Results tagged ‘ Marlins ’
What’s your batting song?
While I am absolutely LOVING that my Boys are finally figuring out how to win on the road, I’m not gonna spend too much time writing about that.
Yes, they finally mustered a win at Great American Ballpark and are currently 4-2 on this 2-city roadtrip, but it hasn’t been easy. I actually only watched one game in Florida so far but all the box scores and recaps I’ve read have led me to believe the Brewers really are just squeaking by. But hey, I’ll take it. A road win is a road win and lord knows Milwaukee will take them any way they can. The Crew has one game left against the Marlins and they’re sending Zack Greinke (4-1, 5.29ERA) to the mound opposite Javier Vasquez (3-4, 6.02ERA). If they pull off a win tonight, it will be the Brewers first official sweep on the road. (I say official because the rainout in Pittsburgh shortened the series.) They’ve been playing relatively smart ball and are somehow managing to get out of jams left and right. Let’s hope tonight is a cake walk compared to what they’ve done in FLA so far and that the Crew can come back home on a hot streak.
What I’ve been DYING to talk about since the season began are batting songs.
My friends and I have an Opening Day tradition to choose the song that best has the ability to pump us up, whether it’s at a tailgate party right before we start to walk to the ballpark or getting ready for a girls’ night out or grilling in our backyards. Most of us change it up year to year, but sometimes those tried and true songs remain on the playlist because they never fail to get us going.
Even for me, someone who would never actually step into a Major League batter’s box, choosing the perfect song is a process. Yes, sometimes I hear a song and think, “That’s it!” Like last year. Who wouldn’t want to step to the plate to “Danger Zone,” Kenny Loggins’ theme to “Top Gun”? Yeah. You’d better be careful with your pitches. Because I’m on a highway to the danger zone!
This year was a little more involved. I had it narrowed down to 3, after Nik had already chosen Usher’s “More.” (Damn her!)
Gimme Some Lovin – Spencer Davis Group
I thought soooooo hard. I listened to each song over and over and over. And finally, when I couldn’t fight the urge to get up and dance around my room every time I heard it, I knew Spencer Davis was the way to go.
And it was a hit on Opening Day. And it still pumps me up every time I hear it.
I mean, we really have some good ones. Our starting line-up is pretty much guaranteed to hit homeruns. Every time.
Club Can’t Handle Me. Homerun.
All I Do is Win. Homerun. (And it plays at MP when the Brewers win.)
Dynamite. Homerun.
How could you not hit one with songs like that?
So, since I often wonder how players come up with their songs, I’m also pretty intrigued to find out what kind of songs would get you in the mood to swing away.
So my question to you, dear readers, is if you ever got the chance to step up the plate at Miller Park (or any other Major League ballpark, for that matter), what would you want to hear blasting over the sound system?
6 words for June 29, Pt. 2
Yovani : Homers :: Brewers : Wins. (Holds true.)
Gabe the Babe inching towards Rays.
Rodriguez leading Fish for season’s remainder.
Fielder racks’ em up! Go team!
Two first basemen, two homers each.
Cards smoke Dbacks, lead NLC again.
Lee: 3 wins in 3 CG’s.
Span knocks three 3Bs. Twins = first.
Prince gets bad calls, gets mad.
Was that Axford or Hoffman? Yeesh!
Finally over. My tapping foot relaxes.
Supertramp’s ‘Dreamer’? No post-game at Leff’s.
6 words for June 28
Parra’s wild first yield’s no runs.
Rodriguez at home in Puerto Rico.
Strasburg pitched? Oh, I hadn’t heard…
Zambrano mad! Zambrano need anger management!
Edmonds + Counsell = 79. Old Men Brewers.
Bourne’s first homer. Off Crew. Shocking!
Manny goes wild again. Run scores.
Braun homers. Trails Hart. Bizarro Brewers.
Pujols: No Derby. Can’t whine afterwards.
Strasburg allows 3. *gasp* He’s human!
Indians squeeze out win over Jays.
Villanueva loads ‘em for Coffey. Ehhhh…
Aaaaaand Pence ties it. 5 all.
I like Braddock better than Coffey.
