I’m all for getting one of the prospects catching time, but saying Rivera’s an improvement over Kendall is silly. Rivera’s 2008 was an aberration if I’ve ever seen one.

I think that since we need to replace Bush for at least 6 starts, Carlos may be the best solution. He’ll get the start, though Dillard will probably throw more innings. Villy will probably be stretched out over the next few weeks, and Dillard can be a (very) long relief guy for his first couple of starts.

Given the way Bush and Parra have been/not been, I think its fine to give CV one more shot at starting. If it were just for one game then Dillard could start, but because its going to be several starts, lets see how it goes.

I agree on Hoffman. He should be pitching at least every four or five days, even if its not a save situation.

And the starters/bullpen thing is cyclical. Starters go 5 innings → bullpen gets overworked → Macha tries to get 6 or 7 innnings out of a guy to save the bullpen → starter melts down → bullpen gets wasted anyway → Gallardo throws 120 pitches and his arm falls off.

Ken Macha sounded a lot like Ned Yost while defending his decision to leave Suppan in after the game, citing a tired bullpen but also mentioning that Suppan was “one pitch away” from getting out of the fifth. Opportunities to provide that “one pitch” came several times, but Suppan walked in a run and grooved a fastball instead.

This is the worst kind of baseball analysis. Manager says effectively “hey, sometimes you have to rely on the players to make pitches,” and the lame response, is “yeah, but it didn’t work out, so you made a mistake.”

Also, that “grooved” fastball was low and inside, exactly the kind of pitch willingham has struggled with this season… but don’t let the facts get in the way of the angry, “oh its all the manager’s fault” cliched rant…

The “tired bullpen” argument only works for so long here. Six members of the seven man Brewer bullpen have been overworked of late, including R.J. Swindle, who was called upon for two innings last night, just one day removed from pitching two innings for Nashville on Saturday. One arm, though, is hardly seeing any work at all: Trevor Hoffman has appeared in just five games (six if you count the All Star Game) in July, and will enter play today with a full week of rest.

Wait, Hoffman should’ve come into the game in the 5th inning? is that what you’re saying? Or are you saying the “tired bullpen” defense is not legit cause the bullpen … is… overworked? wait, wtf are you saying?

wow, the hits keep coming in this episode. now dillard is a better pitcher than villanueva because of his AAA ERA?

Suppan was left out to dry. Period.

Are not melting down the way the Brewer fans are. If its the low point for us, its probably the low point for them.

Prince is probably on the warpath, struggling pitchers better have their head on a swivel. Maybe a dugout altercation is what the team needs. Or a players-only closed door meeting. Get it done Deputy!

Woot.

We’re already over 100 comments.

Even McCalvy’s blog, which is rarely commented, has 5 comments on the Villa story.

we can kiss giving him away in a trade good bye…

It’s clear who knows things around here and who just likes to talk like they do. I think it’s funny people bitching about how he didn’t go to the bullpen early when the bullpen was awful. Could they have kept it closer, probably, but what happens tomorrow when Villa

The “tired bullpen” argument only works for so long here. Six members of the seven man Brewer bullpen have been overworked of late

I wish I could ignore the reality of the situation to appease reactionaries and to get more comments!

i appreciate what jacob is doing here by being civil and bringing up some points that make us have to think about laying out an easy blame on macha. i may not always be in his corner and i definitely question some of his lineup/pinch hit choices, but as far as balancing the bullpen, it’s nowhere near as i remember when ned yost was in.

Hugs & Whiskey all around.

• In 21 starts this season, he has a 5.27 ERA and whopping 1.70 WHIP.
• On average, he’ll get one out in the 6th inning before being pulled (so for your typical Suppan start, expect to need 3+ innings from your bullpen).
• Twice he’s pitched 7 innings, though not into the 8th inning.
• Soup is just as likely to get pulled before the 5th inning (4 times in 2009) as he is to pitch into the 7th inning (4 times in 2009)
• He has more strikeouts than walks, though just barely.

