype and clear the jungle in left for Hart.
Oh, and Kevin Mench is light years worse than Lee in the field, too. He gives a new definition to "plodding."
OK, trying to be optimistic ...
by nmc on Aug 7, 2006 9:25 AM CDT 0 recs
You know
Ok, optimistic thoughts ...
by nmc on
Aug 7, 2006 9:26 AM CDT
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That's the beauty of the trade
So you can mix and match your suckiness.
by roguejim on
Aug 7, 2006 9:28 AM CDT
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sheets missing next start?
You know what else sucks? The disrespect and disdain Yost shows for the fans by constantly lying about injuries. That's just unprofessional.
by jacob on Aug 7, 2006 9:48 AM CDT 0 recs
Maybe not
On another sad note, isn't it going to be really upsetting when the Cardinals sweep the Reds in 4 games and it brings us no closer to the wild card because we couldn't buy a win last week!! It seems like everyone in the race is playing each other this month, which would have made for some really great baseball watching, but, we just keep slipping away.
by familyguy on Aug 7, 2006 10:11 AM CDT 0 recs
Dammit Jeff
by roguejim on Aug 7, 2006 4:42 PM CDT 0 recs
hehe
this thread (well, and all season of watching this team) makes me think that the brewers won't be making the playoffs with ned yost as manager. his refusal to take jenkins out of the 3 hole or against lefties, not pitching de la rosa properly, giving corey hart one at-bat every 2 weeks, mismanaging the bullpen, continuing to bring in turnbow (especially against the reds), etc etc. that's just off the top of my head and it's all been documented here.
i think ned is too bullheaded and arrogant to change his ways and i'm officially in the 'ned must go' camp.
by Griswald on
Aug 7, 2006 5:19 PM CDT
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tipping pitches???
by conan for president on Aug 7, 2006 6:27 PM CDT 0 recs
From what I've seen
by roguejim on
Aug 7, 2006 6:29 PM CDT
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It's the shrug
by familyguy on Aug 7, 2006 6:57 PM CDT 0 recs
