Rolen reaches 300 against former team.
Heyward to DL. Active for ASG.
Opportunity wasted by Prince, Ryan. Ugh.
Bullpen fails. Astros ginormous comeback win.
Losses okay when Cubs lose, too.
Carlos Lee’s on my fantasy team.
Six Words
I’m sure I’m pretty behind in discovering SMITH Magazine’s Six-Word Memoirs, but regardless, I’m hooked. I find myself trying to put every thought that crosses my mind into only six words and one of those thoughts today was, “Blog boring. Baseball in six words.”
So, in an effort to spice up this little blog of mine, I’m gonna try to put game recaps, notable events, big plays, etcetera, etcetera, into just six words. No explanations necessary. (I hope!)
First inning woes matter no more.
Brewers take out Twins. Three. Times.
Twins first 3-game sweep. Ha. Ha.
Lucroy catches shut-out. Kottaras jobless? Maybe.
George Kottaras, I like your beard.
Philly monsoon delays inevitable Indians beatdown.
Strasburg loses. Is hype done yet???
Rollins’ first walk-off in 10 years.
Hart amazes. Leads NL RBIs, HRs.
RB in LG. Two restaurants = BUSY!
Marlins not terrible. Still fire Gonzalez.
Mad at Macha removing Manny. Still.
Withdrawals. Must. Go. To. Miller. Park.
Cubs tied in 11th. Please lose.
Brewers wall dismantled at work. Sad.
Good day for my fantasy team.
See? It’s super fun. I’m completely addicted to putting everything into six words. Well, okay, not everything. Obviously I wouldn’t have written all that. But either way, I’m having a great time with it and I think it’s a great way to simplify things. Maybe I’ll continue only writing six word recaps. It certainly makes blogging less of a chore. (Which it really isn’t, but I’ve been, um, thoughtless lately?) Just think of all the things I could get into this humble little blog if I didn’t have to write full paragraphs. Gah. Such a drag!
Anyway.
Keep up the momentum. Go Brewers!
(Cubs tied. 13th. Please still lose.)
Hassle the Hoff. See if I care*
*Except I do care. Please stop hassling him, and the rest of the Brewers pitchers. Thanks.
It’s time yet again, to complain about the team I still, for reasons that I can hardly explain, hold so dear.
Monday, the Narv Dog was awesome. Yeah, awesome until he and/or Manager of the Year Ken Macha decided he could go ahead and get that final out of the 5th inning and instead gave up a game-tying homerun. Then the bullpen came out and that’s where things really got out of control. Brewers lose, Marlins win. Ugh. (Oh, yeah. Neither here nor there, really, but Cameron Maybin had an inside the park HR, too. Super.)
Yesterday, my old favorite bearded Brewers (current fave: George Kottaras) pitcher, Dave Bush, struggled in the first inning, giving up a Marlins team cycle and 3 runs before he even had 2 outs under his belt. He settled in (sort of) after that, pitching 5 scoreless innings and the Brewers tied the game with HRs from Prince Fielder and Corey Why-am-I-not-on-the-All-Star-ballot Hart, thus putting Bush in line for the win. But, alas, DB was suffering from a blister (ahhhhh, so that’s why he couldn’t find the zone all game) and left after 6.
Enter Trevor Hoffman.
Dude comes in to the pitch in the 7th and gives up hit after walk after hit after hit for an eventual Marlins 6-3 lead by the time he managed to scrape up a 3rd out and walk off the mound. Yes, Hoffman, the all-time saves leader. The man with 4 more saves to go until 600. The man with a 1-4 record this season and an 11.65 ERA in SEVENTEEN INNINGS!!!!!
Sooooooo, the Crew calls upon the new guy, the beastly 6’8″ Kameron Loe, to pitch the 8th. And what does this guy do? Shows Hoffman how it’s done. Loe goes 1,2,3 with 2 strikeouts.
Alright, so now it’s time to play the blame game.
We can argue all day about who’s fault it is that the Brewers are having a wickedly bad start to the season. I can tell you who’s fault it isn’t: the offense.
