The Bad News Brewers go to San Francisco

After the Brewers frittered away all three games against the bottomfeeding San Francisco Giants, it became obvious to me that we are officially in "Wait till next year" mode in Brewernation. After fifty years of being dependable as clockwork, the "Every 25 years and Milwaukee is in the World Series" streak finally looks broken.

This team is clearly not playoff caliber. Its got too many fatal flaws, and they have spent the entire summer exposing them. Since game 34, the team is now 41-55. That ain't good. In fact, its now in serious doubt whether they will even break their long streak of non-winning seasons. How far we have fallen.

The defense rested again for The Crew

I know I've been harping on this for a couple of weeks, but I have to write about the pathetic defense again. It was in full effect on Sunday and it pisses me off.

I didn't see the game on Saturday night, but looking at MLB Gameday, I found it hard to believe the team allowed 5 straight singles in the first inning of that game without a single groundout, especially after they had allowed 7 of 8 balls put in play by the slap hitting Giants to go for hits in the opening frame of Friday's game. Since time immemorial, batted balls put into the field of play in Major League baseball have only a 30% chance of falling in for hits. Its a constant, like zero degrees celsius. Yet on Friday the Giants had 7 of their first 8 balls turn into hits, and on Saturday night at one point they had 10 out of the first 15 balls they put in play land as hits -- with 9 of them being singles! Statistically, that's simply hard to do.

So Sunday I was paying special attention to the defensive performance, looking specifically for plays that ought to have been made but weren't. Its difficult to tell on television whether a ball should have been handled by the infield because you normally only get a glimpse of the play as the ball bounds into the outfield (which feeds the common perception that its all the pitcher's fault). That said, here's my take on some of the hidden, and not so hidden, defensive lapses that cost the Brewers:

1. Braun should have played Ray Durham's soft bounding double that led to the second run.

After making an excellent diving play to his left in the previous inning, Ryan Braun completely failed on a fairly easy chance the next inning. Ray Durham hit a very playable ball to his right that he didn't even come close to fielding, and it went for a double. The ball took a Sunday bounce off Durham's bat, but Braun nonchalantly moved laterally to his right and just flailed at the ball. And the ball wasn't hit very hard at all. As I mentioned, it bounced right off of Durham's bat. It was an example of one of the most insidious defensive lapses to spot, because on TV it simply looked like a ball that got by him. But it wasn't. It was softly hit and eminently playable. All Braun had to do was retreat at a four o'clock angle, play the bounce, and throw out the slow moving Durham by a step and a half. Instead, he gave an amatuerish effort and the ball got down the line for an undeserved double. The collapse was on.

2. Jenkins should have caught the subsequent ball off the wall.

After that play, Randy Wynn hit a ball the opposite way that bounced off the wall and drove in the guy pinch running for Durham. It was sharply hit and wasn't an easy play, but Jenkins and Hart gave chase and closed on it enough so that one of them should have caught it. Neither did. It appeared there was some miscommunication, as Jenkins yielded to Hart even though he appeared to have the much better angle on the play. I don't know if Hart was more confident than he should have been and called Jenkins off the ball, or what happened. I just know the ball should have been caught. That cost the Crew an important run.

3. Hardy was overpositioned and couldn't get to the slow roller to start the disastrous eighth inning

I notice on Brewers Str8up that the team's management charts every ball hit by an opponent batter and then aligns players accordingly. I think they may be outthinking themselves. In the eighth inning, Scott Linebrink induced a slow, two out ground ball slightly to the shortstop side of second base, but JJ Hardy was not anywhere near the play and it went for a single. Hardy was positioned so far in the hole, it exposed a huge hole up the middle and badly limited his range. If he were in normal position, he would have easily vacuumed the soft single up for the third out. The ball was hit so softly, in fact, it stopped before it got to centerfielder Bill Hall. It has to be turned into an out. When it wasn't, it set up this...

4. Corey Hart capped a horrible afternoon Bad News Bears style

Cue Bizet's "Music from Carmen". It was Bad News Brewers time in rightfield. This mishap was the most obvious. Corey Hart, who had a horrible day being "aggressive" on the basepaths (in other words, running himself into outs), somehow allowed a high pop down the rightfield line by Rich Aurilla to drop. My Grandma could have caught that ball, and yet it dropped, allowing the winning run to score. Hart compounded the mess when his throw to the plate went way up the line. An accurate throw would have easily cut down the runner. Instead, a poor throw cost the team the game.

Yost must be listening to too many talk radio shows

I know this is way off point, but I have to get this gripe in before I sign off. Ned Yost is obviously listening to way too many sports talk callers who want him to "be more aggressive" on the basepaths. Yost utilized this questionable strategy throughout the weekend to successfully run the Brewers out of rally after rally.

First, on Friday night, with the Brewers in the midst of a big first inning, for some reason he tried to score glacier footed catcher Johnny Estrada from first base on Barry Bonds error in leftfield. Estrada was out from me to you.

I mentioned Corey Hart's mishaps on the basepaths. Twice he tried stealing second, once with another guy on and nobody out, and both times he was cut down easily.

Finally, with runners on second and third, one out and Rickie Weeks at the plate and the infield playing in, he had catcher Damian Miller running from third on contact. Boneheaded. Why not wait to make sure its through before sending him? Do you have that little faith in your offense? Miller was also out from me to you.

Bill Schroeder commented "Well, on a play like that, you're sending the runner home because unless the ball is hit right at someone he's going to score." Well Bill, why not wait and make sure the ball is not hit right at someone before you send him? Because if the ball is hit right at someone, Miller is Thanksgiving turkey. But if it isn't, hesitating will not hurt you -- he can score on any other ball but that.

Typical corporate spiel from the TV booth. Oh well, it seemed like an entire weekend of wrong ideas for the entire Brewer organization.