HOWEVER

• Of those 21 starts, 9 have been quality starts (6/3), which is astounding to me. Granted, 5 of them were in the first six weeks of the season.
• His ERA on July 17 was 4.43, the lowest it had been all season. Right now, a 4.43 ERA would easily be second on the team, behind Gallardo.

===

We all know Suppan is overpaid, something I’ve long given up trying to justify (IDWT). We all know he’s not very good, and that he often fails to meet even that very low bar.

Suppan is also not an innings-eater. Well, he is in that he’s rarely hurt, but he’s not the guy you want on the mound if you’re looking to give your bullpen a rest. If Macha was looking for that, as BA and Rock suggested last night, well, that’s just an error in judgment. While acknowledging that Macha has limited options, expecting a long, productive outing from Suppan…well, the numbers suggest that that just doesn’t happen.

Most of the time, he will never pitch “well.” He allows lot of baserunners, and isn’t likely to rack up strikeouts. (As Jacob pointed out above, for Soup to get through 4 innings without giving up a run is a stellar game for him. But Macha has to know that when Soupy is on the mound, you have your relief crew start warming up in the 5th no matter the score.)

You know, Suppan is what he is: he’ll usually get you 5 innings +, and when you pull him, and you almost certainly will have to before the 7th inning, you’re usually still in the game. Sometimes (like yesterday) you’re not, but then again, sometimes, he’ll shut down the Cubs in Wrigley over 7 innings, like on July 3rd. Most of the time, he’s pitching in trouble for most of the game, and he’ll let in 3 or 4 before you pull him.

Getting mad at Suppan is like getting mad at the stapler when you accidentally staple your thumb. I’m a little mad at Macha for expecting more out of Suppan, if that is indeed the case, and especially at Moustache for signing an aging, mediocre pitcher to such a bad contract. But part of it is just bad luck: although some regression was inevitable, Suppan’s stats over the previous 4 seasons did not predict this bad a performance. I mean, his WHIP in each of the last three seasons have been higher than anything he’s done since before 2000.

All that said…it’s clear we need a guy to absorb innings to protect the rest of the bullpen. Given that the difference between Suppan and your replacement pitcher is becoming negligible, and we’re stuck with his contract, I’d have no problems with making Suppan the swingman. Let Dillard or Villanueva or KL Snow start; I think it’ll give us a better chance of winning.

Things were looking pretty bad. And then they won 21 of 26.

grant beat me to it, but he makes the point. The Brewers still have the easiest schedule a team could ask for over the next 20+ games. Even after giving up the (first) grand slam, the Brewers hitters came back with some timely hitting of their own. They bounced back.

Has anyone else noticed Hart has heated up since the All-Star Break? Hitting .305, On-Base .372. Sure, they’re pretty much all singles, but it’s a breath of fresh air.

Before the All-Star Break, the Brewers only had 3 bats, Counsel, Braun, Fielder. The realistically, and improbably, needed 2 more bats to have a solid offense for a 2nd half run.
Counsel is continuing his baffling streak hitting .370 since ASB, Lopez is still red hot off the trade and Hart returning to his beginning-of-the-season form.

Their pitching can’t be that bad for that long. Just as they regress back towards the mean in sucking, they’ll swing back to form on the other. The team is poised to go on a good run.

… kool-aid’s in the caboose.

… leadoff double then no hits through 8? nice.

I had a lot to get done at work today but have accomplished nothing due to this thoroughly entertaining thread.

Casual fan alert:

Can I just say that since the plane that is the 2009 Brewers has crashed into the mountain, all options should be explored. I think the Bill Castro experiment has failed and it is time to bring Chris Bosio up from Nashville to handle the pitchers. He did a good job with Manny Parra and a shake-up needs to happen and this seems like a good one.

Now destroy me.

… okay, not really.

“meetings and discussions continue with nothing imminent”

according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

2010