Regular Season

[JohnU]

Somebody needs to put a fastball somewhere under Lucroy's chin.

 

[JohnU]

Bruce, suarez and Duvall put together 3 of the most inept at-bats I have ever seen.

 

[JohnU]

THAT'S MORE LIKE IT!

 

[Hit-n-Run]

Those 7-run 10th innings will send you home happy..... if you're a Brewer fan that is.

Now it starts to rain...... needed that about two hours ago.

 

[eburg5000]

They send Hoover down and bring up Hayes who is almost as bad as Hoover. I guess they have to bring up someone. Not a lot of choices down there. There was a guy named Dylan Diaz who seemed to get some outs during ST. I thought he would make the team but I haven't seen or heard his name sense the season started. Can't be any worse than Hayes

 

[JohnU]

They brought up Somsen when the bullpen couldn't get the Bad News Bears out, and Somsen sat there 3 days and went back to the minors without even warming up. I guess having the guy stand in line for his uniform counts. If they need BP fodder during blowouts, why not just bring back Kevin Gregg?

Hayes may have an upside but it's currently upside down.

What's murdering this team is the 5-inning starts by the rotation. Geez, give 'em 6 innings, Price. This bullshit about the Verducci effect ... if they can't throw 125 pitches, you deserve to lose 100 games.

 

[eburg5000]

Looks like Price is resting all the starters today against the Brewers. I guess he is satisfied with a split

 

[Hit-n-Run]

And a split it was...... back into last place.

Is this team snake bit or what? John Lamb with a freak inury while batting. Reported as a jammed thumb pending a MRI Monday. He's was on his way to a second straight solid start and enter the doomsday bullpen.

This bullpen is magical....
They can make any lead disappear.

 

[JohnU]

teams that lose 100 games are snakebit.
Teams that win 97 games rarely have this sort of problem and when they do, they make up for it.
Exhibit A: 2012 Reds.

Bad bullpens are the product of poor preparation. We can continue to cut Price the benefit of doubt but this team has consistently lost 60 percent of its games since he has been the manager. There's a trend there.

 

[eburg5000]

Bet teams can't wait to get to the Reds blowpen. Players eyes light up, and they know it's time to pad their stats. Last years bullpen was bad, but I would take them back even with out Chapman

 

[JohnU]

Easy strategy. Take a lot of pitches against this scrapyard rotation, run the pitch count up, make it to the 5th even or close ... and go from there.

 

[eburg5000]

I will give the Brewers credit. If they had some better starting pitching, and could play a little better defense. they might have a pretty good team, because they do look like they can hit. Now my sample size is them playing the Reds, where they hit 11 or 12 home runs in 4 games.
Then it could be time to give Braun and a few others on that team a check for PEDs, but I think they are just in a hot streak. Braun would have to be an Idiot to do those again.

 

[eburg5000]

I the Reds called up Somsen to "help" what's the odds of him getting into a game this time up

 

[Redsfan1507]

Brewers blow too....they can't pitch or play D. Not sure they can hit except for The Juicer, and LuCroy. I wouldn't trade rosters with them. The Braves and Rockies are real bad, too. There really aren't that many all-around good teams in the NL, and a few teams will win a bloated number because of that.

 

[Hit-n-Run]

It's always nice to beat one of the top NL-C divisional opponents, but would be better if it meant more than playing the spoiler.

I guess Tony Cingrani has moved into the closer role by default. At least he didn't walk the leadoff batter.... it was a first pitch double to the RF gap instead. Some hard hit balls and a nice backhand snag by Phillips, but the box score doesn't know the difference.

After some pretty poor team defense in April, the defense has been better the past couple weeks. The rotation hasn't been getting deep into games, but they have given the team a chance to win some games.

 

[Hit-n-Run]

Somsen didn't pitch.... maybe he didn't get off the bus.

 

[JohnU]

Rotation hasn't been painfully awful though they throw too many pitches over the first 4 innings, which lets the other team catch up to them in the 6th. With this bullpen, it seems odd that these starters aren't being stretched out better than they are. As I always evaluated a rotation, it was the 4th or 5th guy in the rotation who gave you the obligatory 5, not the entire staff.

Still, this is a pitching staff that was bought with Monopoly money.

 

[Hit-n-Run]

This staff is filled with 4th or 5th SP quality guys, so until we see a upgrade in the talent level.... I'm satisfied with what I'm seeing from the current rotation.

This is where the rotation is today, but it's not the rotation of the future. The development of Stephenson, Reed, Garrett, etc., etc., is going to determine whether this team will contend in the tomorrows to come.

I'd rather be watching the young guns at GABP, but unfortunately this is the reality of the rebuilding process. For the most part the rebuilding foundation is playing at the minor league level.

 

[JohnU]

Looking at how this coaching staff manages its injuries, I have to hope there's a better solution than just throwing a half-dozen arms at the wall and hope that none of them need surgery. Already, there is plenty of evidence that this coaching staff is clueless.

It could all just be bad luck, but I don't know if the odds favor that.

 

[eburg5000]

I think Cingrani should give at least half that save to Phillips. I have to be honest. Even before that lead off double. I never dreamed that Cingrani or anyone else would hold that lead.
As bad as this bullpen is, they did a pretty good job last night.