Sunday, July 5, 2009

Braun Gets All-Star Nod, Calls Out Pitchers

Sure, the Brewers lost to the Cubs 8-2 on Sunday, dropping their series in Wrigley three games to four. And yeah, the Brewers are now just four games over .500, which isn't really where you'd thought they'd be right now after how they were playing earlier this season. But the story that is going to come out of this one is that Ryan Braun pretty much threw guys like Seth McClung and Mike Burns under the bus after the game. But he can do that, because he's an All-Star.

I don't have any problem with what Braun said after the game, because for the most part he's right (the guys at Chuckie Hacks dissect his quotes nicely here). Even though some days we are losing games at the plate, for the most part our staff is just treading water, especially as we wait for Dave Bush to recover from an injury and Manny Parra to recover from sucking. I like Burns, and I like McClung, but if we're going to legitimately contend for this thing, a move or two might need to be made.

Player of the Game: It could go to either Fielder or McGehee for an RBI each. Fielder did hit a home run, but McGehee had three hits, and I like the fact that he played well against his former team, so we'll give it to him.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

24 season 1

rory said...

Braun isn't saying anything that hasn't been painfully obvious since Sabathia signed with the pinstripes and Sheets went down for the year with a hangnail.

Jonk said...

I don't think you should call out your boss. Doug Melvin went out and got CC Sabathia last year. It's not as if he needs instructions from his players about how to do his job. I didn't care for the comments at all. Ryan Braun should stick to hitting and fielding and running.

Jonk said...

And Melvin agrees:

Melvin "ticked off" at Braun

“It was inappropriate for him to say what he said, and I’m not happy about it,” Melvin said. “To make the statements he made and also get on his teammates like that, it was irresponsible on his part. It just ticked me off.

“We all work every day from 9 a.m. to midnight, and basically 12 months a year,” said Melvin, referring to his baseball staff. “I’ll be glad to have Ryan help if he wants to. I’ll give him a badge and he can be my deputy.

“I don’t know his motivation for saying it. It demoralizes the people in the organization at a time when we should be pulling together. It puts a bad taste in our mouths. That’s a pretty strong statement.

“I understand that maybe he thinks it’s taking a leadership role. I don’t know if he’s trying to tell me I’m not doing my job. We need to stick together as an organization. We’re all trying to win."

“I think he made a fundamental mistake,” said Melvin. “I didn’t hear our pitchers complaining when we lost a 1-0 game (to New York last week) or the 2-1 game in 10 innings in Chicago. They didn’t say the hitters weren’t doing their job."

Jonk said...

I'm disappointed Winks and rory are OK with this stuff.

rory said...

I'm not saying I'm "OK" with Braun saying what he did publicly; rather, I'm saying that what Braun said is accurate: if the Brewers want to even sniff the playoffs again this year they need to get another arm.

Put another way: he's right, but he needs to keep that stuff in-house.

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