More Villa

From Brew Crew Ball. This is EXACTLY what happened.

Villa

I almost forgot in my blind rage over last night, that fucking Carlos Villanueva is going to start tonight. Not only is he horrible this year, but he was horrible as a starter in the past. Why trot him out there to give us 4 innings and then further slaughter an already slaughtered bullpen? I mean seriously. What the fuck? If you are going to do this, then what do you have to lose by throwing Dillard or some other AAA starter in there? Any time another team does it to the Crew, the Crew K's 10 times, and gets one hit in 8 innings. This just really fucking pisses me off. This is just like rolling out Bill Hall to face leftys, even though he can't hit them either, because he used to be able to hit them. I seriously fucking hate baseball managers some times. By the way, did Yost have like one more decision to make from the grave or something?

Brew Crew Hangover

A few random thoughts from last night's tenth inning sexual assault:

- Does anyone REALLY think Mat Gamel is any worse at third than Billy Hall? Even if he may fuck up a routine play here or there (which he really hasn't done), is it worth the clear dropoff offensively? I think that any thoughts Macha may have had about whether he could hit a lefty changed last night with that bomb in the 8th. McGehee probably is still the starter until proven otherwise right now though.

-Jody Gerut is fucking useless. He really is a waste of space. He has established himself as Bill Hall's outfield twin. We now have to guys who can't hit at all on our everyday bench. We don't have some random utility guy in AAA that can hit .200? Hernan Irribarren wouldn't improve the club? I understand not bringing up Escobar right now, because there isn't room to play him, and he should play every day.

- The only thing that would've made last night's meltdown better is if either Matty Wise, Eric Gagne or Derrick Turnbow had come out of the bullpen after Villa refused to get anyone out, and they gave up like 5 more runs. Oh, and if 2008 Rickie Weeks booted one. We did get a Billy Hall boot at least.

- Can we safely say that Villa isn't good? He now has a 6.41 ERA and a 1.49 WHIP. How can he be relied on in key spots? I know there wasn't much choice last night. He really should be about the last one trotted out there until he goes on a long stretch of not sucking. We've got some really decent arms in the bully right now, that probably aren't given enough respect by Macha (DiFelice, Stetter, Smith). Personally, I think Stetter should be a set up guy, and not just a lefty specialist. Coffey/Stetter in the 8th, DiFelice 7th, Smith 6th, Villa/McClung/Burns when we are down/up by 7 runs.

-The highlights of the game for me last night were: 1) Brian Anderson and Bill Schroeder making fun of Telly Hughes for being fat; 2) Macha refusing to even look at Villa when he came to take him out. He might have murdered him last night.

-We are closer to 5th place than 1st place in the division right now.

-How the fuck did the mildly terrible Jonathan Sanchez throw a no-no? He is almost the exact same pitcher as Manny Parra (young, Hispanic, lefty, great stuff, taken out of the rotation for sucking). Maybe that is a good sign?

Semi-Daily Brew Crew Hangover #11

THAT was cool as shit. I never expected to get goose bumps from a relief pitcher coming in during a 10-5 game, but that is some bad ass shit to come out to a song as cool as Hells Bells. What is odd about it is that you would expect him to come out firing 98 mph fastballs instead of 78 mph changeups. That is about all I got, except that Yost would've made Looper throw one at LaRoche's head immediately following Braun getting beaned, and we would've lost that game because McClung and Villanueva are unreliable at best. So chalk up a +1 to Macha for keeping his cool. And Pirates better watch their fucking backs today, because I have a feeling one might "accidentally" get away from Bush in the first inning.

More Yost Infection

I'm just going to go ahead and quote a large portion of Bear's buddy Tom Hardicourt's notes article from yesterday on JS Online because it will save time (then I'm going to put my comments in italics):

"Over his last seven games, Mota has a 10.28 earned run average, allowing 10 hits, two walks and eight runs in 7 1/3 innings. He also has been getting tagged by left-handed hitters (.366 average), yet Yost let him face Todd Helton, who crushed an RBI double off the center-field wall. (That's not very good)

The reliever Yost removed from the game in favor of Mota, Carlos Villanueva, is holding left-handed hitters to a .216 batting average this season. (Solid. But I could find a stat showing T-blow is great in some small meaningless stat to prove my point)

"I think (Mota's splits) are the product of a couple of bad games, more than anything else," Yost said. "It's not a trend, I would say. (OK. I guess that could happen. 7 games is sort of a large sample size, but I'm listening.)

"He had one bad outing, to be honest with you, here lately. I don't think his trend line is going down because he had a bad outing (Friday)." (OK. Well, I know that my memory isn't the greatest, but I swear I remember him blowing a game or two fairly recently.)

Actually, Mota has had more than one bad outing. He blew a save opportunity against Los Angeles on May 14 by allowing three runs in the ninth inning. And he lost a game May 25 in Washington in the ninth when he allowed a walk, single and wild pitch that sent home the winning run. (ZING! I don' think Hardicourt is getting invited to the team orgy tonight. And that is alot more than one bad outing Yost, you dick).

