Doug Melvin, June 9th, 2008 (According to Tom Haudricourt):

"Rickie has a weird stat line," said Melvin. "He has a low batting average but some stat people say he's still productive, with the runs scored and that."

Ned Yost, May 7th, 2008 (According to JS Online and other sources):

"See, you guys have no concept. He's a run scorer. There's nothing weird about it.  That's what he does." 

Hmmm.  Somone should tell Melvin that he has no concept, since Rickie's a run scorer and there is nothing weird about him scoring runs despite the low batting average.

Wagner does periodic interviews on Appleton area radio shows to promote his work on OnMilwaukee.com, where he covers the Brewers.  He did an interview today where he talked about Eric Gagne and other things.  His insights have been hit and miss some times, in my opinion, but he does have locker room access. 

On Gagne, he said that Riske might come off the DL first (though not yet), even though Gagne's trip to the DL was for precautionary reasons.  Gagne apparently played catch this week and experiences some discomfort again and the workout was terminated.  Wagner said he doesn't expect Gagne to be activated any time soon.  He also said that Gagne's "one weird guy to figure out", and "I've given up trying to figure out Eric Gagne."  The tone in his voice when he made those comments reflected a mix of amusement and frustration, but he went no further in explaining what he meant.  He did say that everyone associated with the team seemed to expect, though wouldn't admit, that Torres would remain the closer when (if?) Gagne returns to the active roster. 

When prompted, he said that no one in the clubhouse seemed to really be paying much attention to Bill Hall's trade request, and he personally gave Hall a pass for letting his agent speak out because of the number of times Hall's been moved around.  He said he sensed no disharmony in the dugout and overtly compared Ryan Braun's comments after the sweep in Boston to Zambrano's dugout fight last year, suggesting it might be the trigger point for a long period of success this year.  He was optimistic that Parra's recent performances would continue for much of the rest of the season. 

Thought I'd pass it along...

The Brewers currently trail the Cubs by 7.  The Cubs have played 56 games.  They are 25-8 at home.  It's interesting to note that the Brewers have accounted for half of the Cubs 8 home losses, but the Brewers don't visit Wrigley again until mid-September.  Of their remaining 106 games, the Cubs will play 58 of them on the road.  They have played just 23 on the road so far, with a 10-13 mark.  The Cubs are currently on pace to win 101 games. 

The Brewers are 28-28 as of this writing.  While there's been a lot of talk about the number of road games they've played so far this year, the ongoing homestand has largely balanced things out.  They've played 25 at home (15-10), and 31 on the road  (13-18).  At the conclusion of the series against Arizona, they will have played 29 games at home and 31 on the road.  By the end of their mid-June homestand, the Brewers will have officially played more at home than on the road, though the road trip that follows will reverse that again.  Whatever imbalance between home and road matchups existed in April and May (and we're really only talking about 5 games or so) will essentially vanish in the next week or two.  So the next time Bill or BA try to pawn off the slow start on the schedule, keep that in mind.  That said, if the Brewers are going to take advantage of a spate of home games to make a move, the time is here.  June is evenly split between home and the road, while July and September each see the Brewers at home for  more games than they'll play on the road.  August is the only remaining month in which they will play more road than home games (17/10). 

The Cubs and Brewers play just 10 more games against each other, 7 of which will be played at Miller Park. 

There's been occasional mention of the season closing series the Brewers have against the Cubs in Miller Park and how that might favor the Brewers if they manage to stay close.  There's been little discussion of the road trip that precedes the final homestand with the Pirates and Cubs.  From September 11th to the 22nd, the Brewers play 10 games in 11 days against the Phillies, Cubs and Reds.

Ben Sheets has been allowed to throw more than 120 pitches in two of his last 3 starts.  I'm probably reading too much into this, but I've suspected since the beginning of the year that the way Sheets was used this season would give some indication as to whether they had any serious intent of trying to sign him.  Given his prior shoulder problems, including a brief flare-up this year, I wonder how much less likely Yost would be to let Sheets throw 120+ pitches in an outing if he wasn't heading for free agency this offseason.  While I'm on that subject I have to say I'm not sure how a rational person isn't concerned enough about Sheets' pitch count to pull him before the 9th inning tonight, but is concerned enough to pull him 15 pitches later with just one out to go.

