"Good evening passengers, my name is Derrick Turnbow and will be piloting this craft into Philadelphia..." Turnbow is slowly but surly rounding into last year’s post All-Star break form. For the second straight night D-Bow went Hindenburg and tried to burn the stadium down. He only gave up one run but his 50 foot breaking balls in the 8th were also cause for concern.
As for the offense…we are currently doing less manufacturing than a Detroit auto plant. It’s bombs or nothing lately. Craig Counsell is terrible. He brings nothing to the table except the occasional walk. I thought he was a spray hitter. Hell, the other team's 4 infielders might as well just stand on first base….that’s ALL he does is little dribblers down the 1B line. Junk….
…to correct the offensive mess, here’s my proposal:
- Trade Gross for a prospect. Any prospect. A case of Pabst...anything. That would still leave 5 outfielders, and plenty of lefty sticks off the bench.
- Bring up Braun. Yeah, you knew this was coming. He would take Gross’ roster spot. Start him at 3rd nearly every day and see what happens. Can't be worse than Counsinino.
- Start Gwynn in RF. McManus actually asked for this in the off season...good call. Bat him leadoff. He can get on base and has wheels. Mench is taking on water and Hart has the wrist issue. You can still platoon those guys in RF and LF when you want.
- Drop Rick down in the order. I’m the biggest Weeks fan around, but its time to drop him in the order till he finds his stroke.
Thus, here’s my new lineup (almost every day):
Gwynn, RF
Hardy, SS
Prince, 1B
Hall, CF
Estrada, C
Jenks, LF
Braun, 3B
Weeks, 2B
A little too early to panic? Yes, but I wouldn’t consider these “panic” moves.
8 comments:
Nice to see Yost get tossed in the fourth - I guess he figured since he only managed 4 innings last night, he'd do the same tonight...
Can they just get rid of Gross, CC, TG (Grafanino, not Gwynn.), and Dessens? Honestly, couldn't Gallardo do EXACTLY what ED does? Can't Braun do EXACTLY what CC does? Maybe not defensively, but Christ a hit from CC last night would've been a run, and him getting thrown out at 3rd the night before cost us a run. The guy is actually REMOVING runs from the scoreboard. I never thought it was possible to actually have negative production. This team sucks, play Gwynn, Hart, Braun, Gallardo, and all the other kids.
I don't think the team sucks - things are just evening out a little bit. They've been in every game on this trip except for the finale against the Mets. Hopefully Soup can clot the bleeding tonight...and I wouldn't bring Gallardo up unless someone pitches himself out of the rotation, which hasn't happened yet.
Last night's game was one of those "what can you do" sort of games that you are going to lose during the course of the season.
Graf will be traded in the next month or two when Braun gets brought up. And after watching Gwynn really start to take care of business, you guys are correct, Gross has become ridiculously expendible.
You know what's great about this year: 3 game losing streak...and the next two starters are Suppan and Sheets...the streak will end.
Matt, I think Dessens has definitely pitched himself out of a spot, and the team sent Capellan & Aquino down to AAA for doing a WAY better job that ED. I don't want Gallardo to be in the rotation, I think our rotation is the only thing on this team that is fine the way it is. But I think Gallardo could get some experience in the majors and do exactly what ED does, and more than likely do it better. As for the rest of the team, overall it doesn't suck but it sure does suck right now. We have a huge lead in the division after a losing streak, and all every Brewer fan is talking about this morning is MAJOR lineup changes i.e. Gwynn, Braun, and Gross. Sometimes what worked before doesn't work anymore.....
I think putting Gallardo in a long relief role, a la Elmer Dessens where he pitches only in blowouts, is not a good use of his abilities. He should only be brought up if a starting rotation spot opens up. It seemed like Dessens went a month between appearances earlier this year - is that good for Yo and his professional development? I argue no.
Long relief is a veteran’s role. I agree ED sucks but I would not want to see Yo get his shot at the bigs in long relief. He is groomed for a starter’s role, I would rather see him keep his focus and continue to develop in this role. This is a great team, but they are not going to win every game. Teams go on skids and we just have to see how they battle out of it. I like what Wuz had to say earlier, let’s see what Soup and Benny can do. But let’s not start to panic and risking the future by calling up “prospects” before it is necessary.
This was a completely winable roadtrip. NY with your best 3 pitchers and no Glavine or Maine, then Philly w/ no Howard and Suppan & Sheets throw again in the series. Your best two hurlers throw 4 of 7. Yes, I agree not time to panic. But I would agrue that making changes is not "panicking". The faster the young players can face big league talent the faster they will progress. You have to make changes to this team. PERIOD.
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