I don’t like to throw numbers around, but this is something that cannot be disputed. There is at least 1 Brewers player in the Top 10 of every major batting category in the National League. Clearly, offense can’t do it alone (CLEARLY!), but these numbers don’t lie.
HR- Corey Hart, #1 (seriously. I know.)
RBI- Casey McGehee, #1
AVG- Ryan Braun, #4 (T)
OBP- Prince Fielder, #7 (notice lead-off man Rickie Weeks is absent)
SLG- Hart, #1 (T)
SB- Braun, #5 (T)
H- Braun, #2 McGehee, #7 (T)
R- Braun, #2
As a team, Milwaukee ranks 2nd overall in the NL in OPS and SLG, 3rd in HR and OBP and 5th in SB. So, you know, the Brewers are pretty damn good offensively.
One might argue that since it’s not the bats’ fault, it must be the pitchers’. One might be right. The only name you’ll see among the NL pitching leaders is Yovani Gallardo with 5 wins, 2.78 ERA, 73 Ks and a .714 WPCT.
The team ERA? 5.36, good for 14th in the National League. That’s right. Good enough to not be last but so terrible that it’s nowhere near 1st. And for a team that scores enough runs per game to be ranked 2nd in that category, the pitching staff allows 5.78–also 14th.
So, here the Brewers sit at a massive 10 games below .500 with a starting rotation that’s seen more guys come and go in the last 2 months than your friendly neighborhood brothel. The only bright spot, besides Gallardo, seems to be that just about every guy that’s been called up from Triple-A to help salvage the mess has been doing his part and then some.
But, there are still those that believe it’s not even the pitching staff’s fault. Because someone had to have hired that staff, right?
I mean, yes, Doug Melvin had his hand in signing insanely awesome acquisitions like Jeff Suppan. But then again, he saw something in Yovani Gallardo, too. Sure, Mark Attanasio is keeping Melvin around. But that guy? He basically brought baseball back to Milwaukee (according to a guy I know). And what about Manager of the Year Ken Macha? Well, he’s just making some bad decisions. That is, when he can make up his mind at all. (Find a line-up and stick with it, Keebler Elf!)
So, blame whoever you want to blame. The point is, the Brewers, my team, my Boys, suck right now. And that’s putting it mildly because what I really want to say would just get all starred out on here (thanks, censorship!).
And, now, game on.
Go Brewers, I guess.
Who says there’s no baseball in winter?
I’m in an utter state of bewilderment
I’m gonna keep this brief. If I go into details, I may just be liable to go off the deep end.
Brewers pitching (Mike Burns notwithstanding) =
Monday night: we’re all aware of the outcome. Jorge Julio is no longer a member of the team because of it. Brewers lose to Marlins. The End.
Tuesday night: 10 runs on 11 hits in 3 innings for Manny Parra. Ken Macha makes a solo visit to the mound, Parra proceeds to give up more hits and runs, including a Cody Ross grandslam. Ouch. Brewers tack on 2 more runs. Too little, too late. The End.
Wednesday night: Brewers score 9 early, chase the starting pitcher mid-batter, take advantage of patience and errors. Braden Looper subsequently falls apart and the lead eventually falls to within 3 runs, prompting what should not have been an outing by Trevor Hoffman. Hoffman remains perfect in saves opportunities. Brewers narrowly win. The End.
And yet, somehow, after all that, Milwaukee still holds a game lead over St. Louis for first in the NL Central. Mind-boggling.
Tonight the Brewers are sending Dave Bush to the mound to face one of another inordinately tall Florida pitcher. I don’t care which one. They’re all monstrous, and none are particularly outstanding. I’m hoping they can salvage a split, but if the game ends up going downhill again, at least there’s always the Stanley Cup Finals.
Go Brewers!
(Ge Penguins!)
This is what I come back to? Ugh.
Before I start in on the game that completely fell apart last night, let me fill you in on the trip to Vegas.
We stayed at the Luxor. This was our second night out. It took nearly 2 full days before someone took a great picture of us in front of the Sphinx. (I love how Vegas-y and sparkly I am!)