Someone mentioned the other day that Fielder didn't seem to have the same joy playing the game this year as he did last season.  So it was good to see him charge up the hallway from the clubhouse with a big grin on his face so Weeks and Yost could point out to him how far Branyan hit his solo shot to right.   

Food for thought:  On June 1st, 2007, the eventual division champion Cubs were 22-30, in 4th place (behind the Cards, Pirates and Brewers), and were 7.5 games back.  Not so different from where the Brewers will wake up tomorrow, including the fact that the division leader is on a pace they will not be able to maintain.

So the meeting between Yost, his staff and Melvin which was mentioned early in the week will center around spots 3-5 in the rotation, according to Yost (as quoted in JSOnline).  (I don't really believe that's all they'll discuss, but that's what Ned would admit to).  Yost said Parra would stick in the rotation, which isn't that surprising given the fact that he settled down after a shaky start the other night, which puts him ahead of Bush and Villy's most recent outings.  But it also probably reflects the fact that there just aren't enough alternatives available to replace 3 starters, so one of the 3-5 guys (at least) has to stick. 

There's been talk of giving McClung a shot in the rotation to see how he does, and it's hard to argue with that idea given the 6+ ERAs Bush and Villy are currently touting. (Though personally it's my opinion that he's been effective enough in the bullpen that it's a shame to pull him out).  Defelice got lit up in his last start at AAA, but has otherwise been decent in Nashville, and given our pitching woes it's hard to imagine that Jeff Weaver won't be brought up sometime before the June deadline in his contract.  Are there any other alternatives in the system, because none of the three alternatives I've seen knowledgable people discuss have me all that excited, though the performance of Villy and Bush has been bad enough it's hard to argue against giving them a shot.

Don't mistake the title of this post.  It's barely May and there's a long way to go.  I'm still fairly upbeat and far enough in denial to believe that with a different umpiring crew we would have won in 9 today and the talk would be that Gagne is leading the league in saves instead of blown saves. But I'll admit that in a weak moment after today's loss the idea occurred to me that if the wheels do come off and this team drops significantly below .500 before the all-star break, there's a pretty good bet we'll see Gamel and LaPorta up in the majors long before September.  Gamel's defense is still awful (according to what I've read, though I haven't checked it in the last week or so) but it seems to me that, if the season turns out to be a wash, getting him up here to showcase or see if he can hit at this level might not be a bad idea.  Ditto for LaPorta.  I know they're only in AA currently, but aside from the fear of rushing them up, why wait if the season goes south? 

That's a serious question, because I can't tell.  I was at the game today, so there may be some other explanation that's been discussed that I remain unawar of.  But the mid-inning double switch that resulted in Hart jogging from right field to the dugout looked pretty strange.  Hart sat on the opposite end of the bench from Yost after leaving the field, and Yost made a very deliberate trip down to Hart's end where he had a very short, very one-sided conversation with his right fielder before walking away.  Yost's post-game comments on Hart's blunder in the field last night included the following:

"That's his job to know the warning track and the park," he said. "It doesn't matter if the warning track is a mile long or 2 feet long. Especially in your home park, it's your job to know what it is."

Looking at the game situation today, the mid-inning timing of the move itself is hard to figure (at least for me).  Stetter opened the inning and retired Izturis before walkng Schumaker, at which piont Yost pulled Hart in the double switch.  Wainright had already been pulled by the Cards for Thompson, a righty.  Hart had just grounded into a double play the previous half-inning, and like most of the roster, he hits lefties much better than righties.

Stetter's 1st batter was Izturis, so if the intent was simply to do the double switch for offensive purposes alone, the move could have easily been made two batters before.  If the move had a defensive purpose to it, at least partially, it makes no sense to leave Hart in for the first two batters, both lefties who would pull to RF, and then hook him for the right hander. 

That leaves a couple of possibilities (and maybe more I haven't considered):  1) Yost could have intended to let Stetter have the whole inning initially and thus thought he would have the chance to do the double switch after the top of the 6th, but then changed his mind once Stetter put Schumaker on, thus forcing his hand mid-inning if he still wanted the double switch; 2)  Yost either forgot or didn't think of the possibility of a double switch at the top of the inning; 3)Yost wanted to send a message to Hart.