Of the game in Washington, Yost said, "That wasn't a bad outing. He came in after going two innings the day before and had a very clean first inning, then walked a guy on a 3-2 pitch, gave up a base hit, which made it first and third, and then wild-pitched him home.

"That's not a bad outing. He lost. It would be nice if we could get our facts straight.

"I've got no problem with what happened (Friday) night. Mota didn't walk the ballpark. And we didn't throw the ball around. He got beat. It happens."" (Walk. Hit. Wild-pitch. Game Over. That is a fucking bad outing. And then he has to try to intimidate Hardicourt with the "It would be nice if we could get our facts straight." Yeah Neddy. Maybe you should get your fucking facts straight asshole. It's like he is watching or managing a completely different sport than the one that has been played for over 100 years, and he has his own definitions of what is a "bad outing". So, So, frustrating. Isn't this just like GW declaring victory in Iraq 5 years ago, and then saying he would do everything the same way if he could do it over?)

First of all, I need to give Hardicourt some credit. He wrote the article exactly like I would. He is clearly not defending Yost's Yostiness.

Secondly, Yost is still an idiot and an asshole.

Why Yost Brings This Upon Himself

I often wonder whether I and 97% of all Brewer fans are too critical of Neddy Yost. Managers typically take way too much blame for their team losing, and very little credit when they win (unless you are Joe Torre). But time after time, he makes things worse for himself by not having a filter between his brain and his mouth. Now, he is not a Ozzie Guillen type, who also doesn't have a filter, but every other word out of his mouth starts with an F and ends in U-C-K. No, Yost is a George W. Bush type, who is by all accounts a dipshit, who doesn't think before he talks, and then gets all upset and snippy when you question his decision making.

Last night for instance, his move to remove Villanueva after a scorching 10 pitch 7th for Mota was questionable. BUT, none of us REALLY know what is going on behind the scenes, so even though the move obviously didn't work out, he could have said something after the game to make the move make sense. He could have said, Carlos was tired (which would have been a lie because he was rested), could have said he like Mota matching up against these particular hitters, or he could have admitted he fucked up and in the heat of the moment Mike Maddux told him to make the change. Instead, as he usually does, he unleashes some non-sensical, bullshit, beauty like this:

"Mota's been our eighth-inning pitcher the majority of the year," said
Yost. "We went to our eighth-inning pitcher."

Had the Brewers gotten Kendall home, Yost said he would have stuck with
Villanueva another inning. Why?
"It's not a save situation," Yost
explained.

Really Ned? Really? It's not a fucking save situation? Well Neddy, except in very unique circumstances (and last night certainly wasn't one of them), the fucking 8TH INNING IS NEVER A SAVE SITUATION!!!! What the fuck are you talking about? I'm not totally ripping his move, I wouldn't have done it. I would have left Villa in, and had Mota warm just in case, but I can't question the move itself. Not every move works, bullpens will blow games. But when a move goes wrong, you piss everyone off by acting like a pompous dick when you are asked a simple question about it. And then you wonder why everyone wants your ass fired.

He also said later: "We didn't give anything away tonight." Another quote that has no adequate reaction. You just gave up a three run lead in the last two innings, when your ace pitched well, against a team that has one of the worst records in baseball, when you had a chance to get a road win that have been few and far between all year, and when it was all caused by a questionable decision by you, and you didn't give anything away. I guess he blacked out in the 8th too.

I just want a manager that is going to shut the fuck up, admit his mistakes, not
make childish quotes to the media, not play favorites (Weeks) and not make a
stupid decision every three games.

How Ned Yost chooses his lineup for games...

I pulled this little tidbit directly from the Yahoo Sports news and notes about Bill Hall.

"3B Bill Hall was out of the starting lineup Sunday despite collecting five hits in the previous two games. Manager Ned Yost wanted to give either Hall or 2B Rickie Weeks the day off to let INF Craig Counsell see some action. Yost put the names of Hall and Weeks in a baseball cap and had Hall pick to see who would be out of the lineup. Hall picked his own name, and thus had to sit."

I haven't been too bad of a Yost basher in the past, I've questioned some of his decisions, especially concerning how he manages our starting pitching. The frightening part of this whole scenario is that I'm not even really surprised that this is how he made his decision. Instead of going through his lineup and making a rational decision based on recent stats, who they were going up against and who needed a day off, he just chose to randomly pick a name out of a hat.

Maybe this wasn't the worst way to handle the situation, basically taking away some of the potential backlash from the players who might have to miss a start. At some point however, you are the manager and they are the players, if a player is struggling on the field, shouldn't they understand if they have to sit a day because of it? I wonder how Yost decided which starting pitcher he was going to option down to Nashville, arm wrestling tournament between Manny Parra, Carlos Villanueva, and Dave Bush?

Maybe instead of having his throwing mechanics mucked around with during spring training, Yost should have been having Bush practice his arm wrestling technique to keep his spot in the rotation.