We found a fellow Brewers fan! This guy loved us. His wife however…
We met this Canadian “hawkey” player at LAX the first night because we thought he looked like Ryan Braun. He had no idea who Ryan Braun even was.
But, the real Ryan did show up. Personal TV at ESPN Zone. We all bet on the Brewers to win Friday’s game. And we all won a huge sum of $6.25. Awesome.
On our last night, we discovered a 24-hour TGI Friday’s. It was no Front Row grill, but there were half-price appetizers and that was easily the best deal we found the entire time.
It was kind of sad to leave and have to come back to crappy Wisconsin weather, but at the same time, 4 days was enough. The flight home was horrible, we were all hungover from being at the Palms until 4 am and only getting 3 hours of sleep, we had an hour layover and our flight was late getting in. Ugh. All I wanted was my bed and to not have to stand anymore.
But the whole time we were there, the Brewers hung on to first place and kept it on Sunday when Trevor Hoffman (on Trevor Hoffman bobblehead day) saved his 13th game, keeping his save streak alive. I watched mostly from the comfort of my own bed and anxiously awaited my parents arrival home from the game with a tiny Trevor of my own.
Sooooooo, on to last night’s should-have-been win.
One might have thought that Jeff Suppan had stepped in for Marlins pitcher Andrew Miller, what with all his walks and hits allowed early on. Not only did he walk Jason Kendall for a run, but he followed walking pitcher Suppan for another in the second inning. The third is where some sloppy baserunning most likely cost the Brewers a couple runs. First Prince Fielder suddenly thinks he’s a base stealer and tried to steal 3rd with no clear lead or signal to even do so. Of course, the big man is thrown out by the entire length of his body. Nice job. Mike Cameron advanced to 2nd on the throw but was quickly tagged out on a poor decision to run on a JJ Hardy grounder to short. He literally walked right into that out. At least Casey McGehee tacked on another run in the 5th, but the top of the 6th was truely the downfall for Milwaukee last night.
Former Milwaukee Brewers reliever Jorge Julio was called on to pitch and I’m not quite sure I’d call what he did “pitching.” Throwing seems like a more apt word. He hit 2 batters, walked another and all in all was charged with all 5 of the Marlins runs that scored that inning. Oh yeah, and didn’t record a single out. Not that it was all Julio’s fault. There was a Prince Fielder error in there at some point. Todd Coffey came in after that and it wasn’t all roses for him, either. He surrendered a single and a walk, both for runs, before striking out the side to finally end that horrific sixth inning. After that, the bullpen held the Marlins scoreless, but the Marlins’ bullpen did the same to the Brewers.
So, now Julio is out and Mike Burns is in. With the way Ken Macha is trying to preserve his bullpen, I hope Burns will be able to come in and be effective, taking some heat off Coffey and the slightly injured Mark DiFelice. I’m not saying I don’t trust Manny Parra to win tonight’s game on his own, but he does have the worst record for Milwaukee starters so it’s nice to see a new arm out in the bullpen that could help out if Parra gets himself in a jam.
Tonight it’s Brewers, Marlins. Manny Parra (3-6, 5.7 ERA) vs. Anibal Sanchez (1-4, 5.79 ERA)
Go Brewers!
Not that anyone asked, but here’s my two cents
I have never enjoyed the Happy Youngster’s blog. I want to read about Brewers baseball, not the circumstances of some 30 year old getting baseballs.
The bullpen coach threw it to me. I caught some BP homers. I put on the opposing team’s hat and called out a first name (“Anyone can read the back of a jersey.”). Big effing deal.
I like writing about the Brewers and if you’re going to post yourself as a Brewers blogger, I’m gonna be a hell of a lot more interested in reading about the happenings of the actual game, not your lame conquests of doing what any 10 year old with a glove and a loud voice could do.
I don’t make it a habit to read Nick what’s-his-name’s blog, but when I stumbled across an article on AOL about a rookie MLB player’s homerun ball, I naturally read it. I read almost anything baseball related I come across, because, unlike Happy, I enjoy baseball for the sport. When I saw it involved a Brewers-Marlins game, I was almost certain I knew it would also involve said blogger.