Option 3 would sound completely ridiculous to me if Yost hadn't inexplicably left Hart on the bench for much of late April and May 2007 (blaming a wrist injury that seemed to me to be of mysterious origin, severity and duration).  I'm a Hart fan, and I'm probably a little bit paranoid.  Option 1 seems to be the likely explanation of what happened today.  I didn't see or hear any quotes from Hart after the game, but for what it's worth (and that may not be much), the view through the zoom lens on my camera suggested that Corey didn't much care for being pulled off the field in the top of the 6th inning.  There weren't any thrown gloves or anything, but Hart clearly tried to stay away from Yost and then made no eye contact with him when he approached.

It'll be interesting to see how Ned handles the OF now that Gwynn is back, and even more interesting to see what he'll do when Cameron's available.  My guess is that Hart's starts and ABs will drop a bit as RF will be the most convenient place to get Kapler and/or Gwynn starts.     

I don't like the sound of this:

It's really sore," Sheets said. "It's kind of up in that region, top of the triceps and near the lat that I injured a couple years ago.

"It's hard coaxing yourself through it, especially with me tearing it once before. I'm cautiously optimistic about how it feels tomorrow."

Sheets said the triceps felt better each day leading up to his start Friday, but that going into it, he was still hurting. It really flared up in the third inning during an at-bat by opposing pitcher Bronson Arroyo.

"That's when it felt the worst," Sheets said.

I won't engage in utter speculation regarding the nature of the injury, but those comments sound to me like he's about to miss a start.  Or more. 

So tday in the 2nd inning, Hart is on 1st, Hardy on 2nd, nobody out, and Suppan at the plate.  Suppan starts out the at bat positioning himself to bunt, but when Hart and Hardy advance on a wild pitch, he swings away, eventually striking out.

Watching at home, I started muttering "squeeze" to myself the minute Hart ended up at 3rd.  It seemed to me the most likely way to score Hart in this at bat, particularly since (if I'm not mistaken) Suppan is one of our better bunting pitchers.  Suppan had less than two strikes on him at the time (I believe the count was either 1-0 or 1-1).  Aside from the fact that the Mets might have still been looking for the bunt, isn't it more likely that Suppan gets the run home on a safety squeeze call than it is a fly ball or a ground out to the right side?

If someone can point out what I'm missing, I'd appreciate it.  It's been bugging me for an hour already. 

So is this a telling comment from Ned post-game today?

"He was about as dominant as he could be for me today."

So much for a team's success being about the players instead of the manager.  Ned was speaking of Sheets, of course, and to be fair he made some other congratulatory type of statements about Sheets and others surrounding the above comment.  But this sentiment caught me as atypical of most managers, particularly the ones I most admire.

Maybe this should have occurred to me a long time ago, and probably it already has to many others who frequent this site and are smarter than I am.  The kind of outlook implied above, that the games are all really about him, also offers an explanation for a lot of other decisions I saw made last year and apparently will see this year (such as Counsell starting 3 days per week):  if the manager's pushig a lot of buttons game to game, inning to inning, and the team is winning, then the manager must be a genius, right?  I'm getting the impression, perhaps far later than a I should have, that Ned may want to win, but he wants to win in a fashion that makes others acknowledge that he's as big of a genius as he thinks he is.  That also explains his incredible rudeness and lack of patience with ANY question that suggests he could have done something differently, and frequently, with any questions at all.    

Here's a Ned quote from JSOnline:

"You just go with your plan," said Yost. "For me, I fight it because I want to play (the starters) every day. But I've got other guys that need to play, too, to stay sharp. So, you just do it.

"My plan was to get Jason (Kendall) through the opening series in Chicago, because he knew them so well (from playing there in 2007) and past opening day (in Milwaukee), then give him a break and let him roll again.

"With Counsell, I can give J.J. a day off once a week and Billy Hall) once a week and Rickie (Weeks) once a week, when it all starts flowing. You try to keep everybody well-rested. It's just picking the right times to do it."

The outright lie in the first paragraph (I want to play the starters everyday), is probably the part where I would have liked to punch him in the face.  I guess I'm not surprised, but watching Counsell play 3 times per week isn't what I had in mind.