Keep in mind, only because tonight’s battle of the two NL Central first place teams was rained out am I even writing about this. I already spent more time than necessary reading comments on Happy’s blog after I read the article on AOL. However, I feel I must say something about this whole situation because I’m a fan of, not only the Brewers, but baseball in general.
Chris Coghlan hits his first major league homerun. It’s a pretty big deal. When you’re only, what? 22, 23 years old? It’s a huge accomplishment. The Florida Marlins obviously have enough stock in this kid to bring him up to the Bigs and guess what? He delivered.
Sure, Happy is a ballhawk. Yes, catching homerun balls is a big deal to him. Has he bartered for homerun balls before? Probably. But is having homerun catch no. 50 worth more to him than Coghlan having the ball from his first Major League homerun? Apparently so.
According to Happy’s latest post, he clearly says when the Marlins offered another ball in exchange for the HR ball, that he already has over 775 balls and doesn’t need another one. Then give up the ball right then. What’s the point? Having a couple bats instead? Wow. That’s an enormous difference.
Now, as I’ve said already, I don’t care about catching game balls. I don’t care about batting practice or foul balls or any of that. I like watching baseball for baseball. That doesn’t mean I’ve never wondered what I would do if I miraculously caught such an important ball. As I don’t own a glove and never have or never will bring one with me to a game, it probably won’t happen, but it doesn’t stop me from wondering. I’m sure I wouldn’t be smart enough to request something other than what was offered to me in exchange and you know what? That’s fine. If it was me that caught Coghlan’s ball and the Marlins staff offered me a signed ball in exchange, I’d say okay. I have other player’s autographs. Guess what? They’re really not worth anything. Will anyone pay me for Ryan Braun’s autograph? Probably not. Go to a game, go to a Brewers sponsored event. You’ll get one of your own. But, in the moment, if some official from any MLB team came up to me and said, “Hey, that’s his first homerun. It’s a pretty big deal to him.” then proceeded to offer me anything in exchange for it, I’d give it up right then and there because I AM NOT A MARLINS FAN! What the eff would I want with his ball? Let the freaking kid have it!
Here’s my reasonable comparison to the whole thing. Imagine that Chris Coghlan was the now free agent Brad Nelson. Brad had a pretty damn good Spring. He made his first Major League roster this April (not counting the call-up last September. This is the one that matters.). Aside from him sucking at the plate, he’s had some pretty close calls. He’s a power hitter. Is it out of the question for Nelson to hit a HR? Absolutely not. So, say Brad Nelson is still with the Brewers and he hits his first homerun in the Majors and the Happy Youngster, because he’s just THAT GOOD, happens to catch it. Now there are numerous people from the Brewers staff requesting he give up the ball for a Brad Nelson signed ball, maybe even a bat because, you know, it’s only Brad Nelson. Instead, Happy requests not only those 2 items, but also a Ryan Braun game used bat because he’s the stud of Milwaukee. And while you’re at it, throw in some Marquee Game Diamond Box seats to the next Cubs series. Does that sound at all reasonable? HELL NO! So why does it seem reasonable to ask for a Hanley Ramirez game used bat? He had nothing to do with Coghlan’s homerun! And why tickets to a game that takes place in Florida? Even if Happy gets himself down there, why? That just doesn’t make any sense to me.
Regarless, as I’ve said already, I’m not a fan of the Happy Youngster. I don’t want to get too much into the why’s and why not’s of it, but national news? Hardly. Let Coghlan have his ball. Don’t be greedy. This kid has worked his whole life to get where he is. Happy puts on a glove and an opposing team’s gear and thinks he’s owed the world for standing in the bleachers for batting practice. I don’t care how many balls you’ve caught. I don’t care that you tie a freaking string to your glove and steal balls out of a bullpen. I don’t care that you have a youtube video at Spring Training or people that wear your lame tshirt. Respect the sport for sport, for the people that love the game and the players that live to play. This thing shouldn’t have ever become such a controversy but quite honestly, I’m kind of glad it did because otherwise I would’ve never had an excuse to vent any of this. Ordinarily I wouldn’t be like this, but I’m glad I was able to get it out. It feels pretty good.
mccarpie
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